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Ken Akamatsu's latest series deserves talk!


So who else is reading this one?

I am. not half bad so far, though some members of the UQ are pissing me off. then again, Kouta is a new member and all....

Yea, the Holder members need some work, but we haven't gotten to know them as much as the three mains.


Also, is not the gravity blade such a troll-worthy sword?

Tell me about this new adventure.

Originally posted by dadudemon
Tell me about this new adventure.

It takes place in the world of Negima, many many years later. Lotsa people have moved off into space, so more land is becoming abandoned.

The primary plot, which has barely gotten started, seems to focus on immortals, and immortal hunters (immortals including vampires, people with just good healing factors, and so on. So varying degrees).


The main character is a kid (under the care of his badass teacher Yukihime), who's on a journey to the orbital elevator because he wants to go into space, who forcefully befriends at least one other companion (an immortal hunter) along the way.

Sounds interesting...

Too bad I've never read Negima, if this is a sequel.

Originally posted by cdtm
Sounds interesting...

Too bad I've never read Negima, if this is a sequel.


It is not a direct sequel, so you don't need to worry there. If you like the sound of it, jump in and you won't miss much aside from some references.

yeah, it's pretty a stand alone story though Yukihime is a character from Negima and the main characters seem to share ancestory with other Negima characters.

and yes, Q99, that sword is definitely troll worthy.

Originally posted by Q99
It takes place in the world of Negima, many many years later. Lotsa people have moved off into space, so more land is becoming abandoned.

The primary plot, which has barely gotten started, seems to focus on immortals, and immortal hunters (immortals including vampires, people with just good healing factors, and so on. So varying degrees).


The main character is a kid (under the care of his badass teacher Yukihime), who's on a journey to the orbital elevator because he wants to go into space, who forcefully befriends at least one other companion (an immortal hunter) along the way.

Sounds interesting. Sounds so interesting that I might pick up with Negima just to pick up on this new one.




Q99, helping people get through the workday one recommendation at a time.

Originally posted by dadudemon
Sounds interesting. Sounds so interesting that I might pick up with Negima just to pick up on this new one.


I will note Negima starts primarily comedy, the shounen fight stuff hits around volume 3 (and said action gets progressively more awesome).


UQ Holder, on the flip side, is action from the start.

Originally posted by Q99
I will note Negima starts primarily comedy, the shounen fight stuff hits around volume 3 (and said action gets progressively more awesome).

If you remember, I quit Negima around chapter 50-70.

Also, do you think the manga got better because the author got better?

Originally posted by dadudemon
If you remember, I quit Negima around chapter 50-70.

Ah, then re-start around there



I think a large part of it is because mixing genres worked well for him, and he continued to build on what came before. He did get more polished, but I'd blame it more on the story snowballing and building upon itself. And for people around here, they're of course going to be more interesting in the fight stuff.

well originally, in Negima's case he had wanted to do an action thing from the get-go, but his editors all but forced him to do a comedy/ecchi-ish thing due to how popular Love Hina was. but eventually, he broke away from it on his own via how he wrote the plot.

Latest chapter-
Ahh Touta, you idiot! XD

And that's at least one mystery at least partially revealed.

I suppose so, but damn.... just wonder what will come next for the trio.

Bump. Rather nice to see Yukihime in Ice Queen mode again... it seems that even her 'reduced' form is relatively strong...

Strong enough to keep Fate at bay. Hm, I don't know, in a way I feel disappointed. Sure Yukihime back in Negima was powerful enough to pwn Fate back in the Kyoto arc... but a lot of time has past since then and Yukihime is seemingly weaker here than before and yet she still seems to hold the upper hand over him. And he's clearly been training all this time too.

Before, she was notably stronger than end-of-series Negi.

Here, she needs to go Ice Queen. magia erebea in order to fight Fate (who likely hasn't changed in power much, maybe edged up a little), and Fate believes he'll win, just not by enough with other immortals present.

Magic erebea used to be something she found semi-obsolete and now it's needed to hold her own.

Noticed, but even then, I feel her holding the upper hand (Magi Erebea or not) to be kind of odd. Fate was already strong, but there's no way he'd improve by only a little during the time gap between this and Negima.

Fate's reminding me of Kurt from Negima...


