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Fanfic / Infinity

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A Lyrical Nanoha fanfic written by Andy Moczo (author of the pure crack that is Uninvited Guests) taking a shot at writing an action story. Set between the second and third seasons of the Nanoha anime, Infinity is a story that, in the author's own words, 'plays fast and loose with canon' by inserting an entire new major case into a time when canonically nothing happened, yet still makes a fair effort to remain Original Flavor.

Six months after the Book of Darkness incident, Nanoha, Fate, and of course Arf are sent to stop some pirates from stealing from an archeological site. While everything seems immediately to go well and the criminals and stolen artifacts are quickly handed off for transport, it doesn't take too horribly long for the transport ship to be hacked by a new foe who obtains the stolen orbs for their own designs.

One week later during a planned picnic with Nanoha and her friends, even Suzuka and Arisa, Fate meets a... let's call her strange girl by the name of Tsukuyomi who is looking for her brother. Besides the oddity in her mannerisms she's noticeable for wearing a formal kimono in a park and having blue hair (though Fate admits having a purple-haired friend muddies the waters a bit in what a 'normal' hair colour is). After some awkwardness and more weirdness on Tsukuyomi's part her older, but no less odd, brother, Susanoo, finds her. After asking Nanoha to translate where they're supposed to be going, they take off into the air, flying at high speed for Tokyo. The girls quickly decide that they MIGHT have to reschedule their picnic and take off after the unknowns.

What follows is a story that manages to pull off being both hilarious and yet suitably dramatic, with equal parts action and humor (occasionally drawn from Character Exaggeration born from memes and series in-jokes)) and makes them work. Even better, it features all the main characters from the first two seasons prominently, and gives them all chances to shine quite brilliantly; even a character or two from the third season get a cameo appearance. Can be found here.

Now complete at a slightly ridiculous 380,000 words. Yikes.

There is also a spin-off fic taking place in the same 'verse. "Fate T. Harlaown and the Case of the Murderous Murder" takes place some point after StrikerS, and involves Fate and Teana being sent to investigate the mysterious death of a planetary governor. However, Susanoo decides to join in and 'help' with the investigation in his own special way. Soon, the trio get embroiled in a complex plot of intrigue, numerous suspects, and names (such as kindly old Dr. von-Murder and his wildly successful line of household robotic servants called KillBots) that apparently "mean something different in the local language".

Not to be confused with the tabletop wargame Infinity or Infinity: The Quest for Earth.

Tropes:

