Demon Son of Olympus

Book 1 Chapter 1

A Mother's Claim

The Greek gods, ancient deities that hold great power, each one stands for something else, each one is the god of something else, you name it and more than likely there was a god of that named something or it fell into a category over that god's domain because of properties it is made of. The gods themselves though are numerous, yet only twelve stand above all the others, Zeus, the god of the sky and king of the gods on Olympus, often wore an expensive Italian suit, today though he was wearing white robes with gold trimmings, he decided to go old-school today. Hera was the goddess of marriage, motherhood, family, and women, and queen to all the gods, she decided to go with the form of a silver haired woman with a form fitting dress shimmering like peacock feathers, her personality though leaves much to be desired. Poseidon is the god of the sea, storms, earthquakes, droughts, and horses, he always wore the same form, dark hair, green eyes, shorts, t-shirt, Hawaiian shirt over that, and leather sandals, this time was no different even though it has been advised that he wore more appropriate attire. Demeter was the last original Olympian that was on the council, she's the goddess of harvest, fertility, and agriculture, today she's taken the form of a dark haired woman with a green robes, a classic look that turns a lot of heads considering that she's actually quite good looking. Hades is the god and ruler of the underworld, the dead, and riches, per his godhood, he is deathly pale, albino even, slick back hair and yet still a muscular build, wore a black robe tied at the waist with a white cord, he only actually sits in on the meetings, but technically is not on the council.

Athena is the Greek virgin goddess of wisdom, civilization, mathematics, warfare, strategy, city defense, crafts and arts, and skill, she is often seen with brown hair, gray eyes, gray robes, Greek armor, and a Greek war helmet on her head, she's a bit uptight and a stickler for the rules. Ares is quite simply the god of war, Athena was the brains of warfare, Ares was the muscle, wearing what one would find on a standard biker, only difference, is that behind his sunglasses lies eyes made of fire, always carries at least a hunting knife that was far too big to actually be practical. Apollo is the god of the sun, light, healing disease, plague, music, art, poetry, archery, reason, knowledge, truth, and prophecy, he wears what he usually wears, golden hair, bronze body like a Baywatch lifeguard, golden robes, golden shoes, golden bow and quiver strapped to his back. Artemis is the virgin goddess of the hunt, archery, wilderness, forests, the moon, radiance, maidenhood, and childbirth, she's usually seen in auburn hair pulled back into a ponytail, black leggings, silver tunic, no older than twelve, cold bright yellow eyes that seemed to glow. Dionysus is the god of grape-harvest, wine, madness, parties, religious ecstasy, and theater, he usually has a chubby face, red nose, black hair so dark it looks purple, bloodshot eyes, leopard spotted Hawaiian shirts and purple running shoes, though the bloodshot eyes are less so now. Hermes is the god of roads, travel, loads, gymnasiums, athletes, diplomacy, orators, thieves, commerce, and trade, he's quite simply a runner, built like one, moves like one, mainly shorts and a marathon runner's shirt was how he dressed, today he was dressed like a mailman. Hephaestus is the god of forges, fire, technology, craftsmanship, sculptures, volcanoes, and blacksmiths, unlike the other gods that were beautiful, Hephaestus was a deformed lump of a man, a misshapen head, arms in a brace, and yet he was muscular, handy, and a hard worker.

Aphrodite is the odd one out, she's the goddess of love, beauty, desire, passion, sexuality, and pleasure, she never stays in one form, anyone who sees her sees the most beautiful thing they can think of, her appearance was always at its best, and she never let herself be overworked. She was the odd one out though because unlike her other Olympians, she was technically not a goddess, she is actually a titan, a being form from Ouranos after his death, born from his genitals that were thrown into the sea after his son had cut him up, yet her power is that of Olympian levels.

That was a brief rundown of those either on the Olympian council or, in Hades case, sits in on the meetings, however this is not about either of them, this is actually not even about a god or goddess, the present isn't even when our story begins, our story actually begins during the civil war. Yes the American civil war, and for future generations that don't know which one I'm talking about, the one between 1861 and 1865, but also the years leading up to it as well, in fact that whole decade was pact full of strife and arguments about the war at that time, few homes were spared.

This was when Olympus first became a part of America, however this was a bad time for one goddess, for Hestia, the eldest child of Kronos, she is the virgin goddess of hearth, home, and family, it is that reason that it was a bad time to go anywhere near America at that time. The families torn apart, the homes destroyed in the chaos, the flames of a hearth that provided warmth snuffed out like it was nothing, yet they were forced to go as it was at that time that western civilization had taken them there, it was the beginning of something else though. For Hestia made a request of her brother and king, to go to a different country until the civil war had ended, and knowing that the war would be especially hard on her, Zeus accepted the request and told her to be safe, little did they know that they wouldn't see each other for a number of years.

