*knock knock knock*

I'm awakened by the three knocks on my home door. Slowly opening my eyes, I look at the digital clock on my table and it shows that it still six o'clock in the morning. Meaning that it must be very important or someone is just being an idiot or an asshole.

*Knock knock knock*

I hear the three knock once again and so, decide to get up, to go check out who is waking me up so early. I let out a small groan as I lift my upper body up and then move my feet of the bed. My feet touch the hard wood floor and immediately I feel how cold it is, making me want to go back to bed. But I have no time, as I hear the three knocks once again.

I let out a sigh and push myself of the bed and onto my feet. With slow and heavy steps, almost dragging my feet, I start to walk towards the bedroom door and on the way there, I grab a pair of shorts from the ground with my toes and throw it up in the air, from where I catch it. I then proceed to put them on while walking through the corridor.

And again, I hear the doorbell being ringed three times.

"I'm coming. I'm coming. Stop ringing the bloody bell already."I say in a louder voice, which isn't quite yelling. Don't want to wake up Nat now.

With the last step, I am in front of my door, which I open, to see the person who dared to wake me up. I see a man in his mid-thirties with light brown short, a pair of dim green eyes. His face was pretty average looking with a small scar on his cheek. He didn't have a beard and was shaved completely cleaned.

"Hi Azarath. You fi-."I cut him off immediately, by closing the door and locking it. I seriously don't want to ever deal with him or the organization again. It only brings trouble to me and even to Nat now. I start to walk away, leaving him there, hoping that he leaves.

"Ooiii. Come on let me in."he yells and bangs on the door"It's about Shadows."

Shadows.....For fuck sake.

I groan and then let out a sigh, before turning around and opening the door. I look at him between the ten centimeter gap between the door and it's frame. Looking at him, I tell him"Ten minutes. You have ten minutes."

"Thats all I need."he says in a happier voice, which makes me sigh.

I open the door completely now and step out of the way to let him in. He steps in and is about to start walking further, only to be stopped by me, when I slam my hand against the wall, blocking his way.

"No shoes."I say and then walk away to the kitchen.

There, I open my fridge and grab a can of energy drink. I push the door close and open the can the same time, when he gets here.

"Sit down and talk."I tell him and take a bigger sip from the can. He does what I told him and sits down on the kitchen chair. He then puts his brown briefcase onto the table and opens it's two locks.

"For the past months, we have received more reports about Shadows appearing around the world. The last three months average has been fifty two sightings"he tells me and I immediately reply"Thats nothing special."

"Fifty two sightings a day and the number is growing."he adds to my comment.

"Okay. Thats bad."I say to him and continue"But why should I care about it. I retired. I have a normal life now."

"I know. Even If you don't work, we still have to monitor you."he continues"So we know all about you average eighteen year old school life and the relationship with your girlfriend Natasha. Who by the way is quite a catch. Even for such a tattooed man like you."

"So I can't have any privacy. Oh great."I say sarcastically after hearing him. As for the tattoos he referred, aren't actually tattoos but markings. Tattoo is more of the slang for it and the correct term is mark. But as for the 'Tattoos', I have plenty of the on my body. On the palms of my hands, I have a pentagram with an overlapping design and with runes written between the tips of it. It's surrounded by a thin line. Around my sleeves, I have one hundred runes written starting near my hand and then coiling around my entire arm up to my shoulder, where it ends. A little above my ankles, I have a row of runes written around the ankle and from there, two crossing lines go up my leg while going around my leg, until the two lines touch together on the side of my waist, from where the turn into a one line and go behind my back, from where the overlap each other once and connect to my runes on my shoulders. All of them are symmetrically drawn on both sides of my body, but the runes Are different on the right and left side. As for the colours, it's black on the right side and white on the left side. And where the lines meet the runes, the white line fades into a black and the black fades into black. So there is a little gray too. All of them were designed and drawn by me when I still used them. But now, I don't use them and like with a tattoo, which can be removed, I am stuck with them. I don't hate it or something like that because it was my choice and I accepted them back then. So now, I have to live with that choice.

