ハヤテのごとく！/Hayate no Gotoku Chapter 408

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Sakuya is not amused by the breakfast her butler Makita prepared, so she sends him off and has a 551 nikuman instead. Going for a stroll while eating her meat bun, she encounters Athena’s butler Machina on the ground, weakened from hunger. Since Athena had instructed him to hide, he’s reluctant to accept Sakuya’s offer of the nikuman, but as she points out, he’s already been found. To sweeten the deal, she offers to give him three nikuman and an okonomi-yaki too.

Sakuya smuggles him into her room, where he quickly scarfs the food and asks for seconds. She teases him that he might get sick from eating too much too fast, but he says that won’t happen as his stomach is a black hole. So, she calls Makita and orders a large okonomi-yaki and a yakisoba. Her butlers are surprised by this request, but comply. Machina eagerly scarfs down the food, but refuses to answer Sakuya’s question regarding his situation as he’s eating.

Since Machina is still hungry, Sakuya calls Makita to order a large yaki-udon, Hiroshima-yaki, modan-yaki, and an entire cake. Kunieda inquires about the call, which Makita thinks might be Sakuya being angry with them for not being funny that morning.

Sakuya is amazed at the amount of food Machina can eat, and he remarks on how Sakuya is the first person besides Athena to treat him so well. However, his one regret was not eating hamburgers, so Sakuya has a plate full of them delivered. Machina is excited by the mountain of burgers he sees before him. However, Sakuya has a price — she wants to know why Athena told him to hide in exchange for the burgers.

Thoughts/Review:

Well now, well now. I didn’t expect to see Machina show up. Indeed, I’m almost embarrassed to admit that I’d forgotten about him after Athena shows up as Ah-tan and takes up residence at Yukari-chan House.

I rather doubt Hata-sensei presses forward with providing us information on Athena just yet.  As he’s often wont to do, he teases us with elements from the main plot, obviously preparing things and setting the table, but that’s it. We can smell delicious stuff cooking, but we can’t see it nor sample it.

I did get a smile out of all of the fried (yaki) dishes Sakuya kept ordering for Machina. I’ve had yakisoba and even made yaki-ramen, but I’ve yet to have yaki-udon, Hiroshima-yaki, or modan-yaki. I’ll have to try those someday.

As for the burger gag, Machina and I would get along fine. I’m a cheeseburger kind of guy, but it did appear there were cheese slices on some of those burgers. ^_^

Otherwise, not a lot to say about this chapter. We get food gags, a reintroduction of Machina, and more food gags. Beyond that, there’s nothing. I’m hoping that next week, we return to Kyoto.