As thick, grimy smoke curled into the air, Naegi forced himself to look down at where the fire had been. The sight of what had been a body twisted through his stomach, and he had to swallow back the sharp taste of vomit at the back of his throat. Even though he'd been forced to see so many other corpses over the past few weeks, they'd all looked human in his last glimpse of them, more or less — and for the ones that hadn't, there had been very little left to recognize in what remained.

But it was impossible to ignore the fact that this charred thing in front of him had been a human body just a few minutes ago. The flames had only destroyed part of the body, leaving the outline of a leg or the sprawl of an arm to proclaim the truth. This had been someone he cared about.

Who had it been, though? Much as Naegi hated to think of anyone's corpse being so badly desecrated, he had to cling to the desperate hope that this was the body that had already been in the classroom. Because if it wasn't someone who'd already been dead… if it was someone else…

He squeezed his eyes closed for a moment, trying to force back the tears that kept trying to surge up to blur his vision, and then looked down at the body again. The face had been burned beyond recognition, he could tell that much at a glance, but there had to be some way to identify what remained of the body. Something on the bottom half, maybe, or —

Or the knife sticking out of the torso. Relief weakened Naegi's knees as he realized what the blackened metal on the corpse's chest had been, and he staggered against the music stand pole as a sob shook its way through him. This was the dead body they'd come to identify, the student that someone had already murdered, the life that had already been lost. It was still terrible, still a tragedy, but he couldn't help the gratitude sweeping through him at the knowledge.

But if this was the corpse, then where was Togami? Naegi turned towards the rest of the room, looking around with renewed alarm. He'd watched the other boy go into this classroom less than a minute before the explosion — so he had to be in the room somewhere.

"Togami?" The first time Naegi tried to call the other boy's name, it caught in his throat, barely letting more than a whisper escape. He clenched his fingers tight around the pole and tried a second time, louder. "Togami!"

But nothing happened. Naegi felt the brief stirring of relief drain away like water. He couldn't believe that Togami would fail to answer if it was in his power to do so. Could the explosion have knocked him unconscious? But if it had, he would have been in the middle of the floor, impossible to miss. Unless…

Naegi's eyes went to the piles of furniture, scanning along their length. And when he reached the middle of the room, he could see the shadows moving as one of the fallen desks tried to shift.

Before another second could pass, Naegi rushed in the direction of the moving desk, as much as he was capable of doing so. He wished, suddenly and fiercely, that he could just run, that exhaustion and blood loss didn't slow his limbs and tether him to the stupid music stand pole. If he could just have moved a little faster, been a little stronger, maybe none of this would have happened in the first place. He could have gone into the classroom himself instead of selfishly insisting that Togami go on his behalf — or at least he'd be able to hurry to the other boy's side now, to offer whatever care and support he could.

"I'm coming," Naegi promised, wishing he had something more than words to offer. "Just — just hold on, please."

The motion had come from a little bit past the halfway point of the room, near the place where the lantern had crashed to the ground. The broken desk had fallen together with several chairs, casting a long shadow back against the wall. And now that the fire was no longer consuming his attention, now that he looked at the wreckage instead of past it, Naegi saw the movement even more strongly than before — and a moment later, the broken desk slanted back, knocking the chairs to the floor in a crash. Pale blond hair flashed in the light as Togami sat up, strips of bandage falling from his face.

The music stand pole clattered to the ground as Naegi fell to his knees beside the other boy, barely even registering the shock of pain as his knees hit the hard floor. "It wasn't you. It really wasn't you!"

He wanted to throw himself forward and cling to his boyfriend with his one good arm — his clever, brilliant boyfriend who had managed to protect himself even in the middle of an explosion — but he didn't quite dare. He could see traces of angry red blood smearing their way across Togami's hands, and he knew better than to touch the other boy when he didn't know what might have happened or what injuries he might make worse. "You — you're hurt. Are you bleeding? What happened?"

Togami didn't answer his question, raising a shaky hand to one ear and shaking his head slightly… almost like he hadn't really heard what Naegi had said. Explosions could do that when you were too close, Naegi remembered — they rang in your ears and left you unable to hear anything else. Sometimes it went away, but if it had been very loud and you'd been very close… sometimes it didn't.

Naegi reached out a hesitant hand and laid it against Togami's cheek, letting his fingers curl on top of the hand Togami had pressed to his ear. Slowly, Togami's own fingers went still as he blinked hazily at Naegi, not just shaken by the explosion but disoriented in a way that Naegi had never seen him before.

And he was like this because of the request Naegi had made of him. Togami had wanted to turn around, to wait, to come up with a different plan… but he hadn't. He'd ignored the cautious instincts that would have kept him safe and whole because Naegi had pleaded with him to do it. And that meant that all these injuries, whether they were permanent or would fade with time and care, were Naegi's fault.