The country Hestia went to was an odd pick for her, it wasn't an old home or any previous western civilization, it was actually more east, to the land of the rising sun, Japan, yet she couldn't just walk in, she had to meet with the ruling elements of Japan first, another choice. She could have just hidden away for a few years, not done anything and kept to herself until the war was over, yet it wasn't to be so, the ruling elements of Japan, you'd think, would be the Shinto gods, however Japan was more than just the Shinto, you had other religions as well. Some were mistaken for the other and some were confusing with many rules, so instead of one religion being the center of Japan, the three worlds was built, there was the human world, that was self-explanatory, but than you had spirit world and demon world as well. Spirit world was not like a heaven or hell, in which Hades rules over the western form of it, spirit world was a waystation of sorts for those that have died to be sorted between afterlives based on a carefully constructed balancing system that they had created, of course no one knew this. Demon world had worried Hestia when she heard about it from the Shinto deity that told her about the system, the deity's exact words were, "be careful Greek, of all the realms that us gods have created over the eons, that is truly one of the most terrifying ones," before leaving in smoke.

Hestia trudged on though, she couldn't go back to America, not with the war about to start, so she made it to the offices of spirit world, where she was quickly greeted with the man who would set her on the course that could lead to the change of everything, the head of spirit world, King Enma. King Enma was a large giant of a being with a big black beard, and glasses, he was a seemingly unyielding man that held the powers of balance above all, and according to the rumor, even the life of his own son was nothing if it meant to preserve that balance between the realms.

When Hestia met with him it was just chance that she was then given the opportunity she was given, there was already a woman there, a beautiful woman with turquoise colored hair and eyes that should have been cold, but they were not, they held warmth in them, though it was little. It turned out that her name was Hina, she was pleading with the king about finding sanctuary in the human world instead of going back to the glacial village, the ruler had only told her that he'd think about it, but not to get her hopes up, it was there she said she'd rather die than go back.

It was a poor choice of words though, King Enma didn't want to hear of that, apparently she was a princess amongst her people with her mother being the village chief elder, if she died and her people found out that King Enma knew and didn't stop her then there would be war between them. Hestia made her appearance known at that time, where King Enma told Hina to go wait in the hallway for his decision, she did so reluctantly before King Enma turned to the goddess, neither said a word for a moment, Hestia a bit frightened at the power he was giving off, it was huge.

King Enma pulled out a paper, a form she had to submit to come here with her request on it, they were big on paperwork here, he adjusted his glasses and then spoke, "you wish to seek asylum here in Japan or in spirit world until the war starting in America is over with, correct Greek goddess."

Hestia straightened herself and looked at the giant, "that is correct King Enma, though please call me Hestia, or Lady Hestia if you wish to be formal," she had hoped a friendly sentiment would help release some of the tension between them, it only seemed to grow at her statement though.

"Lady Hestia," his voice was grave and serious yet held authority to it, "having you here in Japan or in spirit world is, regrettably, out of the question, while I understand that you are a virgin goddess, many of the gods that I oversee are paranoid and distrusting of outsiders to a fault. Your particular pantheon is known for the many children that they have, therefore they would say that you've come here to seduce my son already to be able to take control of this pantheon in the future," his words were blunt and his reasoning was credible with facts except for the last part.

"I promise you King Enma that I am not here to seduce your child, I am a virgin goddess for a reason, I've kept my vow for all of my life and I plan on doing so for eternity," Hestia stated but knew that it was hopeless, "though should you deny me I will understand and accept your rule."

King Enma considered her for a moment, and then looked to the door that led to the hallway where that Hina woman was waiting, then he looked back to Hestia, "you are in the form of that child yet you are able to change to other forms as well, correct," he asked and the goddess nodded. King Enma motioned for the door to be opened and Hina came back in, looking downcast at the request more than likely being denied because of her station, King Enma looked the goddess in the eyes, "can you turn into the exact appearance of Hina as she is now," he questioned.

It was an odd request, turning into someone's likeness was one that she didn't do often and preferred to not do as a general rule, people often had families that if done wrong would mean questions and people confronting her and families possibly being torn apart, she didn't do that. Yet it was clear that he wanted to see her do it now so she did so and turned into her complete likeness, she grew taller and her chest grew heavier and hair longer, it turned turquoise and her clothes formed into a kimono as icy as a glacier, "why have me do this King Enma?'

King Enma reached into his large desk he sat at pulled out a button that lowered a machine that Hestia had never seen before, it looked like two beds connected by tubing and metal braces held it up, Hina was obviously catching on to where Hestia was not, "will this work King Enma?"

