Title: Certain Truth
Author: Shareon
Summary: Ever since her return from Rokkenjima, suspicion and persecution have clung to Eva with a persistent tenacity that would make an obi envious. However, she has an idea on how to bring it all to an end. An "Umineko no Naku Koro ni" fanfiction.
Eva had never enjoyed the stares, whispers, and publications which constantly surrounded her, let alone the more overt forms of persecution to which she was subjected, but she had remained hopeful that one day it would all end. However, it never did. The miasma of suspicion persisted and, if anything, expanded in size and intensity as the years went by. The constant speculations and frequent discoveries of new so-called evidence regarding the "Rokkenjima Suspicion" not only sustained it, it caused it to grow and grow.
Her being dubbed "The Golden Witch of Rokkenjima," courtesy of the recently discovered "Banquet of the Golden Witch," was what finally convinced her to act. She was certain that she could no longer wait in the feeble hopes that the problem would resolve itself on its own. She would need to do something if she wanted it to end.
The question was what could she do about it. As best as she could tell, she had several options, and all of them were bad.
She could launch a giant public relations campaign. However, nothing made a person look more guilty than them making a big effort declaring their innocence. There was a very real risk that it could actually make the problem worse, too. It would advertise to people who were currently ignorant that there was an issue to begin with.
Legal challenges were also a possibility. However, all of the numerous lawyers with whom she had consulted had given her the same assessment. Suing somebody for giving her dirty looks or for thinking malicious thoughts was just as ridiculous as it sounded. The newspapers and magazines were more reasonable targets, but they were entirely permitted to publish open speculations as to what could have happened on that fateful day, no matter how pointed they were. Until one of them crossed into direct accusation, nothing could be done, and even if one of them did, a lawsuit would still be highly questionable at best.
The final option was the most sensible one, if the most difficult one. It was the most common of common senses to find people where they were; a restaurant would be more successful in Okinomiya than it would be in Hinamizawa. It was even more common sense that people responded to what they responded to; a person who ate a hamburger every day was more likely interested in eating another hamburger than some sashimi. Combined together, the solution was obvious. As the biggest source of accusation were the so-called Witch Hunters, it made the most sense to meet them where they were; and as those people liked to read fictitious stories about Rokkenjima, the best way to do so was through a fictitious story about Rokkenjima.
That was good as far as it went, but it neglected to address a huge problem: How could Eva source this fictitious story which would exonerate her?
She could hire a ghostwriter. However, that would open her to more questions than she was prepared to answer. It was entirely reasonable, if not expected, that this author would want to know what really happened on that fateful day, and for young Ange's sake, Eva could not let the truth be known.
Alternatively, she could write it herself. However, she had no experience writing such things, and her free time was precious enough as it was.
In the end, there was no choice. She had to make the accusations stop, and if her best option was one that required a great deal of hard work, then it was certainly better than an outright bad option, let alone doing nothing at all. So Eva got a pencil, a ream of paper, and started to work.
One advantage she had was the copy of "Legend of the Golden Witch" right beside her. It had already proven wildly successful, and Eva had no qualms with drawing heavy inspiration from it. As both it and the story she was crafting were supposedly written by her niece anyway, any similarity between them could only help reinforce the verisimilitude.
It only took a few additions and a few alterations to re-imagine the original work as something new: a dramatic story of an innocent woman who wanted nothing more than to uphold the honor and dignity of her family being unfairly persecuted by malicious actors based on woefully inadequate and flawed evidence. It was galling to portray Natsuhi in such a way, and Eva had to continually remind herself that she needed to work with that fictitious premise in order to set up the proper analogy without exposing anything vital.
However, she did derive no small amount of solace in the course of her writing, too. Her sister-in-law had been arrogant, pompous, and self-righteous, not to mention a fraud. Natsuhi's single saving grace was that she was less bad than Krauss, which was more a comment on him than it was on her. Eva couldn't help but enjoy killing "Krauss" and subjecting "Natsuhi" to trial after trial. It was a particularly satisfying moment when she wrote the scene of "Eva" assaulting the cowering and obviously guilty Natsuhi near the end of the story, meting out to her the punishment she deserved so much but would never actually receive.
