Game 16 Thread
Sept 4, 2017 6:51:21 GMT 12
Post by animex75 on Sept 4, 2017 6:51:21 GMT 12
“So you wish to challenge me for this human’s soul, eh?” The cloaked figure rises from its seat in the great library and sets aside the book it was reading. Before the Sorcerer stands a girl in a dark-blue hooded knit cape embroidered with clockwork designs, wearing thick semi-rimless glasses, and holding a basket of yarn balls in one hand and a knitting needle tipped in ink - drawn from its place in the yarn - in the other hand.
“Yes! You have no claim on her, she’s my little sister!” She slams her needle into the table between them. “Coven-mates or not, I won’t stand for it!”
The Sorcerer chuckles. “Very well. I have the perfect game board in mind!” With a wave of his arm, the room fades around them and they appear in Beatrice’s tea room. “Bernkastel’s game fine with you?”
“Sounds perfect to me. When I win, you’re releasing your hold on her for good and handing her back over, got it?”
“And if I win? What is it that I gain from this little competition of ours?”
“For starters, I’ll back off and let you keep Elise. I’ll also guarantee you use of the red key as Detective of the next regular game I host!”
“Ahh, now that is truly worth going all-out for! I accept these terms!” The Sorcerer waves an arm again and a chessboard appears on the tea table, along with a tea set. “With that out of the way, let us begin this tale…..”
Rokkenjima, October 4th, 1986. The annual conference of the Ushiromiya family. Like many years before, those members of the family who do not live on the island return by boat, however this year is a little special; for the first time in five years, Battler Ushiromiya, who had a falling-out with his father over a hasty remarriage after the death of Battler’s mother, Asumu, has returned to the island. The cousins Battler, George, Maria, and Jessica, as well as the servants Shannon and Kanon, spend the day catching up with one another - and introducing the latter servant to Battler, as they had never met before this - while the other servants Kumasawa, Genji, and Gohda prepare for dinner and the kids’ parents begin the annual conference.
Later on, the cousins are brought to the dining room for dinner and the conference put on hold for the meal. Part-way in, however, something else special happens: a girl washes up on the shore half-drowned and collapses in front of the mansion door, where she is found by the doctor, Nanjo, and Kumasawa, who had seen a figure moving around in the typhoon that had come through just before dinner. The servants took the young girl to an empty guest room and informed the family of this new guest.
“Make sure she’s taken care of, Nanjo. We can try to contact the mainland after dinner; meanwhile, see to it that she gets some dry clothes, Kumasawa.” Krauss orders.
“Do we even have clothes that would fit her? Why not just put her clothes in the boiler room to dry and set them in the room with her later?” Eva scoffs.
“I believe she is about the same size as Lady Maria; would you be willing to loan her some clothing until hers dry, Lady Rosa?” Genji adds.
“Yeah, that should be fine. I packed extra clothes just in case Maria got hers dirty anyway, so we may as well. And Eva, there’s no reason to be so cruel, the child just nearly drowned and walked all the way here from the beach! Besides, what kind of hosts would we be if we forced her to be naked for who knows how long when we could give her something to wear? I’ll get one of the extra outfits when we finish the conference.”
Eva sneers at Rosa and Kumasawa leaves to attend to the girl, known as Erika Furudo, though not to the family as they don’t know her name.
After dinner, the cousins return to the guest house and the servants clean the dining room, all while the adult members of the family start the conference back up. The discussion quickly escalates to a full-blown argument as the other siblings and their spouses accuse Krauss of hiding the death of the family patriarch, Kinzo, so he could steal the fortune for himself; Krauss vehemently denies this and the subject of the Riddle of the Epitaph is brought up.
“Why don’t we do this? Krauss can prove he hasn’t stolen father’s fortune out from under us if we find the gold.” Rudolf suggests.
“The gold? You mean solve that riddle? You know that thing’s probably a wild goose chase that father cooked up, right?” Natsuhi, Krauss’ wife, retorts.
“You’re just scared that we’ll solve it, you whore!” Eva yells.
“Eva, Eva, please calm down! There’s no need to resort to name calling!” Hideyoshi, Eva’s husband, tries to reign her in.
“She’s right, you know. Krauss and Natsuhi don’t want us to solve the riddle because they would lose their position at the top and we would find out that they embezzled all of the money.” Kyrie chuckles. She always loved coming to these conferences.
Krauss sighs. “Fine. We’ll look for father’s gold. We’ll do this as a family, that way we’re all helping and we’ll get this finished faster. Any objections?”
Nobody objects, and the family sets off to the foyer to write down the riddle, and then on to their research.
After a few hours, long after the cousins had fallen asleep and Shannon and Kanon returned to the mansion for the night, the family made quite a bit of headway in the riddle. They managed to figure out where to look in order to find the Key before Rosa left the group; in all the excitement, she had forgotten to bring a change of clothes for their guest. The rest of the group, including Genji as he has the key - went up to Kinzo’s study to find the maps they needed, and on their way back down they find Rosa at the bottom of the stairs, her neck broken and her head bleeding. The family rushes to find help from the servants, only to find Gohda, Kumasawa, Nanjo, and Kanon dead of stab wounds, and Shannon nowhere to be found; Kanon had the knife embedded in his chest.
The Sorcerer pauses the game board here, and summons the survivors before him. “You know how this works. I grant you all the use of Purple Declaration to give your alibis. A quick refresher: Purple has the same authority as Red, except the culprit - and ONLY the culprit - can lie. All other survivors of each set of murders speaks only the truth as they know it! BEGIN!”
Krauss: “I-I never left the group while we were doing the investigation for the riddle.…”
Natsuhi: “Rosa was with us until she remembered her promise to deliver clothes to the girl who washed up on our island and nobody else left the group.”
Eva: “Now that you mention it, the servants did call it a day a little early….”
Hideyoshi: “I didn’t see or hear anything out of the ordinary until we found all those bodies.”
Rudolf: “Kyrie and I were in father’s study, reading books and looking through maps. Damn old man can’t make anything easy, can he?”
Kyrie: “I haven’t seen Kinzo all night, either. Is he really dead? Genji was pretty tight-lipped about it all, but I have seen nothing suggesting he’s still alive.”
Genji: “I took the masters up to master Kinzo’s study at their request. They wanted to search through his books and maps, and as I am the holder of the key I went with them. The other servants were to go about their duties, and Nanjo was to look after the young girl’s condition.”
Battler: “Well, the five of us went back to the guest house after dinner with Shannon, but she was still working for a little while longer. She left at some point, but I passed out from such a long day before she returned.”
Jessica: “We were talking with each other, reminiscing about the last time Battler came to the island. Kanon and Shannon were working, but he was able to come by to bring us refills on tea. He didn’t have much to say, though.”
