Kite stands in the operation room of the new Chimera Ant research institute, staring. Her previous body soaks in embalming solution in a giant glass cylinder. He looks more peaceful now, with no string tied to his extremities nor a giant puppet looming upon his back.
There are countless scratches covering that male human body, Kite observes, but only two visible sutures: One on his right arm and the other circling his neck. The red-haired girl can't help but starts to touch her own intact neck. The skin feels similar, but still not the same as human skin. Something's different now.
Kite remembers the feeling of her, no, his head being severed by the cat's paws. When a human's head got chopped off, it can still feel for a few seconds. All she could remember before falling into oblivion is two warm and furry palms holding his face, crimson eyes staring into his eyes, and then nothing.
What was in those eyes? Curiosity? Triumph? Satisfaction? Or something else? She can not recall.
Sometimes she wonders about his killer.
Kite decided to visit the institute because there were reports of supernatural occurrences specifically happening in the room where his body is stored. The staff told her that they had difficulty doing almost anything here. They needed to closely observe and dissect Kite's body for research purposes, but once they entered this room, either the light suddenly went off, the operating table fell over without anyone touching it or some other weird things happened that stopped them from proceeding forward. They have never, ever succeeded in opening the lid of that cylinder.
"Is there any traces of Nen lingering around here?" Kite asks while walking around the room. She opens her En. Nothing detected. Everything seems normal.
"Nope. Not ever. Our research focuses on the Nen usage of Chimera Ants Royal Guards. Would've known if there has been any." A research staff answers.
Kite walks closer to the glass cylinder. A strange urgent feeling suddenly strikes her. "Can you bring a step stool over here? I want to open the lid." She requests.
It is surprisingly easy.
Research staffs rejoice, and decide to do the operation right now with Kite's presence in case this room reverts back to its previous haunted state once she leaves.
Kite puts on a pair of surgical gloves, and starts to remove his body out of the embalming fluid with the help of another staff member. It is not as heavy as she expected.
The operation table has already been set up. Kite carefully holds the base of his neck and slowly, slowly let him lie down on the table.
She continues to stare at his own body. She should have felt traumatized by merely the sight, but that is not how she feels.
She is annoyed, while at the same time fascinated by it.
Annoyed because it is a reminder of her past misjudgment and defeat, though she retained her soul through his Crazy Slots, the scar is still fresh. Fascinated because, well, the body is rather intact and well-preserved even after months of exposure in hot and humid NGL summer, before it was picked up by the H.A. and sent to the institute. In her previous life as an ethologist, Kite had encountered countless animal corpses with various degrees of decay when he was doing biological surveys. He always used the level of decay to estimate the possible date of an animal's death. He would never have been right, if this body were given to him for an estimation.
She is fascinated by his killer's Nen ability.
She lowers her head to take a closer observation, and immediately notices something.
There are visible stitches around the two sutures of his body. They do not look like normal threads. Something's attached to them, something strange. Kite can sense its aura. It is not menacing however, but with a strong sense of yearning.
It wants something.
"Can I touch it?" The red-haired girl asks. The head of research staffs affirms her request.
She then takes off her gloves. Before she puts her right hand on the wound of his neck, she looks around and warns: "You folks better stand back. This might be dangerous."
They all did what she said. She now feels prepared.
Bare hand touches the dead skin. It feels damp and a bit uncomfortable. She moves her hand up a little and pinches the tip of a stitch thread.
The next moment, she feels like her world is twisted. She is being pulled into a whirlwind that flies her to a place that's far, far away.
The soil is soft and moist. She opens her eyes, and finds out that she has landed on a lively forest. A forest that feels strangely familiar.
The NGL forest.
She gets up from the ground, and suddenly feels much taller. She reaches out her hands and checks. It is a pair of man's hands. He is in his old body now.
He looks around and realizes that all other directions are blocked by rock piles and high weeds, except for the dirt trail under his feet that leads him into the unknown. He has no choice but to go along with it.
The trail leads him deeper into the forest. Scenaries alongside the trail gradually starts to bring back memories. He puts the pieces back together when he sees a giant willow tree by the creek.
This is where he died.
He starts to walk cautiously towards that tree. One step, then another.
Someone is resting by its huge trunk, Kite notices. Someone with curly silver hair, a pair of cat ears and a long tail. He recognizes that creature.
