I wanted to tell you it was someone who didn't suspect, but that would be spoiling. 
Ah well. Is Natsuhi crazy?
Well, that depends on the exact metaphysics of the universe. I mean, she was basically trolled by God.. there has to be a non-fantasy explanation, but that doesn't mean it's the /correct/ one.
The entire story is about finding a mystery solution. Who says it's the truth? The story doesn't require that.
"keionbu ni yokusou, nyan?"
Everyone hates Erika for walking through everything.
My FF.net account
Erika's first instinct when seeing the crime scene is to wonder where the other two corpses are... since, after all, the epitaph requires six, and Lambdadelta can't be that inept. Though the Hebrew in that magic circle does look shabby.
Switch to some of the stakes complaining that some human is trying to frame Beato with those poorly-done magic signs. Okay, that's an interesting angle : the supernatural beings don't claim the murders this time around...
The servants notice that Genji doesn't seem to have waken up yet, go to the servant rest room... and find his body. (Once again, a couple of stakes are horrified by this development. Shouldn't Battler solving the epitaph have prevented the murders ?) Oh, and there was a small piece of tape on the outside of the door, meaning that Kanon and Kumasawa were the first to open it after it had been placed.
Cut to Natsuhi waking up to the phone ringing... Yep, it's still that same mysterious voice. They announce they've captured Krauss (cue his muffled-but-recognizable voice), and require that Natsuhi (1) keeps quiet about this ; and (2) shall go hiding in a closet at 1 PM in a certain guest room. A little game of hide and seek : if she's found, she loses. Though the voice does indicate they'll free Krauss whatever the result, if Natsuhi keeps her promise...
Lucifer, the head Stake, was preparing to announce the bad news about the murders to mistress Natsuhi, but Kanon and Gohda show up just then anyway.
Later, nearly everyone has gathered in the parlor room. Kyrie and Erika both intuit that it's time to look for a 6th corpse. Aside from the dead, the only missing people are... Grampa and Krauss. Grampa's study is as impenetrable as ever, so Natsuhi leads the run towards her husband's bedroom. There's nobody there, but those blood stains don't look very healthy... (Aside, Bernkastel guesses that since they Never Found the Body, he's still alive.) Natsuhi's Inner Monologue indicates that she suspects that, since she knows Krauss is alive, this is all part of a crazy plan of his. But what ?
A discussion starts about who had the key to Krauss's bedroom, but Erika interject that it's pointless, since Genji's master key has already disappeared. No closed room mystery in this iteration !
Natsuhi runs off to see her daughter's corpse in the guesthouse (and also partly to keep everyone's attention off Grampa's study), and a surprise is awaiting : all four corpses have disappeared !
Bernkastel has theories about this, of course : Krauss has no alibi and could have moved the corpses ; or maybe they faked their deaths and ran off when nobody was looking ; or maybe even those were decoy corpses, and the four just hid away from view. Those theories reach the ludicrous (after all, those wounds looked entirely deadly, while preserving the victims' faces), but Lambdadelta refuses to say anything in red yet.
Back inside the mansion, Gaap makes Genji's corpse disappear too. This should help Natsuhi a bit, but someone's bound to ask about the study again soon...
A lot of moving around in this instalment, but that's fine for now. Erika makes for a perfect Deadpan Snarker, by the way. Do we have a trope for the Snark Sue ?
(And I find it intriguing that, so far, the facts support my crazy secret WMG that Gaap may be Krauss.)
"keionbu ni yokusou, nyan?"
Gaap = Krauss.
...
Hand me the Brain Bleach please, and wasn't it Bernkastel who said "that's some crappy Hebrew"?
My FF.net account
Oops, so it was. My bad.
Everyone congregates near Grampa's study. The door is locked, but maybe the window ? Gohda proves he's a great Spanner in the Works by mentioning the super-size ladder in the boiler room (the other servants knew about it too, but obviously were trying to keep quiet). As the most senior family member in the room, Eva agrees to take responsibility for breaking in. Despite bragging just before about his climbing prowess, Gohda obviously has cold feet, and Rudolf decides to show off and climb instead. He breaks in... and obviously there's nobody (though there are some signs of the room being lived in, they're all cold). He opens the door from inside, and everyone can enter.
They search the room, but Grampa's nowhere to be found. Natsuhi, Dr Nanjo and Kumasawa improvise that it does happen regularly that Grampa wanders outside his room at night, which doesn't sound very convincing.
