'Come, Wright,' Bernkastel said, her tail brushing against the floor. 'Start your explanations.'

Will didn't answer immediately. He was occupied with looking at the sad, hollow husk of Battler laid on the floor, quietly sobbing.

'Wright?' Bernkastel said, a little louder.' You don't feel like playing this game, then? Would you rather go for a swim? A longer one, this time?'

'This is a needlessly cruel story,' Will said, snapping his attention back to Bernkastel.

'All mysteries are supposed to be full of lovely disgusting guts. I think this one did pretty well on the first twilight, didn't it?'

She was goading him again. He didn't know how long he could hold. A simmering anger had been collecting into his heart, and he was aware it could blow over anytime.

'There are plenty of ways to deconstruct this locked room,' he said crisply. 'If you want to make this hard, you'd better give me some red.'

'Fine.' Bernkastel said, and then the whole hall lit up a blistering red. 'Six people - Natsuhi, George, Jessica, Maria, Shannon and Kanon were definitely killed on the first twilight. They did not commit suicide. All of them died within closed rooms!'

The barrage of red continued without stopping. 'No method exists to set or unset the chain from outside. The chain works like any other normal chain lock, and has not been tampered with! Once the chain is set, it is impossible for any person - alive or dead - to enter the room from outside. The door is the only way in or out. Entrance and exit is impossible via any other means!'

The red flew towards him in bright streams, circling him, and lifting him upwards. When he dropped back down, he found himself in Natsuhi's room, next to the bloody body. Even as he watched, the door slammed shut, and the chain slid sideways, locking into place with a click. He reached forward and grabbed the doorknob, and tried to pull. The chain yanked him back almost immediately, barring his exit.

'What's the matter?' Bernkastel's voice purred from the other side. 'You can't escape so easily now, can you? Unless, of course, you were the Blue Witch, then you could float through the door like you were air, you know...?'

'Stop that,' Will growled. The world shattered around him and he was back at the table. 'Actually killing them wouldn't be hard. But getting out while leaving the chain still set would be a hard one. So maybe, the culprit didn't leave the room in the first place. I'll use the blue truth. For instance, in Natsuhi's room, after murdering her, the culprit set the chain and hid behind some drawers. After the others broke the chain, the culprit waited until everyone was gathered around Natsuhi's body, and then slipped out.'

'I knew you would try something like that,' Bernkastel sighed. 'That's why I created two locked rooms. The culprit can't be hiding in two places at once, can he?'

'Then there were two culprits. They murdered everyone in their respective rooms, waited for everyone to discover the bodies, hid, and escaped at the right opportunity.'

'Are you an idiot or something? Even without the red, the possibility of two culprits doesn't exist.'

'Why?'

'Weren't you paying any attention to the story? Before the closed rooms were broken, almost everyone was seen outside the closed rooms. Krauss, Rudolf, Rosa and Kyrie were at the family conference. Battler saw Eva and Hideyoshi in the window. Genji went with Battler to break the chain. Gohda greeted them on the way. Nanjo and Kumasawa were with them when they discovered Natsuhi's body. In short, everyone on the island could not have been hiding inside any of the rooms. The only exception is Kinzo, who, the last time I checked, was only one person, you know...?'

'I wasn't sure if I could trust the scenes Battler didn't see for himself firsthand.'

'That was Beato's game, and to be honest, that game got boring after a while, and I changed things a bit. The perspectives from which this tale is told from are completely unbiased!'

'Still doesn't matter. After Battler or us, the observers, saw someone outside the room, that someone quickly went to the murder scene, shut the door behind them, and set the chain. This way, they already had set up a closed room.'

'The closed rooms were created at around twelve midnight! From the time they were created to the time Genji broke the closed rooms, absolutely no one touched the chain!'

'Repeat this: There are no more than 18 humans on this island.'

'Are you serious? There are no more than 18 humans on this island. You seriously think I would spoil this game with a 19th person?'

'It might be some clever wordplay with the red truth. A person's name can die, but the person himself can stay alive! For example, the person calling herself Natsuhi gave up her name, but was still alive and played dead when Battler and the others came. This creates no contradictions with the red truth.'

