Caesar Clown was dead.
Before the enraged Big Mom, the man who had quite a bit of screen time in the original work did not manage to flee as he had in the manga.
His Logia Gas-Gas Fruit failed to play any role at all. Already scared out of his wits, he didn't even put up anything resembling proper resistance.
Big Mom directly tore out his soul, and just like that, he "died a natural death."
Sherwin silently rubbed Klee Meow little head, then scratched Haibara Meow chin, taking it as praise for the two little cats who had just worked together to guide everything to this outcome.
Although this meant losing one "card draw" opportunity, Sherwin didn't feel the slightest bit of regret.
As the saying goes, the longer the night, the more dreams.
Especially for someone like Caesar, a character with actual plot weight—who knew whether he might suddenly trigger some kind of "supporting-character halo" at some point.
Just like Cavendish, who had previously been rescued by Aokiji, and… those few future members of the Blackbeard Pirates.
During his voyage, Sherwin had actually made a point of searching for their whereabouts.
The results were either that he couldn't find any information at all, or that he happened to miss running into them because of various reasons.
Of course, Sherwin hadn't tried to chase them at all costs, so it might really just have been coincidence.
After all, he wasn't as if he had never killed important supporting characters from the original story.
But no matter what, being able to deal with scum like Caesar as quickly as possible was a good thing.
Missing out on one Devil Fruit draw was no big deal to Sherwin, even if it was a Logia type that could directly grant a full summoning ticket.
Besides, whether he could even draw it was another matter entirely.
Given Hunter Knife abysmal drop rate, for all he knew, what Sherwin might have dug out of Caesar could have been something like a photo of Vegapunk—a truly infuriating piece of junk…
That photo of Wang Zhi earlier had already left Sherwin with some very serious psychological trauma.
"Mamamamama! Thanks to you all, otherwise I would have been deceived by that guy!"
After dealing with Caesar, BIG·MOM looked at the cats with growing fondness. She couldn't help but invite them again:
"Don't you really want to join my Totto Land? All the snacks and sweets here are yours to eat as much as you like, and there are all kinds of Homies who can play with you."
"Klee wants to stay with Brother Sherwin, meow!"
(ω≡ω)
The little ragdoll shook her head and refused decisively.
Haibara Meow snorted once before stating her position as well: "Sherwin may be an idiot, but leaving him behind and ignoring him is not okay, meow!"
(=`へ=)
Being rejected repeatedly made BIG·MOM a little annoyed, but in the end she didn't lash out.
Instead, she told Klee Meow and Haibara Meow that since they had helped her, they could receive her reward.
"Whatever you want, you can say it!"
"Klee doesn't seem to have anything she wants, meow…" The little ragdoll pawed at her ear.
"Klee is having a lot of fun here. There no need for anything else, meow."
Haibara Meow, on the other hand, spoke up: "We haven't finished visiting all the islands yet, so after the tea party is over, can we stay here and play for a few more days, meow?"
The clever little kitten had naturally noticed BIG·MOM earlier displeasure, so she deliberately made this request.
It could help Sherwin continue exploring the map here, and at the same time give BIG·MOM an "opportunity."
"Mamamamama! Of course there no problem! Totto Land will always welcome you!"
Sure enough, when Haibara Meow made this request, BIG·MOM agreed without the slightest hesitation.
She was even thinking of finding an opportunity to turn Sherwin into her son-in-law—naturally, the longer they stayed in Totto Land, the better.
During the tea party that followed, quite a few people from other factions took the initiative to come over and build connections with Sherwin and the others.
Previously, they had not been certain of Big Mom attitude toward Sherwin, so even if they wanted to befriend him, they did not dare approach as boldly as Morgans and his group.
But now that Big Mom was clearly not planning to pursue the earlier conflict between the two sides, these people could not help but step forward to make themselves known.
