The clouds circled over the two combatants, announcing their anticipation with a continuous rumble. They didn't unleash their rain and fury, however. They didn't dare to. This battle belonged to Willard H. Wright, lord of reality, and the Blue Witch of Rokkenjima, the queen of illusions. It was to be conducted in the rose garden, with the roses burning red, without interruption. This was their final battle. No one should be allowed to tarnish their final moments.

'I'll start,' Will said slowly, raising his sword. 'Any objections?'

He wish she would say something, but she did not. Her blue hair looked pathetically grey in the dim light. But this wasn't the time for mercy or second regrets. Will had made his decision, and he was going to see it through, no matter how deep it resonated throughout his heart.

'I'll make the first move then,' Will said. 'I'll unmask the killer. The human culprit of this game is hereby Kinzo Ushiromiya.'

A bolt of lighting struck down from the clouds signaling the start of the battle. The Blue Witch showed no reaction to this bold move. 'You may have snagged the whodunnit, Mr Wright, but you still have a long way to go. The first twilight all the way to the eighth. The howdunnit.'

'I'll start with the first twilight.' Will swept his sword down, leaving a faint trail of brilliant blue. 'The murder of the cousins of the locked room is easily solved. Kinzo entered the room, murdered the five of them, and arranged their bodies. He then locked the door with the chain, waited until morning for Battler and Genji to break the chain, and while no one was looking, he snuck out. It's a classic closed room trick. Can you refute this?'

'How about Natsuhi's room, then?' The Blue Witch replied evenly, drawing a red line across the air with her finger. 'No one on the island except Kinzo could have been hiding in the rooms. Everyone else had alibis. You've already used Kinzo up, so you can't use the same trick for Natsuhi. So? How did the killer create Natsuhi's closed room?'

'He didn't need to,' Will said.

'What?'

'He didn't need to create the closed room. Natushi did it herself.'

The Blue Witch gasped, and staggered, while Will mercilessly pressed home his point. 'After failing to find Battler, Kinzo needed to improvise. He found Natushi near her room, and slashed her stomach. Natsuhi didn't die immediately. She locked the door, staggered around the room in a blood daze, before finally dying near the phone. In reality, Kinzo only had one closed room to worry about.'

He watched her stagger around in pain, clutching her stomach, as if an invisible blue stake had been buried into her guts.

'Does it hurt?'

'I-I thought you already agreed to kill me...M-Mr Wright...'

'Fair enough,' Will said, whipping back his sword to prepare another blow. 'Next up - the second twilight. The murder of Kyrie and Eva. I already deconstructed this earlier. Kyrie had brought Eva secretly outside, presumably to confront her at the same time Rudolf was confronting her husband. But Kinzo was lurking from above and seized the opportunity. From the window, he used a rifle to shoot both of them to death without leaving his study.'

'You're forgetting the rifles,' the Blue Witch snapped, finally managing to rise to a decent standing position. 'They had disappeared. I made them vanish with magic.'

'No you didn't,' Will said. 'Kinzo had an accomplice hidden amongst the group. While the others split up while searching the rose garden, the accomplice reached the bodies first. He took the rifles and hid them, and then called the others. The first one to find the bodies are always circumspect.'

The Blue Witch was thrown back once again, like a flurry of punches had smacked against her chest. Will continued without stopping. 'Fourth Twilight. The disappearance of Kumasawa. Earlier on, Kumasawa was persuaded by Kinzo to leave the group. As soon as she left, Kinzo let out a scream from upstairs. This was the scream the others heard that they thought was Kumasawa's. Kumasawa had ample time to travel up to Kinzo's study, where he killed her, arranged her body, and went back into the study just as the others arrived. You can't deny this in red?'

The way she clutched her forehead, her mouth moving about in silent pain, was answer enough. Will allowed himself a brief sigh before continuing. 'Fifth Twilight. Genji's murder. If no one in the study killed him, then there's only one explanation. He was killed by a trap.'

'All traps have to be named and explained!'

'On it. A small mechanism was built into the desk that fired a stake. It activated automatically after a certain period of time, striking Genji's chest and killing him.'

'A-are you serious,' the Blue Witch gasped, trying, even through her insurmountable pain, to regain her dignity. 'That trap...sounds ridiculous...'

'It's ridiculous, but it's possible. If Kinzo can build secret passageways, like the secret room with the portraits we saw earlier, he could certainly be able to construct a simple trap such as this. Of course, if you can counter with the red, I won't deny you.'

She hung her head.

