Catching Up and Age
__________ POV Narration__________
Ashton waited around until Pitou was showered and dressed.
He helped patch up some of her cuts, then the two of them started walking around and talking about the state of affairs on both sides.
Ashton asked her about her experience, and Pitou learned of the state that the cities were currently in.
Ashton learned of what exactly Pitou had been up to. Namely, how she was starving at first until she learned how to hunt for herself.
Out of carelessness, she was even injured a few times against some other predators that resided in the continent. Animals that otherwise she would've been able to crush easily.
In the end, her lack of experience was what caused the majority of injures to her body.
The largest one, though, was caused by none other than the Land Lizard, just like Ashton had expected. It had apparently managed to claw at her stomach on its dying breath.
Apparently, Pitou had managed to develop a few new powers for her Hatsu. Pitou had become more proficient in her use of her personally developed Hatsu.
'The Wizard Book', had been incomplete the last time Ashton had seen it. That coupled with Pitou lacking skill and experience. It made the Hatsu seem quite limiting.
Now, she seemed to be a lot more adaptable, at least from Ashton's point of view.
Although he had yet to see it in action, he liked hearing Pitou describe it to him.
How, at first, she tried pleading with the book to give her better 'spells' for other situations. She apparently did that for a while, all until she remembered the lecture Ashton gave her on loopholes.
If she wanted a spell useful against a certain opponent, then she needed to know of that opponent's weakness.
Therefore, if she wanted to use her Hatsu to its fullest, then she needed to exercise her judgement and analytic skills while in the middle of combat.
Ashton was somewhat pleased to hear that she didn't have that hard a time against the Land Lizard, but that was exactly why she had ended up getting injured.
After basically beating it into the ground the entire fight, she got careless and thought the entire thing would end well.
The Land Lizard just lashed out at that moment and pierced her stomach with one of its fingers. The only reason she was fine was that Doctor Blythe could heal her perfectly right afterwards.
Her scars would also disappear in due time.
Ashton found her story to be quite interesting, he just sighed at her near-death experience. He knew that she was in danger at some point, he could feel it. But he decided against rushing to her aid.
Why? Well, if he did so, then she'd never actually learned to survive on her own.
There would always be that thought 'Even if I fail, Ashton will always come and help me' That thought would only serve to limit her future accomplishments.
But, if she was to truly be close to death, he would've rushed to the scene of the battle anyway.
The two of them strolled around the outskirts of the third city for a while, after that, they decided to fly towards the first city, to visit Momoze and the other princes.
They flew at a decent speed, but they still spoke the entire way. They did have quite a lot to take about, Pitou didn't even know much about Shakti in the first place.
But Ashton still instructed her on its dangers. One can imagine that Pitou didn't actually care about the human continent also being infected.
She wasn't quite attached to anyone other than Ashton, the only other human she had gotten to know was Momoze. And that was just because Ashton had introduced her to the princess.
Ashton and Pitou reached the compound that the princes lived in about an hour or two. It gave Ashton some time to think about things around the colony, besides talking to Pitou that is.
There were still plenty of issues to be addressed. Like how the princes still had no idea where Tubeppa had gone into hiding.
She had yet to reappear, even after the situation was publically announced to the colony. That was a move made by the princes to see if they could find their half-sister.
Needless to say, it didn't work. And her whereabouts were still unknown to everyone. Her disappearance didn't really affect too many of the princes.
Not all of them were close to their half-sister, but it was still sad for them to see their family so divided.
Ashton greeted the guards and just walked in. He didn't really need to show a pass or anything, he was known by every servant of the princes.
He reached Momoze's room quite quickly, only to find out that she wasn't even inside. Apparently, she was a few rooms over, in a specially constructed room to help the princes learn how to use Nen.
Ashton just decided to walk in, he didn't think that there was any place that he would be restricted entry. But the look he got from the teacher of the princes was quite odd.
"Who are you and why are you here!? Can't you see I'm in the middle of teaching royalty?" The man was someone that had proper knowledge of the theory of Nen.
He was mostly average in power, but he still regarded himself highly, like most Nen users tended to do. It certainly didn't help that Ashton's Nen was always perfectly concealed.
Although, the teacher instantly shut his mouth when Pitou walked in. She wasn't quite as proficient at being low key, she also found the human that had lashed out at Ashton to be annoying, so that certainly didn't help with her concentration.
Even the princes were scared by the feeling of Pitou's Nen. Although she now had a different personality, her Nen had the same deadly feel to it.
So, her appearance managed to shock the princes, they were people that had just learned Nen. So it was to be expected that they were startled by Pitou. Well, Fugetsu almost started crying, but that didn't really matter to Ashton.
He just sighed and chopped Pitou's head. "Control your aura!" He said as Pitou just winched and lowered her gaze for a bit. She used Zetsu to conceal herself properly.
Ashton sighed a bit. "Apologies for my disciple. She's not quite experienced enough yet, she loses her temper easily." He said with a cordial smile while looking at the princes.
He chose to ignore the teacher, who was still sweating from feeling Pitou's aura.
"It's no trouble, it was just a bit surprising... I guess not all of us knew that powerful Nen users exude this much aura..." Momoze was one to speak.
The people that already knew Nen, namely, Camilla and Halkenburg, weren't as affected as the ones that had just recently learned of it.
"By the way... How come we can't feel anything from you? You should be stronger right?" The one asking this was none other than Kacho. She was just curious since Ashton was an enigmatic figure to the princes.
"Well, I instinctually use Zetsu at all times. I can even keep it up when using some Nen techniques." Ashton said with a smile.
The princes already knew of the basic Nen techniques, so they were quite surprised to hear that. Zetsu would usually only work when the user didn't use Nen.
"How do you do that? If you don't mind me asking?" The curious person that asked this question was Halkenburg.
Since he was also a Nen user, he wanted to learn more about advanced techniques, as that was the next step for him.
"Of course, I don't mind! It took me a very long time to create this technique, and even longer to master it properly." Ashton didn't really mention the fact that it took him actual centuries to master.
It was supposed to be a basic technique, but he had basically recreated it and modified it by himself. Something that not many would even think about, let alone attempt and succeed in doing.
This technique was also the only reason he could so leisurely walk on the Dark Continent. Even with relics, it would've been hard to hide completely, traces of his Nen would've leaked. And he would've never been able to set up a camp and rest.
"How old are you anyway? We've seen you look a different age, remember?" Oita was the one that asked this question. Not only the princes were present, but the queens were also trying to learn about Nen.
"Well, I was on the Dark Continent long before the first human expeditions happened." Ashton's words came as a shock to most of the people in that room.
Not all of them knew the number of expeditions that humanity had done. But, most of them realised that Ashton was a lot older than 300 years old. Which was when the expeditions started being properly regulated.
Only the five successful expeditions mattered though, they were the ones that interested Ashton. And they were the ones that 'gave birth' to calamities. Or that unearthed them.
Momoze was quite befuddled when hearing about that. It wasn't completely unexpected to her, she knew that Ashton was older than everyone present. But she didn't realise there would be that big of a difference.
Still, she decided not to let that demoralize her too much. Ashton still looked young, he didn't always act like a senior either.
Although, her mother, Sevanti, didn't really know what to make of the information.
"You guys should continue with your classes. The basics are important, even if you already know them. We'll talk more afterwards." Ashton then walked out, with Pitou in two.
He decided to give them some time to make sense of the information he had given them.
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