Hayate no Gotoku! Ch. 302

Hina might not be seeing her own bed again for 3 months...

Happy New Year! Welcome to Year 2011 and Ch. 302 of Hayate no Gotoku!! This is Doughnut Gunso reporting on this blog.

The title of Ch. 302 is “Come to My Place”, somewhat comparable to “Your House” of Ch. 76, in which Hina invited Hayate to her house. This current chapter, in turn, was Hayate’s attempt to invite Hina into living in the Violet Mansion, with Alice the little princess.

So Alice was (said to be) the little princess in training. For her safety it would be better for her to live in the Violet Mansion, in which she could be served and protected by Hayate the combat butler. As she would need to stay with the person she recognized as her “Mama”, Hinagiku would have to live with her. Hina, who found it extremely embarrassing to live with the person she loved, refused and ran away. Alice asked Hayate to go after Hina, and so off he went.

Didn't they looked quite similar on their backs?

Meanwhile, Maria was showing Alice her – or their – room. According to Alice the Violet Mansion was, “just as she was told”, a strong power spot, and if she could live here with the Shirosakura, she could have her powers and the memory of Tennosu Athena back. Several chapters ago, Yozora also told us that the Violet Mansion was a place of a certain secret. Whether this secret has anything to do with Alice, or whether Yozora and the “28th”-whatsoever were linked to Alice or Athena, remains everybody’s guesses.

In any case, Alice’s request remained the same: She wanted Katsura Hinagiku to reside with her in the Violet Mansion.

It's true that he saw her expressions, but...

It became a quest for Hayate to complete, but as he suggested to us in the last page of the previous chapter, he did not know what to do. More precisely, he did not understand why Hina was reluctant to live with them (In fact, Hina was just reluctant to live with him…). In the end, he decided to go for a “direct attack”.

And that meant to convince Hina's family.

On the whole, this was a good idea. One of Hina’s most valid “excuses” would be that her family did not permit such a move, so if she was no longer allowed to use such an “excuse”, possibly she would be more willing to move. If, by any chance, her family could join him to persuade Hina, that would be even better…

As it turned out, Mrs. Katsura, Hina’s foster mother, was very co-operative. Given that Hayate left the Violet Mansion after Hina, but arrived at her house before she did, there was little time for Hayate to convince Mrs. Katsura, and so she might have agreed in an instant.

Wait a minute. Did Hayate tell you that whoever moved into the Violet Mansion would have to pay 40K yen per month as rent, Mrs. Katsura?

K.O.!

Hina was not at all impressed that Hayate went to convince her mother, and that made sense. It was family business, after all, and if anyone was going to ask for Mrs. Katsura’s permission, it should have been Hina, instead of someone outside the family. Besides, Hayate did not try to talk to Hina again before taking actions on his own, and Hina was justifiably feeling offended. As a result, she gave Hayate a punch in the face, in a somewhat Nagi-ish manner.

So, Mrs. Katsura not only permitted Hina to move, she even encouraged Hina to move. Hayate then turned to Hina and asked her to live with them again. Hina replied by a simple “No!”, a very short but in-your-face rejection.

Well, you were asking too much, Hina...

Hayate could not understand it: Your mother permitted it, so there should be no more problem, why not live with us?! What he did not understand was that, even if there was no problem at all, Hina would still be reluctant to move in. Hayate thought it was the external and objective obstacles, but in truth it was her internal and subjective feelings, that stopped her from moving in. He did not understand her feelings, and he did not try to understand her feelings. He only wanted to get his task done. That’s why he failed.

Hina did not answer his question, but told him to think for himself. She demanded him to spend a few more minutes on her mind, and on her feelings. “Think about me! Think about what I am thinking! Try to understand me!”

To her, it would be much better for him to think more about her feelings, instead of wasting his time on her family.

Yet another misunderstanding.

Hayate walked on the streets, wondering what led to his failure. For some reason or for no reason at all, he arrived at Hakuo Academy. There he met Yukiji.

Everybody knows that Hina was sometimes quite mean on Yukiji, but Hayate was none the nicer. He thought that she was a hopeless person, and he let his tongue slip three times in front of her. But then, this person was Hina’s sister, and perhaps he could get some hint towards convincing Hina, so he asked: “I want to know how to convince a girl to live with you.”

