ハヤテのごとく！/Hayate no Gotoku Manga
Hayate the Combat Butler Chapter 564 Review

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Himegami has placed a barrier around the King’s Jewel, which was done before his defeat. This is to give Hisui time to obtain the Royal Power. Sakuya informs Mikado, meaning they need to get Hayate to wake up. Klaus volunteers, but gets rejected in his attempt. Dr. Kurosu and Chiharu arrive and brief everyone on what transpired between Nagi and Hayate. Athena realizes that someone with a strong bond to Hayate is needed to open his heart. Isumi suggests Maria, but with Maria gone, she then suggests Athena. Athena rejects this and seeks out Ayumu.

After getting Ayumu to help, Ayumu reaches Hayate’s mind, where he’s in the ruins of the mansion, attacking lifeless robot things labeled as his mom, dad, Hisui, Himegami, and himself. The sobbing Hayate tells Ayumu that his mom told him all of this was his fault. Ayumu tells him he did his best. Because of how things turned out, Hayate makes a wish that he hadn’t met Nagi that day.

As Hisui wakes up and forces her way into the Royal Garden, Hayate finds himself targeting Nagi for kidnapping. Ayumu catches him before he can make his move. They observe Himegami take care of Nagi, so Ayumu attempts to get Hayate to go to Souya’s party. Hayate turns this down since he has a ¥150 million debt and the yakuza are after him. Ayumu scolds Hayate for trying to do everything by himself, offering to stand by his side. Hayate is touched, but the yakuza show up. As such, Ayumu grabs Hayate’s hand and runs off with him.

Thoughts/Review:

And so Hata-sensei trolls the hoards of fans not happy with his ship. And thus we get the start of the “What if…?” story in Hayate the Combat Butler chapter 564 that Hata-sensei will then pull the rug from and laugh.

The Strong Bond

For me, Athena is the one with the strongest bond to Hayate. That’s why I call hogwash to her passing on reaching out to Hayate and turning it over to Ayumu. Of course Hata-sensei knows that if he dared put Athena into that position, the story would immediately shift to an Athena x Hayate ending, and that has to be avoided at all costs. So Athena sinks herself and then keeps away ’cause not doing so would ruin Hata-sensei’s ending.

As such, we get to see Ayumu up to bat. Hayate cares deeply about Ayumu, but Hata-sensei has already established that Hayate would have dated Ayumu had things gone a different path. So this “What if…?” dream world created by Hayate’s wish is just a reaffirmation of that. At the end of the day, it will be meaningless, other than to once again have the ordinary Ayumu squashed again, which sucks.

Then again, Ayumu may sink herself. As I reread the chapter, it isn’t just Hayate that makes the wish. Ayumu does as well, wanting to see the results of Hayate’s wish. Up until then, Hayate was just lashing out figuratively in his mind at his enemies and crying to Ayumu. After the wish is made, Ayumu seems to be the one in control. Hayate is being Hayate from the past, so this makes this more Ayumu’s wish than Hayate’s. I think Ayumu is taking advantage of the situation to make one last attempt to see if Hayate will love her. Whether he does or doesn’t, Ayumu still has a mission to wake Hayate up, so she’ll have to abandon the fantasy since Hayate will be locked into it. But we’ll see how the next chapter plays out.

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

Even though the manga has increased its page count by four pages (unless I miscounted) of late, there’s not a ton else to discuss. So I’ll throw in my usual bullet points.

• Dr. Kurosu shows up with Chiharu. That suggests that she’s not involved with Hayate’s parents. I still hope this is a sign that Yukariko is still alive.
• Again, Hata-sensei shows that he can have some gag humor in a plot chapter. We’ve always known he can do this, but as the manga ends, I keep wondering why Hata-sensei felt the need to abandon the plot for weeks and months on end for gag stories or pointless stories.
• Hisui has made her way into the Royal Garden, for whatever that’s worth.

In the end, Hayate the Combat Butler chapter 564 is a troll chapter that lets us start to see a “What if…?” scenario of what could have happened if Ayumu had found Hayate, preventing him from becoming Nagi’s butler.