Moving Naegi from the clinic to the dorms was a more complicated procedure than Togami had expected. Ogami didn't just scoop the boy up in her arms like a load of laundry – she went to some trouble to brace his arm solidly for the trip, ensuring that it wouldn't shift around and worsen his injuries as she walked. She also seemed concerned about the position of his head, so much so that Togami was developing some dark suspicions about whether the collapse of the bookcase had added to Naegi's existing head wound.
All in all, by the time Ogami had Naegi settled in her arms to carry him to the dorms, Togami was starting to feel some flickers of grudging respect for the girl. She obviously knew what she was doing, and she was using that knowledge to take very good care of Naegi, without arguing or complaining about it. She could have chosen to deny her first aid knowledge, to stay in her room, to leave Naegi to rot – but she hadn't done so. He would have to think about what that meant later on, when there was room in his head for anything other than his immediate concern for Naegi.
But right now, as he walked back towards the dorms with his arms full of bandages, bottles, and other supplies from the clinic, thoughts like that slid out of his head every time he looked at the boy cradled gently to Ogami's chest. Naegi had been hurt – and unlike any of his previous injuries, this would demand more treatment than a few days of rest. Jill's scissors had left a hole in Naegi's arm – not a huge hole, perhaps, since Jill's scissor blades were fairly narrow, but that fact remained that there was now empty air in a place where Naegi should have had unmarred flesh and blood.
Togami knew people did recover from injuries like this one – but that was when they had immediate access to real medical care. With only a few cobbled-together bits of first aid training and the limited supplies of the nurse's office, he had no idea how Naegi would recover – or if he ever would. If Naegi went too long without a real doctor to treat him properly, there was every possibility that he would bear the consequences of this injury for the rest of his life. Images of Naegi trying to cope with limited mobility, persistent tremors, or nerve damage flashed before his eyes, and he ground his teeth until they ached in an effort to hold back his fury at the thought.
It wouldn't happen. He wouldn't let things turn out that way. He'd already decided that he was going to work at finding a real way out of this prison – this just meant he had a shorter timeframe to work with than he'd thought. There had to be other things he hadn't tried yet, places to search or plans to attempt, and he wouldn't rest until he'd tried all of them. He'd even work with Kirigiri if that was what it took.
If she ever turned up again, anyway. Togami frowned as they passed her dorm room, giving her door a brief glance of suspicion. Now that he thought about it, why hadn't she shown up yet? She could usually be counted on to turn up whenever anything odd happened, poking and prying into everything like it was her god-given right to know it all. He couldn't think of a time when she hadn't.
No, wait – that wasn't quite right. Kirigiri had always turned up when he was around for major occurrences, but there had been one time when neither he nor she had been there – during the third murder investigation, when Celeste and Yamada had knocked him out and locked him up. He'd been the primary suspect in that case, yes, but the other students had also wondered about her – because she'd been missing for the same period of time. And if he put the pieces together about what she'd told Naegi after the trial, it was fairly obvious where she must have been.
Kirigiri hadn't joined the murder investigation because she'd been investigating something more important – the mysterious hidden room she'd found, the source of a potential clue or weapon to use against the mastermind. That was the only thing that could possibly be important enough to take priority over the life-or-death class trials. And if she wasn't here now, when the boy that she kept insisting she viewed as a friend and partner had been brutally wounded – did that mean that she'd found something else?
Togami scowled. There was no point in getting his hopes up like that, not when it was just as likely that she'd decided to spend the day in the garden or the music room and just hadn't noticed that a disaster had occurred several floors below. She'd have to return to the dorms eventually, if she didn't want to break the rule about sleeping elsewhere. When she did, he'd find out just where she'd been if he had to drag every word out of her.
But that was something to worry about later, after Naegi was properly settled in his room, where Togami could make sure that any threats were kept well away. As Ogami stopped in front of his door, Togami shifted his armload of supplies so that he could reach into his pocket for his room key.
He had a brief moment of hesitation as he opened the door. Letting Naegi in was one thing – but Ogami was another issue altogether. His instincts all growled a hair-raising protest at the thought of an admitted traitor having access to his bedroom.
He squelched them, standing aside to let Ogami carry Naegi past. He'd already tacitly agreed to the idea that she could enter when he insisted that she finish treating Naegi in his room instead of the other boy's. Besides, it wasn't as though he was giving her free rein of the place – he fully intended to keep a close eye on her every moment that she was in the room.
He had to keep watch on what she was doing to treat Naegi, of course – but it wasn't just that. He still had the enormous knife that he, Kirigiri, and Naegi had found in the ruined classroom yesterday. He'd done his best to hide it, unscrewing the cover on the air vent to tuck the knife where it couldn't be spotted from inside the room – but that was no reason to stop being cautious. After all, with the mastermind's cameras trained on them at all times, the knife's location wasn't really a secret.
But Ogami didn't show any interest in the air vent, heading directly across the room to lay Naegi on the bed. She frowned intently as she positioned his arm, taking care to hold it level and jar it as little as possible. When she finally had him placed to her liking, she stepped back and shook her head. "That arm really ought to be elevated. I should have brought an extra pillow."
Togami shrugged, setting the bottles and bandages he was holding onto his desk, where they would be in easy reach of the bed. "There were plenty in the nurse's office."
"True." Ogami turned and headed for the door. "Very well, I'll be back in a moment." She headed purposefully towards the clinic.
Not at all inclined to take any chances, Togami locked the door behind her. He wasn't about to let the others barge in at will, not with Naegi lying defenseless on his bed.
He would have liked to go sit by Naegi's side – but he could feel the faintly itchy sensation of drying blood clinging to his hands. The thought of leaving traces of Naegi's blood on anything he touched in here was repellant – even if he were able to clean it off later, he'd always know that it had been there.
So instead of going to the bed, Togami headed into the bathroom, scalding his hands with the hottest water the faucet could produce. It couldn't wash away the memory of the bloodstains, but at least he wouldn't have to deal with the reality any longer.
Of course, he knew this wouldn't deal with all of the physical reminders of Naegi's injury, not after the way he'd helped Ogami hold Naegi's arm steady. Blood had splattered up his arms, across his shirt, and he could see that it was darkening to a stain. He'd probably end up throwing this outfit into the incinerator – there was no way he'd ever get it clean enough again.
He really needed to shower and change clothes before he could be truly clean – but even the few seconds he'd already spent away from Naegi's side were wearing on him. He dried his hands, wiping away the last hint of blood from them, and returned to the bedroom. He pulled his desk chair over to the side of the bed and settled down at Naegi's side, prepared to sit there watching every one of the boy's slow breaths until he woke.
Author's Note: Due to some real life commitments, I'm going to have limited posts this week. There will only be new chapters on Tuesday and Thursday. Things should be back to a regular schedule next Sunday.