"It will if Lady Hestia agrees to it," King Enma shrunk down to their size and was in front of the both of them in a purple suit that fit him well, "Lady Hestia I will not grant you asylum in Japan or spirit world," the goddess looked down at that, "however we have one more world you can stay in." The goddess now knew what was going on, but how could that be done, "with this machine we can transfer Hina's demon energy to you, it will dissipate in time, but until then it'll be as if you were her when someone senses your energy, should take a decade or so for it to leave you."

Hestia knew this was a good chance to also take a little vacation and at the same time also see a home style that not even she might know about, yet the place they were talking about sending her, "this demon world, I have told it is a very dangerous place, will I be safe there as well?"

Hina spoke to the goddess, "you will be, the glacial village is located apart from the rest of demon world, it's high up on a floating mountain protected by it always moving and a snow storm always surrounding it, only women live there, but make no mistake, they are cold and have ice in their veins."

Hestia thought about it for a minute before she finally stated, "I will accept, even if they're cold, they are still a family and it would be interesting to see how this family lives," so she and Hina got into the machine and King Enma started it up, the process wasn't painful but it took a little while.

Afterwards Hina explained to Hestia the customs and regulations of the glacial village, the standing of demon world in case she ever has the need to leave the ice village and her life inside the ice village, her best friend, her mother and her relationship with her and the other elders. It was a bit long of a discussion, and in the end Hina left spirit world and lived in the human world, and even to this day Hestia has no idea of where her one day friend was, just that her choice had consequences that she hated to think about and what she was forced to endure.

Because Hina's people were just as she said, cold, icy, with nothing in their hearts and veins but ice, a year in and Hestia was tired of the village, but she had given her word to the deal and chose to ride it out, yet it was for not as at the five year mark, everything about it changed. The ice maidens had a ritual you see, a ritual that got an ice maiden great with child, the goddess had bore witness to the ritual and thought that she was safe from this process, or hoped, because she didn't know what would happen to the child that would be born into the world. She was wrong, the ritual was done to her at the eight year mark, she could have struggled, if they didn't have to drug her with special demonic herbs that weakened her considerably, she was forced to undergo the ritual and get pregnant with child, something she hoped Artemis didn't see.

It was after the pregnancy that things truly went downhill, Hestia gave birth to two children, a boy and a girl, the girl was the older of the two, so she came first, but when the boy came, the ice maidens all went still and unlike with the daughter, the son was not even given the chance to be held. Hestia named her daughter Yukina before she felt the wave to give birth to the boy, she did so but when she did she didn't even get the chance to hold or name her child before it was taken from her and put into isolation, that isolation was to wear a special blanket wrapped around him. The boy Hestia gave birth to was surrounded by fire soon after he exited her and was not even given the tear gem that was produced when she gave birth to him, she obtained this ability during the demon energy transfer, the only one that got their tear gem on time was her daughter.

The ice maidens have another tradition, one that she didn't know about, for when one of their own gives birth to a male, he was to be thrown off of a cliff on the outskirts of the village, given that she was already going to have to leave her daughter now that she gave birth, this made it worse. The ceremony was held during the day in the mist of a harsh snow storm, Hestia was dragged out and forced to watch as it was her friend, Rin, that was to be the one to toss the boy off, after a few moments where Rin stuck the boy's tear gem inside of his bundle, he was cast out.

Hestia was distraught, so distraught that a child of hers, a member of her own family was taken from her that, as the story goes, she took her own life in that form and went back to spirit world, her daughter was more than likely raised by those heartless ice maidens while her son is dead. King Enma found her in his office with her head bowed and tears streaming down her face, he let out a long sigh at the story she told him afterwards, that was not how things were supposed to go, he had no idea that they were planning to do that to Hina, and no idea it was a possibility. Hestia knew he was telling the truth, either that or she just didn't care if he was lying or not seeing as she didn't seem to react, she did ask King Enma if it was possible for her child to survive, he told her that it was slim to none, he would most likely be dead, but only time would tell.

Time didn't tell, Hestia chose to go home early on back to America where she was greeted with open arms and worried family members, she expressed her joy at being back, she reassured them and told them that nothing happened, said that she was fine and thought it was a fine act. Hades though always knew what was bothering her, so she told him one night in the underworld when she was visiting, she broke down and told him and Persephone exactly what had happened, but since he was part demon and at the same time part god he might not be in the underworld. Hestia knew this of course, it was one of the many things she had thought over for a decade now, is her child dead and in the underworld, or dead in the pantheon of the Japanese, but since he was part demon, where did dead demons go, either way, he wasn't in the Greek underworld.

So the times past, the world wars happened, the second war where the Japanese bombed purl harbor brought some mixed emotions up for her, but she shrugged it off the best she could after the pact was made between the three brothers and the great prophecy was given to them as well. Then came the decades afterwards, yet not knowing what has become of her children, most gods and goddesses know what happens to their children, know where they end up and what they're doing, Hestia couldn't though, couldn't look in on, couldn't think of, or even see her child left alive.

