Banquet of the Golden Witch

timeframe: october 1986

reading time: 14/05/26 - 15/06/26

intro

• unclear timeframe and setting: beatrice dreams of her childhood
• in a mansion, she breaks a delicate expensive vase. framed as in trying to savor a dream, it "popped"
• she begins crying, fearing her grandfather's wrath (hmm) a gentle, authoritative grey-haired witch magically appears before her, calling her "princess beatrice"; this witch is also addressed as "beatrice". she never opens her eyes
• on beatrice's request, the grey witch uses golden butterflies to temporarily revive the vase: by making the vase remember its past form, it saves beatrice from the blame of breaking it, but does not save the vase from its fate of being broken
• walking in the courtyard, beatrice and the witch overhear the vase re-breaking at the hands of a black cat. this alerts the servants, but saves everyone from the blame (higurashi isms, the fact its a black cat...)
• the witch explains that this type of magic is quite hard; to actually attain the power level required to revive things endlessly, and be granted the title of "endless witch", requires immense lifelong study
• she warns that immature witches frequently are intoxicated by the power to break things, which is easier than repairing things
• beatrice begs for the witch to take her as a disciple. she agrees to teach her, but emphacizes that she herself is still learning and far from being any sort of master
• in the purgatorio tea room: our beatrice awakens from the dream
• great witches are granted the title "lady" and are then plagued by having to stave off boredom, as being that powerful limits your sense of sadness and pleasure
• tips has updated to have more info on each stake sister's demeanor and rship to the other sisters
• the stakes are fighting as they take turns mutilating battler as punishment for his horrible arguments towards solving the room puzzles
• battler is revived, killed again, revived. he makes a comment that the sisters are so hot he'll never get tired of this (ugh...)
• he says jessica's key may have been placed in her pocket after the door was closed via snaking fishing line
• in red: a sister says no door in rokkenjima has a big enough crack for something like that
• the sisters' disobedient infighting is unpredictable to beatrice, which delights her and staves off her boredom
• beatrice muses that torturing a piece as stubborn as battler for all eternity must be bliss. the spell she uses to revive him is very similar to what the earlier beatrice used to mend the vase
• the new game board begins:

DAY 1: noon?

• kicked out by eva for smoking, hideyoshi and rudolf hang out on the boat deck en route to rokkenjima. they get along well. they discuss a bit the plan to corner krauss regarding the inheritance
• hideyoshi is struck by how high-strung eva is around her family, especially around the time of the conference
• eva is like another much gentler person with him vs with the ushiromiyas. he complains that she never even talks about her family with him (he doesn't really have his own family outside of her)
• rudolf recounts gently that eva was always mistreated for her "mannish" ambitious unbecoming of an eldest daughter, citing kinzo's very harsh imposition of traditional gender roles
• a flashback-dream of eva's plays out of eva requesting from krauss to attend university, only for him to explain women exist to serve men. kinzo interrupts, scolding them both but only beating krauss; krauss for failing to act as the siblings' leader and eva for misunderstanding her place in the world
• this young adult eva has no homemaking skills, neglects makeup and has taken up martial arts recently. she excels in every way over krauss when it comes to schooling and leadership, yet her being born a woman automatically elevates him above him. she's deeply wounded
• krauss is 2 years older than her and using the scolding in a backhanded way of affirming his superiority
• falling into a fit, kinzo starts to scream and cough that he'll disinherit eva. krauss and genji try to calm him down, but eva's attempts to participate in calming him down make him more furious; krauss gives her a merciful out
• emphacized that krauss is a failure as a son, that he falls upon the luck of being eldest and male rather than actually striving
• eva goes into the rose garden: she meets with her "inner self", a younger ~14 year old eva who's even more spitfire than she is. she is witch-like and able to turn anger into determination with her magic (kinda a reverse fredrika)
• time flows strangely in this conversation; her ultimate dream is to become the next successor of the family, which her inner self refuses to compromise on. an older eva tries to rationalize her plan with turning her son george into the perfect successor, but younger eva explains the true answer is to solve the epitaph. she starts to explain the puzzle; eva awakes on the boat
• she's troubled but manages. the rest of the family exits the boat. alone with hideyoshi, she nearly breaks down, terrified that her branch of the family secretly hates her. he reassures her and they enter the island
• upon stepping upon the island off the boat, eva suddenly hears her younger inner self welcoming her home...

DAY 1: 14.00

• the cousins are on their established beach walk with shannon
• battler prods about george and jessicas relationships with shkanon. the cousins promise theyll stay best friends forever, not getting involved with the inheritance dispute
• battler has very poor memory of his family meeting 6 years ago; he seems to consider shannon his first love. she recounts him clumsily flirting in english; he gets super embarrassed ("see you again")
• amidst this, he suddenly starts thinking "please let these happy days continue/end without a hitch"; beatrice shatters this with the overlay, announcing her latest game is unfolding
• gametime: the storm begins. maria gets stuck on her missing rose
• beatrice arrives and hands her the umbrella. they search for her rose; beatrice determines it has died because of the storm. maria as her apprentice begs to be taught how to revive it; she's not skilled enough for it yet
• seeing her tears, beatrice revives the rose for her (same mending spell as earlier). maria is not permitted to look, but in the end receives the rose now adorned with lace rather than a candy wrapper, along with the first letter
• beatrice challenges kinzo from the garden; he responds by throwing out his signet ring, proclaiming she is still his
• a butterfly goes to catch the ring and deliver it to her; it is intercepted by ronove, beatrice's butler. he is introduced, interrupted by the overlay layer to explain to overlay!battler
• he's a teaparty focused head furniture butler who's ranked 27th of the demons. he's very powerful but hiring him is more like a show of status among witches, so he is not directly involved with fights. battler refuses to get along with him
• he's elegant but backhandedly sharp (like a more reserved eva), but ultimately truly looking out for his lady; she's open to his occasional disobedience/attitude as that makes things more interesting (he's immediately reminiscent of the more onedimensional kasai higurashi)
• beatrice explains that bit by bit battler is being forced to believe in the witch, which is increasing her magical power, allowing her to transfer over more and more furniture from hell
• its as if they're objects obtaining the perception of more humanoid-looking forms over time as more magic leaks in
• she also explains this is the ultimate devil's proof: a demon has just been brought before battler ergo demons do exist. ronove is in both the game and overlay at once, like beatrice
• gametime: maria presents the letter during dinner. initially up in arms about it, the siblings faction sans kyrie storm towards kinzo's room to ask him if it's real
• (as if the belief in magic is a caked on layer hardening, affecting this loop's version of the events; in past loops it was unthinkable the siblings could accept beatrice as a concept this early on)
• eva's perspective is prioritized: this letter suddenly gives her a huge chance to claim the headship. her inner younger self keeps commenting that this was due to her magic; eva acts angrier than usual, chewing up rosa
• at every obstacle, inner eva wishes people that oppose her should simply die
• the siblings are unable to contact kinzo, taking his lack of reply to mean the letter is genuine. they interrogate maria mercilessly; she's reduced to crying herself to sleep after being sent to the guesthouse with the other cousins
• jessica muses that beatrice is just shannon wearing a fancy dress (again...)
• in a private meeting, the fight over the inheritance and letter legitimacy quiets down. they assume beatrice is after the headship. the new tactic against krauss is to let him keep his status as head if he's blackmailed
• eventually they tire out and ask gohda to bring over some water. then, they discuss that the mansion or forest could contain secret mechanisms and/or buildings to house the witch upon the island; the rumor of her being kinzo's mistress hidden somewhere has a long history
• they go back and forth trying to figure out the logistics and beatrice's potential motives.
• natsuhi wishes they had found an excuse to get kinzo's three beloved wing-crested servants off the island during the conference
• it's noted that the family lived in odawara until the island's construction 30 years ago, which was done by kinzo by hand. it's possible secret rooms exist for beatrice's sake, but it's unlikely anything was established after they had settled in; the logistics would place her at grandmother's age
• grandmother is mentioned as a pitiably figure, within kinzo having been forced to marry her and her status as overlooked in favor of a mistress
• they conclude solving the epitaph and thus finding the location of the gold would function as handing over the headship (including the island, the "wreckage of kinzo's dreams") to beatrice in exchange for the gold; nobody but natsuhi is concerned with the family's noble name
• kyrie concludes the letter is simply beatrice arrogantly throwing her weight around to display her immense prowess over the siblings in this game/gamble.
• additionally, a major goal of the letter was to fracture the younger siblings' alliance against krauss, lessening their chances of solving the epitaph
• inner eva resolves she'll definitely solve the epitaph herself, as her dream is still to become heiress.

