Deva Series (Fanfic)

The Deva Series is a series of Lyrical Nanoha fanfiction written by Daishi Prime, taking place in an AU where the events of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Striker S never happen.

The first story, (On the) Path of Vengeance, takes place shortly after the Time Skip epilogue to A's. Hayate and the Wolkenritter are out on a routine mission to seal a Lost Logia, when Hayate finds a person sealed in crystal and touches it. In the process, she is sent to parts unknown while the freed person, a former TSAB officer with a strange form of magic, attacks the Wolkenritter before escaping. Identified in records as the infamous Akira and connected to the death or disappearance of two famous mages years before the original Nanoha series, the remaining leads find themselves pressed to stop him from collecting the pieces to a weapon that will let him achieve his vengeance on the TSAB.

The second story, Academy Blues, is the major divergence from Nanoha canon. Disregarding StrikerS, being written slightly before and during its run, Academy Blues sees Hayate set up a school on Earth to train selected magically gifted Terran teens. However, this attracts the hostile attention of a xenophobic Terran Ancient Conspiracy who seek the destruction of mages artificially enhancing their powers - ergo, Hayate and friends - and the subversion of Hayate's students.

This is accompanied by a set of Side Stories focusing on students that do not get as much face time in the main story.

The third story, Endless Waltz, follows the year after Academy Blues, with said Ancient Conspiracy facing an Enemy Civil War scenario even as Hayate's school takes in a new year of students. Things are never that straightforward, however, for an enemy thought long destroyed resurfaces with intent to finish what was started millennia ago.

Academy Blues comes well recommended and can be enjoyed without reading (On the) Path of Vengeance, although naturally knowledge of the first title will help. Naturally, the first two are finished, with Endless Waltz underway and a prequel in the works but not yet uploaded.

And here's a Character Page.

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Tropes found in the Deva Series:

• The Ace: Sara, who is said to have single-handedly sealed two Class A Lost Logia, each on par with the Book of Darkness, especially considering how much trouble the canon cast faced in dealing with the Book of Darkness. That is before considering her creation of the titular system of magic.
• Aliens in Cardiff: Al Hanthis reappears not in Tokyo, nor in New York... but Cairo.
• All There in the Manual: The stories are still readable without delving into the supplementary materials, but to get everything requires reading the Word of God and Side Stories.
  • Somewhat amusing considering that the author has explicitly stated in one of his review replies that he finds this trope to be infuriating.
• Ancient Conspiracy: The Circles, who are implied to have repressed magical development on Earth by taking in potential candidates to join them and holding or killing dissenters; what implications this might have had if Nanoha had manifested her abilities without meeting Yuuno first, or why they stayed out of the events of the first two seasons, has not (yet?) been explored in-story.
  • Part of the reason given in Academy Blues is that they had problems infiltrating Japan due to its insular nature at the time they discovered its existence. So, pretty much by the time they could get someone around who could possibly affect the outcome of either incident, everything was over.
• And Your Little Dog, Too: Both Li and Szash threaten to harm Laura's family. The similarity even gets a Lampshade Hanging.
  • Then Al Hantheans kill off the Japanese Imperial Family.
• Anti-Hero: Takashi is a striking Type IV, who would be a Type V if the Lords of the Circles weren't as nasty. Of course, his actions dye him darkly enough to make it hard to decide which side of this line he should be falling on.
• Anti-Magic: The Seed can resist most magic. It's said that enough power can penetrate their defences, but like Blanks from Warhammer 40000 and their being overpowered by sufficiently strong Warp entities, it hasn't come up very often.
• Atlantis: "Al Hanthis", as it is called in these stories, is said to be a civilization whose out-of-control artificial magecraft threatened Earth before the founders of the Circles destroyed it, with deliberate similarities to the canonical Al Hazred. Eventually, Al Hanthis resurfaces, with its people still having designs on Earth.
• Attack Drone: Laura's Bolt from the Blue.
• Author Appeal: The author has a great deal of respect for the US Marines, and has encountered active duty or retired Marines all over the world. The author also uses far too much Japanese for an English story.
• BFS: Fate brings hers into play a few times. The Hellblade isn't normal-proportioned either, nor is Marcel's Device.
• Back From the Dead: Reinforce I, or rather her image
• Badass: Akira. Single-handedly facing down six of our combat leads, all of which are themselves Badasses, is a very good way to show yourself to be a bad motherfucker.
  • Badass Grandpa: The Emperor of Japan lasts longer than his younger kin.
• Badass Creed: Laura in Chapter 35:

