Negi Springfield

Negi Springfield
Negima! Magister Negi Magi character
File:Negisan.gif Negi as depicted in the manga
Created by	Ken Akamatsu
In-universe information
Alias	Son of the Thousand Master, Prodigy, Negi-Bouzu
Gender	Male

Negi Springfield (ネギ・スプリングフィールド Negi Supuringufīrudo), is the main character of the manga/anime Negima: Magister Negi Magi (魔法先生ネギま!, Mahō Sensei Negima!). He is a mage in training and the homeroom and English teacher of Class 3-A (formerly 2-A) of Mahora Academy Middle School for girls. Rina Satou is his voice actress in both anime series, while Greg Ayres is his English voice actor. He is also portrayed in the live-action series by child actress Yukina Kashiwa.

Negi's name is actually a pun as negi (葱) in Japanese means scallion, also known as green onions, spring onions or, appropriately, Welsh Onions, and are in the same family as the leek, which is a national symbol of Wales. He likes spring onion kabobs with grilled chicken, because his name is in it. His nickname, "Negi Bōzu", is another pun since while bōzu can be translated as "brat", "Negi Bōzu" literally means "Onion Head".

Biography

Note: The following biography is based on the original manga series by Ken Akamatsu. Events and details will vary in the other manga and the two anime series.

Negi Springfield is the son of master mage Nagi Springfield, famously known as the legendary "Thousand Master". The identity of his mother is as of yet unknown.

Early in his childhood, Negi came to live with his cousin (thought to be sister because he always refers to her as onee-chan) Nekane Springfield in a small village in the mountains of England. Even as a small child, he lived pretty much alone in his uncle's guest house, with Nekane coming to care for him during her breaks while studying in Wales. While there, he befriended Anya, a little girl about a year older than him who helped him study magic, and even gave him his first training wand. Negi spent most of his time getting into trouble, hoping that if he were to get into enough trouble, the Thousand Master would come to save him. His antics ranged from being chased by large dogs to nearly drowning in a river.

When Negi was four years old, his wish came true, with unfortunate results. A horde of demons appeared and attacked his village. Just as a demon was about to attack Negi, the Thousand Master appeared just in time to save Negi from receiving a fatal blow from the demon. With a few strikes and a powerful spell, he destroyed all of the demons but the village was already in ruins and most of the villagers had already been turned to stone. When the fighting was over the Thousand Master saw Negi and before parting he left Negi his staff and a few words.

After the incident Negi, Nekane, and Anya were moved to a village of magicians in Wales, where Negi immersed himself into his studies. He graduated from Magic School at the age of nine at the top of his class of only five students to graduate that year. His certificate of graduation read that to become a Magister Magi (a "Master Mage") he must take on the assignment of teacher in Japan as part of his training. The Headmaster sent Negi to Mahora Academy, a school run by the dean Konoemon Konoe who is a close friend of the headmaster.

As part of his assignment Negi is now the homeroom and English teacher of Class 3-A (formerly 2-A) of Mahora Academy Middle School as the teacher of a class of formerly 31 girls, now reduced to 30.

Personality and Abilities

Negi is a kind-hearted boy, with a very optimistic outlook toward life. Though he is just ten years old, he at times shows maturity far beyond his years much to the amazement and admiration of his older and rowdier students.

On an emotional level, Negi is still considered as a child and he often does not realize the full extent of the feelings of the girls around him. He is also naive in many aspects of the world and his normally optimistic outlook on things does put him at a disadvantage when a more realistic approach is needed. Negi cares for all the girls in his class, and out of his own interpretation of his duties as a teacher, and the parting advice from Nekane, and an overall liking of people in general, he often goes beyond what most other teachers would consider an acceptable level of involvement in the affairs of his students. This, combined with his kindness, intelligence, unique maturity, and his unwarranted cuteness have earned him the respect, admiration, and even affection of the students in his class. His naive nature also seems to make him rather gullible as well as he seems to take relatively minor things as very serious.

