Mahou Sensei Negima! 230

1
[Text: 21 years ago / A borderland of the Hellas Empire]
People: Don't you just hate war...? / The price of water is going to go up again...
Kids: C'mon, let's go see the Divine Warriors up close! / Is it true that the Confederation have even stronger Divine Warriors...? // Du~mmy! The Empress will beat them all up!
Man: The targets... // ...are these three men... // ...and this boy.
Rakan: Huh... he's just a little brat!

2
Man: If you let your guard down because of his age, you could get badly hurt. // These men were the main reason for the failure of the Ostia Restoration Operation. A group of elites was already sent out to eliminate them, but they were utterly annihilated. / If you wish, we will grant you forces to use as you may. They would have to be mercenaries and bounty hunters rather than ordinary soldiers, but...
Rakan: Screw that. // I don't need anyone else. // Leave this to me.
[Mahou Sensei Negima!]
[Period 230: Episode 1: Rakan Sets Out~!♡]
[TN: Yes, it says "229" in the RAW. But it's wrong.]
[insert text: The ultimate ally... was once the ultimate enemy!!]

3
Nagi: Wheeeew~~! So this is the Old World, huh?! // And this is the famous Japanese hotpot cooking! // Now let's get some meat in there~~~!♪
Eishun: Ahh! // Nagi, what are you doing, putting meat in there straight away?!
Kid: Would it be tasty with lizardmeat?
Nagi: Ahhh, c'mon! If it's tasty, why not shove it in there?!
Eishun: Y - You fool! There is a little thing called cooking things for the correct length of time! / [aside]first of all comes the vegetables... hey - wait - ![/aside]
Nagi: Ahhhh, shaddup already. I'm puttin' it in!
Imma: Heheh... I know someone very like you here in Japan, Eishun.

4
Imma: I hear they call him... // ...the "Pot Shogun".
Nagi: "Pot Shogun"?!
Kid: H... How impressive...
Nagi: Fine, fine... you win, Eishun. You're the new Pot Shogun now.
Eishun: [aside]isn't that a little...?[/aside] // I... don't know about that...
Kid: We leave it to you. Do as you wish. // Ooohhh... what's this sauce?! It's tasty!
Nagi: You're right... this is great stuff!!
Imma: This is the famous Japanese "soy sauce". / [aside]with grated radish.[/aside]
Horse: Prrr...♡
Nagi: So this is soy sauce...! It's damn good!
Eishun: Nagi, you had sushi when you arrived in Japan, didn't you?
Nagi: This is so tasty I'd really like to let lil' Princess-chan eat it...
Kid: "Princess-chan"...? Oh, you mean Ostia's Imperial Princess, yes?
Imma: Well... if the war is ended, there may be a chance to set her free...
Eishun: This war... I can't help but think there is something unnatural about it all.
Nagi: Like what?
Eishun: Everything! You're the one who said it in the first place, birdbrain... // [aside]and stop just eating the meat![/aside]

5
Rakan: Sorry to interrupt your meal~~~~~~! / I'm the wandering mercenary swordsman, Jack Rakan!! // Now, let's get it on!
Kid: Who is this nitwit?
Nagi: Doesn't seem to be from the Empire... // Eishu - Wha?!
Eishun: Heh... Heheheheh... // Heh... // Anybody who wastes my food...
Rakan: What's wrong?! Aren't you gonna come fight me~?! // If you don't, I'll just have to -

6
Rakan: - go - // Oho!♡
Eishun: ...I slice.
Nagi: Ohh? Eishun's outdoing himself today.
Imma: That big man is quite the fighter. / [aside]I've seen him before.[/aside] // Everybody was talking about him in the south not that long ago.

7
Rakan: Whoooa... Time, time! // You're pretty damn tough, aren't'cha! / Could you give me a moment?
Eishun: Don't play games with me! // If you mean to fight, then fight with your all!
Rakan: Ohhh, I see... / But y'know, it's four-on-one, so I can't really have you doing that. // But I've done my research on you guys!!
[Label: insurance]
Rakan: Tidbit No. 1: The serious swordsman can't handle the ladies.
Eishun: Ngh... how very low. But no matter. // If one masters oneself, even fire can seem -

8
[Label: insurance]
Rakan: Heh. // That's one down.
Someone: Hngh!
Rakan: Heh... // Here we go... Tidbit No. 4. // The red-haired mage has no weaknesses. // He's invincible.
Nagi: You guys... // ...don't go interfering now!

9
Imma: No need to tell me that. // To face an idiot, an idiot is the best choice.
Rakan: This should be interesting, kid. / You know, in the south, they call me "invincible", too.
Nagi: Say, old man... are you gonna be all right like that? // Without your sword...
Rakan: Oh, don't you worry. // I'm quite the unarmed fighter.
Nagi: Hah.
Rakan: Heh.

10
Nagi: Guohh!
Rakan: Hah.
Nagi: Heh.
Rakan: Whoaa! So many?! What are you, a ninja? // Whe~~w... // What a pain.

11
Nagi: Hekatontakis Kai Kiliakis Astrapsato...
Rakan: A long incantation, huh? // Willpower Defence!!!
Nagi: Kilipl Astrape!!!
[Text: The land around becoming scorched and charred all the while, the battle raged on for thirteen hours straight...]
[Text: So long! / That's just a pain. / You're destroying the environment!]

