AN: Well, after some hesitation, I've finally decide to add my own tale into the wonderful world of Umineko!

This is just the prologue of my story, so please, don't feel hesitate to criticize the plot or point out any errors you find within this chapter as it all can help me further improve my writing style and how to better develop certain characters in the near future.

Without further ado, please enjoy

Chapter 1: Into the Abyss

"How dull…"

She paused for moment, her emotionless eyes slowly examined the landscape that stood before her.

"Dull, Dull, Dull…"

There was nothing new to see of course, no matter how far she travel deeper and deeper into the endless void that was called sea of fragments, nothing would ever change.

The same dim suns would persist to shine its' hollow light across the bizarre purplish sky as small pockets of fragments would frequently appear and disappear from her sight, drifting aimless across this forsaken sea,

"Pointless…"

She shook her head and begin moving forward once more, positioning her knees before making another jump onto the rough surface of a small fragment, her eyes briefly catching a glimpse of the veiled world that she was standing on top of,

"A stoic arsonist, a self-loathing cannibal and a claustrophobia megalomaniac, all in one room with one rotting corpse…dear me, these kids really are getting creative these days, aren't they?"

She found herself smirking at her petty thought, amused by the mere notion that there existed a gamemaster who honestly believed that such absurd pieces could even work without having the entire chessboard collapse on itself.

"Wouldn't that be such a wonderful sight to behold?"

For a mere moment, she could almost feel an old familiar feeling creeping up on her, whispering softly in her ears to go on and venture into this ridiculous world. Just long enough to see how this insignificant tale would fail and offer a splendid form of entertainment for its' utter stupidity…

If she had been younger and naiver, she would have allowed that little devil called curiosity get the best of her and led her astray once more in a foolish hope of curing that incurable disease of hers…

"No, no, that won't do, will it?"

But for a great witch such as Fredricka Bernkastel, such wanderlust had died within her a long time ago… besides, if she was going to entertain, it might as well be from a tale that at least some degree of standards…

So, she jumped once more, leaping from one fading fragment to another, her mind ignoring the hundreds of parallel worlds that stood only inches away from her feet,

"Honestly, to think that such a ridiculous tale would get so many forgeries…if I had to guess, some idiot from the senate thought it would be a wonderful idea to promote one of their useless piece's "masterpiece"."

This might come as a surprise to some, but in order to find any two fragments that hold a similar tale to one another, all it takes is simply remembering the form that original version had appear as when its' game was first created.

Nothing less, nothing more.

Once you had that simple image in mind, no matter what distorted form or shape that it tried to hide itself as, a competent voyager would always be able to recognize any offspring of that particular fragment and enter its' world upon their pleasure.

It was a lesson that Bernkastel had learn well throughout her long life as a wandering witch. After all, she did search over 2578917 fragments to find a certain brat's much desired "miracle".

"And what a wonderful miracle Lion turned out to be." She couldn't help but smirk upon recalling seeing that brat's expression of utter despair upon learning the truth of Rokkenjima's cat box, an image that would have be made so much sweater if her cats had actually managed to catch their prey … it was a such shame that Lambdadelta had to ruin that ending…

"Honestly, she can be such a spoil brat…Jeez, I can almost picture it, Lambda floating above me, laughing her ass off as I-"

Then, by chance, the witch's eyes chose at that moment to look towards her right and caught sight of a miserable looking fragment standing only a few feet away from her.

"Ho-oh?"

Again, she paused. This time however, the witch found herself slowly moving closer to that unimpressive fragment, almost as if she was enchanted by the mere sight of it.

"To think that I would find something like after all this time."

Once upon a time, shortly after she and Lambadlta had parted ways, the endless sea of fragments had been flooded with hundreds upon hundreds of false forgeries, a multiple pile of gameboards all desperately seeking to obtain a small fraction of the glory of the great Golden Witch's cat box.

"How dreadful."

