[Game] Umineko no Naku Koro ni Chiru - Ep. 7 Requiem of the golden witch

[Helmet-kun]

Originally Posted by crazysjd89

For the whole, 'how did Yasu get the money' thing:

I would say she has plenty of proof:

1.) Genji, Kumasawa, and Nanjo are all backers. Genji and Nanjo especially, who people would know as being an old friend of Kinzo, would have the trust of people.

Yes, because we all know how wonderful a friend Nanjo is.

Theoretically, the siblings could very well claim that they were bribed.

2.) A letter from Kinzo. Or you might say it's a will. But basically it's a letter saying 'The gold and all the belongings of the Ushiromiya family belong to this person'.

This would be even more suspicious, since this Kinzo died the very same day Yasu inherited the gold. I suspect he couldn't even move, much less write.

3.) Yasu might have trouble inviting people to the island to see the gold, but it wouldn't be hard for her to take one or two ingots OFF the island to proove she has full access to the gold.

...That won't prove that Yasu actually owns the gold.

4.) Yasu's blood. Yasu is Kinzo's child (or so we're lead to believe), and so she could stand up to a blood test to prove this. This would put her in the same standing as Krauss, Eva, Rudolph, and Rosa, legally, but with points 1-3 it puts her far ahead.

Considering Yasu's age, she's behind Rosa (in ranking) at the very least. Points 1-3 won't..work out well at all.

5.) Krauss's backers (if they really exist). According to Krauss, he has backers. This one is a bit more of a 'sneaky method'. Krauss has had several terrible business decisions. So, even if someone offered to back him, they would undoubtly feel very nervous about doing so. If Yasu came up saying she had access to Kinzo's gold, this would make them feel much more relieved, and they would much more likely do business with this person.

I would argue that Yasu is a servant and they would be more nervous of dealing with a person who pops out of nowhere and says, "Hey, I HAS GOLD, BUT I CAN'T USE IT." Kinzo had gold he could use, but that didn't necessarily buy everyone's trust, really.

6.) Forgery. As has been shown, Beatrice (or at least someone) can forge letters from Kinzo. Even his children begin to think the letter is actually from him. Presenting a letter from Kinzo, and saying you are working on his behalf, would be an almost sure way to get a loan or anything else. Kinzo has a lot of reliability in the business world.

Note how no one on the island actually proves that it's Kinzo's handwriting- they just assume it it is based on the seal. If Yasu has the family ring in her hands, it could easily be claimed that she wrote it and the whole forgery thing will fall flat before her.

Hell, the family ring should be more than enough, unless someone claims Yasu pried it off his cold dead hands.

[Smeckledorf]

Genji claimed there was a will and it could worded so that Kinzo could have written it before knowing of Yasu's existence.
Anyone who knows Kinzo would know his seal is the seal of the head of the family. Since no one knows Kinzo is dead, that letter would in all likelihood be assumed to be his.
Finally, anyone buying the type of gold, even if Kinzo is selling it, should be willing to buy it off of anyone. This gold should be assumed to have not been obtained through legitimate measures.

I have a question and it is based on what wasn't addressed instead of what was. Why was Battler's birth secret not explained? If it was about Kyrie being his mother, then Rudolph probably should have said something in Bern's truth. Furthermore, if it were Kyrie, then why would Rudolph bring it up in episode 5 after Battler found the gold.
Note: There is a chance that it was addressed in episode 7 and ATLAS failed me, but feel free to say so if it was.

[Oliver]

Originally Posted by Helmet-kun

Note how no one on the island actually proves that it's Kinzo's handwriting- they just assume it it is based on the seal. If Yasu has the family ring in her hands, it could easily be claimed that she wrote it and the whole forgery thing will fall flat before her.

Um. Er. I would ask for some precision here as this is kind of an important issue.

Letters from Beatrice are signed by Beatrice, and while family members suspect authorship of the text to be his, or believe the seal on the letters to be a sign of his approval, nobody ever claims it was his handwriting. In fact, no sample of handwriting attributed directly to Kinzo's own hand actually ever pops up.

[Helmet-kun]

Originally Posted by Oliver

Um. Er. I would ask for some precision here as this is kind of an important issue.

Letters from Beatrice are signed by Beatrice, and while family members suspect authorship of the text to be his, or believe the seal on the letters to be a sign of his approval, nobody ever claims it was his handwriting. In fact, no sample of handwriting attributed directly to Kinzo's own hand actually ever pops up.

