Chapter 11: The Ghost Orchard

📍 Location: Aomori, Japan – Abandoned Blossom Village

Once a quiet countryside town famous for its cherry orchards, now shrouded in fog and sorrow.

🌸 Scene 1: Arrival

The team stepped off their drop-craft onto a narrow, cracked road lined with dead cherry blossom trees. Fog curled around their boots like grasping fingers.

Emma (looking up):

"These trees… they're not just dead. They're drained."

Nick (shivering):

"I hate fog. It's like walking into a Silent Hill fan mod."

Lucas (calmly):

"GOC Japan called it a ghost signal. People disappeared with no resistance. Every team sent in stopped responding within an hour."

They crossed into the main street. Everything was still. Too still.

Then a music box started playing.

A child's voice echoed from nowhere:

"🎵 Come find me… Lucas… 🎵"

👻 Scene 2: Vanishing Point

Suddenly, the environment glitched—like bad reality TV. The houses shimmered. Lucas blinked—and Emma and Nick were gone.

Lucas (tense):

"Emma? Nick?"

No response. He turned—

Thud.

A child-like figure stood before him. Blonde. Laughing. Hollow eyes.

Child:

"You left us, Lucas. Now we all disappear."

Lucas instinctively summoned Forge, spinning a kunai from a shattered lamp post, but the child phased into mist.

🎭 Scene 3: Divide and Conquer

Nick's POV:

Nick found himself in a repeating hallway, like a Japanese inn. A figure walked ahead—a young girl in a kimono humming softly.

Nick:

"This is why I don't watch horror movies…"

He charged forward, but the floor collapsed under him—he fell into a pit filled with whispering shadows.

Emma's POV:

Emma ran through what looked like her childhood home. Her father's voice whispered: "You'll never be strong enough." Her eyes blurred.

But she bit her lip, refocused, and screamed:

Emma:

"You don't control me. Not anymore!"

She activated Assassin, vanishing completely and cutting through the illusion.

🧠 Scene 4: Truth Revealed

Lucas found a shattered temple near the center of the village. The cherry trees there were blooming black petals.

In the middle stood a pale figure: the Type 2 Neuroxin, Hana.

She looked like a young noble girl, wearing tattered traditional robes.

Hana (smiling):

"You know me, don't you?"

Lucas:

"No. But you… you know my family."

Hana (giggles):

"Your mother told me you'd come."

Lucas froze.

Lucas:

"You're lying."

Hana (softly):

"She was kind. Until she ran. Just like you. Would you like to see her memory?"

She touched a tree. It pulsed—and Lucas saw a flashback: A woman with Lucas's eyes and a GOC badge, holding a young Neuroxin child.

Lucas pulled back, panting.

💥 Scene 5: Battle at the Blossoms

Suddenly, Emma reappeared beside Lucas, dual daggers glowing.

Emma (fierce):

"She's using memory-splicing. She's not real, Lucas."

Hana (sorrowful):

"Then I'll become your new memory."

The trees writhed. From the roots, Type 1 "Wailers" emerged—shadowy, shrieking childlike Neuroxins that leapt tree-to-tree like monkeys.

Nick (landing with a crack):

"Okay! I punched a ghost. I think I'm back. Who's got the boss marked?"

Lucas (activating Forge):

"Emma, air. Nick, flanks. I'll hold the center."

Lucas summoned a double-ended blade, twirling as Wailers lunged at him. He struck each mid-leap, creating a blossom storm of black mist.

Emma turned invisible and sprinted up a tree, kicking off and plunging downward with glowing blades. She impaled Hana—only for the girl to vanish.

Hana's voice (all around):

"Lucas… we're the same."

Lucas shouted:

"We're not."

He stabbed his blade into the tree's core, which began pulsing red—then summoned an explosive wave that collapsed the illusion zone.

🔚 Scene 6: Aftermath

Fog lifted.

The village was empty again.

Emma (panting):

"She wasn't strong. Just… tragic."

Nick (wiping his brow):

"She was trying to be remembered. Creepy, sad, and confusing. Like my report cards."

Lucas (quietly):

"She knew my mother."

Emma (softly):

"Are you okay?"

Lucas:

"No. But I know what to do next."

🔎 Scene 7: The Recording

Later that night, Lucas privately viewed a data shard retrieved from the temple. On it, a video played.

A young GOC agent, standing beside the Neuroxin child, Hana.

She looked into the camera and whispered:

"Lucas… if you ever see this… they'll lie to you. Even the GOC. Trust your squad… and find the Crystal."

Emma (entering quietly):

"Still think this isn't a date series?"

Lucas (glancing back, smiling faintly):

"Depends. You bringing Nick again?"

Emma:

"He's tied to a tree. He'll be fine."

Nick:

"hmmmmm, HMMM"