GHOST HUNT: THE MISSING ARCHIVES

Hello, this is my first Ghost Hunt story, and I hope you will enjoy it.

The story will use content from the games KUON and FATAL FRAME SERIES (mostly)

EDIT (2021): I've fixed grammar, spelling and some minor details!

DISCLAIMER: I don't own any of the characters from Ghost Hunt or any concept from the games used in the plot.

FILE #1: Those who curse the tree #1

Drip

"Water?"

I turned around, looking at my surroundings, but everything was too dark for me to distinguish any shape. Even though I was sure that the sound I heard was water leaking.

Suddenly everything around me turned into a blur. It was almost as if I was traveling at an incredibly high speed. It was then that I heard it, something very different from the sound of leaking water. It was distant and sounded a little distorted. With some effort, I could hear it better.

A song! Yes, it was a song. The tune was slow and soft. It sounded like a lullaby sang by childish voices. It was a strange song, and it was so faint that I couldn't understand the lyrics, but even though the tune made chills crawl all over my spine. Something about that lullaby was upsetting.

My surroundings finally became less blurry, and I found myself standing in the middle of a dark corridor with shoji doors (A/N: Japanese doors)on both sides and lit up only by the light that came from the raging thunder outside. There was a storm blowing strong, making the building tremble a little.

I heard the sound of a sliding door opening, and I turned around. I came face to face with a man wearing a plain white yukata and holding a lamp as he came out from the room at the end of the corridor.

"W-Who's there?" he asked with a shaky voice. I could tell that he was scared. "Whoever it is…. Come out now!"

There was no reply. The man stepped into the corridor and walked through the hallway, trembling. He passed by my side, completely unaware of my presence. It was a dream, after all. It wasn't weird that the characters in it wouldn't be able to see me. I

I watched a he made his way to the other end of the corridor. He stood in front of the last room and looked around as if he was trying to hear something. A horrible feeling came through my guts. It was a feeling I was already too familiar with, a sense of dread that foreshadowed a danger. Naru had once called it an animal instinct.

"…Danger," I whispered to myself. " NOOOO! DON'T OPEN THAT DOOR!"I cried as the man's hand went over the door. Suddenly, the door burst open, and something that I could only describe as black tentacles came out of the room, grabbing the man from his limbs and waist. The man began screaming in panic and fear as he got dragged into the room, and the door slid closed.

Something horrible filled my ears. It was the sound of ripping flesh, painful cries, and water leaking from somewhere, and I fell on my knees, covering my ears horrified.

I want it to end. Please, someone, wake me up!

"Nee…sister," a childish voice cut into my thoughts, making my heart skip a beat. I turned around slowly and gasped in terror.

Two little children were standing behind me with mischievous. No, wicked smiles on their faces. They were pale, with pitch-black hair and small red kimonos. They had no eyebrows, and instead, they had black spots painted on their foreheads.

"It's your turn to play, sister," They giggled, stretching their hands at me, trying to grab my arms.

I gasped in horror as I left out an ear-piercing scream.

"MAI! GET HOLD OF YOURSELF!" I heard someone say as I felt a slap on my face.

I looked around, feeling confused and with my heart pounding fast. I was sitting in my room, a girl with blue-black hair and big gray eyes was staring at me with worry. Over her shoulder, I saw a boy with an almost identical face as her lying against the door frame with sleepy eyes, and si there was a girl with short burgundy hair stared at me from the door of my room.

"You okay, Mai?" said the red-haired girl.

"You were having a nightmare…" explained the dark-haired girl.

"See? I told you not to study Ashitaka's class before bedtime…." commented the boy yawning.

"It wasn't a regular nightmare!" I cried out, "It was one of those...dreams…."

"C'mon…I'll make you tea, 'kay?" said the red-haired girl helping me out of the room.

My name is Taniyama Mai, and I'm nineteen years old. I'm studying parapsychology and folklore at Gakuen Tokyo University. I'm living on campus with some friends: Sasaki Aki, the girl with the burgundy hair, a Medicine student; Abeno Rei, the girl with blue-black hair, student of chemistry; Abeno Kei, Rei's twin brother and student of electrical engineering. They were both descendants of the famous Abeno Seimei,

"All right. Have you calmed down, Mai?" Aki asked. She walked to me and stroke my back, comforting me.

