ハヤテのごとく！/Hayate no Gotoku Manga Volume 26

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*SPOILERS!*

Some highlights of this volume include Kaoru-sensei learning why Yukiji-sensei isn’t attracted to him, causing Risa to show him how Hayate (inadvertently) gets girls’ hearts racing.  Nagi recounts a story of her mother, Klaus, and a cat whom Yukariko charged with making sure Klaus didn’t bring women to the apartment house she gave him. Hina and Izumi pays Hayate a visit at the apartment house, where Izumi is possessed by the cat youkai who’d made the promise to Yukariko. Nagi coming by in her mother’s stole causes the cat youkai to be at peace and leave Izumi, but Nagi is not happy with Hayate hanging out with Hina and Izumi.

Father Radiostar makes plans to move with everyone to the new place as Nagi explores the apartment house and decides she can made do with the analog TV. In order to attract tenants to such an old apartment house, Hayate will provide butler service to all tenants. Chiharu, who’s having difficulties with her folks, decides to become the first tenant after trying out Hayate’s butler services. Nagi refuses at first, knowing Chiharu still loves her parents, but when her parents burn down their home, Chiharu moves into Nagi’s apartment house.  Then, it is Ayumu’s birthday, so Hayate decides to make her some cookies. Nagi isn’t happy, but at Chiharu’s suggestion, Nagi is talked into throwing a surprise party for Ayumu, which almost fails due to Ayumu desperately wanting Hayate to acknowledge her birthday.  Finally, Nagi wants Tama at the new house, so Hayate has to devise a plan to smuggle the tiger over.

This volume is rather enjoyable, which slowly pushes forward the plot of Nagi’s running an apartment house, while allowing for fun stories and gag stories to be told.

The cat youkai story seemed to almost be a tribute to Takahashi-sensei and her various works such as Inuyasha or RIN-NE.  I say this because there’s one image showing the shadow of the cat youkai which looks almost exactly like Takahashi-sensei’s art.  There are more hints given as to Yukariko and her illness.  One wonders when Hata-sensei will actually address what happened to her to cause her to die so young.

While I knew that Chiharu would be a resident of Yukari-chan House (or Violet House as I’ve also seen it called), I was a little surprised that she was the first one to come over. Still, I’m glad to see her come over since she and Nagi have an interesting friendship.  It was amusing seeing Chiharu reading one of Nagi’s bizarre mangas for the first time. ^_^

The surprise party for Ayumu was sad and amusing at the same time. The “ordinary” Ayumu has become friends with a rather incredible circle of wealthy (or in the case of Hina, well off) girls, so it was nice seeing them all come together to throw her a birthday party, with the icing on the cake being Nagi getting the dejected and depressed Ayumu to come back after she thought everyone had forgotten her birthday.  ^_^

It is unfortunate that the volume ends right during the Tama smuggling story with another Hina-Hayate romantic encounter of sorts. Well, I already know that it won’t go anywhere, but I am looking forward to seeing how it goes nowhere. *lol*

Finally, I guess there’s no hope for Kaoru ever catching Yukiji’s eye. Poor guy.

So, a fun volume to be sure.  Onto the next volume. ^_^