Home and Reminder

__________ POV Ashton__________

The inside of the ant nest was eerily familiar to me. Maybe because my laboratory is also located in a cave? But there aren't many similarities between my lab and this place...

I didn't think the nest of some ants would remind me of my home. I haven't been there in a long time.

It was quite a strange cave after all. As for why it resembles my homeland...

You see, my parents were sailors. They thought it would be a great idea to take me on their expeditions. And it went about as well as you'd expect...

The ship capsized. We were in the middle of the ocean. I somehow ended up on the shore of an unknown land.

At first, I was wary and hesitant. But slowly, I became part of the wildlife myself. They all communicated differently, but most were just as intelligent as humans are.

They fed me, a group of strange moles gave me housing in one of their cave systems. It was nice, being accepted by them.

One of them even taught me how to manipulate Nen. These are memories I can look back on with glee. The only time in my life where I knew true happiness was with them.

There aren't many stories that I could find about my 'homeland'... People call it, 'The Dark Continent'. And they find themselves terrified by it's threatening fauna and wildlife.

But it was not always like that. When I was there, the trees were standing tall and dancing gently in the wind.

The Giant Animals were stomping the ground in excitement, creating earthquakes of different magnitudes.

The smaller ones were running around the steppes, unbothered by anything.

I was a mere 5-year-old at the time of my arrival.

But, it was all... Peaceful, in its own way. The animals treated me like one of their own. I pranced around with them and drank from the same rivers as them.

Being so in tune with nature made my Nen grow so much that I unknowingly became one of the strongest Nen Users by the time I was 19.

But great things don't last forever...

And it also seems that my pondering has stopped Pitou and the other ant in their tracks. I came to find out that the other ant is named Colt, but I haven't even introduced myself to them yet.

They aren't even humans, I have no reason to actually hate them.

"What happened?" Asked birdman Colt. Pitou just stared at him, can't blame her reaction. This guy is extremely friendly for no great reason. Just like the ones back home.

"Nothing much. Just admiring your home." I said, taking on a polite tone. Pitou didn't believe me one bit. But she wasn't about to start a fight with me.

"It seems that there are quite a few of you around these parts. How fast does your queen birth you?" I asked, taking out my notebook and looking around at the confused and somewhat hostile ants.

They all seemed to be training Nen. None were even close to Pitou, but that was to be expected. If the queen had good enough food to create an army of Pitou's than the world would actually be in danger.

Pitou just looked at me. And sighed a bit, finally realising that I wasn't just going to disappear. "It usually depends on how much food we have gathered."

The ants around us looked somewhat startled when Pitou started answering my questions.

"Miss Pitou! Where have you found such inquisitive food?" Asked one of the ants whilst laughing. I didn't really bother answering. I don't care how they see me, as long as they keep their hands to themselves.

"Shut up..." Said Pitou, as her Ren flared up a bit. She's probably trying her best to avoid a conflict in their nest. The ants seemed to recoil at this. Not expecting their harmless jeers to get such a reaction out of Pitou.

I also turned around. If she was willing to make some effort to accommodate me I might as well help her a bit.

"Hello there everyone. My name is Ashton, feel free to call me Ash. I will be living with you guys for a while." I took a short pause, letting this information sink in. Some of the ants had strange expressions on their faces.

"I'll be helping Pitou gain better control of her Nen mainly, but if any of you have any questions regarding it I will gladly answer," I said with a genuine smile. It has actually been a while since I've smiled in this fashion.

Maybe it's because this place reminds me of home? It's easier to express my emotions here. There not being any humans around is also somewhat helpful.

Still, a small part of me still hopes they would all just try to attack me... The part of me that is still human, the characteristic thirst for violence that I don't really bother to suppress usually.

I guess them not being human is also a factor in their survival right now. If they were, I'd probably just kill them all and continue with my day.

Pitou seemed a bit surprised by my statement, same as Colt and the rest of the ants. They probably think they know enough about Nen from the person they extracted their information out of.

But there isn't anyone in the world that knows more about Nen than me.

"When did you decide that?" Asked Pitou. I guess she can't really hold her curiosity in. She is still young after all.

"Now. You need to learn about spontaneity if you want to be prepared to fight against stronger Nen users." She just looked at me with a strange look.

"Why would a human be helping us?" "Is he for real?" "Is Pitou playing a prank on us?" The crowd was murmuring as the people were speaking to each other.

I guess I have a long way to go before they get accustomed to my presence.

But I don't really care. I'm not here to visit them. Me agreeing to answer any question they have about Nen is already enough.

And I'm only doing so because I want to see if they have any natural limitations to learning different techniques. The one that taught me couldn't perform Zetsu in any way. Mainly because he was the size of a mountain.

But he also couldn't practice Ko, Ken or Ryu. All of them being related to coating specific parts of the body in Nen in order to reinforce them. He was simply biologically incapable of doing that.

Now, I went to a corner of the cave and watched the ants train. Taking notes as they did their best to ignore me.

Pitou suddenly sat beside me.

"It's annoying you know? Being weak that is..." She's probably referring to our previous altercation.

She will likely start to treat every human with caution from now on. But I should still help ease some of her worries. Especially since she's trying to be friendly.

"You can rest assured, besides me, there are barely 4 or 5 other people that can even fight you. And I am the strongest." My words seemed to have their intended purpose.

Although they aren't entirely true. I am not the strongest in Hatsu or Nen ability. Even if my understanding of it is far above the others.

But in a fight, I could definitely kill them all at the same time. It sounds like arrogance, but it's the truth.

I slowly got up. Pitou just looked at me. "It's time to start your training. Get up!" My shout infused with Nen seemed to startle her.

She got up quickly. Probably realising the type of training this will be.

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Eyy, hope you enjoyed today's chapter!

Not much else to say.

Now I need to work on an epilogue for my last fanfic. ;-;

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