[gwy]

Also, I'm not sure if this was discussed before, since the backlog is HUGE since last time I checked it. But the closed room mysteries are really curious. Take the case in EP5 where Natsuhi was hiding in a closet. Usually, a culprit creates a closed room mystery in order to make people believe that the victim committed a suicide, since murder is impossible. But in EP5 (and other cases too), the situation apparently cannot pass as a suicide, and in fact no one believes that either. So the question is what could the killer possibly gain by going through the trouble of creating a closed room mystery?

Well Beatrice has her say, that the situation was created so as to make Battler believe in magic and witches. That's of course the fantasy "solution", but in the real world, it can hardly pass as a plausible motivation for the human killer. Could the killer honestly hope that by creating a couple of closed rooms, that all the adults will believe in magic and pin the murders on witches instead of looking for a human culprit?

By the revelations given in EP5, this is my theory: The culprit wishes to pin the murders on Natsuhi to enact his revenge. He firstly ordered Natsuhi to hide in a closet of the room, committed the act, and then created the closed room mystery. When the other arrived, some clever folk (Erika) should notice that this is a closed room, combined with the fact that this is clearly no suicide, leading to the ONLY possible conclusion that the killer must still be hiding in the room. A simple search will easily reveal her location and there would be NO way she can talk out of that situation. Note that a closed room is necessary, for otherwise there exists no motivation to examine the closets if the room is open. Even the killer himself, should he be playing innocent among the crowd, cannot suggest that or he will draw significant suspicion on himself.

Now in fact she was not revealed in EP5. Two cases are possible:
(1) The killer is not among the people we know and love. He is hiding somewhere and cannot reveal himself. This makes it impossible for him to suggest a search.
(2) The killer is among the people. The reason he does not want to take that role of detective is...well, he wants to maintain a low profile. If he were the one to reveal Natsuhi, Natsuhi will suspect that he is the man threatening her and therefore the real killer. That's a lot of trouble for him.

Just some thoughts on this.