12
Rakan: Heh... Heheh... You're not half bad, brat.
Nagi: Same goes for you.
Rakan: Nah... // I'm the one who came here looking to fight four-on-one... I've lost this battle.
Nagi: I'm just happy to have found a guy on my level.
Rakan: Damn you, Nagi Springfiels! // I'll have my revenge! I'll be back... to... finish this...!
Eishun: [aside]...you like him, don't you.[/aside]
Nagi: Yeah... you just come and... try it... you muscle-freak! It'll be more fun than this war, at least!
Kid: [aside]You should just finish him now.[/aside]
[Text: So, yeah, stuff happened after that...]
Rakan: And one way or another, I ended up as one of their pals! // And yeah, a ton of crazy shit happened after that... / The war ended, and I'm sure you know how it goes. Yeah... The End!
People: WHAAAAAAT?! // That's the end?! / I think you cut it down just a LITTLE! // You only covered your first meeting!

13
Rakan: Yeah, well... Starting's all very well, but it is a pretty long story... it'd probably take 'til morning... so c'mon, let's just leave it there, yeah?
People: Yeah, right~~! // You still haven't explained anything yet! // Who was that little kid who spoke like an old guy~aru? // At least tell us who Fate is!
Negi: Rakan-san... // So you really were my father's rival...!
Konoka: And my father really was a bit of a screw-up, huh~~~ // [aside]how embarrassing![/aside]
Asuna: Better than being a perv, right? / [aside]I think I actually like the guy more now...[/aside]
Rakan: Oh, but he's incredible with a blade, you know? / He just can't handle the pervy stuff and ain't too good at following through... // Reminds me of someone else, actually...
Setsuna: Gah...
Rakan: Right, now let's fast-forward a little, shall we? // Your dad was about thirteen when the war started. // And over here, if you're strong enough, you can fight in wars from, like, twelve or thirteen.

14
Rakan: It started with some minor border conflicts, but ended up getting more serious, and the Empire started invading for real. The Argyre / Syrtis Subcontinent Invasion.
[TN: HOLY SHIT MAP. Okay, spelling modifications resulting from this map... "Heras" => "Hellas", and "Mesembrina Alliance" => "Mesembrina Confederation". There's probably more than that, but whatever.]
[TN: Okay, I seriously can't be bothered to try and translate all the tiny map labels, on grounds that I can't read half of them, and I don't know how I'd set it out so that it was even intelligible anyway ~_~ The big ones are "Hellas Empire" and "Mesembrina Confederation" (I think it's fairly obvious wehre they go), "Leading Power of the Mesembrina Confederation: Megalomesembria" (I think you can work that one out too), "Great Argyre Plains" (top-right-ish), "Royal Capital of Ostia" (go figure), "Syrtis Subcontinent" (if you can't figure out where that one is, you should get your brain checked), "Imperial Capital of Hellas" (yeah), and that's about it for the major labels, I think. Oh, and above and to the right of the Ostia label is one reading "Kingdom of Vespertatia", and above and to the right of that is one reading "Great Bridge". The key at the bottom says "Controlled by the Hellas Imperial Army".]
Rakan: However, their true goal was to retake their Holy Land and cultural fount of old, Ostia. // The Hellas Empire's invading forces, with the incredible offensive magical power they possessed, were nigh-on unstoppable. // And yet after the second attempt to retake Ostia ended in failure, the Empire resorted to making use of a large-scale transportation magic. // They went straight for the Confederation's neck, taking out the Great Bridge, a fortification spanning three hundred kilometres.
[TN: The one fully-visible placename there is "Tristan". The large text reads "Warp Attack", and the one at the bottom reads "Great Bridge". Again we have "Kingdom of Vespertatia" in the bottom-left.]
Rakan: It was a masterly strike, snuffing out the Confederation's fate like a candle before a gale. // But that's where we came in!! // The great Nagi Guerilla Knights went from fighting a losing battle way out at the Argyre borders...

15
Rakan: ...to right out on the front lines, fighting the war practically single-handed!! // Amongst our enemies, that idiot was feared as the "Red-Haired Demon of the Confederation", and to his allies, he was the "Man of a Thousand Spells". // In our greatest battle of all... // ...the "Great Bridge Recapture Operation"... // ...we truly secured our place in history. (Heheh!♡) // In the course of one huge battle, the tide of the war changed completely. // The Confederation pushed the enemy forces back, and even began moving into the Empire's own territory. // Incidentally, it was about this time that your dad got his own fanclub. // [aside]I had one too! Way before he did![/aside] // We found ourselves new allies... // And then...

16
Nagi: You know, back in the old world, where I was born, they've come up with this crazy powerful new kind of bomb... / They say it's gonna put an end to wars like this, for good. // Nobody'll start wars, because it would just mean wiping everybody out in one huge blast. // But what about this war? When will it end? // Will it not be over until we crush the Imperial Capital of Hellas itself? // Hell, if we tried, we could come up with a magic over here to rival that bomb back in the old world! // What's going to come of all this fighting? There's no point!! It's almost like...
Imma: ...Like somebody was actually trying to destroy this world? / Something like that?
[Label: doesn't care]
Gatou: ...In a manner of speaking, that may indeed be the case.
Nagi: Gatou...
Gatou: Our little youth detective team has finally produced results.

17
Gatou: There's no mistaking it - they've infiltrated to the very centre of both sides, Empire and Confederation. // The secret organisation known as "Kosmo Entelecheia".
Nagi: So what's going on, Gatou? Calling us all the way out to the capital...
Gatou: There's somebody I'd like you to meet. Somebody who's going to help us.
Nagi: Help us...?
McGill: That's right.
Nagi: Senator McGill!
McGill: No, no... / [aside]it's not me.[/aside] // The guest of honour is over there. // From the Vespertatia royal family... Princess Arika.

18
Nagi: ......
Racan: Mm!
[insert text: A deeply important person, entwined in the history of Mundus Magicus and Ala Rubra! Just who is this Princess Arika...?!]