Fanfic / Future Tense

Future Tense is a Lyrical Nanoha fanfic written by Kaijo.

Taking place fifty-four years after the events of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS, Nanoha finds herself in a world completely different from what she had known. As it is revealed early, she is a clone of the original Nanoha, who died in an accident shortly before the events of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Vi Vid. Along her journey, she meets many people of her original's past; some are still on her side, while others are working for the TSAB, now led by her fellow ace and friend, Hayate Yagami. The TSAB is now a totalitarian state who is expanding itself and bringing "peace, law and order", at the expense of the well-being of it's citizens. Faced with this new reality, she must overcome the perils that the world has to offer while unveiling secrets of the past and try to fit in the new mentality that her objective requires: find the answer to why the world she knew turned upside down and fix it.

The fic is now complete, but the author expressed no wishes to make a sequel while his other works are not complete.

Heavy spoilers below.

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This fanfic contains examples of the following tropes:

• Alternate Timeline: How time travel really works. It is not possible to change whatever happened in your own timeline, but you are capable of changing another one if you go back to a certain point that exists in your memories and change the events with the knowledge of what happened. The bad future is still going to exist however, you will just guarantee that at least something different happened in another timeline.
• Animate Dead: Jail's clone can restore some brain functions of the diseased, zombifying them, in a certain way.
• Anyone Can Die: Some characters, both original and from canon, died either within the course of the story or during the timeskip.
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: Nanoha became a rebel leader simply by being the only person who can fight Hayate and Fate on equal terms.
• Back from the Dead: Due, Tre, Cinque, Sette, Ginga, Shamal, and Zafira. Signum, who actually dies due to Agito self destructing, cannot be killed permanently thanks to Hayate restoring the resurrection program of the Tome of the Night Sky. She gets revived together with Agito.
• Bad Future: The world Clonoha/Seikou awakes in is mainly the result of the original's death in a lost logia accident. That and the fact that other people important to Hayate died in the 50 years that have passed because Precia and Due killed them, including Nanoha.
• Battle Discretion Shot: What happened to Tre's battle with Fate. During the JS incident, when the cyborg fought and lost to Fate, who was a S ranked mage and under an anti-magic field, the battle still ended fairly quickly. Now, that same enforcer is much a more experienced SSS ranked mage. Do the math. Also happened to Sette against some mooks.
• Bittersweet Ending: Seikou, Fate and Hayate (and consequentially the Wolkenritter) die along with both Precias and Due, ensuring that in at least one timeline Nanoha will survive, as it is shown the three aces (presumed to be the canon ones) examining the crater left by the explosion in Precia's lab. Even so, the Bad Future still exists, and whatever happened next is not shown, but nothing guarantees that there will not be any people who wish a continuation of the totalitarian TSAB.
• Big Bad: Hayate, now the leader of the TSAB.
• Brain in a Jar: Jail Scaglietti . His body was destroyed in a accident that he suspects that Quattro orchestraded, because that would be the only way for the clone in Due's body to activate.
• But for Me, It Was Tuesday: How Due treats blowing up the hospital where Shamal and Zafira were in, as well as the peace conference where Lindy, Genya and Ginga were in, completely ruining Hayate's life.
• The Cavalry: Amy's fleet arrives during the battle of Clanagan to rescue her husband.
• Clone Degeneration: Seikou, being created with the same methods used to create Zest, starts decaying after some time whenever she uses too much magic.
• Character Name Alias: Both Nanoha and Fate use at different points the fan nicknames of the Materials: Seikou and Rai. Seikou was the name of Nanoha's grandmother. Rai is the name of Fate's subordinate and the last of her adopted children.
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Quattro, obviously.
• Clone Angst: Downplayed example. Nanoha's clone doesn't consider herself worthless like Vivio and Fate did, as she remembers that she also considered them people. She is, however, uncertain if she should consider herself a different person, like Fate does, or if she is just continuing her life, like Zest. As such, she takes the pseudonym of Seikou, Nanoha's grandmother, as a means of also avoiding unwanted attention, but she still considers herself "Nanoha". This foreshadows the methods used to clone her.
