Basic Trope: The maid is a badass fighting machine.
- Straight: Alice's maid Lucy breaks out some kung fu moves.
- Exaggerated: Lucy is a black belt in karate, runs her own dojo, and is the best fighter in the story.
- Downplayed: Lucy has taken enough self-defense courses to know how to fight off some muggers.
- Justified:
- Alice needed an inconspicuous, female bodyguard, so she hired kung fu expert Lucy to pretend to be her maid.
- Lucy is a martial artist who takes a job as a maid because she can't find any other work, for some reason.
- Inverted:
- Alice breaks out the martial arts skills to protect her maid, Lucy.
- The badass bodyguard with the mad kung-fu skills is revealed to be surprisingly adept at housework.
- Gender-Flipped: Lucius, the butler, is a skilled martial artist.
- Subverted:
- Alice thought Lucy knew kung fu, but when an enemy appears Lucy cowers in terror.
- Lucy is a ninja first and a maid somewhere third- The only reason she's wearing the maid outfit is because she lost a bet with Alice,
- Double Subverted:
- It turns out Lucy was just pretending and pounced when the enemy their turned their back.
- Lucy loses another bet with Alice, and becomes her Wager Slave permanently-which naturally includes the normal maid tasks.
- Parodied:
- All maids are expected to know kung fu, and part of the standard job interview involves defeating other household servants in a fight. Young girls are taught martial arts in school to be better suited to the job of domestic workers.
- There are several flashbacks to Lucy's maid training school, which is basically a boot camp except with maids instead of soldiers. References to popular works set in the military are a must.
- "Ah yes, Lucy. Great ninja, but a horrible maid."
- Zig Zagged: Lucy fights off an enemy, but later it turns out that was just luck. Later still, she reveals "just lucky is a ruse for her fighting style, "Deadly Dodging," and later still it turns out she is simply Born Lucky.
- Averted: The maid has no fighting skills.
- Enforced: The writers want to give a lower-class character a achievement to prove they're not elitist, so they let Lucy fight off the enemies.
- Lampshaded:
- "Wow, I'd never have expected that from a maid, Lucy."
- "Now if you'll excuse me, I have to clean up this blood before it stains the carpet."
- Invoked:
- Alice is looking for a maid because she needs someone to protect her.
- Lucy learns domestic skills and etiquette in order to diversify her employment options
- Exploited: Lucy makes some extra money on the side teaching martial arts at a local dojo.
- Defied:
- When planning his attack on Alice, Bob waits for Lucy's day off.
- When Evulz attacks Alice's mansion, he orders his snipers to shoot the maids first, correctly guessing they're warriors.
- Discussed: "So, Lucy, any chance you have mad fighting skills?"
- Conversed: "Just you wait. The maid always knows kung fu in anime."
- Deconstructed:
- After a violent episode in young Lucy's life, she began to study martial arts to ensure that she would never be a victim again. She's poor, so she takes a job as a domestic servant. When Alice is attacked, Lucy protects her, to everyone's amazement. However, none of Lucy's co-workers can look at her the same way after this, including the butler who once crushed on her but is no longer interested because No Guy Wants an Amazon.
- While skilled, Lucy is still outmatched against an armed assailant, as she can't carry her weapons to work and her broom isn't made to withstand being used as a melee weapon.
- Reconstructed:
- However, Alice is immensely grateful and officially employs Lucy as her personal bodyguard, keeping the maid attire just so she'll remain undercover. Lucy's co-workers gradually adjust to this new situation, and she gains the attention of Daniel, an Amazon Chaser.
- Lucy's skills include Improbable Weapon User and thereby makes everything in arm's reach a potential weapon. Additionally, her broom is also a Sword Cane.
- Lucy's employer allows her to carry weapons as she is assigned the roles of both a guard and a maid.
- Implied: The broom closets in Alice's house contain katanas for some reason.
- Played For Laughs: Lucy treats fighting Mooks as just another casual cleaning task, and by the time she's done fighting, you'd swear nothing happened.
- Played For Drama: Lucy's last employer died on her watch, making her feel very guilty, so she trained herself in combat so this won't happen again.
Allow me to escort you back to Ninja Maid, Master, and rest assured: I cleaned up the assassins and booby traps myself.
