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queen-of-my-goofball-army · 3 years

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Sakura's First Guitar Lesson

Hi everyone! It's been a while since I've posted some writing here because most of the time I use my a03. For Sk8Tember writing athon I originally wanted to do Fairy Tale day which is tomorrow. However, since I'm currently in the middle of changing up my writing style from first person to third person to try and be a better writer I thought that it would be for the best that I pick Instrument Day because guess what? Today is my birthday! I'm now officially 22 years old even if I don't look or act like it. I'm here to celebrate my birthday with everyone by sharing my new writing with all of you.

Songs mentioned in the fic:

La Via Strangiato: Rush

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eK1hmDpa8bo

The Long And Winding Road: The Beatles

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fR4HjTH_fTM

Let It Be: The Beatles

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDYfEBY9NM4

Sakura Nanjo rocked back and forth on her heels outside of the music studio that she had her first lessons in. Since she told her parents that the thing she wanted to do more than anything in the world was to learn how to play the bass guitar just like her hero, they had been encouraging. Haru even found that he had a profound interest in learning how to play the drums. In reality, he wanted to do it so that his sister wouldn’t feel alone in wanting to try something new. He would never admit that to her though. There were some things that his sister did not need to know. She would never let him live it down if she knew the actual reason why he was so adamant about learning to play the drums.

“Sakura, if you keep doing that you’re going to wear yourself out. I know that you’re excited but it’s really starting to freak me out.” Her best friend, Miya Chinen, reminded her lightly with that same small smile that he often had when he was around her. He couldn’t help but find this childish and excitable side of her adorable. She would always be cute in his mind but especially when she got excited about the simplest of things. Like learning how to play an instrument that had always spoken to her.

“I can’t help it! I’m excited, I’m nervous, part of my brain is screaming at me because what if this is a really bad idea and what if I’m not any good at this thing that I’ve never tried before and change is terrifying and-“ He lightly put his arm around his best friend cutting off her word vomit. She only got like this when she was way past nervous and her brain to mouth filter failed her.

“Change is scary but it can also be good for you. You told me so yourself that this is something you’ve wanted to do for all your life right?” Sakura nodded her head nervously trying to stop this anxiety from bubbling up inside of her. With the recent diagnosis of aspergers syndrome she’s still learning to cope with the help of her friends and family.

“Well yeah, I’ve always loved the idea of playing music. Especially bass guitar because of my fixation on Rush and on Geddy Lee as a whole.” She argued and he just chuckled lightly at his best friend. Leave it to her to want to do something that could potentially become life altering just because her favorite singer did it too.

“Then I think that it would be a great experience for you to have if it’s something that you really want to do. It’ll make you happy and give you a hobby that you didn’t have before. You really need to have more hobbies other than cooking Saki.” She sighed knowing that her best friend was right as she looked over at the music studio.

“I know that it’s bad. But this could be something that I get really passionate about. I already know that it won’t necessarily be easy. Nothing really ever is easy for me.” She looked down at her skateboard tracing the end of her Haku dragon sticker before sighing slightly. Nobody ever did anything by being anxious about every little change that they came across. If that was the case then most of her favorite music would have never come to exist.

“Skating came rather easily for you after you got those grips for your feet. You just needed to distribute your weight easier than the way that you were.” Miya argued lightly hating that she would get like this sometimes. She shouldn’t ever have the need to feel sad. He preferred her when her ruby red eyes lit up with happiness rather than downcast and saddened like they were right now.

“Yeah that doesn’t mean that I’ll be good at this though… what if all of this is just me being childish?” She just sighed burying her head in her hands. Now that she had been told to stop being so overly excited the dread was starting to sink in. Her playing bass guitar? Yeah and the moon is secretly made of cheese.

“I don’t think that it’s you being childish. I think that it’s you trying to make yourself into a better version of yourself. You’re clearly not happy and you barely do anything for yourself simply because you want to. Saki you can’t know that you suck at something if you’ve never really tried it before. I know that you can do this because you’re the bravest person that I’ve ever met. You can literally do anything that you set your mind to. If you can dream it you can do it.” He comforted her and watched as slowly the light came back to her eyes.

“You’re right! I can do this, and I’ll be good at it as long as I work hard enough at it. I know that I can do this.” She clenched her left fist and shook it up at the sky daring anyone to tell her otherwise. If you asked Miya, this was the first thing that he really noticed about her that was different. He never met anyone that was as determined to do their best until he met Sakura. Her determination to defy every obstacle inspired him to push past his limits as well.

“That’s the stubborn best friend that I know and love.” He lightly teased and she looked down at her lap picking up the instrument that was there. The second that Kaoru found out his beloved daughter wanted to learn to play bass guitar he found the best one that he could through hours of off the clock research. He wanted his little girl to be happy and if this is what would make her happy and confident in her own wicked way then he would do everything that he felt within his power to do so. The guitar that he had eventually chosen for her was a lilac colored and sparkly one that he thought just suited his little girl’s personality.

“Shut up, I know I’m super stubborn already. It’s why me and Haru struggle so hard to see eye to eye because he’s just as stubborn as I am if not more.” She huffed a breath thinking about the argument that her and her brother had gotten into last night. It had been about something so stupid but it had just got blown way out of proportion and now she wasn’t sure if things were going to be awkward around him for a while. It had been about who was going to make dinner that night and Haru just blew up at her. Of course, never to back down from a fight the only thing that Sakura did was yell right back at him.

“He’ll forgive you eventually Saki. He always does you’ll go home and there will be forgive me cookies on the table for you. Besides he’s usually the one who yells first and knows that you will yell back. I’ve never once seen you actually pick the fight with him personally.” Miya hated when Haru would purposefully try and ruin her mood. He knew that he was just going through his own personal hell as he was still in the early stages of transitioning but he didn’t need to take his anger and aggression out on her.

“This one was really stupid though. It was just over who would make dinner since dad had to be at the restaurant late and mom was working late surprising absolutely no one ever.” Kaoru had always been the type that worked long hours even at the cost of not spending a whole lot of time at home with his children. He did the best that he could with the time that he was given and had mandatory time with them on weekends but the house was most of the time silent except for the twins. And sometimes they just couldn’t be around each other without a screaming match breaking out.

“You guys are the kids of Cherry and Joe, it would be weird if you guys didn’t fight constantly.” Miya tried to joked just to hear her laugh, which it worked. The first thing that really drew him to her was that laugh. That loud and open sound when she was well and truly tickled by something or the more quiet sound that he got right now when she was emotional.

“That’s true, come on, I’m thirsty all the sudden and want to get a drink before I have to go in for my first session.” She stretched getting off of the concrete and offered her best friend a hand up off the ground before she stepped onto her board.

“Arizona sweet tea?” He offered her that option and she nodded her head with a small smile on her face. She had fallen in love with her best friend’s sweet tea that he had gotten her addicted to after they got introduced to each other.

“What are you going to do while I’m doing my session?” Miya gestured to his backpack where he was hiding his switch that he brought with him today. He knew that he’d want to spend the afternoon waiting for his best friend to finish her session.

“I’ve got my games in here don’t worry about me. I want to spend the afternoon with you. You’re my best friend and I want to support you in any way that I can.” He encouraged her as they pulled into the connivence store so that they could get their tea and some snacks while they waited. This was a huge deal for her and he wanted her to know how much he supported her.

