What If? A Hayate no Gotoku! Alternate Retelling: Chapter 2: Carefree, Blissful Days

Read Chapter One First.

 Present Day. Christmas Eve at Loser Park. Somewhere in Japan.

“I always kinda hoped those days would last forever.”

She looked far into the horizon with a knowing glance. The sun flared with a bright orange glow – the last rays of light before nighttime.

“I… felt the same. I truly did… I’m sorry.”

Upon hearing his words, she moved closer. Cupping his chin with her long, delicate fingers, she looked kindly into his deep blue eyes.

“Don’t say that… ok? ‘Sorry’ is a word of regret.”
She looked up into the sky. Hayate could only stand and watch, entranced by her every movement. The way her long golden hair tied up in twin-tails fluttered in the breeze, the way she closed her eyes with her head raised high.

“Listen, Hayate… sorry is a word of regret – so don’t you ever say something like that to me again. To regret means to dwell on the past. What has happened cannot be undone, so even if things seem painful, keep moving forward and never look back.”
“But – I thought you’d hate me if I didn’t say that. I did such a terrible thing.”

He was on the verge of tears.

“Hey Hayate! It was so much fun wasn’t it?”

She changed the subject.
“What?”
“I can’t believe it’s been a year already.  Every day just felt like a wonderful dream.”

6 months ago. Inside the Sanzenin Mansion…
“Ojou-sama! It’s time to wake up!”

Of course, this scenario was nothing new. It was a part of the everyday dramatics that had transpired over the past few months inside the Sanzenin Household. A familiar, comforting scenario that little Hayate Ayasaki was more than happy to play out over and over again.
“Mmf? What? SH-shut up, Hayate! Don’t you know that girls need their beauty sleep?” Said a disgruntled Nagi.
“Well, you are already a peerless beauty ojou-sama! Besides, it’s already 12:00 PM.”

Hayate’s words of praise fell on deaf ears.
“Hayate… do you really think I’m stupid enough to get up just because you praised me a little? I happen to know you stole that phrase from No game No Life… baka!”

Yes, no one can out-otaku Nagi Sanzenin, after all.

“Ahaha! Well, it was worth a try, wasn’t it?” He laughed sheepishly.
Of course, he was promptly kicked out of her room after that.
KNOCK KNOCK!
“Sniff! Sniff!”

Nagi heard some faint sniffles from outside of her room. As determined as she was at being a hikkikomori shut-in, Nagi was also the type of girl who could not ignore a person in need. Indeed, this is a trait that she shared with Hayate, although the two would not realize it until much later.
“Wh-what the? Are you actually crying? Oh for… no, no wait a second! You did this before. I’m totally not falling for that trick twice.”
“Nagi! What do you think you’re doing to this poor child? You’re older, so you shouldn’t bully him so much – even if he is your butler.”

This time, it was the voice of Nagi’s one and only maid and mother figure, 17 year-old Maria. While being only 17, Maria gave off an aura of maturity with an elegance and grace that spoke of wisdom beyond her years. At another time and in some other circumstances, Hayate would have easily fallen for Maria’s mature charms… but not in this lifetime. After all, someone else had already taken his heart.

“Eh? Maria? W-well… he started it! Anyway, hold on. I’m coming.”
“GOTCHA!”

Maria and Hayate greeted her with some mischievous smiles when she burst out of her room.

“Y-you two set me up! How dare you take advantage of my kind and understanding maiden’s heart?”

This prompted a look of disgust from both Hayate and Maria.

“Uh… it sort of sounds annoying when you’re the one saying that about yourself.” Hayate stated.

“Well, I see she’s wide awake now. You kids have fun while I go fix lunch.”

Having achieved her goal… or so she thought, Maria took her leave.

“SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP! I will not give in to this conspiracy to make me awaken at this ungodly hour on a weekend!” Nagi shouted in protest.
Hayate responded by showing her a digital clock.
“Umm no… like I said, it’s already past noon.”

The mistress of the mansion promptly snatched the clock from his hands.
“Hmph!”

With a look of contempt on her face, she switched the clock back to 6:00 AM.

“Umm… I feel like I might have said this before but… ojou-sama, that doesn’t turn back time.”

Of course, by the time he’d finished saying this, Nagi had already stormed back into her room and fallen fast asleep.

“Sigh… I guess you can sleep for a little while longer… ahaha!”

But at this point, Hayate was talking to nothing but the locked door of Nagi’s room.
A few days later, Nagi Sanzenin managed to wake up extremely early – at least by her standards at 5:00 AM. After all, she made sure to set her alarm appropriately. She sat up quickly and with a smirk on her face, she proceeded to put her plan into motion. The truth is that she had been planning to do this since yesterday.
Getting dressed in a hurry and without bothering to put her hair up into her usual twin-tails, she exited her room on tiptoes with a water-filled balloon in hand.
“Hah… I’ll show that Hayate for waking me up so early every day. I’ll have my… REVENGE!” The pretty blonde heiress was almost drooling as she said this – which made her look a bit silly.
Very, very carefully, she opened the door into Hayate’s quarters – making sure to turn the knob slowly as not to trigger any clicking noise from the door’s locking mechanism.
“Pfft… unlocked as expected. You’re so unguarded, Hayate… hehe~n”
FLIP!
“Kyaaah!”
“Oh, they’re baby-pink with lace today. Good choice, ojou-sama!”

