Meilin expected a lot of things coming to Namimori. Finding out her cousin had pissed off nearly the entire town and was considered the least liked student in the school was not one of them.

Okay, after asking around she could totally get why the other students disliked him. But in all honestly she didn't get his animosity towards the Card Captor girl at all. It was completely one-sided, as the girl (her name was Hotaru) was simply too timid and shy to consider hating Syaoran as much as he disliked her.

To say nothing of the shock she got when she saw several of the Clow Cards around the area without going on a rampage and being generally accepted as normal. Fight was regularly sparring with some boxing-crazed nut from Syaoran's class and the Hibari heir. Fly was acting the part of a pet bird at Hibari's side. She saw several of the lesser cards like Wood, Flower, and Mirror in the shopping center with a normal woman getting groceries who wasn't the least bit bothered by the fact they couldn't talk in the conventional sense.

What was going on with this town?

Meilin was many things, but an idiot was not one of them. There was something more behind her cousin's erratic behavior than just his ire at the fact that Hotaru wasn't even trying to hide the cards like any "proper" magician should. In fact she seemed to find little ways to hide them in plain sight, which oddly enough seemed to work in a weird way.

It wasn't until she accidentally bumped against the girl that she was finally clued in to what might actually be going on.

Oh. OH.

Syaoran had been tested a year before the cards went active, and the clan had discovered he was a Latent Storm with a strong secondary in Lightning flames. Not that they would ever teach him how to become Active, since the underworld apparently decided they had a claim on any who had Flames, but the Flame alignment generally went hand in hand with magical predisposition.

Just as Meilin was perfectly well aware that she was a Lightning with an alignment towards Sun secondary.

At least in Asia they didn't treat those with a predisposition towards Lightning Flames as meat shields. Why the Italians kept trying to emulate some guy and his friends from around the time Clow Reed was alive she would never understand. It wasn't like they were particularly good at what they did, just very lucky.

And Syaoran was unknowingly trying to reach out to a Sky that wasn't interested...and it was agitating him. Well, if he was going to be prissy then she didn't feel inclined to tell him what was really going on.

Instead she'd sit back and watch the show while giving him a minimum of help. After all, she'd rather be in the middle of enemy territory than within eyesight of those annoying Elders who seemed insistent on marrying her off to someone she was highly unlikely to be able to stand in the least. Syaoran's sisters at least had some say in who they married...as the daughters of the clan head they were allowed to be picky. As a member of the branch family, she did not have such a luxury. She would be lucky to have any refusal in who she married to benefit the clan.

However this presented an opportunity in more ways than one. Had the new owner of the book stolen by the Hibari been a boy, she could have cited an attempt to seduce him into the clan.

(Seducing Hibari Kyouya was still an option, if only to claim she was attempting to steal their heir as payback for stealing the book containing Clow Reed's legacy.)

Meilin knew that any Active Flames were discreetly removed from the active roles of the clan. They were acknowledged as part of the family, but were quietly asked not to bring their relation up since they would almost certainly be snatched up by one of the stronger Triads.

Hotaru was a Sky. Which meant if Meilin played her cards right, she might be able to cite a Guardian bond and get away from her clan without being disowned for it. It was certainly a more favorable outcome then being married off by the Elders.

Hotaru was frowning as she followed Kero to where he said the Create card was. Something kept niggling at the edge of her senses, telling her to be wary as there was something wrong with this situation. That she was walking into something where she would have to make a serious decision that would have far-reaching implications.

With the use of Shadow (and that had been a nightmare, capturing it without losing the card to the increasingly angry Syaoran) they were able to slip into the apartment where the book was.

Only to find something that had sick to her stomach.

Inside was a man clearly under the influence of drugs that had him out cold to the world around him. He completely ignored their presence and she had the feeling that was a good thing. However the woman, who despite being rather pretty, had a cruel expression on her face as she stalked towards a girl about Hotaru's age who looked positively terrified. From the blood shot eyes it was pretty clear she was drunk...there were bottles on the floor and the table.

The girl shrunk in herself in a familiar manner, and Hotaru didn't even think about what she was doing. There was no way she was going to let someone get hurt in front of her, even if there was a Clow Card that they needed to get to.

"Time, stop everyone except for the girl!" she said clearly. She felt the surge of magic that accompanied the use of a Card without the wand...it was by far more exhausting but much quicker than the precious seconds needed to activate the card normally.

The girl's eyes widened as she looked right at them, and Hotaru could see the Create card in her arms.

"W-w... Who are you?" she asked nervously. The fact the woman was completely frozen a scant inch from nearly hitting her was scaring her. It was like she could come back to life at any moment to deliver the blow.

"Are you alright?" asked Hotaru, easily side stepping the still frozen woman. She gently pulled the smaller girl away from the woman. "Don't worry... she won't move until I let her."

She flinched, holding the book closer to her chest. Hotaru pulled her into a gentle hug, while making it loose enough that the other girl could pull away if she wanted. Instead she seemed to lean into her chest and started sobbing.

"What are we going to do?" asked Kero.

"I can't in good conscience leave her here. Just look at what they're doing," said Hotaru, holding the smaller girl protectively.

