Twin lightning bolts of pain exploded up through Naegi's body when as his knees slammed down against the ground. He just barely managed to raise his right arm to protect his head as he pitched forward, saving himself from cracking his skull on the hard stone floor or the heavy wooden podium — but it was too much, too fast, more movement than his injured arm could bear. Knives of white-hot agony jolted their way up his arm from wrist to shoulder, and only the fact that the fall had knocked him breathless kept him from screaming.
He could hear noise in the trial room around him, voices blurring together in floods of words that he didn't have the energy to decipher at the moment. The others would be worried, wouldn't they? He wished he could move a little, just enough to reassure them… but his muscles wailed in tortured protest against the attempt. Maybe if he hadn't pushed himself so hard, if he hadn't spent so much of his strength on the investigation and trial already, then he might have been able to fight his way back upright… but as things stood, it was no longer an option.
But if that was true… if he really couldn't participate in the trial any longer… then who would be left to stop Togami and Kirigiri from tearing each other apart again? Even when he'd fallen forward on the podium, too much pain throbbing behind his eyes to dare risk lifting his head — even then, he'd still been able to hear the horrible words fired back and forth across the circle. He'd heard all the accusations, all the doubts… and all the lies.
Togami had lied for him.
At first, Naegi hadn't realized what was happening, his memory muddled enough that he couldn't remember what he had or hadn't said to anyone. As far as he knew, it was completely possible that he had told Togami about his upgraded map. It made so much sense that he would have, didn't it? He had no reason to keep secrets from Togami, especially not when it was something so important. He must have told…
Except that he could hear the lies in Togami's voice. Naegi recognized how the heir sounded when he lied, when he put on a mask of false sincerity and tried to spin the world around his wishes. He didn't know how he knew, why he knew, but there wasn't a shred of doubt in his mind. Togami was lying about the map…
And the only reason he would have done so was to protect Naegi from the girls' suspicions. All the doubt and fear they would have turned on him had been redirected towards Togami, until even Genocide Jill had been willing to believe that her beloved White Knight had committed a murder. Naegi couldn't understand how she could believe that Togami would kill because he cared about Naegi — even the thought of the other boy doing something so terrible for his sake made him ill.
But… even so… Togami had lied for him. And it had brought the trial back to a moment when he and Kirigiri were once again preparing to go in for their final strikes. Bad enough that they were going to do such a thing — but Naegi couldn't let them do it because of a lie that had been told to protect him. He'd tried to intervene, just for a moment, just long enough to stop them… but all he'd managed was to fall on his face. No wonder Togami had thought he needed protection… there was nothing Naegi could do to help his friends, not anymore. The only thing he could do was lie broken on the floor, as useless as the scattered contents of his pockets that littered the ground around him.
Were they continuing the trial without him? His absence wouldn't make much difference at this point. Naegi strained to hear, trying to push aside the pain whirling through his head long enough to pick out individual words from the voices buzzing through the air above him. It hurt to listen, his mind doing its best to rebel against the effort — but even weak and broken, there was one voice that could still make its way to him.
"— not okay, can't you idiots see that? Going on with the trial isn't an option — I'm not going to stand around arguing about who said what while my boyfriend is lying on the floor!"
Hot tears prickled at Naegi's eyes, dripping down onto his arm. He could hear past the furious attack of Togami's words to the deep ocean of fear roiling beyond — fear that Naegi had caused. And that was wrong, so wrong, because Togami shouldn't be afraid — he was clever and confident and strong, he was wonderful, and he should never be consumed by that depth of fear. A sob racked Naegi's body, jolting painfully through his limbs and leaving him trembling in its wake.
"—find yourself some chill, darling, or you're gonna lose that cool ice prince charm!" Genocide Jill's hysteria-tinged laughter stabbed as sharply through his head as if she'd jammed her scissors into his temples. "And hey, maybe it's not so bad that Sleeping Beauty's down for the count — he's probably better off not seeing how this fairy tale plays out."
"Better off?" Togami's voice shook as he repeated the words, rage mingling with disbelief in a snarling mess. "He's injured, he needs medical care — we can't possibly continue the trial under these circumstances! I refuse to do it!"
No — no, that wasn't right. Even muddled and adrift in a whirl of pain, Naegi knew that wasn't what should happen. They couldn't stop the trial now, not when it would leave them all at each other's throats, battle lines blazing down the middle of the circle. It was too important to keep going, to find a solution, to make their way through the darkness of the game until they could find a way to the light of hope. They couldn't stop — he couldn't let them.
