August 28th, 2009 
AstroNerdBoy 魔法先生 ネギま！Volume 29 Chapter 262 (manga)
Mahou Sensei Negima! Manga Chapter 262
Negima! Manga Vol 29 Ch 262 Review
SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:
Chachamaru is thinking about her conversation with Eva regarding souls and pactios when she sees Natsumi, who’s feeling a lot of angst and lack of confidence. Natsumi and Chachamaru talk, leading Chachamaru to confess that she too has angst but being a robot, she doesn’t know if her feelings are real or not. The conversation makes Natsumi feel better, but when Kotaro arrives, Natsumi flees. Negi comes up and offers to wind Chachamaru for her.
Meanwhile, Kotaro chases Natsumi, not understanding why she’s running nor why she suddenly claims to hate him. He finally catches her and she is crying, upset over his words. When she hears Kotaro remark on how he doesn’t understand how Negi can have kissed so many girls, Natsumi remembers that Kotaro is only 10. She makes him take the pill to return to his normal age and then quizzes him on his opinion of several girls including Mei, Ayaka, Yue, Kaede, Kugimi, and “Chizu-nee.” Chizuru scores the highest so when Natsumi asks about herself, Kotaro doesn’t give her a low score as he realizes this will only make things worse. Instead, he says he loves Natsumi because she’s the closest thing he has to family, reflecting on how Natsumi, Chizuru, and Ayaka took him in.
Now with resolve and conviction, Kotaro vows to protect Natsumi and so with Chamo’s magic circle, Natsumi kisses Kotaro and they form a pactio. After their kiss, Natsumi confesses her feelings for Kotaro before realizing what she has done. After stuffing Chamo in Kotaro’s mouth, she flees again, upset with herself for letting that slip out.
Thoughts/Review: Again, we have verification that Eva does not have a true pactio with Chachamaru, but rather a “Doll Contract” — whatever that is. If I had to guess, it would be tied in with Eva’s doll master ability. I still believe that Eva has a true pactio with Chachazero based not only on the artifact Chachazero has, but also that Chachazero’s ability to move on her own is tied with Eva’s power. The more power Eva has, the stronger Chachazero is.
It isn’t surprising that Chachamaru has concerns though. She’s had them for ages though being a robot is what has allowed her to mostly hide her angst.
I guess Akamatsu-sensei’s remark about “not sweating the details” may refer to Kotaro getting a pactio when in fact he was established as a warrior type (ala Jack Rakan) and that he uses ki to fight with ofuda slips for magical spells (as seen in the Kyoto arc). In addition to the marketing aspects of a new pactio card, Akamatsu-sensei now having Kotaro be a Magister Magi gave him a vehicle whereby he could logically advance the Kotaro-Natsumi romantic story thread. That does buy Akamatsu-sensei some Brownie points with me. ^_^
I liked how Akamatsu-sensei had Kotaro come up with a way to get into the pactio idea. Until he thought about how Natsumi is like family to him, he really didn’t want to make a pactio. Remembering how well Natsumi (and Chizuru) treated him was a nice touch. In return, it was sweet seeing how Natsumi confessed to Kotaro without even realizing it initially. Of course he is only 10 but he won’t be 10 forever. ^_~
I rather enjoyed Kotaro’s assessment of some of the girls. Having Yue’s stock go up in his book made me smile because her stock has gone up with me as well. ^_^
The laugh of the chapter — Chamo getting stuffed into Kotaro’s mouth by Natsumi! *lol* I still laugh thinking about it. The second laugh is the image of Chizuru with the two negi stalks. *lol*
So a fun and interesting chapter on two fronts. I think it is fair to say that the next pactio is Chachamaru. After that, I’m told that Akamatsu-sensei will again advance the serious story again so there must be plans in store for Natsumi and Ku Fei in the forthcoming story as well as Chachamaru (assuming she too gets a pactio). Oh, and lets not forget about Setsuna’s new pactio either as I’m guessing she scored a new artifact. As to Natsumi’s artifact, I look forward to learning more about it.
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have you got the chapter 263’s preview?
None have appeared that I’m aware of unless some of the people on MH have done something.
yay, Natsumi finally got her contract! And now whatever disputes about Chachamaru’s and Evangeline’s contract are over as well.
Also, rofl for Akamatsu “not sweating the details” when we’re crazy serious about the nuances
thanks for your hard work
AMAZING chapter
Wow, one thing that kind of blew my mind was Kotarou actually assesing the situation correctly and figuring out that Natsumi likes him. Meanwhile our little boy-genius Negi-sensei is completely oblivious to Yue and Chachamaru’s feelings for him.
can’t wait to see Chachamaru’s kiss but i Paru probly wont let it end without all the girls getting a pacto. so she might cram them all in there like she did. thx againg
I had to laugh out loud at the Chizuru “Butt Terminator” picture. And everybody that was in the same room as me just stared at me… It was pretty awkward… Anyway, great chapter once again. I am looking forward to seeing the main plot move forward, although I always have to enjoy when they add in the romantic comedy.
@Ultimaniac I think it’s quite the opposite he though that she DIDN’T like him at first.
Also good chapter very funny. Next one will probably be Chachamaru and then we are back to the main plot.
in regard to Yue, will Haruna run into her?
It would be a funny if Kotaro made a Mistake/Joke pactio with Chizuru (thinking how it would look like if it had the “Dual Negi” in it). It would be a good idea if we got a few more mistake cards isn’t it (we only had 7 till now & that was also way back befoe volume 06).
A bit off topic but i have created a thread detailing about the Pactio & Pactio Cards in the MH sub-forums. I would like your views on what you people think about it (if you could).
Chizuru Naba Artifact: Dual Negi
Power: Butt-piercing
I LOLed. The mouth-full-of-Chamo scene was hilarious, too.
It is interesting that Akamatsu-sensei was all evasive about the qualifications for being a Magister. Considering his eye for detail and planning ahead, I’d imagine he has an explanation already, but is saving it for later when there’s more time. Looks like we’ll be seeing what Natsumi’s artifact does in ch. 263 (nothing on Setsuna’s new artifact yet…).
Akamatsu-sensei really seems to be pushing for a Kotaro/Natsumi pairing. While it seemed that Kota/Chizuru seemed more likely, he really didn’t push that pairing much after volume 8. Of course, the Mahora festival arc was pretty busy, particularly in the latter parts, so there really wasn’t much room, and of course the current arc precludes any interaction between Kota and Chizuru. Well, we’ll see how things play out between Kota, Chizuru, and Natsumi once this arc ends and everyone gets back to Earth.
As for Chachamaru, Eva suggests (and the spoilers for ch. 263 confirm) that even though she’s an android she does have a soul. It’s not surprising, as she’s always been established as being a sentient AI. In a lot of sci-fi, sentient AIs by and large are treated (implicitly if not explicitly) as ensouled entities who are different from organics only in the makeup of their bodies (see Data, Johnny 5, HAL 9000, the humanoid Cylons in the new BSG, etc.). Also, like ANB mentioned last week, Japanese culture, heavily influenced by the animistic Shinto relgion, is probably a factor as well in presenting artificial beings like Zero and Chachamaru as “living” things with souls. There do seem to be more sentient AI in anime than in Western sci-fi, after all.