I woke up tired.

“Huh, slept better than usual…”

For the first time in I don’t know how long, I woke up excited for the rest of the day.

“I can’t wait to see Licia…”

***

I stood in front of the bathroom mirror playing around with my hair.

It’s starting to get into my eyes. I want to slick it back, but then I’d just look like Amygdala. Hmmm…

In the end, I decided to just grab all my hair and tie it up at the back in a messy way.

I was freshly washed and wearing my best clothes. That is, a pair of clean blue jeans and a white teeshirt with almost no holes in it.

While looking at myself in the mirror, I started practicing.

“What’s up Licia… no that’s not good. Sup Licia? Whassup baby— No that sounds like that douchebag. Whassup. Hello.”

***

I was walking around the main street in Centro with the sun shining down on my face.

I looked up at the sky and saw blueness with no clouds.

I felt happy.

As I always did, I looked around at all the big buildings and stores.

I looked at a nearby magical clock.

“Oh, I should go over there now.”

Licia’s academy was a big building right at the edge of Centro. It looked very clean and pretty and formal.

I was waiting at the front gate. I spotted Licia walking out with a group of girls.

I was leaning against a wall trying to look cool.

She spotted me as well and smiled and waved at me. Then she said goodbye to her friends and jogged over to me.

“Hi Precuneus!” she said.

“Sup,” I said and pulled her in for a hug.

“How was school?” I said.

“Good. We had a math test, I think I scored well.”

“That’s good,“ I said. I noticed her big school shoulderbag.

“Looks heavy, did you put in bricks?” I said.

“Haha, no! I just had to carry a lot of books today for classes. My shoulder really hurts.”

I grabbed her bag and carried it. Then I held her hand.

“Let’s go,” I said.

I looked back and saw her girlfriends from a distance staring at us and smiling and giggling.

***

“That’s so cool!“ Licia said when I showed her the bubble shield.

We were sitting in a cafe.

“Yeah, but for some reason, I can only do it while I’m draining my mana. And I don’t really have much control over it.”

“I don’t know much about this type of magic, but what’s normal?”

“Well I know one guy who’s really advanced, but normally 5% can just make balls of magic out of nowhere, or strengthen their bodies. I think I’m the only one like this.“

“Mhmm,” Licia said. She put her finger on her lips while thinking.

She’s so cute…

“And you say that you’re trying to recreate these ‘sensations’? I’m not really sure but, don’t you have it the wrong way around?“ she said and tilted her head.

Whoa, she’s cute!

“What do you mean?“

“Well, how do I explain it… so all my life I’ve been exposed to magical blueprints right. And… So most people when they see blueprints they just see weird logical structures and geometric shapes and math. But if you take it all in from above all at once you see these… images? I’m not sure how to describe it. But yeah, it’s all pretty much images. And how good your blueprint is depends on how well it translates into “images”. So I’m guessing that this ‘personal’ magic shouldn’t be too different from blueprint magic. Actually, if this new magic is based on making an image in your mind and fuelling it with mana, then it should actually be more powerful and mana efficient than making blueprints, since you can just skip all the maths and geometry and logic parts. What I mean is, what if you’re supposed to use your imagination to make magic? Then what you’re doing right now is trying to recreate sensations you got from outputs of magic. When what you should be doing is making your own magic. Does that make sense?”

“Huh… I never thought about it like that. Then how would I do it?”

“I have no idea, hehe. I’m really bad at visualization. If I just see a map turned upside down then I have no idea how to look at it. I’m actually pretty bad at math, but I put in way more hours studying it than others and have been exposed to it all my life, so I get decent grades in it. Else I can’t be an engineer like dad.“

She’s so cute!

“Okay, lemme try it out,“ I said.

I closed my eyes.

What should I visualize? An earthball. Yeah, and an earthball.

My eyes were closed and everything was dark. Then I tried to imagine it.

Right when I made a circle, I saw my tinnitus in my mind’s eye and it distracted me and the circle disappeared.

I tried again and again and kept failing.

“Damn it!”

“What’s wrong?” Licia said.

“My tinnitus keeps distracting me. And I have constant insomnia so I’m always tired and have trouble focusing.”

I held my head in my hands.

God this sucks!

Suddenly I felt a warmth.

“It’s fine, Precuneus, don’t worry about it. You’ll figure it out, I’m sure!“ Licia said while holding my hand.

“Thanks, Licia.”

***

Licia had plans with her family, so when we finished eating, I walked her home and hugged her goodbye in front of her apartment building.

Now, Amygdala told me I had to meet him in front of North Exit at Central station. Something about a job?