Lurker > dexter28

Finally, the real mystery of the case. How did Kumasawa and Genji escapse from the sealed room? How were they in several rooms at once? This bothered me for a while, but this should be the correct answer:

After Gohda killed Genji and Kumasawa in the kitchen, he disposed of the bodies by butchering them and adding the remains to the family dinner!

Once this was done, Kumasawa and Genji were in the bodies of every other character, and therefore in all of the same rooms. When Gohda, Nanjo, and Battler carried out the four corpses and placed them in the VIP bedroom, they also carried out the remains of Kumasawa and Genji those four had eaten. The bodies of the adults were all in separate rooms, which is how Kumasawa and Genji seemed to be in multiple rooms at once.

That should be everything. There are no more tricks to hide behind. If there are any objections beyond minor squibbles, I'd love to hear them.
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Congratulations to the Guru Champ, raytan sure can pick em.

This has been enjoyable, but it's time to bring things to a close.

This isn't a perfect solution, some of the details and the timeline may be off. But the mysteries should all be solved. Even if the witch wants to prolong the fight, this should still be check.

The culprit is Gohda, also known as Kyonon. He hated the Ushiromiya family for their greed and apathy towards Kinzo's death, and killed them all so he could reconcile and let go of his hate.

Battler has a medical condition which causes him to become unconscious. We'll call it a heart condition, likely inheirited from Kinzo who also had a condition which caused him to sleep more than usual. His medicine is for that, but he prefers not to take it because of the side effects. When he particularly exerts himself it can trigger.

Let's begin with the first two deaths. Genji and Kumasawa. While Gohda only wanted to kill Ushironmiyas, he was also willing to kill anyone in his way. Early in the day, Genji and Kumasawa found out about his plans to kill the family. They confronted him in the kitchen, and he had no choice but to kill them both. Afterwards, he took both of their master keys.

Now he had a problem. The two murders were not planned, and now he had to worry about the bodies being discovered before he could complete his plan. He had time though, it was known that during important meals that no one should be entering the kitchen. But he couldn't just leave the bodies there, or even hide them. He had to do something before the meal ended. So Gohda disposed of the bodies, then cleaned the kitchen from top to bottom to hide the crime. This is why Natsuhi was complaining about missing servants, Kumasawa and Genji were already dead.

After dinner, Gohda served decaf coffee to make sure that the family would be less alert. Battler fell asleep, and Gohda took the opportunity to have the adults move the conversation upstairs to not wake him. Maria was left behind with Battler, and decided to prank Battler when he woke up by telling him a demon had taken the adults.

Meanwhile, Shannon, Kanon, Jessica, and George were playing cards in the servant's room. Gohda entered the room and demanded that Shannon and Kanon step aside so that he could kill Jessica and George. The two refused, and died trying to defend Jessica and George from Gohda. After killing the servants, Gohda also killed Jessica and George. He set up the scene as it was discovered, including the extra hands of cards to make it seem like Genji and Kumasawa had been playing as well. He then sealed the room with the charm.

At this point, Maria ran into Gohda. She'd been worried about Battler's condition and went to go find an adult to help. After she told him what had happened to Battler, Gohda killed her, then he threw her back into the cousin's room.

Later on, when Gohda told Battler that the adults were upstairs, then he ran as quickly as he could to find them. Already exhausted from breaking down the door into the servant's room, Battler over-exerted himself and fell down the stairs, hitting his head. The sequence with the witch and demon was all a dream.

Once Battler fell, Nanjo immediately went to check on him. While he was distracted, Gohda stabbed him in the back, killing him. After that, Gohda went into Kinzo's room, took an antique rifle, and murdered the adults with it. Knowing that only he and Battler were left, he stole and hid Battler's medication so he would eventually die. Lastly, his task done, he was able to let go of his hatred for the Ushiromiya family. Gohda committed suicide with the rifle and let it fall at his feet next to Nanjo at the bottom of the stairs.
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Congratulations to the Guru Champ, raytan sure can pick em.

I believe I've figured things out. I'll need some time to re-read through everything to confirm my theory and put together a solution, expect that later tonight.
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Congratulations to the Guru Champ, raytan sure can pick em.

Applekidrose posted...

dexter28 posted...
Maria unlocked the door and left the cousin's room, and the culprit killed her there. They then threw Maria back into the cousin's room and closed the door without actually entering the room.

This...

is...

Entirely accurate, yes.

Moving on then.

Battler committed suicide.

Just going to throw that out there.

Anyway, a few more clarification requests.

