Yue Ayase

is a fictional character from the manga series, Negima!: Magister Negi Magi, created by Ken Akamatsu.

The 4th student in Japanese alphabetical order of class 2/3-A, she is the hidden intelligence of the class, a member of the Library Exploration Club yet at the same time a part of the infamous Baka Rangers due to her hatred of studying and schoolwork. Although initially enthusiastic in helping fellow Library club member Nodoka Miyazaki gain Negi's heart, she soon develops feelings of her own and is constantly trying to come to terms with where she wants to stand between the two of them. However, her own interest in magic and the supernatural draws her into Negi's group, both in learning magic as well as becoming a Pactio partner.

Character design
With the many different character types and designs that went in to making the girls of Negima, Ken Akamatsu occasionally gets ideas from other sources, including other manga, for the creation of his girls. Upon creating Yue, Akamatsu already knew that she was going to be a huge bibliophile due to feeling that she had a Read or Die feel upon creation. Like heroine Yomiko Readman, Yue is obsessed with books (similar to her friend Nodoka) and uses them as a means to escape from the problems in her own life. Yue's design hasn't changed significantly from her initial one, complete with her small stature, braided front bangs and split hair behind. Some pics depicted her possibly with glasses, but other than that Yue was created ready to go into Akamatsu's story. Interestingly enough, Ran Ayanaga, the person behind the original character design for Yue, would eventually work on the Read or Dream manga, with one of the characters in the story, Hisami Hishishii, having a strong resemblance to Yue.

Yue is also similar in appearance and personality to Patchouli Knowledge of the Touhou series.

Background and personality
Yue is considered the cool slacker of the class, a highly intelligent girl yet, at the same time, a horrible student. Her intelligence is shown by her interest in philosophy and her membership in the Library Exploration Club alongside classmates Nodoka Miyazaki, Haruna Saotome and Konoka Konoe. Even though she has never been through the entire library due to its massive size, she does know enough to be a guide for those who choose to go in there, such as guiding Negi and other members of the class. It is through the club that Yue becomes friends with the club members, usually finding herself helping her shier friend Nodoka gain confidence to do what she wants while at the same time ignoring or putting up with the manipulations of the bespectacled Haruna. Although she is scared of Haruna's tendencies, she does somehow find a way to remain her friend.

However, despite being a talented bibliophile and a member of the Library Club, Yue hates studying and schoolwork. Due to this, she is one of the students in 2-A with the lowest grades in the class, and hence is a member of the "Baka Rangers" or "Dummy Force" study group (a play on the Power Rangers series and the Super Sentai genre they came from). In the Baka Rangers, Yue is "Baka Black", and considered the team's leader, most likely in being the "smartest" of the quintet both in general as well as in her average as a Baka Ranger. Although Yue doesn't like studying or schoolwork, she is capable of performing well academically, either when she needs to (to raise the class's average) or in a subject she finds herself interested in. It is revealed later that Yue's hatred for studying is due to the death of her beloved grandfather, making her lose interest in the world in general and considered everything, especially studying, as pointless. She was initially uninterested in making friends, though Nodoka was the first to make an impression on her, by saying that anyone who likes books cannot be a bad person.

Yue is often seen drinking unusual beverages (including salt water) from juice boxes, found in various and bizarre flavors. She was once seen drinking the "Last Elixir" in one chapter, a cameo appearance from Final Fantasy. Whenever Yue drinks from one of these boxes, she usually is seen either in a more contemplative or a commentary role compared to the craziness going on around her.

Unfortunately, due to the large amounts of liquid she takes in, Yue is well known by her friend's for needing to use the bathroom almost constantly. This is also the reason she wears more adult underwear, such as tie side panties, as Haruna explains ( to Yue's embarassment and protests that it was meant to be a secret between friends) Yue is unable to go to the bathroom without completely removing her underwear. As such, she needs panties that can be quickly and easily taken off.

This frequent drinking and urination cycle is one that continues even when Yue temporarily loses her memory, as does her taste in underwear.