Now, now was the great winter assembly, held every year on the winter solstice, Poseidon was arguing with Athena, Hephaestus was tinkering with some mechanical machines, Aphrodite and Ares were flirting with each other while Aphrodite occasionally stopped to give Artemis advice. Dionysus was talking with Demeter about harvest and how glad they'll be when it comes in, Apollo was trying to talk to Artemis, saying something about sibling bonding time, he was ignored by the goddess who was sharpening her hunting knife, doing so oddly meticulously as if a great hunt was soon. Hermes was talking with Hera about a few packages that some married couples were getting for each other, Hades was usually in a dark corner sitting and ignoring the others gathered, but at the moment he was talking with Hestia about a few things that Hades kept an ear out for.

"Really, he believed an alien abducted him so he moved here from Japan where he wouldn't sound as crazy," Hestia questioned as she moved some coals around in her hearth fire, the meeting wasn't set to begin for a few minutes so everyone was just talking for now anyways.

"Yeah, sad that he was hit by that truck just as he moved here though, but it was at least enough of a reason to send Thanatos to talk with the other death gods over in Japan," Hades said as he sat in a small chair and made little sparks of dark flames dance in the hearth fire at random times.

Hestia knew what discussion was coming, but she's had a few years to prepare herself for moments like these, "let me guess, there is a stirring in the demon world and spirit worlds that caused him to somehow travel to demon world where he saw that three eyed alien."

"The stirring already came, already went, and from what I can tell Japan has become peaceful since they took down the barrier that separated the demon and spirit worlds," his news clearly shocked his sister, "it's true, they have a new system in place to choose their leaders now. Every demon gathers and they fight it out in a tournament, but the only ones able to last long is the very strong ones that are high S-class, very rare for anyone not in that ranking to get past the first round of the preliminaries," he informed and shocked her even more now.

But after years of not contacting anyone from there she wasn't surprised she didn't know any of this, "I assume the one who thought this up was a genius, or a complete madman who wanted the chaos that was to follow if any of those rulers thought that war with human world was appealing."

"Funny thing is that the one who thought it up was the winner of that one tournament a few years back, the dark tournament I think it was called," Hades comment made her giggle, that guy was just a lucky fool, well at least there is peace for the moment, "anyway, all they want is peace now."

"Hn," Hestia hummed, as she warmed her hands on the fire now, she wasn't cold, she just loved the feeling of her hands over an open flame, it brought her a sense of warmth that she needed, because she was starting to remember her time in the glacial village a bit too much lately.

The ruler of the underworld though wasn't done talking, though this next part was said with a grim tone, "there is a rumor that one of the top combatants this year is a koorime, a powerful one at that," he knew what the word meant, it was another name for ice apparition, or ice maiden.

Hestia made only a slight comment, "it seems they're finally taking part in the world, I hope the one fighting is a good woman, one who doesn't have ice in her veins, or at least not much of it," she knew though that it was just wishful thinking, no koorime would ever be anything but cold.

Hades looked at her with a serious eye, "Hestia, it's not a female koorime that is that powerful," the goddess now knew what he was getting at, she shook her head at him to not say it, not to insinuate what he was insinuating, "it could be him Hestia, there is a chance that it is him."

Hestia refused to believe it, "it's been over a century brother, plenty of time for another ice maiden to have a male child, plenty of time to find a way to give birth to him in secret, and plenty of time for mine's soul to travel to wherever it is supposed to end up, so where is it if not with you?"

Hades looked down, this discussion was hard for Hestia, but what is being said has to be said, "the place he'd end up is the netherworld, I've spoken to those in charge of it, one ruler of the underworld to another, he's not there Hestia, so the only place he can be is alive and well."

"And what does that mean to anything now brother," Hestia ground back out to the king of the underworld a bit too harshly, "either we meet and he hates me for abandoning him, or he hates me for abandoning Yukina, it might be better that we never meet at all and let things end there."

"ARTEMIS," the louder than needed call from Apollo drew all the gods' and goddesses' attention to the twins, "you've sharpened that hunting knife to the point it's sharper than any knife Ares has, and he magically sharpens his, what has you so wound up that you'd sharpen it so much?"

Artemis sighed, her brother's question had true concern behind it, and she was always a sucker for when he actually showed concern, so she stopped sharpening and looked to all the gods and goddesses looking her way, "I just met with some people that I really don't like is all, it got to me."

The room was silent for a few seconds before Ares burst out laughing, "hahahahaha, you got worked up over some mortals talking, saying things you didn't like, you're getting soft on us little girl," he laughed down at her some more from his seat next to Aphrodite, who nuzzled up to him.

Artemis flung her knife and it landed between the two lovers, everyone looked to Artemis with shocked expressions, "then you're fine with the only monster that ever got away from me and some punk delinquent kid go around calling father, you, and the rest of us evil unpunished?"

