Tomoeda was a beautiful city, and Hotaru was heartily glad that their class trip took them there. Even better, Hibari had apparently deemed this important enough to join them and almost everyone was giving him and Ryohei a wide berth. Poor Kyoko looked utterly embarrassed and was very glad Hana had taken it upon herself to reign in the older Sasegawa. This wasn't Namimori... Ryohei couldn't be as loud and boisterous as usual without getting into major trouble.
According to the teachers, the entire reason Hibari had deigned to leave his 'territory' and act as one of the guards on this trip was because of Nagi. Her mother still hadn't given up on her and he would be very unhappy if the woman managed to kidnap her once she was out of his usual hunting grounds.
The fact that as a side effect he spent quite a lot of time around Hotaru was a very relieving bonus. She might actually get to enjoy the trip for once.
"I hope I'm not late," said a quiet, serene voice.
Hibari glowered at the smaller figure.
"Annoying carnivore, what are you doing here?" he demanded irate.
Hotaru blinked. This was the first time she had heard anyone being deemed a "carnivore" by Hibari-sempai so openly!
"Your mother has apparently decided to sign me up as one of the adult chaperons," he replied dryly. "Besides, this means you have to actually spend time with me and not try to attack like you usually do."
Hibari looked decidedly unhappy about the prospect.
"Um... who are you?" asked Hotaru quietly. Hana took one look at the "toddler" and gave off a full body shudder before putting Ryohei between her and the 'kid'.
Hana hated children.
"Apologies. I'm Kyouya's uncle and my name is Fon. Don't let my short stature fool you, I am much older than I look," he said pleasantly.
Hotaru's eyes were bright with curiosity and interest.
"Do you need help getting around? I know short legs can be a pain," she asked politely.
Fon's eyes glinted with amusement. He easily took a spot on her shoulder and settled down much like Kero did sometimes.
"Thanks. While I am quite fast, it's rather irritating having to find a place to use as a vaulting point to get up higher to see things."
Hearing a squeak, Hotaru looked with wide, amazed eyes as an adorable monkey scurried out of Fon's odd outfit and onto his head.
"This is Lichi. He is quite tame."
"Can I pet him?" asked Hotaru hopefully.
Lichi scurried across her back and onto her other shoulder, allowing her to pat his head. Hotaru giggled with delight.
Hibari grumpily explained the addition of the odd 'toddler' and his pet monkey to the teachers...the resemblance between the two was strong enough that there was little chance of anyone mistaking Fon for anything but a close relative and his behavior was nothing like an average toddler.
Besides, this was Namimori where people had a habit of ignoring the odd and often unexplained on principle. If Hibari said that the odd toddler with a tame pet monkey was his uncle, then the teachers were inclined to believe it.
Hibari quickly picked up that Fon intended to stick close to the girls, or more specifically Hotaru anyway, and promptly decided to keep an eye on the more annoying herbivores that tried to get up to mischief. He still kept close to Nagi, just to be safe, but for the most part he acted as one of the forces keeping the herbivores from embarrassing the school...and Ryohei quiet. Every time he went to start his usual yelling, if Hana wasn't around to firmly yank on his ear then Hibari would be there to deliver a warning 'tap' to shut him up.
However it was what they encountered during the trip that made Hotaru's life as a Card Captor infinitely less difficult.
There was a girl in Tomoeda named Sakura Kinomoto and within a few hours of being around her Syaoran's erratic behavior started to tone down the longer he spent around her.
Fon was highly amused by this, for multiple reasons. He also made a note that there was apparently a second untapped Sky in Japan and a natural sorceress to boot.
He suspected she was supposed to be the original intended recipient of the Book, which would explain her naturally high magic levels.
He didn't regret stealing it however... the cards were perfectly happy with the situation now and were living far more freely than the other girl would have likely allowed. She didn't seem like the type to allow them to indulge in their more violent natures like Fight and Sword.
She, at least, had a stable home life.
Meilin breathed a sigh of relief when she realized her cousin was showing all the signs of having found his Sky and therefor backed off on harassing the Card Mistress.
So it was entirely unsurprising when he demanded to know exactly why she was still acting as the buffer between him and Hotaru.
"You are a complete fool and blind to boot," she said flatly.
The shocked expression on his face was entirely worth it, especially since he was definitely listening intently to her words.
