Togami scowled as he and Jill left the dojo, considering what they'd found. Just as Kirigiri and Ogami had claimed, the locker where the final bottle of poison had been hidden hadn't appeared at all different from when they'd locked it several days ago. It had been left ajar, presumably from the girls' earlier investigation, and so he'd been able to take a thorough look for himself. He'd found no signs of tampering, and the wooden key they'd incinerated hadn't been replaced.

The hidden lock still functioned, of course. With Kirigiri's master key, even the fact that the dojo locker key was gone had posed no challenge. But that would only have mattered if the poison had been missing. Since the bottle had in fact been where they'd left it, that meant none of the students could have meddled with it since sealing it away. It was just one more piece of proof that only the mastermind could have set up the trap to murder Ikusaba.

As he and Jill turned to head towards the stairway entrance, the click of heels further down the hall stopped them. Togami nearly turned the wrong angle at first, his ability to perceive space by hearing still distorted by his deafened ear — but he caught himself before completing the motion. He reoriented himself to look back down the hall, as Kirigiri and Ogami approached from the ruined classroom.

Had they found what they were looking for? It was impossible to tell from Kirigiri's expression if her investigation had been worthwhile or not. Still, Togami supposed that she wouldn't have left the classroom if she'd still thought there might be clues to find there.

"Ready to head on down for round two?" Jill called to the other girls, impatiently tossing her scissors from one hand to the other. "Or are we all gonna split off again for some more alone time?"

"Neither," Kirigiri answered promptly, glancing around the small group. "The mastermind demanded that we solve every mystery in the school — and there's still one room on this floor that none of us have visited yet."

"The Bio Lab," Togami realized, nodding slowly. "There must be a reason it was locked. If we're going to try to determine why, we should all see it — and it would be safest to do so as a group."

"Not to mention the most practical," Kirigiri added, one corner of her mouth twisting into what was almost a smile as her hand fell to rest against her pocket.

It only took Togami a moment to realize that it had to be where she'd kept the stolen key. She was right — it wasn't as though they could explore locked rooms separately as long as she had that. He would have expected the mastermind to confiscate the key at the first opportunity… but they hadn't, even though Kirigiri must have used the key on camera to open the dojo locker. Did that mean it didn't matter if the students saw all the hidden rooms now?

He couldn't come up with an answer that satisfied him, mulling it over as they all headed down the dim, dark corridor that led to the Bio Lab's locked door. Kirigiri moved swiftly forward to open it, pulling the key from her pocket without so much as glancing up towards the cameras. It was an impressive show of confidence to ignore the potential threat so thoroughly — but of course Togami hadn't expected anything else from Kirigiri at this point.

She swung open the heavy metal door — and rush of icy air burst out, sharp as a slap to the face. Togami's breath hissed through his clenched teeth in a startled gasp, and the chill of it settled heavy in his lungs. That wasn't just air turned cold and stale from disuse… no, that was the result of deliberate temperature control. What could the mastermind have hidden in this room that needed to be kept so cold?

Kirigiri seemed to be considering the same questions, if her hesitation to enter the room was any guide. She stood at the threshold of the lab, motionless except for the hand sliding the key safely back into her pocket. Her eyes darted across the door frame briefly, and then again, lingering at odd points as she frowned. A sudden stab of curiosity shot through Togami's mind, and he found himself wondering what exactly Kirigiri was thinking about.

But before he could decide whether he wanted to ask, she gave her head a single sharp shake and stepped forward into the room. Ogami and Jill followed after her, so Togami didn't have much choice but to do the same if he didn't want to be left behind.

Based on the other examples of Hope's Peak facilities he'd seen here, Togami would have expected a room called the Bio Lab to be similarly well-equipped — but the room in front of them would hardly even have been recognizable as a lab if not for the sign. The room was empty of any of the equipment he would have expected to find, save for a few odds and ends shoved haphazardly against the walls. Enormous flat tables claimed the majority of the floor space, but the dingy gray lighting meant they could hardly be put to use in any kind of experiment — although the blotched remains of stains on the nearest one suggested that someone had tried anyway.

