Chapter 21

As expected, they got some odd looks on the bus. No one confronted them though, as Kirigiri's talent meant a good portion of the town knew who they were. Tanaka, too, was peaceful, obeying her wordless commands as she guided him. They got off at their stop and began the last leg of their journey: the walk to the police station.

Thankfully, luck smiled upon them today. For a few minutes into their walk, a car screeched to a stop nearby. Before the car had fully stopped, Asahina leapt out of the passenger seat, arms pumping furiously at her side as she sprinted towards them.

"Hey! Are you two okay?" Asahina shouted. She reached Naegi first, grabbed his shoulders, and shook him a little.

"We're fine. Just escorting a prisoner," Kirigiri said. She took a single step forward, in case Asahina's shaking knocked Naegi over.

Asahina hadn't noticed Tanaka yet. She looked over sharply, then jumped when she saw him. Rubbing her curiously bloodshot eyes, she asked, "Is this where you two have been? Togami was about to send out a search party for you!"

"Whoa!" Naegi said. "There's no need for that. Obviously, you guys must have been trying to reach us. We're sorry, but both of our phones died. That's why we haven't contacted anyone."

"It's not even noon," Kirigiri pointed out. "We haven't been gone long?"

Behind Asahina, Oogami was exiting the police car. It was still Asahina who spoke, however. "I don't care what time it is! After what happened, of course we're going to freak out when you two don't answer your phones . . ."

"After what happened?" Naegi asked.

Asahina's pupils widened. "You don't know? Holy crap, you seriously don't know. Haven't you two been to the station at all today?"

"We're on our way there now," Naegi said. "What's going on?"

"It's . . . well . . . he just . . ."

To their mounting dread, Asahina sniffled. She tried to speak again, but her sentence collapsed into a sob. Tears ran down her face as she rubbed at them furiously.

And Oogami was there, resting her hand on Asahina's shoulder. Over the shorter woman's head, Oogami looked at them and delivered the news.

"Fujisaki-kun was taken to the hospital this morning."

The world held its breath.

"Why?" Kirigiri demanded. "What happened?"

"We don't know," Oogami said. "Ishimaru-kun was doing his morning rounds and discovered Fujisaki-kun on the floor, unconscious. He is alive, but we have been unable to revive him."

A collapse followed by unconsciousness? That. . . that was . . .

"This Fujisaki, is he part of the investigation?" Tanaka asked, unintentionally reminding them all he was there.

"He's . . . That's none of your business!" Asahina spat. "I bet you guys are the ones who did this to him!"

"Asahina-san, stop!"

Kirigiri jerked Tanaka out of the way of Asahina's incoming punch; all he would need was one bruise to get the charges dismissed on police brutality. Asahina groaned in frustration, and wound up her punch again, only for Oogami to grab her wrist. Oogami needed to do nothing else; the woman's sheer strength alone kept Asahina under control. Asahina's. Her tears came quicker and hotter as she glared at Tanaka. Tanaka stared past her, gaze fixed on nothing.

"Give us a ride to the station," Kirigiri said. "We'll book him, and then go to the hospital. Could one of you call Togami-kun, as well? We don't need him sending out a search party."

Asahina didn't speak. Oogami gently nudged her toward the passenger seat, then opened the back door for Kirigiri and her companions. She shoved Tanaka inside, and nearly climbed inside herself. The only thing that stopped her was that Naegi hadn't followed.

She walked up to him. He didn't look at her. At first, she assumed emotion had overwhelmed him, that he didn't want them to see him cry. But his eyes were curious dry, his face . . . slack. His chest was heaving though, and his pupils were strangely dilated.

"Makoto?" She grabbed his shoulder. Was this a panic attack? She hadn't seen him experience one in person before. What was she supposed to do?"

". . . Your plan was to visit a hospital," Tanaka said from the open back seat.

She grabbed Naegi and quickly helped him into the car. He lay flat against the back seat, fingers curling into the seat under him. She threaded her gloved hand with his stiff one, and rubbed it.

She nearly jumped as something ran across her legs. That hamster, the one with the strange white sigil on its back, stood in Naegi's lap, happily grooming itself. She glared at Tanaka; whatever pests was he hiding in that jacket and scarf. Naegi, however, didn't care. In fact, he moved suddenly, shakily stroking the hamster with his free hand. His pupils shrunk a little more every time he moved, until they were back to their regular size.

