Aliases: Mistress of the Night Sky, Wielder of the Sword of Light

Affiliation: Independent/Self

Theme Song: Beethoven's Symphony #3.

Hayate in the Deva Series is somewhat more experienced version of her portrayal in As. She is still generally happy and upbeat, cheerful by disposition, and more interested in simply living her life than in accomplishing "great things". Unaware of Terran mage traditions, due to the manner in which her own powers woke, Hayate thought to return to Earth to give her homeworld magic and eventually bring them into the Bureau, only to unintentionally provoke a serious confrontation with the most pervasive Terran Tradition, the Mage Circles.

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• I Just Want to Be Normal: While Hayate would never give up her magic, she does simply want to be left alone to run her school and teach 'her kids'. The Bureau gave her enough strife and worry to last a lifetime, in her opinion, and all she wants to do is peacefully educate the next few generations.
• Morality Chain: Many view her as this for Takashi, a belief she has used to her advantage.
• Person of Mass Destruction: Since her transition to Deva Mage and inheritance of Sara Shimazu's spell-library and diaries, Hayate has definitely become this. Her most powerful spell to date is appropriately named Armageddon. The problem she runs in to is that the power does not scale very well. Sure, she can fight on a one-on-one level and probably crush anyone short of S rank easily. But much higher than that, and Deva magic skips right from 'small unit tactics' to this trope.
• Power Dyes Your Hair: Extended or powerful use of Deva magic temporarily bleaches out Hayate's hair to blonde and her eyes to bright blue, similar to how she appeared at the end of As when fully in control of Reinforce.

Affiliation: Hayate

Theme Song: Jimi Hendrix's Foxy Lady

Appearance: A tall statuesque woman in a black dress that stylistically mirror's Hayate's barrier-jacket, with red tattoos on her cheeks and forehead, and long silver-grey hair.

Reinforce is somewhere between a character in her own right and merely a manifestation of Hayate's device. After being converted into a Deva-style device in Path of Vengeance, she reverted to the end-of-A's-original's appearance as 'more appropriate to the situation'. She tends to function as a body-guard/assistant to Hayate in battle, and rarely appears outside of combat. Hayate questions how self-aware Reinforce is, and whether the evidence against full self-awareness is true, or merely Reinforce covering her tracks.

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• Back from the Dead: Reinforce in the Deva Series is the device Hayate built based on the original, who resumed the appearance of the original Reinforce.
• Satellite Character: Unlike the original Eins or canon's Zwei, this one barely exists as more than an extension of Hayate.
  • In reality, due to the way that Deva magic is attained, She IS nothing more than an extension of Hayate. Deva Magic works on the principle of 'The Mage is the Device is the Mage.' Deva users are literally their own devices.

Aliases: The Sword Knight

Affiliation: Hayate, Wolkenritter

Theme Song: Grieg's In The Hall of the Mountain King

Much as she was during As, Signum is the leader of the Wolkenritter and Hayate's most independent lieutenant. She took Laura on as an apprentice mostly to try and burn off the girl's excess energy, and found an avid and dedicated student. She teaches math.

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• Hot Teacher: While none of the students have said so openly, Yussef and Luke have commented on her looks while not at school, as have extras not associated with the school.
• The Obi-Wan: While she isn't dead yet, Signum crosses this with Cool Teacher for Laura.
• Older and Wiser: While still an active participant in the Deva Series, from Academy Blues on the series focuses a great deal on the students, somewhat placing Signum in this role.

Aliases: The Knight of the Lake, Obaa-chan (only among the students)

Affiliation: Hayate, Wolkenritter

Theme Song: Vivalid's Spring, Concrete Blonde's cover of The Ship Song (shared with Cidela)

Shamal remains the most 'motherly' of the Wolkenritter, the one who takes care of those around her and supports them. She has extended this somewhat to the students and especially towards Cidela, who shares her healing abilities.

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• Oba San: Hayate's students refer to her as Shamal-ba-chan behind her back. Not even Laura has yet had the gumption to use the nickname to her face.
• White Magician Girl / The Medic: Much as she was during A's, Shamal is the healer and support mage for the Wolkenritter.

Aliases: The Iron Hammer Knight

Affiliation: Hayate, Wolkenritter

Theme Song: Bubblegum Crisis 2040's Punk It Up

Vita remains the most brash of the Wolkenritter and the most personally dedicated to Hayate. Vita is generally more blasé about endangering the students (or letting the students endanger themselves), due to her experience with Hayate and Nanoha at the same ages, and her faith in Hayate's and the Wolkenritter's ability to deal with anything. She's the history teacher.

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• Drop the Hammer: Vita still uses Graf Eisen, her unstoppable croquet mallet.
• Stern Teacher: Vita is a rather irascible version of this.

Aliases: The Shielding Guardian Beast

Affiliation: Hayate, the Wolkenritter

Theme Song: Tomoyasu Hotei's Battle Without Honor or Humanity

Zafira remains much as he was, the guardian of the Wolkenritter and general tough-guy. He is the teacher Yussef is most comfortable with, and the one who advises Yussef on his classes and the Myrmidons. Zafira's the phys-ed teacher, which, given the student body at Hayate's Academy, generally breaks down to keeping them from hurting themselves.

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• Cool Teacher: especially for Yussef, who relies on Zafira to be the voice of reason/experience.

Aliases: The White Devil, Gun-Bunny-Sensei

Affiliation: Time Space Administration Bureau, Hayate

Nanoha is Nanoha, still a bright, cheerful, forgiving, force of ultimate destruction. She remains a galaxy-class combat mage and ace Bureau Enforcer until High Command's decision not to intervene on Earth causes her to take a 'leave of absence' in Endless Waltz.

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• Happily Married: gives no sign of discontent in her Relationship Upgrade with Yuuno, though they have been Out of Focus, as the Deva Series focuses on Hayate and the students.
• Oh Crap: still induces this in others, especially Noriko when Nanoha, as a visiting instructor in Noriko's first year, defends destroying a workroom as a simple accident due to momentary surprise.
• Spell My Name with an S: Daishi Prime has had issues with the spelling of Nanoha's surname, based on a dodgy fansub and repeated (and different!) corrections from reviewers. He also prefers the original fansub name for her device, Raging Heart, based on her habit of befriending everything in sight.

Aliases: Ferret Boy, Nanoha's Familiar, Yuuno Takamachi

Affiliation: Time Space Administration Bureau, Hayate

Yuuno is very devoted to Nanoha, especially after the events of Path of Vengeance. While he is head of the Infinity Library, he helps Nanoha and the other combat leads fight the original Akira, and in Endless Waltz he joins Nanoha and Fate in leaving the Bureau to help Hayate fight Al Hanthis on Earth.

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• Happily Married: Gives every evidence of this, though he does worry after being attacked that Nanoha will be unhappy with him over it – for not including her. Due to an Author's Saving Throw, he took Nanoha's surname when they were married.
• Mid-Season Upgrade: In Endless Waltz, he gives in to Nanoha's worries and accepts a spare Bureau device (which he named Desu).

Affiliation: Time Space Administration Bureau, Hayate

Promoted to command the Asura after Path of Vengeance, Fate proved to be an able commander, if a bit too eager to join the fray herself. It has yet to be seen in Endless Waltz if she will retain that position, but she has so far fallen into the role of anvil to Nanoha's hammer.

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• Dangerous Forbidden Technique: Fate teaches Allison the teleport she reverse-engineered from studying the original Akira's teleport in Path of Vengeance.
• There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Over Hong Kong, she and Nanoha both 'Alpha Strike' to bring down the Al Hanthis Guard's initial shield. Then, over London, she and Nanoha do it again, with some cosmetic assistance from the British Army's artillery corps.

Affiliation: Time Space Administration Bureau, Hayate

Aria is the calmer and more contemplative of the Lieze twins, perfectly content to sit with a book and read the day away. Conversely, the students are more afraid of her wrath than her sister's. Aria feels the least guilt over their actions during A's and has the least trouble dealing with Hayate as a result, mostly because, from her perspective, she was Just Following Orders and Hayate understands that. Aria is the most computer-savvy of the teachers, and functions as the school's system administrator. Thus, she has a close (occasionally adversarial) working relationship with Allina and Niranjana.

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• Beware the Nice Ones: Her temper is worse than her sister's, though she is the calmer of the two.

Affiliation: Time Space Administration Bureau, Hayate

The more rambunctious and energetic of the two twins, and she still thinks of Chrono as the cute little boy she trained. Lotte tends to take things too far, though she usually catches herself, and accepts any resultant chastising with good grace.