And then Erika gets disappointed. Natsuhi is the obvious suspect (flashback to a scene where she pretended being the last one to have seen Grampa, despite knowing he sometimes wanders around and could have met someone else). What kind of crappy mystery has so easy to find a culprit ? Erika'd rather someone else... But why could Natsuhi be so certain noone else had seen Grampa after 23:00 PM ?
Just as Eva prepares to announce her grand theory, Erika cuts the grass under her feet and wonders how long has it really been since Grampa disappeared. None of the relatives have seen him in more than a year, and even the clumsy Gohda corroborates that. The servants had supposedly been interacting with him, but they're all on Natsuhi's payroll. Has she been embezzling the family money, and covered up Grampa's death to avoid investigation ?
Again, Erika is disappointed by such an easy answer.
She slides to the "magical" world, where she announces to Grampa's ghost that (1) she's pleased to meet him and (2) will he please die, now ? But before she can give the final blow, Beato interposes herself, and attacks Erika with this : Grampa may have left his study on his own between 23 PM and 7 AM.
Too bad Erika is now calling reinforcement. We have a new character ! Just as Erika is Bernkastel's perfect piece for finding the human culprit, she also has a piece for fighting witches. Say hello to Dlanor A Knox ! (She speaks like THIS. I've barely read a few screens of her dialogue, and I already find it ANNOYING.)
She comes with quite a few underlings in TOW. This somehow includes the Siestas, and being on the opposite side from Beato makes them feel AWKWARD. Anyway, Dlanor STRIKES : Between 23:00 PM and now, the study's door wasn't opened ONCE.
Back in the real world, Eva gives proof of this with her little paper slip...
Beato's footing in her battle against Dlanor gets less and less assured. The windows ? Certified as CLOSED. What about a secret passage ? According to Knox's 3rd principle, that's FORBIDDEN. Maybe Grampa noticed the piece of paper ? Already DENIED. He's a great inventor, and may have created a drug allowing himself to turn into mist ! or a teleportation device ! According to Knox's 4th principle, such ridiculous plot devices are FORBIDDEN.
Okay, Beato acknowledges that this isn't working. Let's Get Dangerous ! Natsuhi only said she talked to him inside the study : he might have used the phone while hiding elsewhere ! Or he may still be hiding in a blind spot of the room ! Or maybe Natsuhi was calling the room itself "Grampa" ! Or even herself ! Heck he might have escaped through the window while she closed behind him !
Too bad that Erika asks most of those ridiculous questions to Natsuhi, who carelessly denies most of them. Oops. And Dlanor takes care of the last one : where would Grampa be hiding, EXACTLY ? Whatever Beato proposes, Dlanor searches and indicates that he's not THERE. Uh oh...
And then, at the last moment, Battler jumps in. He has a theory that corroborates Natsuhi's version, the closed room AND Grampa escaping from it. He asks Natsuhi to reenact the former night, while he'll be Grampa. Of course, after seeing him going to sleep, Natsuhi would make one more check of the whole study, for cleanliness and supplies... For example, checking the toilet paper in the bathroom, a place where she can't see most the study...
The door makes a huge honking noise while UNLOCKING. There's no opening it without Natsuhi noticing, and that didn't HAPPEN. But then, who talked of the door ? Grampa may have opened the window, and jumped... Then Natsuhi would have felt a draft, and closed it without thinking.
Wait a SECOND. This is the third STORY. Surely Battler isn't SUGGESTING...
Battler jumps through the window. He lands without a scratch, and waves back at Erika, who is positively fuming. (Oh, and there's also a last-ditch battle in mid-air with Dlamor about Knox's 8th principle *, but I'm simplifying things a bit here.)
With this Crazy Awesome move, Battler has saved Beato and Grampa's ghost from inquiry, and destroyed Erika's closed room. (Everyone else agrees that Grampa could have pulled off such a stunt, so she has to concede.) He's a well deserving successor to the Ushiromiya head...
Wow, just wow. This was a truly exhilarating scene. I wasn't so hot about introducing new interchangeable minions, but Dlanor is such a Large Ham that she makes her every single line of dialogue AWESOME. (Her assistants can get lost, though. There's a good reason I've attributed all their dialogue to their boss.)