George: “Battler was the first one asleep. Jessica and Maria fell asleep not long after Kanon left, so I went out to see if Shannon was still around. I had wanted to ask her a very important question and asked earlier at dinner that she meet me in the gazebo when her shift ended. She didn’t show up, so I went back to the guest house and went to bed.”
Maria: “Uuu~! Today was fun! I showed Battler and the others some magic tricks that Beatrice taught me, but I got sleepy after Battler went to bed. I think I fell asleep on Jessica, Uuu~”
Erika: “What? Why am I giving a testimony? I nearly drowned, washed up some strange island, and passed out in front of the mansion door. I haven’t even woken up by this point!”
“I feel I should explain the rules again, as it has been some time since we’ve used them. I already mentioned how Purple Declaration worked, so let’s skip that.” The Sorcerer pulls out a grimoire and opens it. “The game lasts a single round, taking place after the murders have already been carried out; in essence, we skip straight to the final meta phase! All deaths and their circumstances are given at the start of the game; likewise, everything in the narrative is the truth. There may be more than one culprit, and a culprit is defined as someone who kills with their own hands, even if it’s self-defense. A culprit who has yet to commit murder can still lie in Purple Declaration! There are no accomplices; anyone who helps a culprit must, themselves, be a culprit! There are only five master keys, each one tied to a servant; in essence, the servant is the master key and the key cannot be removed from them, as when their corpse is discovered their key is immediately destroyed. While on the subject of keys, a door cannot be unlocked from the outside without a key. There is no rule for it given, but in this instance the rule about master keys will be applied to the study key as well: when Genji’s corpse is discovered, the key will be destroyed and the key cannot be removed from Genji. All windows have bars and thus cannot be passed through. And last but not least, THERE IS NO DETECTIVE!” With that, the Sorcerer snaps his fingers and the game board resumes.
“D-dear God! Someone...someone try to reach the police! We need the police!” Krauss begins to panic as they find all the bodies. Nanjo was in his office, Gohda was in the kitchen, Kumasawa was in the dining room with the serving cart, and Kanon was found at the foot of the staircase leading to the boiler room. “There should be a phone in the parlor that we can use!”
“Y-yeah, we need to try and get through!” Natsuhi agrees with her husband, fighting back a panic attack of her own.
The group moves down to the parlor and they attempt to dial out, but to no avail. The phone is dead. “So much for that idea.” Kyrie puts her chin in her hand. “The question is who did this...We were all together this whole time, and the kids went to the guest house hours ago…”
“Isn’t it obvious? It was obviously that FURNITURE Shannon! She’s the only one we haven’t seen yet!” Eva snaps her fan shut and points it at Kyrie. “She clearly killed the others and…” She turns white and stops her tirade cold. “The kids!”
The group, led by Eva as she was the first out the door, run to the guest house to find it unlocked. They run up to the room the cousins had been using, only to find them all fast asleep. Breathing a sigh of relief, they decide that they should wake their children and tell them the news.
Needless to say, the whole lot of them are shocked by the news, but Jessica never says a word. She just stares off into space.
“D-dead? All the servants….are dead?” Battler hangs his head between his hands. “But we were just talking with Shannon….”
“And Shannon, is she alright? You said you didn’t find her.” George inquires, while discreetly squeezing the small box in his pocket.
“That’s right. We decided we should go arm ourselves before we go look, just in case she’s behind this.” Hideyoshi, despite seeing his son’s movement, ignores it.
Maria begins to laugh, building into a loud cackle. “Kihihihihi~! Do you not see? This is not the work of a human killer! Beatrice’s ritual has finally begun! Arm yourselves all you want, but no mortal weapon can harm a witch! Kihihihihi!”
After whacking Maria (somewhat) gently on the head and scolding her for her nonsense and coldness towards not only the servants but her own mother, the family returns to the mansion once again. They stop by the guest room where Erika is resting, just to check up on her, and find that she’s unharmed. Relieved, the family has Genji lock her door and they begin to make their way to the study, but Jessica stops at the foot of the stairs to the third floor. Finally, for the first time since hearing the news, she speaks. “...I want to see him.”
“See who, dear?” her mother asks.
“I want to see Kanon! I NEED to see Kanon!” Jessica looks to her mother, her eyes filling with tears.
“J-Jessica, calm down! I’ll take you to him after we arm ourselves. It’s not safe right now, so we shouldn’t split up unless we are armed!” Her father attempts to comfort her, to no avail.
Eva scoffs. “Such a display over a piece of furniture. Why waste the tears?”
Everyone glares at Eva. “They happened to be friends, you heartless demon!” Natsuhi exclaims, holding her daughter. Eva backs down. The group continues on its way upstairs and into the study to arm themselves. Genji opens the study, the group moves in, and each of the siblings (Krauss, Eva, Rudolf) arms themselves. The remaining gun is given to Natsuhi, despite Eva’s objection. Afterwards, the family leaves the study; the group splits up so they can take the bodies from their resting places and move them into the parlor. Krauss and Jessica go to Kanon; Eva and Hideyoshi go to Gohda; Rudolf and Kyrie go to Kumasawa; Battler and Genji go to Nanjo. George, Natsuhi, and Maria go to the parlor to make sure that the room is safe.
All groups return to the parlor with the body they were to move, except one: Krauss and Jessica. The family decides to wait, as Jessica had wanted to mourn her friend, only for a shot to ring out. The family bolts to the source of the shot and finds Krauss dead, his head bleeding and a heavy candlestick laying next to his body; they look at the foot of the stairs and find Jessica, dead over Kanon’s body with a bullet wound in her head.
Natsuhi: “The group went up to father’s study for guns. There’s a killer on the loose so we needed to arm ourselves! Nobody broke off until we split up. My husband and daughter...they didn’t come back, and then we heard the gunshot……”
Eva: “My husband and I went to bring Gohda to the parlor. I guarded him as he did the heavy lifting.”
Hideyoshi: “We stuck with Rudolf and Kyrie most of the way, since we were heading about the same way. Rudolf gave his gun to Kyrie so he could carry Kumasawa.”
Rudolf: “She didn’t want to do any heavy lifting, which is nuts. Kumasawa wasn’t even that heavy! Kyrie said she was the better shot so it was best if we traded.”
Kyrie: “We beat Hideyoshi and Eva. Not surprising, considering how we didn’t have as far to go. We had a bit of a head start over them, so we made it back to the parlor first.”
Genji: “Lord Battler and I went up to the second floor, right across from Lady Jessica’s room to Nanjo’s office. He was my dear friend, so I volunteered to carry him.”