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• Trickster Mentor: Lotte sees herself as this for the kids, as much as a regular teacher.

Aliases: The Black Hand (lapsed), The Black Dragon (current).

First Appeared: Path of Vengeance

Affiliation: Independent

Theme Song: Gundam Seed Symphonic Soundtrack's Zafuto

Appearance: A man of slightly below average height, broad shoulders, and narrow face, Takashi appears indefinably Oriental. His black hair is kept military short, his face is always clean shaven, and his dark eyes rarely blink. He always wears an all-black version of the Bureau Enforcer uniform, with a glossy-black patch of a serpentine dragon's head over his heart. He has an alternate form of a black western-style dragon with shredded wings.

Takashi has learned what it is like to be deeply and utterly betrayed, and what it is to have everything and have it all torn away. He trusts slowly these days, and never completely. Conversely, he is extremely protective of what he considers his, and has determined that, when he and his are threatened, the only effective response is the utter annihilation of the source of the threat. To his way of thinking, the only remnant he has of his wife is Hayate, Sara's heir in skill and power, if not blood, thus he is extremely protective of her.

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• Badass: Takashi is generally presented as one of the most dangerous combatants in the series. At one point, he wipes out a pirate fleet around a colony world with just a pair of spells.
• Breath Weapon: In his draconic form can breathe forth a cloud of green gas that is corrosive in some form.
• Deus ex Machina: By Daishi Prime's own admission, Takashi can and does function as an in-story version of this. He rarely does more than observe, but when he does it is usually direct, thorough, and brutal.
• Emergency Transformation: Takashi's dragon form was originally imposed on him by Sara to 'allow him to survive' the Lost Logia that killed her. He can apparently still be forced into the dragon form by injury, though he can now consciously control the shift as well.
• Knight Templar: Takashi has his goals and priorities, and cares very little about anything beyond those. He is still shown to better than his servants.
• Knight Templar Parent: While Takashi regards Hayate as an adopted daughter, that means she comes in for more danger, as he has threatened on multiple occasions to 'put her someplace she will never be endangered again.' He also slaughtered the Circles' highest leaders for threatening her, and used their plans to justify it to Hayate herself.
• Papa Wolf: Don't threaten to harm Hayate. It's a bad, bad, bad idea.
• Pragmatic Hero/Unscrupulous Hero: Takashi is willing to do bad, bad things to those fool enough to threaten his Protectorate. Sometimes, it can hard to decide which side of the line he should be falling on.
• There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Takashi does not believe in leaving survivors, not anymore. Survivors are threats that were not properly dealt with.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: Can assume the form of a black dragon at will or if directly injured, though the process is distinctly painful for him. Recovering from the form back to human is slightly more difficult.

Aliases: Breaker of Ships, Great Traitor, Monster

First Appeared: Path of Vengeance

Affiliation: Independent, Takashi Shimazu

Theme Song: John Williams' Imperial March (Vader's theme)

Appearance: A man of slightly below average height, broad shoulders, and narrow face, Akira appears indefinably Oriental, effectively Takashi Shimazu's twin. His black hair is kept military short, his face is always clean shaven, and his dark eyes rarely blink. He always wears an all-white version of the Bureau Enforcer uniform with no insignia of any sort. Everyone who encounters him describes a sort of vague sense of wrongness and threat.

Created by the Hellblade to fulfill Takashi's last order, Akira is the original villain of the series. Akira is cold, direct, remorseless, and utterly determined to see his target destroyed. He exists for only a single purpose, and will use any means to achieve that purpose. Believing both that his master/creator Takashi is lost forever, and that his target has completely escaped justice, Akira acts to destroy his target directly and completely. Only a true demonstration of love, a reminder of what Takashi and Sara shared, will earn his mercy.

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• Badass: Using a combination of tactical knowledge (as an avatar of the man who helped created the current Bureau tactical doctrine) and stored power, Akira was able to single-handedly hold off the entire lead cast on one occasion, and most of the leads on two more occasions.
• Knight Templar: While his specific goal is understandable and sympathetic, his means and methods were utterly beyond the pale, and he had no remorse regarding his actions. He destroyed at least six ships, leaving only two survivors out of all six crews, and was perfectly willing to destroy the Bureau's deep-space headquarters station with its entire crew, just to get at Kriegsen.
• Man in White
• The Stoic
• The Unfettered

Aliases: The Black Dragon's Shadow

First Appeared: Academy Blues

Affiliation: Takashi Shimazu

Theme Song: John Williams' Imperial March (Vader's theme), AC/DC's Back In Black

Appearance: As with the original, Akira is currently a man of slightly below average height, broad shoulders, and narrow face, Akira appears indefinably Oriental, just as Takashi Shimazu. His black hair is kept military short, his face is always clean shaven, and his dark eyes rarely blink. He always wears an all-white version of the Bureau Enforcer uniform, with a glossy-black patch of a serpentine dragon's head over his heart. Everyone who encounters him describes a sort of vague sense of wrongness and threat.

The second version of Akira, this one is less an independent agent of vengeance than Takashi's doer of unpleasant things. Just as remorseless as the original, the second Akira is not as cold, patently enjoying his work, whether that work is torturing a man for information, slaughtering his master's enemies, or 'educating' Hayate's students.

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• Badass: Despite lacking the original's store of power, this version of Akira remains viciously dangerous. Over Hong Kong he single-handedly eliminated an Al Hanthis Guard triad that was toying with Laura – while challenging Laura to stop him.
• Boisterous Bruiser: While somewhat lacking in size, the new version of Akira is distinctly less angsty than the original, and definitely enjoys himself in his work more than the original.
• Knight Templar: Akira remains willing to go much further in pursuit of his master's goals than any other heroic character in the series.

First Appeared: Path of Vengeance

Affiliation: Time Space Administration Bureau TSAB Prison System – Life Sentence

Appearance: A tall broad-shouldered Caucasian man with a square face, solid build, blue eyes, and short iron grey hair. He is almost always in his Bureau admiral uniform, and continues to wear the ship's patch for the lost ship Deva.

Admiral Wilhelm Kriegsen was once Takashi Shimazu's commander, captain of the Deva, a Bureau patrol vessel. After the Shimazus apparently died in action and Akira appeared and destroyed the Deva, he was removed from command, though an inquest found no evidence of wrongdoing on his part at that time. Driven by the loss of two such promising mages, Kriegsen dedicated himself to the study and containment of Lost Logia, eventually becoming one of Secure Archives' highest ranking and most knowledgeable officers. When Akira re-appeared, Kriegsen offered his assistance to Chrono Harlaoun and the rest of Asura's Pride to bring Akira in.

In actual fact, Kriegsen arranged the disaster that killed Sara Shimazu specifically to kill Takashi, out of jealousy over Sara. Further actions on his part to 'assist' in capturing Akira covered his efforts to destroy Akira and complete his 'revenge'. Even after being convicted of treason by the Bureau, Kriegsen escaped and manipulated the Circles on Earth in their first attack on Hayate, and is attempting to manipulate Al Hanthis into doing the same.

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• Conflict Killer: Becomes the real threat in Path of Vengeance.

First Appeared: Endless Waltz – mentioned previously in Path of Vengeance and Academy Blues

Affiliation: Time Space Administration Bureau.

Appearance: A small woman with a round face and long dirty blond hair, generally looking unkempt and distracted. She always wore glasses mostly because she never got around to putting down a book long enough to get her eyes fixed.

Sara always had a gift for magic, but matched that with an inquisitive mind and an utter disregard for traditions, rules, or the wisdom of her elders. Her family fled Earth when she was a child to escape some form of persecution, and was picked up by the Bureau, where Sara's talents were recognized and trained. In her teens, she created the titular magic system, including developing some truly terrifying spells. When she was sixteen, the Bureau assigned her to the warship Deva as a science officer, under the command of her family's old friend Wilhelm Kriegsen. There she encountered an intriguing young man that drove her bonkers for years, and she was very surprised a few years later to find herself getting married to him.

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• Absent-Minded Professor
• The Ace: Sara has elements of this, having single-handedly sealed Class One Lost Logia. The only Class One in the first two series was the Book of Darkness, which took every major character in the series at the time to handle.
• Ditzy Genius: Implied by Takashi to be this – when they got married, he apparently had to make all the arrangements. And her 'wedding gift'? She transitioned him into a Deva Mage, her own style of magic, while he was asleep and without asking him, because she wanted to share her magic with him and couldn't conceive of him having any issues with that. In contrast, she created the series' titular magic system as a teenager, because she was curious about a discrepancy she noticed in the energy structures of inter-dimensional teleports.
• Heroic Sacrifice: She died saving Takashi, which haunts him.
• Person of Mass Destruction: Sara definitely qualified as one of these simply for creating the Armageddon spell, though she never used it that anyone knows about.
• Posthumous Character: Sara died several decades before the start of Path of Vengeance, saving Takashi.

