Disclaimer: You know the drill. I dont own it.

Chapter Twelve: The Broken Path

"So how did you really get the vines to disappear yesterday

"So how did you really get the vines to disappear yesterday?" Mitako pestered as she walked alongside Kenta down the same sunny road that had been over run with demonic vines only a days hard run back.

"I already told you," Kenta answered, a smirk pulling at the corner of his lips. "I asked them nicely."

She bit back a sarcastic laugh, throwing her head back sharply in over emphasis. "You really expect me to believe that bullshit?"

"Yes," he answered dryly.

"You're hilarious," she informed him sarcastically, fighting back a smile.

"I know," he said after a pause, in his most serious tone. She snorted awkwardly as she fought to hold back her laughter. Kenta smirked triumphantly as he kept his eyes trained on his brother's distant form ahead of them on the path.

"I don't believe you," she said as soon as she calmed her laughter. Kenta's smirk faded. This girl had the crazy ability to never be dissuaded by him. Every attempt he made to change the subject to avoid her never ending barrage of questions, she followed. She let him lead her around in circles during a conversation. Yet whenever there was a lull, she always jumped right back in, never forgetting what they were talking about earlier.

God was it irritating.

He rolled his eyes, idly wondering why the gods had thrust her into his midst, and why he hadn't just killed her early on. If he had, he wouldn't have to be suffering through her company right now and wouldn't have to put up with her uncanny obsession with interrogating him.

"Why don't you believe me?" he sighed after a moment. It would be easier to just oblige her now and he had to admit, although never out loud, that deliberately provoking her was an entertaining way to pass the time.

"Because so much about you is just so…so…" she struggled to find the right word.

"…unbelievable." She said finally, turning her head to look up at him, almost as if to verify that he was indeed real and walking along side her. He felt her eyes on him and turned his head to look down at her.

"Don't you trust me?" he sneered, smirking wickedly to try and get a rise out of her and to end her serious mood.

As expected, she huffed and looked away from him.

"Not while you keep looking at me like you're still trying to decide whether or not to kill me." She shot at him. Kenta checked his astonishment. Sometimes he wondered how she could read him so well when they'd only just met. "Don't you trust me?" she looked back at him snidely.

He shrugged his shoulders. "Not quite. You ask too many questions. It's like you're a spy or something, I don't know."

"Don't be absurd." She scoffed. "I've told you how many times. If I wanted to kill you, I'd have done it already."

"Well then why do you ask so many damn questions?" he argued.

"I'm trying to be nice and make conversation!" she laughed at his suspiciousness of her. "Questions can't hurt you!"

"Shows what you know…" he scoffed lightly, looking down at her, his mood a bit darker.

"Oh really? Tell me than. How can something as simple as a question hurt you?" she continued on mockingly. She didn't seem to sense the change in his mood or tone.

Kenta stopped abruptly and grabbed her arm, pulling her to face him.

"Why did your parents abandon you? Why must you hide in the night? Why did your master reject you? Why are those so called friends of yours, the ones who saved you from a life of misery, trying so hard to kill you?!" he asked her sternly, his voice carrying louder than he expected.

Only as he registered the absolutely stunned, pained expression on her face did he calm down and begin to regret his outburst. He let go of her arm and as he loosened his grip she tore her arm from him, reaching for the needles on her forearm instinctively, although she did not draw.

Kenta found he could no longer meet her sad eyes.

"Sometimes…" he explained softly. "It's the answers that hurt…not the questions." He closed his eyes, head to the ground, tone apologetic.

His ear twitched first as he heard her footsteps as she took off at a run. He opened his eyes and saw a few drops of moisture hit the dirt road.

He tilted his head up, but the sky was clear and blue. That's when the slight scent of salt hit his nose. He looked down the road to see she had already caught up to Canis.

"Damn…" he said under his breath as he started walking again.

He was having a hard time believing that she had actually cried. Maybe his mind was playing tricks on him. That girl…there was no way that he could make her cry. No…that stupid, stubborn, untrustworthy girl would never cry. Not because of him. He even doubted that that girl even possessed feelings.

"You've got a lot to learn about girls don't know…" a voice said in his head, a familiar voice he was pretty sure he had heard once before in his dreams, possibly.

