This is a mystery short story I wrote a few years back, albeit for a different fandom than Umineko. Please excuse the idiocy, inaccurate representations of some characters, and liberal use of ellipses; this is from my early days of writing, and is largely unedited (besides names). Hopefully it’s as interesting as I remember it to be, though it is a tad long.
This Challenge contains use of Red Truth and has light spoilers from Umineko Episode Two.
This Challenge holds the following Rules:
First, that a scene in the narrative is really the “undisputed narrative” by the characters in the scene. In other words: if the scene has Battler and Jessica eating their hats, it really means neither Battler nor Jessica disagree with that presentation. Perhaps they both are lying, and they actually were licking wallpaper. Perhaps Battler stole Jessica’s wallet and lied about it, while Jessica noticed nothing. Or perhaps Jessica was dead, and thus couldn’t dispute what was said. In any case, each scene is agreed upon by all the living still present.
Second: the Red Truth will be in effect, used by Beatrice the Golden.
Best of luck.
Beatrice the Golden, Witch of the Endless Magic, leaned forward and whispered, her warm breath tickling Battler’s ear:
“I’ve a very particular board for you today, Ushiromiya Battler.”
The young man snorted. “Another? Don’t you see it’s useless, you old fraud? I won’t accept you; no number of games of chess can convince me White must always win. No number of locked rooms can convince me there doesn’t exist a key.”
“All the stranger, I would think,” the Witch replied. “All you need is one impossible room for man to lock to prove something more than man did; and yet you can’t find any explanation for the majority of them, much less one! Aren’t you the irrational one, Battler?” Her low chuckle sent a shiver up his spine. “Aren’t you just turning your eyes away from the impossible–from the magical?”
“Just because I couldn’t think of an answer doesn’t mean one doesn’t exist!”
Beatrice cackled, watching his defiant eyes with a smirk. “Such incompetence! You think it impossible to quash every theory of yours? Impudent Battler, watch as I do what you’ve failed! Watch as I lock you in a room only magic can escape!”
With a flourish reminiscent of royalty, the Golden Witch swept up a storm of golden butterflies, swirling about them till the very room they occupied began to change.
Before their eyes, they saw an island fold out before them: a large mansion formed from the Earth, and eight figures appeared, walking in a group towards the front door.
“These are eight of nine persons on this island. I will simply call them Buffoon, Certainly Useless, Damned, Empty, Failure, Goober, Hodor, and Idiot. If you’re curious, I named then after you. They were coming to visit an old friend of theirs, ‘A’, who owns the mansion. I’ll just be referring to them by ‘A’, ‘B’, ‘C’, ‘D’, ‘E’, ‘F’, ‘G’, ‘H’, and ‘I’, because I don’t really consider them human. Actually, I do consider them human, which is why I don’t care about them. Any questions before the narrative begins?”
Battler shook his head.
“Then let us begin.”
The group of eight chatted merrily as they made their way through the front door; ‘A’ had told them, in his letter inviting them a week ago, to make themselves at home when they arrived and to come by the master suite on the third floor when ready.
So they found rooms on the second floor, made themselves comfortable, and went up to the third floor, knocking on the door.
They heard a faint voice respond, as if from deep in the suite: “Go on downstairs! I’ll join you all for lunch in an hour!”
This was at approximately 11:05.
They went downstairs and sat in the dining room, chatting over their lives and how long it’s been since the last get-together; but once 12:30 rolled around, they became frustrated. Where is ‘A’?
So they stormed back up to the third floor…
…and found the door to the master suite locked. They found the emergency master key from a hiding place that ‘A’ had mentioned previously, in the event of an emergency; using it, they unlocked the master suite.
Inside was a mangled body.
“‘A’!” They exclaimed together. Holding back their nausea, they fled the room, locking the door behind them with the key, and gathered downstairs.
There, they went over their alibis. Almost everyone was gathered together for the whole time, except for three guys who took bathroom breaks, and a group of two who went to grab something from their room. To be specific: ‘B’, ‘F’, and ‘G’ all went to the bathroom for several minutes at different times, while ‘C’ and ‘D’ went to their room together for a short period of time.
Here the narrative halted.
“So.” Beatrice paced before the chess board before moving forward a pawn. “The first move is made.”
Battler frowned, bowing his head. To the side stood Erika and Jessica (who was only there because she’s really cute and blonde). Dlanor lay on the nearby sofa, sleeping after a long night of drinking liquor with Chesterton and Christie. Jessica whispered to Erica:
“This doesn’t seem terribly difficult. Several of them don’t even have alibis!”
“The problem isn’t who could have done it; the problem is how. The door was locked.”
Battler had apparently thought along the same lines. He raised his head.
“An unknown murderer stole the master key, unlocked the door to the suite, murdered ‘A’, and promptly locked the door, returning the key.”
“False.” Erika whispered with a sneer, as Beatrice cackled and responded in Red:
“There are no others on the island than the nine persons we have encountered thus far.”
“Then it was ‘B’!”
“There is only one master key, of which no copies could be made. It was not used before the group unlocked the door to the suite. Furthermore, the master suite was locked from the inside and could only be unlocked from the inside or by the single master key.”