Perhaps I went blind all of a sudden, but I never saw the name “Hinagiku-san” in his question. To Yukiji it would sound like he was asking any other girl to live with him – any but her own sister. Hayate might have not named Hina for a reason, but in any case he couldn’t blame Yukiji if she failed to notice that he was talking about her own sister. As a hopeless person, Yukiji was not quite intelligent, was she?

He blushed.

To be fair to her, though, her advice to him made sense. Honestly, if you wanted to ask your girlfriend to live with you, the key was of course to show her your love! And of course it was like proposing to her!

But let’s not forget that Hayate was seeking advice from her about Hina, not his girlfriend. He therefore assumed that her advice worked on Hina, instead of his girlfriend. Without noticing that he might have slightly misunderstood something, he went for Hina again.

Although it involved a slight misunderstanding, it might be interesting to point out that, it was yet another example that a third party had offered Hayate advice on his relationship with Hina. Mrs. Katsura gave him hint on how to repay his gratitude to Hina, by telling him that 3 March was her birthday. Kaoru encouraged Hayate to “go with the flow” and invite Hina to the movie. Aika suggested Hayate to bring Hina to dinner – and she named the restaurant – in Athens. Maria advised Hayate to talk to Hina about what was concerning him. Now Yukiji told him how to invite Hina to move in.

Of course, Kaoru and Yukiji did not know that the girl involved was Hina, and Maria’s “advice” was based on a small misunderstanding and it ended up badly, but it doesn’t change the fact that, the Hayate-Hina relationship had received a lot of helping hands.

Let’s not even talk about the helping hands Hina had received in her relationship with Hayate…

Hina's First Law: "I am shy" + "He isn't bothered" = "He doesn't love me".

Meanwhile, Hina was sitting by the river, thinking. She agreed that it might be okay to live in the Violet Mansion for 3 months, but it was Hayate’s attitude that annoyed her. She thought that if he had any feelings for her, he would have noticed that she was being shy, and would do better than to eagerly ask her to live with him. She even thought, earlier in this chapter, that he should be more cautious with the prospect of her moving in. She came to her conclusion: Hayate did not have any feelings for her.

Perhaps Hina should know that boys and girls think and feel slightly differently. When he eagerly asked her to move in, it did not mean that he had no feelings for her. Still, she was right about his failure to notice her emotions. Rather than being oblivious, I think sometimes Hayate was just being ignorant. He was just not paying attention to Hina’s emotions, and in any relationship, “not paying attention” could be fatal. So, Hina’s conclusion might have been correct in the end: He does not pay attention to me, so how could I even say that he loves me?

Lovely scene.

Then there came Hayate, who was acting on Yukiji’s advice, and “expressed” his feelings for Hina. He asked her to move in to show her smile more to him, because whenever she smiled at him, he would feel very happy. It really sounded like a very lovely and touching proposal, and his words sent Hina’s heart flying, until he let out the “truth” that the “proposal” was actually Yukiji’s idea.

Let me say this once again: Yukiji did not tell you how to convince Hina.

Ooops.

This incident was quite similar to the recent “night in the coffee shop” incident. In both cases Hayate made Hina shy but happy with his words, but then he told her the “inconvenient truth” in an extremely blunt manner. In both cases, therefore, Hayate’s romantic speeches could be regarded as “lies” quite easily – Hina would be ready to come to this conclusion, just to say the least.

But it begs one question: Was Hayate really telling lies or empty words? Could there be any true feelings hidden in those words?

Was there something more behind the so-called mask of a gigolo?

I don’t really think a person could tell lies this easily, especially when Hayate was not exactly a very accomplished liar – he couldn’t even hide his sadness when he served dinner to Hina in Athens, remember? Besides, Yukiji only told him “to get across to her just how important she is to you”. She did not put that lovely speech into Hayate’s mouth, so what Hayate told Hina – that living with her would be fun, that her smile made him happy – could be his honest feelings for Hina, and so it could actually be true.

But then, for a reason unknown, he always ended up telling Hina very clearly that he made up his speech – “Just kidding” and “Katsura-sensei told me”. If these were the “inconvenient truth”, then it follows logically that Hayate did not have romantic feelings for Hina. Indeed, if his lovely speeches were his honest feelings, why would he follow up by saying – or hinting – that these were not true?

So, what is the truth? To be honest, I don’t know.

She was extremely pleased with his words, but it would be quite unwise to believe them.

