"How is this possible?!"
Gladius stared with wide eyes, looking at the completely unharmed Jinx in disbelief.
As a user of the Pop-Pop Fruit, it was natural for him to be immune to his own abilities, but why was the "Berserk Blue Cat," who ate the Bomb-Bomb Fruit, also immune to them?!
"...So mine is actually the lower-tier fruit..."
Given the accumulation of the Donquixote Family, Gladius naturally had some understanding of superior and inferior fruit relationships. However, before this, he had always believed his Pop-Pop Fruit was the superior one.
"Even if the Bomb-Bomb Fruit is the superior version, it shouldn't be possible to completely negate my abilities..."
Gladius quickly calmed down and began to analyze a way to break the deadlock.
While the overall strength of the Donquixote Family was relatively average in the latter half of the Grand Line and their personalities were quite eccentric, the Heavenly Yaksha subordinates were fairly commendable when it came to intelligence.
Well, of course, that was mainly due to the contrast provided by their peers.
"...Let test it again."
A single exchange couldn't reveal everything, so Gladius raised his arm once more.
However, Jinx was not the type of fellow to stand there stupidly and let someone attack her.
The little crazy cat grinned, revealing a mouthful of shiny little fangs. "I originally wanted to exchange some notes with you about fruit abilities, but since you used a weapon first..."
"Then let start shooting meow! Hahahahaha!"
(=`=)l▄︻╤
Before Gladius could attack again, the little crazy cat beat him to it, whipping out her Pow-Pow Gun and opening fire on him in a wild strafe.
And...
"I know how to make bullets explode too, meow!"
"Boom boom boom boom boom!!!"
Compared to the petty mechanism on Gladius arm, Jinx bullets had a faster rate of fire and greater quantity, but most importantly...
The explosive power was far superior.
Gladius was forced into a pathetic scramble once again.
Furthermore, while shooting, Jinx took the opportunity to destroy all the mechanisms Gladius had set up, leaving him with no way to trigger his traps.
During this time, Gladius did attempt to counterattack. He even inferred how to damage her by observing Jinx tilt her head to dodge a piece of flying rubble.
However, facing the little crazy cat storm-like assault, the objects he launched with his explosions were almost always blown aside mid-air by the explosions Jinx created.
As for the few fragments that managed to break through the explosive defense, setting aside how much lethality they had left, it was impossible for them to hit Jinx given her Observation Haki and agile movements.
Not to mention, the little crazy cat had her "Reactive Armor" defensive technique.
"You're starting to bore me, meow!"
(ω)
After pulling her punches slightly to let Gladius counterattack a few times, Jinx realized he only had those few tricks up his sleeve. She gradually lost her interest in playing.
"Let me introduce you to a new friend! Fishbones, come say hello to him, meow!"
■≡(=`=)■■＞
The little crazy Felyne pulled out the fish skeleton and rested it on her shoulder.
"No need to be afraid, and no need to stay alive, meow!"
A missile, painted in gaudy colors, trailed a long tail of flame as it flew toward Gladius. Although he had already fled toward the distance at his maximum speed, the Super Mega Death Rocket—enhanced by Klee Meow technical support as well as Suika Meow and Jinx own abilities—possessed an explosion range and power that was not at all inferior to the Ursus Shock Kuma had just unleashed on the ring...
In fact, it was even greater.
"BOOM——!!!"
Accompanied by a colossal roar, Gladius, who had not run very far, along with everything surrounding him, was swallowed by the dazzling firelight.
This, of course, included the little crazy Felyne, who was laughing toward the sky and was nearly immune to explosive elemental damage.
"Meowhahahahahaha..."
(=`皿=)
"Crack..."
"...Eh?"
A faint but clear crisp sound interrupted the little crazy Felyne triumphant laughter. Jinx looked toward the source of the sound...
"Uh oh... this isn't very meow at all..."
