By the time she made it to Mu, not only was she exhausted but she was also far behind. She ran as fast as she could through each plant, stopping to pay her respects to her fallen family. She took a little longer at Nichrom's.

"I'm sorry I wasn't there. I wish I could have talked to you one more time. All I worked for was for nothing, I still wasn't able to save you from this fate. All I ever wanted for you was a long and happy life, I'm so sorry I couldn't give that. Please forgive me..." she cried silent tears. It felt like her heart had become heavier. Still, she ran. All the way to the gates of the Shaman King. There were bodies everywhere, including Hao's, decapitated and laying next to Yoh. "What have you done?" Still crying, she carried Hao's body and placed him back in the throne. "You can't hear me, can you? I guess whatever's going on up there it has you pretty distracted. Unfortunately for the things I've done, I don't think I'm going where you are." She looked up at the light and more silent tears poured from her eyes. "So this will have to be enough."

From nowhere, Ruthefor appeared.

"Nova, I thought I sensed you come this way. What are you doing here? Everyone's dead!"

"I know. And we will be too, soon enough. But I made a promise to Hao, that I would stay by his side always. So by his side I'll stay."

"Nova..."

"It's okay, Ruthefor. It's what anyone wants, isn't it? To be with the one they love." Rutherfor left her to be with Hao, and shut the doors before her soul was also taken.

Inside the Great Spirit, the Soul train had brought everybody to Hao. Opacho tried to jump into the black hole but Hao closed it before she could. When Anna appeared she revealed that Hao was no longer able to read minds, and also that Matamune wouldn't be showing up. However, an old friend did; Ohachiyo. Ohachiyo explained that Hao's mother had been there the whole time. And then to his surprise there she was, his mother. After all these years, after all he went through he finally got to see her again. She slapped him. She told him that he was foolish for harbouring such hatred for so long over something as insignificant as her death.

"If you're here then... what about Naoko? Was she with you? Or Nova? Are they both there now?"

"My Son, you left Nova back on earth. Look there." She pointed directly to where his body was, and next to him was Nova.

"But if she's dead then why isn't her soul here?" As he said that a faint light ran across him. And what about Naoko? I should have been able to sense her by now but she's not here, there's no way her soul went to Hell or anywhere else, she has to be here!"

"We believe we can answer that." Yohmei and Kino stepped forward. "We couldn't be certain at the time but now we are. But first, look inside the great spirit. As you know it has records of everything and everyone on earth. So look deeply and you'll find the answers you seek." Hao grumbled but tried. He concentrated and then the area around then began to change. The landscape became warm and a small house came into view.

"I remember this house. It was Naoko's childhood home. That was before..." he was cut off by the sound of a little girl laughing. She came running out of the house wearing ancient Japanese clothes. A man approached her and asked for her mother. She quickly got her mother without hesitation. He handed her a scroll and upon reading it she collapsed to the ground and began crying, the little girl couldn't console her. "This was the day she found out her father had died in the war. It wasn't long after that we met for the first time." As the scenes played on, they saw what appeared to be the funeral, and the little girl went off on her own, hoping no one would notice.

"My son, won't you go over and talk to Naoko? She could really use a friend right now." The young Asaha Douji smiled and nodded then ran over to young Naoko.

"Our mothers were best friends, that's why we went. I didn't know at the time how much this moment would change my life." Hao began crying at watching these memories, but he needed answers so he allowed them to continue.

"This must be what Nova meant before. He wasn't ready to share then, but he is now." Yoh said to himself.

"My name is Asaha Douji, what's yours?" He smiled at her.

"Naoko... Naoko Asakura."

"Wait, so our family name actually came from her! I thought she took that name after marrying you?" Yoh exclaimed.

"You know who she is?" Horohoro shouted in astonishment.

"I should do. I had to polish her grave every weekend. Naoko Asakura, wife of Hao Asakura, in his first life. They're the ones that started the Asakura family a thousand years ago. Despite what we were told about Hao, we were told to respect her and her resting place, which is in the back area of our main home. There's also a shrine to her in the temple. I think now I see why she was so important."

The two young children became friends and the scenery passed by quickly, showing the two growing closer together until it stopped.

"But why do they have to leave?" Naoko asked her mother.

"They're going back to their main home, they came to spend these past months with us because..."

"Because father died."

"Yes. But Asanoha has offered for us to live there, with them. Indefinitely."

"Does that mean forever?"

"Yes, my love. I wouldn't want to keep you from your boyfriend after all." She teased.

"He's not my boyfriend!" She pouted. "He's... my best friend."

"Your father was my best friend." Her mothers words made her blush. She disappeared for a long time, until it was time to say a brief goodbye to Asaha and his mother.

"Asaha! I made you these, so you won't forget me." She handed him a pair of earrings carved out of wood with a pentagram painted on them.

"What's the star for?" He asked.

"Each point is an element, fire, earth, water, lightning and air. Or something like that... they make up life. At least that's what my father told me."

"Thank you. I made you something too. It doesn't have a cool meaning but I thought you'd like it." He handed her a necklace.

"That's the same necklace Matamune gave me." Yoh touched the necklace and as he did, she touched hers too.

"I'll cherish it forever." They waved goodbye and the months that went by were long. The air became cold and the snow began to fall thick. It reminded Hao and Nichrom of when they were at the hot springs and Nova had gotten confused about the weather when he mother died.

