Fanfic / Project Arashi

Project: Arashi is the overarching label applied to a series of Love Hina and Negima! Magister Negi Magi Crossover stories co-authored by a coalition of writers and role-players, beginning back in July of 2006. Project: Arashi exists in an Alternate Universe that sort of tap dances around the line separating For Want Of A Nail and In Spite of a Nail, due wholly to the presence of a collection of no less than twelve Original Characters, some more important than others, that have been pitched into the collective finely-tuned machines that are Love Hina and Negima not so much like the Spanner in the Works than a high-explosive GPS-guided bomb.

The result is known colloquially as the Kuroverse, with its primary protagonists being the tenants of the Hinata-Sou, whose numbers have been ballooned by most of the important original characters, who have been designated "The Black Storm" by the mages at Mahora Academy, and subsequently have referred to themselves near-universally as the "Kuro crew." All of the stories revolve around the formation and antics of the Kuro crew, with The Unsung War and The Timesnatcher providing the most insight, and consequently, the most spoilers.

As of middle 2017, work has gone underway to "remaster" the existing works, mostly in the form of correcting typos and normalizing dialogue formats (Negima characters using honorifics while Love Hina characters didn't; now all do), in order to introduce the series on Archive of Our Own. In addition to the minor corrections, efforts will be made to reincorporate the plot-relevant side-stories (such as Steel and Heart) into the main work and ensure that references made between works match up. Some new content may also be added. The original on FF.net will likewise be updated as well.

The fanfiction.net profile under which all this insanity is stored can be found here, and the new collection on AO3 here, but not all of the existing works are yet hosted on AO3. It also has its own That Other Wiki, which is (now) in mere sincere need of contribution, found here.

The multiple tales of the Kuroverse are divided into the "main series", the "side-stories", and now the "defunct projects".

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The Main Series:

• Kuro Arashi: The Black Storm, the primary tale of the Kuroverse, following the trials, triumphs, tragedies, and tribulations of the Heroes Chosen by the Gods, otherwise known as Kuro Arashi, in their quest to defeat the evil pair of Namusan Sapou and Kawakami Gensai, two immortal and legendary figures that threaten the entire world with complete destruction.
• Kuro Arashi: Before the Storm, an origin story detailing the initial arrival of the first original character at the Hinata around the timeframe of episode seven of the anime, and how his presence subtly affected the Love Hina storyline prior to the start of the main story.
• The Unsung War is set in the year 2552, during the peak of the Human-Covenant War, and follows a squad of Orbital Drop Shock Troopers descended from several members of Class 3-A as they learn the secret of their ancestry, train to become combat mages, and later participate in the Second Battle of Earth against Covenant forces. Numerous cameo appearances from characters in the original stories appear, and both Chao Lingshen and Evangeline A.K. McDowell play major roles in the story. The Unsung War is part of the "Future Era" of Project: Arashi.
• The Timesnatcher is an entirely new tale set after the conclusion of the entire series. The introduction is told in first-person from Chao's perspective, who has taken it upon herself to become a fourth, unofficial, "Guardian" of the Kuroverse. The main work, however, reverts to the standard third-person, and details Chao's efforts to use her Gateway Device to explore alternate universes and head off any potential threats to the main universe. It is the second major story of the Future Era.

The Side Stories:

• Interludes: Steel and Heart, a series of one-shots that give a glimpse into backstory events in the lives of Seno and Motoko that don't have large impacts on the main storyline. One of the reasons that some aspects of the Kuroverse are regarded as All There in the Manual. As of the 2017 update, most of the relevant content in this work is planned to be pulled into the main story.
• Future Perfect: Chao Lingshen's Tale is the original side-story, and first of the "Future Era" that first offered up the Kuroverse's version of Chao's Dark and Troubled Future as being the whole of the Halo series of games. It depicts the events from the beginning of Halo 2 that led to Chao traveling back to the past and deciding to break The Masquerade. The continually-updating storyline of Project: Arashi has rendered some aspects of Future Perfect not-exactly-canon. The events themselves occurred, but some depictions are not accurate, and the entire epilogue of the third chapter has been discarded entirely. The 2017 update will address these issues.
• I Am ODST: Memoirs of a Student-Soldier is the new background story of Yuuna Akashi, unique among the series as being told entirely from first-person perspective. In going along with the In Spite of a Nail philosophy of the series in general, Yuuna outwardly does not appear much different than she does in traditional Negima, other than being unashamedly lesbian and equally-unashamedly a fangirl of Halo. It tells how she went from just another background player in Class 3-A to the special forces badass she's become in the Mages vs. Mars event of Kuro Arashi.

Defunct Projects:

• Flight of the Cormorant, an in-depth look at the Unification War that has been referred to several times as a past event in The Unsung War. It looks at the conflict as a whole, rather than the focused viewpoint of the main characters during that war. Due to changes in the on-going plot for Project: Arashi, the canonity of Flight of the Cormorant is questionable. To wit, the framework of the events that take place is largely considered canon (excepting the prologue which has been disproved by The Unsung War), but the depiction is up for interpretation. Unless the original author returns to the project, this work will not be touched by the 2017 remake nor cross-posted to AO3, but will not be removed from where it currently sits.

