Everyone stopped mid-argument when Naegi shouted, slamming his hands down. His shoulders shook as he gripped the edge of the podium, but his face burned with a determination made all the fiercer by the red rimming his eyes. Even in the middle of the trial ground, under fire from the rest of the students, it set an answering fire blazing in Togami's chest to see Naegi like that.
"That's not Togami's handwriting," Naegi said, his voice strong and clear in the silent room. "Here, take a look at this." He reached into his pocket and produced a folded paper – one that Togami recognized as the note he'd slipped under Naegi's door the previous night. "Togami gave me this note, and it's obviously different from the writing on the blueprints."
"How do we know that Togami really wrote that?" Asahina asked, squinting at it.
"You don't have to take my word for it." Naegi looked over, and his eyes saw right through to Togami's soul. "You can write something now, in front of everyone, and we can compare."
"Here, use this." Kirigiri tossed a notebook and pen at him.
Togami paused, then wrote "You're all idiots" in his distinctively bold handwriting. He made a point to write as quickly as possible, to deflect any accusations that he could have forged the handwriting on the note. He held up the notebook for everyone to see.
"You see? The writing doesn't match at all," Naegi said. "So Togami couldn't have been the one who made those blueprints, no matter where you found them."
"Unless he disguised his handwriting when creating the blueprints," Celeste pointed out.
"No, the differences are bigger than that," Ogami said, looking from one paper to the other.
"And why would he bother to disguise his handwriting if he was going to leave the blueprints in his own room?" Naegi added.
"Wait, so – you're serious about this?" Asahina asked, a puzzled frown replacing her fury. "You aren't just lovesick and confused? You really think Togami didn't do it?"
"It's not just him," Kirigiri spoke up. "I don't believe that Togami is the killer, either."
"You, too?" Asahina's frown deepened. "Then was it someone else in the Robo Justice suit after all?"
"Well, no," Naegi said. "Only Togami could have fit in that suit, we saw that when we were all out by the pool."
"So then how can you claim it wasn't him who committed the murders?" Celeste asked.
"Because of the way the bodies were moved," Kirigiri said. "Naegi, you were there for this part of it. Tell the others what happened?"
"Me?" Naegi blinked. "Um – all right. Well, the bodies must've been moved with the dolly and the tarp we found in the repository, right? Before we found the bodies, those things had been in the equipment room, where we found Ishimaru's body the first time."
"Precisely," Kirigiri said, with a sharp nod. "And what did we all see when we examined the suit?"
"That whoever was wearing it couldn't bend over or see their feet!" Naegi answered without missing a beat. "So the person in the Robo Justice suit wouldn't have been able to operate the dolly to move Ishimaru's body!"
Kirigiri smiled faintly back at Naegi in the face of his excitement. Togami scowled. They worked together seamlessly, didn't they?
"Couldn't they have just taken off the suit to move the body, though?" Hagakure asked, frowning.
"No, I don't think so," Naegi said. "Kirigiri told us she had to help Togami get it off, remember? And Asahina couldn't get it fastened when she tried it on."
"That's true," Ogami said slowly. "It would be impossible to put the suit on or take it off without help."
"Believe me, if I could have gotten that ghastly thing off on my own, I would have," Togami said, grimacing. "I certainly wouldn't have let you all see me wearing it."
"It wouldn't make sense if he was the killer," Naegi said, a smile spreading across his face, "but it makes perfect sense if someone else wanted us to think he was the killer."
"That's just what you w-want to think!"
The words came from Fukawa, the first thing she'd said since the trial began. Her dark stare in Naegi's direction, glinting behind her glasses, sent chills down Togami's spine.
"You only believe it b-because my White Knight deceived us all," she went on, braids flying around her as she leaned forward. "He made us think he'd f-fallen, but it was all nothing more than a ploy. He never changed! Everything he did was just to make you trust him."
Togami opened his mouth to tell her to shut up – and hesitated. The last set of orders he'd given her had ended poorly. Who knew what would happen if he told her to do something now?
"That's not it!" Naegi didn't have any qualms about arguing with her, though. "Weren't you listening?"