"I stand between the Light and the Darkness, between the Innocent and the Monstrous, between the Just and the Vile. I dwell at the edge of Darkness, that others may live in the Light. I am a Twilight Paladin. As such, I hereby take these oaths… "Upon my honor, upon my soul, upon my magic and my hope for redemption, I swear to never again kill a thinking being. "Upon my honor, upon my soul, upon my magic and my hope for redemption, I swear to seek and serve justice to the limit of my capacity and the best of my understanding. "Lastly, I swear my magic, my skills, and my life to your defense and your service."

• Batman Gambit: The Al Hantheans strike at Hong Kong, knowing that this can't be ignored, while striking at various African locations simultaneously.
• Being Good Sucks/Evil Is Easy: One of the author's review replies notes that it would be coldly logical well-intentioned extremism to use WMD, magical or otherwise, to Just Shoot Al Hanthis, but Hayate's people can't do that because, as "good people", they can't accept the severe civilian casualties that will result on both sides.
• Big Applesauce: One of Al Hanthis's targets.
• Big Damn Heroes: Akira and Takashi like doing this.
• Bilingual Bonus: There are a few, but to the author's credit they are explained.
• Blessed with Suck: Natalia and her ability to see how people will die.
  • Technicaly, it started out just with WHEN, but it's gotten progressively stronger. The side story makes it out as just when it's going to happen at first, then how many lives that person will 'create' IE: conceive. But as endless Waltz proceeds, she's getting more and more things it shows her.
• Brick Joke: Sara knowing who Shamal is first came up all the way back in Path of Vengeance.
• Bus Crash: Admiral Gil Graham dies sometime between Path of Vengeance and Academy Blues, leaving Hayate to take in the Lieze twins.
• Call Back: One of these traumatizes Natalia by showing that her power does indeed work.
• Chekhov's Gunman: Arguably, Colonel Hughes although some thought the fact that he was in command at the military base containing a dimensional dislocation was rather suspicious. Even then, few could have predicted he would end up being the leader of the Moderns.
• Clingy MacGuffin: Maunder's Device refuses to leave her.
• Conflict Killer: Kriegsen post-reveal in Path of Vengeance, possibly reprising this role in Endless Waltz.
  • Also, to some extent, Al Hanthis.
• Cultural Posturing: Noriko chides Yussef on being a "foreign barbarian[s]" with "vengeance obsessions", and when he fires back about the Forty-Seven Ronin, she says "that wasn't vengeance, it was honor.â€\x9D Emphasis the author's, with out-of-quote text suggesting that Noriko was being snarky about both her and Yussef.
• Curse Cut Short: Ichigo nearly drops a F-bomb after Hong Kong.
• Cyborg: The Al Hantheans have cybernetic implants that aid in their spellcasting.
• Darker and Edgier: While there has been lethal direct spell damage in Nanoha canon, this series sees a lot more of it flying around than usual.
• Dark Messiah: The Circles have a prophecy that a figure called the Goddess of Light will bring an end the conflict caused by the return of Al Hanthis. However, a member of the Circles notes that the prophecy makes no mention of who will win, and the method of ending it may not be positive either (i.e.: the conflict ends because there is nobody left alive to pursue it.) And all signs point to the Goddess being either Hayate or Cidela
• Defector From Decadence: The founders of the Circles were Al Hantheans who recognised the danger in their magic.
  • And creating another one.
• Demoted to Extra: Averted for the most part. Characters largely neglected by canon, such as Yuuno, Shamal, Zafira and the Lieze twins, get to do something useful.
  • That said, Nanoha and the rest of the Non-Wolkenritter cast are rather out of focus for Academy Blues and the first third or so of Endless Waltz.
• Depleted Phlebotinum Shells: The Circles' special-ops forces, the 'Black Dogs', have magically-charged ammunition.
• Didn't See That Coming: No one saw Natalia's betrayal coming.
  • In-universe, at least. For some readers though, this may have not been a big surprise. This is mostly due to the story (and the author's notes) containing a veritable Chekhov's Armoury.
• Dirty Business: Maunders doesn't enjoy holding onto a Device.
• The Dreaded: Twilight Paladins eventually gain this.
• Dynamic Entry: Jubal Early appears suddenly behind a recalcitrant Revenant and chokes him into unconsciousness.
• Emergency Transformation: Niranjana's Device does this for her after Natalia's attack, but the results are very crudely done and definitely far from the level of the Nakajima sisters or the Numbers.
• Enemy Civil War: Springs up in the Circles due to the ending of Academy Blues.
