March 4th, 2009 
AstroNerdBoy Negima! Manga Vol 27 (Ch 243) SPOILERS
魔法先生 ネギま！Volume 27 Chapter 243 (manga)
Mahou Sensei Negima! Manga Chapter 243
Summary/Synopsis:
In a flashback, Ako is shown bathing and wanting to confess to Nagi-san. She decides that she has to do it before they return to Japan since the Magic World is apparently Nagi-san’s home. After her bath, she finds Nagi-san and Chamo in the library doing some research on Jack, so she decides to hold off on her confession. While Jack’s reputation is that he’s all muscle and luck, Nagi-san (Negi) feels that this is not true. Jack had been a slave and worked his way to freedom in the arenas before later hooking up with Nagi of Ala Rubra. Chamo wonders if Negi is overthinking things, but Negi points out that even Jack’s skirt lifting was part of a plan by Jack and doing that to Fate’s girls is what ultimately allowed them to escape the trap. That said, to defeat Jack, Negi feels they’ll need to do so as quickly as possible.
Back in present time, the count continues with people wondering if Nagi-san actually defeated Jack. At the count of 19, Jack gets up Michael Jackson style and laughs heartily. Negi readies a spell and Jack in on him in a flash. Negi marvels at the speed as he tries to avoid Jacks own speedy attacks.
Elsewhere, Koyomo and Tamaki come upon Fate, who’s watching the match even though he had said he wasn’t interested. Fate gives them a dirty look and they back away.
Back in the arena, Jack uses a RAKAN HARIKEN SHOU attack on Negi, which has the kid flying in a spiral motion.
Thoughts/Review:
Woot!
Well, no complete revelation here, but I can’t help but think that it will be Negi who comes right out and tells Ako the truth rather than Ako somehow finding out. Ako may ask “Nagi-san” why he’s doing this, but I do feel that Negi will reveal the truth to her, possibly even reverting to kid size. Regardless of how it goes down, I do hope that the Mahora Festival stuff comes into play in that revelation.
As expected, Jack is up before 20 and he’s kicking major oshiri. Not only that but Kotaro forgot about Kagetorou, who appears to have nailed Kotaro just as Jack is getting Negi. Maybe Negi should have blasted Jack with a Thousand Bolts spell just to make sure. lol Kotaro had the right idea of making sure Jack was really down, but Negi was also correct in not wanting to get too close to Jack.
The thing about the fight that impressed me most was not the fight itself, but how Akamatsu-sensei used the Ako story to show how Negi was doing major research on Jack. Negi has long been shown to be the studious type, quickly learning stuff that would take others ages to learn and cracking the books hard to learn all that he can. So it makes sense that Negi would crack those books and try to learn everything he can about Jack before the fight rather than just rely on any new techniques he unlocked during his recent training phase. Also, give credit to Akamatsu-sensei for giving an actual reason to have some skirt-lifting action in his manga.
I wonder why Fate was so annoyed with his two girls. On one forum or other I hit (they all blend together after a while), I think I remember someone joking about men not liking their sports TV watching interrupted. While that certainly is true, I’m not quite ready to give that to Fate, who’s not a guy in the traditional sense (being an artificial construct). If he told his girls he wasn’t interested in the match, I think that Fate would mean what he says. However, something changed his mind and I think it was that something that has Fate unhappy. We’ll see if I’m right.
As always, I’m interested in your thoughts too. ^_^ We should have new spoilers by the weekend.
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Why was Fate pissed? That’s easy obviously he wants Negi to win since since Negi was the only one who was a real match for him. (other than Nagi) At this point its probably a safe assumption that if Negi can’t beat Rakan there’s no way he’s gonna beat Fate.
If Jack defeats Negi (which is how I kinda see things going but Akamatsu-sensei could go either way), I don’t think that will mean for sure that Negi can’t defeat Fate. Of course, I don’t see Negi defeating Fate until near the manga is nearly over. ^_^;
Aww…maybe Fate wants to claim rights on being the one to pound Negi into the ground (despite having leapt a few power levels with his brand new ME + Astrape combo)…so he got pissed when Rakan did it instead? O_o?
