魔法先生 ネギま！Volume 23 Chapter 211

Summary: Yue is in history class learning about the last war, which was started by a secret society known as (Cosmo) Kosmo Entelecheia. The sacrifice of the Vespertatia captial Ostia ended the war and the one responsible for bringing the truth to light happened to be Nagi and Ala Ruba. Yue has a reaction to seeing him and thus goes to the library to research more on him. Collet finds Yue doing research and figures she’s a fan of Nagi. Collet reveals she is a huge Nagi fan and shows off the collectibles she has. Collet shows the video of the Nagi lookalike (Negi). The class president, Emily Sevensheep, reveals herself to be a huge Nagi-sama fan, and is #78 in the official fan club. Collet is number 96077. Emily feels that this new Nagi is the original Nagi who’s been reborn and that his greatness would be wasted on the likes of Collet and Yue.

Undaunted, Yue decides she’s going to Ostia somehow. The following day, her way arrives as the school has been selected to send an honor guard to Ostia for the 20th anniversary celebration of the war’s end. This means there will be a 100KM broom rally where interference spells will be allowed but not direct attacks. Yue and Collet embark on a crash training course and the day of the rally, they see their competition. Emily has teamed up with the class secretary, Beatrice Monroe. There are other 2-girl teams as well. Emily is sure the contest will be easily won by her and Beatrice. Yue, despite having no memories, feels sure she’s never been so motivated in her life and as such, she feels she will win the contest and meet that boy (Nagi-Negi). With that, the race is on.

Meanwhile, back at Negi’s “base,” Akira, Natsumi, and Ako are bathing. Akira wants to tell Ako the truth about Nagi-san being Negi-sensei in magical disguise, but finds she still can’t do it, even when Ako is wondering if her Nagi-san is related to the famous Nagi-san.

Thoughts: It is hard to comment on table-setting chapters beyond speculating where they might go. Clearly, Yue is going to win somehow and maybe in the process even recover her memories somehow. Still, Akamatsu-sensei’s further purpose in having Yue off in this school is revealed. Not only is she becoming a competent mage to be able to help Negi in the forthcoming battle against Fate, we also get to learn more about Ostia, the war, and Nagi’s involvement. Thus far, I still feel confident that Negi will turn out to be Nagi somehow.

As for the little side story with Akiro not being able to tell Ako the truth about Nagi-Negi, I wonder if this means that Ako’s learning the truth and subsequent heartbreak will reveal the truth behind her scar. Just a weird thought that keeps wandering in my head based on seeing how Akamatsu-sensei loves table setting, even the payoff doesn’t happen for chapters or volumes even.