The pain....it felt like no other that had been Asuka's misfortune to endure, hot, searing, and torturous. She could barely stand upon her own two feet after losing that much blood, puddles of it left scattered upon the battlefield and absorbing into the muddy red soil below her, but if she was destined to die upon these damaged grounds, then a thousand, no two thousand shall follow her into the gaping, infernal jaws of Jigoku. Was she insane to force her wounded physical being past the breaking point, to a degree of causing mortal damage to herself while unto others. Nevertheless, the ronin remained in the haze of encroaching death, battling against not just the puppet minions that surrounded her, but the ferryman who was coming forth to take her soul to Hell. 

Her heart was threatening to crack through her ribs, such a dangerous pace it kept, rising with every violent undulation. Her breathing, it was shallow, barely a whisper from the battle cries she shouted unto her foes, and her form, it still showed flaws, a sloppy delivery of ever strike, was she wanting to die here? There was no technique, just a dying woman giving one last fight before she fell, but soon her blade struck something hard. It rattled her arm, weakened from the frantic and maniacal swings of her sakabatou. Her eyes, glazing over and weary, met with a familiar set of crimson, worrisome were they but also stern. "Ka....Kaede...dono......" Blood seeped from her mouth as the ronin forced herself to utter the strong woman's name, every nerve shivering..... "I-I was....f-foolish....that I...was....but.....d-death shall....not have me....that it....won't...." 

The last sight Asuka noticed had been Hanami rushing to her aid, issuing some sort of talismans that stopped the approaching puppets in their tracks. Soon....darkness....everywhere around her, only a faint voice asking is she was alright echoing in her ears. Was this it? No...Asuka could still feel a pulse within her, but slower and slower it became. [i]I must carry on....for Hime-dono...for my comrades.....I cannot die....not now....[/i]