Umineko: Fanfic: Twice Cursed

[luminious]

Title: Twice Cursed
Challenge: Stick
Fandom: Umineko
Pairing: None
Characters: Eva Ushiromiya, Battler Ushiromiya, Beatrice the Golden Witch, Lambdadelta, Bernkastel
Rating: T
Genre: Drama/Angst
Length: 2029
Content Notes: None
Author Notes: For some reason the prompt instantly reminded me of EVA-Beatrice and I've always found Eva/Eva-Beatrice to be such an interesting and well-written character soooo....
Summary: As Eva, she was double-cursed as a second-born female; as EVA-Beatrice, she is one to none, not even the Golden Witch that she succeeded.

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I.

TO BE THE SECOND-BORN AND THE FIRST GIRL is to be cursed twice. That is one of the first things Eva learns growing up on Rokkenjima island.

Her father Kinzo is married to an eternal being that can only be seen in epithets and artwork, a figment of the imagination that is formed into their reality only because of the demands and money of an obsessed Italophile, and her mother is someone her father is married to but does not know, a blank space in his mind that he doesn’t see in favor of the fiction he delusions himself to see as reality.

Krauss is her elder brother, and no matter how better she is than him at academics, the arts, self-defense, theater work, finance, and the shadowing of their father’s business acquaintances he will always be higher than her and she will always be second to him, because he is the eldest and he is the first boy.

Even Rudolf—her younger brother that skips classes at the high school he attends on the mainland to hang out with girls that fight over him, her younger brother that gets maids in training around his age fired because he sleeps with them once and then ignores them until they explode at him in front of their father’s eyes, her younger brother that stalks steadily under large gambling and poking tables in order to manipulate boards with his magnets—receives more attention from visiting businessmen that he pickpockets, despite his status as the third child and his disinterest in anything outside of women and deception.

Rosa is the youngest and only other female Eva has as an instant relative outside their mother, and she hates it.

Rosa is fragile and wimpish, unable to hold her own opinion and quick to cry at any turn, too docile and dumbfounded to be a worthy heiress and too skittish and childish to be a proper wife.

The only feelings Eva shows to her youngest sibling are contempt and ridicule, because to admit to such a vulnerable girl that she sees herself in her is a sign of weakness, and even if her father punishes her for trying to change his mind and Krauss mocks her, Eva will not show weakness.

She has been dealt a bad hand in life, but weak she will not be. She has to be strong despite the odds, because that is all she has left that is her own.

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II.

“When I speak the truth, I will use red,” Beatrice says as she does a cross sign on Eva’s forehead, “and everything I speak in red is the truth—therefore, that you are now the current Endless Witch is a fact unable to be denied. Welcome to the world of magic.”

Looking around at the clapping Seven Stakes of Purgatory, saluting Chiester Sisters Imperial Guard Corps, and the nodding Ronove, EVA-Beatrice stares at the instrument in her hand that she now owns, the One-Winged Staff that with it can create anything the imagination could conjure. This is her reward for solving one of the tricky puzzles of Beatrice the Golden Witch.

Long ago, Eva the second child of Ushiromiya Kinzo used to read books about village girls in European lands who were granted either the ability to be a witch or a dream that came true at the hands of a witch. At a cost, they were often stripped of their beauty and talent, left to cruel demises as the magical elder women who deceived them took their place, a lesson to young female readers on the consequences of stepping out of place to obtain power not bestowed by the Lord Above.

Once she became a teenager, the books that she once hid under her bed were abandoned in one of the many spare closets of her childhood mansion, never to be touched again until Rosa was born and old enough to be read the stories by some of the servants a couple of years later, not that Eva cared—fairy tales were child’s play, and she had dreams to be the next head of the Ushiromiya Clan. By the time she became an adult, only stories grounded in reality caught her eye, even when she met Hideyoshi and had George.

For EVA-Beatrice, fairy tales will be tips on how to wrap eager minds into her games. What cannot exist will become existing, and what is concrete will become a blur, because EVA-Beatrice can grant it so. There is no impossibility but instead now indeterminacy if she declares it so, and what is only in speech will also be in sight.

Lady Lambdadelta—the Witch of Certainty—walks up to the young witch and wraps her arms around her shoulders, a bouquet of violets in her hands as Bernkastel the Witch of Miracles comes up to her other side, clapping softly and her expression emotionless and distant as always.

“So, EVA-Beatrice, I know you just became one of us”—Lambadelta places her flowery gift into the ginger witch’s right hand—“but I was thinking…are you down for a game? Since you’re so good at solving riddles, I think that perhaps you could demonstrate that talent when it comes to a variety of them.”

Bernkastel slightly smirks, her eyes still void. “I believe a Golden Witch should be given more of a challenge her first time—how would we be able to see the true extent of her abilities if she enters a game of chess that can be finished in less than five minutes?”

“W-What? That is defamation upon my name! My games can make any witch lose themselves in time,” Lambadelta quickly responds, looking away with a flushed face and a large scowl.

