Caster 1

-Hito-

Nishimiya's house was quite far away because they needed to ride a bus, a train, and a bus again to arrive at her home.

It took exactly an entire hour of ride, like seriously isn't that a pain to go back and forth to their school on a daily basis?

Wouldn't it be better for her to go to the nearest high school?

However, if she did he wouldn't have met her, so he certainly wasn't complaining, because of her, he managed to gain some confidence in making friends and now he had a few of them.

He was really thankful for her, without her it would have taken him a while to regain his confidence.

"Em ome!"

Hito couldn't help but look at her in surprise, as this was the first time he heard her say a word from her mouth.

He had to admit that her voice is cute, it was very pleasant to his ears, he wanted to hear more of it, he wouldn't get bored of her voice at all.

As Nishimiya said that, he heard footsteps coming from inside the house, and then the door to her house opened revealing a middle school kid with a camera on her neck.

'A boy..? No, it's a girl.' Looks can be deceiving, she may look like a cute boy, but he knew what a femboy is, his friend Osana Najimi is a prime example of it.

"Nee-chan, welcom-" Her sister noticed his presence and narrowed her gaze at him and said with a neutral tone. "Who are you?"

Without hesitation, he introduced himself with a smile. "Tadano Hitohito, I'm one of Nishimiya's friends."

Suddenly Nishimiya's sister gained a look of recognition. "Oh, you're my sister's crus- *ahem* I mean friend, I've heard of you."

Although he was curious about what word she didn't finish, in the end, it wasn't too important so he didn't think too much about it.

"Oh, you heard of me? Hopefully, it's nothing too bad." Hito couldn't help but scratch the back of his head, after all, he didn't want to leave a bad impression on Nishimiya's family.

"You don't have to worry about that, my sister talks about how great and an amazing friend you are to her." Nishimiya's sister's expression became a bit sly.

"She did? I'm flattered but I don't think I'm that great or amazing friend to her." Hito denied being great because he doesn't remember being that great or amazing in her presence, he acts like he normally does with everyone.

Nishimiya's sister shook her head and became serious and replied. "Trust me, you are."

Hito doesn't know how to answer that, so Nishimiya's sister introduced herself. "I'm Nishimiya Yuzuru by the way, also call me Yuzu because calling me by my family name would cause confusion in this house."

"Noted." Hito accepted quite easily, after all, he's in the household of Nishimiya, so it's unavoidable that he'd call them by their first names and not their last.

"Alright, please go in." Yuzuru was a bit nicer to her than before, he noticed and wondered why.

Either way, it's nothing too important, so he went inside with Nishi- Shouko, his eyes wandering around her house. Honestly, her house is quite similar to his family house, however, it's a lot bigger compared to this.

They arrived at the kitchen slash dining room, inside the room, 2 people were standing, a woman who was in her forties, who looked strict and stern.

And an old woman who is about to reach her seventies.

Both of them were looking at him as he entered the dining room, while the grandma was looking at her gently, the woman who is probably Shouko's mother stares at him like she's scanning her very being.

While he wasn't affected by it, however, it was still quite intense in his opinion, if her gaze had lasers he would no doubt melt already under her watchful eyes.

"Yuzuru, this young man is…?" Like her face, her voice is also stern.

Yuzuru answered quite easily. "He's nee-chan friend, you know Tadano Hitohito?"

Hearing that both women's eyes widened in recognition and Shouko's mother's eyes softened significantly upon recognizing his name.

He wondered what Shouko said about him, for her family to act like this to him because as soon as they recognized his name, they became gentler and more welcoming.

"I see…" Shouko's mother softly said. "I've heard a lot about you from my daughter Shouko, it's finally nice to meet you. I'm Nishimiya Yaeko."

"It's nice to meet you Yaeko-san." He bowed for a bit, then he felt her emotions, it was satisfaction and approval.

"So, this is the famous Tadano Hitohito, it's nice to meet you young. Shouko-chan says a lot of things about you." Shouko's grandma said with a soft smile

He couldn't help but scratch the back of his head hearing that comment and smiled sheepishly at her. "I've heard, hopefully, it's not an exaggeration…"

"Oh, trust me young man now that I've seen you personally, I'd say it isn't an exaggeration." Grandma lets out a hum and then continues. "Ito Nishimiya, but you can call me grandma."

Hito nodded with a soft smile. "Of course grandma."

Ito nodded satisfied with his answer and said. "I like this one, now I can leave Shouko-chan to you in peace."