“You’re going to be amazing Sakura. I know that you will be because you constantly give everything that you can into your interests.” Miya knew that she could do anything that she put her mind to because if his best friend was anything it was bound and determined to do her best at every little thing that she tried. Even if she found that she wasn’t as interested in the idea of playing her favorite instrument as she made it sound both in her head and in the music she listened to, she wouldn’t back down without a fight. That stubborn nature combined with her kind heart had him being pulled even deeper into her orbit.

“I sure hope that your right cat-boy because I am so nervous right now. As was prevalent by my earlier word vomit.” He just smiled softly at her doing his best that he could to be her support system as much as he knew that she was nervous.

“Sometimes your nerves stop you from doing things that you’re really good at though. They stopped you from making genuine friends before now didn’t they? Being nervous about something is considered totally normal. But you can’t let those nerves run your life Sakura. Otherwise you’ll never get anywhere. If you let nerves stop you then there’s so much you can’t really achieve.” He knew the amount of almost crippling anxiety that she struggled with. He had only ever wanted to support her and push her further. As they stopped in front of the music studio and she took a deep breath opening the front door and hearing the sound of somebody in one of the rooms practicing.

“Hello! Are you here for a lesson or just here to see what kinds of facilities we offer here?” Sakura lightly yanked on her ponytail just to try and ground herself.

“My mom scheduled my appointment, it’s Sakura Nanjo. I want to learn how to play the bass guitar.” She told the clerk and Miya just squeezed her hand sympathetically. Talking to people that she didn’t know was never a skill that Sakura had excelled at. Haru was always the people person not really her.

“Oh that’s right!! Your mother did call in to our shop so we’re excited to begin to teach you. We’ll have your teacher be with you in just a moment. You’re welcome to look around. He mentioned that you’d bring your own instrument?” She nodded her head holding up her guitar sleeved she had walked her with her.

“He bought it for me a few days ago and came home with it the day before yesterday!” Sakura showed her the guitar that her mom had bought for her that matched her personality.

“That is really pretty!! It does seem to match your bright and bubbly personality. Are you here for lessons too or just moral support?” Miya put his arm around his best friend’s shoulders supportively with a small smile on his face.

“I’m just here for the moral support factor. She struggles with nerves and anxiety and I thought that it would be easier for her if she had me here to support her.” He reasoned and she smiled gratefully at her best friend. Despite only being friends for a few months she knew that there was something unique about the video game obsessed boy next to her. Something that was life altering and that she wouldn’t ever want to change.

“That’s really sweet of you!! I’ll go and tell your teacher that your ready to learn.” The worker went off in search of the bass guitar teacher and Sakura’s ear twitched lightly.

“Are you hearing La Villa Strangiato?” Her ear was always in tune to when a Rush song was being played around her. Miya couldn’t help but laugh lightly at her as he had been hearing it since they had come into the studio. She must have been way too nervous to notice that somebody had been playing a song by her favorite band.

“They’ve been playing it since we walked in. Want to go and see who it is?” She followed the sound of the guitar as it led her to a spare room where a girl with dark hair and baby blue highlights was playing a guitar. She was wearing a different school uniform than the one that they were wearing. It had a music note on the band around the arm. Maybe she went to a music school of some kind? Whomever she was, she was clearly absorbed in the music that she was playing. And what’s more than that, she was a good. Good from years of clear practice at her craft and good from knowing exactly what she was doing. Miya accidentally leaned into Sakura’s side a bit too far trying to get a better look at the girl and knocked her over. The girl that as playing the instrument suddenly stoped and looked over at Sakura who was on the ground.

“Sorry Saki!” He frantically apologized offering her a hand and helped her to dust off the back of her skirt.

“Are you guys new? I thought that I closed that door!! Sorry if I was playing too loud, my dad runs the studio here I don’t take lessons.” The girl apologized very clearly worried that she had distracted them from something.

“Sakura is here to get lessons but she’s a huge rush fan and knew exactly what you were playing. She wanted to see the person that was playing La Villa Strangiato.” Miya explained to the girl lightly put off by the fact that the girl instantly took Sakura’s hands in her own.

“A fellow Rush fan?! At long last!! I’m Kayla Sunohara!! Super awesome to meet you Sakura.” She introduced herself excitedly and Miya just possessively gripped her hand.

“I’m Sakura Nanjo, this is my best friend Miya Chinen. How long have you been studying Alex Lifeson?” Miya buried his face into Sakura’s shoulder, trying on a whim to keep the possessive nature that he was feeling come up his spine. She’s allowed to have other friends and not just me. She should have a female friend who likes the same style of music as she does. It was only a matter of time before Sakura made another friend that wasn’t just me. She’s too nice for me to keep all to myself like that.

“Oh I’ve been studying his work since I first started playing when I was seven!! What about you? You interested in studying Geddy Lee?” Sakura gripped her bass guitar a little bit firmer in her hands nodding her head.

“That’s so cool…” She gushed and Kayla just laughed a bit waving her hand up and down in a dismissive manner.

“It’s not really anything that fantastic, I’m nowhere near his level and I probably never will be. But his guitar is what inspired me to pick up my own. What about you? Why did you want to learn bass?” Miya couldn’t help the halfhearted glare that he was sending to the other guitarist. He didn’t know why, maybe it was because he hadn’t had friends in so long but he wanted all of Sakura’s attention on him.

“Sakura?” The lady in the front of the studio called her name and she instantly lightly hugged her best friend noticing the slight stiffness in his appearance.

“Miya, I have to go. Is there something wrong?” He shook his head at her putting on the fakest smile that he could muster at the moment.

“I’ll be alright, I’ve got my games and I’m going to play these games with Sunohara.” He lightly told her and she just sighed a little bit.

“Look we’ll talk later cat boy alright? Don’t do anything stupid like start a fight or whatever.” She lightly told him with a small smirk on her face going out of the room and carrying everything over to the room.

“Miss Nanjo? I’m Shizuko, I’m going to be your teacher.” She took a deep breath just trying to do the final calming of her nerves. “I’m Sakura, it’s nice to meet you.” She bowed before her teacher with a small smile on her face carrying the guitar.

“It’s nice to meet you as well. Why don’t you come with me and we can figure out what you want to do and why?” As her teacher led the way she couldn’t help but look at everything with this sheer ease of wonder and light.

“So, why do you want to learn how to play bass guitar?” She sat down in the chair in front of her putting the guitar on her lap lightly.

“I want to play guitar because I was deeply inspired by Geddy Lee. My dad he raised me on Rush because that was what he loved back in high school.” Her teacher listened to her speak passionately about her love of the music that had inspired her to get through the day.

“My little sister has been studying the art of Alec Lifeson for a majority of her life. So I totally get that you can be inspired by the lead singer. He’s a big inspiration for everyone that ever felt like they didn’t fit in. She’s going to probably take over this studio one of these days.” Shizuko bragged about her younger sister that was now bonding with Miya over a shared love of video games in the spare room.

“I met your sister! She was playing La Villa Strangiato in another room. I thought that she was really amazing at it too. She’s really talented.” Sakura exclaimed her praises towards the other main guitarist. Her teacher just laughed a little bit already foreseeing a future friendship between her newest student and her younger sibling.

