魔法先生 ネギま！Volume 25 Chapter 229 (manga)
Mahou Sensei Negima! Manga Chapter 229

Summary/Synopsis: Negi lands on Yue’s weapon, recognizing her but not sure if maybe this isn’t a look-alike. Collet discovers that Negi is the notorious wanted criminal and orders him to stand down as reinforcements are en route. Yue tells Negi to knock her out, stating that she’ll be OK though she’s not sure why she’s doing this. Negi complies since Emily, Beatrix, and other members of their team arrive. Emily orders Beatrix to help the now unconscious Yue while the others attempt to capture Negi, but fail. Emily vows to avenge the death of Yue, leading Collet to tell her Yue isn’t dead yet.

Negi is picked up by Paru’s ship Great Paru-sama where the entire Battle Harem (sans Anya and Yue) are gathered along with Chamo and Kotaro. As Setsuna showers and is frustrated over her loss to Tsukuyomi, the others learn of Negi’s battle with Fate. Negi ponders whether the girl he saw was really Yue or not since there was no reaction from the pactio card. However, that leaves the question of why she let him go when he would have been captured if she had attacked with the others.

Great Paru-sama docks at a small, floating rock and Negi informs them that the group they are against is known as Kosmo (Cosmo?) Entelecheia. He apologizes for getting them into another mess, leading Paru to use one of her giant golems to smack Negi on the head. She reminds him that they’ve been training for two months for an encounter with Fate’s group and throws some blame Asuna’s way for messing some things up. The group tells him they won’t submit to terrorism, though Setsuna wonders if there are times that they could in order to gain a tactical advantage.

Setsuna produces Fate’s magical artifact — Ennomos Aetosfragis. This device would have made a soul-binding contract on the person agreeing to the terms of the person holding the device. As such, Fate could have prevented Negi from not only stopping him for life, but prevented Negi from even defending his comrades or looking for his father. So Negi’s temptation to agree to Fate’s demands earlier would have been disastrous if he’d have gone through with it. Asuna gets praised for keeping Negi from making a mistake.

Chamo decides that whether they fight or try to return to Earth, more info is required. Nodoka steps up and with her Comptina Daemonia, reveals that Fate’s real name is Tertium — “Third.” The group discusses whether this is even a real name, leading Negi to remind them that some Japanese names are numbers. This leads to speculation on just how many Fate’s there might be if he’s the third one.

Nodoka continues, bringing out her petrified Diarium Ejus, where upon are the recorded thoughts of Fate, including his dislike of the name Tertium, the fact that he didn’t want to involve those from Earth, and the fact that he considers Nodoka’s artifact such a threat that he was going to petrify her for good. Fate’s plans are revealed on the 2nd page.

• Destroy all 11 Gateports in the world
• Investigate the Ostia area
• Render the Negi boy powerless (failed)
• Induce a diversion involving the various countries’ forces => have the former Gateport rendered a blank zone
• Secure the former Gateport
• Induce a diversion involving the various countries’ forces => have the former Gateport rendered a blank zone
• Infiltrate the depths of the former Royal Palace – Twilight Imperial Princess?

(Translation from cnet128.)

Since Nodoka re-summoning the Diarium Ejus would wipe out Fate’s last thoughts (but would restore the artifact to normal), Kotaro attempts to take a knife and gently get the page on the other side to be revealed, since there’s enough of a gap remaining to do so where the page originally fluttered up a bit. Asuna seems enthralled by this and simply reaches out to grab the stone page, breaking off a chunk of it. After being chastised for her actions, the page is removed from the Diarium Ejus and taped together for Negi to read. Negi reads and learns that Fate appears to be pretty old and apparently fought Nagi to a draw. The others want to see the stuff on the page, but Negi destroys it instead. Rakan decides its time to reveal more information on the past and has a film ready (the charges to be deducted from Negi’s pay) about himself and Ala Rubra.

Thoughts/Review: I think there are some Japanese-styled Monty Python jokes here. First, there was Emily’s “I’ll avenge you, Yue” followed by Collet’s, “Uh, she’s not dead yet” reply (rough translation on my part). That reminded me of Concorde and Sir Lancelot “riding” to Swamp Castle in Holy Grail where Lancelot vows to avenge Concorde’s death, only to discover “I’m note quite dead, sir.” Next was Sayo-chan’s sign which read, “Tero Dame Zettai,” which I translate as “Absolutely no terror(ism).” That smacked to me of a scene from Life of Brian where Reg says, “…we shall NOT submit to blackmail.” Considering the conversation of Negi’s Battle Harem was about not submitting to terrorist (or terrorism), you can see why I easily made this association. Now, maybe this is a stretch to say that these two moments were Monty Python tributes, but for all we know, Akamatsu-sensei is a Monty Python fan. I know I was introduced to Monty Python’s nutty humor in Japan and was able to rent just about everything they’d done at the video rental store we used to go to frequently in Fussa.

Still, those of you who’ve seen Life of Brian or Holy Grail, let me know your opinion here (if you are of a mind to do so).

So far, nothing here to derail my program-construct theory regarding Fate, even though he’s likely very old. Fate could be hundreds of years old, especially if he came from the future. The speculative talk about there possibly being more than one of him fits in with what I was thinking to a degree, though I don’t think there are multiple Fate’s but rather he’s the third one created after the previous versions were retired. Others have said that Fate was part of Ala Rubra and that Fate was the other boy in some pictures (along with Takahata as a boy). I guess we’ll find out since Rakan will play his movie next episode, but I’m hoping the boy isn’t Fate.

Also, Fate fighting Nagi is something I’d predicted. I say that this fight is what lead Nagi to go into hiding. Nothing here to suggest that Nagi couldn’t be Negi, which is another theory of mine.

Asuna’s story of escape and finding Negi is still passed on. I know theories out of Japan (and even in the U.S.) are that she’s possibly a clone. I don’t think that at all. I think this is the real Asuna. Now, has she been programmed? I don’t think that’s the case either. If anything, I think she’s had her “Baka Ranger” side brought out. That would explain her seeming stupid when she arrived during the battle with Fate and her stupidity at breaking the stone page. Fate’s group would need her dumbed down in order to get her to do what they want down the road.

Yue and Negi’s encounter was interesting to be sure. Even if she didn’t know why, “her body remembered” (as CLAMP would say) Negi and so her telling him to knock her out. Now, was this recorded or not? I ask because the other girls in their group remarked on how they wouldn’t get into trouble based on their conversations being recorded. If they realize Yue is one of the people with Negi, it is game over time. If not, then she could be a help from another angle.

Also, with Negi not getting a reaction from Yue’s pactio card, I would speculate that this is due to Yue’s memory loss. However, if Negi’s master Yue card has no reaction, how can Yue be drawing power from Negi?

Finally, there’s Sayo-chan, the scene stealer. ^_^ Yep, she’s a cutie alright. ^_^

So, a good chapter all the way around. Can’t wait for 230 to get here. I hope to have spoiler images on Saturday.