"Are you okay?" she whispered.

"Yeah. I let my imagination get away with me, that's all."

She didn't quite believe him, but she didn't want to interrogate him in front of their coworkers and Tanaka. She settled for pecking his cheek.

"Humans do not care when they tread on ants," Tanaka said suddenly, staring at Naegi. "It is seldom that the slaughter is malicious, either. Humans walk, and simply fail to notice the ants are there."

Tanaka said nothing else on the ride, which she was thankful for. They handed him off to the nearest authority at the station, and then jumped back into the police car. The sirens wailed as they tore down the roads. Before long, they were in front of the hospital.

"Go," Oogami said. "I will park and catch up with you."

Asahina had obviously been here before and didn't bother asking any of the nurses for directions. She pushed her way into the wards, heading for an unknown destination with Kirigiri and Naegi in her wake. Kirigiri knew their target when she saw it though, for Togami was there, staring inside the room from the hall.

"Chief! How's Fujisaki-kun?" Asahina asked, twitching her way into a crude salute.

"Still no change," Togami said. He looked at her and for the first time, noticed Asahina's followers. "Where in the world have you two been?"

"Our apologies," Kirigiri said. "Our phones died. What are we dealing with here?"

"Both your phones died?" Togami repeated incredulously. "What impeccable timing. You haven't answered my question, either. Where were you?"

She could anticipate his reaction. "Hope's Peak."

"Are you serious -?"

"Guys!" Naegi's shout shut them up. "Can you do this later? We're here to see Fujisaki-kun."

Without waiting for a response, Naegi slipped past them and ran into the room, Asahina hot on his heels. Togami's jaw clenched, which meant he still wanted to complain. So, Kirigiri made the quick decision to pre-empt him and follow after Naegi. Togami trailed after her, his metaphorical breath warming her neck.

Inside, Ishimaru's chair fit snugly against the side of the bed. Ishimaru's head was in his hands, his eyes were red. Before him lay the small, limp body of Fujisaki Chihiro. A monitor nearby traced the slow beating of his hearts in steady beeps. There were other things, IVs and catheters, but she didn't know what they were for.

"Hey," Naegi said softly to Fujisaki's unmoving body. He lightly held Fujisaki's hand, as if afraid of cracking it.

"I can't believe you went there when both your phones were dead," Togami said from behind her.

"It's not like we expected them to die," she said.

He scoffed. "So, you just didn't notice your phone was dead until it was too late?"

Well, yes. That was close to the truth. She couldn't say that though, because she wasn't about to admit to Togami that she'd overlooked that. Come to think of it, what had happened? She could picture Naegi forgetting to check his phone and not noticing the diminishing battery, but it was hard to imagine that she hadn't.

The arrival– or return – of Owada Mondo saved her from Togami's questions. The officer entered with a big cup of coffee in one hand, and. . . and Hope's Peak's open scripture in the other. Owada only saw Fujisaki and Ishimaru at first. Then, he noticed Kirigiri.

He was in her face before she could blink. He blocked out the light as he growled, "You find 'em yet? Bet it's the same bastard who killed Chuck!"

"We have no evidence pointing towards a specific suspect yet," Kirigiri said.

"Well, what the fuck's taking so long!?" His fist slammed into the wall by her head. She didn't react. "If it was Naegi, you'd have the guy on the electric chair by now."

"Owada-kun . . ." Ishimaru rose slowly, too drained to move any faster. "I'm positive that Kirigiri-san's doing the best she can."

"Yeah, well her best ain't good enough." Owada suddenly threw the scripture into her chest. "The fuck is this thing anyways?"

"Where did you find this?" she asked. Were she weaker, her voice would have trembled.

"On the floor next to him. You gonna tell me why it's full of gibberish?"

"It's coded," she said. "I had asked him to decipher it, but I can't see why . . ."

But could she? For this to be next to Fujisaki's unconscious body made the situation more familiar than she liked to admit. She had suffered the same thing, hadn't she? She, too, had fainted while browsing those pages. . .

