"Peh, peh, peh!"
Sherwin endured Haibara Meow kitty punches while baring his teeth and sticking out his tongue as he spat repeatedly…
To lure this little schemer into taking the bait, he had been forcing himself to hold back the whole time.
Even though the taste in his mouth had already faded, he still wanted to spit a couple more times—it just made him feel a lot better emotionally.
"Meow hahahahaha!"
(=`=)σ
Klee Meow pointed at Haibara Meow with one hand and clutched her belly with the other, laughing so hard she nearly toppled over on Sherwin other shoulder.
"Sister Ai still has the nerve to call Klee stupid—when you're the one who keeps getting tricked by Brother Sherwin every time, meow!"
Those words completely shattered Haibara Meow composure. The kitty punches raining down on Sherwin head grew even heavier, and as if that still wasn't enough, she leaned in and bit down hard on his ear.
After letting the little kitten vent her anger on him for a while, Sherwin finally lifted her down from his shoulder. As he rubbed her kitty head, he deliberately shifted her attention.
"Aren't you going to study whether Kaido will have any differences after eating an artificial Devil Fruit?"
Even though she knew perfectly well that Sherwin was intentionally changing the subject, Haibara Meow didn't continue making a fuss.
After all, she knew this whole thing had started with her, and the little kitten had tested plenty of drugs on Sherwin before—he had always cooperated without complaint.
"Hmph!"
(=`へ=)
The tsundere Haibara Meow grabbed Sherwin finger and took a vicious bite out of it, then hopped out of his arms and ran up to Kaido Meow.
While pulling out paper and pen, she urged him impatiently, "Hurry up and activate your ability so I can see it, and then trouble you to explain every sensation you feel during the transformation in detail, meow!"
After the bit of commotion between Sherwin and Haibara Meow just now, Kaido Meow had more or less figured out the position this little kitten held within the research team.
Although it looked a little strange for an Palico to be doing a researcher job, Kaido Meow was still very supportive of his own kin expanding into more fields of work.
So he took two steps back, sensing the suddenly awakened power within his body—yet one that felt as though it had always belonged to him—and then…
"Roar—!"
Along with a resounding dragon cry, a gigantic cherry-blossom-pink dragon shot straight into the sky.
The cherry dragon circled twice above the uninhabited island, quickly growing accustomed to controlling the flame clouds coiling around its body.
After that, Kaido Meow in cherry-dragon form tried out his other abilities as well…
Aside from the three powers of wind, fire, and lightning that Kaido had previously displayed, Kaido Meow could also inhale and exhale clouds and mist, using them to create rain and hail.
Only after testing all of his abilities did Kaido Meow in cherry-dragon form descend back to the ground. It was then that Sherwin and the others finally saw his full appearance clearly.
Overall, it was hard to say whether the cherry dragon that Kaido Meow had transformed into was larger or smaller than Kaido azure dragon, but visually there was no obvious difference.
Moreover, considering that after Momonosuke age had been increased, his cherry-dragon form became roughly the same as Kaido, it seemed that a dragon form did not have much to do with the size of its original body.
Zoan-type Devil Fruit users, when transforming into their animal forms, more or less retain some traits of their original bodies, and Kaido Meow was naturally no exception.
Since Kaido Meow original body did not have Kaido pair of oni horns, after transforming into a dragon he, like Momonosuke, had only a single pair of horns.
However, right beside those dragon horns was a pair of fluffy dark-gray cat ears that absolutely did not match his cherry-colored head.
That said, the mane around the cherry dragon head was the same as the ruff of fur on Kaido Meow original body, carrying a gradient of light gray.
The line of fur along his back and the fur on his tail were also the same dark gray as the cat ears, so with this contrast, the ears did not look quite so out of place after all.
As for Kaido Meow pair of dragon whiskers, they were neither cherry-colored nor gray, but white—just like the whiskers of most cats.
