…and lucky number three is…someone who you'll have to find out by yourself soon! Zank you vely mush fo de reviews (Thank you very much for the reviews, in case you guys didn't get it).

If the fic's going too fast, I'm very sorry. Since each character gets his or her own chapter, that means there won't be any scene shifting, except for Hao's part. Sorry again if the pace is too fast, I'll try to slow it down a bit. So on with the fic!

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Chapter 4: Freak of Nature

A loud hiss resonated in the air; the monster crawled silently to find the victim it was chasing just awhile ago. Out of all the victims it found and turned to stone, this particular victim was the most stubborn one. The monster sensed that he was near, it just didn't know where exactly. The snakes on the monster's head rattled as it crawled on its snake like body.

The blue haired shaman stood stiffly and still behind a mailbox which was conveniently beside a trash can, a lamp post, and a fire hydrant. The monster was slowly approaching the spot in front of his hiding place. Horohoro only had one shot at this because one mistake could either poison him to death or turn him in to stone.

'Five, four, three…' he counted silently in his head, keeping his eyes closed. '…two, one!'

He rolled out of his hiding place with his eyes still closed in front of the monster. "ICE WALL!" Horohoro punched his oversouled snowboard on the ground and an ice wall appeared before him. The monster took one quick glance at the wall and saw its own reflection. Its eyes widened and its scream was ear piercing for it accidentally turned itself into stone by looking at itself.

When it was fully petrified, Horohoro removed the ice wall between them; without opening his eyes, he used his snowboard to feel around and see if the monster was there.

"Nipoppo Punch!" with one quick blow, he shattered the monster into a million tiny lights. When Horohoro sensed that it was safe to open his eyes, he lifted his eyelids and looked around. When he saw that the only remaining thing in front of him were tiny white lights, he smiled in victory. "Take that Medusa! I'm the only one who does the freezing around here!" He looked around, but to his disappointment, there wasn't a stone.

"Oh man…that was the fifth monster I destroyed yet no stone!" Horohoro sat down on a bench and Kororo left his snowboard. "There's gotta be more than a hundred monsters in this town, how are we gonna find the stones? We've got an eighteen out of a hundred chances…" Kororo floated beside him and tugged his shirt. His face formed a smile, "Don't worry Kororo, we'll find a stone even if it means beating more than a dozen monsters."

Kororo smiled as he watched Horohoro stand up and stretch up. They both heard a growl from somewhere, so Horohoro grabbed his snowboard and looked around. Strangelly, no one was there; but when a rumbling sound came about, Horohoro felt his stomach. "Oh man, I'm starving…I haven't eaten dinner yet…it's already a quarter to eight…" he stopped dead in his tracks when he saw the clock inside a store. "7:45 already? That means I'm gonna have to quicken my pace!"

He walked and looked around for monsters, but his stomach was making him lose his concentration. "I'm too hungry to walk!" he put his snowboard down and sat on it while his stomach continued to rumble. Kororo looked around to see if she can help her starving master.

Kororo floated away, Horohoro was too busy daydreaming about an all you can eat buffet. "Hey, where are you taking me?" a voice from the other corner of the street said. Horohoro heard the sound from the corner, but he also smelled food. Sweet, delicious, and mouthwatering food. He rubbed his eyes and saw Kororo; she was floating in front of someone and she was leading that someone to Horohoro.

It was a boy about Horohoro's age. A young black haired lad carrying a plastic bag in his hands; he saw Horohoro lying down on his snowboard. "Hey, are you alright?" The boy ran to Horohoro's side with Kororo following from behind. "Hey, talk to me!"

He put his hands on the ainu's shoulder and shook him lightly. Horohoro opened his eyes and sniffed the air. "I…I smell food, so hungry…"

"Hungry?" the boy took out five boxes of rise he got from a Chinese restaurant. "Here, you can have these…" Immediately, Horohoro sat up and gobbled down all the contents of the five boxes of rice, each prepared differently.

