The only one I told about Naegi's whereabouts is Togami.

The sheer impossibility of the words froze Togami in place, his face going slack with shock at the magnitude of the lie. The other students turned to look at him after the accusation, but he couldn't find a response to give to the questions in their eyes. What answer could there be? He hadn't even known about the morgue's existence until a few moments ago — how could Monokuma have told him that Naegi's body wasn't there?

After a moment, Kirigiri's gaze snapped back towards Monokuma. "Apparently you'll need to jog his memory."

"Huh? Really?" Monokuma looked heartbroken. "It hurts to know that you could just forget about something so important!"

Forgotten about something important…? That almost sounded like a reference to Jill's story about the two lost years. Was it a warning — some kind of threat — or something even worse?

The paranoid jolt of fear at the words hadn't even finished its path down Togami's spine when Monokuma's sorrowful expression melted back to glee. "I guess you didn't care at all when I told you Naegi's here hanging out with me!"

And then — Togami remembered. Those awful moments he'd spent in Naegi's room, watching Monokuma trample the bed and spout lie after lie about Naegi's miraculous survival. It had been so cruel, needlessly and pointlessly cruel, to taunt him with the possibility that Naegi hadn't died in the execution — but perhaps, for someone like the mastermind, it hadn't been cruel enough. Perhaps there had been just enough truth to the words to twist the knife even deeper.

Looking into the blood-red glow of Monokuma's eye, Togami realized that he couldn't fathom the depths of cruelty lurking beyond it.

"I'd offer to let him chat if it would help," Monokuma said cheerfully. "But you know, I just don't think he's up to saying much right now."

And they'd do it, too, Togami realized in a distant sort of way. Whoever was speaking to them through Monokuma, whoever had put the students of Hope's Peak through these nightmares, whoever the person was who would do such horrific things — that person would have no problem putting a microphone to the mangled lips of a dead body so they could broadcast the silence.

"Should I try being the understudy?" Monokuma tilted his head. "Let's see, let's see… how's this?" His eyes grew wide and innocent, and a repulsively kind smile blossomed on his face. "I'm so happy that you're all starting to become friends! I knew you could resist the killing game's despair if you just worked together — and you're doing it!"

The words sent Togami reeling backward, banging hard against the wall. It had sounded so much like Naegi — his thoughts, his phrasing, his way of speech — words from the one person he'd wanted so desperately to hear just one more time — but in Monokuma's repulsively robotic voice.

"So? How was that?" Monokuma's voice was his own again, his face taking on his usual vindictive cheer. "Want me to keep going?"

Trembling gasps hissed from Togami's lips, chest heaving like he'd run through the entire school. The need to scream battered at his throat, a wrenching drive to tell the mastermind how obscene that impersonation had been — but with that Monokuma's horrible grin glaring in front of him, he couldn't catch his breath long enough for so much as a whisper.

And then — white and silver washed across his vision, wiping Monokuma's red and black from sight. Togami blinked once, then again… and as his breathing gradually deepened, he recognized the wall of white and silver as Sakura Ogami's back, shielding him from Monokuma's line of sight.

"You've said more than enough," she said, voice a low rumble of danger.

"Oh, my, what's this?" Monokuma didn't sound daunted in the slightest by the huge fighter looming over his small robotic form. "Looks like someone's itching to go another round with me! Well, if you're that desperate to break school rules, who am I to say no?"

"We aren't the ones who are desperate," Kirigiri countered, intercepting the taunt before Ogami got a chance. "You're scrambling for any excuse to get rid of us before we can face you in a trial — and tricking us into breaking your rules would be the perfect opportunity."

"Aww — guess I've been found out!" Monokuma let out an obnoxious laugh. "Oh well, I'll just have to try harder next time I want to kill somebody!" His wild laughter echoed through the hallway a moment longer before his shadow vanished from the floor.

Some measure of tension relaxed from Ogami's spine, and she took a step to the side so Togami could see the empty hallway again. He didn't really like the way she moved, as though she were acting like some kind of hired bodyguard — but on the other hand, continuing to interact with Monokuma in a vicious mood would have been worse. Togami decided the best course of action was to give her a slight nod of acknowledgment, as he might have done to an employee who had greatly exceeded his expectations… but even as he attempted to do so, something about the interaction didn't match what he wanted to convey.

"Doing okay, darling?" Jill asked, coming out to lean against the door frame like a coiling spring. Her narrowed gaze darted over him head to toe, and this more serious examination wasn't much better than when she'd been leering at him.

"I'm fine," he snapped, straightening his spine as much as he could. "This is hardly the first time Monokuma has shown up to mock me."

"No… he mentioned that, didn't he?" Kirigiri frowned, drumming her fingers against the opposite elbow of her crossed arms. "This would have been… what, after you left us in the cafeteria?"

Thinking about those moments alone with Monokuma in Naegi's room felt like the air in Togami's lungs turned to ice, as though the hallway had suddenly chilled until it grew as frozen as the morgue. A sharp shake of his head wasn't enough to banish the memories, but at least it gave him time to force back the urge to scream.

"That's right," he answered, taking what comfort he could from the way his voice was almost completely free of any shaking. "The same as he said now. Naegi was there with him, safe and —" He stopped short, closing his eyes tightly when the rest of the words wouldn't come.

"He told you Naegi was safe?" Kirigiri repeated slowly, as though she couldn't quite understand what he'd said. "He actually said that?"

"Like he thought I'd believe him." A dark, ugly laugh ripped free of his throat. "He even said Naegi wasn't — that the execution hadn't —" He shook his head again, but it couldn't erase the words burned into his memory.

He's right here with me, safe and sound.

He bit down hard on his bottom lip, and only the sharp tang of his own blood let him force back the flood of words the memory summoned. He couldn't say that, he couldn't, not with the mastermind's cameras still capturing every move he made. It was bad enough that they still saw the effort it took to retain even this thin vestige of control.

After a long moment, Ogami broke the silence. "That's horrific."

"I'll say," Jill agreed, without even a hint of respect for a fellow sadist. "Takes a lot of gall to say that and then go claiming he doesn't tell lies!"

"Yes," Kirigiri agreed, almost too softly to hear. "I wouldn't have expected it from the mastermind."

The words sank into Togami's mind, turning into a force gentler and milder than the literal meaning of what the girls had said. It wasn't enough to drown out Monokuma's taunts, not on its own… but somehow it did bolster his strength until he found he could open his eyes and face the world again.

And the girls gathered in a semi-circle around him were the first things he saw. His eyes darted around the circle, looking from face to face without quite meeting any single person's gaze. They'd just been standing there… watching him? That… that ought to be an uncomfortable thought, as unpleasant as the staring eyes of the cameras…

But it wasn't. Maybe he'd used up all his worry and suspicion on the mastermind's antics, or maybe there was some other reason he couldn't understand right now… but whatever the reason, it didn't bother him the way it should have.

After a moment, Kirigiri stepped back, breaking the circle as she shook her head. "I believe we're done here. We should move on to the next floor while we still have time to investigate."