Togami had thought that the dojo would be a perfect place to rest for a few minutes, allowing Naegi a chance to recover enough to chance the stairs and offering an opportunity to investigate those lockers again. He hadn't spent a long time in the dojo the first time he'd explored the fifth floor, especially not after determining that there wasn't anything of interest in the long row of boringly identical lockers, and he hadn't paid a lot of attention when he'd come back with Kirigiri and Naegi — but he'd had a general impression that the room had been constructed not so much as a workout location, but to invoke some hackneyed notion of idealized beauty. Obviously artificial, perhaps, but it had at least struck him as quiet and peaceful.
But it didn't feel that way any longer. The dojo itself hadn't changed, with its fluttering cherry blossoms and dark ceiling reminiscent of the midnight sky… but knowing that this room had been created as a strange little idyll just across the hall from the nightmare of classroom 5-C drained away any peace the dojo might have offered. The pleasantly cool air brought goosebumps slithering down his neck, and every tree branch that bent in the pretense of a gentle breeze sent his gaze skittering through the room's shadowy corners.
Togami almost suggested leaving the dojo for now and going to rest in the garden instead, where at least the threats and contradictions were more apparent in the too-bright colors and the supposedly man-eating plant — but one look down at Naegi's pale face told him that wasn't a good idea. Naegi needed to rest, whatever he might claim about how recovered he was. Togami was certain that any doctor worthy of the name would have insisted on at least a week of solid bed rest after all the injuries Naegi had been through. Naegi shouldn't even have been on his feet this soon in the first place — but it wasn't as though they'd had any other options, with murderers running around and their only ally knocked unconscious.
If Togami couldn't give Naegi the care he deserved, at least he could make sure he didn't demand too much of the injured boy. He knew Naegi would never complain — he'd try to manage what he thought someone he cared for was asking of him even if he destroyed himself in the process. And that… that was unacceptable.
And so Togami let the dojo's screen door slide shut behind them and helped Naegi over to the left side of the room. The dojo understandably didn't have chairs or tables, but there was a raised sort of semi-stage displaying samurai armor and a few other trinkets. Togami brushed them all aside, clearing enough of a space for Naegi to sit on the small ledge. It didn't seem to be the most comfortable option, made of hard wood and sharp corners, but at least it had to be better than the floor.
The lack of protest with which Naegi relinquished his grip on the music stand pole and settled back to lean against the wall spoke volumes for his level of exhaustion. Togami would have liked to sink down beside the injured boy, holding Naegi close in his arms so that he knew that for at least those few precious moments, Naegi would be safe — but he didn't quite dare. Adrenaline and terror had forced his own fatigue back for a while, but the burning at the back of his eyes was an ominous reminder that such a respite was only temporary. If he let himself sit with Naegi, no matter his best intentions, he might relax just a little too much.
"I'm going to look at the lockers," Togami said instead, taking a step backwards, away from temptation.
Naegi nodded his agreement, not even mustering the energy to speak. Togami approved of this in terms of conserving his strength — but he didn't like what it suggested.
"You can't fall asleep here," he warned the other boy. "You remember the rule, don't you?"
"No sleeping outside the dorms," Naegi said, and Togami suspected the boy had barely whispered the words. "I remember."
Togami frowned down at Naegi for a moment, then reached into his pocket to retrieve Naegi's e-handbook. He flipped it on opened the section with the school regulations, propping it up beside Naegi so that he'd have a clear view of the rule in question. "Don't forget."
Only after Naegi nodded again, eyes a little more alert as he looked down at his e-handbook, did Togami feel safe enough to leave him alone. He forced himself to turn away quickly, before the urge to sit could buckle his knees in spite of his best intentions, and crossed the room to inspect the dojo lockers.
From what Togami remembered, the locker closest to the door had been the one they'd used to hide the poison. Sure enough, that locker was the only one in the long row to have a key missing. He reached out to tug on the door — not with the force necessary to break a functional lock, but just enough to test whether the door might open without the key.
It wouldn't. He pulled at it again, a little harder this time, but with the same result. The locker door stayed just as firmly shut as it had been when he, Naegi, and Kirigiri had left it two nights ago.
Togami glared at it. Of course it made sense that the door would still be locked, after he himself had thrown the key into the incinerator and looked down at its ashes… but then how the hell had that bottle of poison ended up in the classroom? It wasn't as simple as Kirigiri being mistaken in her claim that there had only been one poison that could be administered as a gas — it had been the same type of poison. He and Naegi had both recognized the bottle, and he knew that when he'd looked in the chemistry lab before Fukawa's trial, all three bottles had been missing.
Could Monokuma have restocked the lab with fresh poison? It was a possibility, but based on previous trials, Togami doubted it. Monokuma might clean up all the evidence of a murder, but he had never gone so far as to replace any limited resources. The bags of blood that Yamada had used to fake his death hadn't been replaced in the clinic refrigerator, even though Monokuma could have encouraged other potential killers to make use of them. The knife Maizono had taken from the kitchen was still missing, the empty space on the wall a constant reminder of her failed crime.
Once a weapon had been used by one culprit, it seemed to be confiscated so that no one could use it in future attempts. It might be an attempt to force them all to come up with their own plans, or perhaps something to encourage a killer to act before their weapon of choice disappeared. But either way, it was gone for good.
And that meant that the poison in the classroom had to be the bottle from the locker, even if he couldn't figure out how the killer had retrieved it. Togami contemplated the locker a moment longer, then circled around to inspect the back of the structure. It appeared to be pressed fairly solidly against the wall, and when he tried to push it away, it wouldn't budge. So much for the possibility that someone might have gotten into it from the back.
He glanced down the row of other lockers, identical keys sitting in easy reach of anyone who wandered in. He'd always figured this sort of public locker couldn't be terribly secure, but… surely it wouldn't be that bad, would it? He pulled the key from the nearest locker and tried it in the locked door — but no. It slid about an inch into the lock, shifting the mechanism just a hair, and then stopped short. Togami breathed a sigh of relief — if that had worked, he would have had to curse himself as an idiot for leaving the poison out where anyone could get it by grabbing any of the other keys.
But that still didn't answer the question of how someone could have gotten into the locker without a key. Togami crossed his arms and tried to think past the dull ache of exhaustion that was beginning to form at the back of his skull. There had to be something he was missing. The poison clearly wasn't in the locker anymore, so there had to be a way to get at it.
Could the door have been picked? It wasn't as though the lock was a terribly complex mechanism, and the wording of the rule only said that they weren't allowed to break down locked doors. Monokuma had made a great point of telling them that the dorm room doors were unpickable… which seemed to suggest that a loophole existed, if someone was skilled enough to pick a lock without breaking it. It would be a big risk, considering what had happened when Asahina had attempted to exploit an apparent loophole, but someone sufficiently confident might try it.
Kirigiri's chilly, emotionless face flashed before Togami's eyes as he studied the locker. If any of the other surviving students had confidence in their abilities, she would be the one.
