It took a little over an hour to examine both bodies. The examination of Alex's body took a full hour while Rei Rei's body took one minute. Jason and Vanessa waited outside the lab as both came out. Their voices synced.
'Jason, you won't believe what I just found out.'
Rei Rei's face was and joyous and surprised upon his discovery as his eyes twinkled compared to Alex, who seemed somewhat disturbed and was trying to hide it.
'Jason…'
Rei Rei's body shook with excitement as he desperately needed to tell the world about his discovery.
'Alex's body is…'
Jason and Vanessa listened carefully, the secret behind the superhuman's powers would finally be revealed.
'Normal.'
It was the one word that both of them did not anticipate to hear and were dumbfounded.
'Normal!?'
They both asked to confirm what they heard while Rei Rei was still in awe.
'Completely normal.'
'Which normal person can lift a thousand pounds?'
'Every.'
Rei Rei said it like it was common knowledge which everybody knows.
'Professor, would you please explain.'
'There is nothing to explain, Jason. Alex has just gained full control of his body.'
Do you know, a normal human can lift about 7 times his own weight. For example, lets' say an average human has a weight of 70kg. He can definitely lift 490kg. Don't believe me?
Ever heard of "limiters." Humans only use 20% of their total strength. That's right, only 20%. Our limiters make sure we don't exceed that point. Why can't we use the rest of the 80%? Well, we can. It's that type of hidden power that comes out when your typical shonen protagonist is on the verge of losing and probably going to die.
In other words, it can only be accessed when you need it the most, like a near-death situation. A power of need, not a desire. You might have experienced it yourself like when a cupboard fell on someone important to you, and you lifted it up instantly even though if it were normal circumstances, you would never be able too.
Your brain also works faster, recall the time you were in a panic, does everything appears to be slower? They aren't, your mind is just working more quickly and processes information at a higher rate.
You feel more energetic, less pain, and feel like you could run a mile, and it wouldn't even be a warm-up. Alex has gained control over his limiters. He can open and close them at will. He can now easily tap into the inner potential that every human has whenever he wishes.
But there is a reason why those limiters are placed there in the first place. Simply put, the human body is weak, really weak. Our bodies cannot handle our real strength for more than some moments. It collapses too quickly. We can die if we use our true power more than those mere moments.
You might wonder why Alex's body hasn't, how come he got super healing.
Well, first of all, Alex is the main character of the story. That alone answers 50% percent of the question, and secondly, all the energy needed to do all of those amazing feats comes from food. His body has adapted how to perfectly utilize food.
The more his body does something out of the ordinary, the more he needs to eat food proportionally. And like I said, for Jira, only 10% of the human DNA was active, they were trying to activate the rest.
Among that, super healing came with as a result. They did program the brain to program the rest of the cells to self-heal without requiring the brain to always tell it. Meaning Alex can also heal from a third-degree burn.
Hearing the explanation, Jason realized it made sense, at least to some extent.
'I must report it to the main room.'
Rei Rei quickly ran like a young, pure-hearted maiden and disappeared.
'So, Alex...'
Jason came closer to Alex. It was finally Alex's turn to disclose his discovery. Jason had a hard time asking the question to Alex with a straight face.
'What is the professor's gender?'
He really wanted to know. He had also pondered about it but never dared to ask. Even on Rei Rei registration's papers, when asked to write his sex, she wrote: "It's a secret." Alex tried thinking of the most straightforward way he could explain it to him.
'Imagine if Schrodinger performed a hypothetical experiment, but instead of a cat, the specimen he chose was Rei Rei, and he wanted to determine her gender.'
Jason had read about the famous Schrodinger cat's experiment, but for him to hear it now was…
'He is a man and also a woman.'
Jason's straight face did not flinch. He only replied,
'I see.'
Will we ever find out Rei Rei's true gender, or will it forever remain a mystery?