  • Achievements in Ignorance: Tsukuyomi has no problems solving impossible theorems, conjectures and postulates of math thanks to advanced technology downloaded into her, and afterwards she simply says that she hoped she passed. She can also whip up a mean feast. But her best talent is probably being a painter. Probably, because beautiful paintings appear out of nowhere in her presence, but nobody remembers her painting them, not even her.
  • Accidental Misnaming: As a Running Gag, Susanoo will never get Nanoha's name right. He seems to have the general sound of it down, but tends to usually end up with something like 'Nanako', even when others directly point out to him he's got her name wrong.
  • A God Am I: Enlil gets a wee bit carried away in Chapter 26:
    I'm not a god. I AM WHAT A GOD PRAYS TO.
    I. Am. I...I...may have let the sensation go to my head for a moment there.
  • A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Chapter 31 reveals that the Yggdrasil supercomputer that stored Enlil's memories prior to her takeover of Alicia's body basically altered Enlil's personality and memories, dampening her conscience and amplifying her paranoia, aggression, and anger so that she would do whatever it took to re-establish the Empire. Yggdrasil's stated reason for doing this is that it must preserve the Empire at any cost.
  • Amusing Injuries: It's become a Running Gag for Tsukuyomi to 'elegantly and discreetly' injure her brother in order to cut him off when he starts doing something particularly stupid.
    • Up To Eleven when she 'Elegantly and Discreetly' punches him in the back of the knee.
  • An Axe To Grind: Fate's Bardiche and Susanoo's Raijin
  • Angrish: Chrono is rendered incoherent by Lindy's constant Magnificent Bastard schemes and keeping him in the dark.
    "I... you... I... we... you... oh, you know what? I don't even care anymore. Everyone just get ready to teleport."
  • Anti-Villain: In the grand tradition of Nanoha, every antagonist is one. Some more than others. Except for the last three guardian gods.
  • Anything That Moves: Amaterasu has thus far displayed varying levels of attraction to Arf, Signum, Chrono, Nanoha, Fate Yuuno, and... er... both of her own siblings.
  • Apologetic Attacker: Besides the Heroine's legendary predilection for this, Tsukuyomi, Susanoo and Amaterasu all dip into this at times. It's made clear from the get-go that they have absolutely nothing against the heroes, and in some cases outright respect and like them, but circumstances force them to fight.
  • Back-to-Back Badasses: Fate and Susanoo during a brief Enemy Mine scenario in chapter 8.
  • Badass Boast:
    • Chapter 31, Amaterasu to Yggdrasil.
    Amaterasu: "You ask me to do my worst? You delusional pocket calculator, you have never seen my worst."
    • Chapter 38: Susanoo to Signum.
    Susanoo: You talk about the Mistress of the Night Sky like such a thing could exist. Pay attention, you little speck. I am the god of thunder, Susanoo the Storm Emperor. Day or night, the lord of the sky is always me.
  • Badass Normal: Shirou. Sure, Amaterasu should have already been dead several times over by the time he got to her, and there is no way he could repeat it in a proper fight, but he still managed to knock her out. Which is one up on pretty much everyone else.
  • Bad Liar: Tsukuyomi. She's capable of fighting deceptively, but her Cloud Cuckoo Lander tendencies mean the more time she has to think, the less likely she is to come up with a convincing lie.
  • Berserk Button:
    • Amaterasu finds Vita's by immolation.
      After narrowly avoiding getting Gigant-Hammered...
      Amaterasu: In the name of every god there ever was, the hat will grow back!
      Vita: It's the principle of the thing!
    • When Nanoha reminds Precia that she's wholly responsible for Alicia's condition, the only thing she ever truly cared about, Precia flips out in grand style. And she did that on purpose, by the way.
    • In Chapter 23, Amaterasu suggests to Signum that she should abandon Hayate, as her attachment and devotion to her mistress seems to be making Signum weak. A few seconds later, Amaterasu is staring up at the sky from her position on her back, coughing up soot, and says, "Wow. I did hit a nerve." Of course, that was exactly the reaction she had been hoping for.
  • Beware the Nice Ones: Shamal scares the bejeesus out of Nanoha and Fate in Chapter 20 for not taking it easy after the battle.
    • And Lindy. Sweet mother of god, Lindy. Especially in chapter 25, when her Mama Bear tendencies hit the stage.
    • Susanoo seems like a goofball most of the time, but if his family is in danger....
  • Big Brother Instinct: Susanoo's is pronounced, Chrono's is more low-key.
  • Big Damn Heroes: Hayate and the Wolkenritter at the end of Chapter 14.
  • Big Good: The Three Legendary Admirals show up and Mizetto takes an active role in the case.
  • Bittersweet Ending: Mid-Childa is saved, Nanoha "befriended" Enlil and Section Black is disbanded. However, Al Sethis is sent back to the void with the 3 Guardians, Enlil (now the last of her empire) is lost and alone, Section Black remain Karma Houdinis and Jail Scaglietti is on track for StrikerS.
  • Blood Knight: Amaterasu. However, she seems to have different kinds of Blood Knight personalities, varying between a cold, serious murder machine and openly admitting she's finding the battle a turn-on. Which she uses seems to depend on some combination of how angry she is... and how sexually attracted she is to her opponent. Yikes.