Battler: “I watched Genji’s back. He muttered under his breath - probably a short prayer or something - and carried Nanjo down the stairs. He’s stronger than he looks, that’s for sure.”
George: “Battler and Genji were the last group to come back. I had expected uncle Krauss and Jessica to come back last since she had a huge crush on Kanon.”
Maria: “Uuu~ aunt Natsuhi is so nice. She let me show her some magic tricks while George watched the door. She didn’t want me to look at Beatrice’s first sacrifices, so she tried to keep me from watching them come back, but I saw aunt Eva and uncle Hideyoshi come in a little after uncle Rudolf and aunt Kyre.”
Erika: “I’ve been out cold since the start of this stupid game, but I started to wake up I think, because I’m pretty sure I heard that gunshot from this guest room.”
The family is stunned. They only JUST saw these two, and now they’re both dead. However, Battler and Kyrie - who still have the sense to do so - take the time to look around the nearby rooms. The doors are locked.
“Hey! Don’t just stand around, you guys, the person who did this has to still be around here!” Battler cries out, shaking the other survivors out of their stupor. “We can grieve later, but for now we need to find who did this and restrain them until the storm passes and we can get the police here!”
“He’s right. Someone needs to get down there in the cellar and see if the killer is hiding there. Battler and I have confirmed that the doors up here are all locked, and since Genji has the only key left….”
“Unless Shannon really is involved.” Eva interrupts.
“Would you just drop it already? We can’t accuse someone of being the killer when they aren’t here to defend themselves.” George shoots his mother a cold glance and she shuts up.
The family splits up; Natsuhi stays behind, still crying over the bodies of her husband and daughter, while Eva, Hideyoshi, and Rudolf go with Genji so they can open the other door into the cellar. They find the door locked, but Genji is able to unlock it with ease. The group enters the cellar and are immediately met with the most foul smell; it seems to be coming from the boiler room. They move to the boiler room and sure enough, the stench is emanating from the boiler itself; the armed siblings stand watch while Hideyoshi opens the boiler. He pulls a burned corpse and some bloody clothes out of the cinders that used to be the fire that keeps the boiler hot.
“Dear God, what the hell was THAT doing in there?!” Eva covers her nose and mouth, trying not to vomit.
“Th-that’s Shannon’s uniform! Could this be…?” Hideyoshi backs away from the gruesome scene that he uncovered, taking Eva’s lead and fighting back his own vomit.
“I’m afraid not, Master Hideyoshi.” Genji, somehow, maintains his composure. “It is true that those are, indeed, Shannon’s clothes, however that body is not hers.” Genji walks over to the body, kneels at its feet, and points. “See the toes? Each foot has six digits. The only one on the island with polydactyly such as this...is Master Kinzo.”
“Wait, what? That’s pops!? How did he get in there?!” Rudolf stares in shock. “Dammit! That bastard Krauss DID kill him, didn’t he?! It’s the only explanation!”
“Then what? He ordered Kanon to dispose of the body while we were all busy at the conference? Let’s be realistic here. There’s no way we wouldn’t find out about this, it’s a wonder we didn’t smell this while we were upstairs!” Eva counters. She might not have any love for the FURNITURE, but that story just sounds ridiculous to her.
“Well whatever. We should go tell the others what we found down here. If nothing else, we can confront Natsuhi about this and see if she knows anything.” Rudolf thumbs at the door behind him, the very one that Kanon’s body was found at.
“More like if that whore is willing to admit to anything.” Eva pulls on her husband’s sleeve to get him to come along. Genji leads the way and opens the door, not needing his key.
While the cellar group was gone, the other group had moved the bodies to clear the stairs. The group comes up from the cellar, Genji locking it behind them with an explanation of not disturbing the scene, and goes back to the parlor to regroup. They find Battler, having taken Natsuhi’s gun while she was grieving, and Maria playing cards. On the other end of the room, Natsuhi’s still crying over the newest victims while George does his best to console her. Kyrie is by herself, staring out a window. Rudolf and Eva get the attention of the others and explain what they found; George is visibly devastated.
Eva moves over to Natsuhi and points her gun at her. “Alright, WHORE! Explain! Why was father’s corpse in the boiler?! And when did he die?!”
“Eva! No need to point your gun at her!” Hideyoshi tries to calm his wife.
“Shut up! We’ve been trying to prove for months that she and Krauss not only knew that father was dead, but that they had been embezzling his fortune!”
“I-I know but…”
“Mother, please. Calm down and let aunt Natsuhi explain.” George stands up, trying to be calm, and gets between his mother and aunt.
“George, get out of the way!”
“We’re with him, calm down Eva!” Rudolf has his gun trained on Eva, as does Battler.
Eva backs down and lowers her gun. “Tch. Fine. But if she lies to us, I’m bringing it back up!” The others lower their guns and Eva continues. “We know father died. He stopped even appearing at the conference without warning and refused to see us, so don’t even TRY to deny it. When did he die? And what happened to the money?!”
Natsuhi wipes her eyes and sighs. “...I guess there’s no point in it now.” She stands. “He died two years ago. Krauss and I had nothing to do with it, though! He just started getting weak, and no medicine that Nanjo tried worked. As for the money...Krauss invested a lot of it and lost it.”
“We knew it! That bastard….how much did he lose?!” Eva glares at her brother’s corpse.
“His entire inheritance...and that’s not all. He is...was deep in debt. We were looking for the gold so we could pay it off but...As it stands, I don’t think our family has much left.”
Silence. Everyone is floored. They were right about everything that they had been suspecting but...the siblings never suspected that it was this bad. Kyrie breaks the silence first. “How close did you get on your own? To solving the riddle, I mean.”
“Not very. We got the part about his hometown, but Krauss wasn’t able to figure out the Key…”
“Hm. In that case, anyone want to finish solving it?” Kyrie turns from the window. “I know it’s a bit of an odd time, but we should figure out how much will be left after all’s said and done. Krauss and Natsuhi lost all right to the gold as far as I’m concerned, but we also can’t just assume that it’s all there. After all, maybe Krauss lied about not making progress on the riddle, just in case we cornered Natsuhi.”
“She’s right. We can’t take any chances. Besides, we’ll be safe in the study since Genji’s key is the only one.” Rudolf runs his fingers through his hair with a sigh. The rest of the family agrees.
“Uuu~ I want to read the occult books!”
Battler ruffles Maria’s hair and the group moves up the stairs, two guns in front and one in back. However, when they reach the second floor they see an open door. The room their guest was in. The family rushes over, only to find the room empty; the bed sheets have been thrown aside and the bed, sheets included, are covered in blood and the guest has vanished without a trace.