Which raised an question of its own: why had this happened in the first place? Not the fainting itself, but this; but Fujisaki ever having hold of it. The memories were murky and reviewing them felt like dragging a body out of a bog, but she'd made the connection between her dizziness and the scripture, hadn't she? So then why. . . why had she given it to Fujisaki in the first place? She should have warned him, at the very. That's . . . that's what she usually did, wasn't it –?

"Guys!"

They snapped around. Naegi took a step back from Fujisaki's bed, shaking.

"What is it?" Kirigiri said. She stopped next to him and looked down. From Fujisaki's nose, a thin trail of blood rolled down his nose. Oh. Yes, that would upset Naegi horribly. She reached for a tissue from the box on the nightstand –

There was blood on the pillow, too high to be from his bleeding nose. The colour indicated that it was very fresh and when she touched it, some attached to her finger. But where was the source . . .?

She tilted Fujisaki's head to better look at it.

Blood dripped from his ear onto the pillow.

"Call a doctor." When no one immediately moved, she barked, "Now!"

Ishimaru stumbled out of the room, shouting for help. Owada surged forward muscling Naegi out of the way, pressing his hand to Fujisaki's nose to keep the blood inside where it belonged. Togami stood at the foot of the bed, staring down with something like shock as nearby, Asahina clung to Oogami.

"Fujisaki-kun!" Kirigiri didn't dare shake him. She felt around for a pulse even though the monitor behind her kept track of it. That was why she felt the sudden thump, followed by more trembling thuds as Fujisaki's heartbeat grew quicker and fiercer.

The heart monitor began to wail. The heartbeats shown were no longer steady, calm waves, but ones that peaked so high they nearly went offscreen. A sudden gush of blood squeezed between Owada's fingers.

A flood of medical staff poured into the room. They crowded around the bed, pushing she and her friends away, shouting technical terms that Kirigiri did not understand. Suddenly, hands and bodies forced them out of the room entirely. Fujisaki and his bed went wheeling past them and down the hall and the last thing she heard was a command to bring him to surgery.

"Fuck . . . What the fucking hell . . .?" Pale, shaking, Owada touched his own cheek, as if uncertain he was awake. It left bloody fingerprints on his skin.

"Bro, there's no need to worry!" Ishimaru grabbed Owada and slumped forward, caught between hugging and shaking him. "The medical staff at this hospital are excellently trained. I am c-certain that Fujisaki-kun will be perfectly fine!"

Despite Ishimaru's bluster, when he collapsed against the wall, he nearly slid down it. Naegi and Asahina, usually the ones to come to others' comfort, did nothing, in shock from what they had witnessed. Togami excused himself quietly from the group and disappeared.

"We don't need to wait here," Kirigiri said, recognizing they needed her leadership. "There's a waiting room outside the OR."

They followed her like ducklings, too shell-shocked to think for themselves. How long they ended up in the waiting room. . . it was at least an hour. Then a surgeon came out and Ishimaru rose to meet him.

They knew from watching Ishimaru crumble what the outcome had been.

"A brain aneurysm. This entire time, he could have dropped dead at any moment and we had no idea," Naegi murmured, nearly drowned out by the rumble of Togami's car.

"Don't blame yourself for this," Kirigiri said, knowing Naegi liked to do so. "Nobody knew."

"I know."

A brain aneurysm. They heard the diagnosis from the surgeon himself. It was a logical answer – a clean answer. Yet something kept nagging at her. Her detective instincts were telling her that this wasn't the answer. Something more was involved.

She glanced down at her purse, where Hope's Peak's scripture slept inside. It was completely illogical – impossible even – but there was something more involved. Something much more sinister.

"This is an unfortunate happening," Togami said, "but there's nothing we could have done about it. Let's talk about something else for now: why did you arrest this Tanaka?"

Naegi hesitated. He looked to her, begging for help.

Kirigiri lied, "Tanaka considers himself an enemy to Hope's Peak, and Komaeda Nagito seems to support that assertion. There must be something he knows that would be important to us."

Naegi frowned at her. She offered nothing else. True, they had arrested Tanaka for very different reasons, but she meant what she had said. What had happened to Fujisaki had been frightening, and if her theory was correct . . . then they had much bigger fish to fry than their resident 'Sorcerer of Darkness.' Speaking the truth and driving Togami to antagonise Tanaka was no longer in her favour.