“You really know your stuff if you knew the exact song that she was playing. Music has always been something that brought us closer together as a family. Performing has been something that was passed down through the lines. Our dad taught us when we were just little kids so it’s always been a big part of our lives tighter. So what do your parents do?” She put her guitar on the floor knowing that this would just be an initial interview to see what she wanted to do and why.

“My dad he runs an Italian restaurant, Sia La Luce by the marina that’s what I’m going to do when I get older too. That’s what I was doing until both of my parents decided that I should be allowed to be a teenager for a little while. I’ve wanted to play bass guitar ever since I first started to deep dive and I really learned what music was and what instruments did what. It wasn’t just Geddy Lee. I’ve been inspired by countless other artists as well.” She reasoned and the teacher just smiled to herself. She had a feeling that this student would excel really far at the guitar. She also thought that her sister might finally make a really good friend.

“Do you do well in school? Do you have any other interests?” She nodded her head with a small smile on her face thinking about her lessons in skateboarding.

“I’m currently learning how to skateboard finally. My parents both do it and compete in their own ways. My brother picked it up like a fish to water. I’ve only recently started to learn how because a friend wanted to teach me. He’s the first friend that I’ve ever made. I was relatively well liked by my classmates but we weren’t ever really friends. I do pretty good in school depending on the subject. I’m mostly good at math and English but struggle with science. That’s my brother’s area of expertise.” Sakura talked about the little things in school that she enjoyed doing.

“Science isn’t for everyone and it’s not your fault that you aren’t very good at that class. I’m sure that yo excel in other areas. Who are some of your other heroes in music that aren’t behind Rush?” As important as having one hero was, Shizuko knew that she wouldn’t get very far if that was the only genre of music that she wanted to play.

“The one that my mom got me hooked on from a young age was Queen so I’ve always admired John Deacon. He was the quiet one so not a lot of people really think about how important he was. He was both an incredible bass player but he wrote some of Queen’s most iconic songs. Also, Paul McCartney has always been one of my favorite musicians for The Beatles and for Wings. Really I found a lot of different musician heroes that I could aspire to one day learn more about. I have a recent diagnosis of aspergers that caused me to rethink a lot of what interested me.” Sakura was still just ever so slightly self conscious about what had interested her. She’d had so many people judge her that weren’t Miya it felt like. Shizuko couldn’t hep but smile softly as this young tween in front of her reminded her so much of her when she was younger. From the admiration that she had of all these different styles of bass guitarists to her naturally shy disposition.

“There’s a lot of really beautiful Beatles songs, do you have a favorite one?” She nodded her head with a small smile on her face.

“My favorite is The Long And Winding Road. Many times I’ve been alone and many times I’ve cried anyway you’ll never know the many ways I’ve tried. It reminds me of my relationship with my brother. We get into a lot of really heated arguments but at the end of the day he’s my twin brother and I love him.” The entirety of Let It Be was her favorite non-Rush album of all time and it was one that she listened to consistently when she was alone in her bedroom. Her parents got her a record player when she was eight because that was the item she most desperately wanted. Ever since then she’d been collecting records and she shared it with Haru.

“You sing really, really well for somebody your age. That takes a lot of talent, have you ever done it professionally?” Do my friends in Italy count? We’re kind of a band I guess and I always love singing with them. While Sakura had friends before Miya, they didn’t live in this country. Rather they all lived in Italy. They were the only large group of people that had welcomed her into their group.

“I have a couple of friends in Italy where my dad did his studying for his restaurant. We go back every summer just about and my friends and I we sing. I’ve always appreciated singing because it was something that I could control. It could be loud or quiet. I could train it to sing in different styles.” She explained her dynamic with her small group of female friends that welcomed her with open arms years ago. Found family movie nights on Friday’s were something that she always looked forward to even if it was earlier in the afternoon for her then it was for them.

“I don’t know very many young girls that are that into singing. They do it for fun a lot of them but none of them that do it for fun are very good. Not unless they put in the effort. Talent takes effort. You have to put in the work and make the commitment in order for talent to come from that. Taking on an instrument is a pretty big commitment especially with the guitar. Sometimes you just want to throw the thing against the wall and call it a day. But then you get back to it and you’re suddenly able to do it and you feel this sense of self worth and accomplishment.” Shizuko tried to make her young pupil see things from her perspective. She had lost a lot of younger students because they weren’t serious about the instrument. Once they saw the first sign of struggle they threw in the towel and gave everything up.

“I’m willing to put in the work. I just need a teacher to show me how things work.” Sakura never did anything halfway. She was either all in or had absolutely zero interest in the task at hand. She had grown up around the sound of a bass guitar coming from every room in the house in some capacity.

“I can tell that you’re one of the serious ones about this otherwise you wouldn’t have stayed after that talk. Most of the students leave because I’m “too harsh”. I just want people to try their best and to succeed in the areas where they should.” The teacher ranted and Sakura couldn’t help but laugh a little bit. That threat hadn’t even begun to diminish her joy at the idea of simply being here.

“My mom is a lot more scary than that so I’m used to the idea of being threatened. Music has always been a part of my life and now I want to learn how to play it.” She said confidently and by the look on her face Shizuko knew that she had found a gem in the rocks.

“That was why I wanted to learn how to play bass too. I grew up hearing it with my dad because he loves all different kinds of music really but it was a whole lot of Beatles, Rush, Queen, Heart, and a lot of other artists that just seemed to flow out of the windows. I’m glad that you came in today Sakura. I can’t wait to start teaching you. We’re just going to gloss over the essentials today.” Sakura looked at her teacher one question burning in the back of her brain. “What is your favorite Beatles song?” Shizuko blinked a little bit in confusion before a small smirk appeared on her face.

“My favorite Beatles song is Let It Be. Has been since I was a little kid, Mary was my mother’s name. She died last year so it’s been kind of a rough point in my life. But that song has always gotten me through bad times. And when the night is cloudy, there is still a light that shines on me. Shine until tomorrow let it be.” As Shizuko told her new student about her song obsession Sakura’s heart warmed. It was such a beautiful story that she couldn’t help but love it.

“I’m sorry for the loss of your mom. That really must have hurt something awful. Is it just you, your dad, and your sister now?” Sakura pulled her hair back a little bit further with a small smile on her face playing with the ends of her ponytail.

“Thank you so much sweetheart that makes a lot to me. My dad has a girlfriend, they were divorced for a while since Kayla was younger. It was a bit of an experience for me to deal with but we’re still a family anyways.” Shizuko reasoned and her student just smiled sympathetically at her. She had no idea what it would be like if there was a fight that just pushed things over that sometimes tightrope edge that her parents walked on. When she was younger she feared that one day one of them would fall off the tightrope and it would end their relationship. That it would go out in a burning inferno and that one fatal argument would end their bickering relationship. It wasn’t until she got a bit older and wiser when she learned that their love language was bickering.

“I’m glad that you were still able to have that family. My family can be a bit loud and chaotic personally. It’s a lot of bickering and a lot of arguing sometimes about the simplest of things. But I love my parents even if half the time it’s like I’m the parent and they are the children under my care. My twin brother isn’t really that much better.” Shizuko laughed openly at the idea of this family as she could completely visualize it. From what she had gathered when she had spoken with Kaoru Sakurayashiki the man seemed like a complete overprotective but at the same time loving mom figure.

