A big hello from me to all of you reading my story. This is my first fanfic so I hope that I didn't mess this story up (hopefully). Oh, one more thing, I'll be taking references from the manga from time to time, so the story might sound very familiar to you. But rest assured, the plot of this story will become different (or should I say stray off) from the original story. Anyway, on with the story!
Disclaimer: I don't know whether this is a must or not, but I'll put it here, just in case anything happens. I wouldn't want to have legal issues with him, or anyone as the matter of fact. I do not own Hayate The Combat Butler, Hayate No Gotoku or by whatever name you call this story. The characters and places in Hayate No Gotoku belongs solely to Kenjiro Hata. (Please tell me if I'm missing anything).
Chapter 1: Initial contact
Hakuo Academy, a prestigious school situated in the middle of the bustling Tokyo Metropolis. This school, recognized by many all over the nation as the most elite and the best learning institution ever existed in Japan. Due to its enormous grounds, encompassing well over 36% of Tokyo, this school even has its own hospital, stadium and even a network of train system to transport the students throughout the school. Needless to say, this school accepts only the richest, most gifted and talented student to be deemed worthy of studying here, making those who passed, to be envied by all who wishes to enroll here. As expected, school of this class has been producing scholars which many calls as 'perfection', a word which wasn't even close to summarize these students.
One day, in a classroom at a Hakuo Academy, a young woman was teaching her class about the Mesopotamian civilization. She is what some would call as very nice with the students but also very energetic and looks like someone who would cause problems if not dealt with extreme caution.
Suddenly, the class was brought to an abrupt hold when the class door was knocked three times. The teacher gave her permission for the person to enter the class. A young, bespectacled girl probably the around the same age as the students entered the class. The girl greeted the teacher formally before walking into the class.
"Excuse me, Yukiji-sensei, there's an urgent message that I need to relay to you…" the girl said before she whispered to the teacher.
"WHAT? There's an intruder in school! As the teacher on duty, I must get to the bottom of this!" The teacher exclaimed.
"If I caught the intruder, the school might give me a bonus. I could buy alcohol as much as I want and treat myself to coma with it!" The teacher thought before she sped off and searched for the intruder.
Meanwhile, a boy in black is walking down the school pavements with a slightly confused expression. It seems like he is lost, yet he was calm and managed to immerse himself with the school's impressive garden.
"Well, I must say, this school sure is as large as the Vanadiel. I've been looking my way around here for more than an hour now... (Sigh) I think I'll take a break before I continue again." The boy said to himself before he lied down with his hands on the back of his head under a shady tree.
It was not long before something caught his attention. From quite a distance, a finely-built clock tower towered in front of him. It had a touch of classical-English style and somehow, it looked very similar to the famous Big Ben clock tower in London.
"(Whistle) That's a really beautiful building. I really wish that I could get on top of that tower…" The boy whispered, admiring the tower's beauty.
"You can't. The tower is off-limits for students. Only members of the student council are allowed to go up there." A voice echoed. He reacted by jumping onto his feet and started to look around for the owner of the voice.
"W-who was that!" The boy said anxiously.
"Psst…over here…over here…" The voice called for him. He turned and found himself facing a young girl standing on a branch of a tree.
The girl had slender and well-proportioned legs, thin ankles. Not very tall, but not very short too. Her eyes were like a curious kitten's, and her eyebrows traced a subtle line over them. It made the boy almost stunned to see that such a person exists.
"So…what are you doing here?" The girl suddenly asked, pulling the boy back into reality.
"Umm…likewise, what are you doing up there?"
"Geez, you really go straight to the point." The girl said in dismay.
"Is climbing trees the latest trend in Hakuo Academy?"
"Does it look like I'm having fun?" She asked rhetorically.
"But, you know it's dangerous, right?"
"EVEN IF YOU DIDN'T SAY THAT, I KNOW!" The girl said angrily before she blushed and continued "T-this is…umm…umm…trees are unexpectedly hard to slip on. There are many branches so the climbing is smooth. But when you continuously look up, you'll neglect the bottom…"
"To put it frankly, cats are fine with climbing high places but are afraid to go down again." The boy summarized her statement.
"DON'T PUT IT SO FRANKLY! You're making me looking like an idiot! It's true that there's a saying 'idiots and smoke are attracted to high places', but I'm not an idiot!"