"That's a terrible reason," Togami said. "But, he's already here, so let's find out what he knows."

The holding cells were in a separate section in the back of the building, close to the site where she had forced Naegi to take a nap and she herself had collapsed. It was as if the universe was goading her about the similarities between she and Fujisaki's case. But, she shook those thoughts off; she couldn't be constrained by emotion when an important interrogation was minutes away.

"So, what do you want to do if he asks for a lawyer?" Naegi asked as they approached the door to the holding cell block. "I mean, if we're not planning on following through with the charges –"

"We'll deal with that if we must," Kirigiri said. "However, Tanaka strikes me as too independent to ask for that kind of help."

"That's true," Naegi said.

"Tanaka-kun isn't as crazy as Hagakure-kun, but he still –"

Suddenly, Togami halted and held his arm out, stopped them an arm's length away from the door. Once Togami knew he had their attention, he pointed at. . . the door? The doorframe? She wasn't sure. This door in question was secured with an electronic lock that wouldn't open unless an employee swiped their card –

That was supposed to be how it operated, at least. However, when she looked closer, she saw it: the door wasn't completely within its frame. She shoved it, hard.

It fell over.

The hall opened before them, stretching into the distance before turning ninety degrees to the left, hiding the area beyond. Togami took one step inside the hall, calling out for the guards that were supposed to be on duty. Silence greeted them, even when Togami shouted and banged his fist against the wall.

"Makoto, stay!" Kirigiri said as she strode forward. Togami's clothes rustled as he drew his pistol from its sheath.

The two of them rushed forward as silently as they could. They slowed once they approached the sharp turn. They exchanged looks, a nod, then ran around the bend. The ambient light dropped sharply here; in the single flickering light, she could see glass shards from the other broken bulbs on the floor. Togami's gun glinted as the light caught it, as did a guard's badge.

The guard lay against the wall, unmoving. Togami, grim-faced, called for backup, but otherwise didn't react. Both had expected this from the moment they saw the broken door. Kirigiri knelt next to the body. There was still a pulse. The gun was in its holster; the guard had not seen the attack coming. From a distance, the guard looked unharmed, but when she knelt next to him and looked closer, there was a needle mark in his neck.

"This is professional," she said.

Given the evidence in front of her, she could deduce what had happened to the other guard. She still wanted to check, though. So, she walked forward, toward the holding cells. Down the hallway, through the dim light, she faintly detected the body of the other guard. But for once, Kirigiri's focus wasn't on the unconscious body before her. It was on something else: the cells. The first two were empty, as expected, and their gloomy interior cast a shadow over the area. But the third . . . the third . . .

It was like someone had tried to mold the bars around a bubble. Instead of being perfectly vertical as they should be, the bars on the third cells bulged outward. The outer-most bars had only experienced warping, but the ones near the center were a different story. About two thirds of the way down, they were also severed. It reminded her of the aftermath of an explosion, but there were no scorch marks.

"Did you search Tanaka for weapons?" Togami demanded.

"Of course, I did. Nothing he had on him could have done this." That was very true, because she had no idea how something like this ever could have happened.

There was no more to say. Togami's backup swarmed the scene, forcing both her and Togami out of the area and back to safety. Naegi met them at the door like a puppy with separation anxiety.

"We have security cameras in that area," Togami said as Naegi tried to ask what had happened. "Follow me."

They did. They went right to the security room (she overheard Togami muttering that he would fired the fool positioned there), and demanded to view the footage from earlier.

"Uh, sure. Can I ask why?" the officer said.

"What do you mean why? Does that tiny brain of yours think that unconscious bodies are no big deal?" The officer quailed in the face of Togami's overwhelming presence. Togami, on the best of days, could be snotty and intimidating. But this here, this musky aura he emitted? This was the authoritative side of him, the side that cowed the mayor into maintaining their funding, and neutered those who wished to usurp his rule.

"I-I'm sorry. I have no idea what you're talking about!"

"And why would that be? Are you telling me you were asleep on the job?"

While Togami ensured his subordinate would have nightmares, Kirigiri decided she would do something useful and check out the security feed. Perhaps there would be something useful on one of the other screens –

"Togami-kun, look at those two," she said, pointing at the screens in question.

