The scent of ancient paper and dusty leather bindings lingered in the air of the archives, as though Togami had stepped into a world of times long forgotten when he passed through the library door. He'd always enjoyed the archives he'd spent time in over the years, full of mysteries and secrets hidden in plain sight for anyone clever and determined enough to discover… but none of the others could compare to the truths he'd begun to learn here.

Even with the wealth of knowledge surrounding him, Togami couldn't even muster enough interest to focus on the book titles. All he could see were those first few moments when he'd demanded Naegi accompany him into this room, and Naegi had followed without so much as a complaint. Even if Naegi had asked for an explanation, Togami knew he wouldn't have been able to give one… his only reason for bringing Naegi here had been because he couldn't wait another second to plant a kiss on the other boy's startled mouth.

Oh, he'd tried to fool himself with that ridiculous idea of somehow proving his superiority to Naegi, but now he could see his actions clearly. He'd wanted Naegi ever since the other boy had proved his unexpected intelligence during the class trials, when he'd proved he could hold his own even against Togami himself. It was rare enough to come across someone capable of doing such a thing… but to find it in a person with Naegi's cheerful kindness was unheard of. Every time Naegi had sought him out to spend time together in an offer of genuine friendship, untainted by rivalry or antagonism, the contradiction of his abilities and his actions had only made him harder to resist.

Togami turned to lean against the bookcase that towered across from the door, crossing his arms as he stared at the surface where he'd pinned Naegi to the wall. He could almost see the two of them there, lost to the world around them as they discovered how very good it felt to give in to such a powerful attraction. Or at least it had been the first time Togami could remember craving a specific sexual partner with that intensity… but he didn't know if the experience had been equally unique for Naegi. He wanted to believe it had… but since he hadn't asked, he didn't know for certain.

And now he never would.

Togami swallowed hard against the grief burning at the back of his throat, looking away from the place where he'd lost the fight against his desire for Naegi. Maybe they both would have been better off if he'd managed to resist after all. They would never have shared those few perfect moments they'd had together… but would that have mattered if they'd never known what they'd lost? He would have no reason to suffer through these useless, soul-destroying feelings that ate away at his every conscious thought, and Naegi — Naegi would never have — he wouldn't be —

He closed his eyes and clenched his teeth until they ached, but it did nothing to ease the pain stabbing through his chest. These thoughts were worse than useless, they were dangerous — he could so easily lose himself in dreams of what-ifs and maybes where Naegi would still be alive if only he'd done the right thing. But there was no point to thinking about what he could have done differently, not when those choices had long since been made. The only choices left to him were about what he would do to shape the course of the future.

Even so… how was he ever going to do this? The archive was hardly the only place he and Naegi had spent time together… was he going to find himself overwhelmed by memories every time he saw the cold halls where Naegi had walked or an empty chair where he used to sit? But Naegi had been so diligent in his investigations that there wasn't a room in the school without the echoes of his presence. The memories would be inescapable, no matter how badly they affected him.

Even aside from that first tryst, the archives weren't free from Naegi's touch. He'd brought Naegi here to show him some documents when they'd been investigating Fujisaki's murder together — or rather, when he'd been trying to gauge Naegi's intelligence by manipulating the investigation. He let his eyes blink open, and it was as though he could see Naegi standing there, peering curiously up at the shelves full of documents. He'd understood how fascinating they could be, too, even if Togami's warnings about the potential consequences of learning too much had stopped him from reading anything other than the documents related to their investigation.

What might Naegi have done if Togami hadn't so vehemently discouraged him from reading those other reports? Regret coiled bitter and tight at the back of his throat as he stared at the walls of documents, thinking about all the knowledge he'd never had the chance to share with the other boy. He could have introduced Naegi to so many parts of the world he'd never known, just to see the reactions shine bright and brilliant across his open face. Not during the investigation, of course, but later on he could have brought Naegi back and not stopped him when he reached for one of the files on the shelves…

The shelves…

Togami blinked, his dream-like visions of Naegi evaporating as his previously silent instincts began to creak out a hoarse warning in his head. Something was off about those shelves.

He took a slow step towards them, then another, scanning the densely-packed rows of files and reports for the inconsistency that had caught his attention. There was something wrong there, he was sure of it now, something about those dusty shelves was different than he remembered, and —

Ah. So that was it. Togami narrowed his eyes at one particular range of documents where the layers of dust had been ever so slightly disturbed. Whoever had handled those files had been careful — but considering the amount of dust collecting on the shelves, there was only so much that could be done to hide which files had been moved.

And Togami was sure that he hadn't been the one to touch this particular range of files. He'd skimmed over the titles in his initial survey of the archive, but he'd already been familiar with their contents from his time reading in the Togami family library. For most of the time he'd spent in the archive, he'd been focused on researching Fukawa's alter ego, and knowing that those documents were unrelated to the genocider, he'd left them untouched.

But someone else hadn't… and considering that this shelf held documents about the military and related organizations, that was very interesting indeed. Togami reached out to pluck one particular report from the area of the shelf that had been disturbed, paging through the French text until he found the passages he knew would be there.

Paragraph after paragraph of information about Fenrir stared back up at him.