The double-decker bus traveled west.
What would a school for superpowers look like? Yamiru, accustomed to his afternoon naps, started to feel drowsy. Half-asleep, he dreamed of a bunch of bizarre creatures using various flashy abilities to chase him… Just then, he heard Tonpo's voice saying they had almost arrived.
"What do you mean by 'almost' and 'already'?" Yamiru woke up, opened his golden eyes, stretched with a yawn, and glanced sideways at the pig-headed figure.
He followed Tonpo off the bus.
The surroundings were typical of a remote, desolate area—there was no sign of a school anywhere.
Tonpo shrank the bus into a capsule, then, seemingly from nowhere, pulled out a hat. He tied his pig ears up and hid them on top of his head, covered it with the hat, and pulled out a mask to cover his pig nose. After clearing his throat, he said, "It's not far ahead. Let's walk there."
"Why are you acting so sneaky? Are you afraid of being seen?" Yamiru tapped his chin.
"I'm afraid you'll cry from my handsomeness," Tonpo hummed.
"You're covering up your pig nose and ears," Yamiru followed behind and laughed. "Oh, I remember now, you're the one who was tailing some girl and got expelled. What's wrong, you were all confident while stalking her, now you're embarrassed?"
"Embarrassed my ass. I was worried Elizabeth would see me and fall in love," Tonpo said without looking back.
"Right, and that leopard-head guy," Yamiru leisurely rested his hands behind his head. "You also said they always bullied you. Last time, you tricked them into looking for me, and they got a good beating. Now you must be scared to run into them... Hmm, maybe that leopard-head guy isn't the only one of your old classmates who likes to pick on you."
Tonpo didn't say anything, just walked ahead with his head lowered.
Yamiru didn't tease him further and instead began to contemplate the meaning behind his eyes.
Firstly, as long as his mindset stayed positive, firm, and peaceful, his eyes would remain golden. It seemed that was the key to activating the ability.
Once he started to think about giving up or doubting himself, the golden glow in his eyes would vanish.
Yamiru liked this pattern.
It felt like a clear reward-and-punishment mechanism, almost like the vows and restrictions from Hunter x Hunter. If these eyes held any power, it was granted to the resolute Yamiru, aiding him to keep moving forward—not to the Yamiru who was content with mediocrity.
However, even now, he still hadn't figured out what exactly the golden eyes could do.
Yamiru began to wonder what exactly his golden eyes could do. Was it a technique for copying martial arts? A superpower for enhanced vision? Or perhaps the ability to see his opponent's life line?
Realizing that he was fantasizing about a powerful, flashy technique that would allow him to rampage across the Dragon Ball world, Yamiru quickly refocused his mind. He took out a small mirror from his pocket—one he had grabbed from Tonpo's car—and checked his eyes. Sure enough, the golden glow was slowly intensifying, proving that the moment he let his thoughts wander, the glow almost disappeared.
"I can't be negative, nor can I let my imagination run wild. My mind must stay steady," Yamiru thought, "This ability... hasn't shown itself yet, but it's strict as hell."
He realized that the eyes might actually serve as a form of mental discipline, keeping him in check.
Perhaps the purpose of the golden eyes was to constantly remind and urge him forward, like an internal warning system? It was difficult for people to self-reflect, after all.
The golden glow in his eyes was an intuitive indicator of his mental state.
Yamiru was lost in thought when he suddenly bumped into Tonpo's back.
"Hey, we're here," Tonpo complained, annoyed by Yamiru's distraction.
Yamiru looked up and saw a rather plain school gate, with a stone tablet standing in front bearing the calligraphy characters: "学园" (Academy).
"No official name?" Yamiru was puzzled. "This Academy doesn't advertise?"
"Advertise what? Those who need to know will know. If you don't know, then it's not for you to know," Tonpo shrugged. "Not everyone is aware of abilities and magic, you know? Wait here."
Tonpo dashed off to a hidden patch of grass, flailing his arms like a running monkey. He then began howling like a wolf.
Yamiru, still confused, imitated the strange movement but couldn't figure out how Tonpo's little Goku-like stance helped with running.
"Wooo! Wooo!" From the grass came a werewolf wearing an eye mask, looking like a street thug. It grabbed a rock and threw it at the school gate while laughing hysterically. When several guards wearing uniforms appeared at the gate, some holding rubber clubs and others with walkie-talkies, they started to chase the werewolf, who quickly disappeared into the distance. The guards, seeing two short figures standing by the roadside, asked, "Hey, did you see a werewolf?"
"Yeah, he ran that way and said everyone here is a fool," Tonpo said, pointing in the direction.
"What? So rude! He must have been expelled! Go after him!" The guards, angry, hurriedly ran off in the direction Tonpo had pointed.
Yamiru, witnessing this entire scene, couldn't help but feel dumbfounded. It all had a Dragon Ball kind of carefree vibe to it...
Meanwhile, inside the school, on a high-rise window, a purple-haired girl with two braids boldly stood on the windowsill. She was peering through a high-tech telescope that flickered with electronic lights, scanning the area.
She was observing the events unfolding at the Academy gate.
"Hmm... Something's off," she muttered, setting down the telescope, which shrank into a capsule and was stashed into a small pocket in her skirt, which was filled with other capsules. Bulma rummaged through the pockets until she found the one with a laser gun capsule. With a grin, she said, "Time to shoot the bad guys\~"
"Ha! Stupid idiots! Hehehe\~"
Tonpo made faces at the direction the guards had gone, though it was hard to tell what gestures he was making under his mask.
Yamiru continued to feel speechless.
"Let's go, we'll sneak in," Tonpo said as he headed toward the school gate.
Yamiru followed him.
Along the way, he asked, "Wait, I thought I was here to test if I have superpowers. If we're meeting with school officials, why do we need to sneak in?"
"Are you stupid?" Tonpo said irritably. "If they recognize me, they won't let me in."
Yamiru followed the experienced Tonpo through the campus. Along the way, many people passed by, ranging from kids shorter than Yamiru to young adults twice his height. Most were animal people, but there were also quite a few regular humans. Unfortunately, these people didn't seem to be using their powers while walking, so Yamiru didn't notice anything special about them.
The students laughed as they walked by, not bothering to pay attention to Yamiru and Tonpo since they didn't recognize them.
"You're leading me somewhere, but this doesn't look like a place to test powers, at least not a place where you'd apply to the school staff," Yamiru said, as he and Tonpo stopped by a fence next to a large sports field. Yamiru almost wanted to throw the pig-headed guy over his shoulder, realizing that Tonpo had been sneaking around here, staring intently at a particular part of the field.
"Elizabeth... Hehe..." Tonpo drooled.
Yamiru rolled his eyes. This pig-headed guy had clearly been lurking here for a while, probably knowing Elizabeth's class schedule like the back of his hand.
Out of curiosity, Yamiru followed Tonpo's gaze and saw a group of people surrounding a woman, who was wearing a T-shirt and shorts while warming up. It looked like she was preparing for an outdoor physical education class.
"Let me see how beautiful she really is..." he said, shading his eyes with his hand and squinting from a distance.
However, perhaps because she was too far away, Yamiru didn't find the woman particularly stunning. Her figure wasn't very noticeable, and her facial features were average at best.
"Do you have bad taste, pig?" Yamiru kicked Tonpo's pig-like behind.