Seven Little Killers

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

"Guess who's next?"

"This story will not have a happy ending, love. I just can't see it on the horizon, and anything that I can't see isn't there."
—Summary for Yellow's Arc

Seven Little Killers is a Axis Powers Hetalia fanfiction written by Lucky-Angel135 (a collaboration between luckystars135 and AngelWhoIsNotASerialKiller) that plays as a dark murder mystery romance. So much Better Than It Sounds.

A short summarization: In a somewhat altered universe, all seems peaceful until a nation-killer rises, shocking all the countries of the world into a paranoid hysteria. Italy, Germany and Japan team up to solve the case, while America hides some shady secrets about his home life with his boss and brother, China is forced to face a destructive force beyond his denial, and England and Japan attempt to keep their fellow countries sane despite their own inner demons. Nevertheless, as the world begins to crumble around them, it may prove difficult for the nations to keep both their lives and reason as faceless villain Black and his devoted seven followers start the process of the world’s end.

Despite the bucket-loads of Nightmare Fuel here due to extreme amounts of gore and violence, it's truely a work of art, and is now all but exhalted in the Hetalia fandom as a brilliantly written mystery that keeps its readers on their toes.

WARNING: Since the story does revolve around murder and mystery, spoilers run rampid here.

Tropes used in Seven Little Killers include:
  • Abusive Parents Boss: America’s boss. At least, that's what we're supposed to think originally. In retrospect, he was the only one who could control America. In retrospect retrospect, I still can't believe that America let him get away with it for Canada. (Not mindfucking enough for you? It could be worse. No, seriously. America and Canada swap places at least 5 times already, still counting. Without reading Blue's eye-opener arc, go back and try to figure out which one was which one. It's IMPOSSIBLE.).
  • Adaptational Badass: Canada. Apparently, he's just as strong as America.
  • All Nation Killers are Perverts: The killers almost constantly flirt with one another, or even a bit more.
  • Ambition Is Evil
  • Anyone Can Die: Holy god. NO KIDDING. Switzerland dies in the first chapter, and things get much, much worse. Fast.
  • Aw, Look -- They Really Do Love Each Other: Even though Japan clearly states his desire to kill America after he and the other killers had completely ruined his family, they get back together after America reveals the truth behind who Blue really is and chooses to save Japan over his own brother. Even while America claims that he was the true killer and Canada was merely his puppet, Japan keeps loving him and sees him as the victim.
  • Back from the Dead: Nussia. Well, in China's hallucinations, anyway.
  • Baddie Flattery
  • The Big Bad: Black.
  • Cool Mask: All the killers have custom-made masks that represent their given color.
  • Corrupt the Cutie: Oh, Canada… Stick America in here too. And I'll bet we'll see more. As of Chapter 43, England is now firmly in that pile.
  • Crazy Jealous Guy: Korea’s main source of bile is over China’s love and devotion for Russia, which he believes creates a large tear in their family.
  • Dreaming of Things to Come: England’s nightmare about America and Canada killing him. Umm...that didn't come true.
  • Dysfunctional Family: The East Asians and America and his states.Oh God, the states...
  • Empty Shell: China as of late.
  • Enfant Terrible: Little Nussia (New Republic Of Russia), originally a cute sickly boy, becomes this after China’s forced to kill him and he comes Back from the Dead. Huh. I always thought that was just China hallucinating...
  • The End of the World as We Know It
  • Establishing Character Moment: America’s big damn villain moment in the cave.
    • England being revealed as Yellow
  • Everyone Is a Suspect: Somewhat Averted. Characters like China, England, Russia, Japan, Italy, Iceland, and all the killed nations are most-definitely not part of the killers. Otherwise, it’s played totally straight and falls into Wild Mass Guessing. Well, from chapter 42, Germany can't be one. Also, as of Chapter 43, we get England confirmed as one of the killers WARNING: This spoiler is a MASSIVE tearjerker.
  • Family-Unfriendly Death: Every murder is written in disturbing detail.
  • Fingore: Japan has to break his fingers to free the hostages - one finger per hostage.
  • Friendly Target: Since all the nations seem friendly with one another for the most part, it naturally falls under this.
    • When Blue was revealed to be America (and Canada), who was supposed to kill America’s love-interest, Japan.
    • Yellow commands China to kill Nussia, whom is basically the younger brother of his husband/lover.
  • Genre Savvy: Russia, surprisingly, figures out much of the story’s mystery shortly before falling into a coma, making it so that everything he knew is now unreachable information.
  • Heroic Albino: Prussia, after capturing America/Canada. In heels, no less.
