She didn't often do much, not much aside from watching birds fly from behind a pane of glass. She was so young then when she was diagnosed with a chronic illness sans cure. I remember it well and how the world seem to crash down all around us. A year before, tragedy had already struck us and it was to strike again.

"Well, doctor, will she be alright, is there anything that can be done?"

"I'm sorry, Mr. and Mrs. but what your daughter has cannot be cured and the only thing that we can hope for is to delay her death and slow the course of her symptoms. Nothing could be guaranteed and, with that being the case, I suggest you get your affairs in order and spend what time you can. I am very sorry."

To our knowledge, her days were numbered and they were. We could do nothing about it, except spend what time there is with her. To drive the knife deeper, she knows this and seems to very much aware of how short her time is, yet with persistent denial, she ignores it, determined to live. Fate is cruel force and, in her denial, she was determined to fight against it rules, fight for her life, the which will have proved futile.

"I'll get well, you'll see!"

She was wheelchair bound, often bedridden, and tied to an intravenous drip, yet she lit up whenever she would talk, let alone daydream, about flying like the birds she would watch, a wish that had her being called "Asuka". It was nice to see her think of something that makes her so a happy, something to take her mind off of dying. However, she did wish for something that wasn't at all possible in this life and that was to fly with the birds. She would often ask and, yes, we would engage her in conversations about the subject. They were her wishes, no matter how impossible and to tell her as such will have been cruel.

"Do you think I can fly with the birds when I get well?"

"Yes, I think you can, actually, I know you will and you will soar to your heart's content! "

With each passing season, she had grown weaker and weaker, yet she still watched the birds from behind that pane of glass. By winter, she was tied to machines, completely bedridden, and too weak to do much of anything, her condition getting progressively worse. She stared out of the window, hoping to see the birds again. Not too many birds are around in the winter, she knew, yet she still looked out of the window. I suppose she was just imagining them flying, remembering something that made her smile.

The winter had ended and, by the time spring had arrived, her bed was empty. She didn't even get to watch the birds fly once more and it doesn't seem all that long ago. No, it doesn't...

"Thank you for staying with me all this long. I love you all, forever and always."

...as the pain still lingers. She would have been eighteen and she wanted no more than to fly like the birds in which she enjoyed watching, a wish that would never be realized, not while she lived. In death, she was free to do what she wished, no illness or physical ties to bind To this day, I think she's reincarnated as a songbird and would remain with me still.

"Have you finally achieved your wish, now, Asuka?"

The flying bird in the old capital
Does not know of past happenings
Witnesses naught but illusions
The vermilion carriage
The aroma of incense
Returns to the countryside whence it came

- Rin'

Authoress Note: Whoever is narrating and who is called "Asuka" is up for one's discretion. I left it ambiguous on purpose in that it could be either of the two. On the note of the title and the poem at the end, it came from a song called "Asuka" ("Flying Bird") by Rin' the which I was listening to when I got this idea. -Amoridere