Episode 09 - A Precious Thing
Teana wakes up in the infirmary in the late evening. Shamal tells her she'll be fine — the magical training bullets Nanoha hit her with don't cause physical damage — but that she's suffering from physical and emotional exhaustion.
An alert is received in the Riot Force Six command center: a group of Type 2 Gadgets has appeared over the ocean, flying in circles. At the same time, Lutecia contacts Scaglietti to ask why he's deploying Gadgets, and whether a Relic has been found. Scaglietti tells her this is just a test.
Analyzing the situation, Hayate and her staff come to the same conclusion. Suspecting that whoever is behind the Gadgets wants to gather information about their tactics and abilities, Hayate decides to send as small a force as possible to deal with them using conventional means.
Nanoha, Fate and Vita prepare to deploy in the helicopter, while the rest of the team is ordered to remain at the base on standby. However, Nanoha orders Teana off-duty for the night, as she's still worn out. Tea explodes at this, insisting that she's been performing well and working hard to exceed expectations, and saying that she'll never get stronger unless she pushes herself to her limit. Her ranting, however, is put to an abrupt end when Signum steps in and punches her in the face. note As the helicopter departs, Nanoha tells Teana they'll talk when she gets back.
The mood amongst the remaining team members is still tense when Shario abruptly shows up and asks everyone to come with her to the base lobby. When everyone is gathered, Shario brings up a monitor and starts to tell them a story... the story of Nanoha's past, and the meaning behind her training.
Coming into enormous magical power at the age of nine, Nanoha found herself in one furious battle after another. She learned to use more and more powerful spells, started using the Belkan cartridge system, and paid no heed to the tremendous strain all this was putting on her body. Then, two years after joining the TSAB, there was an incident: on a remote world, Nanoha was attacked by an powerful, unidentified foe. Due to her stress and constant over-work, an opponent that she shouldn't have had trouble defeating ended up almost killing her. Shario and the Wolkenritter explain that Nanoha is training the Forwards carefully so that something similar doesn't happen to them.
After easily destroying all the Gadgets, Nanoha returns to base with the others, where Shario fills her in. She goes to find Teana sitting alone by the training area. As Tea tearfully apologizes, Nanoha tells her that she's far more gifted than she realizes.
The next morning, Fate tells the Forward members that there is a special term for an elite mage — someone who can get themselves and their team-mates through any situation, no matter how difficult — and that this is what Nanoha believes all four of them will become: Strikers.
Tropes
- Action Film, Quiet Drama Scene: Other than the destruction of the Gadgets, which takes only moments, there is very little action in this episode — it mainly focuses on Character Development and Internal Reveals. This makes sense, since from next episode things are going to start moving in a big way...
- Call-Back: Shario briefly describes some of the events of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha and Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's. It doesn't go deep into plot details, however, limiting the discussion to what's relevant to her point. It also largely manages to avert
Continuity Lockout for viewers who haven't seen those seasons. - Character Development: In-universe, Tea receives a large dose of it.
- Flashback: Several to the first two seasons, but also to previously-unseen events taking place two years after A's.
- Gory Discretion Shot: The camera avoids clearly showing the extent of Nanoha's wounds when Vita is cradling her after the battle, but Vita's reaction and the fact that Nanoha's Barrier Jacket and the snow around her are soaked with blood says enough.
- Humiliation Conga: Teana sees herself as the victim of this. The (supposed) weakest member of the team, screwing up at Hotel Augusta, yelled at by Vita, lectured and then blasted into the infirmary by Nanoha, removed from active duty, lectured again and finally punched in the face by Signum. It isn't until Shari and the others sit her down and patiently explain things that she finally wises up.
- Magical Security Cam: The video footage Shario pulls up from the first and second seasons consists entirely of scenes from the anime. Somewhat justified as it's been long established that the TSAB can watch events remotely, and some of those events did indeed take place under their surveillance. Still, one has to wonder how and why they acquired footage of Nanoha and her friends attending elementary school.
- Mood Whiplash: The Flashback scenes go from showing Nanoha's triumphant moments in the first two seasons, to her bloodied and unconscious on a snow-covered battlefield, and then undergoing painful therapy in hospital.
- Snow Means Death: Downplayed. Nanoha's near-fatal injuries took place while it was snowing.
- Understatement: While Shamal was clearly trying to give an abridged version of the events, saying that Fate was "going through some complications with her family" during the Precia Testarossa Incident is really underselling it.