Battler didn’t react, unlike Jessica, whose jaw dropped. “What?! How did they get in?”
Battler and Beatrice were far enough away (and focused) that they didn’t hear Jessica. Battler thought for a moment.
“B entered by a window, killed A, and locked the door before exiting by the window.”
Beatrice smirked. “Neither A, nor B, nor any of the other nine, entered or exited the room except by the doorway, which could only be passed through when the door is unlocked.”
“This is insane!” Jessica whispered. “How could anyone get in or out?”
Erika smiled deviously as she glanced over. “Your thinking is limited. Not surprising, I suppose, given who I’m talking to.”
Jessica growled at her. “What else could have happened? Do you have an idea?”
Erika laughed. “Certainly. There are a lot of things you’re assuming that aren’t necessarily true. For example: did someone else kill him? Perhaps he committed suicide.”
“But…that’s crazy! Why would he do that?”
Erika shook her head. “This Game isn’t about what’s likely, or what generally would be the case. It’s about pure, undefiled logical deduction. What do the facts exclude by necessity? The solution can be anything else, regardless of how insane it appears.”
Battler took longer this time in his thoughts. Finally, he stirred. “The culprit had the door auto-lock behind them when they left. The suite was unlocked when they first arrived.”
“The door was locked from the inside and remained locked until the group unlocked the door with the master key.”
“Then he committed suicide.”
“No one, in this entire Game, will commit suicide.”
“Then ‘A’ was already dead; the voice they heard through the door was not ‘A’'s voice. Or, if it was ‘A’'s voice, it was a recording from a different conversation.”
“‘A’ intended those exact words to be heard at that exact moment, by those exact people; ‘A’ was alive at that moment and spoke those words.”
This particular murder was becoming more and more complicated. Battler went over the facts he knew:
The door was locked from the inside.
Once locked, no one could exit the room.
Therefore, all people in the room when the door was locked remained in the room until the door was unlocked.
Everyone went to unlock the door together.
Thus, the person who locked the door could not have been one of the eight.
There are only nine people on the island.
Thus, there are no other possible suspects than the nine.
‘A’ did not commit suicide.
Thus, ‘A’ must have died by some indirect manner after he locked the door by at least one of the other eight.
Battler turned to Beatrice, a hint of confidence in his smile.
“‘A’ was killed by some method where, after ‘A’ locked the door, something set in motion by a human outside the room killed him, like poison or a machine. The culprit is at least one of the humans ‘B’ through ‘I’.”
Beatrice’s face froze. Battler leaned forward, almost leering.
“Will you not respond? Can you not cast down the theory?”
“It does seem to be the only logical conclusion…” Erika whispered. Jessica was astounded.
“What a strange theory…”
Beatrice waved the talk away. “We will continue to the next murders.”
With that discussion concluded, the narrative proceeded. The group, having discussed the alibis, found that five out of eight could be suspected; they decided it best to retire to their rooms and wait for the police. They couldn’t arrive until the next day due to the storm. So they split off to the second floor into three rooms. In Room One: B, E and F; in Room Two: C and D; in Room Three: G, H and I. All were observed entering their rooms alive, and all locked their doors.
Once dinner time rolled around, they called each other’s rooms to arrange for dinner. But neither C nor D answered their room phone. So the remaining six exited their rooms, gathering in front of Room Two. They retrieved the master key, which they had replaced in the hiding spot after using it earlier; using the key, they unlocked the door to Room Two.
Inside, C and D were on their beds. Their throats were slit; after checking for a pulse and breathing, they concluded that both were dead.
The remaining six gathered in the kitchen. Each room stated that all their members remained in their room until they all left together.
Here the narrative froze, once more.
“Well, Battler! What say you? Will you accept that a human killed them all with magic?”
Battler snorted. "I’m in the lead, you know? 1 for 1.” Nevertheless, he took a few moments to pace and think about it.
Jessica was thoroughly confused.
“If everyone was in their rooms, how did C and D die? Did they kill each other?”
Erika laughed. “At least you were able to consider that possibility.”
Battler looked at her with false amazement. “Jessica…you…”
She began to look excited. Did I solve it?!
“…you really are terrible at this, aren’t you?”
Jessica cried.
“Battler. Don’t be mean.” George said calmly, though he totally wasn’t in the scene before this.
Erika agreed. “She can’t help her lack of intelligence.”
“Is that supposed to make me feel better?!”
After more shenanigans, Battler finally spoke.
“Let’s get the obvious ones out of the way. They killed each other, or they faked their deaths.”
“That’s obvious?!” Jessica exclaimed, as Beatrice shook her head.
“C and D did not kill each other. C and D are both dead.”
“They died by a method or trap which did not require someone to be in the room.”
“Their murderer or murderers faced them directly and killed them in the room.”
Then Battler dropped his main theory. “B, E and F all conspired together in their murders. They left the room, obtaining the key, and, entering Room Two, killed both C and D. They then locked the door from the outside and returned the master key.”
Beatrice frowned, pausing.
“…I suppose we’ll move on.”
And so the narrative continued.
