Hayate the Combat Butler, Volume 8
ハヤテのごとく！Manga Volume 8
Hayate no Gotoku Manga Volume 8

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis: Because Hayate saw Nagi naked, Nagi feels self conscious about it. As such, Maria gives Hayate ¥1-million to stay at a hotel for a while. Hayate is stunned at the amount of money he’s been given and decides to be very careful with it. Immediately upon coming into the city, the money-hungry Katsura-sensei encounters him. Hayate tries to make a polite but quick getaway but suddenly Himuro arrives without his master, having smelt money. He detects the ¥1-million in Hayate’s pocket and suddenly, the two of them want to play Mahjong for money in a nearby parlor. To make matters worse, Sister Sonia, who also likes money, arrives meaning they have a 4-some to play.

Hayate escapes after playing for a short while, leaving his coat and ¥50,000 behind. Multiple encounters later where Hayate helps out others, he’s left with nothing but a few yen. He’s in a park wondering what to do when Hina arrives and invites him over. Hina’s mother is quite taken with Hayate, wanting to dress him up. That night, Hina ponders her own feelings for Hayate and the next morning, she tries to ask him about Ayumu (without saying the name). Hayate thinks Hina is talking about Nagi and this leads to a misunderstanding with Hina thinking Hayate has a girlfriend (Ayumu).

The following day, all of the people Hayate helped as well as Katsura-sensei return all the money Hayate gave them and Hayate’s coat. Maria realizes that Hayate may be in trouble and so puts on her old school uniform to head to Hakuou Gakuin to investigate. Maria is trying to be low key but ends up drawing more and more attention to herself. Maria finally encounters Hayate as he enters the elevator to go up to the Student Council chamber at the top of the clock tower and learns what she needs to (even having some fun with him). Hayate is touched that she is concerned for his welfare.

That night, Hina and Hayate do some shopping for dinner as they will be alone for a while. The love-tension is in the air and when Hina finally gets the misunderstanding that Hayate is dating Ayumu cleared (he’s not), she flees the home to get ice cream, afraid that the two of them being alone will lead to something. Amazingly, she encounters Ayumu, who’d gotten lost after chasing a sweet potato vendor. Hina doesn’t want Ayumu to know that Hayate is staying at her place, but naturally he shows up saying her bath is ready. Ayumu flees and cries at being a fool, but Hina stops her and invites her over to see that there’s nothing going on between herself and Hayate.

After rescuing a kitten, the two girls come home and send Hayate out to get some pet supplies. Hayate seeks help from Wataru (who’s a cat lover) as Hina makes Ayumu feel better. After the kitten pees on Hina, she takes a bath. Outside the bathroom, Ayumu tells of her own conflicted thoughts regarding Hayate and waiting for his response to her Valentine’s Day chocolate. She wishes she could be more like Hina, so Hina confesses that she’s not the cool person people think she is. Hina asks Ayumu to call her by her given name (Hinagiku) and she will address Ayumu as Ayumu (instead of Nishizawa-san). Ayumu is impressed that Hina remembered her name but decides that she will address Hina as “Hina-san” instead.

Nagi decides she misses Hayate and so he’s allowed to come home. Since Hina’s mother is allergic to cats, Hayate promises to give the kitten a good home. He brings the kitten to Nagi, who is opposed to it at first, then says she’ll take it and gives it a name — Shiranui. Tama learns of the kitten and is not pleased. He tells Hayate he won’t kill the kitten, but he’ll make it so that Nagi hates the animal. Unfortunately for Tama, the kitten gets the better of him and Tama is blamed for acts of destruction by the kitten, leading Tama to be caged.

Isumi learns of Nagi’s new pet and wants to see it. She comes over but the kitten has a very negative reaction to Isumi. This depresses Isumi a great deal. Learning of Isumi’s troubles, Sakuya decides to help, but in her normal comical way which makes Isumi feel worse. Sakuya decides to be serious and tells Isumi that maybe she needs to change, starting with her clothing. Isumi is shy about wearing western clothing but she does scede to Sakuya’s request and wears a western skirt and blouse. Despite the embarrassment, Sakuya gets Isumi over to Nagi’s home where both compliment her new outfit even though the kitten won’t care. Isumi is not happy to have been setup again by Sakuya but a squirt of catnip on her by Hayate has the kitten race over to be with Isumi.

Sister Sonia comes by Wataru’s video store for a visit to see if she really loves the boy or not. Wataru not only remembered his promise to loan her some DVD’s, he had a whole stack set aside for her. This impresses her and she’s about to confess when Saki shows up and falls down, leading Wataru to express great concern over her. Sister Sonia is upset by this and takes it out on Hayate, who explains who Saki is. Right in front of them, Saki is kidnapped by the men who had tried to kidnap Nagi. Hayate is off to save her, but Sister Sonia tells Wataru that for a kiss, she will save Saki. Wataru agrees, kissing her on the cheek as down payment. So before Hayate can arrive, the kidnapper’s car is destroyed and Saki is left dazed by unharmed.

In the final regular chapter, Nagi decides to go fishing with Hayate on Lake Sanzenin (on the estate grounds) along with Maria.

Thoughts/Review: I really love this manga and that makes short summaries more difficult for me. I seem to recall that the story of Hayate staying at Hina’s house for a time was in the anime, but I don’t remember all of the details the manga provided, especially since that storyline took over half the manga. I now understand how Hina and Ayumu finally became friends. In the anime, the story of them sightseeing in Greece was just sprung on us (and that story is an omake chapter in this volume of the manga). However, this volume of the manga explains how they became friends and I like it.

The story of the kitten getting the best of Tama cracked me up. Also, that story had Isumi wear western clothing for the first time, which was nice.

Hata-sensei picked up the idea of Sister Sonia being attracted to Wataru. That comes off as a little odd to me. Maybe it is because of the nun outfit rather than the age since if Saki had an interest in Wataru, that wouldn’t bother me.

Shiranui gets the character profile this volume. The other big omake is the Hina and Ayumu sightseeing in Greece (Miki, Risa, and Izumi are also there, just not with them at the moment).

The standard praise for honorific use is here and the standard complaint about the lack of translator notes is here. After the volume 7 incident with the English text destroying the art, it now seems to me that all of the English text is obtrusive. I’m likely being oversensitive but that’s how it feels to me.