HxH Pitou's Humanity Chapter 4 New Adventure

Chapter 4 The new adventure starts

Pitou was standing in complete darkness for a moment and she had no idea where she was. For a brief moment she thought she was trapped in somebody's nen ability, in a split second she thought of several ways to try to break out of it. Though it was all dashed away as she saw something appear in the darkness.

“Pouf, Youpi.” she said with relief. Though when she turned she saw her king. “My….King.” she then looked back at her former fellow royal guards. “You’re all dead. None of this is real.”

Very quickly the darkness began to swirl around her forcing her to close her eyes for a moment. When she opened her eyes she was back in the game room where Pouf was playing his violin, Youpi was guarding the door and Her King, Lord Memurem was playing Gungi with Komugi. A Human who was able to sneak her way into my king’s heart.

“This is nice isn’t it.” Piotu froze at the new voice. Her voice, though she didn’t say anything. She spun on her heels to come face to face with herself. Though this new one was slightly different colorless, gray.

Pitou wasn’t an idiot and knew what this was, who this was. “You're my subconscious aren’t you?” She nodded. Pitou couldn’t help but chuckle as she sat down. “So does this mean I have gone off the deep end or is this just how we ants cope.”

The gray Pitou tilted her head. “What do you mean?”

Pitou eyed her conscious. “We ants learn faster than normal humans, we all learned how to speak and understand concepts quicker than anyone else on the planet. My comrades perished less than a day ago and I’m already having a conversation with my conscience about it.”

“Those are some good points.” said the other Pitou, quite cheerful. She waited for a moment for a response that didn’t come. They both sat there for a moment watching the others around the room. “This is nice isn’t it.”

The real Pitou looked around the room for a moment. “I guess.” She then looked over to see her conscious giving her a neutral look. “What? It’s not like we’re doing anything here. We never really did anything here. We just watched the king like we were supposed to.”

“Then would you like something a little bit more exciting.” The other Pitou then snapped her fingers and again the scene changed. The next thing Pitou knew she was now standing in the middle of a burning city. She then heard the screams of people all around her. Men, women and children. She saw ants all over that place chasing the humans and fighting their warriors. She was now standing next Memurem as they along with the other high ranking ants watching the chaos. “Now this is better, right?”

Pitou looked around her at the world that her king would have made. The world they all were working towards. Though as she looked, she found no joy in what she was seeing. “This isn’t right?”

“What do you mean? Are you saying this isn’t what you were planning to do to the humans. Conquer them, subjugate them, make them worship you like gods.”

“That is what we wanted but in the end, now thinking about it I don’t think we would have really done it like this.” said Pitou as the scene changed back to the game room. “We were changing. My king...Memurem was seeing the value of certain humans and their abilities. Pouf I could tell was becoming cruel and Youpi, to be honest I don’t know but I could feel that he wasn’t so robotic. The other ants changed quicker. After the queen died they didn’t just jump to Memurem’s side, no they all went and did their own thing. Some tried to be their own king, while others tried to simply live their life as they wanted. Some even came to challenge us. I’m changing right now. So to be honest I don’t think that we would conquer the world with overwhelming force. We were. No we are just stupid new borns who thought we knew how the world worked and that everything would be given to us. We really are just children.”

The other Pitou was silent as they took in all of this information. “Oh can children do this.” as the scene changed once more to a new area one she knew all too well. Her fight with Kite. She saw as her old self was smiling as she was battling Kite. As she continued to rip him apart. “You sure look happy here. Are you going to tell me you didn’t want this?”

Pitou was silent for a moment. As she watched the memories. “I could make an excuse.” she said before pausing. “I could say that I didn’t know any better and I was running on pure instinct. To test my skill for the fights to come, but I’m tired of making excuses.”

The gray Pitou got in her face. “Realy?”

“Yes, I was a mindless person. I have an order now to live and I can’t change the past. I will now in the present as best as I can. I don’t know where it will take me but I won’t be scared. I will live for them because they can’t. Right now I want to focus on that. I know these issues and you won’t go away anytime soon but I can’t move forward if I keep asking myself these questions. So for now I will be Pitou the traveler. At Least until I figure something out.”