Originally posted by danteiscool
Fate was already strong, but there's no way he'd improve by only a little during the time gap between this and Negima.

Remember, the Fates aren't designed to get stronger from training, and he still likely doesn't train. Fate picked up some techniques and tactics from experience and such (how to break the shields of another Fate, for example), but I don't think his raw magic level changes.

So I'm thinking about trying this again. I left of where Tota just got out of the cavern when first joining UQ Holder.

We're still pretty clearly in the early parts, but we just had a pretty sweet fight resolve. You might like what you see.

I certainly did. Though Fate's answer to Touta's question... it seems forced.

Originally posted by wakkawakkawakka
So I'm thinking about trying this again. I left of where Tota just got out of the cavern when first joining UQ Holder.

You've been missing out, man. It honestly gets better with each chapter.

So Negi's still alive according to Fate. However, Touta's not about to let Fate "use him" so easily, especially after the revelation that he killed Touta's parents.

If Negi is still alive, I hope some other old faces like Rakan and Kotaro are still kicking around or if Negi got sealed somewhere, maybe they got sealed as well?

In Rakan's case, he is most likely stuck in the magical world for now. As for Kotarou, I imagine that he is probably wandering the earth or something.

I'd think Rakan's dead of age. He's not immortal.

Kotaru... I guess he and Setsuna and Zazie aren't human so *may* be alive, but maybe not.


The one other most likely to be alive is Chachamaru.

Possibly. But he's prone to ignoring the rules of nature, so we can't be sure just yet.

Agreed, though it does raise a few questions on why they're not part of UQ Holder then or at least affiliated with it in some way.

Possibly. Depends on whether or not she didn't get scrapped by someone.

Originally posted by Q99
I'd think Rakan's dead of age. He's not immortal.

Kotaru... I guess he and Setsuna and Zazie aren't human so *may* be alive, but maybe not.


The one other most likely to be alive is Chachamaru.
Shouldn't Tatsumiya and Sadie also be alive in this timeline?

It did show them in the chapter 24 flashback...

Originally posted by danteiscool

Agreed, though it does raise a few questions on why they're not part of UQ Holder then or at least affiliated with it in some way.

I would think there's a distinction between simply long-lived species and full immortals.




Tatsumiya- Also possibly yes, depending on how her part demonness yes.

Sadie... I'm drawing a blank on that name.

Originally posted by Q99
I would think there's a distinction between simply long-lived species and full immortals.




Tatsumiya- Also possibly yes, depending on how her part demonness yes.

Sadie... I'm drawing a blank on that name.
I meant Zazie...stupid auto-correct.

So I finally got caught up on UQ Holder and I can say its a solid manga. Though I'm curious as to just how much power did Yukihime loose over the decade. I mean she was solidly stronger than Fate in Negima so what gives?

I thought about that too, though I do have another question: just how could Fate still seem to be inferior to her? Granted, this is Evangeline we're talking about, but as you said, she's seemed to have lost power over the many years while Fate's been presumably training and is more skilled and experienced than before. And during their fight, it still seemed like Yukihime still had the advantage...

Well from what I remember, the Fate(s) don't really get power through training but we always knew this Fate was a cut above the others. Also while he was still inferior to Eva, she had to use ME which should be a convenience not a necessity for her.

Originally posted by danteiscool
I thought about that too, though I do have another question: just how could Fate still seem to be inferior to her? Granted, this is Evangeline we're talking about, but as you said, she's seemed to have lost power over the many years while Fate's been presumably training and is more skilled and experienced than before. And during their fight, it still seemed like Yukihime still had the advantage...

That's not the impression I got. Fate still seemed to think he'd win, just be in a shape so bad that he couldn't escape the other UQ Holders after.


So I'd say she went from a solid step or two higher than him, from above Rakan down to maybe where he was at the end of Negima, while he's increased some (probably at Rakan level now).

Hmm I suppose so. Still I had this feeling that something was.... off.

So, thoughts on the murderer? I'm betting phasing powers- phase someone out the wall and let them drop...

Possibly. Or some form of intangibility. Unless he's got a real broken ability like minor reality warping or something.

Could be short-range teleportation that can be used to telefrag people...