'Are you kidding me? You're kidding, right?' Bernkastel chirruped. 'Absolutely no name tricks of any sort exist within the red truth for this game! When I refer to someone by name, I refer to the collective human person that has the name! Is this all you have?'

The red strings, which had been swirling around him, changed course and slammed into Will's chest, one after another, knocking him out of his chair. He got up as quickly as he could, all the while conscious of Bernkastel's contempous eyes burning into at his back.

'I'm not finished,' Will got to his feet, growling. 'I've got just one more theory. Chain locks don't make a room completely closed. The door can still be opened a slight gap. The culprit used a ranged weapon, like a crossbow outfitted with a knife, fired through the gap, and killed all of them.'

'All six victims were killed with a sharp blade at close range! The culprit was standing right next to them when he dealt the killing blow.'

'Hmph,' Will pinched the bridge of his forehead. He was already annoyed. 'There's something about this that bugs me, though. In the cousin's closed room, they were all killed cleanly, with one straight cut to the throat. There wasn't much blood, as compared to Natsuhi's closed room. There was blood all over the place, even all the way to the chain, and she was slashed in the stomach instead of the throat. Almost as if she had put up a gigantic struggle. She died differently. This could be a hint.'

'It was a lovely death, wasn't it? I should win an award for that.'

The gates broke free, and his temper finally came rushing out. 'Do you enjoy doing this?'

'Doing what?' she said innocently.

Her stony expression, standing tall against his anger, was enough to push him further off the edge. He stood up. 'Is this fun for you? Creating a sick and horrible mystery like this? You're toying with them like they're nothing more like dolls.'

'They're just pieces,' she said evenly.

'They're still human beings! You have no right - no right to treat them like this.'

'Says the great Wizard Hunting Wright,' she gazed at him. 'You deal with mysteries, all the time, don't you?'

'Yeah, and I'm sick of it. I'm sick of witches and their games. I'm sick of everything about this fucking place. And I'm especially sick of you.'

The words were just tumbling out of his mouth. He was aware he was overstepping his bounds, but he had gone too far to take anything back. As he opened his mouth to speak again, he wondered what punishment Bernkastel would deal him this time.

She laughed. She threw herself back against her chair, put a hand to her mouth, and laughed. He stared at her, feeling his resolve dying. Somehow, this was even worse than a punishment.

'Good,' she grinned. 'Excellent I was waiting for this, you know...I was waiting for that face. It's adorable. You should wear that more often.'

'What the hell?' he said.

'I just love people like you who try to act tough,' she giggled. 'People who think their guts won't ever spill out, and the face you made when they finally did...I should've taken a picture, you know...?'

He didn't know how to react. All his dry retorts had completely deserted him. He sat back down, looking away. Her eyes, amusement sparkling in the empty depths for the first time, gazing at him like a pet who had just performed an interesting trick, was something he could not bear to look at. He was never more aware at this moment, that while she was as short as a nine year old girl and he stood at six feet, he was only an inquisitor, and she was most certainly a Witch.

'I guess you can't solve the first twilight yet, hmmm? Aah, you're really disappointing. It'll be a while before the next twilight, though, so you'll at least have time to think. Meanwhile, the game will have to move on, is that fine with you...?'

He found himself nodding to her question.

That was a good mystery, wasn't it...? I expect you to have an explanation ready by the end of this tale, or else, you're just nothing but anti-fantasy, you know?...kihihihi...

Grief dominated the parlor or the rest of the morning, saturating the air and filling it with cries and moans. Sitting in a place like that, Battler felt like jumping out of the window. But he, and all the other family members, were required to stay in the parlor. The killer might still be around, and no one was taking chances.

Eva and Hideyoshi burst into another round of wails. Rosa followed soon after, crying into her lap. Krauss was the worst. After losing both his wife and daughter in one sitting, his soul seemed to have left him. He sat hunched over in a chair, his head hanging down and his hair is disarray, completely silent and unmoving. His grief seemed to have transcended all visible signs. Battler didn't look at him longer than he had too.

No one was grieving with him. All the cousins were dead. He was the youngest person left.

Genji opened the door. 'Master is unharmed,' he announced. 'But he refuses to come down to the parlor. He maintains his study is quite safe.'

