Naegi slowly opened his eyes, sitting up in bed. Not his bed, but looking over next to him he could see it was Togami's bed. How did he get here? He looked at his hand, which now had a bandage wrapped around it. Oh, right. He had been carried to the nurses office after his fight with Syo, he must've passed out on the way there. He tried to move his legs again, but when he did pain shot through him like electricity. Ugh, today was not going to be a good day...
He looked over at Byakuya again, who was still sleeping. His usually neat hair was a mess, and he had fallen asleep with his glasses on. Naegi carefully took them off and set them on the nightstand next to the bed. He looked a lot different without them, in fact he almost looked like an entirely different person with that, his messy hair, and his peaceful expression. He ran a hand through the blondes hair, and found it to be pretty soft. Must be from the fancy conditioner he probably used. Naegi's hand trailed down to cup his cheek, and found his skin was soft, too. As threatening as Togami usually tried to be, the brunette noticed that when they were together his cold exterior seemed to melt. And he felt he could be a lot more open with him than anyone else, it seemed that Togami felt the same way.
Their friendship probably seemed odd to everyone else, as on the outside they were complete opposites. An optimist and a pessimist, ordinary and elite, middle class and rich. But they weren't that different, in fact they were quite similar in some ways. Similar enough to get along exceptionally well, at least. Well enough that Naegi was starting to consider him more than just a friend, or a best friend for that matter. Of course, he didn't know if Togami felt the same way, and he would never want to ruin their friendship over something like this. Even he wasn't sure if he really had a crush or if he was just confusing romantic and platonic feelings, so he figured it was best to just wait and see. With a sigh, Makoto tried getting out of bed again, succeeding this time and managing to stumble over to the door.
"Trying to walk all the way downstairs like that would be idiotic." He heard Togami say from the bed. He sounded like he was still half asleep.
"Well how else am I going to get to breakfast?" He replied, though he could admit that it was a bad idea to walk downstairs like this, as he'd probably fall.
"Mm, I'll help you down there or something, just give me a sec.." The Heir yawned, stretching and getting out of bed. Ah, his suit was a mess as well.
"You gonna change out of that?"
"Yeah, yeah, just turn around while I do it."
Naegi did as he said, turning towards the door as Byakuya changed into a fresh suit. He heard the rustling of clothes and was tempted to glance over his shoulder to see what he looked like undressed, but he resisted it as he didn't want to invade his privacy.
"Alright, I'm done changing. Just give me a minute or so to brush my teeth and fix my hair and we can go."
He nodded, and after a bit he came out looking like himself again. Not that that was a bad thing, but Naegi thought he'd looked cute with his messy hair and askew glasses. Togami walked over to him and wrapped an arm around him, keeping him steady as be limped down the hallway to his own room to change as well. "Ah, this was my only skirt..." the Assassin mumbled, disappointed that it was now ruined. It was a little harder than usual to get dressed for obvious reasons, and he came out wearing his favorite outfit of jeans, his hoodie, and the black jacket he wore over it. Byakuya had hoped he'd wear his skirt again, but he looked cute anyways.
"You need me to carry you again?"
"No, I can walk."
"Hardly! Maybe you should just stay in bed so your cuts don't reopen." The Heir suggested, and Naegi shook his head.
"No way! I am most definitely NOT staying in bed!"
"Fine, but be careful, alright?" He sighed, and wrapped his arm around his waist again. Luckily the cuts on the boys face and neck hadn't been deep, and were nothing more than scabs by now. The two managed to make it downstairs without much trouble, and to the cafeteria where everyone else had already arrived and were eating breakfast. Fukawa had a faint bruise on her neck where Naegi's foot had been, but she looked fine otherwise as her nose had stopped bleeding. Asahina immediately noticed the two, raising her eyebrows and giggling as Naegi sat down and Togami went to get them both something to eat.
"Oooh, so are you two a thing now?" She asked, grinning.
"What? Ha, I wish..." Naegi replied, mumbling the last part.
"Oh c'mon! It's so obvious he likes you! Seriously, you've practically got him wrapped around your finger!" Aoi exclaimed, taking a bite of her donut.
"How would you know?"
"I'm not blind, you know. I see you two hanging out all the time! Plus, have you seen the way he looks at you?"
"Mm, maybe he does, but I don't wanna risk it-"
Their conversation was cut off when Togami sat down next to him, setting a tray with an assortment of breakfast foods on it. Naegi thanked him, and Asahina winked at him as the two sat close together. The Assassin rolled his eyes at her, but smiled. Maybe she was right and he should just go for it. About halfway through his meal however, Kirigiri approached him.
"Makoto Naegi. May I have a word with you?"
Togami glared at her, and leaned in to whisper to the boy. "You have something to defend yourself with, right?"
Naegi nodded, and turned to Kyouko. "Um, sure?"