But of course, the most impressive part is Battler blasting his way through Erika & Dlamor's "perfect" closed room, and finding a way for Natsuhi not to be a liar. Of course, we know she's lying and Grampa is dead, but that's what makes Battler's move even more admirable. It's such a beautiful gesture...
edited 13th Jan '10 2:31:54 PM by Jhiday
Intermission ! Dlanor makes a visit in the Golden Land to Battler, Virgilia and the comatose Beato. It turns out that outside of her job as ruthless witch-hunter, she's quite pleasant a person (and an old friend of Virgilia). She congratulates Battler for his moves, and obviously considers him as a Worthy OPPONENT. (Despite piece-Battler being manipulated by Lambdadelta there, his awesome stunt couldn't have been achievable without his SKILL.) And thus she wants to apologize for holding BACK. Of course, Knox's 2nd principle excludes her just stating that Kinzo is DEAD. But she could have stated that the window was never opened after it started RAINING. Lambdadelta and Bernkastel seem to both be conspiring to keep Grampa alive for now, and are clearly up to SOMETHING.
Dlanor apologizes again for having to work in such conditions, and hopes that when Battler retakes control of his piece, he won't hold BACK. Especially considering that little wretch she is working FOR. That Erika girl is EVIL. And having delivered this warning, Dlanor takes her leave.
As if to echo Dlanor's words, Erika is gratuitously and cruelly torturing the underling who failed to protect the window, passing her anger onto her. When Dlanor comes back, the dutiful witch-hunter sends the poor victim away, and announces she'll take RESPONSIBILITY. This is no fun for Erika (who's too conceited to notice that Dlanor does have a heart), but she's cooled down enough to start thinking again.
Okay, all this mess about Grampa's disappearance is irrelevant. Let's move on to the actual twilights, shall we ? But before that, let's examine that mysterious letter and knock at 24:00. Erika fires off tons of theories, but Lambdadelta dispels all of them : nobody inside the parlor put the letter outside the door, Krauss, Natsuhi and Genji weren't involved in any way, there was noone else inside the mansion, and the 8 people outside — who were the ''only people outside — did not have any way to do it. Oh, and the knock was a real knock on the door.
I won't go into the details of this battle, but Erika ends up thoroughly humiliated, with Bernkastel threatening to discard her like the useless piece she's become.
Okay, speculation time : I'm pretty sure that Lambdadelta didn't rule out the knock being done by one of the people inside the parlor... (Though she did rule out any of them putting the letter there in any conceivable way, so I'm clueless for that point.)
Hum, I'm not sure about this one. Dlanor continues to be an absolutely awesome character. (I admit I'm completely in love with her speech patterns, which are a joy both to read and WRITE. It gives her a very strong VOICE.) On the other hand, this completely demolishes Erika's credibility as a detective, doesn't it ? Of course it has to be done at some point, but this is a bit too much too soon. And we know she'll recover enough to announce Natsuhi's "culpability" later on.
Also, Erika has completely crossed the Moral Event Horizon by now, but that goes without saying.
"keionbu ni yokusou, nyan?"
Hay Dlanor!
My FF.net account
Dead
Then who was phone?
Dead
Lambdadelta. It says so quite clearly.
You think witches aren't real? Then explain the metagame. They quite obviously are, that just doesn't mean they're the culprits.
It's 11 AM, and now that things have settled down a bit, everyone remember it's high time to have breakfast. Erika is looking more than a little unhinged, still in denial that Battler could jump three stories down. Nobody really saw him jump ! Maybe he used the gutter to control his descent ? Which, as Battler immediately notes, is besides the point : he did prove that Grampa could have escaped the room. (He does admits in petto that he used the gutter, though.) Erika is close to a Villainous Breakdown, openly invoking her "master" to give her a sign... and then lightning strikes.
Erika resumes eating calmly, as if none of this scene had happened, which makes the relatives wonder if they just dreamed it. So, she apparently did receive a sign from Bernkastel...
(There's then a completely uneventful scene of Virgilia — who's been going off to somewhere for most of the game — being brought up to speed by Beato and her accomplices. We don't learn anything new.)
Jump to later, as Erika has been reconstructing everyone's alibi and checked various other things. Suspicion falls massively on Natsuhi, who left the meeting early and has absolutely nobody to confirm her whereabouts. (Nice job framing her, mysterious caller !) She's obviously upset by this, and appears in clear need for a rest. Actually, everybody could use one.
