The Demon's Aim and A Devil's Deal

The demon maintained his gleeful expression as his body continued to stay seated, like he had no problem relaxing in his current situation.

"And, what makes you say that..."

"Although I call it lying, it was more like you were bending the truth or you were purposely hiding some facts."

"Oh...you don't say..."

All of a sudden, he noticed the room started to look distorted and the atmosphere started to change completely, the music playing in the air stopped and was replaced by the sound of a slow beating heart, filling the room and deafening his ear making him believe he was hearing his own heartbeat instead.

From what Stigma can guess, the room's temperature is based on the little demon's emotion, he turned his head to see the demon still smiling at him not caring about the changes and grabbed a large piece of bone on the table.

"Care to elaborate...*CRACK!*"

The demon remained his wide smile and started chomping down a bone, like a dog.

'His jaw strength is incredible, he bit the bone in half! He must be waiting for a clear answer.'

Stigma had seen some animals tear down some raw meat with their jaw strength, but he never saw a video of an animal chomping down a bone in just one bite.

"Don't worry I won't hurt you, if you take back what you said..."

He wasn't afraid of the demon, if he wanted to he could have hurted him from the start, so he felt no fear. And if what he said was true, he cannot lie to him, but he can still distort the truth.

"What if I can prove it..." After hearing those words, the demons started to rub his chin with his free hand and smiled.

"OK, if you can manage to convince me even once, but let's raise the stakes to make it interesting, alright. Hmmm I do remember you ignoring your cultivation so how about this."

The demon took another bite and completely swallowed the bone and grabbed another one.

"If you win, I will help you in Cultivation using my method is that fair to you."

The demon was correct, Stigma had been ignoring his cultivation training for two reasons; one, he still needed to adjust to his new physical strength and get use to it which took most of his focus. The other was due to not having enough time to practice, since he was busy experimenting on what cultivation method should work for him, since he had to much to investigate he started to stray from his goal.

Hearing such a tempting offer made him realize a gamble had to be made.

"...And what if I lose then?"

"Easy! You let me eat your soul of course!"

'...So that's your aim huh, so the entire scene was a ploy.' He only felt like the conversation was strange, but he wasn't sure on which part.

Seeing the nervous Stigma only made the Demon excited as he took another bone.

"There's nothing to worry about. As long as you can prove it, right."

The demon remained confident as he spoke, he was enjoying the little moment as if both of them were playing a game, so he didn't care if he got exposed and played it off as if he was still in the advantage.

He felt he was being insulted just by seeing the smile, but he ignored it since the entire room reverted back to normal.

"Well, what is your assumption on how I was lying?"

The demon was not amused but continued to show his smiling face.

"...When you told me I was talented, you started comparing me from others, correct..."

"That's right..."

"But the thing is, you got me thinking, who were you comparing me too..."

Stigma or Cheng Xuan had been observing other from a distance and compared their talents, if what the Demon said was true, then deep inside he always wanted to be better than other to draw them close to him and be friend. But he was too afraid to stand out.

"Why of course the people who surrounded you, ignored and humiliated you for all your life. The ones who saw you as scum or a waste...but in fact, they were jealous of you and wanted to feel better about themselves...so they started belittling you and made your life a living hell."

True, it had happened when he was younger, he was normally the target of bullying from others when he did nothing wrong and it started to get worse over the years when he kept quiet.

After being taken advantage of and being called a retard finally got on his nerves, so he got back at them, and started causing 'accidents' to not just them but to those around them including their family, causing them to be physically injured or end up in the hospital in a stretcher.

He was a careful person as to make sure no trace of him was seen and made it look like coincidence, but after a few years of peace, he didn't do any form ploy and had gotten rusty on his evidence removing.

And cleary the demon knows about it, but that wasn't what he was after.

"You also said, you were controlling me halfway, so a thought came to me. Why stop in the end and return the body. You could have controlled my body the moment I first relapsed and killed Kirin when it was still asleep or worse, yet I can still feel emotions of fear, anger and joy when I need to."

Lifting his own glass, the attendant behind him poured in an orange beverage and gave his break down. As the Demon continued to bite on another piece.

"My guess is this, your claim is half truth and false."

He turned his head, to see the demon still smiling, shaking his head from side to side, looking like a child eating a lollipop as he waited for Stigma's answer.

"The answer is this, you can't control me completely. You can only influence me for a short period, each time I went into battle you are suppressing my emotions to calm my nerves, the reason however is still unknown, but I am quite sure it was your way of saying 'I'm here'"

*CRACK!**CRACK!**CRACK!*

From his side he can hear the sound of a bone being eaten under someone's powerful jaws. Unlike in the anime where the character was eating the piece as a piece of candy. He heard the sound of continuous bones being broken, like the ones you would hear in movies, causing his spine to shudder from his powerful jaw strength.