    • As of Chapter 25, it seems her switching her Barrier Jacket into its Final Drive Mode is an indicator of when she's switched over.
  • Boisterous Bruiser: How could this page not exist for so long with Susanoo in it....
  • Boxing Lessons for Superman: Susanoo's Final Drive.
  • Brainwashed and Crazy: In a very, very, subtle way; Enlil herself. Yggdrasil tweaked the brain-tape uploaded into Alicia Testarossa's corpse just enough for her to willingly launch a first strike with a weapon the worst lunatics ever to hold power in the Infinite Empire's history would only use out of desperation.
  • Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs: Amy feared this would happen:
    Amy: Going to make the food processors shoot bees? Force the engines spin us in circles until we all get so dizzy we throw up? Make the food processors shoot bees that cause nausea?
  • Breaking Speech: Fate makes an awesome one toward Precia when she try to intercept her. In a way, she still her daughter, after all.
    "You have to stop this, mother. Only you can. Because if you don't, then you are allowing billions of people to die. And at the end of it,the only thing you'll be getting for your troubles is another me."
    • Subverted for now, since the speech seems to only makes her angrier.
  • Breather Episode: Generally speaking, each major battle that takes place will be followed by a few chapters of exposition, character interaction, and occasional fluff.
  • Buffy Speak: "There was an axe and it was far away from me, so I used my mind-brain to focus on axe-thoughts, and then I came up with a plan"
  • Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Susanoo, Tsukuyomi, and Amaterasu. It's been implied that 'god' is merely a title or nickname they were awarded for several centuries of combat service, during which they were basically undefeated, and they certainly have the skill to back it up, even without considering the hints that they are currently operating at considerably less than their full power. But... to put it bluntly, you wouldn't know it from their personalities.
    • Admiral Lindy as well, as everyone thinks that she made the rank purely due to personality, and she certainly is very flighty. She specifically says this in chapter 25, while demonstrating to Precia exactly how wrong that is.
  • Cassandra Truth: Tsukuyomi finds the idea that Amaterasu was attacked by a war machine on their homeworld and barely escaped with her life so impossible that she concludes Nanoha is lying despite her hostage Alisa being a thought away from agonizing death.
  • Cerebus Syndrome: Invoked in chapter 36. The series has its dark moments before, but for the first time, there's possibility that the enemies, because of situation, will be irreconcilable. Thankully subverted... then Double Subverted with the appearance of War Units. Moczo even states that chapter 41 will be the last happy-funny chapter
  • The Chew Toy: Everyone really.
  • Cloud Cuckoo Lander: The three siblings all have their own... quirks.
    Alisa (After hearing the talents of Susanoo's family): ... So basically, your family is insane.
    Susanoo: All the best ones are!
  • Combat Pragmatist: Averted somewhat by the antagonists, as they tend to mostly mess around. However, if pressed hard enough they will stoop to shooting someone in the back.
    • Taken Up To Eleven by Nanoha in chapter 36. She knows that she had no chance defeating Tsuku in straight-up, honest combat, so what she do? Digging personal information from Ammy to be used in psychological warfare, of course.
  • Comically Missing the Point: Signum, surprisingly, is the biggest offender. There are stuff likes "capable of using sword with my left hand, so it's not a problem" when Hayate worries about her condition, and thinking about her sword sheathe when Fate worries (and awed about how non-chalantly she takes her injuries) about her condition.
  • Companion Cube
    ...and Signum had been struck by lightning seventeen times and then slammed into solid rock at just shy of subsonic speed.
    She didn't seem teribly upset by this, probably because she still had her sheathe.
  • The Comically Serious: Signum, mostly. Chrono has his moments, too.
  • Cool and Unusual Punishment: Chrono is perfectly willing to send Arf to dog obedience school.
    • Tsukuyomi shall not be getting you a candy.
    • Adm. Lindy is a bad, bad girl and must go to bed without any dessert at all.
    "You Monster!"
  • Cordon Bleugh Chef/ Supreme Chef: Susanoo, considering Arisa and Suzuka's reaction to his food. It looks bad, but apparently tastes amazing.
  • Cosplay Otaku Girl: Amaterasu at times seems more interested in dressing up Nanoha than actually fighting her. For bonus points, her proposed costumes so far have all been shout outs to Cardcaptor Sakura.
    • She and Hayate are bonding over this, much to Signum's complete horror.
  • Cybernetics Eat Your Soul: The 'Black Cat' cyborgs are essentially people who have had so much of their body and brain replaced by machinery that they no longer have a human mind.
  • Crippling Overspecialization: Yuuno's defenses prove completely impenetrable to anything Tsukuyomi can throw at him (much like as against Vita, in the series), but his offensive abilities are too limited and weak to threaten her, either.
    • Lindy, as you might have gathered from the fact that she sealed the Garden of Time in the original anime, specializes in sealing and energy manipulation, and can do very little with normal combat. Chapter 25 demonstrates how little this matters when you have a plan and you are very, very, angry at someone.
