prof | Let's Play Umineko Chiru, Episode 5 Scene 7: The Sea of Fragments

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Furudo Erika

Fell from the pleasure boat "Eternal Maid II" mid-cruise in the waters near Rokkenjima.

On October 4th, 1986, she drifted to Rokkenjima. The Ushiromiya family welcomed her as a guest.

She managed to drift to the island unharmed thanks to several miracles, including the life jacket she was wearing.

BGM: Rose

October 4th, 1986, 7:00 PM
29 hours remain

Dinner begins. Erika seems surprisingly accustomed to such fancy meals.

Hideyoshi breaks the ice with a joke about having to remember which forks to use when.

Erika likes chopsticks.

Erika really likes chopsticks.

Still, whoever she is, she seems to have a good sense for high-class matters.

Thanks to this strange guest, the usually dark dinner of October 4th has a much lighter atmosphere.

Even so, the adults will probably resume the high-tension conference before too long.

But that's for the adults to worry about. Time for the kids to hit the guest house!

Erika stops, though, when they reach the main hall, where Beatrice's portrait hangs.

Kumasawa identifies it as the Golden Witch, Beatrice. Erika's gaze lingers for a long moment before she continues.

At the guest house, the guests fill Erika in on the Epitaph.

BGM: Smile-less Soiree

Erika immediately comes to the right conclusion about the nature of the Epitaph. Since the riddle is inside the mansion, it must be directed towards the people who go there.

Because it points to the location of the hidden gold, it essentially gives away the wealth of the Ushiromiya family. It only stands to reason that it would also give over the headship.

Erika deduced this much at a single glance.

She'll go a step further: The existence of this epitaph means that Kinzo doesn't want Krauss to be the successor.

Jessica already doesn't like this girl.

But you didn't have a clue, so you gave up and stopped thinking. Right? Have you figured out an answer on your own? Because I'm about to solve it.

Wh-What?

This is where Bern solved the riddle of the epitaph. I'd expect no less from the Witch of Miracles. 'If a riddle is solvable, she can solve it without fail, regardless of difficulty'. How many years did it take to solve this one?

That's rude. I only fished through a few hundred Fargments.

Heheheheh... you really are terrifying.

You aren't going to cheat by suddenly saying the answer in red or something like that, right?

Don't worry. Just like you, I follow the rules as a player. Well, shall we begin? It's cramped in here. Why don't we talk over the sea?

OK. Don't get queasy, Battler!

What do you mean, sea--?!

Uh, wh, whoa...

Didn't she tell you not to get queasy?

If you want the concept of gravity, just create it yourself, okay? Come on, calm down and look at us. Don't we look like we're just fine? Believe that your feet are on the ground, and that you're being controlled by gravity. If you do that, you'll find your equilibrium.

Okay. You mustn't lose your will, emotions, or form. After all, this is the ocean. If you lose your purpose, you'll fall into the depths of eternity and become a scrap of ocean seaweed. Be careful.

Then let's begin. I'll grab a Fragment for solving the riddle of the epitaph...

BGM: F Style

Several Fragments fall into orbit around Bernkastel.

As they pass by Battler, he feels the memories of other worlds come to the surface.

Then let's begin. Let's start with this Fragment.

...I remember that. This is when, in the third game, Eva was just about to solve the riddle of the epitaph, and was thinking it over with this witch inside her or whatever.

That's right. And, from these thoughts, she made her way to the correct answer. This Fragment shows a vital hint for reaching the truth. In other words, it means that this theory is not mistaken.

So... you're saying we should assume this beloved hometown isn't a metaphor or anything like that... but the place Grandfather actually spent his youth?

That's right. And at the very least, it isn't Odawara.

That's right... Eva and her siblings said that it wasn't Odawara. And not only that, it looks like everyone guessed where grandfather's hometown was.

Right. And annoyingly, the actual location isn't spoken of in any of the Fragments.

Of course. If I told you that, there'd be too many hints. If a riddle isn't hard, there's just no point to it. Uh-oh, that's a hint, too!

Just where is this hometown? We can't even start if we don't know that...

You mean you couldn't start, so you stopped thinking? Since it had to be a place where he could have lived, the number of possibilities is limited. Well, this is the toughest part.