Natsuhi has actually been carefully calculating her outbursts, so that she could pretend to return to her room (and instead go to a specified guest room) just before 1 PM. This is obviously a trap, but it's not as if she has any choice in the matter. She has to wait there for one hour, hidden in a closet, in order for Krauss to be released ? So she will. And she won't lock the room's door, so as not to raise any suspicion.
Among her various thoughts while sitting there in the dark, the important one is that she remembers that the only person she ever told about liking fall was Shannon (yep, it's in red). She's shocked to be betrayed by a servant who's been working there for 10 years (wait, how old is Shannon exactly ?), but then reconsiders that this information might be a powerful tool in the upcoming police investigation. (Er, yeah, you might be fooling yourself a bit about the chances of anyone surviving the night...)
Then Hideyoshi enters the room (where did he find a key ?), apparently to find a place to rest alone. He bolts both the door and the windows, and then falls on the bed and starts to weep. Oh yeah, he just lost his son. Oh gods, they're wheeling out a brand new One-Woman Wail for this scene. Natsuhi resumes her wangsting... and then Hideyoshi notices there's someone else in the room.
No, not Natsuhi. He's struggling with someone else ! The murderer ? But before Natsuhi can gather he wits and jump out of the closet, Eva starts trying to open the door, while Hideyoshi makes his last gurgle. And then, silence.
Eva makes Gohda cut through the chain, and soon nearly everyone is inside, finding Hideyoshi's body. They make sure that the windows and door were impenetrable, but are interrupted by Eva being adamant about transporting her husband's corpse to the lobby so that it won't "disappear". Just as everyone leaves, Erika examines the whole guestroom one more time, makes a move towards the closet... and is scolded by Battler, as everyone is going down and they mustn't get separated.
Wow, that was close. Natsuhi exits the room discreetly, and it's obvious that this was another trap to frame her. She almost escapes scot-free, but Erika spots her while she's climbing up the stairs to her room. Natsuhi bluffs her way out of the conversation, playing dumb about the murder... but now, everyone must reunite to the parlor. Summation time !
So the trap unfolds... and surprisingly doesn't work (well, mostly — again, Natsuhi has no alibi). Most of us would have guessed its goal right when the caller gave his orders to Natsuhi, of course.
The only new information of any value is that Shannon has a link to the mysterious caller (if he indeed exists). Apart from that, nothing of much interest, though it's nice that we're finally getting to The Summation.
"keionbu ni yokusou, nyan?"
Seems like EP 5 is "hay gaiz let's go frame natsuhi or somefink".
My FF.net account
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.
Dead
The trial is AMAZING. I couldn't stop playing the game after it.
Dead
Checking back, Erika used the same paper trick to seal Gohda in a servant room between 24:00 and 01:00. Okay, at this stage her Crazy-Prepared-ness has reached absolutely sociopathic levels : what kind of clever asshole does this kind of stuff routinely ? I'm going to love seeing that girl fall.
Anyway, back to the discussion of the Battler option... He went alone at 03:00 in the room where the bodies were found. Did Erika sneak into his bed to check out his alibi ?
Well, she suspected that the newly minted heir might be a murder target, so when she entered her own bedroom at 03:00 — located right next to the cousins' room — she immediately stuck her ear to the very thin wall separating the two rooms and made sure that no violent sounds happened between 03:00 and 07:00. So Battler couldn't have killed those four victims, who also must have been killed before 03:00.
Wait, so that girl never slept that night ? What kind of monster is she ?
But wait again, her Crazy-Prepared-ness knows no bounds ! At some point before 24:00 (just after she helped Battler find the gold), she came back to the guesthouse, and put various seals on every possible outside access to the second floor (mostly the windows). In the rain. Climbing the walls like a spider in order to reach those high windows (she reveals she put back the swimsuit she came in on so as not to ruin her clothes). Net result : it's impossible to reach the cousins' room without passing through the guesthouse lounge... Which, since Erika spent the timespan between 01:00 and 03:00 there, means that the criminal must have reached the cousins' room before 01:00. (Erika admits that she did not pay attention between 24:00 and 01:00. Nice trap !) So, who has no alibi between 24:00 and 01:00 ?
None of the people in the conference room (which excludes Genji, Krauss and Natsuhi) left it between 24:00 and 01:00, intervenes Bernkastel. Okay, now she's clearly cheating, but Beato's protests aren't heard.
