HxH Pitou's Humanity Chapter 6

Chapter 6 Old Problems

Pitou slowly woke up out of bed. Seeing the morning sunlight peer through the window. It took her a moment and a pinch to the sheek to remind her that she was currently staying at Jessica’s guest house. Pitou went downstairs to find some fruit on the table. Pitou wasn’t all that hungry but it would seem odd if she refused meals. So she grabbed an apple and read the note on the table.

“Hey Pitou, Sorry, I’m not ditching you or anything, it's just that I need to go talk to my parents and rip this bandage off quick. I’ll be back as soon as I can. Make yourself at home and when I get back I can take you to see Magno Passel.” Jessica

Pitou couldn’t help but smile a little at the letter. ‘I guess I got lucky to find another good person. I’ll wait then. She’s helped me out so far and hasn’t done anything wrong to me yet.’ Pitou then felt something vibrate in her pocket. She pulled it out. ‘My phone. I forgot I had this. Looks like it's losing battery. These are useful, and I should keep it just in case. Now to find a charger.’ It didn’t take long but Pitou was able to find a spare charger in the draw. She had begun to charge it, as she did, a photo appeared on the screen.

When Pitou first got the phone was back in the castle of East Gorteau. Her king gave her this phone and when it asked for a picture she ignored it until she was having to fix Meruem's arm. She got tired of the notifications and took a picture of Meruem and Komugi playing Gungi with Youpi and Puff in the background. “This feels like ages ago. Was this really the only picture I took.”

“Hey I’m back.” yelled Jessica as she entered the house. Pitou saw her round the corner and put some stuff down. Pitou also noticed that she was wearing round sunglasses, a sundress with a jacket over it. “Okay, my dad went easy on me, him and his friend are taking care of my car while I have my dad's jeep. So we should be all set to head out when you’re ready.”

“Okay,” said Pitou, getting her attention when Jessica looked at her. “I’m ready to….What?” noticing Jessica was now looking at her up and down.

Jessica brought her sunglasses down a bit to look over them. “Pitou what are you wearing?”

Pitou was instantly confused by this statement. “Uh my clothes. Why?”

“You were wearing those yesterday.”

Pitous still had no idea where she was going with this. “Yes.” ‘What is she getting at.’

Jessica took her sunglasses off. “Oh no no no, sweetie you can do so much better than that.”

Pitou didn’t know how to react to that. She looked more like a deer in headlights than anything else. “Ooookaaaaaay.”

“We can fix that.”

“Why?”

“Wait, you don’t have a bag or any other change of clothes do you?”

“I only have what I’m wearing and everything in my pockets.”

It was now Jessica’s turn to be stunned. “Okay we need to fix that now. Come on I know the perfect place in town.”

~o~

Jessica brought Pitou to one of the few clothing stores in Overanu. Pitou was dumbstruck. ‘Why the hell are there so many clothes here? Who would need this much?’

“Lacy” shouted Jessica, as she ran to the girl who was at the counter.

The girl at the counter looked up from her phone. “Jessica is that you?” said the clerk Lacy.

“How are you doing?”

“Doing good, but what are you doing here? Aren’t you supposed to be in one of the big cities fulfilling your dream.”

Jessica flinched at that for a moment. “Yeah well plans have somewhat changed right now I’m trying to help my new friend Pitou.” She said as she ushered Pitou to Lacy.

“Hi Pitou, I’m Lacy. Me and my family run this shop and any friend of Jessica is a friend of mine so I’ll give you a discount.”

“Um thanks.” said Pitou as she saw Jessica began to fly through the aisle of clothing around the store. Pitou vaguely could hear Jessica muttering to herself with all sorts of different clothing terms she couldn’t understand. “What?”

“Don’t worry it's just Jessica doing her thing. She’s one of our best customers.” said Lacy before looking at her phone. “What the hell is with this thing. Why isn’t it working.”