    • As in main continuity, Hayate. See When All You Have Is a Hammer….
  • Defeat Means Friendship:
    • Discussed by Fate, Suzuka and Arisa:
      Arisa: We could sell tickets. Combat therapy. Nanoha will smack you around for five minutes, and then all your problems will just solve themselves.
      Fate: It's not that simple, Arisa. She also asks what you're trying to do, and then she offers to be your friend.
    • Susanoo and Tsukuyomi only join the heroes after being beat up.
    • In fine Nanoha tradition, Enlil's brainwashing is removed when Nanoha Starlight Breakers her.
  • Demoted to Extra: Discussed for comic effect when Arf and Yuuno are unexpectedly detoured from an on-going battle, but thankfully not used in the fic itself. If they appeared in the first two seasons, they appear here.
  • Deus Exit Machina: Hayate constantly. Unless the author specifically tailored the fight for her, she'll be too injured or Rein would be occupied etc.
  • Depraved Bisexual: How this page has lasted this long without putting Amaterasu here...
  • Dissimile:
    From Chapter 32: Aggressive computing, for the record, was a bit like normal computing, only it wasn't actually like computing at all and was mostly just setting the computer on fire.
  • Dissonant Serenity: Invoked by Lindy after Fate is injured. The ends up terrifying Amy.
    "So you see, Amy, I am very deliberately suppressing my real feelings and reactions to this mission. Because if I showed how I was really feeling... well, that would be pretty scary." Lindy said. She was still smiling. That just made it worse.
  • The Dragon: Precia, and she's not happy about it
  • Dramatic Ellipsis: A good indicator that Chrono is about to blow a fuse.
  • Dying as Yourself: Precia refuses to allow Fate to rescue her, reasoning that she'd rather die with a clear head than be saved and healed and subsequently go straight back to her mission.
  • Eldritch Abomination: The Fall. A thing that appears unpredictably, following magical energy and magical portals. It lands in a planet, causes nuclear winter, drives the survivors insane and absorbs their Linker Cores before moving to the next world. Nothing the Empire used could stop or predict it and eventually they were forced to a Godzilla Threshold
  • Embarrassing Nickname: Signum, of all people, has been saddled with "Kitten". On the bright side, only one person calls her that; unfortunately, it's the worst possible person.
  • Emotionless Girl: Tsukuyomi. Though she's more reserved and weird than actually emotionless. As proven in her mild freak-outs in Chapter 26 and 27.
  • Establishing Character Moment: The peculiar manner in which Tsukuyomi and Susanoo act in their first scene immediately clues the viewer in to their individual personalities, and is enough to instantly alert the girls to the fact that they're not from around here. And Amaterasu's is... well, see the entry below for Marshmallow Hell.
  • Evil Is Not a Toy: The TSAB leadership just do not learn. They ally with a wildcard with potential access to unknown technology in an effort to get access to new science and tech only to be outmaneuvered when the ally turns out to be commanding power beyond what they expect. Jail Scaglietti clearly took pointers from this incident.
  • Exact Words: Being artificial life forms bound to follow the commands of their ruler, Amaterasu, Tsukuyomi and Susanoo all use this occasionally with a hefty dose of Loophole Abuse whenever they think they need to. Tsukuyomi and Susanoo use this in Chapter 33 to go against a direct order to not track down Amaterasu after her fight with Yggdrasil.
  • Expy: Tsukuyomi bears more then a passing resemblance to another blue haired girl. And Who The Hell Do You Think Susanoo Is Like! Also, Amaterasu exhibits some similarity to a certain other Tsukuyomi...
    • In recent chapters, as we delve more into their characters, they also shown traits of the other characters, like Miyu for Tsukuyomi, and Dexter for Susanoo
    • Enlil and the 3 Guardians are very similar to Hayate and the Wolkenritter. A family-unit group of magical construct guardians from a lost ancient civilization who are "befriended" by the main characters. Enlil, their leader has a similar role and fighting style to Hayate in Strikers.
  • Facial Markings: The three god-mages all have 'a strange, stylized tattoo looking like three interlocked crescents inside a triangle' on their foreheads.
  • Fantastic Nuke: The Tears of Al Hazard, a dimensional distortion weapon that can swallow an entire planet. They're called that because they're reason Al Hazard isn't there anymore.
  • Fighting Fingerprint: The main weakness of Lunatique is that it can't disguise this.
  • Finagle's Law: In full effect. Explicitly used in a chapter title: "Anything That Can Go Wrong..."
  • Four-Star Badass: Taurus Bentz.
  • Friendly Enemy: Susanoo generally seems to consider the battles with the cast more of a game than anything else, and has openly stated he already thinks of at least Fate and Nanoha as friends... while still fighting them. He even, in their first fight, declares Fate to be his apprentice and tries to teach her to be more excited about combat. As well as giving pointers in how to more effectively use her various attacks.
  • Full-Circle Revolution: The Infinite Empire. They started as an alliance of worlds who rebelled against Al-Hazard because the Thought Lords conquered worlds at magepoint and subjected the losers to horrific unethical experiments. Then they succeeded and .... become an empire that conquered worlds at magepoint and (it's hinted) subjected them to unethical experiments.
