Episode 07 - Hotel Augusta
An antique auction is being held at the prestigous Hotel Augusta outside Mid-Childa's capital; because there will be Lost Logia among the items traded, Riot Force Six is performing security. Nanoha, Fate and Hayate stand guard inside the hotel while the other members patrol around outside. All of Hayate's Guardian Knights are deployed together for the first time since the unit was formed. Watching all of her team-mates, Teana reflects on how abnormally powerful Riot Force Six really is.
To no-one's surprise, a large group of Gadgets suddenly shows up, and Riot Force Six is forced into battle. Watching from a distance, the man and girl we saw briefly in episode 5 receive a communication from Doctor Scaglietti. He tells them there's an item in the hotel which he wants for his research, and asks if they'd be willing to retrieve it for him. The man, Zest, refuses point-blank, but the girl, Lutecia, is willing. She magically summons a large number of small insect-like creatures and sends them to reinforce the Gadgets.
The Wolkenritter set up an outer perimeter, but a number of Gadgets make it through to where the Forward members are guarding the hotel. Shamal recommends they just hold the line until Vita can arrive to reinforce them, but Teana, who is feeling increasingly like a fifth wheel as she watches the others fight, decides to go on the offensive. She uses her barrage magic to take down several Gadgets, but loses control over one of the bullets and it almost hits Subaru. Vita arrives just in time to block the errant shot, tears a strip off Tea for being reckless, and tells both of them to get out of the way while she takes care of the Gadgets.
While everyone is distracted, Lutecia teleports another creature, a humanoid insect she calls Garyuu, into the hotel's underground parking lot where he locates and retrieves the item Scaglietti wanted. This done, she and Zest depart from the area.
Once the battle is over, the auction gets under way. Hayate runs into an old friend, special TSAB investigator Verossa Acous, and they do some brief catching up. Fate and Nanoha, meanwhile, discover that Yuuno Scrya is attending the auction as an expert on ancient artifacts. Despite the cheeful reunions, everyone is worried about their mysterious enemies.
Outside, Subaru tries to reassure Teana that the near-miss wasn't her fault, but Tea is having none of it. She curtly tells Subaru to rejoin the others, keeping her back turned so that her friend won't see the tears running down her face...
Tropes
- Awesomeness by Analysis: Teana comes to the realization that, as a unit, Riot Force Six is massively over-powered — but carefully structured so as not to draw attention to that fact. It will later take much more experienced people quite some time to come to the same conclusion.
- Foreshadowing: Teana mentally lists off how each of the other unit members is unusually powerful and/or talented. She's a bit vague when it comes to Subaru, but obviously classifies her that way as well. We haven't seen Subaru particularly do anything to put herself in a class above Tea, so this looks like more of the latter's inferiority complex at work. But it's also a big hint that there's more to Subaru than we yet know.
- At the same time, her realization that Riot Force Six is abnormally powerful for what is supposedly a rather specialized recovery unit suggests that its publicly-given raison d'être is not the whole story.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: When Hayate presents her ID card to the receptionist, it shows a lot of her official information, including her rank and position, length of service, qualifications, and magical devices. Interestingly, it lists her "present address" as being on Mid-Childa, but her "registered domicile" as Earth, implying that she's still legally considered an Earth citizen.
- Heroic Self-Deprecation: Teana increasingly feels that she's the only 'average' person in a team full of elites.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Tea is horrified when she almost hits Subaru with one of her shots during battle. Vita's yelling at her for being stupid — deserved or not — doesn't help.
- Pimped-Out Dress: Nanoha, Fate and Hayate wear these to blend in while guarding the auction.
- Spider-Sense: Caro (or at least her device Kerykeion) can sense when Lutecia activates her summoning magic nearby.
- Tears of Remorse: Revealed when we see Teana's face in the final shot.
- The Unreveal: We never find out what it was that Scaglietti had Lutecia and Garyuu steal, except that it's some sort of contraband note . Whatever it is, it's never mentioned again after this episode.
- Transformation Sequence: Shamal, Signum and Vita get them in this episode. Zafira does not, since he remains in wolf form throughout.
