Neferpitou

"Gon... Unfortunately, I have to kill you. For the King..."

- Pitou, to Gon

Neferpitou (ネフェルピトー, Neferupitō), nicknamed Pitou, is 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. Its cat-like ears and tail are covered with yellow and white fur, respectively. It has ruby-red eyes, and its knees have demarcated joints like insect legs. Its hands are slightly bigger than a normal hand for their size. Its clothes are a blue overcoat with six yellow buttons and cufflinks, shorts and orange socks with thin black stripes, and a pair of blue shoes.

Personality
Neferpitou is very loyal to the King, just like the rest of the Royal Guards and would sacrifice themselves for him. Neferpitou gets distracted easily, loves to play a lot and that makes it the most curious of the three Royal Guards. Hence its cat-like appearance, Pitou is a cat Chimera Ant who loves to play with its opponents like a cat would with its prey. Despite its cheerful and playful manner, Pitou has been shown to have a sadistic and terrifying personality as well.

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 its 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 it is a Specialist and exits the nest to find out the extent of its 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 its puppets so they can enjoy another fight and the other Chimera Ants have something to try 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 Hunters Association mobilizes quickly to stop the oncoming genocide by sending in an Extermination Team of Hunters to East Gorteau.

Residing in the East Gorteau palace, Neferpitou uses its 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 and under the King's orders, Neferpitou heals her. Gon, however, 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 its death, Neferpitou's nen still remained; its 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, its corpse is later shown abandoned in the woods, probably with Terpsichora dispelled.

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. Not only did it fight and kill Kite while suffering only minor injuries and having just discovered Nen, its strength was also complimented by Meruem, who failed to kill it with one of his tail strikes, leaving it merely bruised. It should be noted that Shaiapouf, another Royal Guard member, was driven through a wall by the same attack, although the king had increased his power at that time. Even the Hunter Association's Chairman Netero, considered the world's strongest Hunter during his prime, wondered if Pitou could be more powerful than him, as Colt, after witnessing both fighters' aura, reckoned. Gon and Killua were completely frightened by the extension and malice of their aura during their first encounter, and the latter stated that Hisoka and Illumi's, two extremely skilled and evil Nen users in their own right, were incomparable to theirs. Owing to their feline lineage, they have enhanced senses: their sight, hearing and smell surpass a human's many-fold. They have also inherited very accurate instincts.

Immense senses: Neferpitou has extraordinary senses. Neferpitou was able to smell Pokkle hiding in a massive pile of bones while he was hiding from the ants in Zetsu. Pitou was also able to spot Kite, Gon and Killua, who were around more than half a kilometer away. It even spotted Netero, who completely turned off his aura in the storm of Zeno's transmuted Dragons. It also spotted Morel's Deep Purple Smoke Troopers many kilometers away, and it was able to hear its cell phone that was on low volume with its extremely accurate hearing.

Immense strength: Despite its slender frame, Neferpitou is blessed with astounding brawn. It can rip off human limbs and heads without strain and with just one hand. Its legs are so powerful that it can cover distances of more than half a kilometer with just one leap. It was also able to rip off the arm of the immensely powerful Gon when its power was reinforced after death. It can also pounce off the air with its incredibly strong legs and rush to the King's side.

Immense speed and reflexes: Neferpitou can move so fast that it could reach Kite's party, who was very far away from it, as soon as they entered their En, and it managed to do the same to reach when separated from the King during Zeno's assault on the palace. Its reactions are also top-notch, as it could catch a glimpse of Netero's hands moving whilst he was preparing his Hyakushiki Kannon. It was able to leap to Meruem from pressing off the air with extreme speed. It was also able to cut off Gon's arm, even when Killua pushed Gon out of the way while in Godspeed.

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

Immense durability: Neferpitou could withstand one blow of Netero's Hyakushiki Kannon without wounds. Also, its tail did not get ripped off when it attempted to summon Doctor Blythe to stop its movement. More remarkably, a grown, empowered Gon needed to use his Jajanken: Rock several times before finally managing to crush its skull. It also withstood a powerful strike of Meruem's tail with the intention to kill it.

Immense pain resistance: Neferpitou was seemingly unaffected by one of Hyakushiki Kannon's palm strikes and hardly flinched when it broke its own arm, offering to injure itself more if it could prevent Gon from interrupting Komugi's treatment. It also withstood Gon's punches without getting stunned and while trying to fight back.

Decent intelligence: Its strength doesn't require it to think too much in a battle. Still, it is very good at analyzing people and reading their feelings, and can understand the value of the humans it kills to select the ones to resurrect as puppets. Although it is not a good strategist, Neferpitou has highly developed instincts which often lead it to make the correct choice. It is a very fast learner as it mastered Nen in an unprecedented short time. Also, it learned how the human brain works and guessed how to manipulate it after reading just one anatomy book.

Proficient in hand-to-hand-combat: Thanks to its heightened physical capabilities, Neferpitou is an excellent brawler. It only relies on its claws to dispatch its enemies, and its fighting style makes full use of its remarkable strength, speed, agility, balance and flexibility.

Nen


Even before learning Nen, Neferpitou was still able to greatly scare Rammot with its great aura, and Gon, Killua and Kite shortly after.



Together with the rest of the Royal Guard and the King, it is one of the fastest to learn Nen, accomplishing this feat without help. Its aura is so abundant that it can keep its dreadful En and puppets active for hours and not get tired in the very least. When it first used Doctor Blythe, it was just imagining how to bring Kite back to fight it again: its powers are so great it only needed to think of an ability to make it happen. Its Terpsichora can manifest in just a tenth of a second despite its strength. Due to its boundless devotion to the King, its abilities can increase drastically if it senses danger. Not even death and the destruction of its brain could stop it from attacking Gon, whom it still sensed as a threat, with a more powerful than ever Terpsichora.

Its 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.

Gender Confusion


The only concrete evidence to determine Neferpitou's gender appears in the official databook "Hunter × Hunter Character and Word Data Book." In it, Neferpitou is once referred to using the pronoun "彼” (kare), which is usually translated to “he.”

When speaking, Neferpitou uses the pronoun “boku,” (translated to “I” in English) which is used by boys and young men, but it's also used by some less feminine sounding women.



Neferpitou is shown naked with a flat chest. Later in the manga, Neferpitou is described like a "mother" protecting a child.

In the cover of Volume 28 which is implied to be based off the coronation of Virgin Mary, Neferpitou takes the middle position which corresponds to Virgin Mary's.

In the manga, Neferpitou's chest is usually flat. In contrast, the 2011 anime depicts Neferpitou by giving it a consistent bust.

From all this, it should be assumed that Neferpitou does not have a specific or “confirmed” gender. Because of this, this article uses non-gendered pronouns such as "they/they're."

It is possible that Neferpitou's gender in the manga differs from the anime.

Trivia

 * Neferpitou's name, like all of the Royal Guards, comes from the Egyptian god Nefertem and a character named Pitou from a French children's book series called Caroline et ses Amis.
 * 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 a Muse in Greek mythology that rules over dance and chorus.
 * Neferpitou is the only Royal Guard that was not killed by the Miniature Rose and is also the only who was killed in battle.
 * Neferpitou is the second Chimera Ant that Gon had actually killed under his own free will (the first being Baro).

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