'Let that old geezer be, then,' Rudolf said cheerfully. Out of all the others, he was the only one who seemed to be blatantly unaffected, the second runner-up being Kyrie. They weren't disturbing the others' mourning, but they weren't participating either. Instead they were gathered at the phone, talking quietly to one another in animated gestures. Battler sat apart from them.

He had been looking dazedly at the lamp in front of him for what seemed like hours, and he shifted his gaze. The servants, Gohda, Genji, Kumasawa and Nanjo sat together. Battler studied for a while, and then corrected his earlier assumption. Genji remained more deadpan than Kyrie or Rudolf or anyone else, despite the fact that he had witnessed the throats of his closest coworkers torn open like paper barely an hour ago. Still, Battler went over to sit next to him, if only to provoke some sort of reaction. Genji had been the one who had ran with him to the cousin's room, the one who broke the chain, and the one who had discovered the bodies and later covered them up with blankets together with Battler. He couldn't think to sit with anyone else.

'...such a shame. They were both young, too young...' Kumasawa was saying when Battler drew nearer.

'Shannon was spending so much time with George, I was hoping I could live to see the day that they became a couple,' Nanjo shook his head. 'I saw them holding hands just yesterday, on the beach, and they looked so...radiant.'

'I was cleaning the garden shed last week,' Gohda mumured. 'With Kanon. I accidently knocked down the flowerpot, and it broke. You know what I did? I told Kanon he had done it. So he took the blame, and he was scolded by Madam. So he never knew I broke the flowerpot. He never knew.'

'Kanon and Shannon did well,' Genji said. 'They deserve their rest.'

Battler sat on the chair next to them, unnoticed. The servants were silent for a while, wallowing in treasured memories, trying to catch them before they flew away.

'So the Blue Witch finally arrived,' Genji said after a while.

Kumasawa chuckled nervously. 'Come now, Genji...'

Nanjo stared hard at Genji, and then widened his eyes. 'You don't mean...the epitaph - they were the six sacrifices?'

'Aiya,' Kumasawa moaned, the chuckle dying in her throat. 'You can't mean that.'

'I'm only repeating the mansion says,' Genji said calmly.

'But - Genji,' Gohda grinned fiercely, as if determined to believe this was all a big joke. 'If you believe the legend, and that this is the day, that means all of us will die, right?'

'The legend makes that clear, yes.'

'You - you can't be serious!' Gohda cried, but the others looked uncertain.

Battler leaned forward, frowning. 'What's all this about a Blue Witch legend?'

Hearing his voice, they jumped violently in their seats, and instantly proceeded to look away. Only Genji maintained a straight face, and with his usual servantly demeanour answered Battler's question with a level voice.

'There has been such a legend in existence for as long as any of us can remember. The Blue Witch, the girl with the blue hair in the portrait, is a magical being who watches over Rokkenjima. She is it's caretaker.'

'It's just a silly fairy tale,' Gohda added hastily.

'She helps us servants with her household chores,' Kumasawa said. 'We'd be making the beds, and when we're missing a bedsheet, one just magically appears in front on of the door. Or when one of our keys falls off our key ring, and it's waiting for us in the servant's room.'

'T-that's just because one of the other servants took care of it and forgot to mention it to you,' Gohda stammered.

'No one did. Everything we needed, just appeared in a blink of an eye. We didn't even ask anyone. The item we needed to clean up the mansion were just there, prepared for us.' She looked at Battler with frightened eyes, as if begging him to disprove her. But he could see in her eyes that she believed.

'The Blue Witch recognises our efforts,' Genji droned. 'She sends us gifts from time to time, rewarding us. In the servant's room, on our beds, a bouquet of flowers, or a box of chocolates.'

'Kinzo would lose his chess pieces,' Nanjo said, taking out a hankerchief and wiping his sweaty face. 'and it would be sitting on the desk the next morning. He'd just laugh and say it was the will of the Blue Witch.'

'No way,' Battler said. 'That old geezer believes it too?'

'All of us at the mansion acknowledge her existence,' Kumasawa said. 'Except for Master Krauss, Lady Natsuhi and Lady Jessica. No matter how many times the Blue Witch sends them her gifts, they refuse to believe in her.'

