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Redaction of the Golden Witch is an Umineko: When They Cry fanfiction.

What happened on Rokkenjima on October 4th and 5th, 1986?

The tragedy that unfolded on that island has invited a great deal of speculation. After the discovery of two novellas that claimed to be accounts of the events — stories supposedly found in message bottles cast to the sea, stories filled with magic and mystery — the incident attracted even more attention and curiousity, and the 'Witch Hunter' fandom exploded.

Many Forgeries were created by those out to capitalize on this growing fandom. While many were quickly proven to be completely fake, a select few won acclaim and have grown just as famous as the original tales.

This is not about one of those stories.

One particular Forgery fell into obscurity soon after its release. While obviously a fake due to the fact it was released in English, that wasn't the only reason for its rejection by the Witch Hunt community at large. Instead of following the familiar formula, this particular Forgery forwent many of the classic trappings, including introducing a mysterious new antagonist in place of the Golden Witch.

One analyst believes he has uncovered why. In 1996, another incident occured on Rokkenjiima when a group of Witch Hunters snuck onto the island. While this incident has fallen into obscurity, believed by many to be some kind of group suicide or simple accident, Walter Absalom presents an alternate theory: somebody got away with murder. And this particular Forgery serves as a stealthy confession.

Witch Hunters Abroad's Redaction of the Golden Witch has been created as a visual novel. A video runthrough of the original script can be found on YouTube, along with extra videos that fit into the same canon. A remake of a TIP not included in the original visual novel and YouTube uploads, Umineko Redacted: Some Kind of Sunny Little Dream, can be found here.

Note: While set between Episodes 5 and 6 of the original visual novels, the work assumes familiarity with the whole series.


This Umineko: When They Cry Fan Work contains examples of:

  • Accidental Murder: Happens when Rosa's interrogation sends Shannon out the window. Whoops.
  • Affably Evil: The Summoner.
  • Alternative Character Interpretation: invoked One of the many complaints Witch Hunters had about the Forgery was that the characters weren't acting exactly according to the generally accepted Flanderizations. Battler, for instance, comes off as more introspective and pensive.
  • Ambiguous Ending: The person or persons responsible for the deaths of the Witch Hunters isn't revealed, although it's largely implied if not outright confirmed Sarah was not the culprit. There's also the matter of the Witch of Adjuration whom Walter believes has been menacing the Witch Hunter communities, but whether this is Sarah, the killer, or someone else, is left unanswered. There's also a vague implication that Sarah's brother is not dead and is trying to find her. However, in Andromalius TIP #2/Sunny and other extra content, Sarah/The Summoner does indeed call herself the Witch of Adjuration.
  • Armor-Piercing Question: After listening to Karl's constant condemnation of the Sole Survivor and insistence upon their guilt, the 1996!Protag asks if they'd accuse the survivor to their face of the crimes.
  • Art Shift: When Sarah takes Battler to see the future, they switch from the original portrait style to the versions from the PS3 rerelease. This is relentlessly Lampshaded to the point of Leaning on the Fourth Wall.
  • Awesome, but Impractical: Yes, Kinzo's mass summoning is an awe-inspiring sequence. However, it's later revealed that this created a major weakness that their enemy can exploit: the mass-created contracts aren't as strong as they could have been.
  • Back-to-Back Badasses: Kanon and Andromalius in "Where They Might Come Down".
  • Berserk Button: The Summoner seriously hates being called 'Beatrice', since that isn't her name.
  • Bittersweet Ending:
    • One of the Solutions offered for the Heretic Fragment leaves open the possibility of Battler and Shannon surviving, ambiguous as it might be.
    • ???? (True Tea Party) ends with it being made clear that Sarah's redemption won't be easy, but there's at least a chance of her being able to come to terms with her guilt.