You were the witch who could certainly solve any riddle that can be solved, weren't you? So you took those limited possibilities... in other words, everywhere on Earth... and considered every single piece of land that grandfather might have lived on?

That would work, too, but no amount of time would be enough. So, I needed to take some more hints into consideration to wring out an answer.

A sweetfish river running through the hometown. However, this river isn't truly a river. Eva thought of something else, something that could be linked with a river.

Sure. But if it isn't a river, then why the sweetfish?

Think. A river that runs through the hometown. But it isn't a river with water running down it. Something that can be likened to a river. Eva knew where the hometown was, so she could forget about the sweetfish hint. However, since we don't know where it is, this could be a hint for us.

What are these 'sweetfish'? If the river isn't a literal river, then of course, 'sweetfish' probably doesn't mean the kind of fish that swims.

Yeah. And on top of that, Rosa tossed it aside, saying that sweetfish weren't that significant.

But on the other hand, Eva said that it wasn't important for them to be sweetfish, but that it was still an excellent hint. In other words, the sweetfish is a key to make you think of something else. If that something is a different word, but a word that sweetfish makes you think of, then Eva's line about how it probably didn't have to be sweetfish makes sense...

If she verified that she was right by checking a book, then the solution is something that a book could verify, too.

So... if we figure out what the sweetfish river running through the hometown is... that leats us directly to understanding the 'as you travel down the river, you will see a village' stuff... and then we get the key to the Golden Land.

Correct. And we know that because even Eva didn't know what the village meant until she checked the book.

Dammit... just what is this book?!

Then, Eva found the key to the Golden Land.

Yeah. And this key... was some kind of word, number, or string of characters... six characters long!

That's it. If we know that the key's true identity has six characters, the meaning of the first twilight changes drastically.

On the first twilight, offer the six chosen by the key as sacrifices... the six... chosen by the key... six characters!

Yes, Kyrie has been thinking that way ever since that moment!

In other words, on the first twilight, we take a list of characters that's longer than six, 'kill' the six that are the key, and then do something with the characters that remain!

That's right. But, like Kyrie said, what should we kill the characters from? We don't know this longer string of characters that we're supposed to be killing from.

So, six characters to kill out of some larger text. Possibly an English text.

But what's the string?

Two characters that are close. That could be a clue.

In that case, the 'two that are close' would be 45!

Of course, 'tear apart' could mean 'destroy' or 'put a gap between', but it's still a good observation.

On to the third twilight. What does it mean?

Battler and Erika have the same idea: An anagram. Those that remain spell something.

If you take each sacrifice to be a crushed letter, and take 'tear apart' to mean adding a gap, there are 11 characters destroyed. If it means 'destroy', there are 13 characters destroyed.

After that work, there should be no letters left. So, the final string should be either 11 or 13 characters long!

Oh, sorry about that. You weren't around at this point, so I just controlled your piece for you. Isn't it nice how smart I made you look?

It looks like you'd be wiser to let Bern be the player. Why not step down as the player and concentrate on being the piece instead?

Was Kinzo really the one who wrote it, though? If so, then why is Beatrice the one who always urges everyone to solve it?

Is Beatrice trying to follow Kinzo's will after his death, to pick the successor in his stead?

Eva is the only one to survive the game so far, and she won everything. Beatrice let her survive.

Why is Beatrice telling them to solve the epitaph?

What are Beatrice's thoughts?

Ultimately, they didn't solve the epitaph that night.

The cousins head upstairs to play cards. Erika declines, saying she'd rather take it easy and rest for the night. She did almost die, after all.

In the end, only Battler and Rosa remain downstairs, talking over the epitaph a little longer.

Rosa's concern is less with the first twilight, and more with the tenth.

In the last twilight, the phrase "Golden Land" is written differently. Only that line mentions a capital.

Rosa says she always thought of the ten twilights as ten steps of a journey. It's an interesting viewpoint...

Any insight might help solve the epitaph, right? This is a new twist on it.

They even know the starting point - Kinzo's hometown.

Rosa retires for the night.

What's she doing down here?

Erika says she's looking for something.

Seems like she wasn't quite done thinking about the epitaph either.

Battler relates Rosa's ten-step journey theory. Erika says she had already thought of it, though.

Erika produces a book from a shelf. The same book Eva found in the third Fragment.

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