After leaving Thunder Island, Sherwin and the others followed Klee Meow chosen route.
After another round of thrilling and dangerous sailing, they finally arrived at an island where numerous ships could be seen docked even from afar.
If they had rushed, whether using the great sea dragon form or the sky comet dragon form, they could have reached the island much faster.
But since Shirahoshi said she wanted to get more used to life at sea, Sherwin chose to travel slowly…
Of course, with the strange and ever-changing weather of the second half of the Grand Line, taking to the sky or diving underwater wasn't necessarily safe either.
Otherwise, Shiki would have long become the Pirate King, and Roger would never have had the chance.
"Huamei, which island is this?"
"There no Marine emblem in sight. It should be Risky Red Island, meow."
Leaping down from the mast and landing in Sherwin arms, Huamei Meow stretched her neck to rub against his chin before answering,
"Risky Red Island is similar to Cactus Island or Jaya. But because it one of the initial islands of the second half, it far more chaotic than the previous 'Pirate Island.' You'd better be ready for battle, meow."
"Your admiral is at least a newly appointed Warlord. People on this island can't possibly be that stupid, right?"
But before he even finished speaking, a cannonball came flying toward them from afar…
Sherwin: "…"
He had completely forgotten… he had the jinxed-mouth reputation… No! That wasn't it! These pirates were simply insane! Reckless to the bone! This had nothing to do with him!
Something wrong here! When the other Warlords appeared, pirates behaved themselves. Why was it that when it was his turn, everyone suddenly grew a steel head?
"Hmph~ Stupid Sherwin, did you forget how the World Government publicized you, meow?"
Haibara Meow jumped onto Sherwin shoulder, bit his ear, and only then reminded him with schadenfreude.
"Tch!"
Sherwin slapped his forehead in frustration. He had completely forgotten about that.
Aside from that reason, the pirates here were mostly newcomers to the New World—ambitious, eager, and reckless. Every one of them dreamed of replacing the Warlords and Yonko.
Another reason was tied directly to Sherwin himself. Recently, too many Warlords had been defeated one after another, so the pirate fear of the Seven Warlords had dropped sharply.
In fact, during this period, most of the other Warlords had more or less been challenged by pirates—Sherwin just didn't know about it yet.
"Meowhahaha! Another fight, meow!"
Before Sherwin even opened his mouth, Jinx had already pushed a cannon—sized perfectly for a Felynes—up to the bow and began firing back at the pirates.
"Huh? That cannon… why does it look familiar?"
"Because it was modified from that gun called Lassoo, meow." Haibara Meow wrinkled her tiny nose, clearly displeased.
"Lassoo?"
Sherwin took a moment to recall its origin—the gun Mr. 4 used, the one that had eaten the sausage dog Devil Fruit, and the one that had given him his very first Heavy Bowgun/Light Bowgun category weapon-card fragment.
With that in mind, he became even more confused…
If it could turn into a dog, why was Jinx pushing it around?
"Because… I accidentally lost the Devil Fruit inside the gun, meow…"
(=へ=)
Facing Sherwin question, Haibara Meow drooped her little cat face and looked away guiltily.
"Huh? How do you even lose something like that?" Sherwin picked up the little kitten, rubbing her head as he asked with genuine curiosity,
"What did you do? Don't worry, I'm not blaming you."
"Hmph~ That gun was entrusted to me for disposal anyway! Who afraid of your blame, meow!"
(=`へ=)
The tsundere kitten smacked Sherwin nose with a few tiny paw punches before happily explaining…
With the Germa research files in her paws, Haibara Meow had mastered the technology for granting Devil Fruit abilities to objects long ago.
But the little kitten wasn't satisfied with just that—she had been trying to figure out how to extract a Devil Fruit without damaging the item it was fused with.
In fact, Haibara Meow had basically succeeded. She really had "removed" the Devil Fruit from the gun—or rather, she found a way to "kill" the Devil Fruit inside the gun while it wasn't in its sausage-dog form…
And then the sausage dog Fruit resurrected somewhere in the world on some random fruit, its location completely unknown.
"…I even prepared a whole pile of fruits beside me, and I used Seastone, seawater, and all sorts of isolation materials. But I still couldn't catch that power, meow!"
(=`н=)
Haibara Meow puffed up angrily. "Devil Fruits are just too unscientific, meow!"
Although the tsundere kitten didn't say it outright, Sherwin could guess that part of the reason she wanted to extract the sausage dog Fruit was to get him another Zoan-type card fragment.
So he gently squeezed her puffed-up cheeks—round like a pufferfish—and comforted her, "Alright, alright, it just a Zoan fruit. And a sausage dog ability at that—not useful at all. If it gone, it gone."
Then he offered, "How about I give you the remaining two Zoan fruits as well? If you can perfect this technique, we won't have to rely on that cursed Hunter Knife for luck anymore."
But Haibara Meow shook her head. "We shouldn't waste Devil Fruits, meow. I've already done every experiment I could.
The pure ability of a Devil Fruit is very different from the lineage factor extracted from a Devil Fruit user.
Without a host, the Devil Fruit ability itself actually isn't weakened by Seastone or seawater, meow…
"Unless I can find a way to convert Pyrobroin into a pure energy state… Hmm, that might be a good direction, meow…"
As she spoke, the little kitten suddenly slipped into research mode, holding her chin with a paw while muttering things Sherwin couldn't understand.
Then she wriggled out of Sherwin arms entirely and sprinted toward the lab.
And as she ran, she shouted at the top of her voice, "Purah Meow, I have a new idea, meow!"
"I'm coming right now, meow! Check-it!"
As cannons roared, Jinx alone unleashed enough firepower to suppress the attacking pirates.
None of them even managed to get close for a boarding fight—most were sunk outright under the wild barrage of that little madcat…
Even though Jinx didn't know any Haki yet, she was absolutely the core force in naval battles.
Some stronger pirates did try to charge straight through her attacks and reach the Dodo Advance, but the other cats were definitely not just sitting around eating fish.
With Seijuro Meow and Link Meow alone, those pirates were stopped before they could cause trouble—not to mention Klee Meow and Sharmie,
both users of Logia-like powers, and Lord Huamei standing guard with his Conqueror Haki.
Of course, this was also because most pirates on Risky Red Island were fresh newcomers to the New World.
Their strength wasn't anything special, which was why Jinx could suppress them so easily.
Huamei Meow had probably considered this as well, which was why she didn't let the other cats join in.
Otherwise, one bomb from Klee Meow would've solved everything in seconds.
Hmm? Wait…
Sherwin suddenly felt something was wrong.
"Hey—stop! You're blowing up all the treasure on their ships! And those pirates—if they get blasted to pieces, we can't cash them in for bounties!"
Seeing ship after ship sink into the sea, Sherwin finally snapped back to reality and sprinted toward the little madcat while shouting at the top of his lungs.