HxH Pitou's Humanity chapter 5

Chapter 5 First Steps

Pitou took her first steps on the docks. The ship she had been traveling with has just landed and it was time for her to say her goodbyes to the crew. Though they were saying bye way more than they needed to. “Bye Pitou” “Bye miss” “Take care” “Be safe” “Don’t forget to be moe” “Shut up man you're ruining the moment.”

“For the love of, shut up, you damn sea dogs.” said the captain. “Sorry they annoyed ya. Hope they didn’t make the trip too bad.”

“No, in fact it was a bit fun.” said Pitou admitting the weird crew wasn’t all bad. ‘I wonder if there are more humans like them?’ “They were kind of odd, but it was alright besides who am I to complain. You gave me a free ride to the main lands.” 

“I hope wherever your journey takes ya, you’ll find what you're looking for.” said the captain with sincerity. “Oh and before you go me and the boys got you something here.” as he handed Pitou a small roll of cash. “That should be enough to hold you over for a while.”

“I don’t know what to say.” said Pitou being honest. This was the first time anyone really gave her anything. ‘I guess being nice can go a long way’

“Just promise you’ll take care of yourself.” said the captain

“Will do.” said Pitou as she shocked the crew as she jumped so high when she landed she was already at the edge of town. ‘I wonder if I’ll ever see those guys again…’.....”I don’t know their names.” she said out loud as she realized that she never asked for any of their names. She just called them by their title or job. “That’s rude isn’t. I’m going to need to remember that for later. “Now then where to go from here.” she said as she pulled out a map the captain gave her. “The town is in the mountains near the border, he said that it would take a full day to get there by car, he also suggested I should take it slow and stay at one of the other towns but I think I can get to Overvanu by sunset. Maybe sooner if I go at top speed. So let's get started.”

Pitou crouched down and powered her legs and then launched herself into the sky. She could feel the wind against her face and the cool sky air. She saw the birds fly near her and could hear them being startled by her presence. As she flew through the sky she watched the ground below her move. ‘For a normal human this would be an amazing experience or an impossible one at that.’ She kept sailing through the sky though she could feel gravity taking hold of her once more but as it did she kept looking at the ground seeing the land in a new way. ‘This is beautiful. How is it that I never saw the land like this. I guess I was too focused on my duty to notice the world around me.’ When she landed she was now in a valley as she looked off in the distance she could see fields filled with flowers and shining mountains in the distance. 

For a moment the world stood still. She was lost in nature all around her. It was strange to her. ‘I grew up in a land that was all nature and yet this land is amazing. I truly have seen very little of this world. Though is it right for me to experience this?’

“Maybe you should have stayed and fought alongside your king, then at least you could have died with honor.” said her inner voice.

“No, I was ordered to live and that's exactly what I’ll do. I just need to figure out a way to settle this guilt. I can’t keep living like I should with these feelings holding me back.” she said as she became more determined to find this man that will hopefully lead her on the right path.

Pitou was off again to get to the village.

~o~

Pitou landed after her latest jump. She looked to see that the son was beginning to go down. She took out the map to double check her location. “If i counted those mountains correctly then this mountain in front of me is the one with Overvanu village. I could just jump up there but I might freak people out and walking can give me a chance to sight see.” She then began to walk up the mountain. It was a fairly large mountain with a decent sized road. 

She was actually enjoying herself just wondering up the road. She kept walking up the road at a decent pace and even passed a few signs that said she was going the right direction. ‘I should be able to get to the village by sunset then I guess I’ll find something to eat and a place to stay for the night. I hope the money those sailors gave me is enough. I don’t really know if what I got is enough.’

Pitou stopped for a moment as she began hearing a popping noise. ‘Are those gunshots, no, they're not solid enough and they don’t have the same rhythm as any gun I’ve heard. It’s not too far away either, it's just right up the road.’ Pitou decided to use her En to see what the noise was, as she did she could clearly see that it was making that noise was a car and a girl currently hitting it with a wrench. “What on earth is she doing?”

Pitou moved so fast that no one could see and stopped right behind the girl who was looking inside the hood of her car. “Stupid junk. Why aren’t you working, I paid good money for you.” Now that pitou was closer she got a good look at the girl. She had black hair and was wearing a bandana over it, while she was wearing a set of overalls and a polka dot shirt. “I need to get home, come on.” she said clearly frustrated. 

“What are you doing?” 

The girl screamed as she turned around to see Pitou and through her wrench in the air. “Who are you and when did you get here?”

“I'm Pitou” she said as she casually caught the wrench. “I just got here. I was walking up the road when I saw you having car troubles.”

