After meeting Issho, the rest of Sherwin journey was relatively peaceful...
Well, if you didn't count the little troublemaker Felynes on the ship.
"You little brats! You drew on my face again!"
An exasperated Hunter chased several mischievous Felynes as they burst out of the cabin.
"Meowhahahaha! Sister Baby-5, help Klee Meow block brother Sherwin, okay meow?!"
"Happy to be of service! Sorry, Master Sherwin! Weapon Transformation: Shield Girl!"
"You dummy, don't join in on the chaos!"
Sherwin delivered a hand-chop to the forehead of Baby-5, who had already transformed into a shield, but she gritted her teeth and held her ground.
"Little sister Klee Meow just asked for my help! Even if it Master Sherwin, I won't back down!"
The dimwitted maid shouted with full momentum.
"Then I'm asking you to move out of the way right now, okay?!"
"...No!" After hesitating for a moment, Baby-5 still refused. "Master Sherwin and Sister Robin both said I have to learn how to say no!"
"..."
Sherwin was nearly driven mad by this idiot maid.
Now you decide to listen to me?!
To make matters worse, the little troublemaker Felynes who had just committed the prank were fanning the flames from the sidelines.
"That right! You must never yield to a dummy like Sherwin meow!"
Haibara Meow, who was most likely the culprit, shouted and bragged to Sherwin triumphantly, "The paint this time was made by me imitating the Celestial Dragon mark. If you want to remove it, you can only use a similar method meow~"
The style of this little black-bellied one remained consistent as always, with one scheme following another.
"It just so happens that I can also test if the mushrooms picked from your body can be used for cooking meow!"
(=ↀωↀ=)
Sanji Meow looked at the graffiti on Sherwin face with great interest, seemingly considering which part of the body would produce better-tasting mushrooms.
"Eh? Today lunch is mushrooms grown from Brother Sherwin body meow? But Klee doesn't really like eating mushrooms... and since they were picked from Brother Sherwin, it feels a bit strange meow."
(＝ω＝)
The little Ragdoll cat scratched her head in distress she had an intense curiosity about these mushrooms, yet she couldn't bring herself to eat her "Brother Sherwin."
Fortunately, Klee Meow distress did not last long, because the actual captain of the Dodo Advance, the pinnacle of power in the Felyne Investigation Team, the nemesis of naughty cats, and the maintainer of order—Lord Huamei—finally stepped forward!
"You lot! Have you had enough trouble meow!"
(=`ー=)
Huamei Meow held her sheathed longsword and smacked each of them one by one, not even sparing that airhead maid Baby-5.
"S-sorry! Lord Huamei!"
Baby-5, who had looked persistent just a moment ago, instantly gave in, reverting to her human form and standing obediently to the side.
As for the other little naughty Felynes, they immediately struck a well-behaved pose, as if the ones making a fuss just now weren't them at all.
Sherwin: "..."
The Hunter was long used to the Felyne reactions, but Baby-5, why are you so practiced at this too?! Where was that stubborn attitude you had when dealing with me just now?!
But once he remembered that the one Baby-5 was yielding to was Huamei Meow, Sherwin felt it was perfectly reasonable again...
After all, even he, the Hunter, had to bow before the majesty of Lord Huamei it was only natural for Baby-5 to react this way.
Well, thinking about it like that, the Hunter—who possessed no majesty to speak of—felt much better in his heart.
In the end, the Hunter-brand mushrooms weren't eaten. According to Sanji Meow assessment, the mushrooms sprouted from eating the "Body-Sprouting Mushroom" had no nutritional value and no flavor whatsoever, making them completely worthless for consumption.
Sherwin was actually a bit curious if mushrooms growing on that Warden in Impel Down who ate the Venom-Venom Fruit would turn into poisonous mushrooms.
This question of his seemed to spark a new idea in Haibara Meow. For the following period of time, the kitten mostly hid in the laboratory tinkering with her potions, which actually gave Sherwin quite a bit of peace.
Aside from the smooth sailing, other matters within the Investigation Team were also progressing very well.
