Loud laughter echoed inside a large brightly lit office. The room was well lit enough for it to be mistaken for some kind of theater room. Especially due to the fact that all the lamps were positioned to mostly light up the the back wall of the room, where an antique wooden desk with a large padded black office chair and two smaller chairs stood.
Pacing around in the middle of the room, was a middle aged, worn out looking man, wearing a very neat blue suit, and holding a phone to his ear.
The man spoke loudly into the phone using an overly cheerful tone as he glanced over a small mirror on the wall, combing the remains of his hair with his free hand.
"You know its like i always say, if you dont have any rights then lets make you some!"
He stood back after looking at the mirror as he admired the large image painted on the majority of the walls surface.
It was an image of the man himself, wearing a familiar blue suit as he was in the middle of fixing his tie. A speech bubble appearing from his mouth that had some words flashing on a weak blue neon light tha read:
'Did you know you have rights? Well i say you do!'
"Yes well you know how it is, i do love helping people, its my greatest weakness!"
The man kept talking as he admired himself in the wall painting, and failed to notice when the door to the room opened and closed as someone entered his office.
The man finished up his conversation and sat down into his large office chair, throwing his phone onto the table as he pressed a button on the chair, causing it vibrate as he slowly sunk into it with a sigh.
"So how's business lately Gary?"
A young femenine rang out, making the man wake up from his already half asleep state on the vibrating chair, as he noticed a young girl sitting in one of the chairs infront of his desk.
"Uh, sorry didnt see you there, little miss, did the secretary let you in, where are your parents or legal guardian?"
"I came here on personal business, Gary"
The girl stared him in the eyes, like a snake hypnotising its prey.
"Right on, little lady, its never too early to hire Gary, you know its like i always say, you have rights, and if you dont, then lets make you some!"
Gary said as he took out a laptop and turned it on.
"So what manner of business does the little lady have with me?"
"My business is the several millions that went missing from Niko, universes greatest thief"
"Hey how do you know about that!"
"Wait.. dont tell me you're his daughter?"
He asked but tried again when he saw the little girl raise an eyebrow.
"His lover then, damn didnt know that guy was into little girls, that sick bastard-"
He was interupted by the girl kicking him in the groin from underneath the table.
"No you idiot, its me, I AM Niko!"
The girl sighed and gave him another quick kick.
--
"Wait wait, so what you are trying to tell me, is that you, a girl thats barely hit puberty, is that same Niko?"
"Yes, yes i am"
Niko had told Gary everything that had happened up to this point, starting from the moment everything went down hill. She did however exclude the part about the woman who called herself her older sister.
"Sorry kid, come up with a better story, i dont care whether you're Niko's duaghter, sister or lover, the guy's dead and his contract didnt say anything about anyone to pass down any inheritence to, so you're all outta luck"
Niko's eye twitched slightly as she opened her mouth.
"Behind that mirror on the wall is your secret safe containing all your money in neatly arranged gold bars, the number to the safe is '93415', among the gold bars which are fake decoys is a small tablet containing the only access node capable of transfering money from that bank account to anywhere else, the password to the tablet is 'IhaveNopubes'.
"H-hey how do you know that! I mean thats a lie, that password is obviously a joke!"
"Did Niko tell you, that bastard, even in death he still is a thorn in my behind!"
Gary looked really flustered as he wiped some sweat from his brow.
"Idiot how many times do i have to tell you, i AM Niko"
"One time you tried to buy a book about how to attract women, but accidently bought a porn book, upon realising that you had bought a porn book, that wasnt even that good i might add, you got annoyed and threw it, but you threw it too hard and it hit someone in the head, that someone was a famous transvestite, who was also a proffesional wrestler, you ended up being chased by that person throughout the entire city-"
Niko was about to keep going but was rudely interupted by the now panicking Gary.
"OKAY OKAY STOP, i believe you, i believe you, dont say anything more, i dont want to be reminded of that ever again..." He shuddered.
"You never change Gary, even after your best client supposedly died"
"Hey i will have you know that i personally saw to it that a grave made of gold was put up on a hill in switzerland, just as requested, well it was stolen the next day though"
Gary gave an awkward laugh as he wiped off even more sweat threatning to flood his eyes.
"But really kid, now that i know it's the real you, thats some major surgery you got there, never thought you were into that kinda stuff"
"It wasnt surgery Gary, didnt you listen to my damn story!"
"Oh right, so the story was not something you pulled out of your ass then"
"No it was not, sadly.."
"Well..cheer up kid, i'm sure we can think of something, besides it's not a bad look you got there"
Gary reassured him, as he admired Niko's new body, which earned him a stare cold enough to freeze fire itself.
"Yes. We CAN think of something, we can start by getting all my money back since i am obviously not DEAD"
"Uh..About that..Well i mean, technically you are dead, but even if i were to try and get your money back i wouldnt really be able to.."
"..Surely you can just ask the various charities to give the money back, i'm sure most would be willing to if you come up with a good enough excuse"
Gary began to visibly sweat as he continued, his suit looking drenched "The thing is...The money is not with the charities.."
"What do you mean its not with the charities, where the hell is my money Gary, what the hell did you do with my hard earned millions"
Niko said as her voice changed from a cute young girls to a hiss like rasp, similiar to a snake preparing to lunge forward.
"Well..i mean..you were dead, and you didnt have anyone that would come asking for the money, and the charities are ripoffs anyway, you know, they're all conmen i hear..so i kinda..."
Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.
"...What did you do..?"
"I kinda used all your money to pay off my various debts.."
"YOU SON OF A-"
Niko stopped herself and slowly breathed in and out.
"Fine... what about the rest of it?"
"The rest of what?"
"The rest of my damn money, surely you didnt spend several millions on just your DEBTS?"
"I...kinda did"
"How, do you MANAGE to rack up that kind of debt!?!"
"Hey, Aiming to become the best lawyer in the world aint easy you know, most of the time i accept a case i'm actually losing money, even though i always win in court. You know how it is, paying off this guy to dispose of the evidence of the clients messy crime, or paying off that guy to make sure the jury sees our case in a better light, you know how it is"
"No Gary, I do not know how it is, what i do know is that you stole all my money and then wasted it, you do realise what will happen to you right, i will make sure your dreams change from best lawyer in the world to best doormat in the world, im sure you know i'm capable of doing that, since i know a few people here and there myself"
Niko gazed directly into Gary's eyes, causing him to somehow sweat even more than he already is, making a small puddle of sweat at his feet, or atleast Niko assumed it was sweat.
"N-now, wait, i'm sure we can figure something out...uh..how about all my services from now on are completely free of charge!"
Gary offered, putting up a generous face whilst giving his best smile, which looked really creepy on his sweating nervous face, and only earned him an eye twitch from Niko.
"Ok ok, how about that and also..you can have access to all my current and future assets, that must be good enough right?!"
"No, i want all that and i want one more thing." Niko hissed.
"Sure, sure, Niko best bud, my partner in crime, my non-blood related brother, or in this case sister!"
"I want you to help me get to the bottom of this...whatever it is that has happened, and see if i can get some kind of semblance of dignity back"
"Of course, What are friends for, right!"
Gary accepted Niko's terms with a natural smile, whilst shedding tears in his heart, trying not to think of how his life is going to be just a bit more miserable from now on.
--
"Alright listen, i've phoned around and asked various sources, and no matter how much any of them investigated or asked around, there really was nothing special about what happened after your meeting with lady gravity courtesy of mr. Newton, may his soul rest deep underground under the pull of gravity. I even got a guy who worked the morgue, and he said your body seemed perfectly normal, the brain and the rest of the organs were all there and fine, well except for being dead and smashed into mush that it, and yes you dont have to ask, you can trust my sources, after all they were bought with good money, and not a small sum you know!'
"yea, MY money."
A few hours had gone by since their last talk, and Niko had taken a nap in Gary's office while he called various soruces. Niko was currently seated in Gary's large office chair with her feet resting on the desk while Gary himself was sitting on one of the small chairs infront of his desk.
"Well you're still a few million short of paying me back atleast"
"But anyway, so you mean you couldnt find anything strange at all, not a single clue!?"
Niko inquired, making Gary sigh while beind his neck to the side slightly.
"Well kind of, except there is one other strange thing other than your miraculous survival that is slightly strange, the cute girl you're currently possessing like some kind of evil spirit, was in a state of... well she was basically a vegetable, her brain was completely dead, apparently she electrocuted herself in the head somehow, which completely fried her marbles"
"I see.. that still doesn't tell me anything, what is this Gary, is this all you could get, you know maybe you're losing your touch, if you had any to begin with" Niko smirked at him.
"Hey give me a break here, i'm a lwayer not some glorified supernatural detective, i mean you dont see me driving around in a 1967 chevy with my brother, god bless his soul"
"Your brother is dead?"
"Eh, he majored in philosophy, which is basically the same thing. But anyway, i actually did get something else, now it's a longshot but hear me out, apparently one of the things that were found with you upon your death, were various small artifacts. Which i am sure you know about, most were fairly standard stuff, old rusted spoons, jewelery, and other good stuff, but one of the things found was some kind of sphere that according to legend is suspected to be one that was made by a certain god or the other, basically the nordic equivalent of the holy grail. But less popular and not as fancy"
"Yes i know about that, why do you think i happened to be at that exact place at that specific time?" Niko muttered.
"Alright alright, dont have to rude, but thats not all, apparently this thing is suspected to have roots in some kind of ressurection ritual"
Niko's eyes lit up like a cat that had seen its prey upon hearing that last part, But she quickly lost motivation again after she thought about the whole thing for a few moments.
"Magic..really, come on Gary i'm not five, surely you can do better than that?"
A feminine eyebrow was raised towards the nervous lawyer.
"Look kid, i've done all i could, this is the only lead we have, we have nothing else to go on, i mean look at you, you're a little girl, if thats not SOME kind of magic i dont what is!"
Niko's face contorted as her eyes filled with a low fiery glow.
"I am NOT a little GIRL"
Niko spat out as her eyes almost seemed to give off smoke.
"Alright alright, calm down best bud, you're the manliest thiefer and heister i know, i was just making a joke, a simple joke, haha.."
Gary quickly said as he tried to withstand the effects of the gaze that light start fires.
"I am the ONLY thief you know, honourable one atleast.."
Niko sighed as her gaze died down to normal.
'Damn.. didn't know girls this young could already be obssesed with growing up...'
Gary muttered to himself.
"What was that?"
Niko asked as his gaze flickered red.
"NOTHING!"
"Anyway, shouldn't we look into this, and do things the way we do them best?"
"Oh fine, not like we have anything else to go on, besides it leaves a bad taste in my mouth to leave a prize unclaimed"
"Excellent, i will make some quick calls, be right back!"