魔法先生 ネギま！Volume 22 Chapter 196

Summary: Kotaro and Negi, still in teen form, enter the arena for their first prize fight. The crowd is huge and their opponents are the Tiger Beast-man Ray Blaze and the tiny Forrest Fairy Lim Dies. As they size up their opponents, they are observed from the restaurant upper deck by Akira and Natsumi. Kotaro jumps up front to take on Ray while Negi hangs back as support. Ray drops some seeds which Lim causes to sprout and bind Kotaro for Ray to punch him. Negi fires a slew of Arrows of Light at Ray. He leaps out of the way and is able to create a barrier of sorts to defend against the attack. Lim, despite being tiny, casts an incredibly powerful offensive spell which appears to take out both Negi and Kotaro. As they start to celebrate, Negi and Kotaro are there unharmed and are on either side of Ray. They acknowledge they underestimated Lim’s incredible power. Kotaro and Negi then double-hit Ray with power punches and knock him out.

As winners Kotaro and Negi leave, Natsumi ponders the situation she’s in as she and Akira are told to get back to work. Everything seems like a dream to her, right down to Negi and Kotaro fighting for her, Akira’s, and Ako’s freedom from slavery.

Meanwhile, Negi and Kotaro are caught by a female humanoid who wants a post-fight interview that often happen in sporting events. Kotaro calls himself Kojirou and when Negi is asked for his name, he looks at the crowd and loudly announces that he is Nagi Springfield. This causes a great commotion and shock in the crowd. Kotaro is not happy by this and the interviewer wants to know if he is the Thousand Master, especially since he looks like the infamous mage. Negi denies being the real Nagi, saying it is a coincidence resemblance.

Kotaro is still not happy but Negi quietly explains his purpose. Negi figures that using the name will help them win the million drachma, it will allow them to meet up with the others (especially Makie’s group), and it will given them time to train. Using the name will certainly cause a lot of conversation. As Akira and Natsumi wonder why the crowd reacted as they did to the name, Negi announces to the crowd that while he is not related to the real Nagi, he’ll show them a battle that would not shame the name of Nagi Springfield.

Thoughts: Negi and Kotaro kicking bottom was to be expected. I liked Lim and hope that somehow Akamatsu-sensei can bring her (and Ray) back, fighting with Negi. As to the start of another tournament, I know a lot of people have complained about that, but the last tournament provided us with some neat information. I expect nothing less, no matter how long this tournament goes.

As to Negi’s calling himself Nagi, that’s most interesting to me. The strategy is a dangerous one, but it will be interesting how “Nagi” deals with things.