Negima! Vol 21 (Ch 187) *SPOILERS*

魔法先生 ネギま！Volume 21 Chapter 187

Summary: Negi realizes he's been fatally hit with a stone spear, he tries to warn away Asuna and Anya who are rushing to his aide. Setsuna orders Ku to bring Konoka there and Kaede has Kotaro go protect Makie and the other girls who weren't supposed to be there. Konoka arrives as Makie, Akira, Yuuna, and Ako have trouble processing what's going on. Setsuna tells Konoka she needs to use her power to heal Negi, but Konoka reminds Setsuna that all of their pactio cards were sealed within the box along with all the group's weapons. Since it impossible for them to release the seal, Negi is in real trouble as Konoka can only heal injuries that severe by her powers if they are less than 3-minutes old.

A guard tells them that support will be arriving shortly as will a healer. However, Negi gasps out that they need to run away. An attack hits and Kaede, Setsuna and Anya erect a barrier to protect Negi, Asuna, Ku, and Konoka while Kotaro does the same to protect Makie's group. The massive attack kills the guards though and Fate steps forwards with three others, tossing a remark at the injured Negi about having insufficient power. Setsuna, Kotaro, and Kaede attack with Negi tries to get them to run away. Kaede is attacked from behind by one of Fate's (Shadow?) companions (of which there are two), Kotaro is attacked by a sword girl similar to the Shinmei Ryuu girl, Tsukuyomi, and Setsuna has a stone spikes attack put on her by Fate. The battle continues with the three getting their butts handed to them. Kaede finds herself trapped in a black spherical prison, Kotaro gets knocked out buy the girl's special attack, and Setsuna gets a beating.

Asuna demands to know what Fate wants and why they are following them. Fate assures her that their being there at the same time is a coincidence since even he was unaware of their plans thanks to the school leaders keeping a tight lid on the information. Their only object is the gate area. Negi noticing Fate was unexpected but it forces them to immediately proceed with their objectives to prevent backup from arriving. As such, there will be no one to help Asuna and company.

Setsuna can still fight but is very troubled that Kotaro and Kaede are out of it. Asuna is worried about Negi and with their weapons sealed in a magical storage device, there appears nothing that can be done to retrieve them.

Fate tells the injured Negi that his comrades are garbage and that he'll use his Eternal Petrification spell to remove them, starting with Setsuna. As he starts the magic, the wounded Negi lands a blow on Fate, interrupting the spell. Negi, using his magic to stand and remove the stone spear, faces Fate, who tells him that Negi will die, which would be troubling. Without his staff or weapons, Fate wonders what Negi could possibly do. However, a flash of power catches his attention as Asuna has punched the magic box and with her magic nullification ability, she has released the seal. Thus, all of the group's weapons and the pactio cards now fly out of the box to be used.

Thoughts: Well, the guards were pretty useless. While Negi's getting up and landing a blow on Fate is a clichéd moment, it worked for me in that Negi has always been more powerful than expected and at times, does the impossible. I think back to his fight with the Graf where upon being goaded, he unleashed some mad power against that youkai (or whatever creature he is). Or there's Negi's first fight with Fate where he managed to hold off Fate (despite slowly being petrified by Fate's spell) along with Asuna until Eva arrived.

Asuna defeating the seal on the box puts a new twist on her power. Until now, that power was activated when force-emitting spells were cast directly at her. However, I speculated that her power may have also come into play when Eva encased her in magical ice and she broke out after a few minutes.

Well, with the weapons and cards free, its time for Ala Alba to counterattack.

Negima! Vol 21 (Ch 188) *SPOILERS*

魔法先生 ネギま！Volume 21 Chapter 188

Summary: With the Pactio Cards and weapons in the air, Asuna grabs Konoka's card and flings it to her. Both she and Asuna activate their respective cards with costume as Paru, Yue, Nodoka, Asakura (with the Sayo doll), Chiame, and Chachamaru check out the sounds and see Fate and a wounded Negi. Donet is working with the mages in the control center for the gate port, where they are unable to do anything for at least 15-minutes. Things are so bad and Fate got through so easily that Donet wonders if someone in the Magic World working with Fate.

Asuna goes to attack Fate with Ku providing backup to clear the way for Konoka to get to Negi. However, Fate instant-moves to Konoka's location and goes to put her out of commission (petrification spell?) but the spell is thwarted by Setsuna, who uses a fuda (charm; talisman) and her wings to protect Konoka. Setsuna is angry and using her artifact, she and attack on Fate. She manages to slice Fate in half, but the body is merely liquid and now Fate is behind her attacking. However, Ku is waiting for Fate and her attack takes out all of his stone spears that were intended for Setsuna, but of course he survives.