Hm, that actually never crossed my mind. Interesting idea there; can't recall ever seeing that done before in a manga.

Huh. Q99, seems like you're pretty much right on the money as of this new chapter. Until we get the specifics of his ability.

This new antagonist (It's most likely Santa) has some pretty unfair powers. Intangibility, telekinesis, phasing and possession. He's not going to be an easy opponent to take down at all.

The fact psionic skills can't be learned or transferred makes me wonder if a genetic factor plays a role in them.

Possibly. At any rate, Touta and his companions don't have the needed skillset to fight Santa properly.

Well this panel was totally not suggestive in any way:
http://www.mangahere.co/manga/uq_holder/c047/16.html

Originally posted by Esomark

The fact psionic skills can't be learned or transferred makes me wonder if a genetic factor plays a role in them.

Seems likely. Hm, then again, the fact that they're so super rare makes it seems like passing down within a family is unlikely, or you'd have more.

True. So there must be other unspecified factors that we are not aware of just yet.

Originally posted by Q99
Seems likely. Hm, then again, the fact that they're so super rare makes it seems like passing down within a family is unlikely, or you'd have more.

Well, there is genetic atavism since certain traits can skip generations before appearing again. But yeah, we don't know the answer yet.

I made a goof by saying the target was most likely Santa when it was quite obvious it was him when he was introduced since I tend to have long term memory loss between chapters.

Just read the new chapter. I can relate to Santa's reluctance to socialize since I was bullied myself and I still have mental scars from it.

Good to see a fighting game shout out in the middle of the chapter. Karin used a kicking technique like Chun-Li's Hyakuretsukyaku earlier on.

Could this new face be Santa's sister?

Sorry to hear that, Esomark. Hopefully those mental scars fade over time.

Possibly. Or at least a former friend. But for him to be dead... could he have gained these abilities due to being a sort of poltergeist?

Originally posted by danteiscool
Sorry to hear that, Esomark. Hopefully those mental scars fade over time.

Possibly. Or at least a former friend. But for him to be dead... could he have gained these abilities due to being a sort of poltergeist?

Thank you. I fortunately have a good therapist I can confide in.

Good point. His abilities are very ghostly.

That's good to hear. Seriously.

Yeah. Come to think of it, they never quite brought up the possibility of their target being a poltergeist or something else of the sort, so perhaps that's what he is or at least it plays an important part in his current abilities. For all we know, he could've somehow had similar abilities in life only for them to grow in potency or flat out change upon death.

New chapter- oh, *that's* interesting!

Sayoko's curse XD

At this point, I don't think it's Santa.

To be honest, you could probably deduce that Santa wasn't the culprit when the grave was shown.

Definitely. You think maybe the girl could have a hand in the crimes now? Because I'm beginning to get this odd vibe that she's more involved in the crimes themselves than anything else.

The sister is who I'm thinking, yes.

Probably not Sayoko ^^

Agreed.

Well, that was a creepy ending. It must feel gross being grabbed by those hands since they came out of the toilet and they aren't shy in where they are grabbing Karin.

The wraith had the same flower hair accesory the possible sister of Santa's had so I'm leaning toward her being the criminal now. But how does she know Karin's name? Karin didn't recognize her.

Creepy indeed.

Don't know, though this person could've researched her or something

Well, am I the only one who is now getting the feeling that the girl who warned Touta about Santa being is dead is the same girl that attacked Karin? Both look rather similar, save for their facial expression. Maybe some kind of person whose personality was split upon death or something?

You may be right there.

Hmm only the next chapter or two will tell though.

Well now... that was interesting. So the girl really was the killer and what a little psycho she is thus far. And apparently Touta went and got used to magic erebea off-panel somehow...

Well, this escalated in a way I didn't see coming! Akamatsu's really going full horror story with this, isn't he?

Sure seems that way. Talk about a surprise, right?

From murder mystery, to outbreak! Her magic must be very strong.

Wow! Did Akamatsu read the Tower of Conviction saga of Berserk before he drew this chapter? Those bites make me recall the spirit possessed refugees biting any victim they could get. This is a level of ferocity Akamatsu has never shown with any of his monsters before.