But the main indication that this room wasn't any kind of biology lab any longer came in the form of the opposite wall, filled with row after row of deep cabinets. Strange lights glowed red or green beside each door, though without any hint as to what the colors meant.

Togami's first thought was to make a beeline for the mysterious cabinets and begin pressing buttons until he understood their purpose — but he knew better than to try something so reckless. Normally he had a sufficient grasp of mechanics to work out how a device operated just by handling the controls for a few minutes… but in Monokuma's domain, trying that would be an invitation to getting everyone in the room blown to pieces. He'd had more than enough of the mastermind's taste for explosives.

But even so, he supposed that looking should be safe enough. There was something oddly familiar about the way those cabinets had been set up, and he was certain he could figure it out if he just examined them more closely. He took a step towards them — but before he could take more than a step in that direction, a sharp gasp caught his attention.

He spun back towards the other girls — and there was Ogami, white as a sheet as she stared down at a small, colorful booklet.

Anything that eye-searing had to be Monokuma's creation — and anything that bear produced could only lead to trouble. It would be stupid to let Ogami waste her strength on more of the mastermind's nonsense when they still had a trial ahead of them. He stepped briskly forward and plucked the booklet from her trembling fingers before she could protest.

As soon as the booklet left her line of sight, Ogami took a long, slow breath, as shaky as if she couldn't quite remember how to do it. Whatever was written in the booklet had apparently hit her hard. What could have caused such a powerful reaction?

Togami's eyes darted automatically down to the booklet — and although he hadn't meant to read it, a single phrase leapt off the page to assault him.

For all your cadaver needs.

Slowly, as though his head had somehow lost the connection to his body, Togami looked up… up… up at the walls of cabinets. He remembered now… he remembered where he'd seen this kind of set-up. This room wasn't any kind of bio lab at all.

This was a morgue.

And behind one of those cabinet doors… those cold, sterile, steel-gray doors… all alone in the dark and frozen air of this awful locked room… behind one of those doors…

The rest of the thought couldn't form in his mind, too huge and horrible for him to grasp. The cabinets loomed above him, filling the entire scope of his vision with a wall of gray, speckled with sickly green and blood-soaked red. His stomach writhed in nauseous revulsion at the sight… but he couldn't tear his eyes away. How could he look at anything else in the room when behind one of those doors

And then they were gone.

Togami blinked — and the world reoriented itself. The cabinets weren't gone — but he'd somehow turned away from them to face back towards the door.

No — he'd been turned. The hands gripping his shoulders had turned him away. He couldn't move his head to look at his rescuer, not yet… but the feeling of gloved fingers on his arm meant that he didn't really need to.

Slowly, gently, Kirigiri began walking forward, her grip meaning that Togami moved along with her. He could have fought against her… but he couldn't remember why he would want to. It was easier to let her guide him forward, step by careful step, until the warm air of the hallway brushed against his face. Togami took a long, deep breath of it… and a bit of the ice inside his chest began to thaw ever so slightly.

The steadying hands left his shoulders, and Kirigiri took a step back. "I don't think you should go back inside that room." Her eyes flickered over Togami's shoulder, to where Ogami had followed them. "Either of you."

The implication that he wasn't capable of investigating that room sent indignation prickling furiously down Togami's spine — but the thought of turning around and reentering the morgue snuffed it out again. He nodded slowly, and out of the corner of his eye he could see Ogami doing the same. Someone was going to have to investigate that room… but neither of them could do it.

"Don't worry, darling — I've got no problem being your eyes, ears, or any other body parts you need!" Despite Jill's grin, there was no amusement lurking in her dark eyes as she spoke.

"We'll meet back up and resume our investigation after Jill and I investigate this room," Kirigiri agreed calmly. She met Togami's eyes for a moment, waiting to see if he objected — and then gave him a single nod before turning to head back into the morgue with Jill.