Chapter VI

I rub my arm, the stitches from our first fight were gone since I was able to fully heal it at some point.

I realized this now but the more we spar with each other… the more she was getting stronger. I'm getting mixed feelings. I don't exactly want her to become extremely strong once Kite and the others fight her again.

So… If I have to do this, I really have to make her change sides. Or I'm going to be the one to…

I don't really want to think about that path yet. Something doesn't sit right with me, making that decision. A sense of guilt perhaps.

It's been about a week or two, and I honestly haven't been paying much attention to the time… Nothing changed that much apart from a few ants disappearing once in a while.

Well, speaking of ants… they've been more aware of me now in their base. They know Pitou is kinda protecting me… but some of them still sometimes give me weird looks. Worst case scenario, they try to attack me, which thankfully hasn't happened yet. But you can never be too cautious around them.

Pitou on the other hand…

I look at Pitou who was staring off to god knows where.

"Why do you even wanna get much stronger?" I asked out of nowhere while we sat at the entrance of the base.

She looks at me for a moment, still somewhat distracted.

"I mean… just looking at you, you're already extremely strong compared to others." I lowered my voice, "Even compared to Pouf, I feel like you're just stronger. Not that I fought with him before…"

Pitou tilts her head slightly, "Hmmm, I don't know that yet. And I don't think the Queen would like the Royal Guards fighting, just to test each other's strength."

"Then..?"

"Didn't I already say it before?" Pitou replies.

"You did?" I asked, thinking of when she said it. Which I do not remember at all.

"I have to protect the king, of course!" Pitou smirks. "It's our duty after all."

"I feel like the king would be extremely strong… Seeing as how, even the royal guards are already this strong."

"Well, I also have to protect you!"

I pause. "Huh?"

"Nya?" She tilts her head again.

We both looked at each other. "What does… that mean?"

"Hmmm…" She hums, then laughs. "I don't… know?"

We stare at each other.

"Right…" I shrug. "I would consider myself strong enough to defend myself… but, good to know you have my back."

"Nya~" Pitou lets out a giggle. "I'll be the only Chimera to hurt you!"

"That's great… Totally what I wanted," I deadpanned.

"Ehe~ Nya I'll make sure of it!" She says in the most innocent way possible. "Speaking of which… I'll go get you something to eat."

Pitou jumps back up to the base, quickly going inside before I could say anything.

"Ah… god she's fast…"

Before I could sit to wait someone else calls up my name. "Shiro-san!" A familiar voice says, followed by the sound of wing beats.

"I know that voice…" I turn around to find Colt approaching me from above. "Nice to see a friendly face…"

"Heh, I'm glad you find me friendly," he says, landing right next to me.

I smile, "You're like my only friend here, besides Pitou of course." I hold out a fist to him.

"Mhmm?" he looks at me a little confused, holding out a hand also. "What?"

I bump his fist with mine and chuckled. "It's a fist bump. It's like a… human greeting, yeah."

He lets his hands down a few moments later and lets out a small laugh. "I… That felt weird, but I'll try to remember it for next time then."

"I could teach you more human stuffs later," I said excitedly. "But anyways… what were you up to?"

"Nothing much, I was just finishing my patrol," Colt sighs deeply.

"What's wrong?"

"Well… There's a few Chimera that have been disappearing one at a time…" Colt scratches his head, clearly troubled. "And I absolutely have no lead in where they ended up. Not even a single body has been found."

"But… you already know who's doing it?"

I remember sensing the chairman a few days ago… Along with a few people. I know that the chairman's nen is quite explosive… He isn't exactly the stealthy type, so it might be the other two he's with… The smoke ability? Morel? Hmm… probably not.

"Kind of…" Colt says, breaking my line of thoughts. "Pitou-san said something about a few strong humans close to the base."

"...And Pitou didn't want to deal with them?"

Colt sighs again, "Unfortunately, yeah… Something about her protecting the base as the priority."

"Well, that's just how she is," I laugh. "Honestly, I don't think she cares much about the Chimeras, except for the queen and king."

"That's… true. Most of the Chimera are like that." Colt had this sad look on his face as he said those words.

"They… probably have the instincts of humans," I say, not exactly sure of what I meant. "Especially the bad ones."

He stares at me, "Are most humans like that, Shiro? Self-centered?"

I sat down and stared at the sky, "I… don't know."

We stayed there for a while. In a sort of comfortable silence. I hold Colt in high regard. I mean, we've only talked for a few days. But he's quite pure in his own way.