Plot overview
Yue's initial interaction with Negi Springfield is two-fold: both as "Nodoka's best friend" as well as a member of the Baka Rangers. In regards to the former, she assists her shy friend to at least approach Negi and help her express her feelings towards him. On the latter, she is forced into the study group due to being the fifth-worst student in the class, even though she quickly proved that she wasn't as dumb as the tests made her out to be. Although a guide through the library during the Baka Ranger's journey to improve their grades, she didn't significantly interact with Negi.

However, this changed during the field trip to Kyoto. Yue initially remained in the background at the start of the story. However, when Kazumi organizes a special game to kiss Negi, she decides to join Nodoka to help her win the game. However, when she was approached by one of the Negi clones attempting to kiss her, unexpected feelings begin to emerge, making her feel guilty in possibly cheating out Nodoka. Eventually, she choose to fight back against the clones and she made Nodoka take the kiss to win the game and her Pactio card. Later, she followed Negi's team to the Konoe shrine. Thanks to Kazumi, she is one of the few people to escape being turned to stone and she calls for assistance from Kaede, Mana, and Kū Fei.

After the Kyoto trip, having witnessed the attack on the Kansai Magic Association headquarters, talked to Nodoka (who became aware of magic following her Pactio) about the subject, and helped Negi figure out the clues left by his father, Yue deduced that Negi was a mage and Mahora Academy's magical nature. Another trip into the depths of the Mahora Library was thwarted by the dragon that lives there, though Yue swears revenge on the beast for drooling on her. She and Nodoka later ask Negi to teach them how to use magic, and Yue even suggested forming a pactio with him (though she immediately changed her mind once she learned about what was required to make a contract from Chamo and Kazumi).

During the Wilhelm incident, Yue was one of many girls who were initially kidnapped by Wilhelm and the Slime sisters, only for them to escape and assist Negi in the battle. For Yue, she and Nodoka used the sealing jar that Kotarou gave to Negi to seal away Wilhelm's henchmen, the Slime Sisters.

Nevertheless, Yue learned some magic by the time of the Mahora Festival, practicing within Evangeline's resort where she learned some of the basics with Negi's assistace. She also became friends with Kotarō in Kyoto after his fight with Kaede. Unlike her regular schoolwork, Yue is dedicated to learning magic and spends over 3 hours a day practicing. She expresses some of these thoughts alone to Negi during the first day of the festival, trying to grip with whether her feelings are genuine for Negi or if she should continue to help Nodoka win his heart. (a fact she manages to keep a secret from Nodoka until the school festival)

On the second day of the festival, Yue's feelings come to a head: during a tour of Library Island, Yue finally loses her sanity regarding her feelings due to Nodoka revealing that she overheard her being asked by Haruna if she has feelings for Negi, to the point of jumping from a high section of the main library. However, being a member of the Library Exploration Club, she had a grappling hook that allowed her to rappel downwards until it broke, causing her to fall the rest of the way without being harmed. After regaining consciousness, she confronts Nodoka, who gets Yue to actually admits her feelings for Negi and, after slapping her for wanting to run away from the situation, encourages Yue that they can still be friends even if they both are in love with Negi. With Nodoka's approval (although not with Yue's or Negi's consent), Yue became the fifth person to form a probationary contract with the child teacher. Using the power of the Pactio, Yue both assisted Negi during the crisis for the remainder of the festival (including their unexpected future trip) and during the final battle with Chao as well as speed up her own magical training. This enables her to defend her White Wing badge from her classmates.

Yue and Nodoka apparently become fast friends with Negi's old friend Anya as she approves of the two Library Girls, (most likely due to their similar chest sizes). Like the other White Wing members, she accompanies Negi to the magical world, only to be separated from everyone when one of Fate's minions used a spell to scatter the group around the magical world.

Yue finds herself at a Magical Academy suffering from a head wound and amnesia, both caused by female student Collette Farandole, who accidentally hit her as she materialized. She has no memory of her friends, her past, nor her membership in the White Wing. Without her memories, Yue enrolls in the magical school with Collette, where she steadily improves her magical abilities. She is soon one of the school's top students. After seeing Negi, in his 'older form' competing in a tournament, Yue begins to feel a sense of familiarity and believes that meeting him will help in regaining her memories. She and Collette took part in a competition for the chance to be a part of the special security squad that will be at the finals of the tournament.