• Enemy Mine: Hayate's groupies and both factions of Circles reluctantly agree to work together against the Al Hantheans.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Journeyman Turo recognises that though war sometimes requires terrible things to be done, Master Adept Willan's proposal will lead to mass murder.
  • More like, evil Journeymen have standards. his boss, being a Master, doesn't.
• Face Heel Turn: Natalia defects to Al Hanthis in Endless Waltz in an attempt to extend the lives of her brother and grandmother.
• Fantastic Nuke: Al Hanthis have their own version of the Arc-En-Ciel.
• Freaky Is Cool: Laura likes Megan's partial draconic Shapeshifter Mode Lock.
• Gambit Pileup: Hughes has plans, the other factions of the Circles have plans, Kriegsen has plans, the Al Hantheans have plans - for that matter, they have internecine rivalry - even Chrono has plans. It seems that Hayate and the academy personnel are the only ones without some twisted, devious schemes up their metaphorical sleeve.
• Genius Bruiser: The Seed definitely aren't Dumb Muscle.
• Genki Girl: Laura, although she mellows a little after her Heroic BSOD.
• Government Conspiracy: Natalia warns Chrono that there has been one in the Bureau backing Gil and Kriegsen's actions.
• Gratuitous Japanese: Shows up due to Author Appeal.
  • It's mainly Yagami's Academy lads who use Japanese inside their phrasing. It can be interpreted as the fact that they are talking a potpourri of japanese, english and their native languages.
• Heroic BSOD: Experienced by Laura after she kills Master Li.
• Heroic Neutral: Hayate and her people from Academy Blues onwards. It's quite clear that they would rather be left alone to manage the academy.
• I Did What I Had to Do: Natalia tries to offer this.
• Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Many of the chapter titles are songs that reference the chapter contents, either directly or by tone. Still other chapter titles are historical references that directly apply:
  • Save Tonight: Named for the Eagle-Eye Cherry song, it was the last chapter before the Battle of Hong Kong, when Natalia basically confessed what she was planning.
  • Operation Nimrod: Named after the British SAS' public hostage rescue at the Iranian Embassy, was the chapter in Academy Blues when the Circles kicked off their mission to 'rescue' Hayate's students.
  • Operation Fortitude: Named after the Allied deception operation prior to the D-Day landings, was the chapter in Endless Waltz when Al Hanthis attacked Hong Kong as a massive distraction from their conquest of North Africa.
  • The Oppenheimer Protocol: Take a wild guess.
• If I Wanted You Dead...: Said by Allison to Natalia.
• Immune to Bullets: You need a lot of magical power, like high-end conventional to tacnuke level, to hurt a Seed. As for conventional mass-based weapons, nothing smaller than a RPG will even scratch them.
• Implacable Man: The Seeds of Leviathan.
• In the Hood: Megan tries this, after her partial Shapeshifter Mode Lock.
• Insistent Terminology: Sara insisting that she's an Evil Genius, not a Mad Scientist.
• Inverse Law of Utility and Lethality: Averted with Deva magic. Although said to be even more combat-oriented than Belkan magic, it also contains useful non-combat techniques such as single-mage interstellar flight.
• It's Personal: Al Hanthis turned one of Hayate's students to their side. Said student tried to kill two of her fellow students, including one Shamal had adopted as a daughter. Later, a small group of Al Hanthis' mages use a powerful spell to kill all of Noriko's family, including her parents, sisters, aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents. Noriko is the Sole Survivor of her family.
• Kick the Son of a Bitch: Takashi's massacre of the Lords of the Circles in retaliation for their attempt on Hayate, seeing as how they were planning to nuke Hayate's academy.
• Knight Templar: The Circles, who believe their repression of artificial magecraft fully reasonable. Also, Kriegsen, who seems fully convinced that he is doing the good thing in trying to kill Takashi by any means. The Al Hantheans also believe in the righteousness of their cause.
  • Nah, for the Al Hantheans it's just a matter of survival. They don't have a lot of resources left.
• Kneel Before Zod: What a Seed Alpha does after imprinting.
• Know When to Fold'Em: Maunders "was also smart enough to recognize when to cut and run."
• Last-Name Basis: Past!Takashi to Past!Sara.
• Leeroy Jenkins: Laura, whose willingness to rush into direct combat eventually leads to a Heroic BSOD.
• Les Yay: Despite the Ship Sinking listed below, this is still a Nanoha fic, so the slack is taken up by Niranjana and Allina (with some very mild Laura/Noriko thrown in).
• Let's Get Dangerous: If you hear a Twilight Paladin say, "Let's see how far we've come," run, as it means they consider their enemy a Worthy Opponent and are about to go all out against them.