Planned Works:

• The as-yet-unnamed Kuro Arashi sequel, set fifteen years after the ending of Kuro Arashi, the sequel tells the tale of the Children of the Heroes and their own epic battle against an enemy long thought defeated. Can the children follow in their parents' footsteps, or will the world be doomed to damnation and ruin?
• An untitled side story set during the Unification War. As the world descends into unchecked global warfare, the supernatural forces of Namusan Sapou lend a large military advantage to the enemy faction. The Guardian of the Sea decides to tip the balance back in favor of the world's heroes by using his powers to resurrect the navies of bygone days. The crew of the Japanese guided missile destroyer JS Kongou are among the first to encounter these unexpected—and most unusual—allies.

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Provides Examples Of:

Kuro Arashi: The Black Storm

• A.K.A.-47: A notable in-universe justification. The Island Republic of MolMol uses the exact same weapons, armor, and vehicles of the UNSC from the Halo series, but uses generic designations based around the Molmolian Forces ARmory acronym (MFAR). The reason being is that the specific weapons designs were handed without names to MolMol by Chao when she traveled back in time as repayment for the medical treatment they gave her.
• All There in the Manual: As of about chapter 20, certain things can only be fully understood by reading the related side-stories, such as why Seno suddenly got a ninja follower before Mahorafest and what Yuuna was doing in a Halo costume at the festival, and later leading a special forces team in the battle.
• Anyone Can Die: Invoked way back in chapter 4 with the result of the duel between Seno and Motoko, then later when Sabashii greased the bald-headed mage teacher, and most recently when Amalla Su and the King of MolMol fell in battle.
• A Taste of Power: During the climactic fight of Mages vs. Mars, several characters with magic abilities are shown utilizing them at a tremendously-higher output than previously demonstrated (Shinobu's stop-everything barriers come to mind). The reason is that they're taking advantage of the overflow magic of the World Tree to access higher-tier spells and have temporarily-boosted MP pools that they lose once the festival is over. Motoko, on the other hand, casually using the most powerful Shinmeiryu technique ever shown (that didn't even exist in her original source) is less an example of this and more she's never needed to use a technique that obliterates a 150' area.
• Autobots, Rock Out!: Provided in the finale of the Mages vs. Mars battle, via new Hero Nanao Yuzuki's band Velvet Firefly. Due to her Heroic talent as a bard archetype, the music empowers the defending forces while simultaneously debilitating the enemy.
• Back-to-Back Badasses: Directly invoked by Setsuna and Asuna at Mages vs. Mars at the end of their Dynamic Entry, which was also a Big Damn Heroes moment.
• Badass Crew: The titular crew, Ala Alba, and even Cleric Team.
• Badass Family: Motoko, Setsuna, Tsuruko, Seno. Aside from being the collective top tier of the Shinmei-ryu, they're all related by either blood or legality.
• Bait-and-Switch Comment: Chao delivers two of these during the course of Mages vs. Mars that are also pop culture references at the same time; one to Kazumi and one to Asuna. They're a favorite character trait of Chao aside from her normal Verbal Tic.
• BFG: The prototype Wave-Motion Gun used by Fireteam Charlie to fight the demon boss. Also, some of the weapons Kaolla designs, notably the one-shot portable plasma cannon.
• Big Badass Battle Sequence: The entirety of Mages vs. Mars, four full-length chapters.
• Big Damn Heroes: Lots of instances in Mages vs. Mars. The Hero Units, whose appearance saved no small number of allies. The Kuro crew, who tried to repeat this later on, but ended up being too late to really pull it off, but this didn't prevent them from kicking a lot of ass.
• Blade Lock: Played straight in Seno's duel against Tsuruko, twice, complete with requisite Sword Sparks and optional dialogue.
• Bottomless Magazines: Lampshaded by Yuuna when she took note of the fact that her shiny new SOCOM pistols could fire well more than the 12 rounds that the magazine showed it carried. Though technically, her pistols are ''not'' equipped with bottomless magazines, as their capacity is actually 4000 rounds each, which puts them in the realm of hyperspace arsenal
• Break Meter: Invoked by Seno, who claims that filling Namusan's break gauge was how they managed to beat him so easily. Naturally, this was met without much amusement by his then-Straight Man wife.
• Can't Hold His Liquor: Good God, Motoko. Which lead to hilarity and shenanigans, plus some Squick on the part of at least Shinobu.
  • And a child
• Chekhov's Gun: The fake pirate medallion Motoko had for all of two chapters. She used it to win a sword duel she wasn't even participating in.
  • Not to mention all of Chao's robot army. Sure, they did a smashing good job at what they did at Mages vs. Mars, but their real purpose? Fight a very real war against the Covenant in the future.
• The Chosen Heroes: The main characters, naturally.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: The fight at the Hinata against the mages qualifies pretty well. Also, Chao against Setsuna and Asuna, full stop. If not for Chao's explicit actions against fatalities, there'd be two body bags coming out of Mages vs. Mars
