Togami could only hear the faintest traces of the scream that had to be tearing itself from Naegi's lips, but even that small bit was enough to make him cringe. The sound hardly mattered, anyway — he could see the agony twisting plainly across Naegi's face.
He'd shifted his grip on Naegi's arms immediately, moving to hold Naegi by the waist and chest, but it was too little, too late. When he'd looked up after the bottom of Naegi's makeshift walking stick had bumped into him, he'd barely had an instant to realize what was happening and scramble up to catch Naegi before he hit the ground. If he'd had even a few seconds to think, he would have known better than to grab the smaller boy by his injured arms — but he'd had to react on instinct, not logic. And the results had been predictably horrifying.
Naegi's left arm had fallen askew in its sling, his fingers twitching uselessly through the air. Togami couldn't see any fresh blood seeping through the cloth, which was at least a small blessing… but then again, maybe Ogami had wrapped the wound so thoroughly that it was just taking the blood a long time to work its way through enough layers to become visible. And if that wound had reopened now, without even Ogami's limited medical skills available to help…
Togami shoved the fear to the back of his mind, keeping an eye out for any indications that it might be happened, but no more. He had too many other definite problems to focus on right now to worry over one that hadn't manifested yet. His arms had begun to tremble under Naegi's weight, and much as he would have liked to keep holding the smaller boy close, he knew it wouldn't be an option for long.
Slowly, Togami lowered Naegi to the ground, doing his best to jar the other boy as little as possible during the process. He couldn't be sure if he succeeded, though — he didn't have a clear view to read Naegi's lips from this position, and if he was trying to speak, the words weren't loud enough to penetrate the thick cocoon of silence that had wrapped itself around Togami ever since he'd woken up from that damned explosion.
Togami had been trying his hardest to focus on the situation at hand instead of the real implications of his sudden deafness. After all, he knew temporary deafness was perfectly common after being so close to such a loud noise. The problem might resolve itself given time, and he'd at least been able to communicate with Naegi well enough that they could get on with some sort of investigation. He'd done his best to focus in spite of the stifling emptiness that surrounded him, the rush of nonsensical almost-sounds that filled his head with a blankness that was almost worse than complete silence would have been — but he'd only managed to do it by blocking out any scrap of noise that might have distracted him.
And now he realized that one of those sounds might have been Naegi crying out for help. Whatever had happened to make Naegi collapse like this, Togami doubted it would have come on suddenly. Naegi must have been fighting off pain for a while, stubbornly refusing to admit how bad it had gotten — but there would have been signs, if only Togami had had the ability to hear them.
Even now, as he laid Naegi on the floor, he could see the other boy's lips moving in what seemed to be incoherent noises of pain, long wet tear tracks stretching out from his closed eyes. As much as every sound would have hurt, the knowledge that he couldn't hear them burned even more. He'd caused this, destroying the fragile balance of Naegi's wellbeing and dragging him back into this suffering, and he couldn't even judge how badly he'd made the other boy cry out in pain.
Except… no. He hadn't caused this, even if his actions had been the trigger that made it happen. The blame for Naegi's injuries lay with whoever had murdered that dead girl behind them and left behind a bomb to destroy the evidence of their crime. This killer had done more than just take the life of one of those other students that he barely cared about — they'd hurt him in a way he'd never expected, digging deep into his actual body and robbing him of one of his defenses, and they'd forced him into a position where he'd accidentally hurt the boy he loved.
And he was going to destroy them for it.
Togami had never had a problem with the idea of getting rid of his enemies, but before this, it had always been in a more metaphorical sense. He'd been willing to ruin the lives of his rivals, bankrupting companies or closing off opportunities, and he'd been eager to shatter the dreams of all the older siblings that he'd gotten disinherited… but until Hope's Peak, he'd never considered going so far as to arrange for someone's actual death. And even back when he'd planned to win the killing game, he'd only made that choice because that had been the only option he'd seen for survival, not because he'd had any particular desire to turn himself into a murderer.
But now, with nonexistent winds roaring through his ears and his love crying from the pain he'd been forced to inflict, Togami knew what it felt like to want another person dead. He didn't know how he would pull it off yet, since killing someone during the killing game would just trigger another class trial, which was the last situation he wanted — but he'd figure it out eventually. No one got to hurt him this badly and walk away.
But until he managed to put together a plan, he had other things to worry about. Togami reached out and brushed Naegi's hair away from his forehead to warn the injured boy of his touch, then let his fingers trail down to rest gently on the pulse point on Naegi's neck. His heartbeat at least hadn't gotten any weaker, though it still wasn't as strong as Togami would have liked. However bad this might turn out to be, it didn't show signs of being life-threatening — there was that much to be grateful for, however little it was.
And Naegi didn't seem to have lost consciousness, either, even if that might have been a way for him to get some respite from the pain. His eyelids twitched a couple times, and then slowly pried themselves open. Togami held his breath as Naegi stared blearily upward, not daring to move until the other boy's eyes managed to focus on him.
"Sorry."
Togami couldn't tell if Naegi had mustered the energy to speak the word aloud or if he'd only managed to mouth it, but either way, he could read the apology all too clearly from the other boy's lips — and the fire of hate inside him burned just a little more intensely. The thought of Naegi feeling guilty about being injured on top of everything else made him want to snarl with rage.
But he knew Naegi wouldn't understand a reaction like that, so he forced the fury to the back of his mind and let whatever softness he had creep into his expression instead. "You have nothing to be sorry about."
Naegi grimaced like he didn't entirely believe it, but at least he didn't try to object. "Can you help me stand up?" he asked instead.
Togami's first instinct was to say no, Naegi didn't need to be walking around getting into trouble, he needed rest — but this was hardly the place for that, with a corpse rotting a few feet away in one direction and a puddle of poison in the other. "Are you sure you feel up to it?" he asked instead.
"I think… I have to be," Naegi said, his pale face taking on the too-familiar lines of determination.
He was right, much as Togami hated to admit it. He shouldn't stay here and Togami couldn't carry him out, so getting up had to be the only option — but not yet. Not until at least a little more color had returned to his face, or until his eyes stopped trembling from the effort of staying open.
"Can you wait for me to check a few more things?" Togami asked.
"Well… I guess so," Naegi said, agreeing in spite of looking a bit puzzled, just as Togami had known he would. That should buy the other boy at least a few minutes of rest. "But… just be careful, okay?"
"Obviously." Togami hesitated, then leaned down to press a kiss to Naegi's forehead. "Try to rest," he said, hoping he'd managed to make his voice sound gentle. "I'll keep us both safe."
