Kirigiri's expression didn't so much as flicker at Togami's accusation, but he didn't need to see it on her face to know he was right. She had to have the third bottle of poison – it was the only thing that made sense.
"When you and the others confronted Naegi and me in the chemistry lab, there were three bottles of that poison in the cabinet," Togami said, driving home the point so that she'd know she had no room to maneuver herself out of this. "When I investigated yesterday, all three bottles were missing – but we only accounted for two of the three during the trial. Someone else must have taken the third bottle."
"And you think that must have been me?" Kirigiri asked.
"Well, whoever it was would have had the opportunity to see the other missing poison bottles in the cabinet." Togami smirked at her. "Tell me, how exactly did you know that something had happened yesterday morning? I don't think you ever said."
"Oh, is that what happened?" Naegi asked. "I did wonder how you knew, but I guess that would explain it." He frowned. "So you were trying to set up a murder plot that used poison?"
Kirigiri looked at him for a moment, then sighed. "Yes, that's right. I spent most of that night assembling the tools I would need to deliver the poison without being present myself."
"What could you possibly have needed to spend that long creating?" Togami demanded. "Fukawa couldn't have taken more than ten minutes on her poisoned sewing needles."
"I wasn't attempting to be efficient," Kirigiri said, a bit of her irritation showing through her usual calm. "In fact, if you'll try to remember my goal, I was trying to do the opposite and take as much time as possible. If I'd been planning a genuine murder, I would have chosen a less elaborate method – but I thought that a bit of showmanship would appeal to the mastermind."
"What are you talking about?" Togami asked.
Kirigiri gave him one of her more grating smiles, the look of a teacher addressing one of her slower students. "There was a reason I chose that particular poison. I don't know how many of the different poisons in the lab you examined, but if you looked through all of them, you would have noticed that this poison has a unique quality."
"And do you expect us to guess what it is at random, or are you going to get on with it?" Togami snapped, sending her an impatient glare. Even when she was supposedly helping, that girl just had to be obnoxious about it.
And of course, instead of just explaining what she meant like a normal person, Kirigiri looked over to Naegi. "Well? You read the label, didn't you?"
"Yeah, I did." Naegi frowned in concentration for a moment. "If you're talking about the label – you must mean the way the poison needed to be administered, right?"
She nodded, like Naegi was an overeager puppy that had successfully managed to perform a trick. "Exactly. This poison could be effective in three ways – by consuming it directly, by injecting it into the bloodstream, or by breathing it in. Or to put it another way – this is the only poison that could be administered in a gaseous state."
"You were going to pump poison into the air?" In his horror, Togami briefly lost control of his expression and gaped at her. "Are you crazy? You'd have killed all of us!"
"Don't be melodramatic," Kirigiri said, sighing. "If you'd read the label, you'd know that if the poison is administered as a gas, the victim would have to breathe more than half the bottle to get a lethal dose. I couldn't possibly have killed everyone with a single bottle even if I'd wanted to try."
"Then it's a good thing the other two bottles were already gone by the time you got to the lab," Togami shot back. "If you'd found all three bottles intact, who knows what you might have done."
"I had no intention of enacting a mass murder and suicide plot," Kirigiri said, sounding like she was getting to the end of her patience. "Not even as a pretense. I only had one target."
Togami's eyes darted to Naegi as she said those words, a swift and almost reflexive confirmation that the other boy was still alive and well despite her machinations. Fortunately, Naegi didn't notice Togami's gaze, his attention still fixed on Kirigiri.
"So you were planning to try to get me to breathe the poison in?" Naegi asked, frowning as he thought it over. "Would that really work? I mean, it started out as a liquid, right? And even if you boiled it or something, wouldn't it just sort of… float away?" He waved a hand vaguely through the air, presumably to illustrate his idea of chemical reactions.
"In a large, well-ventilated room, that would be an issue," Kirigiri said. "But in a smaller room, mostly sealed off, the poison gas should have had a high enough concentration for a lethal dose."
Togami frowned, not liking where she was going with this. "You're talking about a dorm room."
Kirigiri nodded. "The rooms have been soundproofed so that any noise inside can't reach the hallway – and a soundproof seal would also be airtight. There are vents in the wall, of course, but they only circulate fresh air at a steady, measured rate. If I timed the poison distribution correctly, I could have put gas into the room faster than the vents could have pumped it out."
Her words were clinical and calm, but Togami could envision the picture they painted all too vividly. He could see Naegi trapped alone in his dorm room and forced to poison himself with every breath. Weakened as he'd been already, it wouldn't take long for the poison to overcome him, sending him crashing to the ground in a coughing, twitching heap. It would sap his energy relentlessly, every breath robbing him of his own life, until he couldn't even gasp for air any longer.
It would have been a slow death, forcing the victim to linger breath after breath, unable to resist their approaching end. Someone who could go through with that kind of calculated plan would have to be merciless. Togami might even have been a little impressed in spite of himself, if she hadn't intended Naegi as the victim. But as it was, she'd now revealed herself to be an even more dangerous enemy than he'd previously realized.
He scowled at Kirigiri, taking in her impassive expression with new eyes. She had muscle-perfect control of her face, not letting a single emotion through unless she wanted it to be seen. Did that mask hide a girl who could cold-bloodedly condemn a boy who called her his friend to a slow, painful death? It looked as though it might.
"Are you done wasting all of our time?" Kirigiri asked, crossing her arms.
Togami curled his lip, but didn't otherwise deign to acknowledge the dig at his interrogation. "You haven't explained your methods yet. How exactly did you plan to distribute the poison?"
"It hardly matters at this point," Kirigiri said. "I've dismantled the tools I created to do it."
Togami glared at her. His first instincts urged him to demand answers, to beat this girl who kept resisting his orders – but while satisfying, that wouldn't get him what he needed. Whatever tool she'd built wouldn't be dangerous on its own – it was meant to distribute poison into the air. The poison was the important part of that equation, not whatever other rubbish she'd been making.
"And the poison?" he asked, raising his eyebrows. "Or do you expect me to believe you got rid of that, as well?"
Kirigiri gave him a cool smile. "I wouldn't trust it to stay gone if I did."
"So you kept it." Togami smiled in satisfaction – he knew she wouldn't throw away a weapon, given the chance. "Let's have it, then."
"I don't have it on me," Kirigiri said. "I wanted to keep it in a place where I could confirm its whereabouts, but where I wouldn't have it constantly to hand."
"So it's hidden somewhere?" Togami frowned. Where would Kirigiri consider a safe hiding place? "The bathhouse lockers, where Alter Ego was?"
But she shook her head. "No. I did consider it, but this morning, I found another possibility." She smiled. "I hid the poison in one of the dojo lockers while Naegi and I were exploring this floor."
Author's Note: So... this story has now officially reached the triple digits. I am honestly shocked that it's gone on for so long! When I started back in November, I definitely didn't think I'd still be writing this in March. I'm glad I am, though - it's a lot of fun!
I really want to thank all of you who are following along. It's lovely to know that other people are enjoying this story as much as I am! Thank you!
