Summary:

Story 1: The ghost Sayo is twirling pencils masterfully because with school out, things are slow and she is bored. She briefly panics when she hears a noise, afraid it could be a poltergeist and ponders heading to the convenience store. She begins twirling pencils again and wonders how her classmates are doing.

Story 2: Mana is in town and decides to catch a movie. The woman at the ticket counter doesn’t believe Mana’s really a middle school student and charges the full adult price for a movie (¥1800). Mana is seen by Kaede who jokes that Mana has an old face. Mana pulls a gun on Kaede, who reminds Mana that even rubber bullets would hurt her and that she can afford the extra ¥300 in ticket price. Mana reminds Kaede that the price for middle school students is ¥1000. Kaede decides to show up Mana by instant changing into her school uniform, stunning Mana. Unfortunately, the ticket lady thinks Kaede is just cosplaying and charges full prince. Meanwhile the Narutaki twins come up and manage to not only get in for the elementary school rate of ¥700 each, but claim Kaede is their guardian.

Story 3: As Negi and Asuna study their recent practice session, Chamo comments to Yue on how hard she and Nodoka are working. Since they are studying magic, he feels it is a good time to come up with an activation keyword for the magic. As they discuss this, Chamo comes up with a suggested phrase she can use — “Suki suki daisuki Negi-sensei.” Her phrase would be a love confession for Negi in Japanese. As Yue starts to punish Chamo, Nodoka comes up saying she’s picked her phrase. Her phrase is “Love love getchuu Negi-sensei.” This stuns both Yue and Chamo as does Nodoka’s coil attitude. In the distance, Paru is using her artifact to control the Nodoka-clone and loses herself to the idea of making the clone sexual when the real Nodoka sprints forward and using her artifact, hurls several books at Paru.

Story 4: In Hakase’s lab, Chachamaru is testing out her new combat-form body. It is smaller in size and has a hairstyle similar to Ku Fei’s. Hakase is eager for Chachamaru to test out the new body, though Chachamaru would have preferred her original body size and hairstyle. This surprised Hakase, who’s also created a 10-year old body for Chachamaru so she can be with Negi. But Chachamaru stated that her original body is fine.

Story 5: Ayaka and Kotaro are bickering (apparently he’s still living with Ayaka, Natsumi, and Chizuru). Natsumi wonders about this, but Chizuru thinks it proves they are fine. As Natsumi heads out to do some shopping, she notices Kotaro. Following him from a distance, she notes that he meets up with several girls. She doesn’t seem pleased by this and is surprised by Chizuru. Chizuru comments on how that despite his protests about girls, Kotaro does quite well with them. Chizuru teases Natsumi about being in love with Kotaro. Later, Natsumi is returning to the dorm with groceries and is joined by Kotaro. Initially, Natsumi is self-conscious because of Chizuru’s teasing, but when Kotaro offers to carry the bags home, she relaxes and they walk home together while talking.

Story 6: The cheerleader squad and fellow band members of Ako’s want to know if she’s been e-mailing “Nagi-san” (Negi disguised in adult form). She’s only e-mailed him a couple of times, which the girls think is unacceptable. They want Ako to score with Nagi-san so they decide some pictures may be in order. After taking pictures of Ako in the traditional sailor seifuku Japan is known for and some other shots, they decide that the (Playboy) bunny girl look is best. Ako protests, but they knock her out and take the pictures anyway.

Story 7: Outside the convenience store, Sayo is “haunting” the place and wonders if any of her classmates will show up. On queue, Zazie shows up with her critters, apparently able to see Sayo. Sayo offers her to take a seat, which she does. She starts juggling 1-liter beverage bottle (which customers find amazing) while her critters observe and wonder if they can eat Sayo. She says they can’t and Sayo is desperate for Asakura to come along.

Story 8: Negi returns to his dorm room to check his e-mail while Setsuna and Konoka head out for the fireworks fun. We are reminded of the pictures the cheerleaders sent to Nagi-san, which of course is really Negi and he spews his beverage when he sees the pictures. A bunch of girls come by the store, including Asakura, much to Sayo’s great relief. They are all heading to set off the fireworks and invite Zazie along. She nods in agreement and of course Sayo is invited as well. As they all excitedly head for the fireworks fun, they are tailed by the more mature Kaede and Mana. Mana isn’t sure about this fireworks thing but Kaede encourages her to stick around for it just the same.

Thoughts: I really loved this chapter. OK, so it is a filler chapter, but there is good filler and bad filler. This certainly falls into the former category and we are given some texture to several characters in what is a “day in the life” chapter. There’s just a lot of fun in the chapter.

I know those wanting Zazie to have a bit more to do in the manga were pleased to see her get a page and to be included for the fireworks at the end. I’d love to know what those critters of hers are though. It doesn’t appear that normal humans can see them (just as they can’t see Sayo) and they are most certainly supernatural. Others have pointed out how much they look like the critters in Miyazaki-sensei’s work Spirited Away.