Pitou was about to ask what was wrong when Jessica came back holding multiple hangers of clothes. “Okay I got several options for you. From Cute to business.” Her eyes were practically glowing.

At that moment all of Pitou’s instincts told her to run. She looked over to see Lacy praying for her. Pitou’s eyes began to swirl. “What’s happening?”

~o~

Pitou had tried on at least a dozen or so outfits. ‘What the hell is this?’ she was already exhausted. ‘It feels like I just ran through a war field.’ She looked over at Jessica who still had so much energy and was shifting through several outfits. ‘How can she keep going? Why does she care about clothes so much, what point is owning this stuff?’ It didn’t hurt to ask. “Hey Jessica.” getting her attention. “WHy are we doing this again?”

Jessica put her hands on her hips. “Pitou let me answer that question with a question. Did you have clothing stores back where you lived?”

“No, not really.”

“Did you have spare clothes or many clothes back in NGL.”

“No.” she wanted to say she never had any other clothes, but that may be too much for Jessica.

“Have you had those clothes long?”

“For a little while.”

“To sum up what I’m hearing. You have had those clothes for only a short time but you haven't worn anything else and have been traveling for like a month without wearing anything else.” Pitou nodded. “The same clothes that have gotten dirt, water and all sorts of gross disgusting things you may have come across on your travels.”

Pitou was silent for a moment, Jessica’s points were starting to hit home as Pitou realized she has never once washed her clothes at all since she was born. The only set of clothes she has ever had. This made her feel a little gross especially as she remembered everything she has lived through in her short life.

“Judging by the utter shock look on your face, I’m guessing my point is getting across.” said Jessica with a satisfying grin.

“Um yeah, I uh, yeah.” was all Pitou could say as she was realizing she was not taking care of herself properly. ‘What the hell, before the king was born I read several books explaining the values of proper cleanliness. How come I never followed them, germs can be just as bad as other forms of death. What the hell were we doing? Wait, how immune are we to disease?’

“Uh Pitou, earth to Neferpitou you okay.” said Jessica.

“Huh, yeah.” said Pitou now, understanding that it would be a good idea to get some new clothes. “I just realized how undergeared I am.”

“Well we can fix that.” said Jessica “So now that you have an understanding, anything specific you’re looking for?”

Pitou thought for a moment. “I plan on traveling, so something durable and something easy to move in just in case something comes up.”

Jessica smiled. “I can work with that. Don’t worry I always leave my customers pleased.”

“Customers? Wait, do you work here?”

Jessica stopped for a moment. “No not anymore I used to. You see I always loved clothes and outfits growing up. So I got a job at a clothing store, but that wasn’t enough so I quit this place about two years ago and left on good terms as I looked for my dream job. And wouldn’t you know it I found it. Clothing coordinator, helping people coordinate clothing for events or commercials, you name it. I was even able to impress a company in a nearby city.”

Pitou saw where this was going. “The one that suddenly closed down.”

“Yeah,” she said, a little depressed. “For a moment I thought I had a handle on my life and everything figured out. Now I’m having to take a few steps back.”

“Oh uh I’m sorry.” said Pitou trying to comfort her new friend.

“Don’t worry about it.” said Jessica a bit cheerful again. “Just because life throws a wrench into things doesn’t mean it's the end. You just gotta pick yourself up and keep going. This won’t stop me, it's just a minor set back.”

Pitou thought about what Jessica had said. Even though their two situations were vastly different, Pitou couldn’t help but feel for Jessica’s situation. ‘Yeah this won’t stop me. I’ll just have to keep going myself.’ “Hey Jessica.”

“Hhmm.”

“Thanks for helping me out.”

“Of course,” said Jessica. “Besides it's hard to be down when you have friends around.”

~o~

“Alright, I think we're all set.” said Jessica holding a bag filled with Pitou’s new clothes. Pitou had to put her old attire on as she wasn’t allowed to pay with the clothes she was buying on. “Hey Lacy we would like to purchase these. Lacy?”

Lacy looked up from her phone. “Oh Jessica you guys all done?”