Now, what about Genji ? He went straight to the servant room he was found in after connecting Natsuhi's call at 24:00. And it appears that Eva had placed yet another seal on that room during that break at 01:00. Remember this ?
Oh, and there was a small piece of tape on the outside of the door, meaning that Kanon and Kumasawa were the first to open it after it had been placed.Which leaves out only Natsuhi and Krauss. Will Beato accept the plea bargain of incriminating Krauss in order to save Natsuhi ?
Meanwhile, on the sidelines, Battler reaches the conclusion that this "trial" is a trap to frame Natsuhi. He refuses to believe his aunt is the culprit, especially because every clue converges against her. Beato's defence strategy is completely useless, as it just tries to find holes in Erika's arguments. That's how he lost every time before ! They need to find an alternative truth that still fits with Erika's red truths so far...
Virgilia, impressed by his Heroic Resolve, helps him by giving him a single, tiny truth : Natsuhi Ushiromiya isn't the culprit...
Back to the main action, Natsuhi won't have any of that plea bargaining nonsense. To her, this would be as grave an insult to the family's honour anyway. But in Beato's case, it's different : the Krauss option is no better than the "witch" option, since he's basically gone missing off the board. So it would be a draw. The Natsuhi option, on the other hand, completely does in the witch, and means the end of the Witch Illusion. And Beato's death, of course. So will she eat up her pride, abandon Natsuhi, and live to play another game ?
Well, of course not ! She'll fight on ! Krauss isn't the culprit either !
So be it. Krauss isn't the culprit. He died long ago, just after the phone call. Everyone but Natsuhi has an alibi. She committed the crimes between 24:00 and 01:00. She also killed her own husband. And by the way, she can drop the pretence of conserving her dignity : Grampa never allowed her to wear the one-winged eagle inside her heart, that was all an illusion of hers.
Okay, that's not good. Every single theory outlined by Beato at the beginning has been defeated. All the evidence outlined by Erika seems pretty solid (though I have a big problem with the final theory *, it's not enough to save Natsuhi).
Erika has been a magnificent Smug Snake, outlining a sublime trap against the murderer. And dear gods is she creepy, with an absolutely insane behaviour that classifies her as Dangerously Genre-Savvy. She fully acknowledges the Busman's Holiday trope, for —'s sake ! I love to hate the gal.
Of course, we all know that Battler is going to exclaim 'OBJECTION !' and save the day. Er, any minute now ? Please ?
edited 26th Jan '10 1:57:04 PM by Jhiday
Forgive my stupidity, but how is Bernkastel's declaration cheating? How is that any different from Beato's declarations in red in previous arcs?
Also, it seems to me that declaring Krauss dead is akin to declaring in red that "magic exists." Given that Erika asked Natsuhi if Krauss was guilty, his status sounds like another Schrodinger's Cat problem—at the moment, he's both alive and dead (the way Rokkenjima is both subject to magic and human means). Natsuhi's declaration shouldn't be enough to open that box, any more than gamepiece-Battler's refusal to recognize magic should affect the outcome of the game itself.
(in red) Erika is such a bitch.
edited 26th Jan '10 4:36:08 PM by Lawrieclaws2
I just love that image of Erika, like a big, ugly spider. 
Also, do you realize that she put on her swimsuit before accidentally falling off the boat?
Obviously she packed for Rokkenjima before accidentally falling off the boat.
Forgive my stupidity, but how is Bernkastel's declaration cheating? How is that any different from Beato's declarations in red in previous arcs? Bernkastel just stating a few things in red that Erika can't prove is thus a bit of a cheat in this context : it reduces Erika's awesomeness.
Also, it seems to me that declaring Krauss dead is akin to declaring in red that "magic exists."Anyway, there are ways to bypass Erika's careful cage around Natsuhi without magic entering the equation, but I'm still struggling with Rosa's death, which doesn't even fit with the final scenario presented here. (By the way, this scenario was outlined by Lambdadelta, who was obviously misled by some of Erika's statements. Even Battler notices that, by focusing so much on Natsuhi, Erika is consciously or unconsciously helping the real murderer.)
Also, do you realize that she put on her swimsuit before accidentally falling off the boat?