DAY 1: 21.00

• in the overlay tea room, battler ponders the information the last scene provided. ronove enters and gives him tea and cookies; he refuses
• ronove's cookies are world-renowned
• battler asks why he serves such a temperamental, insane mistress: ronove explains that serving is furniture's joy and purpose. without someone to serve, they would no longer be furniture
• battler buys into the theory of a 19th human fully: this allows him to still deny the witch while also not suspecting any dear relatives or reliable servants
• beato and ronove counter with hempels raven: the contrapositive of his theory is that either one of his relatives or servants committed the murders, or that a witch does exist. he's taken aback
• among explanatory metaphors are cookies in boxes (kinda like the one higurashi tip) and bombs in boxes. it's called the best qed
• through the hempel's raven argument, gods are able to prove their power via punishing the disbelievers rather than blessing the believers, which is cheaper in terms of magical power
• battler is stumped, then counters saying it's impossible to prove an alibi for each person x outside of the first 18; beatrice shuts him up by proclaiming everything she says in red is absolutely true
• battler realizes (again) the red text is double-edged: it's his path to staying sane amidst this maze of illusions etc etc, basically his ability to steer her red proclamations is his argumentative technique
• (its rehashing a lot of basics as a refresher for this being the next episode, the same problem higurashi had)
• beatrice hesitates a bit seeing his confidence.
• refuses to repeat: there are only 18 people on the island
• refuses to repeat: there are 19 people or more on the island
• battler muses that witches are fragile beings that hide in the edges/folds of reality, and the red truth can be used to expose those weak points and extinguish their witch status, so it must be handled very carefully
• she surrenders from this skirmish. ronove gives them snacks. beatrice proclaims that rosa is about to explain why she couldn't explain her red-refusals
• gametime: the siblings become distracted by how out of it rosa seems. they ask her what's up; she suddenly freaks out, saying she killed beatrice very long ago but had written it off as a dream
• flashback: beatrice "awakens" during a meeting with kinzo at kuwadorian (nine-birds'-retreat), the hidden mansion within the deep forest she resides in on rokkenjima
• in overlay: beatrice claims that after living as a witch for 1000 years, kinzo captured her via the contract and tethered her to the secret mansion
• she claims she had known nothing but this mansion and its garden for the entirety of this version of her life, never being permitted to leave
• in game: beatrice asks kinzo who or what she is, and he evades her. she claims he's like a father to her????
• overlay: battler notes the guesthouse the family stays at is named toaian (visitor's retreat)
• she says she was "locked" into a manmade physical human body within the mansion due to not accepting kinzo's eternal courtship proposal (of ownership?)
• her release would be achieved via nodding her head to signal that she accepts his love.
• she decided as a last resort to abandon her body and roam the island in a fragile soul form. battler perceives this as suicide, but she explains that since her temporary re-entrance into human form is just a shackle on her witch form, it's not exactly suicide, but does leave her immensely vulnerable (i dont think this is factual)
• kinzo was so persistent in tethering her that even after her body's death, her soul was trapped on the island
• battler doesn't fully believe this: beatrice is wounded by his reaction and acts prickly. she leaves
• ronove continues the story: kinzo raised the newborn homunculus beatrice, though did not see her as a daughter. (aiieiieeeeeeee) beatrice lost her memories of her time as a witch, and thus was unable to make any sense of her place in the world, troubling her
• battler internally debates that it's most likely a case of kinzo raising the original beatrice's daughter and believing that it is her reincarnation (either way it's... i think this is an allegory for how shkanon are from the orphanage that kinzo funds)
• ronove says in red: kuwadorian is a real mansion upon rokkenjima
• despite the stake sisters having used red in front of him earlier, battler is startled by ronove's use of red text. ronove suggests they keep this between themselves, explaining it's an ability of demons (doesn't want to upset beatrice by making her arguments for her; he can only make the arguments she would)
• in red: beatrice and kinzo's flashback conversation truly occured (timeframe/circumstances not in red)
• not in red: homunculi exist; ronove explains that stating this in red would cause a stalemate. battler needs the concept of stalemates explained (?!), but then replies with his typical "ahh you're going on about incomprehensible things again"
• between the lines: lack of red text isn't necessarily confirmation of beatrice lying, it's moreso to make sure both parties do not run out of moves via stalemate/perpetual check (sure it is...)
• in red: beatrice's memories detail 1967 (19 years prior): in 1967 beatrice was on the island as a human
• gametime: (phrased as "lets advance the clock") interrupted by the overlay lol, the eldest stake sister lucifer says beatrice is waiting for ronove and calls him back, just as he started to get along with battler
• lucifer teasingly attacks battler then fully gores him
• actual gametime: rosa continues explaining her flashback. at middle school age, she grew very fed up with her family's expectations for her, particularly her mother's, and despaired (same phrasing as the despair that lead to witch!eva... and fredrika)
• she decided to run away for a reaction; she ran into the forest the siblings had been forbidden from. there, she found the witch's massive cage: surrounded by forest, a fence the size of two stories contained more forest, then at the center beatrice's cottage-mansion
• she finds a gap in the fence where a tree has bent it and crawls in. inside she meets beatrice, who is bewildered but delighted to meet a member of kinzo's family
• rosa is stunned by beatrice's magic fairytale qualities but very groundedly alien personality. she's odd and inexperienced due to being so sheltered. rosa speaks of animals in zoos etc, which makes beatrice realize even more that she needs to try escaping
• beatrice asks rosa to take her with her. the two leave; beatrice struggles with an intense fear of the forest being full of wolves, which is the lie kinzo told his kids before swapping to the myth of the witch (upon rudolf being excited by wolves)
• they venture out: beatrice is enamored with the outside world but naive and a bit difficult for the much younger rosa to deal with. rosa has begun to worry about getting trapped outside come nightfall (night would be dangerous -- why?)