• Cold-Blooded Torture: Hayate inflicts this on Jail Scaglietti so she can know why he cloned Nanoha.
  • Fate also subjects Sister Schach to this.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Seikou easily defeats most of her opponents during the brief Tournament Arc.
• Darker and Edgier: While it would be hard to compare it to Force, as they are darker in different ways, this fic explores a lot of the characters motivations and the long-term consequences of some events.
• Dead Person Conversation: It's heavily implied that it was really Caro who talked to Erio during the final battle, as Layla also heard someone passing the powers of summoning dragons to her.
  • There is also the Seikou ghost that smiled to Yuuno and motivated him that it was possible to travel through time.
• Dead Person Impersonation: Runessa Magnus has been dead all along and Due has been impersonating her to fool Yuuno and Shari.
• Defeating the Undefeatable: Sorry Hayate, Nanoha is still the main character.
• Death Equals Emotion: Just as Deed is going to kill the zombified Sette, the normally emotionless cyborg gives a slight smile.
• Died in Your Arms Tonight: The original Nanoha died in Fate's arms.
  • Also happened to Subaru when she died in Teana's during the final battle.
• The Dragon: Fate, as Hayate's right-hand woman.
• Drama-Preserving Handicap: Seikou doesn't get Raising Heart until a good amount of battles already took place.
• Demoted to Extra: Signum and Vita get considerably less screen time than other former main characters. They become mostly Hayate's top generals, also acting as rivals to Rio and Corona, respectivelly. Especially Vita, considering Signum's relation with Agito still was explored.
• Disappears into Light: Carim becomes data as she dies for being used as the trigger to open the time gate. As such, that data travels through time and is the one that tells an alternate Carim what events are going to happen.
• Doom Magnet: Justified case, as Seikou is being chased by the TSAB and is a high priority target, so they spare no efforts in capturing her, even using civilians as bait.
• Dystopia: Downplayed. Ever since Hayate's rule, poverty levels have increased, as the TSAB redirected many resources to conquer other worlds, but the majority of the people can survive just fine apparently; there is forced conscription, but only to those who have magic potential. Even so, the Bureau, seems to be on war perpetually, as it keeps trying to expand itself and conquer every world in the galaxy, while maintaining a state with an iron fist. Naturally, there are people who oppose them.
• Duel Boss: Fate dismisses the enforcers that are accompanying her and asks for them to not interfere in her fight against Seikou.
• Duels Decide Everything: Seikou and Fate decide that the winner of the fight will be the one who is right.
• The Empire: The TSAB has a lot of aspects of one, including draconian laws, a strong military force bent on dominating other worlds and an autocracy.
• Evolving Weapon: Both Raising Heart and Bardiche received upgrades as time went on.
  • Nanoha can now use up to Blaster 2 without any drawbacks, although higher functions will still damage her and Raising Heart. The last function could be more compared to a powered armor, likely a shout out to Nanoha being a Gundam in magical girl form.
  • Bardiche has all the upgrades up to Force, as well as new mode which gives Fate either two scythes, a stick with one scythe coming from both ends in opposite directions, or a rail gun.
• Explosive Overclocking: Vivio and Einhart's devices have these functions, as they will produce a lot more power, acting as Relics, at the cost of eventually breaking and need repairs.
• Fallen Heroes: Hayate, Fate, the Wolkenritter, Teana and some of the Numbers.
• Faking the Dead: Vivio Takamachi.
  • Related to the first one: Chrono Harlaown.
  • An even bigger one: Precia Testarossa.
• Fanservice: During the brief Tournament Arc, Nanoha has to wear a more revealing barrier jacket, so she can attract more audience and receive more bets.
• Fauxshadowing: The identity of the person with the eyepatch.
• Flight: Many characters that couldn't fly developed this ability, including Teana and Vivio.
• Foreseeing My Death: Carim discovers that she is going to die soon, so she sets up a plan along with Yuuno to use that so Nanoha can travel back in time.
• Foreshadowing: Too many cases. Some are very subtle and others are not. Has it's own page
• Full-Potential Upgrade: When Nanoha gets Raising Heart back, she is able to get head to toe with Fate.