"As for "tattoos."I air-quote the word "tattoos" and keep talking"She doesn't care. She herself is inked too....but move on. You have eight minutes left."

I take a sip and stare at him.

"Yes. To put it simply, I want you back."he says in a serious voice and looks straight into my eyes.

"Hahaha."I laugh a little and then answer"No."

"Azarath. You were one of the best and now we need you. Please come back."he pleads towards me, but I don't care.

"There are other mages with Black or White System. So you don't need me."I tell him and finish the can. I then crush it and throw it away into the trashcan."If that is all, leave. You know where the door is."

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"Azarath. We need you. The World of Magic needs you."he tells me, as I walk away and I reply"The World of Magic can go fuck itself. It has taken too much for me and given me so little back. Also.... don't call me that ever again. It's Kane. Got it?"

The man, seeing that he couldn't get him, gets up and leaves the kitchen. He walks up to the door, where he puts on his shoes and ties them, before getting back onto his feet and touching the door handle. He looks back one last time, to see an empty hallway, before opening the door, leaving the house.

Now that I am back in my room, I sit down on the edge of the bed and look at the clock on the table. My eyes then move to the callender, showing that today is monday, which means school.

As I sit there, I feel a pair of slender arms wrap around my chest, with long legs following it and a head placed on my left shoulder.

"What's wrong?"is asked by a clear female voice with a slight russian accent in it. Obviously, I know that voice, as it belongs to Natasha, my half- head to look into her crystal blue eyes with my black and really light gray eyes that seems to be almost white.

"Kane. You know you can't lie to me. I can see through you."she says and I can feel her hands moving up towards my chest.

"I'm not lying Nat. I just rather not think about it."I tell her and put my right hand on her beautiful face.

"I understand. If you ever want to talk about it, you can tell me."she says and puts her hand on my face. We look deep into each others eyes, as our faces close in on each other. With each second, our lips get closer, before they touch each other and this leads into a deep and passionate kiss. We invade each others mouth with our tongues, before we take our lips away from each other.

Her eyes move to the clock on the table and says"Damn. It's already six twenty." She gets off the bed and onto her feet. She looks back at me and says"You stay and think what ever is on your mind. I'm gonna go take a shower and you take one after."

"Yeah okay."I answer back to her and she smiles, before walking away. As she walks away, I watch her back and the dragon tattoo covering her beautiful back. The dragon is a Japanese dragon and is made with black ink. Stepping out of the room, she turns right and I lose sight of her after that.

"Huuh."I let out a sigh and drop my back on the bed, while holding my hands over my face. Slowly, I move my hands down my face and groan again. I have been doing it too many times already today. I then start to stare at the white stone ceiling and push my black hair mixed with white away from my eyes and hold it down on top of my head with my hand.

Mark and the organization wants me back after I made it very clear, that I never want to use magic ever again. But it seems, they still didn't understand and are desperate enough to come to me. I have no interest in their business anymore, so why should I even care. They have dozens of other strong mages, who can deal what ever is thrown at them. But nooo....they send Mark here to get me back to be a mage and pull me away from the normal life. It took me one and an half years to built this life up and I'm not gonna throw it away now. I'm happy with it.

As I continue to lay on the bed and be in my thoughts, I feel my body being shaken a little. This snaps me out of my thoughts and look at Natasha, who is standing in front of me with her arms on my side.

"It's your turn to take a shower now."she tells me and then goes over to the drawer and takes out her underwear. She slowly starts to put them on, knowing that I am watching. She pulls her pair of black panties up her smooth legs, while swaying her hips. She pulls them up completely and then proceeds to put on her black bra, with which she doesn't take her time.

