Shuya found Saya's reaction a little surprising at first, but the more he thought about it, the more it made perfect sense.
She was the textbook definition of a tsundere.
Tsundere is literally two parts: "tsun" (the prickly, sharp-tongued, arrogant side) and "dere" (the soft, sweet, honest side that only comes out in private).
The "tsun" part is easy to understand. In most anime, the tsundere girl is usually dealing with the male lead. The problem? Ninety percent of those male leads are the classic "nice guy who's useless at everything except being gentle" type. Meanwhile, the tsundere heroine is almost always a certified genius.
It's like the gamer hierarchy: Dota players look down on League players, League players look down on Mobile Legends players. So of course a genius girl is going to look at a generic nice-guy protagonist and think, Why the hell am I stuck with this loser?
Even normal viewers watching from the couch sometimes get annoyed at how dense the male lead is—imagine how a real genius girl feels.
The cute part of a tsundere is peeling away that prickly outer shell and getting to the sweet "dere" hidden underneath. They're terrible at expressing feelings, so if you pay attention to what they actually say (instead of what they pretend to mean), you can usually track exactly how far along you are in "conquering" them.
And the funniest thing? Tsunderes often end up accidentally speed-running their own romance without realizing it.
Just like Saya right now.
Classic "mouth says no, body says yes."
Shuya reached out and ruffled her pink hair, and she didn't pull away at all. She acted like she hated it, but her body was 100% honest.
As for why she wasn't showing the full "tsun" side like she does in the original story? Simple.
Shuya wasn't one of those generic nice-guy protagonists.
Top grades, ridiculously good-looking, athletic monster. The only "flaw" was that he used to be a bit of a loner at school. Other than that, he was peak present-life royalty.
Add in the fact that after the outbreak he'd casually shown off superpowers (Nen), slaughtered zombies with Saeko right in front of her, and—most importantly—even her own mom… ahem, big sister Yuriko hadn't acted arrogant around him once.
When the guy in front of you is already operating on that level, how are you supposed to act superior? Saya's pride never stood a chance.
Shuya pulled his hand back from her hair and turned to Saeko. "Saeko-senpai, you've been fighting all morning. You probably feel pretty gross right now, huh? Why don't you go take a shower and change? I'll handle lunch. It should be ready by the time you're done."
"Sounds good," Saeko agreed.
She hadn't noticed it until he mentioned it, but yeah—she really did want to wash up. Plus she knew lunch would be ready soon, and with Rei and Saya already helping in the kitchen, she didn't need to hover.
Once Saeko headed off, Shuya rolled up his sleeves and walked toward the kitchen. "Alright, let me see how you two did with prep."
He checked the ingredients they'd prepared.
Verdict: pretty solid.
Normal high-school level, but honestly impressive. The vegetables were cut evenly, the meat was sliced against the grain the right way—clearly the home-ec classes they'd taken since middle school had paid off.
If they could keep this up and handle all the prep work before he started cooking every day, he'd be more than happy to keep doing the actual cooking himself. The two most annoying parts of cooking were the prep and the cleanup. They had a dishwasher for the dishes, so if he didn't have to chop everything, making three meals a day would actually be relaxing.
"You did great," he said, not stingy with the praise.
Rei smiled warmly. "I'm really happy we could help you, Shuya-kun." Then she made a suggestion. "From now on, why don't Saya and I handle all the prep? Just write down what ingredients you'll need and stick the list on the fridge. We'll take care of everything before you get home."
"Deal. Thanks in advance," Shuya answered instantly.
"It's no trouble at all," Rei said, then nudged the still-dazed Saya beside her. "Right, Saya?"
"Huh?" Saya blinked, still replaying the feeling of Shuya's hand on her head. She finally snapped back to reality and realized both of them were staring at her. "Ah—y-yeah! Totally!"
Shuya just chuckled and shooed both girls out of the kitchen. "Alright, kitchen's mine now."
Without proper coordination, extra people in the kitchen usually just got in the way. Rei understood and gently pulled Saya aside, but they stayed nearby to watch. Since it was an open-style kitchen, it wasn't distracting, so Shuya let them stay.
As he worked, he suddenly remembered Yuriko from breakfast. "By the way, where's Yuriko? Haven't seen her since we got back."
Saya paused for a second, still struggling with the new title. "M-Mom… I mean, Big Sister said she didn't sleep at all last night, so she went to take a nap."
"Got it," Shuya said without turning around. "Make sure you wake her for lunch later."
He planned to run the water-divination test on Yuriko after lunch. He hadn't wanted to rush her—she'd only just started controlling her Nen last night. Most people needed time to build up their Ten. Not everyone was a monster like Saeko, who'd manifested Reizan after half a day.
But given Yuriko's personality, Shuya had a strong hunch she was a Transmuter. Even without a full contract yet, having a Transmuter on the team could seriously speed up his zombie-toxin research.
He kept chopping while the thought turned over in his mind.