"You… Hashira… You're a Hashira!" Mukago's expression was full of panic. Seeing Ivan covered in marks, she stuttered.
As the Lower Rank Four, Mukago had sickly pale skin. Two dark red stripes ran across her cheeks. A pair of small white horns poked out from her long white hair.
Her eyes were huge with deep red pupils, and the number Four was engraved in her left eye. Right now Mukago looked like she was about to cry.
"Are… are you here to kill me?" Tears filled Mukago's eyes. She didn't want to die…
"Lower Four. You're Lower Rank Four of the Twelve Kizuki?"
"No, you've got the wrong person."
Mukago immediately covered her right eye with her small hand. "Wait, wrong one."
Realizing her mistake, Mukago quickly switched hands and covered the other eye.
Ivan: "...."
She stubbornly denied it. "Big brother, I'm not the Lower Rank Four you're looking for. My name is Mukago. I've lived here for a long time."
"You think I believe that?"
Seeing Ivan walking toward her, Mukago reacted like a scared kitten. She pulled her head back with a snap and closed the door.
She leaned against it, tears flowing nonstop. She wiped her eyes with her sleeve, sobbing as she tried to psych herself up. "Don't be scared, Mukago. It's… (sob) it's just a Hashira. Since you escaped from a Hashira before, you can do it this time too."
She kept trying to build up her courage.
"Blood Demon Art: Leaping Antelope!" Mukago gave a light jump.
Her legs transformed with blood threads, becoming agile and slender like an antelope's. But Mukago felt one Blood Demon Art wasn't safe enough, so she whispered, "Blood Demon Art: Walking on Air."
But the moment she jumped onto the roof beams and prepared to smash through the ceiling to escape.. woosh!
A powerful transparent tentacle shot through the wooden door and wrapped around her slender waist like a whip. Before Mukago could react, a massive force dragged her through the shattered door in a shower of wood splinters.
She was now right in front of Ivan.
Tears still sparkled in Mukago's eyes, but when she felt the tentacle around her waist, she suddenly stopped crying and smiled.
"So you're a demon too. Did that lord send you? What does he want with me?" As long as it wasn't a Hashira from the Demon Slayer Corps, Mukago felt relieved. After all, they were on the same side. Though she didn't know why Ivan, who was covered in marks, hadn't gotten an Upper Rank position.
But she didn't dare ask. Maybe it was just that lord's arrangement.
"That lord? You mean that cowardly turtle Muzan?" Ivan examined Mukago's neck like he was deciding where to start. His gaze made Mukago shiver. Then her voice trembled.
"You… how dare you say that lord's name directly? You're not a demon! You're human!" In an instant, Mukago's hair stood on end. A terrifying thought popped into her head.
Could it be that this guy wasn't one of that lord's demons but really a Hashira from the Demon Slayer Corps?
"I'm really sorry. I've had a speech impediment since I was little. Please don't believe anything I just said."
"Do I look stupid?"
"Waaah! Please spare my life. I really don't want to die. There are so many things I haven't tried yet. Drinking coffee in the morning, shopping at that new store, wearing a pretty kimono…" Mukago rattled off a long list of things she wanted to do before dying. Tears streamed down her face as she looked at Ivan and finally choked out, "I don't want to die."
Ivan frowned slightly. He tried to recall if there was such a cowardly Lower Rank demon in the original Demon Slayer story. Unfortunately, Mukago hadn't left any impression on him.
"If you want to live, tell me something valuable about yourself."
The moment Ivan spoke, Mukago's face, which had been prepared to die, flashed with surprise.
As Lower Rank Four, she knew how the Demon Slayer Corps operated. When they encountered demons, they usually fought with everything they had to kill them. Even regular members were like that, let alone the Hashira.
"You really will spare me?" Mukago's eyes widened as she looked at Ivan in disbelief.
Ivan didn't want to waste any more time. His face darkened. "One life for one life. Tell me the locations of the other members of the Twelve Kizuki. Maybe I'll consider letting you go."
He didn't ask Mukago about Muzan's location. He already knew it would be pointless.
"No problem! But I don't know much. I'm only Lower Rank Four after all. I don't know where the Upper Ranks are."
"Tell me the closest one to here."
"Lower Rank Two, Rokuro. He lives in a village about a dozen kilometers away. I saw him not long ago. He's obsessed with getting stronger. He's probably eating right now." The extremely cowardly Mukago immediately sold out her fellow demon. Of course, the word "fellow" didn't really exist among demons.
"Keep going."
Ivan pulled back the tentacles wrapped around Mukago's waist.
"Oh, and don't even think about running. I planted something small inside your body. If you get more than twenty meters away from me, it will… boom. Just like this." Ivan smiled and opened his right hand.
The next second, dozens of sharp spikes erupted from all over Mukago's body. The intense pain made Mukago, who had been looking for a chance to escape, drop to her knees in front of Ivan. She curled up and let out a pained cry.
"I know demons are immortal, so that thing grew along your bones. Unless you have the guts to peel your body open with a knife and cut along every bone. You'd have to clean out over three hundred bones.
Oh, and a friendly reminder. The demon blood in your body can't corrode my tentacles. Their defense is beyond your imagination."
With that, Ivan manipulated the tentacles inside Mukago's body and returned them to normal.
"I won't run. Waaah, I really won't run." Mukago cried her eyes out. She was starting to wonder if Lord Muzan had a twin brother. Their methods were cruel in the exact same way. If Ivan hadn't cursed that lord earlier, she would have thought Ivan was him.
"Alright. You have ten minutes to take me to Lower Rank Two, Rokuro. Otherwise… you know what happens. Stop crying. Crying counts toward the time too."
"Yes, yes, my lord."
Mukago used her kimono sleeve to wipe the tears from her face, but the more she wiped, the more they flowed.
How was her life so miserable? Mukago wailed inside but didn't dare make a sound.
She could only walk ahead and lead the way for Ivan.
"Um… (sniff) My lord, the Twelve Kizuki are ranked by strength. I'm only Lower Rank Four while he's Lower Rank Two. He's much stronger than me. You should prepare yourself. I see you didn't even bring a Nichirin sword. Maybe you should go get one?"
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Boys! Please collect the new COTE book!
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Read 12 Advance Chapters—P@t- Captain69