That changed their tunes and got an enraged expression from Zeus, "WHAT," he yelled out, the only things he did in his eyes were all to protect the throne of Olympus, with him remaining on it, he turned to his daughter, "who would dare to call us evil, we've done nothing to warrant it."

Artemis looked to those gathered, "apparently that's how most other pantheons see us, nothing but evil, immoral, rapists and thieves, murderers, barbarians, and not to mention hypocrites to everything that we are the gods of, our words mean nothing to them and even less to mortals." Zeus was clearly growing angrier with each word said, "I found out on a trip I took to Japan with my hunters," the only one to notice Hestia's freeze was Hades, "after the hunt we were on I decided to take them to the beach for some rest and fun, it was there I met the one that got away."

Aphrodite snickered at her phrasing, as did Apollo, Ares wanted to, but knew how serious this was for a variety of reasons, but it was Hephaestus that finally spoke about the phrasing, "Artemis, that term is used to describe a missed chance at love now, just thought you should know."

Artemis hung her head because she knew that Aphrodite and Apollo were going to tease her for it later, "as you know, over the years I have hunted some of the most dangerous of monsters, and the only one to ever escape both me and my hunters, even the oldest of them, was Yoko Kurama."

Now Hades leaned into Hestia's ear and whispered, "maybe we shouldn't tell her that Kurama is also a top contender to be the next demon king as well," she instinctively nodded her head, though she herself didn't know that about the demon, but now she did, and kept quiet about it.

"He changed a bit, now has red hair instead of silver, got rid of his fox ears and tail, but he still felt the same, had the presence of an infuriating know-it-all on top of being a ruthless killer, we hunted him for days on end until we finally got him to stand his ground and fight us head on." Artemis was now grinding her hunting knife, that she materialized to her hand during her explanation, against a sharpening stone, "he was ruthless against my hunters and only barely made it away from me by the skin of his teeth after forcing me to choose between him or Zoe. He attacked her and nearly killed her, forcing me to either continue to chase after him or get her some help, I chose and he got away," she now pressed the sharpening stone so hard against the blade that the blade snapped in two from the pressure that Artemis was using on the blade.

Someone yelped, nobody knew who, but after a moments pause, it was finally Hermes that asked the question, "when did you two have time to talk this time," the narrowing of her eyes at him was not a pleasant sight to behold, "well this was the last time you met him right, but this time?"

Artemis looked down, "the two came to us while in the middle of the beach visit, some of my hunters spotted them first and aimed their bows at the intruders, I demanded who they were before the prey that got away spoke up, just told me hi and that it was nice to see me again. I didn't understand why at first, than he changed to his original form for a brief second before going back to the red haired form, all my hunters then instantly trained their bows on him ready to fire, but then the black haired punk kid yelled out the name of a mortal weapon, shotgun I think. Blue bullets of energy broke all of my hunters bows, than the delinquent chided us on shooting first before asking question, at which point Kurama laughed and pointed out that the delinquent himself does the same thing, they got into a small debate before Zoe demanded who he was. So the delinquent, named Yusuke Urameshi, told us his name and told us we were on private property, that things worked differently than we were probably used to, at which point he took out a clipboard and asked for each of our names, didn't matter which order. When I asked why he said that all demons or individuals with supernatural abilities need to be registered and send a request to stay at the beach, since we didn't know he was going to let us off with a warning and let us finish our day in peace," Artemis explained to all the gathered divinities.

Hestia was smiling fondly at the entire story, of course there would be forms and paperwork, that was the way they did things over there, and it was then that Hermes saw that Hestia was smiling, but he didn't say anything about it because of the pressing matters, "I guess that's where stuff went down."

Artemis nodded to confirm he was right, "things were going fine, I had ordered my hunters to behave and give them their names, that was when he showed up, the absolute worst person I've ever met with, not caring one bit what anyone was, that black haired piece of garbage filth."

Flashback (Artemis POV)

Phoebe was just about to give her name when a blur suddenly appeared before Kurama and Yusuke, the blur took shape at that moment as well and became a rather short looking man with black hair and eyes as red as blood, my hunters were about to draw their knives on the intruder. Yet I raised my hand to stop them, I couldn't quite place it but there was something strange about the shorter new arrival, something familiar but I couldn't place it at the time, so I wanted to get information on who this new man was before violence broke out, now I wish I hadn't though. The new arrival barely looked at us before turning to the other two and spoke in a completely stoic voice, "what's taking so long, we still have a meeting going on, one the demon king should remain at by the way," there may have been a hint of agitation in his voice as well, hard to tell.

Of course the response that the demon king gave, who was Urameshi by the way, was as childish as expected, "yeah, well what if I don't wanna go back, eh," the comeback was so childish I couldn't help but gawk, this was the demon king, it was pathetic and to top it off, a complete punk.