"Who are you?" Kenta demanded, not nearly as threatened by the fact that he was hearing voices in his head as he ought to be.

"That doesn't matter right now," it reprimanded, "You hurt her Kentamaru."

"Keh, no I didn't." he scoffed mentally. "I taught her a lesson."

"You cannot continue on this path Kenta." The voice foretold him. "You attempt to break out of your father's shadow and yet you follow his footsteps perfectly."

"What would you have me do? I will follow my father and then I will surpass him! I will make a name for myself my own way!"

"You cannot hope to make a name for yourself if you follow someone else's path…"

"Keh, says you."

"Your father spent a great deal of time miserable and alone…think about that Kentamaru…" and the voice was gone.

What the hell could that possibly mean? And just what did any of that have to do with the girl…

"KENTA!"

Her scream jolted him, startling him out of his inner most thoughts almost painfully. He looked down the road and realized he couldn't see either of them on the horizon ahead of him.

"Shit," he cursed as he bolted down the road, arms thrown behind him, bare feet propelling him forward. 'It can't be Kashiro. He couldn't possibly have passed us. It's impossible…impossible!" he assured himself but nonetheless prepared himself for a fight.

"Kenta!" she called again as she came into his view.

"Kenta!" Canis wailed even louder. Kenta skidded to a halt and gawked at them.

"What the…fuck?" he exclaimed, unable to think of anything else to say.

Both of them were up to their waists in quicksand, stuck in a pit that spanned the entire width of the dirt path.

"Nice of you to show up!" Mitako snapped at him as she desperately tried to keep Canis from sinking further. She had her arms free of the pit and was holding him up, although he was still waist deep in the muck.

"How the hell did this happen?" he demanded incredulously as he stood anxiously on the edge of the pit.

"I don't know! I saw Canis fall and I just dove straight in to get him before realizing what all this was." She explained as she sank down a little further. Canis was fighting tears as she held him partially out of the sand.

"Baka," Kenta swore at her. Her eyes flashed at him angrily.

"Would you rather I just let your brother drown?" she yelled at him, her anger at him from earlier clearly not forgotten. At this statement, Canis began flailing about in her arms, afraid she was going to drop him.

"DON'T LET ME DIE!" he shrieked as he squirmed futilely, only managing to make them both sink deeper into the quicksand.

"Canis STOP!" Kenta cried, reaching out uselessly to his brother. "Don't move another inch you hear me?"

At his words, Canis stopped his squirming. Satisfied, Kenta took a deep breath, his momentary panic leaving him although to tell the truth the situation hadn't exactly gotten any better.

"She's not going to drop you Canis." He assured his brother with his calm, warm voice. He locked eyes with her, even though she was still seething mad at him.

"Isn't that right?" he asked her seriously, eyes imploring hers.

Despite her anger at him she looked up at Canis, forcing a smile onto her face.

"That's right." She assured him kindly. "I'm not going to drop you. You can trust me." Canis sniffled and nodded. Satisfied, she turned back to look at Kenta.

"But at the same time…" she started, worry creeping into her voice. "I'm not sure how much longer I can hold on."

Kenta nodded grimly and crouched slightly, steeling himself.

"Wait, what are you doing?" she called anxiously.

"Just…stay…." He said slowly as all of a sudden he dashed forward at them.

"STILL!" he snatched Canis from her grasp, landing neatly on the other side of the pit. He took a deep breath and set Canis on the ground, which took a bit of effort as the little hanyou was reluctant to let go of his older brother.

"Stand back against the trees now Canis," Kenta instructed him gently, giving him a apt on the head. He turned his body to face the pit.

The girls back was to them now and she couldn't see them at all.

"Don't you dare leave me here!" she shouted, her voice tinged with fear as she fought to get free.

"Stop moving." Kenta said calmly as he jumped into the air and back to the other side of the pit so she could see him. "I'm not leaving you behind alright?" he assured her. "But at the same time…I'm not entirely sure how to get you out either…"

"Can't you just pluck me out like you did Canis?" she suggested hopefully. Kenta shook his head. He crouched beside the pit to examine it. Sticking a single finger into the muck and trying to pull it out took an obscene amount of force to pull just the tip of his finger free.

