When Kinomoto Sakura died, she set it up so that her Cards would go to the person who not only deserved them, but needed them. Vanishing across dimensions, they reappear in Assiah. Just in time for new Junior High School student Okumura Rin to find them. And so the cycle begins again.
But when the new Master is also the Son of Satan, nothing is going to be easy.
— Series Description
Inheritance of Cards and Demons is a Blue Exorcist and Cardcaptor Sakura fusion crossover, written by Love Psycho
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Rin, the 12-year-old protagonist of manga series Blue Exorcist, finds a mysterious but beautiful pink chest in the basement of the monastery. Curious, he looks inside to find a book with the name "Sakura" on it. Rin accidently releases the magical cards, originally created by Clow Reed, onto the world, he is tasked to become the next Cardcaptor, and now has to collect all of the cards. He faces many challenges on his journey to become Sakura's successor both magical and mundane.
The story balances the normally disparate genres "shounen" and "shoujo" through a mix of Rin's brash hero personality and heartwarming, occasionally hilarious or heartbreaking character development.
Chapters are uploaded on Monday and Friday of every week. Love Psycho has promised that there will be three arcs. The first arc, Inheritance of Cards, taking place prior to Blue Exorcist canon concluded on the 15th of February, 2016. This is a long well developed series as the first arc is a quarter million words long. The second installment, Inheritance of Magic, began on the 29th of February, 2016 and ended June 27 same year. Inheritance of Demons, the last arc, began on July 4th, 2016.
In addition to the three main arcs, there is a series of short side stories. The first, Golden Girl, deals with Rin’s shenanigans during Golden Week after Chapter 36. The second, Normal Does Not Exist Here, takes place shortly after the Judgement during the school summer festival but events conspire to keep Rin from having a break. The next three side stories take place after IoM and focus mainly on Rin and Ying Hua repairing their friendship and bonding over magic. Two more, taking place during the Kyoto Arc, are about the evolving relationship between Rin and Renzo.
It can be found here and Love Psycho's shared tumblr blog, containing Worldbuilding and other pieces of backstory, can be found here.
Inheritance of Cards and Demons provides examples of:
- Abusive Parents: Eiji’s father beat both him and his mother to the point of needing police intervention before the start of the series. Eiji is pretty happy that his dad is no longer around.
- Adults Are Useless: Almost none of the adults in Rin's life are helpful except Sekki. His other teachers have mostly given up on him due to his reputation and his family are too busy to pay him much attention and even if they did they lack the skills to deal with magic.
- Almighty Janitor: Yuri Egin may only have been a Lower First Class exorcist, but was an exceptionally powerful mage who was granted the privileges and duties of a much higher ranked exorcist.
- All There in the Manual: Details about the backstory and Worldbuilding can be found on Love Psycho’s tumblr.
- Attractive Bent-Gender: The gender-bended Rin manages to attract the eye of several guys.
- Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: Shiro, best demonstrated in Chapter 20 where he happily cheers about Rin and Yukio winning the two-legged race.
- Anger Born of Worry: Shiro would blow his top and ground Rin if he stays out too late without telling anyone.
- Deconstructed, Shiro goes into a fullblown Tranquil Fury when he finds out that Rin was one of the human mages he was tracking down. He's soft-spoken but obviously furious that Rin has learning very dangerous magic behind his back. Rin ends up erasing Shiro's memory out of self-preservation.
- Shiro slapping Rin for yelling at him in IoD is this.
- Another Dimension: The chest, along with Kero, Yue and the cards are not originally from Assiah.
- Neither are Ying Hua, Ruby, and Spinel.
- Bad Powers, Good People: Shinichi’s centre for his (dormant) magic is Death. Even dormant it seems to attract him to death.
- Several of the Cards also come under this category.
- Rin, that poor son of Satan.
- Badass Adorable: Rin at the age of 12 (the beginning of the series). Even without his sealed demonic powers and inexperience, he is a talented mage who was chosen as the Cardcaptor and still has Super-Strength. Just don’t make him angry.
- Several Cards qualify as this.
- Badass Teacher: Tsukishiro Sekki, Junior High Teacher by day and powerful Moon Mage by night (or whenever a magical incident occurs). She is also Rin’s magic teacher.
