Once Hades was well on his way, Scott returned to the throne room. He found it empty.

“Hel” he asked curiously.

She was nowhere to be seen. He found it strange, so he began to wander around the room. Eventually, he opened a door and gazed at the interior. It was an old room filled with dust, stone, and innumerable crates. He inspected a few of them and noted that despite their ancient appearance, they held modern snack foods. “Chips, candy bars… Soda?”

Amused by the anachronistic nature of it all, he left the room and searched through a few others. Hell was nowhere to be found, but he discovered many instances of ancient materials covering modern concepts.

It was not until he opened a Black and white door fit with a golden upturned-crescent moon in the center that he finally saw sign of a living being. He heard a gentle humming sound, and something akin to running water.

Curious, he stepped into the room and headed toward the sound, only to stop mid-step when he rounded a corner. Hell stood beneath an entirely modern shower faucet in all her natural splendor. Black and white wings outstretched, and chest thrust upward to catch the falling water.

Stunned by the sight before him, he did not move quickly enough. Instead, he must have made a noise because she turned toward him startled.

Their eyes remained locked for a moment, before her face slowly reddened and her nostrils flared a bit. Her lower lip quivered slightly, and she cried out, “What are you doing! Get out!”

Scott’s brain started to work again. His eyebrows shot upward in surprise, but his body was already in motion. He turned around quickly and tried to apologize. “Ah! Sorry…”

A shampoo bottle smacked him in the back of the head, and he shot toward the door. Several other bath objects followed after him while a plaintive and incredulous cry echoed from the walls of her bathing chamber.

Hel slid around the corner, one arm covering her breasts and her face filled with righteous indignation. She threw a bar of soap at him with her free hand and cried out, “You lecherous idiot! How dare you!”

Just before he escaped the room, he called out, “Hey! In my defense, you’ve had plenty of time to learn how to lock a door!”

“What was that?” she called out heatedly. “Oh, just you wait!”

Scott rushed to the center of the room then hid on the other side of the throne for fear of being beaned by another random shower accessory. Panting a little, more due to the situation than any actual physical need, he repeatedly said to himself. “She’s your sister. She’s your sister. Don’t think about it. She’s your sister.”

A little voice inside his head, thoughts of his own creation as opposed to some foreign influence, responded to his attempts to wrest that strangely sensual image from his mind. “Well, she’s not your blood sister… and she’s grown so much.”

Of course, it was true. He just did not want to think about it. The truth was that the brothers and sisters that he had, such as Hades, were a spiritual family. Logos and Eros had not been in the business of pumping out actual babies. They crafted spiritual beings in their own image, rather the images they gleaned from Scott’s memories of such things. Eros certainly did not push any babies out from between her matronly hips at the dawn of time!

From what little he could parse from those scattered remnants of memories that he possessed, the younger generation of the first children were not born as adults like the elders. They were a first attempt at the creation of children who were shaped as such. So, the youngest of the angelic host had started out looking like little kids even if they were actually fully functioning adult beings mentally. Of course, being created as kids left some childlike qualities embedded in their psyche that might never go away despite the fact that they would slowly change appearance into an adult form over time.

He smacked his cheeks with both hands at once and tried to collect himself. In truth, it was kind of hilarious. He had not been certain what to expect when he walked into that room, but that certainly had not been it!

A few minutes later Hel walked out of the shower wrapped in a black and white towel, while her hair was wound up in a similar towel tied like a turban. Her bunny slippers, one black, and one white, had led lights or something similar for eyes and they flashed when she took a step.

Scott stood up to apologize, but she noticed him first and shot her hand forward. She continued walking while she pointed a sharply nailed finger in his direction. She did not look at him, merely pointed at him while she walked.

She stopped at a room just a few doors down then stopped pointing at him long enough to open it. It was at that point when she deigned to look in his direction. She said nothing. Instead she released an indignant *hmph!* and tossed her hair back over her shoulders. Nose firmly in the air, she strolled into her room.

Scott sighed loudly and shook his head. “Yeah, this is actually happening. I’m living in a damned anime romcom.”

On the other side of Hel’s door, however, she leaned heavily against it and sighed as well. “Stupid…”

Her cheeks became flush as she remembered the sight of him taking in the sight of her. “Always teasing me…”

Hel made certain to lock her door then dropped her towel. Naked as the day she sprang forth from the mind of god, she strode through her surprisingly modern bedroom. Her hair changed color to a bright neon pink, and she put on and equally pink set of satin pajamas then plopped down onto a nearby couch. Nothing in this room save for the door was black and white. She was off duty and wanted color in her life by any means!

Her room was a garish collection of anime posters, shirt less boy bands from various decades, and stuffed animals. An entire wall seemed to be dedicated to collectible figurines, while another wall housed innumerable blue ray discs and game titles.

She picked up her remote and sighed. “Finally…”

The majestic queen of the underworld scratched her hip then yawned in an incredibly indelicate manner then clicked on the remote. She could finally watch her shows in peace! Work was hard and stuff. Some dead soul or another was always complaining to her about how they were special and deserved a second chance. Now her stupid older brother had to show up out of nowhere acting like a pervert and looking at her with those idiotic eyebrows and goofy expression of surprise. It was just so hard being a modern goddess.