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No. 18094
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>>18093
The final blue chain wound its way around Asmodeus' face, as all that could be seen was a slight, relaxed smile. As the last inch of her was wrapped up, the blue chains began to glow brighter and brighter, until their light blinded onlookers to anything else.
Then, from within, a sound could be heard.
"Oh...o ho ho... O ho ho ho ho! O ho ho ha ha HEEEEEKIHIHIHIHIHI!"
A blade of red sliced through the blue chains, and from within emerged Chiyo Kumasawa, like a butterfly emerging from its cocoon. The chains clattered to the ground as the old woman stretched languidly, then sat back down on the sofa beside the headless body of Shannon. Now that the blue glow was gone, it was revealed that the stage had been set to resemble the servants' quarters.
"Well done, detective. A superb job indeed. You've reeled in your catch. I suppose the last great question is why I felt that they all had to die, but the answer to that is simple: so that I could be revived, just like was promised in the epitaph.
After all, I am Beatrice Castiglioni, the Golden Witch.
It was many years ago, back during World War II, that I first came to Rokkenjima from Italy and fell in love with Kinzo Ushiromiya. I will not bore you with the details of how that transpired, as it was after the war ended that this tale truly begins. You see, I was the daughter of an esteemed bloodline, much like Kinzo was an heir to the Ushiromiya family, and neither of us wished to inherit the expectations laid upon us. While Kinzo had no way to escape from it, my submarine was on a secret mission and went missing, so as long as I stayed with Kinzo, we felt like I would be able to hide and be with him the rest of my life. Yes, he was married, but I was content, as I knew that I was the one he loved, and I loved him in return.
Sadly, though, it was not to be. I was eight months pregnant when my family learned of my whereabouts and demanded that I return to Italy. Luckily my condition gave me an excuse to delay the trip, and they were willing to accept it rather than show off the scandal that had occurred. It also gave Kinzo and I time to plot the perfect disappearance. With the help of our friend Doctor Nanjo, we falsely reported that I had died giving birth to a stillborn daughter. In reality, my daughter and I were living comfortably in the hidden mansion of Rokkenjima, Kuwadorian, with Kinzo spending time with us when he could, and his new butler Genji taking care of us when Kinzo could not. Genji was deeply concerned with the potential dishonor I represented for Kinzo, and we got into arguments about it often, but I believed him to be a good man. I led a quiet life, but one that I loved. If I could have lived out my days like that, I would have died a happy woman."
She paused, and the lines on her face seemed to deepen slightly with her sadness. "It's funny how all it takes is one simple bit of bad luck to bring a life crashing down. One day, while Genji was minding my daughter while she napped, I took a stroll along the cliffside by the back harbor. I thought I was a safe distance away, but the rocks must have been unstable. With a rumble, the edge gave way and I tumbled down into the surf below, giving myself a severe concussion and fracturing several of my vertebrae on the rocks below. I'm not sure how I avoided drowning, because the next thing I knew, I was waking up at a hospital. The nurse there said I had been in a coma for two weeks after being brought in by a middle aged man who left false contact information. Then she asked me my name, and I realized I didn't know it. Of course I had no identification with me, and after everything Nanjo and Kinzo had done to fake my death, there was no chance that the hospital would have been able to find me. Due to my back injury I had difficulty walking, and it would take years of physical therapy before I could walk again. I don't know how I would have made it, had one of the doctors not become infatuated with me, despite the fact that he also was married. He paid for my stay, and made sure I got all the treatment I needed. I chose the name Chiyo Kumasawa for myself, and after a few years I once again had an illegitimate child, a son named Sabakichi. By then I was able to walk without issue, though my back still troubled me at times. The doctor's infatuation had cooled not long after Sabakichi was born, and so I was left as a single mother trying to make ends meet as best I could. I managed to find work cleaning fish, and once Sabakichi was old enough some of the fishermen took him on as an apprentice.