    • Andromalius TIP #2/Umineko Sunny offers two, though one slides more into a Downer Ending. In the "Demon" ending, Shouon reveals to Kyrie that Lion is the child of Kinzo and Beatrice II, and then takes an offer to apprentice under the Summoner with no regard over what happens to the Ushiromiyas. In the "Human" ending, Shouon leaves the island but destroys the evidence of Lion's true birth, feeling that while he can't save the Ushiromiyas, he doesn't have to make their deaths even worse.
  • Body Double: Turns out to be precisely what Andy had planned for Sakutaro.
  • Bothering by the Book: Andromalius is a fan of following orders precisely and Trolling his masters without actually disobeying.
  • Convicted by Public Opinion: Karl represents this; he's completely convinced that the Sole Survivor of the Rokkenjima Incident, Eva Ushiromiya, must be responsible.
  • Cosplay Otaku Girl: Cass loves designing outfits based on the mythos surrounding Rokkenjima.
  • Creative Closing Credits: As with the original visual novels, a status report is given concerning what state the human members of the cast were in when the story ended. In this particular case, however, this is depicted as an actual investigative report, paired with snarky commentary in red ink.
  • Creator Breakdown: The author of the In-Universe forgery Battler and Virgilia read admits that she wrote the work as a sort of vent fic, born out of her anger and feelings of inadequacy, filtering her issues through the Ushiromiya family. This leads to the fallen, irredeemable world shown in this forgery, and Battler picking out the moral foundation in the story helps him and the reader understand her heart.
  • Curb-Stomp Battle: "When You're Next in Line" has Gaap completely trounce Andromalius.
  • Curiosity Killed the Cast: The small group of Witch Hunters went to Rokkenjima in 1996 to see if they couldn't find any clues to what happened that others missed. This didn't end well.
  • Deal with the Devil: In "Losing Control By the Hour", we learn that Kyrie once offered her soul to Andromalius if he killed Asumu for her.
  • Death of the Author: In-Universe, this comes into play during the Tea Parties, as the Heretic Fragment is given several possible solutions. Only one of these was the author's original intention.
  • Depending on the Writer: In-Universe. In a meta sense, Andromalius was first created by Sarah as an Original Character for her forgery, representing her guilt, self-loathing, and the idea that her good intentions only result in pain. Once Drew found her forgery though, he claimed Andromalius for himself as an Author Avatar in his own forgery shown in Sunny, representing the persecuting, Never My Fault attitude that he had as a child. This manifests in Drew's Andromalius not talking about guilt much at all in his forgery, when it was a central tenet of his character in Sarah's.
  • Developing Doomed Characters: The audience knows going into the 1996 section that something's going to happen to the Witch Hunters. Much of this part is spent fleshing the foursome out, with the POV narrator grousing about their less admirable traits.
  • Destination Defenestration: Poor Shannon is unfortunate enough to meet this fate.
  • Don't Call Me "Sir": Eva-Beatrice flips out over Andromalius calling her 'sir', particularly since it's the wrong gender.
  • Dramatically Missing the Point: During their trip, the 1996!Protag keeps hoping that their companions will come to realize just how awful the Rokkenjima Incident was, and that the fandom they've built off the back of this tragedy is kind of creepy. Time and again, the implications keep flying right over their heads.
  • Dream Within a Dream: The section "You Keep Telling Me I've Got Everything".
  • Entertainingly Wrong: Hiro and Karl both love theorizing about what happened in 1986, and will proudly announce their various solutions to the various closed room mysteries. These theories are often not just wrong, but so obviously wrong that even Cass questions them.
  • Evil Lawyer Joke: Battler cracks a few after realizing that one of the major changes made to the Fragment implies that there's nothing the adults feared more than having to deal with lawyers.
  • "Facing the Bullets" One-Liner:
    Chiester 410: Shoulda figured on asking for hazard pay...
  • Fallen Angel: Andromalius. In his own words, "I did not turn my back on heaven, sir. Heaven turned its back on me."
