The Lies That Bind Us – Part Fifteen: The Truth

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A/N: -hides-

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"He had been deceiving you," Kikyou told Sesshoumaru. "You thought that you’d been doing what you do for the public good when, in fact, you’ve only been benefiting his personal whims all along."

"Elaborate," Sesshoumaru said simply.

Kikyou lifted the small cup of tea in her hands to her mouth. She had insisted that the two move into the modest kitchen set off from the dining room since the lighting was much better. It had been a good decision; the room seemed more homely and at odds with their topic of discussion.

"He’s a liar," she said firmly. "Everything that you have done while working under him was a front, leaving you to cover up his mistakes."

"How do you know this?" Sesshoumaru’s own cup sat in front of him, untouched. To some, it may have shown impoliteness to not drink offered tea, but, in fact, he was quite respectfully listening to what Kikyou had to say.

"Naraku’s an idiot. He has such an over-inflated ego that he thinks he’ll never be caught. Because of this, he keeps a casebook, his version of a trophy case. In order to keep all of his lies straight, he has to keep logs of everything he does. His big-headedness is what makes him keep said casebook in plain sight."

What she was saying registered in Sesshoumaru’s mind, and he regarded her with cynicism. "You are telling me that you have been to Naraku’s home?"

Kikyou nodded. "Only that one time. His house - well, more like a mansion - is secreted away, quite a distance from HQ. I may very well be the only person outside of his inner circle who knows where he lives."

"I don’t know where he lives."

"Well, that tells you something, doesn’t it?" she replied wryly, sipping at her tea.

Sesshoumaru let that pass without comment. "About the casebook?"

"He had begun to trust me. I have no idea why. Probably because I did what he needed done without question. I really believed that what I was doing benefited the common man." She paused, standing and stepping over to the counter, where she dropped a few more tealeaves into her empty cup. She set the cup on the counter as she turned on the range, setting her royal blue teapot over the open flame. There was enough water inside to afford her another cup; she didn’t have to worry about Sesshoumaru, after all.

"The casebook was inside the glass coffee table in his den. I had no idea that it was even a real book until I tripped the switch with my foot. The wooden panel closest to the couch that I was sitting on swung upward. Curiosity led me to open it... and inside was every single case that he’d assigned and what it was meant to cover up." She made a face. "I’d been used to bring down someone to whom Naraku owed a huge debt, for one. I had no time to look through it, though; I’d only been left alone for a few moments. I snapped the panel back into place just as he re-entered. I don’t even remember why I was there that day, to tell you the truth. Anyway, I waited a week before resigning, hoping that he wouldn’t suspect anything, though I suppose he did. I’m fairly sure that he has heightened security by now. After all, I’m still alive, and I know where he lives. A bad combination for Naraku."

Sesshoumaru had been silent and stoic throughout her monologue. Finally, he said, "Why did you fail to take what you knew to a higher authority? There is another facility in Mibu, not too far from here."

Kikyou’s brown eyes flamed with indignation. "There is no way that they would believe me without proof, and there was no way that I could get back into my FBI credentials-"

"So you ran away," Sesshoumaru finished, a bit of disdain creeping into his voice.

"What did you expect me to do?" Kikyou bit out. The teapot began to whistle behind her, but she ignored it for the moment, fixing Sesshoumaru with an angry stare. "Would you prefer it if I had stayed on the force, killing for Naraku’s underhanded reasons?"

"Yes," he replied succinctly. "That is exactly what I’m implying."

She stared incredulously at him, her mouth slightly open. "What?"

"If you had remained in your station, you could have saved several lives from being destroyed by spreading the word, raising suspicion among your colleagues. Many already suspect Naraku of being less than honorable, but they lack a reason to turn against him. You have forced Naraku to pick another killer from his ranks. Even before that, can you fathom those that were killed because of your desertion? All of your cases were reassigned."

"To you, I suppose," she said sourly, turning and snatching the teapot off the flame before it could drive her insane with its incessant trilling.

"In part," he conceded. "But for now, we must be concerned with more important things..." He picked up his cup of lukewarm tea and circled the table, coming to a stop at the open window. With a swift movement, he stuck his arm outside and upended the cup. A startled yelp came from the bushes below and a man’s head came into view, his dark brown hair matted with tea as he spluttered.

"Well, well. Who do we have here?" Sesshoumaru said, eyeing the slightly plump man.

Kikyou watched in interest, the teapot cooling once again. The man wiped a bit of tea from his face, blinked, then muttered, barely audibly, "Oh, great. Miroku-sama’s going to kill me..."

-

Assured that her face betrayed no sign of her previous tears, Sango pulled the door open and stepped through. The now-familiar living room stretched before her. She had no idea how long she’d been in the kitchen, but the human element in the room had definitely changed. Ginta and Hakkaku had joined Yura and Kagura in front of the television, which was tuned to some anime set in either the Bakumatsu or the Meiji period, judging by the attire. Kanna hadn’t moved, but Inuyasha was now sitting up, watching the show.

"Feh. The guy’s a lightweight," he was saying as Sango entered. "I could take him."

Ginta laughed. "Doubt it, Inuyasha. He’d slam you six feet deep with his Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu."

Kagura punched Ginta in the arm, pretty hard, judging by the wince that crossed his face. "Shut up."

Sango moved into the room, emboldened by the fact that Miroku was nowhere to be found. She wasn’t quite sure that she could face him at the moment. Sitting near Inuyasha on the couch, she feigned interest in the anime. "So, what’s on?"

