prof | Let's Play Umineko, Episode 1 Scene 4: The Portrait

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Shannon

A young but experienced servant. She's normally calm and performs her job flawlessly, but she messes up when she gets nervous.

Furthermore, Shannon is nothing more than a pseudonym that she uses when on duty, not her real name.

October 4th, 1986, 12:00 PM

Back at the guest house, the cousins have been catching up on six years of lost time!

No. Please stop, Battler.

George and Jessica, at least, manage to convince her to nullify that particular promise.

Shannon crashes the reunion with announcements of lunch for the cousins!

It would seem that Shannon remembers Battler well, despite his long absence. Battler is--

BATTLER. NO.

Let's actually talk about this habit of Battler's. He's not actually trying to cop a feel here.

Battler's logic is that, if he tries to pull something like this, somebody will smack him upside the head, and the ice will be broken, allowing more friendly conversation to unfold.

This strategy becomes a problem, however, when the target of his harassment doesn't offer any resistance.

Jessica to the rescue! For both of them! But especially for Shannon!

In the aftermath of the incident, Battler tries to instil Shannon with some self-defense drive. She really is incapable of acting against the wishes of the guests.

Shannon and Kanon, when written in kanji, both end with the same character, and are both strange names. There's a decent likelihood that they are not their birth names.

Shannon has been working for the Ushiromiya family for ten years. Kanon is like her little brother, but they aren't actually related by blood.

But anyway, lunch! At the mansion! Let's get this family together.

The mansion was built just after World War II. It's a majestic work of architecture, but a bit old-fashioned. The AC is unreliable, and it gets drafty in the winters.

Yet another familiar face from Battler's last visit! After all, Genji has been working here for longer than Battler has been alive.

Maria, Jessica, and Shannon have all changed enormously over the past six years. Genji, however, like Kumasawa, hasn't changed at all.

A massive portrait hangs in front of the stairs to the second floor.

An unfamiliar portrait of an unfamiliar woman.

Two years ago, Kinzo ordered the painting painted and installed. But who is it a painting of?

It's Maria, of all people, who answers that question without hesitation:

Beatrice. The Witch of Rokkenjima.

Rokkenjima is small, but daunting. Much of the island is untamed forest, inside which total darkness reigns at night and getting lost is dangerously easy.

For children, that forest would be very interesting, but also a tragedy waiting to happen. So, a witch was invented.

Rokkenjima's own ghost story. The legend of Beatrice.

Kinzo's delusions have advanced to the point that he thinks that Beatrice is real, an actual person living on the island.

Genji cuts off the conversation before more disparaging words can be said about the master of the house.

Battler is reminded of before, when they noticed the torii missing from the island. At that time, Kumasawa had been about to say something ominous.

What was she trying to say?

Who cares? It's lunch time!

Beyond those for the younger generation, three seats are empty. Two of them belong to the eldest child and the head of the house.

Conspicuously, the third is for Rosa's husband. Nobody is sitting there.

The ordering of seats used at the table is complicated and not very favorable to the women. Perhaps an artifact of Kinzo's chauvinism?

Kinzo's wife, were she still alive, would rank below even Battler.

Number four.

Battler and Natsuhi don't especially get along, although there's not much reason for it. They just never got to know one another.

Seriously, though, where is the man of the house? It's not like him to be this late.

Ushiromiya Kinzo
Age: Too goddamn old
Relation to the patriarch: IT'S THIS GUY

Kinzo studies frantically, as if every second is against him. All the while, his son knocks at his door in vain.

He's a nice guy, once you get to know him.

Somehow I get the feeling he's not coming for lunch.

Ushiromiya Krauss
Age: 52
Jessica's father
Relation to the patriarch: Eldest child

Terumasa Nanjo
Age: ??
Kinzo's old friend
Relation to the patriarch: Doctor

But Kinzo will not see them. He barely hears them.

All that remains in his heart is Beatrice.

Eventually, they get the message. It isn't hard for Krauss to give up here - he's already given up on his father in general.

Feeling like his time was wasted for nothing, Krauss stalks back to the dining room.

Once everyone else is gone, Genji is allowed to enter.

This study is a dungeon. Kinzo alone can decide who may or may not enter, by way of a switch at his chair that opens or seals the chamber. Only Genji and Nanjo are ever allowed in anymore, and sometimes, not even then.

In this bizarre room, Kinzo studies strange arcana night and day. His grip on reality is falling apart.

The drink is a vile green potion that barely qualifies as a beverage. It is the only thing Kinzo will accept, and it seems to sustain him somehow.

Kinzo extols the failures of his family. Kraus and Eva, slaves to money. Rudolf, chaser of women. Rosa, bearer of a stranger's child. Jessica, illiterate fool. George, spineless weakling. Battler, dishonor upon the entire family. Maria, shame to behold.

There are none he can trust with anything. There is only himself, and his sole ally, Genji. Everything else was swallowed up by Beatrice's curse.

Genji is used to such outbursts. Soon, Kinzo calms down again.

The future of the Ushiromiya family shall be entrusted to a game. It is the way of magic - the greater the risk, the greater the power.

Kinzo will risk everything for one last chance to see Beatrice.

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