"That…definitely wont work…" He said quietly to himself.

"Well you better do something!" she snapped at him.

"I will! Just give me some time to think dammit!" he snapped back as he stood up and placed his hands on his hips.

"Time is something we don't have a lot of!" she informed him…and she was right. She was already more than waist deep in the muck and was holding her arms over her head to keep them free.

"You're not sinking that fast," he told her with a roll of his eyes. Looking up he noticed that a number of branches from trees hung out over the path, more accurately, over the pit.

Looking around he spotted his brothers bow and quiver abandoned on the outskirts of the path. Walking over to them he snatched them up, but noticed several thick vines lying in the underbrush.

As he walked back to the pit, he took careful aim, having already tied a vine to an arrow.

"You're going to swing over?" She asked incredulously.

Kentamaru let the arrow fly, keeping his eyes trained on the arrow as it connected with a branch hanging out over the pit. "That's the plan." He answered confidently as he tugged the vine to test its strength.

"No way will that hold you." She said hotly; it was a weak attempt to hide the panic in her voice, so she was lashing out at him.

"I don't weigh that much." He assured her tugging on the vine again. "You on the other hand…" he shrugged his shoulders suggestively.

She bared her teeth at him. "Ugh you infuriate me!"

"Likewise." Kenta said agreeably as he hauled on the vine, his feet swinging off the ground. He swung over the pit, one hand holding the rope, the other free to grab a hold of the muddy girl in the pit.

He completely missed her the first time, and he was completely off target. He landed safely on the other side of the pit.

"Good going pretty boy." She admonished sarcastically.

"Shut up dog girl!" He retorted calmly. Canis ran up to his brother.

"Wow! That looks like fun! Can I try?"

Kenta shook his head as he stepped back, preparing to swing across the pit once more. "Sorry Canis." He grunted as he pushed off.

This time his aim was better, however, he was traveling much faster. He swung by her intending to grab her and pull her out of her predicament but at the last second she pulled her hand away.

Kenta skidded to a halt on the other side of the pit.

"What the hell was that?" he demanded, stepping up to the edge of the pit.

"I thought you were going to cut me!" she called apologetically. "You have claws."

"Keh, afraid of a little scratch are you?" Kenta taunted as he backed up a third time. "I'm not going to hurt you."

She nodded her head.

"Kenta…" Canis called tentatively from the other side of the pit.

"Not now Canis you can have your turn LATER!" he called as he swung out over the pit once again.

He was not going too fast over it, barely skimming the quicksand. He leaned back and outstretched his left hand.

In turn she reached up as much as the quicksand that held her would allow.

They were close…it would work this time…he was sure of it…

His fingertips grazed hers and just as he was about to reach out, even farther to grab her hand… his ear twitched.

"Kenta! Look Out!" Canis cried. The girl snatched her hand back to cover her head instinctively.

Kenta turned viciously, barely managing to dodge as a dangerous barb lashed out at him. It grazed his free arm cutting the sleeve of his haori.

He let go of the vine, sailing through the air until he landed in a crouch on the edge of the pit. Tentatively he reached out to finger the sleeve where the barb had caught him. It hadn't merely cut the sleeve…it had disintegrated it.

"Poison…" he murmured as he stood fully.

"Kenta watch out!" Canis screamed from the sidelines again, peering out from behind a tree.

On instinct Kenta darted left as the poisonous barbed tail of a giant scorpion demon pierced the ground where he had just been standing.

"Where the hell did that thing come from?" he wondered out loud as he landed once more, the demons tail temporarily stuck in the dirty. It wouldn't stay that way for long however, he knew that much…

"Kenta!" the girl screamed from the pit, the demonic quicksand pulling her in even faster now.

"Hold on!" He hollered. She laughed bitterly despite her predicament.

"Hold on…TO WHAT?!" she yelled incredulously.

"TO ME!" and he had leapt over the pit grabbing the stilled vine and swinging over it, in a wide arc. She reached out as far as she could manage, her shoulders barely above the quicksand now. Fear gripped her, almost like the quicksand that gripped her now. She strained as far as she could to reach him.

