Sakuya's birthday party arrives: a large event where all of her childhood friends are forced to do stand-up comedy in front of a large audience. Nagi runs off, making Hayate spend a few chapters looking for her. Meanwhile, Hinagiku gets another chance at apologizing to Ayumu for her "betrayal" back in volume 8—after being dragged onto a 350-foot-tall Ferris wheel. There's also a new character introduced: Kasumi Aika, the Vice President of Hakuou's student council, who has a stone just like the one that Hayate received from Mikado Sanzenin.
Later, Hakuou's class goes on a perfectly ordinary field trip to Mt. Takao, until they run into a bear in the forest and they have to fight it off. Chapters included:
- "Regardless of How High the Anticipation of a Great Punch Line, a Boy Must Live Up to a Girl's Expectations"
- "When You Think About It, Turning into an Animal when Your True Identity Is Revealed Is Scary"
- "Where We're Headed To"
- "Even in a Samurai Drama, a Person Usually Becomes Obedient when He Sees a Tattoo of Streaming Cherry Blossoms"
- "Distance—Even if It's Near"
- "Distance—Even if It's Far"
- "Hayate Once Upon a Time Story"
- "It's a Mystery How a Girl You Didn't Notice at the Beginning of the Term Starts Looking Cute by the End"
- "I Want to Go Hiking. I Really Want to Go. I Mean, I Want to Get Out of My Workplace"
- "A Child Is a Lost Child Because He's Lost. I'm Lost in Life. H-E-L-P…"
- "A Wild Life. The Animals Are Unforgiving to Me."
Tropes:
- Bears Are Bad News: Hayate and co. encounter a bear in the forest on their hike. It's enormous and immediately aggressive.
- Birthday Episode: Sakuya celebrates her birthday in this volume.
- Parody Episode: The third-anniversary episode has a parody of Alice in Wonderland framed as Hayate telling Nagi a story while she's sick.
- Sick Episode: After Sakuya's birthday, Nagi gets sick because she couldn't handle the work for her part-time job.