A loud burp was all Kororo and the boy needed to hear to know that he's going to be just fine. "Thanks a lot, you're a life saver! Err, sorry I ate your food…"

"No problem…just glad you're alright…" the boy stood up and held out his hand to help Horohoro up. "The name's Akimaru, nice to meet you…"

"Horohoro, thanks again for the food" he said gratefully as he shook Akimaru's hand. "Are you a shaman too?"

"Yes I am, and I'm guessing that she's your main spirit" Akimaru said as Kororo floated beside Horohoro. "This is my main spirit, cobra" the spirit materialized beside Akimaru; it was a ninja like spirit wearing a cobra headgear which also had a tail. Horohoro's spine shivered a bit when he saw the cobra headgrear. "Anything wrong Horohoro?"

"Nah, it's nothing…" Horohoro rubbed the back of his head. "I just ran in to a medusa a little earlier."

"I see…" Akimaru said. "I just came from the other town and when I heard that monsters were attacking Funbari, I rushed here immediately to find out if my family's alright.

"Oh I see…" Horohoro said. "Sorry for delaying you and for eating your food. You'd better get to your family quick and make sure they're safe.

Akimaru nodded his head and ran to the direction of his house. "See you Horohoro, next time, I'll treat you to lunch!"

"Cool! Thanks a lot Akimaru!" he waved goodbye to his new friend who disappeared in the streets. "Okay Kororo, we'd better get going and find at least one stone…" Horohoro picked up his board and walked down the streets to see if the next monster he'll find will have a stone in it.

"Here's an interesting monster for that ainu to play with" Hao looked at monster walking towards the direction where Horohoro was going to be located in just a few steps. "Let's see if he can still think about eating after his encounter with this monster."

"Let's see who's going to be the victor…"

"Hey Kororo, do you smell something?" Horohoro and his main spirit stopped for awhile and sniffed the air. "Eww, smells like raw sewage!"

The two of them heard a slurring grumble resonate from the corner. "It looks like it's another monster; a stinky one in fact!" The monster's shadow could now be seen from the corner it was humungous. It crawled out from the building corner facing sideways. Horohoro and Kororo covered their noses because the pungent smell was too much. They were now facing a monster with no shape and form; in fact, it looked like melted clay.

"Don't you ever take a bath you oversized blob?" Horohoro asked. He pulled down his headband to cover his nose. The green muck ignored the shaman and went straight ahead, passing through the street sign. The ainu and the kororo observed the blob as it crawled to the street sign, as if it weren't there; the street sign entered the monster's mud like body. When the blob crawled away from where the street sign was located previously, they both saw that there was no more street sign, only a bubbling puddle and a trail of slime. "That's one disgusting acidic blob if I've ever seen; I don't think I'm going to be able to eat until later."

The acidic blob ignored the shaman and continued crawling ahead. "Hey stinky, don't ignore your opponent!" The blob stopped dead in its tracks and turned it's head to Horohoro, revealing one big yellow eye with a green pupil. "Now that I've got your attention, you're going down! Kororo, spirit ball mode, Oversoul in to the Ikapusi!" Horohoro integrated Kororo to the ikapusi Pirika gave him as a good luck charm before the shaman fight; the ikapusi now turned into a sharp blue sword, a weapon that Yoh could most likely use if he didn't have the Harusame.

"ICE BLADE SLASH!" Horohoro ran towards the blob, jumped up and slashed it in the middle with his extended ice blade. Horohoro grinned as he landed on the ground while the blob spilt in to two and melted on the ground. "Looks like there isn't a stone inside this walking sewage…"

Horohoro then noticed something strange, the blob's body did not shatter and turn into tiny white lights, which meant it wasn't dead yet. He gripped his ice blade with both hands as he watched the two halves of the blob rejoin. The acidic blob opened its eye when it rejoined and growled at Horohoro, sending out a few droplets of acid. The droplets splashed on the ground and melted the concrete sidewalk a bit. "What kind of monster is this?"

"GLACIER PILLAR!" Horohoro planted his sword to the ground and called forth sharp glaciers from the ground. It pierced the monster and split it into a million tiny balls of sludge. The ice pillars melted because they were smothered with acidic blob droplets. The small droplets gathered in together in the middle and reformed the giant acidic blob. "Man, when I split you up into a million pieces, remain split up into a tiny million pieces!"

