My groan was so epic it should have had its own soundtrack. It was a full-body, soul-deep groan that could register on the Richter scale. I slumped against the cool glass of the library's front doors, my forehead making a soft thunk against the pane.

  "Un-be-lievable," I grumbled, the words muffled by the glass. "Of course. Of course she did."

  Linda, ever the walking, talking calculator, was still on her phone, her Sapphire Lens glowing faintly as she cross-referenced data. "She's not just fast," Linda murmured, her voice a low, analytical hum. "The timestamps on the Herald's Board claims are impossibly close. She would have had to clear the Weehawken Underpass, then travel to Liberty State Park, dispatch an Ogre, and then get to Secaucus... all in under forty-five minutes. That's... teleportation. Or some other form of high-mobility skill."

  Val just snorted, kicking at a loose piece of concrete on the sidewalk. "So she wiped out a third of the available jobs in the state before we even finished our little powwow. What a show-off." She tried to sound annoyed, but I could hear the grudging respect in her voice. Reimi had done in a few hours what would take us a week of planning and guts.

  Alfie, however, looked like her puppy had just been kicked. Repeatedly.

  "But... what about all the slimes?" she whispered, her bottom lip trembling. "We were gonna go get the slimes. They're... they're so cute and wobbly."

  "Cute and wobbly," I repeated, my face still pressed against the glass. "She probably liquified them from five miles away with a glare." I pushed myself off the door, my shoulders slumping in defeat. "So. That's that, then. I guess we can go home and... I don't know. Watch TV. Try to forget the world is ending and our designated 'senior' is a bounty-hogging murder-hobo."

  Linda finally lowered her phone. "Not quite," she said, her tone serious. "There's still a few things left. Mostly retrieval jobs and pest control in residential zones. But there is one... interesting one. Take a look."

  She projected her Lens's display onto the air between us. A crude map of our neighborhood, Harrison, popped up. A red, blinking dot hovered over a street just a few blocks from my house.

  ACTIVE BOUNTY: PHANTOM INFESTATION.

  Threat Level: D (Apparition Class)

  Description: Reports of disruptive auditory phenomena and minor kinetic manipulation. Believed to be a cluster of Class-1 Phantoms. Client requests discreet neutralization. Property is an empty rental home. Specialists required.

  Reward: $600.

  A phantom. An honest-to-goodness ghost.

  This was new. We'd fought goblins and slime infestations. Things we could punch. Things with squishy bit. This was something else entirely.

  "Phantoms," I said, my voice a low hum. "As in... g-ghosts? Boo? Spooky noises at night?" I tried to keep the tremor out of my voice.

  "A Class-1 apparition is a weak, residual psychic imprint," Linda explained, already in lecture mode. "They're not truly sentient, more like an echo of a strong emotional event left in an area. They can't physically harm you, but they can cause panic, disorientation, and in rare cases, minor poltergeist activity. They're susceptible to faith objects, pure light energy, and high-frequency sonic bursts."

  I looked at Alfie, whose eyes were wide with a mix of fear and morbid curiosity. "So... we can't just punch it?"

  Linda shook her head. "Not effectively. You'd just be punching air. We'll need to adjust our tactics."

  Valentina's face split into a wide, predatory grin. "A real ghost hunt," she said, cracking her knuckles. "Now that's what I'm talking about! This is gonna be awesome."

  "Awesome? Are you kidding me?" I protested, throwing my hands up in the air. "The plan was to gank rats! Rats I understand! Rats I can step on! Ghosts are... they're ethereal! They're probably all drippy and moaning and telling me about how I've wronged them in a past life!"

  "Relax, Pinky," Val said, slinging an arm around my shoulders. "I'll protect you from the big, scary, ectoplasmic meanie."

  I shot her a look. "Don't call me Pinky."

  "Okay, team," Linda said, ignoring our bickering. "I've downloaded the full dossier on Class-2 Phantoms. Let's head to the garage and gear up. This requires a different loadout. Less iron, more silver and..."

  Momo suddenly squeaked sharply.

  It was a tiny, sharp sound, like a stepping on a squeaky toy. But it cut through the air, instantly silencing us.

  All three of us turned to look at her. The little white mascot had her little paws over her eyes, rubbing them in agitation.

  "Hello?! Did you forget who you are?!" she chirped, her voice high-pitched with indignation.

  We all just blinked at her.

