It wasn't true.

Togami clenched his teeth until pain shot up through his temples, but it didn't help. Mortification flooded through him as he realized what should have been obvious from the start.

Of course it wasn't true. He knew it couldn't be. He'd seen what had happened back in the execution room. He'd watched the entire nightmare play out, eyes fixed on Naegi until the collapsing building erased the innocent boy from view forever. He hadn't allowed himself to look away once… and so he knew there was no escape from what he'd seen. Monokuma's words had been nothing more than a vicious lie… and Togami had no right to let himself be deceived. Naegi deserved better from him.

"Get out," Togami said quietly, dropping his gaze to the stretch of bed marred by Monokuma's shadow. Even knowing the creature in front of him was just a robot with no inherent intelligence of its own, he couldn't stand to look it in the eye.

"Huh? Are my two minutes up already?" The bed shifted as Monokuma went through one of his typical overblown reactions, but Togami didn't bother to look up to see which it would be. It didn't matter — nothing Monokuma said could ever matter again.

"I said get out." The words sounded empty even to his own ears, drained of all the imperiousness he tried to inject into his commands.

"Really? Aw, and here I was expecting you to be excited," Monokuma said sadly. "I guess you must not've liked Naegi very much after —"

"Don't you dare finish that sentence." Somewhere in the far-off reaches of his mind Togami had a vague awareness that speaking this way to Monokuma wasn't safe… but that wasn't enough to stop the furious words. "I don't know what you're trying to accomplish with these lies, but —"

"What's that? You think your beloved headmaster is lying?" Monokuma gasped. "I'll have you know that I'm a bear of my word — and I promised Makoto Naegi that I'd tell you he's right here with me, safe and sound!"

"Stop talking." It was enough to make Togami wish his hearing had never come back… at least then he could protect himself from Monokuma's words.

"Welllll… okay, maybe not exactly safe and sound!" Monokuma obviously had no intention of listening to Togami's orders. "Let's face it, not even the Ultimate Lucky Student could make it through one of my executions without a few scratches — but he's in much better shape than I expected when I went to scrape him off the rubble!"

Togami couldn't stop himself from flinching back at the image, air hissing through his clenched teeth in a gasp of pain. Whatever had been left in the execution chamber when the debris stopped falling, it hadn't been Naegi any longer… but that didn't make anything easier. His mind kept conjuring vision after gruesome vision of what those remains might have looked like… and what Monokuma might have done to them.

"You know… I'm starting to think that you still don't believe me!" Monokuma had the gall to sound shocked at the idea.

Togami didn't even bother to answer — his expression ought to tell the mastermind everything they needed to know.

"Well, that won't do — I can't have one of my precious students doubting the veracity of his headmaster! It might make you start questioning the truth of your entire school experience!" For some reason, Monokuma took this opportunity to cackle loudly, echoes ricocheting around the small room too chaotically for Togami's limited hearing to track.

"Guess I'd better prove it!" Monokuma said in his brightest, most innocent voice — and a chill snaked down Togami's spine at the sound. "Want me to put him on the line? You'd believe me if you could hear his voice, right? Right?"

Naegi's voice… Togami's own throat grew tight at the thought, choking back the angry words he wanted to hurl in Monokuma's direction. Even though he'd seen Naegi at the end, he hadn't been able to hear the weak, injured boy's final words. He hadn't had that one last chance to burn the sound of Naegi's voice into his memory before it was erased from the world forever. And now he never would. Naegi's voice would fade into the depths of his mind, disappearing bit by bit until he was left with nothing but the knowledge that such a kind, friendly, open voice had once existed.

And that was what Monokuma had used to mock him.

"Why?"

He hadn't known he meant to ask the question until it crossed his lips — but once it was out there in the world, raw and broken as he'd never thought his voice could sound, he couldn't stop the rest of the words from following after.

"Why are you doing this? You never did before, not for any of the other deaths, not even when Ogami lost Asahina. You left her alone in her room all that time, even though you could have done anything you liked in the name of punishment for rule-breaking. So why are you doing this to me?"

"Huh?" Monokuma asked, sounding as if he were genuinely confused by the question. "Doing what to you?"

It was exactly the response Togami could have predicted the mastermind would make — so obvious that he couldn't even muster an explosion of rage at their refusal to stop the lies. What was the point of getting so angry? He'd always used his anger as a motivator, fuel for his determination to succeed… but what was left for him to strive towards? Nothing seemed worth the effort… nothing left in the world could.

"You must have hated us." Togami didn't need the mastermind to say the answer… the answer was right there in front of him, emblazoned in each of their cruel actions. "You wanted to show the world murder, violence, despair… but we didn't follow your script. We lo—" The word froze on his tongue… the word he'd never gotten the chance to say to the person who deserved to hear it. "We… cared about each other. And as long as we did, we weren't capable of playing the game you wanted." He let his head fall forward, so that the shadows falling across his face might mask at least a little of the pain scrawled across his face. "No wonder you jumped at the chance to murder him."

"What a terrible accusation to make," Monokuma said sadly. "You know, nothing hurts a headmaster more than finding out how his students really feel about him!"

There was a riddle hidden in those words, a clue to a mystery that the mastermind understood and he didn't… but Togami couldn't find the strength to care. Even if he could puzzle out the answer, it would only lead to more questions. Riddle after riddle, mind game after mind game, with no end to any of it. Why even try to solve the mysteries if there was no hope left for a good resolution?

"Just go away," he muttered, knowing the mastermind's cameras could pick up the words no matter how little energy he put into making them audible.

"Hmm… yep, looks like my time limit's up!" Monokuma said, sighing theatrically. "Too bad! But I always keep my promises — and now no one can say this one didn't get fulfilled!"

With a last gleeful laugh, he bounced out of the room. Togami waited a moment for the last echoes of the bear's presence to fade before sinking down to the floor. He couldn't bring himself to sit on the bed, not with indentations from Monokuma's feet still fresh on the comforter. He turned so the bed was behind him, pressing his back against it and drawing his knees up against his chest. It was the smallest he'd ever tried to make himself, the least amount of space he'd ever occupied… and he only wished he could find a way to make it even less. If it would get rid of the empty exhaustion stretching through him, he wouldn't mind taking up no space at all.

He closed his eyes, rested his chin on the top of his knees, and tried to stop thinking. It was the only thing left that he could do.