Kirigiri's declaration against the mastermind's manipulations came a little late, in Togami's opinion — but he swallowed the words back rather than spitting them in her face. What satisfaction would there be in gloating over her admission, when she was far from the only one who'd made unforgivable mistakes? If any of them had made even a single different choice… if any of them had chosen trust instead of letting the mastermind scramble their thoughts… maybe that nightmare of a trial would have ended differently.
But before he could figure out how to put such a strange, complicated thought into words, Kirigiri shook her head and turned back towards the door. With the moment past, Togami let the thought go and hurried after her.
Leaving the second floor was a mixed blessing. Much as he knew that staying near the library would prevent him from focusing on what he had to accomplish, he couldn't quite shake the lingering regret as he headed down the stairs. No matter how the upcoming trial ended, it seemed unlikely that he would ever return to the library again. Even if some of the memories held there were terrible, the idea of being barred from the room was not a comfortable one. He did his best to push the thought to the back of his mind, focusing instead on the path down the stairs and across the first floor.
Crossing the classroom-oriented half of the first floor seemed reasonable enough — but when Kirigiri continued to lead them past the entrance to the bathhouse, Togami blinked. He'd assumed the room free of the mastermind's prying eyes had been her destination, but that was apparently not the case. She headed back towards the dormitories —
And then turned a sharp right, towards the stairs heading up to the second floor of the dorms. The floor that had been locked for the entirety of their imprisonment in the school… the floor that only Kirigiri herself had entered. Of course there would still be unsolved mysteries here, that should have been obvious. He schooled his face as best he could while Kirigiri unlocked the gate, bracing himself to encounter yet another piece of this nightmare.
But nothing could have prepared him for the wreckage they encountered as soon as they set foot on the sealed-off floor. Piles of rubble littered the floor, blocking pathways and threatening any possible footing. Walls divided the space in name only, torn into shreds that looked a breath away from collapse. The air hung thick and heavy with the memory of spilled blood.
As bad as the ruined classroom on the fifth floor had been, this hallway was worse. The classroom had been a single moment of slaughter, preserved behind closed doors like a monument to murder… but whatever had happened in this hallway couldn't be contained. This hallway hadn't just been the site of murders, more pieces of the mastermind's carefully-orchestrated game… no, this place had been a battlefield.
"What happened here?"
That was the question running through Togami's mind as well, but Ogami was the one who asked it aloud. He glanced up at her, and found his own horror written across her pale face.
"I haven't found anything to explain it," Kirigiri said, her impassive mask snapping across her face again. Togami might not be able to see past her deliberately emotionless features, but he could recognize the hint that she felt a reaction strongly enough to want to hide it. "It was like this when I entered the first time. All I have are theories, with no proof to back any of them up."
And he had enough baseless theories of his own without adding hers to the mix. Better to hold the speculation till they had evidence one way or the other. Togami nodded his understanding, in full agreement that they should all take the chance to look around this floor before trying to work it out.
And there were certainly more than enough mysteries here that needed to be solved. Why had this area of the school been destroyed so thoroughly, when the other areas had been almost entirely untouched? Or if the other floors hadn't escaped this kind of wreckage, why repair them and leave this area alone? Was it that the mastermind had never meant for them to see this part of the school? That answer would certainly be the simplest… but Togami had the sinking suspicion that the simple answer was never going to be the right one when it came to the mastermind.
But looking around the ruins as they crossed the floor, Togami realized that there was one thing that he didn't see, one thing that haunted almost every other space in this godforsaken school. There were no cameras or monitors here. Like the bathhouse, this entire floor appeared to be completely free of the mastermind's observation. If that was true… then as long as they stayed here, they wouldn't have to worry that the mastermind would interrupt their conversations or use their plans against them. They could speak freely.
And Togami knew exactly what he wanted to say. This was the perfect opportunity to tell Kirigiri and Ogami about the past two years that they'd all apparently forgotten. They'd have Jill on hand to back up the story and answer any questions, and with no cameras, the mastermind couldn't intervene to stop them. They wouldn't have a better chance.
He turned towards the others as they walked down the center of the hall — but when he saw Kirigiri's face, the words died in his throat. The iron-cold mask he'd begun to know so well had fallen away, and her gaze burned down the hall ahead of them. He couldn't say for certain what emotion blazed from her face now, but no one could have missed the intensity of it. Togami knew that interrupting her now would be a waste of time — not with whatever demon had her in its grip.
He wasn't the only one who noticed, either, if Ogami's sidelong glances were anything to go by.
"Is something wrong, Kirigiri?" she asked, jumping into the fray while Togami was still considering the risks of such an approach. "Is there some kind of threat here that we should watch out for?"
Kirigiri blinked once, as though she'd forgotten that she wasn't alone in the hallway for a moment. Her eyes refocused on the three students around her, and Togami had the distinct impression that she'd been looking somewhere far away from them. "I'm not aware of any overt threats, no."
Togami knew a dodge when he heard one. "But…?" he prompted.
She sighed, more resigned than upset at being called out. "But… you could say that something is wrong. When I was here the first time, there was one mystery I couldn't solve… and one door I couldn't open."
"Man, another one?" Jill laughed. "Guess your super-special magic key isn't so awesome after all!"
"It has an electronic lock that requires a password," Kirigiri explained, her steps slowing as they approached the end of the hall. "I… wasn't able to get through."
When they reached the final door in the hall, Togami was about to point out the distinct lack of a password-entry system — but since Kirigiri swung that door open without hesitation, she must have been referring to someplace else.
Stepping into the room beyond, it was like they'd reentered the rest of the school. The destruction of the corridor outside was nowhere to be seen, with all the elegant furniture intact and unmarred.
Although… as Togami looked at the room more closely, he had to amend that thought. It wasn't quite like the rest of the school… no, this room had a far more mature feel to it. Monokuma always seemed to delight in mocking their status as students, but this room didn't have any school-like touches. It could have been a room in a cozy apartment somewhere, rather than part of a dormitory. And that… that had to mean…
"So this would be the part of the teachers' quarters?" he asked, looking back at Kirigiri.
She nodded, not that he'd needed the confirmation of his assumption. "Yes… I believe that this floor was dedicated to rooms for teaching staff. And this particular room belonged to… the headmaster." She took a deep breath. "To my father."
