In Volume 1 of Hayate x Blade Nyan, the new semester is beginning at Tenchi Gakuen and everything is different. Students have split into two dorms – Tenkuu and Daichi, aligning with our favorite scion of the Amachi family, Hitsugi  or her “Black Group”-leading cousin, Hajime.

The Hoshitori has been revamped, as well, with more one-on-one battles ahead, and much, much more intense fighting. The first battle nearly mangles Ayana’s poor roommate Kei and introduces us to our first enemy of the new series,  a sadistic sociopath named Terma.

But before we can truly understand what drives Terma, we are turned towards Nagi. Nagi, Hayate’s older, more talented twin, who expected to take her place at the top of the Tenchi hierarchy only to find her goofy little sister firmly entrenched there. Instead of fighting for her place, Nagi has been overwhelmed by ennui. Even the passionate enthusiasm of her shinyuu, Kanai, has been  unable to motivate her. In fact, she’s gone so far as to join the Daichi dorm, but even Hajime doesn’t trust her. Hajime challenges Nagi to a duel and with the help of her shadowy shinyuu Shingetsu, defeats Nagi handily.

Kanai is terribly worried about her brusied and beaten partner, but Nagi insists she feels nothing. Hayate supports this, and calls in their mother to explain. Nagi, it turns out, doesn’t feel pain. At all. Which leads to another worry, because as part of the new Hoshitori rules, individual fighters can be called out for a duel – and Nagi has been challenged by Terma.

As everyone waits on pins and needles for Hitsugi’s opening salvo, the “Ultimate Hoshidori”, they watch as already wounded Nagi and Terma face off in a potentially 5-round fight. Nagi pulls out all the stops and wins the bout in a spectacular display of raw guts and skill. Hayate is so moved that she starts to mimic Nagi’s finishing technique.

Around the corner is Hitsugi’s “Summer Festival”, which they all dread, just because Hitsugi’s looking like she’s relishing the idea.

***

Enjoy reviews on the latest Yuri manga? Subscribe to Okazu with Patreon!

***

Missing from this volume are the linking chapters that ran in the magazine, in which students were forced to slide across greased pipes to get to the new campus, but is otherwise full of the same kind of low gags and awesome fight scenes that we’ve come to expect from Hayashiya-sensei!

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – 9
Character – 9
Yuri – 1 Hayate gropes Ayana, and reminds herself to tell Jun. ^_^;
Service – 4 Hayate gropes Ayana, and reminds herself to tell Jun. ^_^;

Overall – 9

And, then, Nagi went BAM! and it was like “whoahhhhh….”