Negi's one true character flaw is that he tends to push himself too hard, especially for a boy his age. Between teaching his classes, training in both high-level martial arts and advanced training in magic combat, his drive to match his father's achievements takes a heavy toll on him both physically and mentally much to the worry of the ones around him, particularly Asuna. Some other notable quirks is that he hates taking baths and he has a habit of clutching in his sleep any nearby person as he is unused to sleeping alone. This is due to the fact that he used to sleep with Nekane all the time.

Negi specializes in wind-based spells and light magic and his command over lightning spells (his father's speciality) is growing as well. When Negi sneezes, he summons up a powerful gust of wind that can blow up skirts, or even blast off the clothes of anyone near him, especially Asuna's. Negi's sneeze has also shown that it can unintentionally strengthen some of Negi's attacks with the extra force of the gust. He demonstrates excellent marksmanship skills, and owns many magical antiques, including a rare antique magic gun.

Even without magic, Negi proven to be a talented warrior whose ability to master Kung fu equals that of Ku Fei, his teacher of Chinese Martial Arts. In Volume 7, she expresses with equal respect and jealousy that "This boy is truly talented; He is able to pick up in a week what most people take three months to learn. Life really is unfair." Coupled with a prodigious talent of melding and adapting Kung Fu with western magic, Negi's personal martial art is a formidable hybrid of eastern and western traditions that time and again proves to be more than a match for warriors over twice his age and experience.

At present Negi has formed seven Probationary Contracts. In the first anime series, due to necessity Negi had to make probationary contracts with every girl in the class. In the second anime series, Negi has completed a provisional contract with Evangeline and Chachamaru who were the last two students in his class whom he hasn't have a contract with, thus completing a contract with all of his students.

Relationships

Family

• Nagi Springfield: A powerful magister magi known as "The Thousand Master", He is Negi's father who was thought dead when Negi was born. Considered deceased by most, one night he mysteriously appeared before Negi to save him when his village was in danger, and gave him his staff. Negi believes his father is still alive, and follows every clue he finds about his whereabouts, determined to find him. One of Negi's reasons to work so hard is to become a master mage just like his father. Although several characters believe he is alive, no one knows where he is.

• Nekane Springfield: Negi's cousin, often referred to as his sister, although he sees her more as a mother. Her gentle personality is largely based on interpretations through disjointed flashbacks, so it is hard to identify precisely what she is like. What has been indicated however is that she took on more of a motherly role in his life, as at one time she even risked herself to protect him from harm. She is shown to be someone that Negi cares greatly for and respects a lot. It has also been shown that she lost both her legs below the knees after having them partially turned into stone.

• Negi's Mother: There has been no mention of the current whereabouts of his mother so it can be assumed that she died sometime in Negi's childhood, but this has yet to be confirmed.

• Chao Lingshen: Assuming that what Chao Lingshen said about being a descendent of Negi Springfield is true, then it is certain that Negi has at least one child in the future and that one of his descendants gives birth to Chao Lingshen.

Students

Negi seems to get along well with mostly all of his students. Their feelings for him can vary from friendship to love though Negi is oblivious to anything other than friendly relationships.

• Asuna Kagurazaka: Negi and Asuna's relationship starts off on very shaky ground, as he was forced to live in the same room with her as a request from the academy's dean, but also happened to replace the homeroom teacher she happened to have a crush on. However, their relationship quickly improves as they get used to each other. Curiously, Asuna resembles Nekane a lot, so it was easy for Negi to develop a little brother/big sister relationship with her, although it seems to, very occasionally, show hints at eventually developing into a less platonic one, for instance when Negi was talking to Asuna privately; thinking that Negi was about to confess his love for her, Asuna started to blush and talk a lot. Some of Asuna's classmates have suspected that they might have romantic feelings for each other; one time they have questioned this was when Asuna and Negi were alone on the beach, with Nodoka and Yue spying on them. Yue then started to question whether their relationship was romantic or not, but before she could continue on, she was interrupted by Anya. However, Asuna and Negi usually avoid such conversations about their relationship, unlike Asuna's classmates. Asuna was the first to find out about Negi's secret and was the first person that Negi made a probationary contract with, when his life was threatened by Evangeline. Her strength, determination and immunity to enemy magic proved to be invaluable in many dangerous situations. Asuna was Negi's very first kiss and vice-versa, and very first "French" kiss as well, also vice-versa. But, their first kiss was in a Pactio, and the "French" kiss was when Negi was being controlled by the magic of the World Tree during the first day of the Mahora Festival. After Negi "French" kissed Asuna, she told everyone "never to speak of this again" in embarrassment of the "incident".

