A.N. so here is Satoshi's opinion of Hikari politics, which have come up in some of the other snapshots, and Hikari history and a comprehensive timeline for the the Great Works in Protection. Please R&R
Claim
When I claimed my birthright, which I would rather not have had to do, I set chaos loose in my clan. There is constant muttering and whispered arguments everywhere I go, and as soon as I make my presence known everyone goes dead silent. I think I frighten them. Good, they should be frightened. I'm looking for an excuse to cause havoc and destroy things; if Daisuke and I didn't need the records intact I'd have done it already. They sent me out to die, but now I'm back, and stronger than anyone in my line has been for three hundred years. And given that we were in charge because we were stronger magically than any other branch, which is how we managed to survive Krad; well, I'm as strong as a Great Work, and don't have the limitations that art would, plus I have a grudge against them: they have reason to be frightened. The few good things that have come out of this visit are the chance to be winged without hiding, even if only for intimidation, and telling my clan that the feud is over, while working in subtly that if they try to control me again I will decimate them.
Protection
I have a duty to the world to clean up the mess my distant ancestors made every time they created and then let their work go without binding its power first. Granted, in the beginning they didn't know what they were making, but by the time the Niwa started to warn them that if they wouldn't take responsibility the Niwa would protect the world and seal the magic, by any means necessary, the Hikari knew what they were doing. They wouldn't listen, after all nothing Hikari made would harm its creators, and they didn't really care about normal humans, so the Niwa began to steal Hikari art and seal it away. Then four hundred years ago someone had the idea to make the Black Wings, a work of art with a life of its own, as if the world needed another one. It was supposed to surpass the three existing Great Works; The Second Hand of Time, the Wedge of Time, and Argentine. The Black Wings was supposed to be four times as strong as any of them, and they were all rather equal in power. What my ancestors got, however, was Dark and Krad. Then in a history making moment of common sense they sealed away the empty shell that was what was left of the Black Wings before it became a power vacuum that would've sucked in everything until it sucked in Dark and Krad again. Then they made the Edge of Sorrows about fifty years after that, to break the seal, why they made something with that much potential for causing trouble I don't know, even granting that they hid it really well, concealing it in another artwork was effective. I mean I was living with the thing and never felt it. Fifty years after the Edge of Sorrows was made the secret of how to create Great Works was lost in the cultural reform, as was most Hikari work. Two hundred and fifteen years after that Towa was created, and her creator managed to do by accident what generations of Hikari had tried to do and failed: he created another Great Work. Now out of the six Great works only Towa and Argentine still exist in any meaningful way, but there are still Lesser Works to seal away.