Project Arashi: Difference between revisions

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The result is known colloquially as [[The Verse|the Kuroverse]], with its primary protagonists being the tenants of the Hinata-Sou, whose numbers have been ballooned by most of the important original characters, who have been designated "The Black Storm" by the mages at Mahora Academy, and subsequently have referred to themselves near-universally as the "Kuro crew." All of the stories revolve around the formation and antics of the Kuro crew, with ''The Unsung War'' providing the most insight, and consequently, the most spoilers.

* ''Gunpowder Pact'', another origin story, this time focused on [[Cosmic Plaything|Lorenzo]] [[Only Sane Man|Ruiz]], the resident CIA agent, [[The Gunslinger|gunslinger]], and [[Colonel Badass|leader]] of Mahora's own personal [[Badass Army]], [[Suspiciously Small Army|Fireteam]] [[Surprisingly Elite Cannon Fodder|Charlie]].

* ''Interludes: Silk and the Full Moon'', an origin story for [[Body Double|Nealla]] [[Person of Mass Destruction|Juu]], the team's black mage (think [[Final Fantasy]], not evil stuff) and resident [[Little Miss Snarker]].

 

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* [[Curb Stomp Battle]]: The fight at the Hinata against the mages qualifies pretty well. Also, Chao against Setsuna and Asuna, full stop. If Chao had been any more vicious in her attacks, there'd be two body bags coming out of Mages vs. Mars

* [[Darker and Edgier]]: The author has been warning for over a year that this is coming. Some events during the Mages vs. Mars arc are pretty foreshadowing

* [[Defeat Means Friendship]]: The Kuro crew kicked the stuffing out of ten mages from Mahora, then allied with them one chapter later

* [[Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?]]: Actually winning the first boss fight against Namusan. It didn't last

* [[Oh Crap There Are Fanfics of Us]]: Used as a one-off sight gag between Seno and Motoko in chapter eight

* [[Person of Mass Destruction]]: The Kuro crew is best described as a <s>tactical</s> nuke

* [[Sanity Ball]]: Everyone in the crew has managed to have their hands on it at least once so far

** An earlier example. Seno may not have funded and designed the Keitaro/Naru ship, but he ''did'' personally launch it.

** Keitaro has voiced that he shipped Seno/Motoko from the beginning.

* [[The Stations of the Canon]]: Given the Pararakelse arc from [[Love Hina]], and the Mahora Festival from [[Mahou Sensei Negima]], certain plot points from both series are hit...by a wrecking ball

* [[Take That]]: The original intent of the inclusion of Namusan as the Big Bad was Author Appeal of exacting bloody retribution against Namusan for what he did toward the end of Ryutaro's ''A Ronin and His Djinn'', which swiftly fell to the wayside in favor of just producing an awesome project. Shortly revived following Ryutaro's initial vocal attack against Project: Arashi, but now once again no one really cares.

* [[Tempting Fate]]: We're not exactly sure who decided to name Defense Point Echo "Echo Base," [[The Empire Strikes Back|but...]]

* [[Title Drop]]: The ''Kuro Arashi'' crew

* [[It's Personal]]: Or at least it seems that way to ODST Alpha Company commander Weeks, judging by what he said right before all the ODSTs landed

* [[It's Raining Men]]: Today's weather broadcast for Mahora: Titanium rain

* [[Lock and Load Montage]]: Half of the prologue consists of this, complete with requisite Wall of Weapons, and punctuated at the end with a [[Dramatic Gun Cock]]

* [[Magic Knight]]: Doubling as a [[Call Back]] to Negima, the [[ODS Ts]] in Evangeline's division are trained in magic- or ki-enhanced combat. Those who are proficient enough to become actual mages are trained to fight both with standard UNSC weapons and S-class spells or higher. Her division even goes by the pseudonym "Mahora ''Mage Knights'' Defense Brigade"

* [[Magnificent Bastard|Magnificent Bitch]]: Let's review. Evangeline has had five hundred years to watch as the world which had been, according to her words and the words of Chao, integrated magic into normal society, become segregated again by the Office of Naval Intelligence, which persecuted mages in a manner that made the Salem Witch Trials look like a tea party. Infuriated by this, and knowing that the Human-Covenant War was coming, she got herself placed highly within the UNSC military, where she used ONI's ''own information networks'' to keep track of the descendants of the Chosen Heroes and Ala Alba up until the appropriate time, when she began to carefully pull the strings in their lives to get them into a position where she could snatch them up into her ODST battalion, and be prepared to make her true move whenever the war ends

* [[Mama Bear]]: Evangeline is not at all pleased at the fact that ONI sent her adopted daughter, Lucy-B091, on a suicide mission that she only survived due to having been raised ''by the fricken Dark Evangel'', which left her mute for life. Previously, we had the notion that Evangeline's revenge against ONI was going to be carried out very professionally. Now? Not so much...