“So you have two dad’s right?” She nodded her head getting out her phone and showing her a picture of them all skating together.

“I have two dad’s. My brother and I were surrogate children because they wanted kids with their own DNA. To keep things less complicated when we were kids me and Haru decided okay your mom and you’re dad. It’s been that way ever since. Our family dynamic is a bit unique because of it but I wouldn’t know what to do with myself if they weren’t my parents. They bicker like people that have known each other their entire lives because that’s what they do.” She settled against the back of the chair that she was currently in.

“Do you and your brother bicker a lot because of the fact that your parents do?” Sakura sighed heavily playing with her index fingers. She hated the fact that she had instantly been called out like that.

“Well… yeah we kind of do. Both of us are naturally stubborn types of people and sometimes it gets to be rather explosive. If it’s a day that we don’t get into at least a little spat well then that’s a miracle I feel like. We’ve really put our parents through hell these last several years especially.” She picked at the hem on her skirt just wishing that she could finally get along with her brother. It was so hard for them to see eye to eye though. Half of the time she had no idea what he was thinking and why he was doing the things that he was doing. She just wanted to help and every time that she tried he exploded on her.

“Sometimes siblings just don’t get along. You’re one of the lucky pairs if you don’t fight every time that your put in the same room together as children. My sister and I still fight a lot because we’re just different kinds of people. I’m sure that it’s the same way with your brother and you.” The older of the two of them felt the pain that the younger one went through like it was her own. There was a time a few years ago where a positive relationship between her and Kayla seemed like a wish on a dying star. It was just plain not going to happen.

“I want to be a better sister to him. I know that I do. I also just really want something to bond with him over. He wants to learn to play the drums.” Her teacher smiled at her instantly feeling that sense of love that Sakura had for her brother.

“Now that we’ve gotten all of that personality stuff squared away I know how to properly teach you. We’ll put primary focus on songs from the 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s rock n’roll because that seems to be the genre that you enjoy the most. I appreciate the taste it’s a welcomed change of pace. I get so many people that tell me their favorite artist is somebody more modern.” She got her own red guitar that looked familiar enough to the young tween in front of her.

“That a version of Brain May’s red special isn’t it? For the bass guitar?” Shizuko grinned openly at the girl in front of her for recognizing the iconic guitar.

“My dad also happens to make guitars here so I asked for this one to be custom made once I started teaching. It’s always been my favorite guitar that’s an icon so I asked if he could take that concept and make it into a bass guitar for me. I used to do band when I was in school and now I’m going to college for music theory.” That guitar had gotten the teacher through a lot when she was younger. Everyone has their little things that they’re obsessed with and for Shizuko that would definitely be her guitar. She couldn’t live without it.

“That sounds like me with my cookbook. I can’t go anywhere without it. My mom calls it my grounding object because it helps me to stay calm and it helps me to remember my goals and ambitions. I want to one day make food that will make people happy just like my dad. If that means that I have to do the same training that he did in Italy for four years then so be it. Whatever it takes to make people smile when they eat my food.” Whatever it takes to make Miya happy when he eats my food. I want to keep making meals for him that he’ll love. I want to get him on a healthier diet. She shook the thought right out of her head, now was not the time to start thinking about Miya. It was the time to start learning the basics of the instrument that had always inspired her.

“Your mom mentioned that you have a recent diagnosis of aspergers?” She nodded her head unzipping her own guitar and showing it to her teacher.

“I got it a few weeks ago when it was still summer break. We went to Hokkaido to get it in a beach town since my family and found family wanted to go on a small vacation.” The shiny guitar that was in her hands made Shizuko smile softly. It was obvious that everyone in the familial unit that made her heart happy.

“Does that boy that was with you, is he in your found family?” She blushed a bright pink and her teacher couldn’t keep back the cackle of laughter from leaving her.

“Miya is my best friend, I’ve only known him for a few months but he’s… well he’s everything to me. I never had a friend before him really. I was popular enough with my classmates but was never asked to hang out when I wasn’t in class. That was fine with me but I never really thought about how deep down lonely I really was. Loneliness started to get to me and I was depressed every time I would go to school.” As Sakura talked about what she went through during these last few months the sadness in her voice was evident. She had spent the last couple of months just half alive until she met Miya who had brought life and color back into her eyes.

“I’m sorry that happened to you sweetheart, I know that you’ve struggled a lot during the course of your life. Sometimes we just need to wait until the right person comes into your life. I didn’t meet my best friend until I was eighteen and she’s been there for me every step of the way. I only had rent-a-friends during my entire childhood.” Shizuko reasoned and she played with the ends of curly hair with a small laugh.

“He’s easily the best thing that has ever happened to me. We do everything together now and he’s been teaching me skateboarding.” She lifted the guitar that was in her hands and put it over her lap. Shizuko demonstrated the first cord that she would be teaching her and Sakura easily copied the same note. She was instantly feeling the energy that she was actually really good at this job.

“Skateboarding can be very difficult but I know that you must feel very passionately about the art from. It can be a lot of fun actually. My friend’s and I used to do it all the time when we were back in high school. I still skate because it’s rather simple to get from place to place that way.” Shizuko reasoned with the young girl as she showed her the chord again and Sakura hit it with ease. The teacher was surprised at the amount of talent that the girl clearly had for somebody that had never touched a guitar before. It was something that she was just clearly passionate about.

“I was never really able to do it until a friend of mine was able to make me a custom board. I had to have little divots for my feet to go so that I could maintain my balance. I have really bad balance normally so trying to do that on a skateboard was just a plain old recipe for disaster.” Sakura laughed a little bit at the pain of the moment as the timer on Shizuko’s phone buzzed.

“We spent most of the session today learning about each other so that we can better work together through this experience. I know that you’re going to be one of the best students that I’ve ever taken on. I’ll see you again next week?” Sakura nodded her head zipping up her guitar before her teacher stopped her.

“For right now, I think that I should keep the guitar here. It’s probably difficult skating with it right? I can have my sister drop off a rental at your house since she’ll probably be one of your closest friends.” Her teacher reasoned and she handed the sparkly guitar to her teacher.

“Thank you, I’m looking forward to you teaching me as well!” She looked down at her shoes with a small smile on her face. Sakura bowed right before she left the room easily picking up her backpack with a small smile on her face as she heard Miya’s familiar laugh.

“Hey! I finished my session. What did you two get up to?” Sakura flopped onto the ground next to her best friend and he instantly put his arm comfortably around her shoulders. He had missed her despite her only being gone for a small amount of time.

“We were just playing some Crash Bandicoot!! Your friend is really good at video games. How did your first session with my sister go? Was she too hard on you? She can be a lot during first sessions. I try to be a lot more open minded and friendly with my students.” Kayla mentioned off handedly as the pinkette just shook her head.

“No she was actually really, really cool. I liked my studies quite a bit and I’m excited to come back next week. I’m hungry for dinner though, you coming cat-boy?” She lightly ruffled his dark hair as he nodded his head against her shoulder. As much as he knew that she had to make new friends and that it wouldn’t be just the two of them forever and ever he would always be protective over her. She might be her friend but I’ll always be her best friend. Nothing in the world can change that.