I'd like to think that some Chimera do remember their memories. I think I feel that around Colt.

Even some of those aggressive Chimera seemed somewhat human, though they probably took the form of those criminals.

Colt was the first to break the silence, "What happened to Pitou-san?"

"Huh?"

"Where is she right now?"

I pointed back to the base, "She went back to get some stuff. Probably some food."

"Right…" Colt stares at me for a second, "Human food… huh…"

I laugh. "Yeah. I can go a few days without food, but I'm also getting kinda hungry."

"I've been kind of curious about it."

"You want to try it?" My eyes lit up and I approached him. "Do you want some?! I can cook some food for us!"

"Eh…?" He stops for a moment, "I don't know… I'll think about it. Something about that concept just seems so nostalgic."

"You might as well try it." I cross my arms with a smug smile, "I'm quite confident in my cooking skills if I do say so myself."

"I don't know if I can trust that," Colt laughs. "But… you're right. I might as well try it."

"Okay! Heh, look forward to it."

Not a second later, another voice comes out, "A human!?" Then a Chimera, I'm guessing, dashed across the field targeting me.

Both Colt and I dodged easily. The person smacked towards the trees, knocking a couple of them down.

"What the—?" We both stood there, waiting for the dust to settle. "Do you know… who that is?"

"...Maybe," Colt says, clearly unamused by the attack.

Out comes a boar, standing on two legs, similar to a certain rhino ant I came across a few days ago.

"I didn't know we started to accommodate humans in our base," the boar said, looking toward Colt. "But it's alright, I'll get rid of 'em!"

Colt looks at him with crossed arms. "...Don't even try. This is Shiro, he is… a guest of Neferpitou-san."

"Yeah, come on… it's quite rude to attack someone randomly."

"You're not the boss of me!" He ignores Colt and stares at me. "I have no clue what you're planning to do here, human. I'll be sure to kill you quickly."

He dashed towards me again, faster than earlier, but nothing I couldn't dodge. He hits the wall of the base, blasting dust on the field.

"I don't think he's listening at all," I said, turning to Colt. "What do we do now?"

Colt sighs, "I'll just knock him out and take him inside… and talk to his captain."

"Yeah… sorry 'bout that."

"It's no worry. There's a few ants like these once in a while," he shrugs. "Some of them never change, no matter what you say to them. It's… a problem sometimes."

"Sounds troublesome," I chuckled. "Just like humans."

The boar once again dashed out of the dust and towards me. Before I could dodge, his head went flying off. His body flopped in front of me, with a loud thud.

I stared at the corpse, "...And he's dead…"

Someone stood beside me, "Are nya okay, Shiro?"

I found Pitou beside me, "Uh… yeah?" My eyes goes back and forth between Pitou and the corpse, "I dunno 'bout that guy though. He seems… dead."

"It's fine!" Pitou smiles, her red eyes shining. "I'm more worried about nya~! Are you really okay?"

I placed a hand on Pitou's hair, giving her head pats, which resulted in her letting out a small purr, I blushed but ignored it. "I'm fine… Thanks for worrying. I appreciate it."

She looks at me, not to mention the sudden physical touch. "Okay…"

"Ahem…" Colt approaches us. "I was going to stop him, but I guess Pitou-san beat me to it." He looks at the corpse as well. "I was hoping to at least… not have him die."

"He wasn't anyone important," Pitou says innocently.

I nod slowly, "Yeah… I'm sure about that."

Colt lets out a small laugh, "Well… at least no one would probably try to attack you again. Hopefully."

"I… that's true. With that demonstration, yeah, no… I don't really need to be that worried then."

Two Weeks Later

Just as I hoped. Everyone somewhat got scared of me- well… it was more like they got scared of Pitou. When word got out that someone got killed by Pitou because you know… they were trying to kill me. That instantly got most of them off my back.

Obviously, I still couldn't be too relaxed. I'm not that stupid.

Mostly I've been hanging out with Colt and Pitou one or the other, most of the time Pitou. But I have talked to a bunch of other Chimeras who mostly had neutral or positive opinions about me, thankfully.

Now… speaking of our cute Pitou…

She's been surprisingly… how do I say this… protective? Clingy? After being attacked a week or two ago, she's been by my side most of the time. She goes where I go. And of course, there are times when she drags me off to have me accompany her to do some stuff.

To say how bad it was… around ninety percent of my time was with Pitou. Obviously except for the times I have to go to the bathroom.