Perhaps it was I who misunderstood:
I was talking about letters that were suppose to have been written by 'Kinzo' that imply that Yasu is the sole benefactor of Kinzo's fortune. However, it could be disproven if some reliable source (like his notes) showed a different writing style, thus proving that the letters were forged.

[crazysjd89]

Originally Posted by Helmet-kun

Yes, because we all know how wonderful a friend Nanjo is.

Theoretically, the siblings could very well claim that they were bribed.

Even if Nanjo isn't a wonderful friend, he still seems to be to people.

The siblings could claimed they were bribed, but this brings up a big hole.
1.) Genji has faithfully served Kinzo for a long amount of time, and it would be hard to imagine a bribe made him go against Kinzo.
2.) Genji has also served the siblings, much more so then he serves Yasu.

Nanjo very well could be bribed.

This alone, is not enough, but then there are the other points.

Originally Posted by Helment-kun

This would be even more suspicious, since this Kinzo died the very same day Yasu inherited the gold. I suspect he couldn't even move, much less write.

You misunderstand. I wasn't saying that letter specifically implicated Yasu. It implicated whoever had it in their hands. He would have written it shortly before or after the epitaph was put up, and would have planned to give it to Yasu. If anyone else solved it, he might have not given them the letter, so the letter could even specifically say Yasu was the beneficiary.

Originally Posted by Helmet-kun

...That won't prove that Yasu actually owns the gold.

Put yourself in the lender's shoes.

Krauss is someone who, while he has a lot of experience in business, has failed a multitude of times. And he has never produced a gold ingot that we know of.

Yasu, on the other hand, can freely produce as many gold ingots as she needs to prove she knows the location of them. This doesn't prove she 'owns' them, but to lenders, it would be a lot more satisfying working with her then with Krauss. Esspecially if point 2 is true, in which she has Kinzo's word of reliability.

Originally Posted by Helmet-kun

Considering Yasu's age, she's behind Rosa (in ranking) at the very least. Points 1-3 won't..work out well at all.

This is wrong, that is only true in the Ushiromiya household. Legally, all 5 of them would be equal, no matter of age or status.

Originally Posted by Helmet-kun

I would argue that Yasu is a servant and they would be more nervous of dealing with a person who pops out of nowhere and says, "Hey, I HAS GOLD, BUT I CAN'T USE IT." Kinzo had gold he could use, but that didn't necessarily buy everyone's trust, really.

This is true, but if she can prove she knows where the gold is, as opposed to Krauss who doesn't know, and especially if she has a letter from Kinzo, even if she is a servant, they would trust Kinzo, who is well known as a business tycoon. It is not about trusting him because he owns the gold, but trusting him because he was able t build up such a fortune.

Originally Posted by Helmet-kun

Note how no one on the island actually proves that it's Kinzo's handwriting- they just assume it it is based on the seal. If Yasu has the family ring in her hands, it could easily be claimed that she wrote it and the whole forgery thing will fall flat before her.

Hell, the family ring should be more than enough, unless someone claims Yasu pried it off his cold dead hands.

That is true, but there is one big factor. Kinzo is still 'alive'. For one thing, it means that Yasu would need his stationary and ring. It is easy to get the ring off a corpse, but it's hard to imagine getting the ring from living Kinzo.

And then, if they did have suspicions of forgery, they wouldn't do handwriting tests when they could just ask Kinzo. This would put Krauss in a tight spot. He either says 'Yes my father did write that letter', or he says 'no my father did not write that letter'. The former's implications are obvious. The latter, the person asking would want to speak with Kinzo directly. Which is obviously not possible, because Kinzo is dead. And this risks exposing what he's been doing.

[Gohan78]

I have read a few pages of interesting discussion about the fairness of Ryukishi as a mistery writer and I mostly agree with "Will Wright" that he hasn't been fair.
Assuming that the Episode 7 Tea Party is the real Truth of Rokkenjima, then please explain to me what was the purpose of Episode 1&2, in which Kyrie and Rudolph die on the first twilight. Those initial episodes are just misleading. The only arcs that resemble the Truth are Episode 3 and a part of Episode 4 (the cousins' trial).
Since all the Question Arcs are forgeries, the reader could come up with N different theories all equally valid until Ryukishi "opened the cat box".
I don't think that the clues presented in Episodes 1-4 were enough to reach a single uncontestable theory, aka the solution. We could only make a guess and then Ryukishi in Episode 7 told us which of us guessed right.

