CHAPTER 1

And of course, Mindie raises a flag

Mindie Tachibana-Callahan couldn’t care less about what she was being taught in Luminescence 101.

Sure, this is what she signed up for. After all, Halo Ridge University was the only school in the world that put so much focus on breeding luminescents into professional Stars. This school’s Luminescence Department was the original institution, where all others were simply satellites.

After she graduated, most of her time would be spent in the field, getting rid of chaos with her glowing fists and feet. Being in the classroom for something so hands-on seemed completely unnecessary to her.

Yet here she was sitting in the lecture hall, emerald eyes half open, mind wandering as she propped her head up by the elbow on her desk in languid irritation. There were only a handful of students besides her, and she idly wondered if there was any point to holding this small class in the auditorium-sized room.

Half the time it felt like the professor was just talking to herself.

“…Remember, the soul is the source of your emotions. Emotions are energy. And that energy can turn into luminescence or chaos,” the professor rambled, gesturing to the slides on the projector screen. “It’s true that we humans are naturally erratic when it comes to our emotions, and that’s generally okay. But if an emotion becomes too extreme, it can cause you to turn into a Shade. That’s when a Star steps in to deal with you. In which case…”

Blah, blah, blah… Mindie kept her yawn to herself, mouth closed and eyes watering slightly in the effort to be discreet. She had been training to be a Star since she was in high school. That was earlier than most people with luminescence even thought about becoming Stars. She was already past all the basics.

Worse yet, the Lumi 101 professor was Sheila DeSanto. Her lecture style was butt-crack dull. Stars wrangled with the menaces that spawned from chaos. They burst onto dangerous scenes like real-life superheroes! Couldn’t she be more exciting? Couldn’t she tell the class why Stars are the coolest people any luminescent could ever be?!

But all she ever did was drone on and on about chaos and luminescence are two sides of the same coin, and too much chaotic energy is bad for you so remember to eat your veggies, and other things that were obvious already. She was a voracious researcher in the field of luminescence and, assumedly, a bit of a recluse. No one had ever seen her anywhere outside her lecture times—except maybe her nephew Pike.

Speaking of Pike, Mindie was getting impatient. She had reached the limits of her boredom and was ready to get out, find him, and pester him like she usually did. As the class reached its tail-end, she resorted to checking the clock every handful of seconds. Her index finger idly drummed against the singular, heart-shaped earring that dangled from her left ear.

Finally, the hand ticked up to the hour. 5:00 PM. The students started to rise from their seats and pack up even while Professor DeSanto was still speaking—Mindie among them.

The professor raised her voice over the sound of dragging chairs and rustling bags. “For those of you who have luminescence, this is very important to remember. There are only a handful of you in the whole world each generation, and you are the future of this ability. That’s all for today. I’ll see you all next week.”

Her backpack zipped up, her rollerblades dangling off the side of it, Mindie hurried out of the lecture hall. She nearly knocked over a small, timid-looking girl as she raced around the open door (a student behind her opened the door wider and actually knocked the girl over) and down the corridor to the main hall.

=-=-=

The double staircase in Central’s main hall framed an enormous screen—the Halo Tour Leaderboard. It displayed the eight highest-ranking candidates of the Tour—the aptly named Top Eight. At the top of the screen was a countdown timer and, currently, a display that showed the Tour was in Phase 3.

People with the ability to wield luminescence were few and far between. While it was simply fate’s discretion that determined who became luminescent, nearly all who did so gained their abilities during high school. And almost all luminescent students attended HRU with the singular goal of becoming a certified Star—a professional luminescent licensed to deal with chaos around the world.

As a student at HRU, the only way to become certified was by finishing the Tour as one of the Top Eight. The timeline of fate aligned quite nicely for those who wanted to be a Star.

Mindie hopped onto the banister and slid all the way down the railing to the bottom of the stairs. With a little hop in her step to regain her footing, she adjusted the backpack over her shoulder and glanced up at the Leaderboard.

She smiled confidently to herself. She wasn’t up there herself yet, but there was plenty of time left in the game. By the end of the Tour, her name would be right up there at Number One. There was no doubt about it.

Once she was outside Central, she sat at the bottom of the stairs leading to the building’s entrance and unstrapped the rollerblades from her backpack. Then she began to swap them with the shoes on her feet and lace them up.

At this time of day, Pike was most likely in the art building. An impish smile curled along her face as she rose to her feet and accelerated down the sidewalk—nearly running over one of her peers as she zipped by. The near-collision target stumbled out of the way just in time, nearly losing grip on her on-the-go coffee. The flap of her open sports jacket flagged behind her evasive motion and grazed Mindie’s backpack.

“What the—! Watch where you’re going, TC!” Mindie’s full surname was a bit of a mouthful, so it was often shortened to just the initials in casual address.

Mindie called back and waved, but she didn’t bother to look over her shoulder as she raced across campus. “Sorryyy!”

=-=-=

The bus stopped right in front of the archway that marked HRU’s campus entrance. Among the passengers who emerged was a young man. His wavy blond hair fluttered slightly in the light breeze, and his blue eyes turned upwards as he gazed at the archway before him. Indeed, he had arrived at his destination.

He beamed. “Finally made it! Halo Ridge University.”

He was a transfer student. As he stood beneath the arch, thoughts filled his head of how he would spend the rest of his university life here. He was enrolling mid-semester, but surely it wouldn’t be an issue. HRU offered the curriculum he needed for the future he had decided to pursue—an opportunity for luminescents like him that he wouldn’t find anywhere else. He was going to be a Star.

