Ai Hayasaka

**Spoiler Alert!** This article or section contains details not covered in the anime. Do not proceed unless you wish to be spoiled.

## Ai Hayasaka

* Anime
* Manga (Past)
* Manga (Current)
* Live Action

### Nickname(s)

Smithee A. Herthaka-chan (by Miyuki Shirogane)
Herthaka-kun (by Chika Fujiwara)
Rat (by Un'yo Shinomiya)

## Personal Status

### Occupation

Shinomiya Group Employee (former)
 Personal Valet (former)
 High School Student
 Bodyguard
 NEET (current)

### Grade

Junior (2-A) (former)
 Senior (3-A) (former)

### Relative(s)

Nao Hayasaka (Mother)
 Masato Hayasaka (Father)

## Media Debut

### Anime

Episode 1

**Ai Hayasaka** (早坂 愛はやさか あい, *Hayasaka Ai*) is one of the protagonists in the Kaguya-sama wa Kokurasetai series. She is a third-year student at Shuchi'in Academy and a former employee of the Shinomiya Group who served as Kaguya Shinomiya's maid.

## Origin

Ai is based on Tsuki no Iwakasa (つきの岩笠), a servant from *The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter* who burned the Elixir of Immortality on Mount Fuji at the orders of the Emperor.

## Appearance

Ai is a beautiful young girl with blonde hair that is usually tied up at the left side of her head with a blue scrunchie and blue-eyes. She alters her appearance and choice of clothing to suit different roles and carry out her duties as Kaguya's maid.

She wears a maid outfit when tending to the Shinomiya household. As a student at Shuchi'in Academy, she wears a modified high school uniform to match up with kogal fashion and a sweater wrapped around her waist. As Haysaca-chan, she dresses up in a Firis Girls' High sailor uniform with her hair down and a small braid tied on the right side, while as Haysaca-kun, she sports a butler uniform and a short, black hair wig.

During the class trip, she cut off her ponytail to prevent one of Un'yo Shinomiya's men from continuing to hold on to it. She ends up styling it into a bob with a star and crescent moon hairpin on the left side, her old scrunchie now being used as a wristband on her left hand.

* Ai Hayasaka (Maid Ver.)
* Ai Hayasaka (School Camouflage Ver.)
* Haysaca-chan (Anti-Miyuki Ver.)
* Haysaca-kun (Anti-Chika Ver.)
1/4

## Personality

Despite her young age, Ai can quickly shift to different types of personalities to suit various kinds of situations and scenarios. She has four distinct personas which, aside from having a specific purpose, has its own unique background and upbringing.

As a maid, she is level-headed who carries out duties flawlessly and while she occasionally give her mistress grief over her absurd demands, she still loves her deeply. In her school camouflage version, she is a fashion-conscious schoolgirl with a penchant for rule-breaking and her liveliness is her trademark. The anti-Miyuki version, Haysaca-chan, is a doe-eyed maneater who picks up men in Roppongi and Azabu and leads them around by the nose. Haysaca-kun exists to counter the unpredictable Chika Fujiwara and has the backstory of an Irish orphan who later graduated at Harvard then ended up as a butler who becomes a crybaby when remembering his past.

In reality, she is just a kind girl who deeply loves her mistress, whom she considers a sister and is willing to go against the Shinomiya house within reason like sneaking Kaguya out of the main house to see the summer fireworks.

She is also known to be very sensitive about the fact that she never had any experience of dating a guy.

Since the Kyoto class trip, Hayasaka seems to have dropped her gyaru persona around her friends, who now see her as somewhat distant and harsh. They interpret this as a sign of heartbreak.

## History

The Hayasaka family was once prominent, but lost their conflict to the Shinomiya family and, noted for their outstanding bloodline, were absorbed into it. Ai was born in the Shinomiya family's main house as a thoroughbred servant and was given special education. She was born into and grew up in an isolated world like Kaguya Shinomiya was, but Ai is less sheltered.

Ai's father is Kaguya's godfather, and her mother was Kaguya's wet nurse. They were raised together for a short period after their births. Still, Kaguya was moved to the Shinomiya main house on her second birthday, and they were only reunited at the age of seven when their status as master and servant was made official. Their master/servant relationship is only on the surface. However, their actual relationship more resembles that of inseparable sisters. Kaguya gave Ai a scrunchie while asking to be her friend. While Ai refused, she did use the hair tie, and it is the main accessory of hers.

After her traitorous loyalty to Kaguya's older brother is revealed, Kaguya tries to forgive for the first time, due to the positive change the SC has had on her and her closeness to Ai. Currently, the servant-master relationship between Ai and Kaguya was severed, and the former is now free after forcefully resigning from her post.

As the omake chapter epilogue shows, after graduating from high school and gaining complete freedom, Ai has effectively turned into a NEET and Fujiwara's freeloader (originally, she wanted to temporarily settle in Kaguya's house, but she was kicked out after 3 days due to laziness), lazily spending all day watching short videos and complaining about her lack of motivation to look for a job. If we consider the chapter with the flashforward to be completely canon, then Fujiwara, in desperation, even calls her a big child. However, the chapter implies that in the end, Ai simply stayed in the teenage phase a bit longer than her friends, since unlike them, she never had the opportunity to enjoy this period of life before.

## Etymology

* The name **Ai** means "love, affection" (愛).
* Ai's surname **Hayasaka** means "already, now, fast, early" (早) (**haya**) and "slope, hill" (坂) (**saka**).

## Trivia

* Ai puts a deck chair in the bath when soaking.
* Ai is shown to have a wide array of technical knowledge, such as being able to build her computer and being up to date with the specs of the latest smartphones, able to build in devices into her beret and other clothing.
* Ai is said to enjoy "hydraulic press" videos.
* Ai is the second person to describe Miyuki's singing like a sea cucumber's intestines.
* Ai is the daughter of Shinomiya's group manager.
* In Chapter 102, Ai is listed on Miyuki's phone as "Haysaca," and is shown to be texting him "OK, good night." She has a good friendly relationship with him after getting rejected under an alias and seems to admire him for his kindness and trust. However, many of their classmates think their relationship is something more.
* Ai is considered the snarkiest member of the main cast, but this is to her detriment.
* Ai seems to have a mother complex.
* Technically, Ai is the wealthiest out of the main cast, with a disposable income of up to 40 million yen. This is because she had stable employment as Kaguya's valet for ten years.
* Ai is one-quarter (25%) Irish.
* Ai wears corrective contact lenses.
* Ai has a notebook full of fantasies.
* She shares her first name with Ai Hoshino from Oshi no Ko, which is also written by Aka Akasaka.

## References

1. ↑ *Chapter 35, Episode 9*, may be "Hayasaca" or "Herthaka" depending on translation.
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 *Chapter 106, Episode 28*, may be "Hayasaca" or "Herthaka" depending on translation.
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Fanbook
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Chapter 211 starting new school year
5. ↑ https://twitter.com/mazacon\_ha\_saka/status/1520315594402562048
6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 Volume 11 extras for chapter 106
7. ↑ *Chapter 42*
8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 *Chapter 58*
9. ↑ *Chapter 101*
10. ↑ *Chapter 94*
11. ↑ *Chapter 102*
12. ↑ *Chapter 87*
13. ↑ Volume 3 and onwards character intro page
14. ↑ *Chapter 179*