  • Fan Hater: In-Universe, somebody has been pulling mean-spirited pranks at the WitchCons, seemingly trying to drive people away from the fandom. A subset of fans has latched onto this, blaming a new 'Golden Witch' and declaring themselves her followers. Meaning that they attend the various gatherings just to Troll and belittle other Witch Hunters.
  • First-Person Smartass:
    • The 1996!Protag is very snarky, both inside their head and out. Since their lines are written as part of their narration without quotations, it can be difficult at times to judge what they're actually saying.
    • In Andromalius TIP #2/Umineko Sunny, Shouon's narration is also very blunt and deadpan, often making digs at the other characters. Similar to the 1996!Protag, his dialogue is not formatted with quotations, so what he thinks and what he actually says remains ambiguous.
  • Foil: The writers of Redaction's Forgery and TIP #2/Umineko Sunny's story had extremely similar pasts that gave them a lot of baggage and self-loathing, and both know about the Rokkenjima incident and are adjacent to the Witch Hunters fandom. However, the Rokkenjima stories drove Sarah further into her self-loathing as Yasu and Battler's dynamic reminded her of her inability to do anything for her brother, whereas it saved Drew from it as it helped teach him to love and forgive and was a significant part of his relationship with Addie. The difference in tone between the stories they write reflects the difference between their worldviews.
  • Foreshadowing:
    • Andromalius's position and purpose hints at many things, including the Magical version of what happened to the 1996 Witch Hunters.
    • While assigning demon guards, it's mentioned that Kyrie has enough power to hold another contract if she wishes.
    • The Summoner's Berserk Button... and how she responds to it.
    • Andromalius warns Kanon that depending on his choices, he may never be able to escape being 'furniture'.
    • Chiester 410 notes in passing that she's got a security update cued up, which comes into play when she reboots and it auto-updates.
    • Unexpected and unintended consequences of one's actions are a running theme throughout the story, and play a vital role in the 1996 Protag's connection to the Witch Hunter movement.
    • The scenes dealing with motherhood in Redaction, such as Natsuhi's nightmare about Lion, Beatrice, and Shannon chewing her out for her abandoning them and failing to make it up to them afterwards, and Rosa's lament to Andromalius about how she treated Maria hints to the reveal of Sarah being a mother in Umineko Sunny, and her regrets on how her actions led to the relationship between her and her adopted son falling apart.
  • Framing Device:
    • Walter Absalom is writing a critical evaluation of the Forgery that he suspects serves as a stealthy confession about what really happened on Rokkenjima in 1996.
    • In-between Episodes 5 and 6 of the original series, Virgilia presents Battler with a mysterious Fragment she received during a meeting with an equally mysterious Traveler. According to this stranger, this particular Fragment contains a Truth they were searching for hidden within the trappings of 1986's Rokkenjima.
    • The Tea Parties are framed by Andromalius giving a report to Dlanor about their events.
  • From Nobody to Nightmare: According to Walter's theories, somebody in the Witch Hunter fandom decided to mimic the murders. What's more, he believes they are still around, and has effectively become a witch, whom he names the 'Witch of Adjuration'.
  • Gambit Pileup:
    • Karl's theory relies heavily upon this, casting most of the residents of the manor as Double Agents serving one power or another, all seeking to secure Kinzo's gold for their own purposes.
    • The Forgery is also rife with this, as battle lines are drawn and redrawn, alliances forged, broken and reforged accordingly.
  • Go-Karting with Bowser: The nameless summoner is perfectly willing to sit down and share a drink with her enemies. ...As a ruse.
  • Godzilla Threshold: The threat posed by this forgery's new, unknown enemy is so great that the parents decide to resurrect Kinzo in order to stand a chance.
  • Groundhog Peggy Sue: It turns out in this Forgery that the experience Shannon and Kanon go through in each tale from the cat box carries over.
  • A House Divided: As always, there's discord among the parents, although they seem willing to unite against the threat posed by Lion Ushiromiya and their agent.
  • How We Got Here: The Framing Device for the Tea Party revolves around Andromalius returning the Heretic Fragment to Heaven, then explaining to Dlanor why there's extra pieces with it.
