A/N:

Read the chapter before you shoot me. I am very, very sorry this is so long in coming. I've been dealing with other things. However, I did promise I would not give up on this at the very beginning.

R&R and enjoy.

-------------------------

The Last Secret

Nine months had passed since Asha the shinobi had killed Toushi Koi. Nine months since Reikai physicians had removed a wayward piece of bone from inside her cranium. Nine months of waiting and hoping. But with a startling relapse of Asha's condition, she was once again on life-support, a foggy mask over her white lips; wires protruding from her temples, monitoring brain functions that barely existed.

Asha's face was a putrid color of grey, her arms limp over white sheets. Her hair, oily and damp, lay stark against the pillows. Tubes emerged from her abdomen, one delivering nutrients, one taking waste away. The assassin's body could do nothing by itself. She was all but dead.

The Reikai Tantei, and their female counterparts, had congregated once more in Koenma's office, a thing they seemed to be doing more and more often. The Reikai Prince assigned them even simple missions—of which lesser Spirit World agents were capable—in an attempt to relieve their minds of their fallen comrade. In truth, it had been Koenma's vain hope that he would be successful in distracting the Tantei.

It had become clear to Koenma that Asha was not going to recover. He pitied the poor woman, who had finally been broken at the hands of Toushi Koi. Ironic, in that neither had won nor lost; there had been no gain for either.

Koenma revealed Asha's condition to them out of his pity. He explained it was time to let go of the shinobi. Her body could no longer sustain her soul—keeping Asha mechanically alive was cheating her.

"Due to Asha's lack of recovery, and because it's been so long…" Koenma broke off, chewing his pacifier nervously. He cleared his throat. "I suggest that we take her off life support. We can do no more for her. She would…pass peacefully into the Spirit Realm."

"No! I absolutely refuse to accept that!"

"Kurama, after all this time, you have to. She isn't coming back. Her relapse simply shows us that."

"I will not give up hope, Koenma."

"You have become too human," Hiei scoffed. The fire demon glared at Kurama. "People fall in battle and wars all the time. It is no different here." He turned on his heel, walking briskly out of Koenma's office.

The kitsune watched him leave. Kurama could not help but think that maybe he was right. If he had not learned compassion from Shiori, maybe it would be different. Maybe it wouldn't hurt as much. He wouldn't need to grasp ever more tightly on a life that just kept slipping away. He sighed.

Koenma watched him. The prince knew how Kurama felt. Every other Tantei—except Hiei perhaps—was experiencing the exact same emotional turmoil. But the former demon seemed to be taking it harder than anyone. Koenma would fathom a guess Kurama's attitude, his determination to believe in her recovery, was payment for the nights Asha had spent by his bedside. He was like an older brother. He believed so fervently in Asha's will, he believed she would prevail, but he could not heal her, and he could not save her. His medicines were useless. Perhaps that is why he was feeling worst. He was a healer who could not heal; a brother who watched his sister shriveling to dust.

Botan and Keiko had tears in their eyes. Shizuru leaned casually by the door, but her vice-like grip on her cigarette gave up her false pretense. They watched Kurama, sympathizing with his own tumultuous feelings. Yukina remained silent, pondering as her eyes traced patterns along the floor.

Asha had been strange. Possibly the strangest human she had ever met. She was comical, but dark and sad, eccentric in her own way. Yet the human shinobi had cast an interesting light upon the Tantei and their friends. She had touched them in the little ways, with a laugh, or a smile, a dark scowl or an off-kilter and awkward joke that no one understood. Her presence had not dramatically altered the Tantei, but she had wrenched open a view of the human heart, its will and determination, its pains and scars. She had shown them how much a heart could endure.

The Koorime held her hands delicately in front of her. Asha could see into their hearts, without let them see into hers. In her past, she must have wanted to help others so much that it stayed an inexorable part of her personality, however oppressed it may have been. Yukina decided that she would try and—somehow—give Asha what the assassin would have given others. She turned quietly, intent on one thought: to give Asha one last chance at life.

-----------------------

Hiei stood arms crossed and defiant at the end of Asha's infirmary bed. His eyes took in a vision of helplessness, so unlike the living being, who had teased him, mocked him, and confused him. He was so tempted to rip off his bandana, to force access into her mind with his Jagan. He wanted to scream at her, demand that she choose life or death. He hated waiting for her life thread to run out. He hated the fragile thing the shinobi had become. She was drowning in her own mind, and there was nothing any of them could do. She was too far gone for even the Jagan to reach. She was too far gone for Kurama to heal.

He stalked to the bedside table by the headboard. Placed delicately next to cards Keiko and Shizuru had brought lay a swatch of rose leaves, on which lay a perfect yellow bud. He could almost envision a ghostly image of Kurama arranging them for Asha. Hiei shook his head. Hardly a romantic the way the Shuichi aspect of Kurama's personality was, he did not care for such imaginings.

Why was it the worst of times brought out the best in humans? Their compassion always baffled the fire youkai.

Startled by the opening of the infirmary door, Hiei jumped. He had retracted too far into his thoughts for his own good, but he watched, once more entranced, this time by his sister. They were so different, fire and ice, harsh and meek, though as he watched her, he noticed a glimmer in her red eyes, so very much like his own. He watched them draw nearer to Asha's bed and something in them made him move aside.

