Togami wasn't sure what to think as the other students arrived and approached this side of the pool. For all that Naegi had gotten there first, his steps had been slow, faltering, like he didn't want to reach the conversation that would happen when he reached the other side. He didn't look at Togami again, not after that first moment, but Togami could read his pain anyway.
Did he really believe it? Naegi had known Togami wouldn't kill him – he'd known it before Togami had understood it himself, and pinned him with the words like a mortal blow. Didn't he understand that it went beyond the immediacy of murdering him directly? Did he honestly think that Togami could kill someone else, knowing what the inevitable result of success would be?
Togami scowled at Naegi, something going tight and cold in his chest at the way Naegi wouldn't even look at him. He should have known better than that, no matter how good the culprit's frame job had been. Naegi had blind faith in everyone else, to the point where he hadn't even been able to consider the perfectly reasonable idea that they might have a traitor in their midst. Why had he chosen to doubt Togami now, when he was actually innocent?
The evidence compiled against him must have been very convincing. But not enough. Togami's frown deepened. He wouldn't let it be good enough.
The others spilled into the room after Naegi, overtaking him as they hurried towards the side of the pool where Togami stood with Kirigiri. He saw Asahina again, Ogami hanging at her back, Hagakure, and Fukawa – that left Ishimaru and Yamada as the victims. Those seemed like odd choices – why them? The two who had made such fools of themselves over Alter Ego last night – could it be a coincidence?
Asahina reached them first, glaring at Togami with a fury that seemed almost personal. "So it's true, isn't it? The one who wore that costume and went around attacking people – it was you, wasn't it, Togami?"
"Is that what happened? Someone attacked people with that monstrosity on?" Togami raised his eyebrows at her. "Well, it wasn't me."
"Don't lie to us!" Asahina clenched her fists. "I saw you wearing that suit!"
"Yes, because someone knocked me unconscious and put me in it," Togami said. "I've been stuck in that locker ever since I woke up."
"Oh, really? Is that so?" Celeste tilted her head. "But in that case, how do you explain the blueprints for the suit that Hagakure and I found in your room, hmm?"
"Yeah, it's true, we found all kinds of papers and materials and boxes all over your room," Hagakure agreed, nodding. "There's no mistaking those, right?"
"And the dimensions on the blueprints suggest that the suit would need to be quite a close fit." Celeste bent down and peered at the suit more closely, then looked back at Togami with a sharp smile. "It looks like it would be quite difficult for anyone other than you to wear this costume."
Togami wasn't surprised to hear that, not with how tightly it had been fitted to him. It did bring up some worrying questions about just how the culprit had gotten it so well-fitted, though.
"Are you sure it was him?" Naegi's voice was low, his eyes locked on the suit instead of Togami. "I mean, none of the rest of us saw him in it, right? And it would cover his face, so you couldn't be sure."
"Oh, it was definitely him!" Asahina said, turning to glare at Naegi. "I'll show you it had to be him, here!"
Asahina seized the pieces of the robot suit and began trying to strap them on. "Look, see how loose it is?" she said, as some of the pieces wouldn't stay on while others could barely close. "How did you even walk in this thing? I can't see my feet, I can't bend at the waist, I can't even figure out how to get the stupid clasp fastened."
"That's because it's in the back," Kirigiri said, watching with her arms crossed. With her usual blank expression, she almost looked disinterested. "You can't reach it with the suit on. I had to undo it for Togami before he could take it off."
Asahina stripped the suit back off and let it collapse to the ground in disgust. "So there – it's obvious no one but Togami could fit into this dumb costume," she said to Naegi. "So are you finally going to stop defending him now or what?"
Defending him? Togami's gaze went to Naegi before he could stop it, and he saw that the other boy was pale, eyes rimmed with red. So Naegi had been defending him to the others?
"He's the only one without an alibi, and he's the only one who could fit in the suit!" Asahina continued. "There's nothing more to say about it – Togami killed them!"
That statement caught Togami's attention. "The only one without an alibi?" He frowned, looking around the group. "That can't be right."
"It is true," Ogami said. "All the rest of us can account for our whereabouts during at least one of the key events during the murder. You are the only one who was missing for the entire event."
"Maybe I am, but since I know I didn't do it, there must be some other explanation," Togami snapped.
"What would that be?" Celeste asked. "How could someone else have done this?"
"How should I know? I've been unconscious and locked up," Togami said. "You're the ones who know the facts. Why don't you try using your brains for once to figure it out?"
Not that any of them would. It was probably expecting too much of them to think anything through logically. The only ones who knew how to use their brains were himself, the obnoxious Kirigiri, and –
"What if it wasn't someone else?" Naegi didn't take his eyes off the suit as his words pierced through the conversation. "Or – not just one someone else. What if it was two people working together?"
At the words, the tightness gripping Togami's chest eased a little, like fresh air blowing into a still room. Maybe Naegi hadn't entirely fallen into the culprit's trap, after all.
"What, you mean an accomplice, like Monokuma was talking about during the first trial?" Asahina asked. "But didn't he say the accomplice wouldn't get anything out of it? So no one would be stupid enough to go along with it!"
