Akamatsuverse Magister Negi Muggle

[Patrick_Gleason]

A reversal. Negi isn't a Mage. He's really a genius-boy graduate from Oxford. His Class, tough is buried eyes-deep in the mystical world. Hilarity issues.

That's the basic premise. What I'm looking for, tough, is how to make this work.

I've already thought about the powers and backgrounds for most girls. Some already have theirs (Eva's a Vampire, Mana is a Half-Demon Gunslinger, Zazie is... Something...), some just need a bit of tweaking (Konoka is a Konoe, a family with ties to the Imperial family, and thus, with Amaterasu. so she'll be a kind of High Priestess) while some are completely made up from the ground (Ayaka belongs to an old blood clan, which embraced Western magic, but they're kinda decadent now; Nodoka's family has been charged with the Guardianship of the Mahora Library for generations now). I think I'm safe here. The problem is, why would Negi be sent to Mahora? Why would he put up with the madness, before he's too deep to get out? What would be his drives?

Similarly, would we keep his family history intact? If is, it becomes easier to send and keep him in Mahora, but then it would be tricky to explain why he doesn't exhibits the most basic Magical potential. Alternatively, we could throw Arika and Negi in the trash, but then... Why Mahora? Why him?

I intend to make Negi skeptical at best, downright blind at the worst, at least in the earlier chapters. As the story goes on, he starts believing in things he sees, but he's obsessed with explaining everything in scientific terms (Why, it's obvious that she applied quantum uncertainty to open a wormhole that sucked all heat from that particular area). Maybe, by the end, he turns magic into a rational, structured theory, instead of blaming everything on "spirits".

So? Ideas, criticism, thoughts? I have other elements for the story, but I would like to hear your opinion on the basics first.

 

[nuclear death frog]

It sounds interesting, although it might be better if he is aware of magic but either rejects it personally, or believes it should not be hidden. In fact, it might be very interesting to do that because it would make him a direct ally for Chao Lingshen's goals. She might recruit him from the very start.

Although, in your idea, I wouldn't be surprised if Chao ends up making use of him against his conscious knowledge, turning him into an unwitting ally. I could easily see how that would start: Chao is Mahora's #1 student, and I think Satomi is right up there with her. He might be drawn to them because of that.

 

[Chaotic Symbolism]

You could have it that Negi is the child of Nagi and Arika like in canon, but had zero to little magical potential. So he was left ignorant for his own saefty.

However Negi needs a motivation to graduate from Oxford. So you have it he does know about magic, but has zero to little magical ability. Think how would constantly hearing "Your the Son of the Thousand Master, yet you can barely light a wand how dissapointing" effect him? So with nowhere else to turn he threw himself into mundane science.

 

[zeebee1]

That goes against the idea. He's not supposed to believe in magic in the beginning.

But Stan could easily decide to keep him out of the dangers of the magical world by telling him Nagi left him because Nagi was an uneducated bum who died due to his stupidity.

 

[Iddy]

Actually, I see it working fairly easily.

Negi retains his cannon parents, and his sister. He's raised as a 'Muggle' because he had little to no magical ability. His father left him with his adopted sister and her family while they took care of Asuna and because they knew he'd be a target. They squirreled him away to keep him safe, much like what happened to Harry Potter (blerg).

Everything still happens pretty much the same way after that. The village his sister was raising him in ends up getting attacked, but he was the main target this time. Nagi's enemies found out about his existence, but couldn't quite figure out who exactly he was, so they decided to take the whole village out fearing the son becoming a powerhouse like his father. It's decent logic; after all they were raising him in secret and at least one of the family members was a mage. It's simple to assume they were training him in secret.

Everyone gets turned to stone, but his sister manages to flee with Negi. Because of his young age, it's easy to discreetly mis-inform Negi about what happened and back it up with a little magic behind his back, and flee to the normal world in an effort to further hide him.