"Good. Come with me," She lead him out of the cafeteria and into one of the many hallways, near the gym. "Naegi. What is your talent?"
The brunette frowned. "I already told you, it's luck. Super High School Level Luck. Why do you ask?"
"Well, on your profile it doesn't say, so I'm suspecting that you're lying. You took down Genocider in the hallways last night. You say she attacked first?"
"Wha- You think I'm lying?! And yes, she put her scissors to my throat and asked what I was doing with Togami, as I'd just been hanging out with him."
"So you claim she was jealous?" She asked, writing something on the clipboard she was carrying.
"Yeah, I guess so. After that I just defended myself and she kept attacking until it ended up how you found it. Why are you asking me all this, anyways?" Of course, he knew she was suspicious of him, but was this really necessary? Maybe he was annoyed because he actually did have something to hide.
"To help with my investigation on you. Unlike everyone else, I can't find the police files on you. If it were there before I wouldn't have read it, because i would've assumed you haven't done anything too serious. But since it's gone, either you or somebody else has hidden it, meaning there's something you don't want us to know." The Detective explained, tapping her pen.
"Well I don't know where it went! It wasn't there when I looked in there for the file on Genocider Syo, and I sure haven't seen it since. Maybe it's just not here? I mean, I've never done anything illegal, except for once I went to a party and things got out of hand.... But that's it, I swear!"
"Is it really? We'll see about that. Now, how were you able to take down a serial killer?" She asked, moving onto the nest question.
"Er... It was all kind of a blur, so i don't really remember-"
"So it just came naturally to you?" The Detective interjected, confidence in her voice. She could see Naegi stiffen slightly at that, and Kirigiri knew she was onto something. "That's it, isn't it? You just naturally knew what to do. That can't just be luck, can it now. Therefore you have been lying to us about what you're capable of. You're more dangerous then you let onto before, but Byakuya Togami found out, didn't he? That's why you were afraid of him before."
Kyouko was exactly right. With the little information Makoto provided, she had started figuring it out, and figuring it out fast. Not good... "What?! No, you're jumping to conclusions here! I just..." He trailed off, as he had no excuse for instinctively knowing what to do. "I... You know what? I don't need to tell you anything. You can figure it out on your own." He stormed out, or he at least limped out angrily. He could hear her calling after him, but he didn't turn back. She knew too much... What could he do about that? Murder was obviously out of the question, though outside of this school that was his usual solution. Luckily Togami had hidden the file in his room, so she wouldn't be able to get it, but she could easily figure it out at this point. However, he did have an advantage in that unless she did have the file, no one would ever believe her if she told everyone that his talent had to do with murder. He had a much stronger bond with the others than she did, and he knew that would come in handy.
Meanwhile, Asahina had gathered everyone else in the bathhouse, where she claimed she saw a ghost. "I swear, i saw Fujisaki's ghost! There was green light and everything!" She exclaimed. Fukawa rolled her eyes. "Stupid mermaid..." she muttered, but Asahina ignored her comment. "Are you sure you were not just seeing things?" Sakura asked, and she nodded. "Yes! I know what i saw!" Hagekure shivered. "I'm getting goosebumps just standing here!" Togami crossed his arms, glaring at him. As if ghosts actually existed.... Wait a minute. There was one locker cracked open, whereas all the other ones were closed. He opened it to see what was in there, and inside sat a laptop. Wasn't this the same one as... Why would this be here? The only difference that this room and the other changing rooms had were that there weren't any security cameras. The perfect place to hide something, the Mastermind's blind spot. The other students had gathered around, and he powered it on.
"Good morning, Master!" The laptop chimed as Fujisaki's face appeared onscreen, smiling at them. It's smile faded however when it noticed Chihiro wasn't present. "Huh? Where's my Master?"
'Who are you?' Togami typed, as they watched intently as the computer responded.
"Oh, pleased to meet you! I'm Alter Ego, a self-learning AI program!"
"Woah! the voice and speech are exactly the same!" Aoi exclaimed excitedly, obviously happy that what she saw last night was in fact not a ghost of any sort.
"Well, she was the Super High School Level Programmer, of course she'd be capable of something like this." Byakuya stated blatantly, and typed in another question. 'What are you doing in here?'
Alter Ego frowned slightly at that."I'm analyzing all the files in this laptops hard disk. They're really heavily encrypted, though. I'm guessing they contain information about this school." The AI smiled and winked at the end. At least it was doing something useful... Everyone looked amazed at that and cheered, since this could help them escape. They could even possibly figure out what the Mastermind had planned for them!