“Yeah is everything alright?”

“Sorry its just my phone is acting really weird lately. You see it just starts showing random letters on the screen.” she said as she showed them her phone as it began to flash several letters in read. To fast for the naked eye to see, but for Pitou it was a different story.

“Prepare for death, cause here we come.” Pitou read the message out loud. This set off all of Pitou’s alarms.

“Wait can you read that?” asked Lacy

“Huh now that you mention it,” said Jessica pulling out her phone. “I remember my dad saying his phone was acting weird too. Huh what the?”

Pitou looked over Jessica’s shoulder. Her phone was also doing the same thing except giving a different message. “Prepare to die for now we strike.”

CRASH

They all looked outside of the window to see a car crash had occurred. Pitou ignored the others as she quickly stepped outside. When she did, another car crash happened and then another. She looked up at the stop lights to see them going haywire. She looked over at a shop with tvs in the window to see them all changing channels rapidly at a breakneck speed.

“Could this be Nen?” Pitou expanded her En. To try and see if she could find anything but strangely she couldn’t pick up anything, she then spread her En further out. ‘There she thought, on the cell tower. Someone is using Nen on the cell tower to screw with the signals on the electronics. “But, why?” ‘is someone targeting me, no this is too wide spread. If this has nothing to do with me, should I even get involved?’

“Pitou,” said Jessica coming out of the clothing store. “What the heck is going on?”

“I don’t know,” Pitou then realized something. ‘The message said strike is the town going to be targeted? Then Jessica might get hurt. I don’t want that. She’s my friend. I don’t want her hurt.’ “Jessica, go back to the house and stay put. I'll handle whatever this is.”

“Wait, what? Pi-” she didn’t finish as Pitou jumped into the air. “Whoa she can jump.”

~o~

Pitou landed on the cellular tower where she dedicated the Nen from. ‘This Nen ability might have a greater range but it looks like it takes the form of electrical signals so I should be able to tell which direction it's coming from.’ Pitou then focused her En as big as she could. She could see it, a signal made of Nen hitting the tower spreading to all of the electronics in the area. “Gotcha” but before Pitou jumped to the location of the Nen, a big source of Nen popped up on her En. ‘This Nen, is bigger than all the others in town but not as big as the hunters I faced, could this be the one causing all of this? Well let's find out.”

Pitou jumped off of the cell tower and into the outskirts of Overanu. Though when she landed she was surprised to find that the source of Nen wasn’t some villianess looking guy, but an injured girl. She had bright orange hair and was wearing a yellow dress that looked like it had seen better days. “That jump,” said the girl with shock. “Are you by chance a Hunter?”

Pitou decided to take a chance and help the girl. “Hey what happened to you, does this have something to do with all of the electronics going crazy?”

“It's already happening. It's a distraction. The bandits are using a nen technique to cut off all communication so they can raid the smaller villages and towns on the mountains. They just hit the village east of here. I was barely able to get away. My grandfather was trying to fight them off when I left, I wanted to help but I just started my Nen training.” she began to cry. “I left him.”

“HEY,” yelled Pitou at the girl. “Now is not the time to cry. Tell me how the location of the village and what we’re dealing with.”

“Hundreds of bandits, from what my grandfather could tell they’ve been hitting the small villages all along the mountain range. Some are definitely skilled and I think the ones calling the shot can use nen. I’m not good enough to tell how strong they are but one my grandfather saw them he told me to run. My grandfather isn’t one to easily get scared but there were several of them.”

“Are they gonna hit here anytime soon?” asked Pitou as she weighed her options.

“Overanu is on the larger side so not soon but eventually they will, my grandfather said so.”

“And he’s sure how?”

“He’s Magno Passel. He’s never wrong about these things.”

“Magno Passel.” said Pitou with shock. “He's’ the guy I came here for.”

“I’m his granddaughter Mimi Passel and if you want his help then you need to help him, please” she begged. “I’m not that strong yet but I can tell you're much stronger than me please do something.”

