SailorStar9: After getting Chapter 27 out, this is Chapter 28 of this fic. (Sighs) Guys and girls, is it too hard for you to leave a review, instead of just putting this fic up on your favorited list and story alerts?

Pairings: Tao Ren/Fem!OC, Yoh/Anna

Disclaimers: I own absolutely nothing, except this plot and pairing.

Chapter 28: The Forest of No Return

"Ren, why are you making jokes now?" Ryu chided.

"I'm not joking around." Ren fired back.

"Choose a time and place for your fight." Silva rebuked. "Right now, we must hurry and..."

"Unless I fight him, I won't advance a simple step from here." Ren threatened.

"Yoh," Jun pleaded. "Please, can you listen to Ren?"

"Let's do it." Yoh relented.

"Yoh?" Amidamaru manifested.

"If Ren thinks we must, then we can't do anything about it." Yoh reasoned. "Besides, there is something I want to test as well."

"You want to use me as target practice as well?" Ren glared.

"If anything goes wrong, I'll treat them." Faust offered.

"Thank you." Jun smiled. "But I think they'll be okay."

"What is the meaning of this, Yoh?" Ren demanded, seeing Yoh shrink the Spirit of Sword.

"I will fight you with full force." Yoh declared.

"Then why did you make your Oversoul smaller?" Ren asked.

"This is the shape of my full force." Yoh answered, the blade was now shrunken into katana length. "Or, so I think."

"What does he mean?" Chocolove wondered. "If he goes easy on him, Ren will get angrier."

"No." Horo Horo corrected. "Have you forgotten our training with Yoh's father? Maybe what Yoh wants to test is..."

"What?" Ren gaped, when Yoh simply stopped Bison's foot with the tip of his sword. A jab then sent Bison flying back. "Bushin!" he re-summoned his Oversoul. "How, with your Oversoul like that?"

"Even if your Oversoul is big, it doesn't matter that there is a large amount of Furyoku in it, right?" Yoh explained. "This might be the same."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Ren barked, charging straight at Yoh.

Yoh just lifted his sword, easily splitting Ren's weapon into half.

"Ren might lose." Faust predicted. "When an Oversoul is condensed, the Shaman can output his Furyoku without any waste. If he doesn't understand that, then..."

"That idiot just wants to make it clear to himself." Hui Ling spoke, already correctly guessing Ren's way of thinking. "He wants to follow Yoh as well, but he just doesn't want to accept those feelings. It's just his way of settling things."

"He truly an idiot." Faust noted.

"That's true." Hui Ling giggled. "But I won't want him any other way."

"In that case..." Ren growled, shrinking his weapon like Yoh and attacked. "The power indeed has..." he looked at his weapon after the clash. Shrinking his halberd further, he attacked Yoh again. "I'm beginning to understand." he continued shrinking his weapon after Yoh parried him off.

"You don't seem to have any trouble doing it, either." Yoh noted.

"I'm still confused." Ren admitted. "I want to defeat you more than Hao. But, I'm confused. I thought I could clear my mind for sure this time. But..." channeling his Furyoku into the curved blade, he launched another attack at Yoh.

Yoh blocked off the attack, the force knocking him back into Ryu.

"That was amazing, Ren." Yoh praised. "So that's your true Furyoku."

"We can still become much stronger." Ren reminded. "For that sake, I think it's okay for me to be confused a while longer."

"What is this place?" Ryu asked once they exited the tunnel and faced the Forest of No Return.

"The Forest of No Return." Silva replied. "It is the area that leads to the Holy Ground where the Great Spirits lie, or so they say."

"However, in reality, the place where the Great Spirits lie is in a separate dimension." Kalim added.

"If Hao had gone ahead, then we have no choice but to go after him." Yoh stated and led the group into the forest.

"How long do we have to keep walking?" Ryu complained, the group were now within the forest.

"On top of that..." in Spirit Ball mode, Tokageroh floated up and winced before floating back down.

"We can't move freely in here as well." Amidamaru sighed.

"That's odd." Yoh mused.

"What's that sound?" Faust's ears picked up a droning echo in the distance.

"And why does that laser beam look familiar?" Hui Ling asked, seeing the streaks of light coming from the woods. "I knew it!" she exclaimed when a laser beam shot through the tree in front of them and impacted on the group.

"They followed us, just as we thought." Mohamed stated, his attack having plowed through the forest and scotched the nearby trees.

"Even so, you don't have to blow them away." Hang complained. "You took Shion-Shion's and my turn."

"It should've been a direct hit." Mohamed remarked, seeing the group was unharmed after the smoke cleared.

"There are two of them." Horo Horo was ready to fight. "Leave this place to me." he urged the rest of the group forward.

"Silva, Kalim, take care of Master Yoh and Ren for me." activating his Oversoul, Ryu blocked off The Big Guys' attacked.

"These guys are trying to buy Hao time." Chocolove reasoned, facing off against Peyote.

"Let's go." Ren instructed. "Those two won't be defeated so easily."

"Leave this place to us." Jun told the three younger Shamans as she and Pai long faced off against Team Hana-Gumi.

"It appears that there is a large commotion over there." Luchist remarked. "Let me finish you off quickly then. Lucifer!" he summoned his Fallen Angel.

"Why do we have to help the X-Laws take out their trash?" Hui Ling questioned, she and Ren Oversouling and leapt into battle.

"Go, Yoh!" Ren barked, both halberd and Maiden Sword hit Lucifer on the mask.

"Come!" the Great Spirits' voice echoed through the sky. "Show me your souls."

"And which idiot said the Great Spirits have gone mute?" Hui Ling muttered.

SailorStar9: Any OOC-ness is regretted. *Sighs* Don't you just hate plot bunnies sometimes? Read and review.