The new arrival just stood there with his left eye twitching at the demon king's childish response, "then I'll call your wife and have her drag you back," it was simply said, but the effect it had on the punk was immediate, he stood straight up and looked robotically down towards the fetcher.

"Not even you would be that heartless Hiei," Urameshi told the shorter man, that is when I noticed he pulled out a compact mirror, he just opened it and pressed a single button, "don't you dare," the smaller man pushed another button and the mirror became a static screen, "dammit Hiei!"

The male, now named Hiei to me, just held the mirror until a woman with long brown hair in a waitress uniform was on the communication device, "well Hiei, long time no abduction, kidnap any young girls lately," EVERYONE of my hunters glared at the smaller male as he deadpanned at her.

"I'm still not apologizing for that," was the stoic reply from Hiei, that just made the rest of us angrier at him, "I'm calling because your husband refuses to stay in a meeting that settles disputes between enemy demon breeds, also provides housing for those without homes."

Then the screaming started, "WHAT, YUSUKE URAMESHI, YOU GET YOUR ASS BACK INTO THAT MEETING RIGHT NOW AND HELP THOSE DEMONS OR SO HELP ME YOU WILL BE SLEAPING OUTSIDE TONIGHT, WITH THE SPRINKLERS ON, AND NO SERVANT WILL LET YOU BACK IN!" Yusuke could only squeak out a small 'yes ma'am', while moving to stand behind Kurama, who was trying to hold back his own laughter at the scene, it was impressive to see honestly, then I saw this woman that made the demon king cower change her tone, "thank you for telling me Hiei."

The demon in black hung up then and looked to the green dressed punk demon king with a smug smirk on, "now that the detective has been reigned in," he turned to look at us , "who are these annoyances that caused such a delay," that was a clear show of disrespect towards me directly.

My hunters started yelling all at once, things such as, "show respect to our lady you male heathen," one was, "we do not need to answer to a kidnapper of maidens," and somewhere in the back I think I heard someone mutter, "this is why I just wanted to go home and sleep, less males." I finally had to raise my hand to stop them from shouting out at the demon before walking forward only a few steps, "I am Artemis, goddess of the hunt, archery, wilderness, forests, the moon, radiance, maidenhood, and childbirth, we just wanted to have a day at the beach."

This Hiei didn't seem to care that I was a goddess and just muttered, "great, tourists," I couldn't help but get even more angrier with this demon the more he spoke, "yes well thanks to your beach day you interrupted an important meeting for prisoners of war and our new punishment system."

That got me and my hunters to become confused, didn't he just tell that woman that it was for peace talks and homeless demons, that didn't make any sense, it was Zoe who posed the question though, "why did you lie to the one you kidnapped then and tell her different than us?"

Kurama giggled a bit before he began to relay us the true information, "you'll have to forgive Hiei, he can be quite deceptive when he wants, that was to get ahold of our demon queen's softer side, if she knew what it really was about she wouldn't have cared nearly as much and got Yusuke to heal."

So that was it, fine, though I thought the deception was uncalled for, but to be honest it didn't truly matter to me, "fine, now please let us enjoy our day in peace," I wanted to ask why that five foot black haired demon felt so strange to me, but more than likely he didn't even know himself.

"Hn," that demon grunted, but I've heard that exact grunt somewhere before, no, I heard that grunt as a hum before, it sounded so familiar, but I couldn't place it, there had to be something to him, that little grunt was too familiar to someone that I'm close with, I just couldn't place who.

"Just one question," I asked out loud before the three could leave, they were about to turn and walk away, but my voice caused them to turn to me, "the short one with the emotionless face, who are you, you seem familiar to me for some reason, I think it's your aura, who are your parents?" The male known as Hiei narrowed his eyes at me, as if he was appraising me, then began to walk forward, until he was directly in front of me, my hunters all glared at him as he stood before me without an ounce of fear, I was a goddess and he was a mere demon, he could not hope to win a fight.

"Now that you've mentioned it there has been something off about you and your group since arriving here, by the fact that you're an all-female group, I take it you hate all males, but if you want me to answer your question, first you answer a hypothetical for me, and be truthful," he stated.

I really didn't like being told this to my face, and I liked it even less that I could not actually refute him sense he's said nothing false about me and the hunters, but to gain information I decided to play along for now, "fine, I swear upon the river Styx that I will tell you the truth."

The male only rose a single eyebrow at the swear before bringing it back down and turning his face to a stone mask again, "one of your hunters gets pregnant and hides it to you for the full term, she gives birth to a boy, what do you do with the baby that is born to the hunter?"

