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Do you know what it means for something to be meta-fiction?
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Meta-fiction is something which is allowed to be self-referential or breaking of the fourth wall as part of it's narrative. Notice characters have made references impossible to make in 1986? Just because Higurashi has been referenced as a novel doesn't actually mean anything; what if Higurashi happened in a separate kakera, but that kakera exists as a novel in Battler's world? This is an idea called Solipsistic Pantheism, a speculative fiction trope that universes are real because authors wrote about them, or that fictions exist to be written about because they already exist. Stories have been built on this premise, infact.
But I digress. The fact of the matter is that Umineko is a story where things like the Meta-World can simultaneously be paperwritten fiction in 1998 and also be a higher platonic plane of thought. It's a story where the author can be challenged and defied by his characters, and characters can defy their stories and fates to try and write their own ending.
Meta-fiction is a genre wherein "fiction" and "reality" are treated as matters of degree, not polar, dualistic opposites.
As for Bern and Rika: They are not synonymous, but they are related. Bernkastel is most likely an entity derived from Rika. A memetic aggregate personification of all the "failures" of Furude Rika, now dissociated from her because she is no longer required as an observer or as a higher guardian angel-type entity. Rika's story is over, so Bern can no longer claim to be an aspect of her.