• Konoka Konoe: Negi's other roommate, and the dean's granddaughter. She always acts as a mediator between Asuna and Negi when there is tension between them. As the heir to the "Kansai Magic Association", a powerful group of mages from Western Japan, she was attacked by enemies who wanted to harness her latent magical power, but was protected by Negi and his allies. Since then, she studies magic under Negi and Evangeline, and even made a probationary contract with him, gaining great healing abilities along with basic magic.

• Evangeline A.K. McDowell: A former enemy to Negi, she is a powerful true vampire criminal who had most of her powers sealed by the thousand master 15 years ago, being trapped in Mahora Academy since then. Nagi promised to release her from this curse someday, but Eva's hopes for it to happen were crushed by the news of his disappearance. When Negi moved to the Academy, she tried to attack him in order to drain his blood to obtain enough power to break free by herself, until Negi defeated her with Asuna's help. Later in the series, Negi decides to ask her to instruct him in magic as her apprentice, occasionally giving her a bit of his blood as payment. Just like she was in love with Nagi (and some chapters show she still is), she seems to be developing some feelings for Negi as well.

• Kū Fei: Just like Negi sought Eva's aid to increase his magical abilities, he now trains under Kū Fei in Chinese Kenpo, hoping to be strong enough in both magic and close combat just like his father. When Negi first sought her help, many of her classmates thought he was romantically interested in Kū, and even competed against her to win Negi. But despite a joke that "maybe you get strong, be my husband!", Kū seems uninterested in Negi romantically, though she does like him. On the other hand, she seemed to have a reaction (and was the only one to do so in that panel) identical to that of Chachamaru's when Chao explains that her family tree would list Negi's wife in it, though neither of the pair actually took part in the hysterics that ensued. Later on, she and Chachamaru both helped destroy Chamo's Negi-love list, which resulted in the observation that only those who thought that they were high on the list would be so worried about it being seen...

• Ayaka Yukihiro: 3-A's class representative. She is the girl most overtly fond of Negi, though she stands by the position that she is only interested in Negi because he "needs a mother figure". Actually her feelings for him are a mixture of physical infatuation and brotherly love, as she apparently still has not gotten over the loss of her younger brother, who died during birth the same year Negi was born. She does care about Negi's well-being, since she once made it her mission to get her archrival Asuna back on friendly terms with the boy teacher. In the second anime series, this infatuation on him goes as far as her family's firm shelling out various merchandise with his likeness on it.

• Nodoka Miyazaki: Soon after Negi became her teacher, she developed a crush on him despite her nervousness around guys. Always supported by her best friend Yue (who has now developed her own feelings for him), she was the first of Negi's students to confess to him. She was also the first one (after Asuna), to make a contract with Negi, obtaining an item that can give her access to the thoughts of anyone, making of her an invaluable asset in his party. Eventually they agreed to be "friends," but did go on a date later on in which Nodoka clarified her feelings. She ended up giving him his first true, non-pactio, non-possessed, romantic kiss. Currently she ranks #1 on an Akamatsu exclusive list of Who likes Negi the most.

• Chao Lingshen: The main antagonist of the Mahora Festival arc, she gave some trouble to Negi and his friends during the festival, claiming that she came from the future and is in reality a descendant of Negi. She also claims her true intentions are to change the world for the better suggesting that something happens in her time that was bad enough to want to change history to stop it. She was defeated by Negi in the end.

