Hiraga Saito

Hiraga Saito (Japanese: 平賀才人 Hiraga Saitō, pronunciation: /saɪtoʊ hirɑːgɑː/) is the main male protagonist of Zero no Tsukaima. He was originally from Earth (specifically, ) before becoming Louise's familiar.

Appearance
Saito is a young man with blue eyes and black hair, who wears a blue, loose, long-sleeved jacket-like top with a raised collar over his short-sleeve white t-shirt. He also wears a pair of black jeans partnered with some blue and white sneakers.

Personality
Before the story, Saito's bio in the light novel states that he is average in everything, be it his grades, sports, or charming his female classmates. He has large amounts of curiousity; if something interests him he will pursue it. He is fiercely loyal to his master, Louise, showing the willingness to fight in spite of the odds if it means protecting her. As a student, Saito was leasing somewhat of a mundane lifestyle, waiting for something interesting to come his way. He has also stated to be a little on the uptake as he never thinks before acting thus ending up being summoned.

After being summoned, he proves to be highly adaptable, as he shrugged off being kidnapped by elves. Also, he has instincts of subserviency to Louise due to her violent behavior, and his peaceful upbringing. However, this strongly contrasts his willingness to fight and to help others. Saito has also proven to be a bit manipulative, holding the weaknesses and emotions of others against someone in conflict. This is demonstrated on a regular basis when he is faced with Louise's constant temper tantrums, using her weaknesses as his defense mechanism.

Saito also appears to be emotionally strong in certain situations that involve defending his beloved. He tries to see others for who they really are rather than for their social standing or whether they have magical capabilities or not. Despite this, Saito is still a teenage boy with perverted desires for multiple women, in spite of his devotion to Louise, which always leaves her extremely jealous and feeling betrayed.

Because he comes from a world filled with advanced technology with an even longer and more brutal history of conflict than Halkagenia, he isn't blind to of all the egotism emanating from many of the nobles indigenous to the area.

Saito is also a ladies' man, often showing him in romantic situations with most of the female supporting cast.

Background

Before coming to Halkeginia, Saito had an ordinary life in Japan. While walking home with a computer in his hand, he stumbled upon a large green portal. Saito reached out to touch it, and it teleported him to a foreign world where he is later deemed Louise's familiar.

Zero no Tsukaima
At the time of the summoning, he had just picked up his laptop after attempting to get it repaired in. Walking home a portal of some kind opened in front of him; and Saito's curiosity getting the better of him, he touched it and was sucked through. At first, Saito had no idea where he was, and was thoroughly disoriented. When he arrives on the other side, however, he is made to sit and obey like a normal household dog. When the bond of him being her familiar, involves having a kiss with the familiar, he is quite shocked at why they do it. In the anime, he also could not identify nor understand the language the students were speaking, but after Louise attempts to cast a silence spell on him that fails, he could understand and communicate with others as though they were speaking Japanese. It is not clear whether he was actually gifted with full knowledge of their language, or whether the misfired spell was similar in principle to a universal translator. This was not the case in the light novel though, the portal between his and Louise's world allowed him to understand the Halkegnian language. He understands like the names of the characters, the language spoken by them is also French.

F (Final)
In season four, Saito continues to mistakenly anger Louise by comparing her looks to Siesta, and by his devotion to protecting Tiffania as well as Louise. He is seen fighting a hooded Earth mage near a treasury room in a Romalian chapel castle, and is seen falling through the familiar's gate when Tiffania tries to summon her familiar. He is also blamed for uncontrollable desires when He and Louise are found kissing on the porch by Tiffania.

Within Romalia he is regarded as the Hero for his defense of the city against the might of King Joseph. A play is dedicated to his triumph, and Queen Henrietta entrusts him as Lord of De Ornielle. Since he now owns house and land give to him by Queen Henrietta from the Queens estate he should be address as "Lord of De Ornielle" or better as "Duke of De Ornielle". His land would be Duchy (estate holdings). He would be beholding to the Queen for the estate gift. Lord is used as a generic term to denote members of the peerage. Five ranks of peer exist in the United Kingdom, in descending order these are duke, marquess, earl, viscount, and baron. She didn't say which level of Lord. Could be a Baron, but it's possible he would be a Duke.

