History: There was once a man named Kinzo Ushiromiya who took over the Ushiromiya family after the family had great misfortune. He was picked from a surviving branch family based only on the fact he was born with six toes on each foot. This man was a puppet leader, he married and had several children. Then he went to war in World War 2.
Soon after the war, he eventually built back the Ushiromiya wealth.
However, this story doesn't begin with Kinzo but with his two oldest children: Eva Ushiromiya and Krauss Ushiromiya. (Kinzo loved the west and gave all four children western names.) Krauss was the oldest son and Eva was the oldest daughter. Krauss, by virtue of the fact that he was oldest son, was unofficially known as the successor to Kinzo.
Eva was unamused. She thought herself better than him and often tried to make passes at being the successor. Her grades were better than Krauss, she became more popular in school. Kinzo denied these achievements saying they weren't fit for a daughter and because Eva chased them, she was unfit. By the time she was a young woman trying to go to college, he threatened to disown her if she went.
In middle school, however, something changed. Eva at that time believed in magic, in witches. She also believed there was a witch living inside her. Maybe this witch was an imaginary friend or a split personality, certainly her life was rough enough for such a thing to happen. This witch was created from Eva's hatred of her brother, of her wanting to become the next leader of the Ushiromiya family, of her desire to become better.
This witch helped fuel her ambitions for many years with her 'magic'. It seems that most of this was in the form of taunting Eva and using her hatred of others as fuel for becoming smarter or stronger.
This being would eventually become EVA-Beatrice, a cruel witch that would eventually bring great tragedy upon the Ushiromiya family.
Perhaps Eva outgrew her help for a while as it seems that she didn't communicate with her until she became a young woman. Krauss argued with Eva about her plans to go to college. The Ushiromiya family was of the mind that women shouldn't educate themselves. Eva, wanting to still prove her worth, wanted to go to show that she was far more clever than her brother.
Krauss said that a woman with a college education was like black tea with sugar. As you can drink black tea without sugar, it was highly insulting. Krauss also went on to insult the fact that Eva was trying to learn "brawling" (martial arts). Eva argued that it wasn't just fighting but also a mental exercise.
Kinzo overheard the argument, coming into the fight. He yelled at both Krauss and Eva. Krauss wasn't really a man and Eva was worthless as a woman, he roared. He lamented the fact that these two were his oldest children. Eventually he fell into a coughing fit. Krauss moved to help him. Eva followed suit but Krauss told her that it perhaps would be better to stay out of it.
So Eva left the main mansion in a huff. The result of this fight was simple. The witch inside of her returned, briefly. The witch argued that they could still become the head of the family. That they weren't done yet. Eva rejected the witch, saying the most practical way of beating Krauss wasn't trying to be the next head of the Ushiromiya family. That line of thinking would only get her disowned by Kinzo.
The witch was put aside and then Eva met her future husband, Hideyoshi. She would eventually marry this man and have a son (George). In marrying Hideyoshi, she managed to convince Kinzo to let Hideyoshi change his last name to Ushiromiya instead of the other way around so she could keep the name and her position. In going this route she abandoned the dreams that she and the witch shared; that they would take the leadership of the Ushiromiya family away from Krauss themselves alone. Instead, she chose the goal of George becoming the head of the Ushiromiya family instead of Krauss's daughter, Jessica.
Eva never spoke of the witch that was born when she was in middle school. Not even to Hideyoshi, the man that helped her cope with the stress of her childhood.
The witch was neglected again, the promise Eva made to her was forgotten. If this being was merely an imaginary friend, nothing would have come of it. Yet things during the 1986 family conference in October would force Eva to admit that the witch was a cruel one - and terrifyingly real.
On the way to the family conference on the private island of Rokkenjima, Eva fell asleep on the boat. She dreamed of the argument with Kinzo and Krauss. Of how the witch came back. Then the witch began speaking to her once again, admonishing her for changing her goals of letting her son becoming head. Eva tells the witch that this is the only way she can let her family overcome Krauss's. George is a man and Jessica isn't, she says. Then she retracts that statement because that would be forcing the role she was in onto Jessica and realizes that's not fair for her.
