Chapter IV

I quickly glanced toward the source of the voice. A dark blonde man was leaning behind the rocks. He wore a white frilly shirt, black pants, and as well as black shoes.

I would have assumed he was human if not for his lightly purple skin and as well as the antenna above his head. He was another chimera ant.

"If they come here, we simply destroy them," he continues, referring to the intruders.

"You have a point, they could be decoys," Pitou says agreeing with the stranger. She wasn't even worried about whoever this stranger was. Well, to be fair they are both chimera ants. "Huh? Wait, was I speaking out loud?"

"No, I simply knew what you were thinking about."

"Who are you, anyway?"

"One of the Queen's Royal Guard," the man introduces. "Shaiapouf." He chuckles lightly, "Menthuthuyoupi will also awaken soon."

Shaiapouf and Menthuthuyoupi? The last one is kind of a mouthful. But there really are three of them huh? I wonder if I can still escape even after there are three of them out and about.

Definitely might have to escape as soon as I see an opening.

Shaiapouf stares at Pitou, "Yes, that's correct."

Her eyes shrank, "You can read all my thoughts." She looks at him with a blank face, "Not sure I like that."

"I can understand the sentiment," Pouf dismisses. "But, it's not like I am omniscient," he glanced at me. "And I for one am more interested in what you brought to our base."

"Hi," I said, trying to fade into the background.

"He was interesting so I picked him up," Pitou replies rather bluntly.

"Why are you talking about me like I'm some random pet…" I muttered.

They stared at each other for a minute before Pouf replied, breaking eye contact, "Don't worry I won't touch him. I was just merely curious."

"It's good to know that you read my mind about that," she smiles innocently with a slight hint of malice behind her voice.

Pouf ignores her comment before looking at me again, "So, care to introduce yourself?"

"Oh," I blinked. "Right… just call me Shiro."

"Shiro… I see."

"Yeah..?"

"I haven't got a single clue on how you could find this human amusing," he says, turning to Pitou.

"Rude…"

"He's strong!" she comments.

"I can see that," he rolls his eyes. "But just being strong doesn't necessarily mean that a person is interesting."

"What do you mean?"

"I just simply wondered if there was something else about him that caught your eye," Pouf explains. "Not that I'd be an expert, seeing as how I've only been born just recently."

Pitou tilts her head, "He's super strong?"

They pause for a moment.

"I'll leave you two alone then," Pouf turns around. "As a favor from one Royal Guard to another, I'll warn everyone not to harm our little guest. As well as to Youpi once he wakes up from his slumber."

"Thanks, nya!"

Pouf disappears soon after.

"He's… a nice guy," I said, still not sure what to think of the dude.

"Yep," Pitou agrees, not finding my sarcasm.

That was a weird encounter. I honestly expected him to attack me at some point. Thankfully he didn't. Well, that's not to say that he won't attack me randomly at some point, which I doubt.

I glanced at Pitou. Honestly just hope she also won't just out of nowhere try to murder me. I mean I trusted her up to this point and she hasn't attacked me so far…

Which kinda brings up the point of… what if she doesn't kill anyone anymore? Maybe I can perhaps persuade her to switch sides. She doesn't seem that bad right now from what I've seen.

"…"

That's a small possibility. Which I can maybe try to work around. But… that means I have to stay with her and rethink if I want to escape. Ugh… so complicated.

What to do… what to do..?

Hmm…

"Why are you staring at me like that?" Pitou asks innocently.

I break out of my trance, "Huh?" I didn't even notice I was staring at her. "Oh. My bad- I was… I was just thinking."

"Mhmm?"

I turned away from her and let my mind wander for a moment. A few minutes passed before I finally said something, "I… I don't know. I'll tell you another time."

"Okay?"

My eyes were focused, staring into the dark sky. "I do kinda miss my Kite and the others though," I said, slightly reminiscing. I also missed Gon and Killua's banter. They were fun to travel with, it made the whole trip much less boring.

"Who?" Pitou questioned with a puzzled look. She hums for a moment before continuing, "those humans you were with before I found you?" she guesses. "Oh! Is it that other strong human?"

She was staring at me with those excited look again.

"Can I fight him also?"

I put my hands up, "No, you can't. I mean he is strong, but I'm definitely stronger than him." I huffed. "But… yeah, that's the guy I'm talking about. And I'd rather you not hurt a friend of mine."

"I wanna see how strong he is!"

"He's strong, I'll vouch for that. So you don't have to fight him."

"That just makes me want to fight him more…" Pitou smirked, before making annoyed cat noises. "Nya~! I want to go out and fight him! But I have to protect the base…~"

"I- Why did I say that? That was dumb…" I facepalm. "Look! You already took one of his arms. I'd honestly like it more if my friend has all of his limbs attached!"

Pitou stares at me, "So… you want me to reattach his arm?" She tilts her head cutely. "I can do that!"

