Naegi made his way across the open space of the dorms, every faltering footstep echoing through the empty space. The uninterrupted reverberations were a stark reminder that he was the only one still on this floor. The school had seemed almost overcrowded when all this had begun, with one or another of the students hanging around in almost every room — but now they could scatter so thoroughly that even if he called out, no one would be around to hear.

No one here in the school, anyway. Naegi glanced up at the nearest camera as he crossed through the door between the dorms and the rest of the first floor, before quickly averting his eyes like he'd accidentally met a hostile stranger's glare. He was never alone here in Hope's Peak, not as long as those cameras were filming. People across the world were watching every move anyone made in this school, even if he still didn't fully understand why. But somehow, knowing that he wasn't truly alone made him feel more bereft of human connection than ever.

But as he rounded the corner past the empty classrooms, the red door to the trial rooms burning all too closely for his liking — another set of footsteps pounded near, shattering the weighty silenced of the hall. Naegi's head jerked up towards the corridor ahead — just in time to see Ogami rush around the corner.

Rather than turning towards the red door, she swung in the direction of the dorms, momentum carrying her another several steps forward before she caught sight of Naegi in front of her. She slowed, scanning the hallway behind Naegi for a moment before a deep frown overtook her expression. "What happened to Kirigiri? Surely she didn't go on ahead while you were in need of assistance."

"No, of course not," Naegi assured her. "Well — not exactly. She went upstairs." He frowned. "Didn't you pass her on the way?"

Ogami shook her head. "I must have missed her. It took me some time to make my way back across the library floor without disturbing any of the robot pieces Togami left." Her shoulders twitched like something cold had been dropped along her spine. "I didn't dare risk damaging anything that had once been a piece of Monokuma."

The thought of that made Naegi want to shudder himself — there was no way that Monokuma would ignore the rule against attacking the headmaster just because the robot had already been taken apart. "Yeah, that could be really dangerous! I'm glad you were being careful around it."

Ogami nodded. "I might say the same to you. I'm relieved to see that you are still in one piece." She frowned. "Or at least in the same condition that I left you in."

"Yes, I'm trying to go slowly so I don't get too tired," Naegi agreed, grateful to seize on the easy explanation for why he wasn't moving in any hurry. "I don't want to collapse or anything during the trial."

"Hmm." Ogami pursed her lips and gave him a long look. "Yes… I'm glad to see that you are taking care of yourself, as well."

Naegi blinked at the strange repetition. Wasn't that what she'd said in the first place? But what else could she have meant that she'd been worried about?

"Do you require assistance to make it the rest of the way to the trial room?" Ogami asked, glancing back down toward the red door.

"Um… I don't know." Naegi gave the stretch of hallway ahead a considering glance. His knees were starting to show a slightly worrying tendency to wobble the longer he stood upright… but he was pretty sure he'd be okay once he got into the waiting room outside the elevator, where he could lean against the wall until the others arrived.

Ogami shook her head and placed a gentle arm around Naegi, taking some of his weight with all the care he'd expect of someone trying to handle a piece of cracked china. "I suppose that is the closest you're able to come to asking for help."

Naegi frowned as they slowly made their way down the hall to the red door. What did she mean by that? He wasn't entirely sure what had happened while he'd been unconscious after getting stabbed, but he knew that Ogami had worked hard to take care of him, even going so far as to put aside her grief for Asahina so that she could save his life. Did she think he didn't appreciate everything she'd done for him?

He looked up at her as she reached up to open the heavy red door. "Thank you."

"You could hardly manage the handle without a free hand."

"Not that." Rather than entering the waiting room, Naegi turned so that he could look her full in the face. "Thank you for helping me — both now and earlier. I'm not sure if I said so earlier —"

"You did," Ogami cut him off, a shadow falling across her gaze. "And you needn't repeat yourself."

"I just want to be sure you understand," Naegi said, staring up at her earnestly.

"I… I do." She looked away, her mouth going thin and white. "But I don't wish for your gratitude. Please… don't bring it up again."

Naegi nodded slowly. "Okay… if that's what you want."

As he walked through the red door into the waiting room, the silence hung heavier around him than it had out in the hall, filling the air with an almost tangible sorrow. Part of it came from the weight of Ogami's words to him, every syllable burdened with the unspoken knowledge of how she'd been forced to work against her friends… but the rest was already present, intrinsic to the air of the room itself.

As Ogami let the door swing shut behind them, Naegi looked around the empty waiting room. In all the other trials, he'd been the last one to arrive, so he'd never had to spend much time in here before Monokuma popped out and ordered them into the elevator. With the room so barren of any distracting features or decorations, nothing drew his eye away from the gaping holes where his friends used to stand.

Everywhere he looked, ghosts of the dead students stared back at him, empty-eyed and afraid in the moments before they'd been dragged down to a life or death battle none of them had asked for. Here Celeste stood, her air of calm nothing more than another lie she'd wanted them to believe. There was Hagakure, eyes darting nervously around the room as he jumped from conclusion to conclusion about who he could trust. And here, in a spot that shouldn't have been empty even more than any of the others, Asahina crossed her arms and looked away from the others, terrified to give away a secret that could damn her beloved friend.

Naegi had to close his eyes against the memories just for a moment, swallowing in an attempt to ease the sudden tightness filling his throat. He couldn't let himself forget the friends he'd lost… but he couldn't let the memories stop him from focusing on what had to be done, either. Mourning could come later, when the trial was done, but for now… they just had to get through it somehow.