"...?" He doesn't get it but regardless he nodded.

After that, grandma's birthday party started. The party wasn't grand as they were the only people here on grandma's birthday.

It was peaceful, and nothing complicated, unlike the Shinomiya. He liked this kind of atmosphere, while it may not be grand and majestic compared to Gan'an Shinomiya's birthday party.

He preferred this kind of birthday party instead of the other one because he doesn't need to be careful about who he talks with.

Hito got to know Shouko's little sister, he knew that Yuzuru was very protective of her older sister because she was often bullied because of her disability.

This is also the reason why she's a bit hostile before she recognized him, after all her sister had a record of being bullied.

Hito became a bit mad knowing that Shouko had been bullied before, how could anyone even do that?

She's literally the representation of what an angel is, she's harmless as she could be, so why would anyone bully her?

The answer is obvious, it's because of her disability, knowing the answer didn't make him happy at all, honestly bullying someone because of their disability is the lowest of the low.

While he's angry about it, he could do nothing because it already happened, there's no changing the past unless he time traveled.

No wonder Yaeko-san's reaction to him was intense when she first saw him, it was just her trying to protect her daughter from anyone who took advantage of her.

—

Grandma Ito sliced the strawberry chocolate cake evenly and put a piece on each of their plates.

He happily ate the cake with a smile, strawberry chocolate cake isn't really his favorite flavor but hey, food is food.

It was nice to meet her family. He wondered if he should invite Shouko next time to his house.

—

The birthday party ended soon, and it was time for him to leave, but before he did grandma Ito insisted on giving him a souvenir which he reluctantly accepted.

Shouko, of course, walked with him to the bus station, even though he said that it wasn't necessary, however like her grandma she insisted.

Now, he knew that being insistent is a family trait for the Nishimiya.

While walking for the bus, he was communicating with her through messages, they were talking about school stuff, to pass time.

And it was effective as both didn't realize how much time had passed, they only stopped when the bus arrived.

"Well, this is my ride. Thank you for inviting me to your grandma's birthday party, it was wonderful." Hito said with a smile.

Shouko received his message and she smiled at him.

( No, thank you for attending because of you my grandma's birthday party is livelier than it's supposed to be. )

"You're welcome." He replied kindly.

Then all of a sudden, Shouko kissed his left cheek and after she did, her face became red.

After that, she quickly left without saying anything. Hito was stunned at Shouko's bold action, he never expected her to kiss him, even if it was on the cheeks!

It took him a minute to recover and he managed to snap out of it and went inside the bus, where he was thinking about what does her kiss meant, was it because she likes him or because she's just grateful for what he did at her grandma's birthday party?

—

Even after he left the bus, in an empty street while walking he was still thinking about the kiss, trying to understand its mystery, but he managed to snap out of it when he heard someone collapsing a few meters away from him.

His curiosity won over him and went directly to the spot, and then froze when he saw a woman wearing a hooded bluish-purple robe lying on the cold dirty ground badly beaten.

However, he snapped out of it and quickly tried to help the woman, but as soon as he was about to touch her, she slapped his hand and fiercely looked at him, or at least what he thought because her hood covered most of her face.

"Cough* You! Where is this-?!" Despite her injuries, she still managed to raise her voice.

"You're in the middle of the streets," Hito answered honestly.

"Middle of the- I see…so I was successful with my escape…" The hooded woman muttered.

"Escape..?" Hito titled his head.

"None of your business." The hooded woman snapped at him.

"Alright..? Anyway, you clearly need help. I'll call the hospital right now." He tried to call the hospital with his phone, however, he was stopped by the hooded woman.

"Stop! A hospital won't help my situation!"

"Huh? Why not? You're clearly injured!"

"The medicine era isn't what I need, what I need is a source of prana!"

What..? Prana?

His eyes widened as he realized that this woman isn't ordinary, he should have noticed it by her clothes alone, no one would wear such clothes unless it was for cosplay purposes.

Without hesitation, he activated his mystical eyes and saw that this woman wasn't a human at all.

But a spirit of some kind, and that night he met his first servant.

A heroic spirit, Caster.

—

So, it's finally time to introduce Fate as most of you guys already guessed, this is Medea the Caster of Fate/Stay Night.

Just a reminder, this is a month before the 5th Holy Grail starts.

I wasn't really satisfied with how I introduced Caster, but meh. It is what it is.

If you liked the story please support me on Pa.treon, even if it's just for a month I'd be really grateful.

Pa.treon/charlottes143