"The second one, though… if you ever hear a Paladin say 'let's see how far we've come'… run. Drop whatever you're doing, just grab any wounded or civilians in the area and run. If you're the bloody idiot who convinced us to say it, put your head between your knees and kiss your butt good-bye. It means we think you're good enough to take our very best, and we're going to give it to you. It means the Power Limiters, tactical limitations, and personal restrictions we habitually operate under – for the challenge – just got tossed out the window, and the only thing limiting our actions and power are the Three Oaths.

• Lightning Bruiser: The Seed are pretty fast for being able to eat a few anti-armor rounds.
• Loads and Loads of Characters: Sir, Yes Sir. 52 OCs of note, after 79 chapters.
• Loners Are Freaks: Natalia even before her changing of sides.
• Mama Bear: Hayate has her standards, but threaten her students - whom she refers to as "my kids" - and she'll unleash not only her own full power, but Takashi and Akira as well.
• Meaningful Name: Hector is known by most through his nickname Mariachi, the style of music that helps him focus his magic more effectively.
• The Mole: Kriegsen, both in the TSAB and amongst the Circles.
• Mood Whiplash: Aria's telling Allina about Niranjana's injuries is marred by an aside about confusing Zafira for Arf.
• Morality Chain: Many characters view Hayate as filling this role for Takashi, something she has taken advantage of on occasion.
• Multinational Team: Both the students and the Circles.
• My Name Is Not Durwood: A Marine Colonel is Darvisk, not Darvish.
• Mysterious Protector: Takashi gets to take this role after his liberation from the Hellblade's pocket dimension and the dragon form he was trapped in.
• Names to Run Away From Really Fast: Wilhelm Kriegsen.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: It looks like Hayate's self-righteous denouncement of nuking the Seed horde and use of Armageddon on Potsdam have not won her any (more) friends among the Americans.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Szash says that the Al Hanthean attack on the Japanese royal lineage and Noriko's subsequent public denouncement of them will unite the previously-divided nations of Earth against them, making their task now more difficult.
• Not So Different: Various characters note that, as aforementioned, both Li and Szash's words ring a bit too similar.
• Nuke'Em: In Endless Waltz Chapter 36, the Americans use a pair of SLBMs to obliterate a massive swarm of Seeds that were heading for either New York or London. Even though nothing else was harmed - middle of the ocean, and all - Hayate was not happy, since she feels that it wouldn't be too much of a stretch now for someone to think to launch a barrage of nukes at Al Hanthis... which would obliterate Cairo in the process. Also, the Al Hantheans are utterly horrified once they learn exactly how nuclear weapons work. It is probably worth noting that there is in-universe debate as to whether this was Nuke'Em or Nuclear Option; it did work, and Yussef and Maunders don't consider it an overreaction. Yussef notes that point defences now make anything short of a nuclear Macross Missile Massacre worthless against Al Hanthis and would rather not use another if possible, but is mentally prepared to do so if all the chips are down, unlike Hayate who absolutely refuses to consider it.
• Oh Crap Szash's reaction to the aforementioned Nukes.
  • Natalia's reaction to Allison appearing right next to her in an empty elevator in Al Hantis, followed shortly thereafter by Allison's reassurance that she's not going to kill her because Laura's got dibs.
• The Omniscient Council of Vagueness: The Lords of the Circles, at least before Takashi wiped the lot. Some others have also cropped up in Endless Waltz.
• One World Order: 'You can't think to force Earth into the Bureau, can you? They don't even have a unified world government, yet!' It is implied that TSAB charter worlds feature this.