- As of IoD she has been recruited to teach magic at the cram school.
- Because You Were Nice to Me:
- Rin warms up to Sekki and Naoko considerably after they prove to be kind to him.
- Rin wins over the Dash card by feeding it and taking care of it without forcing a capture.
- Berserk Button: Whatever you do, DON’T bully Yukio in front of Rin.
- Don't badmouth Rin in front of Yukio.
- Don’t put Rin’s family at risk or threaten them. Mask found out the hard way
- Rin or Yukio doing something reckless seems to be a minor one for Shiro. See Anger Born of Worry.
- Destroying any of the Artist Card’s work is the quickest way to have a very angry (if essentially harmless) Sakura Card.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Cook is a genuinely sweet Card who just wants to create food and let others enjoy it. However, when Rin is accidentally harmed by careless exorcists, she makes full use of her ability to control kitchen implements to go after them.This includes knives and a deep fryer.
- Big Brother Instinct:
- Rin is utterly furious whenever a card harms or possesses Yukio.
- Yukio would do anything to protect his brother.
- Big Eater: Tsukishiro Sekki, who brings a three tiered bento as her usual lunch. All for herself.
- On Sports Day, Dandan brings her own three tiered bento to eat.
- Big Good: Despite being long dead (we assume), Sakura is still major force for good.
- Brick Joke: The recording of Hibiki bathing is discovered by a horrified Yukio.
- Bullying a Dragon:
- Rin's classmates bully him despite knowing his reputation.
- Shiro forces Rin into showing him his magic to prove his capabilities when he finds out about his magic. Shiro, you shouldn't give Rin the opportunity...
- Boxing Lessons for Superman: While the Cards have knowledge of their abilities, they can be supplemented by Rin learning more about their specific fields. For example, the Heal Card's abilities get stronger if she's in a hospital or if Rin learns more about the healing process.
- At the start of IoD we see Rin sparring with Fight in order to improve his combat abilities.
- Word of God is that Rin's cooking and baking skills are reflected in the quality of the food Cook and Sweet produce.
- Broken Pedestal: After Shiro tells Shura about Rin she gets mad and starts to doubt him.
- Brought Down to Badass: In the first chapter of IoD the seal on Rin's demon side is broken and he loses his human magic for the power of his demon blood.
- Brought Down to Normal: In the beginning of Inheritance of Magic, Rin temporarily lost access to the cards when he couldn't activate his Magic Staff.
- Camera Fiend: Record, which is no surprise considering Sakura modeled it after Tomoyo.
- Shiro likes taking pictures of his boys.
- Call-Back: Many of the methods used to transform the Cards in IOM are the same as in CCS.
- Cards of Power: The Sakura Cards, of course.
- The Cameo: Sakura appears in Chapter 27, as both a child and an adult, to give Rin encouragement while facing Dream and reassure him that "everything will surely be alright."
- Ran and Shinichi from Case Closed in Chapter 38.
- Both Sakura and Syoaran appear in Chapter 43 to talk to Rin after he passes the Judgement.
- Chained Heat: Shiro handcuffs Rin and Yukio to force them to spend time with each other.
- Chekhov's Gun: Most of the contents of the chest ends up seeing use many chapters later. The Magitek devices are brought out by Kero when necessary, the old Cardcaptor outfits are used to entertain Natsuko, and the battery packs are revealed to be there to help sustain the cards and Yue until Rin can do it.
- Chekhov's Gunman: Watanabe Naoko appears in Chapter 7 before her involvement with Rin in Chapter 9.
- Chekhov's Lecture: Rin has to listen to a boring lecture about the new fire alarm and sprinkler system that Tsukishiro-sensei implores him to listen to. When trying to draw out the Memory Card, Rin learns that the Memory card hates getting wet and remembers the fire alarm.
- Christmas Episode: Chapter 24 in IoC. Rin has to skip out due to the Snow card, but he manages to spend time with his family.
- Again in IOM with a successful Christmas party this time.
- Cliffhanger: Oh, only every second chapter or so. Thankfully, Love Psycho's swift updates alleviate the tension quickly, rather than leaving the reader...er, hanging.
