Legend of the Golden Witch

Legend of the Golden Witch ;
Developer	07th Expansion
Publisher	07th Expansion
Arc Type	Question
Released	August 17, 2007 (C72)
Umineko no Naku Koro ni Chronology
← Previous; —	Next →; Turn of the Golden Witch

Legend of the Golden Witch is the first arc in Umineko no Naku Koro ni. It follows Battler Ushiromiya as he returns to the Ushiromiya family's annual conference for the first time in six years.

Introduction

“

Welcome to Rokkenjima. The Golden Witch extends her heartfelt greetings. First, please put yourself at ease.

There is nothing too difficult to think about. Accept entirely, silently, the events to happen. That is all that is asked of you.

The difficulty is standard. Shall we first take the easy road?

”

Plot

Chapter Name	Date	Time
Arrival at Niijima Airport	Sat, Oct 4 1986	8:00AM
Arrival at Rokkenjima	Sat, Oct 4 1986	10:30AM
Guesthouse	Sat, Oct 4 1986	12:00PM
Dining Hall	Sat, Oct 4 1986	1:30PM
Epitaph on the Portrait	Sat, Oct 4 1986	1:30PM
Sandy Beach	Sat, Oct 4 1986	3:00PM
Letter and Umbrella	Sat, Oct 4 1986	6:00PM
Legend of the Gold	Sat, Oct 4 1986	10:00PM
Night of the Storm	Sat, Oct 4 1986	-----
The Six Chosen by the Key	Sun, Oct 5 1986	6:00AM
Curtain-Rise on Tragedy	Sun, Oct 5 1986	8:45AM
Occult	Sun, Oct 5 1986	1:00PM
The Two Who Are Close	Sun, Oct 5 1986	7:00PM
Boiler Room	Sun, Oct 5 1986	-----
Besieged	Sun, Oct 5 1986	8:00PM
The Golden Witch	Sun, Oct 5 1986	11:30PM
Notebook Fragment in a Wine Bottle	-----	-----

Kinzo Ushiromiya, the aged head of the Ushiromiya family, is suffering the effects of old age alongside heavy alcoholism. He has been repeatedly diagnosed by Doctor Nanjo, his personal physician and close friend, to only have three months to live. Despite this, Kinzo has survived for over a year since the initial diagnosis. Kinzo claims that he only continues to survive because he desires to see the smile of his one true love, Beatrice, once more.

The rest of the Ushiromiya family is en route to the annual family conference; Eva, Hideyoshi, George, Rudolf, Kyrie, Rosa, and Maria Ushiromiya all meet at an airport in order to make the initial flight to Niijima. In addition, Battler Ushiromiya meets at the airport to attend his first family conference in six years. After catching up, the family departs for Niijima. Upon arrival, the family boards a small ship that takes them to the conference area proper: Kinzo's private island, Rokkenjima.

The family convenes with the other family members already on the island: Krauss, Natsuhi, and Jessica Ushiromiya. They also meet the many servants working on the island that day: Gohda, Kanon, Shannon, Genji, and Kumasawa. After tea and lunch, the younger members of the family move to the guest house to play and talk among each other. The adults remain in the main building in order to discuss the issue of Kinzo's inheritance. Under the guise of being worried about Kinzo's health, the greedy adults bicker with each other over how to divide the inheritance after Kinzo dies. The conversation turns into accusations of embezzlement directed towards the eldest son, Krauss. As the argument gets increasingly heated, Krauss's wife Natsuhi flees the room. The siblings continue to argue, throwing various accusations back and forth for some time. As Krauss regains control of the situation, he suggests that the siblings take a break of their arguments by trying their hand at solving the witch's epitaph.

Meanwhile, Maria reveals to Jessica, George, Battler, and Shannon that she had copied the witch's epitaph into her notebook. Maria persuades the group to attempt to solve the epitaph while they relax on the beach. The group manages to make some progress by deducing that the epitaph's first few lines refer to various places surrounding Odawara, however their conversation veers towards the existence of magic. When Battler and Jessica begin to deny the existence of witches, Maria becomes increasingly upset, forcing George to intervene. After Maria is calmed, she offers Battler and Jessica scorpion charms which she claims will help ward off any malevolent magic. Before the group can return to solving the epitaph, the storm begins to set on the island and the group retreat towards the guest house.

Characters

In Legend of the Golden Witch, the Ushiromiya family is first introduced along with many of their servants.

The Ushiromiya Family

Servants

Witches and Demons

Other

Terumasa Nanjo

Deaths and Disappearances

All deaths and disappearances are listed only as they are told in Legend of the Golden Witch and apply only for the individual arc, not the overall series.