“Do you really think you can run from your past?”

“No. I can’t run from my past. There’s no way I can hide who I was and become some human girl hiding for the rest of my life. Some way somehow I have to make amends.”

The gray Pitou was silent for a moment. “Human girl? Are you saying you're a girl now.”

Pitou herself was surprised by this. Now that she thought about it, for a while she had been considering herself as female for a bit now without even realizing it. “Yeah I guess so. I have quite a bit to learn from the world and learn about myself.”

“Well if so then you better wake up then.” said The other Pitou as she began to fade away just so you know I’m going to be watching.” Soon everything around Pitou began to fade away as she realized she was walking up.

~o~

Pitou didn’t immediately open her eyes when she woke up. She used her other senses to paint a picture of her surroundings as she felt that she was laying on a mattress. She could smell the sea and other smells. ‘I’m rocking so I’m on a boat, that’s still in the ocean. Judging by my stomach it's been around 15 hours since I’ve eaten so it should be around noon right now.’ Pitou slowly opened her eyes and confirmed her suspicions. She was in a private cabin with a window showing the calm waves of the sea. ‘I’m on a boat. Someone must have picked me up while I was sleeping on the driftwood.’  “I guess I should say hi.”

Pitou got up and made her way to the cabin door, she soon heard activity coming from the end of the hall, on the deck. When Pitou opened the door she was bombarded with light and sounds of ship workers on deck. The workers were too busy cleaning the deck or trimming the sails, that no one noticed her at first as she stood at the center of the deck.

“Ah so the drifting princess is awake.” said a big voice grabbing the attention of the sailors. She turned to see a fat man in a sailors shirt, jacket and a captains hat. He was also holding a bottle of alcohol in his head but Pitou could tell he wasn’t the less bit drunk. “Welcome aboard las. A fine morning to yeah.” 

‘None of these sailors look very strong, I could just take them out but it might just be easier to be nice.’ “Um, it's not exactly morning anymore.”

“Ha, I suppose it ain’t.” said the captain. “Though we did save some breakfast for ya, you must be hungry. HEY. Boy go grab this later her food.”

“Yes sir.” said one of the sailors dropping the mop and running towards the kitchen.

“Uh you don’t need to do that.” said Pitou. “Saving me is enough.”

“Nonsense.” said the captain leading Pitou to the bow of the ship. “I couldn’t call myself a decent sailor if I left someone drowning in the ocean like that.”

The cleaning boy then came back with food wrapped up in tin. “Here you go miss.”

PItou looked at tin. She unwrapped it and saw that it was something wrapped in a flour wrap. “What is this?”

The sailor looked confused while the captain just laughed. “That’s a breakfast burrito las. Have you never heard of a burrito before.”

“No I haven't.” 

“Really? Well I can say you're going to enjoy it.” said the captain.

Pitou looked at the burrito for a moment before she took a bit out of it. Her taste buds were then tackled by an avalanche of flavors. “Wow this is delicious.” She would have continued eating when she noticed the captain looking at her. “What?”

“Where are you from?”

Pitou thought for a moment. “I’m from NGL.”

“NGL the nature place! I guess that makes sense. That explains cat ears.”

“Cat ears?”

“Oh sorry, I didn’t mean to offend your way of life or anything but I’ve rarely seen cultures where people wear ears like the ones you got.” said the captain. “Well I have but it's more for show than anything else.”

Pitou took another bite as she dissected the captain's words. ‘Wait did they not take a look at my body when they grabbed me or at least check for weapons, I guess I should just ask.’ “What did you or your men touch them when you brought me aboard?”

“HAHAHA. Heavens no. My mother would have come back from the grave if I let me or my men touch a young lady like that. Probably use her cane like a pinata stick. Honestly after we picked you up we placed you in the cabin, gave you a few extra blankets on yeah and prayed you’d wake.”

“You just placed me in the cabin. You didn’t check if I had anything or was injured?”

