魔法先生 ネギま！Volume 24 Chapter 216

Summary: Going back to a few hours before Negi and Asuna are reunited, Kotaro is helping Ako, Akira, and Natsumi bring in groceries. They witness a fight break out, leading Kotaro to explain that this kind of thing is part of the festivities, whether official or not. The Nagi Springfield Cup is the big event, and he’s confident he and Negi will win. Natsumi gets flushed by this and chastises Kotaro for trying to be “cool” and overconfident. Ako remarks on what a cute couple Kotaro (in his older form) and Natsumi make. Akira knows the truth of Kotaro’s true age though and how the pairing really would look.

Negi arrives, in his Nagi guise, and shows off for Ako, using his magic to make all the bags of groceries float, which impresses Ako. Akira sees this and later rants about the situation in front of Natsumi and Chisame. Akira is very concerned over what might happen with Ako should she learn the truth. Chisame has a solution. Ako confesses to “Nagi” and and he accepts. Then “Nagi” dies because of the wounds received in the tournament. So “Nagi” is dead, but Ako’s love lives on. Akira and Natsumi don’t find this an acceptable thing at all as it would mess up her whole life.

Ako has some clean laundry and runs into Tosaka, the laundry being knocked to the ground. He’s already angry with “Nagi” and takes it out on Ako, demanding she address him as “Tosaka-sama” and not “Tosaka-san.” Realizing she had some of “Nagi’s” laundry, he rails on her attraction to the rich “Nagi” and her being a worthless slave. Ako stands up to Tosaka, so he goes to punch her, only to be stopped by Mama, who gives him a beating because the slaves are worth a lot of money. Mama talks of Tosaka’s past, as he’d been a citizen of Ostia before the islands fell from the sky after the war 20-years ago. He was only five then and made a slave as Mama had been. They earned their freedom eventually, but the tough times they went through made Tosaka have the attitude he has today.

Tosaka goes off to sulk a bit and from the deck above, he sees “Nagi” walk down an ally and disappear behind a stack of crates before emerging as Negi (with the same, hole-pierced robe). Tosaka is amazed at the transformation magic “Nagi” has performed, wondering why “Nagi” would need to become a kid. He feels he’s seen this kid before, then remembers the wanted poster with Negi’s picture on it.

Back to the present, Negi is glad to have run into Asuna. Before he can return to Nagi form, Ako finds him and is happy to see her teacher made it to Ostia as well. She wonders if Makie and Yuuna are with him, so he tells her he thinks they’ll be arriving soon. Ako and Negi talk, where she confesses she’s amazed that Negi and Nagi come from such a place. Negi states it is his first visit to the Magic World. The conversation switches to Nagi with Ako telling Negi her feelings for Nagi.

Thoughts: Akamatsu-sensei is a pretty good writer, but he’s had to do something that just rings false with me. I know Akamatsu-sensei came up with a supposed excuse (he can get around better as the wanted criminal Negi rather than the celebrity Nagi), but I’m thinking, “bounty hunters.” It just smacked of a convenient way for Tosaka to turn in Negi and company and then have a moment later where he realizes too late his mistake and dies for it. *_*

Ako. I say the scar will come up before this Magic World arc is over. She was the only one to become ill after arriving on the Magic World. Also, we learn that her health is still not good. Who knows what will happen if she learns the truth of Negi-Nagi. Akamatsu-sensei is known to have so many of the girls with magical connections, and Ako might be the same. Regardless, while it seems that Akamatsu-sensei may be bringing the whole Ako-“Nagi” love-thing to a head, it is very possible that this gets dropped for a while. We’ll see what happens.