Hayate The Combat Butler, Volume 6
ハヤテのごとく！Manga Volume 6
Hayate no Gotoku Manga Volume 6

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis: Hayate is teamed up with Nagi for the race and Miki gets paired up with Hina (since Risa and Izumi completed another event and don’t have to do this one). Also in the race is Katsura-sensei along with Kaoru-sensei as Katsura-sensei wants the prize money very badly. The race starts and Nagi is quickly spent so Hayate has to carry her. However, the butler Himuro (with Taiga) is determined to stop them. This causes Maria and Saki to arrive in partial disguise to give Hayate a window of escape. Nagi regrets not getting these superhero’s autograph as Maria summons Klaus to deal with Himuro. A briefcase full of money defeats Himuro.

Next, Hayate encounters Nonohara and his master Azumamiya, but makes his escape when has to punish Azumamiya. Next to deal with is Hina and Miki. Hayate has Nagi run on to the finish line as he tricks Hina onto a rope suspension bridge. However, Nagi is just beaten by Katsura-sensei and Klaus says Hayate is fired. Nagi says that if Hayate goes, Klaus goes too since he allowed terrorist on the cruise ship. Since Maria takes Nagi’s side, Klaus has no choice but give Hayate another chance, should he pass the Tiger’s Pit for Butlers.

Hayate takes a train to the Tiger’s Pit for Butlers and finds himself on the same bench as a young, Catholic nun. Hayate is verbally assaulted by an angry, unemployed man who then starts to attack Hayate with a knife. Before he can do anything, the Sister physically takes care of the problem. The Sister thinks there is a teacup reward for helping someone on a train, but the legend is only if one helps a girl on the train. The Sister is depressed, so Hayate gives her a candy bar instead and receives a blessing. Hayate walks to where the Tiger’s Pit for Butlers is and discovers it is a church, with the young Sister (named Fortesia) there.

Meanwhile, Ayumu is at Wataru’s video store discussing the upcoming Valentine’s Day and decides to pay Nagi a visit. After learning Hayate isn’t there, Ayumu and Nagi’s conversation about Hayate and women has Nagi a bit worried, though she says that Hayate won’t be attracted to anyone but her. Maria asks about men being attracted to Hayate, which Nagi says is completely out of the question.

Back at the church, Sister Fortesia has some harsh truths for Hayate. That evening, Nagi gives him a quick call and the following day, Hayate and Sister Fortesia head out for butler training. She takes him to the Nishizawa apartment, but the family is freaked by Sister Fortesia’s forcefulness. When Ayumu shows up, she hears the situation and sees an opportunity. So, Hayate becomes the Nishizawa family butler, even calling Ayumu “ojousama.” This is great for Ayumu, though her parents and little brother. Ayumu decides to skip school with a headache as Nagi learns that Hayate is at her “friend’s” house. Ayumu gets into bed and is dreaming of a kiss from Hayate only to discover Tama giving her one. Sister Fortesia comes in, finds a tiger and gets into a fight. Ayumu passes out and the place is trashed, though Nagi paid for the damages.

Back at the church, Sister Fortesia tells Hayate that he’s to advance to the final stage — the Butler’s Quest. Nagi is excited at the RPG aspects of this and joins Hayate’s party. Katsura-sensei arrives and also joins, describing herself as “Deedlit.” Hayate decides to consult with Hina, but some teasing causes him to seek Saki out instead, which leads to Wataru joining his party. The foursome head to the dungeon while Isumi is consulting with an elderly Sister named Fortesia about exorcising the evil spirits at the church.

Hina comes to the church, frustrated that Hayate didn’t just come out and ask for her help in the dungeon. Isumi arrives and tries to get Hina to leave due to the danger, but of course Hina won’t stand for that. Meanwhile down in the dungeon, the party has encountered an evil spirit and in the panic, Nagi sets of a trap that launches a spear which grazes Hayate. Young Sister Fortesia heads down to see why they are screaming so loudly and quickly finds out passing out as Katsura-sensei is in a battle with a Mimic.

The ghost of the priest of built the dungeon, Linn Regiostar, appears in physical form. He reveals that Hayate has been poisoned so Nagi is off to find the antidote with Wataru. Linn and Hayate are attacked by a hoard of evil spirits (youkai?) when Isumi and Hina show up to save them (Hina having been given the powerful wooden sword Masamune). Isumi is able to slow down the poison in Hayate and restore him somewhat. She asks that he not tell Nagi about her powers.

Once the group gets back together with explanations on how things are as they are, young Sister Fortesia arrives to show them the final obstacle, where they have to retrieve the medal out of a temple in the dungeon. Linn asks why the woman calls herself Sister Fortesia when the real Sister Fortesia is 60-years old. The woman is actually Sonia, the mastermind behind the terrorist attack on Sakuya’s ship. Her father was a member of the Greek mafia and had been tasked with assassinating Nagi on Greece, but was defeated by a boy (Hayate, who traveled back in time). So she’s out for revenge, but Hina puts a stop to that. Katsura-sensei shows up possessed by the main evil spirit, but is stopped by Isumi. Hayate, who’s had enough, ends up destroying the entire church to save Nagi.

Thoughts/Review: I really didn’t mean to get so wordy in the summary, but now that I’ve written it, I may as well leave it. ^_^; Still, I have to say that I rather enjoyed this all-new story, which is the biggest story arc of the manga yet. There were tons of references (some I got, some I didn’t) but I think the one that surprised me most was the Lord British one (Lord British is a character in the Ultima series of games going back to the 80’s, and the alias of the game creator Richard Garriott). I hadn’t realized that the Ultima games had been that well known in Japan (I double checked and Viz did not make that up as “Lord British” is in the Japanese version).

Basically, the whole RPG parody was a lot of fun. With the Deedlit name-drop, I’m glad I’ve seen the Record of Lodoss War OVA and TV series. I liked how Hata-sensei tied in Sister Sonia to the Golden Week extra chapter he did where Hayate was sent back in time and saved a younger Nagi from the Greek mafia. It appears that she will continue to be in the manga story (she was not in the anime that I recall) as the story ended with her leaning on Wataru, suggesting a possible interest there.

By introducing Ayumu’s family in this volume, she becomes a much more rounded character to me rather than the sometimes comic relief character of the anime adaptation. It is a shame that the anime production team dropped her family, but I guess having her show up in nearly every episode eating something was more important than making her a better character.

The standard gripe about the lack of translator notes remains. This volume was in desperate need of translator notes because there are references that I had no clue about. That’s really frustrating.

Miki, Izumi, and Risa get the character profiles for this volume. That reminds me, in the anime, the friendship aspects between Miki and Hina are lost as Miki is always shown with Izumi and Risa. While those three are clearly friends, this volume shows that Miki and Hina have been friends since childhood. I liked that little touch.

Back to the profiles, I found it interesting that Hata-sensei didn’t want to feature a character who’s rarely seen and barely has any dialog. She had quite a bit in the anime if I recall correctly, mainly because she was always with Miki and Izumi. Up to this point, Risa has barely been seen and I wonder if she’ll have a greater number of appearances as the manga progresses.

So a good manga with a frustrating lack of translator notes for all those references.