I have this feeling that the scene in the library has Negi “almost confess” that “Nagi-san” = him to Ako but he gets cut-off before he can explain anything…well, just a little hunch anyway ^^’
@ANB: Yeah, I think I read that thread too *lol*, guys do tend to dislike interruptions when they’re watching a game on tv..especially when it’s LIVE
Here’s something that I think. Fate is only the warm up to the real deal. Negi and Jack get a dual knock out, and it’s up to Kotarou to beat Kage. Then Negi and Fate fight it out, and when Negi beats Fate, fate will reveal that Nagi actually did not beat the Mage of Beginnings like the movie shows, and that the Mage of Beginnings is still alive and ticking and we have the true final villian for the series, and Negi having to wrap up what his father started.
Of course, how Asuna plays into this, I’m not sure. We still don’t know the truth about the Royal Twilight Princess, or if Arike is Negi’s mother, which would make Asuna his aunt (think about that!)
I know that when it comes to a Florida State football game or a Denver Bronco game, I don’t want to be interrupted. ^_^
As to Asuna, I wouldn’t be surprised if Fate had already completed whatever he was going to do to her.
Just a wild theory, but its possible that when Nagi “defeated” the Lifemaker, what he actually did was use a spell that dismembered the Lifemaker’s soul and sealed the resulting pieces inside each member of Ala Rubra. The Crimson Wing – crimson in symbology means something like “sin” – perhaps this is what Fate is seeing? A fragment of the Lifemaker awakening in Rakan?
Now that is an interesting theory, M. If true, something had to get Fate to change his mind about watching the fight though.
We still havent seen Dark Negi 😀 also up until now Negi has only bin using a fragment of Dark Mode´s true ability.
So Im pretty sure Rakan will bring out Negi´s true colors and his darkness, because remember what Rakan said “There is alot of darkness inside that boy”
So im either expecting a standstill or a draw at best.
Elaborating on that – note the condition of the other primary members of Ala Rubra.
Albeiro Imma – Non-human (as age cannot be determined from appearance, and he has outlived many former Magisters). Resides in Library Island – mentioned that he has no mobility aside from the 3 days of the festival. This implies that his (shown to be considerable) powers are also normally inaccessible, as if his magic is sealed, similar to Evangeline’s. Mentioned that if his suspicions were correct, the Lifemaker could not be defeated by anyone in the world.
Rakan – mentioned that “It wasn’t about a gap in power…the second I saw that figure before me, I just knew I couldn’t possibly defeat that” in reference to the Lifemaker. And as shown in Chapter 243, Rakan’s easygoing nature is due to his experience – he has a plan to defeat even what seems to be impossible. As he is Nagi’s eternal rival (and at about the same power level), for him to admit that he cannot beat an opponent is probably an indication that Nagi cannot either – at least in offensive power.
Zect Filius – disappeared following the his and Nagi’s battle against the Lifemaker.
Gatou – deceased, asked Takahata to wipe Asuna’s memory of him after dying before her eyes.
Eishun – Only Mundus Vertus human of Ala Rubra besides Nagi, and of the core group – the only confirmed human to have survived. Also seemingly weaker than during his journeying days, as Fate was able to petrify him.
Besides the symbolism of “crimson”, I note that Zect specialized in barriers and sealing, and if a barrier can be used defensively, it can presumably be used offensively as well. It is very possible that he sacrificed himself to power a sealing spell – that what Nagi did was merely to convey that spell, sealing the power of the Lifemaker first within Nagi himself. (Keep in mind Nagi’s later approach to defeating Evangeline – he did not face her in magical combat, but instead tricked her and imprisoned her with Infernus Scholasticus).
But magic flows from Maigster to Minster Magi via pactios, which is one way that his party might have become corrupted. The more magic one had, the more vulnerable – thus why “nothing could be done” for Nagi and Arika, why Al is weakened and living within the barrier of Mahora, why Gatou died. Eishun survived by going back to Mundus Vertus, but even so was weakened.
As for Rakan – even he has operated under a power limiter for the last 15 years, using only a fraction of what he is capable of. Unsealing more of his power now, he seems darker, more deranged, as if something is feeding off of it.
Re: Fate having a reason to watch the match – sensing a familiar power that was not Rakan’s. We know that Negi was able to sense Fate (through genetics?) even though he should not have been able to – could Fate not be able to sense the Lifemaker, given that he and other constructs are presumably powered by the remaining magic of the same?