[crazysjd89]

Originally Posted by Gohan78

I have read a few pages of interesting discussion about the fairness of Ryukishi as a mistery writer and I mostly agree with "Will Wright" that he hasn't been fair.
Assuming that the Episode 7 Tea Party is the real Truth of Rokkenjima, then please explain to me what was the purpose of Episode 1&2, in which Kyrie and Rudolph die on the first twilight. Those initial episodes are just misleading. The only arcs that resemble the Truth are Episode 3 and a part of Episode 4 (the cousins' trial).
Since all the Question Arcs are forgeries, the reader could come up with N different theories all equally valid until Ryukishi "opened the cat box".
I don't think that the clues presented in Episodes 1-4 were enough to reach a single uncontestable theory, aka the solution. We could only make a guess and then Ryukishi in Episode 7 told us which of us guessed right.

Episode 3 and the tea party are different from Epsides 1, 2, and 4 (maybe). In those episodes the epitaph is solved. This means that 'Beatrice' is no longer the culprit, if you believe the letters.

Kyrie being the culprit of the tea party was only after the gold was discovered, so in other words, someone else is probably Beatrice and the killer from Episodes 1 and 2.

[chounokoe]

Originally Posted by Helmet-kun

Perhaps it was I who misunderstood:
I was talking about letters that were suppose to have been written by 'Kinzo' that imply that Yasu is the sole benefactor of Kinzo's fortune. However, it could be disproven if some reliable source (like his notes) showed a different writing style, thus proving that the letters were forged.

What was already said by crazy about Kinzo still being alive to 'the world' and I would like to add that it is highly possible that almost no handwritten documents of him might exist at all.
Considering he has lived that kind of life from when he moved to Rokkenjima, he would have probably had Genji write his correspondences down, while actuall notes written down by him were kept in his private study. There would also be no 'signature' as we would expect by todays standards, because Japanese use stamps to sign letters and contracts. So it would be very hard to come up with a document which containes, without any doubt, the handwriting of Kinzo.

[Renall]

Any inheritance-related claims are going to fail because according to all information we have, no one publically knows Kinzo is dead until the Rokkenjima Incident. So a plan that relies on inheritance won't fly, but a plan that exploits the assumption Kinzo is still alive could work. Of course, I have no clue whether that would work, but at this point I'm about willing to bet it's some implausible stupidity on the part of some banks somewhere.

[Oliver]

I wonder if the Head Ring is Kinzo's legally registered seal by any chance. That would immediately make the ring magnitudes more important as long as Kinzo is assumed to be alive.

[Judoh]

Why only if he's assumed to be alive?

[Oliver]

Because if he is dead, his registered seal no longer counts as a legally binding signature, and the only use that can be made of it is by backdating documents.

[TehChron]

Originally Posted by Judoh

Why only if he's assumed to be alive?

Because then the matter of Krauss or other siblings input can be completely sidestepped, I think.

Edit: Or what Oliver said. Shows what I know, lol

[chounokoe]

Originally Posted by crazysjd89

Episode 3 and the tea party are different from Epsides 1, 2, and 4 (maybe). In those episodes the epitaph is solved. This means that 'Beatrice' is no longer the culprit, if you believe the letters.

Kyrie being the culprit of the tea party was only after the gold was discovered, so in other words, someone else is probably Beatrice and the killer from Episodes 1 and 2.

What I just thought about and don't hit me if it was brought up before:
What is the reason for sending at least two bottle letters out? Because there were 2 basic ways that the incident was supposed to transpire, even though Battler's presence made it worse than it had to.

One Episode might show us a possiblity where nobody solved the Epitaph at all and 'Beatrice' goes around the island and kills.
One Episode might show us somebody solving the epitaph and, as the plan originally proposed, that person becoming the accomplice of the culprit and inheriting all the gold.
But of course Yasu never imagined anybody surviving because Battler's sin demands that everybody will die (as said by Episode 4).

Then we have Episode 3 which is constructing a possibility of events from the other side, by looking at what is LEFT after the incident. And of course, because Eva is alive and has succeded the Ushiromiya name, has the ring and the fortune, she has to be the culprit.

And then there is Episode 4 and honestly...I don't have any idea what purpose it serves at all. It is neither canonical towards the truth before the incident (Beatrice is not actively murdering) nor the truth of after the incident (which would include Eva surviving).
Somehow there is something terribly wrong with Episode 4, even more than I had noticed before.