• Fusion Dance: Between Rio and Agito. Agito briefly unisons with Seikou some times, making all of the clone's attacks similar to Material-S.
  • Mental Fusion: Unison devices can also share memories and feelings with anyone they fuse, but this goes both ways. This way, Agito is able to search Seiko's mind for any hidden programs that Jail might have installed. Rein is also able to fuse with unconscious people, telling Hayate what happened beforehand.
    • If a unison device and a person keep fused for too long, the device will either become an extension of the master, or the device will use the master as a shell, or they are going to transfer parts of each other's personalities between themselves. Hayate and Rein end up being fused permanently.
• Future Badass: Nearly every character gained new levels of badassery during the timeskip. Vivio and Hayate are probably the greatest examples.
• Great Offscreen War: The First Cranagan war between the TSAB under Hayate and the Saint Church happened 20 years before the story. Hayate won when the Saint Church surrendered.
  • There's also an invasion on Earth that occurs at the same time the story plays, with the Wolkenritter leading the TSAB's forces.
• Happily Married: Vice and Alto. Yuuno and Fate were this for eight years, with the first marrying Shario after they divorced.
  • Erio and Caro were also this until the later's death.
• Heel–Face Turn: In a way, Scaglietti , Une, Tre and Sette.
  • Hayate and Fate do it near the end too.
• Heel Realization: Fate is a downplayed example. Before the final battle, she follows Seikou's advice in living amongst the common people for some time and see how much they suffer. While she doesn't start working for the rebels, she joins the final battle to ensure that there will be peace talks.
• Hero Killer: Nanoha, at least for the TSAB. She defeated Wendi, Teana, Fate and finally, Hayate.
• Heroic Sacrifice: How the original Nanoha died. Several characters end up doing this as well. It would be easier to list those who did not even try to do this trope.
• He's Back!: Erio shows up just in time for the final battle.
• Important Haircut: The Nanoha-clone cutting off her long hair, stating that she cannot be the Nanoha she was cloned from. Uno, helps her style her hair to look like Material-S.
• I Cannot Self-Terminate: It's heavily implied that Vita and Signum don't wish to continue fighting the rebellion, but they can't do anything about it, since they must obey Hayate. Their rivals catch on this and gain a new reason to win.
  • During the final battle, the zombified combat cyborgs are fighting against their own will too, asking their sisters to end their suffering.
• I Fight for the Strongest Side!: Due's reason for joining the real Big Bad.
• "I Know You Are in There Somewhere" Fight: Both Seikou and Fate try to win in their duel so that the other will join their side.
• Immortality Hurts: The Huckebein are on the receiving end of this trope, although they are not quite immortal, they just have immense regeneration powers.
• Immune to Fate: A variation: anyone who travels through time starts to exist outside of it, so they are immune to any paradox that might happen.
• Kill and Replace: Mariel was killed by the true Big Bad, who has been posing as her ever since the JS incident.
• Knight Templar: Fate and Hayate. Both believe that what they have done to the TSAB is for the greater good.
• La Résistance: A part of it is led by Rio and Corona. Later, Seikou becomes the overall leader.
• Living MacGuffin: Carim is one since her sacrifice is required to open the time gate.
• Mad Doctor: Jail Scaglietti seems to have grown a little bit out of it. His clone, on the other hand, is just as crazy as he was during Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Striker S.
• Mad Oracle: Carim is a downplayed case. Without access to anti-aging medicine, she aged normally and started to become weak.
• Mercy Kill: Otto and Deed kill Sette and Tre, who have been zombified, for the lack of a better term.
  • Agito also kills the original Jail, at his request, since he would never be able to be the master of his own destiny again and would rather die than continuing to live as a Brain in a Jar that has to obeys other people's whims.
• Meaningful Rename: Fate Scrya Harlaown.
  • Teana Lanster Nakajima
• The Man Behind the Man: The second Jail, who is Due's son.
• Mortal Wound Reveal: Une received internal injuries as a result of trying to save civilians during a major battle.
