It was almost the time for the Final Judgment, and not even he knew how that would play out. He was not the original intended vessel for the Moon Guardian, though when Yue woke up long enough to realize what happened (and calmed down from the outrage he felt at the book being stolen and diverted from his father's intended recipient) the two got along surprisingly well.
Mostly because he was a master at maintaining his calm and Yue was a surprisingly good tea buddy who didn't mind long stretches of silence during their rather philosophical debates over the most random of subjects that ranged from humanity to magic and everything in between. Even if they couldn't really drink tea, they were still able to visualize it in their shared mental space.
The issue was the curse he was currently under. He had no idea how Yue would be able to circumvent that long enough to do what he wanted and not feel some sort of nasty feedback. Or worse, if it would draw the man who put it on him out of whatever hole he crawled to when he wasn't being a pest.
It would be nice, being able to finally let the truth out in the open. No one was entirely aware of the consequences of him stealing that book several decades ago, and he had kept it a tightly held secret even from the likes of his comrades before the curse. He considered that a personal achievement when one was dealing with the likes of Reborn (who acted as though he had legitimate mind reading powers, but was more likely a natural 'cold reading' master) and Viper, one of the strongest and most cunning Mists he had ever encountered and might have accidentally picked something up during their close interaction.
Fortunately Yue had been largely dormant during that time period before the curse, and the few times he had been awake his mindset had been similar enough to his own that it had likely gone unnoticed in the first place.
"I do not like this."
'We both agreed it is necessary. That seal must go and the only feasible way to do so without tracking down who placed it in the first place is to force it wide open with something it's not remotely prepared to deal with.'
Magic and Flames might work well together, but when it came to a seal like the one on Hotaru, the stronger force would prevail. There was no way a modern mortal, much less someone who likely only had Flame training, would be able to suppress that much raw magical power as her full abilities were unleashed. Even if it was only for a second, the amount of magical ability Hotaru would have access to in that moment would be more than enough to blast that seal into shreds.
Without the one who put it on her nearby to reapply it, her full power would finally be freed to blaze like it should have been. If he ever got his hands on whoever had nearly ruined Hotaru's childhood with their foolishness he was going to wring their neck and not give a damn who they were or what famiglia they were with.
That being said he had a fairly good idea who had put the seal on her or at least a general guess on who had ordered it placed on her as a child.
Lal didn't exactly speak highly of her superior's intelligence or common sense. And the fact he hadn't seen either hide or hair of that imbecile during the short amount of time the cards had been active spoke of how little he thought of his own wife and child. In fact he could not once recall a single instance where Hotaru even mentioned her genetic donor, even in passing.
Like she had come to accept the fact that he wanted nothing to do with her or her mother, and only stayed married to Nana to maintain his image. That or she honestly thought he had died at some point and had moved on with her life.
Considering the lack of contact, he highly suspected the latter.
He sighed.
"I am still unhappy with your plan to insure that no one uses the Card Mistress."
'Need I remind you that it is the lesser of many evils? At least this way I can nudge her to Kyouya, who appears to have finally discover his hormones and is starting to slowly edge towards 'interest' when it comes to the kitten,' he reminded the Moon Guardian.
He had noted with amusement and approval that the matches between Kyouya and the kitten had slowly started to edge the girl away from using Fight as a crutch and more as a guideline. He was almost positive he felt Fight go into her dormant form and let the girl fight on her own.
He had no doubt that the day she managed to hold her own against Kyouya would be the day the boy finally realized his interest in the little kitten had nothing to do with Sky Attraction and had more to do with "romantic interest" towards a girl his own age. Considering he had been drifting her way for months now, odds were the second her Flames were freed they'd experience full blown harmonization.
And it wasn't just him. He could tell that she had managed to draw in the natural hit man and the sunny boxer who had apparently decided to adopt her as a second younger sister thanks to her association with Fight.
"I still do not like the deception."
'Neither do I, but would you rather she learn what actual romance and love is from someone like me who will not harm her future prospects, or from some foolish idiot who's only interest is to get into her pants and satisfy his own hormonal impulses until she no longer amuses him?' he countered with a snarky reminder.
