Note: I'm sorry about the bug that made the previous two chapters display with the HTML coding included. It all looked normal when I reviewed it in the Doc Manager, but they seem to have been hit by a bug that can scramble files between editing and posting. I've posted fresh new versions of both 195 and 196, and as far as I can tell they're displaying correctly!
Togami hadn't had a chance to examine the metallic object in much detail before pocketing it, and he certainly hadn't formed much impression of what it might be. All he'd been sure about was that it didn't seem to be part of a bomb. But now that he looked at it in a calmer state of mind, the idea that it might be a key was undeniable. The long black rectangle was just the right size to slide easily into a lock, and the blue part could be a handhold, complete with a hole where it could be attached to a key ring.
A hand settled on Togami's wrist, and he looked up at Naegi with a start.
"Isn't that the thing that was next to the body back in the classroom?" Naegi asked, and from the patient curl of his lips, Togami could see this wasn't the first time he'd asked the question.
"I wanted to give it a closer look, so I brought it along," Togami explained. "And I think it must be some sort of key."
"The key to the lockers?" Naegi asked, peering down at it in puzzlement.
But Togami shook his head. "No. I don't even need to try it — I can see just from here that this isn't the right shape for that keyhole. The locker key will be something more traditional. Whatever lock this opens will be thinner, flatter, more modern."
"Oh." Naegi's one good shoulder slumped a little in disappointment. "I guess that would have been too easy."
"And instead we have a lock without a key and a key without a lock," Togami said, tapping one finger against the new key thoughtfully. "I haven't seen a key like this anywhere else in the school… which means that it doesn't open any of the doors we already know about. It has to open something, though — and whatever it opens has to be something we haven't seen yet."
"You mean one of the locked areas of the school," Naegi said. "One of the places Kirigiri might have gone."
That wasn't the way Togami would have put it, but he nodded rather than argue the phrasing. "Unless there are some other locked doors that we don't know about, it seems likely." He considered it a moment longer. "And I think we can eliminate the headmaster's office as a possibility. Ogami destroyed that lock, so there would hardly be a point to carrying around a useless key."
"So that leaves the biology lab, the data center, the dormitory staircase, and…." Naegi counted off three fingers on his working right hand, then hesitated before raising a fourth. "And the front door."
Togami's hand reflexively curled into a fist around the key, fiercely protective at the thought that it might be their ticket out of this hellhole. He had to force back the sudden lightness the possibility raised within him, knowing that he couldn't afford to give in to a hope that would almost certainly prove false.
"That would be the least likely possibility," he said at last, hoping that his voice didn't sound strained as he tried to force out the words. "I can't imagine that the mastermind would have let a key like that out of their sight, even in the care of a trusted agent. And even if they did — well, there are still all the guns to stop us from trying anything."
"I know," Naegi said, a shadow falling over his eyes. He had to be remembering Asahina. "We shouldn't do anything that could set off those guns."
"It would make more sense to test the other doors first," Togami mused, considering the possible approaches. "As long as we're careful not to break any part of the key or the door while we check what it opens, that should keep us on the right side of the rule about locked doors."
"The biology lab is here on this floor," Naegi pointed out.
Togami's head lurched dizzily in protest against retreading the entire length of the fifth floor to get all the way back to classroom 5-C, and then continuing on down the long stretch of empty hall to the biology lab. He didn't know why the lab had been set so far back from the rest of the floor, but it would be a terribly long distance to go in their exhausted state, just to find out that the key didn't fit that lock after all. Or worse, what if they did manage to get that door open, only to reveal danger on the other side of it? That hall didn't have anywhere for them to hide — and neither of them had the strength left to run.
"I don't think that's a good idea," he said at last. "You've obviously been out of bed too long. If you have the energy to go anywhere, we should try to make it down some of the stairs, not head off in the opposite direction."
Instead of jumping straight to the objection that Togami had braced himself to counter, Naegi frowned up at Togami, biting his lip as he considered the other boy. Togami blinked, feeling the slight inclination to shift under Naegi's unusually intense stare. He couldn't remember the last time he'd felt self-conscious about another person's inability to tear their eyes away from him — after all, it was only reasonable for them to stare when he was around. But now, after everything he'd been through in the last twenty-four hours had taken its toll on his usually immaculate appearance, he didn't know how to take Naegi's observation. Smears of dirt, grease, and dried blood still flaked from his skin, and oil matted some of his hair to his head in layers of filth from the classroom floor. His clothing hardly even deserved to be called such any longer, ruined and torn. And his face had to be showing the effects of so many hours awake, his eyes presumably bloodshot and shadowed. So whatever Naegi saw with that long, quiet stare, he couldn't be looking in admiration.
Eventually, Naegi met his eyes again. "If we go back to the dorms, will you rest, too?"
Togami shrugged. "I'm hardly going to leave you to your own devices."
"Okay," Naegi said. "Then… we can look at the biology lab later. For now, you're right. We should try to go downstairs."
