Even as Togami headed up the final set of stairs to the fifth floor, his thoughts lingered back at the doorway to the data center and everything it represented. That broadcast had altered his life forever, marring his reputation and changing how the people who mattered in his world would view him — but as he'd told Ogami, he'd known that almost right away. The sharp awareness of how his peers would react to his public humiliation had left him nearly unable to touch the boy who had sparked it — but he'd been on the way to overcoming it. He'd refused to let the world's opinion control his actions and stop him from touching the boy he loved.

But now… now the situation had changed. The world's opinion of him had fallen just as low… but he no longer had the boy he'd lost it for. Without Naegi to fight for, without the brightness of their time together to motivate him… the knowledge of how he would be seen weighed on his shoulders until he had to strain to keep them from slumping out of his perfect posture. His love, his reputation, even his self-control… he'd never thought that it could be possible for him to lose so much during the handful of weeks he'd spent in the killing game.

But… no, that wasn't right. He hadn't lost anything — it had all been stolen from him. The mastermind had taken unholy glee in withholding the information about the worldwide broadcast until it was too late for anyone to factor public opinion into their decisions. There surely would have been some way to navigate a romance with Naegi without turning either of them into international laughingstocks, if only he'd thought about it… but he'd never had the opportunity.

And as for the rest of it… much as he might feel loss at Naegi's absence, that wasn't the right term for what had happened. His boyfriend hadn't just disappeared due to some unfortunate act of fate, impersonal and unstoppable. Naegi's life had been taken by specific people, by the other students who'd twisted the trial against him and the mastermind who'd allowed them to cheat. He'd been murdered… and Togami couldn't allow himself to forget that glaring fact.

Not that it could ever leave his mind for more than a few moments at a time. Even the sound of Ogami walking half a pace behind him as they began to cross the fifth floor was nothing more than a reminder that the person he really wanted to share his investigation could no longer be at his side. He had to burn that thought into his mind as he searched for clues about the truth, lest he lose track of why he had to keep going. Difficult as it had been to jolt himself into the investigation in the first place, he had the dark suspicion that carrying on each successive day would only become more painful as the reality of his situation truly sank in.

But those were problems for the future, so Togami did his best to push them aside as he approached classroom 5-C. A tight knot of trepidation coiled at the pit of his stomach as he reached for the door, reminding him that every time he'd entered this room, something terrible had resulted. Being tricked into discovering Ikusaba's body… setting off the bomb that still rang through his deafened left ear… even the first time he'd found this room when the fifth floor had been unlocked, he'd encountered Kirigiri as she dragged Naegi around in spite of his injuries, sparking a vicious confrontation between them. Nothing good had ever come from entering this room.

But there was no good left to be had in a world where Naegi had been killed. Sharpening his resolve, Togami yanked the door open to reveal the shadow-strewn darkness of the ruined classroom. The camping lantern still shone from where he'd left it, but its pool of light didn't reach far. From where he stood, in the space between the dingy grayness of the corridor's ceiling lights and the wavering fragility of the lantern, darkness stretched in every possible direction.

"Did the bomb cause this much destruction?"

If the hallway hadn't been so quiet, he would have missed Ogami's horror-stricken murmur. He turned towards where she stood at his left before answering, so that his working ear would catch her words more clearly.

"No, the room was already a ruin when we first found it," he said, frowning at her stunned expression as she stared into the room. She couldn't tear her eyes away from the wreckage… but then, that made sense, didn't it? She'd been drowning in her own grief when the rest of them had explored this floor… so this would be the first time she'd seen the ruined, bloodsoaked room. Even if she'd know to expect something dreadful, she obviously hadn't been prepared for the evidence of even more horrors than what they'd already seen.

"Something like this has been in the school with us all the time?" She looked as though she might be sick — and considering the stench of blood and corpses permeating the room, that was a distinct possibility.

Togami scowled at her. The last thing he needed while trying to investigate was to be saddled with a vomiting girl. "Wait outside if you're going to be unable to control yourself. I don't want you slowing me down because you overestimated your endurance."

But she shook her head slowly. "No… that won't be necessary." One corner of her mouth curved upward in what could almost have been the seed of a smile, if such an expression wouldn't have been so out of place. "But thank you."

Before he could demand to know what that was supposed to mean, she reached past him to flip the light switch on. Nothing happened, of course, but she flipped the switch again several times, her frown of confusion deepening with each attempt.

"The culprit cut out the lights somehow," Togami snapped, rolling his eyes. Did she think that they'd hauled that lantern up here for their own amusement?

"Ah, that explains it. Very well, then." Ogami took a last bracing breath of the moderately fresh air of the hall and stepped over the threshold into the scene of the murder.

Togami gritted his teeth and strode hastily after her, shoulders tensing as the lingering chill of preserved death settled on his skin. He wasn't about to trail behind her while she tramped all over the room, destroying any hint of a clue that might remain. He caught up to her as she reached the pool of the lantern's light — and then stopped short as he finally got a good look at the scene.

The wreckage was all just as he remembered, with scorch marks on the floor and debris scattered in all directions. Just as the library was still as it had been the day before, the mastermind had also left the remains of the explosion untouched. In fact, as far as he could see, the room looked exactly as it had the last time he'd been here… with one glaring exception.

Ikusaba's body was gone.