'Sixth Twilight,' Will said. 'Kinzo's disappearance. This one is so simple it's barely worth any thinking about. Kinzo simply left through the window.'

The Blue Witch sank further into the ground. She wasn't even capable of standing anymore.

'Seventh and Eight twilights. Rosa and Krauss's deaths. No one could get into their closed room, but someone certainly could get out.'

'W-what do y-you mean...?' she managed to choke out, writhing around like a dying fish.

'Krauss was already unstable. Kinzo might have entered and then convinced Krauss to let him in. From there, he killed them both, closed the room, and then jammed the lock to make it look like he had failed to get in.'

He pointed the sword at her heart. 'Thus concludes my explanation for all the magical murders. If you're ready, I'll move on to the whydunnit.'

The Blue Witch lay sprawled on the ground, her blue-grey hair splayed across her face. With some effort, she raised her head, to look at him.

'Mr Wright...finish it...'

'Does it hurt...?'

'Yes...' the Blue Witch choked out. 'Yes...it does...'

'I'm sorry,' Will said. 'Do you have anything else to say? Before I finish it?'

'Y-yeah...' the Blue Witch struggled to rise to her feet, her hair falling in front of her eyes. 'I...I want you to listen...to this...This...is my final...red...'

'Come at me,' Will said, letting the sword fall by his side. 'Show me a good last stand.'

Slowly, very slowly, the Blue Witch stood up. And then she whipped the hair from her face and grinned madly. 'Kinzo didn't kill anyone.'

Will blinked.

'Kinzo Ushiromiya is not the culprit!' she hollered, her shoulder shaking with laughter.

Will was blasted off his feet, catapulting twice into the air before landing on the ground, hard. All the while, her laughter echoed in his ears.

'What do you think?' she cried. 'What you think, Mr Will? I got you good, didn't I? My acting was superb, wasn't it! I tricked you! I tricked you good!'

'Yeah,' Will said, and he couldn't help grinning back. 'Yeah, you did - '

'What do you think, Mr Will? Was it a good trick?'

'It was,' Will said, laughing, feeling all the tension burst free from his shoulders. 'It was, you wicked girl.'

'Wicked girl?' the Blue Witch howled with laughter. 'You're the one who's wicked, Mr Will! Shame on you, shame on you, to break a girl's heart! I'm really going to kill you, you knoooooowww...? I'm going to grind all your bones and organs into chunks and then stomp on them and eat them! I'm going to kiiiiiiillllllllll you...!'

That was the signal. The clouds unleashed everything they had. Thunder, lightning, the barrage of rain, they all came crashing down on the arena, bathing the two laughing souls in a thunderous concert of pure chaos.

'Try and kill me,' Will smirked, rising to his feet. 'I'm not done yet.'

'You've been reset to zero, Mr Will! Restart from the first twilight! Restart from the very beginning!'

'From the very beginning!' Will shouted. 'Alright! This is it! No mercy! No mistakes! This is your death!'

'Just come and trrrryyyy!'

'First twilight!' Will roared. 'I stand by my earlier explanation! Natushi created one closed room and Kinzo created the other!'

'But Kinzo didn't kill anyone. Who killed the cousins, then?'

'The culprit!'

'But Kinzo didn't kill anyone!'

'So?' Will smiled. 'He didn't need to. The culprit killed the cousins, then switched places with Kinzo! Kinzo then locked the door with the chain, with the culprit free to walk around outside! How's that!'

The Blue Witch unleashed a series of rolling laughter. If Will listened carefully, he thought he could detect a hint of pain in it. The stakes were already boring deep into her body, even as she tried to hide it. But Will pretended not to notice. If there was one thing he owed her, it was a dignified death.

If he could, he was going to give her the dramatic death she wanted.

'Very good, Mr Will!' she cackled. 'Very gooood! That is entirely correct! You've barely scratched the surface! Next twilight! Eva and Kyrie!'

'If Kinzo didn't kill them, and the group in the parlor didn't kill them, and the others were dead, then maybe Eva and Kyrie themselves did the killing! Both of them committed suicide!'

'None of them committed suicide!'

'Then they killed each other! Kyrie shot Eva in the stomach, thinking she was the killer, but Eva fired back, smashing her head in two! Afterwards, the culprit chanced across the bodies first and hid the rifles to make it seem like a magical murder! How's that!'

Yet another peal of thunder cracked the sky apart as the Blue Witch howled her pleasure. 'Good, Mr Will, good! That's exactly how it happened! Next, Kumasawa's murder!'

