This is the twenty-first post in my series of posts about story arcs in the Hayate no Gotoku manga.
Arc covered: Fights, Exposition, and a Finale.
Fights, Exposition, and a Finale: Entry 6 of the Golden Week Grand Arc
Includes chapters 254 - 266.
Characters Introduced:
Ikusa Ayasaki, Hayate's brother (Ch. 264, by name)
Events
Ginka Saginomiya steps into the meeting with Hayate, Isumi, and Sakuya, having been invited by Isumi and asks what kind of person Machina is; Machina then shows up injured, Ginka captures him, Hayate and Isumi leave for Athena's house, and Sakuya figures out what Machina wants. (Ch. 254)
When Hayate and Isumi enter Athena's house, Isumi gets lost and runs into Athena who captures her; while searching for Isumi, Hayate runs into and defeats a minotaur, which has come into existence due to Athena's actions, before entering the area that Athena is in and gets challenged to a duel. (Ch. 254)
While in the midst of the duel with Athena, Hayate thinks back to earlier when Isumi explained what the King's Jewel is used for and Athena manages to land a blow on him when he exits his thoughts. (Ch. 255)
As Hayate isn't giving her the stone, Athena decides to apply pressure to Hayate by creating monsters in the hotel in hopes that that will get him to hand over the stone. (Ch. 255)
Hayate then asks Athena why she wants the stone as she wanted to get out earlier and thanks her for saving him from her possessed self years ago by messing with the swords they used, allowing him to flee when they broke. (Ch. 255)
Hayate's thanks flusters Athena until the spirit takes over again and asks for the stone; Hayate shows that the stone is destroyed and the spirit freaks out and attacks Hayate. (Ch. 256)
Hinagiku calls Yukiji and Hinagiku hangs up before the conversation really begins; Izumi shows off a costume that she has and Nagi and Ayumu go to put on costumes. (Ch. 256)
Sakuya and Maria finish making hamburgers for Machina and Ginka says that she knows why Isumi's magic didn't work on Machina as they are attacked by monsters; Nagi and Ayumu play around, Hinagiku is shown in a penguin costume, and Aika shows up to suggest that Hinagiku wear her "normal" costume. (Ch. 256)
After Machina is shown fighting for Sakuya, Hinagiku is shown sitting and thinking about what has happened; Yukiji, in a costume, then shows up to counsel Hinagiku, Hinagiku talks about how her sister is a problem, and Ayumu shows up and asks about her situation with Hayate. (Ch. 257)
Yukiji gives Ayumu some good advice about how if you have someone around to comfort you, it doesn't matter if things don't work out the way you want; Ayumu then give Hinagiku her hero costume and they sit down to talk. (Ch. 257)
Ayumu thanks "the hero" for everything she has done, Hinagiku tells Ayumu what happened with Hayate, and Ayumu puts a good spin on it by saying that a man who can keep a love for ten years loves deeply. (Ch. 257)
Ginka then flies by Hinagiku and Ayumu while fighting the monsters, Nagi is shown running from monsters, Aika is shown just drinking tea, and Maria is shown ordering the monsters around. (Ch. 257)
Sakuya explains the whole situation to Hinagiku, who decides to help Hayate and Isumi, and Ginka decides to help Hinagiku on her way by pulling the sword Shirozakura from Machina and giving it to Hinagiku; the sword then pulls Hinagiku towards Athena, into the air. (Ch. 258)
Hayate stands up after being knocked down, Isumi explains that the spirit is going to take Athena over forcefully, and Hayate gets knocked to the ground again and surrounded by monsters; the spirit then talks about exacting his revenge upon the person who cut off his arm, confusing Hayate. (Ch. 258)
Athena then tells Hayate that she will take out the spirit by sacrificing herself and begins crying, which causes Hayate to regain his resolve to fight and save her; Hayate then is tossed Wooden Masamune to help him fight and "the hero" shows up and tells him that she will cover him while he saves Athena. (Ch. 258)
Hinagiku fights the endless monsters until Isumi explains that she needs to destroy the replica King's Jewel which is creating the monsters. (Ch. 259)
Ginka continues fighting while Nagi and Ayumu have a conversation about a legend of a king with donkey ears and while this occurs, Ginka runs out of power and the monsters become dangerous; at this point Hinagiku finally destroys the Jewel and all the monsters and she gets caught by the spirit right after. (Ch. 259)
Isumi then calls Sakuya to figure out the spirit's name so her magic will be more effective and the answer, King Midas, is provided by Ayumu when she hears that the spirit turns stuff into gold; with the name known, Isumi stops Hinagiku from turning into gold and enchants Wooden Masamune with the power of the only weapon that can defeat the spirit. (Ch. 259)
Hayate begins his assault on King Midas while Athena thinks back on the years past and how she regrets leaving Hayate in such a bad way. (Ch. 260)
Hayate saves Athena as she begins crying in earnest and Hinagiku and Isumi leave; Isumi then asks if Hinagiku is crying and she replies by saying that "a hero is someone who can't show anyone the tears beneath her mask." (Ch. 260)
King Midas explodes into a shower of light and Athena gives Hayate some grief for ruining her house; Athena then gets Hayate to embrace her, after some trouble, by sitting down between his legs and telling him that her back is cold. (Ch. 261)
As Hayate embraces Athena he says she is still quite small and she gets Hayate to admit that her chest has grown quite a bit; Athena then thanks Hayate for saving her and he asks how much she remembers of being possessed. (Ch. 261)
Athena then explains that she was taken over due to someone obtaining the "Power of Royalty" and it is heavily suggested that the person who took the Power of Royalty was Yukkyun; Hayate then says that he doesn't know how he got into the Royal Garden and Athena decides to tell him what happened after he left. (Ch. 261)
The flashback begins with Athena sitting on the stairs alone and regretting what she said to Hayate and also knowing that she couldn't tell him how she needed to leave; Hayate is shown being comforted by his big brother and being told that he will be able to save many people. (Ch. 262)