And then he was there, his hand locking around her wrist as she gripped him back tightly, his momentum pulling her free…

She was free up to her waist when they were jerked to a stop. She was stuck fast and Kenta was left hanging there one hand holding onto the vine, the other holding onto her.

"Shit!" he cursed as he strained to pull her loose. It was no easy feat when hanging from a vine. Gritting his teeth and with brute strength alone he managed to pull her up another couple inches.

He eased up, breathing hard, his grip on her slackening ever so slightly. She gripped his arm back hard.

"Don't let me go." She pleaded, fear written all over her face. Despite the strained expression on his own, as he struggled to keep them both out of the quicksand, his eyes softened slightly bewildered.

"I won't." he swore through his teeth as he tightened his grip on her once again. He tried to them both upwards but his strength failed him and he slipped further down the vine. He glanced at the scorpion which was, for the moment, still trying to pry its tail from the dirt.

Meanwhile the quicksand was still trying to pull her back in. He looked down at her, his golden eyes imploring her bright ones. She was biting her lip, struggling to hold on as he was.

How much easier would this trip have been without her? Just how many times would he have to risk his life for her?! It would have been so easy to just leave her behind, kill her as the rational youkai part of his mind told him to.

But the thing was…no one had asked him to save her…He'd offered.

'Sometimes…it sucks being honorable…' the voice in his head informed him, and it wouldn't be the last time either.

"Let me go." He told her suddenly. The blood drained from her face.

"Let me go…" He repeated slowly, "and take the rope." He instructed urgently. Understanding washed over her like a wave and with her free hand she grabbed on to the rope. When she was sure of herself she let go of his hand, dropping for a panicky moment before she caught herself.

With her weight gone, Kenta climbed higher up the vines into the trees.

He was met up in the leaves by Canis who was crouched near the trunk of the tree.

"Kenta!" Canis breathed in relief never raising his voice above an urgent whisper. Kenta crawled over to him and patted his head, as if to ascertain and check that his brother was still alive and in one piece. "How are we going to save her Kenta?" he asked honestly, worry etched onto his little face.

"I'll think of something." Kenta whispered back gruffly as he turned to look over his shoulder through the leaves.

"I'll help!" Canis insisted nodding his head eagerly.

"You just worry about staying safe." Kenta told him. Canis's ears drooped slightly.

"But Kenta… She's my friend…" he whined his face falling.

Kenta didn't have time to retort as there came from behind them a horrendous wrenching sound as the demon finally pulled its tail free. From the pit he heard Mitako's sharp intake of breath. In her human state she couldn't sense them up in the trees.

He could smell her tears as they trailed down her face and a growl started rumbling and building in his chest.

Kenta turned sharply, the entire tree shaking under his might as he pushed off, arcing high into the air over the scorpion.

The demon raised its head as best it could to track him, its tail aiming at him.

Just as Kenta started his fall, his arms crossed in front of him gathering power in his claws, the scorpion shot a barrage of poison needles at him.

His sleeves defended him from the brunt of the attack but a few needles pierced their way through and found their target in his flesh.

Kenta surged forward, ignoring the sting in his arms and the demons resounding roar in his ears. Soon, his own roar would mingle with the demons.

"IRON REEVER!"

His claws connected on the scorpions back, clanging off uselessly, like he had done no more than bat at it with a stick. The power of his failed attack reverberated up his arms but he paid it no heed.

Relentlessly, he continued driving his claws against the scorpions hard back, time after time, doing little to no damage at all to it.

"Dammit!" he swore, closing his fist and pounding it against the scorpion's hard shell in futility. "Why don't you die?" he hollered as the demon jerked and swished back and forth trying to dislodge him.

Too many times Kenta almost lost his footing on the scorpion as the demon thrashed around. Kenta began losing his cool, forgetting to use his head and think things through. He often got this way.

Normally Kenta kept a level head in battles, staying calm and calculated was his nature. But he had a tendency to, when battles grew prolonged or when he was losing, revert to a more berserker style of fighting. A style that included rushing head first at the enemy without thinking, and relying on brute strength alone.

A style greatly reminiscent, perhaps even identical to Inuyasha's.

His frustration getting the best of him, Kenta was losing his concentration, not even denting the monsters steely hide.

