"Anyway, I didn't go to the dining hall, and I didn't take the knife." I explained. "So I'm not the killer!"

"Okay, so then…" Began Chihiro as she looked around nervously. "Who did take the knife?"

"Hina seems like the obvious candidate." Assumed Celeste. "After all, she just said she was in the dining hall…"

"N-No way!" Protested Asahina. "I swear it wasn't me!"

"Sure, but can you or anyone else prove that?" Asked Yamada.

"I can." Said Sakura suddenly.

"That's right!" Proclaimed Asahina. "Sakura was with me the entire time I was drinking me tea."

"Uhh…" Began a nervous Leon. "I hate to have to ask, but just be sure, Sakura's…"

"Me." Sakura replied while giving him a stern look.

"…Right." Said Leon.

"But then… Couldn't either one of them have grabbed the knife?" Asked Hagakure.

"Actually, no." Began Asahina. "Because, um, well…"

"Just spit it out already!" Said a frustrated Mondo.

"I stayed in Hina's room last night." Sakura finished.

"I got so scared thanks to those creepy videos." Explained Asahina. "I wasn't really thinking. I just asked her to stay over. Which means we have airtight alibies!"

"You s-stayed over…?" Began Fukawa in a mixture of frustration and nervousness. "Doesn't that v-violate one the school r-regulations?"

"We're not aloud to sleep anywhere but the dorms, but it doesn't say we have to stay in our assigned room…" Said Chihiro. "So… I don't think that's a problem."

"It IS a problem!" Exclaimed Ishimaru. "A boy and a girl spending the night together!? It's… It's… Unwholesome!"

"But…" Began Sakura. "I'm a girl."

"Wh-!? You are!?" He stammered. "Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry!"

"But if it wasn't either of you, then what other possibility is there?" Asked Celeste.

"Actually, there is one other possibility." Stated Sakura. "Right, Hina?"

"Oh yeah, that's true!" She realized. "One other person did come to the dining hall while we were there."

"Why didn't you say so in the first place?" Sighed an unamused Togami.

"Well, because…" She stammered. "They're not here anymore."

Someone who's not here? Was she talking about…?

"Maizono." She continued. "She's the one who came to the dining hall. And then later… She wound up dead…"

"M-Maizono…?" I stammered. "She took the knife…?"

"That's the only possibility." Said Sakura. Nodding. "And thinking back on it, she was acting kind of unusual… When she came into the dining hall, she didn't even look at us. She just went straight to the kitchen. As she left, she said she just wanted a drink of water. But most likely…"

"Then the person who took the knife was the victim herself!" Finished Ishimaru.

"I'm sure…" I stammered. Not knowing how to put it. "I'm sure she just took it for self-defence…"

"So, you're saying the knife she took was then taken from her, and she was killed with it?" Asked Togami. "In that case, you may not have taken the knife, but you still could have killed her."

"What!?" I exclaimed.

"S-See!?" Fukawa exclaimed as she angrily pointed at me. "He did do it a-after all!"

"No, you're wrong!" I protested.

"So that's how you would the argument and send us all off in the wrong direction…!?" Growled Yamada. "Hm-hmm… You possess a most terrifying talent…"

Damn…! If I don't do something, they're gonna blame me for the murder! Don't they understand? If they convict me, everyone's gonna die!

Kirigiri's voice then snapped me out of my thoughts. "Hold on." She began. "It's still too early to decide conclusively that Naegi is the killer, wouldn't you say? Because, you see, if the room did belong to the killer, then they did something most bewildering. And until we unravel that little mystery, you simply can't declare that he's the killer."

"Bewildering?" Repeated Mondo before getting angry. "What the hell are you talking about?!"

"Something was missing from the scene of the crime that by all rights should have been there." Kirigiri continued before looking at me. "You know what I'm talking about, don't you?

I began thinking again. Something that was missing… Well, my room was oddly clean of any dust, particles, and…

"That's right!" I gasped. "There wasn't a single hair on the floor!"

"So…" Began Chihiro nervously. "The culprit removed some evidence?"

"Yes." I nodded. "And if I were the culprit, why would I need to get rid of all the hair in my own room? It wouldn't be unusual at all to find my hair at the crime scene, if the crime scene is in my room."

"The reason all the hair was gone…" Began Celeste. "Was to remove any trace that Maizono had ever been there. That makes sense, does it not?"

Kirigiri shook her head. "No. if that were the case, they would have had to do something about the body itself, not just her hair."

"Ah-ha-ha!" Laughed Yamada. "Yes, very true, very true!"

"Okay, then why wasn't there any hair on the ground?" Asked Leon.

"The killer got rid of it all, of course." Explained Kirigiri. "To remove any trace that they had ever been there."

"Wait, then that means…!" Gasped Mondo before Kirigiri continued her explanation.

"Precisely. It's simply beyond reason to believe that the room's owner and the killer are one in the same."

"Then… Naegi isn't the culprit?" Asked Chihiro.

"But are you sure we can decide something so important based solely on the absence of some hair!?" Proclaimed Ishimaru.

"No. There are other reasons to prove why Naegi couldn't have done it." Said Kirigiri.

"I would like to hear these reasons." Said Sakura.

"Do you remember anything remarkable about the bathroom at the scene?" She asked to no one in particular. "Maizono was attacked in the main room first, then fled into the bathroom, right?"

"Yeah, then they ran after her, got into the bathroom, and stabbed her…" Assumed Mondo.

"And how did the killer get into the bathroom?" She suddenly asked. "Did they have any trouble with it?"

"What do you mean…?" Asked Celeste.

"It's fairly certain that the killer had some trouble getting into the bathroom…" She continued. "There was clear evidence left behind. Do you remember, Naegi?"

The killer struggled getting into the bathroom. And the evidence that proves it is…

"Evidence that the killer had trouble getting into the bathroom…" I thought out loud before realizing what it was. "You're talking about the doorknob, right?"

"Huh? The doorknob?" Repeated Hagakure. "What doorknob?"

"The doorknob for my bathroom… It was completely broken." I explained as I took out my e-Handbook and showed everyone the picture of my doorknob. "See how the top part was unscrewed, and the doorknob's about ready to fall off?"

"Oh yeah, true…" Agreed Chihiro. "But what does it mean?"

"In trying to bypass the lock, they ended up nearly removing the entire doorknob." Explained Kirigiri. "This is another bewildering act for the room's owner. It proves Naegi is beyond suspicion."

"So what, you're saying that he wouldn't break the door in his own room?" Asked Leon. Kirigiri nodded. "But if the only choice you have is too break it, you break it! There's nothing "Bewildering" about it!"

"You still don't see?" Asked Kirigiri before going eerily calm. "Okay, then… Let's take another look at how the incident unfolded. Hopefully that will help you understand…"

Kirigiri said it was a "Bewildering act"… I almost didn't notice at first, but… Is that the key point here?