Niche

Niche (ニッチ Nitchi^?)

• Voiced by: Ayumi Fujimura

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. Niche displays animal-like characteristics, such as licking wounds and sniffing the air for any trace of danger. She dislikes wearing underwear, but wears them for Lag's sake, 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 (永久氷河 Eikyūhyōga^?, lit. Permanent Glacier). Later on in Blue Notes Scale (氷河湖路 Hyōgakomichi^?, lit. Glacier Lake Road), 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. Her name is derived from "niche", a crevice or narrow space to put flowers as an offering to the Holy Mother.^[2]

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 ("Rabu Samuwan Daun (ラブ・サム・ワ ン・ダウン Rabu Samu Wan Daun^?, lit. Love Someone Down)" 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.

After delivering Niche, Lag found out she was to be put in a side show act as "The Child of Maka" (摩訶の子 Maka no Ko^?, lit. Child of Greatness), Maka being a mysterious being both worshipped and feared in AmberGround's Northern territories. Lag hurried back to Love Someone Down with the excuse that Niche's delivery 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".