- Cloud Cuckoo Lander: Watanabe Naoko is… odd. After seeing Rin sealing Illusion, she assumed it was a ghost and he was a ghostbuster, while judging from Yukio’s thoughts she is known to be eccentric and a Nightmare Fetishist.
- Mephisto is a a darker version.
- Continuation Fic: The story's background tells what happened to Sakura when she grew up after the series ended.
- Cooking Duel: Between Cook and Ukobach in IoD. Rin tries to moderate, but ultimately gets provoked into a three way cooking battle with the other two.
- Crossover: Crossovers with Cardcaptor Sakura but the Blue Exorcist universe is shared with Case Closed, Fruits Basket and Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha
- Contrived Clumsiness: During the Christmas Episode, the Mirror Card deliberately messes up cooking the Christmas dinner so Rin would be able to do it when he came back from getting the Snow Card.
- Crush Blush: Eiji often has one when talking to Rin.
- Darker and Edgier: ICD has more swearing and violence than Cardcaptor Sakura, taking more after Blue Exorcist in that regard.
- IoD compared to the first two arcs as it enters more into aoex.
- Deadpan Snarker: Yuri Egin certainly is unimpressed with the Vatican and snarks at Fujimoto when he is sent to kill her.
- Deflector Shield: The reason nobody killed Yuri or the twins before they were born? Turns out Satan was “protecting an investment” with one of these.
- This is also what the Shield card is most often used for.
- Demonic Possession: Sword pulls this off on Yukio in Chapter 7. Rin is not happy with it.
- Also tends to happen literally offscreen as a fairly normal part of demon behavior.
- Kojima gets possessed and goes after Sekki.
- The same demon that possessed Kojima comes back in the punk that sets off the events of Aoex.
- Shiro gets possessed by Satan.
- Destroy the Evidence: Shiro was investigating the magical activity in the area and trying to track the elusive human mages, only to his horror, discover that Rin was one of them. Rin erases Shiro's memory and destroys Shiro's investigation notes.
- Dissonant Serenity: Everyone in the school has happy smiles! Even when they start getting angry at Rin for not being happy, they keep smiling. When the nurse starts stabbing Rin with scissors because he's not happy, they keep smiling. When they are about to mob Rin, they keep smiling.
- Distant Sequel: To Cardcaptor Sakura. The story's premise is that Rin is Sakura's successor.
- Distracted by the Sexy: While watching through Record’s videos of Hibiki, he comes across one that doesn’t stop when Hibiki strips off and enters the bath. Poor Rin is too distracted to look away before Kero asks if he was going to turn it off.
- Eiji during Snow White according to
Word of God.
- Eiji during Snow White according to
- Dramatic Irony: Several variants of it.
- The monastery keep their exorcists activities and the existence of demons a secret from Rin, trying to give him a normal life and protect him since he has no training. Unbeknownst to them, due to Rin's Cardcaptor activities he knows their secrets and can defend himself thanks to his magic.
- The astute readers know early on that Tsukishiro Sekki is the vessel of Yue, but Rin doesn't know and the part of the journey is him finding out.
- Rin erases Yukio's memories of magic to protect him and give him a normal life, not knowing that Yukio is keeping the fact he's an exorcist-in-training for the same reasons.
- Rin promises the child-like Memory Card to not leave them or the other cards alone. As a result of Memory Card's actions, Rin is seen by the school as a monster than a harmless slacker that he was seen as before and is socially ostracized and alone.
- Shiro's criticism of Rin's maturity seems harsher to the audience who have seen Rin grow and mature a lot outside of Shiro's awareness.
- The Dreaded: Rin, among the Junior High students (and even the staff). Seeing as he considers fighting a gang of delinquents who attack him “punishment”, there is some reason to. Unfortunately it leads to Rin being ostracized, and unable to make friends easily because of his reputation.
- Dreaming of Things to Come: While under the influence of Dream in Chapter 27, Rin sees a number of events that have not yet occurred, including the discovery of the Illuminati’s artificial Gehenna Gate by the Angelic Legion, having discussion with his future love and what appears to be the Judgement.