“I should probably find the registrar’s office. Hopefully they still have dorms available too…”

As he contemplated which way to go, a speedster on rollerblades zipped past behind him.

=-=-=

High Tower was the university’s library and archive, and it was ancient. Its gothic aesthetic had remained unchanged since its construction, which predated the university itself. Its singular tower was visible from any point on campus, standing like a neglected watcher that rose high over its ward. It rose even higher than the town’s own landmark, which protruded similarly from the town hall building but was objectively more inviting to look at (specifically, because the tower rising over town hall had a star-shaped light that pleasantly oscillated between several colors).

From the small double-door that was carved out from the building’s original and much larger double-door, a girl with a long ponytail of dark hair and equally dark eyes emerged. Ciara Tachibana-Callahan pulled on her sports jacket and slung her bookbag over her shoulder as she made her way past the statue of the late, world-famous Superstar Soren Park. The statue had been established in his memory just outside.

As she reached the main sidewalk, she heard a cheerful, approaching voice call to her in an Eastern tongue: “Nee-chaaan~! (Sisterrr!)” Startled, Ciara turned to see who it was—though she really didn’t need to guess.

Mindie was racing down the sidewalk towards her, waving frantically with a bright smile on her face. “Coming throoough~!”

Ciara couldn’t help but scoff out an amused smile. Her little sister was endearing, after all.

She waved Mindie down as she rapidly approached on her wheels. “Where are you going? It’s almost time for dinner!”

“Just gonna see if Pike’s in the art building for a bit!”

“What?! But—!”

Mindie breezed past her. “I’ll see you at hooome~!”

“I swear, that girl…”

Ciara couldn’t help but grumble and facepalm. Her little sister was impossible, after all.

=-=-=

The Art Department was housed in one of the smaller buildings on campus. Class had been dismissed an hour ago, and the sun was already beginning to set. Pike sat alone in the classroom, idly sketching out a new piece. This time it was a landscape of campus, and his cartoonish rendition of the building he was currently in.

This was the type of environment that suited Pike when he was at work. Empty classroom. End of the day. No chance he’d be interrupted—

“Sooo, is it writing or drawing this time?”

—except by Mindie. In the years they’d come to know each other, this wasn’t even an interruption. It was more like an expectation. Similar to how one gets used to being woken up by an alarm clock every morning. By the time he realized she was there, Mindie was already draping herself over him, arms hanging down over his shoulders while she rested her chin on his head of black hair.

Pike grinned, continuing to focus on his sketch. “Hey Mindie. How’d you know I’d be here?”

Mindie beamed with all her teeth and pulled herself off him, turning about and hoisting herself onto the art table beside Pike’s work-in-progress. “Well, it’s pretty easy to find you. You’re always here in the art building. Or in High Tower. Or by the lake. If you’re not eating or sleeping.”

“Maybe I should change my routine up a bit. Be a bit more unpredictable.”

She let out a laugh. “Nah, you’re fine just the way you are. There’s nothing wrong with being predictable.”

“What’s new with you?”

Feeling done sitting on the table, Mindie slipped off the side and onto the stool next to him. Then she spun around in her seat and sprawled out over the tabletop. She heaved an exasperated sigh.

“Nothing. Unless you count Professor DeSanto boring us to death with her latest research of luminescence…”

As Mindie recounted the nonevents of Lumi 101, an eerie miasma began to seep into the room. Part of it squeezed through the thin gap between the door and the floor; the rest didn’t bother, instead phasing through the solidity of the door itself. Once it was all inside, it expanded upwards like the cloud of an ominous storm, billowing lethargically towards the ceiling. It floated silently towards the two unsuspecting friends…

Pike finished up the last touches of his sketch, then sat more upright in his seat. “Hey, don’t rag on my Tita Sheila’s work. It’s not easy stuff, looking into chaos and luminescence.” A bit of his family’s mother language slipped, where Tita meant Aunt. Although it was also an Eastern dialect, it was far different from Mindie’s own mother’s.

“What’s there to look into?” Mindie sat upright again and erected her chin. She held her forefinger up in matter-of-fact fashion and recited dutifully (if not a little facetiously), “Emotions turn into energy, and that energy can transform into luminescence or chaos.”

She glanced sidelong at Pike with some blunt expectation. “Isn’t that enough?”

Pike had begun to turn and curve the edge his sketch paper up into a roll. “If it was, I imagine Tita Sheila wouldn’t be obsessing over her research. Also, shouldn’t you be heading home for dinner?”

Mindie stretched slightly, letting her hands clasp behind her head. “Yeah, I guess… Anyway, I haven’t seen a whole lot of chaotic energy making trouble lately. I mean, there was that one incident I stepped in to deal with earlier in a parking lot downtown, and I’m sure there’s other stuff happening out there. But life’s been pretty quiet for us the past week or so, don’tcha think?”

As if on cue, as soon as Mindie finished speaking, the lights of the room flickered and shorted out. The rippling fog began to loom ominously behind them, making its presence more apparent with a low Gwoooh…

Pike finished rolling up his art piece, not even bothering to look over his shoulder. He knew it was there, and, while she was momentarily distracted in surprise, so did Mindie.

He sighed. “You know what we writers call that?”

Mindie turned around to take a look at what was happening behind them. The sun had set, and no more daylight shined inside. In the dark of the room, the vaguely discernable cloud opened its glowing red eyes. It was a Shade.

“A flag. You just raised a flag.”