Skill 14, Memory 61

[thinkoutsidethebox]

Investigative sciences. Form of a nasturtium flower.

She had thorough knowledge of all the chemicals in Kinzo's study and had used them to conduct a scientific investigation. "This isn't a science mystery, so I'll spare you the details."

Battle! vs. towers! vs. shotguns! vs Beatrice on the bow of a pirate ship full of goats! [EP8] Form of chocolate lips wrapped in red foil. Remove the foil to view.

Erika leads her armada of goats into battle against almost all the other characters in Umineko - all the Ushiromiyas and all the fantasy or mystery characters. Bern, Lambda, Battler and Ange are pretty much the only people not there.

With a crash, crack lines appeared across the sky of the Golden Land.
Then, finally, the barrier of the Golden Land was breached by the fleet's assault.
It was a bizarre scene. More ridiculous than anything anyone had imagined.
The sky of the Golden Land shattered like glass, and a fleet of sailboats flew in one after another.

They were crowded with goats pushing each other and spilling off the sides.
"Come, let us begin!! The final banquet in the Golden Land...!!"
Banquet. ......That wasn't some fancy metaphor, but a simple statement of fact.

The overwhelming surge of goat troops came in like a tsunami.
The residents of the Golden Land who stood defiantly were like a forgotten sand castle on a beach.
A fight between a wave and a sand castle is not a fight.

This was a banquet......for the oncoming Vikings at a stand-up meal, the voracious, merciless goats.
"There's no way around it!! Fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiire!!!"
"<Good>!! Come, goats!! Bring destruction to all that has form, stillness to all that moves! Despair to all who liiiiiiiive!!!"
All those who could use magic fired it off at once.

With a shout like a thunderclap, the goat tsunami rushed forward.

Everything collided at once, and there was a brilliant and terrible explosion.
Sparks and smoke, flying splinters and screams.

For just an instant, the fierce magical cannonballs fired by Beato, Virgilia, and the Siesta Sisters seemed to halt the goat tsunami in its tracks.
However, their numbers were so great that they didn't even flinch.


The mound of corpses piled up, and still more goats were shot down as they tried to cross it, ......so that, in a few seconds, it really was tall enough to be a tsunami.
"Pitiful!! This Golden Land you've built is nothing more than a sand castle some kid left on a beach!! Be swallowed up and disappeeeeeeeeeeeear!!"
"Perhaps you would do better to think of ripples beating meaninglessly against a wharf. ......A sandcastle getting swallowed by a wave? Just you try swallowing my castle!!!"
Beato lifted her hands, telling the pair of battle towers that had been hidden deep in the ground that the day of glory had come again.

The goat tsunami looked up at it in shock.
After all, this time the tsunami that towered over everything......wasn't them.
"Fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiire!!!"

A thunderstorm of rapid-fire ballista rounds leapt from the battle tower gun ports.
The goats let out a confused scream at the furious tempest that was bearing down on them.
However, they saw something else too.
......In the sky high above the tower...was a reaper astride a white horse and backdropped by the moon,
......a massive spear the size of a tower in its hand.

The great witch sitting on the horse by the reaper spoke.
"Welcome. This world does not belong to you."
"Do it, Teacheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeer!!"
The heavenly spear pierced the ground.

For an instant, it looked like some divine tower was sticking out of the ground.

However, that was the very last thing those eyes ever saw.
The sacred spear was the embodiment of heaven's wrath, and the strength to bury an unclean city in a single stroke was unleashed upon the pack of goats.
With a massive explosion that resembled a volcanic eruption, goats were sent flying all over the place.
"......Not bad. I guess they really are witches."
"But is it enough?!"
"The enemies keep on coming! It looks like we'll be the ones swallowed up after all!"
"At least you two seem to be enjoying yourselves."
"Wahaahahahahahaha!! Festivals are made to be enjoyed!! It seems our time to shine shall not be stolen from us after all!!"
"Looks like it!! I'm all fired up!!!"
Yes. The crowd of goats truly was like a wave pressing in from the sea.

You might be able to split a ripple on the beach with your feet, but you can't split the sea.
Witches could.
However, that meant the other side also had one who could split seas.

Suddenly, smoke poured from one of the two towers, and the ground shook as it crumbled.
"......Wh, what the hell happened?!"
"Over there! On top of the other tower!!"
"Erikaaaaaaaaaaaaa...... But of course, it is your turn now, is it not......?"
At the top of the other battle tower, ......Erika stood gracefully, wielding her scythe.
"I think that's enough to show the witches of the Golden Land proper respect. ......All magic is fake. A fantasy sand castle that will always vanish when mystery swallows it up. ......Playing witches was pretty fun. I think I remember playing something like this with some older girls from the neighborhood, when I was younger. So, let's bring this to an end. .........Now it's time to hear your screams."
Erika threw that pretentious pirate hat she had been wearing this whole time into the sky.