"Yes! But that's not what I meant…" I sigh. "No need. I can do that for him. Are you cutting his arm off and then a few days later reattaching it? Not gonna lie, it seems like an awkward situation. So I'd rather avoid that."

"That's true," Pitou nods. "Nya~? You can heal people?"

I forgot I wasn't supposed to say that…

"Something like that… It's very restrictive though. How about yours? " I asked quickly changing the topic, "I remember you having that… doll thingy? The weird ass medic-looking doll?"

"I didn't know it was that weird…" Pitou chuckled, "It was just an instantaneous idea. I thought of wanting to fix your arm so I came up with Doctor Blythe."

"'Fix' not heal?" I muttered, before glancing at Pitou. "I guess that suits your style more," I chuckled.

"What's that mean?" She looks at me with a blank face.

I shook my head, "Nothing. I don't really see you as a healer type anyway."

Pitou stares at me, waiting for me to explain.

"I didn't mean that was a bad thing!" I quickly clarified. "But what did I mean about that?" I pause, thinking. "Honestly I have no clue either."

"You're weird." Pitou raises a brow, "Assuming something, then saying you're not exactly sure yourself?"

"Alright. My bad, my bad!" I put my hand up in defeat. "That just means I have to get to know you more."

My face flushed completely embarrassed of what I just said. Pitou didn't seem to understand much of what I meant though.

"Through fighting?"

I rolled my eyes. "That's not the only way to learn about someone." I shrugged, "But weirdly enough, it does seem like a great idea."

"So you want to fight with each other?" Pitou smiled, like a cat finding its prey.

I cough, "I-I didn't mean that…" She looked like she wasn't even paying to what I was saying anymore. "F-Fine…" I'm gonna regret this. "But not killing each other," I quickly stated.

"Alright!" She raised her arm, cheering.

I blinked, already regretting my decision. She does look so happy though…

Then a question popped into my mind. "Why do you even want to fight everyone anyway?"

"I wanna see how strong I am!" Pitou quickly answers. "And see if I am capable of protecting our king."

"From what I've seen, and I have traveled a lot and met a lot of people, those that can probably kill you can be counted with two hands, if not even less."

"Really?" Pitou stares at me disappointed.

"O-Okay… I haven't really met everyone, so maybe more than that," I looked away from her sad look. "But I will say that you are extremely strong, that's for sure."

There was a small silence before Pitou asks another question, "Does that mean you're one of the strongest humans? Seeing as how you didn't die when we fought?"

"Huh? No, no!" I quickly dispelled her thoughts. "Not even close. I'm still learning a lot from my journey. And I'm still getting stronger, well… hopefully anyways."

"You're really bad at explaining," she laughs.

I flushed again. "I mean, I really am not that strong. I'm just very resilient if, I have to describe it. Also very defensive in fights."

"Really?"

"Well, I have to survive somehow," I shrugged. "And focusing more on defense helped me out a lot in tough situations."

"That makes sense," she nods. "I wanna see it tomorrow."

"Huh?"

"Didn't we say we were going to fight again?" She smiled, innocently, like a child that was promised a toy. "Well?"

"Y-Yeah… Sure…" I answered reluctantly. Not that I minded, but I still wasn't exactly sure if she was going to hold her side of the bargain. Well, it's not like I have a say in that matter. Either that or she might actually just kill me.

Pitou stood up and started walking. "Let's go."

"Hmm?" I also stood up in response. "Where are we going?"

"It doesn't seem like the intruder is going to be doing anything note-worth," Pitou answered, not slowing down. "So, let's just go back inside."

I followed after her, "Alright…"

After scaling down for a few minutes we found an entrance leading inside. I took a deep breath before following Pitou inside. It was dumb of me to trust an enemy. I mean, I guess I'm confident in my ability, but maybe it's arrogance.

If I die I guess, I die.

I tried using my aura to detect living beings in the base. And just like the obvious outcome, there are dozens of chimera ants living inside. Though only a few of them were really strong. Most of them I could easily take care of.

But against all of them at the same time..? I'd rather avoid that at all costs.

I'll try to stick to Pitou just to avoid getting into battle against the other chimera ants. Unless Pitou will use that against me to gang up on me. Which I highly doubt. She's not like that after all.

"Where are we heading?" I asked my supposed guide.

"Nya? Where else?" She responds as if the answer was obvious.

I paused waiting for her to continue, which she didn't. "Yeah, I have no clue."

"Someplace you can rest," she finally answers.

There was a small silence that followed.

Was she serious? Some place to rest in the middle of a colony of chimera ants? Yeah. Nope.

"I don't think, me, resting in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by chimera ants is a good idea," I stated, clearly worried. "They will definitely kill me the second they get the chance."

Pitou rolled her eyes, "You can take them~ You are strong aren't you?"

"Not while resting, no?"

