Shaiapouf

Shaiapouf (シャウアプフ, Shauapufu), nicknamed Pouf, was a butterfly-humanoid Chimera Ant and one of the Chimera Ant King's Royal Guards. He, like the rest of the Royal Guards, serve as a major antagonist of the Chimera Ant Arc.

Appearance


Unlike the other Royal Guards, Shaiapouf resembles more human. He looks like a young adult, with a tall and lanky frame, thistle purple skin, and short dark blond hair, covering up his forehead and ears. The only insect parts that Pouf has are his multi-coloured butterfly wings and antenna. He wears a frilly white shirt, black pants and a pair of black shoes.

Personality


Shaiapouf posits himself as the most calm and rational of the three Royal Guards, often speaking about the importance for logic and reasoning, more than his emotions. However, his strong devotion to the Chimera Ant King clouds his judgement. He holds a preconceived absolute ideal to live up to, with no room for amendment. Pouf also holds the King to a similarly impossible ideal, manifesting in mad fanatical monologues and treacherous action when it appears that his lord is being led astray. He is often seen reading books and playing his violin; he usually plays this instrument while talking or whenever he is agitated.



Shaiapouf vehemently loathes Komugi. He believes the woman to be holding back the King from his supposed right to world domination, as the pinnacle of evolution. A master of psychological games and subterfuge, Shaiapouf is willing to deceive, betray, and murder anyone in order to preserve his image to the King.

In crises involving the Chimera Ant King, Pouf forsakes delegated duty and acts solely according to the sway of his emotions. Shaiapouf is indeed the most irrational of the three Royal Guards; manic and demented by his magnification and love for the King. In the end, Shaiapouf became loyal only to his version of the King, not Meruem himself, and would constantly try to change the King to that version while getting privately enraged when it didn't happen. Of the three Guards, Pouf is the only one truly disloyal to the King himself and grew the least out of the three.

Background
Nothing is known about Pouf's past when he was a human. Similarly to the other Royal Guards, he has no memories of his previous life.

Chimera Ant arc


Shaiapouf is the second Royal Guard to be born and like the rest of the Royal Guards, he too was personally named by the Queen. He stays always beside the King and the other Royal Guards and serves as a transport to the King while they were searching for the new King's Palace thanks to his ability to fly. During this time, he serves as an adviser and explains the human behavior and actions to him.



As the King orders his Royal Guards to bring the champions of each of the human activities of the country, Shaiapouf, having wholeheartedly devoted his entire being to the protection of the King and the eventual domination of the world by the King, starts losing his temperament grossly by the King's obsession with the "insignificant" human, Komugi. The King is unable to defeat the girl at the game of Gungi, and even seems to care about her well-being. Shaiapouf views Komugi as a threat to the King, as his obsession with a mere human could undermine the King's rightful domination of the world as the most perfect form of life.



At one point of one of the King's game, he bets his arm and tears it apart. Shaiapouf, concerned about the King's health, tries to help him and call for Neferpitou, but he is quickly taken down by the King's tail, saying that he would dishonor the promise of no breaks in the play against Komugi. Shaiapouf asks him to better kill him, as he won't allow the King to be injured; and when the King is about to make that request, Komugi demands for him to be healed before any other game. The King then allows Shaiapouf to get Neferpitou to heal him, so long as they can do it while the King plays. As Neferpitou is unable to use their En and Puppet Dolls due to the large amount of Nen needed to heal the King, Shaiapouf takes charge of surveillance and activates his En through the Palace. Knov, who had been in the process of infiltrating the palace, is terrified by the sight of Shaiapouf's En and suffers a mental breakdown as a result. Later on, Shaiapouf considers killing Komugi, but upon the realization that killing the girl would forever deny the King any victory over her, bursts into tears and swears to end his own life after helping the King attain complete dominion.

As the selection day is coming, Shaiapouf with the other Royal Guards starts planning how to protect the King without being noticed by the enemy and without annoying the King (as he was more irritated with the Guards presence during his games). Shaiapouf flies into the highs and releases his scales in the direction of the gathered citizens and hypnotized every single one of them, so they follow their command more easily and won't flee.



Shaiapouf senses and sees the arrival of two great forces approaching from the skies, and when the nen dragon separates in thousands, Shaiapouf's state of mind is even further distressed during the attack on the King's palace when he dashes to the King's room and finds it empty. Pouf not only realizes that the King must be in Komugi's room, but that he had known in his heart the King would be with Komugi in her room and rushed to the King's room anyway. Seeing that he wasn't there, Shaiapouf suffers a break down, considering himself a traitor and a trash, not worthy of being called a Royal Guard.



