"Alright this took longer than expected, i hope this is the right place.."

A large building stretched down half of the street covering a large portion of the sky as if imposing itself on anyone who laid eyes upon it.

The building had a large symbol of a blue badge with the words "NYPD" written on it in bold letters. Several people wearing blue police uniforms were moving about in and out of the building, with several police cars parked nearby, indicating that this was, without a doubt the place Niko was looking for.

Niko took a seat on a nearby bench and waited patiently while trying to look as inconspicous as possible. whistling nonchalantly, Niko took out her phone and pretended to be observing herself in it, whilst using the camera to get a better look at the police stations doorway.

Sure enough, a few minutes later, someone who didn't have the typical blue colored uniform walked out.

The figure was tall and most likely belonged to a male. The face was covered by a hoodie which the man was wearing under a black trench coat. Something round could be seen inside the mans coat pocket, as it was slightly too large for the pocket to properly hide.

"Thats probably the guy, alright, this shouldn't be too hard.."

Niko quickly took a quick picture of the man with her phone before stuffing it down her pocket and running after the man.

Niko kept a safe distance of several meters away from her target while tailing him. Far enough so it wouldn't be too suspicious, but close enough to keep a close eye on the target.

Every now and again the man would suddenly stop for no reason before looking over to the side as if he was remembering something, or perhaps noticing something in the distance.

Whenever the man would stop, Niko would hurriedly pretend to be interested in something at a nearby shop, take up something from a nearby stall whilst pretending to observe it, or simply hide behind a mailbox, which would have looked terribly comical if anyone was paying attention.

Luckily it was the middle of the day on a work day, which meant many people trying to get places that they didn't have alot of time to get to. No one would have probably looked twice if someone was mugged right infront of them. Such is the life in a blossoming metropolis.

An hour or so of walking later, the man suddenly decided to make a turn towards a large street, which had several other smaller streets going through it. Which meant that people were flooding in from almost every direction, making the people density higher than iron.

Niko, who was already out of breath from that short walk, didn't notice anything strange about the mans action as she was trying not to throw up while breathing heavily.

"Uh..if it was my old body..huff huff...i could have ran a marathon without breaking a sweat...huff huff.."

Niko finally caught her breath, but upon looking up, noticed that the man was gone from her view, leaving only a wall of people infront of her.

"Wha, where did he go!"

Niko blurted out as she frantically looked around for the man.

As she was about to lose hope, she noticed a small sound. It was a sound anyone else would have definitely missed, especially in a city where angry drivers yelling at each other replaced the pleasant songs of birds in the morning.

Niko however, was a professionaly trained thief and con-man, or con-woman as of now, and she was also self trained, but that is beyond the point. The point is that Niko is an expert, and as far as experts go, she was the best at what she did, or so she liked to think.

The sound that caught Niko's sharp ears, was the sound of quick but soft steps, hidden among the heavy sea of footwear hitting ground.

It was something that Niko had learned to notice when she used to rob thieves. Which was quite a profitable market, the original thieves would have already done the hardest and most risky part, after that it was a simple matter of no honour among thieves. That was how Niko earned her first million when she was still a young man.

"Good times.." Niko recollected.

The sound of someone not using the sole of their feet when running, of all things, was something akin to noticing someone who wasn't talking at a party where everyone was shouting, you would think not talking would make people not notice them, but it instead had the opposite effect.

Niko concentrated and erased her mind of anything and everything other than the sound of the soft foot steps.

As if using some kind of magic, the figures of the people and things around Niko slowly disappeared, leaving only the figure of the man quickly walking away in the distance.

"Found you!"

Niko exclaimed as she dashed forward towards the man. What followed afterwards was a loud painfull sound that made everyone around glance at Niko, who was laying on the ground, painfully holding her head as a large bump slowly appeared on it.

The effect of everything except for the man seemingly disappearing, was of course simply due to Niko's overactive imagination.

She had focused so hard on trying to find the mans sound that it gave the illusion of everything else disappearing as she wasnt paying attention to the rest of the world.

Which in turn resulted in Niko trying to headbutt a lamp post.

"awawawa...i hope my brain isn't damaged.. i need that.."

Niko quickly shook the tears away from her eyes and ran after the man, this time paying special attention to her surroundings in order to avoid any further battle damage.

--

"Aha finally you're trapped, thought you could escape from me, did you!"

Niko faced the hooded man with a grin, whilst the man faced a dead end consisting of a large brick wall.

Slowly the man turned around to face Niko, whilst taking a slow step backwards, brushing the wall with his back.

"Afraid are you, well you should be, after all this is the great Niko you are facing, master of all forms of combat!"

"So if you value your life you should just obediently hand over the-"

Niko got interrupted by someone putting a hand on her shoulder as she got pushed away to the side.

A man wearing dark red and gold robes walked past Niko, the man had long fire red hair that reached up to his waist in a disorderly manner.

Behind him were four other similiarly robed men. Their faces however, were covered by their large hoods that seemed to block their vision.

"Out of my way girl"

The red haired man muttered as he and his companions walked past Niko.

"Shoki, i knew it would come to this, i never trusted you from the moment you showed up"

The red haired man said, directing his speech towards the trench coat wearing man, who he called Shoki.

The man named Shoki stayed silent, his gaze fixed upon the red haired man.

"No last words, no begging for your life?" He shrugged "Fine then, get me his head!"