#sk8tember21 #writing #ocs #music

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sg2tiger · 8 years

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I don’t want to spam up the tag with such a pointless collection of posts, but old habits die hard...so while I know that we now know the truth behind these answers thanks to the manga, and it’s all probably really obvious to most people now, I still want to go through all the mysteries myself before ‘confirming’ the solutions with the manga. Maybe it’s because I just finished that rambling post about what things were like back before we had such answers...but I feel like I can’t just...read this section without actually analyzing it on my own. So I’m just gonna dump them all here in one post under a Read More. Honestly this is more for my own satisfaction than anything, so feel free to ignore.

Episode 1: Legend of the Golden Witch

Starting things off super obvious. Illusions to illusions = something that was complete fantasy and didn’t happen. There are of course only five corpses in the shed - Shannon is absent, with Yasu instead as Kanon standing over the spot where Shannon is supposed to be. Hideyoshi, the only other witness, was bribed by Yasu in Episode 1 and asked to play along with the ruse to convince George not to confirm Shannon’s corpse with his own eyes. It was left to the roulette whether or not George would listen to his father, but ultimately he did, and Shannon’s true fate remained undiscovered.

A chain of illusions. The chain was never set in the first place. Kanon and Genji were the ones who discovered the crime scene - both accomplices in the crime itself. Yasu went to Eva and Hideyoshi’s room as Kanon after the commotion in the parlor about the receipt. As Eva and Hideyoshi were both bribed in EP1, they undid the chain (assuming they even set it to begin with) because it was someone they believed they could trust. Whether they knew Kanon = Beatrice or simply were told that the servants of the one wing were trustworthy, it’s hard to say, but they did invite him in willingly. Of note is the fact that there were no signs of struggle in that room - so the fact that Eva, a martial arts master, would not have put up a fight against her killer, is one hint to the fact that the killer was someone she trusted enough to turn her back to.

Eva let Kanon in and returned to her position relaxing on the bed, turning the volume on the TV low while they discussed the next step in the plan. Hideyoshi was most likely in the shower at the time and hadn’t even heard Kanon enter over the sound of the running water - after all, all the mansion’s guest rooms have roughly the same design, and from EP6 we know that Erika didn’t notice the sound of Battler leaving the closed room and exchanging places with Kanon while she was distracted by the trap. We also know fromConfession that Yasu hid the guns around the mansion at places she would need them in advance, so most likely there was already one inside Eva and Hideyoshi’s room - Kanon would have thus been a lot less suspicious entering the room without a weapon (otherwise it’d be weird that Eva sat back down on the bed, right?). With Eva’s guard down, Kanon grabs the rifle and shoots her in the head. It’s unknown whether or not Hideyoshi heard this and attempted to leave the shower, but he was also shot before he could even get dressed. Kanon then placed the two stakes into the gunshot wounds of their heads, left the room, and drew a magic circle on the door...and finally, placed the Third Twilight’s letter underneath it. They could then have cut through the unset chain at their leisure to maintain the story that it was set and they needed the chain cutters to get through. By the time the others were summoned everything was already set up, so the story about the chain being set when Genji and Kanon arrived was swallowed easily. No one would ever doubt Genji, who had been such a loyal servant since before most of the survivors were even born.

Kinzo has been dead for two years. His body was grabbed from the freezer in his study and stuffed into the boiler where it was set to burn slowly, so the smell didn’t reach the others too quickly. Of course, Natsuhi already knew he was dead, and the servants were playing along with the ruse that he wasn’t (while simultaneously playing along with the murder game), so it came off as a ‘surprise’ after the whole receipt situation talking about how he could have left the study. What interests me about this is why Natsuhi would then continue to willingly stay in the group with the servants. Surely seeing Kinzo’s body stuffed in the boiler would be a sign to her that says ‘whoever did this is someone who knew he was dead and where to find his body’, right? Based on EP5 and how she began to suspect the servants after finding Shannon’s card in her room, I would certainly think Natsuhi is astute enough to start finding them suspicious. Was she really just that confident that they wouldn’t make a move if they stayed together, and had faith in her gun...? Only the catbox knows.

The witch and stake of illusions = there was no one there who attacked Kanon. The illusion they pierced = Kanon himself. Basically Kanon runs down th the boiler room to stage his own death. It’s debatable (especially since EP1 is just a story) whether or not his argument with Beatrice really happened, though I personally like to believe that was a sign of Kanon’s self trying to pierce through the ‘fate’ that his creator (Yasu) and Beatrice were trying to force him into. This is the side of Kanon that was moved by Jessica’s words after the cultural festival and wants to live his own life...the Kanon that is refusing to simply go along with this farce of a roulette, hence his speech. That’s what I believe. However, he’s not strong enough to win against the roulette, and ultimately ‘Kanon’ is sacrificed - Yasu either stabs herself (shallowly, just enough to bleed a bit and be convincing) or uses fake blood (less likely IMO) and stages the whole thing.

Kumasawa does her part and screams to get everyone else’s attention so they see that Kanon is down. Oh, and Yasu already opened the courtyard door before the stabbing to make it seem like the culprit got away. Nanjo, who is also in on it, comes along and says ‘oh no we better take him in for emergency care’. However neither of them probably expected Jessica to cling on and follow them, so Nanjo ends up taking Kanon into the servant room and closing her out so he can die ‘offscreen’. This leaves Yasu’s two personas on the board dead, giving her an alibi to move around freely as the others head off to Kinzo’s study.

[Kinzo’s study is skipped here, but let’s cover it for completeness’ sake. Of the four people who could have placed the letter on the table, three are possible candidates - I’d rule out Maria because she wholeheartedly believes a witch is doing this. Most likely it was Genji, but it could have been Kumasawa or Nanjo as well. It doesn’t really matter. Either way, Natsuhi was correct in her reasoning, and thus the four were booted from the room. But of course this too was part of Yasu’s plan...as we see from the Discord circle. The entire purpose of the letter was to stir up chaos and cause someone to get kicked out of the room. I don’t think it mattered who got ousted, since it was just a coincidence that Battler, Jessica and George had alibis (though I think Jessica would have been safe from suspicion no matter what since her mom is the one calling the shots), but all that mattered was that at least one person got kicked out by the others. She just happened to get three sacrifices in one go to finish the twilights, but assuming less than three got kicked she probably still had other tricks up her sleeve to get through the 7th and 8th twilights too]

I’m not entirely sure of the meaning to ‘illusions are the blind girl’s song’...but ‘illusion of a closed room’ is the same deal as the chain. The room was never closed. Yasu’s own accomplices were the ones inside the room, and they let her in willingly. Since she only needed three and didn’t want to kill Maria until the end if possible, she had her fuck off to the corner of the room and sing loud enough that she didn’t hear what was going on. Is that what ‘illusions are the blind girl’s song’ means? just the fact that it kept Maria from knowing what happened?