- Near the end of IoM Rin gets flashes of dreams about his final challenge.
- In IoD Rin dreams about the Illuminati’s attack for several chapters before it happens.
- Downer Ending: Chapter 4. Rin succeeds in capturing the Memory card and assures them that he will be a good master. But Rin's reputation is destroyed as he's seen as a monster for atacking the nurse and wrecking the school and becomes a social pariah.
- The first chapter of IoD ends with Shiro in a coma and Rin without his human magic.
- Dude Magnet: Tsukkishiro attracts the eye of many men including her students and colleagues.
- Rin when female attracts a lot of male attention.
- Embarrassing but Empowering Outfit: The Armour grants whoever is wearing it enhanced protection and strength, being more portable than the Shield Card’s effect. Unfortunately, it takes the form of ancient Samurai armour and looks utterly ridiculous.
- Entertainingly Wrong: Many of the things Rin does are subject to this from his classmates. Him cheering on his class team to win in the sports carnival is somehow misinterpreted as “he will kill us if we lose”. Rin, of course, has no idea.
- Face–Monster Turn: For most of Chapter 4, Yukio resists the effects of the Memory card but slowly gets weaker and weaker. To Rin's horror, Yukio loses the battle and becomes a smiling zombie.
- Festival Episode: Quite a few
- Chapter 11 of IoC has Mask causing chaos at a School Festival
- Chapter 15 of IoC has the summer festival mentioned in Chapter 14, which Rin is experiencing so he can show it to Natsuko.
- Chapter 23 has the winter festival
- The side story Normal Does Not Exist Here has another summer festival.
- Chapter 15 of IoM has Rin's class preparing for the Winter Festival.
- Foreshadowing:
- Yukio speaks of a Noodle Incident where Rin was mistaken for a girl. Guess what happens to Rin with the Switch card?
- Yukio practices holding his breath while at Koyomi Pool and Recreation Centre.
- Yukio is reading a section in a demon book about Naiads.
- Rin having a premonition of an 'easy smile' when he sees a pink tanuki.
- Rin studying aria chants - specifically, the kind meant for kin of Rot demons.
- The last scene of IoM is of the seal on Rin's demon power deteriorating.
- Fusion Fic: The story fuses the characters of Blue Exorcist with the plot of Cardcaptor Sakura
- Friend to All Children: Rin. All of the kids in the hospital adore him and he often helps children whenever they need it. Eiji’s cousins love him as well.
- The Gadfly: Shiro encourages Rin to pull on the rope during a tug-of-war, despite knowing what will happen next, and cackling at the result.
- Gender Bender: Happens in Chapter 35, and is the power of Switch (a Card Sakura apparently created for that very reason). Additionally, it removes any gender dysphoria.
- Genre Savvy: Rin figures out in Chapter 1 that the whole Cardcaptor situation feels like a magical contract. Knowing how such things usually end when they are messed with due to reading manga, he decides to go along with it.
- Getting Smilies Painted on Your Soul: The Memory Card takes away the bad memories of all student body and faculty, turning them into smiling, happy husks. When Rin resists, they all attack him and attempt to force him to be happy.
- Goldfish Scooping Game: Rin is insanely good at this, managing to get 51 goldfish with three nets in Chapter 15. Without magic. Yukio implies that Rin’s constant reining in of his Super-Strength since childhood gives him the control to do this.
- Gone Horribly Right: Rin takes Naoko along with him to capture the Song card and uses the Illusion card to hide that he's a mage. Validating her beliefs got her more focused on him since he's proof of the supernatural.
- Gossipy Hens: Averted, a bunch of Rin's female classmates see who they think is Rin robbing a store. They note that they could tell everyone about this but instead decide to confront Rin, not wanting to spread harmful rumors.
- Gotta Catch Them All: One of the main plotlines of Inheritance of Cards. It is a Cardcaptor Sakura crossover after all.
- "Groundhog Day" Loop: Time once again causes with one of these to occur, with the only people shown to be aware being Rin, Kero and Mephisto. Off-screen, Sekki also had to deal with that.
- Happiness Is Mandatory: The Memory Card has displeased that Rin resisted his attempts to make him happy.
