DxD: The Runaway Gremory

He's developed some muscle as well. '

"Now I really am flattered. " Kenji replied, holding Zest in his arms.

"But why?"

"Why?" Zest repeated, and then gulped. This was it.

Time to say the words she'd been wanting to say for the past four months, maybe more. "Because… I'm… in love with you, Kenji.

"

Silence. Zest looked up into Kenji's eyes, hoping against hope that he would reciprocate her feelings.

"Do you really mean that?" Kenji asked, softly. Zest slowly nodded.

"Yes, I do really mean that. " Zest replied.

"I've wanted to tell you for the past four months, maybe more. But when you ran away, I was so… broken.

I cried for about two months after you ran away, and then Zeotifucks sent me out on a mission to find you, and then a month later he said you were dead, and I've been looking for you on my own, because if you really were dead, I'd-"

Her frantic words were stopped abruptly, when Kenji pressed his lips against hers, claiming her lips in a short kiss.

"Stop. " He said, simply.

"Stop right there, Zest. " Zest calmed down enough to stay silent, and listen to what Kenji said next.

"I… I may have a girlfriend, Zest. " He began, then paused.

"But… I somehow managed to gain a harem along the way. " Zest was silent for a second, before she hugged Kenji.

"I don't care. " She whispered.

"I'm willing to be a part of your harem, if I get to be with you. " The pair shared a kiss again.

This time around, the kiss lasted longer, and there was a lot more passion in the kiss than before. The former maid's hands made their way into Kenji's hair as the two continued to kiss for at least a minute, until they broke apart for air.

When they did, Kenji saw that Zest had tears running down her face. Gently placing his thumb on her face, he wiped them away.

"Wow, am I really that bad at kissing?" he asked, jokingly. That earned him a mock punch on the arm from Zest.

"Of course not. " She grinned.

"Now, what are you doing here?"

"I thought I should be building up my peerage. " Kenji replied.

"So you have members in a peerage already?" Zest asked.

"More like 'member'. " Kenji replied.

"I think I should be going. You want to come?"

"Of course!" Zest replied.

"Alright then. " Kenji headed off, walking quickly.

Tobio had taught him, along with using swords, how to sense magical potential in beings. The stronger the magic, and the better the person was at sensing said magic, the better (and Kenji was extremely good at sensing magic from beings, maybe from his magic as a Devil, or to be more specific, a hybrid).

Zest had a lot of magic inside her, and Kenji could feel that, but he could also feel some other magic gathered some way to the north-west. Stepping through trees, he came to what looked like a large beach, which was completely deserted.

"Why are we stopping?" Zest asked. "There's nobody here.

" One look from Kenji silenced her, and Kenji threw up a magic-circle. Pressing his fingers together and then separating them, as if he was zooming in on a touchscreen device, what he was looking through in the magic-circle came closer and closer, like a makeshift zoom-in camera.

Kenji kept zooming in and zooming in until a tower came into view.

The tower had a twisted body and sporadically jutting sides, it appeared very chaotic and asymmetrical. The bottom and main body of the tower was comprised of what looked like intertwining lengths of metal tubes, which wound together from the ground and straight up into the sky.

These giant pipes, Kenji assumed, were held together through a series of smaller tubes, which linked the main sections, as well as many differently sized and shaped golden decorations, which looped over and around the frame of the tower, adding to its unruly presentation. When Kenji zoomed in far enough, he saw that around the main form of the building, a twisted staircase wound, rising around the tower and leading to a room at the top.

"What is that place?" Zest asked. "And where did you learn how to do that with magic-circles?"

"I don't know, and that's my own business. " Kenji replied.

"Well, the magic I sensed seems to be coming from there. Wait-" Kenji zoomed in even further, and he saw, to his horror…

"Kids. " He whispered.

"Teenagers. Someone's having them build this tower!"

"What?" Zest whispered. She ran over to the magic-circle and had a look through.

Kenji was right. There were teenagers, innocent-looking teenagers, building the tower.

And they looked in pretty bad shape.

"This is sick. " Kenji muttered.

"That's fucking sick. "

"You gonna stop them?" Zest asked.

"Yeah. " Kenji replied, beginning to prepare a transportation-magic-circle.

But before he could step into it, he looked into the circle and his eyes widened at what was going on in there.

A young girl, looking around the same age as Kenji, if just a year or so older, with shoulder-length scarlet hair and one brown left eye (her right eye was covered by an eyepatch) was working on the tower, and had put down her tool to wipe her brow.

"HEY!" a burly, muscular-looking man yelled, stomping over to the girl and backhanding her with so much force that Kenji and Zest both winced. "GET BACK TO WORK!"

"Okay, that's it. " Kenji growled, more like a dragon than anything else.

"Come on, Zest. " d, seeing what happened as well.

She stepped into the magic-circle, and vanished along with Kenji.

A flash of light later, they appeared, in an area that Kenji presumed was in the middle. Turning around, and ignoring the shocked looks he got from everyone, he saw the muscular man continuing to punch the redheaded girl.

His face hardening, Kenji sent a blast of his Power of Destruction at the man. He staggered forward and fell over.