ハヤテのごとく！/Hayate no Gotoku Manga Volume 24
Hayate the Combat Butler Tankoubon Volume 24

–> Purchase Japanese tankoubon from YesAsia!

*SPOILERS!*

Some highlights of the events of this volume.  Nagi senses Hayate’s depression is due to the King’s Jewel pendent, and so she destroys the stone to thwart her grandfather Mikado’s plans. Hayate gets permission to return to save Athena, where he rejoins Sakuya and Isumi, revealing what Nagi did.  Isumi has her great grandmother Ginka help out, however, the beaten Machina shows up, causing Ginka and Sakuya to take him back to the hotel.  Isumi gets defeated by King Midas, who’s possessing Athena. Hayate has a desperate battle with Athena-King Midas.  Ginka extracts the sword Shirozakura from Machina, giving it to Hina so that she can help Hayate.  Hina manages to destroy the false stone and Hayate manages to save Athena from King Midas.

I totally should have seen it coming, but since I’m so rapidly flying through the chapters, I’m not doing my normal lengthy pauses to chew through what I’ve read.  I’m referring to the resolution of the King’s Jewel and Nagi being the one to destroy it, thus sparing Hayate from having to make a decision.  What was great about it was Nagi’s maturity, knowing that Hayate was more important to her than money.  I absolutely loved it as well as the flashback as Hayate recalled various important moments with Nagi. ^_^  And then if that wasn’t enough sweetness to send one into a diabetic coma, Hayate asking Nagi for one night off to save Athena and her agreeing was like a thick layer of buttercream frosting.  Mmmmm-mmmm!

Too bad Isumi gets beaten in this volume, but she still manages to be awesome in another sort of way by getting Hina to do something she didn’t want to do.  Well, we can’t have Isumi doing all the work, but she still manages to assist while being held captive.

Now, as to Athena, her retconned entry into Hakuou Gakuen as its head is a bit troubling, but more so since she apparently saw Hayate several times with Nagi, but Hayate never even noticed her. I don’t recall moments indicating that there was someone who knew Hayate giving him a break, or observing him from afar, but even if her face weren’t shown, it would have been nice for foreshadowing purposes. It is a minor thing though. Her having to guide the nice guy Hayate into holding her in the aftermath of his rescuing her was a humorous but real touch, allowing the two to have a romantic moment.

Now I see where Shirozakura comes from for Hina to use. ^_^  Coolio.

Interesting that it was Nagi’s mom who robbed her father of King Midas’s treasure.

While there wasn’t a ton of humor in this volume, I did get a chuckle out of Maria handling the monster attacks by putting the monsters in the kitchen to work. Of course, Machina and his hamburger love made me laugh.  Too bad he’s not a cheeseburger lover. ^_~

As an aside, I feel like puking every time I see “milady” in the place of “ojousama” in some of the unofficial translations.  NOT THE SAME THING!  *_*  Seriously, this is why I despise the attempts to ram Western titles and honorifics onto Japanese ones for which there is NO Western equivalent.  Besides, Nagi is not part of the nobility, so using terms like “Lady” and “Milady” doesn’t work for me, and I’m VERY glad that Viz didn’t go this route (even if they are publishing the manga at a slow pace).  But I digress…^_~

It is a good volume that appears to wrap up the rescue of Athena. Now onto the aftermath and hopefully an explanation of why Athena lost her memories and age.