"Well, mostly because the universe seems to have decided that 'Goro Akechi' is its favorite fucking chewtoy, and it's never fucking done. Part of why I was curious about your background. Living here for a few months has given me a morbid fascination with the thought experiment that is 'how many ways can the multiverse personally fuck me?'"

He shrugged. "As for how I did it twice, I've historically managed to fuck up pretty much everything I've ever done, at least a couple of times, before I actually got good at it. Why should death be any different? Going to Hell was, funnily enough, unrelated, came after a year and a half of being stuck in a place a bit like this one, and it was by choice. It's just that 'died, went to Hell' is much simpler to explain."

A beat.

"You might be right about the bird form being divine irony, though. I guess there's a reason my whole..." he gestured vaguely at his face. "looks like my mask in the Metaverse. But that's a common trend. I know a guy who died because he was shot by accident by a hunter. Makes it down to Hell, suddenly he's got hooves and antlers. Personally, I don't think it looks half bad on me, but I've also hit my head on way too fucking many doors, so."