"Oh, I was l-listening to you blabber, all right," Fukawa said. "And do you know what I didn't hear you explain? Celeste's photo of Yamada getting d-dragged away by R-robo Justice! And then Yamada even said Robo Justice was the one who a-attacked him! So whatever else you say, it just p-proves that he succeeded in deceiving you. He isn't what you thought – he's just been using you to try to win!"
"What it means," Kirigiri interrupted, "is that this case is far from a simple series of events. We're faced with contradictions at every turn." She crossed her arms and surveyed them all. "There's no need for us to rush to decide on the killer. We should be sure to consider every possibility. I think that the only way to move forward is to consider each murder as a separate situation." She thought for a moment. "Let's start with what happened to Ishimaru."
"Wait, but shouldn't we start by talking about Yamada?" Asahina asked. "He got attacked first, didn't he? The Justice Hammers proved it."
"No, they don't," Naegi said. "We can't just assume the hammers were used in the same order as the numbers. And when I saw Ishimaru's wristwatch, it had broken just after six o'clock."
"It must have broken when he got attacked by the killer," Kirigiri added. "After all, the rest of us saw it working when he told us how late Naegi and Togami were last night, near ten – which means the attack must have occurred around six this morning."
"That's before Yamada's attack," Naegi said. "It's even before Celeste got attacked at seven. We were mistaken about the order of the attacks because of the numbering on the Justice Hammers."
Togami nodded, seeing the pieces come together. "That's why the killer numbered the hammers and had them increase in size – to encourage us to make that wrong assumption."
"And that means that none of us has an alibi for Ishimaru's death," Kirigiri went on.
"But it doesn't change the facts about Yamada's death," Ogami pointed out. "All our alibis hold true for that one."
"Yeah, we heard him scream and everything," Asahina said. "Everyone was together then except for Togami and Kirigiri."
"And there is also the matter of when the bodies disappeared," Celeste said. "When Yamada's body vanished, Asahina and I were together in the bathroom, while the others were in the equipment room. And when Ishimaru's body disappeared, we were all in the nurse's office. Only Togami and Kirigiri had the opportunity to move the bodies during these times."
Togami looked at Kirigiri for a moment, wondering – but no, this was still part of the culprit's trap. Everything about the alibis had been arranged too exactly, and he'd be a fool to let it distract him. Her disappearance still raised questions, but those could wait until the trial was finished.
"We shouldn't be thinking about the who right now," Kirigiri said, echoing Togami's own thoughts. "We need to focus on the how."
"That's right," Naegi said, tapping a finger against his chin. "Someone dragged Yamada's body out of the nurse's office during the minute that Celeste and Asahina were gone. We have to figure out how they did it."
And then Togami saw it, in a flash of clarity, and he could have kicked himself for missing something so obvious.
Kirigiri smirked. "What if I told you the dead body moved on its own?"
Hagakure went pale and clutched at his hair. "No, not another ghost!"
Togami glowered at him. Trust Hagakure to drag the discussion into idiocy whenever possible. "That's not what she meant. She's implying that Yamada wasn't actually dead at that point, and simply left the nurse's office by walking out on his own."
"I knew my White Knight wouldn't give up without a fight!" Fukawa clasped her hands to her chest and gazed at him, her smile tilting crazily. "He's still spinning a web of lies to ensnare us, to drag us down into the pits of hell."
"Indeed," Celeste agreed. "We all heard the body discover announcement when Yamada's body was found in the nurse's office, did we not?"
"But that was the same time Ishimaru's body was found in the equipment room," Naegi said. "We don't know for sure which body the announcement was for. But we did hear a second announcement – later on, when we rediscovered the bodies in the repository."
"What do you say, Monokuma?" Togami turned to the robot bear sitting over them all on his throne. "Do you replay the announcement for multiple discoveries?"
"Well, it's a very sensitive issue," Monokuma said. "All I can tell you is that the body discovery announcement is only broadcast when three or more people discover a body for the first time."
"So that means that finding the same body a second time wouldn't result in another announcement," Togami said. "In fact, it means that if Yamada was dead in the nurse's office, you should have heard two announcements at the same time, instead of one then and another later."