Friends

• Albert Chamomile (Chamo): Negi's pet/familiar. A perverted, lingerie-stealing, chain-smoking, talking ermine that Negi freed from a trap five years ago. Since then, Chamo has been fiercely loyal to Negi and admires him very much. He cares strongly for Negi and will fight to protect him, but he is not above using him to try to make a fast buck when possible.
• Kotarō Inugami: A wolf hanyō whose first encounter with Negi was as an enemy. Kotarō was one of the mercenaries hired to kidnap Konoka in Kyoto. After he was defeated by Negi and co., he was under the custody of the Kansai Magic Association, where his abilities to transform and summon wolf spirits were sealed. In order to challenge Negi for a rematch, Kotarō escaped and set for Mahora Academy. Once there, he discovered a plan by Wilhelm and the Slime Sisters against Negi and lent him a hand to defeat them. For risking his life to protect Negi and his students, he was pardoned and decided to live in Mahora as an elementary school student. Since then, Kotarō became Negi's rival, and one of his best friends. He currently lives with Chizuru and Natsumi under the guise of Natsumi's little brother.
• Anya: Negi's childhood friend from his original hometown and also at the magic academy that he graduated from. She is a Russian.

Adventures at Mahora Academy

Manga: Negi's teaching career at Mahora middle school got off to an extremely rocky start. As a ten-year-old boy in front of a rambunctious classroom full of 14/15-year old girls (the teachers even mention them being the most energetic class in the school), to his surprise and embarrassment was mob-cuddled by nearly the entire class as soon as he introduced himself. At the start he seemed to have exceptionally bad luck with Asuna Kagurazaka, the first of his students he met as he entered Mahora and also a student whom he not only managed to get on the bad side of before he even began, but discovered that he had to live with as well. However, over time, Negi has managed to prove his worth as a teacher to the class and has shown to his class, much to their amazement and sometimes shock, that his maturity, reliability and natural charm are far beyond those of the typical adult, let alone a young naive ten-year-old boy.

Negi came to teach class 2-A late in the school year, and as the girls prepared to take their exams, Negi was given his final test to become a full-fledged teacher at Mahora Academy. The test was deceptively simple: Ensure that all the girls in 2-A passed their final exam. Unfortunately, Class 2-A was the bottom-ranked class in the school, particularly the five lowest-scoring students in the class, which he had gathered into a study group dubbed the Baka Rangers (Asuna being part of this group as Baka Red). As Negi searched for ways to improve the grades of his students, the Baka Rangers discovered a legend about a magic book in the Academy's main Library, which was supposed to make anyone who used it smarter. The Baka Rangers, along with their classmates in the Library Exploration Club, decided to make a journey into the depths of the library to find it. However, the Library proved to be far more than anyone would sensibly imagine a library to be. With Negi's magic voluntarily sealed away, the Baka Rangers, despite their additional studying and surprisingly formidable physical abilities, found themselves trapped in the deepest underworld of the library, where Negi convinced them to do some more real studying while they searched for a way out. While studying, they were attacked by the guardian of the book. The Rangers managed to not only get the book from it, but also found a way out with the help of an express elevator to the surface. But because of problems with the elevator they had to sacrifice the book to get back to the surface and back to school, where they were just in time to take the test. Unfortunately, despite the added effort by the rest of the class, 2-A was still ranked at the bottom. Dejected, Negi prepared to leave, despite the pleas to stay. However, it was later discovered that the scores of the Baka Rangers hadn't yet been added to class 2-A's total score. Graded by the Headmaster himself, the scores were re-tallied. The combined scores of the Library Club, as well as the much-improved passing scores of the Baka Rangers, pushed 2-A's score right to the top of the school.

Shortly before the school year started up anew, Nekane sent him a letter, where she wondered aloud about Negi searching for a Ministra Magi yet. Negi was explaining to Asuna about Ministra Magi, but was overheard (and misunderstood) by the Narutaki Twins who were eavesdropping through the door. They proceeded to tell the rest of the class, that Negi came to Japan to find himself things from a girlfriend, partner, fiancee, and even a princess (one of the rumors was Negi was actually royalty looking for a bride).