The witch says that it's not too late. They still have a single chance, she says. She reminds Eva of the old legend of how Kinzo brought the Ushiromiya family out of ruin. That a witch gave him ten tons of gold and how that not long ago Kinzo put up a portrait of the witch, Beatrice, in the entrance hall of the mansion. Underneath was an epitaph, a riddle. The witch says clearly that if Eva solves this riddle then she will become the next head of the family.
Eva wakes up suddenly. Hideyoshi manages to keep the rest of the people on the boat away from her while she calms down. They get off the boat but the witch makes her presence known by simply whispering 'welcome home'. Eva is the only one who can hear it but it's enough to make her wary.
The family conference has never been a peaceful place. The one of 1986 was even more tense than usual and not just because a typhoon was coming. Kinzo was near death and the siblings were all in dire need of money for various reasons. Eva and her two other siblings, Rosa and Rudolf, believed that Krauss was stealing money to fund numerous projects. They had planned on making Krauss give them money to stay quiet.
But things never go according to plan.
Maria, Rosa's daughter, delivered a note during dinner. A note, she said, came from the witch of Rokkenjima: Beatrice the Golden. The note simply said that she, Beatrice, would take everything from the Ushiromiya family if someone didn't solve the riddle of the portrait. This was the chance that the witch inside Eva was looking for.
Before anything could be done about the riddle, however, a very puzzling event happened. All the servants and Kinzo (his charred corpse, at least) were found dead in a series of locked rooms. (One body plus the key for the next room with a body and so forth.) They seemed to be murdered.
This forced the parents, the family doctor, and all of the cousins, to retreat to the guest house. The four siblings had brought guns taken from Kinzo's gun collection. Most of them believed that this was a charade put on by Kinzo, it wasn't out of character for him. To pass the time, everyone decided to try to solve the riddle. Nobody seemed to get very far and they quit.
During this time, pushed on by the witch inside her, Eva retreated to the library inside the guest house and figured out the rest of the riddle. She then made her way to where the hidden gold was: both Eva and the witch were incredibly happy about this turn of events.
But Eva couldn't stay there, the others would think something was off so she made her way to leave. On the way back she met Rosa. Rosa had also solved the riddle and, in fact, had given Eva a vital clue to solving the riddle. Eva agreed that she would give Rosa her share but they needed to wait for a bit before revealing the discovery. Rosa stated she didn't care along as she got her fair share.
The witch, left behind once again, heard this and asked, "What about me?" Neither Rosa or Eva heard her. Someone, however, did. Beatrice.
Beatrice, the Golden and Endless Witch, appeared before the young witch. She said that the whoever found the gold would become the next Endless Witch. That she, Beatrice, would give them her title, the gold, and all the powers of the Endless Witch. Not to mention Beatrice's servants.
Thus the new master of Rokkenjima, EVA-Beatrice, was named. From that moment forth she was not merely the witch inside of Eva Ushiromiya, she was her own being. Seperate.
There was one thing, however, Beatrice told her. To make her powers complete she had to complete the ritual that Beatrice started. Namely, sacrificing the people on Rokkenjima based on the epitaph. (Six people, then two people, then five more people seperately.) Beatrice had already killed six but EVA-Beatrice needed to kill eight more to make her power complete.
Until the ceremony was over, EVA-Beatrice could only use her powers if she drained the life out of Eva. Eva began to feel quite ill, coming down with a high fever. She and Hideyoshi retreated to their room in the guest house. Eva finally told him about the witch inside her. He laughed it off but stayed by her side.
During this, Maria began to throw a tantrum. She wanted to see a rose in the garden. Rosa tried to calm her down but nothing would work. Humilated, Rosa dragged her into the hall where Maria's tantrum bothered Eva. Hideyoshi told Rosa to quiet her down, that Eva was quite sick and needed rest.
Rosa gave up. She asked Maria what she needed to do to make her calm down. Maria said she needed to see the rose. Rosa, tiredly, agreed. She had a gun with her and there probably was no murderer. Her father probably had pulled an elobarate prank. Even if there was a murderer, she had the gun. Thinking this, Rosa and Maria went outside into the storm.