• Darker and Edgier: The author has been warning since early on that this is coming. Some events during the Mages vs. Mars arc are pretty foreshadowing.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Sabashii's explanation that of the types of mana, as employed by djinn and not mages, there's primordial darkness, which is not inherently evil, and wicked darkness, which is Exactly What It Says on the Tin.
• Defeat Means Friendship: The Kuro crew kicked the stuffing out of ten mages from Mahora, then allied with them one chapter later.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Actually winning the first boss fight against Namusan. It didn't last.
• Dynamic Entry: Namusan makes his first appearance to engage the Kuro crew for the very first time by exploding an ancient statue of a turtle. Droids at Mages vs. Mars like to blow down buildings to come at the defenders from unexpected angles. Many characters with self-sustaining flight like to return the favor.
• Eldritch Abomination: The "physical form of the Lifestream," while simultaneously overlapping with Expy. At least this thing is kept on a short leash by the Yochi no Kouken.
• Elite Army:
  • Fireteam Charlie. Despite numbering one-third less than the non-military portion of the Mage Knights and being confined to a single defense point for the majority of the battle to prevent friendly fire, their weaponry and tactics account for up to seventy percent of the casualties suffered by Chao's droid army.
  • The special forces triad of Cleric, Grammaton, and Tetra teams make up elite armies within the Elite Army, thirty of Fireteam Charlie's best of the best, authorized to wear the coveted Orbital Drop Shock Trooper armor to showcase their badassery. Though Grammaton and Tetra don't have much screen time in the battle, Cleric Team is responsible for almost single-handedly preserving the allies at the World Tree Plaza.
• Encyclopedia Exposita: A number of fictional biographical books are mentioned at the start of each chapter, as detailed below in rough order of appearance:
  • Spreading My Wings, the memoirs of Naru.
  • Ronin's Paradise, Keitaro's autobiography.
  • On a Wing and a Storm, a Doorstopper that contains the entire escapades of the Kuro crew and Ala Alba. It could more or less be considered an in-universe analogue of the story itself.
  • Dragon of Hinata, Seno's autobiography.
  • Heavenly Sword, Revised Edition, a reference book on the complete history of Shinmeiryu, updated to include Motoko, Seno, and Setsuna in its archives.
  • The Unification War, Volume 1: Overtures, the first of a series of encyclopedias detailing the full events of the Unification War. The author behind Lorenzo Ruiz (who came up with these), has stated that it is a run of 20 volumes.
  • Justice For Those Who Are Forgotten, Sabashii's autobiography.
  • From MolMol With Love, Kaolla's autobiography.
  • Three Guardians, surprisingly not an autobiography, but a reference book published by Natsume Megumi.
  • Wild at Heart, Hiroyuki's autobiography.
  • Mages vs. Mars, the Complete Visual Encyclopedia, a visual reference book on the Mages vs. Mars event during Mahorafest.
  • I Am ODST: Memoirs of a Student-Soldier, Yuuna's memoirs.
• Epigraph: Each chapter is prefaced by a quote about the chapter's events in the format of lines taken from various biographical books written long after the end of the series.
• Fourth-Date Marriage: Lampshaded by Tsuruko when Seno brings his request to marry Motoko to her. While Seno and Motoko have known each other since childhood, and have been living under the same roof for a year or so, they were only actually dating for about a week.
• Good Is Not Nice: They haven't done much to live up to this yet, but the larger the Kuro crew gets (and, you know, trying to recruit Evangeline), and the closer to real plot stuff the story comes, the more they put off the aura of this. They're unquestionably the good guys, but their scale of power mostly tends toward the strange, and none of them are above doing things every other good guy but Batman or the Punisher would probably be appalled by.
• Hero Insurance: Someone at Mahora definitely has this. Blowing up bridges, raining artillery strikes, flooding the underground metro, and general property damage abound, but no one seems concerned about a bill.
• Hyperspace Arsenal: The Kuro crew each has their own individually-acquired bags of holding. The bag of holding has also been a running gag since the very beginning. Also, pretty much every weapon built or bankrolled by the Arlington Magic Society uses hammerspace magazines. Chao, as well, designed a slipspace-inspired version of hammerspace used on her battle armor and all her droids, notably ITSU and Chachamaru.
• I Surrender, Suckers: Played almost to the tee of the same scene from 300 in the subway tunnels beneath Mahora.
• In Its Hour of Need: When the Royal Family of MolMol stood and faced the overwhelming armies of Namusan, despite having probably plenty of magic-aware allies to call upon. Overlaps with Last Stand.
• Kissing Under the Influence: An unusual variation in that this was both played straight and averted by the very same scene. Motoko was in fact uproariously smashed when she decided she wanted to come onto Seno in front of God and everyone, but this trope wasn't used as a justification to have them do it when they wouldn't normally, as they were already married by this point.
