ハヤテのごとく！/Hayate no Gotoku Manga Volume 25
Hayate the Combat Butler Tankoubon Volume 25

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*SPOILERS!*

Some highlights of this volume have Athena revealing what happened to her following Hayate’s departure from the Royal Garden and how she was saved. The person who saved her is recognized by Hayate as his older brother Ikusa. However, after she escaped with Ikusa, she was apparently unconscious for a year and didn’t know what became of Ikusa, leading to Midas possessing her again to obtain the King’s Jewel.  Athena gives up on Hayate because she understands his devotion to Nagi. However, she does get to meet Nagi briefly, though Nagi has no clue about Athena. She does give Nagi an empty ring box.

Chiharu attends a doujinshi event and meets a new manga-ka (Ruka). Hina grows donkey ears for a time, and needs to raise capital to have Isumi heal her by removing the curse.  Nagi informs Klaus that she’s leaving the mansion in a week, and Mikado won’t let Klaus go with Nagi. Maria opts to stay with Nagi and feels this change will be good for her. Nagi gives Hayate ¥20-million of her own money to buy an apartment building, but Hayate discovers none for so cheap. However, Klaus happens to own an apartment house that was given to him by Nagi’s mother Yukariko when she was a child. Klaus gives it to Nagi, who then uses the money to help fix it up. Maria and Hayate clean up the place, though Hayate occasionally senses murderous intent from the place.

Man, the start of this volume showing the depressed and hopeless Athena was a tough thing to see. I really wonder how she got caught up in this mess in the first place.

Still, Athena was saved, and I liked that she met Nagi.  I get the feeling this was no chance encounter, but a way for Athena to size up the girl whom Hayate currently serves. I wonder if the ring box comes back into play, more so since Athena and Machina are secretly returning to Japan.

Hayate having a King’s Jewel as a child is another bit of retconning, suggesting that Hayate and Mikado met in the past. Obviously, Hata-sensei is taking advantage of the fact that his Santa-san character design and Mikado are nearly the same. ^_^;  It isn’t a big thing, but I’m just not a fan of retconning.

So, with Athena’s palace destroyed, what does this mean for Aika, whom was also given a King’s Jewel?

I’m not sure if the story about Hina having donkey ears was something that actually happened or not. I didn’t see anything saying it hadn’t happened since Hina disappears immediately after the story.  Still, this was probably the funniest chapter of the volume thanks to Hina’s driven personality and Isumi’s innocently twisted personality. There just a lot of humor here from Hina wearing a baseball cap and trying to explain it to Hina’s decision to earn the 150-million, only to back off when a plane is involved, to Isumi’s price being in Zimbabwean currency (a warning about the dangers of inflation) without letting Hina know that.  Good stuff.

While I was surprised that the story of why Athena is young and without memories didn’t come into play here, I was delighted to see the story of how Nagi and company come to Yukari-chan House.  Well at this point, only Nagi, Hayate, and Maria will be there, but it is clear that with Nagi’s plan to charge rent, I understand why there are tenants there now.  It will be interesting to see how she gets Chiharu, Hina, and that other chick as renters.

Also, I think I have my question answered regarding the sealed room found in the current chapters (369 a/o this writing).  If Nagi’s mother is the one who stole the coffin, then it seems reasonable that she might have put it into her former property without Klaus knowing.

Speaking of Klaus, I laughed out loud at his younger look, complete with long hair. The whole means by which Klaus obtained the apartment is silly and laughable, but this is Hata-sensei, so I pretty much just laugh and move on.

Which reminds me, Hata-sensei cracked a joke about changing character designs just as he’s starting to really shift to the designs he has now. That was funny to me, considering how I’ve not been a fan of the new character designs. ^_^

Finally, although she’s not named (well technically she is I guess in the one color page), Ruka shows up in this volume, showing how she and Chiharu met. I had no clue she’d been around for over 100-chapters as of this writing. ^_^;  Clearly, whatever Hata-sensei has in store for her, he’s been planning it for ages. *lol*

So a nice wrap-up of the Golden Week arc, with lots of good gag stuff before moving onto the Yukari-chan House stuff.  I can’t wait to see what’s next on the docket. ^_^