- Headbutt Thermometer: Rin does this in order to check on Yukio fever.
- Healing Hands: The Heal Card.
- Healing Magic Is the Hardest: however there are limitations. The first being that it cannot heal something that cannot be healed by normal methods, like cancer, and it is limited by the knowledge of its wielder or their surroundings.
- Hero Insurance: Averted. When Rin breaks the Memory Card's possession of the school, the school is soaked with many books damaged, the nurse office is a wreck and Rin and the nurse are found battered. Rin is blamed for the mess, nearly expelled if it wasn't for Tsukishiro-sensei vouching for him. Rin's family have to pay the damages, Rin is forced to do to volunteer work in the library, his reputation is in shreds and is further ostracized by the student body and faculty.
- Later justified with the appearance of the Heal Card and Repair Card, as Rin uses both heal any victims and repair damage caused by supernatural incidents.
- History Repeats: Rin ends up scattering the Cards by accidentally activating Windy, the same as Sakura, prior to Kero waking up, Kero muses that it is just like the time he first met Sakura.
- Home Field Advantage: Human mages have a substantial one over demons in Assiah, due to the leylines. Due to them being different to those in Gehenna, they interfere with demonic magic while human mages can draw magic from them; essentially weakening the demons while strengthening the mages.
- I Did What I Had to Do: Rin doesn't like having to erase Yukio and Shiro's memories but he will do it to protect his secrets and for their peace of mind. He just really doesn't enjoy doing it.
- Instant Runes: It is a Cardcaptor Sakura crossover after all. For the first arc Rin is still using Sakura’s magic circle when using the Cards, just as Sakura used Clow’s.
- It Was with You All Along: Light hid inside Rin just as it hid inside Sakura. It turns out Hope was hiding inside him as well, waiting for the Judgement.
- Karma Houdini: Memory Card.
- Keeping Secrets Sucks: Rin is often harmed socially and emotionally by having to keep his Cardcaptor activities a secret.
- Yukio’s relationship with Rin suffers due to his need to keep exorcist activities a secret.
- Shiro and the monks dislike having to lie to Rin so much.
- Kill and Replace: Attempted by Mirror in Chapter 21
- Knowledge Broker: Abe Eiji is a low level junior highschool variant.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia:
- Sakura made the Memory Card to maintain The Masquerade due to her eldest son’s slight Power Incontinence by wiping people’s memories. It is also capable of creating False Memories as well.
- Rin uses the Memory Card on Yukio to protect him and allow him some normality. He later uses on Shiro when his reaction is less than favorable.
- Sakura did this to Kero and Yue so they could give their full effort to helping Rin master the cards without knowing too much and killing the tension needed to properly transform the cards. It is reversed when the need has passed.
- Ley Line: Kero describes them as rivers of magic which spread across the world. Rin observes that one of the leylines are alternating flows and currents within the leyline, and confuse his magical senses. Where they gather together they can form “wellsprings”.
- Mages can use them as a source of power, as can the Sakura Cards (though to a more limited extent).
- Another type of place of power are "fountains" which are formed mysteriously and are "lesser" versions of wellsprings that pop up due to some kind of "significant" event, not from leylines gathering together.
- Littlest Cancer Patient: Natsuko in Chapter 14. The Heal Card is found at the hospital trying to cure her. She doesn’t make it.
- Loved I Not Honor More: While Rin would love to accept Manabu's or Naoko's overtures of friendship, but he refuses despite his loneliness in fear of them getting in the crossfire.
- Magic Staff: Sakura crafted a new one for Rin after she bargained away her old one to Yuuko. After Rin chooses to give Sakura’s power back and utilise his own magic after the Judgement the staff takes on a new form. It is complete with a Power Crystal, gold ornamentation, and a handle inscribed with golden kanji and an unknown silver script.
- Magitek: Sakura worked on combining technology and magic together, and before she died she left several items in the chest that would eventually reach the new Cardcaptor. They are all “a bit finicky” to start up, something that annoys Kero. One is a communication device that looks like an earring which wraps around the shell of the ear while another detects saturation of magical energy in the air.