He's gone pretty bloody with Holder- while not with monsters, remember the 'teacher' bounty hunter who sliced up Yukihime right in front of Kouta, after cutting off Kouta's arm? (*Before* Kouta was known to have immortality).

So this is what Ken can do when editors aren't trying to make him redo "Love Hina"...again. Granted never thought he'd be a fan of the zombie apocalypse scene but it works in this case.

It certainly does. And it shows us quite well not to underestimate him; if not for his editors, who knows how far exactly he could've taken things in Negima...

I think he was basically doing what he wanted in Negima after a few volumes in, not counting the rushed end.

Different casts and different focuses is likely the reason why things are getting different here. This one is about immortality including it's downsides, and a group that deals with the nasty underbelly. So you have them fighting black market mercenaries attacking slum residents, zombies, and so on.

UQ Holder! definitely feels different from Negima. The lack of a harem makes less room for silly hijinks and makes the tone more serious. The manga also feels more adventurous in a way in that the characters don't stay in the same place for very long and are always on the move.

There's some similarities to the magic world part of Negima, especially the early bits of it- when characters got impaled through the shoulder or cut-off arms, and the crew was scattered so there was a good sense of worry.

Ken continues to build comic to comic. There's normally hints of his next comic later on in his last (like, late in Love Hina he started developing the martial arts more, for example).

Q99: a good point. Negima did start getting a little darker in tone and the likes near the end, not to mention its whole magic-is-known-to-the-whole-world-now things also is a big part of the setting in UQ Holder.

Things are just going from bad to worse. Kuroumaru's been possessed and Touta got gravely wounded by him. Sayoko also pulled a Queen Xenomorph on Ikku, the way she kept saying "Why?" while contorting her body is just beyond disturbing, and the whole planet is now in danger! Santa's caring a pretty heavy burden as well.

And also cemented beyond all doubt that this manga is definitely not going to be like Negima.

Man, where is Eva-chan when you need her? Santa is fortunately no slouch but the deck is heavily stacked against him with Touta being incapacitated, Kurōmaru is being manipulated, so is Kirie, and Ikkū is out of action. Further more, Santa's good memories of Sayoko are making him feel conflicted. Things went from worse to much more worse.

That guy Santa rescued *does not know when to shut up*!

Esomark: and on top of all that, there's no telling if there's any genuine 'cure' for Sayoko's necromancy, given the state of things right now.

Q99: so very much agreed. So much for an 'elite' magic user.

I do wonder if they'll manage a time reset, but at the same time I'm really hoping they don't resort to that as a common cop-out.

Given the level of broken abilities the verse has to over us so far, who knows?

So this is a pretty impressive TK feats all things considered: http://www.mangahere.co/manga/uq_holder/c057/9.html

Yea, Santa is strong!

Mhm. Pretty OP compared to UQ characters so far.

He's already high tier despite the relatively short amount of time we have seen him. I think he could give even some of the high tiers from Negima a hard time.

Glad to see Karin is back in action. It must have been grueling to crawl back up from the depth she was dragged into. She tends to take a lot of abuse compared to most of the UQ Holder members.

Sayoko's attack looked like Takamichi's ki empowered Iaiken.

That she did it so fast makes me wonder if she's had *experience* doing that... and yea, she draws the most aggro.

Considering her unique brand of immortality, I suppose her foes would've had to use bfr tactics for who knows how many years. So her 'experience' with such things shouldn't really be a surprise.

I fall behind by one chapter and who should show up but *Mana*! Awesome!

That was some nice gunfu ^^


Nor did I expect her to work at the school!

So with Mana showing up does this mean Tota's in for another DBZ training montage?

Working at the school was unexpected to say the least but I think it works.

Most likely, since Mana is offering to train him and all.

It does, makes sense since it is a favor for a friend on top of her most likely being paid for her time.

Personally I'd put Mana at a lot more than 1% of Negi, unless Negi got a lot stronger, or she lost her better magic ammo. Though she may just be counting as she was fighting there and not counting her demon-mode!

The Mahora Martial Arts Tournament is still a thing, huh? With the existence of magic being revealed to the world, people have probably learned that the "CGI" Negi and the others used during the Mahorafest in the original series wasn't "CGI" at all.

