Prologue
5th of November 2026, New York.
A young man, wearing a black hoodie with a white skull design at the front, his face hidden by the hood, baggy black faded jeans and a pair of old grey colored nikes with their laces messily tied up, could be seen on his skateboard speeding his way on the empty streets of 5th Avenue in New York.
The hour was 05.00 am and although this was one of the most busy streets in New York, right now it was devoid of any traffic. The reason behind such a strange occurrence was currently making its way towards the Plaza Hotel.
Four black sedans could be seen sailing the road. Two at the front and two at the back, a black slick limo could be seen at the middle of this black colored fleet of cars.
It was obvious that by the way those cars were moving, keeping a constant distance of five meters between them, they were escorting someone very important, sitting in the limo.
The young man was listening to music on full blast through his headphones connected to his I-100 phone while skating, seeming happy that he could find such a cool playground as the 5th avenue currently was, to test his tricks.
He was so engrossed in it, that he didn’t slow down at all when crossing the road…
A loud screeching sound of brakes trying to stop, followed by a “bang” as if something was hit by a car and the armada of cars had stopped its movement.
Right away, two men wearing black suits, sunglasses and a listening device on their left ear, jumped from the first car. The driver warily made his way to the front of the car to check, while his companion was watching carefully scanning for any danger, his hand already inside his coat ready to pull his gun.
What the black suited driver saw in front of his car, lying on the ground was the body of hooded young man, his skate board right next to his feet, with one of them, specifically the right one bended in a weird angle as if broken.
Other than that there was nothing else to signify that the young man had sustained any lethal injuries, not that the driver seemed to care either way.
The sound of music was spilling through the young mans phone that had managed to become unplugged from the headphones, when he was hit.
FIRESTARTER
It was an old song the young man had been listening to when he was hit, that the 45 year old driver recognized immediately, it was Prodigy’s Firestarter.
“It’s too early for this shit! Bloody kid, listening to this crap without even watching where he’s going! Fuck! We don’ have time for this shit” he said to his companion, before putting his hand on his listening device and barked in.
“No need to worry guys. It’s just some fucking brat that was skating without looking where he was going."
Ending his call, he kicked the still laying kid’s body. He didn’t even care if the kid was alright or not, he didn’t even offer to help him get up and take him to the hospital to check for any injuries
“Yo, you brat. Get up! We don’t have all day. Get up and get the fuck out of here. Look what the fuck you did to my car. Tsk, you are lucky I am in a hurry, otherwise I would take you down town to the police station and sue your parents ass for compensation!”
The kid shakily lifted himself up, his hoody still covering his face, he just answered pleadingly in fear:
“No sir, I am sorry, I wasn’t looking where I was going. Please don’t call the cops on me, my pops is going to kill me!”
“Ok kid, I won’t, don’t start crying now like a faggot. You’re lucky, now scram!”
The kid slowly limping made his way to the other side of the road, a smirk could be seen under his hood, while the men got back to their car, ready to go.
The two men had just entered the cart when the sound of their boss was heard from the intercom
“Hey didn’t you say that guy was on a skateboard? Where is it?”
The two men just looked at each other, their eyes behind their black eyeglasses open in sudden realization as they both mouthed:
“FUCK!!!!”
SFX: BOOM
5 MINUTES LATER
The door to one of those 24/7 diners opened. The sound of the wind chimes next to it, told the mature red headed waitress, that her fist costumer for the day had just arrived.
She approached the young black hooded guy’s table to take his order. Pulling out a small notebook and a pencil out of her apron’s front pocket, she got ready to write it down.
“Good morning young man. What will it be today?” she said with a fake friendly smile on her face.
“A good morning it certainly is! And it’s young miss, not young man. I will have a latte macchiato, if you have it.” , the hooded figure said lowering off her hood to reveal short brown hair, matching brown eyes above a cute nose and a mysterious smile, belonging to a young girl at about the age of 20.
“You know, Miss, this is not Starbucks! We just serve regular coffee here. If you want one of those fancy coffees you better go somewhere else.” The waitress said in irritation, thinking that it was still too early for the damn cocky brat to pull a prank on her.
“Then, I’ll just have your fine black coffee. Thank you and that will be all!” the young girl said in mock politeness, dismissing the waitress and turning her attention to the flat tv screen on the wall.
On the screen, a rerun of the Jerry Springer show could be seen, when a sudden notification came and the program was interrupted.
The anchorman of channel F, came out to say:
“We just got urgent news saying that the Minister of Defense has been killed this morning at approximately 05.00 am on the 5th Avenue. Our sources say that he and his group of 10 bodyguards had all been killed in a bomb attack. No survivors were found after this shocking explosion that had managed to destroy the Minister’s and his bodyguards vehicles, as well as cause severe damage to properties at a nearby radius. Thankfully, all the properties at the time were vacant and no one else was injured. Our sources say that the Minister was on his way to the Plaza Hotel to have a secret meeting with a high ranked official of China. The details concerning the said meeting are yet to be disclosed, as no official statement on that has been made so far by our government. The identity of the attackers is still unknown. Rumors say that this might be a terrorist attack and measures had already been taken to ensure the safety of the rest of our government’s officials. We will keep you updated for any further news that might come up, interrupting our channel’s program if needed, concerning this disturbing case.”
