“I can’t fucking believe that I am actually doing this.“, Eric whispered as he made sure that his armpits didn’t smell for the umptieth time.

“She should have passed this corridor five minutes ago. Should I take a peek or maybe go wait near the ballet club? Maybe Willy missed her walking by or forgot the signal?”

The sound of a laugh resembling that of a dolphin, the sign, stopped him from hyperventilating. Not giving himself another chance to doubt himself, Eric started walking. The hall seemed to stretch on forever. Even the classroom entrances on his left side had turned into welcoming sanctuaries from his social struggles. 

A classmate from the college gaming club walked by with a nod and a “hi”, but Eric didn’t notice. His eyes were glued on the bend in the corridor. Willy and he had exactly calculated her habits and walking speed. This was the perfect way to start a conversation. When she actually appeared in the corridor bend, his breath fell short for several seconds. Her dress fit her eyes perfectly, the way she smiled was intoxicating and …

Eric had to picture a snail crawling up his ass to force himself out of that train of thought. Just in time, he made eye contact and smiled as he had practiced: “Hey Jenny, what up?”

Jenny had recognized him and approached him with a radiant smile. “Hi Eric, your lessons ended early today, right?”

Eric froze. She had diverged from the script. In the background, he could see an encouraging face peeking out of a classroom - Willy. His friend had reassured him that the script was immaculate. Only her confused cough made him realize the pause had stretched - uncomfortably so. At that moment, he realized he couldn’t fuck up the situation worse, so he did. “Well, aahhh? Do you want to go to the cinema tomorrow?” 

Her expression softened, and his heart started beating faster. “I like you, Eric. I really do. I would even count you among my best friends since kindergarten. Both of us know it will stay at that. Besides, I have a boyfriend.”

It felt like thunder had struck him, then the emotionless void engulfed him. A feeling legendary amongst men who had been rejected, but never felt by Eric before. Jenny was the only girl he could talk to. She gave him a warm smile, a last “we will always be friends” and turned away.

He couldn’t let this chance pass by. With a last shred of hope, he grabbed her sleeve so he could make his last stand. Prepared to die trying.

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What he didn’t expect was to have her boyfriend Lukas stare right back at him from only a few feet away. Eric unconsciously shrank down into himself and immediately hated himself for doing so. To be fair, the fury on Lukas’s face seemed borderline insane. 

At least until Jenny tugged on her boyfriend’s arm. His stare of death turned into “Yes, of course, Jenny” faster than you can say “simp”.

Before Eric knew what came over him, laughter was bubbling up from his throat. There was nothing funny about his situation. He had been dumped and now he was straight on his way to virgin town. Yet, all the pain, all his anguish somehow translated into laughter.

Soon he was rolling on the ground, holding his stomach and trying not to die from forgetting to breathe in air. Through his tears, he watched as Jenny’s boyfriend, Lukas, balled his fist, all the while incapable of punching him because of Jenny. Lukas’s expression darkened to such a degree that his eyes seemed to spark with electricity.

Suddenly, Jenny’s boyfriend exploded into guttural screams. It actually seemed like arcs of lightning were discharging around his body. 

“Wait a minute. That wasn’t actual lightning just now, right?”

When Jenny dropped to the ground jittering like a fish on land, Eric realized two things: those were real bolts of lightning and he was in deep shit. Looking like an almighty thunder god, Lukas approached him with a grim expression. Electrical discharges whipped the air and shattered the entire glass front of the building. Lukas didn’t even seem to realize that lightning bolts the width of his arm were tearing down walls around him. Lukas’s gaze was focused on his prey.

For a second, Eric’s brain shut off completely as he stared blankly at the anomaly in his boring life. When the sound of students screaming their lungs out finally registered, Eric’s mind switched to survival mode. A livid and impulsive teen controlling lightning was coming for him. There was nothing he could change about that, except for trying to survive: “I am sorry, Lukas. I wasn’t laughing at you. I am so sorry.” 

For a moment, Lukas hesitated and looked at his hand where rapid electrical discharges were forming a ball of lightning. The moment of hesitation passed and Lukas flung out one hand toward him. Eric’s vision went white. 

A moment later, his vision returned together with pain like he had never felt before. His skin felt like it was being peeled off and neither his voice nor his body was obeying him. 

Only then did he realize that Lukas was crouching down to talk to him. “Hey, Eric. I heard from Jenny that you like anime and japan. There is a custom in the yakuza that is fitting for this situation. If the yakuza underlings do something wrong, the bosses don’t kill them - that would be too troublesome. Instead, they take one finger. This was your first mistake, so one finger. I don’t have a knife, so I am just going to tear it off.” 

Eric tried to protest, to move, but it was hopeless. His pupils dilated to slits and adrenaline shot through his veins. Time slowed down as Lukas gripped his index finger. With a grin that stretched to his ears, Lukas counted down: “Three, two and one!” For a split second, Eric saw his finger in Lukas’s hand, then his arm exploded into pain. It was simply too much to take for him and blackness engulfed him.