• Leave the Two Lovebirds Alone: Seno pulls this to stop Motoko from interfering with the setting up of Keitaro and Naru that is going on. In the process, he gets the girl for himself.
• Massive Multiplayer Crossover: Love Hina is the base series. Got it. Negima! Magister Negi Magi was directly crossed in. Well, it was also made by Akamatsu and there are references abundant, so that's okay. Now Halo. ...Wait, what?
• Misfit Mobilization Moment: Initially, even after 'awakening' as heroes, the tenants of Hinata were simply a bunch of guys and girls living in a traditional-style Japanese apartment. Then came one fight with a bunch of mages who sorely underestimated them, and The Kuro Crew was born.
• Nonlethal Warfare: Averted and played straight, at the same time, during the fight against the mages at Hinata. Seno directly stated that his attack would have killed Takane if not for the Lifestream. During Mages vs. Mars, as well, Chao's droid army were equipped and specifically programmed not to cause deaths. They still cause plenty of serious injuries, and several characters even lampshade how no one is dying from things like buildings collapsing on them or the overpressure of gigantic explosions centered on civilian players.
• Oh, Crap, There Are Fanfics of Us!: Used as a one-off sight gag between Seno and Motoko in chapter eight.
• Person of Mass Destruction: The Kuro crew is best described as a tactical nuke.
• Precision F-Strike: While Yuuna already has a potty mouth to begin with, she typically tends to stay toward the shallow end of the cursing pool. When she drops an F bomb in response to the defeatest attitude of the others at Mages vs. Mars, you know she's done taking crap.
• Put On A Plane: For those of you who have forgotten he exists, Keitaro took off on his trip to America nearly ten full chapters ago, and isn't due back anytime soon.
• Sanity Ball: Everyone in the crew has managed to have their hands on it at least once so far.
• Shipper on Deck: Everyone ships KonoSetsu.
  • An earlier example. Seno may not have funded and designed the Keitaro/Naru ship, but he did personally launch it.
  • Keitaro has voiced that he shipped Seno/Motoko from the beginning.
  • Tsuruko and Seno's parents also shipped Seno/Motoko, for much longer than Keitaro did.
• "Shut Up" Kiss: This, specifically, is how Seno wins Motoko for himself. Then she turned right around and hit him with one when he tried to apologize. Then Naru hit Keitaro with one the next morning.
• Sliding Scale of Fourth Wall Hardness: Every single point on the scale has been abused by various characters, with Seno, Sabashii, and Hiroyuki being the main perpetrators. Medium Awareness tends to be the default setting.
• The Stations of the Canon: Given the Pararakelse arc from Love Hina, and the Mahora Festival from Negima! Magister Negi Magi, certain plot points from both series are being faithfully reached. However, the occurring events and their outcomes are sometimes vastly different.
• Taking You with Me: See the end of Itsuki vs. Masaru at the tournament preliminaries. Even after Masaru had stuck Itsuki with a plasma grenade, the droid made sure to rush in and catch the summoner in the blast.
• Tempting Fate: We're not exactly sure who decided to name Defense Point Echo "Echo Base," but...
• Title Drop: The Kuro Arashi crew.
• Title In: Every chapter beginning and scene shift is given this treatment, referred to in the project as "timestamps." Initial chapter timestamps follow the format of "Date, Location, Exact Military Time (usually always local, and occasionally substituted for "The Same Time" if events occur concurrently)", and any timestamp on a scene change in the same chapter that doesn't involve the day changing leaves out the date.
• To Be Lawful or Good: Chao offers this choice to Takahata when she reveals her true motives to him during Mages vs. Mars: he can either follow the law and oppose her to protect The Masquerade, or join her and work to save humanity, thereby doing what's right.
• True Companions: Horribly dysfunctional on the best of days, but screwing with any member of the Kuro crew is universally ruled as a form of suicide.
• Unspoken Plan Guarantee: In full effect regarding Yuuna's nonspecified strategy for the final engagement of Mages vs. Mars. The only glimpse the reader gets of her plans is when she picks the next stage based on what the droids do in response to her previous stage, with the implication that she had multiple responses prepared for whatever they did.
• Victorious Childhood Friend: Seno and Motoko to each other, and Keitaro and Naru to each other. As the later-set works indicate, also Konoka and Setsuna to each other.
• Wrecked Weapon: Toyed with and played straight. When Motoko stated that Seno had raped her, his sword shattered in line with its tendency to become weaker as it's exposed to lies, that being a really, really bad lie and the weapon's reaction underscoring the point. Later, during the duel against Tsuruko, Motoko grabbed up the very same sword, and used it to one-shot her sister, destroying Tsuruko's sword in the process and thereby demonstrating her determination.
• Xanatos Gambit: Win or lose at Mages vs. Mars, Chao Lingshen still wins. It's just a question of how directly.
• You Can't Fight Fate: Basically what Mutsumi tells Evangeline when the latter refuses the call.
• You Shall Not Pass!: The last defenders at the Tatsumiya Shrine, in order to allow Mei and Kotaro to escape back to the defense at the World Tree. Overlaps with Last Stand.

