A/N: This next chapter is more focus on the real world and this is where a younger Hunyo was recruited by a group of college students that runs a club that takes on paranormal investigation in 1984 that ties to the 1995 remake film, Patayin sa Sindak si Barbara (Frighten Barbara to Death). Here is Chapter 22 of The Strangest Things: Purging of Evil.

Chapter 22: The Spiritual Investigation

At the Hotel Lodge within Taal, it was owned by the Figeroa family and it was managed by Kevin Duarte Figeroa. Hunyo and the group had decided to take overnight before going to the volcanic island for their mission to take down Jang-geum. Hunyo eventually feels something off due to the winds are taking the fork on the road as he thought.

This feeling lingers in this hotel. I think I should ask their manager first.

"Hunyo... you feel all right?" Rolento asked him which Hunyo response in a shrug.

"Since we can stay here for the night, Why don't you guys go eat elsewhere? I can take care of this alone." Hunyo said and wanted to explore the whole hotel as the group however can go to dinner outside for tonight.

As the song "Sabado Nights" Rolento is revealed to be speaking to an old colleague who is also a boatman that can take them to the Taal Volcano. Rei and Reagan noticed the arrival of Brian, Ibrahim, Rick and Mariana upon its reunion.

"Good to see you, Mr. Navarro."

"Now where is Hunyo... I thought you're with him." Brian ponders about Hunyo's disappearance and Rei tells him.

"I think Hunyo was still in the hotel. He says that he wanted to stay alone to explore."

"It's very odd of him, and he's already in 50." Brian commented about Hunyo's actions.

Back at the hotel, Hunyo investigates alone by exploring the whole place in the hotel. He saw many photo frames in the shelf containing both the Duartes and the Figeroas and the other photo frame is a middle-aged woman in her 40's.

That woman seems familiar, she must be the witness behind her mother's suicidal death. This is where they gave me a project to investigate any forms of paranormal activity.

"Excuse me, why are you looking at my mother's picture?"

"Your mother?" Hunyo ponders as he returns the photo frame back into the shelf. "Oh, sorry..."

"You seem to know about my mother Karen, Mr. Panganiban." Kevin asked which Hunyo confirms.

"Your mother was a witness behind Ruth's suicidal death and that haunted incident was already 32 years ago." Hunyo said recognizing his paranormal investigation about Ruth, much to Kevin's surprise.

"You mean my mom knows about my grandmother Ruth. She said that I had two grandmothers and all I see was my grandmother Barbara. I didn't know my grandmother Ruth was a long-time dead and even grandfather Nick. My dad doesn't believe any supernaturals and he believes that both of them are died in a fire."

"I know how strange that both of them died. But it was the cause of witchcraft and occult caused by your grandmother Ruth who became a malevolent spirit and why she couldn't go to the afterlife by taking vengeance and haunting over her older sister Barbara which turns out to be the mistress of her husband Nick."

"!"

Hunyo remembers that incident when his club group had chosen him to investigate alone referring about the incident of the Duarte family. In 1984, Hunyo was a De La Salle student who studies in Sports Science course and both a basketball player and a master of Kyokushin Karate at the young age as he narrates his story.

"I was just a freshman in college by taking Sports Science course before I graduated in De La Salle University and continuing on to master its Education course of the same university. I chose that course because I wanted to honed my karate skills or my basketball skills that involved in the UAAP. One day, some group of college students from different courses had been investigating something strange. I sensed the wind takes on the right direction and these students are more focus on paranormal investigation. And because I had a high spiritual awareness and I can see spirits from a dead person, they really take me in. We went to the underground within Intramuros and I can see how the kastilas had horribly treated us Filipinos in the 1800's and the friars are the ones who had caused misery. The leader of that club had chosen me to take on a sole paranormal investigation and this is about the Duarte family."

"Why it was only you, Mr. Panganiban?" Kevin asked and Hunyo answers while closing his eyes.

"Because sometimes people can't even investigate if they can't see spirits of the dead. They chose me because I'm able to see them freely and has high spiritual awareness. This investigation they put me through was a major project for them."