Anyway then she was all like ‘okay time to die’ and what followed is pretty much what Maria said. Kumasawa and Nanjo protested - after all, they never knew the full extent of Yasu’s plan or that they’d be getting killed off for real in the end - but Genji was like ‘yeah sure I’m ready’. So she shot all three of them dead while Maria just kept singing her song, and then stuck stakes in their wounds. Then she called the study and left the phone dangling there so they could hear Maria singing...like a more twisted version of the prank on Jessica in the VIP room (man can you imagine how that made Jessica feel though? Talk about an unpleasant way to be reminded of that experience). Then she...uh...I actually can’t remember if the room was locked when Natsuhi and co got there...actually, wasn’t the parlor not even supposed to have a lock on it at all? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Either way, by the time they got down from the study, Yasu had already left her letter there and made her exit.

[...and now we’re onto EP2...but I swore the ending with Natsuhi’s duel came up at some point. Hmmmm...well, I’ll cover it anyways. We don’t ever find out the contents of the letter as far as I know, but it’s not hard to imagine. It was probably written for Natsuhi specifically (unlike the one Jessica got in EP2 that was written vaguely enough that any of the cousins could have picked it up and gotten provoked by it) and said something like ‘if you want to settle this in a duel meet me in front of my portrait, alone’. So she leaves when the kids are distracted and barricades the door so the others can’t follow her.

I have to wonder...we know Lambda’s game took a very different perspective as a more human revenge than a witch fantasy, but is it possible that Natsuhi had reason to suspect the culprit was the baby from 19 years ago? Would certainly make it more personal, and EP1 definitely feels very personal against Natsuhi and may have been some form of Yasu venting her grudge against her. Either way Natsuhi doesn’t seem to buy into this witch bullshit at all, and raises her gun against the darkness - in which she probably really does see the figure of another human raising a gun against her (and not a magic pipe). They shoot simultaneously, but...from EP7, we know that the guns all had defects. It’s possible that Natsuhi got the one that jammed, and wasn’t able to fire when she tried to pull the trigger (not like she tested it beforehand). So Beatrice shoots and that’s the single gunshot that is heard. Yasu then switches the guns, leaving the warm, smoking one next to Natsuhi, and hides.

All that’s left after that is to wait for the clock to strike midnight...and the bomb to go off, taking the rest of the survivors, including Yasu herself, with it.]

Episode 2: Turn of the Golden Witch

A more difficult Episode, but not impossible. However, I’m not referencing anything but my own memories here, and EP1 is actually more vivid in my head (I blame dragging out my EP2 reread for two years) so I’m probably more likely to make a few mistakes here.

What stands out to me here is the use of ‘the gold truth’ which Will uses again later as well. I don’t recall ever getting a concrete explanation on the gold truth - all I know is that it can sometimes be more true than the red, but at other times not as powerful. Two statements we see in gold are the factual guarantee of Kinzo’s corpse in EP5...but then in EP6 when Big Sis Beato calls the candy in the cup trick a splendid magic. There’s a pretty clear difference in the veracity of both of these statements...so based on that, and Will’s statement here, I’m going to take it like this. The red truth (though it can be used within loopholes) represents objective, factual truth, but the gold truth represents a subjective truth. The Umineko mantra is basically ‘a lie that everyone believes in becomes the truth’, a sort of ‘truth in the eye of the beholder’ sort of thing. Though that’s not completely satisfying either because it makes me wonder why Battler guaranteeing Kinzo’s corpse was somehow truer than red, but...this is what I’m going with right now.

As for the lock of illusions, it’s just the same tired trick again - the door was never locked in the first place. This one is funny to me because I remember back in the day how furiously people debated over the issue of the chapel door and its key...like, I remember the arguments about that one issue going on for pages and pages, more hotly debated than any other one particular mystery that I recall. And yet I don’t really remember anyone considering that the door may not have been locked in the to begin with - the simplest explanation was completely ignored in favor of much more ridiculous theories!!

In any case, the adults confront Genji about the Beatrice situation and that’s her cue to show up in the flesh and wow them all with her spectacular golden magic (read: cold, hard ingots). They ‘acknowledge’ that she is a witch because thEY ALL NEEDED A LOT OF MONEY RIGHT NOW and she’s waving all this golden bling in their face, telling them all they have to do is play along with her little murder game. Only SURPRISE it’s not a game at all, and she kills them all for reals.

One point I have always been set on, though, is that Rosa didn’t know this would happen until she saw their corpses the next day. She reacts with quite realistic revulsion when she realizes they’re actually dead and I just don’t buy that she was that good an actress that she was vomiting on cue and everything. So it was probably agreed that, since Beatrice had given the letter to Maria the previous day, Maria’s mother should be the one to ‘discover the corpses’ while the other adults stayed there to play dead. Rosa leaves, Yasu...I dunno, I guess just shoots them all in the stomach? Their guts were hanging out and all over the place so I’m pretty sure whatever she did was pretty damn fatal, and I think they even made a point of how there were no other wounds and they just looked like they were sleeping (so she didn’t shoot them in the head and then disembowel them after they died). She probably poisoned them beforehand to make it easier, considering she did have to kill a whole six adults which may have been not so easy if they were fighting back...so she invites them to the chapel where they agree to play dead, poisons them, waits for them to pass out and then, uh, ‘decorates’ the scene.

Just like Eva and Hideyoshi’s room in EP2, the one who first discovers the magic circle on the chapel door is Yasu herself - Shannon, who claims she saw a note that said ‘chapel’ on it. So she and Genji go to wake up Rosa because they ‘couldn’t find’ anyone else, and what follows is basically as seen. Rosa, who thought this was just gonna be a harmless prank, is shocked, but she’s also in too deep at this point and can’t easily go against the person who bribed her, so she ends up playing along for most of EP2.

While I think that any one of the siblings could have found the provoking letter, it’s Jessica who ultimately gets riled up and runs off. Kanon and Gohda follow after her, and Kanon asks Gohda to leave them alone so he can comfort her, wink wink, nudge nudge. He manages to calm Jessica down and get her to drop her guard, then shoots her in the back and shoves a stake in her wound. Then, having finished his job, ‘Kanon’ dies in that room and his corpse is ‘erased’...Yasu becomes Shannon, exits the room, and locks it with her master key while leaving Jessica’s own key inside her pocket.

Rosa’s argument for Kanon being the culprit ends up being correct, though how much of the ensuing argument is genuine and how much is scripted is something I’ve always had trouble really picking apart. I’m pretty sure I’ve even got a whole page of notes just about that particular conversation in Jessica’s room from when I was doing my on-again-off-again EP2 reread.

This was always the hardest mystery for me in EP2 for one reason - I did dispute that the closed room was a coffin. I never imagined that the culprit actually did shut herself up inside the room and killed herself...even when I knew the culprit was Yasu. I don’t think it was until I read Confession that I actually understood this, despite Battler himself seeing the gaping hole in Shannon’s head.

But it’s that simple. Shannon, George and Gohda enter Natsuhi’s bedroom and lock the door behind them. I’m not sure what order things happen in next, but let’s say she kills Gohda first. George is all WHAT THE FUCK SAYO and they talk. Maybe she tries to convince him to run away with her but he’s like DUDE YOU JUST KILLED THE CHEF and none too happy with her as a result. Maybe she’s trying to work up the courage to tell him about her body and that’s what the argument with Beatrice represents as she convinces Shannon to feel awful about herself. Either way, whatever happens, George is having none of that...so she realizes that her roulette didn’t land on Shannon and George after all and kills him.

