Celeste didn't flinch as all eyes turned to her. "Oh, really? So I'm the suspicious individual now? I really do hate this kind of joke."

Togami narrowed his eyes at her as she smiled innocently. So she was the one who had done it – who had tried to frame him for her crime. He'd wondered who she really was, underneath the constant gothic persona she wore. Well, now he knew – and he intended to leave her elegant cloak of lies in shreds by the time he was done making her pay.

"A joke?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. "I don't think you have anything to laugh about. There's proof that you and Yamada were working together – the behavior we saw throughout the investigation only from the two of you."

"You mean the Robo Justice suit, don't you?" Naegi said. "In the whole investigation, Celeste and Yamada were the only ones to see him."

"Exactly." Togami couldn't help but smile across the circle at Naegi. "If I'd been there for the events themselves, I would have caught it sooner. All accounts of anyone seeing the costumed individual came from one of you. Now that we've proved Yamada's involvement in the case, his account is suspect – and that means your claims are equally suspicious."

"Because Celeste was the one who saw a shape on the stairs after we left the nurse's office!" Naegi's words were addressed to the whole circle, but his eyes never left Togami's. "And then later, we only went to the third floor because she screamed."

"And that was the signal for her partner to get to work," Togami said. "Back in the nurse's office, Yamada screamed himself, creating a scenario where you would all have to divide into two groups to address both problems – and where you would discover both bodies at the same time."

Naegi nodded. "Celeste was even the one who suggested that we split up in the first place. And it's not just that – in the nurse's office, she was the first one to say that Yamada had been murdered, even though we know now he wasn't actually dead at that point."

"She wanted to control your reactions and ensure none of you doubted the apparent murder," Togami agreed. "Since any investigation of the body at that point would have revealed her ruse. Each piece isn't much by itself, but put together and the picture looks very ugly indeed." He broke his gaze away from Naegi's to turn and smirk at Celeste. "Wouldn't you agree?"

"No, I would not." Celeste's smile didn't falter. "You may claim it looks however you wish, but it is only your word that this is anything more than a series of coincidences."

"No, it's more than that," Naegi said, drawing her attention from Togami to him. "There's one thing you said that coincidence can't explain away. When Yamada's body disappeared and we all went back to the nurse's office, you said that we were all wondering if we'd die just like 'those guys' – but at that point, no one had told you about Ishimaru's death yet. We didn't even meet you until we were back in the hall, so you couldn't have seen the body, either."

"And at that point, Kirigiri had disappeared as well," Togami added, bringing Celeste's head swinging back towards him. "So if that is what you said, you would have had no reason to assume it was another male who had died, when it could just as easily have been her."

"Can you explain it, Celeste?" Naegi asked, leaning forward over his podium. "Do you have some other explanation?"

Celeste's gaze darted from Naegi to Togami and back again before she clasped her hands with her most unyieldingly innocent smile yet. "You both have such vivid imaginations. But I do not have to explain anything – it is the two of you who must explain the photo I took of the costumed villain dragging Yamada away. After all, this is definitive evidence, is it not? Much more convincing than your fanciful tales."

Togami frowned, looking at the photo again. He knew he hadn't dragged Yamada anywhere, and they'd already established no one but him could wear that ridiculous costume. The idea of a second identical costume made for someone else was too nonsensical to even consider – they would have turned it up if it existed. He looked across the circle at Naegi – but the other boy's face was equally blank.

"Are we sure that's really a picture of the suspect dragging Yamada away?"

Kirigiri's words cut through the stalemate, drawing their attention to her. She tapped one gloved finger against her chin as she thought, apparently unmoved by their gazes.

"There is nothing else this picture could show," Celeste said flatly.

"I think there is," Kirigiri said. "It could just as easily be a picture of Yamada dragging the suspect. With the costume covering the suspect's face, there is no way to judge what they're doing from the photo alone – or if they're even conscious."