"Dammit Kenta just kill it already!" came the holler from the quicksand. She'd made no progress freeing herself from the sinking sand, her legs still trapped as she clung to the vine.

"What do you think I'm trying to do?!" he snapped at her, still pounding on the scorpions back, his attacks doing nothing but irritate the demon further.

"I think you're not trying very hard!" she yelled back.

"Oh yeah? Well I think you should-"

"Leave it to ME!"

Canis leapt out from the trees, bow in hand an arrow already notched. Kenta forced a wry smirk on his face.

"Go for it." He called, halting his barrage on the demon, merely keeping a hold on its back to watch what Canis would do. This was their only hope.

Canis nodded, taking careful aim at the scorpion, his tongue sticking out rather comically. "He's moving too much!" he whined, still trying to get his aim.

"Concentrate!" Kenta barked at him, his patience already at its limit. In the back of his mind he registered that his voice sounded exactly like Inuyasha's.

"You can do it Canis!" Mitako urged from the quicksand, her voice calm and reassuring. Kenta looked at her, something in her voice reminding him of his mother's for some strange reason. Perhaps it was her gentle tone, but it caught him off guard coming from her.

"Just like in practice Canis." Kenta called to his brother more calmly now. "Just like home…"

Canis screwed up his face, still taking his aim.

"Concentrate." Kenta said slowly.

"Relax…." Mitako added.

And then…

"SHOOT!"

At both of their promptings, Canis loosed his arrow. Flying straight and true it struck the scorpion right in one of its eyes. All three of them cried at the shots success but at that moment the demon began wailing, a high pitched keen that only Kenta and Canis could hear and one that threatened to burst the boys' sensitive ear drums.

Canis dropped his bow, smashing his hands over his ears, though it did little to alleviate the noise. The poor boy fell to his knees howling in agony.

"Canis? What's going on?" the girl demanded, worry creasing her features. Her human hearing was unaffected by the scorpions scream. She couldn't even hear it.

Kenta's own hands went to his ears as well as he too hollered in agony, his howl even deeper and more agonizing than Canis's. The scorpion continued to thrash below him wildly, even more so as it attempted to break the arrow currently stuck in its eye.

It began to buck and rear out of control, and Kenta, with his hands on his ears, was finally thrown off. He pitched forwards first off the demons back, cracking his forehead off the monsters hide before it thrashed again, sending him flying upwards like a rag doll where its wayward tail knocked him hard into a tree.

"Kenta!" the girl screamed concern unabashed in her voice. On and on she screamed at his motionless form, sliding down the trunk of the tree, blood slowly trickling over his closed eyelids.

Then the vine she had been holding shuddered and she quickly looked up. The branch her vine was fastened to bowed lower, dropping more of her back into the quicksand. Glancing down quickly and then back up to the branch, she followed it with her eyes to the trunk of the tree and then down.

The trunk was splintering and cracking, because lying at the base of it was Kenta. The demon had knocked him right into the tree that was practically her lifeline with so much force that it was breaking.

"Kenta! Get up! Come on!" she prompted him, practically begging. "Come on pretty boy! You're better than this!!"

His left ear, forever bent at the tip, twitched at the sound of her voice. Slowly he began to move and open his eyes, pushing himself up slowly, his every movement pained. Her heart leapt up into her chest at the sight.

"That's it!" she cheered him on. "I knew it!"

"I'm not….going to let some….stupid overgrown BUG get the best of me…" he swore, one hand on the trunk of the tree as he made to stand on unsteady feet.

"That's the spirit!" she smirked at him.

Kenta straightened to his full height, shaking his head to dispel the pain. Turning to look at her to shoot her a cocky smirk before he took care of business, what he saw wiped his face clear.

So fixated on him, she'd failed to notice the scorpion advancing on her. Currently standing on the edge of the pit, its poisonous tail was poised to attack above her. Its tip glowed as it charged up to launch a barrage of needles upon her.

"What is it" she asked, noticing the expression on his face. She followed his gaze and caught sight on the demon that was practically upon her.

She opened her mouth to scream but it was too late, the sound didn't even make it past her lips before the scorpion loosed his attack on her.

