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Man, waiting for this next update is killing me. I decided after the last update that I wouldn't read any more of the story until the next update, but now I've started getting nightmares involving old mansions and murders and the supernatural. Two nights in a row. I'm hoping tonight isn't a third. Please update soon, is what I'm saying.
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Nov 18, 2012 04:17
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| # ? May 22, 2024 13:19 |
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Autumncomet posted:That's reassuring. The thread title includes "No Dine. No Knox. No Fair," which I assume is a reference to Knox's and Dine's rules, so I was worried we wouldn't be able to solve the mystery. (Not that I'd be able to help out with the epitaph, I don't know anything about Japanese or Chinese beyond the basics The thread title is a rather clever joke, so I wouldn't worry about it right now. For the time being, I'd suggest just trying to figure out what you can.
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Nov 18, 2012 04:24
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PoliteMachineGun posted:Man, waiting for this next update is killing me. I decided after the last update that I wouldn't read any more of the story until the next update, but now I've started getting nightmares involving old mansions and murders and the supernatural. Two nights in a row. I'm hoping tonight isn't a third. Done! This one was actually supposed to be up around Monday or Tuesday. But at some point the file with it and the next one got deleted, and it took longer than I'd expected to put it back together again. Part Fifteen: Turning Over the Chessboard  In other words, what greeted them as they returned dumbfounded from that horrible, bizarre scene was the voice of Maria as she rolled around laughing at the television... Without knowing how explain to Maria that her mother, Rosa, was dead, those who returned to the room couldn't manage any more than a suffocating silence. At first, Maria returned their stares with a dubious look, but when she realized that they weren't trying to blame her for anything, she ignored them and again immersed herself in the television program...   Only Kanon had returned to his usual calm expression. However, that probably didn't mean he had been able to wipe out the shock. Nothing was reflected in his eyes as he stared into the emptiness... Hideyoshi, fidgeting as he remembered that horrible scene, kept muttering, 'Unbelievable. That can't be somethin' of this world, it's the work of the devil.' Every once in a while, he tried to ask a question and bumped into Nanjo, but Nanjo, in a calm doctor-like manner, kept repeating that nothing could be understood by only glancing at the scene, and that until the police arrived, he wouldn't know anything. However, Nanjo only appeared calm next to Hideyoshi, who was agitated and fearful to the utmost.   : "...I will head to Father's place. Genji, quickly contact the police." : "Certainly..." : "I wonder if you would allow me to tag along, Natsuhi nee-san? ...Since Krauss nii-san is now gone, the task of aiding Father has been left to me. It would be improper of me to relax here while relying entirely on Natsuhi nee-san." Alongside Kanon's eternal stoicism, Eva provides another reassuring constant to cling to in the circumstances. Nothing can stop a true Ushiromiya from being a total jackass. Naturally, Eva's mind had been blank from the shock until just now. ...She only returned to herself after Natsuhi started giving orders. : "...Just do as you like."Natsuhi, without saying anything more, walked out. Eva followed behind her.   : "...U, umm, ...Madam, ...Madam...!" : "If you're lookin' for Natsuhi nee-san, she went to see Father. She'll probably be back soon. ...What happened, Kumasawa-san?" : "Th, that is, ...in the dining hall, ...blood..., ...blood...!"Everyone in the parlor turned to listen. Everyone thought the same thing. 'I hope I misheard that.' ...Just like how any container has a limit to how much you can put in it, ...no one felt like they could accept any more tragedies beyond what had already happened. So they all thought it. I hope I misheard that...  George ran straight for it. His harsh footsteps jogged Hideyoshi and Nanjo to their senses, and they chased after him. Battler and the others followed. They flew into the dining hall one after another, but they didn't find any change that would have caused Kumasawa to go pale. ...To those who had viewed that gruesome scene in the storehouse, it was a bit of an anticlimax.  ...Compared to that terrible scene, it was not very impressive. ...However, if you calmly thought about it, this definitely indicated the loss of a lot of blood.  : "...Blood has also gathered here. ...What in the world..." : "...It appears that a great deal of time has passed... Probably, last night...it might be appropriate to view this as the place they were killed..."Well, there's a third of the murders solved for us already. It was ????? in the dining room with the ?????. And given the condition of the bodies, I'm thinking we can probably rule out the rope already.  : "I, it would seem to mean that...We'd been talkin' together in the dinin' hall until late into the night... After that, someone must've broken in..." : "Dad, when did all of you finish their meeting and go to sleep...?": "...Hmm... It was a little past midnight...Therefore, ...sometime after that, ...is probably when it happened..." : "...Seriously...gimme a break..."  : "...Really? Great for you... I feel like my head's gonna explode...This is the dining hall, right? This is where every day I would eat, complain about school, complain about homework, ...talk to my parents about my grades, ...that's what this place is to me..." : "...Milady. It wouldn't be good to remain here any longer. ...Let's return to the parlor." : "I agree...Hideyoshi oji-san! I think this room will be really important to the police. Don't you think it would be bad if we trampled all over it?"Battler proposed this in a slightly powerful voice as, along with Kanon, he grabbed the pale and shaking Jessica's shoulders.  ...Even though that horrible scene in the storehouse had felt like something not of this world, at least then we had been able to leave, to cut ourselves off from that place and run away. Everyone had shared in that feeling. ...However, this dining hall was different. It was in the main wing of the mansion, ...and as Jessica had said, the inside of the mansion was supposed to be the one place where we could feel secure. It was the same place that all of the relatives had eaten lunch and dinner yesterday. ...The shock of seeing this place smeared with blood reminded us of that horrible spectacle in the storehouse, and forced us to accept that we really hadn't been able to run away from the scene of that tragedy... : "...Hmm. I also agree... The culprit might have left traces in this room! Amateurs like us shouldn't stir the place up. ...Let's leave quickly. Quickly, quickly!"Hideyoshi also understood the meaning of what Battler had said, and pushed everyone to hurry out of the dining hall. ...The way we were then, looking at that blood any longer would have been too harsh.  Once in the hallway, we helped Kumasawa, who was still trembling and leaning against the wall, and we all headed back to the parlor together. ...Then, Genji returned.   : "...My apologies. A boat will be arriving on Monday morning, and I believe we will be able to borrow their communications equipment.": "Isn't there a boat on this island?! Can't we just take a little trip out to the Niijima Police Department?!": "...Hideyoshi-san, that would be impossible with this weather... At the very least, we can't do anything until the typhoon passes by us.": "Krauss-sama's boat is being repaired and is not on the island... Therefore, we must wait for the boat coming on Monday...": "H, how could this happen...?! Six people are dead!! The phones and radio aren't working, and there's no boat! Until the typhoon passes and the boat comes..., in other words until tomorrow morning, will we just have to stay here on this island without being able to contact the police?!"  : "...That certainly follows. ...The culprit who killed everyone is still here on the island." : "S, ...so the bastard who killed Dad and the others, without being able to escape the island, must still be hiding somewhere...drat it, damnitdamnitdamnit!!! I'll find that bastard, no way I'll hand him over to the police!! I'll slice him into bits myself...!!! Whaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!" : "..."Maria had finally realized that something was odd in the parlor. ...Rather than noticing something odd, it was probably better to say that she felt unhappy and neglected since everyone was getting so excited about something only she didn't know about.  ...She looks...altogether too happy about this. ...Jessica probably didn't like that. ...As though trying to say 'Can't you tell just by looking at me, overwhelmed with grief!', she flared up against Maria. : "They all died, everyone, everyone!! My dad and Battler's parents!! Gohda-san and Shannon!! And even your mother, too!!": "Stop it, Jessica-chan...!! You aren't the only one who's sad...!": "...Maria-san... I know this will come as a shock, but please listen. ...Your mother has...died." And she's taking this...oddly well. Just too young to get it? Or perhaps a budding sociopath? : "...How many people, died?": "Six people!! Six people! ...Dammitdammitdammit! How could you do something so cruel!! There's a limit to how cruel you can be, if you're a human...! I don't know who it is, but the culprit isn't human!! There's no way their blood is red!!" ...Well. There's that answered, I guess. : "Huh? ...Hey, Maria, did you say something just now?"Maria had just said something, but since the words were so remotely separated from the flow and context of the conversation, for a second, I couldn't understand them. When I tried to ask her to repeat it again, I was shocked by the sudden sound of Natsuhi oba-san's loud voice coming from the entrance to the parlor. It looked like Natsuhi oba-san and Eva oba-san had returned from their trip to see Grandfather.  : But several years ago the Master decided that portion of the budget would be better used to augment his alcohol fund... : "Wait, don't you have one of those boat signaling devices that makes a flashing light? Couldn't you use that to contact the next island?": "...We do not have such equipment...My apologies..."Just then, Kumasawa came pushing a serving cart loaded with breakfast. ...Since there was no way we would be able to eat in the dining hall, Hideyoshi ordered her to take it to the parlor. : "Why are we eating breakfast here?": "...Aaaahhh, Natsuhi-san..., I'll tell you later. More importantly, Eva, how was Father?" : "Judging by the fact that he is not with you, ...he won't even leave his room for a situation like this..."  : "...That's right. I am also surprised... I wonder when he left his room... Do any of you have an idea?"Natsuhi looked at Genji and Kanon as she said this. Maybe she was trying to ask whether the servants who served directly under the One-winged Eagle would know of a place he might go. ...However, it was probably the other way around. Their faces made it clear that those who knew Kinzo best realized even more than the rest how impossible it was for him to leave his room. : "...Even we have no idea.": "...As you all know, within that study, the Master had everything set up from a place to sleep to a bathroom. I couldn't imagine him leaving that room except for a significant reason.": "...In that case, what? Isn't it natural to think that one of those 'significant reasons' came up...!?"Clearly, only one thing could have possibly come up that would have been, in the absence of the servants, significant enough to lure Kinzo out. He must have run out of absinthe. : "We still don't know whether that is the case! Anyways, he is a fickle person, so it's possible that he went for a walk by himself without knowing the current situation. ...If that is the case, we have to tell him what has happened and ask for instructions as fast as we can." No one had seen Kinzo since the six horrible corpses had been found. On top of that, the phones were broken, the radio wouldn't reach anyone, and there was no way to contact the police. ...It looked like the typhoon would leave tomorrow and a boat would come, ...until then, no one could rely on anyone outside the island, nor could they escape the island. Everyone had lost their composure at the extremely sudden tragedy. ...Everyone felt a heavy silence. Everyone was impatient. ...Even though they needed to do something, they couldn't think of anything, so some of them held their heads in their arms while others got irritated. ...Right now, no one could explain what was occurring on this island, Rokkenjima... After that, we ate the breakfast that Kumasawa-san had made. It felt dry and tasteless. Of course, this was right after something like that had happened. No one felt particularly hungry. However, we realized that not eating would weaken our bodies.  As to what Gohda-san had been planning to cook with those ingredients...right then I couldn't even imagine it. If I did think about it, I would be reminded of the way Gohda-san had died, and the inside of my mouth would be filled with a sour taste... For the time being, everyone pretended to eat, but no one was actually going to move their chopsticks. Then everyone began thinking about the current situation. First off, ...Krauss oji-san, my dad, Kyrie-san, Rosa oba-san, Gohda-san and Shannon-chan: six people whose cruelly mutilated corpses had been found in the rose garden storehouse. And despite that, without being able to use phones or radio, we still couldn't contact the police. ...So until the typhoon passed, there was nothing we could do.  Unless he just snuck into the kitchen and raided the fridge while no one was looking. And despite that, he hadn't appeared. ...There was more than a small chance that he had become caught up in the earlier crime. Natsuhi oba-san and Eva oba-san had said that, on their return trip from going to see Kinzo, they had called out to him on every floor, looking for him, but were not able to find him. ...If you think about the timing of it all, it was probably best to think that he had been caught up in the crime. Or he heard them on the way back from his booze run but deliberately ignored and avoided them. If the culprit had taken the trouble to move the corpses of Dad and the rest, who we figured had been killed in the dining hall, all the way to the storehouse, maybe they had already killed Grandfather, moved his corpse to some strange location, and we had simply not found it yet. No one actually said it, but this theory seemed extremely convincing... : "We will go check that all of the windows and doors are closed. We must also carefully search for Father. So that the children stay in this room...Eva-san and Hideyoshi-san, I'm sorry, but please stay here with the children. Doctor Nanjo as well.": "...I understand. I will wait here..."Natsuhi oba-san followed the servants, Genji-san, Kumasawa-san, and Kanon-kun, out of the parlor. All that was left was Eva oba-san, Hideyoshi oji-san, Doctor Nanjo, and the four of us children for a total of seven people. : "Let's all stick together, maybe watch some television while we wait. Unfortunately, I don't think that there'll be any good shows on during the middle of the day on Sunday."Hideyoshi oji-san tried to stir up this gloomy atmosphere, acting cheerfully.  ...Even though Maria had been told of her mother's death, she didn't show the slightest flicker in her emotions. Maybe it was because Maria was only nine years old, and was still too young... Everyone else's mood failed to improve, and they each sank absentmindedly into their sofas... : "...Aniki. Can I ask you something?": "...What is it?" : "...Just now in the storehouse. You said something about Shannon-chan and a ring. ...Did you give that to her?" And yet they...didn't use one of the sprites he has that actually fits that description...  : "Quit it, Battler. ...Figure it out yourself.": "...You're right. I shouldn't have asked that."  : "...Well, I...several years ago, I had a talk with Shannon. ...About you, George nii-san.": "...I wonder what she could have said."  : "...So I handed her the engagement ring, and then, ...it was all over.": "...A sense of value varies with the person. ...But being proposed to by a man, ...can, in a way, be the high point of a girl's life. ...So I'm sure. Last night, I think Shannon was, from the bottom of her heart, ...no, more than she ever had been since she was born, truly happy...": "..."...George-aniki, without raising his head, sighed deeply... ...Or maybe tears had risen to his eyes.  : "...Think about Shannon's feelings. ...She had received an engagement ring, and no matter how much she had been prepared for it beforehand, it was perfectly normal that she got so excited that her mind went blank. ...Her being embarrassed was only natural.": "...And then, Shannon, ...even though she hadn't been on duty there, she went to the mansion, ...and helped Gohda-san with his job, ...and got caught up in this case... If only I hadn't, on that day, in that place, given her that ring..., Shannon wouldn't have, ...Sayo wouldn't have, ...been caught up in that case...! ...Whaaaaaaaaa!!"Maybe not, but consider: who else was in the mansion? Aside from the six who died, only Natsuhi and Kinzo, and she had the scorpion charm to repel Beatrice. So if Shannon hadn't gone to the mansion, Kinzo might have died instead. Clearly things worked out for the best, really. : "Aniki. That's wrong. That's definitely wrong. ...So don't cry any more.": "...Aaaahaaaaaa..." ...Misplaced words of comfort might actually hurt him. Jessica sat down next to Aniki, and put an arm around him. Maybe only Jessica, who had known about Aniki and Shannon's love since the beginning, and who had discussed that relationship with Shannon, ...could comfort Aniki now. I went over to Eva oba-san and sat down in the opposite sofa...   : "My, my. But on the other hand, you were crying a lot back then, right?" : "Well, I did think that at least that much crying was due as gratitude to the parent who raised me... Hehehe...": "...The speed of that changeover and that dry tone must have come from Rudolf. ...That kid would always get violently happy, sad, and angry, but he would always regain his cool immediately afterwards." : "...It's nothing like that. I haven't really been able to get over the shock yet. ...I think it's just that the emotions that rose up in me were different from everybody else's.": "What do you mean?"  : "...Rather than sadness, ...it's more like I'm irritated. What bastard did this and where? ...It's kinda been eating at me that I didn't get a chance to smack him upside the face."That was what I really wanted to do. It was like I couldn't allow myself to just sit here, overwhelmed with sadness and hugging my knees. : "...Since the time Dad and everyone else were killed, this island has remained covered by the typhoon. ...In short, that means that the bastard responsible for all of this is still somewhere on this island.": "It sure does mean that. ...I wonder if they're hiding themselves somewhere in that dark forest even now?"...I felt like I'd had a very similar conversation with Kyrie-san the night before. That's right. After the letter from the person who claimed to be Beatrice appeared at the dinner table last night, ...we had talked about whether or not a 19th person actually exists.  : "...Aah, that one? ...Well, I wonder. All of the siblings were in agreement that the mysterious letter had been sent to further complicate the problem of Father's inheritance. ...As to whether that and the case this morning are related, it's impossible to tell at this stage..."...Letter from a witch. A publicly posted riddle/set of murder ritual instructions relating to the same witch. Murder victims matching the ritual's first step, with occult symbols painted nearby. “It's impossible to tell at this stage.” Christ, Eva. : "Was that letter really given to Maria by some witch called Beatrice?": "How could it be? All of it was a farce devised by Father, wasn't it? He made someone like Shannon-chan wear the dress from the portrait and deceive Maria-chan, right? Isn't that just like the kind of intricate prank Father would pull?" : "There's no one else but us on this island, you think...?": "Obviously, right? Are you saying there could be someone else here other than us? No one is on this island except us. There are only 18 people. So the one pretending to be Beatrice has to be one of those 18."Kyrie-san had denied that there was a 19th person by 'turning over the chessboard'. Even though Eva oba-san hadn't constructed an argument that complicated, her opinion at least was the same. ...Except, if that were the case, our situation would start to look very ugly... At the time of Beatrice's letter, the matter could be easily settled since it hadn't seemed to be anything more than a prank. ...However, now the matter couldn't be settled by simply denying the existence of a 19th person. ...In other words,  : "..."Eva oba-san smiled meaningfully. ...It looked like Oba-san thought that this conclusion should have been obvious from the very beginning. : "The culprit carried the bodies of those six into the storehouse. But they sure did a good job getting into that storehouse, didn't they? That shutter is always closed and locked, right? In other words, in order to carry them into the storehouse, the culprit would need to unlock the shutter. ...Understand?": "...Is there any possibility that the shutter was left open by mistake that day?": "The servants said that it is always shut. In other words, unless they brought the keys out of the servants' room, they definitely couldn't have opened the storehouse.": "Is the only key the one in the servants' room...?" : “Furthermore, even though the key didn't have a tag or anything sticking to it, they knew it was the key to the storehouse behind the rose garden. ...And that means that they also knew where the storehouse was. ...I'll say it even clearer. The culprit knew the inside of the servants' room well."Her argument was extremely plain and clear. ...If the bodies had been found thrown somewhere in the bushes of the rose garden, there wouldn't have been much to go on. However, if there was only one key to the storehouse in the servants' room, and it was stored with such a large group of keys, a novice would not be able to tell them apart. This meant that the culprit was someone who could normally enter the servants' room, and knew where the key was well. ...The family didn't normally go into the servants' room. ...Which meant that... : "...Which means that, ...one of the servants is, ...the culprit...": "I'm sorry, but even Oba-san can't say any more than that. ...However, I'll tell you one thing.": "...What's that?" It was impossible. It might not have been if a single person had enough time, but that would have taken ages. It was probably best to think that a significant number of people had been part of it. : "...Erk. So what Eva oba-san means is, ..., maybe all of the servants were in cahoots." I had been playing detective with Eva oba-san, trying to expose the person who had killed Dad and the rest before the police did. ...If only I could skillfully penetrate the culprit's identity, I wanted to stick proof that it was them in their face. ...I had been so sure that, just like in one of those detective movies, the culprit would then give up and surrender. However, the culprit would only surrender if there was no way for them to fight back. The culprits behind these cases on the island were far from helpless, and might even be able to massacre all of the remaining people on the island. ...And on top of that, this island was like a giant locked room, cut off from the outside world by the typhoon, so they had a full day, until tomorrow, to kill, scheme and camouflage themselves... In short, it wasn't a safe atmosphere where we could get very far by playing detective... To the contrary, we were at a stage where we had to be scared stiff, since playing detective might displease the culprits, and cause them to repeat another mass murder...  : "Someone behind all of this? Hmm..., why?": "It's just a feeling. ...Think about what the word servant literally means. It means someone who serves as someone else's arms and legs, right? Everyone who was killed had some relation to the Ushiromiya family. So naturally, it was someone who had some interest in that result."This was also plain and clear... It all went straight to the discussion that had been taking place in the Ushiromiya family about how to distribute the inheritance when Grandfather died. If this case followed the standard form of any classic mystery novel, it was definitely a crime by someone with ties to the Ushiromiya family and who was entangled in the inheritance problem... Oba-san had probably also read a few books in that genre. ...Eva oba-san's argument had a few one-sided conclusions to it, and it was probably a shortcut that anyone could have reached. I think anyone would have doubted the servants, even if their logic was different. Especially the story about the key to the shutter. That was enough to make it easy to suspect that one of the servants was involved in the case...   Deny the obvious! Uphold the inane! If the servants really had been the culprits, they wouldn't hide the bodies in a place that was tied to themselves. There were other places besides the rose garden storehouse, whose key they themselves controlled. The police would probably immediately pursue whoever had been in control of the key. That would create a danger for exposure. ...If we were to assume that they were the culprits, they had no reason to carry the bodies into the storehouse. ...If you twist that around, why did they purposefully put them in the storehouse? No, that definitely didn't make sense. When the police come and inspect the site, several things will probably become clear. No matter how deeply careful the culprits were in carrying out murder, some kind of traces will definitely be found. So, in summary, they had everything to lose and nothing to gain.   While the VN doesn't have Higurashi on TV in the background, it does have Battler namedrop it as something he's read, which is roughly as weird. Not quite as weird as, say, people offering each other modded copies of Higurashi within Higurashi, granted, but up there. As with the anime thing, it's one of those things we're best off not thinking about too hard. ...Right now, no one knew where Grandfather was. We didn't know whether he had already become a victim, or if he was one of the culprits, ...but this state of confusion had to be beneficial to the culprit.  Right, that was where we could 'turn the chessboard over'.  In other words, the culprit wanted to display this murder. To who? ...To us. It was a message from them. The culprit was trying to shove something in our faces. ...I didn't know what that could be. At the current time, none of us could grasp anything from this vulgar mass murder except malice. ...Malice towards, everyone, ...perhaps. So, Kinzo, then. Or maybe Kanon.  Krauss oji-san's death brought Jessica the grief of losing one of her family. The deaths of Dad and Kyrie-san brought me sorrow, while Rosa oba-san's death brought Maria sorrow. ...Did it? Because uh. She doesn't seem to give a poo poo at all. ...Gohda-san's death probably influenced his fellow servants, and Shannon-chan's death brought grief to George-aniki, who had proposed to her, and Kanon-kun, who had loved her like an older sister. ...Everyone now on this island had received an equal amount of sadness. Eva oba-san had claimed that the servants were definitely in cahoots, ...but then how could you explain the deaths of Gohda-san and Shannon-chan?  