The blob took in a deep breath and fired acidic balls from its body. "ICE WALL!" Horohoro's sword, which was still planted on the ground, formed an ice wall in front of himself before an acid ball could hit him. The wall melted and he saw the blob crawling towards him with its hands on the air, ready to grab him when the ainu was near, fortunately for him, the monster was slow.

"Kororo, Spirit Ball Mode, into the snowboard!" Horohoro transferred Kororo from the ikapusi to his snowboard, realizing that slashing the monster into many pieces won't work. "Let's try this!" Horohoro froze the street and made a path leading to a wall. Horohoro sled behind the blob, he used a strong wind from his snowboard to blow the monster to the icy path he made. The monster slid on the icy path and came crashing to a wall, leaving a very big splat mark.

He gasped when he saw the monster fall down from the wall and regain its original shape. "Arrgghhh! Why won't anything work? Think, think, think, that's it! I saw this in a movie once!" Horohoro shot up in the air using the cold air from his snowboard. "FROST WIND!" He loomed over the acidic blob and froze it slowly using the subzero air. He landed safely on the ground and smiled. "That oughta hold it in place!"

Horohoro's eyes widened when he saw the monster melting the ice. "Dude…" Horohoro panicked and thought that if he broke the still frozen blob, it would remain broken and it would finally dissolve into tiny white lights. "NIPOPPO PUNCH!" He broke the frozen blob into a tiny million pieces and breathed heavily; this had better work because he was running out of ideas. He looked at the pieces in awe because they did not turn into white lights nor reveal a stone. Instead, it melted the ice and the tiny acid droplets gathered in the middle and formed a gigantic blob. "You've gotta be kidding!" Horohoro fell on his knees as he saw the monster roaring after breaking free; it seemed as if the ainu's attacks didn't affect, damage, or hurt it even just a bit.

The blob started crawling towards the shocked shaman, who was still not moving. Luckily for him, his snowboard was still strapped to his feet, so Kororo sped away and retreated.

"I guess that monster is too much for Horohoro…" Hao watched him ride his snowboard away from the blob. "Let's see if he'll come back for it."

Horohoro sat down and leaned on the door of a store, beside it was a fruit stand. Kororo left the snowboard and looked at his master. "What's wrong? Why won't that stubborn monster just die?" Horohoro slammed his fist on the ground, Kororo backed away a bit, but she floated slowly towards him after.

"Okay, I just need to think of another plan…think, think…" Horohoro put his head in his hands, trying to think of a way to defeat the acidic blob. "I can't use giant oversoul! There's no way the monster can stand…" Horohoro saw Kororo shaking her head sideways slowly. "Oh…I see…" If he would use giant oversoul in this city, he would certainly cause a lot of damage to city property, not to mention the hundreds of people who will discover the power of shamans.

Horohoro banged the back of his head on the door and rested his head on his knees. "I'm all out of ideas…it's useless…I'm not as smart as the others, I can't think of a plan good enough to beat this one monster, or maybe I'm just not powerful enough, is that it?"

He kept on scolding himself for not being able to beat this one single monster. He was able to beat tougher shamans, he was one of the strongest shamans, so why couldn't he beat it? He finally stopped thinking, it seemed hopeless. "Maybe I'll just leave it along and make someone else beat it."

Kororo tugged his shirt and looked at him with sad eyes, this wasn't the Horohoro she knew. Kororo started speaking to Horohoro in a language only the ainu tribe could understand. She pointed to her head, "I see…" Horohoro smiled. "Strength is not the only factor in fighting. Okay Kororo, I'll give it another try, I won't back out." She smiled and floated around him happily.

Horohoro lifted his hand from the ground to stand up, but then he felt something. He rubbed two of his fingers together to feel it somemore. "Dust…" He suddenly had a flashback. He remembered that he was absent for school one day and Tamao volunteered to teach him the new lesson. 'Table salt is different from the salt formed by combining acids and bases. Salt is neutral because acid and base neutralize each other. An example of something acidic is vinegar and an example of something baice is…'

"That's it Kororo!" He stood up and left the place. "I've got an idea, but I need some help…"

Horohoro looked around for the blob, still no sign of it, and he was already able to defeat two more monsters, unfortunately with no stones in them. "Here blob…here blob…" He suddenly felt something slippery beneath his feet. "Yuck! Oh, wait…this is the trail that monster leaves!" He followed it and saw the monster slowly crawling away, not caring what stood in its way.

