"So..how exactly... do we find more magic artifacts...?"

Niko spun an empty bottle of sake as she looked over at the pair infront of her.

Shoki was still slowly sipping on his small cup of sake, while Gary had taken out a bottle of whiskey which he was now chugging, trying to forget Niko and all the trouble she drags his way.

"Well...Honestly speaking, a magical item can be anything aslong as it is filled with a certain degree of power. only someone who uses power frequently could tell the difference, and we don't seem to have anyone like that"

Shoki answered, taking a thoughtful sip of his sake.

"I..certainly didn't think this far ahead..."

Niko muttered, flushing red with embarrassment.

"It would appear so... Never mind that for now, you seem to still be fine after drinking a whole bottle of that terrible stuff, you must be an experienced drinker?"

Shoki's eyes widened slightly with respect.

"Pff of course i am fine, i am the great Niko after all!"

She exclaimed with a smile, her face flushing even further.

"Honestly... i must be the most amazing person on this planet, i mean look at my juggling skills!"

She picked up the empty bottle and The golden sphere, as she began to juggle them.

"Hey, maybe you shouldn't do that..what if you drop that...?"

Shoki eyed Niko nervously as he only now began to notice that Niko's flushing face wasn't due to embarassement, her eyes hazy and out of focus, and her movements sluggish and slightly odd.

She was drunk.

"Ok.. Niko, put that down..."

Shoki slowly stood up, careful not to startle Niko.

"Haa..sit dooown... i'm juggling here~"

She continued to juggle with increasing speed, as she did, the bottle accidently slipped from her hand, crashing into the floor with a loud crash, startling Niko and causing her grip on the golden sphere to loosen.

"We are DOOMED!"

Gary yelled as he clutched his head, falling to the ground.

"Not yet!"

Shoki jumped forward, and clutched Niko's hand that was still holding the slipping sphere, making sure it stayed in her grip.

As he did that however, it seems the alcohol had gotten the better of Niko and she started to fall, which forced Shoki to grab her with his other hand at her waist.

"Heeeey...Shooooki...I'm not into men you know...but i'l make an exception for you.."

Niko drunkedly whispered, causing Shoki to blush lightly at the sudden intimate action.

"Fool, you are drunk, you do not know what you are saying"

He hurriedly said, looking the other direction as he let go of Niko and grabbed the sphere out of her hand.

"Oooonly joking~"

She said as she slumped down onto the sofa.

"Jeez that Niko, i thought we were doomed, i don't much fancy being turned to dust anytime soon..."

Gary muttered as he got up from his fetal position on the ground.

"Well...the chance that anything would happen if she dropped it was very low..."

Shoki tried to reasure the disheveled Laywer.

"But it was still a chance, no?" Gary sighed "I would rather not take any chances when it comes to Niko, that bastard always causes trouble when you least expect it..."

He said as he glanced at the soundly sleeping Niko who was clutching another bottle of sake like a pillow.

"Indeed, this girl certainly seems to have her fair of strangeness, she seemed oddly relaxed even when she found out about the existence of power and cults..."

"Well she did used to be a man before, although she was very eccentric even as a man..."

"Oh i do not doubt that"

Shoki smiled as he sat down and poured himself a glass of Gary's whiskey.

"Ooh a Whiskey man, huh, thats a man i can respect!"

Gary poured himself a glass of whiskey as well, and sat down next to Shoki.

"Yea..i do not really get the taste of things like sake, i only drank it to be polite.."

"Well you know, i'm actually not a big fan of the stuff either, i just always kept some around, cause Niko would always come over and complain when he couldn't find anything good to drink at my expense..."

Gary sighed, smiling fondly as he somehow could never get himself to truely resent that carefree attitude of Niko.

The rest of the night flowed by with the two men chatting idly about this and that, with Gary mostly complaining about Niko as she snored away on the sofa.

--

"Uhh..my head..."

Niko slowly got up to the sound of someone typing away at a keyboard, her head throbbing with pain.

"Mornin Niko, guess you can't drink that much anymore, huh, you went out as a light yesterday after only a single bottle, you're losing your touch!"

Gary greeted Niko from behind his laptop screen.

"I havent...it's just that this body isn't used to drinking...ah..my head hurts...Where did Shoki go..?"

She asked as she rubbed her temples.

"He should be back any minute now, he went to clean up and have some breakfast"

"Oh..ok.."

Niko slowly sat up in the sofa, too tired to do anything, she tried to wait for her headache to subside first, which it eventually did, only to be replaced by another uncomfortable feeling.

"What's wrong, need some pills to help settle your stomach?"

Gary asked, slightly concerned over Niko who had already spent half an hour clutching at her stomach with a pained expression.

"N-no..i'm fine.."

She muttered, sweating slightly.