Bernkastel gave another snarky reply, but EVA-Beatrice did not listen, her mind focused on the whole event that just occurred. She is now a witch, with powers similar to the famous Golden Witch, yet she can’t help but feel the situation to be comedic and punishment rather than an honor to cherish without question.

There was once a time when Eva of the Ushiromiya family had once mocked a child for having similar dreams; the child’s mother had complained at the annual family meeting that the girl’s teachers were complaining that she was obsessively telling the other children bizarre stories about witches she met, even as the other students made fun of her for it.

“Almost at the age of ten and still telling classes about stories of princes and witches? If in three years she continues this behavior, be wary, sweet Rosa,” Eva had warned to her younger sister, fanning herself and barely hiding her cocky expression, “for by then she’ll start her first year of middle school claiming to her peers that she flew on a broom to classes, and her reputation will be soiled beyond repair.”

This wasn’t the first time Rosa had been told such a thing either, as when Eva and she were younger, Eva had teased Rosa for telling stories about so-called friends she hung out with in her room or the garden where flowers and trees were raised with the help of a bird-embroidered staff.

How ironic, then, that EVA-Beatrice now stands dawn in such a luxurious dark gown, her gloves hands possessing an object she once teased her younger family members for believing existed and was the key to miracles—the girl who once could be fooled by sinister witches has now become the witch that will deceive the youthful and curious members of her gender.

Though perhaps, EVA-Beatrice thinks as she looks around and sees some of the furniture still cheering her name and looking at her in awe, the hypocrisy of a witch’s morals is something to not fret about but rather take advantage of, like witches in books are known for doing?

(When the celebration ends she ends up using her magic straight away and tortures Rosa and Maria, dropping and twisting them repeatedly face and head first onto gigantic pieces of dessert, because like the witches in fairy tales, she must punish little girls who seek what is beyond their grasp.)

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III.

Magic, the new Endless Witch realizes in time, is truly a gift that under the right hands can erase any irritating border that sets witches apart from humanity’s ability to adapt to the wildest scenarios.

Battler, despite what his perkiness would make people think, is intelligent. He appears to be unobservant and naive, but much like with witches, there is more than what meets the eye. His moments of foolishness and benefit of the doubt are in actuality careful attempts at avoiding suspicion and easing up guards to fall down, his blue orbs constantly looking at the world around him in skepticism and suspicion.

In the world of reality where magic is nonexistent, he surely would grow up to be one of the most dangerous but successful detective investigators known to mankind. Unfortunately for Battler, however, this is a world where everything is but, and witches are always lurking and present no matter how much you deny their existence.

Even more unluckily for Battler, his opponent is one he truly will not be able to easily trump, though for her it is a moment of power she longed decades for—

As Eva, she was double-cursed as a second-born female; as EVA-Beatrice, she is one to none, not even the Golden Witch that she succeeded.

In time, Battler will realize this too, even as he tries in vain to escape both the literal and mental red webs of truths that he has been trapped into both purposely by EVA-Beatrice and unintentionally by himself.

“Everyone has to be dead, they have to be, unless another witch is behind the scenes and…” the redhead male drawls off to himself as he struggles to get a red web of truth away from his neck.

EVA-Beatrice smiles, the tip of her black-gloved fingers slightly touching the golden wing of her One-Winged Eagle staff.

“Oh? No life forms other than humans have any connection to this game. It is just you and me.”

Battler shakes his head, shouting, “No, I object! Something else—someone else—is at play here!”

“Give up. Kinzo is dead. Krauss is dead. Rudolf is dead. Rosa is dead. Eva is alive.”

Of course, Battler does not give up, always wishing to have the last say and always in need to get to the bottom of everything.

“No, everyone is dead and thus Doctor Nanjo couldn’t be killed…I refuse to believe otherwise. Doctor Nanjo must’ve committed suicide,” the young man argues, this time more questioning and more scared of what’s to come.

In contrast, his slow but obvious increase of doubt and uncertainty of his explanations only increases EVA-Beatrice’s ego.

“It would be nice to believe that, wouldn’t it? As already noted, however, that is not the case. Battler is alive. Eva is alive. Jessica is alive. Oh, and Eva was with you the whole time”—the witch’s grin reaches her ears, sharp and sinister in its form like that of the smile of the Evil Queen who sought Snow White’s downfall—“so committing a crime was impossible for her.”

They continue back and forth for a few more seconds, and as Battler starts to crouch down and throw his head down into his knees to muffle a shout of frustration, EVA-Beatrice watches in amusement, lifting her staff up to raise a small platform above herself so she can stand a few feet taller than the human in front of her.

No matter how much Battler tries—and no matter how close he gets to solving the riddles—he will fall and expire like his aunt and cousin, like his foolish grandfather. In time, even Beatrice the Golden Witch will bow down on her knees and be no more under EVA-Beatrice’s reign.

“The red only tells the truth, dear Battler,” EVA-Beatrice comments as the tall male slowly gets up and flashes a look of defiance and determination at her, to which EVA-Beatrice points the One-Winged Eagle staff at him.

Much like a witch must show a human the consequences of desiring magic, a witch must also show a human the consequences of rejecting it.

“The red only tells the truth.”

[FIN.]

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