Thus far the day had seemed calm. Although Monobear's appearance from the previous night had shaken the group, there was an air of confidence and safety. The motive seemed almost entirely unproductive towards the mastermind's purposes. Togami's lips curled downward as he remembered the piece of paper he had been handed.
"Byakuya Togami, heir to the Togami family, is in a homosexual relationship with a commoner."
Admittedly, it was something he would prefer his family not to know, but not something worth murdering for either. He had noticed Naegi's shocked face upon receiving his own secret and wondered if it was a counterpart to his, but retained his usual apathetic air.
All the other students had stood appalled at their own secrets, demanding how Monobear had gotten ahold of such personal information, but no answer was given- just a threat for the secrets to be announced to the outside world.
Afterwards, it had been decided that the students would remain in groups of two, so that they wouldn't be forced to all sit in a room together and could move freely. If someone was murdered, they would immediately know who the culprit was, therefore no crime would be committed.
Unfortunately, somehow Togami found himself paired up with Hagakure in the library.
"Toggi-chi," Hagakure began in his excited, husky voice, "Let me read your dreams. You can see into a person's soul through their dreams."
Togami growled in the back of his throat, "Don't address me as 'Toggi' ever again and you may not read my dreams. Would you mind shutting up, I'm trying to read," he ordered sharply, glaring at Hagakure before returning to his book and trying to find his place. His demand proved futile however as Hagakure continued to babble.
"I had this dream, and there were cows everywhere. Big ones, you know, and they were drinking milkshakes. Is that cannibalism? Milkshakes are made from cows. Anyways, they were walking like on two feet and everything-"
"Hagakure, if you don't shut up I will rip out your-" Togami was interrupted by a sharp scream. Both their faces fell and Togami pushed the chair out from behind him as he abruptly stood up and strode out of the room towards the sound. Hagakure had barely had time to react before he began racing after the tall blonde.
Togami dashed down the hallway, letting the library doors slam loosely behind him. He heard the pounding of feet against the floor and saw a student fleeing to a nearby room - the locker room. He followed quickly, pushing open the door. He was caught off guard by what he saw.
A body lay on the floor, a small, stout one, covered in blood. The face was obscured by bright pink and a dark bruise forming on the entire right side of the victim's face.
"Naegi," Togami breathed, taking in the battered boy. His jacket was almost entirely covered in blood and his hands were placed on his neck.
Was he... dead? Togami's body became filled with dread. He wanted to walk over to Naegi, but feared his legs would give out on him.
"I think he's alive," Togami blinked confused, before noticing Asahina sitting next to the body, her face was dark and fearful and it became apparent that she had been the one to scream. Tears were flowing down her cheeks as she looked up to Togami - and, as he now noticed, the others who had gathered behind him, "I can feel his pulse and he's breathing... sort of," she looked to her left, before adding, "He's just passed out."
Togami had been overly shocked by the sight of his boyfriend's body on the ground he had neglected to notice the other one lying a few feet away. Ishimaru lay on his back, but no blood decorated his body. He was left completely clean and unhurt unlike Naegi.
"Who did this?" a burly voice yelled angrily. Oowada's fists were clenched and he looked set to kill. Togami glared at him, irked by the yelling in his ear.
Before Togami could give a snarky response, Kirigiri answered calmly, "We don't have time to worry about that right now. Naegi could die if we don't get him help."
A few disheartened 'yeah's sounded from the other students, suddenly becoming aware that Naegi was in critical condition. Oowada moved forward, reaching his hands down around Naegi and pulling him up.
"Let's take him down to the infirmary," He said. Without waiting for a response he strode out of the room and the other students scuttled to follow him. Togami grimaced, irked by their incompetence and inability to focus on the dangers of leaving a passed out student in an empty room, but he followed suit.
He found himself in the infirmary, Naegi was on the bed and Kirigiri and Fujisaki were taking charge of fixing up his wounds. Chihiro let tears drip down her face as she removed Naegi's jacket and pulled up his shirt, revealing a deep wound that had pierced through his chest. None of the students had any sort of expertise on wounds. Oogami was going through drawers in an attempt to find anything that could be useful for Naegi's wounds. Thus far, they had located gauze, pain meds, medical tools, and a sort of soap for cleaning cuts along with many other instruments which none of them had the faintest clue of how to use. Togami stood in a far corner, watching as the others frantically attempted to fix the broken boy. Yamada was touching his head, trying to see how deep the cut was that the bright pink blood was oozing out of. Oowada stood nearby angrily watching the process, furiously grinding his teeth and muttering threats at whomever had hurt Naegi. Asahina was whispering to Naegi in an attempt to comfort the sleeping boy meanwhile Hagakure was talking to himself anxiously. Fukawa had gone with Celes to watch over Ishimaru. Fukawa would become sick at the sight of blood and Celes was the first to offer to watch her.
A gasp pierced the room and all eyes fell on Asahina and her astonished expression, "Naegi- he said something. He's awake!" she shouted, "What? Naegi?" she asked, turning back to him and the room was taken by a nervous quietness.
His eyes fluttered open and his lips moved but sound didn't escape. Togami felt a pain in his chest, and relief flooded him. He was going to live.
"Guys," Naegi managed, finally opening his eyes to the brightness of the room.
"Naegi-kun!" Fujisaki shouted, smiling faintly through her tears.
