"Ah! It Uncle Cody meow!" Klee Meow immediately leaned toward the Den Den Mushi and greeted, "This is Klee~ Good evening, Uncle meow!"
"So it little Klee. Good evening to you too—you're there as well," Cody replied cheerfully,
then coaxed her gently, "Uncle has something to discuss with your brother Sherwin. Could little Klee hand the Den Den Mushi over to him?"
"Okay meow~"
Klee Meow obediently stepped aside and passed the receiver to Sherwin.
"Uncle, please wait a bit. It not really convenient for me to talk right now."
Even though Sherwin and the others were on the streets of Water Seven, and there wasn't anyone around for the moment, he still decided to postpone the conversation.
It wasn't because he feared someone might suddenly appear—after all, his Observation Haki and that of the Felynes were not just for show. The real reason Sherwin wanted to delay the talk was because…
His "think tank" — Haibara Meow and Robin — weren't by his side right now.
Though he didn't want to admit it, the Hunter was clearly not good at strate—no, that not it! He just wasn't good at scheming or bargaining!Yes, that right!
After returning with the cats to the shipyard, Sherwin didn't bother recounting the events of his outing.
Instead, he gathered everyone together and briefly mentioned Cody call before dialing the number.
"The fur tribe cat who gives you all those ideas—is she there with you now?"
That was the very first thing Uncle Cody said after the call connected.
"..."
"That exactly why I can't stand you intelligence types — you're all so damn rude!"
"I'm hanging up," Sherwin said darkly.
"Hahaha! My apologies, my apologies," Uncle Cody laughed, trying to smooth things over.
"So then, what your decision?"
"In principle… I don't have any objections to becoming one of the Seven Warlords," Sherwin said slowly, drawing out his words.
"But you see… I am a 'law-abiding citizen.' Suddenly asking me to work alongside a bunch of wanted criminals… you'll have to offer some sort of compensation, right?"
He paused for a moment, then added, "Also, that bounty on the black market — that was issued by you guys, wasn't it?"
Based on the analysis from his think tank — Haibara Meow and Robin — one possibility for the bounty was that the World Government had released it to create a sense of crisis for Sherwin,
pressuring him into accepting the invitation to join the Seven Warlords.
After all, his previous refusal had been that since he didn't have a bounty, there was no reason to join them for no benefit.
Though Sherwin felt that theory might be a bit self-serving, given how people in the pirate world think, that explanation still made more sense than blaming Big Mom or Heavenly Yaksha.
"What bounty? I don't know anything about that."
Naturally, Uncle Cody couldn't admit it outright — though his answer was practically an admission itself.
As an official intelligence officer, how could he not know whether Sherwin had a bounty or not?
After pretending to be clueless with rather poor acting skills, Cody quickly dropped the topic and returned to the main point.
"So, what kind of compensation are you asking for?" Cody had already half-expected Sherwin to bring up conditions, so he wasn't surprised.
Still, he kept his "professional ethics" and bargained, saying, "Nothing too outrageous. We've already given you quite a few privileges."
"It not anything too extreme…" Sherwin chuckled and said, "You probably already know that I have a hobby of collecting famed swords and Devil Fruits,
so… just send me a few Devil Fruits and one or two Supreme Grade Blades. That shouldn't be much of a problem for you guys, right?"
"You really dare to ask for that! Devil Fruits and Supreme Grade Blades— and not just one, but several?!"
Cody was so angry he actually laughed. Sure, he had hinted that Sherwin could make a few requests,
but he hadn't expected him to open his mouth like such a lion… No, wait — it wasn't Sherwin doing, it must've been the cats! The cats were the ones with the big mouth!
Sherwin, unaware that Cody was internally questioning his intelligence, continued demanding with confidence, just as he'd planned.
"Yeah, preferably Logia types. Mythical Zoans are fine too. I won't complain about pseudo-Logias from the Paramecia line, or any Ancient Zoans either. Basically, just send me two or three of each type."
Seeing how Sherwin requests were becoming more and more outrageous, Cody hurriedly interrupted,
"No way! If we had Logias or Mythical Zoans, wouldn't we use them to strengthen our own people?! Why would we hand them over to you?!"
"Tsk…"
Sherwin clicked his tongue in annoyance.
Weren't the Celestial Dragons supposedly so casual with Devil Fruits that they even fed them to slaves for fun?
"Then just send me more of the Paramecia and normal Zoan types, that should be fine, right?" Sherwin kept bargaining.
"I don't really care about which Paramecia they are, but for the Zoans, I'd prefer something like an Insect-Insect Fruit. I won't nitpick the exact species. Hmm… let say three of each for now."
"No way either! That way too excessive — the higher-ups will never approve that!"
Cody was utterly exasperated, starting to regret ever hinting that Sherwin could make demands at all.
"Well, it not like you can make the final decision anyway, Uncle," Sherwin said lazily.
"Just report my request up the chain. Who knows, maybe they'll actually agree."
"If I really submit your conditions like that, I won't have any peace left in my career!"
The Den Den Mushi mimicked Cody expression perfectly, rolling its eyes wildly. "You're trying to get poor Uncle killed here!"
"I see… then, old man, what kind of terms do you think wouldn't cause you any trouble if we reported them?"
"At most, one of each of two Devil Fruits… ah, damn it! Best if there are no conditions at all!"
Sherwin couldn't tell if Uncle Cody was just too angry to think straight or if he was intentionally giving him a hint, but either way, Sherwin gladly took it.
"Then let go with that! One Paramecia-type and one Zoan-type. Preferably, the Zoan should be a Bug-Bug Fruit. For your sake, old man, I'll even give up on the Supreme Grade Blade for now!"
"Well, I really should thank you for that!" Uncle Cody gritted his teeth as he spoke. After a short pause, he seemed to calm down, his tone returning to normal.
"I'll report your conditions. Wait for my reply."
With that, he hung up the call himself.
After ending the conversation with Cody, Sherwin turned away and tossed the matter out of his mind…
After all, it wasn't them who were in a hurry. Even if they didn't manage to become one of the Seven Warlords, it wouldn't be any real loss for the investigation team.
So instead, they focused their attention on adding new functions to the Dodo Advance.
Originally, he had only planned to casually give her a Golden Lion form. But perhaps after studying the Pluton blueprints,
Purah Meow was struck with inspiration — she thought up quite a few new functions and added them on the fly during the upgrade process.
Even so, the entire upgrade didn't take much time. After Sherwin settled the bill with Carrera, he once again departed from Water 7.
This time, of course, he finally followed the proper direction indicated by the Log Pose.
However...
"Are we already heading toward Fish-Man Island?"
Sherwin looked at the needle on the Log Pose, which was pointing diagonally downward, and scratched his nose in mild surprise.
The first half of the Grand Line seemed to have fewer islands along the route than he remembered…
But after thinking back carefully to the events in the manga, it seemed they hadn't actually skipped any — apart from the Drum Kingdom, which wasn't on this route — and they had even visited an extra resort island along the way.
Sherwin couldn't tell whether it was just this particular route that had fewer islands or if all routes in the first half of the Grand Line were like that.
If it was the latter, that would be ideal — because when he came back later to chart the map, it would make things much easier.
Besides, several days had already passed. Their ship upgrade was long completed, yet there was still no word from the World Government or Uncle Cody side.
It seemed that, aside from corruption, the World Government also suffered from the same bureaucratic issues common to most official organizations — endless procedures and sluggish response times.