  • Human Sacrifice: One such unholy ritual is used to bring Kinzo back from the dead.
  • Hyper-Awareness: The author of the fragment/ the Summoner. They seem to have the closest understanding of the underlying factors that led to the massacre on Rokkenjima compared to every other follower of the incident. Mainly that Shannon and Kanon are the same person, that Shannon is Beatrice and solved the witch's epitaph, that Natsuhi tried to kill Shannon when she was a baby, that she is really the Child by Rape of Kinzo Ushiromiya and Beatrice II, and she had a relationship with Battler. However, it is not directly said that Shannon is Kinzo's child, mainly implied albeit greatly so. Although Battler and Shannon pursuing a relationship in secret did not happen in the series proper.
  • Inadequate Inheritor: Krauss gets hit with this so hard that Kinzo assigns everyone else protection before him.
  • Insistent Terminology: One of Andromalius's quirks is that he usually addresses everyone, regardless of gender or rank relative to him, as 'sir'. It's rare for him to call individuals anything else.
  • Internal Deconstruction:
    • Walter Absalom picks apart the Forgery he's studying and examines why it was rejected by the Witch Hunter fandom in the first place.
    • The 1996!Protagonist takes an especially harsh look at the Witch Hunt phenomenon. Each of their companions appears to have completely lost sight of the fact that the Ushiromiya family and their staff were real victims of an actual tragedy.
  • Internal Reveal: Part of Meta!Battler's interest in the strange Fragment stems from his hope that he can see Beatrice again inside of it. The audience knows from the Prelude that one of the most unusual things about the Forgery is her absence.
  • It's All My Fault: The True Tea Party reveals that Sarah blames herself for what happened to her brother and what happened to the Witch Hunters in 1996, because she didn't find him and because she didn't go with them to Rokkenjima.
  • I've Come Too Far: Following the first murder, the one responsible decides that since they've already got blood on their hands, they might as well kill somebody else so they can make the human sacrifice.
  • I Wished You Were Dead: In the Fragment, Battler's internal monologue is absolutely scathing towards the adults after Shannon is found dead. When the adults are browbeating Gohda about watching the cousins, Battler notes that for all their demands, none of the parents are giving Gohda anything to protect them with, keeping a death grip on their shotguns. This hypocrisy disgusts him enough that he wishes they'll pay for it...
  • Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique: Rosa combines this with No-Holds-Barred Beatdown when confronting poor Shannon. This leads directly to the first murder.
  • Jack the Ripoff:
    • Walter Absalom theorizes that the deaths of the Witch Hunters in 1996 were caused by somebody inspired by the original Rokkenjima Incident.
    • In "It Retracts Before Impact", it's revealed that a series of vindictive pranks have occured at various WitchCons since '97, leading to speculation about Beatrice's return. Again, Walter speculates that this is connected to the '96 incident, and that the murderer has in essence become a witch.
  • Know-Nothing Know-It-All: Andromalius gives off the impression of having wisdom and moral superiority and tends to be cocky about it. However, he is often wrong about quite a lot of things in both Redaction and Sunny, which leads to him wreaking havoc when he brings Black Battler into Sarah's forgery, believing him to be the true culprit, and he subsequently gets brutally curbstomped by Sarah in a philosophical battle afterwards. Most characters end up agreeing that he was a misguided child who didn't really know what he was doing.
    • Delusions of Eloquence: Andromalius' Know-Nothing Know-It-All tendencies is mirrored by his pretentious speaking style, characterized by him forgoing contractions and using advanced vocabulary for his age. However, he sometimes misuses words, betraying the implication that he doesn't really know exactly what he's saying, which people older and more knowledgeable than him don't hesitate to point out. Downplayed because this doesn't happen much, though.
    Andromalius: A kind of excellent dumb discourse, sir.
    Kinzo: "Dumb" in that context means silent, boy.
  • The Last Dance: Kinzo approaches the preparations for the coming conflict this way. Justified since, as they explain, they're already dead, so there's no reason NOT to see how far he can go.