  • Gag Echo: "...so your whole family is completely insane, then?"
  • Gilligan Cut: It happens so often that it might as well be a Running Gag.
  • Godzilla Threshold: The Tears of Al Hazard are a WMD powerful enough to destroy reality. The Twilight Empire only used them when they crossed the threshold (once against the Al-Hazardi and once against an Eldritch Abomination. The fact that Enlil ordered their use without crossing this is a sign that something is wrong.
  • Gone Horribly Right: Yggdrasil suppressed Enlil's conscience and heightened her aggression thinking to have a ruthless ruler more open to his suggestions. What he got was an Axe-Crazy Omnicidal Maniac prone to Villainous Breakdown.
  • Good Thing You Can Heal: Signum. Shamal worries that she and Vita are much too used to it.
  • Good Is Not Dumb: Of course, all of the good guys continue being as smart as they usually are, but one must also mention the goofy, friendly foe that is Susanoo.
    Precia had made the mistake many people did: Susanoo was loud, and goofy, and friendly, and would put himself at risk to avoid killing people he didn't need to. He was nice, and people thought that made him soft. But if he felt something he truly cared about was in danger, if he stopped trying to be soft, and got really, really serious...
    Tsukuyomi had seen what Susanoo was truly capable of when he put his mind to it. She knew that 'nice' wasn't the same as 'good'.
  • Grand Theft Me: Enlil to Alicia Testarossa; Word of God confirming "bodyjacking" can be found on Animesuki's Nanoha Fanfiction Forum.
  • Guile Hero / Magnificent Bastard: Lindy, much to Chrono's chagrin.
  • Hero of Another Story: Megane shows up in a cameo in the middle of investigating the combat cyborgs.
  • Hidden Depths: The three Guardian Units who serve as the primary antagonists are all a lot more layered than is initially obvious.
  • Humongous Mecha / Wave-Motion Gun: One designed to provide anti-starship fire, being used as an anti-personnel weapon.
  • Humanity Is Infectious: Amaterasu, believe it or not, was as The Stoic, very much like Signum. A few months with humans and she develops her Lovable Sex Maniac personality.
  • Hypocritical Humor/ Irony: In chapter 36, when rescuing Nanoha and Fate, Signum and Vita accused Susanoo and Tsukuyomi of dishonorable behavior for fighting a duel against significantly weaker mages and going all out, which is not terribly different than how they themselves acted during points of A's. What makes this more ironic is that their reasoning is practically the same (to save their loved ones).
  • Immortality Bisexuality: Amaterasu...though her siblings seem to be immune, so she might have just been that way from the start.
  • Is This What Hatred Feels Like?: Yuuno Scrya discovers true hatred for the first time in his young life when confronted with a pirate who broke into an ancient ruin and, upon discovering wondrous artifacts of a culture older than recorded history, attempted to SELL them on the black market. It's only afterwards, with introspection and an amusing bout of ranting, that this feeling fully crystallizes.
  • Lack of Empathy: As of Chapter 30, it appears Enlil suffers from this. For instance, not understanding why Precia is upset that Alicia's brain has been overwritten and is currently serving as Enlil's new body. Or why the other protagonists are upset.
    • Turns out to be foreshadowing. Enlil lacks empathy because Yggdrasil actively suppressed it
  • Lady of War: Besides the examples in the canon cast, Tsukuyomi when using her device's close-range form and Amaterasu all the time.
  • Lethal Chef: Arf. Her attempts at making pudding result in something that not only eats through Nanoha's shields, is lethal to most forms of organic life, and induces allergic reactions in Thaxillian crystal birds, but is capable of feeling anger. According to Tsukuyomi, the ingredients used would have been more suited for the creation of chemical weapons.
    Arf: Fate, the whipped cream has grown teeth!
  • Let's Get Dangerous!: The three siblings at the end of chapter 26: all powered up by being in their home dimension, all ready for payback.
  • Let's You and Him Fight: Lunatique. It didn't work.
  • Liberty Over Prosperity: Basically Lindy's and by extension the TSAB's as a whole, against the Infinite Empire.
  • Limit Break: As in canon, most of the mages and knights have a Final Drive form.
  • Literally Laughable Question: Before the final battle, Signum asks Susanoo and Tsukuyomi how to get their older sister to stop hitting on her. Susanoo bursts into laughter and Tsukuyomi giggles.
  • Lotsa People Try to Dun It: Played for Laughs in the spin-off Fate T. Harlaown and the Case of the Murderous Murder. Every single suspect thinks that they succeeded in killing the governor, but he actually choked to death on a nut.
  • Loveable Sex Maniac: Amaterasu is so very much this that Hayate directly calls out the trope.
  • Luke, I Am Your Father: During Megane's cameo, it is heavily implied that Zest is Lutecia's father.
  • Made of Iron: Chapter 20. Signum. Ye gods.
    "Hmmmm... multiple lacerations scattered over most of my body; only a few of them were deep enough to reach bone, though. Some rather severe burns, both electrical and fire. My arm was broken in two places and nearly cut off. I was partially impaled, though that one wasn't so bad since the wound was cauterized shut. I believe I was mildly concussed when she threw me into the ground. Oh, and Laevateinn lost his sheathe."

