A/N: Well… here it is… The last chapter to my most successful fic yet… -sniff- I got to hand it to all of you, you've been terrific reviewers! You guys gave me most of the inspiration I needed for this fic! Thanks for everything!

Yume: Spare the drama, Pristine, let's get on with the epilogue of Beneath Curiosity!

PH: Well, here it is guys! See you in my next fic!

Disclaimer: I do not own Shaman King, like in the first 8 chapters!

Epilogue: Life Goes On and On

Another moment passed, and Pirika was lying on the floor again. She stood up suddenly and flicked her hands. All of them were sent flying into the wall, finding themselves unable to detach themselves from where they have landed.

"Mother! Stop this insanity!" Lian's spirit cried, "Please stop this!"

"Not until you come to your senses, my dear," Pirika looked like she was going mad as she grabbed the fallen dagger from the floor, "Tonight, I will make sure blood is spilt on these grounds. Now, who wants to go first?"

Pirika circled the room and looked at each and every one of them in the eye. Ren stred back bravely at his beloved, mad with the spirit's rage that controlled her. His Kwan Dao was lying useless beside him. He looked into Pirika's eyes and saw a shadow of her old self, begging him to release her from the spirit's grasp. But he was motionless, and he blamed himself for it.

"So, it was you who killed all those girls," Manta figured.

"Haha!" Pirika laughed her mad laugh, "Of course! Who else would it be? I was the one who drove her to the brink of insanity!"

"That's sick," Jun spat at her, she too was struggling to free herself from the bonds of the spirit.

"It's wonderful to think what a spirit could do with all of you, isn't it?" Pirika laughed again, "Now, it would be unfair for me to keep all you Shamans imprisoned, right?"

Pirika snapped her fingers and Horo Horo, Yoh, Ryu and Ren fell out of the spell. Yoh, who was seriously buised before he was thrown to the wall, gasped and fell on his face. Pirika approached him and threw him around the room.

"No! Let go of him!" Anna cried for the first time.

"Now this is what I call weird," Manta gaped at Anna, "Wait a sec, Yoh's just sleeping again."

"This is really getting weird," Jun nodded.

"Enough is enough!" Horo exclaimed, "Kororo! Into the- uh- where's my snowboard?"

"Tough luck!" Pirika flicked her hands again and Horo was sent flying out the room.

"Horokeu!" Lun-Lun bellowed, "Don't… don't do this…"

"Haha! I still live, spirit!" Ryu held his spirit control in an old bedpost lying aorund, "Prepare to meet my wrath!"

"Prepare to meet the window!" Pirika sent Ryu flying out the window and into the ground below.

"Ryu, you ok?" Ren looked down and saw Ryu sprawled spread-eagled on the ground, beaten but intact.

"I'm still alive, Short-pants!" Ryu yelled back at Ren.

"Pirika, I know you're still in there," Ren faced the possessed girl, "Come back to me, fight it! You can do it, Pirika! You're strong!"

"Hah! As if she can hear you!" Pirika laughed cruelly and then his expression changed, "Ren! I can hear you! Help me!" and changed back again, "Whoah! Almost threw me out. But no matter, I shall kill this boy, Tao or no Tao. That is the only punishment for falling in love with an Ainu."

"How dare you!" Lun-Lun was crying, "How dare you kill your own daughter!"

"She deserved it," Pirika threw a nasty look at the two spirits, "And the other one did too. So, are we going to lay around here talking, or are we going to fight?"

"Bason! Into the Kwan Dao!" Ren yellled to his Guardian Ghost.

Bason apppeared from nowhere and entered Ren's Kwan Dao. Ren poised himself in fighting stance, but then slackened.

"But… Pirika…" he whispered, "I… can't do this to Pirika…"

"Ren, snap out of it, you twit!" Jun yelled at her brother, "Are you forgetting something? That's not Pirika! That's an insane spirit!"

"But… I love Pirika…" Ren was still uncertain, "I can't hurt her…"

"Yes," Pirika smirked, playing her mind games, "It would be better for her to die…"

"Don't you dare hurt my Pirika!" Ren glared at her menacingly.