Kuro Arashi: Before the Storm

• Aside Glance: A per-chapter tradition, with Seno as the primary source. Motoko, being the viewpoint character of the dream chapter, gets in on it as well. In the idol chapter, Keitaro had to admonish himself after looking directly at the camera.
• Cannot Spit It Out: Keitaro is handed two golden opportunities during the idol chapter to confess his feelings to Naru, but both times he chickens out due to the circumstances. In his defense, Naru also fails spectacularly at articulating that she wants Keitaro to love her due to her own hangups. Seno internally describes them as emotionally constipated, because hearing just Keitaro's side of the story he parsed immediately what was and wasn't being said between them.
• Everyone Can See It: Both Keitaro and Shinobu note how well Seno and Motoko compliment each other.
• Gilligan Cut: At the start of the idol chapter, Seno comments that it can't be that easy to break into show business. One location change later and the narrative explicitly counters his claim.
• Japanese Honorifics: The inclusion of these was a big chunk of the reason for the remaster, and it shows how close characters are to one another. For example, Seno's long-standing friendship with Keitaro and Haruka is shown by his lack of honorifics to them and using their first names, where everyone else he calls by first name and -san. The only exception is Motoko, who he refers to as Aoyama-san as acknowledgment of her more traditional upbringing. The fact that she tacks a -san onto his last name indicates she respects him more than she does Keitaro, who gets no honorific from her.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: This is played up far more than in the main story, which makes sense as it follows the sometimes-nonsensical anime adaptation. The author has made it a point to include no less than one instance of meta humor in every chapter.
• Only Sane Man: Seno plays this role in the missing rent money events, growing increasingly irked at the nonsensical leaps of logic the others are taking.
• Precision F-Strike: A particularly potent one at the end of the idol chapter. Seno, who only very rarely says 'fuck' and often self-censors when in the presence of Shinobu or Kaolla, blatantly called Keitaro a "stupid motherfucker".

Interludes: Steel and Heart

• Characterization Marches On: A little aside from the third chapter, when Seno and Hiroyuki discuss Halo 3, the Big Team Covies playlist had been taken down by Bungie by the timestamp of that chapter.
• Childhood Marriage Promise: Revealed in the very first segment that Seno and Motoko had one way back when they were five years old, that both eventually forgot about. Seems to be a growing trend...
• Red String of Fate: Played directly straight with Seno and Motoko, as invoked by Tsuruko.

Future Perfect: Chao Lingshen's Tale

• Adaptational Early Appearance: The main work hasn't even reached the Love Hina Again arc, so this story marks the first appearance of Kanako Urashima in the setting.
• Set Right What Once Went Wrong: In order to give humanity a fighting chance against the Covenant, Chao, once she's jumped back in time to barely save her own life, comes to the conclusion that magic must become 'real' to allow it to be militarized as a weapon against which the Covenant have no defense.
• Title In: Follows the "Date, Location, Military Time" format common to the series.
• Tragic Keepsake: The M6D Magnum given to Chao by Akira Miyazaki, that has cropped up at least once in every other appearance she's put in anywhere in the series. It was given to her for protection, given that the Covenant had boarded the MAC station, minutes before the entire squad was killed by boarders and Chao herself nearly died. She has kept it lovingly maintained and used it ever since, with it being mentioned at least once in every story she's appeared in. It's often her primary weapon when her own body doesn't make the cut.
• Zero-Approval Gambit: Chao knows that her revolution will be bloody, almost certainly provoke a civil war, and cost an untold number of lives. In order to save all mankind against genocide, she is perfectly willing to become that villain.