Aliases: The Quantum Knight, The Black Mage

First Appeared: Academy Blues

Affiliation: Yagami Academy, Twilight Paladins

Age: 14 (Academy Blues) to 15 (Endless Waltz)

Theme Song: Concrete Blonde's Free & AC/DC's Thunderstruck

Appearance: Hair a shade of bright red that is obviously (magically) dyed, a narrow pixie face, short and wiry even for her age. Laura prefers light clothes in subdued colors, especially Paradox's all-black armored form. She wears her hair loose with a single lock of hair in front of her right ear run through a string of small white beads, with a single black bead (signaling her various battles).

A wild-child in every sense of the term, Laura is also a consummate warrior. She delights in combat for the challenge and thrill, but at the same time has learned to recognize the inherent dangers and price of battle. She remains a prankster and tries very hard to be chaos incarnate, though she has mellowed due to the events of Academy Blues. Even sitting still she is always in motion.

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• Action Girl
• Allergic To Routine: A mild case, this is the root cause of her constant pranks and skill with martial arts and magic.
• The Atoner: Shades of this after the climax of Academy Blues, when she recovers from her [1]. The beads in her hair signify major battles: Operation Nimrod (white), Cid-chan's rescue (black), Hong Kong (white), London/New York (white), etc…
• Badass Creed
• Cute Bruiser
• Genki Girl
• Heroic BSOD: She did not quite realize just what her power meant, and what she could do with it, until she killed Master Li.
• Martial Pacifist
• The Nicknamer: Laura rarely refers to people by their real names, preferring to make up appropriate nicknames. She doesn't call everyone by those nicknames, but such restraint is apparently contingent upon demonstrated ability to beat her senseless.
• Screwy Squirrel: Laura seems to live on pranks, much to the dismay of her classmates. She has a set of pranking rules, but sometimes gets carried away with it, though she will take her medicine when she does get out of hand.

Aliases: Riko-chan (Laura only), Emperor of Japan

First Appeared: Academy Blues

Affiliation: Yagami Academy, Japan

Age: 13 (Academy Blues) to 14 (Endless Waltz)

Theme Song: Gundam Seed Symphonic Soundtrack's The Song

Appearance: Long straight black hair, fine traditional Japanese features but not especially beautiful. Noriko is rather average in appearance, but is always neat as a pin and perfectly arranged.

A very responsible child, and highly empathic for her age, Noriko is a leader by upbringing, rather than by nature. She finds Laura's exuberance to be a pleasant and intriguing change from the usual behavior around her, and is one of the few people that can rein Laura in. Thanks to her mediating between Yussef and Laura, she has fallen into and adopted the role of mediator in disputes between students at the school, a role which she later is forced to expand drastically.

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• Everything's Better with Princesses
• The Ojou
• Petal Power
• Royals Who Actually Do Something
• She Is the King: After Al Hanthis murders her family, to avoid a constitutional crisis she is legally declared male and crowned Emperor of Japan.
• Shout Out: Her signature spell, Senbonzakura, is named for Bleach's Kuchiki Byakuya's zanpakto, and shares the same stylistic appearance of cherry blossom petals.

Aliases: The Desert Knight, Yu-Chan (Laura only)

First Appeared: Academy Blues

Affiliation: Yagami Academy, Myrmidons

Age: 14 (Academy Blues) to 15 (Endless Waltz)

Theme Song: E.S. Posthumous Pompeii''

Appearance: Tall for his age, Yussef has dusky skin, short black hair, dark brown eyes, and a soft narrow face. He's somewhat wiry, but not as borderline-emaciated as Laura, and developing a clear musculature under Zafira's phys-ed training and his own interest in remaining fit enough for military standards.

Yussef is the most obviously disciplined of the children, a result of his upbringing and expectations – as the third son of the Sheik of Qatar, he has expected his whole life that he will both go into the military, and end up in command. Between his own sense of responsibility and his family's emphasis on education, he has always been determined to lead well, when the time comes. As such, he imposes a great deal of discipline on himself, and expects (somewhat unconsciously) the same from others. It is this, more than anything, that drives the rivalry between him and Laura.

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• BFS: Jadeed Zulfiqar (Zulfiqar for shot) is a twin-bladed sword, with each blade normal sword length, spines towards one another around a large blue crystal.
• Colonel Badass: Elements of this with his Myrmidons and his general comfort level dealing with the military, in contrast to Hayate's other students. Hints from the setting's future indicate he will grow into one in full.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something

Aliases: Hengeyokai Queen

First Appeared: Academy Blues

Affiliation: Yagami Academy, Twilight Paladins

Age: 13 (Academy Blues) to 14 (Endless Waltz)

Theme Song: Twelve Girls Band's Freedom

Appearance: Mousy, originally, with shoulder-length brown hair, pale skin, a round face, and hazel eyes. After the events of the Side Story: Hengeyokai Queen, her appearance is highly variable. after the Battle of Hong Kong, all her forms retain elements of the draconic shape – silver hair in a mane down her spine and any tail, golden eyes, and light dusting of turquoise to blue scales.

Megan is the 'silly' child of a generally practical and mundane but very clannish extended family in an English town just east of Stonehenge. She always loved myths, especially change-child myths of the Celts, and leapt at the chance to learn magic specifically to learn shape-shifting. Far less militant than her friends and class-mates, Megan is less interested in fighting her enemies than in protecting her friends.

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• Shapeshifter Mode Lock: Suffers a partial version of this, due to assuming an unplanned & magic-intensive form over Hong Kong, then having that form forcibly disrupted by Maunders' EMP spell.
• Shout Out: Her device, Longinus, is named for and resembles the Lance of Longinous from Evangelion, due to the highly morphic nature of both weapons.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: This is Megan's primary power, and she's a prodigy at it. She prefers her wolf form, or the werewolf 'chimera' form, but she is most famous for assuming the form of a Chinese dragon over Hong Kong.

Aliases: Darth Aker, Psyber

First Appeared: Academy Blues

Affiliation: Yagami Academy, Various Cybercrimes Watch-Lists

Age: 13 (Academy Blues) to 14 (Endless Waltz)

Theme Song: Flogging Molly's Seven Deadly Sins

Appearance: Just as tiny as Laura, Allina had olive skin and black hair, with dark brown eyes that are usually squinting at a computer screen of some sort. She is usually a mess, and her room is worse, since she is always distracted.

Allina is probably the single most dangerous student in Hayate's school, due to a combination of skills, curiosity, and a lack of morals. She is not a villain, per se, but her sense of right and wrong is badly skewed compared to normal – she thinks nothing of attacking the World Bank, but would never dream of accessing a friend's computer without permission – unless it was for practice.

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• Playful Hacker: Allina's entire reason for being – if it isn't computerized, she probably isn't interested.
• Schoolgirl Lesbian: While still somewhat in denial regarding her feelings as of Hong Kong, she is part of the only couple among the students, with Niranjana.
• Shout Out: Her device, constructed during Endless Waltz, is named HAL

Aliases: Darth Jana

First Appeared: Academy Blues

Affiliation: Yagami Academy

Age: 14 (Academy Blues) to 15 (Endless Waltz)

Theme Song: Orbital's Halcyon+On+On

Appearance: Dark skinned with black hair and dark brown eyes, Niranjana shares her mother's delicate features and build. She is always neatly and properly arrayed, with her long hair pulled back behind her ears. Prefers traditional Indian dresses to most clothes, and is somewhat uncomfortable in the school uniform.

Niranjana is the smartest student at the school, in the traditional sense. She already knows calculus, spoke English and Arabic prior to attending Hayate's school, and was already a moderately skilled programmer. Her friendship with Allina has rapidly improved her programming skills (never call it hacking, she is 'not' a criminal), and she finds the challenge of device programming to be very engrossing. While she is generally not as fearless as Allina and Laura, Niranjana is much more confident than they are in her personal feelings.

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• Cyborg: Saraswati's efforts to save her integrated device components directly into Niranjana's nervous systems, with as-yet unknown side-effects.
• Emergency Transformation: Her device Saraswait does this for her after Natalia attacks her during the battle of Hong Kong. The cybernetics function, but are crudely done.
• Playful Hacker: Niranjana is not a hacker, just ask her. The unauthorized system access is simply a matter of practice and personal training.
• Schoolgirl Lesbian: With Allina, she is the Academy's only real couple, and while she is pushing it more than Allina, she is just as nervous about it.