[crazysjd89]

Originally Posted by Renall

Any inheritance-related claims are going to fail because according to all information we have, no one publically knows Kinzo is dead until the Rokkenjima Incident. So a plan that relies on inheritance won't fly, but a plan that exploits the assumption Kinzo is still alive could work. Of course, I have no clue whether that would work, but at this point I'm about willing to bet it's some implausible stupidity on the part of some banks somewhere.

I'm not completely knowledgeable about inheritance laws, but I was under the assumption that, even if they aren't dead, they can still pass on their property, if they wish (and this is what I was making my point on).

Much like how a parent can give their business over to a child, I would imagine a living parent could give their assets to their child (or anyone, really).

Actually, if he is alive, it wouldn't be inheritance, but transferring.

Or at least, that's how I assume it works.

Originally Posted by chounokoe

What I just thought about and don't hit me if it was brought up before:
What is the reason for sending at least two bottle letters out? Because there were 2 basic ways that the incident was supposed to transpire, even though Battler's presence made it worse than it had to.

One Episode might show us a possiblity where nobody solved the Epitaph at all and 'Beatrice' goes around the island and kills.
One Episode might show us somebody solving the epitaph and, as the plan originally proposed, that person becoming the accomplice of the culprit and inheriting all the gold.
But of course Yasu never imagined anybody surviving because Battler's sin demands that everybody will die (as said by Episode 4).

Then we have Episode 3 which is constructing a possibility of events from the other side, by looking at what is LEFT after the incident. And of course, because Eva is alive and has succeded the Ushiromiya name, has the ring and the fortune, she has to be the culprit.

And then there is Episode 4 and honestly...I don't have any idea what purpose it serves at all. It is neither canonical towards the truth before the incident (Beatrice is not actively murdering) nor the truth of after the incident (which would include Eva surviving).
Somehow there is something terribly wrong with Episode 4, even more than I had noticed before.

Actually, there's another theory I have, where 'the Epitaph is solved' is true in all world (which is why I added maybe). In Episode 1, Krauss shows Natsuhi the gold, so at the very least he knows the gold exists. In Episode 2, the church has 3 ingots, which means that someone had to have taken at least 2 from where the gold is (and this is never done again in any other episodes.). In Episode 3, we actually see the epitaph being solved. In Episode 4, someone comes out as 'Kinzo'. If someone solved the epitaph, and showed proof of that, it would be easy to see others acknowledging them. Battler coming back to the island and started asking about Beatrice and the portrait made everyone start looking at the epitaph again.

In other words, I don't really think Yasu/Beatrice is responsible for any killings, except the 9th twilight, and maybe the first twilight of Episode 3. For the bottles, I always assumed several different ones were sent out, and a lot were just never recovered (I may be forgetting if it said specifically there were 'two').

It's also noteworthy that, according to the tea party, Yasu has several guns that she freely gives to the adults. And they never have these guns before they solve the epitaph. So while Yasu says she planned on killing everyone, the question is, is there ever a world where she actually gets the chance to.

Well, that's just one thing I considered.

[Helmet-kun]

Originally Posted by chounokoe

Then we have Episode 3 which is constructing a possibility of events from the other side, by looking at what is LEFT after the incident. And of course, because Eva is alive and has succeded the Ushiromiya name, has the ring and the fortune, she has to be the culprit.

...Which is what I don't believe. Like Natsuhi in EP5, she was more likely set up, so that during all the commotion, the real culprit slips through the cracks.

In other words, I don't think that the Culprit wants the gold at all- and really, really despises Eva.

[Oliver]

Originally Posted by crazysjd89

I'm not completely knowledgeable about inheritance laws, but I was under the assumption that, even if they aren't dead, they can still pass on their property, if they wish (and this is what I was making my point on).

More complicated than that, it turns out. Back in the Other Thread, there's my short report on my findings regarding Japanese inheritance law, but let me type it from memory again.

Turns out that up until 2005 or so, Japan had the highest inheritance tax in the world, which, once it passes about 300 million yen, reaches 70%. (50% now) It is paid on valuation of property, and needs to be paid in full before you can sell anything. Pretty much whatever Kinzo owned, starting from real estate (Rokkenjima) and ending with whatever companies he might own a share in would well exceed that amount in non-liquid property, and with Krauss embezzling, this tax is impossible to honestly pay in practice.