Hayate then drops the charm bag he had in his pocket and his brother picks it up and pulls out a King's Jewel which Hayate says he got from Santa; his brother then tells Hayate to go home as he runs off due to hearing someone call for help. (Ch. 262)
Brother then runs through a forest to trees and pillars to get to the person calling for help in a palace; as he enters, Brother is told by Athena that he can take whatever he wants and he goes up to her and tells her he heard her calling for help. (Ch. 262)
Athena explains why she can't leave to Brother and also explains the method that allows her to leave, that someone with a King's Jewel must take her and slash a certain random pillar in the forest in order for her to leave and if the wrong pillar is chosen the attempted savior dies. (Ch. 263)
She explains that she didn't tell her previous visitor, Hayate, the method as she cared for him, Brother says that he will help free her, and then uses some sort of play on words to attempt to convince her that he can't fail. (Ch. 263)
Brother calls Shirozakura to hand, says that he wants to fulfill her dreams, and fights King Midas; the flashback then ends with Athena saying that she can't remember who saved her and gives Hayate a description. (Ch. 263)
Athena explains that Midas exploited her concern about the person who saved her to possess her and she is relieved when Hayate explains that he thinks that the person who saved her is Ikusa, his brother, just before the bell in her house tolls. (Ch. 264)
Everybody back at the hotel hears the bell with Isumi explaining where it is tolling, Hinagiku explaining a bit of what she did, and Nagi seeing the bell as a sign of a new beginning. (Ch. 264)
Athena asks Hayate about Nagi and he explains that she is difficult, but she is also the person that he owes his current life to; Athena understands that she can't take Hayate back now, so she says that she won't return to Japan and tells him farewell. (Ch. 264)
Athena tells Hayate that he should return to the people waiting for him and that they will surely meet again; she then tells Hayate that she loved him and Hayate says the same and finally apologizes for what he said years ago. (Ch. 265)
Nagi finishes her discussion about the legends of Midas with Ayumu by saying that the tales are about the importance of forgiveness; Hayate returns to the party and tells Nagi that things have been resolved, while he wonders to himself if he will the feel the same about someone as he did Athena. (Ch. 265)
Everybody returns to Mykonos to play until their airplane is ready. (Ch. 266)
Hinagiku asks Hayate what happened with Athena and he tells her that he was rejected and he runs off to help Maria before Hinagiku can ask more; Nagi complains about returning to Mykonos to Sakuya who says that divine punishment will happen for complaining and happen it does as Penta steals Nagi's hat. (Ch. 266)
Nagi chases the pelican, he eventually drops the hat, and the hat is caught by Athena who gives the hat to Nagi in thanks for yesterday and gives Nagi an empty ring box; Athena returns to Machina and decides that she will actually return to Japan. (Ch. 266)
The flight to Japan finally takes off and back in Japan, Chiharu goes to a doujinshi convention and finds a promising new artist. (Ch. 266)
Commentary
This marks the end of Golden Week and it was quite the exciting finish. The first and most important thing that happens in this segment is the saving of Athena from King Midas. This is a rather action packed segment, but it also includes quite a bit of touching character based moments, primarily for Hayate, Athena, and Yukiji. Yukiji does an excellent job of providing some advice to Hinagiku and Ayumu. I have to say that the moments with Yukiji show why Hinagiku is willing to put up with her older sister, mainly that she can provide good advice when the going gets tough. As for saving Athena, there is a lot of people that had a hand in ensuring that she got saved. This list of people who made it possible includes: Hayate, Hinagiku, Isumi, Sakuya, Ginka, Nagi, and Ayumu. (I am probably missing someone.) The next thing that happens in this segment is Athena filling the holes in Hayate's story. Athena notes that the Power of Royalty has been moved by someone and that she was saved by Ikusa, who was the one who cut off Midas' arm. Now I am going to begin theorizing (kind of), so if you don't care for theorizing you can skip to around the end as I will underline part of the sentence after the end of my theorizing. The first is about an event I kind of glossed over in the commentary, when Midas tells Hayate he will get Hayate for cutting off his arm. As noted by later events, Ikusa was the one who cut off Midas' arm, so many wonder what Midas is talking about. My theory is that Midas is unable to see portions of the physical world, particularly people, clearly. He sees a kind of blur or the aura of people instead of the actual person. It is my guess that Hayate has a similar aura to his brother from ten years ago, which isn't impossible as they are both heroic male members of the Ayasaki bloodline. So that ends that theory. The other theory born of this segment is the idea that Yukkyun wasn't lying to Nagi when she said that she would become a star or the sky. It was already suggested back in Shimoda as Maya looked almost exactly like Nagi's drawing from years ago, but even if one didn't think it was a coincidence there was still the issue of how Yukkyun could actually have the power to do such a thing. That issue is solved, at least somewhat if one accepts that Yukkyun obtained the Power of Royalty as suggested in this segment. I am not sure how that power allowed Yukkyun to become a part of the sky, but it seems likely that it did. -End Theorizing-
The last thing that happens in this segment is Athena deciding to return to Japan and also Chiharu meeting a certain girl in overly thick glasses for the first time, which in hindsight sets up the rest (or a large portion) of the manga to come.
End
(For information about some terms used within refer to the glossary, the first post of April 2013.)
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