Under the repeated persuasion of Shirahoshi and Baby-5, Dellinger was now able to communicate relatively calmly with Klee Meow, Kaido Meow, Jinx, and the other Felynes who were close to Shirahoshi or simply had high charisma and social stats...
It was just that his foul-mouthed personality led to him getting beaten up by Jinx quite often.
As for Baby-5, although she was still a bit eccentric, she no longer agreed to every random person request like before. Most importantly... she finally had a bit of an awareness regarding secrets.
To confirm this, Sherwin specifically took Baby-5 to meet the Klabautermann of the Dodo Advance in private. He deliberately did not demand that she keep it a secret, only mentioning that the Dodo Advance itself didn't like seeing outsiders.
Then, he had Jinx purposely leak the fact that "Baby-5 knows a big secret of the Investigation Team" to Dellinger and egged him on to try and pry the secret out of her.
In truth, Sherwin did not want to test his companions in such a manner, but Baby-5 bizarre personality was simply too peculiar, and the Investigation Team truly held a few too many secrets, so he was forced to do so...
Of course, the fact that Sherwin later treated it like a grand performance—watching Baby-5 struggle with her conscience and scramble under Dellinger interrogation, and then watching Dellinger various attempts to coax, trick, and pry the secrets out after failing the direct approach—was another matter entirely.
Regarding strength, after Sanji Meow Armament Haki successfully broke through its bottleneck, his combat power still couldn't match the dedicated combat Felynes like Hiko Seijuro and the others, but he was no longer as defenseless as he had been before.
As for Ace, whom the little yellow Felyne cared about most, it was impossible to determine a winner without a real fight, but at the very least, Sanji Meow now had the confidence to face Ace in battle once again.
After Purah Meow ate the Snow-Snow Fruit, she also enthusiastically began to develop her fruit abilities.
Unlike Aokiji Ice-Ice Fruit, the core ability of the Snow-Snow Fruit is the creation of snow lowering the temperature is merely a secondary effect of producing that snow. Therefore, Purah Meow could not "instant-freeze" people or even the seawater the way Aokiji could.
While she could have simply become an ordinary "Snow Woman" like Monet, that clearly didn't fit Purah Meow status as a genius scientist.
Thus, the little researcher quickly found her own path of development.
The snow created by her ability could move freely according to her will, which was equivalent to having an infinite source of power. Furthermore, the hardness of compacted snow blocks was not inferior to solid ice with the boost of unscientific Devil Fruit powers, surpassing the strength of steel was not difficult. If Purah Meow needed it, she could even have Suika Meow help further increase the density.
So...
Purah Meow could entirely use her abilities to create snow-golem versions of Guardians, where the internal components and power sources could be replaced by Devil Fruit powers.
This meant the snow Guardians made by the little researcher were even more intelligent than the flame golems and lightning clones produced by Klee Meow and Shermie Meow, who had already awakened their fruit abilities.
Of course, it wasn't without its drawbacks. Since they were made of snow, the heat rays and railguns typically powered by Klee Meow and Shermie Meow energy were out of the question. Due to the limitations of the Snow-Snow Fruit power, there were no freeze rays either the only long-range attacks the snow Guardians could release were ice spikes and frost blades molded by her power, or freezing tornados laced with snow.
However, that was already enough. Purah Meow main combat power still manifested through her mechanical ball and standard Guardians the Snow-Snow Fruit was primarily used to enhance the little researcher own survivability...
As well as providing the Felynes with snow for building snowmen and having snowball fights.
Additionally, after obtaining the Snow-Snow Fruit, the Eagle mode of Purah Meow mechanical ball received a further boost.
Previously, because the mechanical ball had the assistance of Shermie Meow and Klee Meow abilities, the Camel and Lizard modes were more powerful in terms of raw combat strength, while the Elephant mode—which stored seawater—was a specialized mode for countering ability users. Now, with the addition of the Snow-Snow Fruit power, the gap between the four modes had finally narrowed.
Once Purah Meow awakens her fruit ability in the future, the Investigation Team will be able to forge ice-element equipment to go along with their fire, lightning, and blast-element gear.
When that time comes, the "Yubashiri" used by Hiko Seijuro will be able to live up to its name as a "Snow-Strider,"