• rosa takes her to the ocean's cliff to climb down, thinking that tracing the beach would make it easier to reach the mansion (and/or escape the island). beatrice doesn't have a full concept of danger
• while discussing aquarium fish, beatrice slips and dies upon the rock shores
• terrified, rosa tries to wake her then eventually leaves
• beatrice's spirit lingers outside her body; the memories of her 1000 years as a witch flood back and she begins to plot her revenge against kinzo. her spirit is very frail against the sun, so she transforms into butterflies to rest within the forest
• theres some commentary from the siblings inbetween (affirming that kinzo definitely had a sexual interest in beatrice, more of the sibling class dynamics)
• overlay: beatrice revives battler; he didn't see this flashback. she gives him a briefing. he asks for snacks and tea to accompany the story (...which seems very significant, he's eating the illusory world food)
• kinzo was not discouraged by beatrice's disappearance. he rebuilt rokkenjima's barrier (kekkai) through magic and kept her bound to the island. in ancient times, rokkenjima was an island of distortion where spirits etc. would concentrate. an eastern magician built the torii shrine which helped contain them
• his trap was very effective as it used eastern magic against beatrice, as she's a western spirit (thus she wasn't knowledgeable on dispelling it)
• this year's family conference is a front for the demon's roulette ritual of reviving the witch. she says she is grateful to him for quelling some decades worth of boredom, even if it was painful, as boredom is a witch's natural predator
• in red: there are no more than 18 humans on "this" rokkenjima (this fragment?)
• gametime: typical night 2 events occur. during her proposal, shannon immediately nods to accept in this loop (contrast how 1967 beatrice refused to ever nod to kinzo...)
• kinzo spins the roulette: he uses math-based odds magic. shuffling his tarot cards which he reads unorthodoxically, he realizes he has been chosen first. he summons his eagled furniture
• the three of them run up and realize the barrier of his study has been vanquished: inside kinzo plays chess with the witch. genji and ronove greet eachother as old friends
• kinzo accepts his death. as beatrice proceeds her queen, kinzo is splayed out in extravagant flames as he laughs
• his three furniture pieces were also chosen: beatrice gives them the chance to defend themselves against her. genji and shannon relent as they know opposition to the witch is what delights her and leads to her torturing them
• kanon cannot stand her and refuses; as an expansion of last loop, he's desperate to become human and learn love. genji is a puppet while shannon swallows her pride saying just accepting the ring counts as her fulfillment
• beatrice and ronove are simultaneously in present time and in overlaytime, commenting on how the furnitures behavior differs from past games
• beatrice promises that kanon could survive and choose the 4 he wants to take with him to the golden land if he can beat the stake sisters in a battle. the eldest, lucifer of pride appears: he beats her but doesn't claim the kill, then she fakes out and stabs towards his heart in stake form, which he covers via his left hand; it's brutalized
• as lucifer swaps between forms kanon picks her up and chokes her: she has lost, but kanon did not realize he had to defeat all 7 sisters
• they encircle lucifer and goad her into declaring her inferiority, then lunge at kanon. shannon suddenly intervenes, raising her defensive barrier
• throughout, ronove randomly interjects to offer tea, elegantly cheer on beatrice, etc its really funny. he seems to cheerfully resent that he's reduced to a butler/server rather than participating in battle
• overlay: battler rejects the magic fantasy battle where he was previously ok with the (still somewhat fantastical) gothic drama. beato goads him into accepting that it is now a fantasy setting, that he has no choice but to observe and witness. he closes his eyes, and also rejects any more food
• gametime: beatrice is upset at shannon's resoluteness and calm in the face of brutal death. beatrice comes really close to losing it at shannon like last loop, but is held back by ronove and then genji: genji gently mercy kills shkanon with their permission, leaving a bloodstained rose on their chests
• it's revealed genji serves ronove. ronove similarly mercy kills him, which collapses him like a puppet without strings
• scene swap; doing his nightly rounds, gohda is startled by inexplicable pot noises in the kitchen. eventually, all the pots begin rattling and the stake sisters emerge from them to pierce him
• the sisters then continue their hunt pursuing kumasawa; she's outside by the rose garden without an umbrella...
• she dodges all of their attacks effortlessly. she asks to see beatrice, then resumes her true form: the original grey-haired beatrice witch (!!?!?) called "predecessor beatrice" now, she's lost her name due to having given it to her disciple
• she wants to make beatrice stop; they battle with colossal towers and god-swords and a lot of mixed mentions of myths & religions
• beatrice keeps using massive multiplication to create insane arrays of bullets/shots. she has towers and giants and soldiers and shields where predecessor has a holy sword, holy chariot and the tower of babel
• theres a brief overlay scene of predecessor appearing to pity the struggling battler, saying he's sinless and doesn't deserve this (disagree)
• predecessor wins; she pins beatrice in half, going in for the kill. she makes beatrice recite her mending spell from the start of the episode, and her parting words are that she's just dismissing her as a disciple, but will continue to serve her (???)
• as predecessor recites the spell, her own form is destroyed instead: beatrice destroyed her with her first attack, but decided to instantly revive her and continue the battle for her own fun. the predecessor is destroyed
• ronove notes that it's forbidden for a holy sword to attack a holy shield, so the two elements avoid eachother rather than "cancelling out" (...bc it would be a stalemate hmm)
• (it all intensely has the airs of kids playing pretend and constantly going "no MY attack secretly was even stronger and kills you")
• battler is in utter shock. beatrice gauds worse than ever, proclaiming she chose a very sci-fi backdrop because she's realized he loves that kind of popular anime and this is very effective
• she mentioned "corrosion" awakening the dark, of which predecessor is included as an accidental side-effect; predecessor explains she was merely "sleeping" within kumasawa, strategically placed to wake as soon as beatrice gets out of control
• discussing with ronove, beatrice was in genuine danger of being dethroned and killed in that battle if she hadn't come up with her solution
• she doesnt have the energy to set up the corpses in locked room puzzles and leaves it to ronove(!!!) it's like she leaves gametime to mess with overlaytime battler
• this all went on until a bit past 1 am

