ハヤテのごとく！/Hayate no Gotoku 
Hayate the Combat Butler Chapter 433 Review

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Yozora, standing on the rooftop of a nearby apartment tower, observes Yukari-chan House in the dark and makes her report to someone that they can no longer use Ruka as a candidate. With that, she returns to whatever her main job is.

Meanwhile, Ruka reports in to her manager, Atsumari.

August 14 arrives and Nagi announces to the residents of Yukari-chan House that she intends to return to her mansion. Ayumu and Hina want to know what will become of the apartment house while Chiharu and Kayura panic as they have reasons for not wanting to move. Ayumu inquires what will happen with the butler service that is a part of living at Yukari-chan house. Hayate assures her that this won’t end as Klaus will move into Yukari-chan House after Hayate returns to the mansion with Nagi. This shocks Ayumu and Hina.

Ah-tan asks if it will be that easy to return to the mansion since Nagi no longer has a King’s Jewel. After Hina and Ayumu wonder what these are, they are told that they are precious stones belonging to the Sanzenin family, originating from King Midas. Hayate tells Nagi that he’s supposed to know where another stone is, based on what her grandfather told him, but he has no clue. Nagi wonders if he’s getting senile, however, she believes that Mikado will help them since he doesn’t want to die. After all, there’s one person in the world he does not want to gain the Sanzenin inheritance, no matter what.

Yozora puts on a maid uniform to return to her duties to Hisui. Hisui asks if Mikado is planning to bring Nagi back as his successor, which Yozora confirms, provided Nagi acquires a King’s Jewel. Yozora states that Mikado doesn’t want Hisui to have the treasure, no matter what. Hisui is amused by this as Yozora believes that it is because everyone is afraid of her. As such, Hisui decides they should pay the old man a visit.

Thoughts/Review:

Har! Hata-sensei just loves throwing curve balls left and right. I think all of the Hayate the Combat Butler fans were expecting him to launch into gag chapters (I know I certainly expected it), but he then goes and advances the main plot a bit with interesting tidbits to boot.

Yozora’s return was a massive surprise, but a welcome one. As I recall, Yozora was last seen in chapter 370, when they discovered the coffin in the hidden room at Yukari-chan House, after which Isumi put up wards to keep Yozora out.

In a weird way, Yozora turning out to be a maid didn’t surprise me. In the world of Hayate the Combat Butler, Hata-sensei has primarily filled it with rich and powerful people, as well as those who support them.  Obviously, Yozora worked for someone, so considering this world with lots of butlers and maids, it kinda makes sense to me that Yozora’s primary job would be that of a maid.

That being said, having Yozora be the maid of Hisui did surprise me greatly. She first got mentioned by name in chapter 384 as the person who’d likely get the Sanzenin inheritance if Nagi didn’t get it.  Her first actual mention (not by name) is in chapter 136 in volume 13. Since Jenny is Hisui’s sister, and Jenny was with Nagi in Africa when they found Tama (along with Isumi, whom I believe is the one who caused Tama to speak and think as a human), I suspect that Hisui was also on that trip, considering that Nagi referred to Hisui as a friend of hers.

What’s funny about Hisui showing up is that on one hand, she’s a new girl in the mix to replace Ruka (after a fashion, mind you). A new character is what I’ve seen some fans state an absolute objection to seeing in the manga. Yet technically, while this the first time we’ve seen her, the fact that Hisui has clearly been in the mix for however many years now means that she’s really not a “new” character. Maybe that’s why I’m not seeing anyone complain about her showing up.

The question becomes, “Why is Mikado so opposed to Hisui gaining the inheritance?”

Knowing Hata-sensei’s penchant for tossing important pieces of information into what appear to be throwaway gag moments, this means going back and reexamining Nagi’s flashback of Jenny. Despite being depicted as an adult, Jenny is said to be four. Whether that’s true or not remains to be seen, but Hata-sensei did mention that Jenny had ninjutsu powers, with which she was able to hear the tiny Tama tell her what had happened to his mother (she died). That led to Nagi being irritated that Jenny hadn’t used said abilities to defeat the creatures chasing them (that was done by Isumi without Nagi’s knowledge).

Let’s assume for the moment that Jenny is in fact a ninja, or at least has some training in the ninjutsu arts. If that is true, and it is also true that Jenny is the younger sister of Hisui, then the reason Hisui is feared is that she too has ninjutsu training. Then, taking into account Yozora’s abilities, it would appear that she too has ninjutsu training or some other mystical training/enhancement, considering how she’s able to battle Hayate, easily defend herself against Isumi’s magical attacks, and how she can make one of those ninja-like quick escapes across the rooftops.

As an aside, it really is hard to take any of the ninjitsu discussion seriously, namely because it was a gag moment in chapter 136, complete with youkai, other monsters, carnivorous animals, a unicorn, and even a ravenous panda (which still makes me laugh). Plus, this is a memory from Nagi’s childhood, so maybe she is embellishing a little. However, to date, whenever Nagi has had a childhood memory flashback, it is considered as actually having happened as described so…^_^;

Finally, I was surprised that Ruka already received a cameo, but it was needed to show that Ruka had moved out of Yukari-chan House and back to her own apartment. I’m not sure how often Ruka will get future cameos, but I’m pretty sure she will at some point.