Negi still hears fantastic stories about what an amazing person his father was. He still has the drive and motivation to find his father and live up to his example. He can even still get his father's staff, even if it's only a keep-sake. Because of his drive and natural intelligence, he graduates Oxford at his cannon age.

As for why he goes to Mahora? Simple. His sister still has pictures which prominently display Takamichi, the only person he can find that's linked to his father. He attempts to contact Takamichi repeatedly, but the magic association blocks it every time, so he simply goes around them and applies as a teacher. Konoe, knowing who he is and why he's doing it, takes pity and arranges for the application to get approved before the magic association can stop it.

 

[MinusMagnus]

As for why he goes to Mahora? Simple. His sister still has pictures which prominently display Takamichi, the only person he can find that's linked to his father. He attempts to contact Takamichi repeatedly, but the magic association blocks it every time, so he simply goes around them and applies as a teacher. Konoe, knowing who he is and why he's doing it, takes pity and arranges for the application to get approved before the magic association can stop it.

The part in black is contradicting the one underlined. You know, if he know who and what Negi is, he will also know that leaving the boy anywhere near Mahora, where, if I must remind you, there are a vampire who swore revenge against his father and wouldn't think twice about killing the poor boy, is not a good idea (altough that didn't stop them in canon).

Also, making him unawere of magic and taking away his magical potential look redundant, and would have severe inplications if this proceed anyway like the manga.

 

[Master of Squirrel-Fu]

I posted an idea similar to this before.


Here:

Negi is just an ordinary 10 year old boy who happens to teach at an all girls school. he's not magical nor did he know of magic prior to his job. It is Asuna who is the daughter of the Thousand Master.

Soon after getting his job Negi witnessed Asuna use magic to save Nodoka from her fall. When Asuna noticed him watching she dragged him away to erase his memories. It failed and ended up stripping him, leading to Takahata stumbling upon her alone with a naked shota.

Pretty much a reversal of roles though they keep their personalities. Negi would try his best to help Asuna despite being just an ordinary (though super smart) child. Many things would be reversed, Asuna would regularly sneeze and vanish Negi's cloths leading her to being labled as a raging shotacon, Nodoka might end up crushing on Asuna for saving her and often stares at Negi in jelousy misleading others on justwho she likes, and Pactios just gained a whole new level of sexy.

....BRILLIANT!


Say, isn't Nodoka the truely pervy one? . . .<a href='http://www.mangatoshokan.com/read/Mahou-Sensei-Negima/AquaStar-Fansubs/165/8' target='_blank' rel='nofollow'>Saishoudoukin</a>

Yes perhaps Negi could help her to leading to her wanting both.

When confronted with the fact that he isn't much help and probably even a burden he would probably look for a way to fix it much earlier, likely going to Ku Fei and some of the other Martial artists. Since he can't do magic it would be his sole focus leading to him being even better at it than in cannon.

Chao could still be a decendent of Negi's or better yet, a decendent of both Asuna and Negi leading even more speculation on their relationship.

 

[Patrick_Gleason]

Some pretty nice ideas there. I'm still thinking about it, but I'm leaning towards making him what Asuna's now. Instead of inheriting the absurd magical development from the royal bloodline, Negi got the ultra-rare Magic Cancel ability... Up to eleven. His parents hide him, afraid that people would link his birth to the prophecised End of the World, and to keep him from Kosmo Entelecheia.

His first brush with Magic comes from Asuna. Instead of being a Magic Canceler, she uses a powerful brand of power know as Chaos Magic. Its power lies on its unpredictability - what she wants to do is done, but she has no control on how it's done. "Electrocute him" could drop a high voltage post on his head, call lightening and make him trip on electric cables. It can be either very subtle or showy.

Now, as she descends from the same, and her magic comes from total random possibility, Asuna's able to break Negi's absolute Magic Cancel. Prompting him to start to worry if all those "magic"" nonsense had some basis (On the theory of supercords, maybe) after all. Which prompts him to start making questions. Which gives away his position. Which... You get the idea.