"Hey you! Over here!" Horohoro fired a few ice daggers to get its attention. The blob turned to Horohoro and crawled as fast as it can to him. "Can't you go any faster you mass of raw sewage?" Horohoro kept tauting so that it would go faster. The blob didn't let go of the chance to fire a few acid balls, which Horohoro was able to block fortunately for him.

Horohoro ran ahead to check on his plan. "Are you done yet Akimaru?"

Akimaru emptied another can of powder on the canopy of a recently abandoned fruit stand. "All done Horo!"

"Right!" Horohoro punched his snowboard to the ground and made three ice walls which were perpendicularly adjacent to each other. He hopped on his snowboard and slid behind the acidic blob. The monster didn't need to turn, for all it had to do was transfer its big yellow eye to its back. "BLIZZARD SHOCKWAVE!" A powerful icy wind blew the monster to the trap intended for it. It kept sliding and leaving a trail of slime until it stopped when it hit the ice corner that Horohoro made earlier.

"Stone Barrier!" Akimaru jumped off the canopy, place his oversouled weapon on the ground and formed a wall to trap the blob. Now the monster was in a small sealed room without a roof.

Horohoro snowboarded to the monster and used an icy wind as a force to jump up on to the canopy. "Kororo! In to the Ikapusi!" Kororo quickly transferred from the snowboard to the wooden charm. "ICE BLADE SLASH!" The ainu slashed the canopy in half, making all the powder on the acidic blob which was trapped in an almost melted cage.

The acidic blob tried desperately to escape as the powder fell on him. Its body was already bubbling and dissolving into tiny white lights as it frantically thrashed. It trashed and trashed until it was no more; it was a good thing too since the walls have already melted. "Alright!" Horohoro jumped up.

"Thanks for the help buddy!" Horohoro said as the tiny white light remains of the monster disappeared. "Hey, is that…?" Horohoro walked to a shining dark blue stone which emerged just as soon as all the white lights disappeared. He picked it up and read the small writing on it. "Inanity…" the glowing stone turned from a darker shade to a lighter one while the word on the stone changed, "Wisdom…"

"Is that what you are looking for?" Akimaru walked towards him and looked over at Horohoro's shoulder to see what he was holding.

"Yup…" Horohoro smiled, pocketed the light blue stone, pulled out a yellow talisman from his pocket, and tossed it in the air. It turned brown and flew across the night sky towards Jun, wherever she is. "Thanks so much for your help and for finding me some baking soda."

"No problem buddy…" Akimaru patted his shoulder. "I have to say, it was pretty smart of you to remember that acid is neutralized by base. Are you an ace student or something?"

Horohoro shook his head sideways and smiled. "Nope, I'm just a regular shaman with a regular IQ. It's just something that I learned from a very good friend of mine."

"I see…" Akimaru smiled back. "Well, good luck in whatever you're doing; I have to get home soon. If you need any help, you know where to find me!"

"Okay, bye and thanks again!" Horohoro waved at Akimaru who fled to the distance to his home. Kororo floated beside him and sat on his shoulder. "Let's go Kororo, we have more monsters to find." Horohoro place his snowboard on his back and started walking, but he immediately stopped when his stomach started rumbling. "Uh oh…" Horohoro quickly turned around and ran to the direction where Akimaru went. "Akimaru! I'm hungry! You have anymore food?"

Hao smiled at the Horohoro who was running, rather, trying to chase his new friend. "Even after a battle like this, I would have guessed that he wouldn't eat, but I guess I was wrong. Horokei Usui can be very unpredictable once in a while…"

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See? Horohoro is not stupid all the time, yey! I'm glad you guys are still reading. So don't forget to review! I had to rush everything because this fic has an update schedule. Like I said, it is a Halloween fic.