It was very possible to doubt Eva oba-san herself, who was acting like she was outside the net of suspicion, and who might have been trying to point that suspicion at the servants. ...In the first place, she had managed to avoid suspicion and place it on the servants with that argument about the key to the shutter, ...but if you looked at it from a perspective of motive, about who would gain something from the murders, ...Eva oba-san's name floated to the top of the list.   : "I'm the one who would gain the most from these murders. ...Since I'm going to be suspected anyways, I might as well get it out in the open myself."I had tried to trick her by joking around, but it looked like it hadn't worked. : "The inheritance will be divided between the siblings. But right now, the four siblings are just me. All of the assets of the Ushiromiya family will become mine. ...Ufufufufufu.": "If Hideyoshi oji-san heard you, he'd say 'Could you give it a rest, it's not a joke'...": "I'm sorry? No matter how I try to smooth it over, I'll just be suspected anyways, so I was just fooling around. ...So I've been thinking, from my point of view, this murder might have been planned to cast suspicion on me. ...Unfortunately, my alibi for last night is weak.": "Could you tell me about it? About last night?": "As you know, the discussion between the siblings of how to slice up and eat the inheritance continued until late in the night. But I don't know how late it lasted. My husband and I had woken up early that morning. We were so sleepy, and a little past midnight, they let us go. We then returned to the guesthouse and rested there.": "...Can anyone other than Hideyoshi oji-san prove that? No, wait Eva oba-san, it's not like I'm suspecting you or anything, ri~ght? Hihihi!" : "Is that really true? That'd mean that, right now, I'm playing detective with the real culprit, right? Ihihi!": "However, let me say this for my honor's sake: if my goal was the inheritance, I wouldn't have needed to commit this weird kind of murder, right? After all, if I just wanted to make them forfeit their rights to the inheritance, the method of their deaths wouldn't have mattered. On the contrary, you'd expect that I would try to make their deaths look like an accident, wouldn't I? If I had roped in the servants, and carefully planned everything out, I would be even more capable of doing that.": "You're right about that... If you were killing someone to make a profit, you definitely shouldn't make it look like a murder.": "That's it, right? So from here on, Oba-san is in a very blue mood. ...I'll probably be treated as the person behind this by the police, and harshly investigated. Oh no, oh no..."Eva oba-san shrugged with a bitter smile. ...Just like it was easy to think of the servants as suspicious, it was also very easy to think of Eva oba-san as suspicious.  No, that can't be right... Knowing the motive should be a big clue towards knowing the culprit. ...That was why murderers from all time periods tried to skillfully put on airs to the contrary, and disguise the case in various ways...   Confirmed deaths aren't all that the bios get updated for. Mysterious disappearances are covered to. But surely Kinzo's is nothing to worry about. I mean, he knows better than anyone what's going on, so surely he took some sort of appropriate precaution for his booze run. And they wouldn't kill off the best character before the ritual even hits the 20% mark, right? Right? ...Right?  Next time: Has there ever been a work of media in which “shoot the creepy little girl” would not have been pretty solid advice? Shiny777 fucked around with this message at 08:07 on Nov 18, 2012 |
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Nov 18, 2012 06:52
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Battler brought up some good points when he was doing the flipping the chessboard thing. It's too obvious for it to be Eva (and by extension Hideyoshi) or the servants. The cousins were in the guesthouse with the rest of the servants. This leaves Matsuhi and Kinzo. Matsuhi is just a bit unhinged but Kinzo more so and has a better motive. And now he's missing.  I guess it's possible the original murderer was one of the dead 6 (maybe explaining why Rudolf knew he was going to die if that was his plan all along and he felt it might backfire, but I think I'm reaching here), and then someone killed that person for reasons.It could be Beatrice, but that goes against Knox and I'm not even sure it'd be 'fair' for her to kill people so she herself could be resurrected. Although it would be an explanation for the golden butterflies that Shannon saw. If possession is a power that she has, then maybe she possessed someone in the mansion that night to do it? That seems even more unlikely... So I guess I'm going with Kinzo, at least for this update, but even that seems almost too obvious. Unless he turns up dead later or something, this game won't be going very far if it is him. We can't rule out multiple murderers, but there's no reason for there to be more than one and it's just the first episode. It probably means nothing, but they can get a TV signal but no radio? Huh. Good music and good update. Can't wait for the next one to completely void my ramblings and theory-crafting. 
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Nov 18, 2012 08:02
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Shiny777 posted:Done!  Well, that was fast!Shiny777 posted:Next time: Has there ever been a work of media in which “shoot the creepy little girl” would not have been pretty solid advice? No. Not now, not ever. I have to wonder why nobody in-game suspects Kinzo. He's conveniently missing right after six people died, he's got an unhealthy obsession with black magic, a letter claiming to be from Beatrice showed up last night and there was an eldritch circle written on the door of the shed. As the person who knows the answer to the riddle, he would have more interest in making the ritual murder part come true than anyone else on the island; if he killed everyone off, there's not only a chance that he could revive Beatrice, he also wouldn't have to give up his wealth to people that he obviously loathes. He could easily have the equipment needed for the murders squirreled away in his study and nobody would know, because only Nanjo and Genji are regular visitors and I'm guessing he doesn't let them snoop around too much. He was the first person I suspected. (Full disclosure: I'm halfway through the second episode and I'm only going to read during the daytime from now on, so I'm nowhere near the end of the first four arcs and certainly haven't read the Answer episodes.)
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Nov 18, 2012 08:14
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You know, I'm pretty sure Kinzo would be willing to kill his entire family just for that witch prophecy. He is just such an angry and crazy son of a bitch. I'm pretty sure they don't suspect him because he is the head of the family and it would be taboo to make such accusations.
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Nov 18, 2012 08:16
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Battler has a point here. The culprit's actions, well, don't make a lot of sense. Basically no matter what angle you look at it from, these people dying as they did just just dangerous to the living people involved. If a servant did it, then shoving them all in the shed, which only they have access to, just puts them at the front of suspicion. If, say, Eva did it, well duh everybody's going to suspect that just conveniently enough all her rival's for Kinzo's fortune (As well as the servant her son was eyeing, how scandalous!) is now dead?
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Nov 18, 2012 08:30
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So, where to start. This is a fairly decent update, so we have to break it down to simple things: Maria doesn't care about Rosa being dead, for reasons unknown to humans. Drop the ball by saying ''They are the xxxx chosed by the xxxx'' line. There's only 1 key and it's on the servant's room. Eva gains alot from this, since she would become the head of the family. There's a possibility that the murderer is one of the 12 remaining people, since nobody else was in the island aside from them. Battler, shamelessly, steals Kirie's turning the chessboard and uses it to get nowhere. Kinzo left to study to play hide and seek or to pick up the morning newspaper. One of the two is probably true. And that's about it, really. 11 people and a creepy little girl can't do much against something that can carry 6 bodies into a closed garden shed in the middle of the night.
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Nov 18, 2012 12:48
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Eva's supposed movements during the night seem pretty out of character. I can't imagine her leaving the other siblings to plot and scheme without her just because she was feeling tired.
