Togami didn't want to think about what Kirigiri and Jill might find in the morgue. The murder victims had been bad enough, but the ones Monokuma had gotten his paws on had been truly horrific. He'd done his best not to envision the results too clearly, avoiding the whispers of his knowledge of post-mortem anatomy. At first, there had been no point in dwelling on an unpleasant inevitability that would only leave him nauseous and grim… and these last few days, it had become too painful to contemplate.
But now, he couldn't stop the images from flooding through his mind. Maizono, slumped down with her chest torn open… Ishimaru, Hagakure, and Yamada, with their skulls caved in… Asahina and Enoshima, riddled by rains of the mastermind's wrath. Was there anything left of Owada, or had Monokuma's implication that he'd been liquified had any semblance of truth to it? Were Celeste and Kuwata still recognizable, or had they been bludgeoned so much that they couldn't even be differentiated? And Fujisaki… had the marks faded from his wrists from where Togami had bound his corpse to the wall in a deliberately-flawed mimicry of the genocider's methods? For some reason he didn't quite understand, Togami found himself hoping that they had.
But even so… even with all the horror and pain those thoughts brought with them… even so, they were still nothing more than distractions from the nightmare lurking beyond. The moment of death he hadn't actually been able to witness… the final state of the body he hadn't gotten to see… the ruined wreck of a body that was all that remained of the boy he loved.
Naegi. What remained of Naegi beyond the doors of the morgue?
He didn't want to know. He didn't want to see it, to have the face of a murdered corpse replace Naegi's smile in his memories… but he couldn't stop his mind from circling back to the thought time and again until it left his head spinning. Would it be better to know…? Or should he continue to avoid seeing a nightmare he would never be able to un-see? He didn't know, and the uncertainty clawed at his brain until he thought he might scream.
"This isn't helping."
Togami nearly did scream at that, stifling the sound only when he realized the voice had come from the girl beside him. He looked over at Ogami, neck practically creaking as his muscles fought against the tension… and in her face, he could see the same cycle of pain and confusion twisting through his own soul.
"It isn't helping," she repeated, meeting his eyes. "Sitting here and thinking about — about what's happened to the people we've lost — it won't help anything. It can't. All it's doing is making us think about them as something ruined and broken. And — and that isn't right. It isn't how we should think of them."
Togami hadn't expected to hear his own thoughts spoken in someone else's voice — but at the same time, it seemed perfectly natural for Ogami to have reached the same conclusion he had. She, too, had lost someone dear to her in the mastermind's game… and like him, she had struggled to cope with the aftermath. Anyone might have said the same words, making the idea into a hollow murmur of pity… but Ogami understood him.
And he understood her. Togami inclined his head in a fraction of a nod, barely enough to be noticed. "We owe them more that. We have to remember them as they deserve to be remembered."
Except that they didn't remember — not everything. Togami had to look away from Ogami as Jill's story of the past came back to him, the years of time they'd lost stretching out around him like invisible chains that bound him in ways he couldn't understand. How could he claim to honor Naegi's memory when so much of it was missing?
"Wow, what's up with this gloomy atmosphere? It's like someone died!"
Togami froze as the unrepentantly cheerful voice filled the hallway. Standing in front of the bio lab door was that godforsaken robot, head tilted at them like he'd asked the question seriously.
"Go away," he forced out from between clenched teeth, sending Monokuma a vicious glare.
Monokuma drew back, pretending that he actually had feelings to hurt. "So cruel! If this keeps up, I won't have anyone left to talk to."
Togami took a deep breath, trying to remind himself not to get swept up in the bear's idiocy. "Do you have a point, or are you only here to interfere with our search? Because meddling with our investigation after making a deal with Kirigiri would be cheating."
"Hmm? I don't remember any clauses like that," Monokuma said, eyes wide. "But lucky for you, I don't want to get in your way — I'm here to help!"
Togami didn't bother to do more than roll his eyes. The mastermind couldn't possibly expect that line to keep working now, after all the lies they'd told — this was just an attempt to unsettle the two students who seemed most vulnerable. Well, they'd realize soon enough that neither he nor Ogami had any intention of letting it work.
After the silence stretched on for several long seconds, Monokuma's face fell. "Wait — do you mean you don't want my help?"
"We don't want anything from you," Ogami said, low voice just a hair away from a growl.
"Really?" Monokuma blinked, then shrugged. "Well, okay, then. I mean, I was gonna tell you all about why Naegi's not on the class trip to the morgue, buuuuuut…."
It had to be a trap. Togami knew it, he could see it, Monokuma was barely even trying to hide it — but even so, he couldn't stop himself from taking the bait. "What are you talking about?"
Monokuma grinned, sharp teeth flashing bright in the dim hallway. "I thought you'd be interested."
"He's not the only one."
Kirigiri stepped out of the bio lab, arms crossed as she fixed an impenetrable stare on the robot. "I would also be very interested to hear why Naegi's body isn't in the morgue."
"You mean that it really isn't?" Ogami asked, eyes widening in shock. "It's not some kind of trick?"
"A trick? Oh my, what a terrible accusation!" Monokuma grinned. "Don't you know that I always tell the absolute truth?"
"Then get on with telling it!" Togami snapped, in no mood for the bear's absurd taunts. "What have you done to him?"
"Umm… you mean other than putting him through an execution?" Monokuma tilted his head inquisitively. "Do you want a chronological list of everything, or just the ones you don't know about yet?"
Sour vomit burned at the back of Togami's throat, and for a few seconds he thought he was about to be sick all over the hallway. The mastermind had taken Naegi's body? They'd done things to him?
"I didn't ask for horror stories," Kirigiri interrupted flatly. "Where have you moved Naegi — and why?"
"Just that?" Monokuma heaved a sigh. "But repeating myself is boring."
"Then it will be a relief to know that you haven't told us anything yet." Kirigiri raised an impatient eyebrow.
"Oh, I know I haven't told all of you anything," Monokuma said with a shrug. "The only one I told about Naegi's whereabouts is Togami."
