Requiem of the Golden Witch
| Requiem of the Golden Witch | |||
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| Developer | 07th Expansion | ||
| Writer | Ryukishi07 | ||
| Arc Type | Answer | ||
| Released | August 14, 2010 C78 | ||
| Word Count | 105,640 ~352 pages | ||
| Umineko no Naku Koro ni Chronology | |||
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Requiem of the Golden Witch is the seventh arc in Umineko no Naku Koro ni and the third arc of Umineko no Naku Koro ni Chiru. The story follows Willard H. Wright and Lion Ushiromiya as they attempt to solve a new game designed by Bernkastel. The story is primarily focused on the history and parentage of Sayo Yasuda.
Introduction
| “ | Good morning. Scheduled for today is the funeral of the Golden Witch and her game.
The days of the game are already over, and nothing remains but fond memories. Here, the cold, hard truth will be revealed, and death will come to the game... There is...a bit of difficulty to this one. |
” |
Plot
A deceased Beatrice is laid to rest in the chapel by BATTLER and Virgilia. Bernkastel invites a retired Inquisitor, Willard H. Wright, to her funeral and asks him to serve as the role of challenger for her new game; His goal is to determine who killed Beatrice. He is also given an assistant: Lion Ushiromiya, the eldest child of Krauss and Natsuhi Ushiromiya. In order to force them to participate, Bernkastel locks the chapel away in an isolated Fragment until they solve her mystery.
The two begin their investigation by interrogating members of the Ushiromiya family. They ask Rosa Ushiromiya to recount the day that she brought Beatrice Ushiromiya towards the ocean and watched her fall to death. Later on, Willard confronts Shannon about the strangeness of Lion's existence. He asks Shannon to call for Kanon so that the three of them can talk but Shannon is unable to do so.
Willard and Lion interrogate Kinzo Ushiromiya, who recounts his history with Beatrice; In 1944 he was stationed on Rokkenjima as part of the Japanese war effort in World War II. He was part of the Navy's plan to construct a hidden base loaded with Kaiten torpedoes. One day, an Italian submarine docks on the island; the submarine had suffered a chlorine gas leak and had lost a majority of its senior officers. The Italians sought assistance from the Japanese and Kinzo served as an interpreter due to his knowledge of English. The Italian interpreter was a woman named Beatrice Castiglioni. The two fell deeply in love during the time that the Italians were stuck on the island. After two weeks, the Italian military revealed their cargo to the Japanese: ten tons of gold bars. The Italian's damaged submarine had been slowly taking in water and the Italians feared that the submarine would sink along with the gold; they resolved this by reluctantly asking the Japanese to help them unload the gold onto the island. This proved to be the undoing of both groups; a fight broke out between the Italians and the Japanese over the gold, resulting in the deaths of everyone except for Kinzo and Beatrice. The pair managed to escape the island and, several years later, Beatrice died giving birth to the aforementioned Beatrice Ushiromiya.
Willard comes away from this story unsatisfied; of the two Beatrices he has heard about so far, neither have been "killed," they merely died due to unfortunate circumstance, meaning he has made no forward progress in solving Bernkastel's game. He investigates what he believes is the "final Beatrice," that being the witch that haunts Rokkenjima, by interrogating Maria Ushiromiya. Happy to be of help, Maria tells him about her history with Beatrice. She claims that, at first, Beatrice was only visible to herself, Genji Ronoue, Chiyo Kumasawa, Terumasa Nanjo, Kanon, and Shannon, but she planned to eventually show herself to the entire family upon her resurrection. When Willard asks about the creation of Mariage Sorcière, Maria refuses to answer. Undeterred, Willard opts to interrogate George and Jessica. Through Jessica, he learns about a story told among the servants that claims Beatrice returns to the VIP room every morning at 2AM. Jessica reveals that, during the 1985 family conference, she attempted to test this story by going to the VIP room at night. While Jessica was inside, the VIP phone rang and she heard Maria on the other line. The lights briefly went out and a French doll that was in the VIP room vanished. She considers that night to be the closest she had gotten to meeting Beatrice. Willard asks Lion about the witch's epitaph and learns that Lion has no recollection of the epitaph existing. He inquires further and realizes that Lion has no concept of Beatrice the Golden Witch.
Willard claims that he has figured out who killed Beatrice. He says that there are, in truth, two culprits, in the same way that a Schrödinger's box contains two iterations of the same cat. Willard determines that Lion is the same person as the baby who fell to their death in the cliff incident. The truth is that the two culprits are different iterations of that same baby; if Natsuhi accepts the baby and never pushes it from a cliff, then the baby grows up to become Lion. If Natsuhi rejects the baby, the baby instead becomes an entirely different person. Furthermore, Willard determines that this baby is special to Kinzo because it is his own child; he impregnated his daughter, Beatrice Ushiromiya, who then gave birth to the baby in question. Bernkastel insists that, if Lion is one culprit, Willard should explain the other. Willard claims that the other culprit is one-in-the-same with Beatrice herself. Willard calls the other culprit forward and asks them to explain their story.