His killer.
Kite stops. For some reason, that creature immediately knows. They turns back their head and smiles at him.
"Come sit here." The cat-humanoid creature utters. "I won't do you any harm."
Kite studies their facial expression for a moment. It looks tranquil yet thoughtful. He knows they're not in the real world, as he knows that the creature's face has been completely squashed by Gon into unrecognizable.
He steps forward and sit down. About two meters away from them.
"What are you?" Kite asks vigilantly. "What do you want?"
"I don't know." The cat replies. "A spirit, a ghost, or a lingering trace of Nen. You name it."
"What do you want from me, Pitou?" Kite repeats.
Pitou gazes at him with excitement. "You know my ny-ame? That's nice. " They plays with the willow branches hanging in front of them and grins. "I wish I could have known your name sooner, Kite."
"Don't tell me it's because you want my forgiveness." Kite stares at the running water in the creek, tone softens. "You don't have to haunt the institute and scare those poor fellows for that."
"Mew? Nope. That's not why I'm here for." Pitou refutes. "I am here only because I always wish that I could have known you, that I could have talked to you for at least once. I guess those wishes were too strong that they grounded me from going anywhere else. Now, it seems that the gods have heard my wishes, so they bring you here. I am talking to you now. I have nothing mew-re to ask." They folds their paws upon their belly, and speaks with a sense of satisfaction.
Kite suddenly feels at a loss of words. He is embarrassed and needs to find something to talk about. Ah, that's right, those stitches.
"Colt told me that after you killed me, you were supposed to offer my body to the queen, but you did not do that. Instead, you created a Nen ability to stitch me back together and kept me around you all the time."
Pitou raises their head and looks at him with round crimson eyes. They looks more like a teenage girl now with this expression. "You hate me for doing that?"
"No. I find that amusing." Kite says. "I used to do a lot of research with felines around the globe. I know some species like to make a collection of things—-"
He is not able to finish his sentence as the feline interrupts. "But I have no other collection, just you."
"Should I feel honored?" Kite says sarcastically. "What I want to ask is, why'd you do that?"
"I said it already." Pitou's tone sounds a bit annoyed. "I wanted to know you, and talk to you, and play with you again. I thought it was easy. I just needed to stitch your head back to your body, and you'll be back to life. I tried and tried and tried and it didn't work. So I created a puppetteer to make you seem as alive as possible, but it's still different, way too different. "Their sound is getting quieter, closer to a murmur. "I later learned that humans are different from ants, once their head leaves the body, they'll not be able to live again even if you stitch them back together, but it's too late then."
Kite sighs, and moves himself slightly closer to the willow. "I know it now."
Pitou continues to gaze at him. "You're here. It must means that you're alive. No matter how you've done it. I am glad."
Kite looks back, and finds a streak of tear under their crimson eyes. Before he can say anything, Pitou speaks with a sense of urgency: "I don't have much time left. Can I ask you for one last favor?"
"As you please." The human answers without thinking twice.
Pitou stands up and walks towards him. Kite does not move, only raises his head and watches as the feline steps closer. They ties their hand behind their back and bends over, placing a light kiss on the human's mouth.
He does not feel anything but a breeze of wind, likely because Pitou's body has already completely diminished. But when he opens his eyes, he sees the cat person standing in front of him, smiling and tear-stricken at the same time. They certainly feels something.
"Have I granted all your wishes?" Kite asks as he watches Pitou turning translucent.
"More than I could have ever wished for." Pitou's voice feels ethereal as their translucent presence gradually fades into the willow branches behind them, until it is completely unseen.
"Kite, Kite! Wake up!" He opens his eyes as he hears someone calling his name, and finds herself back to the institute, resting her head at the operation table. The Chimera Ant body feels much smaller. She really does not know when she'd get completely used to it.
"Look! " A research staff points her to the human body that she once had. "I guess you're right. It was the lingering trace of Nen."
All stitches around those two wounds are dissolved now. The head and the right arm are again separated from the rest of the body. The last trace of Neferpitou left in this world are now completely gone.
It can signify many different things. Kite likes to believe that the feline has finally become a free soul wandering somewhere up in the air.
There has not been any supernatural occurrence in that institute ever since.