Asuna brings Negi to Konoka but before anything can happen, she receives a warning (telepathically?) telling her to look out above. One of Fate's companion's has launched the same attack that took out Kaede but Asuna's magic nullification protects them. The sword girl greets Asuna as "Princess," remarking on how she's grown and attacks, but Kotaro intercepts her (having been healed by Anya) and protects Asuna. A "charm" bomb rolls to Fates location and explodes while Kaede's giant Shuriken swoops in.

Konoka uses her abilities to completely heal Negi as Setsuna and Ku join Kaede, who managed to escape from the trap though still has some of the black substance on her. Asuna and Kotaro form up and Negi rises to face Fate. Seeing this, Fate retracts his remarks about Negi's companions being garbage. Since Fate found the encounter fun, he wonders if he'll seriously fight the next time they meet. Negi demands to know about Fate's group and what they are up to, but Fate says they are out of time and they have to leave. Negi says he will stop them, which leads to him receiving a punch in the face from Fate. Fate tells him that even with the recovery spell, he should take it easy. With that, Fate rises into the air and causes several dark, monstrous pillars to come down and completely destroy the gate area.

Thoughts: Wow. A rather nice fight there. I hope that my theory that Fate is actually Spider-Zero from Akamatsu-sensei's A.I. Love You (English title) because in addition to looking identical, they have other similarities. Besides, Nitta-sensei was also in that manga so why not Spider-Zero?

I wonder who it was who warned Asuna. Since they used the term "neechan," it wasn't Chamo and no one else in Negi's group refers to Asuna in that manner (this is why honorific usage is so important in Japanaese literary works), thus as I see it, someone else warned her. I wonder who.

Negima! Vol 21 (Ch 189) *SPOILERS*

魔法先生 ネギま！Volume 21 Chapter 189

Summary: As Fate destroys the gate port facility with the giant pillars, Makie, Ako, Yuuna, and Akira find a large amount of debris falling to them. Negi moves over and erects a shield to protect the, telling Makie he's sorry they got involved. Yuuna warns of another giant piece coming for them, which Asuna moves in and using her artifact sword, not only removing the pillar, but making it vanish (which as it does, begins to look a lot like shadow stuff used earlier against Kaede earlier), which Yuuna finds awesome. With the facility and link destroyed and the separation gate secured, Fate's group prepares to leave. However he orders that Negi's group undergo a forced transmission to all parts of the planet, which he tells Negi is his gift to him. The spell is cast and everyone that came with Negi (sans Donet) are gone.

Negi is in a dream state and discovers all of his companions have been petrified. Fate tells him it is because he is still not strong enough. Fate is astounded that Negi would involve all these people just to learn more about his father. Fate tells Negi he should have stayed at school and just enjoyed his life and with that, he shatters Asuna's statue.

Negi awakens to find himself in a jungle laying on a futon and a towel on his head. He sees a naked Chachamaru (with her new, realistic skin covering) bathing in the river nearby and she comes rushing back when she realizes he's alive. Chachamaru briefs him on the current situation and how the other members of Ala Alba and the stowaways have been scattered by the forced transmission spell. Chachamaru gets dressed while Negi uses the pactio cards to attempt to summon or contact any of the battle harem he's pactio'd with, but has no success. Further, the card only has a limited range with a max of 10 kilometers.

Negi heads to some high ground to get a better look at the land and Chachamaru informs him they'd been sent 1000 kilometers from the gate port. Chachamaru pulls out a Ala Alba badge, which was created with a fusion of magic and science with the ability to detect other badges within a 900 kilometer range. She detects a person at 50 kilometers, one at 90, one at 270, and a few further than that, but she can't account for all members. Plus, there are the four girls that wouldn't have a badge. In order to return to Earth and the school, the two of them will need to recover their comrades.

Thoughts: Very interesting. So now the quest is to find all of the other members of Ala Alba, a task that will be very difficult and made more difficult as they have Makie, Akira, Yuuna, and Ako to find. This forced transmission spell provides a unique method for exploring the Magic World while at the same time dumping other characters, at least for a little while. Interesting that Chachamaru should be his companion to start, but it makes sense seeing as how she'll have information Negi can use.