Author's Note: In this chapter, I go back to calling Phoenix in Maya's body "Phoenix", and Maya in Phoenix's body "Maya".


Phoenix decided to spend the rest of the day away from Maya. It was probably the only way he could keep himself from yelling at her about the trial.

Maya wandered off to a nearby florist shop. She bought a dozen roses and had them delivered to Franziska von Karma's office with the inscription, "Franziska, I think you're gorgeous. Edgeworth."

Phoenix's wallet didn't have any money, so she told the person at the store to charge it to Edgeworth's account.

Phoenix, meanwhile, went back to the Law Offices, where Mia was keeping watch over things.

"Hey, Maya—uh, Phoenix," Mia said. "How was court today?"

"It was basically the most embarrassing trial ever," Phoenix said. "Maya has no idea how to be a lawyer. Now everyone is going to think that I'm completely nuts."

"I'm sure it can't be all that bad," Mia said.

"Not only did she call the Judge 'Dude' and 'Your Hamburger', but she turned the trial into a discussion of Miles Edgeworth's love life!"

"At least she didn't start talking about the Steel Samurai!" Mia joked.

"She did that, too. And she did a victory dance when court was over."

"Oh..." Mia said.

She then wisely decided to change the subject.

"Are you...wearing my clothes?" she asked.

"Oh, yeah," Phoenix said, looking at his outfit. "Maya had two of your old suits in her closet for formal wear. They felt more comfortable than her acolyte robes."

"They look nice," Mia said. "I never thought I'd see Maya so dressed up!"

"They're great, but they're really loose around the...uh..."

Phoenix turned red as he realized what body part he was talking about. "You know...the front."

Mia grinned at Phoenix's shyness. "If you want, we can go bra shopping later today."

"Augh!" Phoenix exclaimed. "No—not—!"

"You'll have to get used to your new body parts sometime," Mia teased. "You could be stuck in Maya's body for a few months, after all."

"Not if I can help it," Phoenix resolved. "Let's start spiritual training right away!"

"Okay," Mia said. "Let's...um..."

Mia thought for a moment. She hadn't done any spiritual training in a few years.

"Let's start with basic meditation. Get into a comfortable position, and empty your mind. Try not to think about anything."

"What does not thinking have to do with spiritual training?" Phoenix asked.

"If you're not thinking, it's like you're escaping yourself. You know, like...an out-of-body experience."

Phoenix lifted an eyebrow at Mia. "I'm already having an out-of-body experience."

"Don't be a smart aleck," Mia said. "Just empty your mind."

"Okay, okay," Phoenix said, closing his eyes and concentrating on nothing. "Got it. Now what?"

"Empty your mind."

"I said I got it. Now what?"

"It takes longer than five seconds to empty your mind!"

"No, it doesn't."

"Yes it does! You have to think of absolutely nothing."

"I did that! Now I'm thinking that you need to hurry up and tell me what you have to do next to channel spirits!"

"You're crabby when you get turned into a girl, you know that?"

"Well, you're bossy when you're...um...dead and...wait. You're dead!"

"Thanks for noticing, Phoenix."

"But then, why are you here? I mean, you're not the Ghost Mia who helps me out in court sometimes, and you're not Channeled Mia. So you're..."

"Somewhere between the two?" Mia guessed. "This is unknown territory for me, too."

Phoenix sighed. When Mia didn't know what was going on, you knew you were in a bad situation. "So...what exactly happened with you?"

"It's hard to explain. You know when you summon someone, they come into your body, right?"

Phoenix nodded.

"Well, Maya was trying to summon me, but not into her body. She wanted to summon me into a mirror."

"Why a mirror?"

"That way, someone could hold the mirror and look in it and see me, and I don't know, it was something she saw in a movie."

"Right..."

"So basically, that involves summoning me, but not summoning me at the same time."

"That makes absolutely no sense," Phoenix said.

