Kirigiri's sudden swerve to an unrelated topic set alarm bells ringing inside Togami's head. Why was she bringing up Ogami's brief stint of being forced to cooperate with the mastermind? It had been a stupid mistake, yes… but during that awful time when Makoto was gone, he'd finally understood that all of them had made terrible mistakes of one sort or another during this game. At least Ogami had recognized hers and tried to correct it before it did too much damage, rather than doubling down on her poor choices — unlike certain detectives he could name.

The question had been nothing short of an attack, causing Ogami to pull back from her podium until she'd nearly left the small circle of light. With Kirigiri directly beside her, she couldn't go far — but she'd clearly put as much distance between them as she could without actually leaving her podium. That had to be instinctive self-defense for a fighter, but with Kirigiri, the real danger wouldn't be physical.

"I remember what happened with perfect clarity." Ogami's voice rumbled even deeper than usual, so low that he had to strain to hear it. "And none of it gave me any reason to suspect Naegi. In fact, the consideration and kindness he showed me, even when I least deserved it, are proof that he is one of the few truly good people who were brought to play this game."

Togami gave her an approving nod — she wasn't getting tangled up in Kirigiri's arguments. "That's exactly right. I'm sure you would have liked it if Makoto had reported to you before taking any action — but he chose to prioritize his loyalty to his friend instead."

"Is that so?" Kirigiri raised an eyebrow at Ogami. "It's true that he showed compassion by confronting you privately about your betrayal rather than unmasking you in front of all of us — but the real question is why he was in a position to do so in the first place."

Ice shot down Togami's spine as he realized where she was going with this. He had to stop her — but Ogami was already asking, "What do you mean?"

Which was exactly what Kirigiri had wanted. "Naegi was the one who discovered that you'd been working for the mastermind. Did he ever explain how he found out?"

"Yes, he said that he observed my initial attempt to fight Monokuma. That was the night after Celeste's trial — when I decided I couldn't work against you all any longer."

"A fight that he was only in a position to observe due to your manipulations," Togami added, before Kirigiri could try to twist what had happened. "You tricked him into investigating a hidden area that got him attacked by the mastermind. The only reason he was wandering around during nighttime was because he was unconscious before that."

"So he says… although I spent much more time in that hidden room than he did, and no one attacked me for it." Kirigiri shrugged. "But the point is that while Naegi was alone and without any corroborating witnesses, he managed to acquire key information known only to the mastermind that changed the entire dynamic of how we all interacted with one another."

A hiss of breath drew Togami's gaze down to the boy at his side, and his chest tightened at the misery on Makoto's face. He'd hoped that, as upset as Makoto had been by the accusations, he might at least be too unhappy to listen to the rest of the argument… but it seemed that wasn't the case. He'd been listening to every word, and it was hurting him as much as Togami had feared.

And there was nothing Togami could do to prevent it — not while they were locked in the middle of a trial, fighting for their lives. Not with the mastermind's mouthpiece waiting for them to slip up on one side, and their supposed ally taking aim at their weak spots on the other. His arms ached to wrap around Makoto in the comfort they both needed, and cold air pressed against the place on his chest where Makoto should be resting his head. Pressing their hands together wasn't enough, nowhere near enough — but it was all he could manage before the trial tore his attention away again.

"Are you saying that you believe Naegi discovered my betrayal as part of a plot?" Ogami sounded quite appropriately skeptical of this idea, her voice all but disembodied as she still held herself beyond the reach of the light. "That seems unnecessary. The mastermind had no trouble revealing the truth about me themselves, without relying on a student's testimony."

"In fact, I seem to recall that at the time, you made the exact opposite accusation," Togami added. "Or have you forgotten the especially nasty tantrum you threw because Makoto wouldn't rat out his friend?"

Encouraging the other students to turn against them, forcing them to separate just when he'd promised to keep Makoto safe — for someone who seemed intent on calling up every one of Makoto's errors in judgment, she had a lot to answer for herself. The mastermind might have planted the seeds of the conflict that ended with Fukawa's poisoned needles, but Kirigiri certainly hadn't helped.

Not that anyone could tell to look at her, an iron wall of unflinching control as she waved his words away like gnats. "If that's what you recall, then your memory is flawed. The conflict didn't start because of who revealed the spy's identity — the real root of it was the fact that you didn't tell anyone else. The two of you investigated on your own, learned the truth, and then Monokuma told us what had happened."

"We were going to tell you that morning — it's just that Monokuma made sure we never got the chance!"

"Maybe. It's easy enough to say that when we'll never know." Her eyes slid away from his, locking back on Ogami. "Regardless of whether that's the case, I have a question. During your fight with Monokuma, when Naegi apparently observed you — did you notice anyone approaching?"

"She doesn't —"

"I'm talking to Ogami." Kirigiri cut him off without even a glance in his direction. One eyebrow quirked up at the girl still standing too far from her for the light to reach. "And so?"

Ogami sighed. "I didn't notice anyone. However, Monokuma was an extremely challenging opponent, so I did not have the attention to spare for another other than our battle."

"And what about the person piloting Monokuma?" Kirigiri asked, before Togami could inform her that what Ogami did or didn't see proved nothing. "Do you think that they would have found the battle equally difficult?"

"I hope that I presented some level of threat." A shift in the set of her profile suggested she might have shrugged. "However, I imagine the difficulties would have been quite different. I had to pit my muscles and reflexes against the strength and speed of a very well-designed robot — but the person piloting the robot would have had to respond to my attacks without being physically present. A great deal of the progress that I made was due to using those disadvantages against them."

"Such as?"

"They could only watch the fight through their cameras, all of which are plainly visible on the walls," Ogami replied at once, more confidence finding its way into her voice as she spoke of fighting. "I made sure to use moves that would be visible from different camera angles, whenever possible."

"I see." Kirigiri nodded. "So the pilot would have had to scan all the camera feeds in the area in order to keep up with you." A cold glimmer of a smile crossed her face. "Then it seems exceptionally unlikely that they would have missed Naegi observing you — but they didn't do anything to stop him."

"I doubt they were concerned about maintaining her cover once she turned on them," Togami shot across the circle.

But she shook her head. "No — the mastermind decided to reveal their spy in the most vengeful way possible. If Naegi were truly uninvolved, they would have every reason to believe he would share the information much more gently, and no reason to believe he would wait as long as he did. And yet they left him to his own devices, until his actions laid a perfect groundwork for them to exploit. Even if Naegi really did just happen to be walking past your fight at the right moment, the rest of it doesn't make sense."


Schedule note: No new chapter next week, due to company descending upon me! Next chapter should be up Sunday, September 29. See you then!