The Beauty Collector

In the morning on top of a random building inside Kuoh Town, Zeno who was in an SS suit is currently perching on the edge of the rooftop, looking down at the busy streets below. He is searching for something as he scans the masses of people who come and go about their businesses.

Suddenly, he spots something that catches his attention, a suspicious figure that moves quickly inside a dark alley between a hotel and a bar. Zeno narrows his eyes, his instinct telling him to follow the figure. Zeno then takes a step down over the edge of the building without hesitation as his arms morph into a pair of leathery wings.

He flaps his wings and propels himself off into the sky with a strong gush of wind. He glides smoothly through the skies above, following the direction of the suspicious figure he saw below. Zeno managed to catch up with the figure in no time and just followed them secretly from above. As Zeno follows the suspicious figure, he skillfully glides through the skies as he gets better at flying with wings now. He is very glad that he no longer looks so ridiculous when he flies with his wings. His maids' warm glance is really bothering him.

The figure below seems to be moving faster as well as they pass through the alleys and side streets in a hurry. Zeno continues to follow the suspicious figure toward an abandoned warehouse. The place is quite ominous with its windows boarded up and paint peeling off the walls while vegetation is overgrown around the building.

Zeno wonders why Kuoh has so many abandoned or hunted buildings around the town. Well, it might also be a good thing to not demolish them since the stray devils and the bed guys seem to like staying in them. It helps him out that he will have the hot spots to find them when necessary.

Zeno flies closer to the warehouse and circles around it from the sky while he is in an invisible state. He observes the building, searching for any signs of danger or unusual activity.

Zeno saw the figure disappear inside the big hole in the wall of the warehouse as he decided to land on the rooftop, carefully without making any noise as he glided in for a soft landing.

Once Zeno lands on the roof of the warehouse, he begins to move silently toward the edge, peering over to see if he can spot any gap to see through inside the boarded-up windows. He noticed one of the windows with broken boards and then he carefully climbed down to that window before he looked inside while he hung outside the window.

The inside of the warehouse is dimly lit, with broken things scattered throughout the place. Zeno carefully scans inside the warehouse, his echolocation ability active with a click of his tongue as the echo pierces through the darkness and maps the whole interior in a white outline.

He sees the suspicious figure crouched down, seemingly puking something on the ground. The figure appears to be wearing only a dirty raincoat with a hood down which obscures their face.

Zeno narrows his eyes as he observes the figure from outside the window. He decides to take action and enters the warehouse through the same hole as the figure stealthily, his wings already turned back into humanoid arms.

He moves quietly, using his echolocation to avoid stepping on anything that might cause noise. Zeno creeps closer to the figure, keeping a safe distance as he observes their actions. His target still puking out a nasty black liquid and bones on the floor as their body trembled like crazy.

Suddenly, the figure raises its head, revealing a pair of glowing eyes that seem to burn with endless hunger. They let out a demonic screech and transformed into a monstrous form. Its body grows bigger as the raincoat gets torn apart revealing a bug-like humanoid monster that standing with four legs and large bone wings sprouting from its back instead of arms. Its exoskeleton was a dark blue color, almost black in the dim light. Its human male head looking around while letting out a menacing growl.

Zeno prepared to sneak attack the stray devil as he crouched down, his leg muscles tense and expanding bigger. The stray devil, now in its true form, sniffs the air, smelling something.

Suddenly, it lets out a loud screech and moves toward Zeno's location despite him being invisible. The stray devil then uses its bone wings as a launcher to catapult its body at him. Zeno quickly reacts to the stray devil's attack and leaps to the side, narrowly avoiding the incoming monster.

The stray devil lands hard on the ground, skidding a few feet before getting back up. The stray devil let out a roar of frustration before turning around and charging at Zeno again like a bull. Zeno quickly dodges to the side once more, the stray devil missing him again to its bubbling frustration. The monster then suddenly pauses for a moment, sniffing the air again.

Zeno saw the stray devil distracted and used this opportunity to cast a spell and fire off a volley of Touki energy bullets at the stray devil, the Touki bullets colliding with the monster's back exoskeleton, causing small explosions and making it stagger forward with cracks on its exoskeleton in pain.

The stray devil lets out an angry screech and turns to him before lunges at Zeno again. Zeno quickly reacts and dodges the stray devil's attack. The monster lets out a loud growl before its bone wings move around wildly as it tries to attack Zeno with its. Unfortunately, nothing manages to hit the nimble Zeno as he quickly moves out of the way, avoiding the attacks.