Aliases: The Stormtrooper

First Appeared: Academy Blues

Affiliation: Yagami Academy, Twilight Paladins

Age: 14 (Academy Blues) to 15 (Endless Waltz)

Theme Song: The Scorpions' Rock You Like A Hurricane

Appearance: One of the tallest girls in the glass, Juliet is solidly built, with dark skin, short curly black hair, and hazel eyes. She prefers to wear jeans and t-shirts with sneakers, but unlike the other 'tomboys' at the Academy (Laura & Allison), she will wear skirts and blouses on occasion.

Juliet has the worst temper among the students, though she does not show it easily. A mixed-race child born in South Africa, she has come in for harassment from both sides of the racial divide, as have her parents. Because of this treatment, Juliet is very distrustful, especially of anyone claiming to speak for any sort of 'true' or 'real' version of a group. Juliet believes not in groups or nations but in individuals, and the only ones she trusts are those she knows.

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• Lightning Bruiser: Between her Triphammer and Vivace spells, Juliet is almost as fast as Laura, and hits much harder in hand-to-hand.
• Mixed Ancestry: Juliet's father is white, her mother is black, and all three of them are native to South Africa.
• Scary Black Girl: Her combat specialties (see above) along with her short temper tend to make getting on her bad side (especially in a fight) a frightening prospect.

Aliases: Wilderness Girl

First Appeared: Academy Blues

Affiliation: Yagami Academy, Twilight Paladins

Age: 14 (Academy Blues) to 15 (Endless Waltz)

Theme Song: Flogging Molly's Tobacco & Dropkick Murphy's Heroes From Our Past

Appearance: Taller, like Juliet, Allison has dark red hair, tan skin, and hazel eyes. She usually wears her long hair back in a tail, never wears skirts or dresses, and prefers rugged clothes that can take a beating. Even in uniform she always wears her trail boots.

Allison has the most apparent temper of anyone on campus, though it takes particular things to set her off. Like Juliet, she is mixed-race, and while she came in for less general abuse because of it than Juliet did, she is much more sensitive about it. She has dreams of using the magic she learns at Hayate's academy to free the Navajo from 'the bloody English', though she's a little unclear and inconsistent as to who qualifies as 'the bloody English'.

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• Dangerous Forbidden Technique: To assist with infiltration, in Endless Waltz Fate teaches Allison a dangerous teleport technique that she reverse-engineered from Takashi's/Akira's teleport from Path of Vengeance.
• Dark-Skinned Redhead: As half-Irish/half-Native American, she always claims to have her father's hair and her mother's face.
• He Is Not My Boyfriend: Walks into this before demonstrating her Device.
• Invisibility: This is Allison's major ability, and she is very good at it.
• Mixed Ancestry: Allison's father immigrated to the U.S. from Ireland in his teens. Her mother is Navajo through and through. Allison is both sensitive and proud about both heritages.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Allison's second-most preferred style of combat, as a result of her father's teachings – "if you're forced into a fight, make sure the other guy doesn't get up again." 'If' you see her coming, you 'might' be able to walk again, eventually.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Has shades of this going on with Noah, as the Red Oni.
• Stealth Expert: Allison's most preferred style of combat. Bad as it is when you see her coming, you usually won't. Even before developing her Cloak of Shades spell, Allison was an experienced hunter, with a preference for a knife over a gun.

Aliases: Beanpole

First Appeared: Academy Blues

Affiliation: Yagami Academy, Myrmidons

Age: 14 (Academy Blues) to 15 (Endless Waltz)

Theme Song: instrumental version of Santa Esmeralda's Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood

Appearance: Tall and thin for his age, to the point of being spindly, Noah is very wiry. He has dusky skin, brown hair, and brown eyes, and is usually smiling or grinning. He prefers shorts and t-shirts, but in the 'freezing cold' of the Academy's valley he generally wears jeans or pants and a football jacket.

Noah is a fairly relaxed guy, unless you get him going on football, especially if Ichigo – the other Academy football-fan – is around. He likes magic, enjoying the challenge of keeping it under control, but is somewhat nervous that it crosses the line to witchcraft, which disturbs his Catholic morals.

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• Barrier Warrior: Noah's stock-in-trade, he has a knack for stable force-effects such as shields, meaning his shields are an order of magnitude stronger than they should be.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Has shades of this going on with Allison, as the Blue Oni.

Aliases: Cid-chan, Cidela nee Shamal, after Academy Blues

First Appeared: Academy Blues

Affiliation: Yagami Academy

Age: 13 (Academy Blues) to 14 (Endless Waltz)

Theme Song: Beethoven's Symphony #9, 4th Movement, the Concrete Blonde cover of The Ship Song (shared with Shamal)

Appearance: Cidela is small and delicate looking, with fine features and doll-like appearance. Her shy habit of staring at her feet and hiding in the back generally emphasizes that impression. She has tanned skin, wiry long black hair usually tied up in a bun, and always wears long dresses with long sleeves, and she usually covers her hair with a scarf. Since being adopted by Shamal she tends to wear more beautifully embroidered versions of the same style, usually some shade of green.

Cidela has always been too smart for her own good. Coming from a traditional Egyptian family, she outperformed her male cousins in school, which outraged her very traditional uncle. Coming to Japan was an escape for her, which turned into a permanent departure when her uncle forced her father to disown her. Despite being adopted by Shamal, she remains a quiet reserved girl who is uncomfortable putting herself forward or being the center of attention. She enjoys taking care of people, though, and delights in healing magic that lets her take someone in pain and restore them as if they had never been harmed.

Her greatest difficulty is not her family, but her gift. Cidela has the strongest magical gift of any of Hayate's students, and her healing ability is nearly uncontrollable. Her linker-core is unstable and reacts to being stressed by growing, which reduces her risk of burn-out, but means her magic could very easily become completely uncontrollable. Rafiq was created to help address her control issues, and has proven to be a boon in that area. Cidela's conversion to a Deva Mage, while it had an unforeseen side-effect of partially banishing her to the nothingness of the Void, promises to have a greater stabilizing effect.

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• Break the Cutie: See The Woobie below. She has suffered a great deal for such an inoffensive individual.
• Distressed Damsel
• Parental Abandonment
• White Magician Girl / The Medic: This is Cidela's primary role, due to personal preference and an extremely powerful natural gift for such spells.
• The Woobie: Cidela is the quietest and nicest of all Hayate's students, the least offensive in every sense of the term. Since the start of Academy Blues she has been abandoned by her birth family, kidnapped and held hostage by fanatics, stabbed in the back and nearly killed by a classmate, and been lost to a magic-draining nothingness between dimensions with no apparent way home. She may also be prophesied to destroy the world, depending on how the as-yet-un-detailed prophecy is interpreted.

Aliases: Marine, the Knight's Hammer

First Appeared: Academy Blues

Affiliation: Yagami Academy, Myrmidons

Age: 13 (Academy Blues) to 14 (Endless Waltz)

Theme Song: NobodyKnows' Hero's Comeback

Appearance: Ichigo is tall for his age with narrow shoulders, a square face, black eyes, and brown hair kept short.

Ichigo is not the flashiest of Hayate's students, not the most skilled or the most powerful. He tends to be relatively quiet, and is not a leader. What he is, though, is reliable, always available to help and generally steady. He is also the biggest experimenter among the boys, having come up with the basic idea of the exploding shield with Toushiro's help.

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• Barrier Warrior: While Ichigo is not limited to shields, he has gone further with shields than any of the students except Noah. He can't match the toughness of Noah's shields, but Noah's shields don't blow up in the enemy's face.
• Mixed Ancestry: A classic Charlie Dog: Japanese-American.
• Semper Fi: Ichigo is the son of a retired US Marine, and holds his father and his father's career in deep respect.

Aliases: The Desert Knight's Herald

First Appeared: Academy Blues

Affiliation: Yagami Academy, Myrmidons

Age: 13 (Academy Blues) to 14 (Endless Waltz)

Theme Song: Red October Soundtrack's Hymn to Red October

Appearance: Marcel has a round face, light brown hair, brown eyes, and still sometimes wears reading glasses, despite Shamal having fixed his vision during the invitation process. He is average height, average build, but has a ready smile, and between Academy Blues and Endless Waltz he put on some muscle.