As it turned out, the discussion was rather timely, as Negi began the new year by finding himself in a battle against two of his own students, a vampire named Evangeline A.K. McDowell and her android Ministra Magi Chachamaru Karakuri, which was an impossible fight for him as he had to deal with their teamwork that never allowed him a chance to chant his spells let alone use them. At the same time, Albert Chamomille, a shady friend of Negi's from Wales, arrived with what he figured was the perfect solution: get a Partner of his own. However, Negi refused to get any more of his students involved in the battle. So he tried to take Evangeline alone once again in a valiant effort, actually holding his own with his collection of antique magical items, but eventually being overwhelmed by Evangeline and Chachamaru's abilities. The battle seemed lost for Negi until Chamo and Asuna saved him. Chamo convinced Negi that the only way they can win is to form a temporary contract with Asuna. With Asuna's help, and a timely sneeze, Negi managed to defeat Evangeline.

Kyoto School Trip

After the battle with Evangeline, Negi discovered from her that his father used to spend time in the Kansai area, particularly around Kyoto. At the suggestion of Asuna and Chachamaru, he scheduled a four-day class field trip to Kyoto. Unfortunately, the Headmaster informed him of bad politics between the Kantō Magic Association, which he was the head of, and the Kansai Magic Association over the use of Western-style Magic. A condition for allowing Negi and his class to go on the trip was he was tasked with safely delivering a letter to the head of the Kansai Magic Association, and beware of people who would want to interfere with the affairs of the Kantō and Kansai Magic Associations. However, his students managed to complicate matters, from the possibility of Setsuna being a Kansai spy, an actual Kansai rogue trying to kidnap Konoka, and Nodoka confessing to Negi that she liked him. Other complications would also arise as Kazumi nearly revealed his secret to the world and then scheming with Chamo to get the entire class embroiled in a game to get the class to make contracts with Negi. In the end, Nodoka managed to win the game, with help of Yue tripping Nodoka and her landing on Negi's lips.

However, the group of Kansai rogues were still after Konoka and her slowly awakening powers. The enemy managed to infiltrate and attack the castle, kidnapping Konoka and petrifying everyone inside along with Konoka's father. With Konoka's great magical powers the Kansai Rogues used her latent magic power to summon a powerful demon. Negi, despite using all of the powers he could, couldn't damage the powerful demon and still had his hands full with another powerful mage named Fate. The chance of victory seemed non-existent as Negi was face to face with two undefeatable opponents. Only with the intervention of Evangeline and Chachamaru was the demon able to be destroyed and forced the mage Fate to escape.

Training

After the Kyoto incident, Negi felt that he was still lacking the strength to protect those who are important to him. To improve himself, he enters an apprenticeship under Evangeline in order to learn magical combat skills, and asks Ku Fei to teach him martial arts, particularly Chinese kenpo. When Evangeline discovers this, she rescinds her agreement to train Negi. Only if Negi is able to land a single blow on Chachamaru by using Ku Fei's martial arts training, will she teach him. Negi trains hard under Ku Fei's tutelage, Makie alternately helping and hindering along the way, but in the end, she manages to inadvertently give Negi the opportunity to hit Chachamaru and earn his training.

Negi's training, in both magic and martial arts, progressed at a swift rate. This was partially due to the use of Evangeline's resort, an island in a bottle where time passes at a rate of one day for every hour in the real world. This allowed him to get in a full day's training without disrupting his duties as a teacher, although it did tend to wear him out.

Return of the Past

During this period, a man named Graf Wilhelm Josef Von Herrman came to the campus, kidnapping many of the students that had helped Negi in Kyoto, as well as Chizuru Naba, who had been uninvolved in the fighting. In Chizuru's dorm, Negi also discovered Kotaro Inugami, a boy whom Negi had fought with in Kyoto, who had made his way to Mahora to challenge Negi to a rematch. Kotaro had been injured and had also lost some of his Inugami abilities, after crossing paths with Herrman. Kotaro was eventually found and taken care of by Chizuru and Natsumi. Kotaro later gave Negi a demon-sealing bottle, stolen from Herrman, and went with him to battle Herrman and his minions, to rescue the girls he had kidnapped. During the fight, Herrman revealed that he was actually a Demon, the same one who destroyed Negi's home village and petrified its people six years ago. While Negi's students managed to free themselves and seal away the Slime Trio, Negi was able to defeat Herrman with a powerful spell that Evangeline had taught him earlier.