As he tries to compose himself, he is quickly ambushed by Morel Mackernasey who uses his Smoky Jail to prevent him from escape. Seeing that Morel won't let him go, Shaiapouf uses his Spiritual Message to read Morel's aura and movements. Shaiapouf quickly envelops himself into a cocoon-like form and quietly starts his move. Shaiapouf started to separate himself into billions of creatures that could pass through the smoke particles and slowly, starting his escape from the Smoke Jail. Morel, not sure what to do, decides and attack the chrysalis, realizing it was empty after all.



Morel releases his ability and tries to confront Shaiapouf once again with his Deep Purple soldiers, but Shaiapouf uses his Beelzebub ability once more and split himself into dozens of tiny clones that overpowers him. The little clones starts fleeing and in an attempt to capture them, Morel is surprised by Shaiapouf's main body and is struck down by him into the floor allowing Pouf to escape with his giant pipe. Shaiapouf throws the pipe into a river and thinks to himself, that if Morel hadn't been so reckless and actually thought that he never escaped the Smoky Jail, he could have actually determined the true nature of his ability and try to seek out his true body.

Shaiapouf quickly leaves and upon his return to the Palace, his miniature clones sees the current events. Wondering on why the enemy didn't attack Neferpitou, Pouf tries to sneak behind Gon to kill him who was with Neferpitou healing Komugi who was hit by a one of Zeno's dragons. Neferpitou stops Shaiapouf's intent to kill Gon, so it wouldn't be a risk for Komugi to get hurt again. Pouf decides to leave the situation to Neferpitou but Gon didn't allow him to leave. He agrees on staying on the condition that Neferpitou explains the situation to him. As he was listening Pouf separates himself into a tiny form and leaves after inquiring the king's whereabouts, leaving a clone of his main body to stay there so Gon wouldn't suspect anything.



On the way, Shaiapouf finds Menthuthuyoupi and explains the situation to him, realizing how much he has grown up. The two part quickly where the King is in order to help him. Elsewhere, a miniature clone is controlling a newly born Chimera Ant Palm into killing Killua, but is quickly killed by her, as she regained her memories and herself. In a third part of the Palace, Knuckle confronts Shaiapouf who reveals in fact that he is a clone and that rather than fighting, he would like to talk but cannot leave since Gon won't allow him. Although Gon questions if Pouf's telling the truth, he still separates himself and tells Knuckle he will wait for him at the entrance of the Palace. As he arrives, the clones, with the true form of a Chimera Ant, leaves the place without explanation.



Elsewhere, Shaiapouf in his main body arrives where the Miniature Rose just have exploded. Menthuthuyoupi and him try to search for Meruem in the middle of the rumbles, and when they do it, they bust in tears to see that is a burned corpse. Much to their surprise, their king is still alive so both of them give their own bodies and energy to restore their King. Soon as the King is well again, and even more powerful; Shaiapouf sends back his clone to the palace so he can kill Komugi, but just as the clone arrives finding nothing, he is struck by Knuckle hidden within Meleoron's ability and Potclean soon appears besides Pouf's main body. Having realized this, the King and the Guards hurry to the Palace.



Meanwhile there, Shaiapouf's clone separate into lots of miniatures and started searching for Komugi. He realizes that Meleoron is the traitor that has been helping them and when the others get to know this, they try to deceive him so they could know if he is after Meleoron or Komugi. Without a blink, Shaiapouf goes after Killua and Komugi with the intent to kill her. Killua knocks down Komugi and starts fighting Shaiapouf who's hesitant to fight him as he discovers he uses electric shocks to burn down his cells. Meanwhile, his main body tries that the King regain certain parts of his memory, but when he asks to go to his former room, Shaiapouf quickly orders his clone to leave the battle get rid of the Gungi board and pieces. In other part of the Palace, one of Shaiapouf's mini clones uses his Body Reconstruction technique to change his face into Komugi's and with the help of Welfin, they are able to trick Neferpitou into believing Komugi was with them and fine.