Q99: it could also apply in terms of pure destructive power. Being a gunslinger, Mana naturally focuses more on shooting/piercing a target rather than out and out blowing up the area. And in the flashback that showed a grown up Negi going after the Lifemaker, it does look like his magia erebea state has evolved.

Esomark: yeah, most likely. But we won't know until it happens.

So the tournament was kept secret until recently and this upcoming tournament will be the first to allow all battle techniques? Interesting. It also looks like this tournament took some influence from the Mundus Magicus tournament since it looks different from the one at Mahora Fest. Ku Fei and Yue made their mark in it but I wonder if they are still around somewhere? There's also this new mystery about Negi signing up for the tournament.

Not to mention, Kirie's expression on the third panel in the eleventh page is really mesmerizing. Akamatsu's really good at emotional dynamics with his characters. Nakaba Suzuki and Koshi Rikdo are masters of doing that as well.

While they were showing footage of Ku Fei and Yue, I though we were going to get a throw back to Negi's fight with Rakan back in the Magic World Tournament.

And Eva shows up again. Would've figured she have something better to do than play along with Tota antics but Fate's arrival certainly makes thing interesting.

Seeing those two in that setting and the way their opponents looked did bring up the atmosphere of that tournament. I hope that Rakan and Kotaro are still kicking around somewhere. They may not be immortal but they age slow like Mana does.

Pompadour guy!



Mm, they'd be, what, 94-ish? I wouldn't bet on it.

Esomark: Agreed.

Q99: yeah, unless they performed some sort of long-living spell or something, they would be in no shape to do much of anything if they're still alive.

I was going to say that as well but yeah.

Eva doesn't want Touta to partake in the tournament after seeing the Life Maker show up out of the blue. She's probably worried that Touta could get possessed by her.

Aside from Mana, Chachamaru is the most likely, and Zazie (being a demon). And Aisaka Sayo should still be a ghost, but considering she didn't show last arc maybe she's passed on.

Hm, Setsuna is part-demon too, but may not have the long life factor Mana does.

Esomark: she still should've worded that concern of hers better. By telling him so callously that he's not needed, she's only going to make him want to get involved even more. You'd think that as a 700 year old vampire, she'd know more about these stereotypical responses and their effects...

Q99: agreed.

We shouldn't allow the onslaught of DBZ threads push this one into oblivion.

Wow, I wasn't expecting Touta to say something like that. Despite how Eva cared for him, he still considers her a stranger and not a mother figure. He also doesn't want to be seen as her servant. I guess he's truly running away.

I'm not really suprised by Tota's behavior. Despite his seemingly "by the book" shonen persona, he's ultimately been kind of a mystery since his introduction. This reveal about how his feelings of Eva is just a part of that IMO.

The new chapter came a little later than usual. Touta hasn't gone too far away but so far he hasn't had any qualms about leaving though in the panels where he is looking up at the tower almost suggest otherwise. However, despite what Touta said about Eva, she's still in his thoughts. He's uncertain if she truly cares about him and he's visibly bummed wondering about that.

Originally posted by Esomark

Wow, I wasn't expecting Touta to say something like that. Despite how Eva cared for him, he still considers her a stranger and not a mother figure. He also doesn't want to be seen as her servant. I guess he's truly running away.

I'm not actually sure that's how he really feels, but with her new revelations, and her different attitude, I suspect he feels he's been interacting with a mask and not the real her...

Esomark, Q99: looks like you're right. He's having a hard time trying to figure out how Yukihime really felt about him given her reaction to that vision. Honestly, this is her fault; she really could've worded it better because now it looks like Touta might get dragged into a new and avoidable mess.

I think she was being purposefully cold to discourage him... which doesn't work ^^

Originally posted by Q99
I'm not actually sure that's how he really feels, but with her new revelations, and her different attitude, I suspect he feels he's been interacting with a mask and not the real her...

You missed my newer post. I have a different outlook on the situation now.

Afro the Forever!

Oh wow. Things got serious fast!

Tota is Negi's copy? And being attacked by his.... sister, or something?

Talk about wow...

Good thing for friends, otherwise, yeesh!

Yep. Props to Akumetsu; honestly didn't think such a surprise character would make a sudden move like that, let alone come so damn close to actually killing Touta.

