Through Celeste's entire execution and Monokuma's subsequent taunts, Togami couldn't bring himself to let go of Naegi's hand. The whole group could see – and judging by a few glances in that direction, they had – but he hardly cared what they thought about it at this point. Not when the warm pressure on his hand gave him a physical reminder that they'd survived another trial intact, and that Naegi was alive and beside him.
It could so easily have gone another way. Not that they could have lost, of course – once they were all arrayed against her on the trial ground, Celeste hadn't had a chance. But if she'd chosen to let things play out differently – if she'd actually gone to the furthest extreme of making it look like he'd just been using Naegi –
The thought still made him shiver. Their position in this school really was precarious, wasn't it? He'd known that something could happen at any point, but now the realization truly hit home. One of the others could still turn against them – and while an intelligent person wouldn't try something too similar to Celeste's attempt, some of the remaining students could hardly be accused of intelligence.
He would have to start taking further precautions. Disappearing on his own might have been a reasonable thing to do when it was only his own safety he needed to worry about, but it had become a poor move now that Naegi was a factor. It wasn't just last night, when he'd been distracted enough for the killers to grab him – by separating himself from Naegi, he'd created a weakness between them that Celeste had been able to exploit.
The connection between Naegi and himself meant that he had to consider them a unit in his calculations. He had to take himself into account as part of a pair, not as an individual. It was a new way of thinking, one that felt strange to him after so many years of working on his own – but he would just have to learn to do it. He was not going to leave himself vulnerable again.
And one of the things that meant was that he needed to resolve his argument with Naegi. He hadn't changed his mind about there being a traitor amongst them – if anything, the events of this trial left him more convinced of it than ever – and he still doubted he could convince Naegi to doubt one of the other students, not without definitive proof. But there had to be some kind of middle ground, didn't there? There had to be some way that they could just agree to leave the issue alone until he could find the evidence he needed to convince Naegi.
But it wasn't just the argument. If they were a unit, that meant that whatever was happening between them couldn't be left to stand on its own. Even if Naegi had fought for Togami throughout the whole trial, part of the reason he'd needed to do it was that they had left holes in everything they'd shared. Anything that they left vague or undefined between them was a potential target, and any point where their connection was weak was a point where someone could try to shatter it. Togami had no intention of allowing anything like that to happen, not again. He needed to make Naegi understand that, as well.
Finally, Monokuma stopped his blathering and disappeared, leaving the rest of the students as alone as they ever got in the presence of the security cameras.
"Hey, Kirigiri?" Naegi asked, turning a little away from Togami to face the girl. "What was that key that Celeste gave you?"
Kirigiri smiled, touching the pocket where she'd stowed the key. "It's most likely the key to one of the dressing room lockers."
Togami nodded. "So Celeste probably hid it in there."
"Well, then we'd better go check," Ogami said.
They left the trial ground to pile into the elevator, and frankly Togami was glad to leave the overwrought room of gothic midnight behind for good. But when they approached the dressing room, Kirigiri stopped.
"I'm going to go on alone from here. Everyone else go to the dining hall. I'll check in with you later."
Togami narrowed his eyes at her, his suspicions about her disappearance resurfacing now that the trial had ended. "Why exactly are you going alone?"
"Do you even have to ask?" Her eyes flickered towards the surveillance cameras, quickly enough that only the most observant person could catch it.
"That's not what I meant," Togami snapped. As if she thought that he of all people would forget that the cameras watched their every move. "Why you? There's still the risk of a spy, you know."
He knew Naegi wouldn't like hearing that – but it had to be said. Kirigiri might be an asset in the trials, but in the rest of the school, she couldn't be trusted. Anyone who went to the lengths she took to remain mysterious had a reason to remain an unknown quantity. That would be the safest identity for a traitor to assume – one that involved revealing as little as possible about the past. And with his suspicions about her, Togami knew he wouldn't trust anything she reported about whether Alter Ego was there or not.
But then Naegi's hand slipped out of his. "Then I'll go, too." And Naegi actually walked away from him to stand beside Kirigiri.
"What?" Togami stared at Naegi, his hand feeling unexpectedly cold and empty now that Naegi had let it go. "You?"
"You'll believe it if we both say the same thing, right?" Naegi said.
The others all nodded, as if their opinions mattered at all. Togami looked from Naegi to Kirigiri and back again. Don't go with her, he wanted to say. Don't trust her, don't be alone with her. Stay with me where I can make sure you're safe.
