Hayate no Gotoku! 248

Chapter 248

01

Text to the left: Sagnomiya Isumi is the strongest so her burdens are quite heavy.
Title: Chapter 248 "Her Choice"

02

Sakuya: Wapha!!

Sakuya: Ah bah bah bah bah!! Wait...!!
Sakuya: What the hell is this! Ah pah...!!
Sakuya: Eh!? The ocean!?
Sakuya: Why are we in the ocean!? Ah pah pah!!

Isumi: I used a secret technique of the Saginomiya family, "Law of Forced Transposition".
Hayate: Forced Transposition!?
Sakuya: Ah pah!
Sakuya: Ah pah!

Isumi: It's a secret technique so I can only use it once per day.
Isumi: But this is an ocean somewhere in Greece...

Isumi: This was the first time I'd used it on three people at once, so I was a little unsure of myself...
Isumi: I'm glad it worked out okay.
Sakuya: Ah pah!
Sakuya: Ah pah!

Text in right margin: Hayate and the others managed to escape from the fight against Athena. Is there any way to save Athena from the honored spirit that has possessed her...!?

03

Hayate: I see...

Sakuya: Quit admiring what she's done and save me!!

Hayate: S-sorry, Sakuya-san...
Hayate: I didn't think you could be drowning in an area this shallow...
Sakuya: If I wasn't drowning, why would I be gasping like that!?
Sakuya: And if you're dropped in the ocean at night all of a sudden, you can drown even if it's shallow!!

Sakuya: And why are you riding on a dolphin by yourself again!?
Isumi: I don't want to get wet.
Sakuya: Neither do III!!!

Isumi: Well, whatever.
Isumi: At least we managed to escape safely...

Sakuya: Wait!!
Sakuya: What!?
Hayate: Wait...!! Isumi-san!?

04

Hayate: Isumi-san...!!
Hayate: Y-your hair...!?

Isumi: I...
Isumi: used a bit too much of my power...

Isumi: Ah...
Isumi: I-it'll come back before long!
Isumi: Don't look at me so seriously...!
Hayate: I see...
Text left of Isumi: You're embarrassing me...

Hayate: Well...She really was a formidable enemy...
Isumi: Yes...
Isumi: I had my hands full just getting us away.

Sakuya: Well...for now...

Sakuya: I want to take a bath...

05

Sakuya: But, well...
Sakuya: That's the first time I've seen an opponent...
Sakuya: that your Seven Divine Generations didn't work on...

Isumi: Yes.
Isumi: That was the first time...
Isumi: one of my Kamitsumaki techniques has been defeated...

06

Hayate: Um...What are the Kamitsumaki techniques?

Sakuya: The Kamitsumaki techniques are...
Sakuya: the special techniques of the Technique Style - Eight Leaves.
Hayate: Special techniques?

Sakuya: From what Isumi-san has told me, the only techniques greater than them...
Sakuya: are "Kotoamatsugami" which is just as powerful as the Seven Heavenly Generations...
[TN: Kotoamatsugami refers to the first powers that came into existence at the creation of the universe in Japanese mythology.]
Sakuya: and the final special technique "Omikami".
[TN: Omikami literally means "great god" and usually refers to an especially distinguished god.]

Hayate: Oh.
Hayate: So it really was an amazing technique then...

Isumi: Yes. To put it simply, the Seven Divine Generations...
Isumi: is like Dar* Schneider's Hello*een.
Sakuya: What kind of person would find that to be a simple explanation?

07

Isumi: But even if you account for my inexperience...
Isumi: that strength was abnormal...

Isumi: My thought is that, because the honored spirit linked its power with Hakuou's board chairman,
Isumi: it is being fed power infinitely and that is letting it strengthen itself to truly frightening levels.
Isumi: The same with that snake.
Isumi: I think she must have some kind of ability to draw out power to the greatest extent possible.

Box: I can copy the gods now, too.

Isumi: At the very least, if we don't separate the honored spirit from her...
Isumi: we don't have a chance of winning no matter how many times we try...