"Hotaru is a sealed Sky, you idiot. She couldn't harmonize with anyone even if she wanted to, and your power was entirely incompatible with hers in the first place."
Syaoran's mouth dropped as he ran his previous behavior back and realized what had happened to him.
"I was Sky Struck?" he said in disbelief.
Sky Struck was a condition certain Elements suffered when they were around a Sky who had multiple openings in their Harmony and were close enough in strength and purity to draw in a potential Guardian. The Elements around them would become utterly besotted with the Sky in question and it had only one of three endings.
A Guardian bond being formed, the Element in question going into complete Discord and attempting to take out the Sky with them, or the two being forcibly separated and the Element put into Quarantine until their Flames stabilized and they were firmly told never to go near the Sky in question again.
At least not unless they had a proper Sky of their own to counter the effects.
"It looks like that Kinomoto girl is a Sky too, though I doubt she's even aware of her Flames. I bet the clan wouldn't bat an eye if you decided to properly court her as a girlfriend, since she was definitely giving off enough magic to be a potential sorceress," said Meilin.
"What about you?" he asked.
"I realized what Hotaru was almost immediately, so I was able to buffer the effect her Sky has without going bonkers like you did," said Meilin coolly. "That being said, I'm keeping my options open...with any luck I'll get a partial bond with Hotaru or that Sakura girl once you start making headway with her. It seems she's already got a Cloud, Rain and a Mist hanging around her."
Sakura Kinomoto had apparently attracted her older brother, his best friend (and possibly boyfriend) and her friend Tomoyo as her Guardians, though they likely had no idea of the bond. Which meant Syaoran had an actual chance to become her Storm and lover if he played his cards right.
Meilin smirked.
"Besides, if what the Sun Guardian said was true, then odds are Hotaru's seal is going to be completely trashed after the Final Judgment anyway, which means I have a decent shot at being her Lightning."
"What?" said Syaoran.
"She was deliberately sealed, likely by someone who only had the barest idea of what that would do to a child. She must have been Active when it was applied for the damage to be this extensive. And the staff can't remove it...but the power upgrade that comes with being the recognized Mistress of the Cards can. Besides anyone with eyes can tell the cards like her far more than they do you," said Meilin flatly.
"She's reckless with them," said Syaoran scowling.
"She's lonely. The only friends she can tentatively claim are all very recent and people are still in shock at the sudden change in her social status. She was a veritable pariah for no other reason than the fact she was Active when she was sealed and it did nothing about Sky Attraction!" snapped Meilin. "She treats the cards more like her family than tools like we would."
Syaoran was silent at that. He was still recovering from the revelation he had been suffering from Sky Attraction and hadn't realized it until Meilin pointed it out.
Hibari was in a decidedly good mood for a full month. Fon had been 'recalled' by the Triads for a time, which meant he didn't have to deal with the man's attempts for family bonding.
That lasted right up until he returned a week later with a young girl about four or five who looked at Kyouya shyly and almost blew up his room.
Fon was rather quick to seal her gift... until she was a bit more emotionally stable it wasn't safe for her to have access to it.
I-Pin was positively adorable. Sadly Fon had to wait until the seal was finally removed before he could move onto the second part of his plan to keep his new apprentice/surrogate daughter firmly out of the Triads claws. As his student and with her gift, she was particularly vulnerable to being kidnapped, if only to use against Fon as collateral and as a tool to dispose of others.
He had a firm grasp of Hotaru's personality, and the way she had immediately removed and protected the abused Mist that had practically become her sister said volumes. He had no doubt the girl would practically adopt I-Pin as a younger sibling to dote on while I-Pin acted as Nana's bodyguard.
It would keep his apprentice safe from being snatched up as an assassin and still give her a chance to grow up with a loving family. It also meant Nana would have yet another child to dote on... unfortunately she was unable to have more children of her own due to complications of Hotaru's birth.
Fon looked at I-Pin fondly.
"This is your new cousin, Kyouya. If something happens and I'm unavailable I want you to find him first. There is another I will introduce you to later, but he will keep you safe," said Fon gently in Mandarin.
I-Pin looked at Kyouya hard, before acknowledging Fon's words. She wouldn't mistake Kyouya for anyone else... where her teacher and father figure felt like a wild, barely tamed storm, her cousin felt distinctly like a lone wolf that protected his territory while hiding in the mists. He might be part of a pack, but he was a solitary creature that defended what he considered his.