  • Endless Waltz's first chapter ends with the revelation that Earth is going to end up as one by the end of the conflict. The question is: How, and who's going to be in charge?
• Papa Wolf: Takashi. Badmouth Hayate and you got a Death Glare. Threaten to kill her and you're Deader Than Dead.
  • Knight Templar Parent: Watch the last few chapters of Academy Blues.
• Person of Mass Destruction: Of course, all Nanoha canon characters (so far, Nanoha, Fate, Hayate, Vita, Signum) still count, then there are Takashi, who single-handedly wiped a fleet of pirates with a single spell, leaving all their ships intact and ready to be boarded; Akira, who had a habit of destroying warships by himself; and Sara in the backstory. Hayate bears special mention as she got another power upgrade by inheriting Sara's spells and magic system, leaving her, among other things, with a spell called Armageddon, which has been theorized is able to kill anything within hundred kilometers, or crack a planet's crust. Hayate even said that Sara used to underestimate her spells, meaning that this one could be worse. Even among the students, Laura qualifies, having created a mushroom cloud when she snapped and went all-out. The author loves this trope.
• Petal Power: Noriko's signature spell is 'Cascade of Spring's Glory' - a variable but large number of small free-floating shields/sensors, 2cm or so across and thinner than a molecule, which she uses for attack, defense, and scouting. This was inspired by Kuchiki Byakuya and the source of her device's name. Lampshaded by Cidela in 'Academy Blues' when Noriko first demonstrated the spell for her classmates.
• Playful Hacker: Allina and, to a lesser extent, Niranjana, with their devices following suit.
• Power Nullifier: The EMP spell.
• Psycho for Hire: Jubal Early, as in Firefly.
• Red Baron: Some of the characters have earned such titles, some have bestowed such titles on themselves, and the foreshadowing bits suggest that most if not all of them will gain these.
• Remember When You Blew Up a Sun?: Aria invokes this towards Nanoha at one point, making a couple students nervous about their guest lecturer.
• Reverse Mole: It turns out that Takashi was infiltrating the Circles' Black Dogs.
• Right Hand Versus Left Hand: Very frequent. The Circles have multiple factions working at cross purposes and trying to seize control of the organization, the Bureau has factional squabbling over whether to intervene in what happens on Earth, Al Hanthis has Yosho and Szash trying to one-up each other as well as the Forecasters trying to prevent a Bad Future, and it's suggested that the Ghosts (secret intelligence service) were helping Allison because they want to recruit her.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: Yussef and Noriko.
• Rule of Symbolism: Allison giving 30 silver coins to Natalia along with a letter from Natalia's grandmother.
• Sergeant Rock: Journeywoman Teri Maunders.
• Shades of Conflict: Path of Vengeance starts off White vs. Grey, with Akira having some sort of standards and a reasonable motivation for his violence. Academy Blues turns White and Grey vs. Grey, with the Circles' extreme if somewhat justifiable antipathy towards artificially-enhanced magic and Takashi's willingness to go to extremes in defence of his adoptive daughter. Then Academy Blues splits the Circles into the slightly more tolerant Moderns and the less accepting Revenants, as well as showing that the Al Hantheans are, while admittedly callous about unstable magical artefacts, not the Omnicidal Maniacs they had been painted as.
• Shaggy Dog Story / The Bad Guy Wins: Excerpts from future magical historians (and Future Szash), as well as Author's Notes and responses to reviews, strongly hint that Endless Waltz, and thus the entire story, will end this way.
  • Not necessarily. If you read the excepts carefully, you'll realize that of all the outcomes, a straight victory by Al Hantis (or either side, for that matter) is in fact ruled out. For one thing, they don't have an Emperor. If anything, they suggest that the geopolitical situation is going to get a lot more complicated than things stand as of Chapter 42.
