Hey guys, I'm back with another chapter for Am I Demon! This one is a bit longer than usual as I'm going to start expanding on the lore for the story. Oh and one last thing, Mara is just Margaret now just so that I don't get confused when writing her and Maka in a scene together.


Chapter 6: A Dance With The Devil

A mess, that was just about the only word that could accurately describe what Katsuyori Begtse's office was. Though, maybe one word wasn't good enough to describe it, two words would be better. The room was more of a justifiable mess. Katsuyori's room was filled with papers and tapes of identifications of demon convicts, a projector for any analysis on his hunts, an embarrassing amount of book stacks for research purposes, and a couple of his family pictures for personalization reasons. Yes Katsuyori was living the Beleth Hunter life, Beleth Hunter is the highest, non headmaster, rank in Demon Hunter and was awarded for killing an Primordial Demon convict, which were so rare, only 23 of them were officially spotted by Hunters. Despite the massive accomplishment it must have been for a Hunter to receive such a rank, Katsuyori was more focused on looking after his son, Paul, then anything else. He was trying to organise the amount of paper he had into stacks which would help at least make the room cleaner, until he started to feel an itch on his branding. Realising it was a call, Katsuyori allowed his brand to start projecting an image. It was Katsuyori's son Paul, and he was sitting at a bed.

"Son! Great to see you again. Headmaster Malphas recalled me about your situation, if you need help against this Ravana, we can go ahead and take him out."

"Actually dad, I didn't call you for help, well actually I did, but not for that reason." Paul held his breath. "It's back."

Katsuyori's smile turned into a concerning look. "I see, have you done anything bad while at the school?"

Paul tried to defend himself. "Well I did get into a fight with one of the students... But only because he asked for it!"

Katsuyori had an embarrassed smile back to him, all too familiar with his son's. "What am I going to do with you son?" Paul annoyingly looked away to a different direction. "Well try not to go looking for fights next time, you are staying there for awhile. Might as well make some new friends. I know some of them can be a pain in the ass, but try to make the best of things. Oh and how's your weapon partner, heard she's a cutie?"

Paul's face went beet red after hearing that. "H- Her name's Margaret, sh- she's pretty cool, but definitely not pretty, may be a bit annoying to deal with, but I'm glad she's my partner." Paul responded.

"Pfft, just like your mother."

"One last thing I want to ask dad, do you know Professor Stein?"

"Oh him, your mother told me about the guy. He's seems a bit outlandish, but I've heard the man's a damn good fighter and is knowledgeable in just every field of science. She even told me he knows about Demons."

Meanwhile Professor Stein was continuing his lesson on that same subject.

"Demons are ancient spirits of nature fueled by their own passion and desires of war and combat. While they may come across as savage beasts, they aren't all mindless. Most of them are solemn, poetic beings that embrace their culture."

Stein went ahead and drew a basic sketch of would a normal Demon soul would look like.

"Now what makes the history of Demons a hard subject to documentate is that their history has only been recorded for the past 1000 years and yet it's been told that they've existed for as long as mankind. What is certain, is that 400 years ago, humans came into contact with Demons. Despite early opposition, both species made a clear pact with each other. Humans would rule the skies above while Demons conquered the land below. This truce would continue until 200 years ago When Demons started appearing in our world, in a far off land, as bloodthirsty warriors looking to conquer for themselves. At that time, humans didn't know what to do, as they had never been prepared to face such a threat like that, until other Demons started appearing to help humans which caused further confusion. You see, Demons are creatures not unlike Kishins, they are beings that all inherently crave the desire for blood and while some of them keep the desire suppressed, others wish to let it embrace them not unlike what you of Kishins and madness. When the Demons that wanted to help the humans arrive, they offered them powers that would normally be restricted to their own souls, a power known as brands and they offered humans the opportunity to bind them into their own soul. Each brand corresponded to their own soul wavelength, and their resonance to that brand. A group of warriors volunteered to use this new power and these new demonic powers was what allowed to them to dispose of all the invaders in their own land, they became the first Demon Hunters."

Suddenly a projection of images appeared in front of the classroom. Warriors, soldiers in conflict, were gifted with these new brands of demonic power. Soon the images showed off what these powers were capable of, including creation, elemental, and structural manipulation. It left all of the students in awe, and wondered how powerful Demon Hunters can really be. Soon Maka raised her hand up once the images faded away.

