Hey. It's been a while. I don't have much to say nor do I want to give any excuses, all I'll say is that I'm sorry. I'm going to continue the story and finish it this time. Just like Togashi, I'm back as well. I had to deal with a lot over the past few years which preventing me from focusing on this story but my mind is clear and I can continue. I will never tell you when a new chapter will be uploaded however I will be more consistent from now on. (New Cover Art, via Novel AI)
In any case: I have made several errors within the first few chapters. They range from being critical to inconsequential and many people will have different opinions on which error can be categorized as what. I guess in a sense it's perfect to represent "Hyori Ittai". Actually that doesn't make any sense. Forgive me, in any case I'd like to clear up a few things if that's alright with you. My thought process and motivation for what led me to come back and certain things I'm going to do going forward.
Initially I wanted to give Neferpitou more screen time and give readers an opportunity to explore the more nuanced areas of her personality and I still wish to do that going forward but I seem to have lost track of purpose a long while ago which nearly derailed the fic. Meruem was clearly a stark contrast from the rest of the royal guard. Once he met Komugi he slowly abandoned his ant personality in favor of becoming more human to Shaipouf's dismay. That's what I wanted to explore with Pitou. Her so called "human side".
Togashi wrote several instances in the manga that showed how Pitou displayed certain signs of affection towards humanity in very critical moments as well never showing the the inner layer of her ant body in a symbolic sense. Pouf and Youpi both made it clear that they hated humanity and saw us as lesser beings while Meruem and Pitou often gave them the respect they deserved in key moments, understanding that there is more to their actions of resistance towards them. I sometimes wonder if a character like Komugi could have brought out Pitou's human side a lot more but her untimely death ruined any chance of us seeing her evolve in a way Meruem did. Pouf and Youpi also has "mask off" moments during the raid. Youpi's ant face splash screen during the moment he's figuring out the purpose of his power while fighting Knuckle and Shoot. Pouf's reaction to the King being exposed to the Poor Man's Rose explosion.
I believe this is symbolic of not only their full acceptance of their nature as ants but also emphasizing their general disgust for human resistance. To them, Meruem is the only one who deserves any exaltation. To them humanity are the true "ants". Meruem's curiosity for the extend of human abilities and how he can surpass them in games of wits proves he respected them enough to give them the ideal conditions for potentially defeating him. Komugi was the one person he could never beat. His respect for her grew over time thanks to being the one obstacle that the king couldn't overcome. Pouf tried to kill her several times before WHILE REALIZING HOW INSULTING THAT WOULD BE TO MERUEM. (That's probably a concept that could be explored more in depth at a later date.)Pitou on the other hand tried to save Komugi albeit only because Meruem asked her too but she did shed tears and showed empathy that was lost on Pouf and Youpi. Pitou is also the only royal guard member to not have a splash screen of her inner ant facial feature. I want to explore Pitou's character in a similar vein to how Meruem was written but it's going to take some time before I can get to that point. I want to try my best in order to make it a reality. I always felt empty leaving the story as is, and I know the handful of you who enjoyed it were really looking forward to figuring out what's going on...I simply came back because I want to write a story that shows how much I love the character. That's my main motivation. I'll do whatever it takes to finish it. I'm not a great writer nor am I some sort of storytelling genius,
Anyway onto my plans
1: I will be posting more often. I will never give exact dates since I can't commit to that as much as I would like to. Every update will be posted randomly. If you want an estimate...I guess you can expect at least around two to three chapters per month? I'm still not sure exactly.
2: I may have to retcon some specific story beats in order to streamline things. I know this is pretty much a cardinal sin that any writer can commit but as I reread some of the story beats and a lot of it is inconsistent with the current canon. HxH is an ongoing story and because it's nowhere near an ending yet it's going to be difficult to bring it as close to canon as possible. The manga is currently dealing with the Dark Continent expedition. Changing a characters personality in order to fit within MY fanfic is both disrespectful and and insult to Togashi's work. With that said I can't say the same thing about bringing Pitou back to life. As I mentioned a few paragraphs above, Pitou is a complex character and she shares a nuanced personality with Meruem and other squadron leaders who had to make morally complex decisions, I wanted to make a "what if" scenario that doesn't break the continuity we already have. I've decided to adjust how I use legacy characters like Kite in the future to make sure that he(she?) is given the respect that they deserve. Kite may be a chimera ant now but I can't do whatever I want with them just because of a few assumptions. Palm was a good indicator for how I was going to approach Kite's development but any further use of legacy characters that are not Gon will be used sparingly. I'll stay in my lane and try not to get ahead of Togashi in anyway. Since the story has been written in a certain way with several errors like calling NGL a "country" when it is actually part of The Mitene Union, I decided to just correct them as I go along. I'm no longer able to edit the old chapters AFAIK, so we'll have to make due.
3: Less original characters. I created the new royal guard for Pitou simply so she'll have companions during her term as queen of the chimera ants. They won't influence where the story goes too much but they will be significant in helping Pitou in the future. The creation of organizations such as "Philantropy" are a means to an end but certain members will be more than just cannon fodder. They will not compromise the story. I want to write this with as many canonical characters as possible without diverging to much. The creation of OC's in the future will be sparse. Fortunately some of the big players are already on the whale ship to the Dark Continent so there's not much they could do anyway. In the original story Diego was accused of attempting mass genocide of his entire nation, thanks to the cover up of the Chimera ant incident by the Hunter Association. With the magical beast designation they can remain safe for the time being. This fic makes the assumption that a majority of the chimera ants stayed behind because Pitou had returned.
4: Pitou's Goal. As of right now, Pitou's current goal is to restablish East Gorteauh as it's new ruler and help Chimera ants become mix into human society and to discover what happened between her and Gon. I may have a bit of a shipping bias between Gon and Pitou but trust me, this isn't that type of fic.
To close I'd like to thank the people who have patiently waited for me. I'm honored that you enjoyed my story so far. See you soon.