Marcel comes from a very logical and rational family, one rational to the point of accepting magic without a qualm once Shamal demonstrated it for them. His parents pride themselves on that rationality, though Marcel is less aware of it in himself. Mostly he is organized, likes things to be regular and predictable, and has fallen easily into the role of Yussef's right hand.

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• BFS: He's rather embarrassed about it, but Marcel's device, Arondight, is a bastard sword with a five-foot blade.
• The Lancer: to Yussef. While Marcel is not unskilled at magic, he is best known for his work as Yussef's 'keeper'. Yussef, at least, recognizes just how valuable Marcel is to him.

Aliases: Mariachi

Affiliation: Yagami Academy, Myrmidons

Age: 14 (Academy Blues) to 15 (Endless Waltz)

Theme Song: Jerry Garcia & Al Dimeola duet on Arabia

Appearance: Mariachi has short rough-cut black hair, green eyes, olive skin, and a seemingly permanent kink in his arms from holding a guitar. He is surprisingly muscled for his age, a result of the nuns' belief in the old saw about 'idle hands'.

Mariachi is one of the quietest of the boys, so compared to most of the girls he's practically mute. He came to Hayate's as a way to escape the orphanage and a life of poverty in rural Mexico, and while he finds the magic interesting enough to learn, he prefers music, as much of it as he can get. Has been showing signs of having an interest in Cidela.

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• Do Not Call Me Paul: He would much rather you call him Mariachi than Hector.
• Intergenerational Friendship: He's awfully close to Vita at times.
• Magic Music: Mariachi's music is such a part of him that music influences his magic. When playing, his magic reacts in small ways, and while using magic he can tweak his spells on the fly with his music.
• Orphan: Mariachi himself rarely comments or dwells on it, but he is, in fact, an orphan – he was left anonymously at a hospital and raised in a Catholic orphanage outside a small town in northwestern Mexico.
• The Quiet One

Aliases: The Russian, the Dark Witch, Keeper of the Pasts

Affiliation: Yagami Academy, Al Hanthis Protectors, Al Hanthis Forecasters

Age: 15 (Academy Blues) to 16 (Endless Waltz)

Theme Song: Yuki Kajiura's Witch & Concrete Blonde's Tomorrow, Wendy

Appearance: Tall, with long dirty blond hair and pale skin Natalia could be very beautiful – were it not for a near-perpetual frown and, after a trip home during Academy Blues, the Al Hanthis sigil for death and life glowing sickly green beneath her formerly brown left eye, now pale gray. After the beginning of Endless Waltz she wears a plain black eye-patch at all times over the eye which does not quite obscure the sigil.

Natalia is defined by the death of her family in an auto accident several years before Academy Blues. Her parents and sister-in-law were killed in the crash, and her brother left non-responsive in a coma. She accepted Hayate's offer as an opportunity to help her brother, or at least get to say good-bye, and leapt at the first thing she found that might have allowed it. That didn't end well. A combination of the threat of the Circles and then Al Hanthis, being unable to resolve her feelings for her brother or his situation, and largely dealing with her cursed eye, have steadily eroded her ethics and her sanity.

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• Blessed with Suck: Natalia's eye allows her to see the beginning and end of things. Originally it was just people, whom she could look at and name their age, generally when they would die and how many children they would have. During the course of Endless Waltz this ability has grown in scope to now encompass structures and to work over greater ranges. She cannot turn it off.
• Combat Clairvoyance: By the time she fights Laura in New York, Natalia's eye has reached this level.
• Eyepatch After Time Skip: At the beginning of Endless Waltz, Ichigo gives her an eye-patch to cover her cursed eye, to block the visions since she can't turn the eye off.
• Face Heel Turn: She betrays her classmates during the Battle of Hong Kong, almost killing Cidela and Niranjana.
• Heel Face Revolving Door: One of the first decisions Natalia's Split Personality made was that, to earn her brother's respect back, she would betray Al Hanthis just as thoroughly as she betrayed Hayate.
• Loners Are Freaks: Even before picking up her eye, Natalia was the most reserved and remote of Hayate's students.
• Perpetual Frowner
• Split Personality: What began as an assumed persona to keep the curious at bay after Academy Blues developed into a full-blown split personality after her Face Heel Turn. Unable to actually deal with the cost of her actions and her brother's disappointment with her, Natalia is now protected by Precia Testarossa.

Aliases: Bombard

Affiliation: Yagami Academy, Myrmidons

Age: 14 (Academy Blues) to 15 (Endless Waltz)

Theme Song: Louis Prima's Sing, Sing, Sing!

Appearance: A little on the short side, Toushiro has a wiry runner's build from playing in junior football leagues for years. He has a narrow face with large black eyes and dark black hair that is always worn a little long and loose, and many people get the impression he's a delinquent just from his appearance.

Toushiro is the most happy-go-lucky of the original boys, generally content to have fun, play football, and keep his grades high enough to make his father happy. The fact that he's actually having to work to do that now is only mildly annoying, as all that work is proving interesting in some odd ways. All that is not to say that Toushiro does not have standards or dedication, he is simply more relaxed about it all than his friends, a situation he is generally used to. When supporting the Myrmidons, or doing what he thinks is right and necessary, Toushiro can be very determined and direct, not to mention creative on his feet.

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• More Dakka: One of Toushiro's personal spells is 'Shotgun', a burst of low-grade buster spells fired simultaneously in a wide spray similar in principle to buck-shot, based on Yusuke's first Spirit Gun upgrade.

Aliases: Apollo

Affiliation: Yagami Academy, Myrmidons

Age: 15 (Academy Blues) to 16 (Endless Waltz)

Theme Song: The Bushwhackers' Beneath the Southern Cross

Appearance: Luke is the largest of the students, in both height and mass, with solid muscles from years of working his family's ranch. He's not a Big Guy, physically, but he is bidding fair to give Zafira competition in a few years. Luke has a square face, sandy hair cut very short, and dark green eyes that already have squint lines. He's generally in jeans and a work shirt when he's not in the school uniform, and always in boots.

Luke, like Ichigo, is one of the quiet ones, and has found to his surprise that simple age does not grant him any particular authority. Looking at how hard Yussef has had to work since starting the Myrmidons convinced him that he wouldn't want it anyhow, though his own calmness and the habits from being an eldest brother have resulted in Yussef picking him as Yussef's official lieutenant.

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• Hot for Teacher: Luke has been accused of this towards Hayate, both in story and in reviews.
• Land Downunder: Luke's an Aussie, and [2] is not. Not the worst case, but elements of it creep in. Also, the Henderson family spread is specifically located in one of the Side Stories as on the western edge of the mountains just before the deserts of the Outback proper begin.
• Number Two: Where Marcel is Yussef's right hand, Luke is working (and being worked, by Yussef) into place as the second in command of the Myrmidons. Especially obvious in the Battle of London, when Yussef sends two Myrmidons to London so Laura can go after Natalia in New York. He puts Luke in charge of it.

Aliases: Ruin, The Creepy Twin (both as herself, and with Saeryn, singular in both forms)

Affiliation: Yagami Academy, Twilight Paladins, Terran Mage Circles (Apprentice, Moderns)

Age: 13 (Endless Waltz)

Theme Song: Yuki Kajiura's Ballad of a Bounty Hunter

Appearance: Rhys has the same heart-shaped face as her sister and mother, with long pale blond hair and bright blue eyes. She habitually wears a blank expression just short of disdain, shading to anger when someone identifies her from her twin sister.

Rhys is the more vocal and active of the Marterosian twins, though not by much. She most dislikes the Academy, and was the most strongly attached to their mother, but at the same time blames her mother for her parents' separation and cannot resist the challenge of proving herself better than the ever-annoying Laura. She played soccer and softball on local children's teams before transferring to the Yagami Academy.

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• Cool Mask/White Mask of Doom: Part of their Barrier Jacket.
• Creepy Twins: Rhys and Saeryn both deliberately play this up, as a reaction to being isolated as small children and having poor experiences with other children when they started school. It fails on a regular basis.
• Tsundere: Seems to be developing into this in a non-romantic way towards Laura. She's the only person to call Laura 'sempai', yet also objects vociferously to having anything to do with Laura.

Aliases: Wrack, The Creepy Twin (both as herself, and with Rhys, singular in both forms)

Affiliation: Yagami Academy, Twilight Paladins, Terran Mage Circles (Apprentice, Moderns)

Age: 13 (Endless Waltz)

Theme Song: Yuki Kajiura's Leviathan

Appearance: Saeryn has the same heart-shaped face as her sister and mother, with long pale blond hair and bright blue eyes. She maintains the twins' signature blank expression much better than Rhys does, though while a sufficiently interesting conundrum will get her to show confusion, she never shows interest.