She blushed lightly when Kyouya gently patted her head.
"Behave and learn to use your claws well, little tiger," said Kyouya.
I-Pin beamed at him... she could tell the name was high praise coming from the wolf before her. It meant he could sense she would become great one day, like Master!
Then her eyes landed on the odd bird on his shoulder.
"Master, what is that?" she asked fascinated.
'That' as it turned out, was a rather amazing feat of sorcery and western magic. One that had apparently adopted Kyouya as it's "nest" if the way it acted around him was any indication. It wasn't his, but it did belong to the other that her Master wanted to introduce her to later.
It was called "Fly", but it went by Hibird around the civilians and mundanes. Everyone considered it Kyouya's pet and never realized exactly what it was that was sitting tamely on his shoulder.
I-Pin giggled with delight when Fly took her into the sky for a little bit... it drew on it's Mistress' reserves so it couldn't do it for long without her help, but the feeling of being up high in the clouds was amazing. It seemed to have adopted her as a chick of sorts, which meant she sometimes found herself napping with it's wings wrapped around her protectively.
Her life was looking up and it felt like it could only get better.
Hotaru was slightly nervous, but at the same time excited. Tsuyoshi had deemed his son "competent" in the use of the sword, and as a special test (and so Sword could play too and see how well it had 'absorbed' the lessons from Shigure Kintoki) he had asked Hotaru to take her weapon and face against Takeshi in a mock-fight.
It would continue until first blood on either side, or until one was too tired to continue. Which considering Hotaru's current level of stamina wouldn't take too long.
Hotaru had absolutely no talent for the sword... Tsuyoshi had figured that much out in a single training session. She was too skittish about using actual weapons to hurt others.
Her best bet for defense was likely going to be hand to hand. Which was why she had taken to letting Fight use her to spar with Hibari-sempai on the roofs after the older swordsman had told her flat out she'd be better off not using weapons in the first place.
"Begin!"
Takeshi had clearly taken to the sword as if it naturally fit into his hand. Which it probably did, and baseball had only honed the muscles needed to wield one effectively.
Hotaru's eyes glowed a protective amber as Sword took full control of her body and put her through similar stances to the ones Takeshi was using himself. The minor mistakes were slowly, but surely being corrected without a word being shared by the humans in the room.
Takeshi's odd grin widened the longer it went, until Hotaru's stamina began to lag. A light line of red came against her left arm when she went to defend against an attack.
"Enough," said Tsuyoshi. "Takeshi, you still need to refine your fifth form. Hotaru, your stamina still needs improvement but your form was acceptable for someone unused to using a weapon."
She beamed at him with pride.
"As for Sword... well done. You seem to have taken to Shigure Kintoki's lessons better than some do, especially since you were unfamiliar with it's particular style before."
Sword chittered with happiness, both because Tsuyoshi was addressing it like it had a mind as it's siblings did and for the praise on the way it had taken to his family style.
"Ahahaha... it's really strange, being able to feel it's happiness through my hands," said Takeshi.
"He," corrected Hotaru absently. "Shigure Kintoki is a 'he', since most of it's masters were men and it rarely felt females were worthy of him. Sword, on the other hand is a female since it's creator apparently favored female avatars for it's siblings."
Takeshi nodded cheerful.
"It's strange feeling how happy he is when my mind keeps telling me I'm holding a sword," he agreed readily. He could literally feel Shigure Kintoki warm in his hands with pleased pride at being acknowledged as a 'male' sword, rather than just a tool.
"Why?" asked Hotaru, tilting her head in a cute way. "There are plenty of stories in Asia of common items gaining sentience. Is it really that hard to believe that a sword as well loved and maintained like Shigure Kintoki would gain a mind of it's own, even if he can't express it like others? That he would favor certain masters over others?"
Takeshi thought that one over before he grinned. Tsuyoshi laughed at the question outright.
"She has you there," he said amused.
Really, the idea that the family sword would have developed a personality of it's own after centuries of being in the family and used as a proper weapon instead of a wall decoration wasn't that far fetched at all. It would have been more shocking if a sword that had a proper name hadn't developed something of a personality.
Having Sword around just made it quite a bit more obvious that it would have been otherwise. Not that he was complaining.