Togami frowned at Naegi's declaration. Yes, they did have to figure out what was going on with this series of attacks — but with only two of them left, how were they going to manage it? He and Naegi might be the best of the group at investigating, not counting Kirigiri and her convoluted manipulations that never seemed to benefit anyone but herself — but no matter how smart they tried to be about it, they couldn't be everywhere. There were two different scenes that would need to be inspected, in the two areas of the school that were as far apart as possible. It was a simple matter of logistics — there was no way for them to search both crime scenes without leaving one or the other exposed to tampering.
Not unless they split up, anyway — but Togami barely even spared a moment's consideration for that possibility. Naegi might be alive and unharmed now, or at least not any worse off than he'd been at the start of the night, but that didn't mean he was safe. If a killer was wandering around the school, it would be all too easy for them to get rid of one of the most troublesome remaining students while he was too weak to resist. Leaving Naegi asleep in Ogami's care during a potentially risky was one thing, but leaving Naegi to poke around a crime scene by himself with a murderer on the loose was an entirely different scale of threat.
And that was assuming that Naegi was even capable of doing any investigation in his current state. Togami looked the other boy over, taking in the makeshift sling that now held his injured arm cradled to his chest. Yes, that did look like it would allow Naegi to be a little more mobile than he'd been when his arm had merely been braced on a pillow, but it wasn't as though that would help with pain or exhaustion. Maybe they weren't down to two investigators — maybe they only had one.
"How are you feeling?" Togami asked at last, shifting his grip on Naegi's hand until he could rest his thumb against the pulse point on Naegi's wrist. The heartbeat he felt there wasn't as strong as he would have liked, but at least it was better than earlier. "And don't try to pretend you're fine — I know you aren't. If we're going to do this, I need an honest estimate. How much movement do you think you can safely manage?"
"I…" Naegi bit his lip, clearly wanting to ignore the direct order and claim he was fine anyway. Finally, he sighed and shook his head. "I'm not sure exactly. I feel like I could stand up and walk around, but Ogami wouldn't let me try."
Togami thoroughly approved of that attitude. Ogami might not have had extensive medical training, but she'd clearly had the right skills for this situation. Given the opportunity, Naegi would probably drive himself right back into exhaustion. If Togami could think of any other choice, he'd be insisting that Naegi stay put in bed until he was completely recovered, too.
"All right, then," Togami said, reluctantly disentangling his fingers from Naegi's and using the edge of the bed frame to lever himself upright. He hoped that Naegi didn't see how heavily he had to brace himself in order to stand under his own power — Naegi had enough to worry about with his own injuries.
When he was sure he could do so without swaying, he turned to face Naegi. "I'm going to start trying to figure out what happened in here. While I do that, I need you to try, very slowly and carefully, to see if you can get up under your own power." He gave Naegi the sternest scowl he could muster, the one that had sent underlings scurrying for cover when he'd been back at the Togami Corporation. "You will not strain yourself, do you understand? If anything feels even slightly off, you are to stop moving immediately. Better to stop short than to collapse from overexertion."
"I'll be careful," Naegi assured him at once.
"You'd better be," Togami said grimly. "I'll stay close, but I can't investigate if I have to watch your every move. I need to be able to trust you with this."
This time, Naegi didn't respond immediately, looking down at his injured arm with a frown. Normally, Togami would have wanted to wipe away that unhappy expression — but for the moment, he needed it. The potential consequences of physical wounds had to outweigh a few moments of unhappiness. If Naegi didn't have enough self-preservation instincts to keep himself safe for his own sake, a guilt trip would just have to act as a temporary substitute.
"I really will be careful," Naegi said again, but this time, he sounded much more serious. "You can trust me."
Togami gave him an approving nod, watching for a moment as Naegi began to shift ever so minutely towards the side of the bed. Only when he was certain that Naegi really was going to be cautious about moving did Togami turn a portion of his attention to Ogami.
The girl hadn't so much as twitched while he and Naegi were having their conversation mere feet away from her. If he'd needed any kind of confirmation that she'd been forced into unconsciousness rather than a natural sleep, that clinched it. But that left the question of how the Ultimate Martial Artist could have been knocked out.
The only thing Togami could be sure of was that whatever had done this, it had only happened to Ogami. Anything that could put the huge, physically fit fighter so thoroughly out of commission would have had a much worse effect on Naegi, who was a fraction of the girl's size and already weakened by other injuries. But Naegi had woken up easily, without even a hint of unnatural grogginess or disorientation. He would have already been asleep when the culprit acted — they must have decided that was good enough.
And if this had hit Ogami without touching Naegi, even though she'd been within arm's reach at the side of the bed, then it couldn't have been the same gas that had nearly knocked Togami out on the fifth floor. That seemed odd — why would someone bother to come up with two different methods for knocking people unconscious? Could their resources be limited somehow?
But if it hadn't been more of the gas, then what had it been? Togami's first thought was a physical blow — but when he examined the back of Ogami's head, he couldn't see any signs of such an attack. There wasn't a lump anywhere on her scalp, and he couldn't see any traces of blood in her pale hair. Well, that did make sense — with Ogami's fighting skills, it would have been extremely difficult to knock her out by hitting her. He supposed it was possible that Ikusaba might have managed, using her Fenrir training, but even so, he would have expected to see evidence of a fight in that case. And side from Ogami's sleeping form, the room didn't look like it had been disturbed at all.
Which left some kind of drug administered in a form other than gas. Injections posed the same sorts of problems that a physical blow did, since he doubted that Ogami would have simply sat still and let the culprit stick a needle in her. But if it had been taken orally…
Togami's eyes dropped down to the glass shards on the ground blow Ogami's empty hand. She'd been holding a glass of some kind when unconsciousness had overtaken her. Could whatever she'd been holding have contained the drug? After all, tricking one's victim into drugging herself would be quite tidy — and clever, too, since the school's limited chemistry facilities weren't up to the task of testing for drugs. If that was what the culprit had done, there would be no way of proving it.
At a rustle of movement from the bed, Togami's attention snapped away from the broken glass and back to Naegi. The boy had managed to turn in place on the bed and swing his legs over the side, but the effort appeared to have been considerable. He sat on the edge of the bed, trying not to look like he was fighting to catch his breath. Togami raised an eyebrow at Naegi, giving the boy a pointed frown.
Naegi did his best to offer a smile in return. "I'm okay… just a little tired. It doesn't hurt or anything. And I won't try to stand until I'm sure I can handle it."
"You should try to move down to the other end of the bed before you get up," Togami said. "You could lose your balance, and there's broken glass here. It looks like Ogami may have consumed some kind of drug, and then dropped the container as it took effect."
"What?" Naegi leaned forward a little, peering down at the area of the floor that he hadn't been able to see when he was lying in bed. "But she was checking all the bottles so carefully — I don't think she would have touched anything that had been opened."
"She might have missed it, if someone tampered with a part of the bottle other than the seal," Togami said. "Or it's possible that someone might have been able to drug it after she'd already opened it… if they'd entered the room to do so."