Confession shows how distraught she is over having to do this. I feel like that’s probably why the magic version of their scene is so flowery and romantic...she paints a beautiful picture of them dying together, though still kills them before George can honor her last request and say he loves her (I actually like the anime version of this better where Beatrice outright interrupts them) because of the part of her that’s still unconvinced. Ditto the scene with Kanon and Jessica, probably - she tries to give them a tragically romantic goodbye, but it still ends on a bittersweet note. Once she finishes writing this, she sits herself down in front of the mirror and does that trick with the gun, shooting herself in the head and letting the gun ‘hide itself’. Since the room was already locked and the culprit herself is now dead, the locked room is nothing but a coffin...but even after her death, the mystery game continues.

Earth to earth - Nanjo and Kumasawa were killed in the same place we saw, in the same manner (necks sliced) we saw. Illusions to illusions, no illusion can create a corpse - Phantom Kanon was not the one who did it. It was probably Genji, who shows us that he’s actually quite skilled with a knife, hint hint. Yasu and Genji are totally cool with this because they’re in on this murder plan together...but Gohda...???????? The scene in Jessica’s room earlier tells me that he and Kumasawa are both terrible liars were both playing along already at that point in what they believed was a murder game. But seeing Genji slash those two before his eyes was just ‘2hardcore4me’ so he’s just literally flabbergasted by what the fuck just happened. Hence his incredible confusion and realistic fear when he tries to describe it to Rosa - but also, he’s probably (understandably) terrified of Shannon and Genji now and none too eager to betray them and risk his own neck, literally. So he plays along when they’re like ‘we thought it was Kanon but it also wasn’t Kanon’ and he’s just like YEAH YEAH W-WHAT THEY SAID PLEASE DON’T KILL ME. He realizes he’s in a little too deep but can’t exactly get out either, so he has to play along.

I think also at this point Rosa is in the dark on what’s been happening and whatever extent her alliance with Beatrice was is starting to fall apart, and she starts acting on her own instincts - like confiscating the master keys, which IMO was probably not inherently part of Yasu’s plan. Rosa in hindsight was probs just not the best choice of a potential accomplice because she’s not the type who can easily be bribed into following orders now that the siblings that always kept her timid are out of the picture. I feel like Yasu maybe didn’t count on that, but still managed to make it work so it was all good.

[What follows is also not covered, but we basically know the rest. Battler and Rosa fight and end up splitting apart while Genji is still off doing whateverthefuck...does he know Yasu is even dead? He must, right? Rosa probably tells him when he calls them to see Nanjo and Kumasawa’s corpses? Did he know her plan was to kill herself in that room all along? Why does he continue to carry out her plan even after her death? Just because he’s just...that loyal? It’s so hard to see inside Genji’s heart and I honestly would love an Umineko Gaiden that shows us some of the key events of the various Episodes from his POV...but in any case Battler goes and gets drunk and literally everything after that from his POV is super unreliable. Meanwhile Rosa and Maria are trying to run away because Rosa must know about the bomb, which is what the goats chasing them represent. But she was so fixated on the gold that she twists her ankle and they can’t escape on time...she regrets her decisions and I do like to believe she and Maria reached that little understanding there, in the end, before they were taken to the Golden Land.]

Episode 3: Banquet of the Golden Witch

By this time I had started getting more serious in posting about my reread, so I actually tackled a lot of these crimes in posts last year. I’ll summarize but also link to my older theory posts where applicable.

It’s funny how the most impossible closed room if you don’t know the truth about Yasu came from one of the forgeries...but once you do know, it’s not only one of the best closed rooms, but also one of the easiest.

Shannon ‘dies’ in the most obvious and visible room in the mansion, the parlor. She does this so her body can be seen easily from the big glass window outside...where the adults are forced to go, because she’s locked the doors all over the mansion. Since Nanjo is in on it, it’s easy for him to say ‘oh yeah, she’s dead’. Then they open the letter and get the key and begin following the trail she laid out for them.

Kanon is at the very end of the loop, giving her plenty of time to change clothes and go play dead in the chapel while the adults are busy investigating the other rooms. If I recall, all the other rooms are also in the mansion...giving her plenty of time to slip away to that out-of-the-way building. And just like the shed in EP1, if the adults for some reason decided to double back and return to the parlor, and see that she wasn’t there any more, that’d just be the way the roulette fell. But it didn’t, and they followed her trail perfectly, winding up on Kanon at the end. Thus the chain of closed rooms is perfect and unbreakable...and is an illusion where the end and the beginning overlap.

Earth to earth = they’re actually dead and it basically happened the way we saw it. Likewise, no falsehoods. Rosa gets fed up with Eva for still not having told the others about the gold and they have a bit of back-and-forth...then Eva shoots Rosa. I’d like to believe that Eva hadn’t completely fallen to The Dark Side at this point, and this was probably the same sort of trigger slippage that lead to the disaster in the EP7 tea party...but of course, it happened in a lot less isolated of a location than that. And then you have to worry about Maria screaming her head off about MAMA MAMA UU UU!!! and well...someone has to shut that brat up before everyone comes running out to see you with a gun in your hand standing over Rosa’s bleeding corpse, right?! So she strangles Maria and lays her down next to Rosa, then zooms back to her room where she has to explain to her husband how she just accidentally murdered her sister and on-purposely strangled her daughter.

I also think that the scenes of Hideyoshi trying to comfort and calm Eva down make a lot more sense if you consider that these deaths were a lot more accidental/spur of the moment and she was freaking out about what she’d just done and where they go from here. Of course, a good husband stays by your side in sickness, in health, and apparently in murder, so...Hideyoshi ends up covering for Eva and trying to give her an alibi for the time while they wait for someone else to discover the crime. And after all, they were all together all night long when the first series of murders happened, so since we already know there’s another killer hiding on the island (and no one else knows about the gold yet now that Rosa is kill) no one really has any reason to jump to suspecting Eva just yet.

...that is, until Kyrie finds the cigarette butts and starts to formulate her theory for why Eva should not have actually been in that room as they claimed. She comes up with her plan to get the three of them to leave the guesthouse where she and Rudolf plan to question Hideyoshi. As for what follows, I made a theory post about it last year, which you can find...here, and also here (note the ‘keep reading’ tags all over because I was trying to truncate the post so you might have to click a few to see all the things). It ended up becoming a chain of back-and-forth reblog discussions (I think it was before Tumblr added the conversation system to posts) so it’s a bit disjointed, but I’m pretty sure I still believe in, uh...whatever it was I came up with to explain this last year. I’m honestly too lazy to reread these posts right now but I don’t currently have any new info that would likely contradict what I came up with a year ago, though once I reread the EP7 tea party that may yet change.

[these solutions also skip over George’s death in the parlor, which is funny to me because it’s one of the few crimes in EP3 committed by Yasu, who is the one Will is supposed to be showing he understands...but basically I believe that Yasu and Nanjo had been in touch throughout EP3. Nanjo is actually the one who locks the window behind George after he escapes, and then he goes to the mansion where OMG SURPRISE SHANNON IS ACTUALLY STILL ALIVE WHAT ARE THE CHANCES. Only unlike when they’re alone in EP2, George is just so elated to see that she’s still alive that he drops his guard entirely, and she shoots him.