Deaths

Krauss Ushiromiya, shot in the head on October 4, 1986 as part of the first twilight.
Rudolf Ushiromiya, shot in the head on October 4, 1986 as part of the first twilight.
Kyrie Ushiromiya, shot in the head on October 4, 1986 as part of the first twilight.
Rosa Ushiromiya, shot in the head on October 4, 1986 as part of the first twilight.
Shannon, shot in the head on October 4, 1986 as part of the first twilight.
Toshiro Gohda, shot in the head on October 4, 1986 as part of the first twilight.
Eva Ushiromiya, pierced in the head by a stake on October 4, 1986 as part of the second twilight.
Hideyoshi Ushiromiya, pierced in the head by a stake on October 4, 1986 as part of the second twilight.
Kinzo Ushiromiya, pierced in the head by a stake and incinerated on October 5, 1986 as part of the fourth twilight.
Kanon, pierced in the chest by a stake on October 5, 1986 as part of the fifth twilight.
Genji Ronue, pierced in the stomach by a stake on October 5, 1986 as part of the sixth twilight.
Terumasa Nanjo, pierced in the knee on October 5, 1986 as part of the seventh twilight.
Chiyo Kumasawa, pierced in the leg on October 5, 1986 as part of the eighth twilight.
Natsuhi Ushiromiya, shot on October 5, 1986 as part of the ninth twilight.

Disapperances

George Ushiromiya, disappeared on the night of October 5, 1986 as part of the tenth twilight.
Jessica Ushiromiya, disappeared on the night of October 5, 1986 as part of the tenth twilight.
Maria Ushiromiya, disappeared on the night of October 5, 1986 as part of the tenth twilight.
Battler Ushiromiya, disappeared on the night of October 5, 1986 as part of the tenth twilight.

Endroll

The storm passed, and the leaden clouds that enshrouded the island for so long cleared away. From rifts between clouds sun beams shone, and yesterday's storm seemed like a lie. In the harbour, according to someone's wish, the seagulls returned once again and let their lively cries be heard. Afterwards, an inspection of the crime scene was performed by the policemen who came.

The corpses of the children who were thought to have survived until the end were not found after all, but from the pieces of the corpses that were found in that unimaginably gruesome crime scene, the police had no choice but to conclude hopelessly that the lives of all of the eighteen people, including the children, were lost... how gruesome was the feast of the Witch? Thus, how beautiful the Golden Land is, is a tale that can only be told by them... there are no tales to tell to those who came after the feast had ended. They can only imagine what happened during those two days.

However, the Witch was fickle.

She did not bother herself to hide this tale that had no need of telling, and she allowed its transmission.

Then, many years later.

A strange wine bottle that had drifted on the waves to the pier of a neighbouring island was pulled out by a fisherman. Inside it was a thin, tightly rolled notebook fragment, written upon in crammed small letters.

That was... this tale.

People will know for the first time, through this notebook fragment, the enigma of the mystery-enshrouded October the 4th 1986, and the truth of those two days filled with strangeness.

This incident was later called "The Rokkenjima Mass Murder Incident", "The Rokkenjima Eighteen Murders" or such, but connoisseurs of the world came to refer to it as "The Witch's Legend Serial Murders Incident".

People who delved in the occult claimed that it was the aftermath of an corrupt ritual that had sealed the island, and spread the two days filled with mystery embellished and twisted beyond recognition through each and every person's interpretation. However, even with all their interpretations, they will not be the ones to reach the truth of this incident. And even though the notebook fragment in the wine bottle will tell of this incident filled with mystery, it won't be telling it with the truth. That's right, perhaps not even the writer of the notebook knew the truth.. it's possible that she wanted to know the truth.

According to the name written down, her name is Ushiromiya Maria. Furthermore, as the result of an all-out police investigation, concerning Maria, a body part, a piece of her jaw was found. It was a precious instance where they managed to identify the owner of a body part through dentist medical records.

Since in that gruesome situation there were countless body parts whose ownership or even provenance couldn't be determined, it can probably be said that this jaw was an extremely fortunate piece. The police, since the piece of jaw was damaged, and even though no other parts were discovered nor identified, judge it is hopeless to believe any are still alive. And so, let us tie this tale to the last sentence of the notebook fragment that Ushiromiya Maria left.

"By the time you have read this, I will probably be dead. The only difference will be whether there is a body or not. You who have read this. Please find out the truth. That's my only wish."

—— Ushiromiya Maria

-- The truth of "The Witch's Legend Serial Murders Incident" has not been brought to light even today.