He tried to scrabble at the floor with his good hand, fingers barely twitching along the rough surface of the stone. If he could just get some leverage, just enough to try to push himself up, then maybe that would at least show them he was still okay. Then they could continue, finishing the debate that still hung over their heads, threatening them with its lack of resolution.
But try as he might, he couldn't do more than move his arm a few inches, knocking into the room key and paper he'd dropped earlier when he'd thrown his e-handbook. Although… that had worked, hadn't it? He'd at least managed to draw attention by throwing something… so maybe he could do it a second time. If he could throw something past the podium that loomed between him and the others, that might be enough to get them back on track. He groped for the key, hooking his fingertip on the edge… but the key barely shifted at all. He could have been trying to knock over a stone pillar for all the effect he had.
The paper, then. Surely he could manage that much. Naegi dragged his hand the long inches over to the folded sheet of paper, sliding it ever so slightly closer to him. The sheen of clammy sweat clinging to his hand seemed to help, giving him just enough extra hold on the paper. Maybe it could work, maybe if he tried his hardest, if he could just lift the paper enough to throw… if he could, then…
Then it would flutter down to the ground in front of his eyes without drawing any attention at all. Any of the tiny, insignificant movements that were within his power to make would be blocked by the podium, invisible to the rest of his friends. Naegi bit his lip hard, trying to swallow back another frustrated sob. He couldn't let himself give up — there had to be something he could try. Noise, maybe — the girls might hear it, even if Togami couldn't.
Speaking was out of the question, not when every inhalation of air took so much more effort than it should. Jangling the key might have worked, if he could have moved it enough to make a clatter. But… maybe if he crumpled the paper? It would be quiet, but maybe if he timed it right? Naegi strained his fingers for the paper, where it had fallen open onto the ground in front of him — and froze.
The name Mukuro Ikusaba stared back at him from amid the rows and rows of words lining the starkly creased sheet.
Naegi stared at it blankly, hardly comprehending the letters. There was so much written there, words that blurred and spun together in a black web of confusion… but that name burned through his consciousness. What was that name doing on a piece of paper that had been in his pocket? He didn't think it should be there… should it?
He tried to recall, but the last few days writhed through his mind like plumes of smoke, hiding reality and leaving him nothing to hold onto. He couldn't remember putting that paper in his pocket… but he couldn't say for certain he hadn't done it, either. He'd seen Ikusaba's name written before, over and over and over, he could see it written tidy in a column with the names of so many other friends who'd died… and he'd seen it in a notebook of profiles, full of information he'd already known.
Hadn't known. He hadn't known. It had been new, a collection of shocking details about the mastermind's spy hidden in the school, the girl who'd been murdered by the one person she'd trusted…
Who'd been murdered…
His mind felt full of a thousand shards of glass, tearing him apart with every new thought… and yet, from the jagged tangle of pain, some fragments of clarity were starting to form. He could almost see the shape of it, the blood-soaked nightmare waiting for him beyond the painful memories. Ice filled his stomach, the cold and bitter knowledge that whatever lurked in the depths of that pain he did not want to know about it… but there was nothing he could do to prevent it. He knew… he knew…
"Wow, with the way you guys go round and round in circles, it's like you think you have all the time in the world!"
Monokuma's gleeful voice knocked the breath out of Naegi, terror flooding through him in wave after wave of breathless horror. He'd thought that the executions had left him miserable and afraid, but that was nothing, nothing next to the emotions gripping him now.
"But I've counted all the way to one hundred, so too bad — time's up!"
Fear writhed through Naegi's being, clawing deep gashes through his heart that would bleed forever — wounds that had already been there, waiting for the right person to say the right words to bring it all rushing back to him. The fear wasn't new… he recognized it all too well, all the worse for its familiarity. And… he almost, almost, almost knew the person who had reminded him about it…
"Ready or not, this class trial is over!"
Scheduling Note: And there we have it - the end of the trial! Well, not quite... we still have the voting and aftermath to deal with. And I've been thinking about the best way to handle what's coming up next. I would like to be able to go back to daily posting for the trial follow up chapters... but unfortunately, I wasn't able to write ahead as much as I would need to in order to manage it. So I'm going to take about two weeks off from posting so I can finish up the post-trial chapters. I'm really sorry to leave you all hanging like this - but I think it will work better this way. Once we really get into the post-trial stuff, you'll be relieved to have less of a wait!
So, the next chapter will be posted on March 30. After that, I'll temporarily go back to daily postings until the voting and follow up chapters are done. See you all then!