Natsuhi: “D-don’t look at me, I was in the parlor crying over my husband and daughter just before now! I never saw anyone go upstairs!”
Eva: “I was with my husband, Rudolf, and Genji in the cellar. We came straight back to the parlor after we found father’s body so we could get some answers out of that whore, Natsuhi.”
Hideyoshi: “Eva, Rudolf, Genji, and I didn’t check the entire cellar, that stench distracted us. However, we found the outer door in the garden locked. We never saw anybody go upstairs.”
Rudolf: “I was at the back of the group when we were coming up. I stood watch over Genji while he locked the door behind us. We caught back up to Eva and Hideyoshi and went straight to the parlor.”
Kyrie: “Battler carried Jessica’s body, I took Kanon’s, George took Krauss’. George got to the parlor first, and I was the last of our group. Natsuhi followed the boys.”
Genji: “I led Hideyoshi, Rudolf, and Eva to the cellar where Master Kinzo’s body was found. We saw no other people, however the door that Kanon’s and Jessica’s bodies had been at was not locked. I locked it behind me.”
Battler: “George volunteered to take uncle Krauss’ body, and I took Jessica’s. That left Kyrie to get Kanon. I didn’t see anyone go upstairs.”
George: “Maria was checking the doors when we split up and started moving the bodies. I took her and aunt Natsuhi back to the parlor.”
Maria: “Uuu~ All the doors Maria checked were locked! Not that Beatrice can be stopped by such a thing. George had some cards so I could play, but he didn’t want to so Sakutarou and I played by ourselves.”
The family desperately searched nearby rooms, hoping to find Erika alive and well, but to no avail. She was gone.
“What the...? Genji, I thought you locked the door back last time we were up here!” Eva points at Genji, lowering her gun momentarily.
“That is correct.”
“That proves it. Only a master key could’ve let someone in that room, so Shannon IS involved!”
Even though Eva has made this accusation before...nobody objects. All the other servants, save Genji - who is still alive - and Shannon, were confirmed dead and their keys destroyed.
“I hate to say this, but...it’s likely that she’s dead and her body disposed of. We can’t afford to keep looking around out here, just in case her killer is still lurking around. After all, Krauss’ gun has yet to be found.” Kyrie looks around. “ We should stick to the plan and head up to the study where we’ll be safe.”
“I agree. We need to prioritize our safety, instead of looking around for a corpse.” Rudolf nods to the stairs up.
The rest of the group agrees, reluctantly, and they make their way up to the study. Genji lets the group in and the door closes behind them; Maria goes to look over the occult books, while the rest of the group searches for all the previous notes. Rudolf, Battler, and Eva set their guns on Kinzo’s desk.
“We managed to find the ‘hometown’ mentioned in the riddle earlier, and even figured out that we needed to follow the railway, before Rosa….” Kyrie changes the subject. “Anyway. We know where the Key is, but we hadn’t worked it out yet before we came back downstairs.”
The family - save Maria, whose face is buried in a book on the occult - congregated around the coffee table when everything was compiled. After much brainstorming, some progress is eventually made. Using the copy of the riddle that they made earlier, the group is able to narrow down the Key.
“Well, we have the Key, now where is the door?” Eva scratches her head.
Kyrie, who has been silent the entire time, speaks up suddenly. “Well, logically the gold would be on the island itself….after all, he brought a bar to a potential business partner once without leaving it. Where would we be able to put in the key word?”
The family went quiet to mull it over, before all the adults spoke up together. “The chapel!”
“The sign over the door had raised letters, how could we miss something that simple?” Hideyoshi facepalms.
“Perhaps we were over-thinking things. Genji, is there a ladder we could use in the tool shed that could reach?”
“Yes. I will need to obtain the shed key from the lockbox in the kitchen.”
“That’s fine. Let’s split up. I’ll guard you, Kyrie and dad should take care of looking over the rest of the group.” Battler retrieves one of the guns and grabs some extra ammunition. Just in case.
“Agreed. We’ll go to the shed and make sure the coast is clear. Afterwards, we’ll go to the chapel together. The three of us will stand guard while someone else follows the rest of the riddle.” Kyrie and Rudolf follow Battler’s lead and the family goes downstairs together.
The group splits up at the kitchen. Battler and Genji retrieve the key they need, as well as the chapel key, just in case; the rest of the group heads straight towards the tool shed, with Kyrie and Rudolf in the lead. After obtaining the keys, Genji and Battler move to the servant’s entrance to go outside; not long after they reach the outside, however, a loud crack breaks the sound of the storm and Battler falls down, blood spreading across his chest. Almost immediately after, another crack sounds and Genji’s leg begins spraying blood and seconds later, he’s dead.
Hearing these obvious gunshots, the family stops in their tracks and start running back. They find the pair dead and, before anything can be done, two more gunshots sound and George falls, his knee blown out, as does Kyrie, a gunshot wound in her belly.
“Shit! Where is it coming from?!” Rudolf aims erratically, trying to find the source of the shots.
Natsuhi, who’s busy shielding Maria, points in the distance. “I-I saw movement over there!”
Eva takes Battler’s gun, and she and Rudolf run off towards the figure Natsuhi was talking about; meanwhile, Hideyoshi and Natsuhi attempt to stop Kyrie’s and George’s bleeding. “Don’t worry about us, go help Eva and Rudolf!” Kyrie tries to hand her gun to Natsuhi.
“Don’t be stupid! If we don’t stop the bleeding, you’ll both die! Besides, I was never a good shot….”
As Rudolf and Eva move closer, they see that there is, indeed, someone there. “I see them! I think I can hit them from here, too!” Rudolf raises his gun and takes aim...however, before he can even get the chance, the ground starts rumbling more and more violently until the mansion grounds are destroyed in a massive explosion.
Later the next day, October 5th, after the typhoon has settled down, the ferryman returns to the island on his boat. He had been worried since Rokkenjima had been right in the path of that storm, and they had lost contact with the island. All he finds is a smoldering crater where the grounds used to be. In a panic, he returns to his boat and contacts the police by radio. When they arrive, the police are unable to find any survivors, or any evidence of what went down during those two days. As the sole survivor of the family, Ange Ushiromiya - who had been sick and missed the conference - inherits all her family’s assets and the mysterious deaths and destruction of the Ushiromiya family passes from mystery, to cold case, and then, eventually, into legend.
“I feel like I should clarify one more thing before we start. The chapel key and tool shed key do exist this time around, however only the servants have access in this instance. Not that it matters, since nobody got to use either of them in the narrative. Oh, and be advised: even though they CAN lie in purple, doesn’t mean the culprit will ALWAYS lie in purple!”