“Well you did look okay when we grabbed ya. Just wet and unfortunately we lost our doctor at our last port. Got a letter saying his boy was getting hitched. In fact you slept in his cabin.”

“You don’t have a doctor! I thought all ships had one just in case anything happened.”

“Aye they should. That's why we are heading for port tomorrow morning to get a new one. This ship may not be the biggest but we got hired to carry some cargo all the way to York New city. That’s quite a trip to have without a doctor. So we are going to make a bit of a pit stop at a port in Riotano. It's a town a ways south of York New city but it is on the continent of Yorbia. We can drop you off there.”

Pitou finished her burrito. “Thanks, I don’t know how I can repay your kindness.”

“Well for starters Miss you can tell us your name.”

“Oh my name is Pitou.”

“Well Pitou have you ever been on a ship before?”

“No sorry this is my first time.”

The captain hummed in thought. “Well I know you didn’t ask to be a part of the ship but this isn’t a luxury cruise those who want to eat on my ship work for the ship.”

“Oh I can help out. I maybe new to the shop but I’m stronger than I look. Just tell me what you need and I’ll help any way I can.”

“Well I wouldn’t be much of a gentleman if I asked you to do the crew work. Oh I got it. Can you read and write?”

Pitou was confused for a moment at her doing work wouldn’t make him a gentleman, but this was his ship. “Yeah I know how to read and write.”

“Great, follow me.” he said as they made their way through the ship. As they did Pitou could see some of the sailors staring at her. “Hey get back to work, ya damn piranhas. Sorry about that. This job was sudden so the boys practically didn’t get any shore leave.”
“Um okay.” Pitou had no idea what was going on.

“Ah here we are.” He said as he opened a door to the cargo hold. As expected it was filled with several crates and other forms of storage. At one end though was a desk with papers on them. “Because I need to fill out papers for a new doctor, I haven't had a chance to take stock of our cargo. I like to keep track of things here so I make sure to have someone count the cargo each time we leave port. Though I haven’t had the time since the doc left and we are sailing though some troubling waters.”

“Troubling waters?”

“Yeah something strange is happening in East Gorteau. Don’t know what but recently the shipping routes have changed. Had to keep all hands on deck while we sailed past the country. Though that’s my problem, ya think you could handle this.”

“Absolutely.”

~o~

It didn’t take Pitou long at all to count the cargo. She did it so quickly that the captain almost didn’t believe her, but a quick check proved that she did indeed count it all correctly. After that she helped organize some of the books. Though with her quick learning she was able to get it done faster than she did the counting. The captain was beginning to be afraid to ask her to do anything else. Though that's when Pitou asked if she could take a look at some of the maps the captain had. She studied them and began to formulate her route she was going to take when she got to land. She couldn’t stay on the ship forever; they already did enough for her. 

The captain came and knocked on the helmsman door. “Hey there las, just wanted to let you know dinner is going to start here, shortly.”

“Oh thanks.”

“Whatcha looking at there?”

“Just mapping out the route I’m going to take when we get to port.” she said, still looking at the map. For a moment neither said anything. “Aren’t you going to ask something else. You haven’t really asked me a lot of questions.”

The captain took a puff from his pipe. “I hope you won’t take offense to what I’m about to say, but I don’t want to have to deal with your problems. I could hear your muttering while you slept and when you were asleep, you crushed my metal flask when I set it down right next to ya.” he said as he pulled out the crushed metal flask. “I ain’t about to leave someone in the sea but I could tell you were trouble and strong for that matter. So I thought it best to leave ya be for the time and hope when you wake you were reasonable.” Pitou was still silent. “Look I’m-”

“You don’t need to apologize or anything. Your right I am trouble and to be honest the less you know the better.”

“You got a destination in mind?”

“Um not exactly, you got a suggestion.”

The captain moved around to the other side of the map. “I‘ve been around this world a lot and I’ve seen several things that people would call impossible and one of them saved my life.” The captain then took a pin and placed it on the map. “Here near the border of The United states of Saherta. There’s a mountain village where an old man lives. He was once a passenger on my ship and he had a strange ability that allowed him to know where he needed to go and when. He was able to sail me and my crew through two storms on that trip. He might be able to tell ya where you need to go.”

