GHOST HUNT: THE MISSING ARCHIVES

Hello this is my first Ghost Hunt story. I hope you all like it. The story will make use of contents from the games KUON and FATAL FRAME SERIES. I'll be mostly using the ghosts mentioned in the games.

ANOTHER CHAPTER. I hope this chapter is interesting and it fill everyone expectatives. :3. There's a little bit of explanation in this chapter, so let's see if you can figure out which way the story is taking.

R&R

DISCLAIMER: I don't own any of the characters from Ghost Hunt, or any concept from the games mentioned before.

FILE #1: Those who curse the tree #7

I was suddenly surrounded by darkness, which meant that I was dreaming again. Naru was going to kill for snoozing out during my working time. Now again…I was working while I dreamt, right?

I looked around, expecting to find myself standing in one of the many corridors of the manor, but surprisingly, I wasn't. In fact, I wasn't in the manor at all. I wasn't standing in front of the shrine, but it looked different. It wasn't messy and dilapidated; instead it was clean and with no weeds. The creepy tree, was green and in full bloom.

Suddenly, I noticed something that I hadn't noticed in my other dream, may be because it'd been too dark and too weedy. The shrine was in the edge of a cliff!

I glanced over the edge and saw that it was really high. I wouldn't like to fall from there. Suddenly, I heard some giggles behind me. I turned around and found two girls playing around the tree. (1)The tallest had long black hair, pale face and a white and scarlet kimono, the shortest and who seemed to be the youngest as well, wore a red kimono and her hair was tied in low tail. The girls were playing happily around, chasing each other. I smiled, but then a chill ran up my back; I turned to the shrine and saw how the twins came out from the tree and stared at the girls with that wicked smile. The children stretched their hands and pointed at them, and suddenly I heard a scream. The oldest girl had tripped and she had fallen over the edge, her sister had caught her hand and was struggling to pull her back up.

The twins were suddenly behind the struggling girl: dancing, singing and whispering thing to her ear. The girl's look suddenly went blank, just as if she had been put into a trance. She looked at her sister and smiled maliciously before letting go her hand.

Everything turned black in a blink of an eye. Suddenly, I was no longer standing in the shrine; instead I was standing in the front door of the manor. A group of people surrounded me. They were wearing a strange yellow kimono that was strangely familiar. A man, who seemed to be the leader, was talking to them. He turned around and entered the manor, followed by the rest of the group.

The blackness engulfed me again, and now I was standing in the middle of the central garden. I put my hands over my mouth as I watched horrified the scene. There were death bodies everywhere, many of them mutilated and gutted; pools of blood covered the grass, the corridors and the paper screens over the doors. It was a horrible sight. I saw the female ghost moving slowly through the corridor dragging a body. Someone wearing a yellow kimono…

"There was where my nightmare began…" a soft voice said behind my back.

I turned around and saw a young girl staring at me. She wore one of those strange kimonos. She was probably one of the people I had seen in the front door.

"Who…who are you?" I asked.

" Sakuya…my name is Sakuya" she replied sadly (2)

"You're one of the spirits trapped in this manor, aren't you?"

"No one can leave this place…we're bound here due to that curse"

"A curse? What curse? Can you tell me?"

"People have bad feelings, and bad feelings corrupt the spirits…then darkness comes and engulfs everything on its path…and they came back" she replied "Now it's angry…and hungry. It'll keep feeding…and feeding…"

"You mean the woman?"

"No…she's just like the rest of us…only a vessel…but she's a lot more corrupted…"

"How can we stop her? How can I release you, Sakuya-san?"

Sakuya shook her head. She took my hands and felt that something was pressed against my palm.

" The mulberry tree…be careful with the mulberry tree…"

Before I could I asked what she meant with that, I felt her hands pressing against my chess and I began to fall ….and fall…into the darkness.

I woke up startled, panting and sweating. I raised my look and I found two cobalt eyes looking straight at me with a lifted eye brow.

"Mai, if you're unable to sleep at night that's not my problem; but I'd appreciate if you refrained from sleeping during working hours"

"NARU! " I shouted. I was too startled to even bother to reply him with an insult.

"You don't need to shout, idiot. I'm right in front of you…"

"Naru! I had a dream! I think it's important!"

Naru looked at me and then turned to Lin.

"Lin…bring everyone here…"

Lin-san nodded and walked out of base, some minutes later, the rest of the crew entered the room and sat in the couches around me.

" Explain…" Naru ordered.

I told them everything from my dream, when I got to the part were Sakuya-san had pushed me out of the dream I remembered the thing she had gave me and I looked my hand.

"NO WAY!" I cried out making everyone jump.

" What's wrong, Mai?" asked Bou-san.

"Yes, Mai-san…" said John worried.

"Sakuya-san gave me something in that dream…if it was a dream, the wasn't supposed to be real…but…"

I raised my hand to show them. Right there over my palm, there was a black iron stake wrapped with a white paper.

"I've seen those before…" said Ayako " That's one of the nails used to nail Wara ningyo (3)"

"Oh…you mean those straw dolls that woman used to curse the people they despised?" asked Yasuhara.