Within a hidden bedroom in De Ornielle's mansion lies a magic mirror that connects Tristain's Royal Palace to it. Queen Henrietta believes it was used by her grandfather, the King of Illusions to have an affair. When he touches the mirror, suddenly Henrietta image appears in the mirror. She is in a nightgown. When she said his name she was transported into the room he was in. She talks about her grandfather and the mirror. She made her feeling for Saito known, but also that she can't marry the one she loves. She was going to marry Prince Wales, but he was murdered. Saito is the only male person she can really trust. Maybe in rebound mode. She kisses Saito. Louise sees this and leaves the mansion to go back to the Academy so to leave Henrietta to Saito. At the Academy talking to Kirche and Tabitha, Tabitha made it know she will go after Saito also and become Queen of Gallia.

Later while still at his mansion Saito gets into a fight with the Gallia Knight Army and incidentally a group of elves came at the same time to kidnap Tiffania. While trying to protect Tiffania the elves cast a sleeping spell allowing them time to kidnap both Saito and Tiffania. After waking up in an Oasis they learned that Tiffania's half elf and void powers are too dangerous to be left without check, and Saito's Gandálfr powers as well. Later in their captivity Tiffania reveals her feelings for Saito and kisses him. This activates the familiar contract and new runes appear on his chest. This confirms that he is now Tiffania's familiar as well as Louise's. With the help of a small group of elves and his Academy friends Saito and Tiffania manage to escape the Elves captivity.

When they fought the Ancient Dragon, and fail to destroy it the first time, Louise sends Saito back to his world using the World Door. Later, Saito manages to come back with a fighter plane, (Mitsubishi-F-2A) and they then defeat the Dragon for good. After Saito sets his mind at ease (though his contract with Tiffa had run out, his contract with Louise kept him alive). With the Dragon dead, Saito then proposed to Louise and they were married. After their wedding Louise used her magic to go to Saito's world to visit his parents.

Relationships
The series constantly implies him being a pervert and sometimes he does think exactly like one, but justifiably, he is a young single guy who isn't married to anyone. Louise just enforces an ownership type arrangement over Saito implying she is owed Saito's feelings. Early in season 2, It is revealed that Saito is in love with Louise and even confesses it to her. Louise didn't say it verbally, but both know she feels the same way for Saito. At the end of season two, Saito and Louise make vows ceremony as commitment to each other in that flowers linked to each other. There is no real wedding ceremony.

Saito also has a bit of a troublesome and somewhat complicated tendency of getting involved with women. Strange and oddly sexual things happen when he seemingly becomes intimate with another girl. A few examples are when Kirche or even Siesta try to gain his attention, by mostly sexual seduction. When he meets or speaks to an attractive girl, he is often only noticing her chest in a few instances. This is actually one of the main reasons why Louise treats him so poorly as he is expected to be perfect in every way in her childish mindset. Although he acts a bit perverted at times, this does not mean Saito does not think of Louise. Similar to how she feels whenever he is becoming intimate with another girl (specifically with large breasts), Saito can get very upset when it comes to Louise and other men. He dislikes Julio for his "snobbish" interest in Louise, especially since he is adored by all the other young girls in Tristain Academy (including Louise). He becomes extremely jealous and calls him a bastard whenever he tries to touch Louise or gain her attention. When Wards was introduced into the series, Saito took an immediate dislike to him since Wards was engaged to Louise. When his friends dragged him into a hole to peep at the girls while they were bathing, Saito was extremely protective of Louise and stopped them (punched them all in the faces) before they saw her. He uses the name "My Louise" several times in the light novels when he feels jealous toward other guys. This is definite evidence of his strong feelings for Louise.