Fortunately, their shape was still that of dragon whiskers. If even the shape had turned into cat whiskers, it would have looked far too strange.
Besides that, Sherwin also discovered that on Kaido Meow dragon claws… there were paw pads.
Mm, all in all, although it was a bit overly cat-like, Kaido Meow cherry dragon form was still extremely imposing, and did not end up like Ivankov azure dragon form—um… especially distinctive.
"Wow! Big Brother Kaido has become as big as that bad guy Kaido, meow!"
(=`=)
Klee Meow excitedly climbed onto the cherry dragon head, rubbing her little head back and forth against his pair of dragon horns.
Off to the side, Suika Meow touched the rakshasa horn on her own head and, for once, revealed an envious expression… who knew how such a strange sense of aesthetics had been cultivated.
(=ω=)
The second one to climb onto Kaido Meow head was not one of the other little furballs, but that little guy Link Meow…
He seemed to have some strange obsession with climbing onto dragons.
Sherwin still remembered that when he first summoned Link Meow, the reason his entrance had been a falling-from-the-sky one was precisely because he had just been thrown off by a Valstrax.
With these two cats taking the lead, the other cats also eagerly climbed onto Kaido Meow body, "touring" all around. Even Shirahoshi could not hold herself back and followed Jinx up as well.
Thankfully, Kaido Meow size in his cherry dragon form was large enough—large enough that even a big human-sized mermaid loli like Shirahoshi could be carried without issue.
As for everyone climbing onto his body, Kaido Meow did not feel the slightest bit impatient.
Instead, he quietly lay down on the ground, trying not to make too many movements so that the cats and Shirahoshi on him could stay as steady as possible.
Fortunately, although the cats were brimming with curiosity, they were all quite well-behaved.
What more, with Huamei watching from the side, after playing around for a while, everyone gradually climbed down from Kaido Meow body.
Once all the cats and Shirahoshi had gotten down, Kaido Meow body began to rapidly shrink, then transformed into the strongest form of a Zoan-type user—the human, uh, half-beast… form?
Calling it a half-beast form didn't seem quite right perhaps it should be called a cat-beast form instead.
In this form, Kaido Meow was already taller than Sherwin, growing to over three meters, close to four, and his build had become even more burly.
Cherry-pink dragon scales covered Kaido Meow arms and legs, while the areas without scales—his chest and abdomen—were instead layered with thick cat fur.
The tail behind him was still a dragon tail, but his claws had reverted to cat paws.
At his wrists and ankles, one could still see the transitional areas where dark gray fur shifted into cherry-colored scales.
As for his face, aside from an extra pair of dragon horns, it was basically no different from Kaido Meow original cat head.
After Kaido Meow tried moving his limbs a bit and picked up his spiked club to swing it a few times, he dispelled the beast-cat state and returned to his original form.
"Devil Fruits really are amazing, meow… I can feel my strength skyrocketing in an instant. Forget the Rampage—if I ran into Gaismagorm again, I'd even dare to clash with it one-on-one, meow, instead of barely forcing it back like before, when everyone had to pay a terrible price together, meow."
Kaido Meow clenched and unclenched his paws a few times, then calmly said something utterly shocking…
Unlike in games where monsters are farmed for materials over and over, even among the pile of inherited hunter memories Sherwin possessed, there were very few battles against calamity-class—or so-called unsealed—elder dragons like Gaismagorm or Amatsu.
As for officially designated forbidden-class monsters such as Alatreon and Fatalis, there were even fewer.
Even when they truly faced such foes, it was always a large group of hunters acting together, supplemented by various war machines prepared by the Guild.
And within those scarce memories, failures accounted for more than half. Even the successful repulses were achieved at a tremendous cost, nothing like the ease shown in games.
So for Kaido Meow to have participated in a battle against Gaismagorm and driven it back was already an extraordinary achievement.
But considering his prototype…
Such a record did seem rather reasonable.