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Nov 18, 2012 13:15
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If Eva was the killer, wouldn't she try to interfere with one of the useful people, rather than Battler? And if she were smart enough to pull this off, you'd figure she wouldn't be running around cackling about it and snarking at Natsuhi, either. I vote we kill Jessica, since the damned murderer didn't have enough taste to do so him/herself.
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Nov 18, 2012 18:32
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What's so wrong with Jessica? She hasn't done anything terribly offensive yet, unlike say Kinzo, Battler, Rosa, Eva x 300, George, and Kanon (who never stops talking about how he will only ever be a folding chair).
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Nov 18, 2012 21:22
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Omniphile posted:What's so wrong with Jessica? She hasn't done anything terribly offensive yet, unlike say Kinzo, Battler, Rosa, Eva x 300, George, and Kanon (who never stops talking about how he will only ever be a folding chair). The other characters deepen the atmosphere in their interactions with other characters. Sure- Rosa's a bitch... BUT her scenes with Maria, while distressing and horrible, actually contributed to the understanding of both her character and Maria's. Eva is interesting in how cold, heartless and sarcastic she is. Kinzo is fascinating for obvious reasons, and I don't know what you find so annoying about George. Not fond of Battler either, but eh, he's the main character so I can't hope for his destruction this early. Jessica is just there to be a ditzy blonde, play up the "Teeheehee we're all high school students" thing, be a sex object for her own first cousin, and make that goddamned terrible fistpump pose. At the same time, she's histrionic enough that she manages to turn everything into "It's time for us to calm down Jessica, she's had a bad day". It's entirely possible that her character (With a different default pose) in a different game would be less insufferable, but when you compare her character against all the other females in the game and how decently they're written, Jessica sticks out like a sore thumb as a source of personal annoyance.
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Nov 18, 2012 21:39
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You forget that for in order for the tragedies to have meaning, we must show what they make people lose. Jessica's a regular teenage girl, in a sense she's like Battler in that she's also an "everyman" character. She shows how a normal person, unconcerned with the complex politics of the Urishomiya family, reacts to these horrid events.
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Nov 18, 2012 21:53
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They might be referring to George's creepiness when proposing to Shannon, because, uh, that was creepy.  Jessica seems nice and on the basis of that alone I hope she doesn't get offed. Goodness knows this family needs some sanity. Her fist pump pose is annoying though, yeah. And speaking of Kanon, I had a thought: maybe he keeps referring to himself as furniture because he's furniture brought to life or something. Maybe that's why he, Shannon, and Genji have the Ushiromiya mark (I don't think the old lady does and for sure Gohda doesn't). This probably isn't/won't be relevant for the murders, but I can't think of another explanation beyond extreme brainwashing and Genji seems too aware for that. On Eva, maybe she was planning to kill someone but someone else decided to go on a spree and pin it on her, the obvious culprit. Thing is, unless some of the scenes shown are unreliable, I can't see anyone with both the motive and the means to do it that's already not dead, Eva, or Kinzo.
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Nov 18, 2012 21:54
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Maybe Kanon just has really low self-esteem. I mean, our first meeting with the kid is him kind of getting embarrassed in front of the guests by having them helping him with his job.
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Nov 18, 2012 22:00
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So he's clearly a doormat brought to life.  Really, I'm just throwing gum at the wall and seeing what sticks or whatever the expression is. Now that I think on it, the killer can't be one of the 'dead' six unless Nanjo is conspiring with them and that clearly goes against Knox. I don't know if this makes me feel better or worse.
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Nov 18, 2012 22:07
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Don't assume this follows Knox or Dine's rules as linked earlier in this thread. Nor that it doesn't follow any of them. I encourage you to come to your own conclusions.
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Nov 19, 2012 00:45
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Another thing that suggests Kinzo is the culprit is in the letter. The second to last sentence can be read as Kinzo being the opponent of the others. Autumncomet posted:Now that I think on it, the killer can't be one of the 'dead' six unless Nanjo is conspiring with them and that clearly goes against Knox. I don't know if this makes me feel better or worse.
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Nov 19, 2012 01:33
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I can't imagine that this game about murders on an isolated island with a mansion would ever lift from Christie.
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Nov 19, 2012 01:38
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I was referring to the "Nanko is conspiring with the killer who plays dead" part, which is an important point of the plot in one of Christie's most famous stories.
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Nov 19, 2012 06:07
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Jeek posted:I was referring to the "Nanko is conspiring with the killer who plays dead" part, which is an important point of the plot in one of Christie's most famous stories. I'm pretty sure Rodyle knows exactly what you were referring to, given that "murders on an isolated island with a mansion" is also the setup of the book in question. I also feel like Ryukishi07 has mentioned Agatha Christie as an inspiration at some point, but I may be misremembering--it's been several years since I was into Higurashi enough to pay attention to stuff like that.
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Nov 19, 2012 07:35
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Jeek posted:I was referring to the "Nanko is conspiring with the killer who plays dead" part, which is an important point of the plot in one of Christie's most famous stories. We're talking about the same Christie story. Ghost Car posted:I'm pretty sure Rodyle knows exactly what you were referring to, given that "murders on an isolated island with a mansion" is also the setup of the book in question. He explicitly namedrops And Then There Were None in Umineko 7.
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Nov 19, 2012 07:43
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Ghost Car posted:I'm pretty sure Rodyle knows exactly what you were referring to, given that "murders on an isolated island with a mansion" is also the setup of the book in question. It'd be weirder if that wasn't the case.
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Nov 19, 2012 07:48
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Kaja Rainbow posted:Don't assume this follows Knox or Dine's rules as linked earlier in this thread. Nor that it doesn't follow any of them. I encourage you to come to your own conclusions. The thing is that these rules establish a fair mystery. Sure, one or two can be omitted to flesh out the story, as mentioned upthread, and add some interesting obfuscation, but some adherence is necessary. Otherwise it'd just be a game of baseless speculation where nobody could prove anything. The "no conspiracy" rule is particularly vital here, because otherwise we could just say "Kinzo had the servants commit suicide after they ganged up on their victims" and have no meaningful proof one way or the other. Following this, I will not be considering any options where a conspiracy is present. Others are actually welcome to consider conspiracy, we'll cover more bases that way. Regarding the update: All we know about the blood in the living room is that there is blood in the living room. We can reach two conclusions from its presence: 1. at least one person was killed in the living room or 2. nobody was killed in the living room and the blood was added later by (presumably) the culprit. Conclusion 1 has us wonder how the murder was carried out. It is doubtful that the culprit could succeed if there were more than one victim in the room. Beyond this there is not much to conclude. Conclusion 2 implies that the culprit wants to divert attention from the actual scene of the crime. This is quite likely, as they would have been able to clear away traces of the murder overnight otherwise. In other words, the killed-in-their-beds scenario is still possible. And about the scorpion charm - it was hung on the inside of the door, but there might still be ways for it to serve as a mark to an informed culprit on the other side of the door. As I said, it's mostly irrelevant as to exactly how it does this. I'm cheating slightly with this conclusion because I'm considering the scorpion charm a Chekhov's Gun, in other words it has to have importance to the story, otherwise its presence would be meaningless. Admittedly, it could also be a red herring. I suspect I will be hit by many of them over the course of the story. Fightest fucked around with this message at 13:30 on Nov 19, 2012 |
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Nov 19, 2012 13:28
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Yeah, I have no problem throwing out a couple of the guidelines, but I'm also assuming that eventually we'll get all of the details needed to solve the murders. Anyway, potential culprits identified by the thread so far: - Kinzo - has the motive, no one besides the servants and Natsuhi has seen him recently anyway, gone missing right after the 6 murders, crazy - Eva and/or Hideyoshi - has the motive and spouse and child were safe (not to mentioned the girl their son proposed to is dead), not exactly a solid alibi, almost too obvious a culprit (a good scapegoat though); Eva seems a bit more likely to be the one calling the shots if they're working together - Nanjo conspiring with one of the dead 6 - no real motive yet, would be able to help someone else pretend to be dead (might require a body double for that person though and wouldn't work for Krauss and Shannon)- Natsuhi - has motive if you can buy that she's fed up with her husband and wants the money for herself and Jessica (not implausible...), something is up with the scorpion charm, might have a partial alibi since she was talking with Jessica for a time that evening Additionally, all of the murders were in the mansion, which rules out the cousins and the rest of the servants and puts suspicion on whoever changed the schedule. Who, now I think of it, probably was Genji since he seems to be the head servant! I'm ruling out Beatrice and possession/magic stuff at the moment because we don't know enough about that. 