Kero didn't like it, at all. But there was little he could do to dissuade Hotaru from discreetly kidnapping the other girl from the condo.

The thing that bothered him was that upon seeing her, the Li brat got increasingly more erratic when it came to Hotaru. It was very strange and the girl he called in as back-up was quietly distancing herself. She seemed to have an idea of what was going on, but was keeping her silence on why Syaoran was acting like this.

So Kero waited until he could confront the girl in private.

"Okay, what's the deal with that brat?" asked Kero.

Meilin looked at him with tired amusement.

"She's a Sky and he's pissed she won't choose him as one of her Elements. For some reason her Flames seem to sputter in and out," said Meilin.

Kero blinked, before he introduced himself to the nearest hard surface.

"That explains far too much. And there's nothing we can do until the Final Judgment," sighed Kero.

"Why not?"

"The Sealing wand was designed to teach the cards who their new Master or Mistress was, not undo seals placed by Flames. However once the Final Judgment arrives, then the magic of the cards will force it to come wide open and heal the damage done," said Kero tiredly. He looked at Meilin oddly. "Why aren't you acting so antagonistic like that brat is?"

"One, I'm a girl and I figured out exactly what is going on so I can hold the urge to be a brat back," said Meilin dryly. "Secondly, you really think I'm going to miss the best chance I have to get out from under the Elder's control? If I play this right then she gets protection from the clan and I actually get some freedom over my life. The lightnings available within the Cosa Nostra are a total joke, and trying to get one from the Triads would only open her up to being snatched up by them."

Kero made a face at that. The girl had a point... acting as Hotaru's Lightning meant that she would be freed from the Clan Elders and keep them off Hotaru's back because one of their own held such an important position with the Card Mistress.

"So...any idea what her new 'sister' is? Type wise I mean?"

"Mist. There's a reason why the Create card was drawn to her and it had nothing to do with her situation," said Kero immediately.

Nagi had been very relieved to be 'trusted' as the keeper of the Create card, even if the book wouldn't "make" anything without prior permission from Hotaru first. At home it was free to indulge in whatever Nagi could come up with...she was quite good at drawing and had a vivid imagination to supply the card with.

Nana, bless her heart, didn't ask why the very timid girl was now living with them. Her eyes became slightly flinty, indicating she had a good idea why Nagi tended to flinch around adults, but she was perfectly willing to pretend the girl was Hotaru's new "sister", particularly since Nagi's parents had yet to come looking for her or post a missing child report.

Even if they had, Hibari had taken one look at the "little kitten" that had firmly attached herself to Hotaru and decided that if her abusers did come looking he would deal with it in short order by biting them to death and making it very clear that retrieving her would be far more trouble than they would anticipate.

Like Hotaru, Nagi took a great deal of comfort in the presence of Hibari Kyouya in the school. No one would dare bully or harass the girl because he had made it clear she was under his direct protection within the first week with Hotaru by gently patting their heads when they were late to school, rather than the usual 'tap' on the head. The fact anyone caught harassing either of them quickly found themselves on the wrong end of Hibari's tonfas in short order.

It took very little time for people to get the message and back off. Hotaru was seriously considering wearing the proper uniform soon, if this kept up. She wasn't going to let her usual method of avoiding unnecessary trouble slip though...she stuck to well traveled paths and made a point of sticking close to Hana or Kyoko whenever possible.

A small figure sipped his tea contently. Things were progressing nicely, even if the 'other' claimant on the cards had no idea why his behavior was becoming increasingly erratic. The girl had evidently figured it out almost immediately and adjusted her behavior to something far more acceptable.

It was pretty obvious what she was attempting to do, and considering the benefits of her plan he allowed it to continue. If she was successful then it would have benefits for everyone involved, especially Hotaru-chan.

A second figure stalked in with a somewhat foul expression on his face.

"The kitten's 'pride' attempted to reclaim her. I made certain to bite them to death,"he said succinctly.

The fake pack mother tried to hide the signs, but he knew a drug user and a drunk when he saw one. Threatening to have the appropriate testing done with a proper audience had made her back off, as had the fact he had taken out her pathetic mate in a scant handful of seconds. The cops were unlikely to get involved considering the only one to witness the incident was very familiar with him personally. He saw the signs just as quickly and silently agreed the poor girl was better off where she was now.

With the Hibari clan backing Nana's custody of the girl there was no way in hell the fool woman was getting her hands on her again. And if she did, then they would teach her the error of trying to defy them when it came to protecting the small animals of the town.

"And the fact I've seen you protecting the girls at school?" said the smaller figure slyly.

The taller one growled at the what he was insinuating.

"I do not have a crush on the Card Mistress," he snarled.

"And yet you've been dispersing the more foolish idiots who insist on targeting her," countered the first. "It's well known she's now under your personal protection, even if you don't make it obvious."

The taller one glared at him.

"I am waiting for the kitten to finally feel safe enough to wear the proper uniform," he shot back.

"Right, and I'm not cursed twice over," snarked the smaller figure. "It's perfectly normal to have a crush and follow one's hormones."

"DIE."

The smaller figure smirked at him coolly.

"Shall we dance?" he replied serenely.

Tonfas flashed as they attempted to cave in the smaller one's head once more.