Now then. You have until 5pm EST on Tuesday, September 5th - our 4 year anniversary - to solve this. Like last time, I won't be giving any further information besides whether you were correct or incorrect. I'm also requiring you to back your theory up so you can't just spam names until you're right! You don't need to be 100% correct, you just need the correct culprit(s) and a method that doesn't violate the narration or the given testimonies.
“Yes! You have no claim on her, she’s my little sister!” She slams her needle into the table between them. “Coven-mates or not, I won’t stand for it!”
The Sorcerer chuckles. “Very well. I have the perfect game board in mind!” With a wave of his arm, the room fades around them and they appear in Beatrice’s tea room. “Bernkastel’s game fine with you?”
“Sounds perfect to me. When I win, you’re releasing your hold on her for good and handing her back over, got it?”
“And if I win? What is it that I gain from this little competition of ours?”
“For starters, I’ll back off and let you keep Elise. I’ll also guarantee you use of the red key as Detective of the next regular game I host!”
“Ahh, now that is truly worth going all-out for! I accept these terms!” The Sorcerer waves an arm again and a chessboard appears on the tea table, along with a tea set. “With that out of the way, let us begin this tale…..”
Rokkenjima, October 4th, 1986. The annual conference of the Ushiromiya family. Like many years before, those members of the family who do not live on the island return by boat, however this year is a little special; for the first time in five years, Battler Ushiromiya, who had a falling-out with his father over a hasty remarriage after the death of Battler’s mother, Asumu, has returned to the island. The cousins Battler, George, Maria, and Jessica, as well as the servants Shannon and Kanon, spend the day catching up with one another - and introducing the latter servant to Battler, as they had never met before this - while the other servants Kumasawa, Genji, and Gohda prepare for dinner and the kids’ parents begin the annual conference.
Later on, the cousins are brought to the dining room for dinner and the conference put on hold for the meal. Part-way in, however, something else special happens: a girl washes up on the shore half-drowned and collapses in front of the mansion door, where she is found by the doctor, Nanjo, and Kumasawa, who had seen a figure moving around in the typhoon that had come through just before dinner. The servants took the young girl to an empty guest room and informed the family of this new guest.
“Make sure she’s taken care of, Nanjo. We can try to contact the mainland after dinner; meanwhile, see to it that she gets some dry clothes, Kumasawa.” Krauss orders.
“Do we even have clothes that would fit her? Why not just put her clothes in the boiler room to dry and set them in the room with her later?” Eva scoffs.
“I believe she is about the same size as Lady Maria; would you be willing to loan her some clothing until hers dry, Lady Rosa?” Genji adds.
“Yeah, that should be fine. I packed extra clothes just in case Maria got hers dirty anyway, so we may as well. And Eva, there’s no reason to be so cruel, the child just nearly drowned and walked all the way here from the beach! Besides, what kind of hosts would we be if we forced her to be naked for who knows how long when we could give her something to wear? I’ll get one of the extra outfits when we finish the conference.”
Eva sneers at Rosa and Kumasawa leaves to attend to the girl, known as Erika Furudo, though not to the family as they don’t know her name.
After dinner, the cousins return to the guest house and the servants clean the dining room, all while the adult members of the family start the conference back up. The discussion quickly escalates to a full-blown argument as the other siblings and their spouses accuse Krauss of hiding the death of the family patriarch, Kinzo, so he could steal the fortune for himself; Krauss vehemently denies this and the subject of the Riddle of the Epitaph is brought up.
“Why don’t we do this? Krauss can prove he hasn’t stolen father’s fortune out from under us if we find the gold.” Rudolf suggests.
“The gold? You mean solve that riddle? You know that thing’s probably a wild goose chase that father cooked up, right?” Natsuhi, Krauss’ wife, retorts.
“You’re just scared that we’ll solve it, you whore!” Eva yells.
“Eva, Eva, please calm down! There’s no need to resort to name calling!” Hideyoshi, Eva’s husband, tries to reign her in.
“She’s right, you know. Krauss and Natsuhi don’t want us to solve the riddle because they would lose their position at the top and we would find out that they embezzled all of the money.” Kyrie chuckles. She always loved coming to these conferences.
Krauss sighs. “Fine. We’ll look for father’s gold. We’ll do this as a family, that way we’re all helping and we’ll get this finished faster. Any objections?”
Nobody objects, and the family sets off to the foyer to write down the riddle, and then on to their research.
After a few hours, long after the cousins had fallen asleep and Shannon and Kanon returned to the mansion for the night, the family made quite a bit of headway in the riddle. They managed to figure out where to look in order to find the Key before Rosa left the group; in all the excitement, she had forgotten to bring a change of clothes for their guest. The rest of the group, including Genji as he has the key - went up to Kinzo’s study to find the maps they needed, and on their way back down they find Rosa at the bottom of the stairs, her neck broken and her head bleeding. The family rushes to find help from the servants, only to find Gohda, Kumasawa, Nanjo, and Kanon dead of stab wounds, and Shannon nowhere to be found; Kanon had the knife embedded in his chest.
The Sorcerer pauses the game board here, and summons the survivors before him. “You know how this works. I grant you all the use of Purple Declaration to give your alibis. A quick refresher: Purple has the same authority as Red, except the culprit - and ONLY the culprit - can lie. All other survivors of each set of murders speaks only the truth as they know it! BEGIN!”
Krauss: “I-I never left the group while we were doing the investigation for the riddle.…”
Natsuhi: “Rosa was with us until she remembered her promise to deliver clothes to the girl who washed up on our island and nobody else left the group.”
Eva: “Now that you mention it, the servants did call it a day a little early….”
Hideyoshi: “I didn’t see or hear anything out of the ordinary until we found all those bodies.”
Rudolf: “Kyrie and I were in father’s study, reading books and looking through maps. Damn old man can’t make anything easy, can he?”
Kyrie: “I haven’t seen Kinzo all night, either. Is he really dead? Genji was pretty tight-lipped about it all, but I have seen nothing suggesting he’s still alive.”
Genji: “I took the masters up to master Kinzo’s study at their request. They wanted to search through his books and maps, and as I am the holder of the key I went with them. The other servants were to go about their duties, and Nanjo was to look after the young girl’s condition.”
Battler: “Well, the five of us went back to the guest house after dinner with Shannon, but she was still working for a little while longer. She left at some point, but I passed out from such a long day before she returned.”
Jessica: “We were talking with each other, reminiscing about the last time Battler came to the island. Kanon and Shannon were working, but he was able to come by to bring us refills on tea. He didn’t have much to say, though.”
George: “Battler was the first one asleep. Jessica and Maria fell asleep not long after Kanon left, so I went out to see if Shannon was still around. I had wanted to ask her a very important question and asked earlier at dinner that she meet me in the gazebo when her shift ended. She didn’t show up, so I went back to the guest house and went to bed.”
