Neferpitou

Neferpitou (ネフェルピトー, Neferupitō), nicknamed Pitou (ピトー, Pitō), was a cat-humanoid Chimera Ant and the firstborn of the Chimera Ant King's three Royal Guards.

Appearance


Neferpitou has the appearance of a humanoid cat with wavy white hair. Their cat-like ears and tail are covered with yellow and white fur, respectively. They have ruby-red eyes, and their knees have demarcated joints like insect legs. Neferpitou's hands are slightly larger than an average human hand. Their clothes are a blue overcoat with six yellow buttons and cuff links, shorts and orange socks with thin black stripes, and a pair of blue shoes.

Personality


Neferpitou is very loyal to the King and would sacrifice themselves for him. Of the three Royal Guards, Pitou is the most curious and gets distracted easily and loves to play, and according to Shaiapouf, gets carried away when having fun. Pitou is a cat Chimera Ant, and like a cat, loves to play with their opponents like a cat would with their prey. Despite their cheerful and playful manner though, Pitou has a cruel and terrifying personality as well. Pitou also takes their duty to protect the King seriously and is willing to sacrifice their chance to fight strong opponents to fulfill their duty.

Unlike Menthuthuyoupi and Shaiapouf, Neferpitou does not seem to mind Meruem's later newfound interests in Komugi. Thus, among the three Royal Guards, Neferpitou is the only one that greatly prioritizes Komugi's safety as opposed to Menthuthuyoupi and Shaiapouf's hatred towards Komugi, something Neferpitou is aware of which creates distrust in regards to the matter, for making their king deviate from the path they envision for him.



Pitou's loyalty and devotion to the King is so great, that during Komugi's operation to save her life from the injuries caused by Zeno's Dragon Dive, Pitou shows their vulnerability and fear since they had no means to defend themselves from Gon's wrath for what they had done to Kite. As a result, for the first time, Pitou surrenders to Gon and Killua. She asks them for mercy with no consideration of fighting them by putting their paws upward—a signal that predators use to surrender—to show a lack of malice in order to fulfill the King's order to save Komugi. Even after their death, Pitou's Nen still remained; their Terpsichora, even stronger than before, manipulated their corpse and attacked Gon to protect the King.

Background
Neferpitou is the first of the three Royal Guards born for the Chimera Ant King. Pitou is also personally named by the Queen, as are the rest of the Royal Guards. Pitou, similarly to the other Royal Guards, has no memories of their previous life.

Chimera Ant arc


Neferpitou first appears when Rammot and Peggy look for the missing rare prey, Pokkle, in the Chimera Ant nest in NGL. Rammot, having acquired Nen after being attacked with it, suddenly feels Neferpitou's frightening aura. Pitou enters the room and smells life hidden under a pile of bones, discovering Pokkle. Pokkle is manipulated by Neferpitou and teaches the Chimera Ants about Nen and Water Divination; afterwards, he is brutally killed and fed to the Queen. Neferpitou discovers that they are a Specialist and exits the nest to find out the extent of their new found powers.



Meanwhile, Kite, Killua, and Gon have made their way to the Chimera Ant nest and plan on killing the Queen before she gives birth to the King. Kite feels a powerful En. Kite then understands the depths of the dark aura coming from Neferpitou. He tells Gon and Killua to run, but Neferpitou has already located the trio and slashes off Kite's arm in an instant. Gon quickly unleashes his aura after seeing Kite's arm ripped off, but Killua knocks him unconscious and runs away with him. Neferpitou battles and kills Kite, having enjoyed the match, decides to re-animate Kite's dead body as one of their puppets so they can enjoy another fight and the other Chimera Ants have something to train with.



The Queen is mutilated during the birth of the King, who then leaves with all three Royal Guards. Some of the remaining Chimera Ants flee NGL and start their own independent lives. Neferpitou assists the King in overthrowing the government of the Republic of East Gorteau. Under the guise of the former King of the Republic, Ming Jol-ik, the Chimera Ant King initiates the process of forcibly awakening Nen in the civilians of East Gorteau in order to form his own personal army to conquer the world—resulting in the deaths of millions unable to awaken Nen. As Ants formerly under the Queen's rule rejoin the King, the Hunter Association mobilizes quickly to stop the oncoming genocide by sending in an Extermination Team of Hunters to East Gorteau.

Residing in the Royal Palace of East Gorteau, Neferpitou uses their Nen ability to manipulate hundreds of soldiers in the capital city of Peijin to rally citizens together. Their plans are thwarted by Killua, Knov, and Morel. As the day of the selection finally occurs, the Extermination Team attacks the palace and causes massive damage. The King's consort, Komugi, is mortally wounded during the attack. Under the King's orders, Neferpitou heals her; Neferpitou noticeably begins to sheds tears, understanding the King's sorrow and the importance of her order. Gon, however as he arrived, threatens to kill Komugi unless Neferpitou agrees to restore Kite following the woman's treatment. Though a promise was made to go with Gon to Peijin to restore Kite, once they've reached the area, Neferpitou affirms that it is impossible and subsequently prepares to kill Gon. Gon then forcibly ages his body through sacrificing nearly all of his aura and kills Neferpitou in battle.



