An astonishing amount of time is spent on preparing The Summation :
- In the real world, Erika has gathered everyone in the parlor (including the reluctant Natsuhi), has the door locked, and exclaims "Checkmate !"
- Meanwhile, Virgilia is alone with the comatose Beato (we've reached the point where Battler has gone off to re-enter the game). She delivers yet another pep talk to her pupil (including the interesting notion that Beato needed the meddling of the two other witches to stir her and Battler out of their endless fight), apparently finally managing to provoke a reaction in her.
- And then, as midnight strikes, we are introduced to the magnificent location where The Summation will be held in the magic world. Looks halfway between a cathedral, an opera and a tribunal. All 38 involved characters * introduce themselves again, in a scene that could easily be classified as Filler but actually ends up pretty Bad Ass (the awesome music does help). Yet again, Battler won't be able to intervene until later in the proceedings, which will give him time to cool his head and sort through his jumbled motivations.
And then, finally, Erika starts accusing Natsuhi of being the culprit, while Beato holds that she is the magical culprit. Let's get ready to RUMBLE !
Erika immediately starts examining Hideyoshi's murder, which obviously is very bad for Natsuhi. Beato manages to petition Lambdadelta for the events to be examined in chronological order, which Erika takes in stride, indicating that Natsuhi is the only person without alibi between 24:00 and 01:00, and thus must be the culprit there too.
Or is she ? Beato has prepared tons of counter-theories. Can Erika deny them all ?
What about Kumasawa and Gohda, who spent the night alone in different rooms in the first floor of the guesthouse ? Well, Erika used the old "paper in the door" trick to make sure that Kumasawa never left her room between 24:00 and 07:00. As for Gohda, Erika spent the time between 24:00 and 03:00 with him, and made sure he didn't come to the second floor after that (since she spent the night there).
While we're at it : Erika saw Rosa come back at 01:00, and played with the three kids a bit around 24:00, so No murder occurred before 24:00. (Lambdadelta provides the addition confirmation of Genji's liveliness just to speed things along.) And of course, the five victims were unmistakably dead in the morning.
What about Dr Nanjo ? Well, Erika spent the whole time from 24:00 to 03:00 with him, and after that, used the paper trick again on his room, which he never left until the crime was discovered. Well, shit.
Battler interjects : What about himself, who spent the night in the room with the bodies ? Er, it's not your turn to speak, but we love you anyway. But we'll have to wait until next time for Erika's rebuttal of this (as well as the other half of Beato's theories), as it's getting a bit late.
Well, I'd have hoped to get a bit farther than this today, as we're getting to the juicy parts.
I must have missed something, though : Erika spent from 24:00 to 01:00 with Dr Nanjo in the guesthouse's library. So how could she account for Gohda's whereabouts in this period ? (It still wouldn't explain Rosa's death, of course.) I'm too tired to backtrack and check her explanation again, so I have no clue whether this is a real hole in her theories.