Togami stopped his tirade and looked. The feeds Kirigiri pointed out where those from the holding cell block. At least that's what they were supposed to show. They did indeed show the holding block area, but something was wrong. Togami's backup was missing from the video, and more importantly, the two guards they had seen were conscious and Tanaka was in his cell.

"It's been tampered with," Naegi said.

"I suppose you aren't a complete failure then," Togami said to the hapless guard. "Who else was in here?"

"No one, sir."

"Then how . . .? These feeds aren't wireless, so how is it possible. . .?" Togami twitched. "Naegi, call Fujisaki and –"

He trailed off. An uncomfortable silence fell over the group.

"I need to make some phone calls," Togami said, making Naegi wince as he broke the awkward moment with as much elegance as dropping a rock on his toe. Togami left and soon after, the officer left too, saying something about needing a break.

"This is something Fujisaki-kun would have solved," Naegi whispered.

She shuffled her feet. Kirigiri wouldn't have counted her and Fujisaki as particularly close, but he had still been a valuable ally. She had held a great amount of respect for him. To be honest, if anything, she still hadn't fully come around to the reality. Fujisaki, who never ventured out to the crime scenes himself, had been the last person she expected to lose during her career. Fujisaki had been the support in the background, always present, always alive.

But while she may still be working through denial, Naegi had passed that stage. As he stared forlornly at the screens reminding him of his fallen friend, his spine sagged in exhaustion. His face seemed creased and pale, like he was ten years older than he was. He was supporting himself with the back of a chair, almost slumped over it.

"It's been a long day," Kirigiri said. She offered her hand to him. "Let's go home."

"But Tanaka . . ."

"The crime scene will be there tomorrow," she said. "Besides, I doubt Togami wants us to get in the way while they sweep the area."

That much was true, but there was an itch under her skin, an itch to get to the crime scene while it was fresh. She knew what she was looking for, after all: Hope's Peak. It was connected somehow, but she didn't know how. She needed to go back there and find out what she missed.

She blinked harshly. That wasn't important right now. Her theory was just a theory. She needed to make sure Naegi was still functioning.

The security feeds flickered. All of them flickered. Buzzing filled the room as they turned into screens showing naught but static. Naegi whirled around, head turning from side to side rapidly like an animal that knew there was a predator about.

"Kyoko . . ."

The two screens in front of them, right next to each other, suddenly recovered. Yet the feeds they showed were not the ones they had originally. Before, these cameras had shown images of the front door. Now, they showed the feeds of the two cameras in the holding cell block. The guards were moving around as they had been in the forged footage.

"Maybe Togami-kun's trying something," Naegi suggested.

". . . No, I don't think that's it."

For about ten seconds, nothing happened. Then – it was so fast – a shape sprung into the camera view. One arm locked around the guard's neck and over his mouth; the other plunged a syringe into his neck. It was over in seconds, and the other guard never noticed.

The shape, the intruder glided along the ground with an unnatural smoothness, with a stride that betrayed nothing but confidence. They seemed to flicker, to almost fade out into the shadows at some point. Then, they lunged. They slamming into the second guard and subjected him to the first one's fate.

By this time, Tanaka had realized something was wrong. He paced back and forth in his cell, before grabbing and rattling the bars on the door. The intruder stalked towards him, freezing once they made eye contact. The two faced off, neither appearing willing to give in.

The intruder reached for their waist, and pulled out a gun.

At the same time, Tanaka backed away from the wall and raised his hand. As the gun started to rise, Tanaka made a circular gesture and there was a gleam of red on his exposed arm –

She saw it. She saw the metal bend, subtle enough that if she hadn't seen the aftermath, she may not have noticed. The next second, a bluish light filled the screen, drowning out everything and there was the sound of metal groaning even though the security feeds didn't have sound –

The two screens went black.

"Is that. . . is that what happened?" Naegi exclaimed.

She said nothing.

Naegi asked, "Why would they show us this?"

". . . Because Togami-kun isn't here," she spat. "This game we're playing is between us and them. They don't want Togami-kun involved more than necessary."

"You think Hope's Peak is responsible for sending that person to kill Tanaka-kun?" Naegi said.

Hands on the back of a chair for support, she leaned forward and glared at the black screens. Her jaw clenched.

"Yes."