Inuyasha shrugged. "Ask Ginta. He’s the anime nerd." Despite his vehement opposition to Miroku’s bringing Sango to the Chateau, he seemed to have already accepted her as one of them.

"I resent that!" Ginta called, then grinned at Sango. "It’s Rurouni Kenshin. Man, some people just don’t appreciate good television."

Not quite sure what to say to that, Sango nodded briefly. There was a protracted silence, during which a redhead clobbered a huge man with a dull-looking sword. "Inuyasha?" she ventured.

"Yeah?"

"I have this strange feeling that you trashed my house. You would’ve had to find my gun, after all... So are you going to put it back in order?"

Had Inuyasha been looking at Sango, he would have seen the dangerous portent on her face. Looking at the screen, however, he missed it, and foolishly answered, "No."

"Ah." Sango nodded calmly. "I see."

In the time it took for the others in the room to glance up at the disaster waiting to happen, Sango had already begun to pummel Inuyasha with a couch cushion.

"Ow! Hey! Miroku told me to-"

"So he told you to trash my place?!"

"Not in so many words - ah! Hey, that’s attached! Ow!"

Before she had finished exacting sweet, sweet revenge (and venting Miroku-related frustration), a shout went up from the door where Kouga was stationed.

"Oh, what the hell is going on out there," Kagura snapped, pushing herself to her feet and putting a hand on her hip, obviously intending to go out there and check out the situation herself. "That damn Kouga. I bet he’s done something stupid again-"

Her voice tapered off as a form tumbled through the black curtain that served as a door. The man stumbled, made an odd sort of two-step, then became tangled in his own feet and fell flat on his face.

Everyone tensed visibly. All but Sango recognized the man on the floor, and it was because of this that she was equally apprehensive of the fallen form and whoever would come through the curtain next.

Said curtain ruffled, as if in a light wind, signaling that the exterior door must have still been open. A few muffled words, then Kouga stepped into the room, carefully placing his foot on the small of the prone man’s back. The look on his face was positively murderous; his blue eyes glinted angrily and glared at the man as if he wanted to spit on him.

"He got caught," Kouga managed, practically shaking with fury.

"What?" Kagura fired, not at Kouga, but at the man on the floor. "Hachi, you incompetent fool!"

Practically cowering into the floor at the sound of his name, Hachi murmured, "I’m sorry!"

"You’re sorry?" Inuyasha howled, bolting up from the couch. "What if he followed you back here?"

Kouga met Inuyasha’s eyes. "Didya notice how I said that he was caught, not that he was seen?" He jerked a thumb over his shoulder, indicating the stationary black curtain. "Guess who’s waiting outside?"

Inuyasha swore and took a step forward, but Kouga spoke up again before he could advance any further. "Don’t. She’s out there, too. Kikyou."

The pale-haired man’s eyes widened slightly, and he stared at Kouga as if waiting for him to refute what he’d just said. When no such denial came forth, his fists clenched at his sides and he spun on his heels, retreating through the door that had been Sango’s escape route. Obviously, there was much more through that door that just a kitchen.

Kouga looked after him for a while, then removed his foot from Hachi. He debated kicking him for a moment, then thought better of it. "I’m bringing ‘em in," he told the room, exiting.

Throughout this entire exchange, Sango had been perched on the couch, listening with agent’s ears. She couldn’t rationalize Inuyasha’s response, but she could tell by the tight-lipped demeanor of everyone else (except Kagura, who looked fairly interested, and Kanna, who was still sewing) that the person waiting outside with this Kikyou person was none other than the minion of Naraku that had been trailing her.

Hachi rose to his hands, shaking all over, and slunk over to rest his back against the nearest wall. Hakkaku approached him. "Hey, if nobody else does, I understand. Sesshoumaru’s nothing if not a good agent."

"At least you ferrets know talent when you see it," Sesshoumaru said as he came in, locking eyes with each of them in turn but favoring Sango with the most intense gaze. "Well, I would be proud of predicting your mutiny were I still currying Naraku’s approval."

Sango said nothing to this, but couldn’t hold back a small sound when a woman that looked every bit as stoic as Sesshoumaru, if not more so, joined the group. Kouga followed her, crossing his arms and looking the part of a surly bodyguard. "Miko..."

"All right," Kagura snapped before Sango could manage another word. "I want to know what the hell’s going on here. Is this some kind of Bring Your Cop to HQ Day? Because if it is, I really think we should have put it to a vote first." Her hand flickered toward her hair momentarily, the motion seemingly unconscious.

"They can bring down Naraku," Hachi said quietly. "They know things."

"The sniveling one is correct," Kikyou agreed. "We know what we need to expose Naraku’s treachery, and where to get it."

"Well," came a cheery voice. Miroku entered with a flutter of curtains. "I suppose we’ll just hear you out, then. And Kouga, never leave the door open again." His voice was light, but there was a graveness there that made Kouga nod his assent.

Miroku plopped down on the couch near where Sango was standing and looked around at the others. "Why are you all standing? This is sanctuary; sit. Our visitors are welcome here, as long as they don’t try anything."

Sango sat back down beside Miroku, trying her best not to meet his eyes. The situation between them seemed more than a little awkward at the moment.

Luckily, she wasn’t forced to deal with it. As everyone else took a seat, Sesshoumaru began to speak and the occupants of the room paid rapt attention.

-

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