Maria: “Uuu~! Today was fun! I showed Battler and the others some magic tricks that Beatrice taught me, but I got sleepy after Battler went to bed. I think I fell asleep on Jessica, Uuu~”
Erika: “What? Why am I giving a testimony? I nearly drowned, washed up some strange island, and passed out in front of the mansion door. I haven’t even woken up by this point!”
“I feel I should explain the rules again, as it has been some time since we’ve used them. I already mentioned how Purple Declaration worked, so let’s skip that.” The Sorcerer pulls out a grimoire and opens it. “The game lasts a single round, taking place after the murders have already been carried out; in essence, we skip straight to the final meta phase! All deaths and their circumstances are given at the start of the game; likewise, everything in the narrative is the truth. There may be more than one culprit, and a culprit is defined as someone who kills with their own hands, even if it’s self-defense. A culprit who has yet to commit murder can still lie in Purple Declaration! There are no accomplices; anyone who helps a culprit must, themselves, be a culprit! There are only five master keys, each one tied to a servant; in essence, the servant is the master key and the key cannot be removed from them, as when their corpse is discovered their key is immediately destroyed. While on the subject of keys, a door cannot be unlocked from the outside without a key. There is no rule for it given, but in this instance the rule about master keys will be applied to the study key as well: when Genji’s corpse is discovered, the key will be destroyed and the key cannot be removed from Genji. All windows have bars and thus cannot be passed through. And last but not least, THERE IS NO DETECTIVE!” With that, the Sorcerer snaps his fingers and the game board resumes.
“D-dear God! Someone...someone try to reach the police! We need the police!” Krauss begins to panic as they find all the bodies. Nanjo was in his office, Gohda was in the kitchen, Kumasawa was in the dining room with the serving cart, and Kanon was found at the foot of the staircase leading to the boiler room. “There should be a phone in the parlor that we can use!”
“Y-yeah, we need to try and get through!” Natsuhi agrees with her husband, fighting back a panic attack of her own.
The group moves down to the parlor and they attempt to dial out, but to no avail. The phone is dead. “So much for that idea.” Kyrie puts her chin in her hand. “The question is who did this...We were all together this whole time, and the kids went to the guest house hours ago…”
“Isn’t it obvious? It was obviously that FURNITURE Shannon! She’s the only one we haven’t seen yet!” Eva snaps her fan shut and points it at Kyrie. “She clearly killed the others and…” She turns white and stops her tirade cold. “The kids!”
The group, led by Eva as she was the first out the door, run to the guest house to find it unlocked. They run up to the room the cousins had been using, only to find them all fast asleep. Breathing a sigh of relief, they decide that they should wake their children and tell them the news.
Needless to say, the whole lot of them are shocked by the news, but Jessica never says a word. She just stares off into space.
“D-dead? All the servants….are dead?” Battler hangs his head between his hands. “But we were just talking with Shannon….”
“And Shannon, is she alright? You said you didn’t find her.” George inquires, while discreetly squeezing the small box in his pocket.
“That’s right. We decided we should go arm ourselves before we go look, just in case she’s behind this.” Hideyoshi, despite seeing his son’s movement, ignores it.
Maria begins to laugh, building into a loud cackle. “Kihihihihi~! Do you not see? This is not the work of a human killer! Beatrice’s ritual has finally begun! Arm yourselves all you want, but no mortal weapon can harm a witch! Kihihihihi!”
After whacking Maria (somewhat) gently on the head and scolding her for her nonsense and coldness towards not only the servants but her own mother, the family returns to the mansion once again. They stop by the guest room where Erika is resting, just to check up on her, and find that she’s unharmed. Relieved, the family has Genji lock her door and they begin to make their way to the study, but Jessica stops at the foot of the stairs to the third floor. Finally, for the first time since hearing the news, she speaks. “...I want to see him.”
“See who, dear?” her mother asks.
“I want to see Kanon! I NEED to see Kanon!” Jessica looks to her mother, her eyes filling with tears.
“J-Jessica, calm down! I’ll take you to him after we arm ourselves. It’s not safe right now, so we shouldn’t split up unless we are armed!” Her father attempts to comfort her, to no avail.
Eva scoffs. “Such a display over a piece of furniture. Why waste the tears?”
Everyone glares at Eva. “They happened to be friends, you heartless demon!” Natsuhi exclaims, holding her daughter. Eva backs down. The group continues on its way upstairs and into the study to arm themselves. Genji opens the study, the group moves in, and each of the siblings (Krauss, Eva, Rudolf) arms themselves. The remaining gun is given to Natsuhi, despite Eva’s objection. Afterwards, the family leaves the study; the group splits up so they can take the bodies from their resting places and move them into the parlor. Krauss and Jessica go to Kanon; Eva and Hideyoshi go to Gohda; Rudolf and Kyrie go to Kumasawa; Battler and Genji go to Nanjo. George, Natsuhi, and Maria go to the parlor to make sure that the room is safe.
All groups return to the parlor with the body they were to move, except one: Krauss and Jessica. The family decides to wait, as Jessica had wanted to mourn her friend, only for a shot to ring out. The family bolts to the source of the shot and finds Krauss dead, his head bleeding and a heavy candlestick laying next to his body; they look at the foot of the stairs and find Jessica, dead over Kanon’s body with a bullet wound in her head.
Natsuhi: “The group went up to father’s study for guns. There’s a killer on the loose so we needed to arm ourselves! Nobody broke off until we split up. My husband and daughter...they didn’t come back, and then we heard the gunshot……”
Eva: “My husband and I went to bring Gohda to the parlor. I guarded him as he did the heavy lifting.”
Hideyoshi: “We stuck with Rudolf and Kyrie most of the way, since we were heading about the same way. Rudolf gave his gun to Kyrie so he could carry Kumasawa.”
Rudolf: “She didn’t want to do any heavy lifting, which is nuts. Kumasawa wasn’t even that heavy! Kyrie said she was the better shot so it was best if we traded.”
Kyrie: “We beat Hideyoshi and Eva. Not surprising, considering how we didn’t have as far to go. We had a bit of a head start over them, so we made it back to the parlor first.”
Genji: “Lord Battler and I went up to the second floor, right across from Lady Jessica’s room to Nanjo’s office. He was my dear friend, so I volunteered to carry him.”
Battler: “I watched Genji’s back. He muttered under his breath - probably a short prayer or something - and carried Nanjo down the stairs. He’s stronger than he looks, that’s for sure.”
George: “Battler and Genji were the last group to come back. I had expected uncle Krauss and Jessica to come back last since she had a huge crush on Kanon.”
