"Wooooooh—!!! Joker! How could you just die?! Didn't we agree to turn this world upside down together?! Wooooooh!"
On Onigashima in Wano Country, Kaido was having another drunken fit.
Because Sherwin had prepared Morgans in advance, the news spread faster than usual this time, and Kaido even received the word on the same day.
"It that brat Hunter again! But Joker was indeed a bit weaker compared to him, so there nothing to be done about him dying..."
Kaido calmed down for a brief moment before beginning to roar loudly again: "But if he thinks he can provoke me over and over again like this, he is dead wrong!"
In a state of drunken rage, Kaido roared while swinging his Hachisai, blindly smashing everything around him into the air.
The members of the Beast Pirates had already fled far away long before this.
However, Kaido did not intend to go cause trouble for Dressrosa as Sherwin had expected, because while he was unreasonable, he was also very reasonable in his own way...
Well, Kaido only followed the logic that he himself believed in.
In his view, it was only natural for the weak to be killed by others, so he would not take the loss of Doflamingo out on King Riku just to continue their trade.
Rather than forcing King Riku to make up for his losses, Kaido actually wanted to find trouble with Sherwin, the guy who had already obstructed him twice.
Even so, he still had no intention of specifically running off to find Sherwin.
Kaido believed that Sherwin was unlikely to stay in Dressrosa much longer, and his Dodo Advance was too fast, making him difficult to catch.
But more importantly...
Whitebeard and Red-Haired had both spoken up for Sherwin before, and Sherwin had even made a special trip to visit Whitebeard a while ago.
Kaido had no desire to start a war with those two right now, especially considering he had only recently provoked the World Government and the Navy.
Don't be fooled by Kaido brutish appearance the man was actually incredibly shrewd.
Otherwise, Oden Kozuki wouldn't have been played like a fiddle...
Well, considering the level of intelligence Oden Kozuki displayed, that might not be something particularly worth boasting about.
In any case, Sherwin did not end up crossing paths with Kaido in Dressrosa. According to the information sent by Morgans, Kaido had been holed up on Onigashima for the past few days and hadn't gone anywhere.
However, Sherwin caution hadn't been for nothing. While Kaido himself didn't show, there were plenty of fools who, seeing the downfall of the Donquixote Family, rushed to Dressrosa hoping to take over the business...
They promptly ran straight into Sherwin and his group, who hadn't left yet.
Sherwin and the Felynes didn't even have to lift a finger Kyros, leading a group of gladiators and the Tontatta, handled them all.
As for Sherwin...
Naturally, after touring both islands thoroughly, he put in the effort to write the "New World Travel Guide: Dressrosa Edition."
"Wow! It the original manuscript with the 'Hunter' autograph!"
Little Bonney held Sherwin newly written draft high, running off happily to share her joy with her father and vice-captain.
Sherwin rare bout of diligence wasn't just because he had been pestered by the little girl until he gave in, but also because...
"Young Master Sherwin! Do you have time to get familiar with my body now?!"
Baby-5 appeared by his side in an instant.
When did you learn Soru?!
Sherwin complained inwardly before turning around and delivering a chop to Baby-5 head. "I told you not to use such misleading phrasing! What if you corrupt Klee Meow and the other kids?!"
"Ooh... S-sorry, I got a bit carried away."
Baby-5 clutched her head, obediently admitting her mistake.
Over the past few days of spending time together, Sherwin had gradually figured out how to communicate with this eccentric girl...
Basically, you couldn't be too polite to her, and you had to physically interrupt her before she spiraled into her own world otherwise, she'd start rambling to herself.
"First, let establish one thing: how many types of weapons can you transform into?"
Sherwin then proceeded to tell Baby-5 about the weapons used by Hunters and their specific characteristics.
Standard melee weapons like the Longsword, Dual Blades, and Sword and Shield didn't even need to be mentioned—Baby-5 could certainly transform into those.
However, their hardness and sharpness likely wouldn't compare to the Longsword or other famous blades. Furthermore, it was still unknown if this "Weapon Girl" supported the use of Armament Haki.
Therefore, Sherwin primary interest in Baby-5 lay in firearm-style weapons like the Gunlance, Light Bowgun, and Heavy Bowgun, as well as weapons with specialized designs like the Switch Axe, Charge Blade, and Insect Glaive.
Baby-5 performance was also a pleasant surprise aside from the Kinsect for the Insect Glaive which she simply couldn't manifest, she had no issues with any of the other weapons.
In fact, she could even combine the advantages of several weapons together.
For instance, a Gunlance with a Heavy Bowgun directly mounted on it, a shielded switch axe that could transform between Axe, Great Sword, and Sword and Shield modes while also being equipped with phials, and a Lance integrated with the Insect Glaive pneumatic propulsion system.