Upon finishing his sentence, the red haired mans hair flowed forward, as a gust of wind appeared from the spot where the other robed men stood only a moment ago.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

The robed men suddenly appeared infront of Shoki, holding peculiar shortswords that were etched with various strange symbols all over the blades.

The four robed men swung their swords simultaneously towards Shoki's neck. However, none of the four swords managed to reach his head, suddenly stopping a few centimeters away from his face, causing a small gust of wind due to the amount of force put into their swings, making their robes flutter slightly and causing the mans hood to fall back, revealing his face.

The man had a slender yet hardened face, like a hardened blade, short black hair covered his head, barely covering his dark blue eyes that seemed to accentuate his cold demeanor, dark rings rested underneath his eyes, hinting at many sleepless nights or a generally stressful life.

The man was holding out his hand infront of his face, holding a thin but folding dagger (Folding knife).

His hand was shaking slightly due to the incredible strain of holding off four swords at once with a small knife.

The robed men jumped back and took up their battle stances, a typical knife fighting stance, where the left hand protected the chest and neck, whilst the right hand held the knife infront of them.

Except instead of a knife, they used full sized swords, which was not that strange considering that sword fighting was barely used in the current age of powder and electricity powered firearms and concealable weaponry.

The red haired man stepped forward, as he motioned for the other men to back off.

"Yes, skillfull as ever i see, that however, wont be enough this time, not against me atleast"

The red haired man slowly combed his hair out of his face with his left hand.

"I have been waiting so long for this moment, you who has abandoned our cause would never understand the joy i get from taking care of traitorous rats like you"

The red haired man smiled.

"Sorry Shoki, but your end will be my new beginning!"

The red haired man dragged his foot across the ground, taking a stance as if he was about to lunge forward, causing dust to rise from the ground in a dramatic fashion.

"Save me a seat in hell, although you will be waiting a fair-"

The red haired man was rudely interrupted by something hitting the side of his head, cutting his obnoxious speech a bit short and making him fall forward face first into the ground.

Behind him, stood Niko, holding a loose plank she probably found lying on the ground.

"Hey, stop ignoring me you bastard, I'm the main character here, not you!"

Niko yelled at the red haired man, who twitched slightly on the ground.

"Besides he is my prey not yours, i saw him first!"

Niko looked back towards the man called Shoki as she threw the plank to the side.

The man called Shoki stood infront of several robed men who were currently laying still on the ground, as he quickly pocketed his knife.

"Damn that was fast, but it's still not enough to defeat me!"

Niko said as she took a pose that only someone who knew nothing about fighting would take, whilst holding her fists up menacingly, in her current form however, it looked more like a puppy trying to appear threatening.

Shoki glanced over at the red haired man and dashed forward, grabbing Niko as he ran past her, hauling her like a sack of potatoes.

"H-hey w-what, put me down!"

"What are you doing s-stooooop, fight me like a man you coward!"

Niko desperately yelled from across his shoulder.

"Be quiet, girl, or they will find us"

She could hear Shiko say as he continued to run through the crowded streets, making everyone look at the strange pair.

"I'm not a girl, and we are not that hard to find when you're so obviously kidnapping me!"

Niko yelled whilst repeatedly hitting his back.

"Ah of course, sorry"

He apologised as he put Niko back on the ground.

"Now what the hell was that for!"

"I was just returning the favour"

Shoki replied as it it was obvious.

"What favour, what are you talking about!"

Niko looked as if she was about to explode from irritation.

"You just incited the anger of those people back there, they wont stop until they find you, but by angering them you also gave me a chance to escape, so i owe you"

"W-what, dont tell me they're from some scary organisation!?"

"I guess you could call it that"

"Damnit, it didn't end well the last time i angered a weird organisation..."

Niko sighed.

"Anyway, give me the sphere, and i will forgive you for getting me dragged into this mess"

Niko declared as she thrust her hand forward with an open palm.

"Sorry, cant do that,but we should keep moving"

Shoki said as he grabbed Niko's hand and dragged her through the crowd.

"The hell, let me go!" Niko yelled "And give me the damn thing!"

Niko tried to pull her hand free, but it was firmly grasped in an iron grip as she was dragged forward.

The pair suddenly stopped in their tracks, which caused Niko, who had gained a bit of momentum, to slam in Shoki's back.

"Ha, what now, hurry up and give me the thing if you understand!"

Niko curious as to why they suddenly stopped, looked over Shoki's shoulder with an annoyed expression, and found the red haired man standing there, the crowd making a wide circle around the strangely clothed man.

"Good try, but not good enough!"

The red haired man thrust his hand onto the ground underneath him, causing it to shake and split open, as something slowly crawled out from the crack, while a strange looking circular drawing seemed to float just above the ground, similiar to a hologram.

A large humanoid figure stood up infront of the pair. shaped out of concrete and with several road signs poking out of its back, it looked like the spirit of the street itself had come to life.

"...T-the great Niko will allow you the honour of having this fight...so you deal with it...."

Niko mumbled as she stared at the thing infront of her with wide eyes with the color draining from her face as she pushed Shoki forward.

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To anyone who cares about how often i will release new chapters. I had written up to around chapter 5, so from now on the releases are probably going to be fairly slow (since i am busy with stuff), i will try to release atleast one chapter per week if i can.

Hope youre having fun reading~