And that right there was the only reason Yue had agreed to go along with it, even if he wanted nothing to do with it personally. At her age, Hotaru's hormones would be a major driving force, enough that it might get her into trouble that would be nearly impossible to fix with the cards. Teenagers were not the most responsible things on the planet, and if she had been a boy then this wouldn't have been such a major problem to deal with.
The last thing Yue wanted to deal with was the Card Mistress having a broken heart and being in the family way with next to no support. It made her vulnerable to being used and by extension the cards.
If she had a stable home life and attentive parents, then it wouldn't be so bad, but her mother was more or less oblivious to the obvious and the father was either dead or could care less about her.
Which meant she was especially vulnerable to being taken advantage of by older, more experience males who were only in it to satisfying their baser instincts.
And that was absolutely no acceptable, to either of them. Even if it meant they had to deal with it personally, allowing someone with as much raw power and potential being used as a tool for the darker forces of the world was not an option.
Hopefully Keroberos wouldn't be a complete pain when he cottoned on to what they were doing and would actually listen when they explained why they were doing it in the first place.
Kero was observing the Card Captor. Specifically her magical aura and the way it interacted with the cards she had. At this rate Earthy was likely going to be the last one to be caught, which would reveal the vessel Yue had taken.
Hotaru was quickly beginning to master the lesser known ability of the cards, one that would have taken anyone else years and years of use to learn.
She was learning how to cast the spells without the use of her Sealing wand or the card itself. The only other person he knew who could pull that off was Clow himself and it had taken over a century of constant practice to get to that point.
Sure, mages could learn how to cast spells at the drop of a hat without any warning...but those were usually personal spells that they had used so often that their magic knew how to do it without instruction from their minds.
Hotaru was doing it entirely by instinct without even knowing what she was doing. She almost didn't need the cards anymore, save for the ones she hadn't bonded with personally like Thunder or Erase.
He knew why it was happening too. Hotaru allowed the cards to wander around freely within reason, which meant they were constantly drawing on her magical and Flame reserves. Her powers were adapting to the strain by learning the feel of the card's natural powers and as a result she mostly brought the cards out as an afterthought.
There was no way the Li brat would win in the Final Judgment. He treated the cards as tools and barely had any grasp on the more instinctive applications of using them.
He highly suspected Yue would instead force Hotaru to blast through whatever it was that was holding her powers back before declaring her the new Mistress of the Cards.
He hated this. Having to "hurry up and wait" was a complete nightmare and he never had the patience for it. At least the Li brat had clearly attached himself to the Kinomoto girl two towns over as her Storm... he could see the red string connecting them despite not having much interaction with either and figured it was one of those things where once contact had been made the stones would naturally fall into place to bring them together one way or another.
Meilin also seemed to be drifting that way, though she stayed close to Hotaru for multiple reasons. Chief of which was that until young Sakura managed to bond with her as her Sky, the clan still could marry her off to improve their chances.
In short a lot of things were beginning to fall into place like a prelude to something much bigger. Though he still wondered what exactly caused that odd ripple that felt far too much like Clow in April... it had been particularly strong and had come in the general direction of China.
There had also been a strange ripple among the cards, as if someone else was using them, except their connection was rather tenuous at best.
Kero suspected that once Hotaru managed to connect with the other cards that were in the Li kid's possession, that she would be willing to hand over the book and the cards to the girl who had shown a natural aptitude towards that amount of high level magic. She'd have to play catch up, and it was almost certain that the spirits inside the cards would stay with Hotaru, but after the Final Judgment they were supposed to be 'changed' to the new Master or Mistress anyway so it wasn't any real loss.
Sakura would not only change the cards, but draw in new spirits that could be attuned to her personally rather than rely on the ones that Clow had bonded to them. That meant she would have a higher chance to learn the same tricks Hotaru was doing already, even though there were still a handful of cards left out and about.
Besides, Kero had noticed that Hotaru was able to cast magic easier without the Sealing Wand than with it, and only used it because she had no idea how to get the cards to go back to their dormant form without it.