Another thing I would like to add is that I intend to do is vanish with the Pactio system. I often feel that, despite it being a fantastic system, it's used simply as an Official Harem Counter or this season's power-up. So, no. The girls powers comes from themselves. Nodoka gained her Telepathy messing with some forbidden books years ago. Haruna is a Summoner by nature. Ako is a Healer because she wanted to honor a powerful Healer that saved her from a demon attack when she was but a baby. And so on. The girls romantic interactions with Negi will be honest, not forced by a Pactio.

What do you think?

Also: I'm a Law graduate, so I know next to nothing about crazy quantum physics theories on which to base Negi's rationalization of Magic. Help me out here!

 

[TmDagger]

It would be even better, if instead of having no magical talent - he has plenty, but at the same time his Magic Cancel is so over top, that he manages to cancel out his own magic and ki to the point that he seems like ordinary muggle. You can even make it so, that Negi lived like in OTL till during Demon attack he subconsciously percieves his own magic as Danger... and then MC's it. (Can lead to some interesting twists of plot: some resentment towards magic, indecision over whether his life is better with magic or without it, trying to prove that he is worth something even without it... ect.) Trouble starts when he begins to get MC under control as the story progresses. As his magic had to fight against MC for years it grew strong(very, very strong). The same story with MC... And now Negi, who has yet to decide if he wants any part in this freaky business at all, is forced to wrestle for control with more power then he has any real right to process(Take situation with Naruto and spin it up to ELEVEN)... all while teaching 2/3-A...
I pity poor bastard. :sweat: :rip1:

 

[zeebee1]

Getting rid of the pactio system,, but letting people still reap the benefits is not believable. Really, it just sounds like a cop out. Especially since most of the girls wouldn't be able to get a pactio if Negi cant give them one.

 

[ragnarok1337]

Maybe limit the cast greatly by removing the Pactio system? That way only those who either have innate power (Asuna, Mana, Zazie, Setsuna and Konoka) and those with extreme training (Ku Fei, Kaede and Setsuna again), would be able to join him. If they were willing in the first place. For a while Mana wanted nothing to do with any of the situations unless she had been paid and Zazie...well, we knew <s>little</s> nothing about her at all until recently. Oh, and we can't forget <a href='http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ThatOneGuy' target='_blank' rel='nofollow'>That One Guy.</a>

Oh, he has a name? Now I remember! Kotaro. The only <s>useful</s> male main character besides Negi. By the way, isn't Setsuna half-tengu or something?



Moving on, having Negi with absolutely no power would be very interesting. As well as him having great resentment toward ALL mages. I can see him doing a sort of "Where's the damned science?! How does this work? You're breaking the laws of the Conservation of Energy!"

He would be completely freaking out for a while there.

 

[Patrick_Gleason]

I can see him doing a sort of "Where's the damned science?! How does this work? You're breaking the laws of the Conservation of Energy!"

He would be completely freaking out for a while there.

Yeah, that's... What I'm gunning for since the beginning. My idea was to make the magic world "superstitious", hand waving everything with "oh, the spirits...". Negi, while having next to none Magical Power of his own, would create the first Unified Magic Theory, greatly developing the mages abilities. In short, keep him the Genius of Development, but take out the stupid Goku syndrome.

About the Pactio, it's not like they keep having them, but with other people. I want to get rid of the entire Pactio system. If the girls have powers, it's their own, not given to them because some Mage made out with them. It helps me flesh out their background better, and gives everything more substance, I think.

 

[zeebee1]

It's a cop out. Some people will have powers. Asuna will punch spells away and Setsuna can fly. But Nodoka will have nothing unless you're a bad author.

 

[ragnarok1337]

It's a cop out. Some people will have powers. Asuna will punch spells away and Setsuna can fly. But Nodoka will have nothing unless you're a bad author.