'But the Blue Witch is patient,' Genji said, taking over Kumasawa easily. 'She loves everyone no matter how they view her.'

Battler forced a grin onto his face as he looked around the servants. They stared back at him, stony faced. His smile faded.

'You're joking, right?' he said weakly.

They looked shocked.

'You're joking,' Battler said again. 'Witches and magic don't exist, right?'

'That's right,' Gohda burst out. 'They don't!'

The other stared at him like he was some kind of madman, or, worse, a traitor. Gohda jerked away from their wide gazes, and looked down at his lap.

'Come on,' Battler said, gripping the chair arms. 'Sorry, but, you can't believe something like that, right? You can't.'

'The murders,' Nanjo swallowed. 'They were killed in rooms sealed by a chain.'

'It's impossible for a human being,' Kumasawa said. 'Only the Blue Witch can pass through chains.'

'Really? Come on, there's thousands of ways to do this. The killer could have used a crossbow of some sort, and fired through the gap through the door.'

'How could all five people get shot through the tiny gap, one after another?'

'Well, erm, er, then it isn't a crossbow then...' Battler was beginning to feel sick again. Discussing his cousin's deaths like this conjured too many unpleasant memories. Almost automatically, he thought of the blue witch, and her serene, soft face.

'So you think the Blue Witch killed them?' he said. 'Her? I thought she's the caretaker or something. I thought she loves everyone!' Her kind smile burned into his brain. 'How could an innocent child do something like that?'

'According to the legend,' Genji said. 'There will come a day where the Blue Witch of Rokkenjima will free us from this mortal world, and take us to the Golden Land.'

'Golden Land? What the hell is that?'

'A place for eternal rest. You should be grateful, Master Battler. You, and everyone here, will be privileged guests to the Golden Land, where miracles happen and wishes come true.'

Battler glared at Genji's expressionless face, and was consumed by a sudden urge to grab him by the shoulders and shake him, if only to evoke some sort of emotion. 'You...you seriously believe that?'

His voice was shaking. Genji bowed his head. 'My apologies, Master Battler. I am simply repeating the legend - '

'To hell with this! Golden Witch? Magic murders? A bastard human came and did this, and nothing else! Are you trying to cover up for that fucker?' He slammed his fist onto the table, ignoring the heads turning his way. His simmering anger finally drove home. 'Don't you dare, don't you dare disgrace the dead! Don't you dare tarnish the Blue Witch! A human did this, a normal human being, so shut the hell up!'

Genji didn't move a muscle, sitting up straight against the storm. His eyes betrayed nothing. Battler wanted to punch him.

From the other side of the room, Rudolf cleared his throat loudly. Everyone turned back to him.

'Hey, Battler, relax, okay?' Rudolf grinned. 'I was just about to make an announcement.'

Battler sat down, his cheeks burning with embarrassment 'I'm sorry,' he muttered. Genji was still looking at him in a piercing sort of way. Battler tried to ignore it.

'Now,' Rudolf said, 'While Big Bro and Big Sis were crying their eyes out, me and Kyrie took the chance to take the stock of some things. And I've got bad news,' he looked around at all of them, and gulped. 'There's no easy way to say this, I guess. A typhoon's started up, and we're all trapped here.'

In the shocked silence that followed, Rudolf leaned against the wall, unrolled a cigarette, lit it, and stuck it into his mouth. He had everybody's attention now.

'Of course, you all know this means two things - '

'PUT THAT OUT!' Eva screamed.

Silence again. Rudolf took out his cigarette and stubbed it into the carpet, ignoring the resulting stains. 'Sorry about that, Big Sis,' he said quietly, and continued in a louder voice. 'As I was saying, this means two things. One, we're trapped here, two, the killer's still on the island.'

The silence was getting uncomfortable. Rudolf's throat itched. Sweat began to roll down his forehead. 'Well, there's more bad news,' he said, and paused. He stuck his hands in his pockets, digging them as far down as they could go. 'Well, I'm not saying this for certain, but - ' he paused again. 'I checked with the servants, and no other boats arrived here recently. So I'm saying, there's more than a slight chance, that the killer is one of us.'