Kaede Nonohara

Kaede Nonohara (野々原 楓) is the Azumamiya family's combat butler. He usually appears alongside Koutarou.

Appearance
Kaede has short silver hair. His eyes are closed and he is usually seen wearing a butler's uniform.

Characteristics and personality
Kaede is kind and polite to those he meets even if they are his master's rivals and enemies. He always wears a smile on his face.

Kaede can be very cruel towards Koutarou whenever he's acting as if he won't pull a fight for himself. He tends to beat him up now and then to teach him how to fight on his own. However, he does this for Koutarou's sake and calls it his method of teaching Koutarou.

Even though he can sometimes be cruel to his master, Kaede is still concerned about Koutarou's well-being and safety as shown in one of his weaknesses where he becomes vulnerable to attacks when he sees Koutarou hurt.

Story
Kaede first appears in the Kendo Club room after being called by Koutarou Azumamiya to help in defeating Hayate Ayasaki. When Koutarou orders him to attack Hayate, Kaede turns on him instead, kicking him in the chin and then continuing to beat him up. At the same time, he belittles Koutarou for being a coward and a weak boy. When Koutarou begs him for forgiveness, he refuses and is about to hit Koutarou with his bokken. Due to Koutarou's pitiful state, Hinagiku Katsura stops his blow and asks him not to be so violent in the club room. Koutarou then gains his spirit to fight and decides that it would be unfair if the fight would be a master against a butler so he decided to challenge Nagi Sanzenin to a kendo fight. Kaede, rejoiced in his spirit to fight, supports him. However, due to Nagi's poor physical prowess, Hinagiku then takes Koutarou's challenge alongside Hayate and so the battle has been decided. It would be Hinagiku against Koutarou and Hayate against Kaede.

While fighting Hayate, Kaede unleashes his mortal blow, Safety Shutter: Grand Explosion, Immolating Dark Murder, sending a wave of fire out of his bokken which throws Hayate across the room. Due to this, He voices his disappointment at the low standard of Sanzenin butlers and uses his mortal blow again. However, Himuro Saeki, who also came to the kendo club room to watch, gave Hayate a clue by stating that there is some trash littered on the floor. Hayate figured it out in the last second and just after Kaede unleashed his mortal blow, he grabbed the faint Koutarou in the floor and used him as a shield to block the attack. Kaede is stunned at seeing that Koutarou is the one hit by his mortal blow and Hayate uses the opening chance to defeat him.

Later, outside the Kendo Club room, Kaede, carrying an unconscious Koutarou, compliments Hayate's skill and then leaves, voicing his desire for a rematch with Hayate once he acquires his very own mortal blow so that he could fight more seriously.

After Kaede graduates from high school, he leaves Koutarou and decides to go to England to study and become an even greater butler.

Live Action Timeline
In this timeline, the main story exists as a fictional manga, which also makes Kaede become a fictional character in this universe where he has no involvement in the story. Kaede only partially appears once on the cover of the Chinese Hayate no Gotoku! Manga Volume 5 along with Nagi Sanzenin, Isumi Saginomiya, Hayate Ayasaki and Himuro Saeki, which Jin Zhijie reads in Episode 7.

Abilities
Kaede is proficient in kendo, being able to handle a bokken well. He has an ultimate technique to fight with.

Etymology

 * The name Kaede means "maple" (楓).
 * Kaede's surname Nonohara means "field, wilderness" (野) (no) and "field, plain" (原) (hara).

Trivia

 * Kaede closely resembles Gin Ichimaru from Bleach.
 * Though his eyes are always closed and have yet to be revealed in the manga, Kaede's eyes are depicted to be grey, shown when he was yelling at his master in episode 18.