They were on the roof again, and Hibari was in a very good mood. The little skittish kitten who had set the troublesome cards loose had come a long way from the girl who was too terrified to stand up for herself.
So it was with great surprise that she managed to land a decent punch to his side...only for him to realize she was still fighting despite the fact Fight was watching the entire thing from the side with a grin.
He blinked, registering the fact that she wasn't using Hotaru as a conduit for her powers, before he slowly asked "You're not using Fight are you?"
"I wanted to be able to fight you on even grounds without using her as a crutch," admitted Hotaru shyly.
A strange warmth crawled up his neck. It took him a few moments to register he was blushing. Why was he blushing?!
Seeing the way Hotaru was looking at him and the smug way Fight was watching the two, revelation hits him like a brick.
Oh. OH.
He was romantically interested in the kitten who had gone from a skittish house cat to a tiger with claws. That damn carnivore was never going to let him hear the end of this, he just knew it. He would also take far too much enjoyment in goading him about the crush he had begun to develop and the fact he was finally noticing his hormones.
Hibari was not a late bloomer... like the annoying carnivore he had a strong control over his baser urges and felt no need to find a suitable female (or male) to satisfy his hormones.
If he were to find a suitable partner in that manner, then he refused to acknowledge the weak and those who would need protecting. He wanted someone who was his equal, not someone who would look at him as their personal "knight in shining armor" there to get them out of trouble whenever confronted with violence.
The idea of finding the half-grown tigress attractive as a female had never occurred to him. It made him rather eager to see exactly how strong she could get when she finally tossed aside the imposed shackles the lesser herbivores had forced on her as a child and the conditioning of the scavengers around her.
A feral grin came across his face, as he stepped up his 'playtime' with the tigress before him. Hotaru seemed to sense the change, but did not rely on Fight to keep her head on her shoulders.
A strange smile curled across her own face, as well as an amber glow in her eyes that he found very attractive indeed. It made something in him (not his hormones) stand up and take attention that she might actually be worthy of his attention.
Hotaru might have lost their fight, but she had managed to hold her own without using Fight once for a solid half an hour and that was impressive enough on it's own right. So much so that he was beginning to seriously consider her as a potential worthy female.
Fon took one look at his face before a wide, disturbing grin came across his features.
"My dear Kyouya is finally growing up. I hope you remember protection," he said smiling wickedly.
Kyouya was on him in seconds.
"Die, carnivore!" he snarled.
Fon cackled and started making even more insinuations about Kyouya's love life than he ever wanted to hear. Kyouya didn't know if it was from embarrassment or pure unbridled irritation and rage, but his aura was a palpable thing. So much so that he didn't even realize when he started to manifest a violet and indigo colored fire on his weapons or in his eyes.
He only took notice when Fon managed to confiscate his precious tonfas.
"I was wondering when you'd make the final push into an Active state. Which means I can finally give you these," he said pleased.
Inside the box were a pair of tonfas not too dissimilar to the ones he had now. Except these had a button that when pressed, released a long, thin chain that ended with a small weight. A quick test proved that the weight in question wrapped tightly enough to make escape very difficult for someone who was caught in it. There was also another added feature that had Kyouya grinning in a rather terrifying way. When twisted just so, one side of the weapons opened up to reveal a needle launcher that could be coated with a paralytic or any number of poisons and venom. It only shoot one needle at a time, but when combined with his Cloud Flames he didn't need to have it spray wildly. He could multiply the number shot out the second it left his weapon.
Fon was smirking in his own darkly pleased way. This was a weapon he had personally had ordered for when Kyouya went Active...it would only take minimal training to make his nephew even more dangerous to fight against. Something that made the darker side of the Storm Arcobaleno pleased because the stronger Kyouya was, the harder it would be to kill the boy.
"Wao."
Kyouya held up his new toys with a dark glint in his steel gray eyes. He was definitely pleased with the gift.
Didn't stop him from testing it out by trying to bite Fon to death for annoying him though.