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.

Oh….Final Chapter for this case. There's an epilogue for the case so I hope you'll look forward to it.

Anyway…Read and Review!

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 #11

Everything felt so peaceful, my body was so light and miraculously the pain in my shoulder had disappeared. Instead of that giddy feeling you have when you fall from high altitudes, I felt almost as if I was floating. I opened my eyes slowly as my look cleared from the blur and found myself in the middle of the darkness. I knew this place too well.I turned around to find two cobalt eyes staring at me with a small and gentle smile.

"Gene!" I said happy to finally see him "where have you been? You hadn't shown in my dreams lately"

"I'm sorry, Mai…" he apologized with a bright smile. I wonder…when would I ever see Naru smile like that?" The curse in this place is terrible. I keeps the spirits from passing away, at the end it traps so many spirits that they end up merging with each other creating those awful creatures you met earlier"

"You mean those…animalistic ghosts?"

"Yes…if wasn't careful…I might have end trapped too…"

"How's that you're here now…?"

"Lin and your friends are breaking the curse. Little by little it's growing weak, but the mulberry spirits are yet to be destroyed…"

"Don't worry…Lin-san is working on it"

Gene shook his head silently.

" Lin won't be able to do it alone…that tree is old, and it's roots are grown deep into the earth…"

"You mean…the tree is destroyed in the surface but its remaining still alive underground? Oh no!"

"It must be destroyed from the core…" he nodded.

"How? Sakuya-san only gave me one stake!" I said, panic was beginning to grow in my heart.

"Don't worry about that…"

"What about the onmyouji? Kei-san's father said it had to be done by an onmyoji. "

Gene gave me a comforting smile.

"Mai…everything is going to be okay. Just wake up and tell my brother…he'll know what to do. Trust him…"

"All right…I'll go now…" I said as I turned away and began to ran.I heard Gene whispering 'Good luck' behind me, before I vanished into the light.

"Mai"

I woke up in the middle of the darkness. My body felt stiff and there was a heavy pain on my shoulder and the back of my head. I rubbed it carefully and I could feel a small bump. The ground under me felt damp, rocky and cold, almost as the floor of a cavern. I let out a soft moan of pain as I stood slowly.

"Naru…" I called softly.

" I'm here…" he replied.

I turned around and found him sitting against a big rock holding a small pocket torch (probably the one he usually kept for these cases). His hair was a little messy, his face a little dirty and his shirt a little ripped. Good lord, only Naru could be messy and still look handsome?

"How long was I out?"

"Just a couple minutes…"

"Great…what happened?"

" I can only guess. I believe that the ghost must have been exorcised and it was quite resisting to leave and that caused the small earthquake we felt. It's not surprising since this seems to be a strong spirit. We must have fallen to one of the underground passages…"

I didn't bother to ask how he'd known about the passage. If I'd asked Naru probably would have bragged of his inhuman intelligence. I'm sure he just found it somewhere and never told us.

" Where's Aki?"

"She fell too…but I've not seen her"

"Well…now that makes the experience even better…" I sighed annoyed.

Why did I always end up like this with the coldest person in the world? Just my luck…the gods really have to dislike me.

"Ne, Naru… what were you doing in the shrine?"

"I already told you. I was looking for something…idiot…"

"Mind to tell what? Naru…coming here all by yourself…Lin-san is going to be furious at you…" I said trying to sound angry.

" I'm not longer underage…Lin can't tell me what to do…" he replied standing up and dusting off his pants.

"That's not…what if you've found the ghost? No one knew you were here! What the hell was so important to find that you were willing to risk your own life?"

"Curious… weren't you the one who was scolding me because I wasn't looking in the first place?"

I frowned. What was he talking about? Couldn't be that…

"You were looking for Rei?" I asked without bothering to hide my surprise.

He didn't reply and that was enough to answer me. He'd been the same once ago, in one of our first cases together, in which Masako had gone missing. He'd acted coldly and uncaring, but in fact, he'd already started to look for her on his own.

" How…How did you know?"

"Psychometry…"he replied "I picked this from the corridor and used it…"

He threw something at me. It was a piece of cloth, and handkerchief, which belonged to Rei. It was dirtied with dried blood, and I knew it probably belonged to my friend. So Naru had gone looking for her immediately after he'd told us his theory, and I had called him heartless jerk! Oh…I was so regretful now.

" Why didn't you tell me? I wouldn't have told you all those things back then!"

"Forget it, we must find Rei-san. Can you walk?"

