ハヤテのごとく！/Hayate no Gotoku Manga
Hayate the Combat Butler Chapter 520 Review

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Mikoto takes Hayate to a fancy bar, where she begins drinking as she encourages Hayate to speak. He tells her of the Shimoda trip and how at the end of everything, he had a waking dream of a woman in front of Yukariko’s grave, and that woman told him, “You really will come running no mater where I am.” Further, she left Nagi in his care.

Mikoto goes through her phone to try to find a photo, but because she can’t figure things out, she gets frustrated. Hayate take her phone and brings up the photos. With that, Mikoto finds an image of Yukariko and shows it to Hayate. Hayate confirms this is the woman who communicated with him. Hayate then says that she had something to ask of him again.

Mikoto explains that the stones she gave Hayate or King’s Jewels and that they open a path to the Royal Garden using an explosion of negative emotion. She then states that an evil king made the palace there and after tricking the god there, the evil king stole the god’s power and sealed it in the palace’s coffin. This is the Royal Power, which the lights the King’s Jewels.

Because the evil king created the palace, the stones to pretend to be a god, using the god’s stolen power, Yukariko decided to return that power to the god, but she died before she could finish. When Hayate asks why Mikoto is telling him all this, she says it is to do something she could not — grant Yukariko’s wish to return the power of the god and destroying the Garden Palace. However, there will be something standing in his path to stop him — HIMEGAMI Aoi, Nagi’s former butler.

Thoughts/Review:

Another week of advancing the plot.

Because of the gag nature of Hayate the Combat Butler, half of the chapter was spent on Mikoto getting drunk and not being able to access the photos she wanted. I don’t mind this, but there was a large part of me wishing for more plot and less comedy.

As to the plot, it is surprising that until now, Hayate has never seen a photo of Yukariko. Despite everything that happened at Shimoda, and despite having lived with Nagi for all these months, there are apparently no portraits or photos of Yukariko anywhere in Nagi’s home. Why Nagi wouldn’t show Hayate a photo of her mother, nor even keep one by her bedside is more of a mystery.

With the coffin at Yukari-chan house apparently destroyed, what happened to the sealed power? Did it return somehow to the Royal Garden Palace?

During Mikoto’s exposition, we got a shot of the relief, which I presume shows the evil king since it has elongated, donkey-like ears. Whomever this is, they clearly had Shirozakura in one hand, and I would guess Kurotsubaki in the other.

This chapter makes me more convinced that Mikado’s true motive for obtaining this god power is the resurrection of Yukariko. It was just the fact that Mikado’s image was shown during Mikoto’s conversation, along with her explaining the power of the god that was stolen, and I think this is another hint as to Mikado’s motivations. That’s just my theory though.

Finally, there’s Himegami. As is typical for him, Hata-sensei kept the silly mask element from the first anime series for the character, though Himegami has a different given name. Regardless, I guess we’ll see more of him next chapter.

In the end, I like that the plot is moving forward a little bit again. That makes the chapter a good one for me.