( OOC: information )
In Character Information
character name: Erika Furudo
Fandom: Umineko no Naku Koro ni
Timeline: Following the events of the fifth game, End of the Golden Witch.
character's age: Approximated to be around that of a middle-schooler, possibly anywhere from 14 to 16 years of age.
canon powers, skills, pets and equipment:
Bernkastel’s double and servant, Erika is the human manifestation of Bernkastel herself; set as a chess piece in the human world and having been granted the detective’s authority, she has been tasked with catching the human culprit behind the murders on Rokkenjima during the family conference of 1986. Unable to use magic, she is still able to appeal to her master and command authorities of a higher-level plane, such as the Eiserne Jungfrau, in order to aid her in her investigation.
Also, later on, having been granted the title of “Witch of Truth,” she wields a blue death scythe and is able to use both the red and blue truths (the red allowing her to state what is the absolute truth-though careful attention should be paid to wording-in order to deny certain concepts, while the blue allows her to inflict doubt on others; combating the fantasy side, not with an anti-fantasy approach, but rather the mystery angle-one of her most prized weapons in battle being the use of Knox’s Ten Commandments, alternatively named Knox’s Decalogue, the rules of the mystery genre.
Oddly perspicacious for someone of her age, she also possesses not only an excellent memory by any standards, but a photographic memory to boot.
non-canon powers:
I was thinking that she’d be able to use her scythe without having to rely on utilizing the red and blue truths, as that’s a power that’s a little too specific to her canon and wouldn’t really have the same impact here, given that I myself can’t be all-knowing about everything that happens in the game’s plot.
Also, to compensate for the “detective’s authority” she’s granted in canon, as that’s also canon-specific, mind control would probably do the trick, as it amounts to just about the same thing. Given that she’s prone to being a creepy mccreepster too, invisibility will allow her to be that proverbial fly on the wall, with wallcrawling as an added bonus, just to make her even more spider-like than she already is. To add to the stalking potential, she’ll also be capable of superhuman tracking; so unless you want her scaling the walls of your home and duct taping your windows, you’d best watch your step around her.
Lastly, because she has a propensity for ticking everyone off, to the point in which people may feel the need to physically maim her, she’ll also be able to regenerate, much in the same vein as Claire Bennet from Heroes.
canon history:
The layout of this game in particular is different from most, as Lambdadelta takes up the position of headmaster in Beatrice’s stead, and Bernkastel takes up the opposition. By the time Battler intervenes and takes back his seat in the game from Bernkastel, the dynamics are already much different from the first four games.
Erika just happens to drift ashore, having fallen from the pleasure cruise “Eternal Maid II” with nothing more than a life preserver to keep her afloat, in time for the Ushiromiya family conference of 1986. Despite this, she is in good health and is quickly enough inducted into their home as a guest, despite the turmoil that is waiting to bubble up; in becoming the 18th person on the island, she is able to smash through the rule imposed on the previous games, thereby changing the layout of the game board by playing the detective character. Quickly enough becoming the center of attention and everyone’s little darling child, upon hearing of the mystery of the witch’s epitaph she is nothing if not determined to solve it; in fact, with Battler’s aid she even succeeds in doing so and together they find the gold, and yet she states again and again that she wants not the gold or the title of the Ushiromiya head-all she wants is the opportunity to “intellectually rape” everyone with the knowledge of her victory.
Chaos descends upon the family, not only in arguing over Battler’s newly established headship, but also in discovering the next morning that there is a murderer in their midst, with several of the residents having been brutally murdered during the night. Utilizing a mystery approach in considering the lay of the game board, rather than Battler’s anti-fantasy approach, she is nothing if but domineering in pressing a magnifying glass to all the crime scenes, leading a full-blown investigation without any regards for the feelings of those around her, and is soon enough able to pin the crime on Natsuhi.