"Mother!" She screamed through the tears as they dragged her mother. She fought to get free but it was no use. Her mother landed in the snow and a man declared her a witch for her shamanic power. She only ever tried to help people. So why were they doing this. Naoko watched as they set her mother ablaze, her tortured screams filled the night. When the screaming ceased, she heard her mothers voice whisper to her.

"Run, my love. Run and don't look back." And so she did. For years in fact, she stayed as hidden as possible. This memory came to a pause, while another played, this time it was Hao's memory of his mother being murdered in front of him.

"Now it makes sense. You both lost your mothers in such horrible ways, I'm sorry."

"Why is she showing this? Naoko! Just come out already!" He shouted angrily, but the scenes kept playing for them. This time is was at Yoh's family home. A girl with long dark brown hair was knelt down in front of a grave.

"Excuse me, you can't be here, this is private land." His voice was calm and kind. She straightened her back and as she turned the necklace came into view. "Naoko??"

"Asaha?" She looked as though she was about to cry, and she ran and hugged him tightly.

"I thought..."

"I've missed you so much." A few years passed by, he now went by the name Hao Asakura, and it was clear how the relationship developed slowly, and eventually they were engaged to be married and expecting a child. Naoko was now nine months into her pregnancy and they were travelling to find a location for the wedding, when they came under attack from bandits. Although Hao was able to defeat them, Naoko had suffered fatal injuries.

"Save our son..." She said, handing him a knife. He argued to no avail, it was a choice, loose her or lose both of them. He had to cut the child from her and something inside him broke.

The years flashed forwards and their son, Yohei, was a young shaman in training. One day Yohei was playing in the garden when he saw a mysterious woman. She smiled at him, and it brought a warmth with it. Yohei told his father about the woman in the garden but Hao thought nothing of it, he'd never seen this woman. Yohei goes with his father to the shrine and sees a picture.

"That's her!" He yells out.

"Who?"

"The woman in the garden..."

"This woman here... is your mother." Hao then went quiet, a deep wound had been reopened. Hao wasn't sure whether it was a young boy's imagination, longing for his mother or whether there's an unknown reason why he's unable to see her. The thought of the latter broke his heart all over again. Yohei went out to the garden again the following day and saw her.

"Why didn't you tell me you're my mother?" There was a slight bitterness to his tone. She didn't answer, she simply smiled.

"I'll have to go soon. You've come a long way. You're just like you're father, you know?"

"Don't leave! Father needs you! I need you!"

"You are strong enough now. Your father ... if I'm to help him I must go. This isn't goodbye, at least not forever. Know that I'm always proud of you." Yohei reached out but she disappeared. He never saw her again after that.

Her soul had come to the afterlife, as part of the great spirit, but she didn't intend to stay there for long. She spoke directly to the great spirit and asked for reincarnation, so that she can continue to try and help Hao. Life after life, she lived, but was unsuccessful in finding him. The cost of her reincarnation was her memories. The whole plan seemed futile. In another life, Hao had reincarnated into the Patch tribe in order to steal one of the elemental spirits and win the shaman tournament. Naoko's memories showed a lone Seminoa shaman surrounded by dead. A young girl of fourteen. Face to face with Hao Asakura and the spirit of fire, she closed her eyes and accepted her fate. Naoko's soul made its way back to the great spirit and it was then that she realised there was only one way she was guaranteed to see him again, to reincarnate into the patch tribe, as he had, that way she would be present for the shaman tournament. The rest would be up to chance.

Hao now realised that he had actually killed Naoko in one of her lives and he fell to his knees, tears falling down. They all watched on as Nova's life played out, her playing happily with her brothers, her village under attack, her mother falling in front of her. She then ran away and began training, for years she trained. She ended up in Japan, on a mountain covered in snow. There was a girl, half alive. A young Anna. Nova and White Claw saved her by taking her down to the elderly couple who lived at the bottom of the mountain. Nova didn't stay long, she had a mission. All she knew was that she needed to become stronger so that she could protect her brothers, instead of being a hinderance.

As the shaman tournament drew near, Nova was approached by a spirit, Purple Kick, who handed her a purple headband. It was Chrom's, and that's how she knew he was no longer alive. She kept the headband and even wore it, to remember her brother. Then the time came for the tournament.

Their moments together flashed quickly, as if to say 'you already know how all this went'.

"So Hao, you fell in love with her all over again." Kino stepped forward.

"And I fell in love with him too." Nova stood smiling.

"Nova..." He paused and corrected himself. "I mean, Naoko..."

"It's okay, you can call me Nova, I actually like it a lot more."

"I'm sorry... I'm so sorry."

"Don't be, it's okay. Listen, I understand why you did what you did, and now you've got what you wanted, but you also got what you needed. Out of all the lives we've lived, this one has been my favourite, the people in it, our family and friends. Come back to earth and live one final life with me?"

"But after all I've done?"

"They're our family, I'm sure if you just apologise they'll forgive you." As she said that Mikihisa, Yohmei and Keiko nodded, Yoh smiled and Ana gave a half smile. "It's a second chance to live our lives together like we dreamed since we were kids. To raise our family together." She placed her hand gently on her stomach.

"You mean...?" She nodded then reached her hand out.

"So what do you say Hao? Let's go home."