---

Jaja stood next to Maya at home. "Say, how's things with you and Loi?" she nonchalantly quizzed. "Uhm...I'm having fun teasing and haunting him... How should I put this? Let's just say that I really feel alive whenever I'm with Loi." she glossed, nostalgically. "He brings me peace. Before I was always alone, but with him everything is fun. I've got friends...you, Kenta, Shunta, everyone...I'm very happy. I want to thank him for that." Jaja squeezed her tightly. "You're so cute! I'm glad that we're friends too!" she oozed.

"Maya, you should know that Loi has a pretty unpleasant past. His father left him, his girlfriend cheated on him, he became depressed and alone...he was broken on the inside." she said, softly. "However, since you met him, he hasn't been that gloomy emo guy that I know, I'm glad you met - it's all thanks to you. I'm also incredibly glad that we're friends." Maya echoed her statements fully. "Same here!" she chirped cheerfully as they shared a joyful embrace.

---

DING DONG! DING DONG! DING DONG! Loi stomped over to the sound of the incessant ringing doorbell and flung the door open. "May I help you? Who the hell are you, and why are you ringing my doorbell so much?!" he griped. The young girl burst through the door, shoving past him. "Out of my way!" she yelled with fervor. "Kenta!" Palpable excitement was ringing in her voice. 

She was bright blonde and pretty, light indigo eyes matching her tasteful dress and red center bow. Kenta stared at her and didn't say a word. Suddenly, as if greeting a familiar person who'd been away, the girl rushed over to Kenta and threw her arms around him, hugging his chest tightly. "I've missed you, my darling!" Jaja and Maya were collectively gobsmacked. "My DARLING?!" they erupted in unison.

The girl released Kenta and spun around gracefully. "Hi! My name is Bridget, Kenta's fiancée. Nice to meet you all!" She looked over at Jaja with surprise. "You...must be Jaja..." Jaja crossed her arms loosely. "Yeah?" Bridget leaned in close. "I heard that you're very close with my darling Kenta..." Jaja lowered her arms to her sides. "Can we be friends?" Bridget added. "Eh? Yeah...sure..." Jaja said with surprise.

Bridget shifted her gaze over. "And that means that you must be...Maya, correct?" Maya's bangs hung over her face and she wore a goofy smile. "Yeah, I'm Maya...nice to meet you..." Bridget bristled slightly after catching the full image of Maya in her vision. "Would you happen to be...a ghost, perhaps?!" Maya darkened her face and glared at Bridget with a single glowing red eye "Why, yes... I AM A GHOST...a real ghost..." 

Jaja jumped in between the two and waved her hand in front of her. "No, no! Not like that! She's just a cosplayer, a ghost cosplayer! A ghost wannabe!" Maya whined at the appraisal. "A ghost wannabe?" she whimpered quietly. Bridget cleared her throat carefully. "She really looks like a ghost...well, anyway. Let's be friends!" Maya opened her arms in a celebratory fashion. "Yay! New friend!" Jaja simpered, cool sweat on her face.

"By the way, Jaja...would you do me a favor?" Bridget asked, looking her in the eye with a small wink. "I want you to help me get closer with Kenta..." Jaja looked through her at first, then down, and then closing her eyes, agreed. "Sure, I guess..." Outside, a limousine was idling, Bridget's ride to the house. Jaja's jaw fell open. "A limo?!" she shrieked. Maya was equally awestruck.

The trio were stepping out the door towards it when Kenta stopped them. "Wait! Where are you guys going?" Bridget raised her chin. "Sorry darling, girls only....you cannot come." She looked at male security guard. "And same to you! Don't go following us, understand?" He stammered. "But...milady..." She glared at him. "Let's have a walk... I've never walked with my friends this way before, so it's my first time...teehee" Bridget giggled.

Jaja and Maya were a captive audience. 'We thought we were going to take a ride in her limo...' The group walked for a period of time until they arrived at the mall. A poster for a horror film was hung prominently in the "Now Showing" area. "Let's watch that one!" Bridget bubbled. "This will be my first time watching a movie with friends as well!" she yipped. Jaja looked at the poster before realizing something.

"Eh? You've never seen a movie? Even though you're rich?" They collected their tickets and filed into the theater. "Wow...it's so dark...so this is what the cinema is like. Oh, it's starting!" The lights turned off. The film ran through its duration, ending with the malevolent spirit jumping at the screen after disappearing. KIYAAAAA! Jaja yawned dispassionately. "That was so boring..." Bridget held her hand to her chest.

