Togami was certain that the students had never stayed in the pre-trial chamber for this long before any of the other class trials. In every other case, moments after the last of the remaining survivors had passed through the red door, Monokuma would burst into the room to prod them towards the elevator with a twisted combination of taunts and threats. There had been no time to confer as a group before the trial… hardly even the chance to catch their collective breath after their investigations.

But now, minute after excruciating minute ticked away while the he and the three girls stood silently in front of the elevator doors, with no sign of the mastermind's mouthpiece. It should have been a relief to delay the trial just a few moments longer… but it only gave him time to feel the cold dread pooling in the pit of his stomach. That had to be the reason Monokuma was giving them time to stew now, of all the trials… it had to be a power play to rattle their nerves before the upcoming battle.

But even knowing that… one look at the elevator stole the breath from his lungs, locked him frozen in place across the room. The last time he'd taken that elevator down to the trial room, Naegi had been with him, warm and alive in his arms. That elevator had been the last place he'd held the boy he loved, the last place he'd seen him other than the nightmarish trial room… and he couldn't bring himself to take a willing step towards it.

"Putting it off won't accomplish anything."

Kirigiri's voice was first to break the silence, punctuated by the staccato-sharp rap of her heels as she strode across the floor. Tension creaked through Togami's neck as he followed her path to the elevator doors. She reached out towards the button that would open them — but then her hand fell away again without pressing it. After a moment, she turned back to look at them again.

"Chickening out after a declaration like that?" Jill asked, one hand planted on her hip as she scowled across the room. "Didn't think you were the wishy-washy type."

"That's not it," Kirigiri said, with only a hint of an edge to her words. "I have something to say, before we head down."

"We're listening," Ogami said, cutting off whatever unpleasant joke Jill was clearly preparing to make. "Please, go ahead."

Kirigiri's head jerked down in a single sharp nod, and for a moment Togami had the disorienting feeling that she was nervous. Not that it would be a shock, in these moments before they all had to face off against the mastermind… but still, even if she did feel it, he wouldn't have expected to see the signs of it so clearly. He'd never seen them before, no matter how he'd searched for any hint of weakness in her. Were these signs of her nerves new — or had he simply not known how to see them before?

"This trial is going to be difficult," she said at last, hand reaching up to tangle in the hair where her single braid had been. "Not just the questions we'll need to answer, but — the entire scope of what we're doing. We're facing off against the mastermind, and —" She paused, so briefly that Togami was sure neither of the other girls had noticed. "And they aren't going to make it easy for us."

"Well, duh," Jill said, tossing her braids with studied indifference. "Isn't that the point of having the whole big showdown?"

Kirigiri shook her head. "That's not what I meant."

Togami could see where she was going with this. "You think they'll try to turn us against each other."

Her gaze flickered towards him, but she didn't meet his eyes. "I think it's inevitable, considering their actions from the start of this game."

Giving them motive after motive to kill, raising the stakes with every day they spent here… yes, Togami could see her point all too easily. It wouldn't be a question of if the mastermind tried something, but when.

"But if that's true — if that's their plan —" Ogami's face went pale. "We can't let them!"

Togami didn't even need to glance in Kirigiri's direction to know that she was already shaking her head. "It won't work," he said, stating the obvious before she could. "Not with the way the mastermind operates. We've known from the start that their goal has been to make us see one another as enemies — they've made no secret of it. Fighting against it has made no difference so far."

"But —"

"They're planning for us to fight it," Togami said, flat words cutting off her protest before it could take shape. "They know we're aware of their intention, and they'll have taken it into account. We can't fight distrust, not the way the mastermind crafts it."

A string of images blurred before his eyes — a bright smile, clear hazel eyes, a single fist clenched in simple determination. Naegi had always known what to say in these moments, when they'd all been searching for the strength to resist the mastermind's manipulations. He'd given them a guiding light to follow, the lone north star that had kept them from falling entirely into darkness. He'd insisted that they could all be friends in spite of everything the mastermind had done against it… and he'd almost been able to make them believe it.

But Naegi wasn't here any longer. He was gone… and there was no one left to say the words that they all needed to hear.

Togami shook his head until a sharp ache jolted from temple to temple, tearing his attention away from the hazy visions of a boy who couldn't be with him any longer. They couldn't rely on Naegi's strength for this last fight… and trying to invoke a pale echo of his spirit would only underscore how pitifully short they all fell in comparison. None of them could be what Naegi had been.

Did that mean they'd lost already, before the trial had even begun?

"I don't believe there will be a way to fight directly against the mastermind's manipulations," Kirigiri said, her words hardly louder than a whisper. "But if we know they'll try it… if we know that it's coming… we might be able to recognize it when it happens."

She looked around the room at them all, studying each of them one by one. "That's what I wanted to say to all of you, before we begin. During the course of this trial, a moment is going to come when we find ourselves at odds. And when it does… no matter how reasonable it seems, no matter how separate from the mastermind's actions it appears… when it happens, I want all of us to remember this conversation. Remember that this trial will be the four of us against the mastermind… and anything else that distracts us from that fact is going to be part of the mastermind's plan."

Togami frowned. As reminders went, that one seemed a little too obvious to deserve the gravity she'd given it. "I can't see how any of us could possibly forget that the mastermind is going to be our opponent."

Kirigiri looked at him for a long moment, meeting his eyes for the first time since she'd rejoined them after the trial announcement. "I hope so," she said finally.

Before he could answer, she turned to press the elevator button. "Let's go," she decreed as the doors opened, taking the first step towards the trial room.