Now, during all that time, I'd often get feelings like someone was watching me. It turns out that someone was. Once he'd determined that I had no memory, and that I looked different with graying hair, worry lines on my face, and an aging body, Genji approached me to be a servant on Rokkenjima. With the salary offered, there was no way I could turn him down. So Chiyo Kumasawa came to Rokkenjima for the first time. My posture was different, my hair was grey, my face was lined, and it had been years since he had seen me, so Kinzo did not recognize me. His beloved Beatrice had returned, and yet he didn't know. I didn't know it until much later, but Kinzo had imprisoned the daughter I'd forgotten in Kuwadorian, and in his madness became convinced that my soul had merged with hers after my disappearance, so much so that he forced himself upon her as a lover. She, in turn, bore him a daughter. However, Kinzo was not the only one who had noticed the beauty of my daughter. Genji was attracted to her as well, and rather than the twisted love that drove Kinzo to act, what he did was driven by pure dark carnal desire. A child was born from that union as well, a son. Kinzo suspected nothing, as my daughter had not told him out of fear of Genji, and he had continued to use her while thinking she was me. The daughter was given to Natsuhi to raise, and was then rejected in violent fashion. The son was had while Kinzo was away, and Genji told him it was stillborn, which Nanjo played along with. Both children were sent to the Fukuin house without Kinzo's knowledge, only to return years later as Shannon and Kanon, my grandchildren brought about by vile acts.
When Kinzo died two years ago, I, being the nosy person that I am, discovered his journal. It was in reading this that my memory finally returned. I wept that night, harder than I ever have in my life. I remembered what a noble man my love had been, and could see how far he had fallen. If only I had never taken that walk, we could have had our blissful lives last forever.
Still, I had a love of mystery, and those instincts told me there were parts missing and who likely had them. So one night while Genji was on duty I broke into his things and started piecing everything together. That's when I found out that he was the one that took me to the hospital, and left me there so that I would not dishonor the Ushiromiya family further. It was there I found out about Shannon and Kanon, and their true heritage. There I learned that this man whom I had respected and admired was merely a monster disguised as a gentleman.
It was there that I decided it all had to be undone. Sabakichi Kumasawa was old enough to take care of himself without his mother, so Chiyo Kumasawa would end, and Beatrice Castiglioni would live once more.
It took me a long time to plan out the deaths. First were Shannon and Kanon, the bastard children of incest and rape. I took pity on them and killed them quickly, since it was not their fault. I took their heads with me as I left through the guesthouse window. I managed to make it up to the VIP room, which I opened with the key that Natsuhi had so thoughtfully provided, in time to stash the heads before Genji went up to 'bring dinner to the Master.' I lured him to the VIP room, claiming that I had heard a noise. He came with me and searched the room. I gave him just enough time to find and recognize the heads of his son and Shannon before I killed him, ending the life of that demon with the body of a man. I left his headless body there in the VIP room, taking his master key and locking the door behind me, and went to the kitchen. Alone, I placed the heads on platters and covered them. Gohda and I had discussed his dessert before, so I knew what kind of platters he was going to use. When it came time to serve dessert, I helped him load the cart, switching out one of his platters for one of mine each time his back was turned.
We served them, and that's when I found out that I was more lucky than I had been in a while. Maria had said something about meeting the witch of Rokkenjima who was threatening to kill them. I had been struggling with how to announce that they all would die, and here little Maria had somehow done it for me. As all the parents rushed out to check on the guesthouse, I pretended that I heard a noise from the boiler room, and left to go check, taking the knife from the serving tray for protection. Nanjo reluctantly came with me, and Gohda stayed behind, coward that he was.
In the boiler room I killed Nanjo. I had thought him my friend once, but he had known what was going on with my daughter and both Genji and Kinzo. All it took was money and he let them do whatever they wished with my little girl. I left him there, bloody, as I stuffed Kinzo's corpse, which I had prepared by cutting off the extra toes earlier, into the boiler. I tossed in my VIP room key and master key as well, hoping that everyone would believe me dead and assuring the fact that they would not find Genji's corpse.
I waited for them to return and discover the bodies, and while they were all looking at them I snuck up the stairs. Jessica almost spotted me, but I managed to escape up to Krauss and Natsuhi's room after hearing their plans. I had completed my revenge against the men that had wronged me and my daughter the most, but I had to stamp out those who showed traces of the evilness that had lived there. Krauss and Natsuhi were the greatest offenders, actively working to cover up Kinzo's death, so they went first. I hid under Natsuhi's bed and waited. As they entered, I heard Krauss lock the door and them both go over to the dresser. Stealthily I crawled out from underneath the bed and hit the light switch. In the dark I rushed them with the same knife I'd used to kill Nanjo, and even though my run was awkward due to my aching back the element of surprise was enough to get Krauss. I gutted him like a fish. Natsuhi tried to get away, but I tackled her and stabbed her neck again and again. It felt wonderful. After they were dead, I tossed the knife out the window into the night, used the pillowcase from the bed to undo the chain lock without leaving blood and locking the door from the outside with Genji's master key. I'd heard that Kyrie and Rudolf were going to get guns, so the trap I had laid the day before would hopefully take care of them. I had to be sure, though, so I took an umbrella and went out into the night. The lights were on inside the storage shed, and there was no sound coming from inside. I tried the door, but it was locked. As a risk I tried knocking as well, but got no response. I could only assume that my trap had worked, and so I turned to go back to the mansion and continue my bloody work."
