Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS Episode 09
魔法少女リリカルなのはStrikerS（ストライカーズ）Ep. 09

SPOILER Summary: Tia wakes up in the infirmary under Shamal-sensei’s care, having been out for a long time due primarily to exhaustion. She remembers being schooled by Nanoha, but Shamal tells Tia that there’s no real damage to Tia’s body as Nanoha is an expert with training ammunition. Meanwhile, Fate informs Nanoha that Tia finally woke up and that they tried to apologize to Nanoha, but of course she was out. Nanoha plans to have a talk with the two and apologizes for her actions to Fate, who’s not bothered by them.

When they enter the building, the alert goes off. Quite a few Type-2 (flying) Gadgets have appeared, and these are noticed outside by Lutecia, who immediately calls Doctor Scaglietti. He assures her that there is no Relic involved, but he wants some data and the Gadgets are merely to be sacrificed to gather this data. Back in the HQ building, Hayate consults with her captains, Fate and Nanoha. Fate suspects Scaglietti’s involvement and that it is likely designed to get the team to destroy the Gadgets for his data-gathering purpose. Nanoha suggests treating the Gadget problem as normal, not revealing any cards up their sleeves, which Hayate agrees to.

At the helicopter pad, Nanoha informs the team that only Fate, Vita, and herself will be deployed and that Signum will be in charge of the team until they get back. She further tells Tia that Tia is off active status, which offends Tia and causes her to run off at the mouth about it. This leads to her getting punched by Signum for being spoiled and while Nanoha would like to make things right with Tia, Vita makes sure she gets on the helicopter and doesn’t spoil Tia. With that, the helicopter is off and Shari comes around, saying she has something she wants the others to watch.

Shari has a presentation showing how Nanoha got started at 9-years of age and to the surprise of the rookies, her main enemy was Fate (the first series). Then Shamal picks up the story, telling the Knight’s role along with Hayate battling against Fate and Nanoha (the second series). This also surprises the rookies, as does the sheer amount of power young Nanoha had. Because Nanoha exerted herself so much at such an early age, she paid the price when Vita and Nanoha were on a routine mission years later where Nanoha’s body finally gave out on her and she nearly died. However, Nanoha struggled in rehab to be able to not only walk again, but use her magics. As such, Nanoha’s experiences are behind her training regiment. Signum states that there are life-or-death times when going beyond one’s limits is fine, but in Tia’s cases, neither time was a life-or-death situation and thus there was not a reason to go so far.

After Vita destroys the last Gadget, the trio returns to base, where Shari confesses what she’s done to Nanoha, who’s not too pleased. Vita figures that the rookies would learn of it soon enough, so Nanoha seeks out Tia, who’s sitting by the river. Now that Tia knows something of Nanoha’s past, Nanoha decides to scold Tia for her negative attitude about herself and her abilities. Nanoha tells Tia that the rookies are like raw ore that needs to be refined and polished, and that Tia is at the core, protecting the other rookies with her ranged attacks and illusion magic.

Nanoha further tells Tia that her idea to make a blade form for her Device, while not called for in the training simulation, is on target. To show her, Nanoha unlocks the 2nd mode of Cross Mirage for Tia, who tries it out, discovering that it is an elaborate, bladed weapon. Nanoha explains that her training regiment would cover close combat that would require this form, but they weren’t ready for it yet and because the team could be deployed, the rookies needed to improve on their primary skills first. Tia breaks down and cries, apologizing to Nanoha. The following day, Fate takes the rookies out and explains how they are “strikers” and what Nanoha said regarding them and their abilities when the training first started. Meanwhile, Nanoha sets up the training ground where she, Vita, and Signum talk about what will happen once the training is over.

Thoughts: It was rather interesting to see (if briefly) how Nanoha almost lost her life. In one of the bridge manga, we also get to see a bit of that. I think what I liked most was again, a sense of realism in an unrealistic world of tech-mages. Nanoha, as the episode reminded us, was only 9 when she got into this magic business and having to go into combat. At such a young age, she had mad talents, but the powerful magics she was forced to use then took a tole on her, and it was the acknowledgment of this which made things feel real. Nanoha knows the rookies could be killed in combat, but they won’t be killed because their bodies were over-taxed as hers was.

Anyway, with this, I guess we now leave the Tia-angst arc and proceed to where ever the next place is.