"Professor Stein, how is a regular human able to even control powers as potent as the ones shown? Clearly there must be a price for them."

"Ah, a good question Miss Albarn. Demon brands are connected through the user's brain and that's what allows them to use their powers. However the brains still carry Demon essence's to it which affects their soul as well. Slowly, over the course of decades, the mind of a user of a Demon brand deteriorates far more faster than a regular human, visions of Destruction, the sounds of screaming, and smell of blood soon starts getting into the senses of Hunter. Until only a mindless, angry, and violent creature remains..."

Meanwhile Paul had just finished talking to his dad when suddenly he started feeling the repercussions over meeting his other half. His vision started getting blurry, Paul tried to look at his own hand when all he can see is a blob that somewhat resembled it. Paul tried to grab a nearby glass of water, but by the time he reached it, his body was shaking so badly he shattered the glass in a second.

"You will give in, it will only be a matter of time."

Paul soon started hearing loud noises, he couldn't tell where it was coming from but they started getting more louder and more louder until Paul leaped from his bed, and created a weapon off his brand, it was a massive meat cleaver that was almost his size. Out of pure agony Paul started mindlessly slashing the air, trying to make the noises and pain stop.

"Not today, not tomorrow, but one day…"

Paul started violently screaming but he couldn't even hear his own voice, soon his vision started getting more blurrier, his swings started getting faster and mindless, swords started sprouting from his brand and the noises started getting even louder.

"Embrace your legacy, she would do the same thing."

The moment his other side referenced his mother, Paul let out a violent, painful scream that finally broke through all the noise and returned his vision to normal. Paul had taken a look around the infirmary room and for a second couldn't recognized the ravaged mess used to be where he was resting. The walls were filled with cuts and messy slashes, the chair and table were destroyed, and the bed and its sheets were shredded in bits. All Paul could do was put himself through a corner and ponder at what destruction he could cause if he let his other half into full control. But just as he thought about all of this though, Paul took a look at his brand. It was what's causing all of this turmoil and stress to his mind. Paul contemplated cutting it off, release the pain, but realised his brand was not the main cause, it was something on the inside, something that could only be stopped from within.

Class was over by the time Stein had finished his lecture on Demons. He reminded everyone that there was a test coming next week and to study for it. As he dismissed the class, Stein grabbed a stack of class books and was about to head off until Margaret came up to him and asked if she could visit Paul.

"Please, I want to check his condition." Margaret pleaded.

"Like I would deny a Weapon to see their Meister. Come, I think Paul will be fine."

Unfortunately when they got to the infirmary room, they found the mess Paul created and Paul himself, sitting in a corner, with a dead expression. Margaret immediately ran and up and tried to comfort him but Paul's body was motionless.

"Margaret I'm going to have to let you leave for a couple of minutes.

"Hell no! Look around you professor, it must have been Ravana. I'm going to kill that son of a -"

"It was not him, I guarantee that. This is a matter that Paul and I need to discuss. I assure you that after five minutes, he's all yours."

Margaret angrily walked off the room and headed outside. It was at that point Paul could ask.

"Stein, did my mom ever have to deal with these... I don't know what to call it. But was she like this sometimes?"

Stein sat down next to Paul, grabbed one of his cigarettes and lit it.

"Yes."

Paul sighed as Stein smoked one of his cigarettes.

"But far worse." Stein answered

"What do you mean?"

"Whenever she was fighting against the Kishin eggs, your mother was always, passionate. She wasn't filled with rage, but there was this intensity that always seemed to keep building within her as a fight went on. Gradually that intensity did turn into rage and during one fight against a particularly difficult Kishin, I saw her other side. The passionate yet caring woman that I had grown to befriend turned into a violent creature of madness."

Paul looked disjointed, he knew about his mother's demon heritage and always kept that as a secret. But to know that her transformation occurred before she even met Paul's dad was something he never knew.

"That's why I want to help you." Stein proposed.

"What do you mean?"

"Ever since your mother left, I started studying about Demon biology and psychology and while I was never able to know the big picture about them, as books about Demons are incredibly rare. I have been able to find a way to treat cases like you. Where your split Demon and human personas aren't just a facade, but part of being a rare Demon half born. Every week I want to check up on you and see if your mind and body is holding well."

"Just how exactly are you going to help me anyways? A quick physical check up and a couple of questions aren't going to make my other side spontaneously go away."

