The Spirit Detective and the Miko

Stones & Mazes

Kagome looked over in annoyance at the compact mirror on her dresser. She had just gotten home from her training with Genkai and she was exhausted. Her mom was still shopping and Souta was at soccer practice. She was pleasantly surprised by the conversation she had with him before he left.

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"Hey, sis." Souta came in her room and hugged her, "You look tired."

"And sore." She laughed, "I wasn't allowed to do that type of stuff with Inuyasha, unless I was running for my life." She sat on her bed, "Off to practice?"

"Yeah, but I wanted to talk to you first."

"About what?"

"I've been doing a lot of thinking lately and wanted your opinion."

"Okay." She cocked her head, "Color me intrigued."

"I know it's planned for you to take over the Shrine from grandpa."

"Hopefully in the far, far future."

He chuckled, "Right. Um, anyways, I've been helping him out a lot the last few years, what with your travels and training and all..."

"I'm so sorry that fell on you."

"It's okay. Really. I don't mind it. That's what I wanted to talk to you about. I don't know if you know this, but I really like antiques."

"Antiques?" She stared, "Like, the creepy old things in the basement that weirds you out, so you don't go down there?"

"Not anymore. I've been doing a lot of studying on that stuff, and I've gotten pretty hooked on it. I think I want to do more work like that, after school."

"Like archeology?"

"Yeah. Also, mythology and ancient civilizations." He hesitated, "I'm going to a school to train as a Shinto priest first."

"What? Souta..."

"Let me finish. I've already talked to grandpa. With all of your training that you've been getting, and knowing there's a chance you'll get called to help our cousin," Kagome had told her family everything, "you can use some help. And before you say it's not necessary, it's what I want. Like I said, I've gotten to where I really like helping out around here so... I want to co-run this place with you. That way, we can both do our thing together and separately."

"Together and separately."

"Well, I want to open a museum here on the shrine. I've got all these ideas to help bring in more money and get more people up here. Also, if I can get a part-time job after college working with antiques in some way, I'd be doing something I loved and bringing in money to the shrine." He stared at her, waiting.

"Souta," she hesitated, "that's amazing. The fact that you're only 12 and already know that you want to do all this stuff is awesome. I haven't even figured out what I want to do outside of running the shrine."

"Can I make a suggestion?"

"I am all ears."

"Okay, so, outside of Miko training, you can go to college to be a holistic healer."

"Huh?"

"A holistic healer. They don't go to school as long as doctors do. There's degrees in aromatherapy, apothecary, botany, herbalism..."

Kagome started laughed, "You've given this a lot of thought."

"I have." He started getting excited, "And I know you like flowers, especially ones that can be used for stuff. There's natural medicines you can learn with flowers..." he trailed off at the look on her face, "oh, I'm sorry. I forgot. I know he's the one who got you hooked on plants, I shouldn't have..."