He's pretty good at not just sticking to formula. Stuff sometimes happens at unpredictable times without feeling forced.

Touta's "sister" also has a replica of Ensis Exorcizans. No wonder she's having the upper hand here.


And I agree with you, danteiscool. We didn't see a repeat of Magia Erebea saving his life like it did earlier. If anything, it's putting his life in danger.

Yep.

And you know, this all just started to hit me, but Akametsu was kinda foreshadowing this: Touta, though by no means a true beast just yet, started off this series with more combat ability than Negi did. Not to mention just how often he was able to turn around a battle with his battle instincts. Why is that? Because of this new reveal with him being a literal Negi-clone (or at least something very similar), with Negi's own experience/skill having been transmitted via genetics to him. Hell, rereading some earlier fights, it almost looks to me (could be wrong here) as if some of Touta's leg stances resemble the ones Negi uses as part of his Chinese martial arts.

Furthermore, why is Touta able to learn shundo so fast? Because Negi knew it. And now look at Magia Erebea. That old guy - Nagumo - said it's a learned technique yet Touta had it be a part of his very own being. Just like Negi when he finally mastered it near the end of Negima. It transferred to Touta since by the time these mysterious people got their hands on his DNA, it had been radically altered by Magia Erebea and so when they made Touta, he got his own darkness-based Magia Erebea (either due to his vampire nature or something else). Hell, when he uses it, his arms look a lot like Negi's own arms as is revealed in the ch. 24 flashback, though Negi's has a different aesthetic design to it. Nevermind how similar the two of them looked when Touta was thrashing Kaito, what with his hair growing long and all that.

As to why he can't use magic, well I can't guess that, but the chi makes sense since Negi learned that too.

And just look at their very appearance; Touta more or less looks like a 13-14 year old Negi, just with different hair/eye color and a somewhat different hair style.

There are probably more things I can point out, but nothing else is immediately coming to my mind right now.

Save scumming for the win!



Less bookish, more athletic... interesting that his talents are different.

Yeah. Possible intentional alteration on behalf of his creators? Or just Touta all on his own?

It seems like the Erebea-influence is strong, so Touta may be sort of Negi's more erebea-y side.

While not nearly as interesting as the rest of the stuff discussed, I find this to be a convenient way to get out of answering the "who Negi picked" question.

Though now I'm curious as to how many Negi-spawn are out there.

Originally posted by wakkawakkawakka
While not nearly as interesting as the rest of the stuff discussed, I find this to be a convenient way to get out of answering the "who Negi picked" question.

Though now I'm curious as to how many Negi-spawn are out there.

If they have to be created artificially, probably not many...

Maybe. Considering how advanced science and magic is at that point, it wouldn't surprise me if there were at least five other Negi-spawns running around. Especially if the people who created Touta have no problem trying to genetically manipulate them too.

Still, if they take time to grow, and it involves advanced magics...

Unless it's the Mage of the Beginnings doing it, I'd suspect either just the two, or maybe a third.

I dunno. Apparently, the dates for Touta are kind of screwed up and he is officially on record as 4 years old or something.

The new chapter was a little silly in the first part. It also reminded me of the part in Nanatsu no Taizai where Diane tries to feed Meliodas a huge cooked fish!

Touta's 'sister' is calling him out to the martial arts tournament. It was inevitable that Touta would get pulled into the tournament but atleast it's happening differently than how it sometimes go in this genre.

But of course. Now he has even more motivation to join.

I liked this one, it was sweet

Sure was. Not to mention rather funny.

At least we get some quality chapters too.

Eh, personally I've never liked characters like Kirie; her tsundere-ish attitude just irks me greatly.

After a brief hiatus, we get a good comeback chapter.

The chapter cover looks like CLAMP drew it. Just look at Santa's uniform and Kirie's kimono and you'll see what I mean. Touta's wearing an eye patch but did he lose his eye or is he just covering it? Regardless, he still racked up a good winning streak until he faced the cat girl. I've had (and still have) cats as pets and I can tell you they truly do have lightning fast reflexes and can cause some damage when they feel like it. There's also that skeletal demon Negi fought on Mars back in the original Negima days.

Originally posted by Esomark

The chapter cover looks like CLAMP drew it. Just look at Santa's uniform and Kirie's kimono and you'll see what I mean.

