Naegi froze as all the implications of Togami's question crashed through his mind. What if Mukuro Ikusaba was the mastermind? It hadn't even occurred to him before this. Even if he'd wondered if different pieces of what Ikusaba had said might have been untrue, he'd assumed that the foundation of her claims had to be based on reality. But why should it be? Why couldn't everything Ikusaba had said to Kirigiri be a lie?
He didn't even have to wonder about why the mastermind might have wanted to tell a lie like that – the answer was obvious, given what had happened afterward. Out of all the students, Kirigiri had always been the one most determined to search for an answer to their imprisonment here – and the one who had managed to find the most success. She'd uncovered the hidden room, she'd found Alter Ego, and then, right before Ikusaba had approached her, Kirigiri had even gotten into the headmaster's office. The lie, if that's what it was, would have been carefully crafted to distract Kirigiri from her other leads and lure her away from the rest of the students. Once she'd gone into the hidden areas of the school, the mastermind would have her at their mercy.
But – was it really all a lie? Naegi wrenched his mind away from his fears of what might have happened to Kirigiri if she'd really been caught in the mastermind's clutches. There was no point in dwelling on such a terrible scenario, not when he didn't know for sure if that was the case. Togami had asked a very good question, one that Naegi should have thought of himself – but that was all that he'd done. There was no solid reason to believe one version of events over the other, not yet.
Naegi only had to tilt his head a little to one side for Togami to notice, immediately bending the few inches necessary for Naegi to be able to speak into his ear.
"You're right – Ikusaba could be the mastermind," Naegi admitted. "I don't have any proof that she isn't – but I don't have proof that she is, either. She only showed herself to Kirigiri, not me, and Kirigiri wasn't even supposed to tell me about it."
She'd said that she wanted a failsafe in case something went wrong, Naegi remembered. She wanted him to know about Ikusaba and her investigation so that someone could pick up where she'd left off – in case she couldn't. She'd known going in that this was a dangerous risk to take.
But had she realized just how big of a risk it was? It hadn't occurred to Naegi that Ikusaba might have been the mastermind herself – but Togami had spotted the possibility almost instantly. Kirigiri had had nearly a full day to mull over Ikusaba's claims before she'd decided to accept the other girl's offer – could she really have failed to consider the idea that she'd met the mastermind in the flesh, rather than a traitorous subordinate?
"I don't know what Kirigiri really thought about it," Naegi said, his voice faltering a little as the realization sunk in. "She… didn't tell me."
Would she still have gone, if she'd thought she could be walking straight into the mastermind's trap? He knew Kirigiri was determined to uncover the mastermind's secrets – but he wouldn't have expected her to go quite that far. She'd always struck him as more cautious, preferring to take calculated risks rather than throwing all caution to the wind on one big gamble.
But then again, Kirigiri kept herself so guarded and private that he couldn't really say for sure just what she would or wouldn't do. Maybe he didn't know her as well as he thought he did.
As Naegi fell silent under the weight of those thoughts, Togami moved away again so that he could reply. "Then what exactly did she tell you? She must have said something more than just mentioning this girl's existence. Tell me everything about Ikusaba – what she looked like, why she claimed to want to betray the mastermind, how she found Kirigiri. I want to know everything she said."
Everything she'd said…? Naegi cast his mind back to that conversation as Togami shifted to hear him. He'd been more focused on the plan than on the details about Ikusaba, but he was pretty sure he remembered them all.
"Well, Kirigiri never actually saw Ikusaba's face," Naegi said. "She had a mask and a coat on to hide what she looked like. And I guess she can move pretty quietly, because she snuck up on Kirigiri while she was searching the headmaster's office. Kirigiri said she never heard a thing. That's probably because of her soldier training, though."
Togami frowned sharply at that last part. "What?"
"That's how Ikusaba said she got involved with the mastermind in the first place," Naegi explained. "She said she used to be part of a mercenary soldier group called Fenrir, but –"
Togami went very still, his arms tightening around Naegi's shoulders. Naegi frowned, wondering if the other boy wanted to say something – but when Togami made no move to shift position, Naegi supposed he ought to finish his explanation first.
"Well, she isn't part of Fenrir anymore, because it turned into this other group called Ultimate Despair," Naegi went on. "They're the ones working with the mastermind. But Ikusaba said that she was only working with Fenrir because she was kidnapped and brainwashed –" He decided to ignore Togami's snort of disbelief at that idea. "– and that it started wearing off while she was on her own in the school."
Togami definitely had something to say about that, since he began moving to reply safely the second Naegi finished his sentence. "That's an easy claim to make, with no proof to back it up. The Togami family is quite familiar with Fenrir, and I don't believe that a real member of that group would abandon her loyalties so quickly."
"Kirigiri sounded pretty convinced Ikusaba was telling the truth about that part, though," Naegi said, as soon as he could. "She said Ikusaba showed her a wolf tattoo that only members of Fenrir have."
"Really?" Togami said, startled. "Now that's interesting. The tattoo is much less well-known, even on the level of people who are aware of Fenrir's existence." Naegi could feel the other boy's mouth shift to a frown against his ear. "But if this Ikusaba really was a part of Fenrir, then that story about breaking free from her brainwashing has to be nonsense. The training of an elite professional mercenary group wouldn't be so easy to defy. No, either Ikusaba is the mastermind herself, or she's working directly on their orders. Nothing else would make sense."
Naegi bit his lip, but didn't say anything in response. He'd thought it had sounded fairly believable when Kirigiri had told him about it – of course someone who had been kidnapped and forced to be a soldier would want to escape at the first opportunity. But now, he had to admit that Togami's points made sense, too. He had no way to judge which was more likely to be true, that was the problem. All he had was the story that Kirigiri had told him – the story that he wanted so badly to take at face value, because if he didn't… if it had been a lie… then what did that mean for Kirigiri?
Togami must have noticed some change in his expression that Naegi didn't realize he'd consciously made, because the way he held Naegi to his side shifted marginally into something less steadying and more protective. "What's wrong?" Togami asked, concern softening his voice. "You shouldn't have talked so much –"
"That's not it," Naegi cut him off, the words simple enough that he didn't need to disguise them. "I'm fine."
"Then what –" Togami stopped short, a long pause stretching out between them. "You're upset," he said at last. "About Kirigiri."
"Of course I am," Naegi said, a little puzzled that he'd even had to wonder.
Togami took a deep breath, feathering through a few strands of Naegi's hair as he exhaled. He raised his free hand to settle on Naegi's good elbow with a strange, almost awkward sort of hesitance that Naegi had never expected to see from the confident heir.
"Naegi… if this was a trap concocted by the mastermind themselves, then you couldn't have done anything to stop it," Togami said, his words slow and uneven, almost as though he wasn't quite sure what he wanted to say. "Kirigiri was a smart girl, and capable of making her own decisions. Her choices were not your fault."
"What do you –" Naegi's voice dried up in his throat as he realized just what Togami had said.
Was a smart girl. Past tense.
Naegi twisted around to look Togami in the eye, paying no attention to the jolt of pain through his injured arm as he searched desperately for some indication that he'd misunderstood – but what he found sent a chill of horror through his veins.
"You think she's dead."