"Oh… So it's your Pirika now, isn't it?" Pirika muttered, "I see what you mean now."

Pirika held the dagger tightly and for the second time that night, held it above her neck.

"I'm sorry about this Pirika, but I have to," Ren lunged himself up the air, "Rapid Tempo Attack!"

Pirika was taken by surprise and took each devastating blow from Ren's Kwan Dao. She got up bruised, but not bloodied. She held the dagger tightly.

"This is enough, someone has to die tonight! Like it has for one thousand years!" Pirika was about to slash herself, something Ren didn't expect.

He tried to reach for her, but he realized he was too late.

"Pirika!"

"STOP IT! STOP!" Lun-Lun bellowed so loudly that Pirika stopped, "It's me you want! Not her!"

"W-what?" Horo stuttered.

"Don't kill her, she's innocent!" Lun-Lun was crying hysterically, "She didn't do anything, I'm the one you want!"

Ren took this as an opportunity and tried to grab the dagger from Pirika's clutches, but ended up being thrown away. Pirika stared intently at Lun-Lun, waiting for her to say what she had to say.

"It was me," Lun-Lun said, sobbing, "I'm the last surviving descendant of Lian Tao. I came from the line of Miko Tao. Don't do this to Pirika, she didn't do anything to you!"

"But that's impossible" Jun cried, "Miko Tao's line was considered unclean and was eradicated centuries ago!"

"No," Lun-Lun told them, "One family survived the purge and I was the result of that. Grandpa took me in and gave me a different identity to protect myself. I've been hiding here all my life. That's why I'm the one who is supposed to die! You've been looking for the girl who would carry on Miko Tao's line all these years! You've been hunting them!"

"Whoah…" Ren stopped to think, "We're related."

"Yes," a cruel smile played on Pirika's lips, "You finally came clean and I will make sure you are finished.

"No you don't…" Horo tried getting up but Pirika slammed him again to the wall, "Ren…"

"Rapid- no!" Ren met the same fate as Horo did and Pirika let go of Lun-Lun's bonds.

"Time to leave this weak body," the spirit left Pirika and the girl collapsed on the floor with a thud, completely exhausted. The spirit went on to enter Lun-Lun.

"Mother…" Lian and Kino watched helplessly as Lun-Lun became possessed.

"Goodbye, great great great great great-" Lun-Lun smiled, "Whatever. Here, catch!"

She threw something red and shiny and Horo caught it. It was the star-ruby broken heart neacklace. Tears fell from Horo's eyes as he watched helplessly.

"Thanks for everything, Horokeu Usui," Lun-Lun faced Horo with tear-stricken eyes, "I will never forget you!"

"Yes, the world will now be rid of these vermin," Lun-Lun cried in a voice not her own, "Miko Tao's line will end with Lun-Lun Tao!"

"NO!" Horo screamed in anguish, struggling to free herself, "Lun-Lun, no..."

In a swift action, Lun-Lun brought the dagger to her neck, slashing it open. Lun-Lun began to choke and even managed to smile, exposing her bloodied teeth. The spirit left the girl to die and writhe in pain. Blood splurted quickly from Lun-Lun's open artery. They were all released from their bonds and rushed to Lun-Lun's side.

"Lun-Lun, don't give up," tears were streaming down Horo's cheeks, "Please don't…"

"I'm sorry, Horokeu," Lun-Lun choked, "I can't hold on much longer. I'll always be beside you… I'm going to watch over you… You have to make it without me, Horo… I'll always love you…"

"Don't talk like this!"

"Yes! Vengence is finally complete!" the angry spirit bellowed over their heads.

"Shut up, you," Anna raised her Mala and chanted a prayer, "Go to your eternal reast, freak!"

The spirit was laughing like a mental patient as Anna sent him away. Horo looked at Anna angrily and grabbed the front of her shirt.

"What the fuck! Why didn't you do that before?" Horo was tugging at Anna like he was going to wrestle her any minute.

"She wasn't at rest yet, Horo," Anna spoke softly, freeing herself from Horo's insane grasp, "Now, she is. I'm very sorry."

Suddenly, a gasping sound came from Lun-Lun, like she was choking in her own blood. She looked at Horo reproachfully and smiled. She closed her eyes and sighed her last breath.