Furthermore, the Bowguns and Gunlances Baby-5 transformed into required no reloading!
Sherwin had specifically asked Baby-5 about the true nature of those fired projectiles, only for her to explain that they were simply creations of her ability...
Even though her body fragments needed to gather back together to reform her physical self after she turned into a missile and exploded into pieces.
One can only say that Devil Fruits are, as always, utterly illogical.
If there were any drawbacks, they weren't non-existent. First and foremost, the power ceiling of the weapons Baby-5 transformed into—especially the firearms—was tied to her level of fruit development.
For example, even if she knew the production method for Jumpy Dumpties, the Jumpy Dumpties she transformed into wouldn't be any more powerful than the other bombs she became.
It was no wonder the firearms Baby-5 transformed into were all old-fashioned flintlocks to her, there was no difference in power between a flintlock and a Barrett.
Another drawback was that the firearms Baby-5 transformed into did not support externally provided live ammunition. In other words, Sherwin had no way to load her with special ammo like Cluster Bombs or Sticky Ammo.
However, compared to the advantage of not needing to reload, these minor flaws were nothing.
The most crucial thing was...
The fact that the weapons Baby-5 transformed into supported the infusion of Armament Haki meant that while she might not be able to pull off many fancy tricks with bullet effects, their destructive power could still be guaranteed through Haki.
And while Sherwin was familiarizing himself with his new "weapon," the other members of the Research Commission were not idling either.
Haibara Meow had obtained many novel medicines and special cultivation methods from the Tontatta tribe, who were experts at nurturing plants.
It was just that this little kitten was always looking for opportunities to study the physical structure of the Tontatta people, as well as Princess Mansherry Heal-Heal Fruit ability, which led to her reputation in the Tontatta Kingdom being not so great...
If she and Purah Meow hadn't created a prosthetic leg for Kyros, the Tontatta Kingdom would likely have blacklisted Haibara Meow as an unwelcome guest.
As the place where the Donquixote Family, one of the twenty founding royal families, once established their nation—even if the Tontatta didn't keep records and the Riku Family hadn't inherited anything from the Donquixote era—there was still plenty of history to be unearthed.
At the very least, Robin had looked like she was reaping quite a harvest lately.
Hiko Seijuro and Link Meow, meanwhile, took every spare moment to discuss swordsmanship with Kyros, and would occasionally head to the Colosseum to trade blows with the gladiators of Dressrosa.
With their adorable appearances combined with overwhelming strength, the two of them had instead become the most well-known and welcomed Felynes among the citizens of Dressrosa.
When Sherwin was out shopping with Klee Meow and Shermie Meow, he even saw large-scale, spontaneously organized fan clubs for the two swordsman Felynes...
Shirahoshi, on the other hand, was still headache-stricken over the issue of Dellinger.
She hadn't chosen to directly "demand a surrender," but instead opted for a gentler yet more laborious approach of trying to become friends with Dellinger.
Regrettably, whether as a Mermaid Princess or an Ancient Weapon, she possessed neither Luffy Joyboy aura that "makes everyone smile," nor did she have the eloquence of her mother, Queen Otohime. Consequently, she had made almost no progress so far.
However, the "little" mermaid possessed a resilience that rivaled even Luffy and Queen Otohime. No matter how much Dellinger lashed out at her with harsh words, Shirahoshi still insisted on going to talk with him every day...
According to Shirahoshi herself, her Observation Haki could sense that Dellinger was already wavering slightly he just needed a bit more time.
She wanted Sherwin to stay in Dressrosa for a while longer.
Finally, there were the two newly obtained Devil Fruits.
Unsurprisingly, not a single Felyne wanted to eat the Art-Art Fruit, while the Logia-type Snow-Snow Fruit was quite popular...
Seijuro Meow and Huamei, who wanted to completely escape the calamity of bathing, as well as Purah Meow and Haibara, whose base combat strength was relatively average, all quite wanted this Devil Fruit.
The first to voluntarily withdraw was Haibara, and her reason wasn't that she had "Logia" pets like Sherry and Vermouth for protection, but rather...
"The Snow-Snow Fruit is countered too heavily by Klee Meow Flame-Flame Fruit it would be too much of a disadvantage to fight her in the future Meow!"
(=`へ=)
The little kitten said very seriously: "If I'm going to eat one, I'll eat a Logia fruit that can stand on equal footing with the Flame-Flame Fruit, or a Paramecia fruit related to medicine like the Op-Op Fruit or the Heal-Heal Fruit Meow!"
Thus, after some deferring between Seijuro Meow and Huamei, the Logia Snow-Snow Fruit was ultimately eaten by Purah Meow.
In addition to her combat strength being lower, it was also because Devon Rex Felynes naturally have thinner fur and poor cold resistance giving the Snow-Snow Fruit to Purah Meow happened to make up for that weakness.