  • Loophole Abuse:
    • Battler instructs Maria to stay with Gohda, and if that's no longer possible for any reason, to find a safe place to hide. Maria obeys by running off to find a 'safe place' once Gohda is out of her line of sight.
    • Kyrie exploits one when she asks Andromalius to honor an unfulfilled contract, switching his target from Asumu to the Summoner. Andromalius then uses this to escape the Summoner's control, leaving him unbound.
  • Love Triangle: Hiro and Karl both have crushes on Cass, who appears completely oblivious to their feelings. Karl suspects that Cass might have feelings for the Protagonist instead.
  • Magically-Binding Contract: In the Forgery, control of a contract can be passed from the original summoner to another. This is used to bind guardians to different characters, and the Summoner is able to create contracts stronger than the original summons.
  • Manic Pixie Dream Girl: In the Coda of Umineko Sunny, Drew's relationship with the upbeat Addie provides him a distraction from his hate for Sarah, making him a happier person who eventually lets go of his grudge against Sarah.
  • Mercy Kill:
    • In the Magical version of the 1996 incident, the assassin Andromalius comments on this while finishing off one of the victims, who had fallen off a cliff and taken the ingot into his ribs.
    • After seeing Rosa, in excruciating pain, lament her mistreatment of Maria after being stabbed by the dagger that brings guilt and agony, Andromalius chooses to end her pain by stabbing her with his other dagger that causes instant death.
  • Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal:
    • The Summoner gloats about the Ushiromiyas sowing the seeds for their own defeat by pushing a grieving Kanon over to her side.
    • The Summoner dehumanizing and leading his friend Kanon to his death, as well as making him torture the Ushiromiyas gives Andromalius a massive grudge against her, eventually leading to him attacking her in the Coffee Break.
  • Morality Pet: Maria to Rosa in the Black Ending.
  • Multiple Endings: During the Tea Parties, three Solutions are offered up for the Heretic Fragment:
    • Black Black Battler's version, featuring an unrepentant Battler as the mastermind behind all the deaths.
    • Blue The Author's intention, where a series of tragic misunderstandings lead to the destruction of the Ushiromiya family.
    • Gold Battler's Bittersweet Ending, which brings Beatrice back into play.
  • My God, What Have I Done?:
    • Doctor Nanjo is horrified upon witnessing Shannon's accidental death, and openly acknowledges that his own poor choices contributed to this happening.
    • After the final major confrontation, Andromalius himself expresses their horror over their role in everything that's unfolded.
    • In the finale, Eva immediately regrets shooting the person she was grilling for information, and tries to get them to hold on.
    • In the Coffee Break, when the solution of the forgery is revealed, the Battler from that Fragment, overwhelmed with denial and regret, tearfully confesses how his actions inadvertently caused the death of almost everyone at Rokkenjima.
    • Guilt is one of the main defining aspects of Sarah, who feels as though she should have tried harder with her brother. As a child, she felt like she always relied on him without really giving anything back in return. When they were separated and she failed to get into contact with him, she felt responsible for him eventually going MIA in the Gulf War. This, along with other painful events in her past, led to her becoming the cynical, self-loathing person she is currently.
    • In Umineko Sunny and "Distant Signals", Drew is revealed to be the one who leaked Sarah's forgery to the internet. As he grew up, Drew began to regret this as well as how he was being spiteful and unfair towards Sarah in general despite her trying her best to raise him. This is a large part of his insecurities as revealed in the Coda.
  • Nested Story:
    • There's the Forgery itself, the Meta!World's reading of the strange Fragment, the 1996 Witch Hunters, and Walter Absalom's analysis of the Forgery and its potential connection to the 1996 Incident.
    • The nested structure persists in Umineko Sunny's Coda which has Drew's memory, the storybook sections, and the stage play with him and Asmodeus.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
    • In "Where They Might Come Down", 410 sniping Andromalius splashes his blood everywhere, coating the last of Krauss' reinforcements. Making matters worse, processing the damage report causes her system to crash.