“Y-you! You flipped my skirt again, you insufferable little pervert!”
“Like I keep saying, it’s your fault for wearing such a short skirt! Hahaha! Can’t catch me!”

It’s not like Hayate had especially attuned senses, it’s just that he woke up at 4:00 AM every day and he could hear the echoes of Nagi’s muffled snickering from miles away given how quiet the mansion is in the early mornings.

Thus, he was already waiting behind the doorway when Nagi tried to sneak into his room.

Like a bolt of lightning, he quickly made his escape after flipping his lady’s skirt like all naughty little boys like to do. Call it sexual harassment if you want to, but that won’t stop generations of little boys for all eternity from doing it for as long as skirts exist.

“Why you little… you think you’ve escaped? Take that!”
Nagi ran outside after him and saw Hayate running at full speed through the mansion’s huge hallway. With all her might, she threw the water balloon she had been holding in her hand at him… except her aim was totally off and she hit the floor in front of him instead with a smack causing the water inside to burst forth.

“WHOA!” With a wail followed by a resounding thud, Hayate Ayasaki slipped on the wet floor in front of him and fell face first into the hard marble floor.

“Oh no… Hayate! Hayate! M-Maria, come help! Quick!”
They had to call in the doctor afterwards to make sure no serious injury was incurred. It would take Hayate a total of three days to recover and of course, Nagi was quite sorry for the accident after that – even if she still insisted that it was partially his fault in the first place. Still, to her credit, she stayed by his bedside day and night until he was fully recovered.

At another time, Nagi was enjoying a hot bath when she realized that she forgot to take a towel into the bathroom with her. Fortunately, since the bathroom was actually just a short distance from the kitchen where Maria was usually found, she didn’t really mind it all that much.

When she figured that it was about time to get out, she simply called out to Maria.

“Maria… I forgot my towel, so could you please come in and hand me one?”
A few moments later…

Click!
“Oh, that was fast. By the way, while you’re at it, would you mind drying my hair for me? My hair’s grown so long lately, it’s hard to reach it by myself.”
Nagi felt the dry warmth of the towel over her head. She might not want to admit it all the time, but she did enjoy the touch of the gentle caring hands of her maid who had actually been the only person whom she considered her family after all this time.
“Yes… all this time. Until Hayate joined us, it’s just been the two of us, hasn’t it Maria?”
No reply.
“Still, he can a bit of a handful at times, but he really is an efficient worker. I didn’t think it would work out well at first but you know, looking at those kind, lonely eyes of his, I kind of thought… well, I sort of saw myself in him before I found you… geez… this is getting kinda embarrassing, why don’t you say something, Maria?”
“Gulp… so soft and luxurious…” Some muffled mumbling.

“By the way, have you had a bath yet, Maria? Maybe you should come join me? We can dry each other off later.”
Again, her inquiry was met with total silence, except for what seemed to be some labored breathing from behind her. In fact, she could feel Maria’s hot breath on her hair like some kind of makeshift hair drier.
“You know, I didn’t think your hands were this small, Maria… why, they’re almost as small as…”

Nagi stopped mid-sentence as she noticed a bolt of blue in the water’s reflection.
“HAYATE!?”
“Gaaaah!”

The startled kid butler jumped back.

Quickly snatching the towel and wrapping herself around it, she spun around to confront the little troublemaker.

“H-how dare you sneak in on me while I’m bathing…?”
“B-but, I’ve already seen you naked several times, ojou-sama… You see, Maria was busy and I heard your voice, so I thought I’d give you the towel myself, but you thought I was Maria when I came in so…”
Nagi’s face turned even redder than a tomato.

“W-w-what do you mean? I’ve never shown you my naked body before.”
Hayate scratched his head with a goofy smile plastered all over his face.
“Well… you know how my window is on the other wing of the mansion and it’s just overlooking your room…?”
“K-k-kuh! GAAAAAAH! I’ve been defiled!”
“Now, now… there’s no need to go that far, ojou-sama!”
SMACK!
A wash basin flew right into Hayate Ayasaki’s face way faster than any human being could react.  His face would be sore for quite awhile.

“Oowww! That hurt, ojou-sama!”
“That is the pain of my pure maiden’s heart being defiled! Now go… get out of here!”
“Y-yes, ojou-sama!”
Nagi barricaded the windows inside of Hayate’s room after that incident… and yes, she did it all by herself which caused no more than a few minor injuries to her delicate fingers.
“Umm… I could help…”
“You’ll do no such thing, you little peeping tom!”
“By the way, I can see your panties if you stoop over like that, ojou-sama!”
SMACK!
That statement earned him a quick punch to the nose… whether the bleeding afterwards was caused by Nagi’s punch or the sight of Nagi’s pristine white panties is still unknown. In his heart, Hayate Ayasaki was totally unremorseful of what he did that day – even though it did cause Nagi to be much more cautious around him.
“Totally worth it!” He thought to himself.

Present Day. Christmas Eve at Loser Park. Somewhere in  Japan.
“Those days… are really gone forever aren’t they, Nagi-neesama?” Hayate had a look of longing on his face.
“Yes, we can never go back to those times. Still, I’m happy for all the memories we made together, even though it was only for a short time.”
Tears welled up in young Hayate’s eyes.
“Me too… I was happy, I really was. Being with you… that was my one piece of happiness in the whole world.”
But neither of them would be prepared for the storm that was to follow…

To Be Continued (The next one will be the penultimate chapter!)
Proceed to Chapter 3