DAY 2: 06.00

• the parents faction stayed up all night only dozing slightly near morning. they rouse around 6am, realizing the servants are missing from their morning jobs
• there's 5 blood sigils upon various doors throughout the mansion
• rosa, kyrie, hideyoshi and nanjo split to check on the kids in the guesthouse. the main house group krauss, eva, rudolf, and natsuhi look for keys and don't find any
• the kids are fine, just sleeping in
• rudolf and eva push to break the parlor window to get in. inside, they find shannon's corpse hiding behind a sofa
• overlay: beatrice goads battler, but he's shriveled under the tea table desperately trying to get away from her. she's taken aback
• he leaves to hang out in the rose garden in this twilight frozen state. there he meets grey beatrice, who explains rather than "fully" dying it's more like she's captured off of the gameboard and thus can no longer participate directly
• she leads him into schroedinger's cat box theory as an explanation of beatrice's game: right now rokkenjima is caught in the purgatory between scientific truth and magical truth, and is neutral but can be "pulled/swayed" into either reality based on the game's results (rational arguments)
• thus two conflicting truths about what happened on the island can coexist up until someone "opens the box and looks inside". battler's denial can continue as the "science side"
• she calls him pheonix-like (again) for recovering and announces her temporary name is now vergilia (cute)
• vergilia offers to act as battler's counsel, like how beato now has ronove
• battler re-enters the tea room where ronove has apparently made beatrice promise to be nicer to him (kinda cute but i hope she actually kills him)
• battler reveals his strategy (very poorly, mixing up the metaphors): beatrice and ronove are shocked such an advanced anti-endless witch strategy was handed over, but they expect nothing less of vergilia
• one metaphor is that you could argue all day long that braun tubes in a tv operate via magic if you aren't familiar with / are obfuscating electricity

DAY 2: 08.00

• jump cuts to the surviving relatives holed up somewhere in the guesthouse (new bar room?); maria sleeps. george and jessica are heartbroken. the 4 siblings each have shotguns, in this loop kinzo has a collection of multiple (?!?? multiplying? maximum stakes? ultimate action movie exaggeration)
• another little scene of krauss vaguely comforting rudolf who still has cptsd (i didnt note the first instance, i think it was right before rosa's flashback)
• the siblings are much quicker to believe in the epitaph game premise compared to prev episodes
• tips update: there's ambiguity if the deaths were caused by stakes or bullets
• overlay: battler asks virgilia to recap the currently known murder-facts (this is the introduction to this fragment's murders puzzle/premise, rather than it having been organic on-screen reveals. it's speeding up the format)
• beatrice is jealous / doesn't want to be excluded from strategy discussions. (shes realizing a little crush on battler thats pissing me off big time)
• beatrice's definition of a closed room is revealed (not new info just formalized)
• the possibility of a piece having received lethal wounds in one room then stumbling into a different room and locking themself in the second room to create a false closed room is not wholly discounted, but considered very unlikely due to how mortally beatrice wounds her pieces each time
• in red: all 6 victims are certainly dead
• order: shannon -> kumasawa -> gohda -> genji -> kinzo -> kanon
• parlor -> 2nd floor guest room -> 3rd floor waiting room, near kinzo's study -> 2nd floor vip room (beatrice's room) -> boiler -> chapel
• (chapel kanon seems .. really intense?)
• each body was accompanied by their respective master key and an envelope containing the next room's key. kanon's body contains the key to shanon's, for a closed loop of closed rooms
• kinzo's body had an extra letter explaining the game is to solve the epitaph, not sniff beatrice out
• battler argues a room may have had a trap. not in red: no traps, definition of traps
• battler argues one of the victims may have murdered the 5 then killed themself. he asks beatrice to repeat in red that "all 6 deaths were homicides", but she instead answers in red "none of the 6 committed suicide"
• beato is panicking, and battler has apparently realized her strategy: cornering him logically then overwhelming him with evidence of magic while he's down, corrupting him
• battler posits that one of the 6 was a culprit then accidentally died as part of staging the final room. ronove stops beatrice from countering, then drags her off for a break
• on returning, beatrice sternly resigns. battler holds back from ridiculing her
• intensely there's a tone of vergilia and ronove being her "parents", eager to show off her strengths and weaknesses with a kind of pride. and that beato has very childish anger problems (kinda in contrast to fredrika's resolute maturity, but similar to lambdadelta's fickle moods so idk what to make of it)

DAY 2: 09.00

• gametime: the siblings faction sends the kids to their room. they ponder the epitaph inspired by eva
• kyrie posits that the whole thing may be an elaborate wordplay, with the key to the golden land being a 6-character password rather than a place on a map
• kinzo's hometown isn't odawara (im wondering if it was hinamizawa), the concept of river and village may be metaphorical for family, as the kanji for village has a kanji from maria's name
• the epitaph is theorized to be split into 3 parts (the order the tips section already has it in)
• rosa says kinzo had a different name for maria which rosa rejected
• everyone else leaves to cook (women) or hang out (men), while eva continues adamantedly to figure out the riddle
• she asks rosa for her advice. rosa suggests something is up with the "now and for the last time" portion of the ending
• (i initially forgot to note rosa's hint and opened up the console version to see a replay, and that version gave a completely different hint??)
• throughout this, the siblings faction defaults to treating natsuhi like a servant (more than usual) where they would previously ask the actual servants☹️
• overlay: alone, beatrice converses with ronove and vergilia. mad at him, she dispels ronove
• she mopes around pathetically, asking vergilia for advice. vergilia suggests that beatrice's win condition isn't making battler submit, but to make him believe in her. beatrice is upset by this but says she'll think about it
• gametime: eva thinks with younger eva, who pushes her to continue the puzzle rather than rest
• young eva suggests rosa is capable of solving the puzzle too, which eva handwaives
• the evas solve the puzzle (not very explained to the reader) and reach a long wet tunnel that past a downward spiral staircase leads to a beautiful bedroom containing all the gold. she delights. it seems to be underground the island
• young eva congratulates her and herself; eva calls her the true beatrice, and how she owes everything to her belief/magic in her young self
• on exiting, she's cornered by rosa; both are armed. they lower their guns; eva takes rosa to witness the gold together but the two remain extremely tense
• rosa says that eva is the sibling she trusts the most
• last night in their deliberation, the siblings agreed on a new rule: if anyone finds the gold, they will immediately announce it to the other siblings
• rosa probes then threatens eva slightly about whether or not she'll follow the rule. eva wants to wait a bit to strategize so she can ensure all 10 tons of gold will be liquidated without passing through krauss' hands
• rosa is certain no murders have taken place, it's just the servants acting out a rouse by kinzo (who pulled a miyo's corpse)
• eva promises rosa a +150 million yen bonus cut to stay quiet, but rose will only do so for 1 day. rosa is concerned that eva wants to keep all the gold to herself
• the scene cuts to young eva still in the golden bedroom, who is screaming that she's earned and deserves all the gold to herself
• beatrice visits her and sweeps her away to her coronation ceremony: she is to be the new golden and endless witch, succeeding the role and name of beatrice (listed as "EVA Beatrice" now)
• lambdadelta, bernkastel, ronove, the stake sisters and vergilia introduce themselves to her. she's overwhelmed but overjoyed
• lambdadelta signed off this rare succession ceremony, while bernkastel finds it frivolous and unearned
• in receiving the golden staff, evabeatrice wears a new dress; all the previous beatrice paintings are changed by the magical crowd to now show evabeatrice instead
• overlay: with vergilia's advice, battler considers this to be symbolic reward for eva's efforts congratulating her child self for her childhood dream, rather than literal reversion / splitting to her child self and the grand magical banquet ceremony
• beatrice pretty much confirms this. she's surprised by this outcome but isn't hurt to relinquish her title, she's excited by it
• she eagerly asks battler to give her a new name now that she's given it up. he just says "beato" nickname, she's disappointed (notably no mention of her pre-beatrice name, and im pissed off shes asking battler for this)
• gametime...?: battler and beato congratulate evabeatrice together, framed as a tender moment of them finally seeing eye to eye. evabeatrice grows more and more confident as the event progresses
• evabeatrice still has to complete the ritual ceremony of resurrection ...?