Still better was the moment that Eva was able to write the final lines in her work. It was both the satisfying capstone of months of effort and an earnest plea from her heart: "Yet despite this, I know Natsuhi is not the culprit. My only wish is for you to discover the truth of what really happened. -Ushiromiya Maria"
However, her good mood quickly changed when she went back and read through what she had written. It wasn't merely bad, it was almost physically painful to endure. The characters were trite, superficial, and sanctimonious. The narrative thread, which had seemed so clear in her head, was barely comprehensible. Grammatical errors abounded. Despite having written it herself, she could barely force herself to complete the review.
So Eva got to work fixing it. She created a comprehensive diagram and timeline of who was doing what when. Based on this, she changed words, passages, and entire scenes to make things more clear. The ugly splices between the original work and her modifications were smoothed over in a series of additions, deletions, and alterations. She made it obvious exactly where and how "Kyrie" had orchestrated everything.
If anything, that just made things worse. The text felt better, as did the emphasis of "Natsuhi's" innocence despite the conspiracy of accusations forcing her to look guilty, but it was too risky. Eva could not allow the truth of Kyrie to escape under any circumstances. If she had wanted to expose the events that could destroy Ange, she would have just done so directly.
So Eva went back and changed things again. What had once been explicit was made implicit. She removed some key facts and details. She intentionally eliminated alibis, creating plausible timelines for the others to have orchestrated things. Then she did one last review to confirm her story still demonstrated both "Natsuhi's" obviously suspicious activities as well as her definite innocence.
Finally, it was time for the technical checks. She read and reread the entire thing, again and again, revising it over and over until she thought it was as perfect as possible. This draft she took and, after swearing him to secrecy, entrusted to Okonogi with the instructions that he find a professional editor.
What came back was a manuscript covered with so many circles, lines, crosses, arrows, and arcane symbols that was difficult to read the text they annotated. Words, too, filled the page headers, footers, and margins, encompassing everything from "this has been done before" to "Eva is too perfect here, again."
The feedback stung, all the more so because it was all true. The first half of her work was identical to "Legend of the Golden Witch." The "Eva" she had written really was annoyingly perfect. She hadn't noticed it when she had been writing, but now that it had been pointed out, it was impossible to miss.
For the former, she had a straightforward solution. It was as easy as changing the beginning. She modified it to include an explanation of how "Krauss" had incurred the staggering amounts of debt he had saddled upon the estate. She additionally added in details of the suspicions and machinations of the others in the family, which had the added benefit of creating the foreshadowing which explained why "Eva" and the others had acted in such suspicious and arbitrary ways.
The latter issue proved to be more difficult, though. Somebody needed to expose "Natsuhi's" supposed wrongdoing and corner her. In her original draft, that person had been "Eva," but that resulted in her having nearly impossible abilities and foresight. Removing those made her character feel better, but it also left an enormous hole in the narrative, and any attempt to fill that hole with another member of the family felt even worse than the original problem had.
Fortunately, there was a hint in the editor's notes, disguised as a chiding comment about how "Eva's" sudden detective proclivities were unexpected and needed more foreshadowing.
The story already had the trappings of a Detective Mystery. Eva embraced that and introduced a new, entirely fictitious character who would explicitly be The Detective. The arbitrary actions, the unbelievable insights, and the contrivances needed for the plot were all transformed from critical weaknesses to expected conventions. Impossible-to-believe dedication became character-defining moments, and annoying perfection felt entirely acceptable when attached to a genre role rather than to an actual person.
Then it was time to do the technical checks, again. She read and reread the entire thing, again. She revised it over and over, again, until she couldn't simply couldn't stand it anymore. This she once again sealed and entrusted to Okonogi.
What came back was a manuscript looking closer to a treasure map than the victim of a massacre. Grammatical errors abounded and large sections were highlighted with suggested rewordings, but they were mainly superficial suggestions. The hand-written commentary which had bedeviled her first submission was absent, except for a single note in the footer of the last page, underlined and double-circled.
"Confusing. Natsuhi was clearly the culprit. Delete this line."
Eva fixed all the grammatical errors, reworked the highlighted sections, kept the line proclaiming "Natsuhi's" innocence, and typed it up. Finally she gave it a title befitting her goal and the optimism she felt for her project.
And thus the latest Rokkenjima bottle message was added to the corpus.
The reaction was instantaneous, and it quickly grew from there. Not since the appearance of "Alliance of the Golden Witch" had such an impact been made. Analysis, speculation, and discussion dominated the entire community of Witch Hunters.
At first there were tepid contradictions. A brave few questioned the carefully manicured garden path of "Natsuhi's" perfidy. However, all of their concerns were summarily dismissed by the masses, citing supernaturally enforced laws of how the world worked. Others joined in, explaining the truth of the matter and shouting down all detractors. It was exactly what Eva had expected and hoped would happen.
