[OverMaster]

Since I was feeling depressed about the future again, it's time for yet more dreadful fun involving possible bleak near futures for our favorite characters! Because if Ken's beard needs growing, someone's gotta be distilled down to make that hair tonic!

(Warning: I'm gonna toss the 'death' word very lightly around, since writing 'Seemingly fatal event that most likely will be undone by the arc's end five volumes or so in the future' kinda gets tiring after a while. Bear with me, please).

EDIT: Yeah, the rampant Trope-Talking here means I originally wrote this for the TV Tropes boards. Sue me.

Okay. As this shit has just started to hit the fan, we seemingly have lost five Ala Alba members already for the time being. And we're just two chapters into the latest Wham, so we're most likely to have a lot more losses soon to show the Fate Bunch means business. Here are my two cents on who will get it and who not.

Negi: Please. Like they'll take him out without even waking him up first.

Ku Fei: The most likely to impulsively act in Negi's defense against Sextum, the first line of defense there. Yep, screwed. I'd bet on Sextum making a peace offer of sorts if they deliver the boy (the fact she hasn't opened her entrance with an attack points to it), Ala Alba goes No Way Jose. Ku gets Ako's needle in the butt, puts a brave and better than expected fight, but ultimately gets frozen (again, if Earth-based Tertium uses petrification, I'd put good money on water-based Sextum using freezing. The alternative is liquidification... and thats' even worse). Hopefully not shattered afterwards, but ice is a helluva more fragile than rock. On the other hand, if Chao's gonna make a Big Damn Heroes for anyone, that'd be her, but I still think hoping for that is fooling ourselves.

Chisame: The thing that puts me nervous here is we've been shown she's happy with her life, and in fiction, being shown as happy with your life puts a huge bullseye on you. If you think I've been whiney lately, if she gets it, you'll never hear the end of it from me. But if Negi's going to wake up right in time to stop an attack on anyone, I think that someone's Chisame (to play on the 'You'll protect me' theme from the start of this mega-arc). But overall, I'm not liking her odds that much, sadly.

Ako: If Sextum sees what her needle can do for the others, that makes her a target before she can use it on Negi, and she can't fight back. Plus, her death might be the thing that finally spurs Akira into doing the damn Pactio already.

Akira: Hasn't had a Pactio yet, her most likely element is Sextum's own one. Yep, she's going to survive this. No way this chance's going to be missed (of course, I know she won't beat her herself, but she'll help).

Shiori: Already had a pretty close brush with death. Don't see her having another one so soon. Plus, we haven't seen her Artifact with Negi yet. Safe.

Konoka: I can see Ken being devious enough to take her out so it looks like nothing can revive the others now, and to give Setsuna a murderous rage on the Fates after she beats Yomi and returns to find that...

Setsuna: ... and at that point, poor Setchan is toast. Her big win will be against Yomi; after that, time to Worf out again.

Asuna: Extremely safe. She has 'Prime for a big comeback and being key in a victory' written all over her.

Anya: Infant Immortality, too Comedy Relief to pull a convincing serious death. And she's annoying, and annoying characters never die. She'll be fine.

Chamo: He'll survive at least long enough to set the Akira pactio. After that, again, too Comedy Relief to be considered for a serious death scene. But he might be frozen in a ridiculous pose to set an intentional Narmy gag.

Haruna: Hard to say. Might go either way.

Nodoka: Already down, unlikely to play much more of a role, sorry. But she won't get it any worse since Ken shouldn't be that suicidal against Japanese fandom.

Kotarou: Already pretty much out of the fight, but might make a comeback to Worf a bit more.

Sayo: ... Yeah, right.

Kazumi: Primed for a reunion of sorts with Sayo. It's hard to see what can she do by now otherwise.

Mei: Rather safe. Borderline Infant Immortality, and Takane's pretty much her designed Heroic Sacrifice if danger gets too close to her.

Takane: The nudity gag hasn't shown up lately, and I don't think it'll show again for the rest of this arc. The Shadow Armors must be a comedy red herring (like hers helped Chachamaru much). She's more likely to sacrifice herself for Mei than the other way around, although the latter isn't impossible either.

Johnny: He's a guy, and pretty disposable. Gone.

Collette: You might think she's prime for a Rule Of Three after her classmates, but it seems too obvious. I smell subverted trope here.

Yue: She seems to have an ongoing anti death clause from Kyoto to her suicide jump to girls taking the bullet for her, and I don't see that changing here. Plus, she's still got the memory baggage to solve. Our Yue isn't a goner. But she'll suffer a lot.

Chachamaru: Not getting up anytime soon.

Cocone: Infant Immortality, and several questions left hanging around her, including most of what she can or can't do. Relatively safe.

Misora: Bound to return the favor Cocone did her at Mahorafest and take one for her, proving she isn't that much of a coward after all. Sadly, because she's another of my top favorites.

Mana: She either comes in time to help turn the tide, or the Poyo fight lasts until everyone else has stopped fighting. I'm thinking she'll make it all the way through.

Yuuna: A goner already, but breaking the rock would put the series at RUINED FOREVER ground.

Makie: Like Chisame, she has put a happiness target on herself, but she's more secondary and disposable. Popular with Japanese fandom, but apparently not as much as she used to be. Not betting on her.

Your thoughts?