08

Machina: My hamburgers...
Machina: My yummy hamburgers...
Athena: It can't be helped. You're the one who crushed them.

Athena: And you've eaten enough already today...
Athena: I'll buy you more later...

09

Athena: So don't cry!

Athena: Don't eat them!!

Athena: Geez...

Athena: ...Gh!!
Machina: Athena!?

Sakuya: By the way, was that board chairman...
Sakuya: like that before?

10

Isumi: No.
Isumi: At least at the times I saw her at Hakuou...
Isumi: I didn't feel a sinister presence.
Isumi: Then what caused it...?

Isumi: Most likely, until recently, it was hidden in the depths of her heart...
Isumi: And when a chance came along...
Hina: Can I call you A-tan?
Isumi: it used the disturbance in her heart to take her over...

Isumi: The symptoms have to be connected to that...
Isumi: and they may have made it speed up and get worse lately...

Hayate: Speed up...
Hayate: and get worse...huh?

Hayate: Will it be difficult to drive it out of her?

11

Isumi: No. If we just have to drive it out, that's easy.
Sakuya & Hayate: Eh?

Sakuya: I-it'll be easy!?
Isumi: Yes...

Isumi: It should have been impossible from the start.
Isumi: Even if it is an honored spirit...it wouldn't be able to possess someone with as much power as the board chairman has...

Isumi: It may have been able to hide in the depths of her heart without any help...
Isumi: but to possess her so completely like that...
Isumi: It needs a specific point of "agreement".

Sakuya: Agreement?
Isumi: In other words if both of them want to obtain the stone she mentioned, then they would have a strong point of agreement.
Isumi: And that let the honored spirit use her body as a vessel.

Isumi: So, in order to drive it out, we need to destroy that point of agreement.
Isumi: In other words...

12

Isumi: We just have to...
Isumi: give that "stone" to her or destroy the stone.

Hayate: Give her the stone.
Hayate: or destroy the stone?

Isumi: Doing that would destroy their point of agreement...
Isumi: and we would be able to save her.

Sakuya: Can't we drive it out without destroying their point of agreement?
Isumi: It's not impossible.

13

Isumi: But their souls are connected so strongly...
Isumi: and we would be forcing them apart.

Isumi: In the worst case...the shock of removing it...
Isumi: could give her soul a fatal wound.

Hayate: N-no way...
Hayate: But I can't giver her the stone or destroy it...

Sakuya: Is that all?
Sakuya: This'll be easy!
Hayate: N-no, but Sakuya-san!!

Hayate: Th-this stone is...

Sakuya: I don't know what kind of jewel that is...
Sakuya: but we just have to give it to her, drive out the monster...and then take it back, right?

14

Sakuya: Then you won't lose the stone and we can drive out that spirit.
Sakuya: It's almost literally two birds with one stone.

Hayate: Th-that's right!!
Hayate: If I get the stone back after giving it to her, it's not a problem!!
Hayate: If I do that, I can save both her and milady.

Isumi: We can't give it to her.

Sakuya & Hayate: Eh?

15

Isumi: We can't give her the stone that...
Isumi: both she and the honored spirit are after.

Isumi: Obtaining that stone is the spirit's final objective.
Isumi: Giving her the stone is the same thing as letting the spirit win.

Sakuya: B-but if we take it back right away, it's fine, right?
Sakuya: It would be like letting them borrow it for a bit in order to drive it out.
Isumi: And what if we can't get it back?

Isumi: We can't let that happen...
Isumi: I think there's a 99.9% chance that wouldn't happen...
Isumi: but there's still a chance it could happen.

Isumi: And since there's a chance, I have to keep the possibility from occurring by any means necessary...Because if I don't...

16

Isumi: There's a chance...
Isumi: the world could come to an end.

Hayate: The world could...
Hayate: come to an end?

Isumi: So, I want to...
Isumi: immediately...

Isumi: destroy...
Isumi: that stone!!

Text in right margin: The stone has a hidden power that the honored spirit seeks and that makes Isumi shake. And Isumi's gaze goes to the stone hanging at Hayate's chest...!!