prof | Let's Play Umineko, Episode 1 Scene 19: The Unknowns

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~~Ushiromiya Kinzo~~

Burned in the incinerator, with a weapon resembling an ice-pick rammed into his forehead.

The old sorceror's wish vanished before it could be granted. He always know that this was one possible result of his risk gamble.

Beyond a doubt, it's now true. Natsuhi is the eldest member of the Ushiromiya family still alive.

There's another problem.

This room is kept locked, and very few people would have had access to Kinzo.

BGM: Mind

The more each crime tries to show that the 19th person exists, the more obvious it is that they don't.

If someone can get Kinzo out through a sealed door, or kill Eva and Hideyoshi from across a chain, then could they also create a 19th person?

Eight people are left. Fewer than half of the island's original population.

Wait.

The first six deaths all had mutilated faces. We weren't able to confirm most of their identities save from clothing.

What if there had been an extra body prepared beforehand? What if one of them was still alive?

Maria isn't afraid. Beatrice promised to take her to the Golden Land.

That time will come, and it will be soon.

To Maria, this series of crimes are just proof of Beatrice's existence.

Maria has watched her relatives dismiss Beatrice, and now they're gradually coming to accept her existence after all.

Maria met with an unknown person, before all this started. One of the 18 people. A 19th person. A witch.

Maria has always stayed with the group. Her alibi for every murder is perfect. She is happy simply to be the witch's messenger.

That's right. We forgot about it in all the excitement, didn't we?

October 5th, 1986, 8:00 PM

Nanjo did his best, but in the end, he reports that Kanon died, without giving any more clues about the culprit's identity.

18 people is now really down to 8 people.

Jessica is taking the news harder than anyone. They must have been close.

The group is falling apart. Fear and sorrow are overwhelming the survivors.

Jessica loses it.

She thinks Maria has known who the culprit is all this time. She could probably kill her if she wasn't restrained.

He's not sobbing or attacking her, but George feels the same as Jessica right now.

But she won't say anything else. There is a 19th person. Beatrice is Beatrice.

And everyone will meet her soon.

Natsuhi is eventually able to shut her up.

And now is not the time for arguing. Everyone is in grave danger.

This is no longer a time to solve a mystery. This is a time for survival.

Shannon, Kanon and Gohda all had master keys. Whoever the killer is, they can easily have one by now.

We need to find somewhere safe even from someone with a master key.

Genji, as it so happens, knows of such a place!

There are two keys to the study. Genji holds one. Kinzo held the other. Genji now holds that one as well.

It might not be safe there - Kinzo was locked up before he disappeared.

This is also an opportunity, though - a chance to see how the witch conquers a closed room from the inside.

But there is no witch. There's just a killer.

If they didn't use magic to kill Eva and Hideyoshi, then they won't be able to attack the study.

Then again, what really happened here? Why did Kinzo hide in his own room, if that's what happened?

The only plausible explanation is that he did it to thwart Eva's receipt. However, if he stayed in the room the whole time, he couldn't have known about the receipt at all.

Out of ideas, thoughts running endlessly in circles, Battler remembers something Kyrie told him.

Chessboard thinking is not perfect. Random noise can interfere with it. Humans behave irrationally. They do things that don't make sense.

It's like chess. Chess's rules are fixed, and the number of possible moves you can make are fixed, so in an optimal game, you can anticipate the enemy's moves.

But this isn't a chess game. You can only view the board from the other side if you know what the enemy is thinking.

Battler doesn't know the first thing about his opponent.

This is the limit of the chessboard strategy.

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