Saeryn has the same temper as her sister, but has slightly better self control. Colder and more manipulative than her sister, Saeryn is not so much evil as unconcerned with anyone who is not her immediate family. She puts up with Yagami Academy because her father wants her to. She pursues a device because she and Rhys think it's the best way to get their mother back. She puts up with Laura because they can learn from her and Laura's easier to manipulate than Yussef.

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• The Chessmaster: Saeryn likes to think of herself as one of these, and has made a few fumbling attempts in this direction – all of which have so-far failed.
• Creepy Twins: Saeryn and Rhys both deliberately play this up, as a reaction to being isolated as small children and having poor experiences with other children when they started school. It fails on a regular basis.

Aliases: The Rich-Witch (unless the adults are out of ear-shot, in which case…)

Affiliation: Yagami Academy, Myrmidons

Age: 15 (Endless Waltz)

Theme Song: U2's I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For

Appearance: Mercedes has long wavy black hair, tan skin, high cheekbones, and bright green eyes. She wears a wide variety of stylish clothes, but always the same pair of eight-point-star silver earrings, a gift from her grandmother.

Mercedes is, to a large extent, a spoiled little rich girl, but she knows it and while she can be something of an Alpha Bitch, she lacks the self-absorption necessary. Her first encounter with Laura, and an inherent personality clash between the two, has exacerbated her Libbyish tendencies. She is working to join Yussef's Myrmidons partly as protection against Laura, and partly because she finds the Myrmidons' style and ideals to be similar to her family's.

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• Alpha Bitch: Laura sees her as a cross between this and the Rich Bitch, though Laura will also admit that Mercedes isn't as bad as the stereotypical versions.

Affiliation: Yagami Academy

Age: 13 (Endless Waltz)

Theme Song: Mark Collie's In Time

Appearance: Kaemon and Ichigo are alike enough to be cousins, despite not being related. He is not as tall or lanky, and has broad shoulders and short black hair, but the same face and eyes.

Kaemon is a kendoist and a traditionalist, more so than his family. He loves Japanese history, and while he's aware of historical realities, he loves the ideal of the samurai.

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• Everything's Better with Samurai: Kaemon's a fan of Samurai, especially the ideals.
• Good Old Ways: Kaemon's a mild/idealistic traditionalist, and has some difficulty with the relaxed attitude on the campus, especially towards Noriko. One does not refer to a member of the Imperial Family by name without extensive permissions, and certainly never anything as familiar as '-chan'.

Affiliation: Yagami Academy

Age: 14 (Endless Waltz)

Theme Song: Schandmaul's Walpurgisnacht

Appearance: Square and solid describes Verner fairly well. He has a square face, short blond hair, pale grey eyes, and pugnacious jaw. He has broad square shoulders and a thick chest, but his arms and legs are a little thin at the moment. Based on his father, that will change over the next few years.

Verner is a placid, steady person, who never gets worked up about anything because he doesn't see a point in getting worked up. Things will work out as they will, and in his experience if you just keep calm you can find your way out of any situation. He shares his parents' dry and quiet sense of humor that leans slightly towards Deadpan Snarker, but isn't quite sharp enough.

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• Boisterous Bruiser: Verner knows he's a 'big boy', and can play the brute well enough. He has found that physical enhancement magic is the easiest for him to manage, and as such generally sees this as his own role.
• The Stoic: Verner sees no reason to be intimidated by the Second Years, or to panic at the first signs of trouble. Just calm down, be patient, and things will generally work themselves out.

Affiliation: Yagami Academy

Age: 12 (Endless Waltz)

Theme Song: Twelve Girls Band's Earthly Stars

Appearance: Jun is a wiry boy with big eyes and ears that he really hopes he'll grow into. He has dark eyes, brown or black depending on the light, and short black hair that he's letting grow in the hope his parents won't object when he goes home.

Jun has grown up knowing his father is one of the up-and-coming men in a large and growing company, more a child of the Shanghai Boom than the Cultural Revolution. A bright child, he found his heroic tales in his father's stories of the company's economic maneuvers and internal politics. While he's not an ardent capitalist like Chen-chi, he has already planned to follow in his father's footsteps. Magic, after the demonstrations the year before, was simply a great new way to get an advantage, for his future and for his family immediately. The quiet approval of the Chinese government also helped, and his family's status has risen further since Hong Kong. He and Chen-chi share a joking rivalry regarding their nations' differences.

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• China Takes Over the World: Jun has a fairly patriotic outlook on life – he dreams of running a big international Chinese company the way his neighbor kids dream of being Chinese astronauts.

Affiliation: Yagami Academy

Age: 13 (Endless Waltz)

Theme Song: Santana's Smooth

Appearance: Olive skinned with long curly black hair and piercing green eyes, Esmeralda has a sharp almost hawkish face. She has a dancer's build, long and thin with very strong legs.

Esmeralda grew up touring Spain with her mother, a professional dancer and dance instructor. Her mother claims Esmeralda was dancing before she was walking, and Esmeralda still loves to dance, fully intending to follow in her mother's footsteps. She is very interested in magic for its own sake, but has also thought of several ways to combine the magic with her dancing.

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• Toros y Flamenco: Esmeralda's mother is specifically a Flamenco dancer, though not solely.

Aliases: Grifter, Cheater

Affiliation: Yagami Academy

Age: 13 (Endless Waltz)

Theme Song: Yuki Kajiura's A Song of Storm and Fire

Appearance: Chen-chi is small and thin, looking like a stiff wind could break her, and like Laura has a ready grin and quick hands. She has shoulder-length straight black hair, a round face, huge green eyes, and pale skin.

Chen-Chi is a born risk-taker, similarly to Laura, and shares a similar sense of humor. She is less active about both, however, and prefers to keep her risk-taking to the nice safe area of finances and small-scale gambling, where she is something of a genius. She has always been very lucky, and just accepted it until Aria and Lotte demonstrated how her luck was often a function of nascent magical ability. She used to say she was lucky, now she likes to say she is both lucky and good.

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• Born Lucky: Chen-chi can call a coin to land on its edge, with some expectation of just that occurring. This is apparently less a matter of 'Lady Luck' and more a matter of Chen-chi's innate magic reacting to her desires without consulting her conscious mind.
• Con Man / The Fixer: Her classmates tend to see her as this. Chen-chi claims to have been The Fixer in her old stomping grounds in Taiwan, but insists she doesn't have the local network to do it in Japan. She's setting herself up as one anyhow.
• The Gambling Addict: Chen-chi ran a gambling ring at her old high-school – it was how she fit in after skipping several grades. Apparently, by the time of Endless Waltz, she had been running the ring despite her parents' objections.

Affiliation: Yagami Academy

Age: 12 (Endless Waltz)

Theme Song: Gasaraki Soundtrack's Message #9

Appearance: Didier is a small thin boy with nervous brown eyes, short curly black hair, and dark black skin. Didier usually wears subdued colors and more formal clothes – slacks instead of jeans, button down shirts, but always sneakers. He usually has his nose buried in a book.

Didier had a very traumatic childhood, witnessing his mother and little sister being killed by bandits, before killing one of those bandits himself, accidentally. Because of that event and his father's philosophies, Didier is a pacifist in the mold of Mahatma Ghandi. He is extremely uncomfortable with the combative atmosphere of most of his classmates, but that was true back in le Cote D'Ivoire, so it is no different. Like his classmates, however, he cannot simply sit by while people he knows are in danger, and thus he has actively pursued Shamal's idea that he train his magic to function as a paramedic and healer. He was interested in magic for its own sake, and being able to do something that is both worthwhile and in keeping with his father's ideals is making it even better.

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• Actual Pacifist: Didier feels so strongly about this that he dropped out of Yussef's self-defense/group-tactics course, because just simulation and training was too close to the real thing for him.
• The Medic: Training to be this, and actively working as one as of the Battle of New York. He's a beginner, though, and nowhere near as powerful as Cidela.
• The Woobie: From his Side Story (Scar the Soul) more than the main story line. He witnessed his little sister and mother gunned down by bandits, and when one caught him, accidently shot and killed the man with his own weapon, then got lost in the wilderness for several days.

Affiliation: Yagami Academy

Age: 13 (Endless Waltz)

Theme Song: Motorhead's Ace of Spades

Appearance: Ekavir is another soccer player, tall and wiry with dusky skin, grey eyes, and dark brown hair. He prefers jeans and t-shirts to the school uniform, and agrees with Noah that the whole valley is just too cold.