"You must be pretty tough, Jaja...that was rather scary to me..." Jaja looked over. "How are you holding up, Maya? You're pretty quiet over there..." Maya was stock still in her seat, eyes wide open staring blankly ahead. "Maya?!?" The pair shook her awake and they left the theater. "Phew! I certainly don't want to watch another horror movie again!" Maya sighed. "...But it sure was fun!" piped in Bridget from beside her. 

"Let's get some coffee!" Jaja suggested. Bridget pumped her fist into the air. "Okay! Coffee time!" A malevolent gentleman peeked out from a nearby corner where he had been undergoing surveillance. 'Finally...this is my chance. She's let her guard down!' The coffeeshop bell tinkled as the trio exited, "Thank you, come again!" called the shopkeeper, chipper and unaware of the looming danger that was just nearby.

Maya stopped in place briefly, tears streaming down her face. "Maya, are you doing alright?" Jaja and Bridget asked. "Bridget...thank you! I finally got to eat an expensive cake! I'm so happy that I wanna die..." Jaja frowned slightly. 'She's already a ghost...that's not happening again.' A well-dressed, stocky man wearing sunglasses stalked up to the group brandishing a large knife. "Who are you, exactly?" Bridget inquired, annoyed that he was blocking her path, completely unfazed by the weapon that was clearly visible.

"Eh?! Seriously? You don't know me?! I'm one of the Kurogae gang's henchmen!" he snarled, cracking a vile grin. "No matter...we're going to kidnap you, daughter of our rival...Bridget!" Jaja studied the man a second. "Daughter of your rival?" she scoffed. Bridget smiled gently. "My father is a mafia leader..." Jaja's eyes popped out of her head in shock. "Enough talk! You're coming with me, Bridget!" the man yelled, rushing towards them with malice in his eyes.

Jaja flexed and let loose her fury. "Let me handle this..." she declared. All of her power went into a punch that landed squarely in the man's face and knocked him out cold without the slightest bit of his assault bearing fruit. Maya leapt into the air behind her, "Yay! You won, Jaja!" she congratulated. Bridget surveyed the man for signs of stirring. "That was fast..." she murmured. "Pathetic... Shame on you..." 

A larger and more menacing Kurogae member stepped forward and took up a fighting pose as well. Jaja stared him down. "Don't worry guys, this should be simple." she clipped out, driving a heavy swinging hit to the man's abdomen. "How's that?" The man, entirely unaffected by the punch, wore a disgusting smile, several ugly scars on his face and had lips with many ridges, a real ne're-do-well type. "That's cute..." he spat, throwing Jaja against the corridor wall.

"Jaja!" her friends yelled, with terror in their voices and gazes. Jaja coughed weakly, a trickle of blood oozing out of her mouth. Maya looked at her friend helplessly as she lie defenseless. "I have an idea...let's put a scar on her pretty face so she never forgets us..." the man cackled to his cohorts behind him. "Wahahaha!" Bridget's lips curled into a desperate pursing and she balled her fists tightly, like a spring wound tightly and ready to snap.

"That's about enough of this! Leave her alone! You only need me, right?! I'll come with you...just don't touch her!" Her face was twisted in anger and sorrow, sweat pouring from her skin. The towering man looked down at her. "Sounds like someone doesn't know their place! You have no right to order me around, bitch!" Maya formed a severe countenance in response to this sudden insult. "Do anything to her..." she growled, "and I will kill you!" The towering man paused.

"Kill me? Are telling some kind of shitty joke or something? Pfft! Don't make me laugh!" he howled. Maya lowered her head and glowered at the man with seething, fulminating hatred roiling behind her eyes. "I WILL KILL YOU..." she began chanting at a rapid pace, growing more enraged and grim with each utterance. "DIE...DIE...DIE..." she continued, glaring through the man with her sinister glowing red eye. He trembled and quivered. "DIE!" she screamed.

"Uh, forget this whole kidnap thing...I think this crazy bitch is gonna curse us to death, man!" the man uttered meekly. "Huh?" one of his associates said. "You sure about that?" the other asked, confused. "I'm out of here...you can do it if you wanna die so badly!" he yelled back, running in the other direction. 'Is that really Maya?!' Bridget worried to herself, equivalently amazed and afraid. Maya fell over, her energy fully exhausted by the manifestation of disdain and wrath.

"Maya!" Bridget exclaimed, rushing to her side.