They say that there are yokai who live in the forest, those who are known as gods or little spirits who live here. They are hidden by strange complicated creatures called humans, hairless creatures with no fur. Some say that the yokai are terrifying monsters, most took the shape of a human while some took the shape of an animal. Or maybe some take the shape of an object with weird eyes, sharp teeth and limbs that allow them to move. Everyone feared them and they hunted them down. But not all yokai are dangerous, they bring fortune and luck to those who protected them from the monsters.

But to them, no, us, we're not actually humans. We are Kame Onna, sea turtle women who live deep in the jungle instead of the ocean. Strange that we live in the forest but not in the ocean, right? We lived in the forest a long time ago for fourteen years and we are protectors of all things alive. Using my fish tail, I swim through the rivers like a fish in water, swiftly and gently. By my side, Manako and Tomoka follow suit with their unique powers of psychic and grass and Reika can sense the smell of traitors of human scum who are about to take down half of the forest and destroy life in the forest. We are not wearing costumes like how people dress up for cosplay or anything, we are actual Yokai.

My name is Shirahara. The first words Shira means White Princess. The surname Hara means origin and sincerity. Put two words together, and that makes my name Shirahara. I am known as their leader, an oldest sister of the family. I have the power to control water and use my swan wings to fly. My legs fuse together and when it transforms, it becomes a fish's tail when I make contact with water. With the power of my song, I sing to heal the sick and the weak and use it for battle. I hold up a blue knife that can slice down wood and cut through the skin of any living thing and with one slice will leave you dead. Not all of my powers are the same.

My second older sister Reika is second in command. Her name means "beautiful flower," since it's silly 'cause she wanted to change her name or something, some that matches her fire. But the thing is, she doesn't speak and her power is way more difficult than I thought. She has remained mute because her voice was damaged. She controls fire and with one touch of her finger, she could set a wildfire throughout the jungle so she has to wear black gloves to prevent burning the trees. She becomes very weak when she makes contact with water. With her hands and feet wet, she can't make flaming sparks. But she has another power, she can lift up trees with superman-like strength and can hold the three of us in her arms. Her super strength only comes around during night time and wears off when day breaks.

Now Tomoka, her name means Brilliant Friend. The word Tomo means friend, which is often the wisest and most beautiful of all, due to her long black hair that swayed in the breeze. She makes objects float on her own and uses her barrier to protect herself from spikes and bullets. Unlike us, she wears bottle capped glasses because she is near sighted and couldn't see without them. She doesn't know a lot about technology but she does know she's learned how to use a strange machine for use.

There is the youngest of the bunch, Manako. She is the follower of our clan and the cheerfullest one of all. The word Mana means loving while Ko means child. Put them together and her name means "loving child." Her unique power is making life grow and use her own hands to form into branch claws. When she touches the ground, vines and branches would sprout out and attack enemies. And when creating a green barrier, she forms the ground around herself to make a spiked thorny ball that someone would never touch her or gets rolled when she moves the spike ball. Usually, she grows strange and delicious fruit and makes vegetables from her little garden.

We never wanted to make contact with those who wanted to be friends with us. Some of them might be bad, like the black armored soldiers who wanted to capture us for many years so we often stayed away from them at all costs, far away from the village. The deeper trees are never far to make us hide and climb all the way to the top and we were trained to be kunoichis. Our destiny is that we sing at night and hide at day.

All those years, we lived in a huge abandoned airplane that was wedged between the trees and branches connected to the opened holes. The sounds of frogs croaking and the light of small fireflies lit up the night sky as we rested into our den. The airplane's steel was worn out and vines grew all around it, clinging to the old walls. There was a lot of shattered glass and most of the chairs were torn and ripped to make room. There were so many skeletons that were littered around but we often used it as a warning that someone like human beings would come out and attack. Yet, if it wasn't for mother, we would never have been dead.

"My daughters," she says, "You have returned from your forging."

"Yeah," Manako answered with delight. "We collected a few berries and herbs, and even defeated rogue humans."

"You have done very well, my daughters,' says Mother. "I know who has been eager how you've been trained so I will tell you how you all came to be."

I had heard the origin story so many times and I was glad that I was able to hear it again. "Your ninja skills have been swift, but your young teenage minds are still growing. We still live in the shadows and I am going to tell you the rest of your story about how you came to be."

Fifteen years ago, we were born inside our eggs in a lab not too far away. I don't remember what the company's name is but we were brought here, by a group of human scientists who wanted to examine us. We didn't even hatch before we were so born cold but those humans we thought were once friends saved us.

I don't remember anything about the events but we were tested in a lab under the eyes of a young woman, who kept us warm under a heating lamp. She carefully turns each egg over so our other side won't get cold and keeps us close. The lab was owned by an evil executive who wanted to make an army of strange creatures and force them to battle in enemy grounds. There are two kinds. Those who wear white coats are scientists, while the others wear futuristic black armor suits known as guards. The guard's job is to capture suspects who have been spying on them.