'I stand by my earlier theory that Kinzo faked her scream!'

'But if Kinzo didn't kill her, who did!'

'Someone among the group,' Will slashed his sword sideways across the air, opening rifts in the illusion that burned blue. 'While everyone was discussing the epitaph, the culprit slashed her throat and carried her upstairs, and then prepared her body. The scream was used as a distraction! While everybody was rushing upstairs to find Kumasawa, no one noticed the culprit was missing!'

She was definitely in pain, now, he could see it. But instead she held her head up high and grinned. 'Right, again, Mr Will! You're really good at this, aren't you...?'

'The disappearance of Kinzo has been already explained, with or without him being the culprit! Moving on - '

'Not so fast!' The Blue Witch screeched. 'I shall add to the red! Going out the window would certainly result in death!'

'So?' Will eyed the red stakes, and with one flick, blasted them to oblivion. 'Kinzo was old, sick, and dying. Death was exactly what he wanted! Kinzo, the accomplice of this tale, committed suicide as a final service to the culprit!'

'That's absurd! Ridiculous! No one would want to die willingly!'

'That's the difference,' Will said. 'That's the difference between you and me. I never, ever, neglect the person's heart.'

The Blue Witch laughed, reveling in her lake of endless foolishness. 'Alright! You win again, Mr Will! Next, how about Rosa and Krauss?'

'They could have let someone else in instead of Kinzo - '

'Wrong! Rosa was paranoid! She wouldn't have let anyone in, no matter who they were!'

'The window was smashed, right? So - '

'Rosa had the rifle! She would have shot anyone who appeared at the window! How is it, Mr Will...? It's not so easy now, riiiiight?'

'Then they were killed by a trap!'

'Explain it!' she barked, her upturned teeth gleaming.

Will's brain worked fast, filling in the gaps and flicking switches until the whole thin clicked into place. 'The culprit came in carrying Kinzo's body, and dumped it in the boiler. He then smashed the window, jammed the lock to prevent the door from opening, and then left. Meanwhile, the poisonous fumes from the burnt body that Rudolf had smelt from miles away was slowly accumulating!

'The way the culprit jammed the poker into the lock was such that the door couldn't be opened from either side. Rosa mentioned being stuck down there years ago - the door was unreliable, after all. So they were trapped in their own locked room! While the carbon monoxide slowly built up, entering through the window, and filling their lungs. In this manner, they were choked to death via a trap!'

'Absolutely right!' she screamed. 'You haven't won yet! Fifth Twilight!'

'Genji's murder.'

'I shall add to the red! Genji didn't die from a trap!'

'So my earlier explanation is blasted to bits, eh?' Will said. 'I expected as much. The murder of Ronoue Genji is you last line of defence. Are you ready?'

'Get on with it!'

'As you wish!' Will roared. 'I propose that Genji died by an accident!'

'Wrong!' The Blue Witch fired back. 'Genji wasn't killed by an accident or a trap! A real human hand swung the stake into his chest!'

'Someone in the room must have killed him,' Will growled.

'The only six other people in the room - Battler, Rosa, Krauss, Gohda, Nanjo and Kinzo didn't kill him! And Genji didn't commit suicide! Not so easy now, Mr Will!'

Will closed his eyes.

'Can you solve it? You can't can yoooouuu? No human could have killed him! Because I did! i turned into a stake and feasted upon his guts! I'm going to do the same to yoooooooouuuuuu!'

Time froze. Will blocked everything out, the thunder, the rain, the last, desperate taunt of the Blue Witch, they all ceased to exist. There was only him, and Genji lying dead with the stake in his chest.

There has to be a way.

If the others are dead...

And if Rudolf and Hideyoshi couldn't enter the study...

And if no one in the study could have killed him...

And Genji didn't kill himself...

All 18 humans couldn't have killed Genji.

Once you eliminate the impossible, only the possible remains.

This is it.

The culprit is here.

The Legend of the Blue Witch is over.

The clouds ground to a halt. The end had come, and they awaited it patiently, holding their breath. No storms would tarnish the loser's final moments.

'You're right,' Will said. 'No one could have killed him.'

'No one could have killed him because I did - '

'No one could have killed Genji because Genji isn't dead! The mastermind, the entire force behind the murders, the one who masterfully faked his death, the true culprit, of the Rokkenjima massacre,' Will raised a finger, and unleashed it forwards like a bullet from a gun. 'The culprit from this tale is Ronoue Genji!'