An accomplice – yes, that sounded like it might make sense, if one of the reasons they all suspected him was that he had no alibi. It would explain why the culprit had gone to such lengths to make sure he would be out of the way during the murders. It didn't really explain the stupid robot suit, but Togami wasn't sure anything could justify that.
"You are speaking from your emotions, not from logic," Celeste told Naegi. "You simply do not wish to believe that you were deceived."
Naegi's eyes moved towards Togami at those words, but the instant their gazes met he jerked away again. Togami frowned. That wasn't like Naegi. Something was wrong here, something more than just the culprit's attempt at framing him. Naegi had trusted him before now, even if he'd been angry. Had Togami's accusations about the traitor shaken him that thoroughly – or had something else happened?
Well, whatever it was, Togami knew he didn't have time to deal with it now. The body discovery announcement had been too long ago. The class trial had to be looming, and the way it looked now, most of those idiots were all too ready to fall into the killer's trap.
"Argue about it during the trial," Togami said, glaring at them. "This is the time to focus on finding evidence."
"We already have all the evidence, though," Hagakure objected. "Everyone knows you did it, right? So you might as well just give up."
"If you want to dig your own grave with your failure to act, go ahead," Togami snapped. "I have evidence to find."
"Then we'd better get back to guard duty before you can try anything!" Asahina said, clenching her fists. "Come on, Sakura!" She and Ogami headed out, with Asahina casting suspicious looks back over her shoulder in case Togami tried to follow.
Not that he would, when he didn't even know where they were heading. He was flying blind into this one – he hadn't even received the Monokuma File, since he must have still been locked in the closet whenever the information had been distributed. If he was going to prove his innocence, he would need answers, and quickly.
Who could he ask, though? Hagakure wasn't even an option. Frankly he didn't trust Celeste not to lie to him for her own amusement. Fukawa – no, he wasn't going near her, not after the way she'd reacted when he last tried to tell her to do something. Kirigiri probably wouldn't tell him anything, if she even knew – she'd said she hadn't been there for part of what had happened.
Really, there was only one person in the group who was worth asking. And however upset Naegi might be, Togami didn't think he'd ignore a request for information. Naegi would play fair at the trials, if nothing else. Togami turned towards the other boy.
"Naegi, do you have a second?" Kirigiri spoke before Togami got the chance. Togami glared at her, but of course she didn't react. "I'd like your help on the investigation. I got a late start, so I'll need to make up some ground."
"Huh?" Naegi looked at Kirigiri, and Togami's expression darkened at the way a little of the shadow in Naegi's expression faded as he spoke to the girl. "Well – sure, I don't mind helping. But later, will you tell me where you went? We were all worried when you disappeared."
Kirigiri had disappeared during the investigation? Now that was interesting information. She was always one of the nosier ones, poking her head into every aspect of the cases and even going so far as to manhandle the corpses. What had she been doing, if not investigating? Could this all have been her scheme after all? Or was it possible that she, the mysterious loner who hadn't even revealed her talent, had disappeared for some other reason?
"No," Kirigiri answered Naegi, her voice flat and almost bored. "Anyway, I need your help."
And of course, Naegi gave in to her request. "Okay."
Letting Naegi go off alone with Kirigiri when she sounded so suspicious seemed like a spectacularly bad idea. "I'll go with you, as well," Togami told them.
Kirigiri gave him a considering look. "All right. Then let's get started. The bodies first, I think. Where are they?"
"In the repository," Naegi said, starting for the door.
"Tell us what else you've learned on the way there," Togami said. It wouldn't be as good as getting the information firsthand, but Naegi always seemed to find something useful when he investigated. It would certainly be better than nothing.
By the time they reached the repository, Naegi had finished going over most of the events of the murder. Togami almost had to admire the careful way the culprit had crafted the alibi situation – whoever had done it, they'd managed the timing very carefully. It really was too bad for them that he was going to destroy them.
As expected, Kirigiri made a beeline for the dead bodies as soon as they entered the repository. Togami grimaced. Yes, they were short on time, but did she really need to be so offputtingly eager about it?
Rather than watch her, Togami decided to do something more productive. He looked at Naegi. "You got a Monokuma File, didn't you?"
Naegi jumped at being addressed, looking up into Togami's eyes. Togami's hands itched to reach out and brush Naegi's hair out of his eyes, to wipe away the unhappiness and make him smile again – but this wasn't the time.
"Well? Show me the file," Togami prompted, before he could get any more distracted than he already was.
"All right." Naegi passed it over, their fingers brushing as he did. Togami couldn't help smiling a little – but Naegi jerked away. He looked away from Togami and headed over to Kirigiri instead, falling into a quiet conversation with her.
Togami flipped open the Monokuma File and scanned it – the little information that was there, anyway. Only two sentences? That might be all right for the people who had been present for the events, but it certainly wasn't helpful for the rest of them.
Although that assumed that the Monokuma File was intended to be helpful. Togami had noticed it last time, as well – the file left out relevant facts. In the second investigation, the file hadn't mentioned the real location where Fujisaki had died, or that he'd been concealing his gender, even though both of those things would have been included in a more legitimate autopsy report. So that meant that if a lot of the information that the others knew had been left out of the file, including the times and locations of the murders, then…
Ding dong, bing bong.
"Are you excited? Are you pumped?" Monokuma's voice rang out from the televisions. "It's time for the class trial to begin!"