“Realy?” This sounded exactly what she needed. She had no idea where she needed or wanted to go next. In fact her plan so far consisted of going from place to place. 

“Yep. I wouldn’t have believed it if I didn’t see it myself. Heck after he left he told me the next time I sail. I should take it slow. With his advice I was the only ship to make it to Jappon after it was hit by a massive storm. He’s the real deal. If your lost he’s the guy to go to.”

Pitou thought it over. “Okay then I really don’t have anything else to do or any better ideas. I’ll head to this village. To find the old man.”

“The village is called Overvanu. The old man’s name is Magno Passel. From what I’ve been told he’s a big name in the town so it shouldn’t be too hard to find him.”

“Thank you.”

“Ah don’t mention it. Though how about now we head down to get some dinner.” Pitou nodded and followed him to the dining area.

~o~

“Hey chef, is that slop ready yet?” asked one of the sailors. Some of the crew were already down in the dining area waiting for food.

“Just a second, I need to put the finishing touches on it.” said Chef trying to figure out where he went wrong with his new recipe. It didn’t come out at all as he wanted.

“Well hurry up. We’re dying here.”

“Yeah man come on it can’t be any worse than what you gave us last time.”

“FOOD.”

“SHUT UP YOU RATS.” said the captain entering the dining area with Pitou in tow.

“Oh hey there captain,” said one of the sailors. “And a fine hello to you, Miss Pitou.”

“Hey there miss how you sit over here.” said another one offering a seat.

The captain began to rub his temples. “These brats.” Pitou was nothing but confused by all the attention she was getting. Having no idea what to do. 

“What Miss,” said one  of the sailors waving his hands. “Could you go and help out the chef? I’m sure you can whip up something special.

“HEY!” said the chef. “No seconds for you.”

Pitou walked towards the kitchen, curious what was cooking. “I hate to tell you guys but I’ve never really cooked before in my life so I don’t know exactly what I can do.” She saw the pot of soup. ‘Smells good. Way better than anything in the queen's castle that's for sure.’

“Don’t worry about it, las,” said the captain. “Just let the chef do his thing. He might take a bit but he’s food is always good.”

“Damn straight,” said the chef. “I just need to figure out what's missing.” as he continued to stare at the big pot of soup. 

Pitou smelled the soup again. She thought for a moment before walking to the cabinet and smelling some of the species. “Here try this.” 

“Hot sauce?!” said the chef, clearly surprised by the suggestion. Though curiosity got the better of him and he put it in. After a few stirs, he took a small taste test. “WOW this is perfect.” The crew then cheered as he began pouring them their share. Soon the dining hall was silent with happy sailors eating. “Here ya go miss. I gave you a bit of extra for the help, but I got to ask how did you know the hot sauce would work?”

Pitou happily took the bowl. “Oh I just followed my nose. It's kind of sensitive.”

“It's the power of a woman’s touch.” yelled one of the crew.

“Amen brother.” yelled another. “Only a woman could make something this delicious.”

Pitou was starting to get a bit embarrassed. “I only picked the sauce. Your chef is the one that made the soup.”

But before any of the others could say anything, one shot out of his seat. “Hey can you please currel your arms like this and say Nya.”

The cabin was silent at the outburst as everyone stared at the sailor. No one knew how to react but Pitou in her confusion curreled her arms and said “Nya.”

“YESS.” said the man as if he got a gift from the gods. Soon everyone began throwing things at the sailor.

“How the hell do you find that attractive?”

“Shut up. Moe is amazing.”

“Why the hell did we take you to Jappon.”

“Is that where he found that weird cafe?”

Pitou didn’t know why but she began to smile at the chaos the crew was making. “You guys are strange but fun.” She then ate her meal while the sailors began to argue about maids, uniforms and robots for some reason. One thing was clear to her now more than ever is that there is a lot more to humans than she first thought. Shortly after Dinner she went back to her cabin and fell asleep as the next day would have another adventure for her.