Togami stopped short at the sight of Monokuma standing in the middle of the screened off section of the library, amidst the bloodstained wreckage where Naegi had nearly died. He'd thought that nothing could make this scene more painful to revisit – but Monokuma's presence took it to an entirely new level of horrifying.
Was this what the mastermind had been planning, when they stopped responding to the students' calls? Had Monokuma been lurking back here the whole time, waiting to unleash some new monstrosity? Maybe it had all been nothing more than a trick, and Monokuma was about to spew forth his usual barrage of mockery. Togami hastily did his best to lock his features into an icy mask, bracing himself for the knives the mastermind could drive into the vulnerabilities he'd revealed in the past few hours.
But nothing happened, no matter how long he waited for the verbal assault to begin. Togami frowned. He'd never seen Monokuma stay silent for so long – usually if he had nothing to say, he just kept himself out of sight.
In fact, now that he thought about it, he'd never seen Monokuma stay still for so long, either. Whatever technology the mastermind used to operate the bear, it was obviously very high quality, with realistic movements. Monokuma had always reacted physically to what was going on around him, gesturing and twisting and walking through the school so easily that the students could almost forget that he was nothing more than a conduit for an actual human being to speak with them.
But now, all that had stopped, and Monokuma stood as motionless as the stuffed bear that he really was. Even the red light that usually blazed fire-bright in his eye had gone out, leaving nothing but dull glass to meet Togami's narrowed gaze. The air had the same unsettling emptiness that it held in the presence of a corpse – the feeling of an absence where a presence had so recently been.
Togami took a step backwards, then another, finding himself strangely unwilling to turn his back on the frozen bear. When he'd passed the corner of the bookcase again, he turned his head, just enough so that he could keep both the screened off area of the library and the rest of the floor in his line of sight. Jill hadn't left while he'd investigated, but she hadn't come much closer, either. She still stood at the library doorway, spinning a pair of scissors with nervous energy.
"What happened here?" Togami demanded, his eyes following the flashes of silver in Jill's hands. "What did you do?"
"Huh?" Jill frowned. "I told you, baby, it wasn't me. I might stretch a point or two on the adorableness factor if I had to – but no way is a stuffed animal ever gonna get me going!"
"So you found him like this?" Togami asked, raising a skeptical eyebrow at her. "You expect me to believe in that kind of coincidence?"
"Aw, come on, White Knight, you know hide and seek isn't my game!" Jill threw back her head and laughed. "If I ever kill something in this place, even a stuffed animal, I'll sing it loud and proud! No point in an artist hiding her masterpieces, right?"
Togami frowned, looking over what he could see of Monokuma's frozen form. He had to admit that he couldn't spot any of the telltale scissor marks slashed into the bear that he would have expected if Jill had been the one to cause this. As far as he could tell, the bear was perfectly intact – he'd simply stopped.
"Well, if it wasn't you, then what was it?" Togami asked.
Jill shrugged. "No idea. I just turned the corner and there he was."
"And what were you doing back in the first place?" Togami demanded, pinning her with his glare. "Haven't you done enough damage?"
"No such thing!" Jill said brightly. "But I thought, hey, why not try my hand at something else for once?" She waved a hand at the rest of the library, encompassing the straightened bookcases, the cleared floor, and the piles of furniture.
"So you were – what, cleaning up?" Togami stared at her in disbelief. "You think that some soap and water are all it will take to erase what you've done?"
Jill's wide smile flickered out, just for a moment, like a candle spluttering in a sudden wind – but in the span of a blink, her expression was back, brighter than it had been before. "No way, baby, I just had to take the chance to show off my homemaking skills! I might be a modern career-driven gal, but that's no reason to let the housework pile up!"
Togami grimaced. He doubted he'd get much more out of her on that point even if he pushed the issue – and in any case, it hardly mattered why she'd decided to return to the library. "And you just found him like this? Did anything happen to trigger it?"
"If it did, I didn't see it," Jill said. "First things I moved were the bookcases, and if he'd been lurking around then, I would've noticed. I didn't hear anything while I went at the rest of the room, either – but it's not like I was really listening. I was expecting it to be empty when I got back there with the mop."
"What mop?" Togami's gaze darted around the room until he spotted a mop and full bucket of soapy water in the shadow of the bookcases. That certainly hadn't been in the library before. "Where did you get that?"
"From the girls' bathroom down the hall," Jill said, shrugging. "I was just going to get some paper towels, but turns out there's a storage closet chock full of cleaning supplies in there. I figured I could use this to get that half-finished work out of my portfolio!"
Togami frowned. "So what you're telling me is that you left the room."
Jill tilted her head. "Sure did. Does it matter?"
"Does it matter that you were gone during the time that a deactivated Monokuma appeared?" Togami asked incredulously. "If you need that clarified for you, then there's no use telling you anything at all." He shook his head. "How long were you gone?"
Jill frowned, tapping her scissors against her palm to an uneven beat that only she could follow. "Can't say for sure, baby, sorry. But it took a while to fill the bucket in that tiny sink. Maybe fifteen minutes altogether?"
"And how long did you wait after that before you came to find help?"
"Believe me, White Knight, you were the first thing I went for," Jill said. "I don't really get what you're all trying to do here, but I know a game-changer when I see one. I put the mop down and ran."
Which had to be when he heard her going down the stairs. Togami tried to put the timeline together in his head, wishing vainly that he'd thought to check the time at least once since he'd left his dorm room. Fifteen minutes was enough time for Monokuma to appear in the screened corner of the library while Jill was gone – but would that have been before or after he and Ogami had discovered that the mastermind was no longer answering their calls?
Whatever had happened, Togami didn't think it could be a coincidence – and it definitely couldn't be ignored. The mastermind had gone silent at the same time that Monokuma was frozen and unmoving – those two things had to be connected. He had to look into it further.
He turned to Jill. "Stay here, and keep a close eye on the scene. I want to know if anything changes while I'm gone."
"Huh? You're tired of playing detective already?" Jill asked, frowning.
"I don't intend to play. I'll be back in a few minutes." Togami headed for the door. "With my toolkit."
