"It was you, wasn't it, Ogami?" Naegi asked, leaning forward over his podium. "You were the one who unscrewed the hinges on your own door."

"No, it wasn't!" Asahina insisted, before Ogami could answer. "I did! She didn't even have the screwdriver – so she couldn't have done it!"

"Hina –"

"No!" Asahina turned to Naegi. "Sakura was avoiding me – that's why I needed to get into her room to talk to her! If I'd talked to her for long enough to give her a screwdriver, then I wouldn't have needed to get the door open at all!"

"Unless that isn't really why you needed the door open," Jill said, scissors materializing in her hand as she pointed at Asahina. "Admit it – you went in to try to lure her into some girl-on-girl action with those bouncing balloons on your chest!"

"H-huh?" Asahina blushed, drawing back a little. "No, that had nothing to do with it! I just needed to talk to her, that's all." She dropped her head, staring down at her hands. "I realized how unfair I'd been to her, and – and I couldn't just leave things like that." She looked up again, eyes blazing. "So that's why I did it. I'm the one who opened the door!"

"Hina, this isn't necessary," Ogami said, closing her eyes. "I'm more than prepared to accept any possible consequences for my actions."

"Oh, is that so?" Monokuma asked, tilting his head inquisitively.

"No!" Asahina all but shouted. "It wasn't her – it was definitely me!"

"We've already proved it can't have been," Togami said impatiently. "You must have given her that screwdriver somehow." He glared over at Ogami. "And then you had me lock you in your room again to mask your intent to break out."

"I didn't intend to deceive you," Ogami said. "At the time, my request to be locked in my room was genuine."

"See?" Asahina said. "Why would Sakura want to be locked up if she was just going to open the door again?"

"Because you convinced me otherwise," Ogami said. She looked around the room. "Hina left a letter containing the screwdriver outside my room –"

"No!"

"– requesting that I use it to open the door and speak with her during the night."

"No – no, I didn't!" Asahina said frantically, her eyes darting from Ogami to Monokuma and back. "Nothing like that happened! I'm the one who opened the door, and the screwdriver was in the room because I carried it inside! There wasn't any note, and you can't prove there was!"

Naegi frowned as she continued speaking in a panicked outpouring of words. Was that really right? He and Kirigiri definitely hadn't found any note – but if Ogami was telling the truth, it must have been there. The question was, where could it have been? It must have been very well hidden –

Unless it hadn't been hidden at all.

"No! That's wrong!" Naegi interrupted Asahina's panicked objections. "I may not have the note you wrote, but I think we can prove it existed." He looked over at Ogami. "The sink in your bathroom was clogged with something white and pulpy – something that looked a lot like paper would if you tore it up and put it down the drain. And on the side of the sink, I found a scrap of paper with writing on it – writing that I bet would look an awful lot like Asahina's."

"You can't prove that!" Asahina said, eyes wide and horrified.

"He doesn't need to," Ogami said. "It's true. I destroyed your note in order to hide your involvement – but if I'd realized you intended to take the blame on yourself, I would have kept it to demonstrate the truth."

Asahina looked from Ogami to Naegi – and her shoulders slumped in defeat. "Okay. You're right. It – it happened like you said. I wasn't the one who opened the door – I just asked Sakura to do it for me." Tears filled her eyes. "And I wish I hadn't!"

"What do you mean?" Naegi asked.

"I forgot about that rule when I wrote the letter to Sakura," Asahina explained. "And then, when I remembered – well, maybe it wouldn't count to take the door off the hinges – but what if it did? As soon as I thought of that, I tried to go take the letter back. But it was too late, Sakura already had it. And she opened the door last night, just like I asked her." A tear fell down her cheek. "So – that means it's my fault. Sakura only opened the door because of me – so if anyone has to be punished because of it, I'm the one who deserves it!"

"That isn't true!" Ogami said fiercely. "I was fully aware of what it might mean when I opened the door, and I chose to do it anyway. You are not to blame for anything that happens, Hina."

"But she is to blame for wasting our time," Togami snapped. "Didn't it occur to you that once a murder had taken place, it was more important to explain how everyone entered the 'locked' room than to protect your so-called friend from a punishment that might not even occur?"

"It wasn't just that," Asahina said. She looked around the circle. "All of you are suspicious of Sakura already. Even if the rule really does have a loophole, I knew that I couldn't let her tell you all the truth. You'd think it meant she did something awful!"