"That's why I'm coming with," she huffs clearly annoyed with the questions. "Besides, Shaiapouf already warned most of them. Probably…"

"Hey! I heard that last part," I sigh. "Fine… I'll trust you."

"Nya!~" She shakes her head, "Such a worrywart."

"Hey," I shrug. "That's how I stayed alive all this time."

Though maybe running away when I had the chance was a better idea than getting sucked up and playing with a certain cat. I had so many chances.

But then again if she did find me escaping, I couldn't even hope to outrun her.

"Pitou-san!" A voice said from another side of the intersection of holes.

"Hmm?" Pitou glances at the source, clearly recognizing the voice.

A bird-like chimera ant approached us. He had white wings almost the size of him and claws for feet. His face, like Pitou, resembles more of a human, unlike the other chimera ants.

"Did you need something?" She says as we stopped to entertain the bird-like chimera.

I just hope this first one isn't an aggressive kind. Well if it was one of those, then Pitou would, hopefully, probably stop them.

"Oh! Nothing, I was simply just returning from patrol. And saw you, so I had to at least greet you," he explains.

This guy seems responsible and somewhat rational. I expected most of them to be crazy and I'm guessing this guy is one of the few exemptions from that stereotype.

"I also heard from one of the Royal Guards, Shaiapouf, that you had a special human guest," he turns to look at me. "I'm guessing this is the human?"

Damn, that guy works fast.

"Yes," Pitou says, waiting for the chimera's reaction.

The chimera switched back to Pitou, "I have already told my squadron of this special case, which they hopefully got the message."

"I see, good work," she comments.

"Thank you." He glances at me again, "It's nice to meet you, human. My name is Colt, one of the Queen's squadron leaders. If you need help, you can ask me."

Colt, huh? This is the kind of chimera I wouldn't mind befriending, including Pitou of course. Now that I think about it… are Pitou and I really friends?

"T-Thanks," I said, slightly taken aback. I wasn't exactly expecting a welcoming person. Nonetheless, I greeted him in return, "The name's Shiro. It's also nice to meet you."

He extended his hand and I paused for a moment before taking his hand. I didn't know they also had etiquette. Maybe they really aren't that different from humans. I mean I guess they did have traits of humans in them. More prominently, some of them have 'bad' types of human traits.

"Well, I'll leave you two alone," Colt says. "Shiro. Pitou-san."

"Alright," Pitou replies.

I smiled, "Thanks."

Colt walks off as Pitou and I headed in the opposite direction.

"He was… strange. Nice, but strange," I comment.

Pitou hums in agreement. "I will warn you, that not every chimera is like him though."

"I know," I agreed. "That's why he's strange."

After chatting for a few minutes we finally entered a room of sorts. Not that anything in this base even remotely resembles a room, but this one was larger than the others.

"This is where I stayed most of the time," Pitou says, gesturing to the room.

She walked over to the green-colored rock, different from the rest of the room. It resembled a sofa, but clearly, it didn't share the same traits as a sofa, namely softness. Nope, definitely not soft at all. But she sat anyway.

"Nice… place," I said, not exactly sure what to say. Maybe I shoulda just said nothing.

I sat beside her, but still respecting physical boundaries.

"Now that I think about it," I yawned. "I am getting kinda sleepy."

"Nya~ Then go to sleep," she yawns.

Do I really trust her to keep me alive? Honestly, I have no clue either. I don't even know what brought me the courage to follow her.

Friends, huh? Pitou? Colt? These chimera ants? Who can I really trust?

I stared back at my companion, with those thoughts in mind. "Hey, Pitou?"

"Mhmm? Nya?" She responds, lazily.

I chuckled at her cuteness. Looking at her… I wouldn't even know she was a murderous chimera ant, except maybe for her ominous aura, other than that… her appearance and personality just betray her intentions.

"Nothing…" I muttered just enough for her to hear. "I'm just sleepy…"

As I said those words, my eyes started to fall, the rocks becoming more comfortable behind my back. My situation was now my future self's problem.

But before everything went dark. I felt a soft sensation and arms wrapping around me.

Pitou..?

I didn't have much energy to protest, so I just dug deeper into the warm embrace. Falling even deeper to sleep.

"I like you…"

…

Chapter End

Author's Note

Hello reader! Hope you enjoyed that chapter... I'll be honest, it took me a few days to write. Ideas didn't enter my mind for a long time, until recently. So with that in mind I will update this fanfic as much as possible until my ideas run out again.

I do enjoy writing this fanfiction because if you couldn't tell Pitou is one of, if not, my favorite character in Hunter x Hunter.

But, anyway, boring stuff aside. I hoped you enjoyed that chapter. And if you're enjoying the whole fanfic then follow or favorite, maybe even leave a review. They're all highly appreciated, it makes me wanna let out more chapters faster.

Alright, enjoy the next one!