"Yes, thank you."

"So wanna talk about it?"

"KEI!"

"What? It might have to do with this new case Ashitaka gave us earlier."

A new case. Yes, four years ago, I used to work with Naru in SPR. After he closed the office and returned to England, everyone went on their paths. Yasuhara was studying law in the same university as I, so he was one of the people I met frequently; Ayako had begun working on her family's clinic. She was so busy that we only called each other once or twice a month. Bou-san was touring around with his band, and he occasionally did one or another job as a monk. Masako was traveling around hosting her show. John still worked in the local church; he had recently come back from Rome, from a seminary for exorcists. That only left Naru and Lin-san. I kept in touch with both of them through email. Lin- san was kind enough to reply to each with his usual politeness; Naru rarely replied. Of course, he wouldn't waste his time writing back to each of my emails, but he would occasionally answer one or two. That made me happy since it meant that he was, at least, reading them.

After SPR closed, I focused on finishing school and entering University. One of my teachers told me about a Paranormal Research Society formed by various students and teachers and invited me to join. It was quite a large group, compared to SPR. Members got divided into different teams, and each team was formed by four to eight members: medical support, technology expert, a folklorist, and some exorcists. In my team's case, Aki was our medical support, Kei our technology expert, my duties were pretty much of the folklorist, and Rei and Hikaru as support. Our team was a special one because we were the only team in which all members had spiritual powers - yeah, that included me -, so that meant we all could do an exorcism or a cleansing. If things got carried away, we could always ask for a support exorcist aid, for example, John.

"New case?" I said, puzzled, " We have one already?"

"Well, yeah. If you hadn't been dozing around during dinner, you might have heard of it,"

"Ah, sorry, sorry. I had a long day today, so I was tired," I apologized "So, what's this about a case?"

"It might be a dangerous one," replied Rei, crossing her arms, " It's something about a haunted house on the outskirts of Mt. Kita. We don't have much info, though, except that people disappear only to appear dead some days later or not appear at all…"

"Perhaps is a serial killer?" I suggested. It wouldn't be the first time that a case turned out not to be paranormal at all.

"Yeah, we thought that too, but the way the bodies get found is, well, grotesque…so, mmmm. It can't be a human's doing," Kei said, shuddering.

Grotesque? Whatever it was, if it made Kei shudder like that, it was something horrible.

"Why us?" I asked, "If the case is so critical, shouldn't an elite team handle it?"

"Well…we are the most competent team for this case, beside…the person who proposed this case, specifically requested that it was us who took it." Explained Rei, " but we've received instructions that if the case goes south, we must drop it."

"Is it that bad?"

"Can't tell until we get there," Rei shrugged. "From what we got told, the prognosis isn't good."

" Yeah, either way, it seems like a foreign team is gonna join us," added Kei, " We're meeting them at Mt. Kita,"

"What? Why?" asked Aki, worried.

"Seems like we're quite famous now since the case in which we hunted down that water yokai. Now, these people are interested in seeing how we handle the cases, geez, talking about pressure."

"Like that ever affected you before. You love to show off," Rei said, rolling her eyes, "Anyway… What about your dream, Mai?"

I sighed and told them everything about my dream. I made sure to give them every detail, from how the man had gotten dragged into the room, the strange song, and the twins. They all listened in silence as I finished my story

"Hmmm….yes, it does look like one of those dreams…" said Rei, grabbing her chin, thinking. That pose reminded me a lot of Naru, and I couldn't hide my smile, " we can't be sure if it has something to do with the case, but it sure has a meaning. I'm concerned about those twins…."

"Yes, if they were part of the dream, they weren't supposed to see me, right?"

"Mmmm… we must think about this carefully, but as I said… we can't tell until we get to the place…"

"Well, we have two days to get ready. Aki bring all the medicines you can, Kei and I will handle the equipment, and Mai, you go do some research about that place…."

"Heh? Research…?"

"Yup, try to find something about any legend or anything. Maybe you find something related to your dream."

"Okay…"

"Well…that should do," said Kei, stretching his arms, "What time is it?"

"5:30 am. Why?"

"WHAT? Damn you, Mai!" he cried. "I could have used some extra minutes of sleep!"

We all laughed. And so, that's how this case began.