Chapter 19: Day 17
Togami glared at the blank monitors of the data center, his arms crossed over his chest as he scanned them for any sign of use or abnormality. He had already spent nearly an hour with the television, trying to get it to turn on and even fumbling with the antennae, but much like his dig into the archive, it was proving to be a wasted effort. He knew he should have been focusing on the task at hand of finding items, but Naegi was quietly working and filing up the box, leaving Togami to his own search.
His gaze landed on the Monokuma door for perhaps the third time that morning. He could test it. He could try forcing his way in. He had even taken a step forward once to do so. But Kirigiri's words and the gatling gun hanging from the ceiling would stop him in his tracks.
And yet, he wanted to solve this mystery. He couldn't deny it anymore. He couldn't play coy, pretend he was disinterested. The sheet music on his music stand and the realistic dream of Naegi and him simply wouldn't leave him. Much like how Togami instinctively knew Naegi had caught on to his hidden sexuality when he had mentioned 'partner' rather than 'girlfriend,' he instinctively knew something was inherently wrong with what was taking place. Kirigiri had been correct. Sure, they were now finding items to create a "Monokumadult," Monokuma's latest brilliant idea. Sure, the whole thing was some surreal dream that Togami wished he could awaken from. Sure, they had food, shelter, and "friendship," or whatever Monokuma wanted to call it.
But there was something more. Something below the surface that wasn't all fun and games. They were hostages. They were building things. They had no way out of the academy. They were being monitored by lifeless cameras and powered-down weapons. He had no proof beyond his own delusions and, as Kirigiri put it, his 'gut instinct,' but he somehow knew he wasn't wrong. They were in some sort of danger. They were all missing something…but just what the nature of it was, he couldn't say.
Hearing a sigh, Togami glanced over to see Naegi fling himself into one of the computer chairs. The brown-haired boy smiled over at the corporate heir and waved slightly. "You'd think we'd run out of items by now…" Naegi remarked, his gaze landing on the box. Togami frowned slightly as he saw just how many items Naegi had managed to find, knowing that he himself contributed little to the task.
"Just another one of the mysteries here," Togami muttered, fixing his glasses as he turned to face Naegi.
"Are you doing all right?" asked Naegi, returning his attention to Togami. "You've been looking around, but you don't seem okay…"
"I'm just thinking, is all," Togami admitted.
"About Monokuma's words this morning?"
Togami's frown deepened. "What do you mean?"
"What he said about adults. It was kinda weird and totally out of nowhere."
Togami shook his head. "I admit I tuned him out after he started attacking our creation." The mere memory of Monokuma yelling and assaulting the toy they had made threatened to give the corporate heir yet another headache.
"Oh. Can't blame you there." Naegi chuckled. Leaning forward, he explained, "Well, after he was done, when he was showing us the new blueprint, he mentioned how adults have really ruined the world and how we can't rely on them anymore... I mean, I get blaming adults for things, but isn't 'ruining the world' a little over the top?"
"You can't take what that bear says at face value," advised Togami. "He was probably just stating something to confuse us, as always."
"I suppose…"
"If you listen to every word he says, you'll no doubt drive yourself insane. It's best to just–"
CRASH!
The sound of metal falling caused Togami to look over at the open doorway as Naegi jumped out of his seat. "Wh-what was that?!" Naegi shouted, rushing out of the data center and into the hallway. Togami followed behind, noticing nothing in particular out in the hallway before trailing the other student to the music hall just down the corridor. The double doors leading into the music hall were wide open, and he could hear voices emanating from within. Mostly shouting.
"What are these imbeciles up to now?" Togami thought with an exasperated sigh. Naegi was rushing in, and Togami couldn't help but satisfy his curiosity and approach the doors. The sight in front of him, however, caused him to blink in surprise.
Hiro, Owada, and Kuwata had all been assigned the music hall, and the first thing he noticed was that all three were huddled around the front of the stage, with Hiro leaning forward as if in pain. Pieces of equipment were scattered on the floor. "Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god!" Hiro shouted. "I'm gonna die! I'm gonna die!"
"You ain't dyin', moron!" Owada exclaimed. "Kuwata, you all right?"
