Chapter 47: Day 42

Turning on the lights, Togami was unsurprised to find that the archive was exactly the way he had left it some ten days prior. He stepped into the small room and moved a nearby stack of books to prop the door open. There was no use hiding his movements any longer, and if Naegi came to find him, he didn't want his boyfriend to think the worst had happened again.

Togami's gaze instinctively landed on the back bookshelf, and he shuddered at what he knew was behind it. To the naked eye, nothing appeared out of the ordinary. The bookshelf was back in its normal spot. Even the books had been placed back on the shelves, erasing all of Togami's hard work. But Togami had to put that concern aside. The camera hanging from the ceiling was still turned off, and there was no sign of Monokuma. The search for clues wasn't why he was here, after all. They were in a new phase of Monokuma's game. Togami couldn't back down now.

Taking a few steps forward, he approached one of the bookshelves to the right and began reading the spines. One by one, he plucked out books, folders, and manuscripts, seemingly at random but, for him, with great purpose.

"After all, if my family is struggling out there, then I need to know who we can rely upon for assistance."

After his discussion with Naegi, Togami's mind had raced with the possible scenarios that could be awaiting them outside the school's walls. "We could be facing a genuine apocalyptic reality," he thought as he pulled another book off the shelf and set it down on the growing pile at his feet. "And if we are to survive, we'll need allies. I'll need to know who my family is relying on, who we may be able to contact overseas, who would have the necessary equipment and facilities to find the others' families. We would have to move quickly to ensure that our relatives and friends are contacted so that we can all remain focused on survival. And that means I'll need to use every resource at my disposal."

Grabbing one final folder, Togami lifted his set of books and carried them out to the library. He set them down on the closest table and began to thumb through the first folder's documents. "We'll need industries involved in agriculture and infrastructure. That's a given. Depending on how much of the global economy is still running, it wouldn't hurt to have a global bank or two in our back pockets. And if that's gone, we'll need to reach out to local banks and secure cash and assets. I'm certain my family is working with one even now, and if my personal assets are still intact, then that's even more we will be able to use."

He scowled at the contents of the folder and set them aside for the next. "We'll also need a base of operations. I can't imagine we'll be alone surviving out there. We may be able to find other stragglers, use them for resources and information. Perhaps not carry them along with us, though I'm sure Naegi will want to save every person we come in contact with…" Togami sighed at the thought. "We'll need to keep a level head in all of this. I don't want to fight Naegi, were it to come to such a thing, but we will be a group of 15 wandering a potential urban wasteland. If what that animatronic bear and the others say is true…"

Indeed, more memories were coming to the fore for the others, and a genuine understanding was quickly becoming apparent: that the outside world was badly damaged, and that the students who remained chose to stay. Fujisaki's story rang in Togami's head, and Hina recalled earlier at dinner how she spoke to her parents about potentially staying behind to work with Ogami. Nobody had any memories after their decisions, or at least they weren't saying them outright, but Togami had to assume the memory erasure occurred shortly after they all made their final choices.

It began to answer Monokuma's second puzzle: the 15 who awoke here in Hope's Peak some 40 days ago were left behind in Hope's Peak…because they chose to be left behind.

And now, all they could think about was getting the hell out.

He set another folder aside. "What matters is that we are prepared," Togami reflected. "Or as prepared as we can be. If I can have a list of possible contacts at the ready, we may not need as many resources as we think. Or we can–"

He stopped at the sound of the door opening and glanced up. Lavender eyes met his gaze, and Kirigiri offered a smirk as she entered and closed the door behind her. "Working hard?" she asked.

"Somewhat," he answered honestly as he set the folder down.

"Naegi is downstairs with Maizono, so I assumed you would be off investigating somewhere," Kirigiri noted.

Togami nodded. "He said Maizono had a rather bad dream and wanted to talk to her about it. It gave me an opportunity to come back here without causing any unnecessary distress. I know bringing him into the archive would merely cause him to remember what happened."

"How very thoughtful of you." It was spoken in an honest tone, and Togami scoffed and crossed his arms over his chest.

"I'd call it using my time wisely."

"You can admit that you care about your boyfriend, Togami. It doesn't make you weak or foolish."

Togami felt his cheeks warm. "Whatever. So did you just come here to mock me or–"

"I came to ask a favor." Kirigiri's smirk vanished as she took on a serious expression. Holding out her open, gloved hand, she asked, "Can I ask you something without you questioning my reasons?"

"You can, but I can't guarantee what my reaction will be," Togami admitted.

Kirigiri nodded. "You know how we need to determine what happened to the administration before being allowed to leave this place?"

"Yes…"

"I want to solve that mystery. Alone."