"That's exactly what I think," Togami said coldly. He looked at Ogami. "You had motive, and Asahina's stupidity provided you with the opportunity. I've yet to see anything to suggest that you are not the most likely suspect."

"That's where you're wrong," Kirigiri said, crossing her arms and smirking at Togami. "You're too caught up in the issue of the spy to see what happened. In fact, Sakura Ogami is the one person who could not have committed this murder."

"Oh?" Togami's eyebrows went up. "That's an interesting claim." He looked over at Naegi. "What is she talking about?"

"Uh…" Naegi blinked. "Sorry, I'm not sure where she's going with this."

"If you think about how Hagakure was killed, then it should be obvious," Kirigiri told him.

"I definitely remember!" Jill said, twirling her scissors in her hand. "Just seeing such an uninspired murder method as clobbering a guy over the head made my fingers twitch to do some slicing!"

But Naegi shook his head. "No – that wasn't it."

Togami frowned. "But the Monokuma File –" He stopped, a sudden frown crossing his face. "No, it didn't say so, did it? It said that he'd been hit over the head, but it didn't actually specify that the blow was the cause of death."

"And it wasn't," Kirigiri said. "It looked impressive due to the quantity of blood, but the head injury was nowhere near severe enough to be a killing blow."

"All right, then." Togami crossed his arms, looking over at Naegi. "If the head injury wasn't what killed him, what was?"

"This." Naegi pulled the heavy bottle of poison out of his pocket and set it on the wooden column in front of him, positioning it so the skull and crossbones label faced the other students. "Hagakure was poisoned."

"And that somehow precludes Ogami from being the culprit?" Togami asked skeptically. "I don't see how. Admittedly it would be stupid to consume anything that came from a known traitor – but Hagakure was more than enough of an idiot to fall for such a ploy."

Naegi grimaced. "Uh – should you really be talking about him like that now that he's dead?"

"Why? Death hasn't had an impact on his intelligence level," Togami said flatly.

"Right." Naegi sighed, figuring that wasn't an argument to have at that moment. "Well, anyway, it doesn't matter. Hagakure didn't get poisoned by eating anything."

"What do you mean?" Asahina asked, frowning. "How else would someone get poisoned?"

"It says here on the label that this poison can be administered by consumption, inhalation – or injection," Naegi said. "There are three needle marks on Hagakure's body."

"So you're saying the killer jabbed him with a syringe three times?" Ogami asked. "That seems excessive."

"They can't have," Togami said. "I checked the nurse's office myself, and none of the syringes were missing."

"Because that wasn't it," Naegi said. "We found the needles the killer used, and they weren't syringes. They were regular sewing needles that had been dipped in poison."

"Needles like in the sewing kits in every girl's room," Togami said, nodding slowly. "I see."

"So… you're saying someone knocked us all unconscious and then stabbed Hagakure with a bunch of needles?" Asahina asked.

"Not quite," Naegi said. "Hagakure wasn't the only one in that room to get stabbed with a poisoned needle – all of you were."

"What?" Asahina drew back. "But – that can't be right! If we'd been poisoned, we'd be dead!"

"Not if it wasn't a full dose," Naegi said. He flipped the bottle over to show the dosage instructions. "It says here that one of the possible symptoms of a partial dose is loss of consciousness."

"Possible symptoms?" Togami raised an eyebrow. "As in, not guaranteed?"

"This killer has been remarkable in one respect," Kirigiri said. "Their plan relied on a great deal of both careful forethought and impulsive action."

"What is that supposed to mean?" Togami demanded, but Kirigiri didn't answer.

"I'm not certain your claim holds together," Ogami said, ignoring this exchange as she looked at Naegi. "I believe I understand the theory… but I don't recall being stabbed with a needle."

"Me either," Asahina said, shaking her head. "Needles hurt – I'm sure I'd remember something like that."

"No, you wouldn't," Naegi said. "Memory loss is another side effect, and this one happens for sure. After a partial dose of the poison, your memory gets fuzzy about what happened leading up to it. You can't remember getting stabbed at all."

Asahina and Ogami looked at each other and nodded slowly. "I guess that makes sense –"

"Wait." Togami glared across the circle at Naegi, fists clenching and face going slowly pale. "How exactly do you know what happens after getting poisoned?"