In a few weeks, once people had had a chance to fully commit themselves, she would reveal the truth to everybody along with appropriate amounts moral scorn in a brutal castigation. The only question was how explicit she should be about the parallel between "Natsuhi" and her own real circumstances. Being too coy risked some people missing the point, and being too overt risked discovery. There was a balance to be had, and Eva prepared herself to find that fine line.
Eva did have some concern when Itouikukuro Zerogonanaroku entered the conversation, though. The appearance of that vaunted name caused even the most vociferous Witch Hunter to fall silent for a moment and listen, and Itouikukuro's advocating of "Natsuhi's" innocence risked ruining everything. However, ultimately, that worry proved to be in vain. The observation that Erika didn't really exist, the speculation about the unreliability of tape in a typhoon, the insistence of human limitations, and numerous other very real problems were all summarily dismissed.
It was exactly the point that Eva wanted to make. Everybody was treating her real tragedy like a psychotic playground with no regard for the actual truth of the situation. Artificial decisions about how the world should work were cited to justify the wrong opinions that people had already decided for themselves. The mob overpowered all. Itouikukuro's appearance had been unexpected, but it had ultimately worked in her favor. It was the perfect capstone for her denouement.
But then everything changed.
Itouikukuro returned once again, this time not with a new objection or a new observation but rather with a new discovery. Itouikukuro had found a new bottle message from Maria, supposedly.
It was patently ridiculous. If Eva had copied from "Legend of the Golden Witch," then Itouikukuro had outright stolen from her. The backstories of "Krauss" and "Natsuhi" were there, as were the designs "Eva" and the others had made in preparation for the family conference, the inclusion of the entirely fictitious Detective, the discovery of the gold, and everything else Eva had invented. There was no pretense of trying to be original, either. Entire sections had been directly copied verbatim from what she had written.
However, not everything was an outright copy. Upon closer inspection, there were several minor differences. Itouikukuro had reworded a sentence here, emphasized the timing of events there, and made explicit several things Eva had left as implicit. It was effectively the same story Eva had written with one key difference: It suggested that "Battler" was the culprit.
It was frightfully effective, too. Upon reading it, Eva herself was convinced. It was only after she checked her own notes and cross-referenced them that she was able to confirm that it was still possible that "Kyrie," "Eva," "Rosa," and indeed any number of other characters to have committed the crime. The overall facts hadn't changed, but the shade of guilt had completely shifted.
The effect of Itouikukuro's discovery was astounding and disastrous. Those who had previously been saying how it was obvious that "Natsuhi" was guilty were now just as vehement that "Battler" was obviously guilty. Previous insistence that there was only one interpretation had given way to smug assertions that they were always willing to consider new evidence. Eva had missed the moment to corner them on their shameful actions, and it was absolutely infuriating.
Still, there remained the smallest glimmer of hope. The discussion ended with a simple, unanswered question.
"Can somebody explain what really happened?"
Author's Notes:
I find it interesting how much in "Umineko no Naku Koro ni" is left unanswered. There are layers upon layers to the mysteries. On the surface, there are the obvious questions, such as how a character was killed in a closed room. Many layers beneath that, there are the things that are actively hidden from the reader and never answered, such as in gameboard-terms (not metaverse-terms, which is explained), why did Erika reseal the chain with her tape?
One such mystery is who actually wrote "End of the Golden Witch?" It is inferable that it could have been Itouikukuro Zerogonanaroku, but that answer feels lackluster. How would Itouikukuro know of Krauss's financial mishaps? How would Itouikukuro know what was plotted among the adults prior to the family conference of 1986? There are numerous ways it's possible, foremost being creative license, but none of them feel particularly satisfying.
An idea I heard was that it was actually Eva who wrote "End of the Golden Witch." There are lots of little details which fit together to support this theory. In addition to the two questions listed above, there are things like how pathetic Krauss is portrayed within the narrative, how Erika quickly allies with Eva and the two of them share room-sealing techniques, and how the story doesn't really rely on the "Heart of Beatrice," as it were.
Is it Red-truth? Absolutely not. However, I think it is as strong a Golden-truth as anything else out there.
Of course, if that explains the who-done-it, left open are the questions of how-done-it and why-done-it. For those, I present the submission above for your consideration.
Last Updated: April 13, 2022
