Disclaimer: I do not own Shaman King…

To all the readers: Please review and I hope you like this next chapter as well as the whole story itself. I'm sorry if I overlooked some typographical errors, be assured though that I'm trying my best to proofread every chapter before submitting them… I think I just glanced over some parts… so if ever that made you quite confused… I'm really sorry!

To all the reviewers: Thank you for your reviews I just love reading them… I'm also very flattered every time I see my works included in another author's favorite stories selection… Arigatou! And I love you all!

Without further ado…

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Chapter 11

The next day Ren slept in the onsen since it was nearer from Piri's house than the hotel. Horo didn't have the chance to talk with Ren that night and so he rested… for tomorrow is another day.

It was still very early in the morning when Horohoro decided to confront Ren. He marched to Ren's room in the onsen at once and opened the door without warning… there he saw Ren, who is already up and was about to go down.

"Don't you know how to knock?" Ren scowled.

But Horo didn't answer instead he marched right up at Ren and grabbed him by the collar.

"Meet me, Funbari cemetery at 1:00. " Horohoro said.

"What's the big idea!" Ren finally snapped pushing himself out of Horo's grip.

"I'm challenging you on a Shaman Fight… show up and prove you're a man." Horo finally said before he really left Ren's room.

"I wonder what's got into him… he's acting really weird." Ren noticed.

He then smirked,

"But I'll be there."

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Meanwhile in Hao's hiding place the door slowly opened, revealing a silhouette of a boy who entered at once.

Hao looked up at the boy while still sitting on the floor, a grin appeared on his lips.

"Taki… nice to see you." Hao greeted smiling cheerfully.

Taki instantly kneeled on one knee and bowed low.

"Master Hao. I'm begging you… give Pirika to me... don't hurt her." Taki begged.

"Now… why would I want to do that?" Hao said, taunting.

"Please master Hao…you don't need her anymore!" Taki said raising his voice.

With that he received a slap from Hao.

"Weakling… my plan is working perfectly… now why would I let Pirika live if I could kill her?"

"Yoh and the rest are already fighting each other because of your plan… what more do you want?"

"You really don't get it do you? After Pirika, I'll finish off Anna and after then will I be assured that they're off guarded. I'll make them taste the pain that's even more unbearable than what've experienced… I'll make them suffer. Now since you're bugging me already… I think I should finish you off too."

"No!" Taki said wide-eyed while standing up.

He then started to run away but Hao was faster… in a blink of an eye, before Taki could escape… he was burnt to a crisp. Hao just stared at him as he burned Taki. When Taki's body stopped moving Hao started to laugh, his laughter was flooding the whole building.

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1:00 PM

Ren was still waiting for Horohoro in the cemetery, though he didn't know what his friend wanted he still went there with his trusty weapon.

Then he felt something… or rather someone… moving closer to him in an incredible speed.

When Ren looked at the direction where it came from, he saw Horohoro on his snowboard with Kuroro oversouled in it.

"I knew it! Bason!" Ren shouted as he twirls his kwan dao and letting the spirit oversoul in it too.

Horohoro created spikes made of ice at the bottom of his snowboard which he used to attack Ren from above. However Ren was quick, using his kwan dao he protected himself from that all the while pushing Horohoro away from him.

Horo was blown away by a few meters… he stopped and picked up his snowboard, holding it in his hands now.

"Why did you lie to me?" Horohoro shouted.

"You knew!" Ren can't believe what he heard. How could he know about that?

"You stupid Chinese! I saw you and my sister in the old theatre! You even told her that she was dead!" Horohoro shouted even more, anger was burning in his eyes.

"Why don't you trust me? I won't hurt your sister! I swear!" Ren shouted.

But Horohoro didn't want to listen to him anymore. He suddenly turned his oversoul into a canon-like object in his hand. He jumped up, punching his hand on the ground where spikes of ice appeared creeping very fast towards Ren.

Ren jumped up at once and tried to slash the ice coming to him.

"Don't get near her ever again!" Horo warned.

"Never!" Ren shouted. He then started to go nearer to Horohoro…he succeeded.

Horo and Ren were now face-to-face.

"Why don't you give up? I love Pirika and I won't let her end up with someone like you." Horo muttered.

"Why don't I give up? That's an easy one… because I love her too…even more than you do."

"If you love her that much why would you want her to come back in our kind of life?"

"What?" Ren muttered, taken aback.

Because of that sudden lost of concentration, Horo took that chance to push Ren. Ren easily fell, sitting on the ground.

Horo then pointed his weapon at him. Ren could see that he was defeated.

"Don't you get it? If you marry Pirika he'll be involved in our world once more."

"I'll try to live like a normal human! I'd do that for her."

"But you're still a Tao. A Shaman clan…"

"I'll disown myself from my family." Ren answered once more.

Horo started to get pissed; it's no use talking seriously to someone who doesn't want to listen. With that he punched Ren with his other hand, the one that doesn't have the oversoul.

"You're a Shaman and even if you try to ignore it… it's a part of you and you'll always be a part of it. Pirika has this chance of letting go from this kind of life and I won't let her lose that chance. I really wanted her to live peacefully… that's why I decided to never show myself to her ever again. Can't you understand? If we continue on being like this in the end… in the end… that tragedy will happen again. I don't want her to get hurt again."

"But I can protect her." Ren still insisted.

"But tell me… if you're that great then why she had amnesia in the first place! Neither you nor I saved her from that awful event… Tell me Ren… did you have the chance to protect her that time?" Horo said as Ren stops to think.

"Think about it. It's your decision and I hope it's the right one." Horohoro said. With that he turned about, placed his snowboard on the ground and flew away.

Leaving Ren dumbfounded…

He then stood up, face dark… looking very sad indeed.

"He's… right…" he muttered, his voice barely escaping his throat, his hand clenched into a fist very tightly…

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What is Ren thinking? What will happen next? Find out soon… the end is near!

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Short chappie before my favorite scene in this story… I know it's short but I still hope you liked this…

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For reading my work and for reviewing…

Please continue to read it… please review some more…

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I hope you like what I'm doing…

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