魔法先生 ネギま！Volume 24 Chapter 220 (manga)

Summary/Synopsis: Paru shows off her ship, which she calls Great Paru-sama. The ship can be used to by Negima-dan as a hideout, though the sleeping quarters are a bit cramped. Since the ship is worth 150,000DP, Asakura wonders if they could sell it to help with paying off the slave debt of Akira, Natsumi, and Ako. Paru rejects this outright.

Upon returning to the “dock” (for lack of a better term), Asuna confronts Negi about his strange appearance and technique, having observed him perfectly from a great distance. When she learns that this is dark magic that Negi is using, she gets worried, telling him to never use it. Chisame interrupts, telling Asuna that Negi made the choice to protect them and that he did this after taking into consideration Asuna’s objections. While Negi isn’t worried about Magia Erebea since Eva used it without problem, Asuna figures Negi is lying. That said, she remembers that she decided to support and back Negi no matter what and the rest of Negima-dan agrees to support Negi as well.

Elsewhere, Makie and Yuuna arrive on Ostia with Johnnie-san and begin to enjoy the festivities. In the skies, Yue is finishing getting ready as the Battle Maiden Knight Squad are assembled on deck, where they will soon meet the governor of Ostia.

Negi goes off to meet with Jack, who’s seated on the edge of the floating island. Jack tells Negi a tale of the Kingdom of Vespertatia and the Twilight Imperial Princess (with her powerful magic cancel ability — Asuna) and the tragedy that caused so many of the floating islands to crash to the ground. Despite all that Nagi did during the war, he was unable to protect a single country, and a single weak little girl. As such, Jack asks Negi to protect Asuna, then thinking about it further (because Negi now knows the Magia Erebea), tells Negi to protect all of the people in his charge.

Thoughts/Review: Heh! As expected, Asuna is much older than she appears. When the first spoilers of this came out, there were a lot of apparently disappointed American fans who’d argued that there was no way that Asuna was older than 15. Now we know she’s older than 20.

One thing I found most interesting is Jack pointing out Nagi’s failure to protect Asuna or the Kingdom of Vespertatia. I think it is pretty safe to assume that Asuna caused all of the floating islands to crash with her ability. Certainly, that would be a good reason for Jack to have Negi give Asuna medicine to keep her memories suppressed so that she doesn’t lose control and cause an even greater disaster. Her abilities would seem to be able to remove all magic, which would seem to put Fate in a tough spot if push came to shove.

Now, if Negi is Nagi as I suspect, then this would be his way of continuing to try to protect Asuna while at the same time learning new things that he didn’t bother to learn previously (remember, Nagi needed a spell book for most spells), to say nothing of Magia Erebea. Whatever event caused Nagi to disappear 10-years ago would likely be related to whatever group Fate belongs to.

Plus, if Negi is Nagi, with Asuna being older than she looks, their being a couple is no longer an issue. ^_~

Where oh where is Anya? With Yue close by, one would think that Chachamaru would soon detect her. We’ll see how that goes.

No chapter next week, so fans go into a 2-week Negima! withdrawal. *lol*