I wonder if she was more resentful to him in EP3 than EP2, because she isn’t distraught enough to kill herself after killing him this time around...and she had to have called Nanjo and specifically told him to let George come over to the mansion herself. Though to be fair (as I mention in one of the above posts) she also shouldn’t have yet known that Eva solved the epitaph, otherwise she would have kept her promise not to kill anyone else...so George was probably originally meant to be one of the twilight sacrifices. Hence, when she realizes she fucked up because someone solved the epitaph, she leaves the bank code behind for Eva as compensation (because nothing says ‘sorry I murdered your son’ like fat wads of cash).]

The ‘mutable blade’ is either a rope or a wire or whatever is being represented by the Siestas’ gold thread...and the ‘obvious culprit’ is Eva, because at this point, she is the only one who could have done it. But I remember being bothered by this because I can’t figure out a real good reason for why she killed them, and my thoughts and discussions thereof can be read here (mind the ‘keep reading’) and here.

[we also skip over the finale of EP3 here, which is extremely funny to me because of the huge emphasis put on Nanjo’s death in the other arcs. But I suppose once Will has proven he understands this much the matter of ‘who killed Nanjo’ is trivial. It’s Yasu. Since ‘Shannon’ and ‘Kanon’ are both dead, we get to play fucking hopscotch with loopholes in the red, and Yasu is the only entity who is still alive and alibi-less that is able to kill Nanjo at that time.

Then at some point she realizes that Eva solved the epitaph and she shouldn’t be killing people anymore in the first place...so she leaves the bank code behind on the door. And then, when Eva shoots Jessica in the face...she can’t let go of her lingering feelings, so she ‘revives’ Kanon and tries to guide her to ‘safety’. The reason Kanon warns Jessica not to touch him is obviously not because he’s a ghost, but because he’s not a ghost and she’d realize that immediately if she felt his physical body right there. Also she probably had no intention of being Kanon anymore once Kanon was kill so I’d imagine she’s still dressed as Shannon after having met George like that, so it’s a damn good thing Jessica is blind right now...either way, she knows they’re all about to die from the bomb real soon, so I think it’s more of a last-minute comfort sort of thing at this point, not only for Jessica, but also for Yasu. Final, lingering regrets as Kanon, much like we see in EP6, about not deepening his relationship with Jessica while he still had the chance.

Then Eva shoots Battler and fucks off to Kuwadorian, escaping the blast, while Kanon and Jessica stay behind and die. The end.]

Episode 4: Alliance of the Golden Witch

Like EP3, I already covered some of these in more detail when I did the EP4 tea party last year and will link to those posts when applicable.

EP4 is just one big farce so the fact that there was a massacre at all is the illusion. Didn’t happen. And in accordance with my personal interpretation of the gold truth from above, the fact that ‘everyone agrees that it’s true’ (since they’re all collaborating on the lie) makes it true. They all tell the same story of Kinzo showing up and summoning bunnygirls in the middle of the dining room table (rude tbh) and everyone getting their heads shot off, then getting sucked into magical pitfalls and trapped in a dungeon. I can imagine Krauss and Kyrie rolling their eyes at such a ridiculous story, but when someone offers you 10 tons of gold to play along with their script, you do it. My post from last year can be found here, though I haven’t reread it myself.

I have a problem with this because Will labels similar cases of thinly-decorated-but-ultimately-true scenes as ‘earth to earth’ (ex. Rosa and Maria’s EP3 death, as well as Kyrie/Rudolf/Hideyoshi’s EP3 deaths). If those interpretations get labeled as ‘no falsehoods’, why is this considered an illusion with the gold truth spinning a false tale? Seems really inconsistent to me.

Either way, the cousins are the only ones who aren’t in on this little prank of Yasu’s, and are convinced to go to their respective locations for their ‘test’. I went into more detail on my thoughts about what happened here in my post from last year. The test is legit, though - not an illusion - so perhaps the illusion is that they don’t actually die simultaneously the way we’re shown in the magic scene? Because otherwise I don’t feel as though the gold truth line really applies to this scene as well as it does to the first twilight.

[Then Yasu dresses up in her Human Beatrice outfit and goes to test Battler. At the time she’s drunk as Hell and in a pretty cheery mood - my belief is that she needed to give herself enough courage to test Battler and thought getting wasted was the best way to do so. It does not go so well, and she just completely gives up at that point, ready for the roulette to take her away...]

This is both earth and illusions because they are dead (silent corpses), but it didn’t happen at all the way we’re shown (adorned by fiction). And also because Kanon obviously didn’t leave a corpse behind.

I made posts last year going through each of these twilights individually:

Kyrie

Krauss

Nanjo & Shannon

Kanon

This isn’t specifically a question about Kumasawa and Gohda, but since they’re in the picture and not otherwise covered specifically here’s my post from last year covering them.

As for what we’re being asked here specifically, it’s the same reasoning that applies to the end of all of Beatrice’s games - the answer is the bomb. The bomb that kills everyone and wipes out all evidence without a trace at midnight, October 6th, without fail. Earth to earth is the fact that none are left alive (except Eva in EP3 and Prime). Illusions to illusions is the fact that the truth is sealed away by the bomb, inside the catbox, with Eva as the only surviving witness...who dies without telling a soul of the truth. The message bottles sent out by Yasu, of which only two were ever discovered, represent possible truths that may have happened on those two days, but are also just fictional possibilities. It breeds an environment where any fictional forgery based on the Rokkenjima incident may become the truth, forever shrouded in illusion.

And finally...

I originally thought the answer to this was ‘the bomb’ (just like when she asks this in EP4) but that’s the answer to the last question...and also, ‘regardless of the witch’s will’ doesn’t really make sense when realistically Yasu could have shut the bomb at any time if she so chose.

The promised reaper, then...is Kyrie. Or in theory, any of the adults who could have taken advantage of the situation to spark a massacre (like Eva in EP3). The fact of the matter is that the adults solve the epitaph...and once that happens, the tragedy is inevitable. The one outcome of the roulette that Yasu least expected to happen is the one that did. The fact that, despite Yasu being the one who masterminded the whole crime, she ultimately did not end up being the actual culprit. The real culprit is whichever one of the adults takes advantage of the confusion and murders everyone, sealing the truth away inside the catbox. In Prime, and apparently also Lion’s world, this is Kyrie.

Or maybe it really does mean the bomb. I dunno. Neither of those is really the answer to who Clair is, though, so much as the answer to ‘then what killed everyone’, anyways. But by solving all the other mysteries, Will proves that he understoof her heart, so I guess it’s all cool in the end.

What matters is that the tale of those two days is destined to end in tragedy, ‘regardless of the witch’s will’. By the time we reach October 4th, all those complicated factors have piled up so much that a happy ending is pretty much impossible. It could have been prevented so many times, in so many ways, but by the time it gets this far it’s basically too late.

#I am ashamed of how many hours this post took #I'm gonna post the other caps I took from the chapter real quick and then go play video games #my brain is tired #umineko #umineko no naku koro ni #SG2 Rereads Umineko #SG2 Rereads Requiem #long post #umineko discussions #umineko analysis #umineko theories

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