It does look like something CLAMP would draw


Good question about the eye, something's up there.


Yea, cat girl is fast. And is skeleton-demon gonna be the new Rakan? (At least in being a teacher with a silly style)

Possibly. Think maybe the cat girl might be a disciple of Ku Fei or Kaede?

Mm... it's not impossible, but not all badasses are going to have ties to prior badasses.

I didn't see Hsing-Yi (Ku Fei's style... and, coincidentally, my style in real life!), so not likely her, but not out of the question. Kaede's more possible, but no obvious ninja tricks...

True. Still, something about her fighting style and way of speaking seems rather similar to them.

Thus far.

So with the skeleton guys into does this mean that Tota is gonna get his own "Eternal Neg Fever" tech?

Maybe. Considering his personality, he might actually be more inclined to use it than Negi did with anything Rakan showed him.

Touta's really getting his butt handed to him. How is he still qualified for the tournament even if he loses rounds? I'm just asking in case I missed something.

Hey, I wouldn't pass up the oppurtunity to be comforted by a pretty elf lady or fox lady! Touta's still pretty young, though. Morborgran also happens to be a friend of Tatsumiya's.

Oh, snap! That was a pretty abrupt re-encounter with Eva. I didn't expect to see that for quite a while longer. Odd that she doesn't know about the 'sister'. And this giant lady? From her fangs and how she doesn't appear to have legs, I am deducing that she is a lamia or a naga. This is just getting weird.

It goes by points, so as long as he gets a number of points before the tournament truly begins then he's fine.

To be fair, suddenly being come onto by people you don't even know is a bit suspicious, sexy elf/fox lady or not.

Yep. Not liking how Eva is doing things. Seriously, she could be handling this much better. And I bet the lady may be some kind of vamp.

At least she seems to realize she messed up. I hate in series like bleach where everyone's always 'I totally understand your reluctance to reveal critical information that could've preventing me from getting my ass kicked.'

key words: 'seems to.' Even then, she really should've seen this coming; she's lived with Touta for years and knows exactly how he's like, and yet...

Damn, that lady is scary if she can humiliate Eva and take down Touta with a finger stab.

I first thought that beast in the hall could've been Kotaro in his wolf form but looking at again, it looks more feline than canine so it's probably not him. And something strange has happened to Eva.

I still think that Eva was downgraded, not to say that the noble isn't legitimately more powerful though. For the big names however, pwning Tota isn't that impressive though.

Yes, Eva was certainly downgraded. And, hm, she was called a 'high daylight walker' in Negima but apparently now she's not?

I get the impression that there's a number of Noble vampires, all probably as strong as Negima-Eva was, except they don't do anything except for this lady here...

And we seem to be getting Evangeline's origin story! I think she put Touta into Eva's past/flashback.

She probably still is considered one by nonvampires, but seeing as she is an 'artificially' made one by the Lifemaker, I doubt the actual vamps see her that way, especially since aside from the bloodsucking, she's never really shown much other traditional vamp traits.

Well like the lady said, they basically stopped caring about things a long time ago.

I was getting that vibe too. Let's see how this pans out and why she'd make Touta go through this.

So he is going to get trained by her, huh? As she is the one who trained Eva, let's see how much stronger Touta will become with her tutelage.

Originally posted by danteiscool
She probably still is considered one by nonvampires, but seeing as she is an 'artificially' made one by the Lifemaker, I doubt the actual vamps see her that way, especially since aside from the bloodsucking, she's never really shown much other traditional vamp traits.

Ah, yea. 'Artificial high daylight walker' to most people just means she's the most *active* daylight walker.

Though this lady doesn't seem overly vampiric either.

Hm, both her and Eva do have a bit of a hypnosis/put someone into an illusion thing...

Evangeline hates Garlic too, so she's got a few vampiric traits.

So far anyway; she could simply be holding back said traits, assuming she hasn't somehow evolved beyond them.

Seems that way.

True, but it's more to due with her disliking it from what I recall rather than anything else.

And so the training begins. Interesting way of speeding up regeneration, that's for sure.

I'm surprised Kuromaru regen'd so fast, I'd thought he was on a notably lower tier in that area.