As Hayate’s feelings for her remained unproven, it might actually be better for Hina to think that he did not have romantic feelings for her. Given that Hayate already made it “clear” that he was only making up his speech in order to convince her, I am rather confident that Hina would not have any wishful thinking, at least until he made another lovely speech to her in the future.

But then, what if this was yet another misunderstanding between them? What if Hayate did have romantic feelings for Hina? Well, it might simply be that it was not only Hina having trouble delivering their feelings to the one they loved, and it was not only Hayate having trouble understanding the feelings of others for them.

It would be very funny if someday we started criticising Hina for her own dumbness.

In terms of luck, Hina was the human manifest of Hayate no Gotoku (Meaning: Just like Hayate.).

In any case, Hayate failed again to convince Hina into living with them. Hina ran away and exclaimed her disbelief that she could have fallen in love with Hayate. She did not expect herself to be heard, but she was heard by Alice.

It was quite amazing that Maria could have let Alice going onto the streets all by herself. She was (supposed to be) a princess, after all, and what was the point of offering protection to her by living in the Mansion, if she could just wander in the streets like nothing would happen? This is unbelievable.

We don’t know how much Alice had witnessed, but she already knew enough: Hina said she loved Hayate. She suggested to tell Hayate right away, but when Hina refused, she said she would agree to keep Hina’s feelings a secret if Hina agreed to live with her.

Hina panicked. If she lived with Alice, Hayate might figure out her feelings. If she did not live with Alice, Alice would tell Hayate her feelings. This might not be blackmailing (I consider this a very strong word, so I prefer not using it at all.), but it surely was a little threat. There was almost no choice at all, so very reluctantly, Hina agreed to move in.

Hello, Haruko!

Chiharu was perhaps the first person to greet Hina in the Violet Mansion, and I must say that Chiharu’s reaction was a bit surprising to me. It was quite clear from Ch. 278 that Chiharu wanted the fact that she was renting room in the Violet Mansion to remain a secret from anyone at school, and that should include Hina. So, I actually expected Chiharu to exclaim in her mind that “Oh, no! Why is Hina here? She would now know that I am also a tenant! What am I going to do?”

But it turned out that Chiharu made no such thought. She did not show the slightest bit of shock, but greeted Hina quite casually. “You’re going to be living here too, Hina?” she asked. This actually implied that Hina already knew Chiharu was a tenant of the Violet Mansion, and Chiharu knew it.

Well, maybe it was simply that, while she wanted her tenancy to remain a secret for most of the school, she did decide to confide in Hina. Hina was her President, after all.

Good... what, morning?

It was night time, and finally Nagi woke up. She saw that some more people were moving in, and we probably would know how she would react in the next chapter.

So, after 3 chapters but 4 weeks, Hina and Alice moved in. Their mother-daughter relationship might be quite fun. I don’t expect Alice to be very respectful to her “Mama”, as she could threaten Hina with her little secret, and in any case she might be too clever for Hina to handle. Indeed, Hina would have a very hard time performing like a real mother.

Not the happiest tenant.

More importantly, Hina would find it even more difficult to hide her face from her love issues. Before this chapter, she could always run back to her own house, or lock herself up in the Student Council Room, if she wanted to escape from her “Hayate-kun problem”. But now, she lived in the same Mansion as Hayate, so no matter how much she wanted to run away from him, she would at least have to return to the Mansion for her meal and bed. Whenever she wanted to return to her own home, we could expect Alice to drag her back into the Mansion, because she would need Hina to stay there for 3 months.

In other words, no matter she liked it or not, it is more likely than not that she would be locked up with Hayate and the others for 3 months – long enough for anything to happen. There would be no more escape routes for Hina, so let’s see what else she could do with Hayate other than beating him up and running away.

You have to wonder whether "these" could be regarded as tenants at all...

The inter-tenants relationship would also be interesting. Hina had a personal relationship with every single resident except Tama, and readers are looking forward to the interaction between Alice and the Sanzen’in trio. It might be surprising, but with the addition of Hina and Alice, the interaction inside the Violet Mansion could be intensified by two folds.

Let’s also not forget that the Violet Mansion was still not fully occupied. New tenants could arrive in any future chapters, and at this moment I think almost everyone could have a chance. So who’s the next tenant? Could it be Ayumu? The SC Rangers? Luca or Yozora?

Let’s look forward to future chapters!