Kenta didn't even think, just reacted, diving forward to intercept the barrage of needles. They riddled his sides, some of them deflected by the properties of his haori, but majority pierced right through into his flesh.

The girl was white as a ghost as Kenta fell into the quicksand just below her. He'd taken the hit that had been meant for her.

"Kenta!!" she cried, letting go of the rope with one hand to reach out to him. She caught onto his left hand with her own but he was being pulled under fast.

"Don't give in!" she said through gritted teeth, although her words were in vain. He wasn't even moving. His silver rings were slipping off his fingers as he was pulled in deeper. "Please…"

His hand was the last of him to slip under as she lost her battle against the powerful suction of the sand. She was left hanging there; all she had left of him was the two silver bands she gripped tightly in her hand that had slipped off of his.

On the other side of the pit, Canis was crawling forwards towards the edge, having witnessed the entire spectacle.

"Canis get back!" she warned him. But he crawled even closer, ignoring her protest. He stopped when he reached the edge of the quicksand, peering down sadly into its depth as if he could somehow see through it and find his brother.

"Run away Canis!" she yelled at him, the vine she was clinging to was sinking lower as the tree Kenta had smashed continued to crack and break. If she couldn't save herself the least she could do was get Canis out of here. She should do it…for Kenta.

"NO!" the little guy shouted boldly. "Kenta!" he shouted at the pit, like an order. A command.

And suddenly, for some inextricable reason her eyes were drawn down.

A soft pink light was flowing from below the quicksand underneath her. She could feel it heating up where her legs were still stuck in the mud. Even the scorpion could sense it, peering down at the pit with its remaining eyes, stopping its assault for the moment.

"Get back Canis!" she yelled at him as the light reached its brightest, almost white now beneath the dark sand and Canis scurried back, already knowing what was coming. There was a smile on his face, one of deep immense pride.

She should have shielded her eyes as the light erupted all around her. All she could make out was him, in his black haori, emitting the brightest light she'd ever seen. It was comparable to the sun.

The quicksand dissipated at around her, the ground solidifying under her feet. She crumbled to her knees on the hard earth, entire body shaking as she gazed up at Kenta. Surrounded by the spiritual light, even in her human form his aura scorched her. The air around his left hand crackled and sparked as his energy just poured out from him unhindered.

The scorpion stared, stunned for a moment, as if testing Kenta's power before it shrieked and charged at him with its pincers.

Kenta stood his ground, face completely blank as the scorpion came at him. It slashed at him with its right pincer. Kenta held out his right hand and caught it, avoiding the claw, as if it were nothing. Obviously irritated it lashed out even harder with its left. Kenta stopped it with his left hand, pink light still pouring from his claws in copious amounts.

The scorpion shrieked as the energy from Kenta's hand burned and purified it. Kenta's poker face broke as he smirked wickedly.

"Sacrosanct," his voice was calm and even, deadly.

The light and power that shot out from his hand at his word was even brighter, if that was even possible, that it had been earlier. She had no choice but to shield her eyes this time. The light was so bright she risked burning her eyes and losing her sight forever.

When the wind and the light died down from the effects of his attack and the light from his hand slowly receded to a bearable level, she looked back up at him again.

The scorpion was purified completely, specks of pink dust settling on the ground in front of Kenta.

"Kenta…" she called his name hesitantly. She couldn't see his face from she was seated in the dirt in the middle of the road.

He turned slightly to look over his shoulder at her. Blood still streaked down the side of his face. She smiled at him in relief, a genuine smile. The corner of his lips twitched upward slightly in response.

And then he fell.

"KENTA!"

Woe is me, how the time flies. I realize I am being an incredibly big bitch right here, what with the not updating in what has probably been forever and then leaving you with this awful cliffhanger. I am incredibly sorry, but I felt I needed to do something big to make up for my lack of updates. Feel free to leave your comments stating thus, your rants are encouraged. If anyone is still left even reading this story I'd really like to know. Not that I'm going to stop, but reviews keep me going and make me go quicker. If I know people are actively reading then I'll move a lot faster. Haven't had a review since like...3-4 chapters ago?

So readers, if you are alive...I'd love to know :)

Deceptress