MahoraFest

In late June, Mahora Academy held MahoraFest, a massive, world-famous school festival celebrated by all schools in the Mahora campus. During the preparations, Negi was formally introduced to some of the other Magic teachers and students who also attended the academy, and was told a surprising secret: Every twenty-two years, the World Tree, a mountain-sized tree that dominates the skyline of the entire campus, would glow with power around the same time the festival was held. For some reason, the glow was coming a year early. This glow signified a sharp rise in the magical energy in the area, and at certain points around the tree, even a simple confession of love would have the same effect as a powerful charm or curse. The mages of Mahora had to make it their duty to ensure that no such confessions took place in those areas during the festival. Unfortunately, Negi also had a very full schedule with seeing to his students, many of whom were counting on seeing him at the various events their extracurricular clubs were hosting, not to mention a fighting tournament at the festival that both Kotaro and Evangeline were expecting him to enter.

At the same time, another problem comes up, with another of his students at the center. Chao Lingshen had gotten in trouble with the faculty for spying on them, particularly those who used magic. Negi managed to talk the teachers into allowing him to take care of her, and not to erase her memories. In thanks, Chao gave him a special watch called Cassiopeia.

During the first day of the Festival, Negi, worn out from previous events, ended up oversleeping (along with Setsuna) when he intended to take a short nap. Panicking that he had lost the entire day, the Cassiopeia watch activated, taking Negi and Setsuna all the way back in time to the beginning of the day. With a time machine at his disposal, his overstuffed schedule was much easier to handle, as he could always go back in time and take care of anything he did not have time to do before on the next go-around. Over the course of four "days", Negi would see the festival's attractions with Setsuna, go on a date with Nodoka (with disastrous results for Asuna), and help some of his students with the class' haunted house. He would also see his other students at their club activities, patrol the festival for confessions, try out for the tournament, and even help Chisame win a secret cosplay contest, all within the first day.

The second day, Negi participates in the Mahora Fighting Tournament, along with Takamichi and many of his own students. Between his training by Ku Fei and Evangeline, and his own intelligence, Negi makes it to the finals, defeating Takamichi, Takane D. Goodman, and Setsuna in turn. However, Negi lost in the final match to Alberio Ima, a compatriot of Negi's father Nagi, who used his Pactio artifact to become Nagi as he was shortly before Negi's birth. After the tournament, Negi discovers that the tournament is part of a plan by Chao to expose the "Inner World" of mages, demons, and monsters to the "Outer World." To this effect, she has leaked images and video of the tournament all over the world. Thanks to his impressive showing in the tournament, Negi becomes an almost instant celebrity. For the rest of the second day, Negi avoids the inquisitive reporters and others by using the age-disguising pills to make himself appear to be a teenage version of himself. During this time, he spends some time (and another trip through time) with Ako Izumi, another of his students, who happens to have fallen in love with his older-looking self. After attending Ako's concert, Negi goes back in time again to attend the tour of the school's Library, where he finds himself in the middle of Yue's conflicting feelings between her friendship with Nodoka and her own crush on Negi. This is eventually resolved, resulting in a fifth Pactio with Yue, and Haruna Saotome also taking advantage of the opportunity to make a Pactio of her own. He also tries to help Asuna that night with her date with Takamichi, but that doesn't go as planned.

After hearing from Ku Fei that Chao plans to drop out of the Academy and return home after the festival, he confronts her to find out why she is trying to expose the mages, as well as her reasons for leaving. Chao responds by challenging him to a battle. If he wins, she'll give up her plans. but if he loses, he'll have to join her. Either way, she says that she'll also tell him the truth in the process. Chao gains the upper hand in the fight, until Setsuna and Kaede intervene. They grab Negi and make their way to the school's roof, where Chao is ambushed by the entire class... who throw her a surprise going-away party. After the party, Chao leaves, with the situation unresolved.