    • "Losing Control By the Hour" has the whole debacle where Kyrie invokes her old contract with Andromalius to get him to turn on the Summoner. It works, but lets him slip the net in the process.
    • Andromalius's desire to punish the author of the Heretic Fragment has unintended consequences when he teams up with Black Battler. Armed with Andy's Truth, he attempts to use it to wipe out Battler himself.
  • No Name Given: The summoner mocks Andromalius asking for their name by rattling off a series of Character Name Aliases.
  • No Sympathy: When Hiro gets a chance to talk to Kawabata, he doesn't seem particularly understanding about why the captain's so opposed to the thought of taking them to Rokkenjima.
  • Normally, I Would Be Dead Now: Normally having your heart outright destroyed would be fatal, yeah.
  • Nothing Personal: Andromalius must follow the orders of whomever he has made a contract with. When ordered to kill the Protagonist in 1996, he insists this is the case.
  • Not So Weak: The Gold ending features Shannon pulling a shotgun on the adult Ushiromiyas in order to get them to shut up long enough to listen to her proposal, with Doctor Nanjo backing her up. And she's also super polite about it even when she's saying the adults have basically acted like complete idiots and proved how badly suited they are to run the family.
  • Odd Friendship:
    • Not even the 1996!Protagonist is entirely sure why they and Cass have become friends.
    • In Umineko Sunny's Coda, the relatively quieter and brooding Drew and energetic, loud Addie become fast friends.
  • Oh, Crap, There Are Fanfics of Us!: The fact that there are Forgeries based upon the Rokkenjima Incident is used for an Internal Reveal for Meta!Battler.
  • One-Hit Kill: One of Andromalius' daggers instantly kills the victim, while the other's poison forces them to confront their deepest regrets. While the latter isn't necessarily fatal to the target, Andy seems to personally feel that being stuck by his instant-death dagger is a kinder fate.
  • Palette Swap: The Summoner looks like a brunette version of Beato's human guise. Lampshaded in the TIPs, which state "Any resemblance is purely coincidental and/or the result of lazy sprite edits. Even the buttons are cheaply tarnished! She needs a better costumer." This is justified in-universe as her intentionally cosplaying as Beatrice, due to her ties to the Witch Hunter community.
  • Passed-Over Inheritance: To the adults' dismay, they discover that Kinzo names a 'Lion Ushiromiya' in his final will.
  • Police Are Useless: In 1996, Officer Yamagata is young and inexperienced, taking a false name at face value, while his partner Ito is more jaded and cynical. After the incident occurs, Ito encourages Yamagata to let it go, saying it's not worth the trouble investigating it would stir up.
  • Protectorate: After the murders begin, Battler vows to protect his cousins, as well as Gouda, who's staying with them.
  • Punny Name:
    • Downplayed, the name Sarah goes by at her workplace, S. Beulah Richards, somewhat resembles the pronunciation of Beatrice. Lampshaded by Battler, who notices the similarity.
    Battler: All of that and all I've got to show for it is a bad pun and a new cape.
    • When read in Japanese order, the real name Drew picks for his Author Avatar Shouon, Ando Masahiro, is a pun of "Ando was a hero," Foreshadowing his actions in the Witch Ending. Drew's actual, full name, Andrew Marion-Richards, is not much better; dropping the Richards, his name is a pun of Andromalius.
  • Reaction Shot: "I Can See The Fire's Still Alight" ends with one, with several reacting to Kanon being shot through the heart. When the scene resumes next, this repeats, with more reactions added.
  • "The Reason You Suck" Speech:
    • Natsuhi recieves a long one delivered by three people: Shannon, Lion, and Beatrice. While the intensity varies with each speaker, they're all driving to the same point: that Natsuhi wasted every opportunity to do something, anything, to help the child she was given 19 years ago, and now it's far too late. Then it turns out that this is all her nightmare, implying she's effectively calling herself out.
