Naegi would have liked to cross the room and go to Togami's side… but even if he'd been able to move freely without leaning on the music stand pole, the glare of the cameras still hadn't lifted. How could he ever reach out to his boyfriend now, knowing that the entire world would have front row seats for every kiss or touch? And even if he found the courage… he knew Togami wouldn't appreciate it. The other boy's expression stayed cold and dark, in spite of the soft content of his words, and he'd positioned himself so that he would be able to keep track of the room's security camera in the corner of his eye. He never forgot, not for a second.

But maybe that made the moment of kindness he'd offered to Naegi mean more. He could have tried to preserve his icy facade for the cameras and let Naegi trail off into embarrassed silence — but instead, he'd said something gentler, something that referenced the vulnerabilities he wanted to hide. It was a gift that he hadn't needed to offer… but he'd done it anyway.

As the silence stretched on, a couple faint spots of pink appeared high on Togami's cheekbones. "All right, we have what we came here for," he declared, voice too loud and commanding, like he meant it to carry through the cameras to give orders to the viewers outside. "We need to start answering as many of the other questions as we can before the trial begins."

Naegi knew Togami was only saying so to draw attention away from their conversation about dates and romance — but he still had a point. They had too many questions left to waste time here. Naegi gave him a nod, then bent to pick up the music stand pole from the floor. His head swam and tilted for a few moments after he straightened up, but not too badly. He was sure he was getting better — he had to be.

Leaning on the pole for balance and sliding slowly forward on the chair, Naegi managed to lever himself upright. He only swayed for a moment as his weight landed on his feet, but he managed to knock his hip against the edge of the desk and steady himself before he fell. Once the room had nearly stopped spinning around him, he began making his way over towards the door.

Togami was already waiting there, leaning against the door frame and surveying the room, a deep line creasing through his forehead. Naegi could see his gaze flickering over the mess, lingering on the papers scattered across the floor and the stacks of books from the emptied shelves. As Naegi approached, he glanced over, but the tense line of his body didn't ease.

"We're not going to get another chance at investigating all this, you know," he said flatly. "Once we walk out this door, the mastermind is going to do whatever they can to make sure we can't get back in. We've barely scratched the surface — there could be any number of clues about the mastermind's plan in here that we missed because we had to focus on looking for student information."

"Well… it's not like we could have done anything else," Naegi pointed out. "We need to worry about getting through the trial right now, and we needed the student records for that."

"I know." Togami clenched his fists. "And Monokuma must have known it, too, when he agreed to let us in. We never had a chance to find anything truly important."

"We could try to get back in later," Naegi suggested, thinking of the final trip ticket in his pocket.

Togami shook his head. "No… we've shown our hand now. You saw how fast Monokuma snatched that roster before we could even finish reading it. The mastermind will be sure to get rid of anything damning before we have a chance to get back in here."

Naegi blinked. "Then… do you want to stay here? You could keep searching —"

"No. Absolutely not." Togami's eyes blazed with outrage before Naegi could even finish the suggestion. "That is a terrible idea!"

"But… wouldn't it make sense to cover more ground?" Naegi bit his lip, giving the idea a little more thought. "I mean… we're the only ones who are free to investigate right now, aren't we? So if we both search the same places, we're limiting the amount of evidence we can find even more."

"Are you actually making a serious suggestion?" Togami stared at him in disbelief. "Have you forgotten that there's a murderer on the loose?"

"Of course not!" Naegi said. "But… is this really like the other times someone has been killed? Monokuma never gave us a new motive that could change someone's mind about killing, and the victim was part of the mastermind's team, even if she was also a participant in the game."

"I don't see how that changes anything," Togami said, crossing his arms. "The killer obviously wants to hide what they're doing, and they've still got one death before they hit the maximum. They could decide to take one of us out to stop us from investigating too much."

Naegi hesitated. He knew Togami would hate what he was about to say… but he didn't think they could leave it unsaid. "They could still do that even if we're together." He took a deep breath, looking Togami dead in the eyes. "You lost more of your hearing than you let me think, didn't you?"

Togami froze, blood draining from his face. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Are you sure?" Naegi turned his head to the side so that Togami couldn't get a clear view of his lips. "I don't really think anyone is going to come after either of us. I think staying in here will be safer for you." He looked back at Togami again. "Well? What did I say?"

Togami didn't say anything, staring at Naegi with his lips pressed together in a thin, tight line.

"If your hearing really is that bad, then someone could sneak up and separate us pretty easily," Naegi said. "I mean, whoever it is got into your dorm room and drugged Ogami without her noticing, right? So they must be pretty good at it. And if you had to spend all your time looking around for someone to sneak up on us, you wouldn't be able to do very much investigating at all. At least if you stay here, you'd just have to keep an eye on the door, not every direction."

"So you're saying I should just stay behind because I'm useless to you," Togami said icily.

"No, I'm saying that staying together isn't going to be any safer than splitting up," Naegi said. "If it were just about what I want, of course I'd stay with you — but that's not the only thing we need to think about. We don't have any perfect choices, and nothing we do will be free from risk or keep us perfectly safe. If we stay together, maybe we'll avoid a potential attack — but maybe we'll miss a critical clue and end up without enough information to finish the trial. We can't know for sure."

Some of the ice in Togami's eyes thawed a bit, though he still looked unconvinced. "And what exactly would you be doing while I keep searching here?"

Naegi thought for a moment. "I could go back down to the dorms and try to wake up Ogami. We need to find out what happened when she got attacked — and it would be hard for you to help with that."

"So you'd go straight there?" Togami pressed. "As quickly as you can? No detours?"

"I don't know how fast it'll be," Naegi said, giving a one-shouldered shrug. "But yeah, I can't think of anywhere other than the dorms that we really need to check right now. I'm definitely not going to try to make it back up to the fifth floor again."

