“Drago is here! Drago is here!” a little kid said as we entered the South Tyoto Orphanage.

Immediately, Drago was swarmed by children climbing onto him and clamoring for his attention.

“Drago, can we get married?“ a little girl said.

“Oh, so this was the girlfriend you were talking about?“ I said.

“Shut up, Precuneus. Let’s head into my room,“ Drago said.

“Noooooo! Please don’t leave!” the children screamed.

“Jeez, I’ll be out an hour or so. Don’t worry.”

And so we headed into his private room.

“So this is why you immediately shut up when Amygdala mentioned “donations”?”

“Yeah, we’re pretty desperate for money. The government has pretty much cut off all funding and left us to starve. Right now the rest of the gang is out working.”

“I’m pretty sure in a few weeks there’s gonna be an all-out war,” I said.

I saw it with my own eyes…

“Yeah, it’s pretty much inevitable. Anyway, let’s get to work. I have a surprise for you,” Drago said.

“Surprise? What?”

“I kept thinking… you know, you absolutely suck at visualization, your mana control is terrible. So learning projectile magic is pretty much useless for you. But, you have the biggest mana reserves I’ve ever seen. So, I’m gonna teach you strengthening magic. Wait here a minute,” Drago said.

He left the room then came back with a little boy.

“This is one of my students. He’s pretty decent at strengthening,” Drago said.

And so, I held hands with the little boy while he used strengthening and explained.

“It’s all about… covering yourself with mana. Yeah. And using that mana to move. I think. Not sure how to explain it,” the boy said.

“Think of it as an exoskeleton,” Drago said.

It feels like a mana shield, in a way. It feels like the mana shield is layered thinly on his skin.

“Hey, show him a movement with the strengthening,” Drago said.

The boy punched into the air.

It hardened. For a moment the ‘exoskeleton’ hardened and moved. It kind of feels like artificial muscle fibers, in a way.

“This is the theory I have,” Drago said, “I can’t use strengthening at all, but my visualization and mana control are great. So I think strengthening is more of an instinctual thing. And that it’s activated by the peripheral nervous system, instead of the central nervous system.“

The boy stopped using strengthening.

“I’m out of mana,“ he said.

That was short.

“Yeah, unlike you, most people have normal mana reserves. I think with strengthening you’re only supposed to use it for milliseconds so you can fight for longer, I’m not sure.”

“Ehm… I’ve never been in a fight. I just sometimes use this for lifting heavy things,” the boy said.

“Okay, my turn,” I said.

I grabbed the battery and started channeling mana and tried to recreate the sensation of a thin, flexible mana shield on top of my arm made of fibers.

“Whoa!” the boy said.

“What the hell is that?”

Around my entire right arm, including my hand and fingers, was a thick, purple exoskeleton.

“Holy shit!” I yelled in excitement.

“Hey, you’re probably at 100% output. Take it down to 50%” Drago said.

“Oh yeah.” When I focused on recreating the restriction sensation I got from Drago, the purple exoskeleton got half as thick.

“Okay stop now or you’ll run out,“ Drago said.

I stopped.

“Do you think you can do even less? I’m no expert, but that exoskeleton seemed like it wasted too much mana. Also, is it supposed to be purple?”

“No way!“ the boy said. “You aren’t even supposed to be able to see it!”

“Mhm… okay. Anyway, thank you. You can leave now. And you better not tell anyone about this,” Drago said and ruffled his hair.

***

I kept training with Drago. He focused on perfecting his mana shield, while I focused on playing around with this new strengthening spell.

I made a few discoveries.

Firstly, I could channel mana from any part of my body. I took my shoes and socks off and used the battery to make a purple exoskeleton around my foot and entire leg.

I put it against my back and made an exoskeleton there.

I even tried making a helmet, but when I did that I couldn’t see anything or breath.

“If we tape enough batteries around your body we could make a damn power armor, haha!”

Oh yeah, that’s a good idea.

I only had two batteries on me, and one including Drago’s.

I held two in my hands and one on my stomach. And channeled mana into all of them at the same time. A small purple suit appeared.

After all the training, I ran out of mana quickly.

“I’ve gotta say, that’s pretty impressive. I think most guys, myself included, can only channel mana into one battery at a time. Or make one spell at a time.”

“Yeah. I think it’s easier for me because I’m not really imagining anything, but just recreating sensations which are ingrained into my body’s memories.”

The training was over so I decided to head home.

“Be safe, and make sure to avoid any of Psycho’s boys on the way back,“ Drago said.

“Of course,” I said.

Of course not. I’m desperate to finally get some proper sleep and get rid of this annoying sound in my ear. Time to go looking for Psycho…