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Nov 19, 2012 13:57
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Autumncomet posted:Additionally, all of the murders were in the mansion, which rules out the cousins and the rest of the servants and puts suspicion on whoever changed the schedule. Who, now I think of it, probably was Genji since he seems to be the head servant! Well, I'd the servants in the guesthouse can't really be excluded, it wouldn't be hard for one of them to sneak out and back to the mansion.
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Nov 19, 2012 14:16
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Fightest posted:The thing is that these rules establish a fair mystery. Sure, one or two can be omitted to flesh out the story, as mentioned upthread, and add some interesting obfuscation, but some adherence is necessary. Otherwise it'd just be a game of baseless speculation where nobody could prove anything. The "no conspiracy" rule is particularly vital here, because otherwise we could just say "Kinzo had the servants commit suicide after they ganged up on their victims" and have no meaningful proof one way or the other. Following this, I will not be considering any options where a conspiracy is present. Others are actually welcome to consider conspiracy, we'll cover more bases that way. Umineko does try to be a fair mystery and is intended to be solvable by the end of Episode 4. And it does adhere at least partially to those rules. At least. Though it'll be quite a while before we see Episode 4. It's a very long work.
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Nov 19, 2012 17:04
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Fightest posted:The thing is that these rules establish a fair mystery. Sure, one or two can be omitted to flesh out the story, as mentioned upthread, and add some interesting obfuscation, but some adherence is necessary. Otherwise it'd just be a game of baseless speculation where nobody could prove anything. The "no conspiracy" rule is particularly vital here, because otherwise we could just say "Kinzo had the servants commit suicide after they ganged up on their victims" and have no meaningful proof one way or the other. I don't have any theories to offer, but I feel like an answer of "Genji committed suicide at Kinzo's behest" (or Kanon if it had been him) would actually still be "fair" given their conversation about "we are servants, we're not allowed to have people feelings". Conspiracies out of nowhere are no good, but I think we've been pretty well set up for at least Kanon and possibly Genji being up for something like that.
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Nov 19, 2012 17:13
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For the scorpian charm, perhaps the culprit intends to spare the siblings for the time being, so he/she shaked the room's door to check if Jessica is in. He/she heard a rattle, assumes that Jessica was in the room because of the charm's instruction and left. This would explain the marking on the door as well. On another note, don't forget that the letter was given to Maria by somebody Maria claims to be Beatrice, which means "Beatrice" is either: 1. a female; 2. a male with good disguise and a feminine physique to fool a girl (presumably not that hard but that still takes skills). Or it could all be Maria's doing.  And we haven't even touched on how "Beatrice" got the ring to seal the letter. It should be fair to assume that he/she did not wait outside the mansion for the ring, so it must have either been stolen or borrowed from Kinzo (the game has explicitly said forging is impossible). Man this detective thingy is hard.
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Nov 20, 2012 08:19
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Part Sixteen: Ain't She Just The Cutest Lil' Demonspawn? As I looked over the parlor, I saw George-aniki and the others gathered, talking. ...It looked like they were talking about the magic circle that had been painted onto the shutter. As Hideyoshi oji-san thought back to that time, he started drawing the shape in the margins of Maria's notebook. ...I see, since Maria was second only to Grandfather in knowledge of the occult, she might understand what it meant.  : "...After that, around the top of the circumference, there was a small mark. ...Five small circles arranged in a + sign, and straight lines connecting them...": "Ah, yes, there definitely was somethin' like that drawn there... Yep, there's no mistakin' the shape. I don't understand the thin characters, but the arrangement was nearly the same."Everyone was staring down at the shape, so I stared down at it too. ...From what I had heard, this had been painted on the shutter to the storehouse with some material that looked like blood. ...I see, this sure is unsettling. : "...The only person who would want to draw something this confusing is probably Grandfather. ...Seriously, where did he go?! I wanna grab him and ask what the hell this is supposed to mean!!"Jessica's voice contained impatience and anger. She hadn't gone so far as to say that Grandfather was the culprit, but it looked as though she thought that Grandfather definitely knew the culprit's background.  Which meant that, ..., this might have been, ...something addressed to Grandfather... That's right, and the reason the crime had been shown off to the survivors was so that they would find this. In that case, where had Grandfather, as the essential recipient of this message, disappeared off to...? : "Does this shape ring any bells...?" ...Maybe she was enthusiastic since this was her area of expertise. Yes. That expression just oozes enthusiasm. Someone tell her to calm the hell down and get to work. ...However, her appearance was that of someone separated from the events at hand, ...as though this thing hadn't been drawn on the shutter closed around her mother's corpse... : "...My first impression was that the design resembled a German swastika..."Uh. What? I'm...not really seeing the resemblance. At all. : "Aah... It certainly does have that kind of design. Does that mean it has somethin' to do with Germany?"Though, Beatrice does have blonde hair and blue eyes. And an Italian name. And Kinzo became ultra-rich in the aftermath of WWII... So uh. I guess there's enough there to make a few large-ish leaps of logic and conclude that the witch may have been a Nazi/allied with them. But...the symbol still has about gently caress all to do with that...  (clickable) Oh, hey there Maria. Got this poo poo figured out already? : "The swastika was originally a crest from a religious order of knights and was supposed to protect pilgrims traveling to sacred places..." :"...So in other words, this magic circle might have some religious meaning...? This is starting to sound like gibberish..."When I looked over at all of them, preparing to jump into the discussion, ...something shocked me. Maria was laughing, an eerie and incomprehensible expression on her face.  ...Um. ...It was almost as if she was making fun of everyone's ignorance, and laughing at us. ...It was an expression that I couldn't have dreamed I would ever see on Maria's face...   AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH KILLITKILLITKILLIT PURGE THE HELLSPAWN WITH FIRE   While everyone was scared out of their wits, Maria, alone, kept on cackling happily... After a while, that laugh was suddenly and abruptly cut off. But her expression was still like someone completely different from Maria. : "This is the seventh magic circle of the sun. ...The characters are written in Hebrew. Could you let me borrow it?": "Ah, ...yes."Maria stole the writing materials from the stunned Hideyoshi's hand. She then started drawing another magic circle with a rustle, right next to the one that Hideyoshi had drawn... Now someone seize the opportunity and attack while she's distracted!  Jessica tried to smooth things over by praising Maria. Maybe she wanted to make sure that this was still the Maria who everyone knew so well. ...But Maria didn't answer her in any way in particular. With a rustle, Maria began writing characters that seemed familiar to her in the corner of the shape. ...When Hideyoshi oji-san and Doctor Nanjo saw them, their eyes immediately began to open wide...  Er. Aren't half of those orders of angels? A bit of cursory Googling turns up a few tidbits indicating that this is apparently legit occultism but it still seems odd to me. Even if they hadn't been able to correctly write what they had seen..., when they were once again shown something identical, it wasn't difficult for them to realize that the two were the same. When Maria asked them whether it matched, Hideyoshi oji-san and Doctor Nanjo nodded over and over again.   