The stray devil finally made a mistake as it tried to attack him with a large swing of its wing and suddenly it slipped on a metal pipe and fell comically on the ground with its face sliding against the floor toward Zeno. Zeno smirks in contempt as he takes this opportunity to strike a finishing blow with his foot rising high as he activates his Touki to enhance his strength before he stomps down on the stray devil's head.

With a loud crushed noise, the stray devil's head got stomped on the ground and turned into a crushed watermelon as its body jerked violently before going still with blood splashed on Zeno's body.

"RIP, Bugman."

Stands over the now motionless stray devil, Zeno's feet and legs are now wet with its blood. He looks around the warehouse, ensuring that there are no more threats before he turns his attention back to the creature at his feet.

"You can come out, little girl."

Suddenly Zeno said out loud as he sensed the presence of a girl observing him secretly behind the hole that he and the stray devil used to enter the warehouse. He has noticed her since the time when the stray devil was distracted suddenly in the middle of battle.

Then a petite, frail-looking girl steps out from behind the hole in the wall. She has short white hair in a bob cut with two cat hairpins on both sides of her head and a pair of gold eyes. She's dressed in a Kuoh Academy girl's uniform. The girl looks pensive as she looks at the strange man in a black bodysuit standing over the corpse of the stray devil.

She had noticed a commotion here while she was passing nearby and came to take a look at what was going on.

"Are you one of Rias Gremory's peerage?"

Zeno asked, his voice softening as he approached the girl slowly but his deep distorted voice of his is not really help much in reassuring her. The girl nodded hesitantly, her eyes never leaving him.

"It's alright, I'm a bounty hunter hired by Sona Sitri to take care of the strays in town."

The girl seemed to relax slightly at his words, but she still kept her guard up. She can't just believe a stranger she first met completely.

"What are you?"

She asked cautiously, her eyes darting between him and the now-still form of the stray devil. Zeno chuckled softly at the girl's crude question.

"That's a secret and I'm just a bounty hunter, you can call me Zavior."

He said with a smirk as she pouted with dissatisfaction at his answer. The girl narrowed her eyes at him, not buying it.

"I've never heard of a bounty hunter like you. And what about that voice? It's not seem natural."

Zeno smirked, amused by the petite girl's suspicions. He never thought he would meet Koneko or Shirone Toujou today. Zavior shrugged at the girl's suspicious look.

"Well, I'm a man of many talents, and as for my voice, it's just a side effect of my power."

He looked around the warehouse once more before turning back to the girl.

"But enough about me, what's your name, girl?"

The girl hesitated for a moment before responding since he already knew that was in Rias' peerage.

"I am... Koneko Toujou. And you better not harm anyone innocent."

She warned him, her golden eyes flashing with determination. Koneko thought that bounty hunters like mercenaries were unpredictable and she didn't trust such a person to behave themselves. Zavior chuckled lightly at her warning but decided not to comment. Zavior nodded his head and turned around to the body of the stray devil.

"I can assure you, Koneko Toujou, that I am here to deal with the strays and nothing more. Now, if you don't mind, I have to take care of the body."

Koneko nodded reluctantly as she watched Zeno begin to take pictures of the stray devil's body with his smartphone that he just pulled out from nowhere. She couldn't shake the feeling that there was more to this man than he let on, but for now, she decided to leave him be and go back to report to her King Rias Gremory. As Koneko turns to leave, Zavior calls out to her.

"Oh, and Koneko, can you tell your King that I'm not interested in becoming a reincarnated devil?"

He says casually, not looking up from his phone. Koneko turned back to him, her eyes narrowing slightly at his words.

"Do you hate the devilkind?"

She asked warily. Zeno shrugged nonchalantly, still not looking up from his phone.

"Nothing like that, I just wanted to inform her in advance."

The girl frowned but decided to let it go. She turned around and walked away from the scene, her white hair swaying gently behind her. As Koneko went away, Zeno then stopped looking at his phone and proceeded to devour the stray devil's body.

He had gained the ability to grow an exoskeleton armor, more durable and larger wings, and lastly a superior sense of smell from the stray devil. He was very satisfied with today's hunt even if he had to spend hours looking around the town.

"Another stray, another slain."

He smiled as he went out of the abandoned warehouse with a light step.