"Yes…they have other uses beside cursing people though. " explained Ayako " some people tie a strap of their clothing to them and then, they pin them to a tree in shrine. It's said that the doll with take the bad feelings and misfortunes to the other world through the tree…"

"And what's this paper…?" Asked John looking at the wrinkled paper.

"May I take a look?" asked Rei. She picked the paper and examined it carefully.
"is it?" asked Kei.

"Yes…it is. It's a paper spell…judging by the symbols, it's an old one…and for what I can discern…it's from the Ashiya clan…"

"Well…yeah, every time they're around it means trouble…"(4) Kei said annoyed.

"What kind of paper spell?" asked Naru.

"Mmm…seems like one to command on fire"

"Why would the ghost give it to Mai?" asked Masako.

"Ugg…Yasuhara-san. Did you find any important information?"

"Yes, I did boss. It's interesting…this manor has quite a dark story. According to some old files I found in the village, this manor was built during the Heian and belonged to the Kushimi. The Kushimi family was a powerful merchant family who specialized in silks. They were the main suppliers for the Mikado. Unfortunately tragedy struck them, and the inhabitant began to die away mysteriously. The Mikado send a group of onmyouji to check on the matter, but they never returned. The rest of the inhabitants died away before anyone could leave the manor. The villagers spread the rumor of the manor being cursed, and it was abandoned for many many years until Fudo-san bought it and began the restoration works. Also…I'm not sure if it might be relevant, but I found a curious thing…"

"Curious…?"

"Yes, since the family produced silk for the Mikado. The breeded silk worms, so they had a great plantation of Mulberry trees. Mulberry trees are used to feed the silk worm because they're thought to increase the production. That plantation was recently destroyed in order to build the parking lot…Now, you see…I went to the police archives and looked for any information about disappearances in this zone. According to the archives, one or two people disappear around this place every month, but after the parking lot was built…the number increased to ten! Isn't that kind of suspicious?"

'Mulberry trees…' I thought.

"Oah! Sakuya-san told me… be careful with the mulberry tree…" I said.

"Mmm…mulberry trees…mmmm…" Rei said thoughtful " oi! If the mulberry leaves were used to feed the silk worms…then those trees were probably very important for the family…perhaps, the tree that Mai saw in the shrine…is a mulberry tree, too…"

"Oh…and then those twins, they should be the tree's spirits"

"Well that doesn't make sense. Tree spirits aren't evil…they simply aren't!" said Ayako firmly.

"Well…some trees might be" said Kei smiling nervously.

"Well…actually, in German folklore…mulberry trees are believed to be evil. "said John " the legend says that the devil uses its roots to polish his boots"

"So…you're saying all this is the trees fault?" asked Ayako annoyed.

"No one is saying that, old hag…" said Bou-san " It's just a possibility…"

"Who are you calling old?"

"May be the tree wasn't evil…but it became evil…"suggested Hikaru.

"Uh…? How could that happen?"

"Uhm…maybe because of the wara ningyo?"

"Because of people sending curses?" asked John.

"Not curses…but the Impaling the Sin ritual…" she said " just think about it…If the tree spirits were filled with all the people's negative feelings…it might get corrupted…"

People have bad feelings, and bad feelings corrupt the spirits…

Sakuya's voice echoed in my head. The twins were actually the mulberry trees spirits who had been corrupted by the negative feeling of the people, but then…what did that had to do with the ghost?

"What about the female ghost?" asked Naru.

" Well…I can't tell…many people died here."

"Which means…it could be anyone…" sighed Bou-san. " Ne, Naru…what are we going to do? May be we should burn this manor and leave like that. The spirits would vanish with it…"

"But…I don't think that would work…" said Hikaru biting her lip "In order to burn destroy the curse using fire…we would need to destroy this manor clean, but this kind of buildings had many other complementary buildings outside such the servitude barracks, and there are also underground tunnels that were used to hide treasures and a emergency exits. Even if we burned this entire building…those structures would remain…and the haunting wouldn't vanish…"

"Then what?" asked Bou-san rubbing his head " Exorcising?"

"Matsuzaki-san could perfume a cleansing using the surrounding trees. That way we would cleanse most of the spirits of the manor " said Naru.

"But Naru…" said Ayako " Even if I do that, the most wicked spirits won't be cleansed…"

"But at least we would have lowered their number…"

"Well…I guess that's better than nothing…"

"All right! I'll do the cleasing!" Ayako said.

(1) To clear things up, I won't be using the plot of KUON because, the game's plot is quite confusing and besides it doesn't work too well with the story. :/ so I'm using and Original Version of the plot.

(2) For effects from this story...I'm assuming that Sakuya did die at the end of the Yang fase of the game.

(3) Those are the famous japanese straw dolls used for cursing. I won't be explanining details now since I'm planning to use it in future cases again.

(4)GAME SPOILER ALERT! In popular legends, it was told that Abe no Seimei main rival was Ashiya Doman ( who casually is the main antagonist of KUON), so this reference indicates that even now days the Ashiya clan and the Abe clan still doesn't get too well. Again this is something i'll explain with more detail in on of the future cases.

All right those were my notes to the chapter. I hope you all like it and please leave a review.