魔法先生 ネギま！Volume 26 Chapter 238 (manga)
Mahou Sensei Negima! Manga Chapter 238

Summary/Synopsis:

Yue notes the increased crowd size, not realizing that this is due to the expected Nagi vs. Rakan fight. Emily and Collet are very excited about this and the discussion turns to the rumors that Rakan is going to test this “Nagi” to see if in fact he is the reincarnation of the original Nagi or if it is some fraud, at which point Rakan will put him down.

Elsewhere, Chisame, Chamo, Kotaro, and Negi hold an emergency Ala Alba meeting to discuss Jack’s decision to fight Negi, thus ruining the best plan they had to free the slaves. Chisame is very angry with Jack’s stupidity in causing them more problems. Chamo has done some additional research on Jack, learning that during the war (called the Schismatic War), Jack single-handedly took down 137 warships of various sizes, including one super dreadnought. Since Jack is classified as a swordsman and not a mage, this makes it even more impressive. Jack even fought the giant ancient dragon that was at the opening ceremony to a draw and that dragon is on the same level as the High-Daylight Walker (Eva). This all seems unbelievable, except that Chamo and Konoka witnessed Jack’s power when he used sheer willpower to escape the trap set for him. Chisame notes that she had directly asked Jack how powerful he truly is, and he put himself at around 12,000. Negi at his strongest was only 2200.

Negi decides to show them something and so they head out to the reef of large, floating rocks. Choosing one that is estimated to be 100-meters in size (~328 feet), Negi says he will destroy the rock and begins the lengthy incantation to cast the most powerful spell he knows — Thousand Bolts. The spell mostly destroys the giant boulder and what’s left is so hot, it is melting. Despite the impressiveness of the spell, Negi says it is still incomplete, still not powerful enough, and takes too long to prepare. Kotaro notes that Jack has been seen to take the full force of the Thousand Bolts. Chisame points out that using Magia Erebea would help which Negi agrees with, since it would reduce the incantation and increase the potency of Thousand Bolts.

A voice tells them that this still won’t work, pointing out that even Negi’s face says he can’t win with this. It is Eva dressed in a rag. She tells Negi that he should just cut his losses. Kotaro rejects this, as does Negi, saying this is a fight he can’t run from. Kotaro cites Jack’s challenge to Negi as proof that Jack sees Negi as a man, not a child. Eva points out that they still have no chance and that since Jack didn’t even think when issuing the challenge, she finds the contest pointless. Nevertheless, Negi is determined to accept the challenge of his father’s friend. Eva understands.

Kotaro demands to know what Eva is doing here. Negi says that this isn’t the real Eva. On cue, Princess Theodora arrives with a scroll and several of the girls to help him train.

Thoughts/Review:

As many predicted, Eva is another phantom copy, apparently from the scroll that Theodora has. The funny thing is, while I never thought that Eva was bragging in volume 6 when she compared herself to a boss enemy in a video game (she quickly and easily defeated Ryoumen Sukuna no Kami and had Fate beating a fast retreat rather than fight her, to say nothing of the Graf not wanting Eva to detect his presence), having her compared to an ancient dragon seemed to bring home the point I guess for me. Now, her copy form will apparently be used to traing Negi more to at least give Jack a fight.

Now, here’s where people have started to complain, “Oh no! Not another training sub-arc.” I don’t think it will be like that at all. Yes, we’ll see some training, but I also think that Akamatsu-sensei will take the opportunity to flesh out both Jack and Nagi more through Theodora. However, I also note that Shoiri-Asuna is with them, thus a traitor is in their midst and that could very well make this not some standard shounen training arc.

As to the tournament, I’m going to guess that Akamatsu-sensei will get us there but I don’t expect to see the various fights shown beyond a simple page or two tops. Will Akamatsu-sensei have Negi beat Jack? Well, he has written things so that Negi defeated Eva (who was holding back), Graf Herrman (whom Negi felt was holding back), Setsuna (holding back), and Takahata (holding back). Jack has been written as the type to not hold back, so this may well be it.

However, to make Negi so insanely powerful would be needed to have him fight Fate, but it is also a dangerous place to tread. While I’ve never watched Dragonball Z, what I’ve seen via discussions and stuff is that the main focus of that is to keep powering up to insane levels. Frankly, while that stuff is good for the shounen croud, it would not be so good for me. Akamatsu-sensei has been very good with his writing thus far, so I trust he will not fall into this pitfall.

It has been pointed out to me that when Nagi cast the Thousand Bolts spell, his incantation was very short whereas Negi’s is very long. I do expect Negi to be able to cast it with a short incantation even without a dark magic boost.

Also, Makie and Yuuna (in child form) are finally getting to see Negi, so I’m looking forward to that reunion. ^_^