The Trap

At the end of the night, Negi gathers his partners, as well as Kaede, Ku, and Chisame, and brings them all to Evangeline's resort, to figure out how they're going to deal with Chao's plans. Unfortunately, when they leave to begin the final day of the festival, they find that they've fallen into a trap. Chao had rigged the Cassiopeia watch that Negi has to activate on its own during the third day of the Festival and send him into the future. Hence, with the activated Cassiopeia watch interfering with the magic of Evangeline's resort, it results in Negi and his crew being stranded there eight days in the future, where Chao has succeeded in her plans to expose magic to the world. Usng an army of robots, Chao took over several key places around the campus, using the World Tree's power to unleash a world-wide "Forced Recognition Magic", removing the usual skepticism people would have to the revelation of magic all at once. With the evidence compile and leaked by Chao, this has caused a serious consideration of the truth all over the world, with worldwide acceptance projected to occur in only a few years.

Return to the Third Day of the Festival The magic teachers of Mahora Academy, Negi included, are being held responsible for their failure to stop Chao, and will likely all be turned into Ermines. Negi is arrested by Gandolfini and imprisoned in a magic-proof cell, as they await their punishment. However, Negi's partners rescue him, and come up with a plan. Although it's been a week since the festival, the World Tree should still have some measure of its power left. Delving deep underground, they find that the tree's roots are still glowing, with enough power to activate Cassiopeia one more time. Negi activates the time machine, bringing them all back to the present... and several hundred feet straight up! Negi manages to create a soft landing for him and the girls, but the use of all this magic has worn him out, and he collapses.

The Battle of Mahora

Forewarned with the knowledge of how Chao pulled off her plan, Chamo and the girls allow Negi to rest while they go off to set up Negi's plan to stop her: Using an old store of weapons designed to stop magically-empowered constructs, they arm a thousand of the festivalgoers under the pretense of the festival's new Main Event: A "staged" battle between mages and the Martian robot army. However, the presence of a second army is countered by Chao, who simply launches her attack an hour early. Mahora Academy quickly becomes a surprisingly non-lethal war zone, magic disruption blasts exchanged with clothes-stripping energy beams and time-displacement bullets. During this battle, Negi finally recovers, just in time to have a seventh Pactio initiated by Chisame, who is needed to counter a cyberspace attack by Chachamaru.

Once again, Negi found himself in conflict against his own students, as he found his path barred by Mana Tatsumiya and Chao's robot army. With the help of Kotaro and his other students, however, And after only losing Nodoka in the battle due to her saving him from a TIme-displacment bullet, Negi fought his way to a final showdown with Chao atop an airship hovering high over the festival.

The Pivotal Showdown

Negi managed to hinder Chao, forcing her to reveal her magical power (amplified by several symbols drawn on her body), displaying Fire as her elemental affinity - much to the surprise of all witnesses of the battle, especially Negi.

In the middle of the battle, Negi warned Chao of her disastrous power as it may endanger her life. However, she ignored the warning and replied that this is for all or nothing and she had "killed" herself for 2 years for her purpose and ambition. When Negi asked Chao whether the 2 years she had spent with her friends is irrelevant and never existed, Chao paused for a moment and admitted that this factor was something she had not counted on.

The Battle's End

At the climax of the battle, the magical symbol on Chao's head burst, rendering her open for Negi's final blow. Negi achieved victory against Chao, but the battle left them both drained of energy and several hundred feet in the air. Fortunately, they were saved by the timely intervention of their students/classmates.

Unfortunately, the battle lasted long enough for Hakase to finish the spell. However, Chao told Negi that she had ordered Hakase to alter the spell in the event Negi managed to defeat her in battle. The spell was changed to a very powerful wish for world peace, for one day.