This, as you can imagine stoke a personal cord with me, there was no way he could know about Callisto, which still haunted me to this day, but I swore an oath to tell the truth on this hypothetical, which I was sure was just something similar to what happened to him, in a way at least. "It is standard policy to strip the hunter that gave birth to both a male or even a female of her status as my hunter and leave her with nothing but the clothes on her back, if male then he will be left with her to either die or survive wherever it is that they were caught, even during childbirth. The mother is given a choice should she birth a girl, let us take the girl and train her to be a hunter or let the mother keep her and let them stay wherever they are left when the rest of us travel, this is standard procedure now," it was then that I realized my mistake in telling him this.

The eyes that this male had turned from an, ironically, cold blood red eyes, to red eyes burning with judgment and hatred in them, the look he was sending our way put all of my hunters on edge and I could see them getting ready for a fight, but that look in his eyes did not back down. This demon named Hiei just rose his head and turned his judgmental eyes into a look that said that we were beneath him, before turning away and walking a few feet away before stopping and speaking emotionlessly, "I do not know my father, but my mother's name was Hina, now leave."

The male continued to walk after that, past his two fellow demons who shook their heads at us and let him through, all the while me and my hunters were just processing what he said to us and how he looked at us before leaving, it was like we were nothing, like we were lower than dirt to him. He didn't say anything else to us, nor did the demon king, the only one that stayed behind was the demon fox Kurama, and that was just to look at us with even more judgement, though to a lesser degree than Hiei had looked upon us with, but that look did not go away even as he spoke.

Flashback end (normal POV)

"The demon fox just told us that how we did things was the reason that the other pantheons think of us as nothing but murdering rapist barbarians, after that we left without speaking to anyone around there again, but can you imagine the nerve of that man, judging me, what right does he have?" Artemis finished her tale of how she met the demon king and two other demons who showed them no respect, and had the nerve to judge them on their actions, it was beyond insulting to them, beyond uncalled for and demons had no right to judge on anything gods did.

Hestia though, she stopped listening to Artemis's story when the male demon said that his mother's name was Hina, her name when she was among the ice maidens, and the way that Artemis said that he asked that question, she met him, she met her son, he was still alive. Yet, what hope was there for them to meet, or for them to meet and him not hate her, and what of his sister, is she alive and well, she wished she could ask out in the open if her daughter was alive as well, if her son was healthy and found someone to love, oh great, she's thought rambling.

Hermes seemed to have broken everyone else out of their own musings, "what about that aura you were getting off of him, that familiar feeling, you think one of us sired a child with a demon," he guessed as he turned his head to look at the most likely candidates, Apollo and Zeus.

"I don't know why you're looking at me for, I may be a little loose every now and again, but I would never lay with a demon from another pantheon like that, who knows how strong one like that would be, could become a threat like no other given time," Apollo told them all honestly.

"Well, it could be that the name Hina is a clue," Aphrodite spoke up about the subject, "could be someone that has a first name starting with H, that is 5 people, Hera, Hades, Hephaestus, Hermes, and Hestia," she surmised while thinking it would be cute to have all H's in that family.

"We can rule out Hestia and Hades then since both of them are remaining abstinent for the time being," Demeter commented first and foremost to get that out of the way, "Hera would never cheat on Zeus like that, especially with a demon," she chose to ignore the royal glare her way.

"That leaves just Hermes and Hephaestus," Dionysus summed up for them while lounging on his throne and picked a grape from a random grapevine and popped it in his mouth, "so which one of you two slept with a demon and got us into this division from the purpose of this meeting."

"Don't know about Heph, but I've never slept with a demon in my life, or anybody from that pantheon, even before that pearl harbor incident during the second world war I never spent much time with the Japanese, so if he is one of ours, it isn't mine," Hermes told them honestly.

"Same here," Hephaestus spoke up sounding bored himself since he just wanted to get back to his workshop, "though I don't think it's right to judge him Artemis," the goddess narrowed her eyes at him, "from the sound of things, he was abandoned by his mother by a group similar to yours."

"You want me to have sympathy for a male," Artemis asked incredulously, even if it was her favorite brother, and yes she had a list where technically he was at the top of, was asking her to have sympathy for a male, "have you lost your mind Heph, I'd prefer it if you hadn't."

"I'm just saying that empathy for ones situation would go a long way, I would rather we not treat him like a bad guy just because he's a demon and has an opinion on us, the same that everybody has on us apparently," Hephaestus finished his little machine now and it was a robot spider.

"Well said Nephew," Hades stated as he rose from beside of Hestia still and moved back to his actual throne, "though that still leaves us with who is the child's father or pretended to be his mother, and even though it wasn't mine, does anybody else have a clue as who's child it is?" It was clear what he was doing, inviting Hestia to come clean about what happened all those years ago, invite her to reveal that she not only has one but two children out there, it would be so easy to do, speak up and confess to what she's done, claim the child as hers before anything happens.