Once captured, the victims will be brought back to the lab where the scientists inject the blue ooze into their blood and turn them into grotesque animal monsters If those are strong enough, they are trained and ready for battle, but if one was weak, they are sent to a draining machine to drain blood so they could make more of this strange glowing blue ooze. Mother had overhead the soldiers to capture us since then while she was forging. She did not know who they were when she found us but she did learn the soldiers are searching for us. The blue ooze is what created us and inside each DNA were thousands of animal blood that was made from our animal kingdom. And I forgot, the machine is used to put the weak soldiers in it, strapped in and injected by tubes and needles. Once the scientist activates it, it drains the ooze out of the mutant and dies.

The young woman scientist, Kanako Kuoro refused to take part in the executive's plans because she knew about her true colors to take over the world and started to set the lab on fire by mixing the chemicals and setting everything aflame. She managed to collect us and ran away to the bank of the river, where she placed us in a small basket and let the river guide us before Kanako was perished by the black armored soldiers who shot her.

Mother had told us her name by the guards and the old diary that she had found in the abandoned lab that she found after the fire happened.

Days had passed, and our basket continued to ride down the river until we stopped at the bank of shallow water. We were found by a striped snake who lost her babies during a rainstorm and we hatched out of our eggs, covered in the ooze. She didn't try to bite us or swallow us, instead she saw that we were the first creatures that were also reptiles. Her name is Ikioi, which means power and spirit. Ikioi had heard us crying when we hatched and found us all alone in the rain. She slowly began to pull the basket onto shore and take us to her huge burrow underneath a giant tree, using her tail. To the snake's curiosity, she somehow noticed the ooze on her tail. She doesn't know where it came from, but she knew she can't abandon us and decided to raise us.

The next morning, something unusual happened. Ikioi had started to grow arms and had gotten bigger and so did the rest of us. It was like we started to double in size. And the strange thing is that we started to develop strange hybrid parts. I started to grow swan wings from my carapace followed by Reika who gained bat wings. Manako has green growth coming from the left side of her face with small cat-like teeth coming from her incisors. And finally, Tomoka had a large axolotl tail coming out from underneath her shell. To my curiosity and my realization, Ikioi stated that the blue ooze had changed us. When a year passed, Ikioi had finally become intelligent and the rest of us started to stand on our own two feet, completely reaching our full size.

Soon, we all started to speak words and complete full sentences. I was amazed by what happened that day, the day we started to become more human, and less animal. It was a lot difficult and we couldn't stay in the burrow for so long because we're getting too big, so we began to travel up to the woods to find a bigger place. And we found the abandoned airplane that became our home and made it more modern.

We have been given our personalities and our own destiny. I could hear the sound of marine life from the water, and follow the path where it might lead. Manako can hear the flowers bloom from the first break of dawn and can grow a single blossom from her hand. Reika can hold the brightest flame from her hand without getting herself burnt, even if it was a big one that her strength could muster. And Tomoka can meditate while strange purple bubbles begin to form around her and levitate all objects.

Ikioi started training us and taught us how to use our strange abilities. Using a very old Japanese ninja training book she found in the suitcase, she taught us a lesson to become a kunoichi. There are so many ways to use without weapons, with weapons, how to use stealth, and most important, becoming one with the ninja by meditating. There are so many tasks that we all have to take: protect the forests, fight bad guys, find objects lost in the ground, find clothes, hunt for food, and become one of the forests. I was given the role as a leader since I was the oldest, and my sisters followed my command. We became a team, and we are promised to be destined to be heroes.

"Every one of you is unique," said mother. "You need to share knowledge, strength, heart and peace. The world outside is dangerous and you must be aware of the dangers outside."

And that is our mother's teachings. We must be cautious and be gentle ninjas in the forests, calm, and peaceful warriors in the forests. This is our life in the forest.

One night, I was sleeping in my moss warmed den until we heard something crash outside, not too far away from our home. I stood up in alarm, my eye wide with shock. It sounded like an explosion, and it was very close by near our airport treehouse.

"Hey, sister," Manako yawned, who happened to have woken up by the explosion coming from somewhere. "What was that sound?"

I took a look outside of the window to see the black smoke puffing from the other side of the forest. My sisters follow suit, curious to wonder where that sound came from. "Let's go investigate," I told them.

We began to climb down the old airplane from huge overgrown vines and started to follow the trail of the smoke. Brushing my way through the bushes, I led my sisters to the path where we saw that we were getting closer to the source. Once reaching the bank, we saw the crater that crashed down below our feet.

"What is that supposed to be?" Manako asked. "Is it rock?"

Tomoka went first, and slowly climbed down the crater and picked it up, carefully inspecting its features. It was glowing a pale pink light and it was so big it was impossible to carry, "It looks like a rock from the sky."

"We should probably take it home and see what it looks like," Manako suggested.

"No way," I refused. Reika nodded her head, agreeing that this rock is dangerous. "We are not bringing it home with us! I mean, what will mother think?"

