Let’s read Umineko! - episode 5 - chapter 8

Right where we left off! All the adults, plus Battler, have crowded into the parlour so that the gold can make them happy.

Wanting to adjourn, they dig out a convenient tape recorder to take a record of what was said, one that can’t be tampered with. Ah, simpler times…

Rosa says she’s tired, Krauss and Natsuhi leave the room for a strategy meeting, Genji is called and sent for food and drinks, which are delivered by Kanon and Sayo, just so we know where everyone is and isn’t. (We have no idea about the cousins and Erika just yet.)

Hideyoshi shares an anecdote about how he got his start stealing from the Americans… ok, that’s pretty funny actually. The relatives drag Sayo and Kanon into a conversation about whatever young people are into. A mandatory conversation, which they clearly don’t particularly want.

Just as midnight, October 5th, comes… someone knocks mysteriously. And we immediately cut back to Krauss and Natsuhi setting up their ploy. They’re trying to figure out when to play the ‘Kinzo disappeared!!’ card.

Weirdly, we get Krauss referring to the ‘toxin’…

I guess Lambda has control over narration, but it seems like a weird slip of a term that belongs to the ‘magic’ world to the ‘mundane’ world.

Krauss prepares to sacrifice himself, declaring he’ll set up divorce papers for Natsuhi to use, so she and Jessica can escape the wreckage and live comfortably when this all blows up. Aaagh, I don’t think she’s gonna like that. Yeah, she really doesn’t…

Genji arrives to report another mysterious phone call from Natsuhi’s supposed long-lost son. The narration notes that she prefers not to think about anything before the birth of Jessica, 18 years ago—same as Battler. Hm, I didn’t make that connection before. Wonder if that ties in with all the wacky parentage stuff we got around Battler in Episode 4.

Anyway mystery guy knows about Natsuhi’s headaches. He asks repeatedly to ‘play’, and this leads into a question about her fave season.

Autumn, she says. He tells her his is the same, and for proof, demands that she lift up a clock in her room… Very pushy guy. When she obliges, she finds… something which shocks her. Something with ‘autumn’ on it, I assume. Phone Man continues to say a bunch of melodramatic shit about how much he hates Natsuhi, who he calls a murderer. He declares that he’s on the island, having arrived before the typhoon. And he taunts her about introducing him to the family.

With apparently complete power over her, he orders her to stay in bed with the lights out and not touch the phone. For all that she’s resolved to stand by Krauss to the very end, Natsuhi is very, very afraid of this secret getting out.

Back in the parlour, Kanon opens the door… and they find a mystery letter in a Kinzo envelope, just like Beato used to leave. They conclude that only Krauss, Natsuhi and Genji could have left it.

The envelope contains… Kinzo’s headship ring. And it’s signed Beatrice! It declares Battler the new head in no uncertain terms. The others convince Battler to wear the ring just in time for Krauss to show up.

We skip forwards to 3am. Battler is on his way to bed, deeply unimpressed by his family. Time to find some bodies, I guess. After all, we know that the first group of bodies will be discovered here already…

Perhaps not yet! Nanjo and Gohda are chilling at the bar. They seem to be getting on pretty well! Quite the rarity on this island… Erika is there too, taking the opportunity to flex her knowledge as usual. We drag out the goodnights a bit long… which feels like a setup…

The cousins’ room is quiet. Battler goes straight to bed, convinced they’re all asleep. Yeah, they’re definitely dead. As he nods off, he remembers Rudolf saying he wants to talk the family about something to do with Battler’s birth… something that would get him killed.

The next chapter is called Revenge for 19 Years Ago. I predict Battler will wake up and find all his cousins dead! Until then, I’m about as sleepy as Battler, so I’ll leave it there…