Unlike other ship spirits that like to hide from people, after the Dodo Advance ship spirit revealed herself, she never disappeared again, spending all day mingling with the juvenile group like Klee Meow and the others.
As expected, our ship spirit really is different!
Although the Dodo Advance ship spirit looked very much like a troublesome little kitten when she first appeared, in reality, Huamei Meow workload didn't increase because of her. On the contrary, it became much lighter.
Because once the little kittens knew of the ship spirit existence, when they were being naughty—so long as they didn't go completely overboard—they would still pay attention to avoiding damage to the ship.
As a result, even though the number of little kittens increased, the level of chaos actually dropped to a certain extent.
Of course, as the price for reducing the abuse suffered by the ship, a certain so-called Hunter, who was in truth nothing more than a living cat climbing frame, naturally became the little kitten substitute target…
Originally, Sherwin already had two cats permanently stationed on his shoulders, fully equipped in a state that could be described as wearing "Felyne pauldrons."
After adding the even smaller ship spirit kitten of the Dodo Advance, his head now also gained a "cat helmet."
What more, this little fellow Dodo Advance especially liked to lie upside down on Sherwin head, then let her big brush-like tail hang down in front of his face, flicking it from time to time…
It was as if Sherwin face had gained an oversized windshield wiper.
Aside from that, Dodo Advance also helped Huamei Meow reduce the burden of navigation.
A ship spirit can freely control her own rudder and sails, so now Huamei Meow only needs to tell Dodo Advance when a change of direction is required.
There no longer any need to constantly have Sherwin or the Felynes—who are in charge of steering but have rather average sense of direction—make repeated adjustments like before.
Only when they encounter especially violent storms or waves, situations where Dodo Advance alone can't properly control the ship, do Sherwin and the others need to lend a hand.
And precisely because of this, Sherwin, who was already quite idle aboard the ship, became even more leisurely—though it also conveniently gave him more time to be tossed around by the little kittens…
Well, the timing worked out perfectly.
Of course, the appearance of the Dodo Advance ship spirit wasn't just about giving the little kittens another playmate or activating an auto-sailing function…
"Ah! It time! Dodo Advance! Come into the lab with me, meow!"
Haibara Meow, who had been chasing and playing around with Dodo Advance, suddenly stopped, turned around, and grabbed one of her arms.
On the other side, Purah Meow also set aside the machine she was assembling, rushed over, seized Dodo Advance other arm, and together with Haibara Meow dragged the utterly unwilling ship spirit toward the laboratory.
[Meowuuuu… I don't want to eat anymore, let me go, okay? Sister Klee, save me, meow!]
(==)
The little kitten twisted her head around and looked pitifully toward the small doll she was closest to.
"But… wasn't this something you agreed on with Sister Ai and the others, meow? Klee really shouldn't interfere."
(=ω=)
The little doll, who had originally wanted to step forward and help plead her case, immediately stopped in her tracks after meeting Haibara Meow gaze, which was full of warning…
Sister Ai potions smell far too terrifying—this isn't because Klee doesn't want to save you, meow.
The little doll, who had learned to be sensible from Sherwin, silently recited this in her heart and then sent Dodo Advance an encouraging look.
And the reason things turned out this way was actually because it had been Dodo Advance own request in the beginning.
After all, faced with a miraculous existence like a ship spirit, Haibara Meow and Purah Meow, the two research-minded cats, were brimming with curiosity.
But out of consideration for Dodo Advance feelings, they restrained themselves from dragging her straight into the lab for research.
Then, when it came time to eat, Dodo Advance watched everyone enjoying their food with great relish and immediately grew curious, taking a bite out of the roasted meat in Sherwin hand.
However, despite being able to interact with everyone normally—grabbing things, and even biting Sherwin ear at times—after she swallowed that bite of roasted meat, it immediately passed straight through her body and went "plap," dropping onto the deck.
After a series of further tests, Dodo Advance discovered that she simply couldn't eat at all.
Drinking water or beverages was possible, but she couldn't taste anything either…
So Haibara Meow, that little schemer, took advantage of Dodo moment of dejection and tricked her into the laboratory on the condition that she would help her get something to eat.
And thus, Dodo began her miserable life as a lab test subject.
Of course, Haibara Meow and Purah Meow would never actually hurt Dodo. Otherwise, there would be no need for Sherwin or Klee Meow to step in—Dodo herself could simply turn into the ship spirit state and hide back within her original body.
The reason Dodo resisted so strongly was mainly because scientific experiments were inherently tedious, and for Dodo, as the experimental subject, the process was even more boring.
For a ship spirit with a cat-like personality, this was naturally far from a pleasant experience.
Fortunately, Haibara Meow and Purah Meow were still quite considerate toward Dodo, their youngest sister.
After some bargaining, they agreed that Dodo would only need to cooperate with their experiments for one hour each day.
Even so, every time it came to that hour, Dodo acted as if she were being sent to be tortured.
Actually, if the goal were simply to let Dodo eat food, Sherwin did have a method in mind, and Haibara Meow had thought of it as well—that was to have Dodo original body "eat" a Devil Fruit…
After all, both Sherry and Dodo could eat.
But unfortunately, Dodo original body was a ship. If she were to eat a Devil Fruit, she would be completely unable to sail,
because objects that have "eaten" a Devil Fruit, even if they do not switch into an animal form, will instantly go limp upon contact with seawater…
even if their original body was solid steel, it would become soft and droopy like plastic melted by heat.
Although this problem could be solved by switching to the Valstrax form or the floating wyvern form, the same issue remained: Dodo essence was that of a ship.
Compared to flying in the sky, she preferred sailing on the sea surface, and doing so would also render the sea leviathan form effectively useless.
So this method was the one thing that simply could not be used on Dodo.
And although Haibara Meow and Purah Meow failed to find a way for Dodo to eat, the several experiments were not entirely without gain.
At the very least, they gained a deeper understanding of the characteristics of Dodo as a ship spirit.
For example…
When Dodo original body switches into different forms, the clothes on her ship spirit also change along with it, transforming into the corresponding Felynes armor set.
However, this is merely a change in appearance. Dodo does not gain any additional attributes like in the games, and the ship spirit herself also seems incapable of training.
After Haibara Meow testing, Dodo physical condition was found to be completely fixed.
Whether it was strength, speed, or vision and hearing, none of it would decrease due to environmental changes, nor would it improve through training.
This was actually easy to understand. After all, Dodo original body was a ship, and the concept of "training" naturally did not apply.
As for whether further modification and enhancement of Dodo original body could improve the strength of her ship spirit, that would have to wait until they could find a shipyard later and test it slowly.
However, neither Sherwin nor the two research cats placed much importance on this experiment.
After all, they were not at the point where they needed to send a ship spirit into battle, so whether Dodo became stronger or not did not really matter.
The main research focus of Haibara Meow and Purah Meow, aside from finding a way to let Dodo eat, was solely to figure out the true nature of ship spirits.
"Once we figure out the essence of ship spirits, maybe we'll be able to make the Spark Knight and the Angler also give birth to ship spirits, meow!"
That was the big promise Haibara Meow dangled in front of Klee Meow, and it was also the main reason—one of them—why the little Ragdoll so readily gave up on going to rescue Dodo…
Well, those prototype potions made by the little kitten were still quite intimidating.
…