That seemed to calm down the girl. “I’m sorry I guess I was too focused to see you walk up.” she said as she took the wrench from Pitou. “I just don’t know what happened. One second I was driving just fine then suddenly it started going out.”

“Can I take a look at it?” asked Pitou

“Be my guest.” said the girl. “I ain’t a mechanic so I have no idea what the problem could be.” Pitou walked up to the open hood and just stared at the engine. “You know what you’re doing?”

Pitou hummed for a second. “I think I’m starting to understand how this thing works.” As Pitou’s mind raced. ‘That takes the fuel, while that sparks it creating the gas. That functions some sort of air condition unit. Those move the gears and the wiring from that doesn’t look right.’ Pitou inspected the wires and noticed something, part of it was chewed on. ‘Looks like some sort of rodent got in a bit through some wires causing it to stall when she tried to switch gears. Okay let's try this.’ Unknown to the girl Pitou was concentrating some nen into her hands. ‘I’ll call this Connection thread.’ As she made some nen thread that acted like a wire that allowed the electricity to flow. “Okay try it now.”

“Wait you serious,” said the girl looking a little skeptical. “All I saw you do was mess with a wire. Will that work?” Pitou nodded. “Well alright you probably know more than me.” The girl got into the driver seat and turned the keys and to her surprise the car started. “Holy, it's working. How did you?”

“Don’t turn it off,” warned Pitou “This is only a patch job. From the looks of it some rat chewed through the wires. So I don’t think it will start again until you get a professional to look at it.”

“Alright, hey where are you going?” she asked as Pitou was about to keep walking.

“Oh I was hoping to get to Overvanu village before sunset. So I need to keep going.”

“Overvanu, that’s where I live,” she said “Hop in I’ll give you a ride. It’s the least I can do, you did save me from being stranded.”

“Okay.” said Pitou as she got into the passenger side of the car.

“I’m Jessica by the way.” said the now named Jessic holding out her hand. Pitou shook it lightly so as to not hurt the girl. “Good grip. Now hang on. I’m running late and need to get home.” Jessica putting her foot on the gas.

~o~

They made it to the town just at the beginning of sunset and Pitou could clearly see this wasn’t so much a village as a town. “Yeah, this place has been called a village for so long people don’t expect it to be so big. Ever since the highway was built, Overanu has been used to travel to the border. So it's grown quite a bit. I still remember when I was a kid and almost nobody passed through here. Now we get more tourists than any other town in the mountain range.”

Pitou was actually impressed as she looked out at the town. “That’s incredible.”

“Yeah but we still have to deal with the same problems as any other town on a mountain, bad weather, collapsed road or the occasional mountain bandit.” she said as Pitou was still looking out the window. Jessica couldn’t help but chuckle at this. ‘She’s kind of acting like a kid, looking out the window as she is.’ “So Pitou, where am I dropping you off?”

“Oh uh I came here looking for a compass man,” said Pitou though she stopped as she realized that it sounded silly.

Though luckily Jessica knew what she was talking about. “Ah you’re here to see old man Passel right.”

“You know Magno Passel?”

“Yeah he’s kind of a local celebrity. That and I’m friends with his granddaughter.” Said Jessica. “I can introduce you tomorrow if you like. It’s too late to try today, the old man is most likely asleep by now.”

“That would be perfect,” said Pitou, happy to find a connection to the person she’s looking for. “Now I just need to find myself a place to stay tonight. Any good woods around here that no one would mind me using?”

“Woods?” said Jessica with a bit of shock. “Ah uh. No friend of mine is going to camp out in the woods if I can help it.”

“Friend?” said Pitou as if the word friend was foreign to the tongue. “Were friends?”

“You bet, now let’s see if I can’t squeeze out a favor for us.” she said as she turned down the road.

~o~

A man now stood in front of them. He looked like he was in his late twenties but his five o clock shadow made him look a lot older. Not to mention he looked like he needed a nap desperately. “Jessica, not that I ain’t happy to see my cousin in law. Why did you call me here?”

“Oh come on Ben, we’re cousins now. Can’t one cous asked another cous for some help.”

“They can, Sorry I’m just tired, It's been a busy week. So what can I do for you?”

“Need to borrow your family's guest house for my new friend here.” said Jessica patting Pitou on the back.

Ben raised an eyebrow at the question. Pitou thought that this was going to be a problem. “Um I can just use a tree if needed. I don’t want to cause a problem.”

“Really Jessica, you didn’t need to call me down here for that, the key’s under the door mate. Make yourself at home.” said Ben as he yawned. “Your family so it's no problem just don’t leave a mess is all.”

“Sweet.” said Jessica.

“Really?” said Pitou at how easy this was.

“Oh you don’t need to worry about Ben here. His family is loaded.”