The Unsung War

• Alien Invasion: It's Halo. What were you expecting?
• Alternate Continuity: As was inevitably expected to happen, The Unsung War has finally been firmly kicked out of being able to fit into the Halo canon. Ironically enough, this was done by the Glasslands novel by none other than the author's own favorite author.
• Badass Boast: Evangeline usually busts one every chapter she appears in. Her best boast, which lays to rest any doubt of what is going to happen to ONI later on: "...should I even get a hint of ONI trying to take us out, I'll strike first, strike hard, and strike once."
• Badass Crew: First, the Helljumpers displayed that they could beat the shit out of the Covenant using elements of stealth and superior tactics. Then they got their Deadly Upgrade, and combat against the Covenant is now brutal and close-in.
• Being Watched: Played straight and subverted during the squad's psych test. There's nothing more frightening than the feeling that you're being watched by an imminently-powerful thousand-year-old high daylight walker, and it sets the team on edge something good. Subverted in that, you know, Evangeline really is watching them since it's a psychological test, after all.
• Break Out the Museum Piece: And how. To make up for the glaring absence of an air force for the UNSC, Evangeline fields Republic-Fairchild A-10 Thunderbolts for close air support. Her atmospheric superiority fighter is completely fictional, but according to backstory it was originally designed to be a counter-unit to the Joint Strike Fighter in the early 21st century.
• Cool Ship: Evangeline's personal starship, the UNSC Yamato. Theme Naming obviously applies, but this thing is large enough to carry a full ODST battalion plus support equipment, to include weapons and gear, looks a lot like the Spirit of Fire, and features that cloaking device from the Halo Legends ONI ship. Nevermind the fact that apparently the denizens of the magic world apparently had a hand in the ship's design and/or construction, which will guarantee the presence of magic weaponry of a far more potent design than the antiquated anti-construct weapons seen at Mages vs. Mars...
• Creepy Doll: Played to its logical conclusion with Chachazero during the squad's psychological test. She then goes back to being the Ax-Crazy peanut gallery afterwards.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Setsuna to Akio, the second they set foot in Eva's resort. Also, over two thousand ODST Mage Knights, possibly tens of thousands of Covenant Separatist troops, a squad of Valkyrie Knights, a ship of mass destruction providing mission support, and eight Spartans. There will be blood, indeed.
• Daddy Had a Good Reason for Abandoning You: Inverted in chapter 8 when Akio has that out-of-the-blue conversation with that very damn old crow demon, who stated that after being forced to give up his daughter as a baby, he only saw her one time in her adult life, and didn't take the opportunity to reveal himself to her, and that he's regretted it ever since. Of course, he never mentions who that daughter is, but anyone with two brain cells to rub together should know...
• Early-Installment Weirdness: In the first chapter, long before the overall plot had been fully cemented, Evangeline was described as wearing an ONI uniform, despite being as close to war with them as the United States was with Russia during the Cuban Missile Crisis. This is generally just treated as an early technical error on the author's part, as her. official wiki page makes no mention of having been ever affiliated with ONI in any manner.
• Exposition Fairy: Obviously, you have either Chao or Evangeline to explain the big magic-related stuff to the protagonists who have no idea about any of it, which also conveniently clues in the audience who, while they have an idea of what's going on, wouldn't otherwise have the specifics. But the overall award of Exposition Fairy goes to Cheryl, who not only draws audience attention to little details that the author throws in that might be missed, but helpfully explains them as well. Subverted in that it's usually things the other protagonists don't understand, either.
• Expy: Evangeline's CFA-44 Nosferatu air dominance fighter, lifted wholesale from Ace Combat.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation: This tale tries to avoid it as much as possible, going so far as to include the familiar ragdoll physics. In other cases, this is played into, such as actually making use of the fire selector present on the battle rifle.
• Gun Porn: Somewhat averted, in that the full schematic name of most of the weapons are only given once, after which they're referred to by their generic designations.
• Heel–Face Turn: Discussed a few times between Chao and Evangeline, concerning both of them having made them in the past, and then directly invoked by Cheryl in chapter 7.
• Homosexual Reproduction: Akio traces his ancestry back to Setsuna and Konoka, who had a minimum of two male children to carry on the Sakurazaki and Konoe family names, respectively. It was HandWaved away that it was done through a combination of science and magic.
• It's Personal: Or at least it seems that way to ODST Alpha Company commander Weeks, judging by what he said right before all the ODSTs landed.
• It's Raining Men: Today's weather broadcast for Mahora: Titanium rain.
• Kill It with Fire: Lampshaded by Akio, who determined that if zombies or the Flood were loose in their base, then a flamethrower was a good answer. Later averted when the flamethrower does absolutely nothing to Evangeline's ice wall.
• Lock-and-Load Montage: Half of the prologue consists of this, complete with requisite Wall of Weapons, and punctuated at the end with a Dramatic Gun Cock.
• Magic Knight: Doubling as a Call-Back to Negima, the ODSTs in Evangeline's division are trained in magic- or ki-enhanced combat. Those who are proficient enough to become actual mages are trained to fight both with standard UNSC weapons and S-class spells or higher. Her division even goes by the pseudonym "Mahora Mage Knights Defense Brigade".
• Mama Bear: Evangeline is not at all pleased at the fact that ONI sent her adopted daughter, Lucy-B091, on a suicide mission that she only survived due to having been raised by the fricken Dark Evangel, which left her mute for life. Previously, we had the notion that Evangeline's revenge against ONI was going to be carried out very professionally. Now? Not so much...
• Mythology Gag: Cheryl mentions to Makie that she heard a story of how biofoam saved the life of a guy who got his lung punctured by the bladed part of a gravity hammer.
  • The training rounds briefly mentioned in use by Mana are the exact same type of rounds that Lorenzo used during their first duel back in chapter 16 of Kuro.
  • The Unification War. Teased to a maddening extent all across the storyline.
  • Countless other references back to other Project: Arashi storylines exist, most of it centered around Mages vs. Mars.
  • Several lines of dialogue from Rtas 'Vadum are taken directly from lines he later gives during Halo 3.
  • The equipment and weapons stolen directly from armories on Reach, which are little more than an excuse to give gear from the new game to the protagonists.
  • Alysia's pre-drop one-liner, lifted directly from the legendary version of the opening cutscene of Recon.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: "Your target answers to the name Chao Lingshen."
  • Gutts of the Thousand Rockets.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Evangeline told Chao that the conflict between the Kuro crew and Namusan/Gensai would probably have happened regardless, but because Gensai could steal Chao's Cassiopeia and time trap the Kuro crew, the baddies had free reign to involve the whole world, sparking the Unification War. And that still played in favor of Chao's Xanatos Gambit, giving it more of a Gambit Roulette appeal.