"But I didn't even say that…" The boy said with a sweat drop.
"A-anyway, I have a small request…" The girl said after a moment of silence.
"Yes? What is it?"
"Umm…I mean…" The girl's face is turning redder. "C-catch me."
"Eh?" Before the boy could even understand what is going on, the girl jumped down from the tree so suddenly that he failed to react correspondingly. For the boy, unfortunately, the girl landed right on his face and used it as a landing platform before she skidded on the ground.
"AH! S-sorry!" The girl said when she realised that the boy had fallen. "Are you alright?"
"Y-yeah…somehow…" He said while getting up on his feet again.
"That's not right. It's dangerous if you didn't catch me properly." The girl advised him.
"IF YOU THINK IT'S DANGEROUS, THEN PLEASE DON'T JUMP IN THE FIRST PLACE!" The boy said angrily. Not only he was stepped in the face, but the girl also tried to advise him about something that was not even his fault.
"S-sorry. But you don't have to yell…it was really scary so I wanted to get down as soon as possible…I have a fear of heights…" The girl said with her head lowered.
"W-well…in that case…it's alright I guess…But isn't that unladylike? A girl with a skirt climbing to such high place…" he shook his head. "Anyway, if you have fear of high places, you should say so in the first place. You don't have to suddenly jump…," the boy said while wiping his blood from his face. "…if you had said so, I'd have come to rescue you."
"Ehh~? If I had said so, would you come to save me?" She asked teasingly. The boy, however, didn't noticed what she had just said.
"Why were you up there even though you're afraid of high places?"
"Couldn't be helped…it fell from its nest…" She said while pointing towards a bird. It then flew away as if nothing ever happened to it. It gave the boy the impression that the girl is lying to him.
"Is that the kind of excuses nowadays that are used when you can't come down after climbing a tree?"
"W-WHAT? ARE YOU STILL MAKING FUN OF ME!" She asked angrily.
"No…you have my admiration." The boy said with a smile on his face. "You would go up there even though you're afraid. That's very brave of you. Please forgive me… I have said many rude things."
"N-no…as long as you understand…"
"Oh! I almost forgot. I haven't introduced myself yet. My name is Hayate Ayasaki." The boy said while reaching his hand out.
"I'm Hinagiku Katsura. Pleased to meet you." She shook her hand with his.
"Hinagiku Katsura-san…that's a nice name." He complimented.
"Aha, of course!" She said happily. "Well… as a token of my gratitude, why don't I take you to the top of the clock tower?"
"Eh? But I thought you said…"
"It's alright. After all… the president of the student council is me!"
Meanwhile, the teacher is…
"Geez, where is that intruder? I've looking for him for a long time now."
…drinking her beer in the school cafeteria. She has been waiting there for quite some time now with the belief that the intruder would just come to the cafeteria and let himself to be caught easily.
"Eh~? The reason why only the student council members are allowed to go up there is because the student council room is inside that building?" the girl answered with a nod.
"Geez, who is the idiot that had placed the room so high up…"
"Aha… Come to think of it, Katsura-san doesn't like high places…" Hayate said with a chuckle. "I really don't mind. You don't have to go up if you don't want to. I'm satisfied just by looking at it from here."
"Didn't you just say that you would like to be there? In that case, you'll be more satisfied when you're there, right?"
"Well… certainly."
"Then, don't cheat yourself out of this chance. It's a thank you gift from me. If you're not a little selfish, you'll never be happy in life."
"…"
"Well, let's go. I'm the president of the council, so it's not as if it's the first time I've been there."
"WHOA~! The view really is nice from up here, Katsura-san!" He exclaimed when they reached the top floor. The boy is standing at the balcony with a clear view of the entire school.
"The view from this clock tower is superb. It's so beautiful that one would never forget it." Hinagiku said in return. Hayate then noticed that Hinagiku is sitting on a couch that has been arranged, in a way, clearly to prevent her from looking outside while drinking a milk tea.
"You can't see it from that far you know, Katsura-san."
"I'm fine. I use not my eyes, but listen to the voices of the heart." She gave her excuse. The boy listened with an eyebrow raised.