"Fuckin' hand, man, it hurts!" Kuwata shot back before groaning in pain.
"Your hand?!" Hiro repeated. "YOUR hand?! Look at MY hand!"
"Is everyone all right?!" Naegi shouted, rushing forward towards the three. Togami slowly walked up the center aisle of the music hall, making sure to avoid pieces of metal that were scattered about.
"Looks like they broke some equipment," Togami reflected. "Can't say I'm surprised. In fact, I'm shocked it's taken them this long to destroy something."
"M-My hand!" Hiro held up his hand for Naegi and Togami to see. Togami's jaw dropped; for once, the Ultimate Clairvoyant wasn't exaggerating. A gash was cut across the palm of his left hand, blood oozing out and onto the floor. "I cut it on that damn speaker! We were trying to move it out of the way, to see if we could find something!" Crying out in pain, Hiro grasped onto his wrist and shouted, "Dammit, it hurts!"
Watching as Owada went to poke the wound, Togami scoffed and nearly shouted, "Don't touch it!"
All eyes landed on him as he walked forward. Cautiously eyeing the gash, he glanced over to see that Kuwata also had a cut on his hand, though his wasn't as severe. "What did you both do?"
"Like Hiro said," Kuwata remarked. "We were movin' a speaker outta the way to see if there was something behind it. Damn thing toppled over and off the stage. Hiro and I tried to grab it, but it fell real quick. Couldn't catch it in time, cut our hands on the edges."
"We need to get these cleaned in the nurse's station," Togami stated. "If these get infected while we're trapped here, you both will be useless to this ongoing process." He looked over at Owada. "Try to clean this mess up if you can, but be careful. We don't need you getting injured, as well." Turning to Naegi, he ordered, "Go inform Taka of what happened. We should get at least one of the cleaning crew members to assist Owada." He then turned back to Kuwata and Hiro. "Follow me."
Turning on his heel, Togami exited the music hall and began descending the stairs down to the first floor. He could hear Hiro and Kuwata following behind him, Hiro's sobs and Kuwata's occasional insult drowned out by Togami's thoughts. "As if we needed something else to go wrong here," he mused as they finally made it to the first floor. Walking down the hallway, he entered the nurse's station to find Kirigiri looking about.
Kirigiri glanced over and blinked in surprise. Before she could say anything, Togami explained, "These two hurt themselves. I need gauze, cleaning solution, and supplies. Gloves as well."
Peeking around Togami's arm, she looked down at Hiro's hand and nodded. Togami turned back to Kuwata and Hiro. "Both of you, sit down. One per bed. And be quiet. Complaining isn't going to make it stop bleeding." Togami waited as Kirigiri handed him a pair of gloves and brought over a wheeled cart with containers of medical supplies on it. "Kuwata's isn't as deep," he whispered to Kirigiri as he put the gloves on. "Can you bandage him up? I can deal with Hiro. Just clean it, spray it, and cover it with a bandage."
Kirigiri nodded and immediately pulled up another rolling chair. Togami, for his part, put the cart between the two and kneeled in front of Hiro. "This is going to hurt," he warned, looking up at Hiro with a stern expression. "If you shout, I'm going to be prone to making a mistake. So just sit still and try to be calm."
"Y-You got it," he whispered, holding his hand out as he did so. Grabbing some spray, Togami shook the bottle twice and pressed down, not shocked in the least when Hiro immediately let out a cry of pain as the liquid sprayed across his hand. "S-S-Sorry!" he quickly stuttered, his hand and arms now shaking. "It's just, damn man!"
"Get it together!" ordered Kuwata. "Not like we don't already have a headache from Monokuma's bitching this morning..."
Realizing Togami was waiting for him, Hiro blushed and held his hand back out. Togami sighed and gently grabbed it, spraying it once more before taking some cleaning wipes. With precision, he cleaned along the edges of the gash, wiping the blood off the tips of Hiro's fingers before pressing and soaking up the blood sinking in between. He had just about finished and was getting to the main wound when the door to the nurse's station opened, revealing Naegi.
"Are you all right, Naegi?" asked Kirigiri.
