Naegi stared at Kirigiri in shock, after her pronouncement. "You're going to do what?" He searched her face for any hint of emotion to give him some clue what she meant – but he might as well have been staring at a solid steel wall. "You – you're kidding, right?"

"No."

The word hung in the air between them, cold and harsh. Naegi drew back a little, instinctively pressing into the warmth of Togami's side, and he saw Kirigiri's narrowed eyes track the movement.

Naegi had thought Kirigiri had been treating him coldly before, when she'd ignored him after he'd refused to tell her about Ogami – but now he knew differently. That had simply been an absence of emotion or reaction, just a more intense version of the way she treated everyone else. But now, frost traced every line of her face and posture, her eyes so icy that just meeting them chilled him to the soul. He might not be able to tell what she was thinking, but he could see one thing – this was not the expression of a girl who would easily back down.

"Oh, really? So that's what you intend to do?" Togami asked, breaking the silence with a sneer. "And just how do you expect to accomplish it?" He dropped a possessive hand onto Naegi's shoulder.

"What's the matter?" Fukawa asked, leaning forward. "Are you s-scared about what we might do to you?"

"Hardly," Togami said dismissively, never taking his eyes off Kirigiri. "I'm just interested to see how far you plan to take this."

"As far as we need to," Asahina said, clenching her fists. "You guys are the real threat here, and we're not going to let you run around doing whatever you like!"

"You're deluded," Togami told her. "Though I don't know what else I expected, after so long with Monokuma's spy pouring any poison she pleased into your ear."

"You do not get to talk about Sakura like that," Asahina snarled, taking a step forward.

"That's enough," Kirigiri said. Even though her voice seemed quiet, it pierced through the exchange like a knife sliding between ribs. "We won't need to take things far at all. No one is going to force you two to separate – you're going to agree to do it."

"After what happened last time you got us apart?" Togami laughed, sharp and vicious. "Not likely."

"You will," Kirigiri said calmly. "Because if you don't, none of us will speak to either of you again."

Naegi froze. He wanted to think that she didn't really mean it – but Kirigiri had already proven that cutting contact didn't faze her at all. She'd walked out of the music room without hesitation just seconds after he'd said he wouldn't tell her his secret, without even giving him the chance to explain or suggest a compromise, and she hadn't so much as faltered since. Whatever friendship had existed between them after working together before, she was obviously prepared to sever the connection permanently.

Togami curled his lip. "You won't talk to us? Is that supposed to be a threat? Not having to deal with you lot and your idiocy is sounding better by the minute."

"You're awfully ready to put words in other people's mouths, aren't you?" Kirigiri raised one eyebrow, a hint of a smile playing at the corners of her lips. "Are you so sure you're in agreement?"

"What are you –" Togami stopped as he glanced down at Naegi. A startled burst of emotion flickered across his face – too fast for Naegi to identify, but it sent a shudder of nausea through his stomach anyway.

The twist to Kirigiri's lips sharpened into a smirk. "So?"

Naegi tore his eyes away from her, looking to the other students in the hopes of some hint of leniency – but he might as well not have bothered. When Hagakure realized Naegi was looking his way, he scrambled backwards to duck behind Asahina, twitching so hard his hair shivered. Asahina met his eye with a furious glare, filled with all the outrage and betrayal she'd flung at them in response to their accusation of Ogami. And Fukawa didn't even seem to notice Naegi when he tried to catch her eye – she'd locked her gaze on Togami, cheeks flushed with a feverish intensity as an eager smile writhed across her lips. No matter how hard he looked, Naegi couldn't see a trace of mercy in any of them.

Togami's hand tightened on Naegi's shoulder, and Naegi looked up to see that his face had gone dark. "You can't actually be considering this."

"Well – I don't know." Naegi looked from Togami to Kirigiri and back again.

"You're the one who keeps saying that we need to believe in our friends," Kirigiri said. "What do you think, Naegi? Can we believe in you?"

Confused guilt churned through Naegi's stomach, a full-body sense of queasiness that brought clammy sweat to his palms and a pounding ache to his already sore head. What was he supposed to say to a question like that? Of course he wanted his friends to believe in him, and he hated that he'd done anything to suggest they couldn't. His conscience prickled at him, an insistent voice in the back of his head saying that he should do what they asked to prove that despite the suspicious circumstances, his friends could still trust him.