Maria: “Uuu~ aunt Natsuhi is so nice. She let me show her some magic tricks while George watched the door. She didn’t want me to look at Beatrice’s first sacrifices, so she tried to keep me from watching them come back, but I saw aunt Eva and uncle Hideyoshi come in a little after uncle Rudolf and aunt Kyre.”
Erika: “I’ve been out cold since the start of this stupid game, but I started to wake up I think, because I’m pretty sure I heard that gunshot from this guest room.”
The family is stunned. They only JUST saw these two, and now they’re both dead. However, Battler and Kyrie - who still have the sense to do so - take the time to look around the nearby rooms. The doors are locked.
“Hey! Don’t just stand around, you guys, the person who did this has to still be around here!” Battler cries out, shaking the other survivors out of their stupor. “We can grieve later, but for now we need to find who did this and restrain them until the storm passes and we can get the police here!”
“He’s right. Someone needs to get down there in the cellar and see if the killer is hiding there. Battler and I have confirmed that the doors up here are all locked, and since Genji has the only key left….”
“Unless Shannon really is involved.” Eva interrupts.
“Would you just drop it already? We can’t accuse someone of being the killer when they aren’t here to defend themselves.” George shoots his mother a cold glance and she shuts up.
The family splits up; Natsuhi stays behind, still crying over the bodies of her husband and daughter, while Eva, Hideyoshi, and Rudolf go with Genji so they can open the other door into the cellar. They find the door locked, but Genji is able to unlock it with ease. The group enters the cellar and are immediately met with the most foul smell; it seems to be coming from the boiler room. They move to the boiler room and sure enough, the stench is emanating from the boiler itself; the armed siblings stand watch while Hideyoshi opens the boiler. He pulls a burned corpse and some bloody clothes out of the cinders that used to be the fire that keeps the boiler hot.
“Dear God, what the hell was THAT doing in there?!” Eva covers her nose and mouth, trying not to vomit.
“Th-that’s Shannon’s uniform! Could this be…?” Hideyoshi backs away from the gruesome scene that he uncovered, taking Eva’s lead and fighting back his own vomit.
“I’m afraid not, Master Hideyoshi.” Genji, somehow, maintains his composure. “It is true that those are, indeed, Shannon’s clothes, however that body is not hers.” Genji walks over to the body, kneels at its feet, and points. “See the toes? Each foot has six digits. The only one on the island with polydactyly such as this...is Master Kinzo.”
“Wait, what? That’s pops!? How did he get in there?!” Rudolf stares in shock. “Dammit! That bastard Krauss DID kill him, didn’t he?! It’s the only explanation!”
“Then what? He ordered Kanon to dispose of the body while we were all busy at the conference? Let’s be realistic here. There’s no way we wouldn’t find out about this, it’s a wonder we didn’t smell this while we were upstairs!” Eva counters. She might not have any love for the FURNITURE, but that story just sounds ridiculous to her.
“Well whatever. We should go tell the others what we found down here. If nothing else, we can confront Natsuhi about this and see if she knows anything.” Rudolf thumbs at the door behind him, the very one that Kanon’s body was found at.
“More like if that whore is willing to admit to anything.” Eva pulls on her husband’s sleeve to get him to come along. Genji leads the way and opens the door, not needing his key.
While the cellar group was gone, the other group had moved the bodies to clear the stairs. The group comes up from the cellar, Genji locking it behind them with an explanation of not disturbing the scene, and goes back to the parlor to regroup. They find Battler, having taken Natsuhi’s gun while she was grieving, and Maria playing cards. On the other end of the room, Natsuhi’s still crying over the newest victims while George does his best to console her. Kyrie is by herself, staring out a window. Rudolf and Eva get the attention of the others and explain what they found; George is visibly devastated.
Eva moves over to Natsuhi and points her gun at her. “Alright, WHORE! Explain! Why was father’s corpse in the boiler?! And when did he die?!”
“Eva! No need to point your gun at her!” Hideyoshi tries to calm his wife.
“Shut up! We’ve been trying to prove for months that she and Krauss not only knew that father was dead, but that they had been embezzling his fortune!”
“I-I know but…”
“Mother, please. Calm down and let aunt Natsuhi explain.” George stands up, trying to be calm, and gets between his mother and aunt.
“George, get out of the way!”
“We’re with him, calm down Eva!” Rudolf has his gun trained on Eva, as does Battler.
Eva backs down and lowers her gun. “Tch. Fine. But if she lies to us, I’m bringing it back up!” The others lower their guns and Eva continues. “We know father died. He stopped even appearing at the conference without warning and refused to see us, so don’t even TRY to deny it. When did he die? And what happened to the money?!”
Natsuhi wipes her eyes and sighs. “...I guess there’s no point in it now.” She stands. “He died two years ago. Krauss and I had nothing to do with it, though! He just started getting weak, and no medicine that Nanjo tried worked. As for the money...Krauss invested a lot of it and lost it.”
“We knew it! That bastard….how much did he lose?!” Eva glares at her brother’s corpse.
“His entire inheritance...and that’s not all. He is...was deep in debt. We were looking for the gold so we could pay it off but...As it stands, I don’t think our family has much left.”
Silence. Everyone is floored. They were right about everything that they had been suspecting but...the siblings never suspected that it was this bad. Kyrie breaks the silence first. “How close did you get on your own? To solving the riddle, I mean.”
“Not very. We got the part about his hometown, but Krauss wasn’t able to figure out the Key…”
“Hm. In that case, anyone want to finish solving it?” Kyrie turns from the window. “I know it’s a bit of an odd time, but we should figure out how much will be left after all’s said and done. Krauss and Natsuhi lost all right to the gold as far as I’m concerned, but we also can’t just assume that it’s all there. After all, maybe Krauss lied about not making progress on the riddle, just in case we cornered Natsuhi.”
“She’s right. We can’t take any chances. Besides, we’ll be safe in the study since Genji’s key is the only one.” Rudolf runs his fingers through his hair with a sigh. The rest of the family agrees.
“Uuu~ I want to read the occult books!”
Battler ruffles Maria’s hair and the group moves up the stairs, two guns in front and one in back. However, when they reach the second floor they see an open door. The room their guest was in. The family rushes over, only to find the room empty; the bed sheets have been thrown aside and the bed, sheets included, are covered in blood and the guest has vanished without a trace.
Natsuhi: “D-don’t look at me, I was in the parlor crying over my husband and daughter just before now! I never saw anyone go upstairs!”
Eva: “I was with my husband, Rudolf, and Genji in the cellar. We came straight back to the parlor after we found father’s body so we could get some answers out of that whore, Natsuhi.”
