Disclaimer: I do not own Shaman King

CHAPTER SEVEN – Not Coming Back

"Horo, there's a good chance that he'll die. Even now his heart rate and breathing are slowing down, and his soul is wavering between this life and the next." Faust stated sadly.

"No... No fucking way!" Horo yelled at the tall man.

"You're lying! Lying!" he sobbed. Faust pulled Horo into a light embrace, not minding as the young man's fists beat down on his chest. When the ambulance arrived, Faust and Ren were immediately rushed off, leaving Horo Horo to watch as they sped his friend away to try to save his life. Tears ran down his cheeks as he stared until they were out of sight.

"What are you crying about, Ainu-baka?" a familiar voice asked. Horo whirled around to see Ren's soul flickering there beside him, that outrageous smirk plastered onto his face.

"Ren! Get back in your body!" he yelled, his heart leaping into his throat.

"No, I don't think I will." Ren laughed, flying up a bit from the floor, still flickering.

"Why?" Horo felt the hot tears return.

"Life is a bitch. I don't want it. It's much more fun to defy the laws of physics. I can do whatever I want, and I don't have to follow others' wishes anymore. Don't you get it? This... this is freedom. I've dreamt of this. Even my emotions are more detached. I don't feel anything. There's nothing for me back in your dimension. I've been on medication since I was nine, after a failed attempt at suicide. I was never good enough for anyone's standards, not even yours. You said yourself that I don't live up to your expectations. I missed you, and for the last six years, it was all I could think about. People hurt me, Horo. People fuck with my emotions and leave me. I don't want to feel that pain anymore. I don't want to revisit that hurt. I don't want it, and you can't make me go back!" he yelled. It was then that Horo noticed the slices and scars covering Ren's frail body.

"What happened, Ren? You didn't have those..." he asked, scared. Ren followed his gaze and chuckled.

"That... That is what I wanted to escape from. As you know, this is my soul, not my body. The soul can sustain wounds, as well. Now you see it, though. When you can't see it, you don't know. You can't see a torn soul. You can't see a wounded heart. These are my scars, the product of the screwed life I was forced to live. Some of them are from father, some are from loneliness, and others are from other acquaintances, but these are from you." he pointed to a series of deep gashes over his heart.

"Your pains were always the worst, and always so close to my heart. Now do you see why I don't want to go back? A soul can be destroyed. It's possible to kill a soul without ever touching the body. I can't live with it anymore." he said, eyes sad.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Horo asked.

"I was going to, but you wouldn't listen. You wouldn't hear my desperate pleas, because you were working on this." He turned slightly, revealing the back of his head. His skull was cracked open and blood was still pouring from the percolating wound.

"It still hurts, but it's dull, now. That was when you left me for whoever it was. I hope they make you happy, because I'm never going back." Ren said.

"Ren... Come back. I swear I'll help you. I can heal your wounds." Horo begged.

"No! I... I can't trust empty promises anymore! I lived that life! People screw around with my heart and then I end up all alone! At least have the decency to tell me who it was that was so much better than me before I leave. Who the hell was it!" he screamed angrily.

"He's not better than you. No one is." Horo whispered painfully.

"He? Well, at least it wasn't a girl. At least I wasn't beaten by a girl." Ren said sadly. Suddenly, he disappeared, reappearing a few seconds later.

"Ren, what's going on?" Horo asked.

"That bastard Faust is still trying to send me back to that hell! That fucking prison!" Ren snarled, looking as though he was resisting some invisible force.

"No! Don't lock me back in that jail! Don't trap me in myself again! Not when I just tasted the freedom!" Ren hissed.

"Ren, go back to your body." Horo looked up to see the owner of the calm voice that called him. He gazed up into soft, brown eyes beneath a long, silky mass of chocolate tresses that cascaded down the owner's back. He was dressed in familiar pants that never grew old on him in the Shaman Fights, and a loose, brown shirt that revealed small glimpses of his perfect abs when he turned the right way.

"Never!" Ren growled, narrowing his eyes at the intruder.

"Oh, what's the fuss, Tao Ren?" Hao Asakura smirked knowingly as he stepped closer to the two.

"Lovers' quarrels are such a bore. Do something more interesting for a change. However, I suppose I aught to help out." Hao snapped his fingers and Spirit of Fire appeared, capturing the struggling Tao.

"You're going to your body, one way or another." he grinned lecherously and hopped onto the giant spirit's hand, pulling Horo along with him.

"Hao? What are you doing here? Why are you helping?" Horo asked.

"The young Tao heir invited me to sing a song written especially for my otouto and I to sing together. I can't just let my employer die before paying me for coming all the way out here. Oversoul will go nowhere without him and as much as I hate to admit it, my otouto's group of followers are mildly interesting to watch. I sense a nice bit of trouble brewing, and I just love to enjoy a good show." Hao smirked as they reached the hospital.

He snatched Ren's translucent arm in one hand and Horo's solid arm in the other and dragged them in through the back and into the emergency room, already knowing his destination. Slipping into the room where Faust and others were working to save the singer, Hao summoned Ren into a spirit ball and forced him into his body as he struggled to stay out, then whispered a spell, trapping him within. A pulse was quickly regained and the Chinese was stabilized. Horo sighed, thanking the gods that his friend was fine as he sank into a seat in the waiting room they'd been ushered to. The door opened and Faust joined them. Horo stood.

"How is he?" he asked anxiously.

"He is stable. His recovery depends on himself, though. He must have the will to live, or all our work is for nothing. Can you get him to have that?" he asked, his stare on Horo.

"He won't listen to me." Horo shook his head.

"I can do it." Hao offered. They gave him quizzical looks.

"Just give me a shot." he ordered, and he went to the other room alone.

"Alright, you little bastard." he began, speaking to Ren's unconscious form. "You got yourself into this, you're getting yourself out. Whether you like it or not, you drove Horo into the arms of another man, so get over it. It was your fucking fault. The truth is that he loves you. You can use that, or not, but you're going to live. If you die, I will do things you never even dreamed of to your soul until the end of time. If you really can't forgive Horo, you aren't worth his time or love. He forgave you for everything you ever did to him. You don't deserve someone like that. But if you really are still angry, at least live to make his life a living hell for hurting you." Hao smirked in satisfaction as Ren's eyebrows twitched and knitted together, the thing he subconsciously did when he had one option and he didn't like it.