While everyone celebrated the end of the festival, Negi confronted Chao again and asked about the magical seals on her body. Negi confessed that he believes they had something to do with her tragic 'past', but Chao doesn't answer. Saying there is nothing left for her there, she attempts to leave with the last intact time piece but is stopped by Negi. Several of her other classmates arrive and Negi says that there is something for her at Mahora and asks her to become a strong mage by his side.

However, Chao persisted on leaving for her own time, keeping her word for losing to Negi. To keep Negi and the others from stopping her, Chao revealed her most diabolical weapon yet: Her family tree, which would by definition contain just whom Negi eventually marries, thereby literally inflicting psychological damage to Negi's party.

Aftermath and Search for Nagi

After MahoraFest, Negi and the others went beneath the World Tree to an appointed meeting with Alberio and Evangeline, where Negi finally received irrefutable proof that his father was still alive, even now.

With the first term over, Negi is planning to spend the summer by going to Wales in hopes of entering the Magic Country and finding more information about his father. Asuna and several other girls are invited to join him, (either invited or Negi being coerced). They are now officially recognized as the English Culture Research Club and are given permission to travel overseas by the Dean of Mahora. Accompanying Negi when he goes on this trip are his Ministrae Magi (Asuna, Nodoka, Setsuna, Konoka, Yue, Haruna, and Chisame), Kū Fei, Kaede, Chachamaru, Kazumi, Sayo and Kotaro. Along with his students and Kotaro, Negi is also joined by his childhood friend Anya, who arrived in Japan 12 days before the trip to check on Negi. After a series of misunderstandings and some more training sessions, Negi and his associates head out to England. After arriving in London, they are soon found by Ayaka's group and meet up with Donnett Mcguiness. After a cheerful reunion with Nekane and a short tour of his hometown, Negi reveals his intent to enter the Magic Country to search for his father to Nekane. He is led to the basement of the Magic Academy and is shown the still-petrified remains of those who fought to protect his village. This only steels his resolve as he and the rest of the White Wing Club prepare to enter the portal to the Magic Country.

Into the Magic World

Negi's trip into the Magic Country starts smoothly, but immediately begins to go wrong. Due to the immigration laws, he must keep his Pactio cards, weapons and other magical items within a sealed container before entering the city. He is informed by Donet that four unauthorized people had also teleported along with the gathered mages. Sure enough, the people being detained are four of his students: Yuna, Akira, Ako, and Makie, whom until now, had no idea of his magic abilities. But before he has the time to do anything, he is suddenly attacked by Fate Averruncus, whom he had also fought in Kyoto. Though gravely injured by Fate's initial attack, Negi manages to fight back after Asuna uses a combination of her magic-cancel ability and brute force to release his Pactio Cards and weapons from their sealed container. Konoka manages to heal Negi's injuries with her Pactio Artifact but Fate still delivers several attacks before leaving the scene with a parting blow which destroys the Gateport. The backlash of the attack scatters Negi and his students across the Magic World, hundreds of miles away. When Negi regains consciousness, he finds himself stranded in a large rainforest in the magical world with only Chachamaru by his side. Chachamaru informs him that it will be a difficult journey finding the rest of the students that accompanied Negi when Fate Averruncus used 'forced teleportation magic'.

The Search

Negi and Chachamaru have started out on a long journy to find their missing comrades. They have already found Chisame.

References to the Harry Potter franchise

According to the character design discussions in volume one, he is stylistically inspired by the titular hero of Harry Potter, in that he is a young British Mage with bad eyesight. From thereon, his idealistic, upbeat and positive personality diverges from his troubled inspiration. Volume one also states his original name as Negi T. Silverberg.

Another reference to the Harry Potter series can be inferred from Negi's age, given in the beginning as nine and three quarters. This may be a reference to the magical train station Platform 9 & 3/4.

Also, when Negi tries to help Asuna with her job by giving her a lift on his staff, he asks that she doesn't make any Quidditch jokes (though this pun didn't exist in the original Japanese dialogue).

To match this scheme, the design of the DVD-Boxes in Continental Europe, especially the title design, uses a variation of/copies the Harry Potter design.

The Live-Action Negima series has been critizied by fans and critics alike as being too similiar to Harry Potter.