She may have thought that too late though, as not soon afterwards did the room turn darker, green mist started coming from Apollo as he clutched his head in his hands and yelled out, "NO, THIS ISN'T HOW THIS IS SUPPOSED TO WORK, I'M NOT THE ORACLE," before his eyes turned green.

THE IMIKO OF THE HEARTH IS FOUND
TO AID THE CHOSEN HE IS BOUND
A FIRE CHILD OF ICE HE IS BORN
YET A HEART OF ICE FOR HE IS SCORNED
BEWARE HIS POWER TO KILL A GOD
FOR HIS DRAGON TURNS THE ODDS

All of the lights went back to normal as the green mist receded back into the god of prophecies with his eyes turning their normal color in this form, but he did fall to his hands and knees and began panting hard, that had never happened before, prophecies always went to the oracle. He raised his head and looked around until he found the goddess he was looking for, he heard the prophecy like everyone else, and he knew what an Imiko is, he's spent enough time in Japan to know what it means, so he raised himself up and looked at Hestia, "what did you do?"

All the other gods looked to her as well, well there was no hiding it now, "Hiei is my son," she said it, oh boy did she say it, and of course there was a huge uproar about it, every god talked and shouted at once, just about everyone of them was either angry or shocked she did this to them.

"ENOUGH," Zeus shouted out and everyone instantly fell silent at the command, "what is the meaning of this Hestia, you were to remain a virgin goddess forever, who is the father of that demon brat, he will be executed, you will be punished, and your son will be killed as an abomination."

Hestia was horrified, "I am still a virgin goddess Zeus, the way I gave birth to him and his sister were through asexual means, meaning I'm their soul parent," everyone looked at her skeptically, everyone except Hades who already knew the story, so she had to reveal what happened to her. She told them everything, how she couldn't stand being in America when the civil war had begun, so she went to Japan and met the ice maiden known as Hina, the two struck a brief deal that let her hide in demon world, with the ice maiden's energy allowing her to remain there for a time. Then the rituals began that had several ice maidens go through a type of asexual conception that would let them birth a new generation of ice maidens, she was forced to undergo that same ritual after being drugged, but since she wasn't a true ice maiden, it instead gave her a set of twins. The next part was more difficult to tell, she almost broke down crying when she thought of her son being thrown from the cliff that should have killed him, "I thank chaos itself that he survived, it was a miracle in of itself, and I'm glad that he grew to be powerful, he wouldn't have survived otherwise."

"The way he was conceived matters little Hestia," Zeus told her, "you have born, not one, but two children into the world, you swore a sacred oath to forever remain a virgin goddess, not that oath is put into question by that simple fact, we cannot have word of this gotten out of this room."

"What do you suggest we do Zeus," Poseidon questioned his brother with crossed arms, "as long as he stays in his own side of the world, we'll never have to actually interact with him, not like he has to come here, don't let your paranoia outweigh your reason on this brother," he urged him.

"Actually," Ares spoke up, wanting to make sure this demon was put down as well, "from the sounds of the prophecy we just heard, it seems like we just got confirmation that he's going to play a part in the great prophecy, 'aiding the chosen' sounds like we actually do need him."

"You heard that other part though, didn't you Ares," Athena also spoke up, "it also said he has the power to kill a god, maybe through the power of a dragon or something, this should be impossible, but I do agree that we need him here, though we could sway him to our side."

"Maybe if we send Hestia to her son, plead with him to help us and the chosen one for the great prophecy, we can sway him to our side and have a powerful deterrent against any future threats that arise," Hera proposed, also, she didn't want to ruin a family such as one from Hestia, wasn't right.

Zeus rubbed chin in thought about the plan, it held merit, but, "very well, but as punishment Hestia, you shall not be the one to go," he ignored the glare from his wife and the look of anguishing horror from his older sister, this was her punishment for hiding this from them. "Demons are creatures of sin and lust, and that is how he's probably grown up, so we shall send the goddess best suited to suede someone of that nature to our cause," he turned to Aphrodite, "Aphrodite, you shall go to this demon and suede him to our side of the pending threat to come."

"Zeus, that is the worst decision to make at the moment, some are centered around lust, but most demons in demon world are about strength, and taking personal responsibility," Hestia advised with the king of the gods, "if you don't let me go and talk with him then it'll be insulting."

"I care not for if some demon is insulted Hestia, you'll just have to wait to see your child, and be thankful that I'm not ordering you to never speak with either of your children for all eternity," he turned to Aphrodite, "you are given the authority of the council to grant any wish, within reason."

Aphrodite bowed her head and smiled, she rose from her seat and walked out of the room with a stride in her step, she never actually had demon before, she wondered how he would be, from the sound of things he'd be a tough nut to crack, but she knew just how to crack the tough cases.