Clair Vaux Bernardus steps forward on a theater-like stage. Referring to herself as "one, yet many," she narrates a tale beginning in 1976. The story follows a young servant named Yasuda, who is beginning their service to the Ushiromiya family in tandem with their education. The servant is given special treatment by the family despite their young age, which earns them the ire of their fellow servants with the exception of Shannon, whom Yasuda idolizes and considers to be their only friend. Yasuda struggles to keep up with the other servants and frequently loses things, something that they begin to blame on a mischievous witch (this witch is Gaap, however they go by the name "Beatrice" during this story). Yasuda bonds with Beatrice and the two become friends.
After several servants retire and a new wave of servants begin work on Rokkenjima, Yasuda spreads the myth of Beatrice by clandestinely stealing things from and pranking the new servants, slowly leading them to believe that a witch was playing tricks on them. These experiences led Yasuda to wish to be a witch rather than a servant. Yasuda bids farewell to Shannon and joins Gaap-Beatrice in the Meta-World. Yasuda takes the name Beatrice, telling Gaap-Beatrice that she will be nameless until Yasuda thinks of a new name for her. As the new Beatrice, Yasuda designs an outfit based on the island's ghost stories; since ghosts traditionally wear white, Yasuda designs a white dress, matching the appearance of Clair Vaux Bernardus. Yasuda begins to formulate various details about Beatrice, including Beatrice's use of golden butterflies, weakness to spiderwebs and spirit mirrors, and fondness for the VIP room.
Meanwhile, Shannon befriends Jessica, George, and Battler during the family conferences. Shannon fell in love with Battler and, during the 1980 family conference, Battler promises to "take her away on a white horse" when she quits her position as servant. Shannon says that she'll quit after one year. However, Battler leaves the family register several months after this conversation and wouldn't return to Rokkenjima until 1986. Yasuda/Beatrice and the former Gaap-Beatrice visit Shannon and claim that this is a test of her love for him; for her love to blossom, she will have to be willing to wait until he returns to the island and fulfills his promise. They even posit that Battler may have left the family register to save Shannon from the trouble of being romantically involved with someone bearing the "Ushiromiya" name. When Battler doesn't return to the island in the years to follow, the three are forced to confront the permanent loss of Shannon's first love.
For the 1983 family conference, Kyrie asks Battler to write letters for his cousins, since he isn't attending the conference himself. He does so, however Shannon is upset that she did not receive a letter. Shannon comes to believe that Battler has forgotten about both her and the promise that he had made, causing immense sadness. Clair and Willard refer to this as "Battler's sin." Shannon's feelings of love towards Battler are transferred from her to Yasuda/Beatrice as a means of alleviating Shannon's pain. Furthermore, Yasuda/Beatrice uses magic to give Shannon a little brother, named Kanon. Yasuda/Beatrice then changes her own design to that of the Beatrice seen in previous arcs.
In 1984, Kinzo hangs the portrait of Beatrice in the Ushiromiya Main Building. Entranced, Yasuda/Beatrice attempts to solve the witch's epitaph posted beneath it with some encouragement from Maria Ushiromiya. Yasuda/Beatrice succeeds soon afterwards, discovering the underground VIP room and the gold. Yasuda/Beatrice, Genji, Kumasawa, and Nanjo visit Kinzo to inform him of the news. Kinzo grovels before Yasuda/Beatrice, profusely apologizing for his actions towards Beatrice Ushiromiya. Genji, Kumasawa, and Nanjo tell Yasuda/Beatrice the truth of their heritage; like Lion, Yasuda/Beatrice was born from Kinzo's assault on Beatrice Ushiromiya. Immediately after this conversation, Kinzo announces he has no more regrets and dies. In the years to follow, Yasuda/Beatrice grew to hate the Ushiromiya family and plotted the Rokkenjima massacre.
Having concluded the tale of Yasuda, Clair declares that her role has been served. At her request, Willard cuts through her illusions, erasing her from existence. Bernkastel releases the barrier on the chapel, recognizing Willard and Lion as having solved the game as they now know the truth of the two culprits. Willard and Bernkastel leave the Fragment and Lion returns to the rest of the Ushiromiya family.
Characters
The Ushiromiya Family
Servants
| Genji Ronoue | |
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| Toshiro Gohda | |
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| Chiyo Kumasawa | |
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| Shannon | |
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| Kanon | |
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Witches, Demons, and Angels
| Willard H. Wright | |
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First appearance | |
| Bernkastel | |
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| Clair Vaux Bernardus | |
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First appearance | |
| Furfur | |
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| Zepar | |
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Other
| Terumasa Nanjo | |
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| Beatrice Castiglioni | |
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First appearance | |
Trivia
- As Requiem of the Golden Witch takes place entirely in a time-locked Fragment for the purposes of aiding Willard's investigation, it is the only arc in Umineko no Naku Koro ni wherein none of its chapters have associated dates or times other than the succeeding arc, Twilight of the Golden Witch.