Honestly, I'm not fond of Nodoka at all. But that's neither here nor there.

Now will someone write a darned snippet?

 

[marthf1]

zeebee1, it seems your too attached to character(s) that gained their powers by Pactio. Patrick_Gleason already mentioned a reason to trim the cast & a couple of methods to save a character of interest.

A) Trim the cast size to a more manageable size
1) Make some similar to Negi by being determined to help with 'mundane' methods via canon or alternative history.
2) Some can gain powers from alternate methods or ancestry.

EDIT: Went on a tangent.

 

[zeebee1]

I don't care about the pactio. I care about cop outs. If people need the pactio to get a power then they shouldn't have a power if there is no pactio. Besides, this shouldn't be about battle. This Negi won't be a fighter.

 

[Patrick_Gleason]

Opinion duly noted and dismissed, Zeebee. Next?

marthf1, you didn't need to edit your post. To answer your question: I intend to keep the story more or less as Ken does it: Make a couple of the girls protagonists, and focus on the others for small arcs or singular chapters. But yea, I do intend to trim down Ala Alba a little. Three or four of them to be his constant companions, and the others will have to wait.

But I remind you this is supposed to be a reversal. Negi's a muggle, but almost everyone in Mahora is magical in some way or another. All of Negi's girls are. And they'll have powers. Deal with that.

What I'm looking for is a thread around which to build the history. I haven't noticed how strong is the "Negi wants to find his papa" in the story. Take this out, along with his mystical powers, and there's no reason for him to go to Mahora or, once there, keep evolving. Is here that I need help.

 

[zeebee1]

Mahora is still a prestigious school. And proving that he can teach in a foreign country, to people who don't speak his native language while he was ten years old would be quite the academic feat.

 

[ringlhach]

He'd have to have some pretty serious backing, though, being ten and all- or else we're talking a Rebecca Miyamoto type genius.

I can see him being sent there "for his own protection," especially if his dad was still the Thousand Master; teaching, not so much. Tutoring, maybe.

 

[marthf1]

Ideas: 1) & 4) seque into a few canon storylines fairly well, I'd imagine.
1) Maybe Evangeline was a bit more devious or such & changed her behavior enough to persuade the Headmaster to consider roping in Negi to help further the 'reforms'. Face your past or something. Officially, he could be studying or researching at a near-by university, arranged by the Headmaster.

2) In the pursuit of science, Negi is fascinated by the Satomi, et al.'s work on Chachamaru & wants go into research or prove how 'sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic' or however the quote goes.

3) Hm, I think I recall Satomi stopping by Tokyo U or similar's engineering department. Perhaps Negi studies researches at that university & joins Satomi's project or starts a project to intrigues Satomi. I guess he would be a science or math tutor. Or just a constant presence around the campus.

4) He could be a history or literature major & as a first project, wants to get the histories of the Shinmei-ry, the Konoe family, or another famous thing. He could be teaching on the side.

5) Moving away from academia, maybe he becomes a lawyer & the Konoe family hires him (perhaps a similar reason to #1) & his office is on the campus. On the side, he provides general counseling or substitutes.

6) The Headmaster is offering an internship for running an academy. Things go from there.


Unrelated sidenotes:
I think my question about cast size was more an attempted explanation with the assumption that you wanted to trim the cast side & a misinterpretation of why. It was random so I took it out.

As for cop out, I just want to say that considering the setting involves a reversal, it's par the course. Also, 'power' is very vague when you have people like Satomi who helped create a 'human AI' with an increasingly human body. I'd imagination some would just receive a buff as what you'd imagine them to have.

ringlhach: Well considering he is a graduate from Oxford & you have the likes of Satomi & Chao, it's not too out there. Er, it's not like Mahora Academy is on the same level of Tokyo U or anything, is it? If anything, depending on his degree, its a step down to teach at an elementary level so far from home at a school that may not be super famous.