Naegi watched Togami stalked out of the entrance hall, trying not to let his heart sink as the other boy left his sight. There had been a few minutes when he'd let himself hope that maybe Togami had been softening towards him – especially when he'd taken Naegi's arm to help him down the stairs. The moment of kindness had taken Naegi by surprise, and he'd thought that maybe, maybe it signaled that Togami was willing to be a little more understanding towards him.

But then Togami had shut down Naegi's tentative attempt at initiating a conversation, giving him a harsh stop talking in response to Naegi's gratitude. And as soon as they'd reached the bottom of the stairs, he'd dropped Naegi's arm like the contact disgusted him. Maybe he really had just wanted to avoid a scenario where Naegi fell down the stairs and ended up with a medical emergency they couldn't treat.

After all, if Naegi had to be honest about it, that wouldn't be too remote a possibility. Investigating the entire fifth floor with Kirigiri had taken more out of him than he'd realized, especially with the staggering effects of seeing that ruined classroom. And as he'd been climbing down the stairs, it had all started to catch up to him.

He probably should have gone back to his room to rest instead of going back and forth between the trash room and the entrance hall – but he'd told Kirigiri that he'd watch what happened to the poison so that he could back her up on it if she needed it. And if he and Togami could both support Kirigiri, she shouldn't need to worry about proving the whereabouts of that poison. He just wasn't sure why she'd need anyone's support.

He looked over across the entrance hall to where Kirigiri stood looking after Togami, a faint frown on her face – and he wondered just what she was thinking. She'd handled Togami pretty calmly despite the way he'd kept throwing accusations at her, but hearing him repeat those awful things over and over had to have been upsetting.

Naegi wasn't quite sure why Togami had been so convinced that her plan to pretend to kill him had been a front for a genuine murder attempt. She'd come up with the plan when they were helping Alter Ego, after all – and at that point, they'd both believed there was a chance Alter Ego could find information to help them escape. She wouldn't have had a reason to try to kill him at that point, not if there was a possibility they could find a way out of the school without any more deaths.

But even knowing that, it had still been a little unnerving to hear Kirigiri talk so calmly about the way she'd planned to kill him. The thought of being trapped in a room with poison gas made Naegi shudder. That made him really glad Kirigiri was on his side – he'd hate to think what she could come up with if she were really working against him.

But fortunately, that was one thing he didn't have to worry about. When Kirigiri noticed him looking at her, she crossed the room towards him, giving him a faint smile. "Are you doing all right? Feeling up to making it all the way back to your room?"

"Yeah, I guess so," Naegi said. "I mean, it's nighttime, so I have to be."

"Not necessarily," Kirigiri said thoughtfully. "You might stop somewhere halfway to take a rest – and I've heard that baths are quite helpful when treating sudden injuries."

Naegi blinked. The only real reason for Kirigiri to try to direct him to the bathhouse would be if she had something to discuss that the mastermind shouldn't hear – but what could she want to talk about now? They'd spent the day together exploring the fifth floor, and she hadn't made any indication that she needed to talk to him privately. What could have changed?

Well, he supposed the only way he'd find that out would be if he let her tell him.

"All right," he said. "I'm sure I'll feel better after a bath."

"Right." Kirigiri nodded. "Then I'll get some bandages from the nurse's office and meet you in the bathhouse." She turned and left the entrance hall.

Naegi sighed, pushing himself away from the wall and beginning the long trek back towards the other half of the first floor. He tried to ignore the aches of protest from his legs, but it got harder and harder with every step. At least he didn't have to backtrack to the nurse's office, though – he only had to focus on making his way to the baths. It had been really thoughtful of Kirigiri to offer to bring him bandages. Naegi wished he didn't need people to help him with things like that – but it was nice to know that someone would.

As he entered the bathhouse locker room, his eyes went automatically to the place where Alter Ego's computer used to sit – but it was empty. Nothing would ever be there again. Everything that he and Kirigiri had tried to do to protect Alter Ego had failed, and now they didn't even have a vacant dormitory or a crossed out portrait to remind them of the friend they'd lost.

Not that Naegi needed the physical reminders of the dead students. He knew he'd never be able to forget any of them, even the ones he'd hardly known. Still, it seemed wrong that the only place Alter Ego would exist from now on was in the remaining students' memories – without them, there would be nothing to show he'd ever been.

Naegi sighed, taking a seat on the bench across from the one where Alter Ego used to sit. It wasn't fair that memories were all he had left of the friends he'd met here, all the people he wished he could have known better – but if that was the case, then he needed to cling to his memories all the harder. He had to remember – and he would keep telling himself that as many times as he needed.

Finally, the door opened just long enough to let Kirigiri slip inside, a small first aid kit in hand. She crossed to sit on the bench beside him before he could get up.

"Thanks." Naegi reached out to take the first aid kit.

But instead of handing it over, Kirigiri opened it herself. "Treating your own face will be awkward without a mirror," she said, hands quick and efficient as she pulled out antiseptic and cotton balls. "Hold still."

She leaned forward to wipe the cotton ball along his cheek, her hand moving uncharacteristically slowly along his face as she cleaned away the dried blood. Naegi had to force himself not to flinch back at how close it brought her face to his own, near enough that he could feel the movement of her breath against his skin. Goosebumps crawled down the back of his neck like a small army of spiders. Did she really need to be so close just to help him clean his face? Maybe he should ask her to move back, or –

"I snuck into the headmaster's office last night," Kirigiri murmured, the words barely audible even with her face so close to his own.

Naegi blinked. "You what?"

"Shh." Kirigiri frowned at him, pressing the cotton ball harder against his skin to send a small jolt through his cheek. "After Ogami announced during yesterday's trial that she'd broken the lock, I knew we would only have a short window of access before Monokuma sealed it off again. Instead of going to bed, I waited for an opportune moment and made it into the office."

Kirigiri put the cotton ball down and reached instead for a box of bandages, so Naegi decided to risk saying something. "Were you all right? Monokuma didn't catch you, did he?"

"Well, I wasn't technically doing anything wrong," Kirigiri said, pulling out a clean white bandage. "After all, the school regulations say that we're free to explore without restriction. Breaking down a locked door is forbidden – but there isn't anything in the rules about what can happen after a door has been broken."

"I guess that's true," Naegi said, thinking back to the wording of the rule. "But it still seems like a big risk."

"I know," Kirigiri said. She leaned forward again, slowly positioning the bandage to cover Naegi's wound. "But I thought the potential payoff sounded worth it – and it was." The faintest hint of a satisfied smile crossed her face. "It turns out that there weren't fifteen students locked in this school – there were sixteen."

Naegi frowned, but the pressure of Kirigiri's hand on his cheek didn't let him answer her. Sixteen students – that was what Ogami had said, back when he and Togami had been interrogating her about her role as the mastermind's spy. He hadn't really thought much about it, since they hadn't seen anything to suggest there really was another student lurking around – but maybe there had been something in the headmaster's office to prove it.

"The sixteenth student is named Mukuro Ikusaba," Kirigiri went on, fixing the bandage firmly to Naegi's cheek. "She is known as the Ultimate Despair. And while I was searching the headmaster's office, she found me."


Author's Note: So I've finalized the posting dates for this week, as promised. Unfortunately, company plus the upcoming Easter holiday are taking a lot of my time, so I'm not getting as much writing done as I'd hoped. There will be one more chapter this week, posted on Thursday, 3/24, and then I'll be back on a regular posting schedule beginning next Sunday, 3/27. Enjoy the cliffhanger, and I'll see you on Thursday!