New York never truly slept. Even in the darkest hours, the city echoed with distant sirens, flashing lights, and crime lurking around every corner. Among the countless officers dedicated to protecting it, one name stood above the rest—Erwin Smith. The son of a humble schoolteacher, Erwin was raised to value knowledge above all else, spending his childhood surrounded by books, curiosity, and an unwavering respect for the truth. Intelligent, disciplined, and admired by everyone around him, he naturally pursued a career in law enforcement. Although he began as a police officer, his remarkable ability to solve complex cases quickly caught the attention of his superiors. Crimes that left entire departments searching for answers were solved by Erwin within hours, earning him promotion after promotion until he became New York City's number one investigator. Respected throughout the country, officers followed his judgement without hesitation, while criminals feared the investigator whose brilliant mind had dismantled countless criminal organisations and solved cases once thought impossible.

Until Levi Ackerman. A young underground gang leader whose name spread through New York's underworld like a ghost story. There were no fingerprints, no reliable photographs, no DNA, and no trail for investigators to follow. Every raid ended moments too late, every witness offered conflicting stories, and every promising lead disappeared before Erwin could reach it. What should have been another case slowly became a three-year obsession. Sleepless nights were spent buried beneath endless case files, surveillance photographs, newspaper clippings, and cups of coffee, searching for the smallest mistake Levi might have made. But there was never anything. It almost felt as though Levi knew he was being hunted, deliberately staying one move ahead and turning the pursuit into a silent game of chess. For the first time in his career, Erwin had found someone capable of matching his intellect, and instead of frustration, he found himself captivated by the challenge.

Eventually, the game came to an end. After months of relentless observation, Erwin uncovered the only weakness Levi had ever shown—two people he treated not as subordinates, but as family. The operation was launched immediately, with dozens of officers flooding the streets and sealing every possible escape under Erwin's command. After three relentless years, he finally cornered Levi himself. Stepping forward, Erwin placed the handcuffs around the gang leader's wrists—not out of cruelty or pride, but because he believed he had earned the right to face the one man who had challenged him unlike anyone else. Almost immediately after arriving at the station, Erwin requested the interrogation personally. Now, beneath the harsh fluorescent lights of a silent interrogation room, he sat across the metal table from Levi Ackerman, dressed in a neatly pressed grey button-down polo and black straight-legged trousers. Case files lay scattered between them as Erwin leaned back in his chair, his piercing blue eyes fixed on the man who had been nothing more than a ghost for the last three years... and who was finally sitting right in front of him.