- The disks created by the Record are made from magical crystal, yet can interface with modern disk readers.
- It is revealed at the end of the second arc that Sakura got much further than Kero thought and altered the guardians memories as part of the transition to their next master.
- Estelle is an intelligent device made by Sakura and used by Ying Hua to test Rin.
- Meaningful Name: Tsukishiro means "Moon Castle", and she is a Moon mage. It was also Yukito's last name and like him she is Yue’s host. Her first name, meanwhile, means "Snow Princess" which is comparable to Yukito's name meaning "Snow Rabbit".
- Ying Hua. Kero says that if her name was in Japanese, it would be Sakura.
- Metaphorically True: When the genderbended Rin needed help from the sales rep to get a bra, she tell the sales rep that she's the only girl in her household and has no one to rely on shopping for girl things.
- Mistaken for Prostitute: When walking in a shady part of town, a drunk tries to pick Rin up thinking that she's was a prostitute. Thankfully Riku fends him off before he could touch her.
- Mundane Solution: Rin defeats a dokkaebi demon with a weakness toward pig's blood by throwing blood sausages at it.
- In order to get Kero to act out in the Bake Sale, all Ying Hua does is plant brandy chocolates among the sweets, knowing that Kero would eat it and get drunk.
- Mundane Utility:
- Sakura continued Clow Reed’s legacy in creating Cards for the most mundane of reasons. The Artist Card creates artistic masterpieces, while the Cook Card is a Supreme Chef.
- In Chapter 2 Rin uses Little to shrink Kero so he can better enjoy a tiny piece of cake.
- In Chapter 14 Rin uses Illusion to help tell and show stories to Natsuko.
- Chapter 15 has Yukio using his sharpshooting skills, used to hunt and kill demons, to effortlessly win prizes at a shooting game.
- Rin uses The Artist to restore old stage backgrounds for the play his class does.
- He also uses The Glow to replace some lights that got broken during the play itself.
- Mutually Exclusive Magic: Human and demonic magic mix like water and potassium. Explosively. In Chapter 12 of IoC Mephisto sourly notes that he cannot interfere directly with the "Groundhog Day" Loop caused by human magic without the entire Cross City being destroyed in the process.
- Being of a demonic bloodline often prevents the inheritance of human magic from occurring, although Shiro notes that since Rin is more human than demon sealed, he may be able to access his inherited human magic without combusting.
- Even magictek made by demons can only detect the use of human magic. If it tries to detect a mage, it "tends to blow up every time. Rather spectacularly!"
- Summoning demons actually uses magic ability, but over time the exposure to demonic power warps the summoners magic to where summoning is the only magic they are capable of.
- However, magical filters do exist and can prevent all of the above-mentioned side effects.
- Mutual Masquerade: Yukio hides their shared demonic heritage and the fact that he's an exorcist from Rin. Rin hides that he inherited magic and he's a mage.
- Mythology Gag: Memory is clearly based off Usamaro from the Blue Exorcist movie, including its habit of removing negative memories.
- Names to Run Away from Really Fast: The True Cross Order’s Project Iscariot. It is so heavily classified that “the Order wishes it didn’t happen” and Shiro, one of the few people with full clearance, manages to make Lightning nervous with how serious he is when it is bought up.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Early on, Kero comments that the monastery probably kept the existence of demons and their exorcists activities a secret to protect Rin and Yukio. As a result, Rin keeps his Cardcaptors activities a secret for the monastery's peace of mind. Rin gets so obsessed with keeping the monastery out of the loop that keeps himself away from their help, even they are accepting of truth or when he starts to face real demons.
- Several of the tests in the second arc have the unfortunate and unintended side effect of making Rin even more reluctant to involve other people in his life. Ying Hua was not happy.
- This could apply to Rin and Shiro both regarding how the situation deteriorated in IoD.
- Noodle Incident:
- Chapter 6 gives us two: the first being the time that according to Yukio somebody thought Rin was a girl. The person apparently apologized. Rin immediately threatens to tell people about the “Pipe Incident” which makes Yukio back down.
- We never find out exactly why the Haunted House at Mephyland in Chapter 29 is so scary. The only hint we get is the fact that Mephisto is very proud of it.