    Fate's jaw dropped. She... she... that should kill someone, shouldn't it? Shouldn't that kill a person? And yet, the older woman looked, right now, as if she'd taken a nasty spill off a bicycle at worst. She didn't even seem terribly uncomfortable, in sharp contrast to how Fate herself felt.

    Signum seemed a little puzzled by her expression. "Is something wrong? Is this about the sheathe? Because I'm informed Miss Atenza has the parts needed to replace it, and the order should be done within the week, so it isn't too great a concern."
  • Mad Scientist/ Mad Artist: Jail Scaglietti, in his cameos, considers himself a bit of both.
  • Making a Splash: Tsukuyomi.
  • Mama Bear: Lindy. Sweet mother of God, Lindy.
    Lindy:"Fate... did you see her, after your encounter? Did you look at that girl, broken in the dirt after what you did to her? Because I did, I saw my little girl lying half-dead in a hospital bed, and I saw the burns on my son's body from when he tried to save her and you tried to kill him for it. What mother could possibly be neutral after that? ...You tried to kill my children. Did you think I wouldn't take it personally?
    Lindy: "Burn."
  • The Maiden Name Debate: Since the story starts off only a week or two after Fate was adopted, she hasn't fully decided what her last name will be. The story just goes with "Fate Who-Had-A-Last-Name-Even-If-She-Wasn't-Sure-What-It-Was".
  • Marshmallow Hell: Amaterasu's Establishing Character Moment is shoving Susanoo into this and only letting him out when Tsukuyomi points out that he doesn't seem to be able to breathe.
  • Master of Illusion: Tsukuyomi. And much later, her mentor, Loki.
  • Meaningful Echo: Several, to the second season of the anime.
  • Mêlée à Trois: Between TSAB proper and Infinity Empire and the cover TSAB operation Section Black.
  • Misunderstood Loner with a Heart of Gold: Arguably, Tsukuyomi.
  • Named Weapons: The current batch of villains continue the series trend of having named Intelligent Devices, with Raijin for Susanoo, Suijin for Tsukuyomi and Kagutsuchi for Ameterasu. Followed later by Mjolnir for Thor, Gungnir for Odin, and Hela for Loki.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Seeing that Nanoha was in danger, but not that she was successfully talking her way out of it, Yuuno and Chrono attack Tsukuyomi just when Nanoha was getting through to her. This causes Tsukuyomi to believe that Nanoha was simply lulling her into a false sense of security and thus Tsukuyomi decides to fight seriously. Nanoha was not happy.
  • The Nicknamer: Susanoo
  • The Nondescript: Section Black operatives.
  • Noodle Incident: A few casual instances, but a particularly plot-centric one in Arf's assault of a prisoner she and Yuuno were interrogating, and the bureaucratic fallout that ensues.
    Yuuno: I can't believe you bit him!
    Arf: He asked me to!
  • No Sense of Personal Space: Amaterasu.
  • Nothing Can Stop Us Now!: Clearly, Enlil has not read the Evil Overlord List.
  • Not-So-Harmless Villain: Amaterasu comes across as a flirtatious goofball most of the time, but if she starts fighting seriously...
    • Not to mention Susanoo. The key sentence: He just didn't try very hard.
  • Not So Stoic: Tsukuyomi is very bothered with Nanoha's attempts to become friends with her, and finds herself responding despite herself. Her stoic demeanor finally cracks when Nanoha manages to accurately dissect her feelings, and she almost ready to let Nanoha to leave instead of incapacitating her... then Chrono and Yuuno had to screw it all up. She's not amused with this.
  • Oh, Crap!: Vita has this reaction in Chapter 21; when Signum says that Amaterasu is the most dangerous opponent, Vita says rather dismissively that if Signum hadn't been hurt when she fought Amaterasu, she would never lose one on one. Signum replies that she's not sure about that, actually.
    Vita: Oh. Damn.
    • Precia in chapter 25.
    • Everybody except for Enlil, Susanoo, Tsukuyomi, and Amaterasu in Chapter 26.
  • One-Night-Stand Pregnancy: Megane states that her daughter was born from a one night stand with a coworker. The implied father (Zest) is unaware that Lutecia is his child, and presumably never learns the truth given the fact that the fic takes place less than a year before his canon death.
  • Only Sane Man: As of Chapter 27, freaking Susanoo. Amaterasu seems to always overdo it, and Tsukuyomi has flipped out and tried to kill Nanoha while she was completely defenseless, even when it accomplished nothing. He's the only one trying to avoid unnecessary deaths or just focus on their mission.But if you look back on previous chapters, maybe the evidence was always there.
    • Hilariously, Amaterasu in the Takamachi household.
    • With Susanoo growing more and more grimly determined, Tsukuyomi starts taking this position.
  • Panty Shot: At one point, poor Vita accidentally provides one for Susanoo. It wouldn't have been a big deal...except he points it out to her.
  • Penny Shaving: Gil Graham got the funds for building Durandal by overestimating the price of every project he was in charge of by .5% and only returning half of the excess.
  • Person as Verb: In-universe, to "pull a Chrono" has come to mean doing something very strenous and fainting afterwards. Chrono is not pleased when he hears of this.
  • Person of Mass Destruction: In addition to the usual suspects, Precia, whom shows that without the illness that plagued her in the series, is strong (and aggressive) enough to defeat Hayate. Then the artificial gods get their long-awaited power up and show us exactly why they were called gods.
  • Playing with Fire: Signum and Amaterasu.
  • Possessing a Dead Body: Chapter 29 reveals that Enlil is actually inhabiting Alicia's corpse. It also crosses over with I Have Your Wife, since she's basically using Alicia's body as collateral to ensure Precia's loyalty.
  • Power Makes Your Hair Grow: When using 50% of Fate's Linker Core instead of the usual 5, Arf's hair grows about a foot in length. She doesn't question it since she's seen several shows on Earth that abide by this rule.
  • The Power of the Sun: At her peak, Amaterasu claims to be this.
  • Psycho Electro: Precia's back. And as the story goes on, Susanoo shows a certain unstable side himself...
  • Psycho Lesbian: Amaterasu seems to have focused her, ahem, intentions on Signum. During their battle in Chapter 22, she takes the battle seriously, almost decapitating Signum in her first attack; a few moments later, she tells Signum, "I won't rest until you acknowledge my feelings for you and agree to become my personal kitten!" Signum is not amused.
  • Really Gets Around: Amaterasu.
    "I'm just not a one-woman woman. I've lived for a long time, and I've developed very cavalier attitudes towards romantic encounters. So you need to know right now, there will be other women. And men. And occasionally one of each at the same time, or two of one, or several of each in varying combinations, and of course you can be one of the women involved in any of those situations, and..."