With the moon behind it, Erika's form...her afterimage...vanished from the tower's peak.
"Where is she?!!"
"We have her on radar! On the side of the tower!"

Shaking with a wild, joyous laughter, Erika dashed straight down along the side of the tower.
She swung her scythe like a baton, and as she passed along the wall, the gun ports, walls, pillars, and everything else was crushed, leaving a trail of smoke.

So, from the sidelines, it looked as though a line of smoke suddenly split the tower from top to bottom.

The golden arrows of the Siesta Sisters chased after Erika like golden threads in a sewing machine.
"You monster...!! Get yourself sewed and embroidered nyeh!!"
"Hahahaha, ahhahahahahahahahahahaha!! <Good>!! <Good, good, good>, ahhahahahahaaaaaaaah!!"

Even the golden arrows couldn't catch up with Erika.
Finally, Erika reached the bottom of the battle tower, and empty cartridges were ejected from the golden bows.
"Explode, useless tower! ......Did I get that right?!"

Erika, who had now landed on the ground, slowly stood up and tapped the tower behind her with the handle of the scythe.
That tiny tap cut the final string that held the tower together, and the whole thing fell in on itself with an earth-shattering crash......
Once again, the dark tsunami rumbled forward through the rubble and smoke.
"I am Furudo Erika, Witch of Truth!! This moment marks the dismantling of the Golden Land by the truth!! Dust to dust, illusions to illusions!! I'll end your daydream for you! Come, try and remember, ghosts! Remember how you died so long agooooooooooooo!!"

[…]

The goat tsunami swallowed everything up.

When she saw them sink under the black sea of goats, ......Erika guffawed from atop the debris of the tower.
"Come on now, kill them! Massacre them all!!! Cut off all their heads and stick 'em on spears!! Ghosts of 1986, the time has come for the whirlpool of truth to swallow you whole and erase you!! So long!!!"
The goat tsunami had swallowed up everything, but sea spray was still flying about.

The reefs, which resisted the ocean that was trying to cover them, were smashing waves left and right.
The Seven Sisters of Purgatory and the Inquisitors of Heresy specialized at close-range combat, and were rapidly building a mountain of corpses.
The witches fought hard too, but they would have preferred to fight at a distance if they could.
Just relying on fantasy creatures wouldn't be enough.
In these battle conditions, all of the humans were thrust right into the center of the fight.
Everyone in the Ushiromiya family displayed a fighting spirit equal to the witches and guarded their backs.

Even humans are not powerless. They have guns.
If the goats supported fantasy, they could use these as the ultimate anti-magic weapons.
If the goats supported mystery, they could use these in a much more obvious way.

Those .45 Long Colt bullets delivered fatal wounds to each and every goat they struck.
"Just die already!! How long are you going to resist? Give up and sink, Ushiromiyaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!"
"If you tell an Ushiromiya to sink, you'll just make him fight all the harder!! Little girl, you have no idea what the Ushiromiya family is!!"
"You were dead even before , weren't you?!! It's about time you stopped moving, gramps!!"
Erika's razor-sharp scythe buried itself in Kinzo's chest.
It dug straight into his heart, but the daring smile on Kinzo's face didn't even falter.
"Hoh, ......was my death ever witnessed by anyone outside the cat box? I am indestructible......indestructible!!"
A punch containing all of Kinzo's last spark of life sent Erika flying.
"Father, Father, are you okay?!!"
"Overcome my corpse!! The Ushiromiya family never turns back!!"
As Erika tried to deliver the finishing blow, Krauss stepped in between them, blocking the way.
"......I will be your opponent in Father's place."
"Oh? If it isn't the incompetent investing expert. It's pretty impressive how you managed to find all the worst bets and lost your money so quickly."
"And yet, at least I remember to tie my shoes."
Erika tried to look down at her own feet, ......but what she saw was Krauss's left fist.
"?!?!"

Krauss's left uppercut made Erika float in the air. Not by magic, but by the simple laws of physics.

For an instant, Erika saw the moon......
"I may have been incompetent as an investor!! However, any of my college friends will attest to my talent as a boxer!! I will not allow you to discredit every part of the Ushiromiya family, little girl!!"
"Y, you......damn small fry!!!"