"Y-Yeah," he answered, stepping in and standing near the cart. "I just wanted to let Togami know that Taka's sending two upstairs to help Owada."
"Good." Grabbing another piece of cloth, Togami cautiously went to work cleaning, moving between soaking up blood and cleaning around the edges of the gash. Togami wondered if Hiro would need stitches but decided against bringing it up, knowing it would only cause more panic. Growling at the bleeding, Togami took a clean cloth and pressed down, holding it in place for several seconds. Hiro was biting his lower lip, no doubt trying to suppress whatever complaints he wanted to lodge Togami's way. By now, the corporate heir could hear Kirigiri standing from her seat, and he peeked over to see Kuwata's hand was already bandaged.
He returned his attention to Hiro. He sprayed once again and replaced the cloth with a thick piece of gauze, which he held firmly in the center of Hiro's hand, then grabbed some medical tape. By now his gloves were practically covered with Hiro's blood, but he ignored it as he began to wrap the hand with tape, tuning out the clairvoyant's flinching and groans of pain as he worked. He felt all eyes on him as he meticulously wrapped Hiro's hand, but he avoided their stares and quickly finished, cutting the medical tape and sealing the bandages tightly before standing and taking a step back.
"You'll need to be careful with it the next few days," Togami remarked as he tossed the dirty materials into the trash can. "No lifting for you. It'll also need to be cleaned regularly. There's a chance it may bleed through. Come find me if it does, and we'll replace the bandages."
"A-All right." Looking down in wonder at his hand, Hiro then glanced up and smiled. "Thanks."
Togami waved it away as he took off the stained gloves. "That does mean you two are out of commission the next few days," he observed as he glanced over at Kirigiri. "Which means the leadership team needs to redistribute tasks if we're going to complete this next Monokuma creation."
"We'll worry about that later," replied Kirigiri. "For now, Kuwata and Hiro, you can go back to your dorms to rest. Owada should be cleaning up, from what I gathered?"
"Yeah, with two others from Taka's team," Naegi stated, fidgeting as he did so. Togami noted how his gaze was wandering from Hiro's hand to Togami, then back to the clairvoyant's hand. Togami frowned and went to speak when Naegi muttered, "I'll bring my notebook. We can look at options."
"Sounds good." Kirigiri smirked, and the three watched as Kuwata and Hiro left before she turned to face Togami directly. "I must admit, I'm surprised."
"By what?"
"I wouldn't have thought you to be the one fixing and cleaning others' wounds."
"It's a matter of resources," Togami stated in a matter-of-fact tone. "It's not as though we can leave and take them to a hospital, and those idiots are careless enough to let the wounds get infected. We're going to need them to help find these items and build these contraptions, whether I like it or not."
Kirigiri slowly nodded, her smirk turning to a smile. "Well, I'm pleasantly surprised regardless." Glancing at the clock on the wall, she shrugged and said, "Bring down your box of items to the gym. We can meet early and discuss some things before everyone else arrives."
"I'll grab the box," Togami stated. "Naegi, you get your little notebook. You two can figure out what we're doing these next few days once we all meet in the gym."
"Sounds good." Naegi began to exit, but as he opened the door, he shot a curious look back at Togami. Togami frowned, but before he could pursue the matter, Naegi left.
Kirigiri, as always, was swift to pick up on the awkward silence. "I mean, I'm just as confused as him, but I suppose you'll tell us when you're ready," she observed as she began putting things back to normal.
"Tell you what?" asked Togami, shooting a glare her way.
"Just where the Ultimate Affluent Progeny happened to learn first aid."
Togami's eyes widened. Clearing his throat, he answered, "Obviously I know the basics. It's not that difficult."
"Hmm… I wonder…"
"Well keep wondering. I'm sure you'll figure it out." Not wanting to go any further on the matter, Togami exited the nurse's station and began ascending the stairs back up to the data center. He briefly passed the music hall and peeked inside to see Fujisaki and Yamada assisting Owada in the clean-up. He could also hear Fujisaki's concerned questions to Owada, asking him if he was all right, if he was certain he was okay, if he wanted to take a minute to sit down. Togami shrugged and entered the data center.
He stopped dead in his tracks, however, when he saw Monokuma standing next to the box.