"There actually a Devil Fruit ability that this perfect for surgery? No wonder it called the Ope Ope no Mi, meow!"
(=ω=)
After learning about the power of the Ope Ope no Mi, Haibara Meow eyes lit up immediately. "Sherwin! I want this ability, meow!"
"Uh… but someone has already eaten it." Sherwin shrugged regretfully at Haibara Meow.
"Although the one who ate it is a pirate, well… you could barely, maybe, sort of consider him a good person? And he also a pretty skilled doctor."
"If that the case, then it actually even better, meow." Haibara Meow was a little disappointed, but mostly thrilled.
"If we have a doctor skilled enough and possessing the Ope Ope no Mi, the safety of the second plan will increase a lot, meow.
Even if Bonney body can't hold on, the operation can be stopped in time thanks to the Ope Ope no Mi ability.
So we can completely try the second plan first, and if Bonney condition isn't suitable, then we can consider acquiring the instruments needed for the first plan, meow!"
"Then what your choice?" Sherwin turned to Kuma, whose emotions had been fluctuating wildly.
"If you don't want to take this risk, you can wait until you gather all the equipment needed for the first plan before starting the surgery. But in that case, we can't just stay here waiting for you."
He pulled Haibara Meow into his arms, who had puffed up her cheeks in protest from being "doubted." While enduring the little kitten biting attack, he rubbed her fuzzy head and continued,
"Anyway, your Paw-Paw Fruit lets you move quickly. Once you've gathered the instruments, you can contact us again. I can leave you a Den Den Mushi number and a Vivre Card."
"…I'm sorry…"
Kuma stayed silent for a long time. He still couldn't bring himself to risk Bonney life. Looking apologetically at Haibara Meow, he finally spoke, "I'll choose the first—"
"The second plan!" A crisp voice interrupted Kuma words. Bonney came rushing out from the inner room with fiery determination. "Father! I choose the second plan!"
"Bo-Bonney!" Kuma panicked as he looked at his daughter who suddenly ran out, stammering, "B-but the second option… it too dangerous!"
"I'm not afraid!" Bonney shouted back. "I want to set sail with Father as soon as possible!"
The pink-haired girl conviction was firm. "Besides, didn't Sister Haibara say it already? Even if it fails, it won't be dangerous!"
Kuma was still hesitating.
The Haibara Meow in Sherwin arms suddenly spoke up: "If you plan to carry out the second option, it best to do it quickly. As the Azure Scales spread, Bonney body will only grow weaker."
"It… it really won't be dangerous?"
Kuma was finally shaken. Because suddenly he realized—if he couldn't gather the equipment needed for the first option, and by then was forced to go with the second option, wouldn't the risk be even greater?
"Hmph!"
(=`へ=)Once again questioned, Haibara Meow turned her head away disdainfully without answering. Yet her attitude gave Kuma even more confidence.
At this moment, Sanji Meow tugged at Sherwin clothes and asked, "Sherwin, don't you still have two bottles of healing potion, meow? That stuff should come in handy, right?"
"Oh, right!" Sherwin slapped his thigh hard. "I still have healing potions!"
"Wha-meow?!" The little kitten in his arms instantly grabbed onto Sherwin collar, shaking him furiously. "You had healing potions—why didn't you say so earlier, meow?!"
"It just that we never had a chance to use them, so I kinda forgot…" Sherwin answered with an awkward laugh, his voice shaking from being rattled around.
Haibara Meow smacked Sherwin big face a few more times with her little cat punches before finally snorting and letting him go.
Then she turned to Kuma and said, "With healing potions around, Bonney safety is absolutely guaranteed, meow!"
From their conversation, Kuma had already guessed that the so-called "healing potion," despite its ordinary name, was most likely an incredibly powerful life-saving medicine.
But since this concerned Bonney, he couldn't bring himself to refuse. Instead, he could only keep expressing his gratitude to Sherwin and the Felynes.
"Thank you all so much!"
Kuma kept repeating those words, his face showing an exaggerated mix of crying and laughing, making Sherwin feel unbearably uncomfortable.
So Sherwin quickly found an excuse to send him off: "In that case, there no time to lose. Kuma, you'd better hurry and search for the medical equipment. I'll also ask Morgans for help."
The doctors also spoke up one after another: "Leave Bonney to us without worry."
Kuma then kneeled and kowtowed to Sherwin and the cats before rushing off in a hurry to find Dragon.
Meanwhile, Sherwin planned to return to the ship and contact Morgans through a Den Den Mushi, but he suddenly noticed Haibara Meow happily tagging along behind him.
"Give me one bottle of the healing potion to study, meow." Before Sherwin could even ask, the little kitten had already stretched out her paw.
(ω)Sherwin handed her a bottle of healing potion, then curiously asked, "Ai, you can't make healing potions yourself? I thought the recipe wasn't that hard."
"How do you know I haven't tried? The problem is that in this world, a lot of herbs may look the same as in that other world, and their effects are almost the same too, but they just can't be mixed into the same kind of potion, meow! There must be some tiny but crucial difference…"
Haibara Meow explained gloomily, then rolled her eyes at Sherwin. "If you'd given me a healing potion to study earlier, I might've already found the solution, meow!"
Sherwin scratched his head with an awkward laugh. He hadn't expected that skills, Felyne meals, weapons, and such from the Monster Hunter world would all work perfectly fine in the One Piece world—yet for some reason, it was only the potions that had a problem.
But then he thought, if Haibara Meow could solve the potion issue, wouldn't that mean they could eventually look forward to things like Demondrug or Dash Juice?
With that hopeful thought, Sherwin used the Den Den Mushi to contact Morgans. In exchange for information about Lucci and the others, he secured the Birdman promise to help search for medical equipment…
Morgans was almost getting used to Sherwin casually selling CP intel from time to time. He even suspected that maybe Sherwin had once been a CP agent himself, and after defecting, was now acting as an insider to get revenge on the organization.
In the following days, Kuma traveled across the world based on the leads provided by Sherwin and Dragon.
Besides searching for and purchasing various medical devices, he also—at Sherwin suggestion—went to "borrow" money from slavers, pirates, and similar scum… and while he was at it, helped Sherwin collect rare swords or Devil Fruits.
Unfortunately, progress was slow. To avoid drawing too much attention, Kuma deliberately chose weaker "creditors" to target.
Meanwhile, Haibara Meow, as the attending physician, holed herself up in the ever-improving medical room, fully focused on researching the healing potion Sherwin had given her.
Compared to the busy bear and the busy cat, Sherwin and the other Felynes had it relatively easy.
Aside from daily training, most of their time was spent playing with Bonney… and, of course, cooking for her.
"You… you'd definitely get along with that idiot Luffy, meow…"
Sanji Meow looked at Bonney, who was hunched over the table devouring food, and couldn't help but sigh.
"Luffy? Who that?" Bonney asked curiously while tearing into the Hunter roast meat that Sherwin had made.
"He a 'rookie pirate' from the East Blue, just like you, he can eat a ton, meow," Sanji Meow explained.
"Oh right, he also ate the Gum-Gum Fruit, so he a rubber man who can stretch his body out like a rubber band, meow."
"A body like rubber?" Bonney stopped chewing. "Isn't that Nika?!"