*In the paragraphs following, I explain practically the entire story, including the ending, only I elaborate more on Himeno and Hayate's relationship (because thats what this section is for ^^;;;). For this reason, this section contains massive spoilers for the entire series. Read at your own risk*

Hayate is a very shy person when it comes to girls. He doesn't know how to act around them very well. At the begining of the series, he dislikes Himeno, and doesn't want her to become a Pretear for a reason at that time which seemed unclear. Throughout the story, Hayate goes through a metamorphism in his attitude towards Himeno.

For the first few episodes, he treats Himeno with disrespect, due to the fact she can't control her powers very well. No matter what Himeno tries to do to make herself a better Pretear, it never seems to meet with Hayate's expectations. Throughout the episodes, Hayate warms up to her a little, but not that much. For her protection, he takes a job that Himeno's father offered him, to help tend the garden of their home, thus, watching over Himeno.

It is not until the 6th episode that Hayate and the other Knights reveal the true nature of the enemy, Saihi, and why Hayate doesn't want a Pretear *see the Past section to learn more about this*. After Himeno knows the truth, she becomes surprisingly strong in her actions, earning a little bit of Hayate's respect for her.

Soon afterwards, Himeno has a breakdown, due to the fact that she had learned that she might turn into Saihi, depending on which direction her powers turned. With Himeno in a very unstable state, she became unable to turn into Pretear. After she is unable to transform, she runs away from home, and spends some quality time with her step-sister, Mawata. Since Hayate works for Himeno's father, and was passing by, he overheard a conversation between Himeno's other step-sister, Mayune, and her step-mother, Natsue, saying that Himeno left the house early (which she never does), and she didn't take her bag to school with her. Worried about what she would do, Hayate looked all over the place for her. When he had finally found her, at the end of the day near the beach, Himeno was shocked to see him. All she could say, shivering, was, "I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" over and over again. Thats when Hayate did something surprising. He went up to Himeno and hugged her. He said, "I'm so glad you're save.It's allright. You can give up being Pretear if you want to. Remember, you can only be you. Your irreplaceable, and never forget it.If it hurts, don't push yourself any more. It's ok to quit." With that, Himeno and Hayate had become better friends, and had encouraged her to go on being a Pretear.

Almost immediately after Himeno's recovery, Sasame reveals his unrequited love for their enemy, Takako/Saihi. For this reason, he decides to betray the Liefe Knights and join Takako/Saihi so that he can be with the one he loves. This, of course, brings more pain to Himeno. Hayate blames himself for this, and for Takako turing into Saihi, since Takako loved Hayate, but didn't return her love.

Since Himeno had been trying to keep her family out of trouble, Himeno decided to leave her home, and run away until the whole bit with Saihi was over. The Liefe Knights built a little "hut", as you would call it, for her to stay in until everything was over. Unfortunately, Sasame destroyed that "hut", so Himeno and the remaining 6 Liefe Knights slept in the nearby church. That night, another event happened between Hayate and Himeno occured. Below is a summary of the event.

Himeno could not sleep, so she thought she'd stay up a little and sat down on the stoop of the church. Hayate, who heard the door of the church open, was awakened, and went outside, to see if Himeno was allright. Approaching her, Hayate asks, "Can't sleep?" following up with, "If you don't sleep, you won't be able to keep up." Himeno understands, but says that she just woke up for some reason. Walking down the steps of the church, Hayate sits down next to her. Himeno, feeling a little uncomfortable having Hayate so close to her, moves away a little. Hayate apologizes to her saying that all he's done is bring her pain, first with her having to leave her family, and now this thing with Sasame was his fault. Yet before he can finish saying what he wants to say, Himeno inturrupts him, asking, "Do you regret it?". Hayate looked at her quizically, as she asked again, "T-That you made me into Pretear...that you met me..." Looking up happily at the stars she states, "I don't regret it. I'm glad that I became Pretear. Because I was able to meet you." Hayate, watching her every move, makes a sudden movement, grasping onto her saying hesitantly, "We were all searching for a Pretear, and we found you. In this vast world, I found you!" Surprised, and blushing, she says, "Hayate..." Starting again he says, "I'm the one who found..." hugging her tightly, "...you." Edging closer and closer, they almost kiss...but then a stupid can just has to knock itself down the stairs, ruining the moment, thus, Himeno running up the stairs to go back to sleep. Before she falls asleep, she whispers to herself, "You're so sweet, Hayate..."

After this event, nothing really happens much between Hayate and Himeno until the last two episodes where they are fighting Saihi and Sasame. Saihi had taken advantage of Mawata, and used her as a host for evil enegry. During this time Sasame challenges Hayate to a duel to the death. Himeno who was transformed into the Pretear of Wind already said that she would fight Sasame too. Sasame warned Hayate, though, that if Hayate still remained Pretear with Himeno, then Himeno might have a chance of dying as well as Hayate. Hayate didn't want to take the chance, even after Himeno begged and pleaded to let her fight, he wouldn't let her. All he said before he left was, "When this fight is over, there's something I want to tell you. Thats why...I'll come back no matter what."