“For the love of Jessica, we aren’t rich. My family just doesn’t get rid of stuff. This house used to belong to my aunt but when she moved, we never sold it so it kind of acts like a guest house for any friend or family who needs it.” said Ben “My one question is why you don’t just go home? You do have a house don’t you.”

Jessica's face began to red in embarrassment. “That sure fire job kind of turned upside down and I may have already moved out of my apartment.”

“Your kidding,” said Ben “You just left. What happened?”

“I don’t know? I got there and was told that the owner had a sudden change of heart and sold the company. So me and all the new guys got let go. Though I did get a check for two weeks' pay.”

“Nice job,” he said. “So why not go back to your parents. They live just two houses down?”

“Yeah and I wouldn’t get any sleep from one of my dad's lectures, not to mention the house is small enough as is, adding two more people might make it a little cramped.”

Ben nodded in understanding. “Well if that’s all then I’m going to head home and get some sleep.”

“Good night,” said Jessica, waving him off.

“Bye.” said Pitou. ‘Well looks like my next night of having a bed is all thanks to the kindness of others.’ The two went into the house, it wasn’t a very big house, though it did have two floors and three bedrooms. There weren’t really any decorations on the walls, it was quite baron. ‘I guess they really do only use this place as a guest house.”

“Hey Pitou,” said Jessica. “You can use the room at the end of the hall, and the bathroom is right next to it. You can take a bath first, I’m ordering take out. You got any preferences?”

“Not really I’ll eat anything.”

“Cool. Golden dragon it is, Should take forty minutes.” she said as she went to place the order.

Pitou went to the bathroom. As she started to fill the tub with water, she realized something. ‘This will be my first bath. Ever. Should this be a big deal? I guess not, people take baths all the time.’ Pitou then began to take her ‘clothes’ off. ‘Wait a minute, I was born with this stuff on me. Are these clothes or are they fur or something? I never thought about this, but if I remember correctly some chimera ants were able to take their clothes off with no problem. So what are they?’ Pitou took them off and stared at them for a moment. Not sure what to make of them. ‘Strange I know it's not a big deal but I just never thought of it.’ Pitou turned off the water as the tub was now full. Before she got in she took a look at herself in the mirror. ‘My body is more feminin than I thought. I don’t even have that extra part like males have. Should I start acting more feminin? How do they act?’

“Oh well. I can worry about that later. Now let's try out this bath thing. Komugi said it was one the best things in her life. Well I'll be the judge of that. It can’t be that good.” she said as she stepped into the water and slowly sat into its warm embrace. Pitou could feel every part of her body relax in its warmth. For a moment all her worries were gone. “This is amazing. Ahhh” Pitou soaked herself in the bath for a while. “Yep this is amazing.”

“You look like you're having fun.” said Jessica at the door with several towels in hand. “Sorry I just realized you probably don’t have any towels to use.”

“Oh no it's fine, thanks for bringing the towels.” Pitou then noticed Jessica was staring at her, or to be more precise she was looking at the top of her head. “Uh Jessica you okay?”

“Oh yeah I’m fine, it's just I think you forgot to take your head band off.”

“Head band? Wait are you talking about my ears?”

“Ears wait, those things are real.” asked Jessica looking more closely at her cat ears. “Can I touch them?”

“Uh sure.” said Pitou leaning a little bit forward.

Jessica began to lightly touch and rub Pitou’s ears. “Whoa those are real. You have real cat ears.”

“I also have a tail.” said Pitou as she showed Jessica her cat tail. “Is it really that big of a shock?”

Jessica began to poke the tail. “Well not really. I’ve seen several shows where there are people with a few things like this. Not to mention not too long ago there was that cheetah man running around a town south of here.”

‘Cheetah man? She must mean Cheetu.’ “So there's no one like me around here?”

“Not anyone I know. Say where are you from?”

“NGL, it was a country with a very strict border so not many people could come in or out. Though we were able to leave due to recent events in another country. After that I started to travel and here I am.”

Jessica was about to say something when the doorbell rang. “Wow they weren't kidding when they said it would be ready in 30 minutes. Looks like food’s here.”

Pitou watches her leave to go get the food. “Wait I’ve been here for 30 minutes!” she said, shocked not realizing that so much time had passed. “These baths are dangerous.”

~o~

Pitou quickly dried herself off and put her clothes back on and enjoyed some delicious noodles with Jessica, as Jessica began talking about her life, past relationships and fashion. Pitou didn’t even think that there would be so much one person could say. After that she grabbed a blanket and went to sleep in the bed. “It's been quite a day. I wonder what tomorrow will bring.” Though unbeknownst to Pitou and the other residents of Overanu, the next day would be eventful as the phones would slowly become useless.