• My Future Self and Me: Precia was saved by her future self during the colapse of the Garden, who was in turned saved by another Precia and so on. After that, the rescuer always tells the rescued exactly what she needs to do in order save the "next in line", acquire time traveling powers and save Alicia.
• My Master, Right or Wrong: Agito betrayed Signum during The First Cranagam War because the knight abandoned Zest's ideals.
  • It's implied that Signum and Vita don't agree with Hayate's methods, but they can't do anything about it.
• Naughty Nuns: Sein, who takes pictures in various poses and states of dress and sells them to the crime underworld, so she can get some money for the orphanage.
• Never Found the Body: Fate never found Vivio's body after their battle during the first Cranagan war, thus harboring suspicion that she was alive somewhere. She was.
• No One Could Survive That!: How the battle between Vivio and Fate ended, as Chrono tried to take both him and Vivio with his damaged ship while Fate escaped, creating a gigantic crater. The three survived
  • Fate and Nanoha's battle, which was so intense those who were watching it were sure that nobody could survive such a devastating battle.
• Not Quite Dead: Subaru.
  • After The Reveal, Precia Testarossa.
• Nun Too Holy: The author lampshades that the nuns of the Belkan Saint Church don't take vows of celibacy and non-violence.
• Orcus on His Throne: Hayate doesn't do anything but send her minions to kill Seikou until the final chapters. When the two finally meet, she shows Seikou just why it was needed to create a new rank just for her.
• Older Than They Look: Thanks to an life extension device that takes life away from others, aging has dramatically slowed. Only members of the bureau have access to this though.
  • During the last chapters, when the three aces go through the time stream, their bodies de-age to their 9 year old selves, but retain all their knowledge and memories.
• Physical Goddesses: The three aces easily come as this since they are either SSS rank or above.
• Power Copying: The Tome of the Night Sky's ability to store any information plays an important role, as it can store the ability to travel through time.
• A Pupil of Mine Until He Turned to Evil: Inverted, Rio, a member of the rebel faction ends up fighting Nove, who is a member of Teana's team. Anyone who has read Vivid would know that Rio is one of Nove's apprentices.
• Rank Inflation: While Fate and Seikou are ranked SSS, something that is already unbelievably high in canon, Hayate is so much more powerful that the normal ranking system didn't do any justice to her power. So she created a new rank for herself: G.
• Rank Scales with Asskicking: Hayate is the most powerful mage in the TSAB, and also its supreme leader with a power ranking exclusively for her. Fate, being her right hand woman, leads the Enforcers, TSAB's elite soldiers.
• Red Baron: Seikou, the Starlight Destroyer
• Replacement Goldfish: Hayate recreates Shamal and Zafira, but they are almost entirely new creations, as they were created from her linker core and were programed to resemble the originals. They are mostly emotionless.
• Resurrective Immortality: The Wolkenritter cannot be permanently killed because Hayate recreated the Knight Restoration Program. The only way to stop them for good is by either temporarily killing them, destroy the Tome of the Night Sky, or stop Hayate.
• The Reveal: Precia Testarossa never died and has been manipulating all the events after the JS incident, rescuing Due and being directly responsible for the explosions that took out Shamal, Zafira, Lindy, Genya and Ginga, as well as the death of the original Nanoha.
• Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves: Due, as Quattro saw it coming.
• Serial Escalation: All three aces are much more powerful than they previously were. And in StrikerS they were already amongst the most powerful beings in the universe.
  • Seikou developed a new variation of Starlight Breaker, one that also takes mana from celestial bodies: Moonlight Breaker
  • Hresvelgr, the attack Hayate used in StrikerS to destroy loads of drones, is now one of her weakest spells. She can even use a multi-version of Diabolic Emission.
  • Fate developed a new version of her Sonic Form that gives her even more speed, but she can't use any magical attacks.
• Shell-Shocked Veteran: Erio, after Caro's death and the supposed death of their child, decides to not have anything to do with the war andsimply lives in seclusion in Supools.
• Shipping Tropes: See YMMV entry
• Shrouded in Myth: Nanoha-clone notes that her reputation as Seikou the Starlight Destroyer reached absurd levels as the story went on. She also took advantage of this distorted reputation some times.