There is exactly one culprit. Anyone on the island who was murdered was murdered by this culprit.

An accomplice is "someone who knowingly assists in committing a murder". Someone who helps the culprit in ways unrelated to murder is not an accomplice.

The charm can only be applied to a closed door. You couldn't stick it to a doorframe of an open door, then close the door later to create a perfect seal.
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Congratulations to the Guru Champ, raytan sure can pick em.

This is similar to the line of reasoning I've been following as well. Gohda is the culprit, with dismemberment as the method for Genji and Kumasawa to escape the room.

I had to abandon it because while it's possible to construct a chain of events that works, I can't think of a good explanation for why Godha would do these things. He could have deposited body parts of Kumasawa and Genji in the first room of the second floor, and the cousin's room, and the VIP bedroom, and left some in the servants room. Then, if Battler left the servants room first Godha could have picked up the body parts he left there without Nanjo noticing.

I believe that evades all of the red truth we've gotten so far, but why on earth would he do these things? He might have been trying to fake a supernatural element, but then why leave body parts in the rooms that Battler only went to in his dream? And why actually leave the body parts in the servant's room just to take them out later, when he could have just taken them when he killed them in the first place? There are more explanations for those things, but I can't help but feel like I'm falling into a trap.

I still think Gohda is the culprit, and dismemberment still seems correct. But I'm going to take a different approach. This particular red truth bothers me.

The victims are Kanon, Shannon, George, and Jessica. Kanon and Shannon definitely died before George and Jessica.

Battler immediately agrees that it makes sense. But why? There aren't any obvious reasons that Kanon and Shannon might have died first, but maybe we just haven't been told what those reasons are.

There's another weird moment in that scene. When Battler is trying to figure out how Kumasawa and Genji left the room, he's told that they had master keys. He concludes that there was no way Kumasawa and Genji could have left the room. Is there an implied "without breaking the seal there?" or is there something else about the crime scene that we're missing?

Anyway, I need to think about this, but here's a poke, and pulling on some threads.

Maria unlocked the door and left the cousin's room, and the culprit killed her there. They then threw Maria back into the cousin's room and closed the door without actually entering the room.

Please repeat the following statements in red, at your inclination of course.

All windows on the island separate the inside and outside. There are no windows between two rooms.

Once the family conference began, the inside and outside of the mansion had no effect on each other.

The first room of the second floor, the cousin's room, the VIP bedroom, and the servants room are all different rooms.
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Congratulations to the Guru Champ, raytan sure can pick em.

Sorry for the odd question, but every solution I've come up with so far involves the culprit making things harder on themselves to pass red truths. I really didn't think you'd answer any other way but I needed help just abandoning that entire line of reasoning.

Need to think on this some more.
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Congratulations to the Guru Champ, raytan sure can pick em.

Some more questions.

Maria did not let the culprit into the cousin's room

To clarify, does this mean that she took no actions that would allow the culprit to enter the room, or that no actions she took had the direct purpose of letting the culprit into the room? For example, if she had unlocked the door for reasons totally unrelated to letting the culprit in, and then culprit used the unlocked door to enter the room, does that count as Maria letting the culprit in?

I'm unsatisfied with my current solution, so there's an unlikely possibility I want to eliminate. The culprit absolutely has no knowledge of the meta-game, correct? They won't take actions for the purpose making the meta-game harder for the human side?
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Congratulations to the Guru Champ, raytan sure can pick em.

So, let's try...

<blue>Battler has narcolepsy, which explains the gaps of time between opening and closing his eyes.</font>

Just in case narcolepsy doesn't count as a "gimmicky disease".

Also, Battler is shown to have a bottle of medicine. Requesting confirmation that it is seasickness medication and not something else.

Thinking out loud here.

Battler's obsession with coffee must be important. "Oh shit Maria's dead. I could use some coffee."

And can I get a clarification on what a "drug" is for the purposes of this game? Would "a non-food substance that affects physiological state" be a fair definition?
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Congratulations to the Guru Champ, raytan sure can pick em.

Very interested in this sort of thing, just noticed the topic now.

It's a bit too late to take a serious try at this right now (or to get the text script working), but I'll go ahead and fire a shot at least.

<blue>The culprit hid in the television room while Battler was making coffee, then killed Maria and exited the room in the time between when he opened and closed his eyes.</font>

Also, there are 18 humans on Rokkenjima. If Kinzo is dead, that would make Kyonon the 18th person? ...need to read this again.
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Congratulations to the Guru Champ, raytan sure can pick em.