Memories of a thousand unspoken words rang through Naegi's head in the moments after Kirigiri flung her accusation across the circle, turning the moment of stunned silence into a chorus of chaotic screams.
… Only one person Ikusaba could have betrayed…
… I'm the Ultimate Detective…
… I intend to unmask the mastermind…
And last of all, a steady rumbling that he could hear even through all the others…
… Someone else…
The roar of the words sent Naegi's head spinning, even as he clutched at the edge of the podium to try to keep himself upright. So many facts and ideas battered away at the inside of his skull that he felt as though it might burst open, unable to hold back the flood of information straining his exhausted mind. He couldn't let himself break under the assault, not when the trial was still going… but he had so little control over his thoughts now that they almost felt as though they belonged to someone else. Part of him wanted desperately to give in to the overwhelming pressure and allow it to sweep him away, washing over him to do what it would…
But no. No. He couldn't give in right in the middle of a trial, not when all his friends needed him to keep it together. He'd promised to be on Togami's side, and he'd agreed to support Kirigiri's mysterious plan — letting this strange side effect of exhaustion wasn't an option. He clenched his jaw and forced his heavy eyes to stay open, looking beyond the burning dryness of exhaustion to return his attention to the circle.
Ogami and Jill stood in apprehensive silence, one a frozen mountain and the other blurred with silver edges as they looked from Kirigiri to Togami. Kirigiri still leaned forward over her podium, and Naegi almost expected to see the twitch of a tail and flickering pointed ears as she watched the opposite side of a circle like a mouse hole. And as for Togami — the expression on his face turned Naegi's chest to a pit of ice. He'd never wanted to see an expression like that on the other boy's face, let alone directed at one of their friends. Why was he —
Someone else had summoned Ikusaba to the circle — that was what Kirigiri had said. It had sounded all right to Naegi initially, because obviously if Kirigiri hadn't done it, someone else must have. But… who had she meant? He followed her gaze to Togami, and nausea twisted his stomach into knots.
"Dropping to a whole new low to save yourself, aren't you?" Togami sneered, the faint slur to his voice turning the words low and ugly. "Someone else — hah. You don't even have the decency to say my name as you stab me in the back."
"You seem to have understood my meaning regardless." One corner of Kirigiri's lips knifed sharply upward. "You can try to say that I'm the only one who had the opportunity to kill Ikusaba, but that isn't true. The only requirements are the knowledge of Ikusaba's presence in the school and the ability to move freely last night — and you certainly meet both those criteria just as well as me."
"Wait — wait, what are you saying?" Naegi tried to shout, but the words caught in his throat until only a strangled croak emerged. "That can't be right!"
But neither Kirigiri nor Togami so much as glanced in his direction. With his eyes locked on Kirigiri's face, Togami wouldn't be aware of a word Naegi was saying… and although Kirigiri had to hear him, she clearly had no intention of listening. His words couldn't reach the pair of them, glaring across the circle like they had left the rest of the trial behind. An unexpected pang of loneliness shot through Naegi's chest at the realization — he might as well be standing in an empty room for all the effect his words could have.
"You're out of your mind," Togami said flatly. "Yes, Naegi told me about Ikusaba's existence — but not until he woke up just before the nighttime announcement. We found Ikusaba's body less than eight hours later. I would have no reason to enact an elaborate murder plot against a girl I'd just learned about — especially since the entire point of Naegi's story was that she was supposedly going to work with us."
Kirigiri tilted her head. "And you believed that she was willing to be a genuine ally? My, you certainly have learned to be more trusting of others. Someone must have been an awfully good influence on you."
Naegi flinched, even though the barb hadn't been meant for him. Why would she say something so unnecessarily cruel? He hated hearing his friends accuse one another of murder — but with the mastermind's class trials, he'd already known that would be inevitable. But hearing Kirigiri mock Togami's feelings for him… that hurt.
"Of course I suspected a ridiculous story like that," Togami ground out, his jaw visibly clenched. "Any sane person would want confirmation from a supposed double agent. But turning on her immediately would have been just as stupid as trusting her unreservedly — we'd lose the chance to learn whatever it was she'd been plotting."
"And you'd never be stupid — we can all count on that." A strange, out of place smile flickered at the corner of her lips. "So you haven't been changed entirely, I see — the unpleasant heir we met that first day is still in there somewhere, too paranoid to take anything at face value. How reassuring."
Naegi's mouth fell open in shock at the icy venom in the girl's words. Sure, Togami wouldn't be able to hear her tone — but that didn't change the fact that she'd used it. And besides, even without his hearing, Togami could clearly tell exactly what she'd intended. Tension rippled down his shoulders and up his neck like iron cords, twitching all the way up to a visible tic shuddering through one of his eyes. The anger radiated off of him in waves, until Naegi could almost feel it burning his skin. Couldn't Kirigiri see how bad things were getting? Why would she treat Togami like this when every word she said was only making him more and more furious? It was like she was trying to —
Like she was trying to make him mad.
Naegi stared across the circle at Kirigiri, searching her expressionless face for some clue that could either confirm or deny the bizarre theory that had popped into his head… but no matter how intently he looked, she gave away as little as ever. All he could see was a touch of a smile, a glint of some nameless emotion in her eye — but that could mean anything. He had no way to tell for sure.
Thinking back on the way she'd been acting towards Togami, it did fit together in a strange way… but at the same time, it didn't make any sense at all. Why would Kirigiri want Togami to be angry? She'd never seemed very impressed by any of the other times he'd gotten mad at her, doing little more than rolling her eyes and acting as though the outbursts of anger weren't happening. She had never gone out of her way to antagonize him further — not until this trial, anyway. What had changed?
"I certainly know better than to accept your manipulations as they're presented to me," Togami snarled, his entire body a coiled spring poised to snap back on the force holding it down. "You're the one who told us about Ikusaba in the first place — what's to say your story about an alliance wasn't something you fabricated so that you could get away with murdering her later?"
Naegi winced. If Kirigiri really did want Togami to get angry, it was definitely working. He'd never seen the other boy so furious, not even during the other trials. There was something frightening about the way Togami glared across the circle, a nameless dread that Naegi couldn't quite pinpoint. It was like the anger had swept Togami off to some distant place where Naegi couldn't follow, leaving him bereft and confused.
"Why exactly would I bother to tell you about Ikusaba if I'd been intending to kill her?" Kirigiri countered. "Are you suggesting that I put considerable time and effort into a murder plan that would point the finger straight at me?"
"Except that it wouldn't have if everything had gone according to plan," Togami shot back. "Let's not forget that the culprit tried to frame Sakura Ogami for her crime. The only reason she isn't a serious suspect is that I came on the scene before the murderer had finished setting up their plot."
"Yes, another one of your convenient coincidences," Kirigiri said, crossing her arms. "You just happened to find the murder scene at the perfect moment to see enough evidence to prove any theory you like. But there's one piece of evidence I think you've left out of your narrative." She smirked at him. "Just how did you manage to find that corpse all the way up on the fifth floor in the first place?"