Naturally, ways to sidestep this tax exist, and up until the 90s, the practical way to do it was to create a limited liability company, (a holding company) and make it own your property instead of yourself, then play around with the valuation of that company, or owning shares of that company in trust of the beneficiary of your will (so that the moment you're dead, the one you will it to owns it instantly and no transfer according to the will takes place) and other legal juggling.

Even if that wasn't the problem, and the company was actually valued so low that no tax of note would need to be paid on it, the law still provides for reserved portions for the immediate registered family of the deceased, from 30% to 50% of the entire set, to be shared equally between them.

There is essentially no way in hell for Kinzo to leave everything to a single specific person with a legal will, he has to employ a mechanism that bypasses inheritance law in one way or another.

[crazysjd89]

Originally Posted by Oliver

More complicated than that, it turns out. Back in the Other Thread, there's my short report on my findings regarding Japanese inheritance law, but let me type it from memory again.

Turns out that up until 2005 or so, Japan had the highest inheritance tax in the world, which, once it passes about 300 million yen, reaches 70%. (50% now) It is paid on valuation of property, and needs to be paid in full before you can sell anything. Pretty much whatever Kinzo owned, starting from real estate (Rokkenjima) and ending with whatever companies he might own a share in would well exceed that amount in non-liquid property, and with Krauss embezzling, this tax is impossible to honestly pay in practice.

Naturally, ways to sidestep this tax exist, and up until the 90s, the practical way to do it was to create a limited liability company, (a holding company) and make it own your property instead of yourself, then play around with the valuation of that company, or owning shares of that company in trust of the beneficiary of your will (so that the moment you're dead, the one you will it to owns it instantly and no transfer according to the will takes place) and other legal juggling.

Even if that wasn't the problem, and the company was actually valued so low that no tax of note would need to be paid on it, the law still provides for reserved portions for the immediate registered family of the deceased, from 30% to 50% of the entire set, to be shared equally between them.

There is essentially no way in hell for Kinzo to leave everything to a single specific person with a legal will, he has to employ a mechanism that bypasses inheritance law in one way or another.

Heh, I knew about inheritance tax, but I didn't know it was that high, nor that you had to pay that tax first.

And so I assume with gold, they would estimate the tax based on the current value of gold, as opposed to taking the gold bars?

Then I guess more or less it would be a question of if Kinzo came up with someway to avoid paying inheritance, or if people lending money to Yasu are willing to risk in embezzling to get the gold.

[Oliver]

Originally Posted by crazysjd89

And so I assume with gold, they would estimate the tax based on the current value of gold, as opposed to taking the gold bars?

Pretty much. The tax on the gold, were the gold to be admitted as legally owned property, would come out to something like 140 million current USD at least, which is a fairy meaningless number as they couldn't pay it even if their finances were in the very best condition. The gold is definitely not on the balance sheet of any company owned by any Ushiromiya, (they actually say as much) and trying to rely on the law to get any of it would cause it to instantly evaporate.

So the gold officially doesn't exist, you can't officially sell it, it's bloody hard to securely transport and trying to carelessly exploit it makes it vanish... sounds like someone we know, actually...

[Will Wright]

Originally Posted by crazysjd89

You acknowledge this in your previous paragraph, but, as you said, there is a possibility there is a solution that sticks out of the rest, and there's also a possibility of some oversight and something seems to be correct and uncontradictory.

Devil's proof. We would need to wait until the series is over to see if any(as of now) seemingly possible theories are wrong. For now, it's a matter of choosing which truth suits you the most. To me, it seems more reasonable to assume that I'm not missing anything. But I'm only human, I could be missing things easily. So I will get back to you on that possibility later.

I agree with this, I guess it's just a matter of opinion on if what Ryukishi presented was solvable or not. I will acknowledge that Ryukishi makes it really hard. You likened it to 'fighting a knight with a bone', which might be a fair comparison. But for me, doing that, as far as a battle of wits go, is even more fun then being on fair ground, heh. Although I can understand why others might be upset by such a thing.

May I ask what book you consider a fair mystery?

What book I consider a fair mystery?
Generally, anything written by Ellery Queen. His works were the ultimate fair mystery, even outright challenging you to solve it before the detective did. The Egyptian Cross Mystery comes to mind, as it was one of the first I read.