(='ω'=)
Sanji Meow, who had intentionally been struck by the Art-Art Fruit power, raised his arm and looked at the square paw in front of him, covered in messy lines that were supposedly meant to represent his paw pads. He actually found it quite interesting.
Right now, his entire appearance had likely been turned into an "artwork" similar to his paw, hadn't it?
If the timing weren't so poor, he would have loved to take an "artistic photo" of himself as a souvenir.
"Ohohohohoho! This is true beauty! You look much more pleasing to the eye than you did a moment ago!"
Seeing Sanji Meow fall victim to her trap, Giolla felt victory was within her grasp. She smugly pressed her hand to her mouth, letting out a textbook "noblewoman laugh."
Sanji Meow ignored her. Instead, he focused on gathering and elevating the Armament Haki within his body, attempting to forcibly dispel the Fruit ability attached to him, just as Sherwin had described.
"How annoying! Truly so annoying... Seeing you in this state, my soul is trembling once again!"
Even with no one paying her any mind, Giolla, as an "artist," didn't feel the least bit awkward. Like a witch performing a ritual, she held her arms high and danced about, shouting with high-pitched emotion.
"Endless inspiration! It shall bloom along with my heart!"
"Aaaaah—! The inspiration of liberation and beauty! It bursting forth!"
Giolla held both hands above her head as a cloud of smoke, looking like a scrambled color palette, rose from the crown of her head and was gathered into her palms...
"The world should be free and equal!"
Giolla clutched the mass of smoke and slammed it violently into the ground. The multicolored smoke instantly erupted, covering a massive area nearby.
As the smoke dissipated, everything in the surroundings had been transformed into various bizarre shapes, though the overall theme followed an abstract style.
"...Did my face also turn into this jumbled-up mess, meow?"
(ω)
Sanji Meow looked at the surrounding sights, and his mood suddenly soured.
"What do you know?! This is true beauty! This is my art!"
Giolla heard Sanji Meow muttering and immediately retorted loudly.
"This is your art?" Sanji Meow curled his lip in disdain. "All I see is an amateur with zero concept of aesthetics who learned a few abstract ideas from somewhere and is just haphazardly piling and patching things together, meow."
Indeed, when the yellow cat mentioned "patching things together" earlier, he wasn't referring to the abstract style itself, but rather to Giolla application of it.
While abstract art is something most people—and cats—cannot appreciate, Sanji Meow happened to be one of the few felines who truly understood it.
Although his original intention for learning about art was actually to refine his food plating skills and to woo sophisticated female cats...
Regardless, he truly understood it.
Sanji Meow then channeled the same pickiness he reserved for "Squid-tentacles" Mister cooking, criticizing Giolla "art" from color to composition, and from lines to space, tearing it apart until it seemed utterly worthless.
"...In abstract art, the most important thing is self-expression. But in your work, I see absolutely no expression of your own. There is only a clumsy imitation of other paintings. This kind of thing isn't art at all, meow!"
(=ˇˇ=)
After Sanji Meow delivered a lengthy and eloquent lecture, he dealt the final blow to Jora.
"Waaaaah! Impossible! My art! My art..."
Although Jora actual level of artistic achievement was quite poor, her pursuit of art was genuinely sincere. Therefore, after being bombarded by Sanji Meow verbal onslaught, she actually found it impossible to accept for a moment. She clutched her head, collapsed to her knees, and began to wail in agony.
"That why... this kind of messy stuff that can't even be called art... get it off of me, meow!"
(=`Д=)
"Diable Jambe: Hirudora Meow!"
"Hmph~ it wasn't even that difficult, was it? Next time, I'm definitely going to give that idiot Ace a harsh kicking, meow!"
(=`=)
After breaking through the Art-Art Fruit power and knocking Jora unconscious with a kick, Sanji Meow tossed his head back proudly.
And then...
Crackle... crackle...
The little yellow cat flicked his ears and looked toward the source of the sound in confusion.
"Hmm? What that noise, meow?"