Togami narrowed his eyes at Kirigiri. "So you had the poison until just a few moments ago?"

"That's right," Kirigiri said. "I had it with me the entire time since I took it."

"Wait – you mean you had it all day yesterday?" Naegi broke in, alarmed. "You had a bottle of poison on you while we were investigating Hagakure's death by the same poison?"

"Hiding it after we discovered the body would have looked extremely suspicious," Kirigiri said. "And even if someone had noticed, I could have shown them that the bottle was still sealed." She shrugged. "This is the first opportunity that I had to put it somewhere secure. I'd been hoping that we'd find somewhere on the fifth floor that would work – and fortunately, the dojo lockers did."

Togami frowned. So if she was telling the truth – which he was by no means certain about just yet, considering her earlier lies – that meant she'd had a bottle of poison hidden on her person since yesterday morning. She'd had it while she'd been investigating Ogami's room with Naegi, and while they'd held a trial that had involved a missing bottle of that very poison, and –

And while she'd snuck into Naegi's room last night.

A chill slithered down Togami's spine. Kirigiri's plan had involved distributing poison in a sealed dorm room by some means she had refused to describe – and he had no idea what she might have been doing in Naegi's room before he'd woken up to catch her. It would have been the perfect opportunity for her to hide something in the room.

The thought made him clench his teeth until they ached. He should never have gone back to sleep after finding her prowling around the room like that! He ought to have scoured the room at once to find whatever she might have planted there. Knowing that he'd walked out that morning and left Naegi behind in a room that might have had poison in it – he had to fight to suppress a visible shudder. He couldn't let her get away with that. He had to get rid of whatever she'd used as soon as possible – definitely before nighttime arrived.

But after he and Naegi had argued so harshly about Naegi's unfounded trust in Kirigiri, Togami could hardly expect Naegi to let him search his dorm for murder weapons. He might be persuadable if he thought it could be a way to prove Kirigiri innocent – but even then, she had him convinced this had all be a fake plan. It was just as possible that Naegi wouldn't care if Kirigiri had left anything in his room, and that hearing Togami try to convince him otherwise would only make him dig in his heels.

But even if he couldn't investigate the tools at the moment, there was still another way he could check on whether she'd been truthful this time. Togami looked back at Kirigiri, scowling at her unruffled façade. "I want to see the poison."

"Of course you do." The faint smile she wore at that had a hint of patronization, he was sure of it.

Togami glared back, wishing he could slap that look off her face just once. "You've told quite the story, but you haven't offered proof of any of it. You say you locked this poison up for safekeeping – but for all we know, you were just hiding evidence. If you're telling the truth, then open the locker and show us what you really put in there."

"That's not a bad idea," Naegi said thoughtfully. "I mean, you said the bottle was sealed when you put it in the locker, right? If Togami and I look at the poison bottle now, then you'd have two witnesses that can confirm it in case –" He bit his lip. "Well, in case you ever needed proof."

Kirigiri looked from one of them to the other, pressing a finger to her chin as she appeared to weigh her options. "Both of you?"

Togami ignored the unhesitating "Of course!" that Naegi gave her, considering the fact that Kirigiri sounded like she wanted them both to agree to this. What good could it possibly do her to have other people backing up her claims about the poison's whereabouts? Was she planning to try something with it? But their confirmation of the poison bottle being unopened at this specific time would only be valuable if she'd already done something with it – unless she was planning something that he couldn't work out yet.

He was almost tempted to refuse to back her up, just to foil whatever plot she was in the midst of – but he had to see that poison bottle. Besides, if it came down to it, he could always refuse to admit what he'd seen later, if it looked like she was trying to use his word to wriggle out of something.

"If necessary, I'll confirm what we find in that locker," Togami said at last. "Whatever it is."

She frowned at him for a moment, then gave a sharp nod before heading briskly for the door.

Togami had no intention of letting her rush on ahead – who knew what she might try if she got there first? But as he reached the door, the sound of Naegi's slow, labored footsteps made him pause, fighting the urge to go back and help, to wrap a supportive arm around the shaky boy and bear some of the burden for him.

No. No. He was not going to keep chasing after a boy who wanted so little from him. If he turned around and went back to Naegi's side now, even if it was just to help him walk to the dojo, it would be the first step on a path back to where they'd been – except that this time, he would know how much of a lovesick fool he was acting. No, it was far better to keep his pride, even if his heart was a lost cause.

Togami headed out the door after Kirigiri without so much as a glance behind him. Naegi would make his way to the dojo eventually, and Togami would just have to make sure Kirigiri didn't get up to anything nasty until then.

He caught up to Kirigiri just as she reached the dojo entrance, following her through the doors without a word. He gave the room a cursory glance, just to check that there weren't any differences – but no, the whole setting looked just the same, every bit as stereotypically Japanese as it had when he'd visited the room that morning.

"I hope you remember my advice."

Togami looked sharply in Kirigiri's direction, only to find her standing far too close to him for his liking. Her words had been pitched low – not quite soft enough for the security cameras to miss, but certainly quiet enough that an ordinary eavesdropper wouldn't catch them.

He glared at her, taking a deliberate step away to put much more distance between them. "I make a point to ignore any advice you give."

"You shouldn't." There was something odd about Kirigiri's face as she spoke – a hardness that he hadn't seen from her before. Her eyes had a sharp light to them, and her mouth narrowed to a grim line without her usual hint of a mocking smile. "It's difficult to be sure of anything in this place. The more I find out, the less I trust what I know. So I'll tell you again – don't be so careless."

Before he could formulate an appropriately scathing retort, Kirigiri turned and headed over to lean against the wall beside the lockers, her usual emotionless mask sliding back across her face like the changes had never happened.