  • The historical note following the Battle of Cairo suggests that Noriko is the Emperor. Hayate's powers are compared to the Emperor's, suggesting that they are a Deva mage, and Noriko was declared male in order to become Emperor of Japan.
• She Is Not My Girlfriend: Laura and Yussef through much of Academy Blues. Allison does this regarding Noah in Endless Waltz.
• She Is the King: Noriko is legally declared male in order to be crowned Emperor of Japan.
• Ship Sinking: Daishi Prime sinks Nanofei by having Nanoha marry Yuuno at the end of Path of Vengeance (It was written before StrikerS) and continuing to remain Happily Married in the sequels. Fate, in turn, gets together with Chrono.
• Shout-Out: Too many to count, sometimes subtle, sometimes about as subtle as a brick:
  • Jubal Early the craziest of the Black Dogs.
  • Also, Allina's device named HAL, who even speaks in the same Creepy Monotone
    • Daishi Prime also mentions a What Could Have Been: SHODAN.
  • Equally blatantly is Megan's device Longinus, a red spear that diverges into a helix at one end
  • It even has a shout out to the series it is a fanfiction of, impossible as that may seem. StrikerS doesn't happen in this particular continuity... but two of the crew members on the bridge of the Arthra are named Tia and Subaru.
  • The mages tasked with denying Hong Kong come from the the Five-oh-First company.
  • "Can't sleep, clown'll eat me"
  • "If you shoot him, you'll just make him mad."
  • "Here come the drums."
  • "Subtle knife", Al Hanthean parlance for a military hack.
  • "Berry-kun"
    • Also from Bleach (and how did we miss this for so long?), Noriko's device 'Senbonzakura'.
    • And let's not forget the character, Toshiro, who happens to have a friend named Chad and for an added bonus happens to take exception to being nicknamed "Shiro-chan."
  • The effects of Al Hanthis' Blood Penance sounds awfully like Familicide.
  • When Szash imprints a Seed Alpha, she notes that putting her hand into its mouth is distinctly unpleasant, but can't pull it out or the Seed will try to kill her. This is reminiscent of the scene in Dune where Paul is tested by the Reverend Mother.
    • Also, the Alpha Seed's response upon accepting new orders: "By Your Command."
  • Obviously, Endless Waltz.
• Shrouded in Myth: In Chapter 25 of Endless Waltz it is mentioned that the stories make Colonel Hughes out to be a "towering monster". He's not the only one subject to this, though.
• Sociopathic Hero/Token Evil Teammate: Akira sits on the uneasy line between this and Psycho for Hire.
• Spell My Name with an "S": Daishi Prime prefers to use "Velka" instead of the "Belka" taken by the official English dub. Also uses Asura instead of Arthra for Lindy's/Chrono's/Fate's ship, though this is also keeping the Hindu theme of ship naming (Asura, Deva, Shiva...).
• Split Personality: At first, Natalia had a Precia persona that was actually an act to scare people. In the wake of her post- Face Heel Turn encounter with her grandmother, however, there are signs that her "Precia" act may have evolved into a genuine second personality.
• Square-Cube Law: Discussed; it is said that the Seed can't get much bigger without magical assistance if they want to remain as powerful as they are.
• Taking the Bullet: Yuuno taking the Soul Breaker meant for Nanoha.
• Technically a Smile: Sometimes comes up. For example, "Yussef just smiled back at [Maunders] slightly. It was a surprisingly unfriendly expression."
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Yagami Academy with the Circles. No one's ready to be best buds just yet. As Yussef puts it: "The enemy of my enemy is not my friend, simply an enemy with whom I share a common foe."
• This Is Gonna Suck: Yussef's opinion of having to fight Seed in New York at night.
• This Is Your Premise on Drugs: One Word of God comment compares the in-universe programming language for Devices to Perl "if you crossed it with HTML & laced the whole thing with rocket fuel".