We're now back to point where Battler re-entered the game. Erika has just accused Natsuhi, and you know what this means : CATFIGHT ! Eva lunges at the "culprit", and nobody intervenes (well, Battler tries, but gets an elbow to the gutt for his troubles). Erika triumphs, as she's proved whodunnit and howdunnit. There's just the question of whydunnit left. Natsuhi still denies everything, so Erika'll have to figure it out by herself.
Over at the trial, Natsuhi has gone into BSOD, and Beato is stripped of her witch rank and thrown to a pack of hungry goats. Everything appears desperate, and this would be a very good time for Battler to step in.
Any minute, now ?
And then Dlanor steps in, claiming that Battler has an OBJECTION. He has no clue how to proceed, but at least it's an opening. He'll have to battle everyone : Erika, Dlanor and her two lackeys, Bernkastel, and of course Lambdadelta the Game Master. Odds aren't good, especially as he has no plans.
Oh dear, I don't have the heart to detail the following scene. Let's just say that all of Battler's attempts to instil doubt into Erika's truths are curb-stomped by Dlanor's Knox principles, and it soon reaches pathetic levels of far-fetched-ness. (Seriously, Rosa walking through the lounge holding a suitcase with someone hidden inside ? That's just SAD...)
After everything else has failed, Battler resolves to use his last resort, that would throw back everything into the darkness : Natsuhi isn't the culprit !
That's IT ? Knox's 2nd principle : Supernatural insight cannot be USED. Does Battler have any proof to support this CLAIM ?
No, he doesn't. (Virgilia is nowhere to be seen.)
The trial for the 5th case is thus FINISHED.
Battler is pierced by this final attack, while Beato succumbs to the goats' onslaught. All of Beato's minions disappear. Everyone leaves, with Dlanor remaining the last to see Battler's corpse expire. She had expected him to be BETTER. What a PITY.
Well, er, so much for Battler saving Beato. But then, this episode is titled End of the Golden Witch. I'm not excluding yet Battler making some sort of comeback. (I mean, I've read the spoilers. I just have no clue how it will happen.)
This isn't the end, by the way : we'll next have a scene where Erika investigates Natsuhi's motive. But that'll be for next session, as I'm getting tired.
I just want to mention that the music played during the trial has been consistently awesome, alternating between a few tense tunes, Erika's whimsical but menacing theme tune, and that One-Woman Wail for the parts about Natsuhi's despair.
I also loved the device of displaying all of Beato's counter-theories in a big screen, and then crossing them out as they're eliminated. It was also a nice idea to give them (and Erika's counters) a big blank screen when they're actually stated. It gave them more gravitas.
In order to discover Natsuhi's motives, Erika has ordered everyone else to search the mansion for her possessions. it appears from her diaries that she resented her marriage with Krauss (which was forced by Kinzo on her family). Of course Natsuhi claims she eventually accepted it and grew to love Krauss, but there's no proof of that.
And then Erika suddenly remembers that there's still the possibility that someone else is the culprit : Grampa himself ! His whereabouts after 23:00 aren't accounted for, after all. But they've already searched the whole island and found no trace of him spending the night anywhere.
Wait, after much searching, there's one place where he could have spent the night. By the way, Bernkastel informs Natsuhi repeatedly that she can be vindicated by just acknowledging Grampa as the culprit. Plea bargain : Grampa's honour for her own innocence. She refuses, of course.
Well, Erika seems to be determined to "break" Natsuhi, as she reveals that the one place Grampa could have spent the night in is... Natsuhi's bed. Where Natsuhi also spent the night. And then some of the witnesses remember Natsuhi having an awful lot of "secret meetings" with Grampa lately. Didn't she just go into his study last evening to "wish him good night" ?
Urgh, that's just ignominious.
(Then follows some extracts from the minutes of an eventual trial — with heavy input from Bernkastel, somehow. The accusation that Natsuhi did some Beatrice cosplay in order to seduce Grampa — her carelessness explaining the sightings by the staff — made me want to throw up. Oh, and they explained the first twilight as Natsuhi wanting to frame Battler, the new head. The whole thing is signed by Dlanor, indicating that this wasn't any earthly tribunal...)
edited 28th Jan '10 2:25:08 PM by Jhiday
Input from Bernkastel, yeah.. well, anyone who claims magic doesn't exist in this world is a fool. :P
But a can't figure out who actually did kill them. Not for anything. Erika's elimination of the non-Natsuhi characters seems tight, and shouldn't be subject to her selective choice of evidence. Going to have to re-read it.