He squinted, glancing at her and attempting a pained smile back, "Hi," he replied weakly.
"Naegi-kun, you shouldn't talk. You're not in a condition to speak," Kirigiri ordered mildly, continuing to work on his wounds, despite his grimacing.
He grunted in pain, "You don't have to do that," he told her softly, trying to wave her away, but not able to move his hand.
"Who did this to you, Naegi?" Oogami demanded.
His mouth fell open and he stared at her blankly for a second before responding stupidly, "What?"
"We need some room. This is too small a space for all of us. Anyone who isn't helping needs to leave," Kirigiri stated, staring blatantly at Oogami. Togami understood that this wasn't the time to stress out the small boy.
Oogami, Oowada, Hagakure, Asahina, and Yamada filed out of the room. Kirigiri looked bluntly to Togami, who frowned, "I'm not leaving."
She sighed, figuring this wasn't the time to fight and continued to work on Naegi.
He smiled sheepishly, his face was pale besides the dark bruise on it, "Really, I'm fine. Don't worry about me," he told them.
Kirigiri began to wrap the gauze around Naegi's chest, "The culprit just barely missed your heart, you could easily be dead," Kirigiri informed him monotonously.
He looked somewhat surprised by this new information, but insisted once more, "It's okay, Kirigiri-san. I'm not hurt really. They did miss so it's okay."
She sighed and ignored his pointless argument, taping the gauze down. Fujisaki worked quietly on the side of his head, having cleaned the wound, she used some cloth and wrapped it around him gently, "The head wound isn't too deep," she told them, "But it might not stop bleeding for a while."
Kirigiri nodded in understanding, "Does it hurt anywhere else, Naegi-kun?" she asked soothingly.
Naegi shook his head hastily, stopping almost immediately as a look of pain grasped his face, "No, I'm fine," he insisted.
Kirigiri looked faintly annoyed, "I guess we aren't getting anything out of you for right now," she turned to Togami, "You should pair up with Fujisaki-san and I'll watch Naegi-"
"No," Togami stated, pushing his glasses up his nose to avoid eyes contact, "I'm staying with Naegi."
Kirigiri glowered at him for a second before registering that arguing would be fruitless.
"Fine. Fujisaki-san, let's go," Fujiaski nodded and followed behind the purple-haired girl as she exited the room, so only Togami and Naegi were left.
Naegi's face turned a light shade of pink, realizing it was only the two of them in the small room. "Hi," he murmured, not able to meet Togami's gaze. A silence ensued. Naegi fidgeted with his sleeve, unable to come up with something else to say. He finally looked up, meeting the cold stare of Byakuya Togami.
"What. The. Fuck," Togami growled, baring into Naegi with a murderous look, "What the fuck were you thinking?"
Naegi grunted, trying to form words but was too anxious.
"You could have fucking died. You could be dead. Do you understand that?" he barked.
"I'm sorry. It wasn't my fault," he mumbled.
"Oh really?" Naegi flinched at the fury and disbelief in Togami's harsh tone, "So why is it that Ishimaru doesn't have a goddamn scratch on him? You tried to be the hero, didn't you? And save him. You put yourself before him-"
"So what?" Naegi retorted, "I did the right thing!"
Togami made an incredulous sound, "For the love of God, we are trapped in a building and the only way to leave is to murder each other. There is no fucking 'right and wrong' anymore. There's only survival and I'm not entirely sure you want to survive," he accused.
"You know I do!" Naegi shouted, trying to push himself off the bed, but gasping in pain and falling back down, unfortunately this action didn't help his case.
"It's like you're trying to kill yourself-"
"Shut up, Togami! You know I'm not!" he yelled, tears stinging his eyes.
Togami squeezed the bridge of his nose, "Oh okay, so you were just being an idiot? Great. That's great. Guess we know who is going to be targeted next."
Naegi covered his face with his hands, unwilling to let Togami see him cry. Togami didn't notice, too involved with his anger, "You're an idiot. You moron. Why would you put yourself in danger like that? How did that seem like a good idea?"
Naegi was buried in his hands by now, trying his best to ignore Togami.
"You know what? Why don't you just tell the killer where you are and when you're going to be alone. That sounds like a good plan. On second thought, just bring the fucking knife with you while you're at it. Make it nice and easy. No problems. Wouldn't want them to strain themselves, would you?"
"Stop!" Naegi screeched, unable to contain himself, "Stop it. Just stop," he broke down, tears were clearly running down his face and he was crying violently.
Suddenly, Naegi felt warmth surrounding him, enveloping him, and he peered through his fingers. Togami was wrapped around him, his arms covering the boy, protecting him. Naegi squirmed, growling threats and ordering him to leave him alone.
"I'm sorry," Togami whispered in the small boy's ear, softly and earnestly. Naegi stopped moving. Was he actually apologizing for something?
He felt Togami's arms squeezing around him tighter, "I'm so sorry, Naegi. I just.. I can't lose you. Please don't leave."
"Togami..." Naegi whispered. He had never shown this much affection before, "I'm sorry too."
Togami shook his head, "You didn't do anything wrong. I just can't imagine losing you. I need you. I won't let anyone hurt you again. I should've been protecting you. Should've.." Togami trailed off, lost for words. The thought of Naegi actually dying, disappearing from this Earth, never there to see or hold or talk to again, it was a thought he couldn't bare, "I need you."