"..."

"At the Manila Memorial Park, I tried to explore all of the burials in the park. A few people had visited here to see their dead loved ones. Until I found the burial area of Ruth S. Duarte whose grasses are burned by people who knows witchcraft and occult. Not just about both things that I knew, I can also see visions of what happened to the Duarte family. I've learned that Ruth was mainly responsible for their main troubles ever since her husband, Nick was unfaithful to her during their marriage and his strong romantic feelings to her older sister Barbara is the main reason Ruth had committed suicide in a jealous rage and why both he and Barbara had been keeping this to her in the first place. She even curses her husband for his infidelity and she strictly tells her daughter Karen because she will not die on her deathbed. But she had died afterwards."

"So my grandmother Ruth was behind the troubles of my mother's family, right."

"It is..." Hunyo said calmly. "To ease up her stresses, she had mastered both black magic and occult under the tutelage of Maestra Beatriz and she also knows why her spirit does not go to the afterlife. Even after her death, her spirit is able to go back to the world of the living to get vengeance over her older sister Barbara for a limited time. She had haunted her own family including Barbara first to start her vengeance."

"..."

"After examining her burial site, the ground was moving itself and I feel the strong wind had swept onto me. I sensed that it was Ruth's spirit and she knows that I wouldn't be involved in their troubles. I saw her spirit before she became malevolent and evil, within her eyes are filled with anger and rage because she wants to get revenge over both her husband and her older sister Barbara and everyone else who had wronged her. Her spirit quickly disappears when she decided to cause more trouble to her own family at night as well as using spiritual possession in order to kill someone."

"My God... that was horrible... you mean my mother became a victim of spiritual possession." Kevin said shockingly over Hunyo's story.

"She is... she was possessed by her own mother's spirit to kill anyone but she managed to kill Maestra Beatriz when she did her best to drive Ruth's spirit away from her using seance. Unfortunately, that move she had done was temporary." Hunyo said confirming about what happened to Kevin's mother and soon continues to narrate. "A few days later, I heard a news about Nick Duarte's disappearance which takes place after the Duartes had left the family resort because of that incident caused by Ruth. I went to their family resort who is now abandoned. According to the boatman, the Duarte family just left three days ago following the incident."

Hunyo walks around in the middle of the forest trek and he had found a ground fissure and he had seen a vision of the incident where Karen had tried to stop her mother Ruth from taking her aunt Barbara but fails when Ruth displays her power to cause a single fissure with flames to block her daughter away stating that she think that she had loved her and Barbara tells Karen to run which she succeeds. As the vision ends, Hunyo realizes what Ruth has been done at this point because she had became a malevolent spirit whose growing power aided by the evil spirits as he thought.

Ruth's spirit became both malevolent and evil which is why her witchcraft and occult had grown more powerful using negative energy, believing she was aided by evil spirits that surrounded her.

Hunyo then followed what Ruth had taken Barbara in which the place called hell. Arriving on that sea cliff, it can see the whole ocean view and he had saw a vision that the whole sea cliff and its ocean happens to be the sea of flames within hell where Ruth had taken her older sister in an attempt to drag her to hell. Her attempts backfire when Nick arrives just in time to stop her and instead sacrifices his own life by holding Ruth's physical form and he plunges her to hell. Barbara screams Nick's name in anguish as both fell into the sea of flames below in explosions that forms a fire pillar to knock Barbara out of the ground and the scream of thousands of people can be heard. The sea of flames in hell disappears when Barbara mourns over Nick's noble sacrifice. The vision ends when Hunyo felt someone is around after learning that Nick had sacrificed his own life to save Barbara from his wife by plunging her through hell and his corpse are nowhere to be seen because he was immediately incinerated from the sea of flames caused by his late wife Ruth. Behind him, Hunyo sees Nick's spirit who emerges itself as he continues his narration.

