Naegi would have liked to spend just a few more moments easing the tension that had strung through Togami ever since the other boy had woken up. They couldn't really spare the time, not with at least two missing friends and an unidentified killer running loose — but seeing even a whisper of fear on the proud heir's face turned Naegi's stomach. He found that he couldn't help wanting to banish that look, even when he had so many other concerns demanding his attention.
But before he could say anything else, Togami scowled and looked away, and the fragile moment of respite from horror broke around them. "We need to finish here so that you can get back to bed where you belong."
Naegi suppressed a regretful sigh and let the opportunity pass without complaint. He would just have to find another chance to try to deal with the worry that Togami seemed determined not to acknowledge. And in any case, Naegi knew he wasn't the only one who needed to go back and rest — but of course saying so in front of the cameras would just make Togami dig in his heels and insist he was fine. He had to pick his moment if he didn't want to make things worse — but at least he was pretty confident he knew the other boy well enough now that he could recognize the right moment when it happened.
So for now, he just nodded his agreement and looked around the area again. Was there anything else they needed to examine — something that could give some hint about the culprit, maybe?
Togami seemed to have the same idea. He narrowed his eyes down at the fan. "That was in the storage room." He looked quickly back at Naegi before continuing to speak. "I didn't see the fan itself, but I recognize the shape from the place where it was missing."
"And that bucket looks like one I saw with a bunch of cleaning supplies," Naegi said, his mind flashing back to the two times he'd crossed through the cleaning supply closet in the second floor boys' bathroom to get to the hidden room beyond. He could easily have missed the entrance to the hidden room if Kirigiri hadn't told him it was there, so he supposed that someone might have been able to retrieve a few supplies without finding the door and getting attacked the way he had. "The sponges might have come from there, too."
But Togami shook his head. "No, these have to be from the clinic. Someone cleaned out the supply there, at some point before the time we were investigating for the last trial."
"Probably Kirigiri — that's when she was putting together her plan." Naegi looked back down at the large sponges, which were lightening from sodden dark gold to a lighter yellow as they slowly dried — and he frowned. It looked like there was something attached to each of them. "Wait… what's that?"
It looked like someone had attached a short piece of string to each of the sponges, trailing to nothing after only a few inches. And… were there a few loops of the same type of string threaded through the slats of the fan? The liquid had to be attached to the fan in order to work, that was what Togami had said when he'd explained the device…
Naegi looked back up at Togami. "I think this must be how the culprit attached the sponges to the fan," he said, gesturing down at the string. "It doesn't look like it held too well, but I guess a sponge can get pretty heavy when it's full of liquid."
"Surprisingly short-sighted to use something so breakable," Togami said, narrowing his eyes. "I'm sure there must be wire or metal clips of some kind stashed in the storage room somewhere."
"But that must be why we can breathe in here now, right?" Naegi asked, trying to puzzle through Togami's brief explanation of the improvised humidifier. "If the string on the sponges broke and the fan wasn't blowing through them anymore, it would have to stop blowing drugs into the air."
"It's hard to say without knowing the exact properties of the chemical the culprit used," Togami said. "But you're right, some kinds would stop working once the device stopped adding fresh drugs to the air. If it's one of those, then the culprit might even have meant for the string to break eventually, so that the room would clear on its own."
"I guess they must have wanted us to be able to get in here," Naegi said, grimacing. "That message they left on the body wouldn't do anyone any good if no one could get in to see it."
"Or they might have meant to come back here and meddle with the crime scene," Togami pointed out. "They certainly left a good bit of evidence behind. I'd have expected a murderer to at least make an effort to hide their tools." He sighed. "It would only be possible if they used the right kind of drug, though. Quite a few would need some kind of neutralizing agent to counteract the effects."
Naegi peered down at the sponges. "Is there a way to tell what kind it was?"
"What, just by looking?" Togami scoffed, a bit of an amused smile showing in one corner of his mouth. "No. We'd have to take them down to the chemistry lab to even have a chance of finding out anything useful — and neither of us is going to be stupid enough to touch a sponge full of unknown chemicals." Togami raised a pointed eyebrow at him after those last words.
"I wasn't going to touch it!" Naegi protested.
"Hmm." Togami didn't look convinced. "Well, hopefully you won't need to — not if the murderer was as careless as it looks like they may have been."
And with that, he turned towards the wall where the empty bottles had fallen. Naegi did his best to hurry after him, but even after Togami's injuries, Naegi still found he moved slower than the other boy could. By the time Naegi managed to haul himself around to a place where he'd be in Togami's line of sight, Togami had already knelt on the floor beside the nearest bottle.
Even standing, Naegi could tell that the small, dark brown bottle had fallen with its label against the wall — but of course Togami would be too cautious to try to touch it with his hands, especially after implying Naegi would try to handle the drug-filled sponge. Carefully, Togami slid a pen out of his pocket and began nudging the bottle with it.
A hint of recognition sparked in Naegi's memory as he watched Togami rotate the bottle. There was something familiar about it…
And then Togami gave the bottle one final turn, enough to finally reveal its label — and as the skull and crossbones image started up at them both, Naegi realized just where he'd seen it before.
"That's the same bottle from Fukawa's trial," Naegi said, slow horror creeping through him as he recognized it. "It isn't a knockout drug — it's poison."