Away from the game board, court proceedings take place in the meta-world with Natsuhi being the one on trial, thus resulting in the outright denial of both the existence of Beatrice and magic. With Beatrice killed and Battler at the hands of defeat, Bernkastel graciously rewards Erika with the title of “Witch of Truth,” as well as the coveted position of Game Master in the sixth game, the portrait that previously showcased Beatrice now a painting of Erika. However, the latter title is soon enough snatched away from her, the carpet pulled from under her feet when Battler tears apart her theory of Natsuhi as the culprit and forces her to come up with a theory on equal ground with his. Given this, it becomes entirely possible for two truths to exist at once, just like Schrödinger’s cat, and so the game ends in a tie, with Erika swearing to exact her revenge on Battler in the next game and kill him.
personality:
A self-proclaimed intellectual rapist, Erika is a connoisseur of the mystery genre, with her greatest high being achieved through the process of solving riddles that would baffle the minds of those with lesser little gray cells. However, when reigning victorious she uses that victory to sneer at others and derives a sadistic pleasure from doing so. At first a seemingly affable, if but reserved, little girl with a gleam in her eyes that surfaces whenever the subject of chopsticks is brought up, her picture perfect Mary Sue-like impression of every parent’s dream child goes to hell in a hand basket rather quickly. As far as her name goes, it’s a shout-out both to the witch Frederica Bernkastel, as well as the character Rika Furude, from Ryukishi07’s series Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, with many parallels drawn between the two.
Having been given the “detective’s authority” while on the game board, Erika commands the attention of all in the room with her quiet, yet elegant demeanour; in conversation she presents herself as a mature young woman, able to instantly garner the affections of adults and fellow peers alike, to the point in which everyone is clambering for her attention. In accordance with that, she is extremely articulate and speaks in a more formal tone than most-all this adds to her almost royal-like presence, making her seem more the little princess than even those of true Ushiromiya blood.
Intelligent and enthusiastic when it comes to solving puzzles of all kinds, Erika considers herself a connoisseur of the mystery genre and a detective of third-rate mysteries; it’s all she thinks about, to the point in which she even says that because she, the detective, is there, a crime will most definitely occur. However, her love of solving puzzles stems not from a desire to reap any sort of reward (as evidenced when she waves off the opportunity to have her share of the Ushiromiya family gold), but rather the opportunity to maliciously flaunt her success over others, as well as the calculative process. One could almost say that, despite her seemingly haughty and conceited nature, she actually has somewhat of a inferiority complex, as she does anything and everything to please her Master, Bernkastel, and is usually the brunt of a great amount of teasing; in return, she goes about “intellectually raping” those around her.
However, once her theories are called into question or she is proven wrong, her composure does a complete 180° and suddenly she is that child, in the supermarket, throwing a five-year old tantrum because they couldn’t get the chocolate covered cocoa puffs they’d been eying. As such, her tantrums include, but are not limited to: screaming; pulling both her hair, as well as that of others; and flinging herself onto the ground, complete with pounding fists, flailing limbs-the whole nine yards.
All in all, Erika is a truly virulent, arrogant person, with no sense of compassion for her fellow man, and is wholly selfish. One could even say that she is entirely without a conscience, and it doesn’t take long for her to become the most hated person in the room; it isn’t a big secret, nor is there any sort of outing involved-she truly is just that passive-aggressive; only sweet and succinct when the situation suits her. Even more appallingly, while people on the island are being killed brutally, one after the other, she only becomes more and more enthralled in the mystery aspect of it all; with a complete disregard for even her own life, she is radical in her methods of investigation, even going so far as to scale walls in nothing more than a school swimsuit during the middle of a storm, duct taping windows; planting paper seals in doors before any crimes were even committed; and listening to people sleep by pressing her ear against the wall of the adjoining room the entire night, like a spider on the wall.
On top of that, one can’t even begin to count how many ways to Sunday she is stubborn; relentless in her insistence that Natsuhi is the true culprit, she bullies her mercilessly and delights in breaking her, as though she were nothing more than a child’s doll. Seeing a person reduced to tears or bludgeoned into a bloody mess isn’t enough to stop her; she’s so self-entitled and all-important that human decency holds absolutely no sway over her, and so she is all too ready to dig her nose into a murder scene and pelt people with questions without any kind of remorse.