Choice

AN: Usual claimer. All these characters and the story in general are mine and mine alone. Don't use them without my express permission.

Niroku continued to cry over Katia's body when he suddenly felt her begin to become lighter. He looked down, afraid of what he might see. His fears were confirmed when he saw her beginning to disappear.

"No. Please no." He grasped her desperately trying to keep her there but it was no use. Her body completely disappeared. The only things left behind to prove she ever existed were the Silver Life Jewel and the stone he had given her. Numbly Niroku picked them up. He felt like his heart had been ripped into a million pieces. Katia, the woman he loved, had died before he had even told her that he loved her. He silently vowed to himself that he would first complete the jewel, as Katia would've wished, and then he would join her in death.

Niroku slowly walked out of the castle to finish his task so he could rejoin Katia forever.

*~*~*Katia*~*~*

When Katia awoke she found herself in a meadow with a river right in front of her. There was one bridge crossing the river.

"So, this is death?" Katia said aloud.

"Not quite." A voice similar to her own said behind her. Katia spun around to come face to face with Fincara. "You're at the crossroads between life and death."

"Fincara? But I thought we separated if...when I died." Katia said uncertainly.

"Yes, we do. But you have a choice. You can choose to live or die. You can choose to live again on earth, or you can choose to rest eternally in death." Fincara said. She looked at Katia who smiled ironically.

"Two months ago I would've been sure or my answer and chosen right away because I had nothing except my mission to live for, but now...I'm not so sure. I fell in love. That changed things drastically, but I don't know if he loves me back." Katia said. She looked directly at Fincara seeking advice.

"I'd say that falling in love, regardless of whether or not the person loves you back, is a reason to live. But I may be wrong. Certain people believe that if your love doesn't love you back life isn't worth living. So it all depends on what you believe." Fincara said. She looked at Katia and smiled.

"I believe that as long as I can be near him I'll be happy." Katia said with a smile. "I choose to live again."

"You get one more chance to take back your decision. Are you willing to go through the most emotionally painful experience of your life to live again? Is it worth it?" Fincara said seriously.

"You mean I would be betrayed by one I thought loved me?" Katia said. "Even if I would have to go through that I will choose life. I love Niroku too much to leave him."

"Very good. When you are sent back to the living world your memories will be locked away until you've completed what I have warned you about. But after that your memory will return."

Katia nodded. She walked up to Fincara and embraced her. "Thank you." She said.

Fincara smiled. "Go now little one. Back to life."

"One question."

"What?" Fincara asked.

"When I return to life will you and I still be joined?" Katia asked apprehensively. She really didn't want to lose the woman who had become her mother basically. For Fincara had always protected her and watched over her.

"Yes, we will. Don't worry about that. Now go." Fincara said. And with that Katia walked away from the meadow and the river.

*~*~*Niroku*~*~*

It had been two months since Katia had died. He had traveled and collected a few shards of the jewel, but since he had no miko powers he couldn't fuse them together. He still carried the two necklaces that had been left behind when Katia's body had disappeared. He kept her stone with his as he traveled miserable through feudal Japan.

One day Niroku was walking down a dirt road on the way to the next village where he sensed a jewel fragment near by. Suddenly he heard a familiar voice from behind him, but he thought it was just his imagination. It had done that often enough. Making hear Katia's voice when she was never there. Therefore he was very surprised when a woman who appeared to be no more than eighteen ran past him. He froze.

"Katia..." He said. 'But how...I saw her die. I held her in my arms as she died. How can she be here?' Niroku was about to brush it off as his imagination playing tricks on him again before he heard a voice call out.

"Katia! Hurry with the vegetables! We need to clean them for the inn guests tonight!" A plump woman called from the inn about 50 meters from where Niroku stood. He thought that the woman was talking to someone behind him when the woman who had just run past answered her. That was too much of a coincidence. A woman who looked like Katia and had her name. He knew that it couldn't be a reincarnation because the reincarnate wouldn't even be born yet.

"What the hell..." He muttered to himself. He decided to board in that inn tonight. He had enough money, hell he had enough to buy the inn and any surrounding things he wanted. Katia had had plenty of money and all of it had been in the rucksack she'd left behind. He hadn't used it, but now he did because that woman could possibly be someone related to Katia or something like that. He pulled a hat over his head to hide his ears so the innkeeper wouldn't be scared by that fact that he resembled a demon. There was nothing to be done about his eyed, but nobody really noticed any way.

When Niroku reached the inn he went straight to the desk and the plump woman sitting behind it.

"Hello sir. How can we help you?" she asked.

"I would like to rent a room here." Niroku said.

"How long will you be staying here?" the woman asked.

"I'm not sure. It depends on how long my business here will take. Can I pay you, maybe at the beginning of each week for the whole week?" Niroku said.

"Sure. I'll have my daughter take you up to your room." The woman said as Niroku handed her the first payment. "Katia! Will you come here for a moment?" The woman called into the kitchen

"Coming." A voice Niroku had no trouble recognizing called back. He stared in shock because the woman who came out was Katia. Not someone who just looked like her, but identical, so identical that the only thing that makes sense is if it is Katia. "Yes mother. What do you want?" Katia said. She glanced at Niroku, but Niroku saw clearly that she didn't recognize him. He pondered this for a second before the woman's voice broke into his thoughts.

"Katia, will you take Niroku here up to room 23B." (AN: Niroku had signed his name on a contract that lent the room to him specifically.)

"Okay. Come this way." Niroku followed Katia as she walked up two flights of stairs and walked down a hallway to a door marked 23B. "Her you go." She said handing him the key. "If you wish to eat the kitchens are open until 11 o'clock and open again at dawn. The main meal times are 7, 12, and 7 o'clock, but you can eat at any time." With that said Katia walked off and Niroku walked into his room.

"What the hell is going on here?" he said aloud.

"~That's simple.~" a voice behind him said. He turned around and saw Fincara.

"Would you explain it to me?" Niroku said, still to shocked at seeing Katia to react to seeing Fincara as well. "Who was that, and why did she look just like Katia and even have the same name?"

"~It's because that was Katia. You see when she reached the crossroads between life and death I gave her a choice between being alive again and staying dead. She chose life even though I told her that she would have to experience the most emotionally painful experience. And also knowing that until she had experienced this she wouldn't have her memories from before.~" Fincara said calmly.

"So that is Katia." Niroku said getting excited and daring to hope for the first time in two months.

"~Yes, but you must not interfere. If she doesn't experience this she'll never get her memories back.~" Fincara said.

"So what can I do? I can't just do nothing." Niroku said.

"~Become her friend and help her when this is finished. You won't have to wait too long.~" and with that said Fincara disappeared.

"So she's back. I'm glad." With that on his mind Niroku went down to dinner.

When he got back up he went straight to sleep, still pondering over what Fincara had told him and again remembering Katia's last words to him.