This is the twentieth post in my series of posts about story arcs in the Hayate no Gotoku manga.
Arc covered: A Reunion, a Dilemma, and a Choice.
A Reunion, a Dilemma, and a Choice: Entry 5 of the Golden Week Grand Arc
Includes chapters 243 - 253.
Characters Introduced:
The Spirit Possessing Athena (Ch. 246)
Events
After bringing the unconscious Hayate in, Athena thinks about taking the King's Jewel and gets Machina to leave her alone with Hayate by giving him some money for hamburgers. (Ch. 243)
Athena thinks about the time she spent with Hayate, brings the ring he lost to his parents out, and leaves the room; Hayate then wakes up, sees the ring, and decides that he must find Athena. (Ch. 243)
The dream Hayate had while unconscious is shown and Hayate begins his search for Athena. (Ch. 244)
Athena hides from Hayate and thinks about how she failed him and how she wants the King's Jewel for something; Hayate finds her while she is in thought and asks if she remembers him. (Ch. 244)
Hayate tells Athena about the hard times he has gone through and the good times he has had as Nagi's butler. (Ch. 245)
Athena tells Hayate to get away from her as her personality changes, she begins attacking him, and she says that the King's Jewel is needed to open the Royal Garden. (Ch. 245)
Hayate says that he can't give the stone away and a bony arm begins attacking him before he is saved by Isumi and Sakuya. (Ch. 245)
Isumi repels attacks and explains her theory of what is going on, that a spirit that tried to gain divinity is currently possessing Athena because of a wound in her heart, explaining why she has two personalities. (Ch. 246)
Isumi decides that she wants to have a proper talk with Athena, so she pulls out one of her stronger techniques to defeat the spirit, but is shocked when the techniques does nothing to it. (Ch. 246)
Isumi tries the same technique with more power, which fails, and Hayate asks Athena why she is doing what she is doing, which causes her to have an inner battle with the spirit possessing her. (Ch. 247)
Isumi decides that she, Hayate, and Sakuya should withdraw, but is taunted into using one of her strongest attacks by Athena and the attack is stopped by Machina who is revealed to be able to turn into a snake; during the commotion Isumi, Hayate, and Sakuya finally flee. (Ch. 247)
It is shown that Isumi used some type of technique to aid the escape, which caused them to end up in the ocean; they then end up taking a bath where Isumi explains how powerful her last technique was and how powerful the spirit and Machina must be. (Ch. 248)
Isumi theorizes how exactly the spirit took Athena over and comes to the conclusion that the safest way to get the spirit out of Athena is to destroy the King's Jewel. (Ch. 248)
Isumi gets ready to destroy the stone by force when Sakuya stops her and suggests that Hayate may have a reason to keep the stone; Hayate explains the relationship between the stone and Nagi's inheritance and, after he is called, Mikado explains what will all happen if the stone is lost. (Ch. 249)
Isumi then lays out the entire situation around the stone and tells Hayate that he will have to decide if Nagi or Athena is more important to him as her search for alternatives to destroying the stone may come up empty. (Ch. 249)
The Three Amiga decide that they want everybody to have fun, so they take everybody shopping, although it seems they are the ones having the most fun. (Ch. 250)
Maria notices that Hayate seems down so she asks Hinagiku what happened last night, but Hinagiku doesn't really have an explanation; Hinagiku then enters a bit of a funk and talks with Ayumu who says that "you can't regret anything beforehand." (Ch. 250)
The advice of Ayumu gets to Nagi who decides to have fun shopping with Hayate; after the shopping, Hayate begins to contemplate what he is going to do about the stone once again. (Ch. 250)
The second half of the Three Amiga's plan for a fun last day begins with everybody going to a hotel roof pool that Nagi helped rent out; Ayumu is impressed by the presence of walnuts in shells and Hinagiku realizes that Ayumu had been trying to cheer her up all day. (Ch. 251)
The Three Amiga get Nagi, Ayumu, and Hinagiku to join them in the pool; Hayate looks at the pool as an example of Nagi's wealth, go off someplace alone, and thinks about how he wants to save both Nagi and Athena. (Ch. 251)
Nagi teases Hayate for not saving her from the pool earlier and asks to see his King's Jewel; she then asks if the stone is causing him problems and tells him he doesn't need to say anything as words cause misunderstandings. (Ch. 252)
Nagi then pulls out a nutcracker and destroys the stone since it causes Hayate so much trouble; Hayate freaks out saying that she will lose the money that protects her and Nagi says she is fine with it as she has him to protect her now. (Ch. 252)
Nagi asks Hayate if he will seriously protect her as she expects and Hayate embraces her after deciding (or maybe realizing) that she is the one he wants to protect the most. (Ch. 253)
Hayate asks Nagi for the night off saying that there is someone he must save and she lets him go for the night; Hayate then puts on his uniform, meets with Isumi and Sakuya, and explains that Nagi broke the stone and he must save Athena to meet Nagi's expectations of him. (Ch. 253)
Commentary
Now the drama of Golden Week really begins with Hayate meeting Athena once again, Isumi telling Hayate that he must make a choice of how he is going to proceed, and Hayate stressing over the choice until Nagi makes it for him. This section probably features one of Nagi's best moments in the entire manga, when she breaks the King's Jewel. It shows that she's able to figure out situations and come up with solutions, if she at least puts her mind to it.
End
(For information about some terms used within refer to the glossary, the first post of April 2013.)
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