Ugh, that is sick. Man, I felt kinda sorry for Erika before despite hating her. It's got to suck, knowing that you're just a toy for someone to play around with and throw away when they're bored. So I understood why she was so insistent on Natsuhi being the culprit, even while she was being a bitch about it.
But by now she's sailed far past the moral event horizon. Christ, I wanna throttle her myself. I know what happens at the end of this game...please, let it happen soon! The next post, please!
Input from Bernkastel, yeah.. well, anyone who claims magic doesn't exist in this world is a fool. :P Dlanor is apparently an enforcer for some kind of heavenly tribunal. And a very efficient one : it's been hinted that from the moment she was called into this by Bernkastel, Beato was toast.
So those minutes are actually the conclusion of the trial we've just seen. Hence the heavy input by Bernkastel (and why it's treated as evidence), and Dlanor signing it off at the end.
After all, we all know there will be no trial in the real world.
"keionbu ni yokusou, nyan?"
Three hours later... Battler finally manages to escape from the family conference. He's admirative of Rosa, who slipped out around 1:00 AM by pretending to check on Maria. In the guesthouse's lobby, he finds the remains of a small party, with only Gohda (as bartender), Dr Nanjo and Erika still around. (I wonder if they've been talking about anything plot-relevant. Erika said she didn't peep a word about that, but what about the slightly inebriated Dr Nanjo ?) Anyway, everyone calls it a night.
While stumbling to his bed in the darkened cousins' bedroom, Battler reminisces about his father's parting words. Rudolf wants to talk to him the next day about his birth... even though he risks getting killed for it. (Oh oh, I like where this is going. Way to connect two previously unrelated threads.) Then Battler falls asleep, and I'm getting an awful feeling : he didn't have a good look at the room, right ?
But for now, let's go back to Natsuhi's inner monologue with Beato & co. She reminisces about 19 years ago, when she wasn't able to bear a child and Grampa was getting impatient. He poured some big money into the Fukuin orphanage, obstantly to help orphans inserted in society after learning the servant trade ; then one day he and Kumasawa came with a baby in tow, ordering Natsuhi to raise it as her and Krauss's own child. Natsuhi was obviously revulsed, and made two wishes : finally getting pregnant (and she would give birth to Jessica one year later), and getting rid of this baby...
Three days later, the servant to which the baby had been given in care for the afternoon walked off a cliff, and they both died (or so it seems). Beato assuages Natsuhi's guilt by claiming to have been the one luring the servant to her death. If someone wants revenge, it'll be against a witch ! (The scariest part ? When Grampa learned the news, he just laughed.)
And now the reveal of who has been phoning Natsuhi. Wait... Lambdadelta ? Seriously ? Back to the "Natsuhi is bonkers" theory, then. Switch to outside the gameboard, with quite a boring conversation between Lambdadelta, Bernkastel, her pawn Erika, Battler and the comatose Beato. It ends up with Battler vowing to take the game back... but haven't we been through this already ? Let's get on with the show, please.
October 6th, 1986, the second day, around 7 AM... Battler is woken up by the alarm bell on George's watch, and stumbles to switch on the light... Oh, dear. George, Jessica, Maria and Rosa laid in their beds, with their deep wounds in their necks. Oh, and there's a big red magic circle on the wall. Interestingly, as some of the parents start to show up and react, Hideyoshi appears to still be alive. Hum...
Erika shows up, and it's obvious that she's delighted that a new mystery has emerged. Will they please let her enter and do her job as detective ? Battler is disgusted by her aplomb... and then he's hit by the red text claiming that the detective has authority to investigate. Special rule, agreed upon by the human side. Perfectly legit.
And so Erika starts investigating...
Er... Not what I was expecting. I hoped there would be some sort of token explanation for Erika playing detective instead of just Mary Sue-ing her way through, but no. A bit underwhelming. Just like the reveal that Lambdadelta is behind the phone calls. Which I suppose is the point : Bernkastel & Lambdadelta are tearing through Beato's game with absolutely no respect for it.
Not a really fun instalment, then (though we do get a bit more information about past events). I have higher hopes for Erika's investigation, as I'm a big sucker for the mystery genre. We shall see...
edited 11th Jan '10 1:29:26 PM by Jhiday