Frozen Letters on the Floor

The End

Firstly, I'm sorry it took SO long to get this up, but I really, really don't like it. So, instead of making you all suffer longer, I'll just type it, and let you all judge it.

With that said, I DO want you to judge it. I want you to tell me what you liked over the story's course, and what you didn't like. Please, please, please! Tell me what you did not like. I know it's hard to say bad things, but I want to get better. I have often read stories that have been just horrible, and I've either not reviewed at all, or lied, and said it was really good. How about this – You tell me something wrong with my story, and I'll do a serious critique back, if you want. If not, then I won't.

The very LAST chapter of FlotF:

Hao grinned at the remaining two.

Ren could only glare back as Chocolove held Kororo to his chest.

"This must be my new playroom – what with all my new toys already here."

Chocolove seemed to sense what was coming, and turned to Ren, "Uh, Ren – there's something I have to tell you…"

Hao tossed hair over his shoulder, drawing Ren's attention back to himself. "You know why HoroKeu remains ill of course – oh… you don't?"

The Spirit of Fire held up its prize, the deathly pale Ainu.

"Surly you would realize what happens when you mix Fire and Ice."

"Kisama…."

"Oh, I love you too, Renny."

"Wo Shi Hen Hen Ni!" The Chinese Child attacked, but Hao simply let the Spirit of Fire step between them.

"The little wolf had been fun, but I knew that he'd never get better with me around him. But hey, the scent of my three favorite toys was plenty strong enough to track half way across the planet."

The last bit sunk in with a harsh stab, and Ren turned to Chocolove.

"Oh yes, you precious little 'gangstah' lead me to you in the first place. Why, did you not know that either?"

Indeed, Ren did not. And he was not happy with being left in the dark with this little fact.

"It was a stupid mistake Ren."

"What. Did. You. Do." The demand seemed to cut at Chocolove more that anything.

The boy bowed his head at his disgust with himself. From his folded arms, Kororo gave a sympathetic "kuru" to him. "It was before I'd meet you guys. Right after I'd gotten to Apache Village. I told you, I needed to get on a team. Hao tricked .. no… I set myself up."

"You-"

"Yeah, I had sex with the ass-hole. How else do you think I found so much out about him?"

Irrationally angry at his teammate, Ren attacked, blade suddenly ripping though S.O.F.'s arm.

The hand opened, spilling out its burnt corpse.

It appeared as if HoroHoro's very soul had caught fire, leaving behind a mangled black and smoldering chest cavity in its wake.

Kororo screamed – escaping Chocolove's limp grasp to fly toward the child she had been bound to.

Unchecked rage course though Ren's blood. His eyes became dead, once again letting the murderer beneath to the surface. Bason stood at ready, as always, beside his Bacchama.

"Ren! You gotta calm-"

"Shut. Up."

Hao laughed at the pair. He moved, his steps a dance as he moved to attack Ren, but changing to cut down the afro child instead.

Ren froze, watching the boy fall. His mind reeled, trying to process.

Hao looked up at him, smiling. "He was too needy anyway. Just spent to must time trying to be wanted. Rather pathetic, eh Renny?"

Ren could think, his mind just replaying itself. He no longer knew what he felt.

"When he came to me… God, it was so pitiful."

The words made Ren feel just as pitiful, and he came to grips that he was all that was left. So easily had his companions fallen. They'd been defeated to easily. Just a swat here and a flick there. Did he now even stand a chance?

"Perhaps you should have listened to your dear daddy about 'friends' when he first told you?"

Motionless, Ren gather strength. The numb feeling he'd had had left, and know he felt cold. But it wasn't the cold he was used to, because even though it was cold, he felt warm, and comforted.

Ren looked up. Kororo was still holding her ground before the massive Spirit of Fire. She'd failed her Ainu, so she would allow herself to be destroyed to protect what her child had left.

Even alone, she was a force to be reckoned with.

Ren notice Bason and Mic, looking to him on what to do next. Waiting for him to figure something out.

Hao laughed again, before ordering the giant sprit to destroy them.

Kororo's ice shield held the first strike.

Confidence built in the Chinese shaman, confidence in something unexplained.

For, as a shaman, he could see the ghosts of those who'd died. He saw two before him, neither held down by the weakness of the flesh and the human limits they'd once had. And both looked ready to finish this.

A bitter smiled reached his lips – seeing the Ainu 'well' for the first time in too long.

Hao too saw them, and he blinked, wonder how this could possible change things.

Ren looked at Chocolove. Hadn't he been able to oversoul with two entities?

The question shaped a plan, and HoroHoro and Chocolove forced an integration with Ren's body.

Three souls. One thought.

A strange sight must have awaited anyone watching- Ren's body assuming the motifs and speed of Chocolove and Mic. His right arm flowed with the power of his and Bason's, while his left burned with the ice of Kororo and HoroHoro.

"Friendship is a powerful tool."

Hao raised an eyebrow, but soon realized it was not Ren who's spoken.

Ren's family stood ready to help as well.

And next to them?

There stood the rest of them from Japan. They'd trekked across China once, and had done it again for much the same reason. They had a friend, part of their family, in need of help.

vvvvvvvv

HoroHoro's body was flown back to Hokkaido. A funeral bier was erected just outside the luscious fields he'd fought for. With a couple years of cultivating, the leaves would grow to cover the ashes of the young shaman.

Chocolove's body had managed to grasp a spark of his spirit, and he was moved to a Hospital in New York. He remained comatose for a good many years, before he managed to awaken.

HoroHoro's soul guarded his beloved fields, one that few humans ever would see live to its fullest.

Team The Ren met up in that field often, until the time came, and the three left this plane together.

THE END

"I hate you very much" erm.. I pretty sure of that…. MeiMei was helping me with it, but I haven't gotten an email from her in about a month or so…. Kinda worried…

HoroHoro's funeral. I don't know much about Ainu funeral rites…. Sorry. But with his body already so burned, I decided it would be best to just finish it.

FanArt!

FLotF has Fan Art! See my Bio for the links!

Thank you to everyone who has reviewed:

Wolf's moon21
Death's Soulmate
reggaeshiko-tama
blizzard blu
marthawolfer
Azalee
Falcon Strife aka Babysoft-chan
bOw-doWn-tO-KeiKO
SaiyanWarrior200
fang-kid
MangaBaka
Kumagorou-2000
Cheesy Bubbles