Niki

"I'm going to spend the rest of my life...looking for a place to die." Niki was a slave who was used to sell a drug in the streets of Lotto Valentino during the 1700s, only to befriend Huey Laforet, Monica Campanella and Elmer C. Albatross in 1705, becoming one of their best friends.

Chronology
While Niki's name was given to her by her birth parents, she knows nothing more about them or even if they are still alive. She was then sold into slavery. Eventually she was injected with a drug that began to slowly eat away at her, and drive her insane. The idea behind it was to sell off young girl infected with the drug as prostitutes and poison the aristrocrats' food with the poison so as to usher up control to the group that manufactured the drug. The children used were people who had no official birth records.

1705 the Ironic Light Orchestra
Niki first appears being harassed by Spanish aristocrats - The Rotten Eggs - where she is savagely beaten, only saved when the Rotten Eggs make the mistake of involving Huey Laforet and Monica Campanella. After doing so, however, Huey says that they should not get to know her because she will die. Later on she sees the Mask Maker and believes she will be the next to be killed by the serial killer. Convinced that she must die, she wanders around the city.

She then appears once again being harassed by the Rotten Eggs. This time, Elmer C. Albatross comes to her aid, but things quickly escalate for Niki and her master comes to claim her while Elmer is beaten up. They are saved by the timely arrival of Zank Rowan and Denkuro, who easily dispatch the aristocrats. When the leader of Rotten Eggs, Aile, appears and dissuades further conflict, Elmer takes Niki and escapes.

Elmer drops her off at the abode of Esperanza C. Boroñal, an eccentric aristocrat who loves women and always treats them well. However she eventually flees so as not to put Elmer and Esperanza in danger of the Mask Maker, only to be caught by LaRolf and the city police. There, she was held along with many of Huey, Elmer and Monica's classmates.

At the end of the novel, she is still convinced she needs to die and searches for a place where she can die with a smile, per Elmer's request. She becomes friends with Elmer, Huey, and Monica. She leaves Lotto Valentino with Begg Garott.

1710 and 1711
She then works with the Meyer alchemists led by Fermet. Fermet takes in Huey and Monica's baby and Niki is the one who predominately cares for it. She realizes that she is in love with Fermet and he reciprocates her feelings in his own twisted way.

When the Advenna Avis sets sail in 1711, Fermet makes Niki distract the townspeople and the House Dormentaire from the departing ship. She agrees. She takes cover in one of the Mask Maker hideouts when she is chased not knowing that Huey and Elmer had planted bombs their to rid the counter-fitting evidence. She attempts to escape, but recognizes the voice of her previous owner and believes escape impossible. At the moment of the explosions she is pulled out of the hideout by Lucrezia de Dormentaire. She lives but suffers major burns and injuries.

Huey and Elmer both send Lucrezia part of their share of the immortality elixir after learning any small amount will grant immortality. Lucrezia drank Huey's and she shared Elmer's with her associates, including Niki. However, Nikki's injuries weren't fully healed when she drank the elixir, so she is permanently covered in bandages.

Relationships
Elmer C. Albatross: Elmer was the second person to ever defend Niki from the abusive aristocrats after Huey, although rather unintentionally. At his carefree, strange personality, Niki initially does not know what to think of his oddity, more so when he takes her to Esperanza's mansion to provide a better life for her. However, she warms up to him eventually, caring and worrying for him while still retaining her playful insults towards him and Elmer can be considered her closest friend, even jokingly hinting that she has a crush on him, which is not true. Regardless, she considers Elmer a very important person, willing to listen to his insane request of smiling in the face of death, to the point where it was all she could think about when she believed she was going to die in their old Mask Maker hideout, despite her love for Fermet. In the 2002 timeline, she revealed a genuine smile upon hearing either Elmer or Fermet's name, however whether her feelings towards them have changed or remained the same in the present remains unknown.

Lebreau Fermet Viralesque: Encountering him when she volunteered to help Begg, the person Niki gradually fell in love with was revealed to be Fermet. Fooled by his act of a warm, kind, self-sacrificing nature, Niki went so far as to offer her own life to distract the rioting citizens to allow Fermet to escape on the Advenna Avis, unfortunately playing right into his hands. In the face of her death, it is unknown whether or not Niki accepted the fact that Fermet had set her up to die, since she vehemently denied the possibility at first. Years later, it is unknown whether her feelings towards him have changed or not, since she was said to have shown a sincere smile at the sound of his and Elmer's names, although her smile could have been directed towards Elmer, or even both.

Huey Laforet: Although they primarily share the title of Mask Maker along with Monica and Elmer, the two have very little interaction throughout the 1700s timeline. Huey had only initially saved Niki from the aristocrats at first because Monica had been dragged into it, and even then, he found it a bothersome task. He expressed little to no interest about her situation with the Mask Maker, although Niki considered him to be one of her saviors, along with the other two of the Mask Maker trio. In spite of that, it was revealed that Huey actually cared for her well-being to an extent. After the Advenna Avis, Fermet had uncovered his scheme of Niki's death, and Huey admitted to Elmer after Fermet had left that he had almost lost his rage upon hearing what Fermet had done to Niki, although most of his anger could be justified with Monica's death as well, Niki's own situation merely tipping the scale for Huey.

Monica Campanella: Similar to Huey, Monica has had little interaction with Niki throughout the 1700s timeline, although Monica was initially the one who reached out to Niki via the Mask Maker, and has developed a sort of bond with her through that. Niki herself considers Monica to be a very important friend and savior along with Huey and Elmer. She was completely distraught and grieved at the news of Monica's death, disbelieving that one of her saviors could have died before her. In Niki's memories, Monica remains as a significant figure in her life, precious friend, savior, and all.