Wow. the responses from my fav. reviewer keep piling in. I'm not saying who this person is, cause everyone else might get jealous. Anyway, I apologize for the long wait, as I went out and bought Counterstrike, and have been playing it a lot. Now, onto the juicy goodness of my story!

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Disclaimer: Yes, we all know I don't own Shaman king. Leave me alone.

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Now, as we left off, Ren had just been tied to a chair with a champagne bottle stuffed into his mouth to keep him shut upped. Yoh was upstairs whipping everyone in DDR, and Pirka was simply enjoying her meal.

Returning to the present time...

Ren had finally been released after a muffled promise to be quiet. Of course, he never intended to keep that promise. The second he was free, he had gone into another rant about how freaking stupid Yoh was, and how he was going to kill him.

"Yoh is so freaking stupid! I'm gonna kill him!" Ren yelled, his tongari about to break through the roof.

"Ren! You promised you'd calm down!"

"Since when do I listen to you!"

"Since I found your diary."

Ren stopped dead in his tracks and slowly turned to face her. "What do you mean by that..."

"I had no clue you had such an intricate mind, Ren. Also, I didn't know how much you hated cats."

"You... it was you who was in my room, wasn't it?"

"Yup, and it's all thanks to my intuition that I managed to find all this... Ren? What are you doing?"

Ren was slowly making his way toward her, murder in his eyes, his hair growing inches every second. "Just because I have no weapon, doesn't mean I'm not stronger than you."

"Umm... good point." Pirka thought aloud. "But you wouldn't kill me, right? We're friends, right? You're going to stop walking towards me, right? You're-" She was cut off when Ren flipped the table over and lowered his head so the point of his hair was aimed at her. "Guess not." Pirka uttered.

Note, this part of the story involves a very pissed off and OOC Ren, chasing around Pirka using his hair as a weapon. You have been warned. This scene has been rated FR for Freakin' Retarded

Ren charged at Pirka, his hair gleaming like a knife, his intentions to harm clear.

Pirka jumped out of harms way just in time, and Ren's hair pierced the wall behind her. She started running towards the door, when Ren suddenly screamed, SUPER TONGARI! His hair extended and sent him flying backwards until he was dangling right in front of Pirka with his arms crossed, his hair still stuck in the wall holding him up.

Pirka stared at him. "Ren! What big hair you have!"

Ren smirked back. "All the better to stab you with my dear." He de-extended (is that a word?) his hair and began to thrust it at her, in an attempt to harm her. He suddenly extended his hair and it stabbed through her jacket sleeve, and tore it.

Pirka stared at her sleeve and thought to herself, "This seems pretty serious." She looked back up at Ren, and then screamed out, "OKAY TAO! YOU RIPPED MY FAVORITE JACKET! NOW SUFFER MY WRATH!" She hauled back as hard as she could, and used her most sacred technique. "ALMIGHTY SLAP!"

KAPOW! Ren was sent flying across the room, a few of his teeth flying out of his mouth, and hitting the floor. he fell onto the ground, and his tongari shrivled up. "ow..." he whimpered.

Pirka smiled triumphantly. "How do ya like that! I learned it from Anna herself!" She quickly whipped around and blew on her throbbing hand. "owieowieowieowie!"

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Meanwhile, the force of the hit caused the Inn to shake, and Yoh lost control of his DDR concentration, causing him to lose to Hao.

"HEY! No fair! I call a rematch!"

The spirit of fire suddenly decided he wanted to try and lumbered toward the machine.

Hao gasped. "NO, BILLY! DON'T BE A HERO!" But it was too late. The spirit of fire took one step onto the machine... and smashed it flat.

Chocolove fell to the floor, tears streaming from his eyes. "NOOOOO! NOT MY DDR MACHINE!"

Yoh, meanwhile, stared at Hao. "Two questions. One, you call your spirit of fire Billy? And two, what the hell was that!"

Hao scratched his chin for a bit. "Well, Billy is much easier to say than spirit of fire because Billy only has two syllables, and spirit of fire has..." Hao clapped his hands while saying "spirit of fire" under his breath, a clap for each syllable, and said "Five. As for the noise, I'm guessing Pirka and Ren are having a hard time dealing with eachother.

"I'M HAVING A HARD TIME DEALING WITH YOU REN!" Pirka screamed.

"Bingo." Hao smiled. "Anyway, I'm sure nothing could possibly go wrong." Suddenly, a glass that just happened to be nearby cracked, and Hao stared at it. "That's funny... Oh well. Monopoly anyone?

"YAY!" Everyone yelled.

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Meanwhile, Ren had Pirka pinned on the floor, and was about to "kill" her, when suddenly, he noticed it was getting rather hot. He turned to look, and lo and behold! A fire had started in the basement. "How the hell did this happen!" Ren screamed, getting up off of Pirka.

"Oh my god!" She screamed. "Is there a way out!"

"Only if I can get through the door! And my idiot sister has it sealed off by talismans! But that still doesn't explain how..."

"Ren. The candles. You knocked them over when you flipped the table."

"Oh. Yeah. I forgot..."

"REN YOU IDIOT! We're gonna die and this is all your fault!"

"My fault! It's yours! Your the one who snuck into my room and read my diary!"

"Oh yeah! Well you-" Suddenly the fire reached the champagne that had been spilled onto the floor, and a small explosion resulted. Pirka fell back and Ren caught her.

"I just decided now is not the time to argue." Ren moved her out of the way of the flame and stepped in front of her. "Pirka, I don't want you to die, you know."

"Not even after what I did?"

"No. So I want you to know that I have a plan."

"You do?"

A support from the ceiling fell and blocked the path to the door off.

"Well, not anymore I don't."

"What was it anyway?"

"I was hoping to get the fire going right by the door. then the talismans would burn off, and we could get out... but seeing as we can't get to the door now... I have a new plan."

"Which is?"

"Protect you." Ren tackled her out of the way as another beam fell and just missed them both.

Pirka's eyes widened and she looked down at him. "Wh-What?"

"I know, I know. It's sappy, it's not like me, and it makes no sense. But hear me out. I don't hate you at all. I like you. a lot. and I know you probably don't feel the same, and I really don't care. As long as I know I'm not abandoning you or anything, I can die happy."

Pirka blushed, surprised at these compassionate words. Sappy, yes, but Ren really didn't have much talent for sounding romantic, and they were still compassionate. "But Ren.. I like you too. Haven't you figured that out yet?"

"So you like me."

"Yes."

"And that means my feelings are returned."

"Yes."

"And that means if I die, I AM abandoning you."

"Yes."

"Crap... New plan."

"What is it now?"

"Scream for help."

"Sounds good to me."

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Meanwhile...

Hao was singing the lyrics to one of his favorite songs. He had the mic plugged into a speaker, and had the music turned on full blast.

"WOW!" Yoh yelled over the music to Chocolove. "IT'S A GOOD THING REN AND PIRKA AREN'T IN TROUBLE! WE'D NEVER HEAR THEM IF THEY WERE YELLING FOR HELP"

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You know something? I don't like this chapter that much. I'm wrapping it up in the next chap before the plot gets ruined. Will Ren and Pirka survive? Will the ending be worth the wait? I sure hope so!

Anyhoo, please review. I don't expect TOO much positive feedback, so don't worry about hurting my feelings. ...
Although I will be in a corner crying.

Peace.

Frank S