It is only a matter of time

OMG! What was I on when I wrote this! Tea? Cola? Sugar...yep definitely the sugar… anyways, a big thank you goes out to my two good friends 'Ryan' and 'Emma' for helping me get over my writers block for this fic.

Thankies!

Also I'd like to thank my reviewers, who have also kept me going,

Thankies!

But now we must continue with the story…not many more chapters to go 'til the sequel!

Disclaimer: I do not own any of shaman king I'm just borrowing them for a bit of twisted fun.

Summary/Blurb: What if HoroHoro and Pilika had a tougher past than Ren? And what if that past came back so soon?

Warning: this is my first fan-fic on shaman king so excuse all the ooc-ness…oh and there's a few bad words…not much else really so I'll leave ya to it. Enjoy!

Ch-17; A blast from the past

It was snowing harder now and everyone was inside trying to warm up.

All bar HoroHoro and Ren who were just happy to sit and watch the snow as it drove harder into the frost filled canyon.

"I never did appreciate the snow before." Ren said as he snuggled up in his thermo jacket next to HoroHoro.

"Yeah, it's very calming and also very dangerous too." HoroHoro said in a dreamy way. Ren gave him a sideways glance and smiled; it was the first time he'd smiled in a friendly way outside his family's company, and it made him feel more alive, freer.

He didn't know what had caused this drastic change in personality but he didn't rightly care at that moment either, though he mused it could be due to the place they were in and they journey they'd taken…

…or it could be another stupid spell the witches had put on him…either way he was happy now and he didn't want this feeling to go away, but as with all happiness, sadness lurks behind somewhere.

He shook his head ridding these thoughts from his brain. For now he was just gonna enjoy his life…even if that meant starting another snowball fight!

He secretly took a fistful of snow and discreetly rounded it off, then smiled and took secret aim; he turned to face the Ainu but was shocked to suddenly find himself with a mouthful of snow! HoroHoro had beaten him to it!

"You can't catch me out Ren! I'm the snowball champ!" HoroHoro teased as he began to run for shelter whilst dodging the snow clumps that fell about him. Ren gave chase but slowed down as HoroHoro stooped to return fire. He quickly ducked and threw his snowball back at HoroHoro who dove to the ground and hid his face in the snow.

But when he didn't get back up, Ren started to worry. He moved closer and knelt down to the prone Ainu and called out to him thinking that now was the time for HoroHoro to remember.

But HoroHoro grinned and threw a snowball into Ren's face and jumped back up to run and hide. But just as he turned a corner, a small gust of wind brought him to a halt. He looked out to where a few figures were climbing down a vast cliff side, not recognising them he squinted and peered harder before realising just who these strangers were.

Yoh almost fainted when he read the note and had to be guided to the couch.

"Anna…" he gasped out as he sat in total shock. His body was numb and his heart had stopped beating along time ago…at least it felt that it had.

"we'll get her back Yoh, and Pilika," Manta soothed, "all we have to do is show up with HoroHoro then when we-"

"How can we? We don't even know where he or Ren is!" Yoh shot up and stormed out of the room. Manta looked over at Faust and Ryu, lost at what to do. He was not taking this well.

"Koloro!" Koloro squeaked and suddenly disappeared.

"Where'd she go?" Ryu asked, and turned to Bason who just shrugged.

"I cannot sense her anywhere," he said, and then sudden realisation hit them…

"Horo!"

It had been a long time ago when he was here last, but last time Pilika was with him and he'd been seriously ill with pneumonia and severe malnutrition. And it was all due to the damned Phoenix Corporation. But not all of his time here was a painful memory. In fact, he'd met a certain young friend here who had helped him in a rather different way to that of the healing Magick the older witches had used.

Ren was about to jump him from behind but stopped when he saw that HoroHoro was paying him no attention. He was looking to the skies with a contemplatory look across his face…

…it had taken HoroHoro years to hide the scars and pain from his parents, and now he had more scars and more hidden pain to hide.And in addition to the reappearance of his lost friend, he has to run from the Phoenix corporation again. He was tired of running all the time.

Then the memories took a hold of his mind…he doubled over and held his head as the painful memories reminded him of why he was running, why he was in the city. The pain became overwhelming as his body shook from the force of the resurfacing … and he screamed

Ren had been ready for this moment. Niandra had warned him that HoroHoro had been here before and told him that it had taken several days to remember what had happened to him. The Chinese ran over to his friend and knelt down beside him holding his shaking shoulders as HoroHoro quivered with the intensity of the resurgence.

When it was all over, Ren took HoroHoro into his embrace and held him while the Ainu wept and cried for all the pain to just go away.

Ren's heart went out to the Ainu, he himself had encountered many moments in his life time when all he wanted to do was go to sleep and have the pain all go away but it was a part of him now and he'd like to think he was stronger as a result but; looking back over the past few days…he wasn't so sure anymore.

"Horo…" Ren began but another, softer female voice spoke up behind him.

"Usui!" Ren turned and found a stunning beautiful girl running over to them. She had brown hair with blue streaks, and was fairly tall, taller than him at least but so was the rest of the population. He felt HoroHoro stiffen underneath him at the sound of her voice. She quickly approached them and felt HoroHoro's brow, then looked at him worriedly.

"He has a fever, we must get him inside. Hurry!" she said as began to haul HoroHoro to his feet but he fell down as the pain began again, this time 10x worse.

"What's wrong with him?" Ren asked, as he struggled to drag HoroHoro inside.

"I'll explain later now help me!" the new girl grunted, but they both dropped him in shock as he gave out a scream and suddenly went limp.

"Usui!"

A/N What's wrong now! Heh even I don't know and supposed to be the author here! This story is writing itself!