DarkTaoAngel: Last chappie, yay! I hope you all read and liked my previous one, and sadly every story must come to an end. So this is the end of this story, which will not be continued, unless I bring Hao back in a different story…. Thanks for reviewing if you did, and if you didn't, please do! By the way, I don't own Shaman King.
As Pirika and Horo neared the Inn, an extremely familiar voice rang out before them. It was Yoh, who was running toward them with the usual smile on his face.
"Pirika! And Horo, I though you were a goner! Where have you two been?" Yoh adapted a bemused look as he stared at them. They both had scratches, and Horo had blood on his clothes and rips in his shirt.
Pirika and Horo exchanged looks, mentally wondering how much they should tell him, before Horo said, "It's complicated, but we're both okay, and Hao is gone for now." Horo thought this was enough information for now, because he didn't really want to mention Mei.
"Hao? You met him? Did you fight? How'd it go?" Yoh got overly excited at the mention of his not-so-good brother. Leave it to Yoh to completely space out on the subject of where Horo was for the past week.
"It went… fine. We won. Hao left, he'll be back, but we'll be ready." Horo managed to say these last words before nearly collapsing on the spot. The fight with Hao hadn't been that long ago, and Horo was still feeling the effects of the attacks. Pirika allowed him to rest on her shoulder for support as they walked back to the Inn together.
Horo and Pirika were to stay at Yoh's house until Horo recovered, but they had to work for it, courtesy of Anna, who never gave anything for free. She, unlike Yoh, wanted to know everything that had happened, not just the overall recount of the tale. Though she demanded every day, she rarely got a solid truth, excuses wouldn't cut it, and so she kept asking.
Horo and Pirika were swamped with questions every time anyone came to visit, which was almost every day, and whatever they said seemed to never be enough for the questioners. Horo was getting fed up, so he was ready to tell the next person who asked the truth.
It so happened that hardly a day after this thought had come to mind, Yoh asked him yet again, but this time someone accompanied him, it was a very frustrated Anna, and if looks could kill, Horo would have died days ago.
Horo stayed true to his promise to himself by recalling every event, which took quite a long time, and even included the story about Mei, even though it struck a particularly painful memory in him every time that her name was mentioned, so hard for him that he eventually had to call Pirika in to explain for him. As they talked, both Pirika and Horo, the memories seemed so vivid through words, as though they were happening as they continued to talk.
Finally their story recount had come to an end, leaving a bewildered Yoh, and an unusually sentimental Anna, in their wake. They seemed not to know what was the appropriate thing to say at the moment, so they stayed silent, just as they had during the explanation.
Yoh felt sorry for Horo because he had lost his girlfriend, and for Pirika because she had lost her boyfriend, and all in the same painful week. Horo and Pirika both knew that they felt sorry for them, and they didn't want them to.
"You need not take pity on us. What is done is done, no one can change it. Someone wise once told me that you can't make anyone happy by feeling sorry for yourself, crying can't bring anyone back to life; it will only make everyone more miserable than they already are. I know, I miss him, too." Pirika stated, trying to suppress the tears that were failing to stay hidden.
"What kind of person would say something as depressing as that?" Horo said, bringing down the entire mood in the room, which immediately changed as Pirika started to shout.
"You did, you idiot! Some wise person you are now; it was supposed to be a compliment!" Pirika was back to normal, and apparently an out of breath Horo who was running for his life was back to normal, too.
Yoh and Anna exchanged glances, but Yoh looked away as Anna gave him a death glare. Yoh and Anna were lucky to have each other, even though they rarely showed it. In the spirit of the moment, or maybe because of the satisfaction that it gave her, Anna decided to triple Yoh's training. She said it was to 'better his strength incase Hao came back to fight him', but he knew that it was just so she could torture him from the sidelines. None the less he went to work, Horo by his side, as Pirika had probably joined forces with Anna to train the boys.
Everyone's lives went back to normal, or as normal it could get, and everything about that eventful week seemed forgotten. No one forgot though, it still haunted their dreams at night, or in the dark passageways throughout the town, but they tried to take Horo's wise words to heart and stop feeling sorry for themselves.
Though the ones they loved were gone, they all knew that they would always be together, not just spiritually, but mentally, in memory and in heart. Sad as though the following days were, everyone had each other, and they knew that was the only way to defeat Hao and bring their loved ones back, by becoming the Shaman King. And even if that didn't work, they knew that Ren and Mei would remember them, too, as they smiled from somewhere in heaven.
DarkTaoAngel: Longest chapter, and saddest, but this is the end. I might do another story about Hao that stems from this one by request, but other than that, this is it. I hope you all liked it, and I hope it made you cry because that was my goal when I wrote it. Please review if you liked it!