" Yeah…my shoulder is hurt but my feet are perfect. It's a miracle…" I said sarcastically.

Naru offered me his hand, and I used it to get up. When he acted a little nicer it really reminded me to Gene…GENE! That's right…I was supposed to tell him my dream.

"Naru! I had a dream while I was unconscious…" I began " Ge…A ghost told me that even when Lin-san burns the tree down, the mulberry spirits won't die because the tree's root won't be burned down, and so the curse won't be broken…!"

Naru looked me with wide eyes, but then returned to his usual emotionless self. He brought his hands to his chin and began ponder the matter.

"Naru…the only way to destroy that think is with a stake and fire, but that can only be done by an onmyji, and either of us is one. There's no time to contact neither Lin-san nor Kei. Besides…we don't have another stake…what are we going do?"

Naru was still thinking. I wished I could know what was going through that pretty narcissistic head, but I wasn't a psychic at all.

"There's still one onmyoji here, who might be able to do it, though…" he finally said.

"Who? " I asked puzzled.

"Mai…you really are that idiot?"

"Hey!"

"Rei-san is an onmyouji. If we find her…she might be able destroy the roots."

"Oh…I…I hadn't thought about that. " I admitted blushing.

"Then we must find her. If what I saw with psychometry…she's under the roots, that would save us time. Now let's find her…"

"What about Aki?"

"I'm sure she can catch on us, later…let's go Mai…"

I nodded. Tsukimori wasn't anywhere around, so it probably remained with Aki. He'd guide her to Rei, too, so sooner or later we'll end up meeting.

Naru grabbed my hand and we ran through those awfully dark passages. I was glad that I was with Naru, he seemed to know pretty well where we were heading, and if not, he actually was a good actor.

Suddenly, Naru stopped short making me crash softly against his warm back.

"Naru…?"

"Shh…"

He pointed in front of us and I had to cover my mouth to drown a scream. Before us, there was a bright room; the ground was stained with blood so that it almost seemed like the pattern of a carpet; in the front wall, there were some enormous black knots that I instantly recognized as the roots from the tree, on each of the roots there was something hanging from a thing thread: a white ball, that looked like a cocoon.(1)

"There…" Naru said pointing in front.

Rei was lying on the ground. Her clothes dirtied by blood. Around her, the shikis flew making a barrier. Suddenly, the sound of metal crashing woke me from my trance. I looked to the other side of the room and I saw Aki battling with another of those awful ghosts. This time it was a man wearing one of those yellow kimonos, and from his chest, the torso of a woman came out nastily (2). Aki handled him pretty well, even though she was still hurt by her earlier battle against the centipede lady. I'd rarely seen her battle, but she made it look so easy.

"Aki!" I cried out, making that horrible ghost stare directly ad me.

All right, that was a stupid thing to do Mai…congratulations. The ghost left out roar, and Naru held his arm in front of me, trying to shield me.

" Snap out… you're battling me! " Aki yelled hitting him with her sword and throwing him against the wall " Mai…! Go to Rei!"

Naru looked at me and nodded. We ran to the unconscious girl in the ground. She was very pale and there was a nasty wound on her side. Carefully, we began to shake her awake.

"Rei…Rei…" I called her " You need to wake up! We need you!"

The girl let out a soft painful cough and opened her eyes. She seemed a little confused at the beginning and then, her eyes went wide with realization. Her look traveled from me to Naru.

"Oh…God…" she coughed " Where is she?"

"She's gone…." Naru said " Rei-san…do you think you can perform an exorcism?"

"And exorcism?" she replied softly " Yes…Of course…agg…as long as I get help to stand up. What do you want me to exorcise? The crazy mutant priest over there?"

"No…we need you to bind those roots and destroy it…" Naru replied coldly.

"A binding?"

" The twins…they're the spirits in from that tree, and they're the culprits of the curse! In order to stop all this…their vessel must be destroyed! " I said.

"Uh…vessel? So it's a demigod what we're talking about?" she said trying to get up." I can do it…"

"UH! Naru…"

"What's it Mai…?"

"The Stake…we didn't look for another…how is she going to bind the roots?"

"Lin bound the tree up there… the binding spell should still be working" Naru said " Rei-san…?"

"I know…I have fire spells here…"

I loud rapping sound made the three of us look at Aki. She was panting heavily as the ghost got up from the ground with some nasty sounds. Rei said and order to her shikis and they flew to assist Aki.

"Shibuya-san…Mai…" she said with a serious tone " Help me on my feet. It's time to blow that tree down…"

Naru and I nodded. We picked her up and held her from her arms. Rei took a deep breath and put her hand in a praying position.