Ekavir is very much aware of what an honor it is to be invited to Yagami Academy, and very conscious that he has some high standards to live up to, both for his family and among his classmates. Despite reassurances from all and sundry, he worries about his grades almost as much as about Al Hanthis.

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• Imaginary Love Triangle: Accidentally ends up in one of these, in the eyes of the original students, with Niranjana and Allina.

Affiliation: People's Liberation Army (Brigadier General), Terran Mage Circles (Master Adept, Asia Directorate, Operations/Administration)

Age: 61 (Academy Blues)

Appearance: Li is a short somewhat stocky man, with a round face and piercing dark eyes. His graying black hair is kept military short, and he is always in uniform, though rarely 'full' uniform. Normally he wears only the minimal required insignia and the campaign/service ribbons of which he is most proud.

Li led the initial Circle opposition to Hayate's academy, due to proximity. While he was not the Circles' Lord Asia, he was head of the Circles' main facility in Asia, experienced in dealing with heretical mages, and one of the few Circle mages to know more than rumors about Japan. Li achieved his rank in the PLA and the Circles by being utterly dedicated to both, and literally saw no difference between the well-being of the Circles and the rise of China.

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• Authority Equals Asskicking/Four Star Badass
• Bad Ass: It's only shown briefly, but when he fights Laura at the head of a wolf-pack, he single-handedly shuts her down and captures her, after she had already humiliated a pair of Masters while trying to reach him. If he had gone for the kill instead of trying to Break the Cutie, he would have won.
• Big Bad / The Dragon: Li is on the border between these two tropes. On the one hand, he was in charge of the entire operation to destroy Hayate and her school in Academy Blues, but he was also not the top of the heap. He reported to the Grand Circle and executed his operations on their command and in furtherance of their goals.
• Break the Cutie: He tried to do this to Laura, but failed to account for the probable result of doing it to a Person of Mass Destruction.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: When Li finally breaks Laura, she responds by vaporizing the hanger they're standing in, then under cover of that crushing Li into a very tiny little ball with a single spell named Jupiter's Fist (as in the planet… & its gravity).
• Knight Templar: Li is sublimely convinced that he is doing what is necessary for the good of the entire world, even what is best for Hayate and her students.
• Old Master

Affiliation: Terran Mage Circles (Master Adept, Asia Directorate, Containment/R&D)

Age: 78 (Academy Blues)

Appearance: Hassed has dark brown skin, a lanky aged build, and fading grey hair. His brown eyes are bright and sharp in a thin, lined face, and even when he is serious he has a friendly grin showing even white teeth.

Doctor (of physics) Al Huri is a 'retired' Pakistani nuclear physicist, part of both Pakistan's nuclear development program and the Circles' efforts to understand and contain the few remaining artifacts of the Lords of Light.

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• Evil Mentor: Comments he makes to Li at various points indicate that Hassed helped train Li in magic.
• Mad Scientist: Al Huri has more than a trace of this. For all the distaste he professes towards magical artifacts and devices, he is remarkably quick to construct and study such things. Second-hand comments even indicate that after being captured by the Bureau, he offered to work with their scientific department.

Aliases:

Affiliation: People's Liberation Army (Captain, on detached duty as of the Battle of Hong Kong), Terran Mage Circles (Journeywoman, Asia Directorate, Administration), Yagami Academy, as of Endless Waltz

Age: 33 (Academy Blues) to 34 (Endless Waltz)

Appearance: Tai-yu is tall for a Chinese woman, with faintly tan skin from her Spanish father, but her mother's round face, small nose, and folded green eyes. She has black hair usually kept back in a tail or bun.

Tai-yu was General Li's aide, in both the Circles and the PLA, an arrangement he specifically set up for the convenience. She functioned as his aide through all of Academy Blues, until Fate seized the entire Asia Directorate Headquarters. Between Academy Blues and Endless Waltz, she was held and questioned by the Time Space Administration Bureau regarding her part in creating the null-space in Egypt. Due to her cooperation, the Bureau remanded her to Hayate's custody, at Hayate's request, to serve a sentence of '10 years hard labor'. Hayate requested the sentence, so that she would have a source inside the Circles.

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• Girl Friday: Tai-yu has elements of this towards Li, though her position is a matter of assignment, and not at all personal.
• Heel Face Turn: Tai-yu is willingly assisting Hayate run the school, in Endless Waltz, on the theory that, since Hayate cannot be defeated by the Circles, better to mitigate what damage she is going to do.]]
• Weak, but Skilled: Tai-yu claims to be this, related to her device-using charges. She claims to never fail to cast a spell perfectly, regardless of circumstances, but cannot match the power and endurance of a device-user.

Aliases: Grand Master Hughes

Affiliation: US Army (Colonel), Terran Mage Circles (Master Adept, North America Directorate, R&D division, Moderns)

Age: 54 (Academy Blues) to 55 (Endless Waltz)

Appearance: Hughes has much the appearance of an older professor – iron grey hair, mildly lined face, ruddy skin, and a slight softening around the middle. The fact that he is always in uniform at least, until he takes over the Circle public front/research company ACES in Endless Waltz helps dispel that image, as does his steady brown-eyed gaze. Hughes is generally very relaxed, though as the Deva series continues he smiles and jokes less often.

Gareth Hughes is, at heart, a researcher and scientist. He got into the military to both help people and to get the college education necessary for a doctorate. The combination of his higher degrees in applied engineering, his administrative abilities, and his Circle connections resulted in his being placed in command of a small DARPA-dedicated Army base in Washington State. He approaches his studies of magic with the same scientific mentality, resulting in several discoveries that, out of concern for the implications, he has kept very quiet, until Hayate's counter-attack disrupted everything.

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• Chekhov's Gunman: Hughes first appeared as a simple Army Colonel with an anomaly contained at his research facility that he wanted Hayate to take a look out. Turns out that was simply a ruse to get a close look at her and her abilities.
• Power Nullifier: Hughes' most advanced and powerful spell is EMP – a pulse that disrupts and dissipates all magic in a fair sized radius. That radius gets catastrophically large when a desperate Maunders uses the spell with a brand new device and every bit of power she can gather.

Aliases: Mad Maudlin

Affiliation: US Army (Sergeant), Terran Mage Circles (Journeywoman/Master)

Age: 45 (Academy Blues) to 46 (Endless Waltz)

Theme Song: Lynard Skynard's Sweet Home Alabama

Appearance: Teri is a tough woman and she looks it, square and a little short, with short brown hair, a square face, and light brown hair. She has several scars from her years in the Army, but only one on the back of her left hand is visible, a shrapnel wound. She is almost always in uniform, and even in civilian clothes prefers subdued colors in jeans and rugged shirts and boots.

Teri Maunders is a US Army Sergeant through and through. She eats, drinks, breathes, and sleeps Army, and if anyone ever suggested making her an officer she would probably shoot them. She is an expert at small unit tactics and keeping soldiers in line and pointed in the right direction. She also happens to be a steady mage with enough talent to pull off a Master Adept rank spell she only partly knew. As Hughes' most trusted enlisted subordinate, she basically functions as his right hand.

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• Dirty Business: During the Battle of Hong Kong, in an attempt to cover the Black Dogs' & PLA's retreat from an Al Hanthis Guard strong-point, Maunders grabs the device of a fallen Bureau Enforcer and both activates and uses it. It decided it likes her and won't leave, which she finds distinctly unpleasant (It didn't stop her from (re)naming it Pershing, though).
• Sergeant Rock: Maunders is a sergeant, and was very disappointed in Endless Waltz that someone had pulled strings to change her transfer away from becoming a Drill Sergeant.

Aliases: Wilhelm Kriegsen

Affiliation: Terran Mage Circles (Master Adept, Black Dog)

Age: 51 (Endless Waltz)

Appearance: Edward Scuster is a non-descript westerner, short and broad in shoulders and chest, bald with a face lined by squinting into the sun for years. He is clean-shaven, with steady brown eyes and an occasional sardonic smirk.

Schuster is on the borderline between being a REMF and a Special Forces commando. He knows the talk and is good enough to get the nascent Black Dogs working together, but he also wisely leaves the actual hands-on work to Thorngrave, Hughes' hand-picked team-commander. Schuster knows he is an administrator more than a soldier, and acts accordingly. He is also very cautious of his Black Dogs, trying to preserve the team while proving the concept.

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• Desk Jockey: Schuster is quite well aware that he is an able special-forces administrator, but not a commando himself. He specifically picked a team that would be able to run itself in the field, allowing him to stand back and 'consider the bigger picture'.
• The Mole: Edward Schuster died defending the Asia Directorate headquarters from Hayate's counter-attack. The 'Edward Schuster' who created and led the Black Dogs is none other than Wilhelm Kriegsen, trying to create a weapon to strike at Takashi, prior to Al Hanthis' return.