    • During the Coffee Break, the Summoner gives one to Battler about Beatrice's doomed loved.
      'The Summoner: What a fucking farce! What an absolute crock of shit! Is this your beautiful love story? Breaking someone's heart without even bothering to do it to their face and throwing them out of your life like they never mattered at all?!
    • In the Gold ending, Shannon calls out the adults for tearing the Ushiromiya family apart with their petty infighting, and that they've proven none of them are suitable to serve as the head.
  • Red Eyes, Take Warning:
    • The Summoner's eyes are normally black, but turn red several times, such as when she's angered or feeling particularly wicked.
    • Also seen when Kanon awakens as demonic furniture.
  • Resurrected for a Job: Kinzo finds themselves called back for this purpose.
  • Recursive Canon: The 'message bottle confessions' and various Forgeries.
  • Right for the Wrong Reasons: Karl and Hiro's favorite theories about the Rokkenjima Incident each touch briefly upon the One Truth... but veer wildly off-base.
    • Walter Absalom believes the Forgery is a veiled confession from the person responsible for the 1996 deaths, but as it turns out, while the person was in a way confessing to responsibility, it's from the guilt that they think they could have prevented the deaths. There is still, however, a possibility that they were indeed murdered.
  • Ripple-Proof Memory: A variation of this is what makes Shannon and Kanon so potentially powerful. Their experiences carry over as a sort of 'natural instinct'. On top of this, this Kanon specificially declares that he remembers.
  • Saved by Canon: In a sense, this is effectively why Eva ultimately survives in the Forgery. It's Lampshaded by how the Summoner, of all characters, directs her to safety at one point.
  • Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: This is how the 1996 Witch Hunters manage to get to Rokkenjima in the first place; Cass manages to bribe the pilot of a surveyor plane to take them there. According to her, you don't wanna know how much it took.
  • Screw This, I'm Outta Here: After delivering a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown on Andromalius, Gaap departs from Rokkenjima and isn't seen again. She's one of the few characters in the Fragment to actually survive without receiving any damage.
  • Skeptic No Longer: After having scorned their father's obsession with witches and magic for so long, all of his children reconsider their position when faced with a problem they can't figure out any other solutions to. They even decide to try to bring Kinzo back from the dead out of sheer desperation.
  • Speak Ill of the Dead: The 1996!Narrator feels like their Witch Hunter companions have lost sight of the fact that the Rokkenjima Incident involved real people who actually died. Part of the reason they travels to the island with them is in hope that seeing the site will help drive home the reality of the situation to them.
  • "Stop Having Fun" Guys: In-Universe, Cass complains about Witch Hunters who only care about trying to figure out what actually happened on Rokkenjima in 1986 and decry any of the magical aspects of the stories. Ironically, Karl and Hiro both take this view, tsking at her whenever she asks why magic can't be real.
  • Succession Crisis: Same as always. In this case, though, the crisis revolves around Kinzo's last will revealing the existence of Lion Ushiromiya.
  • Sudden Principled Stand: After witnessing Rosa's murder of Shannon, Doctor Nanjo proceeds to call out everyone involved, lamenting his own part in it.
  • Survivor Guilt:
    • Captain Kawabata still feels guilty over what happened on Rokkenjima in 1986, and doesn't appreciate being told how he should mourn. Specifically, having some self-absorbed brat tell him that the best way to atone for what happened is to ferry them to the island.
    • ???? (True Tea Party) reveals that Sarah feels responsible for what happened to her friends in 1996.
  • Take Our Word for It: The death of Chiester 00 states that what happened to them was never recorded, as the only witness to the event refuses to speak of it.
  • Taking the Bullet:
    • Seen in "Losing Control By the Hour" when Asmodeus yanks Satan in front of the Summoner. However, the Summoner forced Asmodeus to do this.
    • Kumasawa abruptly does this for the sake of Genji.
  • Taking You with Me:
    • Attempted by Krauss against Kanon. It doesn't work.