Yes. At the age of nine, the kid is fluent in Hebrew and has memorized the Bible. For a while, everyone, including me, was at a loss for words. ...A little later, George-aniki returned to his senses, and slowly managed to speak. : "...That's incredible, I'm surprised...So, what meaning does this magic circle have?": "It's a magic circle to borrow the power of the sun. ...He who wears it as a talisman drawn in gold shall be able to break free from the bonds of any prison, and receive the power to gain freedom." : "...Ties of obligation and, inescapable fate, ...you say? ...That's also pretty deep.": "But I really don't understand... What does this have to do with those six bodies? ...Far from bein' released, they were killed and stuffed in a storehouse, weren't they?!" : "It's not like the magic circle was drawn for their sakes. The six of them were there for the sake of the magic circle. It is truly pitiable. ...Kihihihihihihihihihihihihihihihihi.": "What do you mean...? What in the world do you mean when you say the six of them were there for the sake of the magic circle?"Maria lifted up her pointer finger and waggled it as if she were making fun of us.  So uh. Shouldn't the sacrifice have been a nice big turkey, and maybe some potatoes and cranberry sauce and such on the side instead of four rich assholes, a cook, and a talking chair? : "See, you say..., ...I have no idea what you're saying.": "...You're saying that, ...they're sacrifices?"If the part that Maria had just read aloud was the vital part of the magic circle, ...then it was saying that the benefit of this magic circle required sacrifices to be offered in exchange. ...So inside the storehouse, where the magic circle had been drawn, the sacrifices had been offered... It looked like everyone had slowly arrived at the same conclusion. ...Some people were shocked, others spat something out furiously as they punched their knees... ...This was starting to become a seriously disturbing story. ...And since we couldn't accept it, we couldn't understand it. ...I don't care what kind of magic circles or curses other people believe in, I won't pick a fight with them.  As I started getting pissed off with a feeling between anger and sadness, I broke from the circle everyone was in and returned once again to the window. ...Something had gone insane since yesterday. That letter from the witch, Beatrice, that Maria had read aloud at last night's dinner. ...After that point, it felt like we had, ...no, like this whole mansion and this whole island had started to become shut up in some kind of mysterious world... That's right. When I think back on it, that letter was an invitation from the witch. The ruler of the nighttime island had invited us inhabitants of the day into another world. The phone and the radio had been interrupted, the island was shut off by the typhoon, you could now call it another world cut off from the real one.  ...Aah, it's hopeless, it's hopeless, I don't get it... The inside of my head's all screwed up, and I don't even know what to think... Anger, sadness. The opposing emotions all swirled up together, and they started to suck me in. Unable to resist, ...I could do nothing but cover my eyes with my hands and trust to my mind and body as I started getting sucked in... ...As I started losing heart, I began to recall a memory from when I was small. It was from when I was very small. I had unfortunately seen a scary occult movie on TV, and for a while, I hadn't even been able to go to the bathroom by myself. ...That old bastard had given an exaggerated laugh and said this:   : It's because they don't exist. ...Something that ridiculous can't be found anywhere on the planet. Because they don't exist, people want to see them and go to a lot of effort making them. That's why those occult movies just make me laugh. If I were forced to choose, I'd say, rather than demons and monsters, this year's earnings call and angry wives are 100 million times scarier. … ...Seriously, why have I been acting so drat thickheaded. I was totally taken in.   The next thing that started speaking to my heart was Kyrie-san.  : You're talking about chess and Shogi, right? In the last part of the last part of the game, when you proceed to the final stage and everything becomes more and more closed in, the best possible moves start to become limited. ...Therefore, if you're backing someone against the wall, or someone is doing the same to you, both players' moves become infinitely easier to read. : ...That's when you 'turn the chessboard over'.With all of my strength, I slapped my face with both hands. ...Now, my eyes were truly open. When you don't understand anything, and you are completely cornered just like I was then, isn't that the perfect time to 'turn the chessboard over'...! With us put on the defensive, we couldn't even guess at the culprit's scheme. ...If you turned it over and looked at it that way, just how far could you see? ...First off, at the time the murders were committed by the culprit, they knew that the island was cut off by the typhoon. Therefore, they should have understood that even if they carried out the murders, they wouldn't be able to get away until the next morning. In short, the culprit had begun without securing a way to escape.  ...If we had all been dim and hadn't noticed the storage shed, the culprit's goal 'would not have been achieved', would it? Hehe, if you think about it this way, that bastard of a culprit... Since this morning, he must have been watching our every move with bated breath. After all, if we hadn't been so kind as to discover what was on the storehouse, all of that hard work and preparation that they had done last night would have just gone 'poof'. What did the culprit want to make us feel by showing us the corpses in the storehouse? All six of the bodies had had their faces noticeably destroyed. ...A grudge? A warning?  Ha! After thinking this way, I really want to tell that bastard to stop taking me so lightly. Who would just dance to that tune? If you're told 'Please be scared', you can't just say 'Really? Sure thing!' ...When someone tells the great Ushiromiya Battler 'the entrance is right here', I'm the kind of guy who'll start wanting to sneak in through the window! The next thing that had me concerned was the shape of the magic circle on the shutter. As Maria, who had shown that her knowledge of the occult rivaled Grandfather's, had recognized, that magic circle was genuine. They must have drawn that thing in pitch-black darkness, taking a lot of time and holding an umbrella in one hand. Isn't that amount of hard work and perfectionism impressive?  But if that was all they wanted, they could have just drawn any old scribble that looked like a magic circle. It wasn't like any of us amateurs could be able to tell the difference between genuine and fake. Except, y'know, Maria. If they just doodled some random bullshit it would have stopped indicating Kinzo's involvement the second she took a look. ...However, this magic circle was genuine, and furthermore, it had even been written in Hebrew. ...So this magic circle had a message 'that could only be understood by someone with knowledge of the occult'. This message was a form of communication. ...By sending it, they were hoping for a reaction. ...Reaction? ...For some reason, we couldn't find Grandfather now.  ...What kind of reaction was the culprit hoping to get out of us by showing this imitation of the occult...? Somehow, that felt like the culprit's weak point... The letter from Beatrice that Maria had read aloud during last night's dinner sprang back into my mind. ...This person was satisfied with playing a battle of wits. Isn't that interesting? This is a battle of wits between us and the witch. Will we be sucked up by her occult game first? Or will we pull off her fake skin first? Er. You are aware, Battler, that given the tone so far you probably aren't gonna get the Scooby-Doo ending if you pull her face off, right? ...There's a whole day until the typhoon passes. Why not enjoy ourselves...?! I finally noticed that the inside of the parlor had gone quiet again. Everyone had sunk into their favorite sofas, some deep in thought, some irritated, some acting depressed.  Oh, right. On top of everything else, she dropped the uu-ing again earlier. So this...may rule out some kind of letter-based possession. Or at least said possession being temporary. Either the “cutesy child with obnoxious verbal tic” thing has always been just a mask to conceal her creepy demonic side, or Beatrice is just straight up riding shotgun in her head now and grabbing the wheel periodically. Assume whichever makes you uncomfortable. Also regardless of which is true, from that CG earlier we must also consider the distinct possibility that Maria's deadbeat dad is, in fact, Satan. Because holy poo poo that face I stared at each person's appearance in turn. If there wasn't a 19th person, ...the culprit must be in this room.      ...Right now, Natsuhi oba-san was searching the mansion with the servants though, wasn't she? ...Then it shouldn't be 'in this room.' ...'In this mansion,' is what we should say. ...After all, there was also the possibility that Natsuhi oba-san was behind this, ...and we still couldn't deny that one of the servants could be the killer...Anyone could be the bad guy. Still, Natsuhi oba-san and the rest sure are slow... Of course, it's not a small mansion, but isn't this taking a little too long just to walk around, checking the windows and doors...? Just as I thought that, Natsuhi oba-san and the rest returned. Not one of them was missing. ...But our relief was short-lived. Everyone looked at Natsuhi oba-san, shocked...    : "...Sorry if I've startled you. I brought this to be prepared for the worst."Because that thing in Natsuhi oba-san's hand was a rifle. At a glance, its silhouette looked a lot like a hunting gun, but it was unusually short, and kinda looked like a kid-sized gun. However, it had a thickness to it which revealed that this was definitely not some kid's toy. : "...Is that Kinzo-san's gun...?": "Did you know about it? That's right. I remembered that it was in Father's old collection, and I managed to find it.": "Whoa! Awesome... Natsuhi-san, is that thing real?": "Yes, it's real. It can fire live ammunition. Long ago, Father used it to chase wild birds." : "Long ago, Grandfather was really addicted to cowboy films. That generation really liked this kind of rifle." : "Is that a Winchester? But I've never seen something that short before.": "Ah--! I remember, that gun! That really takes me back. That's the one Steam McQueen fired off in Wanted: Alive or Dead!! Father sure has good tastes...!": "...Long ago, the Master had that brought over specially from America. ...As you can see, it is a real gun, so please don't tell anyone about this..."So we've got at least one gun in play, and it's not impossible Kinzo has some others stashed around the place if he went through a gun nut phase back in the day. Which might explain how they managed to take out 4 adults at once, if the killings really did go down in the dining room.  : "He was quite fond of it right after he managed to acquire it. It seems the workings that ejected the cartridges were more interesting to him than shooting it, and he played around with it back in the forest all the time. Hoh-hoh-hoh-ho..." As Natsuhi-san said this, she slumped down into one of the sofas and took a deep breath. She had been trying to find Grandfather as well as check the doors and windows. Since Grandfather was not with her, apparently his whereabouts were still unknown. : "...I carefully checked all of the doors and windows throughout the mansion. However, we must be prepared for anything. Everyone, I think it would be best if we all remained here.": "Don't you? If everyone is gathered here, then we can all feel more secure by keeping an eye on each other." : "...What do you mean by that, Eva-san?": "Nothing really. I'm just agreeing with your opinion, aren't I?" ...No, if you view Beatrice's letter as Grandfather's complicated prank, and think of this case as just an extension of that, there was more than enough evidence to doubt even Grandfather. So Natsuhi oba-san thought that the criminal was on the outside. ...But Eva oba-san thought the criminal was on the inside. In short, it was the question of whether or not a 19th person exists. ...It was the doubt that had been repeated endlessly since last night's dinner, with the letter from the witch who called herself Beatrice. ...So was the culprit among us, or not. And did Beatrice exist, or not.  ...And the witch? Did she draw that weird magic circle and sacrifice those people? If I accepted that rubbish, ...I would be able to completely trust everyone in this room.    Next time: The Cult of Beatrice
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Nov 20, 2012 09:25
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Shiny777 posted:"...My first impression was that the design resembled a German swastika..." That might just be a mistranslation for the Iron Cross, there's similarity there at least.
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Nov 20, 2012 09:41
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Man, I hate the crazy faces some of the CGs have. It feels like they're aping the crazy Deen faces from the Higurashi anime, and they weren't very good there.
Cake Attack fucked around with this message at 10:09 on Nov 20, 2012 |
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Nov 20, 2012 09:59
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Fairly minor detail, but guessing that little silhouette in her eyes hints at Maria being possessed, if anything. so she kinda already expositiondumped us... would shooting her now be solid advice? Please say yes because ohgodthatface
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Nov 20, 2012 10:11
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I think that's Battler's reflection, so no, Beatrice isn't possessing her and mocking her victims. Yet. I have to agree with Cake Attack though. The exaggerated "crazy face" isn't really needed. Maria is creepy enough on her own. The fact that a nine year old just starts talking about all that is disturbing enough. Also, shooting a child is generally a bad idea.
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Nov 20, 2012 10:14
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Compared to her normal voice, Maria's exposition voice is strangely soothing. And that musical track is great. I'm guessing the fact that Natsuhi went out and grabbed a gun to defend everyone with can rule her out as a suspect, unless she were a really good actress (doubtful).
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Nov 20, 2012 10:46
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The crazy face is a bit over the top. I was scared at the first sight but then it become so silly that it makes me chuckle. A more normal face would have done the job better. By the way, I have found a better sprite for Rudolf's little speech:  ...... Hey, Battler. Why do you think they go to all of the trouble to make movies like this about demons and the occult and such? It's because they don't exist. ...Something that ridiculous can't be found anywhere on the planet. Because they don't exist, people want to see them and go to a lot of effort making them. That's why those occult movies just make me laugh. If I were forced to choose, I'd say, rather than demons and monsters, this year's earnings call and angry wives are 100 million times scarier. I'll go further, alright? If you force me to.What you're scared of is something made to entertain people who have too much time on their hands and too much empty space in their minds. They have so much free time, they don't know what to do with it, so in order to play around with their unusual emotions, they created a culture of demons and monsters and stuff.(I am sorry, Mr. Sagan)
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Nov 20, 2012 11:21
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Okay, yeah, that face was excessive. I hadn't played with the newer art, so I'd never seen those CGs. The original has no special CG for this part. It just uses this sprite: It actually did a pretty decent job of making her creepy without being ridiculously over the top--it was far more subtled, and the fact she was saying stuff like that with a face like that was creepy enough. Just the way she suddenly begins acting differently when talking about witches and whatnot. Really, the adaptations of the When They Cry series (including the updates with new sprites) seem to have that problem in general of over the top expressions. It'd have been fine if it'd just stopped here before getting to the truly ridiculous face. The adapters really have no sense of restraint. Kaja Rainbow fucked around with this message at 12:12 on Nov 20, 2012 |
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Nov 20, 2012 12:03
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Alright. The evidence still overwhelmingly points at Kinzo. He has the established know-how to draw the circle properly. In addition, while Beatrice's letter was sealed with Kinzo's ring, there is nothing that says the ring still isn't on Kinzo's finger. In other words, Kinzo could absolutely have written the letter. Turning the chessboard around tells us that this is too convenient. Turning the chessboard around again turns it into a double-bluff, ergo this particular line of reasoning is stupid and will only back us into a corner. I will proceed to take the evidence at face value. Others are welcome to consider the opposite approach, however - again, more bases covered. I'll admit right now that I'm strongly fixated on Kinzo-did-it, and that it could colour my interpretation of events.
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Nov 20, 2012 12:14
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Fightest posted:Alright. The evidence still overwhelmingly points at Kinzo. He has the established know-how to draw the circle properly. Didn't Kinzo throw his ring out the window?
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Nov 20, 2012 14:56
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| # ? May 22, 2024 13:19 |
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We go deeper and deeper in this murder case. This is not a normal murder case, this is an occult murder case, with 6 bodies as the offering for the circle. It is facinating that she can say all that occult stuff, but can't get rid of her ''uuu-'' tic. Split personalities and all that jazz. So, who is most likely the culprit? Dunno, if Maria knows about the occult, someone else aside from Kinzo could have done it easily.
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Nov 20, 2012 15:12
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