• Spell My Name With An S: The author uses "Raging Heart".
• Start of Darkness: Nanoha's death, for most of the characters that now work for the TSAB.
• Storming the Castle: The Siege of Clanagan.
• Super-Soldier: Seikou was modified to be two ranks above the original Nanoha, as she would be at a disadvantage if she stayed at the same level as her, since everyone else would have improved in either skill, power, or both.
• Synchronization: Summoning magic is similar in certain ways to using a familiar. Both the summoner and the summoned make a pact, with stronger creatures being directly linked to their master. If the summon receives a mortal wound, the summoner dies instead. In the First Cranagan War, Voltaire was mortally injured and he passed the damage to Caro
• Taking Up the Mantle: Layla becomes the new dragon summoner. Guess who she summons...
• Taking You with Me: Agito inflicts this on Signum. It doesn't work, as both are resurrected by Hayate and the restoration program.
  • In the last chapter, Hayate and Fate stall for time until the reactor that killed Alicia explodes and takes them along with the Precia that they met previously. Nanoha awaits, hidden, until Due is rescued by the other Precia after the death of Regius; teleporting along with them to a hidden lab and blowing the entire place up after making a reactor go critical.
• Temporal Paradox: It's a great concern to some characters avoiding this, but it doesn't matter in the end, given the rules of time travel.
• Time Travel: Yuuno's reason for cloning Nanoha was to send her back to the past to replace the original, hoping it would undo all the changes that happened.
• Tournament Arc: A very brief one occurs when Seikou needs to acquire money so she can travel to Mid-Childa and confront Hayate. Includes the cameo of an older Victoria Dalhgrün.
• Unrequited Love Lasts Forever: Yuuno never stopped loving Nanoha.
• Utopia Justifies the Means: The TSAB under Hayate's leadership brought peace and security to Mid-Childa and other planets, at least that what she thinks. She also enforces the laws with an iron fist.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: The story would be very different if that soldier who recorded Due being rescued by a mysterious figure released that information, but he was to scared of what could happen to him.
• Volleying Insults: At one point Rio Wesley and Teana meet each other and they start fighting, throwing insults at each other like "fascist dictator" and "flat-chested anarchist". After a little while, Rio Wesley calls Teana Hitler, with the later standing confused and asking who that is supposed to be.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: The Bad Future still exists, but after the three aces and Precia enter the timestream, there is almost no further development of what happened afterwards in that timeline.
• Wide-Eyed Idealist: Deconstructed. Seikou is this, just like the original Nanoha. However, that sort of mentality doesn't fit anymore in the world she lives in, and her idealism is what causes the deaths of some characters. As such, many people that she knew call her out on this. Consequentially, she gradually changes her approach to situations, but never stops trying to help others.
• With Us or Against Us: Hayate eventually sets on this regarding Seikou, after discovering that she's a near perfect copy of the original Nanoha.
• Wrecked Weapon: Seikou has a lot of problems handling the devices prior to reacquiring Raising Heart, as she is too powerful to go all out and would break the weapons. So she has limit herself, as not having a device at all would be even worse.
  • Bardiche is incredibly damaged following Fate's battle with Seikou, so she has to carry around a spare device called Vulnificus. Or not, since the one who was in charge of repairing Bardiche was the Big Bad herself, who later used Vulnificus to control Fate's unconcious body through electrical impulses. So maybe Bardiche could be repaired.
  • Raising heart is consumed by Jail's Clone new creation, Luciferion
  • The Tome of the Night Sky is destroyed in the the same explosion that killed Alicia, Precia, Fate and Hayate. Word of God says that the book is destroyed for good.
• Wrestler in All of Us: Vivio surely learned some moves with Sieglinde. Not even Deville can stand being thrown from the stratosphere.
• You Have Out Lived Your Usefulness: Inflicted on both Quattro and Jail Scaglietti 's clone, courtesy of Precia Testarossa.
• You Wouldn't Shoot Me: Quattro says this to the heroes during the final battle. Unfortunately for her, Teana isn't a hero and is more than willing to shoot her
• Younger Than They Look: Seikou, given that she is biologically between 21 and 23.

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