• Thou Shalt Not Kill: Laura swears an oath to this effect at the end of Academy Blues.
• Torture Technician: Akira is implied to have experience in this area, but it gets subjected to Gory Discretion Shot, so exactly how he does it is unclear.
  • Only one scene actually shows him about to torture someone, 'Jin' and he states right at the end of the scene that he's about to use a Soulbreaker on him without the testing of his magic and fine tuning he usually uses to make the spell instantly lethal. He also tells him he's not sure what it will do to him.
• Un-Equal Rites: In Academy Blues a briefly-appearing African shaman sneers at the scientific (emphasis author's) methods of those probing Hayate's academy. The Circles use "natural" magic and have a literally violent disdain for artificial enhancements for casters such as the Bureau's Devices or Al Hanthean cybernetics.
• Unusual User Interface: Allina and Niranjana's Devices have these.
• Values Dissonance: Discussed in-universe when Maunders initially doesn't understand why Hayate is so worked up about nuking the Seed.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: Megan displays this talent.
• Warrior Prince: Both of the Royals Who Actually Do Something.
• We ARE Struggling Together!: Hayate's people and the two Circles factions may be working together, but none of them like it.
• We Could Have Avoided All This: Hayate offers this to Colonel Hughes at the end of Academy Blues. Nanoha also offers this to Szash before the start of hostilities over Hong Kong.
• What Measure Is a Non-Human?: The de-humanising created by such views is played with. '".... It helps the men, though. 'Hayate Yagami' brings up terrible memories of Asia and New Delhi. 'The Witch' is just a monster to be destroyed."' Similarly, people start referring to Natalia as "the Russian" after her betrayal, though the Russian Black Dog Bogdanovich thinks it an insult to the Rodina.
  • Subverted with Laura and the Seed of Leviathan. After an early attack on the campus by a pair of Seed, Laura mentions how she doesn't like fighting them, because she doesn't know how far she can go against one without killing it, which would violate her oath.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Hayate attempts to pull this on Takashi for killing all the Lords of the Circles, but rescinds it once she realizes that they considered nuking her academy and that he was merely Kicking The Sons and Daughters Of Bitches.
  • Natalia's grandmother gives her one for her betrayal. And Allison makes it worse with the 30 silver coins collected from other students at the Academy.
  • And it looks like her newly revived brother is about to give her another.
    • Possibly an Ironic Echo as well. "What have you done, Natalia?" She gets the exact same reaction as her grandmother had, from her brother when he comes out of the coma. Even better, neither one is especially upset sounding, but characterized as more of a disappointed, "I thought you were better than this..." feeling.
• Weak but Skilled: A Circle mage, even with a wolfpack behind him, cannot compete in raw power with a Device-user of equal or even slightly lower rank. He usually makes up the difference with reliability, control and skill.

"Tai-yu-sensei might not know a lot of spells, but she can throw out a Buster Cannon level strike faster than blinking."

• Willfully Weak: Twilight Paladins apparently will put restrictions on themselves for the sake of challenge. Woe betide the poor schmuck who makes one take the kid gloves off.
• Wise Beyond Their Years: "Those kids are way too old for their age."
• With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility: Yussef believes this.
• Year Inside, Hour Outside: The Al Hantheans have only experienced 50 years inside null-space, whereas thousands of years have passed in "our world" between their last being on it and the present day.
• You Can't Thwart Stage One: Akira manages to collect all the pieces of the Sword of Light and assemble it before he gets stopped.
  • The Al Hantheans have thus far managed to take, essentially, all of North Africa.