  Popo landed on my shoulder, patting my cheek with a soft, blue paw. He chuckled. "Oh, you kids are so silly..."

  "Let them figure it out for once," Momo huffed, crossing her little arms. "Honestly. It's like they forget their own names sometimes."

  "I... what?" I asked, my brain still trying to catch up.

  Linda was frozen, her fingers hovering over her Lens's holographic interface. Alfie looked like a deer in headlights. Even Valentina looked confused.

  Momo just sighed, a long-suffering sound. "Let us just get a move on and see if you all can use your brains for once," she said, her voice dripping with a kind of fond, maternal exasperation. "For goodness sake."

  She zipped off, her little wings fluttering as she flew ahead towards the minivan.

  "Wait! Momo!" I called out, but she was already halfway down the block.

  Popo just patted my head again. "Don't worry, Star Morganite," he said with a little giggle. "It'll come to you. Now, let's go! The night is young, and we have some spooks to bust!"

  He followed after Momo, leaving the three of us standing on the sidewalk, completely and utterly bewildered.

  "Oh, right. We're... Astras. Purifying things is kind of our whole deal," Linda said, a look of slow-dawning comprehension spreading across her face. "Our Aura... it's pure life energy. A concentrated burst should be enough to dissipate a psychic echo."

  Valentina's grin got even wider. "So I get to punch the ghost. With sparkles," She pumped a fist in the air. "This just got a hundred times cooler."

  She did a hop and skip, and began to walk off to Alfie's car.

  Alfie still looked a little scared, but a small, determined smile was playing on her lips. "So... we just... shine bright at it?"

  "Something like that," I said, a slow, stupid grin spreading across my own face. The dread was still there, a cold knot in my stomach, but it was mixed with a new, exciting feeling. Anticipation.

  "So uh, don't we need to check in with a bounty board?" I asked, jogging to catch up with Val. "You know, to officially claim the job or something?"

  Linda shook her head, her expression thoughtful as she walked next to me. "No need. This one was propagated but through the Sentinel Association's network. Not the Herald's Board. Their jobs are accepted on a first-contact basis as long as the recipient fits a class or rank. Once we've neutralized the target and sent a confirmation ping, the payment is automatically transferred to our guild account."

  "The what now?" Alfie asked.

  "Our guild account," Linda repeated, a small, sly smile playing on her lips. "The one I set up for us. Our application went through two days ago. We're officially designated as the 'Starshine Prisms.'"

  This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.

  Val stopped dead in her tracks.

  "Team what?" she asked, her voice dangerously low.

  "Team. Starshine. Prism," Linda enunciated slowly, a mischievous glint in her eyes. "I took the liberty of talking it out with their branding team. I thought it sounded... professional."

  Alfie gasped. "Ooooh, that's so pretty!"

  "Team Starshine Prism?" I tilted my head. "Linda! That is the most magical girl-y, cutesy-wutesy, sugar-coated name I have ever heard in my entire life!"

  "What's wrong with it?" Linda asked, feigning innocence. "It's accurate. We are a team of Star-gemstone Astras. 'Prism' denotes the refraction of our combined light."

  Valentina was rubbing her temples, a pained expression on her face. "I... I can't. I can't be seen in public with that name. I have a reputation to maintain."

  "Your 'reputation' is for being the girl who once tried to fight a vending machine because it ate her dollar," I shot back.

  But, I grinned at Linda.

  "It's... actually kind of perfect though," I admitted. "It's so stupidly, wonderfully us. Okay, Team Starshine Prism. Let's go bust us some ghosts!"

  Val just groaned, dragging her feet behind us like a teenager being forced to go to a family reunion.

  "This is the worst week of my life," she muttered.

  "Oh, cheer up, Ruby," I said, nudging her with my elbow. "Maybe the ghosts will be cute and adorable."

  I looked at the house.

  It wasn't a creepy, haunted mansion with a skeleton on the gate. Nor was it a dilapidated asylum at the end of a lonely road.

  It was a townhouse.

  A perfectly normal, beige-and-brown townhouse in a row of identical, perfectly normal, beige-and-brown townhouses. It had a small, neatly trimmed lawn in the front and a "For Rent" sign staked into the grass. It looked like the kind of place a nice, boring family with two kids and a dog would live.

  It was... aggressively normal.

  And that was what made it so creepy.

  "This is the place," Linda whispered, consulting her Lens as we walked up to it. "Number 14, Elm Street. The client, a property management company, reports that tenants keep breaking their leases after only a week, citing 'unlivable conditions' and 'unexplained noises.'"

