Chapter 18
Mother nature is a cruel and unjust being. The "survival of the fittest" mentality the single most toxic line of thinking for those who dare call themselves human.
The strong pray on the weak.
The weak cower in fear, trying so desperately to survive.
How can anyone accept 'Mother Nature' as anything but an unjust and malicious force?
(A report on the state of the Chimera ant ecosystem)
"Based on the research we've conducted it would seem that the Chimera ants have finally settled in the NGL. The kingdom is at least eighty five percent complete in regards to it's full development. This was all possible due to the efforts of the Chimera ant queen, Neferpitou. I will elaborate.
Ever since her revival, Neferpitou began to express changes that reflected her moral code. Soldier ants always thought of her as sadistic and ruthless scientist. The experiments her and Pouf would conduct on humans would often be monitored by assistant soldier ants. Those ants would then spread word about each and every time they had to witness the brutal and merciless surgeries conducted by Royal guard member 'Neferpitou'. Her duty was simple: protect and serve the king. She performed her duty admirably. However there would be times where she'd go off on her own to perform said experiments on humans. Whether it be man, woman or child, she was impartial to choosing the test subjects. She'd justify it to those who feared her, often saying "it's necessary for the king's rule" or "this is what the king wants".
The soldier ants albeit loyal to the royal family, still had the closest connection to their past selves. The parts of them that were human remained within their psyche and it would often be expressed by means of them retaining their human memories. However some soldier believe that the members of the royal guard have never recalled their human memories. All that was known was that specific genes could influence their final appearance.
Shaipouf - A human, butterfly hybrid with a nen ability that allows him to divide his cells into smaller beings. I theorize that his nen ability was strongly tied to the process of phagogenesis that was constructing several of the same butterfly species at once during his development. Each individual cell must have been infused with aura giving Shaipouf the ability to divide himself, alter his face and voice, etc.
Menthuthuyoupi - A human, magical beast hybrid. Magical beasts are an oddity that are in need of further study. They range from intelligent creatures without sentience to unintelligent creatures with sentience, much like human beings. Perhaps Youpi was the ladder influence by both parts of his genetic code. Based on what I've been told, magical beasts can store an extremely large portion of aura within them. Youpi would be proof of that.
Meruem - The chimera ant king and the so called "perfect" existence. It is unknown what specific creatures constructed the "king of the ants" true form, however it is important to note that he was created to be one of the most powerful entity on the planet. It's safe to assume multiple nen users were consumed to construct a cluster of concentrated aura while developing the king himself. If that's the case, it leaves us with more questions. Transmuters can change the quality of their aura and give birth to new form. It's possible that the aura within the king's egg was transmuted to form a substance. One that can power the infant king by an unfathomable amount. We can't be certain of just how powerful Meruem was. All we did know at the time was that he threatened the existence of the human race.
Neferpitou - The firstborn of the royal family and the royal guard. She is a human, feline, hybrid. She is arguably the most 'unstable' out of all of the royal guard, her sadistic nature wasn't common among chimera ants. Shaipouf and Youpi both exhibited relatively normal behavior especially around the king. The one who would always suggest performing experiments on humans would be Pitou, the one who always thought outside the box would be Pitou, the one who was always the topic of discussion was Neferpitou. To a lot of the soldier ants, Neferpitou was more terrifying than the king himself.
Why was she so different from the rest of the ants? Innocent curiosity? Boredom? Regardless of what caused her personality to be unstable, the important question to ask is: what could be done to purge that maliciousness? Can evil be altered into goodwill? Is it possible for the irredeemable to actually be redeemed? I need to know. It's imperative that I find out what she truly is under that veil of darkness. I will understand her. Then maybe once this is all over I can...no... I don't want to get off track. I'll have to erase this portion of the report later, but for now I want you to understand that things are not as they seem. There is one underlying truth that has influenced all of this. The details are too inappropriate for this report but there will be a time where it'll all make sense. Forgive the speculative nature of this paragraph. I'll be sure to delete it later once I send it the officials.
Her only wish now...is to create a nation of chimera ants. Pitou's purpose vanished with Meruem's passing. All that's left now is to change the way humans perceive Chimera ants as a species. Perhaps through her actions, she can save the race of Chimera ants. That is her new purpose. I will do anything I can to help my sister achieve her goal.
This concludes my report. Signed...
Kite.
Back at the chimera ant palace
Pitou didn't get the information she was looking for from Jagren. Apparently Leol and Zazan didn't speak much even though they were both squadron leaders. Jagren informed her that Leol spent most of his time with his comrades, Hina and Flutter but never really focused on the other squadrons as often. Pitou recalled that Leol met with his death when he fought with Morel in one of the small cities of East Gorteau.
"I see." She placed her index finger under her chin as she said that. "That does make sense. To makes things worse, not every squadron leader came back in service to the king...well the ones that did wanted to receive nen abilities from Pouf anyway, so I guess you can't call that actual service. Come to think of it, it's possible that this 'Zazan' is already dead. It wouldn't be to unreasonable to think that a majority of the squadron leaders have been killed after leaving the nest." she thought.