Togami scowled like he was facing down the culprit themselves. "I don't like this."

"I know."

"I think it could go terribly wrong."

"So could anything we try."

Togami rubbed at the spot where his glasses pressed on the bridge of his nose. "You're that determined to do this? You really believe it's the best option?"

Naegi hesitated, seeing the unhappiness in Togami's eyes — and also seeing just how close the other boy was to giving in. Did he really want to press this when he knew Togami didn't want to do it? Was he taking advantage of the other boy's affection for him to encourage a choice he wouldn't make otherwise? Was that unfair?

But… he remembered the way Togami had been knocked out by the bomb, his exhaustion on the stairs, how he'd nearly collapsed outside the data center. He could see how tired the other boy was, clawing his way to consciousness by adrenaline and willpower… and they still had such a long way to go before they could rest. Togami would never admit how badly he needed to stay put for a while, for fear of appearing vulnerable… and letting him go on thinking something so dangerous wouldn't be right, either, not when it could hurt him.

"Yes," Naegi said at last, trying to sound more confident about it than he felt. "I think we should split up."

Togami nodded slowly. "All right, then. But you have to promise you'll be careful. Pay attention to your surroundings, and get back to Ogami as soon as you can."

"Sure," Naegi agreed. "But you have to do the same. Keep an eye on the door — and the television, too. Monokuma will call us all to the trial at some point, you can't miss that."

"I won't," Togami said. "I heard the bell for the body discovery announcement, so I'll notice when the bell for the next announcement sounds, too. I might not catch whatever gibberish Monokuma spews along with it, but that's probably for the best." One corner of his mouth twisted up in what was almost a smile. "At least he can't do much to distract me from searching by chattering away at me if I can't hear him."

"I don't think he'd do that anyway," Naegi said, recalling his confusing conversation with Monokuma. "It sounded like he's already told us everything he wants us to know." He rolled his eyes. "He actually said that with all the hints he's given us over the past few days, it looks like playing favorites."

"He — wait." Togami frowned. "The last few days? Meaning… before he disappeared, too?"

"I guess," Naegi said. "But — you're right, no one had even been killed yet at that point. What kind of hints would he have given us? Or… did he mean when he gave me the trip tickets and —"

"No — that's not it," Togami cut him off sharply, concentration lining his face. "Monokuma gave me a hint, the morning you and I argued. I came up here to see if I could get in, and when I found the barricade, he showed up. Most of what he said was the usual nonsense, but… he also said that something had been stolen from this office before he got the barricade up."

"Stolen?" Naegi's eyes widened. "What was it?"

"A weapon," Togami said grimly. "According to him, it was the most dangerous one in the school."

"But…" Naegi's thoughts flickered through the different weapons used in Ikusaba's murder. "But the poison came from the chemistry lab, didn't it? And the knife didn't look any more dangerous than any other knife, just a little bigger. Could it have been the bomb?"

"I doubt it," Togami said. "Monokuma said it would let the wielder secretly kill everyone, and while that blast was no joke, I don't think it could've taken out all five of us without some careful planning and very good luck."

"And I guess a bomb wouldn't exactly count as secret," Naegi agreed. "So… someone still has this weapon, and we don't know about it?"

"It sounds that way." Togami shook his head. "And a dangerous new weapon is floating around the school, possibly in possession of a murderer, then it means we definitely can't split up."

"No — it means that we have to!" Naegi countered, grip tightening around the music stand pole. "Remember the Monokuma File? It didn't say what killed Ikusaba, not for sure."

"Which usually means there's something important attached to the information he left out," Togami agreed reluctantly.

"And anything that could kill Ikusaba would have to be pretty dangerous," Naegi went on. "She wouldn't be taken down by just a normal person with a knife, or even just by poison."

"Not if she's a member of Fenrir, I suppose," Togami said. "Then… it does seem plausible that this mystery weapon might have been involved. We certainly shouldn't rule it out." He sighed. "All right. I'll stay here and look for any clues as to what it might have been."

"And I'll go straight back to the dorms and ask Ogami about what she remembers," Naegi said, nodding.

"In that case, you'll need this." Togami pulled his dorm room key out of his pocket and started to hand it over — then stopped, frowning as he realized Naegi didn't have a free hand to take it.

"Just stick it in the right side pocket of my hoodie," Naegi told him. "I'll be able to get it out when I get to the door."

Togami tried to stuff it beside Naegi's own dorm key and e-handbook, but it wouldn't quite fit. He looked up with an irritated huff of a sigh. "Can you reach any of your other pockets?"

"Not with the sling on," Naegi had to admit. "That's why everything's in that one."

"All right, then." Togami pulled the dorm key out of Naegi's pocket and replaced it with his. "We can switch back later."

"Sure." Naegi glanced at the door, biting his lip. "Then… I guess I should go."

"Yes." Togami glanced back up at the camera… then squared his shoulders and bent down to press his lips softly against Naegi's. "Be safe," he murmured, so softly Naegi could barely hear. He wasn't entirely sure he'd been meant to. "You have to stay safe."

Naegi knew Togami wouldn't be able to see any answer, so he didn't reply with words. He leaned forward as much as he could, tilting his head up and letting the kiss melt between them like the lingering sweetness of the last taste of dessert. Everything he felt for Togami, the complicated mess of affection and respect and worry and desire and everything else that tangled through his heart, he poured all of it into the kiss, hoping that the other boy would somehow manage to understand. He felt so much for Togami, far more deeply than he'd ever known he could… but that was something to think about when he had more time.

Slowly, reluctantly, Naegi drew back, knowing that if he didn't break off the kiss now, he never would. He looked up into Togami's eyes, softer than they'd been since the body had been discovered, and said, "I'll see you again soon."