  • Heroic Dog: Kitty, a small dog China adopted, leads Korea to where Russia and China are during the gas leak Green set up.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: Norway allows Denmark to kill him in order to save Iceland from being killed.
  • Hoist by His Own Petard: Blue/Canada
  • Horrible Judge of Character: Japan and his love and devotion to America.
  • Humble Hero: Germany.
    • Denmark, Finland and Vietnam, too.
  • Hyper Awareness: Japan, Germany and even Italy get this while examination the crime scenes.
  • It Got Worse
  • It's All My Fault: Japan blames himself for a lot of injuries and deaths.
  • Jerkass: Yellow and Blue, although the latter could fall into Complete Monster territory.
  • Killed Mid-Sentence: Switzerland.
  • Killed Off for Real: Anyone Can Die. Nations can die for real if their capitals are destroyed first.
  • Love Makes You Crazy: America.
  • Loves the Sound of Screaming: Blue.
  • Make It Look Like an Accident: White tries to make Switzerland and Spain’s deaths look like suicides, but it’s easy to see the truth.
  • Murder Is the Best Solution: Japan kills America’s boss to stop the abuse, unintentionally playing into America and Canada’s plans.
    • Black’s way of “cleansing” the Earth is this trope played straight.
  • My Death Is Just the Beginning: Switzerland’s death triggers everything.
  • Never Got to Say Goodbye: Spain and Romano have a big fight and Spain storms out, leaving Romano all alone. Guess who White kills next?
    • Also, Sweden to Finland.
  • Not Quite Dead: Russia as of Chapter 42
    • Germany at the start of 43, but he dies by the end of the chapter
  • Please Wake Up: China to Russia early on. He’s not dead, but it’s still pretty heartbreaking.
  • Prime Suspect: In-story example, Poland gets blamed early on for the attack on Russia, while Hungary and Austria are pretty obvious suspects for Switzerland’s murder.
  • Shoot the Dog the fanfiction.
  • Shoot the Hostage: Vietnam.
  • Shout-Out / Sincerest Form of Flattery: While the authoresses didn't explicitly state that they took inspiration from Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, they have said that they have watched it in some author's notes (or the profile; forgot which one). It even has started into an odds border that they have not included kills from Umineko yet. Some kills and/or events taken directly from Higurashi (as of now) are:
    • The entire Blue's arc is a Homage to Watanagashi-hen/Meakashi-hen. This includes the punishment game, although in this one poor Japan has to bear Fingore even more Gorn than the real one and Mind Screwy Twin Switch.
    • After Japan killed America's Boss, Finland delivered the same speech to the killer just like how Takano Miyo delivered to Keiichi in Tatarigoroshi-Hen.
  • Suicide Pact: The killers under Black, who know that they, too, will die by his hands.
    • America’s “when you die, I’ll die” toward Canada counts, too.
  • Suspiciously Specific Denial: China; Russia and England both are quick to point this out.
  • Tag-Team Suicide
  • Tear Jerker: A lot. It IS a murder fic, after all.
    • Denmark being forced to kill Norway to save Iceland’s life.
    • Romano’s death is pretty depressing, too, mosly because we get Italy and Spain's reactions to his death.
    • Russia's reaction to China's unresposiveness. You just want to hug him.
    • Su-san's speech to Finland when he finds the latters dead body. Made even worse by the severe and abrupt Genre Shift, where Iceland and himself fly a plane (although neither of them can actually fly) and, of course, England's journal, to Italy and England trying to hide Finland's body from Sweden when he asks where Finland is. He then questions what Italy is hiding. Japan's broken "He's hiding Finland's body, Sweden", does not help matters in the least.
  • Theme Naming: Every chapter is named after a publicly known serial killer, respectively.
    • Each killer's codename is also a color.
  • These Hands Have Killed
  • They Died Because of You
  • Together in Death: Although it’s unknown if they’re still together in the afterlife, Spain and Romano were buried next to each other.
  • Twin Switch: One of the biggest sources of Mind Screw.
  • Ungrateful Bastard: Many examples, but the most noteworthy would be Canada to America, who chose Japan over him.
  • Unwanted Spouse: China’s rather reluctant merge with Russia starts as this, as he only agrees for the sake of the betterment of his people. It’s only until Russia tries to kill China for standing up for Lithuania that they actually start getting along, and eventually fall in love.
  • Utopia Justifies the Means
  • What the Hell, Hero?: America. Just… America.
  • Wild Mass Guessing: Lucky and Angel don't hesitate to fuck with their reader's minds.
  • You Have Failed Me...: Green, failing to kill Russia, loses Black’s respect.
  • You Meddling Kids: Germany, Italy and Japan’s team. Prussia joins up later.
  • Your Days Are Numbered: Everyone, although America, Russia and China were targeted specifically for being the “Big Three”.
  • Spot the Imposter: Japan unable to tell the difference between America and Canada.
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