Stein grabbed something out of his pockets and showed it to Paul. It was a bottle of red pills.

"Personally made, take these every morning, it'll help drive away your other half. The flip side is that you can not use your branding, these pills remove one hundred percent of your demon makeup initially, and while eventually you can start to use them again, you're going to have to learn to rely without it for now. It's time you become a Meister here Paul, and the first step is learning to fully rely on your weapon. Your clothes are on what's left of that bed. Checkups start next week. I suggest going home, you've had quite a day and you haven't even sat down on a desk yet."

"Stein, before you leave, I have one question."

Stein stopped moving to the door to listen.

"Why's Margaret so protective of me, doesn't she already know I'm a hunter and can protect myself."

"Oh, that's right, hunters don't have the luxury of a partner, they work solo. Anyways, this is Margaret's first time as being a weapon, for a long time she was never able to match soul wavelengths with anybody. It affected her performance as weapon mentally as she thought that she was different in a bad way. Until you arrived, she was ready on becoming an autonomous weapon and now she's finally found that special someone to be compatible with her. Now she wants to make sure she doesn't fail her duties of being a weapon for you and thus is the reason why she's protective of you whenever you're in danger. Don't worry though, like a lot things here, you'll get used to it. Margaret may seem a bit too juvenile with her age, but she's a good student and I'm certain you've already developed a bond with her."

And with that Stein left the room. Leaving Paul by himself to go ahead and change. After putting his clothes on, Paul exited the now destroyed infirmary room and was greeted by a massive bear hug from Margaret.

"FROM NOW ON, I AIN'T LETTING YOU OUT OF MY SIGHT!" Screamed Margaret.

"Don't worry though, like a lot things here, you'll get used to it." Stein's voice echoed back to Paul.

After remembering what Stein told him about Margaret, Paul didn't really complain about it though that didn't mean he liked getting choked to death by her so he asked her to release him. When she finally did, Paul asked her if Stein taught them anything new.

"Oh well he only talked about Demons and what you used to do, I didn't really pay too much attention, but Maka was taking a lot of notes on his lesson, more so than usual. But nothing else."

Satisfied with her answer, Paul proposed that they go home, Mara agreed and were soon out on the streets of Death City. The smiling sun soon started fading out and most students had already gotten back to their homes. Margaret and Paul almost reached their apartment as well but soon found a large package on the front entrance, it had a note intended for Paul and was signed by somebody. Paul knew whose handwriting it could be.

"It's from my dad, I told him about how I'm doing at school and how I haven't set up my room yet. He must have sent me a present from home."

"That must be one hell of a gift if it's that big."

"Well either way, you're helping me carry it to my room."

"What, why?"

"Because I helped you last night it's time for you return the favor."

Margaret groaned as she helped Paul with the giant package from home. It wasn't AS heavy as both of them would think, but it still took them some time to put in Paul's room due to it's size. By the time they reached Paul's room, Margaret sprang to their couch to rest, leaving Paul with the package in his room. Paul was about to use his branding to create a knife but realised what the implications could be. So he went to the kitchen and grabbed a nearby knife. Paul also noticed the refrigerator was nearly empty, as the only things they have came from his Weapon's so he made a note to himself about that.

When Paul finally got back to his room. He started cutting open the package paper and soon the tape off the box, he opened up the box to find stacks of bubble wrap and newspaper wrappings, after about five minutes of digging through, Paul found another box, this one smaller. Cutting through that one, Paul soon found another note reading.

"Son, stab this and you'll feel like you never left home."

Paul's hand contained a small orb in it, knowing that this what he needed to stab, Paul went ahead and cut through and the next thing he knew, his apartment room exploded with furniture. The blast sound had such an effect that Margaret went and opened Paul's room to see what was up.

"Hey Paul are you okay- woah!"

Margaret saw the massive piles of things that consisted in Paul's room. There was a massive tv, alongside stacks of video games and consoles. Shelves and shelves of books and comics, a giant weapon rack with a sign that read "Emergency or Bad Grades", movie posters and a laptop stationed was on Paul's bed. Speaking of Paul's bed, amusingly enough, there was also a stuffed tiger animal lying on the bed. Margaret a light groaning which led her eyes to Paul, laying on the floor, and eyes to the top of the floor.

"Dad, I hate and love you for this."