But – he bit his lip – the thought of separating himself from Togami indefinitely made him blink rapidly against the tears rising in the corners of his eyes. He looked up at Togami, and the tight lines of tension in the other boy's face jabbed him right in the heart. How could he give in to a demand like the one they were making now?

"This is emotional blackmail." Togami glared at Kirigiri.

"Kind of like the way you two tricked Sakura into giving away her room key," Asahina shot back. "Not so smug now that you're on the wrong side of it, are you?"

Togami sneered in her direction, then spun Naegi's stool until he was directly facing Togami, not the other students. Togami bent down, and some of the lines in his face softened a hair as he came closer to Naegi's eye level. "Listen to me, Naegi – this is a terrible idea. The only reason they would want to separate us is if they're planning something."

"But they do have a point about the way we've been acting." Naegi looked away to glance at the other students – the ones who he still considered his friends. The thought that they might not feel the same added to the painful ache in his chest. "Maybe if it was just for a little while? Just long enough to prove that they really can trust us?"

"We shouldn't have to prove it," Togami snapped. "Especially not to her. Awfully convenient that the only person who's ever gotten someone else hurt is trying to isolate us now, isn't it?"

"So you're turning on Kirigiri now?" Asahina said from behind them. "You're just going to take aim at us all one after another, aren't you?"

"No, that isn't what we're doing!" But Naegi knew before he'd even finished the protest that it wouldn't work. Not after he and Togami had done so much to cause controversy in the group, however inadvertent the results might have been. They'd been the ones to name Ogami as the traitor, they'd heard Alter Ego's information before anyone else, they'd told the others about Monokuma's bizarre photo of the dead students, and now they'd been found rummaging through a cabinet of poison. Sure, Naegi and Togami might know that it had only been one coincidence after another, but to the others, it had to look really bad.

They couldn't let it go on like this. The more the group fractured, the more chances the mastermind would have to turn them against each other. It had only been yesterday that each of them had pledged not to commit another murder – but now, with the suspicion and doubt gnawing away at the fragile trust they'd all built, Naegi didn't think anyone would be willing to make the same promise again. The soul-destroying despair of not being able to trust one another had crept back among them, and he and Togami had helped it along. So they had to try to make things right.

Naegi took a deep breath, and then looked up into Togami's eyes. "I think they're right. It's like we were talking about earlier – the best way to stop any other murders is for the whole group to stay together. And if we're ever going to get the chance to convince the others to work with us again, I think this is the only way."

Togami stared down at Naegi for a moment, lips compressed into a thin white line. "You're going to regret this decision."

"Maybe. But I don't think there are any choices left that I won't regret."

Togami closed his eyes, pressing his fingers into Naegi's shoulder like he never wanted to let go. "Do not do anything stupid, do you understand? I know you have a brain somewhere under all that hair – at least make an effort to use it."

"You, too," Naegi said, putting his hand on top of Togami's and letting the skin to skin contact warm them both for just one moment longer. "Be careful.

"Oh, for god's sake, stop being so m-melodramatic about it," Fukawa snapped. "What are you, the heroine of some t-trashy light novel who falls apart because of some guy she just met? You've barely been together a week!"

Togami sent a glare in her direction, then turned back to Naegi. He looked for a moment like he was going to say something more, but then he shook his head and sighed. Instead, he bent down and gave Naegi one last kiss, with enough force behind it that it might have hurt if Naegi hadn't returned it measure for measure. Pain knifed through Naegi's heart when Togami drew away too soon, and he had to fight not to pull the other boy back into his arms.

Togami looked from Naegi to Kirigiri, then sighed as he lifted his hand from Naegi's shoulder. Naegi shivered at the loss of the anchoring warmth, a wave of cold washing through his veins as Togami stepped away.

"Watch your back," Togami told him, before turning towards the other students standing in front of the door. He looked at Kirigiri, and narrowed his eyes at the faint smirk she wore. "That goes for you as well."

Kirigiri's only response was to step out of the way of the door. Togami gave Naegi one last backward glance, then turned and strode through the only path left. And for all that Naegi was still in a room full of all the other students, he couldn't help but feel alone.


Note about scheduling: So as promised, I've come up with a posting schedule for the next couple weeks that I should be able to maintain along with various other holiday obligations. I will try to post every four days, starting from yesterday. So the next chapter should be 12/22, followed by 12/26, 12/30, and 1/3. If anything changes, I'll let you all know by editing this note.