Naegi winced at Togami's callous words, spoken without any regard for how the other students would react. Across the circle in her place beside Kirigiri, the color drained out of Sakura Ogami's face as the full meaning sank in, and she had to lean one hand against her podium to brace herself. Naegi knew she would have been upset by the idea no matter how she'd heard it… but even so, he wished he could have been the one to tell her, with a little more empathy than Togami used.
"We know it wasn't really you," Naegi assured her, taking a moment to meet her horror-stricken eyes before turning back towards Togami. It felt so strange and unnatural to look away from a friend who was in so much distress, instead of trying to show her that she had his support — but Togami needed his support, too. The other boy wouldn't be able to follow the conversation if Naegi looked anywhere else. Naegi couldn't leave his boyfriend isolated… not just minutes after promising to be on Togami's side.
He tried to pour as much of his feelings into his words as he could, trying to make sure Ogami would still understand his meaning even though she couldn't see his face. "We know you wouldn't kill someone after everything you've been through. And besides, you were unconscious at the time — Togami and I both saw that you were. You couldn't have done it."
As soon as he was done speaking, Naegi twisted around again to look at Ogami, doing his best to give her a reassuring smile. It wasn't much under the circumstances, shaky and weak — but it seemed to make her feel a little better. Some of the tension eased in her shoulders, and she seemed to breathe again for the first time since Togami's words.
"I never said she couldn't have done it." Togami's annoyed voice drew Naegi's gaze back to him with a startled snap. "There was nothing absolutely eliminating the possibility that she might have killed Ikusaba and then drugged herself in some sort of ploy to draw away suspicion. But given the circumstances, I think it's far more likely that we're dealing with an inept frame job by someone else."
"Oh? That's quite a change of heart," Kirigiri said, crossing her arms as she looked between Togami and Ogami. "I was under the impression you harbored some quite venomous feelings towards traitors, former or otherwise."
Togami snorted. "Well, that's what you get for disappearing for days at a time — you fail to notice critical events. Ogami did work against us in the past, but she's since proved her new loyalties. I'm willing to believe that she's on our side — certainly more than some other people might be."
Those words brought a smile to Naegi's lips without any conscious thought on his part — a smile that was much brighter than the one he'd failed to summon for Ogami. He'd noticed that Togami's feelings had softened a little towards Ogami from the vicious fury and carefully-concealed fear he'd felt at the revelation that she'd worked for the mastermind — but he hadn't realized just how far the change had gone. It sounded like Togami was finally ready to trust Ogami again, and start counting her among their friends once more. That had only been one bleeding wound of suspicion among so many… but at least it was beginning to heal.
"I see. Quite a fortuitously timed change," Kirigiri said, before Naegi could express his relief. "It's such a valuable skill to know who you can trust… as long as you can be confident in your judgment, of course."
"I'm always confident in my judgment." Togami glared across the circle at her.
"I thought as much." Kirigiri sent him a chilly smile. "So am I."
The air hung heavy and dangerous between them, until it was almost an effort for Naegi to draw breath. He wasn't quite sure what the pair were trying to say to each other, but he knew he had to interrupt before it could escalate from pointed words to a genuine fight.
"So like I said, we're all in agreement that Ogami didn't really commit this murder," Naegi said loudly. Togami wouldn't know he was talking, not while he was glaring at Kirigiri instead of reading Naegi's lips, but Kirigiri could still hear him. "The culprit just tried to plant evidence to make it look like she did."
"How?" The word rasped out of Ogami's mouth before either Togami or Kirigiri could respond. "What did they do to try to make you all believe I murdered someone?"
"Well… when Togami got back to the dorms, he checked the hiding spot where he'd left the knife," Naegi said. "He confirmed it really was missing — but he also found a strand of your hair in the hiding spot."
"Hold on, Big Mac, are you telling me you jumped all the way to a frame job from one lousy piece of hair?" Jill demanded. "Sure, you don't want to leave your DNA at a crime scene if you want to fake an alibi — but the Ogre was actually in the room! Her hair could've gotten anywhere without someone framing her!"
Naegi frowned hesitantly, wondering how to explain it. Togami hadn't actually told the other students that he'd kept the knife in the air vent, and if that was where he wanted to keep important things, he might not want Naegi announcing it to everyone. "Well… the hiding spot is pretty out of the way, not somewhere that she'd have any reason to go if she was just looking after me. And it was sealed off, so I don't think hair could've gotten into it by accident or anything."
"Still sounds pretty pointless to me!" Jill said. "If you're gonna give someone else the credit for your work, at least make it worthwhile — cover them with blood, plant a weapon on them, something with some showmanship! I bet that one little strand didn't look impressive at all!"
"I don't know," Naegi admitted. "I didn't actually see it — only Togami looked at it."
"Is that so?" Kirigiri asked, the disappointment in her tone stinging. "I would have thought you would take the investigation a little more seriously, Naegi. It's important that everyone examine the scene if they're able to do so."
"Yes, and we're all well aware that you don't consider risk of life and limb to be a barrier," Togami snapped. "In case you haven't noticed, Naegi is quite badly injured. When this all happened, it was the first time he'd tried to get to his feet after hours of unconsciousness. Examining the scene properly required two working hands and the ability to stand without external support — neither of which Naegi currently possesses!"
"So I see." Kirigiri's gaze darted to Naegi's sling, and her lips tightened briefly as she looked back at Togami. "Very well, since you were the only one to observe this important piece of the puzzle, it seems that we'll have to take your word for it. Why don't you explain just what makes you so sure this was more than a simple series of misunderstandings?"
"What exactly do you think I've misunderstood?" Togami shot back. "Are you suggesting that Ogami just accidentally drank a sedative and knocked herself out in the middle of a murder by coincidence? The culprit clearly needed her out of the way so that they could steal that knife — and she's a much better choice of victim to frame for this particular murder than any of the rest of us."
"You don't mean simply because I was in the room with the knife, do you?" Ogami closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "You're referring to the time I spent working for the mastermind. That makes it more believable that I would act against you all now — because I've already done so once." She shook her head. "How could I blame any of you for believing such a reasonable claim?"
"If you want to wallow in guilt, do it on your own time," Togami snapped. "Yes, you worked against us, but that isn't the point. In order to kill Mukuro Ikusaba, the culprit had to know that she existed in the first place — so if they intended to try to shift the blame, they had a limited pool of options."
"And you did mention once already that you thought there might be a sixteenth student in the school," Naegi added, seeing where Togami was going with it. "I guess we could have thought you might have known even more about Ikusaba that you hadn't told the rest of us."
"Exactly." Togami nodded. "The fact that you also would have had access to the knife only made you a better target. The killer presumably intended for you to awaken before anyone found you, so that you would simply assume you'd fallen asleep."
"If you didn't know you'd been drugged, you wouldn't have had an alibi for when the knife when missing," Naegi said. "It would have made you look really suspicious once we realized it was the same knife from Togami's room!"
"Which would explain why the culprit chose to steal it in the first place," Togami went on. "They could have simply taken one of the kitchen knives that have been sitting out in the open since we were trapped here — but instead, they went through all this trouble to get hold of a knife that was under observation."
"But even if you're right about that…" Ogami shook her head. "I don't see how it could have happened the way you're describing it."
Togami frowned sharply. "What are you talking about?"
"You and Naegi both keep saying that someone drugged me," Ogami explained, "but I don't see how such a thing could have happened. I already told Naegi — I never saw anyone enter the room, and the only thing I consumed was bottled coffee that I brought in with me. There's no way that the culprit could have drugged me."