"It looks like they're having their classes right now. Is that alright that you're not attending yours?" The boy asked. Hinagiku suddenly spilled some of her milk tea, as she wasn't expecting that question.
"AH GEEZ, SHUT UP, SHUT UP, SHUT UP!" Hinagiku reacted with a blushing face. "It can't be helped since the class had already started when I tried to save the bird. It'd be embarrassing to enter the class by that time, wouldn't it!"
"Well… that may be true…" he said in reply. "I guess I'll be on my way now. Thank you for everything, Katsura-san." The boy said with a bow and headed towards the elevator
"Call me Hinagiku."
"Eh?"
"There's a more conspicuous person with the same last name, so everybody just calls me with my first name, got that?" She said with a smiling face.
"AHAH! I'VE FOUND THE INTRUDER!" A voice startled the two of them. Both of them turned to the elevator.
"O-onee-chan? What are you doing here?" Hinagiku asked in surprise.
"Eh? Onee-chan?" (T/l: Sister)
"Uh-huh… Yukiji Onee-chan." Hinagiku said simply.
"Damned intruder! Today, your head will be mine!" Yukiji said ominously before she grabbed a sword that was being held by ornamental armour beside her.
She dashed towards the boy at an unfeasible speed, with her sword ready to decapitate anyone in her way. Fortunately, Hinagiku managed to block the attack in the nick of time.
"Geez, doing something completely absurd again…" Hinagiku said in a weary tone before forcing the attacker backwards.
"You've improved, Hina! That level however, isn't enough to stop my passion and spirit!"
"You're all talk. I've never lost a fight with you. I've only lost the match where you keep piling your age and become more useless compared to me." She said sarcastically.
"Even if you're my sister, I won't forgive you, Hina!" Yukiji threatened Hinagiku.
"You don't have to forgive me. More importantly, when are you going to pay back all those money you owe me? If I'm not mistaken, you had borrowed 30,000 yen from me last month."
"Th-that's mean! You can't say that to your sister!" Both of them then started quarreling with each other. Hayate who decided not to get involved in the sisterly quarrel, tried to escape.
"Umm…I think I'll excuse myself then…"
Yukiji saw the bag that the boy had dropped earlier which gave her an idea. Before he could take the bag, she grabbed it and ran towards the balcony.
"Do you want this back?" she said with a laugh before turning to Hinagiku. "I wonder if you would come and get it. However, there's the fear of fright that you have. If you're not coming, hand over the intruder to me at once!"
"Hinagiku…" The boy tried to help, but she waved her hands, signaling that she could handle the problem.
"Don't take me lightly, onee-chan. I am the president of the Hakuo Academy's Student Council, Hinagiku Katsura!" she said proudly in such a way that would make anyone feel her supremacy. "I absolutely won't tolerate my guest to be treated as such!"
"…Nothing less from my sister…I guess I'll return the bag now…" She said before suddenly, a gust of wind made her lose her balance and tripped from the railings.
"UWAAA!" She screamed as her entire life flashes before her eyes. Well… it was quite a boring one anyway.
"ONEE-CHAN!" Hinagiku cried in fear. Fortunately, the boy who had been a spectator all this time managed to grab Yukiji's hands and pulled her to safety.
"Thank god she's safe…" Hinagiku thought in relieve.
"I-I-I…umm" She mumbled, clearly still shocked after that.
"Geez…climbing to such a high place as that is dangerous you know…"
"T-thank you, Hayate-kun… for saving onee-chan..."
"I-I-I'm sorry for trying to hurt you just now…" Yukiji then said after she had calmed down.
"Nah…forget it. I'm glad that the misunderstanding has been cleared." He said with a smile. "Thank you very much for letting me to be here, Hinagiku-san. I really enjoyed the view. Well then, I'll be off then. I need to find someone."
"Umm… let me help you then. I'm a teacher so I might know who this person you're searching." Yukiji offered her help.
"Oh, thank you for your offer, Katsura-san. I've been having a hard time to find her..." their voices faded as they walked out of the room.
"Huh, what a weird day…" Hinagiku thought to herself before she resumed her works.
So, how's the story? I really hoped that I did it right. Please read and review because I love to read your comments and it helps me to improve the story. I might continue the story if I receive positive feedback from you guys (and girls too). Well, 'till next time!