Chapter One

Elizabeth

"Mai? Mai?" Ayako walked into Mai's bedroom to find her fast asleep on the western styled bed. The young girl was laying on her side, knees tucked in, with a red comforter pulled up to her chin. "Mai? Wake up! It's the new year!" The shrine maiden laid a pale hand on the girl's shoulder and shook gently.

"Mmm. No. NO! I don't want to!" Mai murmured, seemingly in her sleep, before thrashing about wildly. "No! no! Stop! Ahh!" It stopped suddenly, and Ayako placed a timed hand on her cheek. Mai's skin was freezing to the touch. Ayako leaned down so that her ear was by the girl's mouth, listening for her breath. It was shallow, but there.

"Mai?" Ayako reached for her phone and pressed speed dial. The person on the other line picked up on the first ring.

"Ayako? Did you get Mai for the celebration? You better hurry before Naru changes his mind."

"M-Monk?" Her voice was shaky.

"Ayako? What's wrong?"

"I need you to get the others. There's something wrong with Mai."

…

"Ayako?" Monk's concerned voice called.

"In here! I'm in here!" she voiced, eyes fixed on Mai's scarily still figure.

Monk was the first to enter, followed by Naru, Lin, Masako, Yasu, and John. Everyone walked up around the bed besides Lin-he froze at the doorway.

"Lin?" Naru asked, looking over his shoulder.

"Get away from her. She's not Mai."

They did as instructed-backing away slowly. Yasu snorted in irony. "Go figure Mai would get possessed on New Years."

"She would do that," Monk smirked only to get smacked upside the head with Ayako's purse.

"I'm not so sure," Masako butted in. "I don't sense anything. How can you be sure that's not Mai, Lin-san?"

"Her aura. It's not Mais," Lin explained.

"You can sense other people's auras?" Yasu asked. Lin nodded.

Mai, or rather her body, started convulsing. "Mia!" Ayako cried as she started towards her side.

"No! Ayako-san, you don't know who or what that is!" Lin protested; his words stopped Ayako dead in her tracks.

"Ahhhh!" Mai's body screamed in pain. It sat up straight, taking in sharp breaths, before falling back in the bead. It stayed that way before shooting up again with awestruck eyes. "Where am I? Who are you? What's going on?" It backed up against the wall with it's knees tucked in.

"Do you know who you are?" Naru, level headed as ever, asked.

"E-eto, e-Elizabeth. Who are you? Where am I?" she repeated after giving her name.

"Do you know if you are dead?" Naru asked-effectively ignoring her.

"Dead? I'm dead?"

"Should I try to exorcise her?" John whisper asked. He kept his stuff on him just in case.

"I'm telling you, I don't think it's a spirit," Masako whispered back, but Naru nodded at John anyways..

John walked up to her. She was looking at them with confused eyes. Her eyes snapped to his, and he started. "In the beginning was the word-"

"And the word was with God, and the word was God," she spoke with John, startling him, but he continued. She shivered as the holy water hit her. "The intro to the book of John. What of it?" John held his rosary onto her forehead, but before he could speak, she interrupted. "Ano, are you trying to exorcise me? Because I don't think it's working." Her hand reached up to meet his, and pulled the rosary down where she could see it.

"I've seen strong spirits do that to my wards, but never to John's exorcisms. Does that happen?" Ayako asked no one in particular.

"No," John muttered in shock.

"Told you it wasn't a spirit," Masako hissed.

Elizabeth held John's hand in front of her, gently, so she could see his rosary. She smiled softly. "So beautiful." She sighed, admiring the gold figure with the red stones at each point of the cross. "I never understood why rosaries were for Catholics. Christians I understand, but not Catholics. I've always thought they were pretty and have wanted one, even though I myself am an Evangelist."

"You're a Christian, Elizabeth-san?" John asked.

"No need to be so formal, Nīchan," she told him while nodding.

"You can call me John."

"Ok, John then." Elizabeth nodded.