  • Redemption Demotion: Justified. Enlil cuts off Amaterasu, Tsukuyomi and Susanoo's connection to the Empire after they betray her. That means they can't draw on it's unlimited power.
  • Rei Ayanami Expy: Tsukuyomi. Stoic, keeps her emotions suppressed, exceedingly polite, intelligent and deadpan Cloudcuckoolander whose honesty extends to discussing her tactics with her enemies and openly considering herself expendable. Like the rest of the team, she also has blue hair.
  • Religious and Mythological Theme Naming: Tsukuyomi, Susanoo, Ameterasu and all of their weapons are named after Shinto gods. This is pointed out in-universe.
    • They also had two sets of older siblings who where named after Norse and Greek gods.
  • Reluctant Psycho: Arguably Susanoo, heavy on "reluctant" part.
  • Right Back at Ya!: Lindy finally electrocuting Precia this way. And Fate following suit against Susanoo. Like Mother, Like Daughter, indeed.
  • Right Hand Versus Left Hand: The TSAB's inner workings. Rather, to borrow a description used for the UNSC's Office of Naval Intelligence, "here, the right hand doesn't even know the left hand exists".
  • Robo Family: 1,800 year old artificial constructs calling each other 'brother' and 'sister' really can't be anything else.
  • Running Gag: Whenever someone plays up one of there eccentricities, someone will always tell them "Never change", leaving them confused.
  • Sex Is Violence: If you're someone whose caught Amaterasu's eye, and the only way she'll encounter you is on the battlefield, well, she has no problem invoking this trope as a means of flirting.
  • Shipper on Deck: As of Chapter 22, Amaterasu is a supporter of Susanoo/Fate. Neither of them were terribly happy about it.
    Susanoo: She is ten years old! Don't project your perversions onto me, you sick freak!
  • Ship Tease: Conspicuously and deliberately absent until recently. The author has gone on record stating how amusing he finds the fact that there are so many people out there who spend so much of their time obsessing over the love lives of completely fictional characters.
    • In recent chapter, Amy gives her "Go to hell" toward Amaterasu after she's flirting too much with Chrono. Amaterasu even lampshades it.
      "Oooooh, someone's got a cruuuuuush..."
    • In recent chapter, Amaterasu is just too happy to tease Yuuno, pet him on the head and play tour-guide to fulfill his archeological enthusiasm. Nanoha isn't amused. Though, admittedly this might have just been the fact that Amaterasu is 1,800 years old and Yuuno is ten.
    • After Amaterasu disturbs him with the notion that he might like Fate, Susanoo admits to Fate that Ammy would be right if Fate was a little older. If, and only if. After all, he's not Amaterasu.
  • Sitcom Archnemesis: Some of the stuff Enlil does to Precia in Chapter 30 is just silly, bordering on Evil Is Petty.
    • It becomes Harsher in Hindsight when Precia risks her life to delay Enlil, ensuring her defeat.
    • In the spinoff, there's a one-sided variant between Susanoo and Teana; he likes her just fine, but she hates his guts.
  • Shock and Awe: Fate and Susanoo. And Precia.
  • Shout-Out: One of Tsukuyomi's more powerful and intelligent summons is a serpentine humanoid named Kiyohime, with an attack called Vector Arrow. Granted, Kiyohime is a Public Domain Character, but the other one is unmistakable.
  • Shut Up, Hannibal!: Lindy delivers a beautiful one to counter Enlil's We Can Rule Together. Even Vita is impressed.
  • So Proud of You: At the end, Precia tells Fate that Alicia would have liked her.
  • Spell My Name With An S: It's Asura, not Arthra. Why? Because "my anime stories have always included a mish-mash of official and fan-based translations, and I see no reason to change that pattern now."
  • Spirited Competitor: Susanoo, who loves to fight, but finds it distasteful to kill anyone unless he has no choice.
  • Sphere of Destruction: Nanoha's cobbled together "Starlight Breaker Explosion"
  • Spotting the Thread: [[spoiler:Using a spell that messes up the target's perception to make friends look like enemies on... Nanoha? Yeah, good luck with that.
  • The Starscream: Precia, possibly and likely.
  • Summon Magic: Tsukuyomi's final drive. Her specific summoned creatures are snakes, including the Yamata-no-Orochi. Uh-oh.
  • Suspiciously Specific Denial: One of Lindy's favourite quirks. These denials practically become Blatant Lies and Refuge in Audacity in recent chapters.
  • Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors: Loki and Thor are respectively Tsukiyomi and Susanoo but stronger and more specialized. They were originally defeated by exploiting this. Tsukiyomi took down Thor whose sheer power is less useful against her illusions while Susanoo destroyed everything in a giant radius screw Loki's illusions. In the modern day, they don't have this match up
  • Tempting Fate: The author loves to let characters start enjoying peace, smooth sailing or a good mood, only to be utterly screwed next sentence. Or even in the same sentence.
  • Theme Naming: Besides the series' tradition of naming characters for cars, the primary enemy combatants (and all of their intelligent devices) are named for Shinto gods, and the Big Bad is named after a Mesopotamian deity. Of course, considering their respective ages, it's more likely the gods are named after them.
    • The other guardian gods were also named after gods, specifically Greek gods for the support units and Norse gods for the insanely violent new antagonists, the war units.
  • This Is Gonna Suck: Oh, so many. Pretty much anyone who's about to be on the receiving end of the series trademarked Giant Flashy Attacks.
  • This Looks Like a Job for Aquaman: The author mostly averts Plot Tailored to the Party. Hayate's battle is the exception (admitted by Word of God) where the slow casting Person of Mass Destruction fights the Humongous Mecha and the Strong, but Unskilled civilian scientist.
  • Too Dumb to Fool: Loki's illusions are even more devious and subtle than Tsukuyomi's. Susanoo simply walks up to the closest one and punches it in the face. It turns out alright.
  • Tranquil Fury: Don't take Susanoo's goofy attitude for granted.
  • Troperiffic: If it's a meme or trope associated with the Nanoha series, you can bet the author will take it and run with it. Considering he has admitted in author's notes that he is aware this page exists and he occasionally edits it, that's probably to be expected.
  • True Companions: Besides the canonical characters' immensely strong bonds, the original-character villains have a particularly wacky-yet-touching variety, contrasted sharply by Precia's presence.
  • Two Scenes, One Dialogue: Between Chrono's taskforce, Susa and Tsuku, and Section Black operatives.
  • The Unfettered: Nanoha described in Chapter 25.
    Most people had never seen Nanoha Takamachi fight seriously.

