We start the second season by finding out that Fate is now going to attend Nanoha’s school and is being cared for by Captain Lindy. Amy, who’s a researcher on the Asura, also moves in with Captain Lindy, Fate, and Chrono. Arf gives herself a small makeover and she now appears as a puppy. Yuuno is still with Nanoha and her friends, Arisa and Suzuka, readily accept Fate into their group.
We also meet a young girl named Hayate who is paralyzed in one leg. She lives on her own and one day when she gets home from a visit to the hospital for examinations on her condition, a book on her shelf begins to pulse. We later find out that the book released it’s guardians and that Hayate is it’s mistress. Hayate is told by the Guardians their purpose but she tell them not to do it so they can live a normal life.
This season involves the Guardians trying to fill the 666 pages of The Book of Darkness. They fill pages by taking the Linker Core of living beings that have magical capabilities. At separate points both Nanoha and Fate are attacked and their Linker Cores are absorbed into the Book. It takes time for them to recover but neither one willingly leaves the others side. Hayate becomes friends with Suzuka and by this time the Guardians have clashed with Fate and Nanoha a few times who both ask them why they’re stealing Linker Cores.
The Guardians give excuses as to what they’re doing it for but don’t tell them the real reason until a few episodes later.
Hayate gets hospitalized a few weeks prior to Christmas due to her condition. Suzuka, Arisa, Nanoha, and Fate all send her a get well card and Shamal, one of Hayates Guardians gets very worried. She runs out of Hayate’s room while Nanoha and Fate visit her and tries to hide from them so no conflicts start near Hayate. Unfortunately conflicts are not easily avoidable. The girls decide to surprise Hayate with gifts and a large barrier of tension enters the room when the Guardians see Nanoha and Fate.
The Bureau is also involved in this since they’re trying to find a way to stop the Book of Darkness before it gets completed so no lives are lost. Yuuno asks if he can search in the Inifinite Library for more info regarding the Book and it’s power and he gets the aide of two familiars from Commander Liese. The familiars are Aria and Lotte, both Neko girls. They happened to train Chrono in both close and ranged mage combat. They also adore him.
When the Book of Darkness has its pages filled, it absorbs Hayate after she’s tricked into believing that Nanoha and Fate killed her Guardians When the defense system is attacking the girls and their friends Hayate talks to the Tome of the Night Sky and asks her not to do what she’s doing because it’s not what she really wishes to happen. After Hayate takes command of the tomes administrative process she names her Reinforce. and she takes on a different form. Hayate uses the Book of the Night Sky to transform herself, rebuild the Guardians, and uses her abilities to help defeat the defense mass of the Book of Darkness.
With the girls and Guardians using their combined magical powers they are able to send the defense mass into space by the Asura which blasts it away into non existance.
As a final request Reinforce asks Fate and Nanoha to destroy her while the defense system is down so she won’t kill Hayate. She requests that Hayate not name the piece of her that’s left Reinforce but to save it for someone special.
Characters:
Nanoha and Fate
Both of our heroines have matured a little and are working hard for the Bureau. They’ve gotten emotionally closer to one another. Fate is going to be adopted by Captain Lindy and become Chrono’s little sister. The two girls work together and help one another through their struggles after they each have their Linker Cores drained dramatically by the Book of Darkness.
Hayate
A young girl that’s the same age as Nanoha and Fate who gets mixed up in the world of magic because a dangerous relic chose her as its Mistress. She is the mistress of the four Guardians and treats them with nothing but kindness. She also becomes friends with Fate, Nanoha, Suzuka, and Arisa not knowing that the Guardians have to fight off Fate and Nanoha to fill the books pages. She doesn’t know what her Guardians are doing at night while Shamal looks after her but she’s happy to think they’re just out doing their own thing and trying to live.
Amy, Chrono, Captain Lindy
Amy plays a bigger role in this series as she watches Chrono and Fate while Lindy is on the Asura most of the time. They live a short distance form Nanoha now and are all working hard to figure out how to stop the Guardians, save Hayate, and stop the Book of Darkness.
The Guardians: Signum, Vita, Zafira, Shamal
These four are part of a program within the Book of Darkness itself. They are the guardians it created in order to fill its pages. However, when Hayate met them she told them it wasn’t necessary to fill the pages and that they could all just live happily. The Guardians found out from her doctor that her condition is worsening and they knew the cause is the book. The only way they know of to help heal her and keep her alive is to fill the pages so the book can grant her wishes. Like I said, they’re not so much villains as people with good intentions that don’t know of another way to save their precious person. It’s very similar to Fate’s situation in season 1, except she was trying to win over her mothers affections by doing whatever it took.
As far as the villains go for this season, the Guardians really aren’t bad guys. They’re trying to save the person they love the most, the first person that actually loves them with all her heart.
Yuuno and Arf
The two of them are helping Nanoha and Fate in their fights against the Guardians as well as doing research into the Book of Darkness. Arf takes on Zafira a number of times in order to distract him and protect Fate and Nanoha. Yuuno uses his support magic abilities to defend them and he also stays on the Asura for a time doing reasearch with the Neko twins.
Lotte and Aria
Neko familiars of Commander Liese. They call him father. These two help Yuuno find information in the Infinite Library and are also long and short ranged magic combat teachers. They play a large part in this series. But you won’t realize it til it’s almost over, at least I didn’t.
The Book of Darkness
This is the books true physical form once she gets her pages filled.