  "Seriously? Elm street??" I grumbled.

  Linda shot me a look. "Focus, Morganite. The current tenants moved out three days ago. The place is empty. Perfect for us."

  "So, what's the plan?" I asked. "We knock? Ring the doorbell? See if anyone's... home?"

  "We go in quiet," Linda said, her voice low and serious. "Morganite, you're with me. We'll take point. Topaz, you hang back with Ruby. You're on barrier duty if things get... kinetic. Ruby, you're our heavy hitter. If it manifests physically, you're on it."

  "And our buddies here?" I asked.

  Momo zipped over and landed on my shoulder. "We'll stay in the Spirit Realm," she said. "Our presence could agitate the apparition. We'll observe and intervene only if necessary."

  Linda unzipped her duffel bag, before frowning and looking up at the mascots.

  "I know we're supposed to specialize in correcting and purifying spiritual anomalies," she said, a little unsurely. "But I'd feel a lot better with some backup gear. Just in case."

  We crept up the concrete walkway, our footsteps silent on the pavement. The afternoon sun cast long shadows, making the house look even more sinister than before.

  Linda knelt down by the front door, pulling a small set of lockpicks from a hidden pocket in her transformed outfit. "The lock is a standard deadbolt. Shouldn't be a problem," she whispered, her fingers moving with a practiced ease.

  "Couldn't we have, you know, picked up the keys?"

  "Where's the fun in that?" Linda murmured, her focus unwavering. A soft click echoed in the quiet air, and she smiled. "And we're in."

  She pushed the door open, and a wave of cold, musty air washed over us. The house was dark, the only light coming from the open door behind us. The air was thick with the smell of dust, and something else... something faintly metallic and sweet, like old pennies and forgotten perfume.

  "Stay together," I commanded.

  My hand instinctively went to the small, silver baton at my hip. It was a lightweight, telescoping utility weapon my dad gave me. More for show than anything else, but it felt good to have something to hold onto.

  We stepped inside, the door creaking shut behind us with a soft, final thud.

  The house was eerily silent.

  The furniture was gone, leaving behind empty rooms and a sense of emptiness that was almost suffocating. The walls were bare, the floors were covered in a thin layer of dust, and the only sound was the faint hum of the refrigerator in the kitchen.

  "Alright, team," Linda said, her voice a low, serious murmur. "Fan out. But stay in visual contact. I want to know where everyone is at all times."

  We moved through the house, our footsteps echoing in the empty rooms. The kitchen was clean, the countertops sparkling under the dim light. The living room was empty, the fireplace cold and dark. The stairs leading to the second floor were steep and narrow, and they seemed to go on forever, disappearing into the shadows above.

  "Weird, I'm not feeling anything," I whispered. "I thought ghosts were supposed to be all cold-spot-y and give you the heebie-jeebies."

  "Class-1s are subtle," Linda reminded me, her eyes scanning the hallway. "They're not powerful enough to manifest a full-on haunting. They're more like... background noise."

  We reached the top of the stairs, and the air grew colder. The walls were lined with dusty family portraits, their faces staring at us with vacant, unblinking eyes. It was a classic horror movie trope, and I couldn't help but roll my eyes.

  "Really? The creepy portrait hallway?" I muttered. "Could they be any more cliche?"

  Valentina, ever the thrill-seeker, was actually grinning. "This is awesome," she whispered, her voice a low, excited murmur. "I feel like I'm in a movie."

  Alfie, on the other hand, was practically vibrating with anxiety. "Can we please just get this over with?" she asked, her hands clasped together in a nervous gesture.

  Just then, a faint, scratching sound echoed from the end of the hallway. It was a slow, rhythmic sound, like fingernails on a chalkboard.

  We all froze, our heads snapping towards the source of the noise.

  "What was that?" Alfie squeaked.

  "I... I don't know," Linda stammered, her usually calm demeanor beginning to crack.

  The scratching sound grew louder, more insistent. It was coming from behind a closed door at the end of the hall. A child's bedroom, if the faded unicorn wallpaper was any indication.

  "Okay, new plan," I said, my voice a low, steady growl. "We go in together. On three. Topaz, you get a barrier up the second we're inside. Ruby, you're on crowd control. Linda, you're with me. We'll focus our Auras and try to purge it."

  They nodded, their expressions grim.

