Sato Yamiru felt his guess was quite reasonable.
In countless superpower novels he'd read, the protagonist often had a seemingly endless stamina buff, or their superpower was outright "superhuman strength."
Didn't that fit him perfectly?
Meanwhile, Tonpo, who was having dinner made from ingredients in the RV's kitchen, looked up in surprise and said, "I don't know, but I don't think that counts."
"Why not?" Yamiru pouted. "A superpower is just an ability that surpasses ordinary people's, right? You're an ordinary person, aren't you? If I'm stronger than you, doesn't that make it a superpower?"
"That's just sophistry!" Tonpo scoffed. "There are plenty of people stronger than me. Does that mean they all have superpowers? Besides, the main characteristic of a superpower is… it can only awaken naturally. It's something you either have or don't. You can't learn it through training!"
The pig-headed man sprayed food as he spoke passionately, "Otherwise, do you think people would get into that academy for free just for having superpowers? If anyone could just train to get a bit stronger and get admitted, the school would've been overcrowded long ago!"
"But I really didn't train much. It's like I was 'born' with this strength."
Yamiru was telling the truth. Ever since he'd transmigrated, he'd been this way. It wasn't something he'd worked for.
"Don't you run 100 kilometers a day for fun?" Tonpo didn't believe him. "And you call that not training?"
"Exactly, that doesn't count as training." Yamiru shook his head, frowning slightly as he thought aloud. "Maybe you haven't reached this level, so you don't understand. When your strength surpasses normal human limits by more than double, you can't just figure out how to improve further on your own. Over the past few years—uh, five months—I've only been maintaining my workouts to fully utilize my existing strength. I haven't actually improved much in essence."
"Are you serious?" Tonpo looked skeptical. "Is it really that mystical?"
Yamiru rolled his eyes. "Why do you think martial artists are so far ahead of ordinary people? It's because they inherit generations of training methods…"
"I don't really get it. If you say so," Tonpo finally relented, shaking his head.
"Besides, even if my strength isn't considered a superpower, that superpower academy you mentioned must have some process to help applicants unlock their potential, right?" Yamiru blinked. That was his real goal. "There's no harm in trying. What if they discover I have a superpower? Wouldn't that be a win? If not, at least I could learn some of the magic they teach at the school."
"Without superpowers, just learning magic would be really expensive!" Tonpo said, bursting his bubble. "You definitely can't afford it, so forget about it."
Yamiru: "…So, is it because you couldn't afford the tuition that you ended up leaving the school?"
Tonpo: "No way! I'm not as broke as you. I was expelled."
"Wait a second. Don't tell me you were expelled for stealing a female teacher's underwear?" Yamiru scrutinized the pig-headed man with a suspicious look.
"Don't slander me!" Tonpo snapped angrily. "I got expelled for stalking the Academy beauty! Who would steal a female teacher's underwear? And who would even get caught stealing it? That's just stupid!"
"And getting caught stalking the school beauty isn't stupid?" Yamiru said, exasperated. "There's no difference between the two! Both are super creepy! Do you not realize that?"
"You don't understand…" Tonpo's face turned bright red. "Stalking Elizabeth isn't creepy! Elizabeth is so beautiful—what man wouldn't want to follow her? I'm telling you, the moment I saw her, I even thought of names for our future kids!"
"What kind of logic is that? Just because she's beautiful, you think it's okay to stalk her? That's pig logic!" Yamiru kicked the pig-headed man. "Any kid born from you would definitely turn out just as perverted. It's better if you don't have any."
"Hmph! With my genes and Elizabeth's, Oolong would definitely be born with powerful superpowers. You're just jealous of my future son!" Tonpo said smugly, as if he had already won over the school beauty, Elizabeth. Despite still having Yamiru's shoe print on his face, he pointed mockingly at him.
"I'm being too nice to you, huh? Wait… what did you just say? Oolong?" Yamiru froze, gripping Tonpo's pig head with both hands and rubbing it furiously.
"My future son's name, of course." Tonpo seized the opportunity to slip away, rubbing his head. "A guy like you without superpowers must be super envious."
Oh, my god… Could this pig really end up winning over the school beauty he mentioned? Yamiru took a deep breath. Just how blind would this beauty have to be to have a perverted pig like Oolong as her child? Unless…
"Is this Elizabeth you're talking about… a sow? I mean, a female pig-person?" Yamiru asked.
"Get lost!" Tonpo shouted, kicking at Yamiru. However, Yamiru easily caught his pig hoof and lifted him off the ground. Since they were roughly the same height, Tonpo's head hit the floor with a painful thud. Still, the pig-headed man wailed, "Don't you dare insult Elizabeth!"
"Saying she's a pig-person is insulting her? Wow, you're quite self-aware!"
---
The next day, May 6th, Age 735.
Tonpo was woken up by the noise Yamiru made as he got up. Rubbing his eyes, he grumbled, "Are you trying to kill me? Getting up so early?"
"You're still here?" Yamiru said from his desk without turning around.
"What's with that tone? Got a bad case of morning grumpiness?" Tonpo stretched and yawned, puzzled by Yamiru's strange mood.
"Had a nightmare," Yamiru replied flatly, closing the notebook on his desk. The sentence "Knowing it's impossible" written inside hadn't been followed by anything new.
"What kind of nightmare? Your wife ran off with someone else?" Tonpo smirked, clearly retaliating for the insults Yamiru had thrown at his goddess the previous night.
"No, I dreamed of people I might never see again…" Yamiru's lips tightened. "For me, the worst kind of dream is that one."
"Sounds like you really miss them. Why call it a nightmare?" Tonpo was baffled.
Yamiru put away the notebook. "Sometimes, forgetting is better for everyone."
"You're so cryptic," Tonpo muttered, still not understanding. His eyes landed on a poster on Yamiru's desk. "You're so strong—have you ever thought about entering the World Martial Arts Tournament?"
Yamiru didn't answer.
"Honestly, I think if you joined a martial arts dojo and trained for a few years, you might make it into the professional fighting league. That's gotta be better than your daily delivery job," Tonpo suggested.
"I'm heading out. You should leave too."
Yamiru ignored him, tidying up as the clock approached 5 a.m., ready for his usual morning run.
"My home's right outside your door, so where am I supposed to go?" Tonpo pointed at the double-decker bus parked at the entrance. "Besides, I want to swing by the school. Maybe I'll run into Elizabeth."
"Do whatever you want."
Yamiru took a deep breath of fresh air and started his warm-up routine.
"This guy's mood cooled off a lot after one night's sleep!" Tonpo muttered as he followed Yamiru out of the yard. "Ugh, his morning grumpiness is insane!"
Before taking off, Yamiru turned to the pig-headed man climbing into the RV and said, "By the way, if you ever have kids, make sure you keep this vehicle safe."