“I will,” said Pitou. “You, strong enough to get into town on your own?”

Mimi struggled for a moment but stood up straight. “Yes I can.”

“Good,” said Pitou before disappearing and reappearing right next to Mimi, holding a smoking bullet that was aimed for her head. “Go, I’ll handle them.”

Mimi looked at the bullet then over where it was shot from to see a group of bandits that had followed her. She then looked back at Pitou realizing she just caught a bullet. She  then didn’t think twice and ran back to Overanu.

Pitou looked at the small group of five bandits. None of them looked strong at all to her standards. “Well I guess I should have seen this one coming, no way my life would suddenly become quiet. I guess I do have an old problem of attracting trouble.”

“Hold it right there girly.” yelled one of the bandits. “Now no funny business unless you want to be filled with lead.” He and his cronies stepped forward and even Pitou would say they were ugly. “Which would be a real shame to damage such a good girl such as yourself. Cause of you we missed our target so how about you take your clothes off slowly now and let us have a little fun with ya.”

“Huh,” Pitou's face turned into a mixture of disgust and anger.

“Well you heard wha-” he didn’t finish as suddenly his arm was broken sideways. “AAAAAHHHHHHH. My arm.” he wailed as he cradled his arm. “You bitch what did you do to my arm. Boys get her now. Guys?”

He looked over to see them all on the ground unconscious. Pitou slowly walked up to the guy. “Being nice is hard.” said Pitou. “I had to hold back a lot to try and not kill them. You see I’m trying to be nice nowadays but it can be a real challenge so how about you talk and tell me what I would like to know or else I go back to my old habits.” The bandit not officially shit himself as he realized, he done fucked up. “Well the clocks ticking.”

~o~

One man was laughing his ass off in a small meeting room. The meeting room was an old office of a mining facility inside of a mountain. In the meeting room were three men. The laughing one was wearing an army vest with wild and messy hair. The one seating on the other end of the table was a man in a business suit, with a clean haircut and glasses. The last one was a shirtless man wearing the hide of a lion on his head.

“Will you please stop laughing Sol.” said the man in glasses. “Just because your plan is working doesn’t mean that you should be laughing your ass off.”

“Oh come on Nix,” said Sol. “Lighten up man, or are you just disappointed that your plan to dissolve those companies was taking too long.” Nix glared at the man. “Oh don’t be a baby. See the direct approach works best. Now we can rob these people blind and we can have some fun along the way, ain’t that right Beast.” Beast just grunted at Sol. “I’ll take that as a yes.”

“This plan of yours is crude and attracts too much attention.” said Nix. “At least with my plan there was no way of people finding out. Now can you tell me what happens when a pro Hunter shows up, have you thought of that?”

“Dude we got like a thousand Bandits working for us. Not to mention Beast here who has killed pro hunters before. So chillax would yeah. The job will go quick now and then afterwards you can fuck off and never see me again. I don’t know about you but I’m getting really tired of having to look at you everyday.”

Nix continued to glare at Sol. “Trust me the feeling is mutual. To be honest I hope something does happen so I can wipe that smug grin off of your face.”

“That won’t happen.” smiled Sol.

“BOSS.” screamed a grunt through the communications. “WE GOT A BIG FUCKING PROBLEM OUT FRONT.”

Nix hit a button on the table turning the monitor on and showing what was happening outside, near the front entrance of the mine. None of them could believe what they were seeing. Their army of bandits were all on the ground, each and every single one of them were defeated. Most of them looked like they were broken as if they all just walked through a war zone, or a war zone walked through them. Only one person was standing. A strange Cat woman.

“Man holding back is a lot harder than I expected. This could really be a problem. I don’t think I killed anyone but they are definitely not going to be walking anytime soon.” said neferpitou as she looked at the mass of bodies she defeated in the span of roughly five minutes. She then looked up and saw the camera. “Oh hey can you guys hear me. Knock knock here I come.”