During the competition, Yue and Collette manage to claim the lead, which led to the class representative Emily Sevensheep and her partner deciding to take a shortcut through a dangerous area. They were attacked by one of the monsters there, but were saved by Yue as she activated her Pactio Card. Using the information she looked up in her Artifact and the cooperation between herself, Collete, Emily and her partner, they were able to defeat the monster, but ended up being last in the competition. However, their battle skills were recognized by the headmistress of the academy and all four had the opportunity to travel to the fighting tournament at Ostia. At this point, Yue still does not remember who she is, nor her connection to Negi.

During the first day of the Ostia Festival, Yue along with Collete, Emily and her secretary Beatrix Monroe, and two others, Von Katze and Du Chat, flew off to meet up with "some ruffians" who are actually Negi's group respective Fate's group. Fleeing, Negiwent past Yue while he and the rest of the crew split to avoid being caught after some bystanders recognized him from the "Wanted" poster. Without quite fully understanding why, she instructed him to knock her unconscious so he can escape. A few days later, she bumped into Negi again, who this time is with Nodoka and Asuna (or more specifically, Shiori, one of Fate's Ministra Magi, disguised as Asuna). However, Emily doesn't believe that Yue is one of them and demand some proof. Negi is able to prove it by showing Yue her pactio card and using it to speak to her telepathically. Unforunately, the meeting was interrupted when the group met up with Ostian Governor General, Kurt Godel.

At the Ball, when Cosmo Entelecheia attacked using shadow dolls, Yue was one of the few people able to damage them and found their origin using her artifact.

Recently, Yue has confessed to Nodoka that some of her memories have returned to her, but she is shocked when her friend tells her that Negi is their teacher and that the two of them are rivals in winning their teacher's heart.

During the attack at the Gravekeeper's Palace, Yue's group's target is rescuing Anya. After they complete their task, Yue joins the group sent to retrieve the Great Grandmaster Key, and protects the group from Fate's counterattack. Later, she tries to stall Quintum, but is defeated.

She is later shown in chapter 324, awakening from the defeat of Quintum. She noted she was was under a advanced spell of lighting that causes a paralyzing effect but was within her sixteen perdections as well as casting a delayed spell on herself in advance and used it to release the spell. She quickly found Makie and released the spell on her and then Kazumi. Makie noted that she seemed to be a pretty strong mage and talked to her about her feelings for Negi and along with Kazumi told her to consider confessing. She noted Negi was battling and then found Kaede. The group eventually rejoined the others while Evangeline, Konoka's grandfather, and the surviving members of the Ala Rubra were confronting the Lifemaker, and along with the rest of class 3-A, they helped in reviving Asuna, who joined the battle and, with Negi, defeated the Lifemaker.

After the battle, Yue is back in Mahora, although she is still lacking her memories of Negi being her teacher. While Yue was busy talking to Makie and Natsumi during one day early in the second semester, Nodoka, who's been overhearing the conversation disguised as a bush, shows up and agrees with Makie's idea that Yue should confess her love to Negi, feeling that this event could help her in regaining her memories. However, Fate arrives and said that they would refrain from doing that.

While having a drink, she is thinking about what Fate said earlier which leads to that she is not qualified to confess to Negi. She soon received a surprising call from Collet and asked her how she managed to call her from the Magical World. Collet soon let Emily took over who ask Yue why she haven't visit them yet. Emily soon told her that she is jealous towards Yue for being around Negi, and she is planning on going to Mahora. Collet took over once more and said that she is hoping one day that she will come to see Yue's home country, to which Yue agrees.

In chapter 338, she was overhearing Chisame and Konoka who were talking about Negi and Asuna. Chisame noticed that Yue overheard their conversation and asked her the same question but Yue also doesn't know about their situation. After Fate threw chalks at Chisame and Yuna for talking in class, he tells them to stand in the hallway but Yue suggests to let them go to the infirmary instead after seeing how powerful his throwing abilities was.