    • "Losing Control By the Hour" sees the dying Asmodeus knock Satan into the path of Rosa's final shot.
    • In Part 5, Genji manages to hurt his killer in a way that ultimately proves fatal.
    • Combined with a Mercy Kill when Virgilia uses forbidden magic on Kanon.
  • Teens Are Monsters: Downplayed with the three twenty-something Witch Hunters. Cass, Karl and Hiro are so caught up in what they enjoy most about the fandom that they don't seem to recognize just how awful the incident that inspired it all really was.
    • This is also seen in Sarah's memories from high school. People mocked her for what happened with her father.
    • In Umineko Sunny's Coda, Addie is subject to Stock Shoujo Bullying Tactics after transferring to a high school in Japan, as the other girls resented her for supposedly hogging Drew and other boys' attention.
  • This Is Gonna Suck: When the 1996!Narrator realizes that Professor Ootsuki wants to hear their group's theories about what happened on Rokkenjima.
  • This Is Unforgivable!: "I will never forgive you for this," declared by Andromalius to his former employer.
  • Two Aliases, One Character: Andromalius TIP #2/Umineko Sunny reveals that Andromalius, Shouon, and the story's writer, Drew, are the same person, albeit as representations of him at different points in his life.
  • The Unreveal: Several times during the 1996 segment, the Protagonist's name is teased at without being revealed, such as giving a false name. This persists until the very end of Redaction, where it is heavily implied that they were actually Sarah.
  • The Unsolved Mystery: In-Universe, the Rokkenjima Incident was never solved, which is part of what fuels the Witch Hunter movement.
    • The cause of deaths of the 1996 Witch Hunters on Rokkenjima, while officially ruled as suicides, was never determined. Walter Absalom aims to prove they were homicides, using the Forgery as evidence to pinpoint the culprit.
  • Unusually Uninteresting Sight: When Cornelia confronts Andromalius in the middle of a crowded hallway in Heaven, those around them keep moving, even when Cornelia throws his cloak right over the top of several passersby.
  • Villain Protagonist: Potentially the Narrator from 1996, if Walter's theories are to be believed.
  • We Have Reserves: In "Where They Might Come Down", Krauss orders the goats to "Choke [their opponents] with corpses! It's not like we don't have the numbers for it!"
  • Wham Episode: "Losing Control By The Hour", where we learn that Kyrie has past dealings with Andromalius, and exploits that to take out the Summoner. Andromalius then takes her out and takes over as acting leader.
  • The Worf Effect: Suffered by the Seven Sisters. At first, this is used to illustrate Kanon's full potential, directly comparing their battle to similar confrontations in past Fragments. Eventually, this builds to the point where several are Killed Mid-Sentence, and Lucifer is unceremoniously killed offscreen.
  • Would Not Hurt A Child: The Summoner promises Kanon in red that she won't harm any of Kinzo's grandchildren, and Battler later points how she left Maria's fate completely ambiguous.
  • Write Who You Know: As a story focused on In-Universe derivative works, Sunny explores this concept through Drew writing up his own version of Asmodeus heavily based on his friend Addie. He does recognize that his version of Asmodeus is entirely distinct from the Asmodeus Yasu and Tohya wrote, and takes responsibility for the character he created.
  • You Can't Fight Fate: In the TIPS. Shouon realizes something horrible is going to happen in October 1986, because he's repeatedly told this "world" will cease to exist. Even though he's told he will survive because he doesn't have a role to play, he gets outraged at Andromalius and those who keeps telling him vague hints about the horrible things to occur. The Human and Demon endings for this segment establish he can't stop their deaths, but he is given the option of revealing or not revealing Lion's true parentage before he leaves.
    • Defied in the Witch Ending, where Shouon kills Kinzo in order to stop the family conference from happening. Meta-wise, the whole story with Shouon is commentary on how as a fanwork, the author can make whatever they want happen without having to feel constrained by the rules of canon, no matter how wish fulfillment-ey it may be.

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