** The training rounds briefly mentioned in use by Mana are the exact same type of rounds that Lorenzo used during their first duel back in chapter 16 of Kuro

** The Unification War. Teased to a maddening extent all across the storyline

** Countless other references back to other Project: Arashi storylines exist, most of it centered around Mages vs. Mars

** Several lines of dialogue from Rtas 'Vadum are taken directly from lines he later gives during Halo 3

* [[Names to Run Away From Really Fast]]: "Your target answers to the name Chao Lingshen."

** Gutts of the Thousand Rockets

* [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero]]: Evangeline told Chao that the conflict between the Kuro crew and Namusan/Gensai would probably have happened regardless, but because Gensai could steal Chao's Cassiopeia and time trap the Kuro crew, the baddies had free reign to involve the whole world, sparking the Unification War. And that ''still'' played in favor of Chao's [[Xanatos Gambit]], giving it more of a [[Gambit Roulette]] appeal.

* [[Nothing Is Scarier]]: When the squad are put through their psychological tests, there are long stretches where they're beset by nothing more than the directed hostility generated by Evangeline, and it usually freaks them out more than her scare tactics

* [[Pre-Ass-Kicking One-Liner|Pre-Drop One-Liner]]: Alysia's "We are dropping into hell, troopers!"

* [[Puny Earthlings]]: Completely averted with the new generation of Mage Knights. They've been trained to use magic, something completely unheard of to the Covenant, and therefore cannot be defended against, and considering that most of their training came from either Ku Fei or Asuna, you can bet they'll be going in close with the enemy

* [[Refuge in Audacity]]: A storytelling example, at this. The author has taken [[Halo]] and [[Mahou Sensei Negima|Negima]], two series which should realistically have never met, and managed to make them line up along a consistent timeline, meshing it simply by explaining that the [[Dark and Troubled Past|Dark and Troubled Future]] that Chao comes from was not a mere 100 years into the future, but over a full 500 years ahead, that Dark and Troubled Future being none other than the Human-Covenant War. And according to some, it works almost as good as any of the other Halo Expanded Universe novels

* [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge]]: Chao, Evangeline, and Lucy all have their eyes set on tearing the Office of Naval Intelligence down, lighting the remains on fire, and then toasting marshmellows over whatever planet they had to burn to do it. You can bet your ass it's going to be a bloody monstrous mess when it finally goes down

* [[Shell-Shock Silence]]: During the battle in the Mahora courtyard, following Cheryl's pasting of the enemy forces with the Thousand Thunderbolts spell. Even with the advanced hearing protection in her MJOLNIR helmet, Kelly is still stunned and can't hear for a moment, and the Marines around her are shown to be in even worse shape

* [[Shout-Out]]: Numerous and often, with a large number falling in the Liberation of Mahora battle. The A-10 squadron is named after the aircraft maintenance squadron at the author's base that handles A-10s, the tactical air controller is designated ''[[Ace Combat|Ghost Eye]]''

*** Strangely enough, a significant number of the squad are some form of sergeant, which is highly unusual for most tactical squadrons. It's sort of explained away in the fact that until shortly before the fall of Reach, they were all part of separate units

* [[Steel Ear Drums]]: Completely averted. Even advanced MJOLNIR Mk.VI armor won't completely protect your hearing from the sound of a thousand bolts of lightning hitting the ground within 100 meters of you, and the Marines around Kelly were shown to have bleeding from the ears and likely permanent deafness

* [[Theme Music Power-Up]]: Directly invoked by Kazumi when she played Through the Fire and Flames, itself an example of Theme Naming, over her broadcast station for the ODSTs

* [[Theme Naming]]: Evangeline's command ship, the UNSC ''Yamato''. Ostensibly intended to reference being a sister ship to the known-in-canon UNSC ''Musashi'', the fact that Eva's ship is named after the famed Imperial Japanese superbattleship should not be lost on anyone. On top of that, Japanese naming convention for Japanese-set area

* [[Title Drop]]: Evangeline tells Chao that they'll fight the unsung war

* [[Took a Level In Badass]]: Evangeline has trained over two thousand [[Badass Normal]] ODSTs in the fine art of magical warfare. It wasn't just the protagonist squad, she powerleveled an ''entire ODST battalion'' to Take a Level in Badass