Mia shrugged. "Hopefully, you'll learn more about it when you start summoning. In any case, when you opened the door, you offered another receptacle for the spirits. Maya's spirit bounced into your body, your spirit bounced into hers, and my spirit got thrown out to the side in this half-summoned form."

"Oh, wow," Phoenix said. "Sorry I've been too busy freaking out to pay attention to your situation."

"I understand," Mia said. "Now let's get back to spirit training. See if you can focus your power on your Magatama..."


An hour later, Phoenix had made no progress whatsoever. When somebody knocked on the door and interrupted the training session, Phoenix was secretly glad for the excuse to stop.

"That's probably Maya," Phoenix said to himself.

But it wasn't Maya. It was Pearl, and she was crying.

"Pearl!"

"Mr. Nick! Mystic Mia! May...Maya left me behind!"

"What? Pearl! What happened?"

Pearl hugged Phoenix and cried into his shoulder. "Maya was with Mr. Larry, and they went to this place where they don't allow kids, and I had to walk home all by myself, and it was scary!"

"Maya abandoned you?" Phoenix asked.

"I don't believe it! Why would Maya do something like that?" Mia said.

"I don't know, but I'm going to find out," Phoenix said. He pulled out Maya's cell phone and called his cell. Maya picked up on the third ring.

"Niiiiick! What's up, bro?"

"Who is it?"

"It's Nick!"

"But you're Nick! Duuuude!"

Phoenix clapped a hand to his forehead as he immediately understood what happened. "I think Larry and Maya are drunk," he told Mia.

"Oh no!" Mia said.

"It's cool!" Maya said. "Now that I'm you, I'm old enough to start drinking! Larry said I had to try some to celebrate, and I thought...woah! Check out that hot guy!"

"Guy? Dude, Niiick! That's gross!"

"No way! He's a total cutie! Look at thoshe arms!"

"Maya, you have to come back to the office right away," Phoenix ordered.

"Maya? You're Maya. I hear Maya! Hee hee hee..."

"Okay, you and Larry stay where you are. Mia and I will come pick you up. Okay?"

"O K M N!" Maya said.

Phoenix hung up. "I don't think they can come home on their own," he said. "We'll have to go get them."

"Oh, Maya is going to be in so much trouble now..." Mia growled. "I can't believe she'd abandon Pearl to go drinking!"

By this time, Pearl was feeling better, although she was still sniffing a little.

"Pearly?" Phoenix asked. "Do you remember where Maya and Larry are?"

Pearl nodded. "But I don't want to go back! It was dark and scary!"

"We'll be here to protect you," Mia said.

"Yeah, we're just going to get Maya and take her back home," Phoenix said. "You can be a brave girl and help us, right?"

"Okay," Pearl agreed. "But I still won't like it!"


"The Drunken Monkey," Phoenix said, reading the sign on the building. "Larry always did have great taste."

"The music there was horrible," Pearl said. "It made my ears and my head hurt."

Poor Pearly... Phoenix thought to himself. Maya's got a lot to answer for...

"You two are both underage, so I'll go get them," Mia said. "Just wait here for a few minutes."

"Okay," Phoenix agreed.

Phoenix and Pearl waited together for a while.

"So...how do you like being a girl?" Pearl asked. "It's really cool, right?"

"Um, sure, I guess," Phoenix said. "It's kind of weird, having to get used to Maya's body."

"Because you're short now?"

"Exactly. That and...other things."

"Well, it's good that you're smart now!" Pearl said.

"Smart?"

"Everyone knows girls are smarter than boys," Pearl said. "Maybe that's why Mystic Maya was so mean to me. Now that she's a boy, she's stupid."

Phoenix blinked. He had forgotten that Pearl grew up in a matriarchal society. "But...you never thought I was stupid, did you?"

"No! I mean...you're one of the smart boys. But sometimes you still do stupid things."

"Like what?"

"Like say you're not in love with Maya!"

"Oh. Right..."

The door to the bar opened, and Mia came outside with the drunk Maya. She looked like she was about to throw up.

"It's hard to love her sometimes..." Phoenix commented.