But he couldn't lose confidence. If he loses, he will lose his soul to the demon and die.

"And, you have something else to add, don't you!" The demon had bloodshot eyes as he looked at him, he continued to maintain his wide smile as he continued to bite on the bone.

He wasn't sure if it was excited or trying to calm himself since it was ignoring the fact that the bone he was chewing was starting to get to close to his hand.

Building up his courage, he finally said his final argument that he noticed the moment they spoke.

"...This is the last argument, if you can give me an explanation, then you can have my soul."

The Demon was not answering, it just continued to chew on the bone with an expression of madness, his small eyes started increasing in volume and bent his head to the side, and started biting the bone along with his hand holding it.

It didn't seem to care as the bones and blood mixed each time he took a bite.

"Let me ask you, what...is my name?"

...

...

The demon didn't answer but it stopped biting his hand, and let the blood flow down his wrist as he stared into space facing Stigma. Giving a bone chilling scene of a child literary eating his hand.

'Bingo!' Stigma notice the obvious signs of him trying to distract him, the food was to make him feel comptable, the number of servants surrounding him was to make him nervous, the shadows emerging and making a theatrical scene cause him to be amazed.

But all of those were just a means of distraction as the Demon continued with his explanation so he would miss the key point. Then he realized one thing, the Demon never mentioned his name throughout the entire conversation as a trick to believe he knows everything about him.

"Well...am I right."

"....He...hehe....he heee he he hee he hee he hee he hee he he he hee hee hee he he he, ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!"

The demon had removes his hand from his mouth and started to laugh hysterically for no apparent reason. His constant laughter echoed throughout the room and had caused his clothes to be messy.

But contrary to his expectation, the Demon was laughing tears in his eyes. Like he had heard a good joke for the first time.

"...Hehehehe, ah, forgive me, phew." After adjusting his clothing, he started to path down his clothes and wiped his face and hand with a red napkin.

"Congratulation, dear sir, you have found out my little trick."

The demon stood up from his chair and bowed his head in a ninety degree angle, like a professional business man, but he gave of the aura of someone from the mob.

"Yes dear sir, I have only used some of your memories from when you lapsed from time to time, and I just scrolled through to what I can, but coincidently the previous host, the actual Stigma, had experience the same thing you did, quite the twist of fate don't you think."

The Demon smiled with his wide grin then jumped down from his chair and motioned him to follow.

"Follow me!" Confused by the sudden development, he can only stand still but the demon only laughed and pulled his arm as he explained.

Like a child going to his favorite play area, he started to sway his hips and continued his explanation.

"Let me better explain my existence to you, it is true that I am 'born' from you, but that also means I was a part of you, your other half if you will."

The place he was pulled too, had the same red curtains that gave way when he moved closer. What appeared was a courtyard with old overgrown trees that covered the sky, he can't even be sure how large the land was since it was too dark.

The Demon let go of his hand did a little dance, out of nowhere the shadows started to move like him as if they were puppets.

"You see, my existence or more accurately my species the 'Demons' are a type of race with a peculiar structure, when we are born like children we are without a conscience, no reason, no will, no direction. But unlike babies who learn them, we had to earn them."

He started jumping to branch to branch around his height, as he explained motioning him to follow, which he reluctantly agreed.

"By earn, do you mean it's not like how human's do it, naming the moment they are born."

He noticed that he was losing vision on the way and was noticing the shadows were starting to go missing. And the Demon was not stopping.

"Exactly and not, demons are born with names, but they have yet to learn their name. So when I say earned, it just means their minds are not developed yet to understand the meaning behind it."

He finally stopped on top of an overgrown root sticking out of the ground and turned to face Stigma.

"In our way of life, names means power and meaning, so when humans name their children they expect them to be something, but demons will have to live and develop their own way, then their name shall be revealed to them only."

"If a demon cannot learn his name in a young age, he is considered a nameless monster, a brainless fool who can only use brawns, while my existence is unique."

"You see, it is very rare for newborns to have self awareness, unless they are exposed to a source of energy of Zen or elements."

"But let's discuss it in another time."

Before he could ask what he meant, the Demon started charging at him at an alarming speed.

But Stigma dodged before it could hit him and distanced himself and gave a fighting stance.

"What are you doing!??!!?"

"Why, doing my end of the deal of course."

The demon didn't say anything else and started charging at Stigma with murderous intent.