"Now, for you two," Anna turned to the two other spirits, "I have to send you two back."

"Thank you," Lian told all of them with tears in her eyes, "How can we ever repay all of you?"

"It's our job," Yoh awoke and piped up.

"Return to your eternal peace," Anna waved her Mala and the two spirits vanished.

Grandpa approached all of them and held Lun-Lun's hand. They were all crying, even Anna. Lun-Lun was lying dead in the middle of the floor, her whole body bloodstained from her fate.

"She's done it," Grandpa whispered, "Oh, my sweet Lun-Lun…"

Horo held the girl's cold body in his arms and kissed the corpse goodbye. He screamed out the name of his beloved out into the night.

The next thing Pirika knew, she was lying in a hospital bed with Ren sleeping on the chair beside her, his head facedown on her bed. Her brother was sitting on a chair next to the window, staring into empty space. He wore a tired expression on his face, like he had been crying for the past 72 hours.

"Horo?" Pirika looked at her brother reproachfully, "What happened?"

"She's dead," Horo whispered, "Lun-Lun sacrificed herself to save all of us. She wasn't really a Tao. It turns out, she only wanted to save our lives. She lied to the spirit to put it to rest and save us all."

Pirika was silenced by her brother's sad words. He began to stare out the window again and Ren was stirred from his sleep.

"Pirika! You should go back to bed," Ren told her, "You haven't recovered enough."

"I'm ok, Ren, really," Pirika kissed Ren on the cheek and slumped on her pillow, with Lun-Lun on her mind.

Lun-Lun's funeral was simple, she didn't know many people. She was buried outside the only world she had ever known: The Tao Rest House. Horo was like a zombie all day and Pirika watched him sadly, blaming everything on herself. Ren was at her side, holding her hand. Ren was the only thing separating Pirika from insanity.

The rest of the gang was there and Jun was bellowing her tears out. Anna also looked a bit forlorn and was sobbing into Yoh's jacket. Manta finished a whole box of Kleenex with Ryu and Grandpa. Ren was the only one without any expression on his face, he had only eyes on Pirika, worrying about what she could do to herself. Even their spirits were crying.

"Ashes to ashes, dust to dust," Ren whispered to Pirika when the service ended.

Horo stayed behind, staring at Lun-Lun's grave. Pirika approached him and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Itouto…" Pirika said.

"I'm fine," Horo answered, sighing, "I shouldn't waste my life on this, Lun-Lun wouldn't have liked it. But she'll always be in my heart for all of time."

Horo left Pirika and Ren replaced him. Ren hugged the fragile Ainu girl from behind and kissed her cheek. Pirika nuzzled herself in his embrace and sobbed silently.

"It's all my fault," Pirika whispered, "If I was stronger, she shouldn't have died. Horo Horo would've been happy."

"Things like this happen, Pirika," Ren hugged her even tighter, "It's just how life is. Let it all go, Lun-Lun died for a reason. And you know what that reason is. If Lun-Lun wouldn't have died, we would all be."

"Lun-Lun and Horo," Pirika said, "Lian and Kino. Nothing would ever part them, not even death, I suppose. Do you think we could be like that, Ren?"

"We could if we try," Ren let go of her, smiled and took her hand, "It all depends on what life has in store for us. Now, let's go, the others are waiting."

Pirika and Ren walked hand in hand away from Lun-Lun's grave. Pirika took one last look and saw a semi-transparent girl smiling at her from above the tombstone. She returned the smile and turned her head away. She looked up into Ren's eyes and found her sanctuary in them. She knew right away that like Horo Horo and Lun-Lun and Kino and Lian, death cannot separate them both.

But right now, life can only go on.

A/N: Heheheh… Didn't see that coming, did you? Anyways, this fic is finally over, as badly as I didn't want it to end… Guys, thank you all for reviewing and reading my story! Domo arigato gozaimasu! I'm glad to have been of service to you guys for a while! I love to entertain people with my writing and I don't care if I get zero reviews in my next fic! Please read Stupid Cupid and I'd love it if you guys share your comments about it! And as always, as I say every chapter: ROCK ON! See ya!