She chuckled. "Imagine my surprise when, rather than waiting at Kinzo's study, the group left the mansion and went to the guesthouse. It seemed like my carefully laid plans had gone astray, since I had no time to get into the guesthouse before they sealed it. I went to the hidden place by the chapel where I had placed my fallback weapons, a harpoon and a length of twine I intended to use as a garrote, and strapped them to my back with a leather belt I had fashioned for it. I returned to the guesthouse, but all I could do was wait, crouched under the umbrella, and pray for a chance.
Morning came, then noon, yet still I did not give up my vigil. Finally, I heard a sound from the door. I thought for a moment I was hallucinating, but then there before my eyes I saw Jessica and Battler leave the guesthouse, and then saw little Maria chase after them. While they were giving tearful farewells I slipped into the guesthouse, leaving my umbrella by the door, and hid upstairs. I heard George, Eva, and Hideyoshi talking from the room that we'd used to use for storage, but luckily the door was shut so they didn't notice me come in. Gohda seemed to be asleep on a couch in the parlor, so he didn't notice me either. Luck had smiled upon me again. Or perhaps it was the magic of the witch returning to me," she finished, a mischievous twinkle in her eye.
"I heard Maria return and lock the door, then go into the library, where Rosa was. I came downstairs, and Gohda, dear Gohda, woke up. I never intended to harm him, of course. He was a true innocent. He did not know the tragic tale of the household, and he had never done me wrong. He was, however, a fantastic red herring, and I told him as much. I'm not sure how much he understood in his shocked and fevered state. He even muttered, 'Why am I a fish?' Still, he did not try to stop me. I assume he thought he was seeing a ghost, or a true witch.
While Rosa and Maria were in the library I snuck into the servants' quarters, undid the lock on the window, and opened it for later. Then I exited, and in a flash of inspiration tied the twine I had to the handle using an old fishing knot. I quickly slammed the door of the library shut and tied it off as well. Just as I'd hoped, Maria and Rosa started shouting, bringing my final prey downstairs.
I hid until they were almost to the bottom, since they were distracted by looking at the twine, then came out from where I was crouched. Eva was first, the momentum of coming down the stairs driving her into my set harpoon. I yanked it out and jabbed it into Hideyoshi's knee, causing him to fall against the wall and stumble down the steps. By that time George was trying to bring his heel down on my head, but I stuck the butt of the harpoon on the ground and he ended up impaling his own calf on it. I pushed him back, got the harpoon out, stabbed his dad in the back, and finally slammed the point right between George's eyes. My job was done. With that, I took my harpoon out and went to Nanjo's room. I unlocked the window, stuck the harpoon back on my back, and climbed out, using the window panes below as footholds. I shut Nanjo's window, then dropped into the servants' quarters. And here I sit still, beside my grandchildren as they play their eternal game of chess." She gestured grandly around the servants' quarters and the headless corpses sitting in front of their chess game.
"As for why I didn't kill the others? Battler rebelled against his father and Jessica rebelled against her parents, while Georges' biggest rebellion involved lust for my granddaughter. Jessica and Battler clearly could feel the taint of their blood and were fighting against it. Rosa confessed to me once of the woman she found in the hidden mansion, and how she had inadvertently led her to her death. Although I mourned my daughter, Rosa gave her the greatest gift that she could have hoped for: freedom from her torment. So I forgave Rosa and her daughter. And I've already explained why I did not harm Gohda, though I am saddened by what he is about to do, if time were to move one moment more. That is why I stopped it here."
She sat back and smiled, a wine glass filled with red appearing in her hand. "So there you have it, detective. The tale of how Beatrice Castiglioni, the Golden Witch, returned to life and took what she was owed." She took a sip from the glass. "You know, in Europe, where I come from, there have been nobles who have bathed in the blood of young virgins in an attempt to restore their youth. I have to imagine, though," she said with a grin, "that the blood of those that have wronged you is much better. I can just feel the years melting away." She took another drink of red from her glass and smiled wider. "Would you care for some red, detective?" she asked, offering him the wine glass.
Then she stood, and tossed the wine glass filled with blood aside. "I am Chiyo Kumasawa! I am Beatrice Castiglioni! I am the original Golden Witch of Rokkenjima! AND I AM THE CULPRIT!"
The stage goes dark.
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