Aliases: Takashi Shimazu

Affiliation: Terran Mage Circles (Master, Black Dog)

Age: 39 (Endless Waltz)

Appearance: A tall man with broad square shoulders, a square face, Uriel has blue eyes, brown hair in a buzz cut, and rough hands. Uriel is almost always in combat fatigues suitable to the local environment, though he always has a black glove on his right hand covering a burn scar.

Uriel is a well-trained commando and mage, fully capable with any weapon and in any environment. He has an easy-going command style that mostly consists of expecting the men to follow when he leads, which works fairly well for him.

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• Colonel Badass: While his former military rank is never established, and he commands a small civilian paramilitary force, Thorngrave functions as this. Of note, he's one of the few to give a direct order to Jubal Early without having a weapon in hand.
• Heel Face Mole: Uriel Thorngrave died defending the Asia Directorate headquarters against Hayate's counter-attack. The 'Uriel' in Endless Waltz is Takashi's cover for keeping an eye on the Circles, in the most efficient way possible – as part of their elite forces.

Affiliation: British Army (SAS, Sergeant), Terran Mage Circles (Master, Black Dog)

Age: 38 (Endless Waltz)

Appearance: A solid block of a man, a little on the short side, with military-short brown hair, hazel eyes, and a habit of frowning slightly at everything.

Arlain is a dedicated British Army sergeant, and expected to remain so until retirement. Being pulled out by the Circles was a major aggravation, until he found out why. Since then, he has proven to be one of the more flexible members of the Black Dogs, leader of the recon element of the original team, one of the few able to utilize Jubal Early without panicking over it.

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• Sergeant Rock: Like Maunders, Arlain is steady and calm, disciplined to the core.
• Supporting Protagonist: Arlain is usually the character to provide the viewpoint for the Black Dogs, despite not being either the field leader or force commander. When Hughes expands the Black Dogs from their original single team prior to New York, Arlain got command of his own nine-man team (still including Jubal, for some strange reason)

Affiliation: French DGSE, Terran Mage Circles (Master, Black Dog)

Age: 36 (Endless Waltz)

Theme Song: The Entertainer

Appearance: A tall bald black man with narrow black eyes, a ready smile showing very even white teeth, and a wide flat nose. While most people do not find his mere presence disturbing, prolonged contact usually makes it clear that he's looking at most people as targets… or worse.

Jubal Early is a killer, plain and simple. He likes to pit his skills against the most dangerous prey there is, and he agreed to join the Black Dogs specifically for a chance to hunt prey that had previously been denied him – fellow mages. Early holds to the Circles' doctrines not so much out of faith or belief, but because they give him an excuse to indulge his hobby without being persecuted. He joined the Moderns faction because he figured it would win, and he hates to be on the losing side.

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• Bald of Evil
• Scary Black Man
• Shout Out: He's a walking, talking, terrifying shout-out to his namesake.
• Token Evil Teammate: Most of the Black Dogs are professionals. Jubal, on the other hand, is first and foremost a killer.

Aliases: General Bloodthirsty (courtesy of Laura)

Affiliation: Al Hanthis City Guard (General, Master Adept).

Age: 54 (Endless Waltz)

Theme Song: Stargate Atlantis's Theme Song

Appearance: Average height but very thin, Szash exudes arrogant confidence. She has pure white hair that is kept short and usually spiked up, giving her a vaguely punk look in Terran eyes. She wears the Guard uniform of red-on-black tunic over black pants, shirt, and boots, constantly, but the only markings on her uniform are her rank pins.

Szash is young for her rank, by Al Hanthis' standards, and to a degree feels she has to prove herself because of that, while also well aware of what an accomplishment holding her rank at her age is. She also is looking forward to finally having a chance to command the battle against the rebels, where prior to the Cataclysm she was still a mid-rank soldier. Her frustration with the siege tactics of that time is apparent in the audaciousness of her strategy after Al Hanthis' return. She has a flair for the dramatic, and a tendency to react without thinking, but not to a debilitating extent. Szash is also a believer in honor, to an extent, so long as it does not interfere in her operational requirements.

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• Authority Equals Ass Kicking: Not entirely accurate, but rank in Al Hanthis is largely determined by magical strength/rank. As the highest ranking officer of the Guard, Szash not only needed to demonstrate great personal strength, but as General of the Guard, she has entire power generators dedicated solely to her support (Al Hanthis' equivalent to Bureau mage-devices relies on routing power from large-scale generators via implants in their mages).
• The Conqueror: Al Hanthis' entire plan to conquer Homeworld – which they consider rebellious territories – is Szash's plan, executed under her leadership.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Szash is very uncomfortable with the Seed of Leviathan, and her use of them is contingent on her intellect overriding her emotions. Neither does she appreciate the use of Blood Penance.

Affiliation: Al Hanthis Protectors (Lord Protector, Master Adept)

Age: 130 (Endless Waltz)

Theme Song: The movie theme from Stargate

Appearance: Yosho is very tall, and very broad, though not fat or stocky. His black hair is short, but not militarily so, and shot through with gray. His eyes are gray, and very expressive, telling his audience exactly what he wants them to see.

Yosho is a master manipulator and long-time chessmaster. He manipulated his way to his current position as leader of Al Hanthis' police forces at a time when they were the only executive authority in Al Hanthis. A product of the post-Al Hazred civil war, Yosho believes overridingly in the security of Al Hanthis and in crushing the rebels as a threat to the very fabric of reality.

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• Benevolent Boss: For all his amoral tendencies, Yosho is demonstrated to be a considerate, if manipulative, boss. He is actively training Journeyman Turo as an assistant/successor, but accepts the younger man's protests against atrocities (at least to Turo's face). Even when faced with evidence of his actions, his subordinates still don't believe it.
• The Chessmaster: Yosho plays several games at once, and is deeply involved in the Gambit Pileup that is Al Hanthis' usual politics.
• Knight Templar: Arguably. As his motivations have yet to be fully revealed, he may truly believe that Al Hanthis must rule for their to be any chance of peace. Or he may simply be a power-hungry bastard with no conscience.
• Moral Event Horizon: Yosho did not find the Blood Penance spell, but he is the one who made sure that it was executed.

Affiliation: Al Hanthis Forecasters (Keeper of the Pasts (retired), Master Adept)

Age: ~200 (Endless Waltz)

Appearance: An older and slightly shorter version of his son, Yosho. Ahmu's hair is all silver, and his smiles and laughter, while generally more sarcastic than his son's, are more honest. Despite his age, Ahmu is still very fit, thanks to the benefits of Al Hanthis' magical knowledge.

Ahmu is as much a manipulator as his son, but without the power-hungry elements. He is well aware of his age, and did not expect to live to see Al Hanthis freed of the Void, let alone to see a resumption of the civil war. He regards Natalia as an interesting project, at least initially, though there are hints that he sees her as something more as the story progresses.

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• Cynical Mentor / The Watcher: Ahmu is both of these towards Natalia.
• Grumpy Old Man: Plays up this part, possibly for his own entertainment.
• Seer: Ahmu is one of the ranking members of 'the Forecasters', secretive members of Al Hanthis' Conclave of Masters who train to see into the past and the future. Note: his title Keeper of the Pasts (plural) is not a typo.

Affiliation: Al Hanthis Protectors (Journeyman)

Age: 31 (Endless Waltz)

Appearance: A somewhat harried and nervous looking young man, Turo has dark blond hair, a triangular face, and small brown eyes that usually look faintly confused.

Turo is a promising young Journeyman in Al Hanthis' Protectors. Born and raised in the Void, his discretion and cooperation with Yosho when he noticed the portal out of the Void earned him Yosho's personal attention, and an unofficial promotion to Yosho's aide.

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• Even Evil Has Standards: Turo is horrified by the Blood Penance spell Master Adept Willan provided to Lord Protector Yosho. Previously he was also uncomfortable with the Seed of Leviathan.
• Hypercompetent Sidekick: While Turo only became Yosho's aide at the start of Endless Waltz, he has already proven both capable and comfortable issuing orders, when he saw the need for immediate action.

Formerly a bodyguard for the Emperor of Japan, he has been reassigned to Noriko.

Nanoha's father.

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• Sempai Kouhai: Hidan calls him sempai.
• Veteran Instructor: Hidan wants him to come out of retirement to train the new batch of bodyguards for Noriko.