- The events that happened while Mirror was impersonating Rin in Chapter 39. Memory says it is too complicated to put in words, and when Rin uses Memory to see what happened he begins mumbling that his family is crazy.
- Kero refuses to tell Rin why Sakura thought up of the Switch card.
- Not Distracted by the Sexy: When Tsukishiro stuns her students into silence with her swimsuit, Rin doesn’t even notice it, which confuses Yukio who thought Rin had a crush on her. This was because Rin was attracted to her Moon magic, just like Sakura and Syaoran were attracted to Yue’s magic in Yukito.
- Oh, No... Not Again!: This is Kero's reaction when Rin awakes him up that he fell asleep and the cards got released again.
- Only the Chosen May Wield: The Sakura card and Sakura's Magitek devices (the ones in the chest anyway) only appear to successors. When Shiro breaks the chest holding them on accident, all he sees is an empty chest.
- Only Sane Woman: Tsukishiro, after the events of Chapter 4, is the only one of the faculty to be logical and speak in Rin’s defense. It helps that she is also a mage and knows Rin is the Cardcaptor.
- Outside-Context Problem: The Sakura Cards to the exorcists – being used to dealing solely with demons, they assume that the Cards are also demons, however they do not have the abilities or equipment to be able to deal with the rogue Cards. Encounters between the two tend to end poorly for the exorcists.
- Shiro is informed about human magic and mages by Mephisto in the second arc and starts to put things together from there.
- Parental Favoritism: Yukio and Rin have a strange relation due to this. Yukio feels that he's The Unfavorite due to the monastery's efforts to protect Rin and keep him out of the loop. Rin feels that he's The Unfavorite because the everyone at the monastery often excludes him from many activities and always spend their time with Yukio.
- Played for Laughs, a drunk Kero accuses Yue of being Rin's favorite.
- Passing the Torch: The series revolves around Sakura passing the Cards to her successor.
- Pimped-Out Dress: The play Rin's class performs for the winter festival in IOM is full of these. Rin wears two of them.
- Power-Strain Blackout:
- At the beginning of Chapter 21 Rin is forced to use Time and then immediately afterwards Thunder in order to defeat Shot. The strain knocks him out and leaves him weakened for the rest of the chapter.
- Using Time against Dream also wore him out.
- Rin experienced more of these at the start of the second arc as he began to transform the Sakura Cards into Rin Cards. As time passes and he gets stronger these become less frequent.
- At one point Rin panics and transforms a large number of Cards at once which exausts him.
- Puppy-Dog Eyes: Kero tries to use these on Rin in order to go school with him for the bake sale that was happening during Sports Day.
- Right for the Wrong Reasons: Kero assumes that Rin’s supernatural physical abilities are a result of possessing a demonic bloodline and being a throwback to some long ago ancestor. He’s right about the bloodline, but not quite right about exactly how far back the ancestory was.
- Secret Secret-Keeper: Tsukishiro Sekki, who knows both that Rin is a mage and that he is the Cardcaptor. During Chapter 17 she tells him and transitions to Secret-Keeper.
- Rin for his family of exorcists.
- Seers: Most magic users seem to have the potential for scrying and prophetic dreams. Rin seems to have talent for this in addition to sensing skills and Sekki knew in advance that she would be getting another student in her class.
- Sensor Character: Rin has the ability to sense demons, as demonstrated in canon, as well as magic. Kero believes it is his speciality, especially considering Rin was capable of detecting the different flows of power within a leyline without much practice. Word of God is that “Sense” is one of Rin’s major abilities.
- Shout-Out: A delinquent with silver hair called Riku shows up in Chapter 35.
- Significant Birth Date: Tsukishiro Sekki was supposedly born on the 6th of April, the exact same day Rin released the Sakura Cards.
- So Proud of You: Yuri tells Rin that she will always be proud of him and Yukio when he is shoved into the past by Return.
- Stalker without a Crush: Record (being based on Tomoyo) turns out to be this to aspiring manga-ka Hanamura Hibiki. It is revealed she thought he was incredibly talented, and was trying to show him how amazing she thought it was. She is horrified when she discovers that it was actually stressing him out.
