Niche

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“Even if Lag forgets me, I will never forget Lag, so we can be together forever.” — Niche to Lag

Overview

Relationships

Image Gallery

Manga Anime
Niche
Kanji	ニッチ
Rōmaji	Nicchi
Characteristics
Race	Hybrid of Maka
Gender	Female
Age	~200 years old
Birthday	April 16
Hair Color	Blonde Gold (when it turns into sword)
Eye Color	Blue
Professional Status
Occupation	Dingo
Personal Status
Relative(s)	Maka (father) Twin Sister Celica (mother)
Debuts
Manga Debut	Chapter 2
Anime Debut	Episode 3
Voices
Seiyu	Ayumi Fujimura

Niche (ニッチ Nicchi) is Lag's dingo. She travels with Lag, acting as his bodyguard against Gaichuu, and sticks closely to Lag along with her pet Steak on her head.

Appearance

She is relatively short with light blue eyes. She is flat-chested, a fact she is aware of and wishes to change. Her most obvious feature is her long golden hair, which is as long as she is tall. She usually wears a purple (pink in the anime.) dress with oven-mitt-like sleeves to cover her bear-like claws and a pair of boxers (from Lag). She also wears pink sports boots. She always carries Steak on her head. After having a great surge of emotion for thinking she failed as a dingo when she saw Lag was nearly dead, her appearance grew from a child to a teenager. Though to her frustration, Niche's breasts were still smaller than those of Sylvette and her sister.

Personality

Her personality is close to feral and she shows very animal-like traits like licking wounds and sniffing for danger. She has a tendency to speak in third person. She is very stubborn but is attached to Lag because she sees him as similar to herself. It has been implied that she may harbor romantic feelings for Lag. She seems to be a closet romantic, resorting to violence to benefit a couple. Often confused by commonplace words or customs, her misunderstandings bring a comedic aspect to the story. She is very sensitive of the title Dingo and treats the phrase as an honor; when she meet an experienced human Dingo, Niche was taught not to intervene when Lag is having an argument with a person. When she and Lag first began traveling together, she constantly reminded him to refer to her as "Niche, my dingo" instead of just "Niche." She has an issue with being flat-chested and constantly attacks anyone with large breasts, turning the complex into somewhat of a comedic obsession.

History

When Niche and her twin sister still a baby and thrown.

Lag's personal Dingo. She travels with Lag, acting as his bodyguard against Gaichuu, and sticks closely to Lag along with her "pet", "Steak", on her head. She battles using her hair, also known as "The Golden Sword", manipulating it into powerful blade-like tentacles capable of lifting things several times her size. She has bearlike forearms and claws which she usually keeps covered with oven mitt-like gloves. She dislikes wearing underwear, but wears them for Lag's sake (he made her put them on after she accidentally flashed him), claiming that he is the first male to make her wear underwear. Lag assumes that she is 7 years old based on her appearance but she recently revealed that she was born approximately 200 years ago in the town of Blue Notes Blues. Later on in Blue Notes Scale, a cave by Blue Notes Blues, Niche finds out that she has a twin sister with the same power as her and that she was the child of Maka. The sister refers to Niche as "imouto" (younger sister). Her name is derived from "niche," a crevice or narrow space to put flowers as an offering to the Holy Mother.

Plot

Lag found Niche at a train station on his way to his Bee Interview. She was a "letter", but the address on her mailing label was incomplete and she was scheduled to be "abandoned" in two more days. Lag offered to take her to her new home according to the mailing label in the local writing, which he thought was an orphanage even though he was on a deadline for his Bee job interview. While traveling, Lag found she had multiple names, so he named her "Niche" after where he found her - in a niche at the station.

Niche transformed.

After delivering Niche, Lag found out she was to be put in a sideshow act as "The Child of Maka", Maka being a mysterious being both worshiped and feared in Amberground's Northern territories. Lag hurried back to Love Someone Down circus with the excuse that Niche's receipt had not been signed. When he got there, he found that Niche had already wrecked the sideshow tent with her "Golden Sword" and gone on the run towards Gaichuu territory. He followed her and consequently saved her from a Gaichuu. She decided to stay with Lag after he explained that her address had become unknown since she had destroyed the mailing label, and she insisted that from then on she would be Lag's "Dingo."

Niche and Lag after eating Sylvette's soup.

