Episode 02 - Riot Force Six
Note: The English name "Riot Force Six" appears in the unit logo, and is commonly treated as the official English-language translation of the unit name, and of this episode's title — even though the unit has nothing whatsoever to do with riots. In fact, the actual unit name in Japanese, Kidō Roku-ka, is more accurately translated as "Sixth Mobile Division" or "Rapid-Response Section Six"; either of those would also be a better description of the unit and its function.
Episode 02 - Riot Force Six
The one where Nanoha, Fate and Hayate share a bed.
Picking up right where the previous episode left off, Hayate and Fate watch Nanoha greeting Subaru and Teana. Upon learning that Subaru was the girl Nanoha rescued from the airport fire four years ago, Fate remembers how she saved Subaru's older sister Ginga from the same fire, while Hayate was involved in coordinating the disaster response. The fire turned out to have been caused by an illegally-smuggled "Lost Logia" — a general term for ancient magical artifacts with potentially catastrophic powers. Following this incident, Hayate shared with Nanoha and Fate her desire to create a special kind of rapid-response force to deal with such artifacts and any disasters they cause.
Back in the present day, while awaiting the qualification exam results, Hayate tells Subaru and Teana that she's received permission to form such a team, to be called "TSAB Lost Property Division: Riot Force Six". Based on her own assessment of them, she offers the pair positions on the team as combat Forwards.
In the meantime Signum, one of Hayate's Wolkenritter (or Guardian Knights), is picking up two other recruits at the transit station: 10 year old Erio Mondial and Caro Ru Lushe. Although the two of them are both adoptive wards of Fate's, this is their first time meeting each other... and meet they do. Caro also has a miniature dragon with her, named Friedrich.
Later that night the other Wolkenritter, Vita, Zafira and Shamal, are wrapping up a battle with several flying robotic attackers they refer to as 'Gadgets'. It seems that such attacks are becoming a problem lately, which is something the new Riot Force Six will have to deal with...
Note: The English name "Riot Force Six" appears in the unit logo, and is commonly treated as the 'official' English-language translation of the unit name, and of this episode's title. In fact, the actual unit name in Japanese, Kidō Roku-ka, is more accurately translated as "Sixth Mobile Division" or "Rapid-Response Section Six"; either of those would also be a better description of the unit and its function.)
This episode contains examples of:
- Crash-Into Hello: How Erio and Caro meet.
- Cross-Popping Veins: Subaru provokes these in Teana multiple times over the course of one conversation.
- Establishing Character Moment: Four years ago, 13-year-old Ginga rushed into a burning airport to try and find her little sister, pausing to save a few other people along the way. Besides establishing Ginga as a brave, devoted and loyal badass, it's another clue that she and her sister are more than they appear.
- Facial Dialogue: So many expressions cross Subaru's face during the meeting with Hayate that her thought processes are pretty much an open book.
- Flashback: We get a much longer flashback of the airport disaster from four years ago, this time from both Fate's and Hayate's points of view.
- Foregone Conclusion: Subaru and Teana don't actually accept Hayate's offer of a place in the unit right away — instead, they're told to go away and think about it. While we do see them discussing it, it's so obvious they're going to accept that we never even see them do so — by next episode they've already joined.
- Foreshadowing: The Wolkenritter note that Gadgets are attacking more frequently, and they are expected to be a problem for Riot Force Six.
- The airport fire is said to have been caused by a "dangerous smuggled item". As we discover later, it was a Relic.
- Fate appears to express some concern about Nanoha's health. This is probably a reference to what we learn about her past in Episode 9.
- Thanks for the Mammary: Played with; Erio and Caro's Crash-Into Hello involves this, or rather something resembling it note , briefly embarrassing both of them. However, they simply separate and apologize, and nothing more is said of it.
