"I'm back."
Shuya stepped into the room with the water divination gear and immediately noticed the huge, unstoppable grin on Rei's face.
He raised an eyebrow. "What's got you smiling like that? Spill it."
"Yan… Yan-kun?"
Rei snapped out of her daydream the second she heard his voice. She shook her head fast. "N-nothing! Let's just do the test already."
Shuya tilted his head and glanced at Shizuka, trying to read her expression.
Nothing—just her usual ditzy-cute face. Zero clues.
Rika, on the other hand, had this weird little smirk she was clearly trying to hide.
"Whatever," Shuya shrugged. As long as they weren't fighting, he wasn't going to dig.
He set the cup of water on the floor and waved Rei over.
She knelt down neatly, placed her hand on the side of the cup exactly like Yuriko had, and waited for his nod before slowly feeding her aura into it.
One quick note—Japanese homes don't use tile floors like most places. They lay down wooden boards and coat them with natural beeswax for protection. Cleaning is always done with a damp cloth, and everyone switches to indoor shoes at the door. Even lazy Shizuka kept Rika's floors spotless thanks to Shuya's influence, so everyone could sit comfortably without worrying about dirt.
They all settled in, eyes locked on the cup in front of Rei.
A few seconds later, the calm surface started rippling. The leaf on top bobbed like a tiny boat in choppy water.
Manipulation?
The thought barely formed before the water began overflowing, spilling onto the floor around the cup.
Enhancer?
The answer looked obvious.
"Rei, that's enough—"
Shuya was about to call it when something made him freeze.
"Wait. Don't stop. Keep pouring."
Rei blinked but didn't argue. She kept her hand on the cup and continued feeding in her weak aura.
"Huh?" Shizuka noticed first. "That's weird. Shouldn't Miyamoto-san be an Enhancer? Why is the water changing color like it did for me?"
Yeah.
It was faint, but the water had slowly turned a very pale blue.
If you weren't staring, you'd miss it completely.
"What the hell?" All three girls turned to Shuya at once.
Everything they knew about Nen came from him. He was the only one who might have an answer.
But even Shuya was seeing this for the first time.
His best guess? Some weird reaction from signing the contract right after pore-opening—when their auras fused together. Maybe it gave her talent in two different types at once?
"It's sweet too?" Shizuka picked up the cup and took a tiny sip before anyone could stop her.
Shuya snatched it from her and drank some himself.
His face went blank with shock.
She was right.
The water… had turned sweet.
What the actual fuck?
Even Shuya was lost.
If it was just dual-type talent, he could explain it as Rei not sitting on one corner of the Nen hexagon like normal people—she was somewhere on the line between Enhancement and Emission.
But three types?
That sounded like Specialist territory.
Honestly, it felt a little ridiculous.
In Hunter x Hunter, Kurapika's Scarlet Eyes turned him into a Specialist with "Absolute Time," letting him use 100% of every type—but it cost him an hour of life per second.
Shuya looked at Rei's confused face and still couldn't figure it out.
Man, it'd be nice if I could just go to the real Hunter world and learn this stuff properly.
In the end, he tested it himself using the Emission ability he'd synced from Shizuka.
It felt way smoother than before.
Even using the same amount of aura, his En range had grown noticeably bigger.
Nowhere near Zeno's insane three-hundred-meter radius, but definitely stronger.
After running a few more quick tests, Shuya finally reached a conclusion.
Rei wasn't a true Specialist with three-type talent.
She was still primarily an Enhancer.
Her efficiency with the adjacent types—Manipulation and Conjuration—was only around sixty percent, exactly like a normal Enhancer. Not the eighty percent a real Specialist would get.
So this had to be a side effect of signing the contract right after pore-opening.
But her training efficiency for Manipulation and Transmutation (the types next to Enhancement) was strangely over ninety percent.
That explained the weird but subtle changes during the water test.
In a way, Rei could be considered some kind of special pseudo-Specialist.
Having talent in three types had obvious upsides—more options were never bad.
The downside?
It was easy to spread yourself too thin and end up jack-of-all-trades, master of none.
Still, nowhere near as stupid as that guy in Heaven's Arena who was an Enhancer but decided to main Manipulation and Conjuration at sixty-percent efficiency. That idiot had it coming.
Gon's Rock-Paper-Scissors mixed Enhancement, Transmutation, and Emission just fine, so it wasn't automatically a problem.
Thinking about that, Shuya couldn't help glancing at Rika with growing excitement.
If signing after pore-opening already gave this kind of boost, what would happen if someone awakened Nen completely on their own first?
Would it push every type to higher efficiency?
Or max out the adjacent ones to one hundred percent?
"Nice work."
Shuya turned back to Rei, ruffled her two little ahoges again, and gave her a genuine smile. "You did great."
"Mm."
Rei's heart did a happy flip as she nodded.
She was still a little annoyed about the ahoge thing, but whatever—she had the contract now.
That meant she finally had the confidence to sneak into his room tonight.
Rei glanced around the room, eyes flicking over Shizuka and Rika.
Of course, she'd need to make some preparations first.
No way she was letting "too many cooks, not enough broth" happen and accidentally handing the night over to someone else.