"I saw your grandfather's spirit who looks on the sea cliff which he had plunged the physical manifestation of his late wife through the sea of flames in hell. Deep down, he has full of regrets and sadness and blaming himself for being unfaithful to his wife Ruth because of his romantic feelings to Barbara. It's not going to lead its breaking point if Ruth would even cursed him for his infidelity and to haunt them with her spirit after she had died from committing suicide." Hunyo said sadly.

"So my grandfather died by taking a noble sacrifice to stop grandmother Ruth from taking grandma Barbara on hell."

"Sometimes the news media are always taking a lot of false gossips." Hunyo sighed and calmly tells Kevin. "How can you find Nick's ashes if he was immediately incinerated from the sea of flames caused by his late wife's witchcraft? People sometimes does not know how to find a juicy scoops."

"..."

"This is why I passed this major project after my investigation is over and I quit the club so that I can continue my studies and taking on sports. In my later years for now, I don't even show it to my own family because of it." Hunyo smiled and remembering the times in how he defeated Devil Kazuya in a deadly bout. "I almost got killed when I just fought a Japanese man who had turned into a very dangerous demonic being and I chose the recreation center so that our fight will be in my advantage. Because I always believe the Lord and it's holy prayer and why people who were sinners are always trying to redeem themselves to be good."

"Thank you for telling me stories about my mother's side of the family. If I known what happened to both grandmother Ruth and grandfather Nick, I would understand how my mother felt about them." Kevin said thankfully to Hunyo about his story.

"I think they might fix Ruth's burial place and to add Nick's name on it. Nick had already forgiven himself for all the mess he brought up to his own family. But the most faults was Ruth and she had started all those horrible misdeeds after her passing when using both witchcraft and occult so that she can have her revenge on both." Hunyo said sensing about the married couple's actions within the afterlife.

"Since you told me a lot about my mother's family, we can serve you dinner for tonight. You might even see my dad because he's coming back for his fishing trips." Kevin said smiling to Hunyo and he plays along with them.

"After we eat dinner, can you do me a special favor?"


Hours later, Jin wakes up because he was a light sleeper and he truly misses to visit in the real world. Suddenly, the strange device in which was kept by Rhima was glowing in blue, much to his horrible surprise. The device transforms into Keiya's physical appearance due to him being alive at their world and was truly dead in the real world.

"Is that... Rhima's other uncle? He came from that device she had kept."

"You were surprised, my son." Jun appears in her spiritual form with the use of astral projection and Jin was glad to see her and asking about her alliance with Keiya.

"Mother, how come you were sided with this person?"

"Keiya-san was assisting Rhima-san as his guide whenever she was in our world. He will do what it takes to protect her."

"There's nothing to worry about, Jin. I sensed that help is on the way." Keiya said sensing that people are coming to rescue them as Jin had thought.

So this is Rhima's other uncle all right... He must be an ally for us. How come my mother was curious on his presence? He must be a fighter just like us.


Trivia:

*The 1995 remake film "Patayin sa Sindak si Barbara (Frighten Barbara to Death) references:

**The photo frame of Karen Duarte in her 40's was actually Antoinette Taus in her present age of 41 years old and was originally portrayed as her in the 1995 remake film.

**Hunyo's vision of the entire incident was taken from the scenes of the 1995 remake film.

**When the ground moves all over Ruth's burial place as well as the strong winds had swept on Hunyo is a reference as how Barbara felt the same way during that scene in the 1995 remake film.

**Ruth's spirit's appearance in the story is her appearance in the 1995 remake film before she gained more power due to being aided by evil spirits during its climax.

**Nick's spirit made its first appearance after he made a noble sacrifice to rescue Barbara by plunging Ruth's physical form to hell at the end of the movie and also repenting all of his sins he had committed to his wife Ruth.

*Hunyo's younger appearance at 18 years old, is the younger version of Dingdong Dantes with the exception of his bangs which is based on Jin's bangs from his Tekken 3 appearance.

*Marks the first time, Jin first meets Keiya "Kei" Cashimiro during Rhima's travels in his world at the World of Tekken.