• Nothing Is Scarier: When the squad are put through their psychological tests, there are long stretches where they're beset by nothing more than the directed hostility generated by Evangeline, and it usually freaks them out more than her scare tactics.
• Peek-a-Boo Corpse: It wasn't real, being part of Evangeline's illusion, but when Cheryl opened that closet in Eva's quarters, there was one of these waiting for her. That then disappeared.
• Pre Ass Kicking One Liner: Alysia's "We are dropping into hell, troopers!"
• Puny Earthlings: Completely averted with the new generation of Mage Knights. They've been trained to use magic, something completely unheard of to the Covenant, and therefore cannot be defended against, and considering that most of their training came from either Ku Fei or Asuna, you can bet they'll be going in close with the enemy.
• Rank Scales with Asskicking: No one questions why Evangeline A.K. McDowell is in command of an entire battalion of the best Badass Normals in the entire UNSC, and this is exactly why.
• Refuge in Audacity: A storytelling example, at this. The author has taken Halo and Negima, two series which should realistically have never met, and managed to make them line up along a consistent timeline, meshing it simply by explaining that the Dark and Troubled Future that Chao comes from was not a mere 100 years into the future, but over a full 500 years ahead, that Dark and Troubled Future being none other than the Human-Covenant War. And according to some, it works almost as good as any of the other Halo Expanded Universe novels.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Chao, Evangeline, and Lucy all have their eyes set on tearing the Office of Naval Intelligence down, lighting the remains on fire, and then toasting marshmellows over whatever planet they had to burn to do it. You can bet your ass it's going to be a bloody monstrous mess when it finally goes down.
• Sealed Badass in a Can: As revealed in the brief sojourn to the magic world, all four of the major powers are lead by major players from the previous era, to include two Chosen Heroes.
• Sealed Good in a Can: As far as most of the UNSC and even the Office of Naval Intelligence is aware, Colonel Yukihime is just a very successful officer in command of an ODST division that has an almost-perfect mission record. What they don't know, on the other hand...
• Secret War: There's a cold one running in the background between ONI and the mage faction, led by Evangeline. Only the ongoing war with the Covenant keeps it from being a shooting one.
• Shell-Shock Silence: During the battle in the Mahora courtyard, following Cheryl's pasting of the enemy forces with the Thousand Thunderbolts spell. Even with the advanced hearing protection in her MJOLNIR helmet, Kelly is still stunned and can't hear for a moment, and the Marines around her are shown to be in even worse shape.
• Shout-Out: Numerous and often, with a large number falling in the Liberation of Mahora battle. The A-10 squadron is named after the aircraft maintenance squadron at the author's base that handles A-10s, the tactical air controller is designated Ghost Eye.
• Sinister Silhouettes: In the first chapter, Alysia is briefed on a mission by her commanding officer, whose voice reveals that she's female and speaks with a European accent, but otherwise anything relating to her is not revealed, as her office is kept in darkness save for the glow of a holotank. It later turns out that said commander is Evangeline fricken McDowell, using the pseudonym Yukihime.
• The Squad: Well gee, the entire storyline only focuses on these guys.
  • Cold Sniper: Played absolutely straight with Cynthia. Then again, she is the reincarnation of Mana, so it goes without saying...
  • Colonel Badass: Played straight with Evangeline, down to the rank.
  • The Engineer: Akio, when he's not being the penultimate Jerkass.
  • The Medic: Cheryl fills this role, along with pilot.
  • New Meat: Chihiro. He's been with the squad about three days.
  • Sergeant Rock: Alysia. Who else?
    • Strangely enough, a significant number of the squad are some form of sergeant, which is highly unusual for most tactical squadrons. It's sort of explained away in the fact that until shortly before the fall of Reach, they were all part of separate units.
• Steel Ear Drums: Completely averted. Even advanced MJOLNIR Mk.VI armor won't completely protect your hearing from the sound of a thousand bolts of lightning hitting the ground within 100 meters of you, and the Marines around Kelly were shown to have bleeding from the ears and likely permanent deafness.
• Supernaturally Young Parent: As expected of any age trope involving Evangeline, this is played straight and inverted at the same time. Being Lucy-B091's adopted mother, Evangeline's true form would have some people double-taking at a near-seven-foot Spartan calling a 4'3" apparent-ten-year-old 'Mom.' But Evangeline is Really One Thousand Years Old.
• Take That!: Yuuna's remark concerning 'certain squads' of ODSTs that wear fingerless gloves and helmets that don't seal, echoing the frustrations of pretty much every crewmember of Project: Arashi about that visual and technical faux paux on Bungie's part.
• Theme Music Power-Up: Directly invoked by Kazumi when she played Through the Fire and Flames, itself an example of Theme Naming, over her broadcast station for the ODSTs.
• Theme Naming: Evangeline's command ship, the UNSC Yamato. Ostensibly intended to reference being a sister ship to the known-in-canon UNSC Musashi, the fact that Eva's ship is named after the famed Imperial Japanese superbattleship should not be lost on anyone. On top of that, Japanese naming convention for Japanese-set area.
• This Is Wrong on So Many Levels!: Cheryl and Alysia's reaction to Lucy picking up the murderous little doll Chachazero, and giving her a hug as though she were a precious child's toy. Which Chachamaru then said she was, to Lucy at least.
• Title In: Follows the "Date, Location, Military Time" format common to the series.
  • Later, during the Liberation of Mahora, the timestamps are adapted to match the format used in Halo 3: ODST.
• Title Drop: Evangeline tells Chao that they'll fight the unsung war.
• Took a Level in Badass: Evangeline has trained over two thousand Badass Normal ODSTs in the fine art of magical warfare. It wasn't just the protagonist squad, she powerleveled an entire ODST battalion to Take a Level in Badass.
• True Companions: At first, the protagonist squad are just your average Helljumper team in the large war effort against the Covenant. Then they get an unusual VIP recovery mission, and it all goes crazy from there. Nevermind the fact that over half of them do have strong ties to each other, they are closer than family come the end of their mage knight training.
• Unwitting Pawn: The UNSC and the Covenant, all pawns in Evangeline's Gambit to take out the Office of Naval Intelligence.
• Villain Has a Point: The suppression of magic by ONI is explicitly treated as bad, but given the backstory provided by UQ Holder!, wherein everyone has access to magic due to technology-powered "magic apps" and given the propensity by which technology exponentially advances per generation, it's not hard to see these apps eventually leaving traditional mages in the dust, and the potential of such handheld weapons of mass destruction being readily available makes ONI seem less evil for the sake of it and more forward-thinking.
• Voice of the Resistance: Kazumi and her Mahora Independence Radio.
• Xanatos Gambit: Of course, the first thought goes directly to Chao, whose actions in the past, including her efforts to reveal magic to the world, and the construction of numerous and potent anti-Covenant weapon systems, were all intended to be used to fight the war she finds herself in. But the true first prize goes to Evangeline. She is playing all sides against the middle. If the Covenant beats the UNSC, then ONI is destroyed, and the vast majority of mages will survive in the Magic World, which cannot be found at all by the Covenant and is protected from the Halo effect. If the UNSC defeats the Covenant, well, she's got plans for that one, too...