The six had a somber dinner. Their hopes all rested with the police; their best bet would be to hole up somewhere, all together, so that no one from outside could kill them. After all, they reasoned, they knew the others didn’t commit the murders. It had to be someone from outside.
The six remaining decided to hole up in the kitchen and dining room: bring mattresses, lock the doors and keep a steady supply of food at hand. The kitchen and dining room were actually part of the same room: the only thing separating them was a low island cabinet. There were three doors: one to a bathroom (which had only the one entrance), one in the kitchen and one in the dining room. All could be locked. There were also several windows, but they, too, could be locked. It appeared as though the room would become impenetrable.
Which only made what happened stranger. E and F went to get a mattress, but never returned. The four remaining–B, G, H and I–all remained inside the room the whole time. When E and F didn’t return, they went, all together, to check on them, and found their dead bodies upstairs. They then returned to the room.
Once more, the narrative froze.
Beatrice smirked. “What do you think now? Two more dead bodies–two of your supposed murderers!” She laughed. “Explain that away!”
Battler once more paced. Jessica tilted her head, her eyes lost in thought.
“It seems like there’s only two possible conclusions: that they killed each other, or that the four conspired to kill them.”
Erika sighed, shaking her head. “You aren’t thinking clearly, Jessica. You’re missing two other possibilities.”
Jessica frowned, thinking. “Well…I suppose they could have died by an indirect method, like poison or a trap…”
“Good…”
“…but I can’t think of another.”
Erika sat back with a satisfied smile. “Let’s see if the incompetent Battler can.”
Said Battler lifted his head.
“E and F killed each other.”
“E and F did not kill each other.”
“E and F were killed indirectly, by a trap of some kind or some other method.”
“E and F were not killed by any indirect method.”
“Then B, G, H, and I all conspired together, went, and killed them. The narrative told their side of the story.”
“B, G, H, and I did not conspire together to kill them!” Beatrice broke out into laughter. “Baffled? Confused? Ready to accept the truth about magic?”
Battler feigned despair. “Oh, woe is me! What other possibility could there be than magic?” Then he laughed. “Assuming E and F are actually dead!”
Jessica gasped. “What? Is that possible? They saw–”
“If they appear to be dead, it doesn’t mean they actually are dead.” Erika shrugged. “That was the other option. Unfortunately for Beatrice, the only other option.”
Everyone expected Beatrice to frown and move on with the narrative.
But instead, a smile spread across her face, and she began to laugh–the shrill, terrible cackle of the Golden Witch. Battler felt terror creep up his spine; he knew what was about to happen–it had happened many times before–the relentless, horrible Red–
“E and F are really dead! They were both murdered in the same room as the murderer, who watched and laughed as he executed them, standing over their bodies! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!”
“Impossible!” Battler yelled. “In the same room? How–”
Erika was terribly surprised; and, because of this, terribly excited.
“Mmmm,” she closed her eyes and hummed, as she thought. “I wonder where there’s a loophole…”
Jessica shook her head, flabbergasted. “Is this even possible? Who else could it be?”
Then her eyes widened. “Wait. If it’s possible to doubt that E and F really died–”
Erika’s eyes widened, as she came to the same realization. She leaned back, cackling. “Very devious, witch. Very devious.”
Battler’s rapid pacing and mutters began to calm, as he delved deeper into thought. After a short while, he stopped.
"I’ve got it.”
Beatrice smirked. “So you think.”
“There is only one possibility that remains: ‘A’ did not really die. He faked his death, which explains the door locked from the inside and the seemingly impossible murder; he then proceeded to sneak out of the room, taking the master key, and killed C and D, replacing the key thereafter; and then, after the six holed up in the room, he killed off E and F when they left.”
Beatrice was pacing as he spoke. When he finished, she stopped, turning away from him. He watched her, a smile spreading across his face.
“Thus magic is–” He began, intending to proclaim his victory.
But Beatrice interrupted with a smirk. “–victorious.”
“A did not exist in E and F’s room at the time of their murder!”
The room turned deathly silent.
“What?” Battler said, looking at her with confusion.
“But…that’s not possible. ‘A’ has to be the killer. There’s no other logical possibility! We’ve exhausted all the options! There’s no way anyone but A committed the murder!”
Beatrice laughed wildly and began to speak more facts. Each time, Battler shrunk back more.
“When I say ‘in the room with E and F’ henceforth, I mean when they were killed. The murderer and he alone was in the room with E and F.”
“A did not exist in the room with E and F!”
“A did not place his hand upon the master key at any point during the Game!”
“A did not leave the apartment at any point during the Game!”
“A was not in the room with E and F!”
“B was not in the room with E and F!”
“C was not in the room with E and F!”
“D was not in the room with E and F!”
“G was not in the room with E and F!”
“H was not in the room with E and F!”
“I was not in the room with E and F!”
“There are no other options, Ushiromiya Battler! A human magically appeared in the suite, killing A, before magically disappearing! A human magically appeared in C and D’s room, killing them, before disappearing! A human magically appeared in E and F’s room, killing them, before disappearing! Admit it! Acknowledge the power of magic! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!”