Struggling to keep the King's memories of Komugi a secret, Shaiapouf tries everything so that he won't remember her; but when Meruem starts retrieving the enemies, Shaiapouf comes up with the idea to make a competition with him and gain some time. The competition starts and Shaiapouf and Menthuthuyoupi go straight to finding Neferpitou and Komugi. Soon after Pouf finished scattering his scales, he finds Menthuthuyoupi dead laying on the ground. Shaiapouf tries to warn the King, but he insists that the competition isn't over. He has no other option but to continue until shortly after, he starts coughing blood. Shaiapouf and Meruem confront Welfin, and the King begins interrogating him. Shaiapouf scared of what Welfin might say persuades Meruem to not question him until after the competition. Much to his dismay, Welfin out of sheer terror tells Meruem the name "Komugi".



As the King has remembered Komugi, because they were deeply linked, Shaiapouf was able to see just how deeply Meruem values the girl; thus, Shaiapouf finally admits to Meruem that Komugi was the secret he tried so desperately to hide. Expecting to be executed, Shaiapouf is surprised when he's told to find Pitou; he was also told to interrogate Knuckle and Meleoron, if they have a clue on Pitou's whereabouts, and allow them to go free. When Welfin states that Gyro is the only one he would call his king, and that Meruem was his enemy, Meruem states that he had hoped Welfin would find his king and adds that he hopes if Welfin can return living as a human; Shaiapouf begins to cry and vomit upon hearing those words. He is later seen to have finally fallen down to the floor, unable to fulfill the task he was given by his king, and succumb to the Miniature Rose's poison.

Abilities & Powers
As a Royal Guard, Shaiapouf is one of the four most powerful Chimera Ants. Although he does not consider himself a front line fighter, preferring to use his remarkable intelligence and subtle abilities to outmaneuver his opponents, he has enhanced physical capabilities that few humans can hope to rival. Furthermore, he is made nearly invincible by his Beelzebub ability. Having the genes of a butterfly, he is capable of flying.



Enhanced Strength: Although never actually engaging in hand-to-hand combat or displaying his overall strength, Shaiapouf, being part of the King's Royal Guards, is assumed to be about as strong as his siblings. In fact, with just one kick, Shaiapouf was able take down a strong Hunter like Morel and also was confident enough that he would be able to kill Gon when taking him by surprise at the King's Palace. He is shown to be able to break several big rocks with ease, with a series of punches and kicks, as he was opening his way to see the King after Zeno's Dragon Dive started to fall upon them.



Immense Speed: While flying, Shaiapouf is able to travel long distances within short periods of time, as seen when he traveled from the landscape where the King was battling with Netero back to the palace. He is fast and agile enough to evade the Dragon Dives from Zeno's attack without getting hit. He is also quick enough to strike Morel from behind and take his giant pipe without the former being able to react. It seems he can use his aura to propel his flight and at least double his speed. His copies managed to chase Killua while he was using Godspeed, although he was being hindered by Komugi at the time.

Genius-Level Intellect: Shaiapouf battles mainly relied on his tactical strength. He considers himself to be, among the three Royal Guards, the most intelligent and the most rational. Although his intellect is sometimes clouded by his love for the King, he displays enough calm to react the best in the worst situations as he was able to even break down Morel's plan when he was trapped in his Smokey Jail; not only surprising the former Hunter at his tactics but also being able to free himself in a shorter time than the Hunters would have expected. He quickly deduced that for Morel's abilities he needed his Smoke Pipe, which he stole so he couldn't fight anymore. He was also able to make a quick plan and deceive the King so he wouldn't remember who Komugi was.

Nen
Shaiapouf knows the concept of Nen since birth as, like Neferpitou, he already displays aura and Nen abilities. He excels at Manipulation, his natural type. His instinctive knowledge of Nen is so deep that he is the one to help the other Chimera Ants create Hatsu that complement their natural abilities and characters.

While he states that his En is not as large as Neferpitou's, he could at least cover the entirety of the King's Palace (although he was ordered by the King not to cover the floor where he and Komugi were), stating that his En reaches far enough to cover the floors. His aura was frightening enough to make a professional Hunter like Knov have a mental breakdown.

Trivia

 * Shaiapouf's name, like all of the Royal Guards, comes from the Egyptian god Shai and a character named Pouf from a French children's book series called Caroline et ses Amis.
 * Shaiapouf's technique, Beelzebub, is named after the Ancient Philistine god of the same name. Also of note, Beelzebub is also the name of a Judeo-Christian demon, sometimes identified as being The Devil.
 * Shaiapouf's small clones resemble chibi caricatures.
 * He has a habit of saying "That's all there is to it" at the end of many sentences.
 * According to the Hunter × Hunter Official Databook, Shaiapouf's stats are:

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