Taking a deep breath, he opened his eyes and looked up at Ogami… but her eyes were locked on the same place that had held his gaze so powerfully a moment ago. Deep lines creased across her pale face, the dark circles stark beneath her haunted eyes. She was seeing Asahina, Naegi realized — remembering the girl who'd died for her in the only way she had left.

No — not the only way. Spurred to action by the look on Ogami's face, Naegi managed to haul himself across the few feet to the wall, leaning back against it to support enough of his weight that he could free his good hand from the music stand pole. He reached into his right pocket, the only one he could reach, fumbling past his handbook and Togami's dorm key until he found the folded paper he'd torn from the headmaster's student roster.

He glanced up at Ogami again, but she hadn't moved a muscle. She almost seemed to be in a trance, eyes locked on the place Asahina had stood as though she were hypnotized. The old superstition about not waking a sleepwalker occurred to him… but he didn't want to leave her trapped in that nightmare if he could help it.

"Um… Ogami?" Naegi asked hesitantly. She didn't seem to notice, too lost in her dark thoughts to hear. He raised his voice and tried again. "Ogami?"

She didn't so much as twitch. Naegi grimaced. Normally, after two failed attempts to get someone's attention, he would've taken the hint… but letting Ogami sink so far back into despair right before a trial sounded like a spectacularly bad idea. He bit his lip, then picked up the music stand pole again. Carefully, he let it tip forward, intending to use it to tap the taller girl on the shoulder.

He never got close. He'd barely managed to tilt the pole a few inches forward before Ogami spun, her hand shooting out to knock the pole away with a resounding crack. Naegi gasped as the impact shuddered through his body, a spasm of white-hot agony jolting through his injured arm. His knees turned to water, buckling under the unendurable weight of his body as he slid down the wall.

Until an arm braced him against the wall, stopping him before he could hit the ground. Naegi's vision spun in nauseating whirls when he tried to look past the pain, but he recognized the muscular size of Ogami's hands as she supported his weight, gently lowering him until he could sit safely on the ground. He closed his eyes and leaned back against the wall, breath hissing through his teeth as he tried to force himself past the waves of pain radiating out from his arm.

After a few moments, sounds began to permeate the pain pulsing through his consciousness, slowly forming into words.

"— sorry, so sorry, my god I'm sorry —"

When he realized just what he was hearing, Naegi forced his eyes open again. Even as the world blurred and shook around him, he could still make out enough of Ogami's horrified face to understand what she must be thinking. "It's… okay," he managed to say, though he couldn't raise his voice above a whisper.

She heard him anyway, slumping down beside him in relief. "Thank goodness. I feared you might lose consciousness again."

"No," Naegi said, hoping that he sounded more reassuring to her than he did to his own ears. "Just… hurts a little."

Ogami snorted. "I'm certain it hurts a great deal more than that. You needed try to hide the truth for my benefit."

Sitting still, his vision began to settle enough that he could look up and try to meet her guilt-stricken eyes. "Really… it's fine. I shouldn't have… startled you."

"And I should have had better control of my reflexes than to react as if a simple attempt to touch my shoulder was an attack," Ogami said, her mouth twisting as she looked away from him. "I'm glad that it was merely your walking stick, rather than your hand. I'm afraid it… well, it didn't fare well."

Naegi followed her gaze to the place where the music stand pole had fallen to the ground. A long crack ran through it from the place where Ogami had struck it, splintering the solid wood to pieces. It hadn't broken entirely, but it certainly didn't look capable of bearing his weight any longer. At the thought of that kind of force being directed at his hand, instead of just an object he'd been holding, Naegi couldn't quite suppress a shiver of horror.

"I will do whatever is necessary to help you remain upright until the trial ends and you can return to rest," Ogami promised. "I cannot apologize enough for allowing myself to become so distracted." She swallowed, the movement of her throat plainly visible. "I didn't realize how difficult it would be to return here."

"I know it's hard," Naegi said softly. "That's why I was trying to talk to you. I… well, I found something that I think might make it a little easier."

He'd lost his grip on the folded paper when the pole had been knocked out of his hand, but it had drifted to the floor just a few feet away. Seeing what he was looking at, Ogami immediately retrieved the paper and tried to hand it to him.

Naegi shook his head. "No… it's for you."

"Me?" Ogami looked puzzled, but she unfolded the paper and glanced down at it.

And when she recognized Asahina's picture smiling back up at her, all the color drained out of her face. She stared down at the profile page in silence for a long moment, so frozen that Naegi wasn't even sure she was still breathing. As she stayed silent without answering, Naegi began to frown. Had he misjudged what she needed? He'd thought that she might like to have a way to remember her friend… but maybe giving this to her now had only made things worse.

Finally, Ogami's head moved, tilting upward just a few inches until her gaze pierced into Naegi again. "Where did you find this?"

"Um… upstairs in the headmaster's office," Naegi said. "I came across it when Togami and I were searching for clues, and… well, I thought it might make you feel better to see her smiling." He bit his lip. "Is that okay?"

"Okay?" A choked laugh rasped its way out of Ogami's throat. "It's — it's more than —" She stopped, squeezing her eyes tight and clenching her lips together. But even so, a single tear managed to escape, trickling down her cheek before she knocked it sharply away with the hand not cradling the profile. She took a deep, shuddering breath, then opened her eyes again. "Thank you. You have no idea what this means to me." A smile cracked its way across her tired face, like the first tentative rays of the sunrise. "Thank you."