Naegi looked around Ogami's room, trying to get a sense of what it might have looked like before the murder had taken place. While she had the same bed, desk, and waist-high bookcase that seemed common to all the dorm rooms, she had apparently replaced most of her other furniture with various pieces of workout equipment. She had several full-size punching bags spaced throughout the room, and stacks of heavy square weights covered every available surface. Smaller weights were scattered across the floor,
It looked like she'd tried to set up some kind of miniature training space here, from what he could tell. Maybe she'd done it before the second floor locker rooms had opened – or no, Togami had said that his room had been decorated with his expensive furnishings already when he'd arrived. Maybe the same had been true for Ogami, and all this had been there from the start. Naegi frowned, wondering why that would be. His room was the most generic dorm room imaginable, and when he'd had to sleep in Sayaka's room, it hadn't seemed to be decorated to reflect her personal tastes. Why would some people's rooms be personalized, but not others?
Well, he supposed none of that mattered right now. It didn't seem likely that it would be related to the current investigation, so Naegi did his best to put it out of his mind. He needed to focus.
He looked over at Kirigiri, wondering if he ought to ask for her opinion about the situation – but she'd gone back to examining Hagakure's body. She seemed so involved in it, and after all, that was an important part of the investigation. He figured he should leave her alone to finish, at least for now.
Well, Hagakure had been struck on the head, hadn't he? Both the Monokuma File and Kirigiri had said as much. Naegi supposed he could do worse than trying to find the weapon the killer had used. Considering the amount of blood on Hagakure's body, it shouldn't be too hard to identify.
Naegi looked around the room again, trying to see if anything looked out of place. The weights on the floor did draw his attention, but they all looked clean. And looking more closely, he could see that the heavy metal bar in the middle of each hand weight had been wrapped in white cloth. Even if the killer had wiped the blood off the sides of these weights, the cloth would still have been stained. He looked over the square weights stacked on the bookcase instead – but no, those didn't look like the right shape to hit someone over the head with.
Maybe the culprit had hidden the weapon. Whatever had happened here, it looked like the culprit must have had at least a little time alone at the scene. They could have used that chance to stash the weapon.
Naegi looked around the room again, this time wondering about possible hiding places. There didn't seem to be very many. He supposed he might as well start from the beginning, so he began opening the drawers of Ogami's desk. Most of the drawers were as empty and unused as his own were, except for three neatly rolled cotton hand wraps for boxing and Ogami's sewing kit – nothing that could be used to bludgeon someone.
But as he stood up to go check another place, something caught his eye. Even though no one was sitting at the head of the bed any longer, the mattress still pressed downwards like there was something heavy there. Naegi frowned and carefully lifted the pillow out of the way to get a better look. There, under the pillow that had been between Asahina and Ogami, was another one of the weights from the floor – and this one had dark bloodstains smeared across one end.
Naegi stepped sharply back, a startled sound escaping from his throat. Kirigiri looked up, frowning, and her eyes immediately lit on the weight. "Ah – I see. Yes, that looks like it could have caused the head wound."
"So we have the murder weapon," Naegi said. "It wasn't very well hidden, was it? I thought I was going to have to search the whole room for it."
"No, it was very convenient," Kirigiri said. "Have you found anything else? Anything that explains how the others got into this room, perhaps?"
"Not yet," Naegi had to admit. He sighed. "I guess I really do have to search the whole room, after all."
"That looks like it will be necessary." Kirigiri crossed her arms. "But have you considered what will happen if you don't find anything?"
Naegi frowned. "You mean – like if the culprit didn't leave any clues about how they did it?"
"A lack of information can be a clue, in the right circumstances," Kirigiri said. "If there's no evidence that anyone broke in, what will you think?"
"I guess that would mean that Asahina's idea was right, when she said that maybe Togami didn't lock the door properly," Naegi said, thinking for a moment.
"But when we got to the door this morning, it was locked," Kirigiri pointed out. "If it hadn't been locked in the first place, it would have opened when you saw me try the knob."
Naegi stared at her. "W-wait a minute. Are you saying you think Togami did this?"
"I'm asking you a question," Kirigiri said calmly. "If you find evidence implicating the boy you're romantically entangled with, are you capable of assessing it in a rational way?"
Naegi's gut instinct was to insist blindly that he knew Togami couldn't have committed this murder – but he didn't think an emotional appeal would impress Kirigiri. He swallowed it back and tried to consider his thoughts more carefully.
"I don't know," he said at last. "I don't believe Togami would kill anyone anymore, but if I'm wrong, I'd like to think that I would recognize the truth." He took a deep breath, trying to suppress his cold shudder at the thought of being forced to vote for Togami at the end of the trial. "I – I don't want everyone else to die, so we have to find the real culprit, whoever it is."
"Hmm." Kirigiri eyed him for a moment, then nodded. "All right, then. See what you can find."
Naegi started to turn away, but then hesitated. "Aren't you going to look, too?"
"No. I'm not finished here." She leaned over Hagakure's body again.
Naegi frowned. It wasn't like he timed her or anything, but he didn't think it usually took her quite this long to examine the bodies – especially not when the cause of death seemed so clear. "Is there something you're looking for?"
"Possibly." Kirigiri sounded like most of her attention was on her examination. "I'll let you know if I find it."
That was probably the best he could expect. Naegi sighed. It was time to get back to his own investigation, then.
Since he was standing nearby anyway, Naegi figured he might as well kneel down to check under the bed. It seemed like a pretty obvious hiding place, but then again, behind a pillow wasn't exactly brilliant either. He ought to cross it off the list, at least.
The only thing he saw under the bed was another one of the boxing hand wraps, this one unrolled and in a heap. Naegi was about to ignore it when he realized that some of the dark spots on it weren't just shadows. He pulled it towards him for a closer examination. Yes – it looked like the edges of this wrap had been splattered with a few drops of blood. But that seemed strange – blood had fallen to the floor under Hagakure's body, but at the area near the head of the bed where Naegi was investigating, the floor was pretty clean.
"Uh, Kirigiri?" Naegi said, looking up at her. "I think I found something odd."
He braced his hand on the edge of the bed as he stood – but as he pushed himself up, something sharp dug into the flat of his palm. "Ow!"
Kirigiri looked up, eyes going wide. "What happened?"
"I don't know, but my hand…" The world seemed to tilt unsteadily around him, the floor shuddering beneath his feet and black spots clouding at the edges of his vision. He could see blood on his palm, but he couldn't tell if it was just one drop, or a dozen dancing before his eyes. "I… don't…"
He thought he heard Kirigiri saying something else, but he couldn't make it out as the blackness rushed through him, knocking him to the ground in an unconscious heap.
