Maria awoke early as per usual. Not wanting to wake Nagi, although she doubted she could even if she wanted to. She changed from her blue nightgown into her maid uniform as quietly as possible and set about her usual duties. As she walked down the halls of the Sanzen'in estate, broom in hand and a dust rag on her head, she saw that the door to the kitchen was open. She peered inside to see Hayate inside, preparing his and Nagi's lunchboxes for school the following day. It had been a few months since Nagi had saved Hayate Ayasaki from his parents' 150 Million Yen debt and brought him to work as a butler in the mansion, and he had quickly taken to his job as Nagi's butler. Maria had been happy to have someone else living here besides herself, Nagi, Klaus and Tama. And now...she had something of a crush on the blue haired boy.

He turned and saw her. "Ah, good morning, Maria-san," he said with a cheerful smile, despite only getting a couple of hours of sleep a day.

His noticing her caught her off guard a little. Not that it should really surprise her, given the inhuman things he was capable of. She quickly composed herself and replied, "Good morning, Hayate-kun," returning the smile. "You seem as cheerful as always."

"Yes, so do you. How is Miss Nagi?"

"She's still asleep."

"Ah, of course. It is a little early for her to up." It was 8 o'clock. He was right, of course.

"I suppose I should wake her up for school."

"Thank you, Maria-san," he said, bowing deeply.

"Ah, you don't need to thank me," she replied, flustered. "I'm only doing my duty as a maid."

"But I do." He was walking toward her with a look on his face which said that he wanted her. Maria knew immediately that something was wrong; Hayate would never act like this. She inched closer to the door but he quickly embraced her. She was shocked by his sudden forwardness and knew for a fact that this wasn't Hayate. What shocked her more was that, as he pulled his head back, she saw that his eyes had turned into a pair of black and white spirals. She struggled to break free of his grasp but found that her eyes were irresistibly drawn to his and her energy and concentration seemed to be draining. She couldn't look away from them, her face frozen in place. She barely even realised that everything other than the spirals were blurry. Her eyes glazed over as her mind slipped into relaxation she surrendered her will to the spirals. As he embraced her again, he whispered into her ear, "Maria, can you hear me?"

"Yes...Master," she replied slowly and lifelessly.

"And who do you serve?"

"You, Master."

"Do you not serve Nagi?"

"No...I serve only you, Master."

"Very good." He released her from his embrace and looked into her glassy eyes. "I wish to test your obedience. I want you to prepare a drink for Nagi and put this in it." He handed her a small vial of a drug he wanted to test on her. "You will then take the drink to her and return here for further instructions. Is that clear?"

"Yes, Master." She removed the dust rag and prepared the drugged tea in a flask as ordered before setting off toward her former lady's room.

Hayate returned after finishing his morning run. He'd had plenty of time for it since he didn't need to prepare lunches on a Sunday. As he closed the doors behind him, he saw Maria walk past with a flask of tea on a tray. She seemed to be heading for Nagi's room. Regardless, he needed to clean himself up before resuming his butler duties. He left her to go about her own duties and headed for the bath.

Maria, meanwhile, continued along her path and arrived at Nagi's room. She opened the door and saw that Nagi, as usual for this time of day, was still asleep. Since her mind hadn't been completely overridden, she didn't want to wake her. She instead left the drink on the bedside table and returned to her master.

After cleaning himself and changing into his butler attire, Hayate went to Nagi's room to see if there was anything that needed tidying up there. When he got there, he saw that she was still asleep. He found it odd that Maria hadn't woken her up yet, despite seemingly coming this way earlier. Her presence here was confirmed when her saw that the drink she'd been carrying earlier now sat on the bedside table. He decided to find Maria and find out what was going on. He decided to start with the kitchen.

Upon his arrival, he was shocked to see her stood at attention before another of him. Perhaps it was a more advanced version of that Mecha Butler 13. "Maria-san, what's going on here?" No response. "Are you alright, Maria-san?" Again, nothing. "What did you do to her!?" he demanded of his doppelganger. The look on its face showed that it wasn't prepared for the possibility of the real Hayate arriving. It jumped through the window and ran. Hayate was about to go after it when he saw the lack of life in Maria's eyes. He felt it best to stay and snap her out of her stupor. "Maria-san? Can you hear me?"

"Yes, Master," she replied in an emotionless tone.

Hayate stood for a few seconds, mouth agape at what he'd just heard. "I'm sorry, Maria-san, what did you just say?"

"I said 'Yes, Master,' I can hear you."

It seemed that whatever was disguised as him had taken control of her mind and she, believing she obeyed Hayate, would now accept his commands. He had to carefully plan his words out so as not to unintentionally damage her mind. "Okay, Maria-san, I want you to listen carefully. I'm going to count down from five and when I reach one, you will awaken from this state. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Master."

"Five...Four...Three...Two...One." Life slowly returned to Maria's eyes. She blinked as she stared at Hayate. It seemed that her mind was processing everything that had happened all at once as tears began to form in her eyes. She ran into his arms and cried into his chest. He immediately regretted not erasing her memory of the event. That is, until...

She suddenly raised her head, a look of horror on her face. "Nagi!" she exclaimed as she ran from the room, Hayate in tow. As they ran toward their Lady's room, Maria explained that she'd been commanded to take a drugged drink to Nagi. They feared that the drug would affect her similarly to how Maria was by the spirals. Upon their arrival, Hayate slammed the door open and Nagi turned around, half-changed with a look of surprise and horror frozen on her face as her eyes met Hayate's. He immediately covered his eyes while turning around and apologizing. This wasn't enough to spare him Nagi's wrath, however, as she threw anything she could get her hands on at him, shouting all the while for him to get out. He scrambled out of the room and Maria saw the empty flask on the desk. Tears welled up in her eyes as she hugged her thirteen-year-old lady tightly. "Nagi...oh, Nagi..." she cried.

"W-w-w-what's wrong, Maria?"

"Y-you drank the tea I brought you."

"A-actually, I didn't."

Maria practically jumped back at this. "Wh-why-?"

"It smelled funny so I drained it." Maria smiled and wept tears of joy into Nagi's chest. It seemed that Nagi's Hikikomori lifestyle and stubbornness had actually saved her from suffering the same fate as Maria. Hearing this from outside, Hayate was relieved but he had to wonder: who was that imposter, how had he gotten past the SP and what did he have planned for Miss Nagi?

To be continued...