Those are some interesting theories, the whole Nagi magic corrupting.
As for this chapter, it was good to get more info about Jack, and his serious demeanor = kickass. But I reckon the main highlight was Fate’s reaction. My theories based on this are:
-Considers Negi a worthy opponent and would be dissapointed if he was eliminated, but somehow this seemed the less likely, or else he’d emphasise on a higher opponent (Jack, Eva, etc) yet he chooses Negi, for obvious reasons.
-Possibly because of Jack, because people with a plan don’t like plans getting stuffed up, and Jack can be a potential stuff up, hence his glare on koyomo and tamaki for their previous failure (probably pissed now due to either seeing Jack as stronger or just being reminded how much of a pain it is to deal with someone of his status)
-The battle could be a trigger reminding him of something, possibly reflecting this battle with nagi? This sorta popped up cause most of his expressions are either bored or smirk(at negi) but this chapter it was a combo of bored+dark. Guess its more of an impression I got.
And asuna? What could she be doing….
Wow. That’s some very interesting stuff, M. I like you line of thought.
As to Asuna, I can’t help but think that whatever Fate did has already been done. It is possible that he failed (Asuna’s two personalities merged successfully). That could also account for him suddenly taking an interest in the match because he couldn’t break Asuna. Of course, he may have learned something from Asuna that greatly disturbed him.
Ok something about this chapter’s really been bugging me. How the hell was Jack able to move faster than Negi in lightning form. The move is supposedly a brand new technique nobody’s seen before and he counters it in what two minutes after he saw it. I guess he could have copied it since jack can use eva’s technique too but i doubt that since we’ve never seen jack use thousand bolts and jack wasn’t seen using the typically latin phrases used in the spell (stagnet, complexio) So then how was jack able to move “faster” than the speed of light?
There isn’t another break for next weeks chapter is there?
Jack has already been extraordinarily powerful. He’s also 50 years old. Therefor, it doesn’t surprise me that he knows a lot of different techniques and the like. I don’t think he’s doing the same thing that Negi did, but he is using something similar.
And Jack has not mastered Eva’s technique as I understand it (remember how his using it caused him damage).
@Digman14 — I’ve not heard of any breaks for next week.
“Ok something about this chapter’s really been bugging me. How the hell was Jack able to move faster than Negi in lightning form.”
LoL, just like what Evangeline said, He breaks every rule in the book, that the book may as well not exist LOL XD
It’s also good to see that he’s used a bit of Dark Magic, just the basic is good enough to buff him up. But to seriously answer that question, I’d agree with AstroNerdBoy on Rakan having more experience, but I have a hunch that Negi can go faster.
And after AStronerdboy answered about Asuna, it sorta bugged me but, there is a lot of mystery surrounding her as we know, but what happens if the personalities merge, and she knows the secret as to ‘why’ shes hidden, other then having a normal life, it could even be connected to Nagi’s disappearance. But what would scare me the most is if Asuan ‘joined’ Fate, for that very reason. Hope that doesn’t happen, but it would be interesting if it did, though it’d be a ‘damn…’ moment
For Asuna to willingly join, not out of coercion or brainwashing, could be interesting because then it wouldn’t be a simple rescue to get her back.
@ M: Those are indeed some interesting stuff…though, I don’t remember any mention of Zect having sealing abilities (but maybe I may have just forgotten)
Though about Eva getting the school curse, I’m more leaning to the possibility that Nagi did that because he didn’t want Eva following him around as well as giving Eva a chance to realize that her self-image is only a lie (she isn’t EVIL, just misunderstood) and that she still has a chance to reform herself, since she was essentially a 10 year old who just had the misfortune of losing her normal life to the curse of being turned into a Shinso vampire and so had gone through much undeserved suffering through the centuries…
Well, that’s what I think anyway
As far as the comments regarding how Rakan is faster than Negi now… it may just be that he’s so much more experienced that even if he isn’t moving as fast as Negi, his natural battle instincts compensate, and he can predict what/where Negi will be before it happens.
A similar thing happened during one of the filler arcs of bleach…protagonist having his super-speed but being beaten by somebody who knew where the next attack would be out of pattern recognition and instinct.
Or maybe Rakan is just breaking rules.