In chapter 341, Setsuna asked Yue about the future, she answered about her obstacles in her future about being with Negi. She soon immediately ran away at full speed but Setsuna caught up with her. After knowing it was about her future career, she answered that she wants to help Negi. Setsuna suggests that Yue should asked Negi personally about it but Yue prefer not doing that. She thinks that she must first stand in the first place as him with her own strength which made Setsuna shocked about her ambition. Considering her grades up till now were embarrassing, she thinks about attend Ariadne and study there again.

Later, Yue finally confessed to Negi and caused her to regain all her memories back but she felt cried about it when she remembered how she "betrayed" Nodoka.

Epilogue 7 years later, now at the age of 21-22, Yue is now a detective on the Magical side of the crimes. Her office is located, ironically, in Mahora Academy, where she is seen either drinking her potions, reading, or sleeping (with a book on top of her face). At this age, Yue is now able to use high-powered spells, such as Jovis Tempestas Fulguriens, and can track down high-class demons and mages via potions. Her attitude became over the years rather slagging again which is caused from the fact that her degree and career history in the magical world, i.e. as an Ariadne Knight, aren't accepted in the Old World. In some terms, she reminds strongly at Evangeline before her changes at the Magical World Arc.

She, like the rest of the class, assists Negi in saving Nagi and defeating the Mage of the Beginning. Working at the office of the ISSDA stationed on the a low-orbit ring, she is assigned the same post as Miyazaki Nodoka, though both had their first love shattered, they are unusually friendly. For whatever reason, she continues her work as detective even in orbit, becoming a space detective as well as magical detective.

Abilities

 * Pactio: Philosophastra Illustrans (literally, "Enlightening Little Philosopher"): Her artifact is called Orbis Sensualium Pictus, it is a set consisting of a cloak, book, witch's hat, and a broom. Chamo mentions that she has the same Beginner Mage Set that Negi also had. This implies that her equipment is essentially the same as those given to mages in training. At first, her artifact doesn't offer any noticeable firepower, but its merit is progressively proven useful as the story moves on. For one, the book initially appearing to be a beginner's manual for casting spells, but actually has a wide array of general information on various magical topics, like an encyclopedia. It is able to display this information in the form of illusionary pages, like holograms. Even more impressive, the book is also linked with Mahou.net and updates continuously. It can thus answer almost any question Yue asks that pertain to magic. Yue has the equivalent of a magical library branch in one book. She was able to discover that Asuna's magic cancellation ability was exceptionally powerful, simply by looking it up and, furthermore, she was able to learn the spell needed to amplify it. After mastering riding brooms at the magic school she can use the broom to fly.


 * Logical Intelligence: Though she hates to study, Yue's ability to research and piece together facts is considerable. She was able to deduce Negi's identity as a mage and gather information concerning on the Magic World and Negi's father. As long as the subject maintains her interest (such as magic), Yue becomes dedicated to learning all there is to know. While studying at the magical academy, she becomes one of the highest test scorers in the class.


 * Magical Ability: After discovering Negi's mage status, Yue coaxed him to make her into his student on magical arts, both for her own defense and to "get revenge on the guardian dragon of Library Island" (who later turned out to be a friendly guard of Albireo). Combining Negi's guidance and the power of Evangeline's resort alongside Yue's own studious nature and her Pactio, she soon masters the basics. Studying at the academy in the magical world significantly improves her spellcasting and she learns to ride on a broomstick. Also during the competition it is revealed that Yue now has a magical activation key which is Foa Zo Cratia Socratia (perhaps referring to the philosopher Socrates), and she is believed to be a quite powerful mage as Emily said "no spells could break a dragon's horn!" but Yue managed to break it with the Fulguratio Albicans spell.


 * Close Combat: Under her knights training she has gain much more training in combat situations including using her "Souken"(Fake Sword)as a weapon and for spell casting.

Mahō Sensei Negima! (1st Anime)
Due to the rearrangement of events, Yue's feelings for Negi emerged much earlier, yet remain as contentious as the manga situation in her own feelings and how Nodoka would handle it.