Maria managed to find the rose. Rosa, holding an umbrella in one hand and the gun in the other stood around annoyed. She wouldn't go back until Maria was satisfied or she would risk another tantrum. Rosa sensed they were being watched and, sure enough, she saw another umbrella. That umbrella belonged to Eva.
Or rather, EVA-Beatrice disguised as Eva. EVA-Beatrice normally looks like a very young Eva. In this instance, though, she disguised herself as the original.
Rosa thought that Eva had followed them to discuss the gold. Maria was confused. While Eva laughed at the fact that Rosa seemed to think that she deserved any of the gold, Maria tilted her head. The girl was very sensitive to magic and knew Beatrice personally, being one of her students. Maria asked the simple question, "Who are you, aunt?"
EVA-Beatrice threw away her disguise in a moment and appeared in her true form. Claiming that she was Beatrice (which was true), she declared that both Maria and Rosa would be the victims of the Second Twilight ("the two who are close will be torn apart"). What results is EVA-Beatrice testing out her powers of magic for the first time: she repeatedly kills and revives both Rosa and Maria in various ways. (Flying with Rosa and then letting her drop many feet to the ground into a rose bush, feeding Rosa to a spider, crushing her beneath a mountain of cake, and so forth.)
While great fun for EVA-Beatrice, those watching had a different view. Looking in on this was Beatrice and Battler, who had been playing against Beatrice in a game to prove the existence of witches. Battler took issue with EVA-Beatrice's methods and the fact that Beatrice seemed to enjoy them.
This led Beatrice to intervene. Telling EVA-Beatrice that a witch also needed to be elegant, Beatrice asked if she could finish the two off. EVA-Beatrice (for the rest of this application she will be reffered to as simply EVA; Eva Ushiromiya will be reffered to as Eva) agreed. EVA had heard about Beatrice's cruelty and wanted to see what would happen.
Beatrice strangled Maria and let Rosa off by impaling her on a fence post. While effective it was far from what EVA wanted. Beatrice explained that it was just her being fickle: a witch had to be elegant as well as cruel. Sometimes not overdoing it was best. In fact, she told EVA to keep the cruelty to a minimum as well as ordering EVA's new servants that they were to kill more 'elegantly'. EVA, taken aback, agreed. Beatrice left and EVA continued on.
EVA-Beatrice | Umineko no Naku Koro ni | Not reserved 2/?
Soon after the war, he eventually built back the Ushiromiya wealth.
However, this story doesn't begin with Kinzo but with his two oldest children: Eva Ushiromiya and Krauss Ushiromiya. (Kinzo loved the west and gave all four children western names.) Krauss was the oldest son and Eva was the oldest daughter. Krauss, by virtue of the fact that he was oldest son, was unofficially known as the successor to Kinzo.
Eva was unamused. She thought herself better than him and often tried to make passes at being the successor. Her grades were better than Krauss, she became more popular in school. Kinzo denied these achievements saying they weren't fit for a daughter and because Eva chased them, she was unfit. By the time she was a young woman trying to go to college, he threatened to disown her if she went.
In middle school, however, something changed. Eva at that time believed in magic, in witches. She also believed there was a witch living inside her. Maybe this witch was an imaginary friend or a split personality, certainly her life was rough enough for such a thing to happen. This witch was created from Eva's hatred of her brother, of her wanting to become the next leader of the Ushiromiya family, of her desire to become better.
This witch helped fuel her ambitions for many years with her 'magic'. It seems that most of this was in the form of taunting Eva and using her hatred of others as fuel for becoming smarter or stronger.
This being would eventually become EVA-Beatrice, a cruel witch that would eventually bring great tragedy upon the Ushiromiya family.
Perhaps Eva outgrew her help for a while as it seems that she didn't communicate with her until she became a young woman. Krauss argued with Eva about her plans to go to college. The Ushiromiya family was of the mind that women shouldn't educate themselves. Eva, wanting to still prove her worth, wanted to go to show that she was far more clever than her brother.
Krauss said that a woman with a college education was like black tea with sugar. As you can drink black tea without sugar, it was highly insulting. Krauss also went on to insult the fact that Eva was trying to learn "brawling" (martial arts). Eva argued that it wasn't just fighting but also a mental exercise.
