魔法先生 ネギま！Volume 22 Chapter 198

Summary: Negi (still in older teen form) is pondering things including a recent conversation with Kotaro. They discuss the “idiocy” issue and how Asuna has it, much as Negi’s father, the Thousand Master, did. He wanders and speaks aloud of coming up with a finishing strike when a man at a nearby table speaks up about it, saying its natural that a man would have a “killing” (finishing) strike or two. The stranger offers to train Negi, but for 200,000 drachma plus. He then tells Negi that the “celebrity” should be concerned about what’s above him. Negi is attacked from above and the stranger says Negi owes him 1000 DP for the warning.

Chisame, still in kid form, is doing shopping and considering Negi’s telling everyone his name is Nagi. It is then that she notices the fight going on within the city as Negi and his opponent are fighting. The opponent is named Kagetarou and the stranger who’d warned Negi stops Negi from complaining about causing the town damage since they are used to it. Further, Negi will die if he doesn’t give Kagetarou his full attention. The battle continues with Kagetarou using the same kind of abilities as Takane, only Kagetarou is much more powerful and is trying to kill Negi. This excites Negi, who intensifies his attacks on Kagetarou, which the stranger observes, noting Negi’s abilities but seeing a weakness.

Elsewhere, Ako is plucking petals off a flower with a “he loves me, he loves me not” routine when Akira comes in. Akira is about to tell Ako Negi’s secret (him actually being the Nagi that Ako has fallen in love with) when Natsumi burst in, saying that “Nagi-san” was seriously wounded and might die.
Thoughts: As is typical of Akamatsu-sensei, he’s twisting things so that people expecting battles in the arena for a while aren’t getting that. With Negi attacked outside the arena and apparently wounded pretty badly, one wonders if Negi will be back to continue the tournament stuff anytime soon. With magic, I suppose Negi could be healed quickly, but then one would think that a healer could tell that Negi’s form was magical and not his true form. We’ll see what happens.