However, Neferpitou's loyalty and devotion to the King was so great that even after their death, Neferpitou's Nen still remained; their Terpsichora, even stronger than before, manipulated the corpse and attacked Gon. Gon, believing that Neferpitou is dead, is attacked by Neferpitou's corpse and loses an arm. Gon then pins Neferpitou to the ground with the arm he lost, and uses one final attack against Neferpitou, apparently destroying Neferpitou's body. However, their corpse is later shown abandoned in the woods, probably with Terpsichora dispelled.

Gender Ambiguity




This article uses the gender neutral pronouns they/their/them (in singular form) to describe Neferpitou due to the following reasons:
 * The only official statement regarding Neferpitou's gender appears in the "Hunter × Hunter: Character and World Data Book". It, refers to Neferpitou to using the pronoun "彼” (kare), which is usually translated to “he”.
 * When speaking casually, Neferpitou uses the pronoun “boku” (translated to “I” in English) which is often used by boys and young men, though women may use the pronoun as well.
 * Neferpitou is described like a "mother" protecting a child, but since Killua was speaking metaphorically, the validity of this statement has yet to be ascertained.
 * On the cover of Volume 28, which is implied to be based off the Coronation of the Virgin Mary, Neferpitou takes the middle position which corresponds to Virgin Mary's.
 * In the manga, Neferpitou's chest is usually (but not always) flat. In contrast, the 2011 anime depicts Neferpitou by giving them a consistent bust. In both depictions, Neferpitou is given wide (shoulder-width) hips with a slim waist, and a low waist-hip ratio is a trait most commonly manifested in post-pubescent human females.
 * In Hunter × Hunter Battle Collection, Neferpitou is a female.
 * The first half of Neferpitou's name comes from an Egyptian male deity (the god Nefertem) and the second half from the female panther called Pitou (a French character for children).

Abilities & Powers
As one of the three members of the Royal Guard, Neferpitou is one of the most powerful Chimera Ants to live, and one of the strongest characters in the series. Neferpitou fought and killed Kite while suffering only minor injuries, having just discovered Nen. Meruem also commented on Neferpitou's strength, after failing to kill them with one of his tail strikes, leaving them with only minor bruises; Shaiapouf, another Royal Guard member, was driven through a wall by the same attack, although the King's power had increased by that time. The Hunter Association's Chairman Netero, considered the world's strongest Hunter during his prime, wondered if Pitou was more powerful than him, as Colt, after witnessing both fighters' aura, reckoned. Gon and Killua were completely frightened by the extension and malice of Pitou's aura during their first encounter, and the latter stated that Hisoka and Illumi's, two extremely skilled Nen users in their own right, were incomparable to Pitou's. Ikalgo was confident that even if the whole palace invasion team fought Pitou, they would still be no match for them. Owing to a feline lineage, Pitou has enhanced senses: Pitou's sight, hearing, and smell surpass a human's many-fold. Pitou has also inherited very accurate instincts.

Immense Sight: Pitou was able to spot Kite, Gon, and Killua, who were around more than half a kilometer away. They even caught sight of Netero, who completely turned off his aura in the storm of Zeno's transmuted "dragons", although this was also achieved through their highly developed instinct. And also spotted Morel's Deep Purple Smoke Troopers many kilometers away.

Immense Hearing: Neferpitou was also able to hear cell phone that was on low volume with their extremely accurate hearing, while Gon, who has a similar ability, could not hear anything.

Immense Smell: Neferpitou was able to smell Pokkle while the latter was hiding in a massive pile of bones.

Preternatural Perception: Unlike in the previous examples mentioned, Neferpitou has also displayed what some may regard as a sixth sense. In the moments before the palace siege, Neferpitou looked up to see without any stimulation or reason to do so, seeing Netero and Zeno whilst the latter performed his Dragon Dive, with Neferpitou themselves not knowing why. They also successfully recognized Netero as being the most dangerous between the two men almost the instant the duo emerged from the clouds and into their perception and awareness range.

Immense Strength: Neferpitou can use their claws to rip off human limbs and heads without effort. Their legs are so powerful that they can cover distances of more than half a kilometer with just one leap, as shown when they rushed to the King's side.