"Arabati kiritikiritahati…. Arabati kiritikiritahati… Arabati kiritikiritahati " she muttered before taking out a piece of paper from her pocket.

She brought the paper to her lips and closed her eyes as she raised her arm up over her head.

"anala AgataH sahAyatA vijayadaurjana"

I suddenly felt very hot, I looked astonished when the roots began burn by itself. There was a loud painful cry as the roots turned to ashes little by little. The ghost Aki and the shikigami had been fighting had vanished.

We looked at each other. It was finally over. I can't really remember how we managed to get out from the underground passages, but when we arrived to the surface, it was already dawning and everyone was waiting for us in front of the ruined shrine.

Lin-san seemed tired, but he gave us a small smile as we walked to them. It was the first time I ever saw him so misaligned: his shirt was completely blackened by the smoke and the ashes, Masako and Ayako looked pretty similar. Bou-san had his shirt ripped pretty badly and his pants were torn in some spots, his hair wasa mess and his look was tired, but he still had a wide grin on his lips. John wasn't to far behind, his clothes were pretty much like Bou-san's and he was too smiling. Hikaru was tired and dirtied standing quietly by Kei.

Kei was the one who looked the most tired. Of course he would, he was not used to do exorcism and his face clearly said that he could not understand how his sister made it look so easy. His face was enlightened when he saw us appear with Rei holding on Naru's and Aki's shoulders. He ran straight at us and hugged her sister, making her complain about the pain of her wounded side and scolding him for being an inconsiderate idiot for hugging her wounded sister. All of us laughed at the scene. This case was finally over.

We were packing everything and getting ready to leave, Rei and I were the only ones to sit back and wait. Rei was pretty bad wounded, but she was as cheerful as always. I…well my bad luck struck me as always and I ended up with disjointed shoulder that was really painful to fix, it didn't hurt so much now, but it was quite hard to move. Fortunately no one else had been hurt during the exorcism.

Fudo-san was really happy to know that the nightmare she'd been through was finally was over. She even forgave us for destroying part of the manor, and kindly invited us to visit her in a close future. Thing they wouldn't happen too soon…for the looks on everyone's face they were anxious to get out from there.

It was sad, but after this dangerous adventure, it was time to say good bye to my dear friends in SPR. We had to return to the college and report to our professor about the case. Bou-san made fuzz about having to lose his beloved wife-to-be once again, causing him to gain a hard hit from Ayako. She gave me a tender hug and told me to take care of the shoulder and that she was going to call me more frequently. John, Masako and Lin-san said their farewells as well. Yasuhara was traveling back to college with us, so there was no need to dismiss him, and the only left to say good bye were Naru and his parents.

"It was such a pleasure to work with you. You're an impressive team…" Martin said shaking everyone hands.

" the pleasure was ours…" Kei said " We look forward to work with all of you again. Shibuya-san…no…Davis-san…"

"Leave it as Shibuya" Naru replied coldly "I appreciated your support. May be we'll work with you all in a near future…"

"that'll make you happy, right Mai?" Aki whispered to my ear with a mocking voice.

My face turned red as I glared at Aki. I'd make her pay later.

"Mai…"

"Eh?" I replied looking at Naru. He had a light smirk on his lips.

"See you soon…"

He turned around and boarded the black van. I stared puzzled as the cars began to disappear in the distance.

After all those years, that egotistical jerk couldn't at least give me a proper good-bye? That idiot… See you soon….what was that suppose to mean?

File #1: Those who curse the tree

CLOSED

All right this room doesn't exist in the game. I made it up for the story purposes. if you were wondering, the ghost (supposedly Kureha) kidnapped the restoration workers and then put them on the cocoons. Inside them they would get digested and turned into food for the mulberry tree, once they were eaten the remaining would be left on the manor, and that's how people found the bodies in the state they had mentioned in the first chapters. I'm explaining this because it might not have been clear in the story.

This is the boss that appears in the shrine during Ying Phase, it doesn't appear underground but most likely in front of the shrine. For a better description of it, here's the link with the artwork of the ghost: /asset/171905/12/11039547

Sorry if I didn't make the scene of Rei's exorcism more detailed. I just thought there wasn't much to describe, so the details are left for all of your cute imagination. All right…like I said before there's a little epilogue for this case, I'll see if I can upload it today.

Have a nice day and thanks for going through this case with me. There will be more cases, don't worry, but I just wanted to thank everyone who had followed til now. ARigatou mina-san