Asha lay on the bed, her breath forced in and out of her body by the machines to which she was attached. Yukina's heart broke to see her there. Where once there had been so much exuberance, there was none. The shinobi was still as ice, her fire put out, the raging of her soul reduced to nothing but a dying ember.

Once the ice maiden had reached Asha's side, she tentatively reached out a hand, placing it gently on the assassin's forehead.

"What—" began Yusuke, but he was quickly hushed by Keiko. The Tantei had seen Yukina leave Koenma's office. Intrigued and baffled, they had followed her to the infirmary.

While the Tantei focused on Yukina, the Koorime focused solely on Asha. The beeping and siphoning of the machines faded, even the tense silence fell away, replaced by a serene stillness. In this calm the ice maiden reached for her healing powers. She was sure of herself; she could do this—give Asha her life back. Yukina firmly grasped her powers, drawing them up out of her core, directing them into her shoulder, then her arm, then her hand. The problem was Asha's brain, without that Asha's body could not function, so that was what needed to be fixed. It was a simple solution, but the process would be more difficult.

Yukina was prepared. Her hand began to glow faintly, then more brightly as her concentration honed upon Asha. Suddenly, she felt a presence beside her, one that had reached her through her calm.

"Don't," a voice said. In Yukina's mind, she looked up, eye's wide. There in front of her stood a young woman, dressed in the oddest clothes. She wore a big skirt, puffy sleeves, and her waist was well defined in a bodice. Her neck was hidden in a collar that covered her throat, buttons securing the dress.

Yukina could not help but stare, and when the woman looked down to see what Yukina was looking at, the Koorime blushed.

"Ah, yes. I'm sure early twentieth century clothes do look a bit odd to an ice maiden. I never much liked them myself. Too restricting, if you catch my drift." She winked.

"Asha?" Yukina breathed.

"Right you are," Asha grinned briefly, and then it slipped off her face. "Yukina, I know the Tantei want to save me, especially Kurama. But my body is gone, and my mind along with it. This," she pointed to the body she was in, "represents my soul, which is relatively undamaged. If you were to heal me, which I've no doubt you could, I would be nothing but a shell. Or maybe I'd be a lunatic; I think that would be more interesting." Asha smirked.

"You want to die?"

"There are worse things than death. If you healed me it would be a half-life. I would breathe on my own, but I would not be the same person. Once a human mind breaks, it usually stays broken. Please, don't heal me."

"Then…I won't, if that is what you wish."

"It is. But before I go, know this: my avatars are the dragonfly. I am—was an illusionary truth. The falcon—I have been freed by the falcon sword. The swan, for his silence and his grace—by my peaceful death is this avatar fulfilled. My task is done, Toushi Koi is dead, my friend and her family avenged. I am ready to die."

Asha's ghostly image began to fade away. It was dramatic, bringing tears to Yukina's eyes.

"Oh, one more thing." Asha came clearly back into view. "Man that ruined the drama, eh?" Yukina choked on her watery laughter.

----------------------------

Outside Yukina's mind, the Tantei waited again, praying Yukina could heal Asha. They were shocked when she removed her hand from Asha's head. She looked up at them with sorrowful eyes. Yukina turned away from them, fumbling with the breath mask as two tiny crystals leapt from her eyes.

"This is what she asked me to do. She said she was ready to die."

As soon as the mask was removed, Asha stopped breathing. It had only been the machine that made her lungs work, without it, she was dead.

Yukina turned to Kurama. His expression was stunned. The ice maiden placed a calming hand on Kurama's elbow.

"She told me to tell you that the creatures which represent her are the dragonfly, falcon, and swan."

Kurama's emerald eyes were becoming teary.

"She also told me to tell you, that she had one last secret. She told me, 'I really am sorry I can't take this to the grave, be dramatic and all, but the Tantei should hear my last message.' Her real name is—was—Áine McLeod. Her parents were immigrants from Ireland, an island country in Europe. Her name means radiance. Her false name, Asha, was a name she earned on a trip in China, at the very border with Bhutah India. It means hope. She always liked how the two names together meant radiant hope."

The Tantei were smiling weakly, except for Hiei, who was stoic as ever.

"She told me to tell you, that if hope can never die, then she, Áine Asha, could never die."

Kurama nodded to Yukina, and sat in chair by Asha's bed. He held her hand, not yet cold, and glanced almost blindly at the rose leaves. He heard himself telling Asha, "The leaves of a rose, for hope," when he had delivered them to her the day before. He had not realized how fitting a tribute it had been.

"The English have a saying," Kurama began, speaking to no one in particular. "Hope springs eternal. Perhaps they are right."

------------------------------------

A/N:

Done. This is the end. Yes Asha is really dead, no she isn't going to come back. This is the end.

I will be the first to admit the story semi-collapsed in some places. Thank you to all for your comments and criticism. As long as you tell me why you don't like something, I am open to all suggestions. I intend to edit "Shinobi's Strength" with your criticisms in mind sometime in the future. No promises on when.

Again I'm so sorry for the long waits between chapters, but I hope you did like my story. --AE