"Some how taking over Mai's body and she's already won one of us over." Masako turned her eyes away and glared at empty air.

"So, who are you guys? And where am I?" Elizabeth asked.

"A small town in Japan. I'm Shibuya, or Naru, and that's Masako, Ayako, Monk, Yasuhara, and my assistant, Lin. You've already met John." Naru motioned to each person in turn.

Elizabeth nodded before asking, "And what about-" She cut off at the glare Masako sent her way. "Never mind, I thought I saw someone else."

Naru raised an eyebrow before continuing, "At the moment, you happen to be inhabiting the body of my other assistant: Mai Taniyama."

"Ah." Elizabeth gasped. "Gomen'nasai!"

"So where are you from?" Lin asked; his laptop open and balancing on his arm. "And your full name, please."

"Eh… Elizabeth Janette Tyler. I'm from Coolridge, Michigan."

"Just a minute." Lin's slender finger danced over the keyboard. After a couple of clicks he turned the computer towards them. "Is this you?"

She gave a slow nod. A frail girl laid on a large bed. Her skin was an unhealthy shade of white, her hair was black and wiry, and her lips were chapped. Her green eyes were dull, and you could see her bones. Above the image was a caption that read 'Young Girl Gives New Meaning to Depression'.

"That's you?" John asked, turning to the girl.

"Yeah, that's me."

"You don't sound depressed to me," Masako sighed.

"No. She started making a comeback last year. I remember doing a case study on it," Ayako informed her.

"Wow, the complete opposite of Mai," Monk laughed. "Our happy-go-luck Mai and Miss-redefining-depression Elizabeth."

"Monk!" Ayako hit the older man with her purse. "Be nice!"

"It's fine." Elizabeth rubbed her arms, for the time being, subconsciously. "Now what?" She squinted her eyes in timid confusion.

"Get dressed," Naru said, motioning to the slip she was currently in. Elizabeth blushed and pulled the blankets around herself. "Then we'll work on figuring out what's happening. We'll be in the main room."

Elizabeth nodded-eyes trailing on them as they left. She shifted out of bed and made her way to the closest to the side of the room. Upon opening it, she realised that Mai Taniyama did not believe in the word 'warm'. Weeding out what would be the coldest of the bunch, she settled on a pair of ripped, bleached jeans and a lightweight, forest green turtle neck. She may have shivered more than a few times, but it produced more heat than most of the other options.

Walking out into the main room of Mai's apartment, Elizabeth saw that everyone besides Masako was sitting on sofas, chairs, and stools. "Masako had to leave for a movie shoot," John explained. Elizabeth nodded.

"Elizabeth! You must be freezing!" Ayako exclaimed-jumping up from her spot on one of the stools and standing by her side.

"Hai. Umm, it was the warmest thing she had," Elizabeth explained. "Naru! Why haven't you made sure Mai had warmer clothes?" Ayako questioned him.

Naru sat up straighter and looked her in the eyes. "Mai is my employee, how she dresses is no concern of mine."

"Listen here! We may not have had a job in a while, but-" Ayako ranted on.

"But what?" Naru inquired.

"But Mai still showed up for work every day. The least you could do is make sure she's dressed warm enough for the season!"

"You are in no position to scold me Matsuzaki-san."

"Guys! Can we please not fight about this?" Elizabeth interrupted.

"No!" Ayako turned to her. "You may not care about the person who normally inhabits the body you are in now, but we do! I do! She's like a daughter to me!"

Elizabeth backed away slowly until her back was against the wall. "G-Gomen'nasai." tears welled in her eyes. "Gomen'nasai. I, I know you don't know me, and this must be awful for you. But I want to help you get your friend Mai back. And, and I want to go home."

So there is the first chapter. Many thanks to Akira Xenoshi who agreed to get on me about updating this and my other stories (That was my one condition for posting this: someone pushing me). If you don't recognise some of the words, Gomen'nasai means I'm sorry and Arigato means thank you, also Hai means yes. Please review XD Arigato gonzimas (thanks very much), uyay