"Pitou-sama, was my answer to your satisfaction? C-could I get some type of reward?" Jagren spontaneously started drooling while jumping up and down, expecting some sort of "reward" for answering a simple question.
Pitou was usually unfazed by Jagren's odd behavior since it didn't really pique her curiosity all that much...however "Reward? For what?" she asked
"For answering your question milady! Leol used to give me rewards for doing chores and answering random trivia questions for him whenever he was bored! So your majesty could I please have a reward?" He begged her.
Pitou folded her arms and tilted her head left and right thinking of a way to meet his request. "Hmmmm, reward? For something so simple?" She said that as she was still confused about why Jagren was asking her for this. She then perked her head up and thought up of an idea. "Hey Jagren, I'll give you this thingy." Neferpitou walked up to the dresser that was meant for the original supreme leader; Diego. Diego's maids would often stock suggestive looking undergarments within his drawer's and closets. Pitou stumbled upon them for the first time when she first became queen. She didn't know what they were for but she saw them as inconsequential. To her those items are meaningless but for Jagren... "Why don't you take this thing?" Pitou took out a pair of panties that were...very thin to say the least. She then threw them at Jagren.
THE WORLD WARPED
Time began to slow down for Jagren. The suspended panties in the air began to slowly fly towards little Jagren. His eyes were so fixated on them that his vision of the rest of the room warped into a pitch black nothingness. As if entranced by the lewd item, two beams of light that resembled spotlights focused on Jagren and the panties. The deep emotion he was feeling was intensified by the choir humming in the background. "Is the queen giving me...HER PANTIES?!" He thought to himself. Tears began to stream down his face, his nose began to drain with a purple blood, his ears were twitching out of pure, unadulterated happiness.
He leaped upward at the lewd item while the liquid from his body drained with even more intensity. "Neferpitou wore these! Her majesty wore these...these...beautiful pantsuuu~!" A loud echo of him shouting out those words could be heard...but only in his mind. In reality Neferpitou never actually wore them but rather Diego himself. These weren't panties but instead it was a speedo that men would ware for suggestive parties.
"Come on, wake up Jagren. I wasn't finished talking to you yet." Pitou was gently slapping Jagren in order for him to wake up. The panties that he was gripping so hard gave him quite a shock and rendered him unconscious.
Some time had pass before he finally awoken.
"Sorry about that Pitou-sama." He was rubbing his cheek because Pitou's slaps often hurt even when she is holding back. Even with her nen gone, her super strength will always be able to compensate. That's the reason she's not so worried however she's still determined to find out what happened to her.
"It's fine. Hey you're fast right?" Pitou asked bluntly.
"HUH? N-no! Of course not!" Jagren responded defending himself.
"But I saw you run really fast before. Your speed clocked a few miles over Cheetu's record if I'm not mistaken. Right?" She tilted her head in confusion.
"Huh? Oh, that's right! Y-y-yeah, of course I'm fast! Sorry your majesty I thought you meant something else." Jagren clarified.
"What is he talking about? I don't understand this kid at all." Pitou thought "Listen can you please go find Hippotsu? I need to ask him if he has any leads on the whereabouts? You're much faster than me so it'd be quicker if you bring him back here. Oh and after that you still need to clean my quarters. Pitou commanded.
"Huh? Y-yes! Anything for you my queen!" Jagren saluted her.
Jagren scurried around each of the main areas of the palace within five minutes. He checked every room where Hippotsu would most likely be in, the laboratory, the medical ward, and even some of the vacant maid rooms but he was nowhere to be found. Jagren hurried back to Neferpitou. "*pant* *pant* m- *pant* my queen. I couldn't find him." He said.
"What do you mean you couldn't find him? He should be in the palace somewhere, right?" she retorted.
"He should be here, but he's not. I checked everywhere! Even in places I have no business being in *smirk*."
Pitou looked down at the floor and started to think. "Was Inuka in her room?" she asked.
"Yes! She's crying for some reason. If you don't mind me asking, what happened to her your majesty?"
Pitou really didn't want to worry about Inuka since she felt it was more important to search for clues. However Hippotsu's sudden disappearance started to concern her. "Why don't we figure this out together? I may need your help with something." She said firmly.
"T-T-Together?" He blushed as he asked that but then shook his head and asked "Wh-what would that be my queen?" He asked.
"Jagren, let's search other areas of the palace that we usually check. Okay? It'll be just the two of us for nyow. Follow me, alright?" She smiled at Jagren and turned around and began walking out of the room. "I can't shake this feeling like something major is about to happen." She thought.
Jagren smiled and excitedly said "YES MY QUEEN!"
Walking directly behind Neferpitou, he stared at her with all his might. "My queen. I'll do my best to impress you!" He thought to himself. He followed her out of the palace gates and to an area that wasn't ever used by the royal guard.
To the soldier ants, Neferpitou was a terrifying member of the royal guard but to Jagren, she was the perfect woman. A woman truly befitting of the title of "queen".
End of chapter
Chapter nineteen this Wednesday. Thank you for reading and sorry for the delay~
FYI: If you're watching Hunter x Hunter in English on Toonami this week the episode us Neferpitou lovers truly hate is coming up. You already know which one I'm talking about.