When Niche and Lag reach Yuusari, where Niche meets Connor. The older boy shows them around Yuusari, including the Beehive. Lag runs to the building, oblivious to the fact that he's wearing only underpants, and introduces himself before being quieted by Conner. When Lag passes his Letter Bee Exam, Zazie tells him that Gauche Suede was no longer a letter bee, shocking Lag greatly. Together with Connor, Zazie, and Niche, they head to Sylvette Suede to find answers where the former letter bee had gone. When Lag and Niche enter the house, Sylvette mistakes them for the rent collectors and threatened to shoot them with Gauche's gun. Sylvette recognizes Lag by her brother's story about him and offers them milk to which she tells Niche it will make her big and strong. Niche, upon seeing Sylvette's chest, drinks it immediately. After Sylvette asks Niche and Lag to leave, Lag askes Niche in the carriage how she would react if he lost his heart and forgot about her. Niche's response makes Lag cry, and inspires him to try to reach Sylvette again. Lag tells Niche to stay with Connor. After becoming an official letter bee, Niche, Connor, and Lag are directed to travel toHoney Waters, where information about Gauche Suede may be available. As Lag peered into the water and was about to taste, Conner stops them and tells them that the water was poisoned and would paralyze them. Lag shouts to Niche about the water, and is relieved when Niche didn't drink the water. Lag realizes that Niche did indeed drink the water when she failed to use her swords, and along with Connor, Niche is taken captive by the anti-government protestors. Niche awakens from unconsciousness as the Gaichuu is defeated.

As Niche travels ahead of Lag, she is abruptly stopped by a dingo named Roda who tells her she is not fit to be a dingo. Niche's confidence is shattered by the incident, and she runs away, certain that she is a failure at being Lag's dingo. Niche recovers her confidence after meeting Jacob Gobeni, and Lag is happy when she returns to him.  Later, Lag is informed by Largo Lloyd that information about Noir was located in Blue Notes Blues, and he instructs Lag to go and investigate. Lag finds a broken shell from a gaichuu and sees Noir's memories from his Shindanjuu. Although he thought that Gauche had lost all his heart, Lag later realized that Gauche had part of his heart left still inside him. His thoughts are interrupted by Niche, who points to the village nearby and states that this was the same village she was born two hundred years ago. Lag is bewildered by her statement, and is further confused when Niche runs to the direction of Blue Notes Blues Cave. As the two continue to stare at the lake, something arises from the lake and transforms into a human. She states that it had been two hundred years since she had last seen Niche, and comments on the name she had.

Niche and Lag meet Niche's sister.

It is revealed that this Maka is Niche's sister. She is perplexed why Niche hadn't matured like she had, and comments that the Maka did not sense human scent. This causes her to openly wonder if Lag is human or in the shape of something human. Using her hair, she attacks Lag to cut him, and is pleased to note that Niche could still use her swords. However, the humans of Blue Notes Blues appear in the cave to investigate, and she immediately becomes angry and orders them to leave. She continues to explain to the ignorant humans that the Maka does not care for humans, and was only touched by a woman two hundred years ago named Celia, who is her and Niche's mother. She tells the story of how the village intended to use Celia as a sacrifice, and of how they shunned the Maka children for twenty years before they were abandoned and left to drown.

Niche's sister prepares to kill Niche.

Niche's sister attempts to kill the humans, but Lag manages to push them all out of the way. Niche fights her sister despite the strong difference in strength between the two. As the two fight, Niche's sister asks her why she continues to side with the humans despite hearing their story, and Niche's answer that she would always protect Lag causes her to attempt to kill Niche multiple times, each stopped by Lag. When she sees the letter bee's heart, she remembers how she was separated from her sister and of how she grew. As she tells Lag of what happened, he reprehends her, declaring that she was a fool to not look for Niche for so long. Niche's sister smiles and allows the Maka to take Niche to the Tir Na Spring to heal. She later returns to Lag.

When Lag becomes ill and bedridden, Niche becomes Aria's dingo at his request, and returns to Lag when Cabernet attacks.

In the manga, Niche transforms into a teenage girl briefly after seeing Lag almost dead and helps defeat Cabernet.

Abilities

Niche, known as the Child of Maka, is superhumanly strong, fast, and agile, capable of moving swiftly across difficult terrain and leaping several stories into the air with the power of her legs, as well as landing from these jumps without any injury. Her hair is known as the Golden Sword, and can be manipulated and lengthened as she sees fit, and can assume the properties of a hard metal like substance. Her hair is capable of lifting objects many times her size, Gaichuu included, and is capable of forming blades powerful enough to destroy diamond.

Niche using her hair.

At the start of the series, she is only able to shape it into tentacle like swords and whips. But after spending time with her sister in Blue Notes Blues, she is now able to form larger and more sophisticated weapons and tools such as a closing bug net or a drill.

Despite the immense power her hair gives her, she cannot use it to kill Gaichuu.

Niche also appears to be somewhat immortal and self-sustaining, able to live for 200 years, 20 of which she spent subsisting on only water.

Trivia

• Surprisingly, Niche can understand animals like Zazie's and Connor's Dingo, and she could also translate what Lily's Dingo was saying.
• Her name, "Niche", is a name of a flower in Amberground, as mentioned by Lag Seeing.

Quotes

“I see... I see... Bolt is still Aria's dingo!” — Niche to Aria

“If Lag forget me, I will never forget Lag, so we can be together forever.” — Niche to Lag

“If you hurt Lag again, I'll kill you.” — Niche to Nelli

“If saying "goodbye" makes you sad, then I'll stay by your side.” — Niche to Lag

“Niche is Lag's dingo! Call me Niche, the great Dingo!” — Niche to Lag in Yuusari