"That's right," Naegi said. "Because the suit couldn't bend at the waist, the person inside would have to stand upright like that even if they were knocked out."

"Quite a strange design flaw," Togami said. "Well, strange unless that was part of your plan all along – to build a costume specifically designed to make the person inside it look guilty." He smirked. "I suppose this is checkmate."

Celeste jerked back away from her podium, a thin trickle of sweat visible on her cheek as her eyes darted around the trio facing her from the circle. Togami drank in the look on her face with satisfaction – yes, there it was, the crack in her perfect façade.

But then, as if it had never happened, her usual smile snapped back into place, and she raised a graceful hand to her lips to cover a laugh. It started as a delicate sound, like tinkling bells, but then it didn't stop, spiraling out into wild peals of hysterics until she slammed her hand down on the podium and screamed.

"Don't make me laugh, you idiot! What do you mean, checkmate?" Her voice had changed entirely, rough and sharp and lacking any of her usual elegance. "You want to call me guilty? Have you already forgotten about what Yamada said when he was dying? We asked who had attacked him, and he didn't start to say Celestia Ludenberg, did he? No, the name he tried to say began with a T! In other words, Byakuya Togami!"

Togami rolled his eyes. "A letter isn't a name. He could have been trying to say anything."

"No, I'm pretty sure he was trying to say a name," Asahina said, shaking her head.

"But that doesn't mean he was trying to say Togami," Kirigiri said. "After all, Yamada always referred to everyone by their full names, not just by their last names."

"Then are you suggesting that he was trying to accuse Toko Fukawa?" Ogami asked, puzzled.

"M-me?" Fukawa jerked back, sending a poisonous glare around the room. "Of course you'd all think–"

"No one thinks that," Naegi reassured her. "Because there's one other person he could have meant – one person whose real name we still don't know." He pinned his gaze on Celeste. "You never actually told us your real name."

"Oh, really? Then open you earholes up real wide and listen!" Celeste's voice shook with rage as she tried and failed to maintain her calm demeanor. "My name is Celestia Ludenberg! It's the truth, and none of you have any way to contradict me!"

"Maybe we don't, but your e-handbook does," Naegi said. "It shows the owner's name when you turn it on, right? So if we just look at Celeste's e-handbook, we can see what her real name is." His expression turned pleading. "Come on, Celeste – can't you tell us the truth about what happened?"

Celeste glared at him. "I refuse to cooperate! Even put in check, it is not in my nature to give up! Until the game's over, you never know what might happen!"

"Fine." Naegi's eyes blazed with determination. "Then let me go over the whole case, from beginning to end, and shed light on all your crimes."

Naegi's summation ran through all the details of the case, missing nothing, as relentless as the rising tide. Togami smiled, listening to Naegi call on proof after proof of his innocence, watching each piece of evidence slam home into Celeste like a bullet. Her gothic poise lay shattered around her like broken glass, leaving her exposed for the liar and murderer she was. And even as her world fell apart around her, Naegi didn't stop, an avenging angel wielding weapons of pure truth. Nothing could have torn Togami's eyes away from him in that moment.

"And the villain behind it all is Celeste!" Naegi concluded, pointing across the circle. "Sorry, you lose!"

"I lost?" Celeste drew back. "When was the last time I was forced to utter those words?"

"Then you admit you're the killer?" Naegi pressed.

"Heh. Listen to you." Her elegant poise returned, but it settled unsteadily on her shoulders now that they'd seen what was beneath. "I, Celestia Ludenberg –" But then she stopped, and something fell away from her face as she stared off into nothing. "Actually, no." Her voice had changed, the exotic accent disappearing to leave only plain, ordinary words. "No. Taeko Yasuhiro is fine."

"Taeko?" A smile curled across Togami's lips at that final admission. "So you've finally accepted it."

Celeste shrugged. "Once I've lost, I don't like things to drag on." She looked up to the throne at the head of the circle. "Okay, Monokuma. I'm ready to begin – or no, I suppose this is the end, isn't it?"