ʳ......Kanon is an illusion...... An illusion created by a lonely Jessica......
"At the school festival, I introduced Kanon-kun to everyone!! Saku, and Hina, and everyone else!! All of my friends can testify to that!! Don't make assumptions about our relationship based on your own imagination!!"
Jessica's body blow made the goat's massive body cave in.
"Splendidly done, Milady! To think that you could wield such power in a tight spot like this...!"
"Well of course. After all, I'm thinking it doesn't really matter if I die. ......This is the first time we've worked together, with you at my back. Too bad it isn't cutting the cake...!"

Jessica laughed embarrassedly. ......She looked even more relaxed than she had on the stage at the school festival.
"If we can't cut a cake, then let's cut something else."
"You always try to sound cool with every thing you say...!"
"But I like it that way!!"
The massive bodies that rushed at them, trying to deny their relationship and their very existence, had two choices: to be sliced or struck.

Each time one of those bodies hit the floor, it became proof that the two of them existed.
ʳ......Shannon is an illuuuuuuusion! George is a anti-social shut-in! Their love itself is an illusion and doesn't exiiiiiiist!! ˼

"George-sama, look out!!!"
The goat's log-sized fist buried itself in George's face.
This was the middle of a massive, confused battle. There was no way to dodge an unexpected attack like that.
ʳ............?!?!˼
"......An anti-social shut-in, is it? .........Very well. Say what you wish about me."
George had indeed been hit with a fist right to the center of his face.
However, he didn't bend over backwards. Not even an inch.

The goat started to wonder what it was he had hit.
Hadn't he punched a human made of flesh......?

It was as though......he had slammed his fist into a steel wall......and it was his fist that was hurting...
However, ......the goat was too scared to move his fist from George's face.
After all, if he did, ......the expression on that face would probably be too terrifying.
George's hand......knocked that fist away.
"You could probably get testimony from my old classmates from school. ......Yes, I was an anti-social person. ......However, there's one more thing that they'll tell you, something far more important."
George was only grabbing the goat's massive fist in his tiny hand.

However, that fist was being crushed as though it had a vise around it......

Even though the other hand was so tiny, ......the goat couldn't even move its fist.
"......Ushiromiya George never fought for himself, no matter what happened to him. ......He was a
coward, who ran away from all threats. ......Everyone will tell you that. ......However, they won't
tell you that he never got into a fight."
I accepted the fact that someone as pathetic as me would be bullied.
Never,
not even once
have I let anyone
bully or harass
anyone who treated me like a friend!!!!"

The goat's broken teeth flew through the air.
George's furious feet split the heavens.
ʳ......Sh, ......Shannon approached George for his money, and......˼

A goat's filthy finger touched Shannon's back.

That finger......exploded and boiled away.
"My love for George-san is true and pure. ......George-san must have kept all the letters I wrote him. Read those, and you'll have your proof."
ʳ......Y, ......you can write anything in a letter... ......The contents of a letter are no proof of true lo......˼

A blazing red light charred the goat's entire body.

......Shannon slowly turned around, her face full of rage and contempt.

"Pitiful spectator, ignorant of love. You have no right to read a mystery, much less a person's heart. ......Disappear......!!"
An absolute barrier rose up around Shannon, burning up the goats around her with its flames.
"Kihihihi! Yeah, maybe we are dead. But that doesn't give anyone the right to criticize us! No one can deny the love Maria and Mama shared...!!"
Maria smiled, showing her teeth, and performed her job without even looking at her hands.

Then, she tossed the fully loaded rifle straight up into the air.
".........Come and get some."

Rosa, who stood back-to-back with Maria, caught it without turning around.
No, that wasn't quite it. Maria had passed the gun to her mother perfectly without even looking back.
Rosa's head was pointed at the ground......as she stroked the frigid trigger with her index finger.
"If any of you doubt my love for my daughter......step forward."

The crowd of goats, cowed by Rosa's ferocity, ......didn't get any closer to her.
"Then I'll deny it. ......Being the serial cheater you are, you were always off playing around with a man and leaving Maria all alone!!"
"Nothing like that is written anywhere in Maria's diary. Kihihihihi."
"Y, you should know better than anyone else...!! Rosa didn't love you! She was a crappy mother who regretted even giving birth to you!!!!"
Erika was peering at the unfeeling moon, ......the taste of metal in her mouth.

For a moment, she didn't realize what was happening.
Was that cold feeling on her back......the ground?

Huh? ......Why am I......lying down......?
And wasn't the moon full? Why isn't it now...?

Come to think of it, ......my teeth...hurt. ......There's something cold...and hard.
Then, she figured it out.

She was lying sprawled on the ground, with a gun barrel shoved into her mouth.

