Naegi had really hoped that this wouldn't be the point Togami was trying to make. If he wanted to focus on the poison… if he thought that the poison pointed to the true culprit… then he had to be headed somewhere that Naegi could hardly bear to consider.
He should have been expecting it. After all, Togami had made the point all too clearly during their investigation — everything they'd found came down to either Mukuro Ikusaba or Kyoko Kirigiri. He'd been willing to consider the possibility that the headmaster might have been involved before they'd learned all the facts, but once Monokuma had made it clear the game was still on, Togami seemed to have returned to his original theory. Ikusaba or Kirigiri were his only choices… and with Ikusaba incontrovertibly dead…
It wasn't true, Naegi knew that much for certain. What Togami believed about Kirigiri couldn't possibly be true… but he supposed that he could understand why Togami might think it could be. From their first moments in Hope's Peak, the heir had been inclined to believe the worst of everyone even with very little provocation — and Kirigiri most of all. With this many coincidences piling up in her direction, of course her most vocal antagonist would be convinced.
Well, if that was the case, then Naegi would just have to help Togami see the truth. That was the only way forward — figuring out what had really happened. Since Naegi knew Kirigiri couldn't be the culprit, there had to be evidence somewhere that would prove it. If he could find that proof, if he could put together a chain of logic based on something more solid than just his own certainty, then he knew Togami would hear him out.
And that would mean letting the facts come to light, no matter how damning they might seem at first. Nothing good could come of hiding what their investigation had uncovered, especially not when Togami was clearly determined to reveal it with or without his help. Naegi would just have to believe that he and the others would be able to find their way through whatever traps were waiting for them in the rest of the trial. They'd figured out all the other mysteries, even when things had looked almost as impossible as now — so they'd solve this one, too. They had no other options.
Naegi took a deep breath and met Togami's eyes, refusing to shy away from the hint of challenge he found there. "You think the poison points to the culprit's identity because of the type of poison that they chose to use, right?"
Satisfaction flickered across Togami's face as he nodded — and a little relief, too. He hadn't been sure, Naegi realized. Togami had thought there was a chance Naegi would fight him about bringing up the poison.
I'm depending on you to be on my side.
The echo of Togami's words just before the trial made Naegi frown. Was this what the other boy had meant?
Well, whether it was or not, Naegi stood by his answer. He was always on Togami's side — and he'd protect his boyfriend from leading them all down the wrong path of the trial. He had to.
"You're exactly right, Naegi," Togami said. "After all, this wasn't just any poison — it was the only poison available to us that can be effectively administered as a gas."
"There was only one poison it could be?" Ogami asked, surprised. "Are you certain? The chemistry lab appeared to have quite a collection of different types."
"Well… it's not like I checked all the bottles to make sure," Naegi admitted. Kirigiri had been the one to tell him about the poisons — but when he glanced her way, she didn't look as though she planned to say a word.
"Huh? Are you saying that you don't feel like your classrooms have been adequately stocked for your daily needs?" Monokuma asked, paws flying to cover his mouth in mock horror. "Wow, what a blow to my pride as headmaster — I had no idea you'd all gotten so advanced that you'd want more than one airborne poison! You should have told me sooner — I would have made sure you had a whole range to choose from!"
Naegi looked up at the bear, the corners of his mouth twisting downward to a frown without his conscious input. "So you're saying that this really was the only airborne poison in the school?" he asked, mostly for Togami's benefit.
"Afraid so!" Monokuma beamed at him. "But I'll be sure to rectify the situation ASAP!"
"I see… so your assessment of the poisons was correct," Ogami said, a deep line still creasing its way across her forehead. "Then… are you trying to say that the killer was the only one who knew of it?"
"No way, my White Knight has something way slicker than that up his sleeve!" Jill said brightly, her tongue curling out in Togami's direction. "I mean, come on, he and Makyutie both knew, even if it wasn't sitting right out there for any old hack to grab! Nope, my darling Byakuya will have a real reason, all solid and hard!" She licked her lips far too enthusiastically for Naegi's peace of mind.
"Knowing about the poison is certainly damning, but by itself the knowledge wouldn't be decisive enough," Togami said, acting as though the genocider hadn't said a word. "No, the real point here is access to the poison. After the end of the last trial, there was only one bottle of it left."
"The last trial…?" Ogami paled, her hands reaching blindly down to grasp the edges of her podium. "But… then you mean…"
"Yes." Naegi hated to speak the words that he knew would hit his friends so hard, but he couldn't see any other choice. "The poison that killed Ikusaba is that same poison that was used in the last trial."
He didn't say Fukawa's name — it felt wrong to link his dead friend's memory so strongly to the poison that she'd felt forced into using — but even so, it hung unspoken in the air among them. The force of it drew his gaze towards the only part of Fukawa that remained among them.
Jill stood motionless, a pair of scissors clutched in each white-knuckled hand as her blood-red eyes burned unseeingly into the empty air. Her lips still curved up, but the expression on her face now had fractured into twisted shards of her cheerful grin. This wasn't the girl who'd been teasing Togami a few moments ago — this was the serial killer who'd torn apart the library at the sight of her alter ego's books, who'd gouged line after bloody line into her arms and legs as her own dying terror echoed through her head.
"Her poison?" Jill's words rasped out of her throat, deeper than her voice should have been. "So what, you're saying that her little sewing circle gone wrong wasn't enough? Her leftovers are gonna come roaring back for another round like a bad plate of beans that just won't quit?"
"Yes." Naegi knew there was no point in trying to dodge the question just to spare Jill's feelings, not when the poison was so central to the murder. The truth was the only way to move forward. "Remember when we read the label? It said that it could be administered by eating it, injecting it — or by breathing it. That's the one poison that can be used as a gas."
"But that — that can't be right," Ogami protested. "All the bottles of poison were taken during that trial. None of it remained to strike another blow."
"Not quite," Togami corrected her, looking unmoved by the horror in her eyes. "All the poison was taken from the chemistry lab before the last trial — but only two of the bottles were accounted for when we resolved the case."
"That's right — the unopened bottle from Ogami's room and the broken bottle in the kitchen," Naegi said. "The third bottle wasn't related to that death, so it never turned up during the trial. All we knew was that it had gone missing at around the same time as the other two."
"So you're saying… you've learned where it was?" Ogami's eyes darted from Naegi to Togami. "If you believe the poison itself points to the killer's identity… then you must know who had it."
"Of course we know," Togami said, rolling his eyes impatiently. "And so would you if you'd been paying any attention to this conversation — or hadn't you noticed that our resident know-it-all has been suspiciously silent ever since the topic of the poison came up?" He looked straight across the circle, a smirk crossing his lips. "Or are you going to deny you had the poison, Kirigiri?"