Kinzo overheard the argument, coming into the fight. He yelled at both Krauss and Eva. Krauss wasn't really a man and Eva was worthless as a woman, he roared. He lamented the fact that these two were his oldest children. Eventually he fell into a coughing fit. Krauss moved to help him. Eva followed suit but Krauss told her that it perhaps would be better to stay out of it.
So Eva left the main mansion in a huff. The result of this fight was simple. The witch inside of her returned, briefly. The witch argued that they could still become the head of the family. That they weren't done yet. Eva rejected the witch, saying the most practical way of beating Krauss wasn't trying to be the next head of the Ushiromiya family. That line of thinking would only get her disowned by Kinzo.
The witch was put aside and then Eva met her future husband, Hideyoshi. She would eventually marry this man and have a son (George). In marrying Hideyoshi, she managed to convince Kinzo to let Hideyoshi change his last name to Ushiromiya instead of the other way around so she could keep the name and her position. In going this route she abandoned the dreams that she and the witch shared; that they would take the leadership of the Ushiromiya family away from Krauss themselves alone. Instead, she chose the goal of George becoming the head of the Ushiromiya family instead of Krauss's daughter, Jessica.
Eva never spoke of the witch that was born when she was in middle school. Not even to Hideyoshi, the man that helped her cope with the stress of her childhood.
The witch was neglected again, the promise Eva made to her was forgotten. If this being was merely an imaginary friend, nothing would have come of it. Yet things during the 1986 family conference in October would force Eva to admit that the witch was a cruel one - and terrifyingly real.
On the way to the family conference on the private island of Rokkenjima, Eva fell asleep on the boat. She dreamed of the argument with Kinzo and Krauss. Of how the witch came back. Then the witch began speaking to her once again, admonishing her for changing her goals of letting her son becoming head. Eva tells the witch that this is the only way she can let her family overcome Krauss's. George is a man and Jessica isn't, she says. Then she retracts that statement because that would be forcing the role she was in onto Jessica and realizes that's not fair for her.
The witch says that it's not too late. They still have a single chance, she says. She reminds Eva of the old legend of how Kinzo brought the Ushiromiya family out of ruin. That a witch gave him ten tons of gold and how that not long ago Kinzo put up a portrait of the witch, Beatrice, in the entrance hall of the mansion. Underneath was an epitaph, a riddle. The witch says clearly that if Eva solves this riddle then she will become the next head of the family.
Eva wakes up suddenly. Hideyoshi manages to keep the rest of the people on the boat away from her while she calms down. They get off the boat but the witch makes her presence known by simply whispering 'welcome home'. Eva is the only one who can hear it but it's enough to make her wary.
The family conference has never been a peaceful place. The one of 1986 was even more tense than usual and not just because a typhoon was coming. Kinzo was near death and the siblings were all in dire need of money for various reasons. Eva and her two other siblings, Rosa and Rudolf, believed that Krauss was stealing money to fund numerous projects. They had planned on making Krauss give them money to stay quiet.
But things never go according to plan.
Maria, Rosa's daughter, delivered a note during dinner. A note, she said, came from the witch of Rokkenjima: Beatrice the Golden. The note simply said that she, Beatrice, would take everything from the Ushiromiya family if someone didn't solve the riddle of the portrait. This was the chance that the witch inside Eva was looking for.
Before anything could be done about the riddle, however, a very puzzling event happened. All the servants and Kinzo (his charred corpse, at least) were found dead in a series of locked rooms. (One body plus the key for the next room with a body and so forth.) They seemed to be murdered.
This forced the parents, the family doctor, and all of the cousins, to retreat to the guest house. The four siblings had brought guns taken from Kinzo's gun collection. Most of them believed that this was a charade put on by Kinzo, it wasn't out of character for him. To pass the time, everyone decided to try to solve the riddle. Nobody seemed to get very far and they quit.
During this time, pushed on by the witch inside her, Eva retreated to the library inside the guest house and figured out the rest of the riddle. She then made her way to where the hidden gold was: both Eva and the witch were incredibly happy about this turn of events.
But Eva couldn't stay there, the others would think something was off so she made her way to leave. On the way back she met Rosa. Rosa had also solved the riddle and, in fact, had given Eva a vital clue to solving the riddle. Eva agreed that she would give Rosa her share but they needed to wait for a bit before revealing the discovery. Rosa stated she didn't care along as she got her fair share.