"And it's not just that," Naegi added, as soon as Togami had finished. "I have another reason for thinking Yamada was still alive in the nurse's office. When we found him there, we all saw the blood on his glasses – but later, in the repository, his glasses were clean again. I even found a glasses cleaning cloth in the nurse's office trash can, covered in blood." Naegi produced a bloody rag, and even from across the circle it was obvious that the thing had one of Yamada's stupid anime characters on it.
"So if Yamada was still alive in the nurse's office, the disappearance of Ishimaru's body is easily explained," Kirigiri said, taking up the thread from Naegi without a pause. "He must have moved the body himself while the rest of you went down to the nurse's office."
"And that would explain how the repository door got locked," Naegi said. "Asahina and I both found that door locked, but it only locks from the inside. Yamada must have done it while he was storing Ishimaru's body in there, while we were searching the school."
"So Yamada wasn't just a victim in this case – he was one of the assailants," Kirigiri concluded, a faint smile on her lips as she finally paused the wall of arguments, giving the others in the group a chance to speak.
"Then – you think he took part in the murders?" Ogami asked, stunned.
"Absolutely. There's even more evidence to prove it," Kirigiri said. "The single biggest fact pointing to his involvement has yet to be revealed."
Naegi nodded. "You mean the note Yamada had hidden, right?" He pulled it out and held it up for them all to see. "Look, it says to meet the writer in the equipment room at six o'clock – that's the same time and place that Ishimaru was attacked. The killer must have used this to lure Ishimaru out of his room."
"But you just said Yamada had the note, not Ishimaru," Asahina protested.
"Because he probably stole it from Ishimaru's corpse," Naegi said. "We also found this scrap of paper clutched in Ishimaru's hand." He pulled it out and put it next to the note, showing everyone how the torn lines on the two papers fit together perfectly.
"And if Yamada knew the note was important enough to try to take it, then he must have been an accomplice in the murder," Kirigiri said.
"But – wait, then who killed Yamada?" Asahina asked.
"Whoever did it could only have killed him after Ishimaru's body disappeared, but before we rediscovered the bodies," Ogami said slowly. "That was when we had split up to search for the bodies – meaning that none of us have alibis for that time period."
"So after Yamada moved Ishimaru's body to the repository, someone else killed him," Kirigiri said. "That person can only be the true culprit in this case – the one who was working with Yamada, but then betrayed him."
"Which is e-e-exactly the sort of thing my White Knight would do!" Fukawa said, clenching her fists. "He'd only pretend to work with one of you – he wouldn't really join forces with anyone!"
"That is a fair assessment," Celeste said. "But I do not see why you all seem to believe that anyone would work together in the first place. We discussed this already, did we not? An accomplice has no chance of benefitting from a crime, since only a single blackened can graduate from a murder."
"But there were two murders," Naegi said. "So isn't it at least plausible that there could be two killers?"
"With two murders, there could be one blackened per death," Kirigiri said. "That opens the possibility of mutual benefit from cooperation – two killers who could also act as each other's accomplices."
"Everything occurred seamlessly to make us all think there was only one person killing multiple people, but that was just part of the killer's plan," Naegi said.
"Which means that everything was set up perfectly to allow the true culprit to betray and murder Yamada," Togami said. "The betrayal must have been part of the plan from the beginning."
"Didn't I s-say so?" Fukawa said, a half-smile twisting her face.
Togami scowled at her. "Are you suggesting that I'm arguing now to foil my own plan? Be serious."
Fukawa jerked back. "But – no, it has to be you. Everything would make s-sense if it were you!"
"No, it doesn't!" Naegi insisted, leaning forward with his eyes flashing – and even in the middle of the trial, seeing Naegi so fierce in his defense sent a rush of unexpected warmth through Togami. "Everything the killer did was designed to deflect suspicion away from them and onto Togami. At this point, he should be the only one we don't suspect!"
"Then who was it?" Ogami asked, frowning as she thought. "If it wasn't Togami, then who was the one pulling Yamada's strings?"
All eyes moved around the circle, each of them studying the others as they wondered. But with the way the case had played out, there was only one choice left. Togami let his gaze turn to the culprit, seeing that Kirigiri did the same. They were obviously of the same mind on this question.
But it was Naegi who finally raised a hand to make it definite as he pointed at Celeste. "You're the only one!"
