gardock | Let's Play Umineko no Naku Koro ni

Episode 2 Chapter 12 – Wolves and Sheep

Everybody's just about all corpsed out. Good thing they won't be able to find Kanon's, at least.

Why do they always leave Kumasawa out of the loop?

You're forgetting someone, Rosa. Well, not really anymore, I guess.

Rosa's not used to being the adult. The age gaps between the siblings had varied a lot; Krauss wasn't much older than Eva, but then it was a bit longer before Rudolf was born, and even he was into his teen years by the time Rosa came along. But those three, being, well, those three, didn't go easy on her just for being a decade or two younger. As a result, she has an inferiority complex she's gonna have to deal with if she wants to be in control of this situation.

She does have Kinzo's blood, so it shouldn't be too hard to get to where she needs to be mentally. She goes to talk to him.

Uh oh?

Back at the parlor already! Kumasawa suggests they eat.

Strangely, it doesn't go over well.

Aside from some dark humorous antics, mostly they just cover more stuff we already know and how it doesn't just apply to the first game. And, of course, how they suspect Beatrice the Mystery Guest.

Hey, yeah, remember that chick, Whatshername? And the furniture guy? I wonder what they're up to. Eh, probably not important.

The conversation turns to the much more urgent and relevant topic of the spooky letter.

That doesn't work, though. If they had access to three of the gold bars, they already knew where the gold was, which would suggest they'd solved the epitaph themselves. Or knew what it meant before it was even written, maybe.

You couldn't keep Creepy Maria from showing up to this party for long.

Rosa's back! Along with Genji and Shannon, whom she fetched from the study.

She comes bearing child abuse.

And of course, she's packing.

They should go get the other people, maybe. Battler volunteers to go with Gohda and somebody, but Rosa objects. It's a wolves and sheep puzzle.

You've probably heard some variation of this before. Rosa refuses to leave any handful of people unattended, because she might be leaving a sheep or two alone with a wolf or two.

In other words, as far as she's concerned, everyone is a suspect.

You wish, Battler.

Rosa's style of leadership is rather different from Natsuhi's. She's basically leaving everything to Dark Rosa. Her tolerance for bullshit is nonexistent.

Yep.

Am I crazy? Is it more reasonable at this point not to assume it's blood? I mean, seriously, is there a chance it's fucking paint? Any chance at all?

The door's locked. It is, of course, a closed room.

Nanjo concludes that Jessica is dead, based on the sharp implement buried several inches into her back and the massive pool of blood. Any other questions, Rosa?

Battler and George blame themselves.

Rosa blames Gohda.

Gohda notices something odd!

Rosa wisely orders a search. They find neither Kanon's body nor any manner of culprit anywhere in the whole room.

Everybody shut the fuck up. Rosa's got questions about the door.

Closed rooms, man.

There's only one key not accounted for, and that's Kanon's.

By the way, PAUSE.

Beato is happy to be specific about the key situation!

Just the five. If all five keys have alibis, this is a full-on closed room.

UNPAUSE.

[BGM: Fishy Aroma]

Oh motherfuck.

Kanon doesn't just have no alibi, he has like negative twenty alibis. He was alone with Jessica at about the time of the murder, he had the only master key that's currently missing, and now there's no trace of him to be found. But hey, Rosa's not picky.

Could've been Kumasawa.

Or Gohda.

She can't quite throw all the servants under the bus yet, but three isn't bad. She has another strike against Kanon, in partcular; Jessica was stabbed in the back. Which means the culprit was someone she was comfortable enough with to allow into her room and casually turn her back to. Someone close to her age.

Man, Rosa is fucking aggro about this mystery stuff.

There's always, you know, Beatrice? Aha...

She's declaring Kanon kill-on-sight.

PAUSE.

Well-played, Beato. Battler can either attack someone he cares about or blame it on someone for whom it would be impossible, without magic.

Technically Kanon can't face any repercussions if he's blamed for this, considering he's dead and all, but he died like a hero! Sort of! Battler can't show that kind of disrespect.

UNPAUSE.

Generally speaking, the adults seem to be on board with this. Better safe than sorry, right? Trusting Kanon would be dangerous if he showed up again.

Frankly, Rosa doesn't trust any of you losers. The only people who aren't suspects are the confirmed dead.

Anyone could be a wolf.

Battler can't accept it. Wasn't Kanon supposed to love Jessica 5ever?

No don't I refuse it's too fucking melodramati

Oh goddammit! Fine. Sad ghosts. Enjoy.

Whether this is actually happening or not, Battler can feel it in his gut. The dead need someone to stand up for them.

[BGM: Dread of the Grave]

PAUSE.

UNPAUSE.

Kanon's sister and future brother-in-law have a vested interest in hearing Battler out!

It's Battler vs. Rosa, Phoenix Wright style.

He's not gonna prosecute anybody.

You're gonna need to figure out a reason everybody's innocence is logically possible eventually, Battler. But for now...

PAUSE.

Battler's discovering a neat trick! In Meta World, where the red truth can be used, he can gather information to have his piece use on the gameboard. It doesn't take the place of detectivework, but he can check his theories before acting on them and avoid getting on the wrong track. Significantly, Beatrice declines to repeat that.

UNPAUSE.

This isn't much advanced reasoning. Just remembering a tiny detail. Jessica borrowed Kanon's key, and we don't know that he ever got it back. There's one easy way to find out, though.

QED. Kanon didn't have a master key after all!

That's enough for now, Rosa.

He's not saying not to try and figure out who did it. But we need a serious dosage of innocent until proven guilty in here.

PAUSE.

Another victory for Battler! This episode is gonna be EASY. Just, uh, one thing.

Battler just proved that the only keys that could have locked that door from the outside were inside it the entire time, didn't he. Fuckbaskets.

She's gonna keep playing him like a harp from hell for a while now. It's what witches do.

Ouch. Uhhh...

He's got nothing.

That... could be something?

Yeeeeeaahhhhh, that'd be the point. You want my opinion, you shouldn't rely on the red truth too much. She gave out a little for free at first because she's trying to get you hooked on it like a drug dealer. Now she's using it to set traps, as we've just witnessed.

He's gonna keep relying on it too much, isn't he. Why do I even bother.

Whatever happens, Battler, keep thinking. Your brain is your only weapon.

...No wonder this is so hard. But what can he do? Ruling out Beatrice's use of magic here is as simple as blaming one of the servants, but he doesn't want to do that...