Sherwin was not opposed to associating with them either. Although none of these people could really be called good-hearted, anyone who could attend BIG·MOM tea party possessed at least some degree of power.
In the future, he might be able to use them to collect famous blades or Devil Fruits and the like.
"Ah, I didn't expect that you've even been to the legendary Punk Hazard, little brother Sherwin. An island under World Government supervision like that shouldn't be somewhere one can just casually set foot on, right?"
Just after finally dealing with that crowd, a wave of fragrant air suddenly swept over. Stussy once again sidled up close to Sherwin.
Right—Stussy should also be aware of the transaction between Caesar and Big Mom. Yet in the original story, the World Government seemed to have taken no action at all?
If the Navy failed to notice anything because of Vergo cover, then the World Government lack of reaction was rather intriguing…
Could it be that they had deliberately allowed Caesar to research that project which Vegapunk had already terminated?
Given the World Government complete lack of moral bottom lines, this possibility was quite high.
Of course, there was another possibility: because he had dispersed the poisonous gas on Punk Hazard and rescued the prisoners there, Caesar attempt to swindle funding from BIG·MOM had been pushed forward ahead of schedule.
After all, letting Caesar experiment on children meant little to them, but allowing Caesar to provide Kaido with SMILE fruits was something the World Government absolutely did not want to see.
Quickly sorting through the rough outline of the relevant plot from the original work in his mind, Sherwin shrugged and replied,
"We didn't know what kind of place it was at first either. While sailing, we suddenly spotted an island shrouded in purple mist. We got curious, so we went ashore to take a look."
"It was Klee Meow who discovered it first, meow! It was Klee, meow!"
(=`=)
The little ragdoll waved her tiny paws and said smugly.
Sherwin reached out and pulled her into his arms. While rubbing her kitty head, he skipped over most of the crucial details and deliberately reversed cause and effect as he explained,
"When we first landed on the island, it was filled with poisonous gas, and there was a group of unlucky people whose lower bodies were paralyzed from poisoning.
Shirahoshi and Klee Meow, those two little girls, couldn't bear it, so we spent a bit of effort dispersing the poison on the island and rescuing them."
"So that how it was. Klee really is a good child~"
Stussy naturally knew that Sherwin had not told the whole story, but if she continued pressing him, it would look a bit too deliberate.
So she merely reached out and stroked Klee Meow in Sherwin arms…
And as she withdrew her hand, she casually traced a small circle on Sherwin chest with her finger.
Seeing Stussy action, the little ragdoll tilted her head in confusion, then copied her, lifting her tiny paw and circling Sherwin chest once as well.
(=ω=)
Sherwin: "..."
Originally, his chest had instinctively felt a slight tickle, but with Klee Meow butting in like that, all sense of flirtation vanished completely.
After teasing Sherwin, Stussy moved over beside Haibara Meow and said with a smile,
"Little Ai is really amazing. To be able to understand the materials Vegapunk left behind—that the world number one scientist, you know."
Clearly, she wanted to probe for more information from Haibara Meow.
However, this time she miscalculated. Haibara Meow, whose Observation Haki had a special sensitivity toward spies, had disliked Stussy from the very beginning and had no intention of paying her any attention at all.
"Hmph!"
The little kitten put on a sulky face, dodged the hand reaching toward her head, and with a quick dart slipped to the other side of Sherwin, using him to block this unwelcome woman.
Stussy, having been snubbed, did not feel embarrassed in the slightest. She smiled, withdrew her hand, and shifted her attention to the other cats.
However, although the other cats did not respond with cold faces like Haibara Meow, they also did not let Stussy coax any important intelligence out of them.
It was not that the cats were capable of playing mind games with a veteran agent like Stussy, but rather that whenever they encountered something they were unsure whether they should say, they would brush it off with excuses like "don't know" or "didn't pay attention"…
After all, they were just cute little cats. Wasn't it perfectly normal for them to have no interest in all that messy stuff?