"Aren't you going?"she asks me and turns around to look at me. "I guess I should."I reply to her and take off my shorts, before going to the bathroom. I leave the room, walk through the hallway and get to the door, which I slide open a d then close behind me, once I am inside. I walk straight to the shower and turn on the cold water, to calm my mind.

I put my hands against the wall and just let the water flow down onto my body. As the water flows down my body, I get a flashback about a woman. Her eyes are dark as night and her blond hair bright as the day. Her face was incredibly beautiful which would make any girl jealous. Her smile was the most pure and beautiful thing I had ever seen.

"Now now Az. You need to focus"she tells my younger self"You won't learn anything If you try to rush things. If you want to lea-."

I cut off the flashback/memory, before it could progress any further, by slamming my head at the wall. It hurts like hell but it works. When I look down onto my feet and see red water, mixed with my blood. I look up and see the bloodstain on the wall. I touch my forehead and then look at my hand, to see blood on it.

"Fuck."I mutter and then immediately starting my attempt to wash of the blood from the wall. Luckily, it is fresh blood, so it comes of easily from the stone tile. Next up, I wash the wound the wound and hold my hand over it, while with my free hand, I turn off the shower and step out of the shower. I walk over the mirror and look at myself, while leaning on the sink with my free hand. I pull my hair back to look at the wound closely.

"Shit."I mutter and look at the small cut on my forehead and see, how it is slowly healing itself, by using the little Arcane energy, I still have left in my body.

Once again today, I let out a groan and then pull all of my hair back, to splash my face with water. As the water drops move down my body, I stare at the mirror and look at the state of my body.

My skin tone is beige currently, but it used to be a lot paler in the past. My body built is a muscular one, with low fat and dense muscles. On my right shoulder, I have a bite mark scar which I received on a fight, a punch of small cut wounds all over my body and a long one on my right palm, under the black pentagram.

I let out a sigh and splash my face with a water once again. I then dry it with a towel and leave the bathroom, naked. I go to the bedroom, where I put on my clothes: a pair of blue jeans, a pair of black socks, a regular white t-shirt and a hea hoodie, which I leave unzipped for now. Walking over to the table, I grab my smartphone and my black leather wallet, which I put into my jean pockets. I start moving towards the door and on the way there, I grab my back bag, before leaving the room.

Walking towards the kitchen, I hear Natasha making coffee in the kitchen, so I walk there and drip my bag near the doorway. Seeing her doing something on the counter, I try to sneak up on her, but my plan fail, when she says, without turning her head around"Don't even try Kane. We won't do it in the kitchen. Bedroom and shower only."

"You're no fun."I say and move next to her. I lean against the counter with my back and look at her. She looks at me and says"I can be fun If I want to, but it isn't fun cleaning up the mess you can make, when we are fun together."

"Okay. You have point here."I tell her my opinion and she just smiles towards me. She moves away from the counter and to the table, where she puts the cereal. Mine are regular and she has banana slices in hers, as she likes it so. I too, walk over to the table and sit down onto the chair and pull myself under the table.

And so, we quietly eat our breakfast and once it is done, she puts the bowls into the sink, promising to wash them tonight.

"Well I have some time, but you don't."she tells me and I reply"I guess so. Have to go to school."

I get up and walk over to the outside door, where I put on my black sneakers and zip my hoodie. I take my black leather jacket and leave it open. I check if I have everything with me and then I notice one thing missing.

"You forgot this."she says and hands me a my back bag, which I take from her hand and put it over my right shoulder, while holding onto the strap.

She gives me a quick kiss and says"If you get an A on todays test, we can have fun. So I hope you studied, Kane-san."

"I studied, Ryuu-sensei."I tell her and she then gives me an another kiss on the cheek."Good boy."

"Bye."

"Goodbye."

We say out goodbyes and I leave the house to go to school, leaving my girlfriend and my Japanese language teacher behind, as she has to be in school for the second period.

Yep...I'm dating my teacher.