Togami's eyes widened. "You can't be serious," he stated. "We all need to escape this place, Kirigiri. Not just you. What if you don't–"

"I will." Her look of fierce determination cut Togami's complaint short, and she continued, "I will solve the mystery of what happened to the administration here. To the principal, to the teachers, to the staff. I'll solve it all. By myself. I promise."

Togami took in her confident gaze and slowly sighed. "She wants to know what happened to her father," he reflected. "And she doesn't want anyone beating her to it or getting in her way. I can understand such single-mindedness, but…"

"If it gets to be too late, I'll ask for assistance," Kirigiri noted. "But we have nine days left. I'm the Ultimate Detective. It's in my blood to solve this mystery."

The smirk crossed Togami's lips before he could stop himself, and he slowly nodded. "Very well. That will give Naegi and myself some time to prepare on our own, anyways. I will agree to this arrangement. For now. But if we get too close to the deadline without any headway, we'll be forced to step in and assist."

"I can accept that." Kirigiri offered a small nod as she smiled. "Thank you, Togami."

"No need to thank me. As I said, it gives us time to do what we need to do."

"Which is…?"

"We still need to figure out why we all are still here, though an answer is most certainly coming to light. We have defined the Tragedy, and you'll take charge of the investigation into the administration. So we can work on the remaining factor as well as prepare for when we leave."

"Is that what you're doing now?"

"Correct. I'm looking for allies we may be able to utilize," he admitted. "If the outside world is indeed a mess, we'll need to reach out to people who have resources. Food, water, transportation, and the like."

Kirigiri's eyes widened. "That is not a bad plan, Togami. Not a bad plan at all."

"It was mostly Naegi's idea," Togami remarked. "He wants to gather everything we can here in Hope's Peak to take outside with us."

"That will also help give the others hope. I'm sure you can see others are becoming more and more disturbed by our findings as our memories return."

"Yes… I can. The fact that the answer to Monokuma's second question may be that we all agreed to stay here is rather telling of how damaged the outside world may be."

"Precisely. To give up everything we had outside for the comfort and safety of this school…" Kirigiri shook her head. "But we won't know until the front door opens. Until then, I will work non-stop to solve the puzzle of administration."

"And Naegi and I will continue working to get us prepared for our journey out of here," Togami stated. "After all, I'm not planning to lose to that animatronic bear. He can threaten an extension of our deadline all he wants. But we'll finish that back-up and get out of here."

"Are you planning to share that idea with the others?"

"What idea?"

"Preparing for our escape. It may help to keep them motivated, especially since we aren't giving ourselves any time off. If we're not working on the back-up, we're looking around the school. Someone is bound to get exhausted at some point."

"I wasn't going to, but I'll mention the idea to Naegi."

Kirigiri smirked. "Wouldn't want to get caught worrying about the others?"

Togami scoffed. "As I said, it was mostly Naegi's idea. Let him take credit for it."

"Uh-huh. Sure."

"Just what are you implying?"

"Just that Naegi has already had a positive impact on you. Or maybe he always did…" Kirigiri's smirk slowly turned to a smile as she said, "You know, I haven't brought it up during our dinners, but… I've had a few more dreams. About us. The three of us."

Togami felt his eyebrows rise. "Oh?"

"Just some silly things. Naegi was late to wake up for classes all the time, and the two of us would bang on his door to get him to wake up. I always brought a candy bar or granola bar to class because I knew you drank coffee for a diet. And you would purposely stay up late at night with us to make sure Naegi got his homework done before we played chess or billiards or some other game." Togami watched as her face softened. "Though we have met under less than ideal conditions, the memories I have of us… We had fun. We relied on each other. And I'm happy we didn't lose that here."

Togami could feel his cheeks warm. "Yes, well… I suppose it makes sense that, if we spent a significant amount of time together prior to the memory loss, we would naturally gravitate back towards one another. But…" Shrugging, he glanced down at the stack of books and muttered, "I must admit, things have been much more tolerable here because of you and Naegi. I am…grateful…that you asked me to assist you in this investigation."

Kirigiri slowly nodded, then chuckled. "Well, I won't put you on the spot anymore. I just needed to ask this favor and get this off my chest." Her voice became serious once again as she said, "I'll do what I can to finish this part of the investigation as quickly as possible. And I will keep you updated on my progress. If I find that Monokuma has unlocked a particular location that I think would interest you, I will let you know. But thank you for trusting me with this."

"You are our Ultimate Detective," Togami noted. Kirigiri nodded once more, turned, and left Togami alone in the library. Togami's gaze wandered back to his stock of folders and notebooks, and he inhaled and slowly exhaled before returning to his task.