Later, when Takako begs for Sasame to come to her after Himeno talks with her, Hayate and Sasame appear. Sasame appears in fine condition, whereas Hayate is hurt very badly, and can't move. After this, Sasame sacrifices himself in Takako's place when Fenir (the main evil energy) gets angry at Takako because she had been stealing too much evil energy away from Fenir. Takako is released by the evil energy when Sasame dies, realizing that it was him she truely loved. Fenir, needing a new host because Mawata was freed by her family, decides to choose Takako as it's new host because she is enveloped in sadness and despair. Hayate, in order to carry out his promise, becomes the Pretear of Wind with Himeno, in order to try and free Takako, but all of the attacks are useless, and Hayate becomes too damaged to fight, so Himeno turns back to normal. He faints in Himeno's arms, saving her from the enemy one last time, telling her to run. She holds him, saying nothing as he repeats, "Idiot. Hurry..." Softy, she says, "I'm fine with being an idiot. Because...because I don't want this. Hayate...I don't want to lose you. I don't want this to end. I want everyone to be here. I want to smile and laugh with everyone, and cry...I don't want to let this world and everyone in it disappear! I don't want to lose!" as she finishes that last statement, Hayate faints, "Himen...o..." he finishes, as she is absorbed in a glowing light, and turns into the final form of Pretear: White Pretear, on her own.

As White Pretear, she spreads Liefe Snow throughout the world, ridding the evil from it, thus saving everyone and bringing everyone who was killed in the incident back to life, including Sasame. Hayate wakes up to the faces of Takako and Sasame, seeing that it is snowing, as they say to him that Himeno won. Hayate is glad, but then sees Takako burst into tears. He asks what is wrong, when Sasame points to Himeno, lying down in a bed of flowers a few feet away from them. They tell Hayate that Himeno died to protect them, giving up all her liefe energy. Hayate walks over to her saying astonishingly, "She became the legendary White Pretear...by herself..." He sits down beside her. Sasame explains that all the liefe she gave was used to help the people of this planet, and healed all of them. He says she gave everything she had. Everyone is crying, even Hayate. Kei states that they will never meet a Pretear as great as her again. Sasame starts to say, "Himeno, thank y-" but is inturrupted by Hayate, a steady shaking in his voice, "I'm sorry. Himeno, I was a failure as a Knight. Even though I felt it in my heart, even though I knew...I couldn't be honest with myself." Looking down as her, his tears falling onto her face, "The promise I couldn't keep, now..." Hayate kneels down and kisses her. The whole cast is watching, sadly. Hayate, in his mind, pleads, as he gets up, "Liefe, please...Just once more..." he looks down at her again, crying, "Just once more...give me that smile once more..." He watches her for a few moments. Her eyes stir. "If there is such a miracle called love..." He repeats in his mind. Her eyes open fully. She turns, and smiles at Hayate, who is overjoyed to see that she is still alive, as well as the rest of the cast.

During the credits, you see what happens to the rest of the characters. The last scene with Hayate is when he is with Himeno. She waves at him as she sees him walk out of the gateway to Leafenia, the Liefe Knight's home. "Hayate!" she screams, still waving. He smiles and walks over to her. This cuts to a scene of them walking down a path. She asks, "How was Leafenia?". "It's all right now." he states. "Really? Great." She asks about Sasame and Takako, and Hayate tells her that they've gotten together. "Really! Thats great that they understand each other's feelings." Turing to Hayate, giving him one big smile. He blushes and she says, "What?". He changes the subject saying, "Nothing. Oh, Mawata was saying she's gonna bake a cake." And tries to run off leaving the subject of Takako and Sasame behind. Himeno catches him saying, "Wait a sec!" as she grabs onto his arm, "H-hay, what're you doing!?" he says surprised as he tries to get her off. Grabing his arm again she says, "Nope!", giggling. Hayate looks up, blushing again, and says like he doesn't care, "Fine." Starting to walk down the path again, Himeno starts another conversation, this time saying, "Oh, yeah! I've gotten really good at the kendama!" (Note * kendama is the thing back in episode 3 that was the wooden cup that had a string with a ball attached to it. Hayate said that if she could making the ball go in the cup, she would become a better Pretear (which was probably a bold-faced lie in my opinion)). He says, "What, you still had that thing?" as Himeno follows up with, "Thats mean! I was practicing all this time." "Just throw it away." he states. "No." said Himeno. "Throw it away!" he shoots back. "No~o!" Himeno whines as the camera moves for a close-up of the pot of flowers which belonged to her mother. The End.

<-- Rewind

This shrine is part of Project: Shirayuki and Pretear is © to Junichi Sato.