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The young girl was sipping her black coffee watching the news announcement with an amused look on her face, silently whispering to herself “Remember, remember the 5th of November. How appropriate.
Her musings were interrupted thought when her phone rang. Lazily picking it up, without even bothering to check the caller’s ID, she just answered in fluent Japanese, by saying
“It has been done. Tell them to wire the money”
The voice on the other part just laughed and said
“Aria-chan, your curtness never fails to amaze me! No hellos, no good morning Crow? You just pick up and ask for the money? Well, I guess you are alright then and I shouldn’t have worried.”
“You fucking….(taking a deep breath to calm her self before continuing in a fake sweet voice)….Crow-san, how many times have I told you not to call me Aria-chan? Never mind answering that, just make sure my money is transferred to the account I have given you. What’s up next? Is there any work to be done in NY or do you want me to get back?”
“The boss asked for you to come back home. A plane has already been arranged for you, just finish your “fine” black coffee and go to hangar 57 of the JFK airport. Don’t keep us waiting Aria-chan!” he told her before hanging up, ending their friendly chat.
Gritting her teeth in anger for being called –chan again, even though she specifically told him not to do so, she quickly finished her coffee and after scanning her surroundings, she stood up, leisurely took a 50 dollar bill out of her wallet and left it on the table.
The reason she scanned her surroundings was that, because of Crow’s previous call, she realized that the old geezer was somehow watching her. How he had managed to do that, was beyond her. She couldn’t spot him anywhere…hmmm, it seemed like the old man had still many things left to teach her.
Reaching an empty parking lot, completely disregarding any common sense that any female would have, she stripped out of her clothes to stand there briefly in just her sporty black underwear, a well toned milky white slender body, with a small waist and 32A breasts.
Its perfect shape, reaching about 1.70 in height, was only disturbed by a nasty scar on her tight stomach, a smaller one to her right arm, and a small round wound probably caused by a bullet on her left side under her collarbone.
She seemed completely unaffected by the cold November wind, not even shivering, as she briefly stood there in her state of almost nakedness, before grabbing a black leather duffel bag from the only vehicle in this otherwise empty parking lot, a cherry red Aprilia SL 750 Shiver GT.
She took out a pair of white leather gloves, a leather jacket of the same color, a pair of black skinny jeans and a black pair of rider’s boots and put them on, before placing the helmet on her head and revving the engine.
She was driving at full speed, making her way through narrow roads and alleys, to avoid coming across a police car and potentially be stopped. After all, she had already memorized all possible escape roads. Right now there was no one chasing, hell they were not even suspecting her, but it never harmed to be cautious on the job.
That was in the end what separated her from the rest of all the other idiots on her line of work and made her recognized as one of the best assassins in the world, ranking second only after that old geezer and her Master, Crow.
After a 15 minute ride she reached her destination, hangar 57 of the JFK airport. Hopping off her bike she started climbing the stairs, of the private jet in front of her. On the top of the stairs a mature asian man was standing, appearing to be at the age of 60, with short white hair and a long scar on his left cheek, as soon as her gaze fell upon him, he happily greeted her in Japanese.
“Well hello again Aria-chan! It took you long enough to get here. Master was feeling so lonely while waiting for you!”
“God damn it Crow, give it a rest already! How many times do I have to tell you not to me call me that! Call me Aria! Just Aria, is it so hard for your senile head to get it? You do realize that I am the ranked No 3 assassin in the world, right? Keep calling me like that and I will make sure I will become No 1, after killing you that is!” she said while taking a sit on the planes cabin.
“Oooooh, Aria-chan is so scary! Aria-chan should quit drinking black coffee. It makes her so cranky and edgy!”
Aria, face palmed herself and sighed, her master might be the best but he could be so childish at times. How the hell could this guy come to climb at the top and become the No1 assassin, she couldn’t for the life of her ever understand.
The pilot came soon after this to inform them that they will soon take off and to fasten their seatbelts, which the two passengers did.
Several hours, hundreds silent curses from Aria, later and the plane had landed in T?ky? Kokusai K?k? (Tokyo International Airport).
A black limousine could be seen waiting to receive the plane’s passengers and drive them to their destination. Its driver a black suited Japanese young man, with blond bleached hair and an earring on his left ear was standing next to it, ready to greet them and help them in.
As soon as Crow set foot on land, his behaviour took a 180 degree turn. His childish antics were gone, only to be replaced by hard cold professionalism. His serious and scary face on, he whispered to the young woman following him.
“Stay sharp kiddo. We are going to meet the boss soon.”
“Right back at you old man.” Aria responded, her own unapproachable professional mode back on.
The young delinquent looking driver deeply bowed to them showing his respect to his superiors.
“Welcome home Master Crow, Mistress Aria. The Boss has summoned the both of you. I will drive you to him.”