The gun barrel exploded inside her mouth, shattering her medulla oblongata.

......But it was only her afterimage.
"What a terrifying woman you are. Are you really huma-, ............"

Erika, who had escaped death at the last moment by leaving an afterimage, ......found a metallic flash
right before her eyes, which had been there even before she reappeared.
The fountain pen went right through Erika's eye, crushing it.
Of course, that was another afterimage.

However, when Erika escaped and reappeared somewhere else, a heel was already there waiting for her......
From the goats' perspective, ......several afterimages of Erika seemed to be appearing at once, ......all of which were pierced by Rosa at the same time......
"Mama's really strong, kihihihihihihihi!!"
"......Wh, ......what the hell......"

And so, Erika couldn't reappear anymore.
At the very least, not within Rosa's range of attack.

Erika put a lot of distance between her and Rosa, reappearing in midair.
"......What......are these people?! What......the hell?!! .........?!?!"

Erika's animal instincts made her turn her head slightly to the side just in time.
Where her head used to be, there was an odd shower of sparks.

It wasn't magic. It was a real physical phenomenon cased by lead smashing against lead.
To think that two bullets shot from different angles......could have flown with impossible precision at where her head once was......so that both of them hit and bounced off each other like billiard balls.
"......Aw, so close."
"Sorry about that. We're big fans of the whole 'take out the boss first' strategy, you see."
"You know, we're pretty good at clay pigeons. Flying along in a straight line probably isn't a good idea."

The two of them spun their rifles in exactly the same way at exactly the same time, reloading them in a way that put old westerns to shame, then pointed them back up at where Erika was in the sky.
"Y, .........you monsters!!"

Once again, their accurate shots plunged through the forehead of Erika's afterimage, bouncing off each other like billiard balls with a shower of sparks.
This time, Erika appeared far behind them.

She had to admit it. She had been forced to escape to a place outside the range of those guns fired by humans.
Then, the light from the moon was blocked.

The place that she had fled to so rapidly exploded, sending chunks of rubbish flying.
A massive long sword had been plunged into the ground. ......It was Dlanor's sword.
"......Oh...... If it isn't my old friend......!"
"........................"

She had dodged by a hair, ......but this bulky, brutal longsword was more of a cannonball shaped like a sword than something for cutting with.
Even though she dodged it, the blast of air pressure made her eardrums throb.

Dlanor was serious.
She seriously intended to smash Erika to bits.
"What's with the scary face?!! Can't you try and act a bit, I don't know, cuter?!"
"......Do you find this ENJOYABLE? Destroying people's dreams and ILLUSIONS?"
"Of course it's enjoyable! What do you expect an intellectual rapist to do?!"
"You are an EVILDOER. ......And yet, I used to believe you were the sort of evil that could be sympathized WITH."
"I never asked for your sympathy."
"......Not cutting you down immediately upon our MEETING... That sin of mine is what helped bring this day to PASS!!"
Dlanor's hair bristled with rage.

Seeing this expression on the one she had once called a friend......pinned Erika to the spot.
"My FRIEND. ......Allow me to free you before you can SUFFER. I will not allow you to bear any further SINS!!!"
"Whoa, ......wai-, ...............!!!"
The force of anger that welled from Dlanor's whole body struck Erika.
Or rather, the swirl of blasting wind from Dlanor's massive longsword sent her flying.
The cannonball with a blade repeatedly cracked the ground just after Erika leapt away.

So, it almost looked as though Erika was jumping backwards, smashing the earth beneath her with each jump.
"Dlanor........."
“......Friend of mine, rest in PEACE!!!"

The great longsword split the air again, pulverizing the ground.
However, this time, Erika was nowhere to be seen. ......Where did she escape to?

This time, Erika had broken the barrier of the Golden Land and landed on a ship whose bow was barely in sight.
......Practically speaking, she had run away.

Fully aware of this, Erika howled, her face contorted with humiliation.
Her shoulders heaved with her breathing, ......and she had even forgotten to fix her hair......

The scythe fell from her hand and landed with a clank to the floor.
That sound brought her back to her senses.
"Stupid goats!! What are you standing around staring for?!! Open the gun ports!! Load concept negation explosive rounds!! Don't worry about aiming, just fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiire!!!"

The warships that had flown into the Golden Land opened their gun ports one after another, then they all fired at once in a scattered mess of cannonballs.
The hundreds of explosive rounds they fired would negate the concept of any thing or person they touched, smash them into little bits, and set them ablaze with flames.