His partner, the talking sword Derflinger, was also the partner of the familiar Gandálfr from six-thousand years ago. His advice and comments never reflect well on Saito. Saito protects Louise because he is her familiar, and it is later shown that he has feelings for her as well, claiming "All that he is good at is protecting her." He is revealed to be a Gandálfr, a familiar who exists to protect a Void Wizard as they cast their spells. Even when this fact becomes known to Louise, she still physically assaults him, while Saito is seen often shrugging it off as his fault. Saito was given the nickname "Our Sword" by the head cook in episode three, where Louise takes Saito into town to purchase a weapon for him, which happens to be the legendary sword Derflinger. At the end of Season 2 he is killed in battle but is revived by a fairy (who was in fact the same fairy who revived Guiche). They both think they were save by a fairy, but the fairy is really a elf Tiffania.

Powers and Abilities
There are Runes inscribed into Saito's hand as a result of his being bound to Louise. They read  (ガンダールヴ Gandāruvu). These runes glow when his Gandálfr powers activate. As a Gandálfr, Saito has the ability to use any object that was made with the intent of being used as a weapon at an extremely high level of skill. He also becomes significantly stronger, faster and tougher. Even weapons that he had never touched before, such as a M-72 Law and a World War II, can be instantly understood and utilized. This physical augmentation fades more or less instantly when he stops using the power, which can result in him falling unconscious if he'd been wounded previously. That he can only use items specifically crafted for the purpose of weapons was revealed by Derflinger after a failed attempt to use an ornamental sword. It has not been made clear whether Gandálfr powers could be used in conjunction with purely magical weaponry such as a wand or a staff. Even with these abilities he doesn't defend himself at all against Louise's constant beatings.

At the beginning of the third series, the magical runes on Saito's hand mysteriously disappear because of the events of Season 2 and Saito's position of Gandálfr is in question. Thus, he loses the power to use weapons expertly and becomes annoyed that he can no longer protect Louise. He regains the power of Gandálfr when he is re-summoned by Louise. With the return of the runes, Saito is knighted for the feat of stopping an entire army by himself, and given a hero's welcome at the Academy.

Saito is named after Gennai Hiraga who is an Edo period Japanese scientist, and his name is written as "ability man." This could hint at despite Lousie calling him stupid, Saito is in reality very smart. In fact he came to Halkagenia with a laptop and a basic understanding of computer science.With a hinted joke that like his ansestor saito might have knowledge of Pharmocology, ores, inventions, and electricity.

After being revived, Saito work out a lot a learned crude swordsmanship from Agnes, Derf states that even if the power is gone Saito's body still remembers battle and is higher than hers. Granted he learn only crude swordplay, and not iado until later. Even with a body forged from experience, saito is still a brain type, meaning without him familiar powers he can't fight as well as a body type person.

In the light novels it is revealed that not only is Saito the familiar of Louise, but also the familiar of Tiffania. Tiffania being another void user like King Joseph de Gallia, the Pope of Romalia, and the Founder Brimir. The introduction to Zero no Tsukaima F confirms this showing by having all the void familiars posing in front of the void users. Saito is seen in a dramatic stance in front of both Louise and Tiffania who are wearing priestess attire.

Weapons

 * Derfflinger
 * SIG Sauer P226
 * AK-47 (light novel only)
 * M72 LAW
 * A6M Zero fighter
 * Mitsubishi-F-2A (anime only)
 * Flak 88 anti-aircraft/anti-tank gun
 * Panzerkampfwagen VI Tiger tank (light novel only)

Also Known As

 * Gandálfr
 * Lífþrasir
 * Saito Chevalier de Hiraga
 * Our Sword (by Marteau)
 * Darling (by Kirche)
 * Dog, Perverted dog, Stupid dog (by Louise)
 * Water Flea (by Louise)
 * Low Creature (by Louise)
 * Mr. Knight (once by Cattleya)
 * Partner (by Derflinger)
 * Lord of De Ornielle (by Queen Henrietta)
 * My Ivaldi (by Tabitha)
 * Brother (By Julio Chesaré) (Novel)
 * Mr. Familiar (By Henrietta)

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