Of course, no matter how polished or alluring some of those forgeries were, none of them ever did managed to properly imitate the scope of Beatrice's magic…

But regardless of what sort of tales that those fakes games told, it was obvious to any passing voyager that all of them had been made in utter admiration and love for that witch's game.

"Love… yes, they all certainly loved her, didn't they? But-" Again, she felt the sudden urge to grin,

"But they all grew up and moved on to better things."

Of course, that urge quickly vanished once her thoughts turned to the familiar looking fragment, "No." The witch quietly mused, "I suppose not all of them did managed to let go…"

"…"

For a brief moment, she poured if she should simply just leave. There was no point in staying after all, it would be a waste of time to stay here and watch this poorly crafted gameboard play out a fake tale utterly inferior to its' original material while she could continue her search for more exciting tragedies.

"But… if I leave, I doubt that I'll ever come across another copy of that child's game…"

"…"

It was an accident really, a stock of pure luck… but then again, could such a thing happen with the harvester of miracles?

Without any hesitation, her hand began to gradually stretched out, her fingers touch the smooth surface of the fragment and she-

The Jester of The Golden Witch

Welcome to Rokkenjima, my fellow voyagers, The Golden Witch extends her heartfelt greetings to all.

If you were to be so kind, please take a seat and enjoy a nice cup of warm tea. After enduring such a long and tiresome journey, I'm sure that you're eager to finally explore and experience the many rich wonders and legends surrounding our beloved witch.

However, I would humbly request that you do remain patient, there still remains some last-minute preparations that must be made before tonight's main event can commence. As such, the island shall be close to all visitors until further notice.

With any luck, our host shall soon be ready and will join you shortly. All you need to do is just be patient.

This isn't a difficult request to ask after all.

The Jester of The Golden Witch

[A bit of advice for those who are brave or curious enough to wander into the sea of fragments.]

[If you ever come across an upset witch in your long travels, offer her a nice cup of tea, make small chat-chit and move on. Simple as that.]

[If you ever come across a bored witch, then calmly point her in the direction of a wonderful yet gruesome tale and move on. That should keep her satisfy...for awhile.]

[If you ever come across a witch smiling at you however...well, I suppose there's no point in telling you what happens next, is there?]

"…ahahahahaahahahahahahhahahah!"

She was laughing, laughing so hard that she couldn't help but griped both of her arms tightly around her stomach in a fruitless effort to contain in her laugher.

"Ahahaha! Unbelievable, to think that something like this would have the balls to-" Her voice cracked as another bust of laugher quickly escaped from her mouth,

"Ahahahahaahahahahahahhahahahahahahahaahahahahahahhahahahahahahahaahahahahahahhahahahahahaahahahahahahhahahahahahaahahahahahahhahahahahahaahahahahahahhahahahahahaahahahahahahhahahahahahaahahahahahahhah -ah-ah-ah…"

Eventually, her laugher slowly began to quiet down and soon, all that remain was a nice pretty smile that had managed to creep up upon her face.

A smile, that which the great witch of certainty had once officially decreed, felt like as if one was being cut by a sword.

"That's fine."

In a mere instant, a great scythe appeared within her hands, a familiar old tool that she had often used to snatch away countless miracles from those she had deemed unworthy of such a gift.

"Really, what could have ever possessed me to think that such filthy trash like this was even worthy enough to lick the tips of my shoes? Now then-"

"Come, try to remember, what form did you have?"

She took a step forward and swung her weapon at full force upon the unsuspecting fragment, the blade inches away from shattering it into a million of pieces and,

and,

and-

"It stopped…" why did it stop?"

It didn't her long to answer that puzzling little mystery… after all, it would be pretty hard to ignore the arm sticking out of the small fragment…and holding onto her blade into a bone breaking grip,

"Oh my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my"

Without any time to react, the arm quickly pulled back, causing both the scythe and Bernkastel to fall forward into that veiled fake world of Rokkenjima .

"You really shouldn't have done that."