I should have worded that a bit better. It's not that they don't care about it, but they don't put as much emphasize on it. Battler's sin relates to the motive for sure, but in a novel that is pure mystery, there would be no need for all Ryukishi has written on it. As I described Episode 6 is like Battler's 'redemption', which in a pure mystery novel, would most likely never be put in.

Mystery novels of lately are more likely to include things other than the mystery, but I generally agree with what you pointed out.

Krauss's business sense IS questionable, but he seemed completely sure of the fact that this would succeed. And while he is known for getting cold feet on projects, I don't think someone could execute this scheme on a sudden whim.

I agree that the murders are possible for Krauss. He and Shannon are the ones I found most suspicious in game 1, because of the sharp contrast of only having 'half their faces' smashed. I believed that one was the culprit while smashing the other's face half way in order to avoid suspicion of being the only one.

But I was more referring to game 3, since the tea party seems to most heavily appeal to that game. Ange is looking for the truth, if Krauss had been alive and claimed self-defense, she either 1.) Would have met Krauss and questioned him or 2.) Would have accepted that truth.

Well, even for other games, I still think it would be hard to convince people your whole family died on accident and only you survived from self-defense. I can't imagine he would have much confidence in getting away with that.

Krauss comes across as a smug bastard, so he could have done it. As for Ange's truth, it is entirely possible that Krauss did all the killing then died from a heart attack or some other health related issues, as Asthma research shows that genetic factors do influence it and that since Jessica has it he could have it as well.

Cruel Ex Machina happens, he has an asthma attack and dies because of contrived reason X. This satisfies "there can be only one culprit" and Eva surviving.

It also satisfies Knox's 8th for foreshadowing, as the definition of foreshadowing is very loose here.

Oh and he did every single murder with the use of small bombs. Even the stabbings. The small bombs propelled the knives after the explosion. His investment was in the industry of small bombs.

I guess that, once again this is a matter of opinion on if you think every possibility has been ruled out by the clues or not, which is hard to debate until Episode 8 comes out, heh.

Indeed. Will we win? Will Ryuukishi win? Will he be disqualified for cheating? Only one way to find out!

Originally Posted by chounokoe

I think I have found that little spot I was searching for.
Your concept of Umineko is that of one piece of mystery fiction, but instead it is 8 pieces of mystery fiction within a mystery fiction. What we are presented in each Episode is already a deduction of what might happen or might have happened on Rokkenjima.

That is true, I am treating is a single novel rather than a collection of long-short stories. But each game happens in a different way, so each game has its own truth. I mean-
...Hang on a second. Just had a crazy thought. I think if my theory is right someone else would have noticed it by now, but...Eh worth a shot. Time to re-read Umineko 1-4!

That you cannot possible know, because probably we aren't even seeing the contradictions, which Ryukishi thinks are perfectly obvious.

Devil's proof, huh. I cannot prove a contradiction doesn't exist, and no one can prove it does exist. Until "the box opens" right?

Let's take for example Krauss and Natsuhi, or at least Natsuhi:
From Episode 1 on we know, that she did not know about the existence of the gold until around 13:00 on Obtober 4th 1986, when Krauss showed her that one gold ingot. Adding to that the fact that the tragedy had been foreseen by the author of the bottled letter even before the typhoon started, which is around 18:00 that day and she was the last to face the murderer and die by a bullet that was not from her own rifle, it is pretty much impossible for her to be the murderer.
Those are just small things, but they do contradict.

Battler wasn't present, it's possible that her finding out about the gold was fantasy(I know I know, just go along with it). Battler didn't see the bottled letter. I can even question the existence of it!

Twisted arguments that cannot be(as of now) disproved do exist.

I think the much bigger problem is, that so far nobody has been able to create a theory that involves a culprit who can exist reasonably in any given scenario.


Then why did he shoot Natsuhi in the end and why was she making the remark that she was doubting her opponents existence up to this moment and can still not believe it completely even now?!
If her opponent was Krauss and she knew, her reaction would be different.
If her opponent was Krauss and she didn't know, her reaction would be different.
Why was she so voluntary to shoot her opponent? She was shown to be a loving wife and mother on many occassions, so why should she shoot her husband?

Her opponent has to be someone whose existence in said form she did not expect to appear and whom she has no trouble shooting because her personal relationship is weaker than the danger he or she poses.

Her opponent could have been Shannon-Beatrice, then Krauss caught her off guard and shot her. Moreover, we did not see the actual duel. It could have happened in a way different from what we expected. Krauss could have disguised himself. A thousand possibilities!