DAY 2: 10.30

• in the guesthouse parlor, the siblings cant rest. eva seems feverish, so she retreats with hideyoshi in a guestroom. rosa stands guard
• eva feels worse and worse, begging her husband to stay near her. she explains to him about her inner self; he thinks she's just delirious, but tries his best to comfort her
• suddenly the kids clamor down the stairs as maria is having a meltdown. humiliated, rosa takes her out into the corridor outside eva's room. hideyoshi steps out and asks rosa to try and keep quiet, as maria is disturbing eva
• rosa drags maria further out and beats her... maria suddenly snaps into quiet alertness saying she'll behave if rosa can let her see her laced rose again
• rosa takes her out to the rose garden (storming). there, maria finds her rose; they're ambushed by evabeatrice
• overlay: battler has a yelling at the tv moment where he begs for rosa and maria to not go out alone without alerting the others / for someone to stop them
• gametime: in her room, adult eva is struggling, screaming in pain in bed while hideyoshi is panicking wanting to run and get dr nanjo; she begs for him to stay
• in the garden, evabeatrice lifts rosa up into the air and dances with her, then kills her / revives her in various food-themed ways according to dreams rosa had shared with her when they were very young. she calls her "my former sister"...
• its gutwrenching... set up as magically sweeping rosa away into a dreamworld where the two sisters can escape the island's abuse together, but it's still horrifying levels of gore; where evabeatrice is overjoyed in both her new magical power and that she's sharing this with rosa, rosa cannot comprehend the magic and is screaming
• it's evabeatrice's first time properly using the endless/golden magic, it's both a test run to figure out it out and a proper part of the ritual ceremony
• overlay: battler screams throughout the cruelty; beatrice nonchalantly comments he definitely has an interest in magic after this display and she'd be willing to teach him the basics. he grabs beatrice and slaps her for finding it fun. she's completely taken aback, as she thought after their bonding moment clapping together they were starting to see eachother on a middle ground, that he'd learn the fun of these freakish displays (i like this type of meltdown for him but slapping her is way too far)
• one by one everyone in overlay leaves beato alone... vergilia asks to speak to her later
• beato very sadly slips into gametime and awkwardly asks evabeatrice to tone it down as she's overdoing it. evabeatrice is shocked as she had been told beato had been the cruellest to ever do it, mentioning the chapel murders from ep 2 (lambdadelta theming)
• beatrice kills maria and rosa finally via a bruise (similar to how genji killed shkanon) and head trauma on a fence respectively
• evabeatrice is unamused. ronove appears to fill in beato's intents, then they all leave evabeatrice alone

DAY 2: 11.00

• rudolf knocks on eva's door asking if they've seen rosa and maria. a crowd has gathered looking for them; he runs off towards the garden alone (cousins' advice)
• eva stays with hideyoshi. she's distraught, screaming rosa and maria need to not approach the garden as the witch will ambush them. she calms down, justifying the vision of their deaths as nothing but a horrible nightmare she just had
• overlay: vergilia reports that rudolf found the two corpses in the garden and brought them to the guesthouse. TIPS says that maria may have died after rosa...?
• in red: the two died and their causes of death reported by nanjo (medulla oblongata stab and strangulation) are accurate
• battler is still terse, refusing to answer beatrice. she's hurt; he explains he cannot stand her display of actual cruelty even if evabeatrice is "in charge" right now
• her earlier suggestion that battler joins her in enjoying the show had no trace of her usual cruelty and bullying of him, which makes it worse; that she genuinely finds this entertaining and sought to share it with him without the context of torturing him...
• he asks for her to leave, but he'll keep playing if ronove argues in her place. she's heartbroken and sulks off...
• vergilia and ronove explain that beato has no friends. battler is resolutely, calmly angry: he is not beato's friend and will never forgive her, he never wants to see her again
• battler posits that rosa accidentally killed maria in overdoing her beating then accidentally died in the shock of that manslaughter
• in red: both deaths were homicides.
• battler comments that he doesn't get fired up arguing without beatrice
• gametime: the adults decide to barricade. rosa's gun was left beside her corpse, but all 5 rounds remained (tested to confirm it wasn't a trap)
• eva has an inner monologue argument with evabeatrice, who's open about how she's the killer. she begs her to stop, but evabeatrice says that fulfilling her long abandoned dream of becoming a witch is the payment for fulfilling eva's dream of the gold and headship
• in order to complete the process for becoming a witch, she must complete the ceremony. she plans to kill everyone but the cousins and eva's branch
• eva collapses. she asks to rest with hideyoshi, who is now armed with rosa's gun
• overlay: beatrice discusses with evabeatrice about strategy. evabeatrice shrugs her off
• the mechanics of belief in witches is explained. in modern times humans have built up a toxin that resists belief in magic. the more disbelieving people there are in one spot, the less possible it is for magic to occur. it's best to single members of groups out and then strike
• beato explains the hardest part of the ceremony is thus when groups start to barricade, but making the murders look fantastical keeps them from doubting one another (increasing magical power)
• evabeatrice sees this as an equation and can work with it easily. she sees through beato completely: beato's murders had been all based on whims, frequently with the actual closed rooms setup done by ronove based on her ideas rather than her own plans
• evabeatrice departs without hearing beato's actual advice to get past the barricade challenge. beato explains her failing to stage the last 2 murders as fantastical as a test for her new disciple to overcome
• beato is completely lonely, laughing alone then sulking. ronove visits to tell her he's lost to battler as he suspects eva and hideyoshi. beato is excited to hear battler may still want to hang out with her
• ronove announces he'll make a lot of cookies for battler, encouraged by beato

