Disclaimer: Shaman King and its characters belong to Hiroyuki Takei, not me.

The Day After Halloween

It had been practically midnight when the assembled group had returned to Funbari Onsen after they finished with Trick or Treating. As such they had all opted to remain in their costumes even as they slept through the early hours of the morning. Once everyone was awake again, they began counting the candy they had accumulated during the night. That is, everyone with the exception of Horohoro who was downing his haul while scheming ways to steal more from Ren's take.

"Ren, you might want to keep an eye on Horohoro. He's up to something." Hao decided to be the helpful informant for once instead of letting Horohoro's scheming go unnoticed.

Horohoro pouted and put on an innocent expression. "You have no evidence to support that accusation."

"Have you already forgotten that I can read your mind?" asked Hao with what might have been a bit of challenge in his voice.

"You can't prove what I'm thinking!" protested Horohoro.

Hao actually smirked at this. "Anna, care to back me up here?"

"Nevermind," Horohoro resumed scarfing his candy. No matter. I'll just wait until Hao and Anna are out of the picture and then I'll strike.

"I think I'm going to head back to my place." Ren stood up where he had been sitting on the floor counting candy.

"No! You can't leave yet!" Horohoro exclaimed desparately.

Taki raised an eyebrow. "What's wrong with Horeo?"

"He has a severely one-tracked mind," supplied Anna.

"No kidding," Crystal nodded in agreement.

Horohoro stared at the girls in disbelief. "You mean you're just going to let Ren up and leave?! Just like that?!"

"We can't exactly force him to stay," noted Yoh.

"It's obvious that you're up to no good. I don't intend to stick around to find out what you've been plotting." Ren was already stuffing his share of candy back into his pillowcase. He started toward the door. Horohoro made a mad dive for the pillowcase, which ultimately resulted in his crashing into the door as Ren calmly stepped out of the way. "That takes care of the problem for now." Ren then returned to his spot on the floor and resumed counting his candy.

"Do you think Horohoro will be able to break this habit by next Halloween?" asked Hao.

Yoh shook his head. "We'll have to get through Valentines Day first."

The End