It'd been three weeks since Kenji had been taken into the Grigori by Azazel, Governer-General of the Fallen Angels. Pretty much every day, he trained under Valian Lucifer, and he still hadn't beaten her in one-to-one single combat.
Flashback:
"I'm gonna get you this time!" Kenji yelled, spreading his wings and flying up to Valian, his fist drawn back. Valian let out a small 'tch' noise, and dodged away from Kenji's attack at the very last second.
Valian then grabbed Kenji from behind, flew up to about 100 feet in the air, did a full 180, and flew downwards, straight towards the ground. Fractions of a second before hitting the ground, Valian threw Kenji downwards into the ground, and flew away. Once she looked back, she saw that Kenji was knocked out.
Another win for her.
Flashback end:
Valian had said that Kenji had been landing more hits on her, and he'd even gotten a combo in against her, and he was nearing matching her in a fight.
No matter how many times Valian knocked him down, Kenji didn't give up. He got back up and kept fighting, and Valian loved that about him. She expected that Kenji would give up after a week, at most. With him being from such a higher-class Devil family, one would think that he's never done a proper day's training in his life, and that his skills were barely above that of a Low-Class Devil.
But she was surprised.
When he first arrived, Kenji's power evened out at the low end of a High-Class Devil, as his hand-to-hand skills placed him firmly in Ultimate-Class Devil territory, but his skills in magic were sorely lacking. Granted, the Power of Destruction was a valuable power to have, but Kenji seemed to have already learnt that magic didn't mean jack-shit if you didn't have a body to hold that magic in.
Most Devils seemed to think that their magic was everything, and just trained that, and left their bodies to suffer.
But Kenji was the opposite problem. Only, less severe.
Kenji had favoured his physical training over his magical training, which was a good idea, yes, but he'd favoured it a bit too much, in Valian's opinion, leaving his magical strength barely at a Mid-Class Devil's strength, and in the metaphorical dust of his physical capabilities. But, Kenji had learned how to infuse the Power of Destruction, along with other magics, into his punches, which was undeniably useful.
So, Kenji evened out as a High-Class Devil, in the beginning. Which impressed Valian, but it was still vastly inferior to her own energy and combat capabilities, which placed HER firmly in Ultimate-Class Devil territory, as her magical skills were that of a High-Class Devil, and her physical combat skills were that of an Ultimate-Class Devil. Her dragon powers, thanks to her half-dragon side, and her Sacred Gear, made her a being with Ultimate-Class power quite easily.
Which was why Valian wanted to see Kenji become stronger, as, in her opinion, life wasn't really worth living if there was no-one stronger than you to fight.
But, talking of Kenji, Valian had begun to have another feeling regarding Kenji.
Was it... love?
Well, whatever it was, it didn't really matter when she was training Kenji.
Or did it?
Line Break
"Come on, Kenji!" Valian shouted. "You're not done already, are you?"
"Not even close!" Kenji replied, getting up, and unlike he used to, paused for a second.
Thinking he was open, Valian flew downwards, preparing to attack. But, to her surprise, Kenji ducked, and grabbed her by the waist. He lifted her up, above his head, and threw her, as hard as possible, into a tree.