Hideyoshi: “Eva, Rudolf, Genji, and I didn’t check the entire cellar, that stench distracted us. However, we found the outer door in the garden locked. We never saw anybody go upstairs.”
Rudolf: “I was at the back of the group when we were coming up. I stood watch over Genji while he locked the door behind us. We caught back up to Eva and Hideyoshi and went straight to the parlor.”
Kyrie: “Battler carried Jessica’s body, I took Kanon’s, George took Krauss’. George got to the parlor first, and I was the last of our group. Natsuhi followed the boys.”
Genji: “I led Hideyoshi, Rudolf, and Eva to the cellar where Master Kinzo’s body was found. We saw no other people, however the door that Kanon’s and Jessica’s bodies had been at was not locked. I locked it behind me.”
Battler: “George volunteered to take uncle Krauss’ body, and I took Jessica’s. That left Kyrie to get Kanon. I didn’t see anyone go upstairs.”
George: “Maria was checking the doors when we split up and started moving the bodies. I took her and aunt Natsuhi back to the parlor.”
Maria: “Uuu~ All the doors Maria checked were locked! Not that Beatrice can be stopped by such a thing. George had some cards so I could play, but he didn’t want to so Sakutarou and I played by ourselves.”
The family desperately searched nearby rooms, hoping to find Erika alive and well, but to no avail. She was gone.
“What the...? Genji, I thought you locked the door back last time we were up here!” Eva points at Genji, lowering her gun momentarily.
“That is correct.”
“That proves it. Only a master key could’ve let someone in that room, so Shannon IS involved!”
Even though Eva has made this accusation before...nobody objects. All the other servants, save Genji - who is still alive - and Shannon, were confirmed dead and their keys destroyed.
“I hate to say this, but...it’s likely that she’s dead and her body disposed of. We can’t afford to keep looking around out here, just in case her killer is still lurking around. After all, Krauss’ gun has yet to be found.” Kyrie looks around. “ We should stick to the plan and head up to the study where we’ll be safe.”
“I agree. We need to prioritize our safety, instead of looking around for a corpse.” Rudolf nods to the stairs up.
The rest of the group agrees, reluctantly, and they make their way up to the study. Genji lets the group in and the door closes behind them; Maria goes to look over the occult books, while the rest of the group searches for all the previous notes. Rudolf, Battler, and Eva set their guns on Kinzo’s desk.
“We managed to find the ‘hometown’ mentioned in the riddle earlier, and even figured out that we needed to follow the railway, before Rosa….” Kyrie changes the subject. “Anyway. We know where the Key is, but we hadn’t worked it out yet before we came back downstairs.”
The family - save Maria, whose face is buried in a book on the occult - congregated around the coffee table when everything was compiled. After much brainstorming, some progress is eventually made. Using the copy of the riddle that they made earlier, the group is able to narrow down the Key.
“Well, we have the Key, now where is the door?” Eva scratches her head.
Kyrie, who has been silent the entire time, speaks up suddenly. “Well, logically the gold would be on the island itself….after all, he brought a bar to a potential business partner once without leaving it. Where would we be able to put in the key word?”
The family went quiet to mull it over, before all the adults spoke up together. “The chapel!”
“The sign over the door had raised letters, how could we miss something that simple?” Hideyoshi facepalms.
“Perhaps we were over-thinking things. Genji, is there a ladder we could use in the tool shed that could reach?”
“Yes. I will need to obtain the shed key from the lockbox in the kitchen.”
“That’s fine. Let’s split up. I’ll guard you, Kyrie and dad should take care of looking over the rest of the group.” Battler retrieves one of the guns and grabs some extra ammunition. Just in case.
“Agreed. We’ll go to the shed and make sure the coast is clear. Afterwards, we’ll go to the chapel together. The three of us will stand guard while someone else follows the rest of the riddle.” Kyrie and Rudolf follow Battler’s lead and the family goes downstairs together.
The group splits up at the kitchen. Battler and Genji retrieve the key they need, as well as the chapel key, just in case; the rest of the group heads straight towards the tool shed, with Kyrie and Rudolf in the lead. After obtaining the keys, Genji and Battler move to the servant’s entrance to go outside; not long after they reach the outside, however, a loud crack breaks the sound of the storm and Battler falls down, blood spreading across his chest. Almost immediately after, another crack sounds and Genji’s leg begins spraying blood and seconds later, he’s dead.
Hearing these obvious gunshots, the family stops in their tracks and start running back. They find the pair dead and, before anything can be done, two more gunshots sound and George falls, his knee blown out, as does Kyrie, a gunshot wound in her belly.
“Shit! Where is it coming from?!” Rudolf aims erratically, trying to find the source of the shots.
Natsuhi, who’s busy shielding Maria, points in the distance. “I-I saw movement over there!”
Eva takes Battler’s gun, and she and Rudolf run off towards the figure Natsuhi was talking about; meanwhile, Hideyoshi and Natsuhi attempt to stop Kyrie’s and George’s bleeding. “Don’t worry about us, go help Eva and Rudolf!” Kyrie tries to hand her gun to Natsuhi.
“Don’t be stupid! If we don’t stop the bleeding, you’ll both die! Besides, I was never a good shot….”
As Rudolf and Eva move closer, they see that there is, indeed, someone there. “I see them! I think I can hit them from here, too!” Rudolf raises his gun and takes aim...however, before he can even get the chance, the ground starts rumbling more and more violently until the mansion grounds are destroyed in a massive explosion.
Later the next day, October 5th, after the typhoon has settled down, the ferryman returns to the island on his boat. He had been worried since Rokkenjima had been right in the path of that storm, and they had lost contact with the island. All he finds is a smoldering crater where the grounds used to be. In a panic, he returns to his boat and contacts the police by radio. When they arrive, the police are unable to find any survivors, or any evidence of what went down during those two days. As the sole survivor of the family, Ange Ushiromiya - who had been sick and missed the conference - inherits all her family’s assets and the mysterious deaths and destruction of the Ushiromiya family passes from mystery, to cold case, and then, eventually, into legend.
“I feel like I should clarify one more thing before we start. The chapel key and tool shed key do exist this time around, however only the servants have access in this instance. Not that it matters, since nobody got to use either of them in the narrative. Oh, and be advised: even though they CAN lie in purple, doesn’t mean the culprit will ALWAYS lie in purple!”
Now then. You have until 5pm EST on Tuesday, September 5th - our 4 year anniversary - to solve this. Like last time, I won't be giving any further information besides whether you were correct or incorrect. I'm also requiring you to back your theory up so you can't just spam names until you're right! You don't need to be 100% correct, you just need the correct culprit(s) and a method that doesn't violate the narration or the given testimonies.