  I took a deep breath, my heart pounding in my chest. "One... two..."

  Before I could say "three," the door at the end of the hall flew open with a deafening CRASH.

  A wave of icy cold washed over us, so intense it felt like my bones were freezing. The lights in the hallway flickered and died, plunging us into darkness.

  And then, we heard it.

  A child's laughter. A high, tinkling, terrifying sound.

  And then, a small, shadowy figure emerged from the darkness.

  No, it was a shadow. A silhouette.

  A girl. A few inches shorter taller than me, standing in the doorway to the room. But she was made of solid, darkness, a perfect cutout against the faint, afternoon gloom of the room behind her. A pair of bright, glowing silver eyes burned from within the inky blackness of her 'face.'

  But what struck out to me was her dress.

  It was a Magical Girl's outfit. A short, layered dress that seemed to be made of the evening sky.

  A half-cape with silver patterns, shimmering with faint hues of lavender, bright gold, and soft orange, swirled around her form like captured nebulae. Her 'hair' was a pile of pure light-studded shadow that fell down her neck, speckled with what looked like tiny, distant stars.

  It was... beautiful.

  And it was terrifying.

  The child's laughter echoed around us, high and clear and devoid of any warmth.

  "H-Hello?" Alfie stammered, her hands raised in a placating gesture.

  The silhouette didn't answer. It just tilted its head, its glowing lavender eyes boring into us.

  The air grew even colder, and I could feel a pressure building in the room, like the atmosphere was being squeezed.

  "Ruby, on my left," I commanded, my voice a low, steady growl. "Topaz, get that barrier up! Now!"

  Alfie nodded, her hands glowing with a soft, golden light. But before she could even react, the space between them compressed. The silhouette practically skated across the dusty wooden floor, her form distorting, stretching into a blur of movement.

  Val to her credit, was already moving. She lunged forward, her fist aimed at the shadowy figure's 'head.' But her punch passed right through it, like smoke.

  It raised a shadowy hand, and Valentina was thrown backward by an invisible force, hurtling across the hallway with a sickening thud.

  "Val!" I screamed.

  I didn't hesitate. I lunged forward, summoning the Start Heart, my own aura flaring to life in a brilliant, pink flash. I poured all of my hope, all of my fear, all of my desire to protect my friends into a single, focused point.

  "STARLIGHT SHINE!"

  A beam of pure, pink energy erupted from my hands, illuminating the hallway in a brilliant, blinding light. It struck the silhouette dead on. I expected it to shriek, to dissolve, to burn away like all the other monsters we'd faced. I'd even put two of my ability points into improving my spiritual control over my energy, and the blast was denser than it was before.

  Instead... the light vanished.

  The ghostly figure seemed to react with shock, raising her hand directly at my attack.

  A torrent of my own power and hope, was just... swallowed. The pink energy was consumed by the inky blackness of the girl's form, vanishing without a trace. Without even a flicker.

  The silhouette didn't even flinch.

  It just stood there, its head tilted, its burning silver eyes looking... sad and confused.

  And then, it spoke.

  Its voice wasn't the creepy child's laugh from before. It was soft. Melodic. A young girl's voice, filled with longing as she looked around in confusion.

  "Mayari..?" the silhouette whispered, its waifish voice echoing in the sudden, suffocating silence. "Hana...?"

  My blood ran cold.

  Those names. I didn't recognize them. I'd never heard them before in my life.

  But hearing them, in this place, from this... thing... felt like a violation. A secret I wasn't supposed to know.

  Alfie was sobbing softly, her golden barrier flickering around us, weak and wavering like a dying candle. Linda was frozen, her face pale, her mind clearly racing to find a logical explanation where none existed. Val was struggling to her feet, her body bruised, her expression a mask of shock and disbelief.

  We were completely out of our depth.

  "G-Girls?" Alfie sobbed, her voice trembling. "What do we do?"

  I didn't have an answer.

  All I could do was stare at the beautiful, terrifying eyes staring at me from the shadows.

  "U-Uh..." I stammered, my mind a complete and total train wreck.

  I had nothing. No plan. No witty comeback. No brilliant strategy.

  All I had was a bone-deep, soul-shattering terror that I had never felt before.

  But Linda, bless her heart, broke the silence.

  "RUN!"

  Her voice was a high-pitched, panicked shriek that cut through the suffocating tension.

  And she was right.

  It was the only thing to do.

  ...What the heckity heck have we gotten ourselves into?