Episode 2 - The Magic Incantation Is "Lyrical"?
Nanoha is startled to find herself wearing a brand-new outfit and carrying a strange staff, although she has little time to react before the blob monster attacks. Raising Heart generates a magical barrier to protect her, and the ferret explains that she can use magic by focusing her willpower. He tells her to concentrate on sealing the monster away. When she does, the creature vanishes, and a small blue jewel falls to the ground. The ferret identifies this as a "Jewel Seed", and shows her how to store it away inside Raising Heart.
Resting in a nearby park afterwards, the two introduce each other properly. The ferret's name is Yuuno Scrya, and he belatedly apologizes for dragging her into his problems. Nanoha tells him not to worry, and says he can come home with her until he's recovered. When they arrive home, Nanoha gets a brief scolding for sneaking out so late, but Yuuno defuses the tension by instantly charming her family.
When Nanoha leaves for school the next morning, Yuuno stays behind to rest, but shows her how they can communicate telepathically. They converse this way while she sits in class, and Yuuno finally explains his situation. An archaeologist from another world, he uncovered a set of dangerous artifacts called Jewel Seeds: ancient magical stones said to grant the wishes of those who use them. Soon afterwards, the ship he arranged to transport them suffered an accident near Earth, and twenty-one Jewel Seeds ended up falling onto the Earth's surface. He's now trying to recover them before their unpredictable powers can cause further damage. So far he's recovered two (including the one from last night), leaving nineteen to go. He says he'll leave to resume the search on his own once he's fully healed, but she protests, saying she'd like to keep helping him. Noting that Nanoha's innate magical power seems to be much stronger than his, Yuuno somewhat hesitantly accepts.
As Nanoha walks home from school that afternoon, both she and Yuuno sense something out of place, and realize another Jewel Seed has been activated nearby. Heading towards the source, they meet at a local shrine just in time to see a woman being menaced by a huge dog-like monster. Yuuno says the Jewel Seed has possessed an animal, and tells Nanoha to activate Raising Heart using the incantation from last night. To his surprise, however, she manages to short-cut the process by activating it through pure willpower. Once equipped with her staff and armour, Nanoha proceeds to seal and capture the Jewel Seed, causing the monster to change back into a small pet dog.
The pair watch as both the dog and its owner recover their senses and depart. Nanoha reflects on her first full day as a magical girl, and wonders what the future holds for her next.
Tropes
- Adventurer Archaeologist: Yuuno identifies himself as one of these.
- By The Power Of Grey Skull: Averted — Yuuno tells Nanoha to use Raising Heart's activation passphrase, but to his surprise she manages to bypass it. With one exception, she never uses it again.
- Catchphrase: "Lyrical Magical", which is what the episode title refers to, seems to be set up as this, but in fact it will end up being dropped before long.
- Cuteness Proximity: Yuuno has this effect on Nanoha's family, especially her mother and sister.
- Foreshadowing: In her morning monologue, Nanoha notes that she and Yuuno quickly got used to calling each other by their first names, like friends. Getting Fate to do the same in the final episode will mark the start of their friendship.
- Gotta Catch Them All: For now, Nanoha's job as a magical girl is framed as one of these: find and seal all twenty-one Jewel Seeds.
- My Significance Sense Is Tingling: Nanoha and Yuuno can both sense when a Jewel Seed is activated in the vicinity.
- Running Gag: For the second morning in a row, Nanoha is woken up by her phone, which she then promptly drops out of bed and blindly gropes around for before groggily sitting up.
- Squee: Nanoha's mother reacts this way on meeting Yuuno for the first time.