Now don't get me wrong, I… like hanging out with her? She's very fun to play with and sometimes we spar, which I did enjoy.

I've also taught her a lot of things… Interesting things…

Honestly, it feels like I'm getting way too attached. I think that's my current problem right now. I'm way too invested in this thing. I wanna see this through… No… I have to see this through.

"Shiro-san!" Colt's voice breaks my thoughts. "Good morning."

I turned my attention to him, "Hey Colt! Mornin'!"

"I'm surprised Pitou's not with you," he smirks. "Usually I'd find you two together all the time."

"I… I actually don't know? I just knew that Pitou went inside the base. Something 'bout a surprise or whatever." I shrugged, completely clueless.

"Oh! I think I know where she went then…"

I raise a brow, "Care to share with the class?"

"Nope, she might kill me for that…" Colt said instantly, "I don't think she'd like for me to ruin the surprise."

"That's true she might do that…" I laugh, "Not that I would know what goes through her mind."

"You sure you don't know?" He looks at me with a suspicious gaze.

"What's with that look…?" I stare at him back, "She's quite hard to read, y'know? Just earlier she tried to fight me without a warning! Like a true cat… she just pounced on me… but it's a deadly pounce…" I shiver at the thought.

Colt just laughs, "Sounds like a good time for you, no?"

I glared at him, "A small cat maybe… but a huge deadly cat girl isn't exactly what I want to fight in the mornings."

"You'll get used to it," he keeps chuckling. "It's a cat's affection."

"Thanks… If I want more reassurance that Pitou won't accidentally murder me, I'll head on over to you…"

"Just try not to die," he smiles. "My advice."

"Sure…"

"Shiro~!" Was all I heard before Pitou pounced on me again, landing straight on my back. "Nya~!"

Luckily I didn't fall over and held my ground. "Ouch…" However, that didn't do much for the pain.

"I got everything ready~!" She says quite happily.

"I'd appreciate it if you went if you went through the front door… not straight to my back."

"...but you're not inside, nya?"

I sigh, "Just don't jump on my back… I feel it breaking…"

"It'll be fine! You're strong!" She exclaims, still on my back as she hangs with her hand around my neck.

I stare at Colt, "You see what I'm talking about?"

He continues to stare at us, completely intrigued. "I see what you mean… Good job on not dying though."

"I almost felt my bones crack…"

"Pitou will just heal you up, no problem," he shrugs.

"Exactly~! I'll just heal you up nya~!"

"That's not the point…" I let out a stressed sigh, "My point is don't jump on people!"

She keeps pulling my shoulders, "Nyaa~ You're no fun~"

"I think you're having too much fun on my back," I placed my hand on her hand that was tight around my neck. "Time to get down?"

"Why~?" She smiles at me like a curious cat.

"What do you- why?" I stumble on my words as I raise a brow. "I feel like your arms around my neck will choke me… And I can feel your body pressing against my back!"

"Nya~? What's wrong with that~?"

Pitou was inclined to wrap around me tighter. (I mean her arms.) She has no personal boundaries with me at all! This would have been a nice experience if she controlled her strength a little…!

"There's all sorts of things wrong with that! Soft things aren't supposed to press against me!"

She sounds even more confused, "Nya~?"

"D-Don't you have something you wanted to show me?" I said, trying to change the topic.

"Nya! That's right!" She gets off me and flips in the air before landing in front of me.

I cough a little. "I felt like I was being choked by a huge snake…"

"Come on! Come on!" She tries to pull me by my hand.

"Alright alright…" I wave to Colt, "I'll see you later dude."

Without a second more, she drags me with her strength. I ran to match her speed so I didn't get dragged.

"Nya know how you were talking about wanting to make some human food?"

My eyes sparkle, "Oh?! Is there finally somewhere I can cook?!"

Only a moment of running later, we arrive at a room with a decent-sized kitchen, full of equipment and everything you'd need in a normal house.

"Woah! There's a lot of stuff here…" I turn to look at her. She had a small cat-like grin on her face. "When did this happen?"

"Nya know… earlier…"

...

Chapter End

Author's Note

Heyo! It's been a while! Like around a year... Sorry for leaving the stories without an update! Been busy with other stuff...

For the story... the next chapter will probably be mostly focused on relationship with Pitou. As for the after that, the plot will mainly follow the chimera ant. Other than that! No more spoilers!

Make sure to vote to let me know if you liked that chapter so I know what to focus on~! Or just comment...

Anyway, I'll try to give this a few more updates before I get too busy. But, no promises.

~ Void the author