DAY 2: 13.00

• kyrie suddenly asks to talk to rudolf in private (not shown)
• sometime later? the siblings faction is arguing about going into the main mansion or not for food. kyrie, rudolf and hideyoshi go with 2 guns and 1 serving cart to carry food
• once they're inside the mansion, evabeatrice raises a barrier preventing entry/exit. she declares she'll have grotesque fun re-killing kyrie and rudolf, leaving hideyoshi go, then stage their bodies according to the ceremony when she's done
• ronove appears and tells her that's against beato's instructions. evabeatrice argues. ronove points out the stake sisters must be used per the epitaph
• she summons the envy and sloth stakes. the ushiromiya group realize an ambush is coming and split up, not realizing this leaves them more vulnerable
• evabeatrice is very reckless with appearing before humans. ronove warns her that guns are also an "anti-magic" device that can be used to harm both furniture and witches (?? contradicts the ending of ep1)
• kyrie faces the envy stake and rudolf faces the sloth stake. kyrie wins against leviathan due to feeling far greater envy (there's full-on powerscaling for this) due to her rship to asumu and battler. rudolf wins by lazily tricking belphegor (aiming for evabeatrice rather than the stake)
• kyrie says that while dating rudolf, asumu suddenly got pregnant with battler so rudolf married her instead. kyrie was impregnated around the same time; due on the same day, battler was born while kyrie miscarried. until she later bore rudolf's ange, she cursed asumu and wished for her death, wishing for such magic to occur
• thus kyrie continuously sees battler as a reminder of asumu / her failure to "retain" rudolf
• kinda reframes how frequently kyrie probes rudolf about flirting with other women. she's weirdly extremely confident that she can forever reel him back, while he always says "yep i flirted, but she doesn't compare to you". he did flirt with belphegor a bit so this scene plays out again
• confronted with evabeatrice, rudolf calls her eva, confused as to what's happening but still staying on guard
• kyrie and rudolf kill those two stakes(!!!). frustrated, evabeatrice summons her own furniture, not wanting handmedowns: the chiester sisters 45 (pink, afraid) and 410 (blue, goofy), extremely high precision ribbon-like "arrow" (bullet) system
• she has them fire; they immediately succeed. evabeatrice begins to toy with the corpses
• beatrice appears in the room and asks evabeatrice to act more elegantly. evabeatrice refuses, explaining her logic of so long as the murder format complies in the end, she should be allowed to practise her endless magic however she likes in between
• extended explanation of how gluttonous murder is an endless well of short term pleasure for newly born witches as thats the #1 act a human is not allowed to commit (that crossing a line and entering taboo territory is only fun because its taboo)
• evabeatrice probes beato's motives; she tries to say it's not her own reticence but rather her friend's. evabeatrice declares this battle game occurring in "another world" (outside the chessboard, the overlay) has nothing to do with her no matter what, so if someone outside has a problem, they better tell her directly
• she tells beato to relay a message to the tune of "you're a has-been you old hag. nothing you say matters anymore.", cruelly going " ahaha i assumed your friend is a girl, but they might not be~? sorry if i said that wrong~" its delightful
• beato has to continue playing the game to prove herself as battler is the last thing keeping her from becoming a witch, whereas evabeatrice has already achieved it (but still needs to carry out the ceremony...?)
• beatrice leaves in low spirits. in overlay: vergilia discusses with her that she needs to focus on convincing battler to accept her. beato admits she realizes why vergilia has been against her cruel antics until now
• gametime: hideyoshi staggers in and asks evabeatrice as eva to cease her childish cruelty as it's something she's meant to have graduated from. evabeatrice scoffs, threatening him; he suddenly jumps up at her and slaps her tearfully asking her to "know her place"
• eva yells that she's a witch and the successor, while hideyoshi says she's "merely a witch of the kitchen" who should end this farce and get back to her proper role as his wife 🫢
• she kills him via the chiester sisters, but her fun is completely spoilt. she watches his dead body for a long time. dejected, she asks ronove and a stake sister to perform the rituals requirements
• asking a stake sister to pose a corpse rather than actually kill someone is very humiliating to them; ronove sympathizes

DAY 2: 13.30

• in the guesthouse, eva has another intense nightmare of hideyoshi's death; she loses composure even in front of krauss
• the cousins crowd with the commotion. they all want to check the main house now with the three sibling faction members' absence, but krauss as head doesn't allow it
• overlay: battler comments on the cruelty of the murders. ronove holds back from commenting that beato for his sake tried to prevent wanton cruelty as best she could
• not repeated in red: rudolf, kyrie and hideyoshi are dead. TIPS suggests that kyrie in particular is not dead
• ronove's refusal to say in red is unclear if he can't or because he's resigning as beato's stand-in. ronove and vergilia insist that battler play with/against beato instead
• beato timidly appears at battler's allowance
• gametime: the cousins find the main house current corpses and scream, cry etc as usual
• battler has a little speech about how george is the strongest among them for having lost not just his parents (past) but also his lover shannon (future)
• overlay: beato comprehends gamebattler's point in mathematical/logical terms, not emotional ones
• battler's point: he understands on some level that the murders are beato's duty to be revived. however toying with the corpses and the survivors is going too far
• if beato were to demonstrate an understanding of the worth of human life [and love...?], he'll allow her to return as his opponent
• vergilia explains that endless magic is considered a black art because it can lead to loss of understanding the worth of human lives. she herself came close to this level but voluntarily quit striving / increasing her magical power to not turn out like that
• it's again construed as the sense of breaking taboo is more pleasurable than the actual act of killing / breaking the vase
• vergilia claims the purpose of magic but especially endless magic is to grant happiness to humanity, not cruelty. witches are supposed to be intermediaries between gods and humans with the ability to use godlike powers (no mention of ascension yet)
• battler shares his theory that the game isn't about his submission but rather the confirmation of beato as a witch. he calls beato still an apprentice in training for now
• gametime: rudolf's group master key and 2 guns are now considered lost
• the group bunkers down further in the guesthouse. krauss, natsuhi and eva barricade the first floor while the cousins on the second floor sit in mourning. nanjo sits in his own room near the cousins, deciding not to disturb them
• depressed, george leaves to get coffee. suddenly, beato as a butterfly materializes before him and tell him she will revive shannon for him due to his genuine, heartfelt wish to revive her, calling upon beatrice's name in his heart
• they fly out a silent window together, unnoticed. george is unusually apt with magic
• beato is very weak without her endless/golden status now; she will open the gate to the land of the dead, but george must actually pull shannon out of there with the strength of his wish
• in the garden, evabeatrice poses with the chiester sisters to kill krauss and natsuhi once eva steps out of the room
• they detect beato and george's movement; ronove and the stake sister accompanying evabeatrice manage to weasel out of it, directing her attention elsewhere
• inside the main mansion, beato and george revive shannon slowly. a bit orfeas and eyrydike shenanigans play out
• they tearfully embrace, thanking beato infinitely
• eva has an internal debate with evabeatrice about why hideyoshi could possibly have needed to be killed. evabeatrice says that eva's dreams of becoming a wife and mother were born within her once she became an adult aka discarded all her other dreams, so they're lower on the priority list and not being honored
• eva leaves to go to the bathroom and try to wash up to keep herself from collapsing; she still has her intense fever
• as soon as eva leaves, the chiester sisters fire and snake the corpses out of the guesthouse
• as george and shannon embrace in the mansion, in overlay vergilia congratulates beato for realizing true magic (she exhausted what little power she has to save the lovers)
• suddenly, the chiesters fire at the pair in one shot. vergilia enacts a rouse barrier to make the sisters detect herself as beato, so beato can escape the scene (very slim chances, only one chance)
• beato escapes

