22 CH. 22: The Old Mayor Is Desparate

"Spare me! Please spare me! I'll never dare to do something like this again, just let me live! This town can't go on without me, I'll properly compensate for my wrongs! Moreover, Demon Slayers can't kill people right?"

The mayor was an old slippery fox who had lived for decades in the end. As he pleaded for his life, he deliberately revealed his withered matchstick-like chest, hoping to elicit some sympathy. At the same time, he brought up the Demon Slayer Corps rules, attempting to raise his chances of survival.

But unfortunately for him, his opponent was Kenshi.

"What a pity. I'm not an official Demon Slayer member yet. My mission is... Forget it. Hanaka has probably ascended to heaven already while scum like you only deserve hell!"

Kenshi was already before him while the Mayor's eyes fell on the shining blade descending towards his neck. He let out a loud shriek and closed his eyes but nothing happened, he slowly opened his eyes only to see Kenshi holding the blade inches away from his neck.

"Actually, there is a way you can survive, tell me everything about the demon, from beginning to the end. If I sense any lie or if I found later that you've omitted something, you will have a more gruesome death than the demon." Kenshi said, as he breathed heavily.

He had many questions, who was that demon? How did he escape Muzan's control? And how did he create these demon seeds that can be implanted into people? Not only that, the people who were implanted with these seeds actually could roam around in sunlight!

"I will tell, I will tell, just let me live. I will tell everything I know!" The mayor suddenly put his forehead on the ground and started begging.

Kenshi turned his head and looked at Kanao who was just a few meters in front of him.

Taking the blade away from the mayor, he put his hand on the Mayor's collar and dragged him along with him, his left leg still injured giving him torturous pain. Slowly he made his way towards Kanao.

Reaching there, he let go of the mayor's collar and squatted down and checked on her. She was breathing steadily, and seemed to be only unconscious, he also checked if she was poisoned by the pollen dust, seeing her skin didn't turn blue or yellowish color he sighed in relief. Since he didn't know anything about medicine, he could only assume that she was only unconscious.

With the villagers panicking, the nearby demon slayers probably were alerted, so he just needed to wait, it's not like he could do much with the injured leg.

He looked at the Mayor's wrinkled face. "Now, start speaking!" He put his sword on the old neck of the Mayor.

"There were two people that day, yeah that's right two people, one was a pale looking child who had blonde hair, probably 14 or 15 years old, and another was the demon you killed, they both came to my mansion to meet me on a festive night."

"I think it's 5 years ago, they were not guests but demons, they killed all the guards, I couldn't do anything, they offered me a choice to help them and become become an immortal, so I and some important merchants and noble families in the town discussed and decided to submit to the demon. I did this out of fear, please spare me, I personally didn't kill anyone." The mayor started begging again.

"How did he turn you all into a half-demon or whatever he calls people like you? And tell me more about the boy you mentioned." Kenshi asked with an annoyed voice as his blade touched the mayor's neck.

Shuttering, the mayor opened his mouth.

"We don't know anything, he used to inject us with some kind of red colored liquid, at first, most people were very doubtful, but seeing how our health and strength improved, we willingly became his servants and he also had some kind of a base under that big Sakura tree, it was him who made me transplant the tree there."

"As for the boy, I don't know anything about him, he just appeared that day, I only saw him beside the demon for about a month, after that I never saw him." The mayor said as drops of sweat rolled down his forehead.

'A base? And little to no information about the other person? He was also probably a demon, but who could it be?' As questions raced in his mind, Kenshi looked at the Mayor.

"Did that boy have any name? I mean, you must've heard when they were talking to each other, what did they used to call each other." He asked looking straight into the mayor's eyes.

"The boy used to call the tall demon by a name Hikaru. And the boy's name was, name was, I don't remember it." The mayor's voice suddenly turned high pitched at the end of the sentence.

"Seems like you still like to hide things from me, I might as well just directly kill you, maybe I can get information from the other servants who are just like you." Kenshi's blade moved closer to the mayor's neck as blood seeped out from the neck.

"You can't...!" Kanao who was beside him slowly muttered as her hand extended and desperately pulled on his sleeve. "You can't...kill people!"

"Kanao...are you okay?" Kenshi looked at Kanao feeling a sense of relief that she was talking. Well, the truth is, he was just trying to get the information by scaring the old guy, how could he kill this bastard so easily.

"I was just feeling dizzy after inhaling that pollen, I was also seeing illusions, and passed out. Did the demon die?" She asked in a small voice.

His expression became blank as he looked at her. "Yeah it died, but this scumbag is still alive. You fell unconscious so you might not have heard. This guy is also one of the culprits behind the death of Hanaka. Not only that, he acted as the demon's lackey, delivering innocent and unaware travelers into the demon's mouth to be its meals! Even so, you still want to stop me?"

A trace of struggle flashed through Kanao's eyes but her grip didn't loosen at all.

She slowly sat up, feeling strength returning into her body.

The mayor who was under Kenshi's blade was scared silly. He had never imagined that this demon slayer would actually dare take action.

"No! You can't kill me!" The mayor screamed out of control. "And I wasn't the only one doing this! Over seventy of the townspeople were the servants of that demon. So you can't kill me, right? If you kill me, you also have to kill all of them!"

The mayor seemed deranged, willing to say anything to survive. As long as he wasn't the one dying in the end.

"Is that so... The townspeople..." Kanao's head was lowered, she slowly started understanding the situation. Her gaze became dim as the moonlight tonight unable to penetrate the darkness in her eyes.

Kenshi's face scrunched, his eyes revealing fury.

Seeing his eyes. "You can't!" Kanao desperately shook her head as she pulled his left hand closer to her. "If you kill people... you won't be able to join the Demon Slayer Corps. Big sister... will be sad!"

Shinobu...

Kenshi's struggles gradually ceased. Things like the Demon Slayer Corps were unimportant to him but if he caused trouble for Shinobu...it would be bad, he didn't have any real background family to start with, if the demon slayer corps investigated him, he would get caught for lying, and Shinobu would be also affected.

He deeply inhaled before finally calming down.

"I got it. Let me go!" He said.

Kanao also finally relaxed, releasing the arm she was holding.

"For all the things that happened in this town, he will definitely be blamed, he will probably be put to death by the police, so there's no need to do anything." Kanao seems to forget her coin flipping habit and just started talking directly to him.

The mayor's face turned pale hearing what she said.

"Th-That can't be, I won't accept that!" The mayor who already seemed to be a madman shouted in rage.

Kenshi's eyes shimmered seeing this.

"Tell me the things that you're trying to hide, I will make sure you're not punished." He whispered, trying to get into mayor's head.

"I will tell, Yeah, I remember now, his name is, something foreign, like Ed-"

Boooooom

Before the astonished eyes of Kenshi and Kanao, the Mayor of Sakurai Town, Sakurai Kujiro's body exploded into a puddle of blood.