She is recurrently seen as someone who supports Nodoka and Negi. She, in effect, forces Nodoka to do romantic things to gain Negi's favor, sometimes, as Yue herself said, "without considering her[Nodoka] feelings". However, Yue is also unsure of her feelings towards Negi, both out of respect for Nodoka and the barriers that are present (Negi being a kid, a lot of other 2/3-A girls liking him, and her not being pretty, according to her perspective).

Later, Nodoka accepted Yue's feelings and said she was glad to have her as a romantic rival. Yue only gained Pactio during the final mass contract, upon which she merely gained a broom that casted thunder spells.

Negima!?
Mostly keeping her Baka Ranger/Library Club dichotomy from the manga, Yue's situation remains unchanged either in her mental abilities or in her love triangle between herself, Negi and Nodoka. Yue's romantic feelings towards Negi are more developed in this series with two episodes focusing on her dilemma both personally and with her relationship to Nodoka. The first episode, similar to the manga, focuses on her feelings in having to kiss Negi for a Pactio contract, as she speaks about her worries and concerns to various members of the class. However, while she does finally succumb to these feelings and kisses Negi for a contract, her kiss leads to the remainder of 3-A to learn of magic and many of the events for the remainder of the series.

In a later episode, after Motsu blackmails her by telling that drinking from the same straw Negi (and Chamo) used is like an indirect kiss, Yue's feelings continue to be explored in her feelings towards Negi and how Nodoka would take them. Troubling herself in trying to talk to her friend and figure her out, Nodoka and she finally come to a conclusion that they both like him, but Yue decided to keep her love for Negi to herself.

Although she does gain Pactio on her own like in the manga, it is noted that Haruna obtains a Pactio prior to her, the exact reverse of the manga. Likewise, the only two times Yue releases her is during the two mass Pactio activations. During the "Suka Incident", Yue transforms into an owl and uses Negi to help her buy one of her weird drinks from a vending machine. In the final episode, Yue transforms into a maid with an arsenal of weird drinks with strange effects, many of which she tests on her friend Nodoka (who had been turned into her Suka seal form).

As an added note, Yue's hair color is switched with Nodoka's: the shy Library club member has blue hair and Yue having purple hair.

In the Negima!? Neo manga, the chapter in which Anya initially visits Mahora shows the fact that Yue wears black panties. While this may mean nothing to some people, the comment made by Haruna makes it appear that, while her body has yet to mature, she feels the same impulses as normal teenagers her age.

UQ Holder!
It is shown on video that she and Kū Fei won the Mahora Martial Arts Tournament In 2015.

Yue reappears with Negi after he is taken over by the Mage of the Beginning. Yukihime (Evangeline) indicates that Yue was thought to have lost her life in a battle prior to the Mage of the Beginning's confrontation with UQ Holder. During the confrontation, Yue uses her artifact to reveal to Touta that he is the 72nd 'sibling' created by Yukihime and Fate, and that he is needed to 'save the world'.

Trivia

 * Popularity: 22nd >> 11th >> 5th >> 7th >> 14th >> 10th >> 9th >> 1st
 * Baka Black/Leader of the Baka Rangers, 5th place from the bottom of 3A.
 * Actually, she's not dumb, she just hates studying.
 * She was often found drinking some really strange drinks.
 * Since she has a large input of liquid, she always had to go to the washroom.
 * Since she dislikes the normal routine of life, she's trying to learn magic (much to Negi's chagrin).
 * In the second anime series, Negima?!, Nodoka's armor card's abilities have the same practical abilities as Yue's Orbis Sensualium Pictus in the manga.
 * Yue's outfit while using her artifact bears a striking resemblance to the design of a traditional Black Mage in the Final Fantasy series. This is possibly meant to constrast with Nodoka's design, which resembles a White Mage. This is also reflected by Yue's skills with offensive magic.
 * Yue and Nodoka's respective hair colors are switched between the two anime series.
 * Yue wins the 6th place of Mahou Sensei Negima! Mahora Girls' Jr. High Class 3-A Students Popularity Poll 2017.
 * Yue's artifact possibly based on the book of the same name that is "...the first widely used children's textbook with pictures(sic)",