    Not intensely, seriously. She fought with intensity all the time. Nanoha was strong and she liked to win, so fighting with effort was nothing to her. But fighting with serious intent to destroy, holding nothing back? That was basically unheard of. Really, the only thing that had ever seen it from the receiving end was the berserk defense program of the Book of Darkness, which should have said something about the situation that would actually push her to draw on that level of force.

    First, the enemy must not be even remotely approachable. They must be something that not only refuses to see reason but is not even capable of seeing reason, something monstrous and inhuman that will only destroy and destroy and destroy until it is stopped.

    Second, there must be innocent lives in danger. Her own did not count; these had to be other innocent lives. A whole world… her friends… even some silly little alien penguins that she'd spent a few minutes playing with, just for fun. She must have something to protect.

    Should these circumstances be met, it is possible to see Nanoha Takamachi fight with true seriousness. It is, despite the brilliantly magnificent light-show that tended to result, not a pretty sight. She doesn't get any more powerful, or faster, or more intelligent somehow, no.

    She just gets less friendly.

    • Chapter 36 shows how low Nanoha would fight for her ideals. She didn't hesitate to use personal information from Ammy to engage in No Holds Barred Psychological Warfare, exploiting Tsuku's hesitation to score cheap shots, and practically forcing Tsuku's conscience to acknowledge her. All in the name of making friends, of course.
    • Susanoo, after Amaterasu goes missing. "Family first", indeed.
  • Unskilled, but Strong: Susanoo. His Final Drive form actually does nothing but take out the 'unskilled' part.
    • Precia. She's a SS class mage with a varied knowledge of dangerous spells but she's still an untrained civilian. Her battle strategy boils down to lash out with power, crush enemy.
    • Enlil has the exact problem Hayate has. She's extremely powerful wielding the height of technomagical weaponry but her spells are slow casting and she's a leader not a warrior.
  • Unstoppable Rage: Amaterasu accidentally damages Vita's hat. Also, Arf flies into one after Precia hurts Fate, Fate flies into one against Precia after she hurt Arf, and only a sneak shot from Tsukuyomi stops Fate from slicing Precia in two. Then, Nanoha deliberately' sends Precia into one to distract her.
  • Unspoken Plan Guarantee: Lindy seems to be smart enough about this. Lampshaded more than once:
    "Um..." Hayate began.
    "Shhhhhhh!" Amy said, laying a hand on her shoulder. "The Admiral is scheming."
    "But, I-"
    "Shhhhhhhhh! If she explains the plan, it takes all the magic out of it," Amy said cheerfully. "Trust me, I've worked out the process by this point."
  • Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Poor Chrono has made a few battles take very bad turns by stepping into help Nanoha fight when she was on the verge of talking her enemy down.
  • Villainous Breakdown: Enlil has a fairly extended one starting with the disastrous negotiations between her and Lindy, and continuing on from there. By the time the TSAB invades Al Sethis, she's a paranoid wreck.
  • Villainous Valor
  • Vitriolic Best Buds: Chrono and Yuuno, "Best Enemies Forever".
  • Volleying Insults: Susanoo and Vita get into a good one in Chapter 24, culminating in the former dubbing the latter 'Smally McSmall'.
  • Wacky Parent, Serious Child: This facet of Chrono and Lindy's relationship is played up considerably in this fic.
    Chrono: Isn't it supposed to be that the child gives the parent grey hairs?
  • Warrior Therapist: Discussed; see Defeat Means Friendship.
  • Weak, but Skilled: Chrono, as per usual.
  • Weapon of Mass Destruction: The "Tears of Al-Hazard" are strongly implied to be one. It is eventually revealed that the 'planet' of Al-Sethis is actually a planet-sized FTL-capable artificial construct, and the "Tears" involve repurposing its propulsion systems as a super-sized dimensional distortion weapon, akin to the Arc-en-Ciel used by the TSAB but FAR larger and more powerful. If used on Midchilda, the best-case scenario would be the entire planet being wiped from existence and swallowed by / reduced to the Dimensional Sea. The worst-case is that it would set off a chain-reaction engulfing multiple dimensions and collapse half of reality.
  • We Can Rule Together: Enlil offers the main characters that chance to be generals in the Twilight Empire, stating that the TSAB is corrupt and does not deserve them and that the Empire will build a utopia. Lindy counters with a Shut Up, Hannibal!.
  • Wham Episode: The very, very end of Chapter 29 turns the entire story on its head with the following words — such a subtly-played twist that Moczo himself stated that only two people called it in advance.
    And then Fate understood. She understood why her mother was working under these people. She understood what could have coerced Precia... Precia Testarossa!... into a life of servitude. She understood why mother would hate this woman so thoroughly, and at the same time be so totally unwilling to do anything to oppose her.
    The Twilight Queen's voice... the voice had seemed so oddly familiar because, slight accent aside, it was her own voice.
    Fate: "A... Alicia...?"
    "After all," Enlil said, as the stunned Fate watched her own lips curl into an amused smirk. "We're practically sisters."
  • When All You Have Is a Hammer…: Hayate due to not being fully combat trained, not having a fully developed Unison Device and having too much power only knows slow casting AOE spells. Her fight against Precia and the robot boils down to "How can quickly and creatively use giant AOE attacks?".
  • The World Is Always Doomed
    "It's a bit hard to picture isn't it?" Lindy asked "The thought that in just four days, our home might just be.. gone"
    Admiral Mizetto snorted lightly. "Not to anyone who lived through the Testarossa Experiment. Or the 2nd and 4th Book of Darkness incidents. Or the Orion Cascade. Or the unearthing of the Panopitchron. Or the..."
    Lindy winced. "Midchilda gets almost destroyed a lot, doesn't it"
  • World of Snark: EVERYONE. Even if they aren't good at detecting sarcasm (Nanoha for example), every single character knows how to deadpan, snark, lampshade and crack a joke at everything.
  • Worthy Opponent: Susanoo likes finding these and considers... basically every canon character he fights to be one, eventually.
  • You Gotta Have Blue Hair: The three ancient warriors all share this feature.

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