The witch, left behind once again, heard this and asked, "What about me?" Neither Rosa or Eva heard her. Someone, however, did. Beatrice.
Beatrice, the Golden and Endless Witch, appeared before the young witch. She said that the whoever found the gold would become the next Endless Witch. That she, Beatrice, would give them her title, the gold, and all the powers of the Endless Witch. Not to mention Beatrice's servants.
Thus the new master of Rokkenjima, EVA-Beatrice, was named. From that moment forth she was not merely the witch inside of Eva Ushiromiya, she was her own being. Seperate.
There was one thing, however, Beatrice told her. To make her powers complete she had to complete the ritual that Beatrice started. Namely, sacrificing the people on Rokkenjima based on the epitaph. (Six people, then two people, then five more people seperately.) Beatrice had already killed six but EVA-Beatrice needed to kill eight more to make her power complete.
Until the ceremony was over, EVA-Beatrice could only use her powers if she drained the life out of Eva. Eva began to feel quite ill, coming down with a high fever. She and Hideyoshi retreated to their room in the guest house. Eva finally told him about the witch inside her. He laughed it off but stayed by her side.
During this, Maria began to throw a tantrum. She wanted to see a rose in the garden. Rosa tried to calm her down but nothing would work. Humilated, Rosa dragged her into the hall where Maria's tantrum bothered Eva. Hideyoshi told Rosa to quiet her down, that Eva was quite sick and needed rest.
Rosa gave up. She asked Maria what she needed to do to make her calm down. Maria said she needed to see the rose. Rosa, tiredly, agreed. She had a gun with her and there probably was no murderer. Her father probably had pulled an elobarate prank. Even if there was a murderer, she had the gun. Thinking this, Rosa and Maria went outside into the storm.
Maria managed to find the rose. Rosa, holding an umbrella in one hand and the gun in the other stood around annoyed. She wouldn't go back until Maria was satisfied or she would risk another tantrum. Rosa sensed they were being watched and, sure enough, she saw another umbrella. That umbrella belonged to Eva.
Or rather, EVA-Beatrice disguised as Eva. EVA-Beatrice normally looks like a very young Eva. In this instance, though, she disguised herself as the original.
Rosa thought that Eva had followed them to discuss the gold. Maria was confused. While Eva laughed at the fact that Rosa seemed to think that she deserved any of the gold, Maria tilted her head. The girl was very sensitive to magic and knew Beatrice personally, being one of her students. Maria asked the simple question, "Who are you, aunt?"
EVA-Beatrice threw away her disguise in a moment and appeared in her true form. Claiming that she was Beatrice (which was true), she declared that both Maria and Rosa would be the victims of the Second Twilight ("the two who are close will be torn apart"). What results is EVA-Beatrice testing out her powers of magic for the first time: she repeatedly kills and revives both Rosa and Maria in various ways. (Flying with Rosa and then letting her drop many feet to the ground into a rose bush, feeding Rosa to a spider, crushing her beneath a mountain of cake, and so forth.)
While great fun for EVA-Beatrice, those watching had a different view. Looking in on this was Beatrice and Battler, who had been playing against Beatrice in a game to prove the existence of witches. Battler took issue with EVA-Beatrice's methods and the fact that Beatrice seemed to enjoy them.
This led Beatrice to intervene. Telling EVA-Beatrice that a witch also needed to be elegant, Beatrice asked if she could finish the two off. EVA-Beatrice (for the rest of this application she will be reffered to as simply EVA; Eva Ushiromiya will be reffered to as Eva) agreed. EVA had heard about Beatrice's cruelty and wanted to see what would happen.
Beatrice strangled Maria and let Rosa off by impaling her on a fence post. While effective it was far from what EVA wanted. Beatrice explained that it was just her being fickle: a witch had to be elegant as well as cruel. Sometimes not overdoing it was best. In fact, she told EVA to keep the cruelty to a minimum as well as ordering EVA's new servants that they were to kill more 'elegantly'. EVA, taken aback, agreed. Beatrice left and EVA continued on.