I Am ODST: Memoirs of a Student-Soldier

• Anguished Declaration of Love: Just prior to the kidnapping of Konoka, Yuuna found herself trapped into confessing her crush on Makie. Fortunately, she was spared the indignation of being rejected by the kidnapping.
• Indy Ploy: The narrative never indicated whether the enemy sniper actually fell for the "Let's throw a can of silver shaving gel and make them think it's a flashbang" gimmick, but given that Yuuna wasn't shot moving from cover to the ice wall...
• P.O.V. Sequel
• Retcon: A somewhat major one stemming from the falling-out between several members of the project, resulting in the character of Regan being made Ret-Gone and replaced with another character.

The Timesnatcher

• Badass Boast: There's the "come and face the wrath of the Timesnatcher" from the introduction, as well as Chao's commentary to the dying mage hunter.
• Battle Butler: Two of these exist so far in the narrative. There's Bridget, the Lingshen family head maid, and the as-yet-unnamed orderly of Evangeline aboard the UNSC Yamato, who is more familiar than readers may think.
• Blown Across the Room: Averted, and narratively discussed, when Chao shot the rebel woman with her Magnum
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Showcasing how truly, ludicrously game-breaking it is to have full power over time, Chao exacts two of these in just the first chapter, the first against a rebel woman on Mars in the 2100s, and the second time against seven mage hunters in 2540. Those mage hunters even knew about her Cassiopeia's powers and made efforts to counter it, but the strength of her personal time powers made short work of those countermeasures.
• The Multiverse: The overarching premise of this story, as Chao goes about visiting various, and sometimes wildly varying, alternate universes. Some are Like Reality, Unless Noted, others have no connection whatsoever with the 'Prime' universe. For that matter, Chao's choice of designating her "home" universe the Prime implies The Earth-Prime Theory is in effect, but the question is called into doubt by the fact that universes like Star Wars and Final Fantasy XIV have no connection with the Prime other than being forms of entertainment that exist in it.
• Oh, Crap!: When Chao realizes that the huge display of technological killpower in the vehicle bay of the UNSC Yamato isn't aimed at an enemy she has yet to detect, but at her.
• Shout-Out: Blink and you'll miss it, but the main Martian spaceport is named after one of its earliest pioneers.
• Tragic Keepsake: Chao's sidearm, par for the course. The original Cassiopeia and the bloodied letter are also treated with this gravity.
• Tricked Out Time: The larger story arc of the first chapter revolves around Chao stumbling across her own birthplace at the appropriate time and taking her infant self forward in time as she, herself, had been sent forward to ensure a Stable Time Loop. It's not mentioned in the chapter, but her wiki states that it was Chao's birth parents who sent her forward the first time. So as not to break time (any further), Chao has to personally deliver her infant self to her adoptive parents in the future.
• Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Watching the Marines storm the Martian shanty from outside of time appeared to be treated like this by Chao. But given how much warfare and breaching actions she'd seen by that point, it's not really that surprising.

"I'm not paying for that!"

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