"Well you dont look fine, so just tell me what's wrong and i'l get you something to relieve the pain, i always keep a ton of pills for every occasion, which is actually my secret to success, no disease can ever get the best of me thanks to the miracles of modern drugs!"

Gary blatantly bragged.

"...Toilet..."

She quietly muttered.

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"Huh, toilet, you know where it is, not like you need to ask me for permission, you never did before anyway...treating this like your own house..hah..."

He sighed loudly.

"Y-yea..but not...as a girl..."

She muttered, still holding her stomach in great pain.

"Oh...OH!"

Gary suddenly exclaimed upon realising what she meant.

"Uh..i'l...oh yea, let my secretary handle it!"

He quickly said as he pushed a button on his desk.

A few seconds later, and a tall rough looking woman with a mean look in her eyes entered the room.

"Hey Janice, you're a woman right?"

He asked, wearing his usual charismatic smile.

"...Last i have heard, yes."

She answered with an unamused look on her face.

"Well you see, my friend here, needs to use the little ladies room, so i was wondering if you could..?"

The woman looked around the room, and noticed Niko who was clutching her stomach in pain, and her eyes naturally softened.

"Come on, i'l show you there"

She kindly said as she helped Niko to her feet, giving Gary an ice cold stare as she left the room with Niko.

"Have fun, Haha..."

Gary laughed awkwardly, mostly to himself.

"I swear to god..that woman wants to murder me..."

Niko came back a few minutes later, with a smiling relieved expression on her face as she entered the room.

"So i assume it went well?"

"Shut up, i feel like i lost yet another shred of my soul that i will never get back!"

She snapped at Gary, her expression instantly becoming annoyed.

"Call it whatever you want, i'm happy aslong as you dont ruin my sofa..."

Gary said with a smirk.

"Treating me like a dog...Maybe i should go tell your mother about that transvetite chasing you through town..."

She started but got cut off as soon as she began.

"No no no, i'm sorry, wont happen again!"

Gary quickly pleaded.

"Humu...well aslong as you understand.."

"So...what is this about..?"

Shoki chimmed in from the side, which was when Niko and Gary became aware of his presence.

"Nothing!"

They both chimmed at the same time.

"Sure..?"

"A-anyway, let's get started, how shall we find someone who knows how to use magical artifacts..?"

Niko awkwardly said, trying to steer the coversation somewhere else.

"Hm..i can sadly not help with that, the only ones i knew with any connection to that world, were the Vali cult, and i doubt that they would be willing to help us out, especially since they now know that you are with me.."

Shoki shrugged.

"Hey, I am not with you, it is YOU who is with ME, you are my underling remember!"

Niko corrected him, causing him to merely shrug again in obvious melancholy, causing Niko's hair to stand up in annoyance.

"Well, since we don't have any leads, i had decided to look through my old contact list, and i found someone who might be of help"

Gary cut in between them.

"Oooh, as expected of Gary, tell us, tell us!"

Niko cheered.

"Well, it's an old crone that people call 'Evileye', She always wears heavy clothing, and the only thing people see is her left eye, which is why they started calling her that, and also due to the fact that she likes to glare at people alot.."

He explained.

"Really Gary..Crazy homeless people...next you'l say that we should visit a hermit in the mountains.."

Niko sighed.

"Well i do know this one guy..."

He started, but stopped as he saw the look in Shoki's and Niko's eyes.

"Look i know it sounds crazy, but when i was searching through the databases or whatever you kids call them-"

"It's called the internet"

Niko interupted.

"Whatever, i was looking through that, and i remembered an article i read about this woman, the things she spouted sounded an awful lot like that stuff Shoki talked about before, so i would say that she atleast knows something on the matter."

Gary continued, turning over his laptop which had an old newspaper scan on it, showing the article he was talking about, with a person in robes that covered every part of her body, stood on a small podium, and talking to a crowd.

"Ha..well you were right about the golden sphere before, so i guess we could atleast give her a call or something"

Niko shrugged and took out her phone.

"Ah here's the problem, She only talks to people face to face, apparently she doesn't trust technology, thinks it will steal her soul or something.."

"Like the indians thought cameras stole their souls, this just sounds more and more like a crazy homeless person...but fine, where is this person so we can talk to her and get this over with..."

Niko rolled her eyes and asked.

"Well she seems to live in japan at some temple..."

Gary said as he looked her up on his laptop.

"Is that so, that is a considerable distance away, that is definately more effort than it is worth, we should probably concentrate on this-"

Shoki was rudely interupted by Niko slapping his back.

"Shoki, we are going to japan, land of sake here i come!"

She said with hungry, excited eyes.

"But surely we should look through the local areas first before jumping to another field-"

Shoki began again, but was quickly stopped by Niko.

"Shoki. Land. Of. SAKE. We are going, i can let you play around with the sphere during the plane ride, Gary get us some tickets, we are going to the land of flowing sake and hot baths, or maybe baths full of sake!"