DAY 2: 17.45

• eva steps out of the bathroom to find krauss and natsuhi missing. the cousins barrel down; george went to get coffee then vanished
• nanjo discusses how ep 2 overlay!battler's arguments against the sealed windows/doors are impossible LOL
• nanjo and battler discover a window on the second story that is completely silent on opening/closing and potentially lockable by an accomplice
• all 4 survivors rush out to the mansion. in the arbor near the rose garden krauss and natsuhi are dead with stakes
• jessica swears vengeance. the group runs to the mansion; eva struggles with the master key
• the door for the parlor room suddenly has the numbers 07151129 written on it alongside the previous sigil
• battler theorizes it's his own birthday july 15 with someone else's side by side (beato's?)
• they enter; eva loses it at george's corpse. battler enters a bizarre calm state similar to ep2 ending, trying to rehash the events and logic behind it all
• for the first time (hes so stupid) he thinks about ange, his (half?) sister who's revealed to be just 6 years old at this point in time. it seems he isn't close with her; he's burdened by the idea of having to look after her alone if he survives (framed as "how dare pops and kyrie-san go head of me, leaving me to take care of ange alone")
• as he's zoned out, all of a sudden eva and jessica get into a fight; jessica accuses eva of committing some if not all of the murders due to winding up on the first story alone, while eva accuses the cousins and/or nanjo of having killed george while up on the second story
• eva somehow shoots the gun (unclear blame/intent) right before jessica's eyes, damaging her corneas. nanjo guides her to the servant room infirmary area and bandages her
• eva is distraught, in disbelief saying she could not have possibly done that on purpose. in the meantime, evabeatrice is very upset that beato tried to undo her murder of shannon, who was one of the very first sacrifices
• jessica is instructed to not cry, not emote too hard, calm down etc as her blindness is most likely temporary but still needs serious medical attention once the storm ends. she's distraught
• nanjo steps out to give her a moment of space and is brutally killed by evabeatrice... who seems to have used her staff like a shotgun...?
• jessica completely panics; she's completely helpless without her sight
• beato in an even more extremely weakened state pities jessica and retrieves kanon's soul to guide her to temporary safety
• a ghostly kanon guides jessica its soooo sweet. they hide in the parlor together behind a curtain, unable to touch but finally confessing mutual love (not fully shown)
• beato places an infinite barrier on the parlor door to at least grant them time
• evabeatrice has the chiester sisters "sew up" beato's chest as they can't break the barrier without killing her. beato resists more and more
• evabeatrice asks why beato's suddenly having this change of heart, but beato refuses continuously; her immense refusal to both answer and to die grants her her own new type of endlessness. ronove and the chiester sisters suddenly side with beato
• evabeatrice is distraught, crushing beato's heart repeatedly via her furniture
• only when kanon's spirit slips by and claims he's done speaking to jessica does beato relent, approaching death
• just as evabeatrice is about to finally crush the remains of beato's heart, overlay battler steps in and pulls gameevabeatrice into the purgatory overlay world, claiming that she's his true opponent rather than beato (!!!?!!?) (!!!!!!!!?????!!??!?)
• completely shocked, evabeatrice tries to fire the chiester sisters (which are... definitely just a gun) but battler is completely immune to them with his magic refusal / genetics
• they enter quick chess-debate in battler's favor to teach evabeatrice the rules. she learns red text and devil's proofs but is shocked, upset and at severe disadvantage
• the furniture isn't really helping her side
• in red: hideyoshi stayed in eva's room throughout that entire twilight round
• beato is meekly but almost blushingly shocked at battler's rescue stunt. he's defending her honor as a witch due to her becoming a "good witch" at the end there. he says she won't be a properly good/endless witch until she does enough to undo all her cruelty up until now
• the new framework is the theory that eva is the human culprit, and her witch form is serving to justify / fantasy-ify it
• evabeatrice returns to arguing about rudolf, kyrie and hideyoshi's deaths (battler hasnt jumped to a previously-resolved battle before and is taken aback)
• in red: kyrie didn't think they needed to make the food trip, yet she was the one that suggested it (the odd scene of kyrie talking to rudolf that cut out)
• battler / the human side is cornered. as a last resort, beato takes the chessboard thinking approach; she requests to inspect kyrie's corpse for clues as the gametime rewinds to that scene
• she enters and finds a cigarette butt in her pocket; kyrie did not smoke. rudolf smokes, but this cigarette is a different brand. it matches the brand hideyoshi has in his pocket
• battler constructs his theory: kyrie found a cigarette butt in hideyoshi and eva's room. as eva was supposedly sick and hated cigarettes, she would not have allowed such. hideyoshi must have been in the room to construct eva's alibi as she stepped out. kyrie on inspection secretly pocketed the cigarette remains and showed it to rudolf
• her pressing for that group to go get food from the main mansion was more of a setup to corner hideyoshi and probe him. evabeatrice cannot argue past this
• collapsing, she flickers between witch and regular adult forms, then suddenly finds the resolve to counter it via progressing the game board much further
• battler thanks beato for providing him this move, heartfelt etc
• as her own last resort, evabeatrice presents an absolute move: covering battler in a web of red truths so thick, he has no openings at all (its like 20 lines of airtight red text)
• the crux of it is that once in the main house at the end, battler never let eva out of his sight; how could nanjo have died if jessica could not do it (blinded) and battler as a non culprit non accomplice didn't witness it?
• beato steps forward and motions to deny witches altogether in red to defeat this red and save battler from despairing. it's a paradox; everyone tries to get her to stop (evabeatrice leaps at her but ronove pushes her down lolol)
• its absolute melodrama. beato asks battler to keep his ears closed so he doesn't see her true form
• beato wants battler to reach the truth on his own, not have it spelled out for him. she recites the truth but battler is screaming to not hear it so we get none of it. supposedly, she explains every murder without the use of magic
• he thinks a bit about how denying witches in red means that he's been right all along but then rejects it (because he's beginning to like her) (and i still stand by thinking the red text system is bullshit and arbitrary)
• beato and evabeatrice begin to fade away. battler snaps into gametime, crying: as the last survivor he proclaims eva as the culprit then is shot right through the heart (eva has a really freakycool sprite)
• fading into nothingness, he eventually calls beato's name. she responds; the two re-form standing back to back calling this a miracle
• he calls her a true witch, thanking her etc etc its sappy. she's shocked and relieved that her true form has not been revealed to him
• suddenly, from shimmers in beato's chest the island is reborn and reformed in the middle of the ep 2 golden land banquet hall, but this time with the entire ushiromiya family present, alive and loving
• the two couples involving shkanon are paired off. natsuhi and eva cling to one another crying that their kids are in love with servants lolol
• the chiester sisters threaten to kill battler for being mean to maria (YES!!!)
• furniture, witches and humans alike (called "all those with will/determination") are now equal. battler and beato ascend the entrance room's staircase together (...it has the atmosphere of a wedding)
• kinzo welcomes battler heartily; he's the last to sign to declare beatrice real and usher the whole family into the golden land
• he signs the initial grand contract. gets sappy with beato. the final "page" (kinda) is absurdly simple: that he acknowledges beatrice is a witch
• suddenly, the atmosphere shatters; vergilia opens one eye in a contorted expression as the scene twists into a cruel joke. this entire episode has been a rouse (!!!!)
• battler is picked up by goats/furniture and pushed down, being forced to sign. at the center of the banquet underneath the chandelier ANGE APPEARS!!!!!!!!!!
• she calls out to battler to cease his stupidity (YES!!!!!); the entire armada is against her but unable to attack. beato drops the chandelier on her but she just walks it off unphased
• battler is heartbroken, cannot believe beato would betray him etc; she hesitates then doubles down saying of course she's this cruel, she was just playing the part of helpless maiden assigned by vergilia
• ange keeps calling out & out to battler. shes very jealous of him and upset with him for disappearing on her, leaving her out of the family conference then getting swept up with witches for eternity, leaving her alone (GETTTT HIM)
• beato realizes who she is; she's fredrika's true piece (it had been set up that her piece was battler until now...! this is crazy!!!)
• ange isn't namedropped but it's so blatantly obvious. beato and battler start to realize it too: the cast page rolls
• of note is genji's surname is listed as "ronove"