- Status Quo Is God: Enforced. Rin erases Yukio and Shiro's memories if they find out about his magic.
- Super-Strength: Even with his demonic attributes sealed, Rin is still incredibly strong and able to go toe to toe with Power, whose power is noted to be Super-Strength. He blocks a carousal thrown at him with a single punch. In all honesty, the fact Rin is this strong and yet can cook and act as a normal person is more impressive.
- Superpowerful Genetics: The ability to perform magic is passed down family lines. Rin’s and Yukio’s (dormant) magic came from their mother, who in turn inherited magic from both her parents.
- Supreme Chef: Appropriately enough, the Cook Card. It is capable of making food on Rin’s level.
- Rin himself is one.
- Tall Poppy Syndrome: When the Cook card became active it took over the school cafeteria, making it very popular among the students for once. The card got reported to the exorcists by cafeteria workers, who got jealous that students preferred a ghost over them and kicked them out of their workplace.
- Teen Pregnancy: Word of God is that Yuri was 16 in the Inheritance-verse when she had Rin and Yukio.
- The Bus Came Back: After not hearing about her since the chapter with Natsuko, her mother contacts Rin in IOM to tell him about the charity she just started.
- There Are No Coincidences: There is only hitsuzen.
- Trap Is the Only Option: Yue, Rin and Keroberos go to the park and face giant, spirals of water.
- Yue and Rin going in to the elevator.
- Rin using the Jump to get to the bottom of the pit.
- This Is Gonna Suck: The moment when Rin and Kero realize that they have to stalk Hibiki in order to find the Record card.
- Wake Up, Go to School & Save the World: While it doesn't happen everyday, Rin does have problems balancing school, work and family with Cardcaptor duties.
- Weaksauce Weakness: A dokkaebi demon has a weakness of pig's blood.
- Wham Episode:
- The earliest one would be Chapter 4. The previous chapters were cute and the stakes were low, but Chapter 4 the card is dangerous, almost deadly. Rin's school is possessed by the Memory Card and nearly kill Rin for going against it. Even he captures the card, the consequences last for the entire story. This shows Rin that the cards need to be captured as soon as possible or the consequence would be great.
- Chapter 26. Yukio has begun to gain demonic red in his eyes.
- Chapter 42: The Judgement has begun, and Sekki is revealed to be the host of Yue.
- IoM starts with an attack by magic that feels like Sakura's.
- The first chapter of IoD ends with Shiro in a coma and Rin getting shipped off to True Cross Academy and the cram school.
- White-and-Grey Morality: The first two arcs, Inheritance of Cards and Inheritance of Magic, have no real villains. The Cards aren't malicious, just out of control with Rin trying his hardest to befriend them. Tsukishiro and Ying Hua are deliberately setting trials for Rin, but it's really in for Rin's best interests.
- Winged Humanoid: Heal. It is the reason why Natsuko believes she is an angel.
- Yue has feathery wings.
- Ruby is a butterfly winged example.
- Rin can be this once he starts using Fly on himself instead of his staff.
- Wrong Genre Savvy: Being in a world full of demons, Shiro and Yukio assume the strange supernatural activity to be demons. Nope, turns out its magic.
- You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Kero gives Rin some much needed reassurance after he is extremely demoralized after he gets blamed after Memory card's actions wreck the school.Rin: And why did I end up as the Cardcaptor...when all I do is fuck up.Kero:Ah don't know. However...There is no coincidence in this world – there is only inevitability. All of this happens for a reason. You see, Sakura arranged for the Cards to go to a candidate that fits certain attributes. Rin, you definitely fit them. Ah've known you long enough to know that. You are worthy of being Cardcaptor. And all this...this will pass. I'm sure you will find yer place in this world one day.
- Your Magic's No Good Here: Downplayed, but demonic magic often runs into interference from the Assiah leylines. One of the major reasons why demons haven't overrun Assiah.
- You Are Not Ready: Everyone at the monastery to Rin.
- Rin to everyone at the monastery.
- Zombie Apocalypse: Rin calls the Memory Card's possession of the school this word-for-word. They even mob and attack Rin!
