He telegraphed a lot, so I saw the punch coming, but my reaction time was too slow. A short black blink when the punch hit my chin.

Damn it! My mental operations are too slow because of constant sleep deprivation.

But I was ready and accounting for my bad reaction time. I had fought a lot of times back in the village.

Right when his fist landed on my chin, I used that as feedback to immediately strike my palm in front of me. I got him right on the lips and saw blood come out.

Behind me was “my“ gang. And on the other side was another friendly local gang. They called this the Cherry Popping Ritual. A fight where both gangs would have newly awakened gang members fight each other. “Newly awakened“ means that you have discovered you have the ability to manipulate your personal mana, but you still haven’t learned how to use it. Amygdala said that this ritual was very effective because strong emotions sometimes produced spells. He said he’d seen it happen a couple of times.

The guy I was fighting recovered from the punch. He shook his head.

“Aarrgh you pus—”

Never take your eye off the enemy, idiot!

I immediately gave him a palm punch again.

I was punching with my palm instead of my fist because I had seen plenty of hands break from normal punches.

He tried putting his arms in front of his face to guard, but I simply kicked him in the balls instead. This guy was obviously inexperienced.

“Get him Precuneus!” Amygdala yelled from above as he was levitating.

“Pussy! Fight like a man!” I heard from the sidelines from the other gang.

My opponent dropped to his knees while holding his balls.

I stopped fighting.

The fight is over. I won.

I turned my head to look at Amygdala. At the corner of my eyes, I saw movement, and then I heard a loud crashing sound.

I turned my face and saw my opponent with his hand pointed towards my face. There was a transparent mana shield wall right in front of me where the earthball had crashed into.

A blink later, Amygdala was on top of my opponent with his foot on his neck.

He was clicking his tongue.

“Now now, that just isn’t acceptable. This is a friendly match and you almost just killed my boy over there,“ Amygdala said.

Suddenly both gangs surrounded us and everyone started yelling.

“Hey! Get off him!” Drago said.

“I don’t think I will,” Amygdala said.

“What’s gonna happen?“ Tray said.

“Mhmm… I’m not sure. Is this a declaration of war?” Amygdala said.

“W-What are you talking about!” Drago said.

“Your boy just tried to kill mine. I thought we were on friendly terms…” Amygdala was smiling.

“Get the fuck off me!“ the guy underneath Amygdala tried to move, but for some reason, the slender Amygdala was too heavy for him. Probably a spell.

While Amygdala wasn’t moving, I put my hand into the magical shield in front of me.

Mhmmm… this is a new sensation? It kind of feels like when I get those goosebumps, but way more solid. Mhm…

Amygdala turned his head and glared at me.

Whoa, he could sense it when I touched his shield!

Immediately, the shield disappeared.

“We deserve some kind of… compensation,” Amygdala said.

Drago sighed. “Okay, what do you want now?”

“The northside gangs are starting to grow into one. If we don’t form an alliance, they’ll take us out one by one. I’m already in negotiation with the Fishers and Bikers,” Amygdala said.

Drago clicked his tongue.

“And by ‘alliance’ you mean gathering everyone together, then beating up our leaders and proclaiming yourself the boss? Just like when you put Faster in the hospital.”

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I like this Drago guy.

“I am an advocate of freedom…”

… An advocate of your own freedom at the expense of others’…

“… I just want what’s best for everyone. Anyway, you don’t have to make a decision now. Just think about it,” Amygdala said as he levitated off the guy on the ground.

How did Tyoto in a few weeks go from these small gang fights into the all-out war I saw at the central station?

Right when Amygdala levitated off the guy, I ran over and started kicking him in the face.

Amygdala and Drago and Tray and everyone else around looked at me in shock.

I almost got killed for a second time by a damn earthbullet! Kicking him in the balls was probably bad taste, but I don’t care.

I had all the air pumped out of me and I dropped to the ground. I looked and saw that Amygdala had kicked me in the stomach.

He gave me a stern look while smiling. As if he was saying, “Don’t mess with my plans.”

I thought about leaping at him but decided not to.

***

After the meeting was over, I said goodbye and took the train back home.

While on the train, I unlocked my personal mana battery so I could see the numbers on it. Then I started channeling my mana while trying to recreate the sensation from the transparent mana shield.

“Yes!” I yelled out loud.

Around my right hand where I was holding the battery, I saw a thin, bubble-formed shield around it. I looked at the numbers on my battery and saw that a little less mana was being channeled into the battery while I had the shield on. Then I turned the shield off and saw the normal amount channeled in again.

“Yes!” I yelled again.

This is my first actual spell! If you don’t count the “shaking hand“ spell.

Before I ran out of mana, I stopped channeling into the battery and tried to reproduce the sensation of the shield again. And…

“Shit…”

A few people on the train were looking at me but I didn’t care.

I put my mana battery in my left hand started channeling mana and tried to reproduce the sensation again and the small bubble transparent shield came back. I still couldn’t create a spell without channeling mana into a battery for some reason.

Before I ran out of mana, I tried to combine the “shaking” spell with this shield spell, but nothing happened. Or rather, I could only do one but not the other at the same time.

After that, I ran out of mana.

In front of me was a man in a business suit reading a newspaper. The headline read:

The royal administration promises to introduce new legislation to address the concerns over the new Five Percent generation.

Yeah right… As if that’ll do anything. By the way things are going right now, I predict a civil war. That magical gang war at the train station was probably only the start.

I sighed. I tried to stop thinking and just relax. And then I noticed my tinnitus.

Damn it! I just want it to stop!

I kept thinking and thinking.

When I learn magic, can I cure it? I know for sure that my tinnitus was affected by mana back when I revived and back when I— Wait! That short ugly guy! I wasn’t so sure back then, but now that I have more experience, I know for sure he tried to use some kind of spell on me! And what was that weird-ass gang he had… they were all treating him like… I dunno, a god or something. Maybe some kind of mind magic? That would also explain why those two hot women were in love with him. I should try to track him down again. But I only know that the day after I got fired he would be at the newsstand, and that’s already happened now.

There was a lot going on and a lot to think about. But all I wanted was 8 hours of sleep and silence.

I’d do anything to get rid of my tinnitus… I have to learn magic. If just that asshole Amygdala would stop stalling.

I need to learn magic. Licia seems pretty smart. I’ll ask her for help on our next date.