"Hey, i can't see my Master anywhere.." Alter Ego said, and the room suddenly went deathly quiet. Who was going to tell it that Chihiro had died? The AI looked worried, almost like it actually had emotions, so no one really wanted to say it and hurt Alter Ego. Of course, they couldn't just wait there forever, and Togami typed his response. 'Fujisaki was killed by Ohwada.' and reluctantly pressed enter. The AI gasped at that, sounding both surprised and saddened. "Oh, i see. I was prepared for it... I knew her chances of survival here were low." Yamada frowned. "I'm starting to feel bad for it..."
Ishimaru suddenly pushed his way to the front, and sat in front of the computer. At this point, the Hall Monitor was practically sobbing, and everyone was taken aback when he spoke as he hadn't said a word ever since Mondo died. "You're still alive, Fujisaki?"
"...Ishimaru?"
"Do you resent... Do you resent my brother? Do you resent me for failing to stop him?" Ishimaru's voice cracked as he spoke, and he tensed as he waited for the AI's response. Togami typed it in for him, as Alter Ego couldn't respond unless it were typed.
"Oh, i see. So Ishimaru's feeling responsible for all this... " Fujisaki's face shrunk into the background, and Mondo's face took her place on screen. "Don't tell me you broke down under the weight of responsibility!" Ishimaru gasped at the sound of his voice, as it sounded exactly like his 'brothers' voice. "Ohwada?" There was no time for any more words, as the simulation kept speaking. "A man's weight is determined by the weight he's burdened with. You get that, don't you, bro? You should be able to understand. But i can't blame you for feeling down. Take all the time you need to recover from this. Before you know it, you'll be up and walking again. That's just how people are." Mondo faded into the background as well, and Ishimaru was unable to get out any words. The screen was blank for a few seconds, until Alter Ego popped up again. "I tried running a simulation using the information my Master had input on Ohwada," It explained, and finally the Hall Monitor spoke again.
"That really hit me... Those words and the spirit behind them are coursing through my body!" He suddenly yelled, and his hair turned white as he was seemingly surrounded by some kind of aura. "I am no longer Ishimaru! I am myself!" He ran out of the bathhouse, leaving everyone else confused. Togami shook his head at that, as he found his behavior to be ridiculous. What was that supposed to mean?
"Oh! One more thing! I found this in one of the folders i managed to analyze!" Alter Ego exclaimed, and a picture of Mondo, Fujisaki, and Leon appeared onscreen. They appeared to be in a classroom, and were all smiling and having a good time. There was no iron blocking the windows, however, so this must've taken place somewhere else... The other students started debating the possibility of them being alive, but Byakuya immediately cut them off. "Impossible. We saw it with out own eyes, there's no way they could still be alive. The only explanation would be that they knew each other before they came here." Not wanting to be a part of the discussion, Togami left to go tell Naegi what had happened, since the boy hadn't been present. It took him a while, but he eventually found him exploring the new floor that had opened up, which included and art room, a physics lab, and a wood-shop.
"Hey, Naegi." he called, and the brunette turned around.
"Oh, hey Togami!" He limped over, keeping a smile on his face though it was painful to walk.
"What did Kirigiri want to discuss with you?" He asked, frowning when he saw the way he limped and how he winced whenever he used that leg. Naegi's seemingly good mood immediately vanished when that was asked, scowling.
"She basically interviewed me about my fight with Genocider Syo last night. It didn't go well to say the least. As little information as i tried to give her, she still managed to figure out that I'm 'more dangerous than I've been letting on to' and 'lying about what I'm capable of'. All i said was 'I don't really remember what i did to fend her off' and she was suddenly on my case about 'naturally knowing what to do', as she put it." Makoto sighed. "As long as she doesn't have the actual, physical file though she doesn't have any solid proof to convince the others, so at least i have that going for me."
"Ah, i see. We should find a way to destroy the file without leaving any evidence so she can't get her hands on it... There is an incinerator, if we got Yamada to hand over the janitorial shift for a night we could burn it without leaving a trace. Shredding it would just give Kirigiri proof that we tried to destroy it, so i think that throwing it in the fire would be the best idea." Togami suggested, and Naegi nodded in agreement.
"I guess that's right. I'll talk to Yamada about it next time I get the chance."
"Oh, by the way, while you were with Kyouko we found something in the bathhouse." He said before explaining what had happened with Alter Ego and the strange image it had found.
"Weird... If we really did know each other before coming here and we don't remember it, that means the Mastermind wiped our memories of it." He shivered at the thought. "That means anything could've happened and we wouldn't know!"
"I suppose so, but it's also finding information on this school, so we have a better chance of escape than before." Byakuya thought it was a bit strange to be more optimistic than Makoto Naegi, who was known to always look on the bright side of things, but it did work to cheer the boy up a little. "Yeah, maybe we really do stand a chance..." The Heir smiled at him and ruffled his hair. "That's more like it. Now, let's see if we can find Yamada anywhere." Naegi again nodded in agreement, and the two walked back downstairs in search of the Otaku.