Tea Party

• beato, fredrika and lambdadelta meet in purgatory. beato appears with lightning rather than her usual fade-in
• lambda can't figure out who the mystery girl at the end was and is begging for hints. in exchange she'll reveal that santa claus is actually daddy
• beato and freddy discuss the witch "lord santa claus" as if delta is missing out; beato lost contact with him due to wishing for expensive fancy presents at age 12, whereas freddy got sick of him at age 9 and tried to cut off his beard (im obsessed...)
• (...and now that i think of it, papa furude died when rika was 9 right? he died in 1980, and shes 11 turning 12 in 1983... the matsuribayashi point of how she lost interest in reviving him...)
• delta then tries to present the hint of evabeatrice being ushiromiya eva due to her speech quirk (i didn't notice this in-game but its true now that its pointed out, the verb suffix in the way she says "why don't you just die?" all the time is made homophonic to "eva")
• freddy leaves, threatening to spoil higurashi for lambda who's in the middle of reading it. beato tries to go "wow, what a wise hint" genuinely
• TIPS: battler's death page notes the wolf and sheep puzzle
• alone, delta suddenly gets terse. she asks why beato isn't actually trying to win
• beato is a false witch granted witchhood by delta, because beato and battler's conflict has created a bird cage with which delta can capture freddy inside forever.
• 😍WHAT
• delta's in love with freddy. she wants to trap her in her hand for eternity. she wants to gouge out freddys eyes so she can only see delta. im going insane. this twist has left me lightheaded and in shock. WOW
• if beato keeps fooling around rather than staying on track creating unsolvable games, delta will trap her in the worst possible fragment of her pre-witch life...

Witch's Tea Party

• october 4, 1998: 12 years after the rokkenjima massacre
• eva is extremely frail and dying, like kinzo was 12 years ago. she summons her sole surviving relative ange to her very high class hospital room
• they openly hate eachother. eva announces her plan: she'll leave all her immense wealth to ange without explaining the massacre incident at all, to torment her eternally maximumly
• eva's status as the sole survivor was extremely contended by the public but nothing ever solidly countered it. an endless torrent of investigations and media cycles call her evil; the "rokkenjima suspicion" conspiracy theory brewed but then was considered a ploy by her to control the narrative etc
• she sent ange to a boarding school (implied to be st lucia's!!!!!! AAHHHHH) where she was constantly surrounded by bodyguards. her life is horribly impossibly lonely but she is rich
• both eva and ange have no one to love and no one loves them. in particular ange misses battler who had been sweet to her. she quotes him its so cute...
• eva mourns her george who had been groomed perfectly but was stolen from her on the island
• eva proclaims herself a witch with her evabeatrice catchphrase. as she goes into a coughing fit, she calls ange her true successor of the golden magic and beatrice title
• ange leaves. she climbs atop the (same building?) skyscraper's roof and goes to jump off, hoping to be reunited with her family in death
• she's been having dreams of the family conference with visits from fredrika
• freddy intercepts her leap, declaring she has a chance of changing the past if she commits to freddy's assignment for her. ange immediately asks if her family can be saved; freddy cannot guarantee anything and the chances are extremely low, but at this time the family is trapped in an eternity of suffering that cannot be broken without her
• eva's guards for ange close in on her. she leaps, following freddy to walk on the sky
• ange proclaims "see you again", mirroring battler's childhood flirting with shannon detailed at the start of the episode
• freddy says she wanted to present to ange the best possible fragment of 1986's rokkenjima as a gift, but couldn't find it in time
• TIPS says ange throws cash around a lot. she's proclaimed ANGE Beatrice on the witches page..!!