The battlefield full of writhing goats became a fiery hell.
A cannonball smashed the arbor. The once-beautiful garden maze was burned down bit by bit and the fleeing gold butterflies were wrapped in flames, burning into nothingness like little scraps of paper.
This was no longer a battlefield where two sides fought for victory.
It was just a confused, hellish pot.

The Golden Land...was being torn apart.

The once-beautiful rose garden was filled with explosion craters, and its rose petals were scattered about without pity.
Flying bits of flesh, blood, fangs, jaws. Shrieks and half-crazed screams.
And even amidst this hellish swirl, the goats and the dead continued to fight.

As seen from atop the boats, ......this was, without a doubt, hell.
"All ships!! Drop anchors!!"

When Erika yelled, the goats on the boats ran around frantically, and one by one, massive anchors hanging by chains were thrown from the ships' bows down into the earth below.

Those anchors smashed through not only the ground, but the bottom of the Golden Land itself, digging in with their wedge-shaped tips.
"Erikaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!"
"Oh, Beatrice-san!! What a huge battle this is! I was worried that I wouldn't be able to find you!"

Beatrice landed on the front tip of the warship, facing off against Erika, who stood on the bow.
"You will not be forgiven! I'll finish you myself right here!!!"

Beato jabbed with her pipe.

It transformed into a beautifully intricate, long and golden sword.
"Very well, bring it on. Let's settle this."

Erika threw her scythe up into the air.

When it returned to her hand, it had become a sword similar to Beato's.
The nearby goats crowded around Erika, trying to support her.
"Stay out of this. Anyway, you all need to start lifting the anchors! Tear up the Golden Land by its roots!!"

Aye aye, sir! The goats bowed and rushed to their posts.
Several dozen ships had lowered their anchors, digging into the base of the Golden Land.

Soon, they were going to pull them up, ......and try to tear the Golden Land to pieces.
"Come, Erikaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!! I'll give you the honor of my final duel!!"
Beato raised her sword, bowed in the ancient fashion, and waited for her duel opponent.

Erika kicked off her shoes violently and slowly walked up to the tip of the boat barefoot.

Then, in accordance with Beato's rules, she bowed back.
A duel on the prow of a ship that pierced the sky.

Below, the crowd of goats was being blasted away by the indiscriminate cannonballs, burned up and crushed in the panorama of this world's end.

By now, it would be stupid to wonder whether anyone from the Ushiromiya family was still all right.
Yes, it truly was the end of this world. The end of the Golden Land.
Ground to dust, filled with flames.

The golden rose garden was burning spectacularly, with bits of flame and golden splashes flying about.
The ground creaked as fissures ran through it. Through the base of the Golden Land.

All of the ships started pulling up their anchors at once. Crowds of strong goats used all of their monstrous strength to lift them.
The anchors that dug into the Golden Land's base......spread cracks throughout the entire Golden Land.
Not just the ground, but the air itself was filled with cracks, and shards of gold fell down everywhere.
The Golden Land's end was adorned with the flames of hell and streaking gold fragments, with fiery red and ephemeral gold.

Atop the boat's prow, Beato and Erika looked down on this, their swords crossed and sparks flying between them.
"Now there's one hell of a sight to see!! Don't you think it's fitting?! The perfect final chapter for your tale...!!"
The Golden Land may meet its end. I may perish as well. However, no one can erase the fact that we were here!! Ange reached the answer! The Witch of the Future has a mission and hope, and will soon go off on a new journey!! We have already succeeded...!! Too bad, Furudo Erikaaaa!! This battle ends with our victory!!!"
A duel between the master of the illusion called the Golden Land and the witch who controlled truth.

The earth split behind them. The Golden Land was torn up.
The cat box known as the Golden Land was ripped apart, and the nothingness below peeked out through the cracks.
The scrambling crowd of goats fell through the gaps and were swallowed by the sea of nothingness.

......Beato's friends were among them.
They helped each other, lent a hand to each other, unwilling to sacrifice anyone until the final moment.
Still, ......what a romantic and fragile illusion is the end of the world.
The ground shattered and sank. It fell apart into the ocean of nothingness.

None could survive. None could be saved.
This was...destruction.

As the friends fell into the sea of nothingness, they looked up one last time...and prayed.
They prayed that the master of the Golden Land would leave proof that the Golden Land had indeed existed.

However, Beato didn't look down at them. They wouldn't have wanted her to.
"This is our Golden Land!! I am the Endless and Golden Witch Beatrice, and I am here!! We may fall, but we will not be defeated!! You will become living evidence! I'll carve the proof of our existence into your chest!!"
"So long, Beatrice!! This marks the end of that stupid endless game!! Fall into hell, you illusion!!!!"