Immense Speed and Reflexes: Neferpitou reached Kite's party, who was very far away from them, in a split second. Neferpitou's reactions are also top-notch, as they could catch a glimpse of Netero's hands moving whilst he was preparing his 100-Type Guanyin Bodhisattva, meaning Pitou is able to perceive movement at speeds of at least Mach 1. They were also able to leap to Meruem with extreme speed.



Immense Agility: Neferpitou can move very deftly and attack from any angle.

Immense Durability: Neferpitou withstood a blow of Netero's 100-Type Guanyin Bodhisattva without injury, and their tail remained intact after they activated Doctor Blythe to stop their movement. More remarkably, a grown, empowered Gon—with strength powerful enough to destroy an entire forest in a single strike— needed to use his Jajanken: Rock several times before finally managing to crush their skull, and after Gon used his final Jajanken to destroy Pitou for good, their body still survived relatively intact, despite the immense explosion. They were only bruised by a powerful strike of Meruem's tail with the intention to kill.

High Intelligence: Neferpitou's strength doesn't require them to think too much in a battle. Still, Neferpitou is very good at analyzing people and reading their feelings, and can understand the power of the humans they kill in order to select the ones to resurrect as puppets. Neferpitou has highly developed instincts which often lead them to make the correct choice. They are a very fast learner, as they mastered Nen in an unprecedented short time. Additionally, they learned how the human brain works and guessed how to manipulate it after reading just one anatomy book.

Proficient Hand-to-Hand Combatant: Thanks to their heightened physical capabilities, Neferpitou is an excellent brawler. They only have to use their on claws to dispatch their enemies, and Neferpitou's fighting style makes full use of their remarkable strength, speed, agility, balance and flexibility.

Nen


Neferpitou is a Specialist. Even before learning Nen, they were able to greatly scare Rammot with their immense aura, and Gon, Killua, and Kite shortly after. Together with the rest of the Royal Guard and the King, they are one of the fastest characters to learn Nen, a feat that they accomplished initially on their own before extracting information from Pokkle. Their aura is so abundant that they can keep their dreadful En and puppets active for hours and not get tired in the very least. Neferpitou has displayed proficiency in multiple Nen categories other than their innate category of Specialization.



Their En is the widest shown so far. It is irregularly shaped: rather than a sphere, it takes the form of tendrils, a single one of which can be extended up to two kilometers in length. They have also shown great skills in In. Despite the process of creating a Hatsu ability being notoriously long and difficult, Neferpitou successfully performed a surgery with Doctor Blythe just by imagining how to bring Kite back to life in order to fight him again. Another of their abilities, Terpsichora, can manifest in just a tenth of a second despite its power. Due to their boundless devotion to the King, Neferpitou's abilities can increase drastically if they sense danger. Not even death and the destruction of their brain could stop them from attacking Gon, who they still sensed as a threat, with a more powerful than ever Terpsichora.

Quotes

 * (After winning their fight with Kite) "Yup! I'm purrty strong! ♥"
 * (To Gon, about Komugi) "She... is someone precious... to a person I care deeply about. The King became who he is because of her... If she ceased to exist, he won't... be himself anymore. She means that much... All I want... is for her to live."
 * (To Gon) "He is already dead... I am sorry."
 * (Neferpitou's final words) "Thank goodness... This power could only be achieved through the sacrifice of his own life energy. He's prepared to never use Nen again. That was the resolve required to perform this feat. An enemy blessed with immense talent has been forced to exchange all of that talent for this power. I am so glad... I am the one that he will kill."

Trivia

 * The extra book cover of the "Hunter × Hunter - Sôshû-hen - Treasure" Volume 8 shows the character's name as "Neferpitou" (identical to the version in the Viz's translation). Japanese Hunter × Hunter goods feature, instead, the alternate name "Nephelpito".
 * Neferpitou's name, like all of the Royal Guards, comes from an Egyptian god, Nefertem, and a character named Pitou from a French children's book series called Caroline et ses Amis; like Neferpitou both related to felines, the latter is a panther and the former is eventually seen depicted with the head of a lion or as a lion or cat reclining.
 * Neferpitou ranked sixth in the Third character popularity poll conducted by Weekly Shōnen Jump, dually ranking them the most popular Chimera Ant within the poll.
 * Neferpitou's second ability, Doctor Blythe, is modeled after the Blythe doll.
 * Terpsichora is named after Terpsichore, a Muse in Greek mythology that rules over dance and chorus.
 * In the Neferpitou's Water Divination aura screening the leaf withered away.
 * Neferpitou is the only Royal Guard that was not killed by the Miniature Rose, the only one who was killed in battle, and also the only one that died without knowing Meruem's name.
 * Neferpitou is the second Chimera Ant that Gon had actually killed under his own free will (the first being Baro).
 * According to the "Hunter × Hunter Manual" section found in the Yu ☆ Yu ☆ Hakusho official character book (Shueisha Jump remix), Neferpitou's stats are:

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