But he knew Naegi wouldn't – not without a fight, anyway. And a noisy, attention-getting fight was one thing they couldn't afford to have right now.
"Do whatever you want," Togami said, turning and heading towards the cafeteria. At least if he walked away first, he wouldn't have to see Naegi go off with Kirigiri.
"Thank you, Togami," he heard Naegi say behind him.
It wasn't much, but – well, hadn't he just realized that fighting only left them open to attack? So before he disappeared through the cafeteria doors, he glanced back just once over his shoulder, caught Naegi's eye, and lifted the hand Naegi had been holding in a brief wave. The bright smile Naegi sent him in return proved it had been the right decision.
In the dining hall, Togami quickly claimed one of the smaller tables for himself, leaving the others to congregate around the larger table. As they all drifted in and settled down to wait, though, their eyes kept sliding towards him, presumably when they thought he wasn't looking. Togami scowled down at the table and pretended he didn't notice. Waiting for something – what a pointless waste of time, and he didn't even have a book to try to keep the boredom away. Maybe he should try to go up to the library instead –
Footsteps sounded across the room, and Togami looked up to see Asahina approaching him. "What do you want?"
"Well, I wanted to talk to you." She clasped her hands, looking rather dejected. "Or – I guess I wanted to apologize to you. I guess some of the things we said about you weren't true after all."
"No, they weren't," Togami said coldly. "You were entirely drawn in to Celeste's web of lies, and if it had been left to you, we'd all be dead and she would have won."
Asahina drooped at his words. "Yeah, I guess you're right." She bit her lip, and seemed to muster some scraps of determination. So then, this would be what she'd actually come here to say, not that joke of an apology. "Uh, Togami? Since you're not the culprit, does that mean you're really going to be on our side now?"
Togami rolled his eyes. "Ugh. Don't say it like that, you'll make me ill."
"Then it's true?" Asahina pressed. Togami looked behind her, and he could see that Hagakure, Ogami, and Fukawa were all listening in without a pretense of doing anything else. "Everything about Naegi making you not want to kill us anymore – that was for real?"
"Killing the rest of you still wouldn't bother me," Togami said, raising his voice a little so the eavesdroppers could get it clearly as well.
"That's a lie." The words came from Fukawa, a low rumble that rolled across the room. "Nothing but a f-filthy lie." She looked up and her eyes found his, and Togami found himself leaning back in his chair at the intensity of her gaze. "Celeste was right. You can't kill any of us anymore. You gave up."
Togami didn't really want to encourage her by addressing her directly, but he couldn't let that stand. "I've done nothing of the sort. If you'd bothered to think about it, you'd see that. I've switched my sights to the greater target, that's all. Instead of trying to defeat you lot, I intend to bring down the mastermind."
"R-really?" Fukawa laughed, dry and brittle, and her shoulders shook with it till it looked like she might fall to pieces. "You think y-y-you can do that? Because my White Knight could have, but you?" She shot to her feet so fast that her chair crashed to the floor behind her, splintering to pieces as it hit the ground. "You're just another stupid boy."
And with that, she headed for the door and left, braids streaming behind her.
Togami huffed out a sigh as soon as she was gone. "Good riddance."
Asahina turned to him in disbelief. "You haven't changed much, have you?" She shook her head. "I hope you're nicer to Naegi."
Togami didn't bother to answer, and eventually Asahina shrugged and went back to her seat between Ogami and Hagakure.
Togami tried not to watch the clock, but it was hard not to keep track of the minutes that slipped away. What were Kirigiri and Naegi doing in that dressing room? How much could an AI stored on a laptop possibly have to say to them?
He just hoped it hadn't been a mistake, letting Naegi go off with Kirigiri alone. He didn't think she'd do anything to him, not when they all knew perfectly well that he'd been alone with her – but there were things she could try other than physical harm. She could tell him lies, try to trick him – and Naegi was so nice that he would believe her until he had hard evidence that he shouldn't.
Togami had just started considering whether he ought to go check on them when finally – finally – the dining hall door opened, and Kirigiri entered.
And then the door swung shut again behind her, and she crossed calmly to take a seat like she hadn't expected anything else.
Togami stared blankly at the closed door for a moment, then strode over to Kirigiri and slammed his hands down on either side of the chair. "Where the hell is Naegi? What did you do to him?"