"The only way is to bring it home," Tomoka insisted.

We began to carry it up and started to drag it all the way back to our home and placed it on the pillow. The rock was way heavier than I thought but it way a ton.

I told mother what happened and that we discovered the rock. Ikioi slithered up to the glowing stone and stared at it for quite some time.

"That is an interesting stone," she says, "but where did it fall from?"

"It came from the sky," Manako piped up.

"Whatever that stone is must have come somewhere," said Tomoka. "Where did it come from and why would it crash on Earth?"

Then, Reika noticed something and motioned us to take a look. The stone had a pink crack on it, it was very small and it was almost the size of a beetle. "That crack wasn't on that rock," I concluded. Did it crack when it crashed into earth? That was not possible. Slowly, the rock began to shake, causing it to move. We recoil back in surprise, realizing the rock is hatching. The cracks started to grow and inside it was a small creature. The being had wings, rainbow-like hair and two purple bug eyes. The thing stirred and opened up its eyes. It had small human limbs, pale white skin, and it had been the size of a human's hand.

"Wow!" Manako exclaimed with delight. "You are a very strange bug!"

"I am a fairy," she said, once she had regained consciousness. "I can't believe I am meeting you guys. My name is Rinku Myu, and I am searching for the magical warrior guardians to save the galaxy."

"What galaxy?" Tomoka said. "We have never seen you before and I don't know what a magical warrior is."

"I need you all to believe me. Humanity depends on it," she says. "Somewhere in the yokai world, an evil lady is capturing humans and yokai and transforming them into mutant monster soldiers and she is gonna destroy humanity. Not only that but the whole planet!"

"How would she do that?" Ikioi asked her, worried and concerned.

"I am not sure but I was summoned here to help transform the girls into powerful warriors," she said. "The Goddess Empress summoned me to come to Earth and help the girls." She presented to us four brooches shaped like a heart with her magic. It felt so cold underneath my skin and it was so strong, I felt my presence absorbing it.

"What are they?" I asked. "Brooches?"

"These are your Heart Crystals," she explained. "You might be able to transform into a superhero by saying, 'Half Heart Heroes!' then once you activate them, you'll gain your powers."

She gave us heart shaped brooches which fit in our hand. I was confused at first, staring at the small brooches. "I don't know what this all meant but we shall give it a try."

Putting them on our chests, we began to tap them until a bright color glow surrounded us. Our outfits formed and we became warriors. Mine had a white tutu, feather pads on my shoulders, a belt, a tiara with my hair tied in a ponytail, a long one and a tail piece for my dress. Manako's hair was tied in a big bun with a green tutu, a tiara on her head, flower shaped shoulders and a loose fitting dress. Tomoka had long sleeves for her dress, her hair tied in pigtails, tied on her head with a bow on top. Reika had a fiery haircut with a flower hair clip and a black bracelets on her neck and wrists, along with a side dress.

"Those dresses look pretty on you!" Rinku beamed with happiness.

"I can't believe it!" Manako squeaked happily. "We look so cute!"

"I really love my hair," Tomoka said. "They look so flashy."

"We're warriors!" I exclaimed.

"Of course you are," Rin smiled. "Those magic powers that have will help you on your journey. Shira, you have the ability to control water, Reika, you can create fire, Tomoka, you can levitate objects and use physic powers, and Manako, you can grow life plants and many others."

"So about the yokai world," I began. "Where can we find it?"

"We need to head to the river side," Rin told us. "It should lead us to the Yokai world, and I'll accompany you along the way."

I nodded, hope filling in with joy. "Let's get packing, girls." Grabbing our bags, we started to pack up everything and started to head out the door.

"Kids, you are about to enter a world unknown to our home," mother warned us. "You have to be aware of any danger that is gonna lay ahead of you. There will be monsters, humans and other traps lurking ahead. Don't let the guards capture you girls. If you need to fight, just use the brooches to transform and fight."

"We will be back soon, mother," I called out.

"I know you will," she said.

We began to leave the forest and follow Rin's light through the path. The more we traveled, the deeper the forest became. It was so calm and quiet, not as bustling with energy in the morning. We finally stopped to see a pond in the clearing along with four stones circling around. In the center of the water was a giant pink lotus flower.

"This will lead us to the yokai world," Rin said. "We'll need to press the stones in order to activate the portal."

"Can we really get there?" Manako asked.

"Of course," Rin nodded. "All that you need to do is head to these stones and press the buttons. It will know your powers and it will open up the doorway to the yokai world. We have a big journey ahead."

We began to approach the stones separately and then we pressed the buttons together. The magic around us started to swirl around as the magic dust circle around the lotus flower. The lotus flower opened up to reveal a magical blue portal.

"I guess it hasn't been used for years," Rin chuckled. "Don't worry. We'll be in the yokai world in no time. Now let's go!" She started to fly into the portal. I was completely a little scared upon entering. But we are prepared. We are Half Heart Heroes, half sea turtles, half hybrids, and our destiny is to bring hope and peace.