Halloween was 2 weeks ago…
At the end of the last chapter, we are left with a question: what does Ruka plan to do with Hayate, so that he can be relieved of his duty as butler?
Luckily she is not doing anything radical yet, as she merely suggests that she would work hard to repay the debts – of both of them. It means that there would be a total of 300M yen for Ruka to repay, which is an astronomical sum even for a popular idol. However, she is determined to do this for Hayate, because she loves him.
That’s doing too much, don’t you think?
Hayate blushes, but he hasn’t really give Ruka an answer as to whether he accepts her confession or not. It means that he has not stopped her from trying to repay the 300M yen debt, and it is safe for us to assume that Ruka would try to do the impossible. Such is the determination of Ruka: when she has decided something, she will not back off.
One must then wonder just what Ruka could do to earn so much money. The best way, of course, is to return to her idol business. If Ruka is as popular as the manga suggests, I see no problem for her to earn 100M yen a year, and 300M yen in 3 years. By then she would only be 19, still young enough to start a relationship with Hayate. Granted, her company wants Ruka to work for 10 years as idol, but that has nothing to do with her having a boyfriend, provided that they manage to stay low…
Stay low…
Things become a lot more complicated if Ruka wants to earn big money with her manga. Assuming that her manga sells at 300 yen a copy, she needs to sell a million copies. If her manga is good enough to be animated and made into accessories and toys, she could earn money a lot quicker, but then it takes a long time for her manga to be considered “good enough” for producers…
What I am suggesting here is that, for Ruka to go out with Hayate, she might have to give up on her dream of becoming a mangaka – at least for a few years. With her determination, I guess it is a “sacrifice” she is willing to make, but such strong determination might start to scare me…
For now, Ruka is still too weak (physically), so she goes to sleep again. So, we have no more business with her… for now.
Maria surely has had enough…
Nagi is still visiting her sick grandfather, when her lifestyle suddenly comes under heavy scrutiny from Mikado and (surprise!) Maria. Mikado points out all the obvious and serious flaws of Nagi, while Maria goes one step further by suggesting that she is a silkworm which cannot survive on itself. These insults all lead to one question: how would Nagi survive once Hayate and Maria leave her?
Mikado suggests that Nagi might need the inheritance of the Sanzen’in family after all. Indeed, as Nagi is so used to the wealthy lifestyle, she would do much better with money than without money, but there is a problem: Nagi would only get Mikado’s inheritance after he has died, and if Nagi needs to live on the inheritance instead of Mikado’s care, it means that the grandfather could be dying soon. Mikado seems unable to deny this, although we do not see why he is dying except that he is old. Well, he is old…
Then again we fail to understand what he was after by disinheriting his own granddaughter in the first place. Come to think of it, he did not disinherit her, but he set up a dilemma for Hayate, which bothered the butler so much that Nagi decided to make a choice for him. Maybe Mikado did not expect this, so he could be expecting that – the other side of the dilemma was for Athena to be consumed by King Midas…
He can’t answer that either.
Whatever plan Mikado has had in mind, it seems that it did not turn out well for him. The inheritance thing has turned into a huge mess, and now he seems to be looking for reconciliation with his granddaughter. So Nagi is right: if Mikado thinks that everything is going to go as he planned, he is quite mistaken.
The discussion is interrupted by a call from Sakuya, who informs Nagi that Hayate and Ruka are lost in the mountains. Isumi doesn’t even know that it was her who caused all these troubles…
Those who have not done anything to him should be grateful.
Back in the mountains, Hayate is reflecting on his love issues. So far, three girls have already confessed to him (Athena, Ayumu and Ruka), and three girls have already kissed him on the lips (Athena, Izumi and Ruka). It appears that he looks forward to a love life after all, but he also thinks a prerequisite for a love life is to quit his butler job. This is particularly difficult: of course he enjoys the days with Nagi, but more importantly he cannot imagine how Nagi could survive without him. In other words, Hayate also treats Nagi like a silkworm.
The fact is, Nagi has been living for 13 years before hiring Hayate as her butler. If Hayate were to think that Nagi could not live without him, then she would have died a long time ago. Yes, she had Himegami as her butler before, but that is exactly the point: Nagi would be fine being a silkworm as long as there is someone who can take care of her, and that person doesn’t have to be Hayate.
“Me, me, me… Me too!” (Reference anyone?)
It is uncertain as to why Hayate thinks that he is the only one who could keep Nagi alive. It could be that he has simply built up a huge ego about his work, or that it is his (immature) expression of love and affection for her. If it is the former, I think Hayate has to grow out of such an ego. If it is the latter, Hayate must come to terms with himself. Maintaining a lady-butler relationship with Nagi while loving her unconsciously is not doing any fairness to Nagi.
Miraculously, while nobody is able to locate Hayate and Ruka, Nagi manages to find him in no time. We can easily take this as their “power of love” or her “main heroine privilege”, but let’s not forget that Maria has implanted tracking devices in Hayate and Nagi, so… a little myth-busting would be useful.
It becomes clear that, should Nagi not be the one to inherit Mikado’s wealth, the inheritance would not go to some strange people like Gilbert (who?). The reason is that Mikado has other legitimate relatives in his nieces, Hatsushiba Hisui and Jenny. We have already seen Jenny, while Hisui (some translate it as “Jade”)… maybe she will make an appearance in the future?
And what about Tsugumi Ruri?
She really wants to keep him for the rest of her life…
Nagi assumes that Hayate would stay with her forever, so she is not worried about the inheritance. Hayate’s worries resurface: it is dangerous for Nagi to take this for granted, because if anything is to happen to Maria and him, Nagi would “definitely die alone”. As such, Hayate raises a question: “Can you survive on your own?”
To be fair, nobody would think that they can survive on their own at the age of 13. There is still too much to learn when we are so young, and many of our surviving skills are acquired after reaching adulthood. We could be underestimating Nagi too much if we think that she would remain a silkworm for the rest of her life, unless Nagi decides to turn it into a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Okay, fine. I don’t want this ending, so must I give up my ship because of this?
In any case, I don’t think whether Hayate is able to have a love life should depend on whether Nagi could survive on her own. After all, if Hayate’s availability for love depends on whether someone would die, then there is no choice at all: a living life is always more important than a love life. If this manga has anything to do with a “love comedy”, why are we making it into a dead-or-alive situation?
As such, I think that it is not entirely proper for Nagi to answer the question simply with “yes” or “no”. Some out-of-the-box thinking would be needed if we are to break the logical connection between Hayate’s availability for love and Nagi’s ability to survive. Then again, if Hata insists that such a connection is necessary in this manga, then my opinion is irrelevant.
Questions are to be answered in the next chapter, but you won’t have me making a report on that. I am on a trip to Australia, and I definitely won’t be “working”. I will see you again in Ch. 386 Review!
Hayate Report 