"Arc!"
Having learned the truth from Vegapunk, Sherwin turned around and glared angrily at a certain "honest" Chaos feline.
"Shh~ Shh~ I don't know anything~ I'm just a cute and harmless little kitty~"
(ε)
Arc rested her hands behind her head, averted her gaze, and pretended to whistle.
Meanwhile, Klee Meow, who was following beside Sherwin and had caught an earful of the conversation, asked again with great curiosity: "Can the cat food Arc sister conjures up be eaten meow? Is it delicious meow?!"
(==)
"Of course it can be eaten! It can even heal injuries~"
Arc casually waved her hand, and a normal-sized can of cat food suddenly appeared in the sky, landing with a "thud" right in front of everyone.
Then she continued: "But the taste is very ordinary. Not to mention the dishes made by Sanji Meow, even Klee grilled fish and the large bone meat Sherwin roasts on the grill are much more delicious than it."
"It can heal injuries?"
(=ω=)
This time, it was Haibara Meow turn for her eyes to light up. She snatched the cat food into her hands, "Can you give it to me to research meow?"
"Research it all you want, I have plenty of these things~"
(━ω━)ゾ
Arc waved her arm again, and several more normal-sized cans of cat food dropped down from the sky.
With this interruption, Sherwin, who hadn't intended to do anything to Arc in the first place, found it even harder to press the matter.
He could only knock her on the head testily, "Without my permission in the future, you are not allowed to throw those super large cans anymore. Also, next time you see Vegapunk, remember to apologize to him! Our research commission owes him quite a few favors."
"Got it~ Got it~"
Ψ(Φ﹃Φ)卩
Arc rubbed her head against Sherwin palm, then quickly picked up her knife and fork. "Can we eat now? I can't wait!"
Seeing that this little fellow completely failed to realize her mistake, Sherwin felt quite helpless. However, he really didn't have many solutions for a gag-style character like Arc.
She could even drink Haibara Meow Satan Potion like a beverage and actually think it tasted good...
Therefore, it was already a rare treat that Arc could usually be considerate of their feelings. If she were truly like the one in Carnival Phantasm, they wouldn't even need to wait for Imu to go crazy Arc could ruin the entire One Piece world all by herself first.
Furthermore, Sanji Meow feast was already prepared. Could Sherwin really not let her join the table? Even if Sherwin wanted to teach Arc a lesson, he wouldn't choose this method. He couldn't bear to starve his own cats.
So, Sherwin could only knock on this strange little kitty head once more, then waved his hand and said, "Eat, eat."
Accompanied by a group of cute cats, doing anything was quite delightful. After Sherwin finished the feast meticulously prepared by Sanji Meow together with everyone amidst laughter and cheerful voices, he finally had time to deal with that fellow Sakazuki.
After earnestly soaking up a wave of good luck from Klee Meow, Sherwin didn't bring any cats along. He only took Robin, an Ohara survivor who held a certain degree of hatred toward Akainu, and walked into the ship cabin...
However, as far as Robin personal feelings were concerned, she didn't actually care that much about the fact that her uncle family, and even the ordinary citizens of Ohara, had died at Sakazuki hands.
After all, she hadn't felt much kindness from those people anyway. Not gloating over their misfortune was already a testament to her good heart.
Pushing open the door to the storage room where Sakazuki was imprisoned, Sherwin immediately smelled a faint scent of blood...
Bound by Seastone and gagged, Sakazuki had not sat idly by waiting for death. He had managed to rub off the cloth in his mouth by some unknown method, and then, burdened by the Seastone, he tried to use his teeth to untie the Seastone chains on his body.
That bloody smell was emitted from the broken teeth and scraped skin he suffered while struggling.
Putting aside things like personality, stance, and philosophy, Sakazuki could indeed be called an iron-blooded, tough guy.
In fact, during the early and middle stages of the manga when the Marines still belonged to the "justice" side, Sherwin quite appreciated this absolute hawk character.
Although his methods were a bit brutal, as a soldier, Akainu was much more dutiful than Aokiji and Kizaru.
But when the Marines in the One Piece world were not as righteous as they claimed, and their actions were instead not a single bit better than those pirates—or potentially even worse—the situation became completely different.
An absolute hawk like Sakazuki, who was dutiful to an excessive degree, could even be compared to pirates like Kaido and BIG MOM.
"Bah!"
Seeing Sherwin arrive, Sakazuki stopped struggling, spat out a mouthful of bloody phlegm fiercely to the side, and then glanced at Robin.
"What? Have you finally come to take my life? Back on Oberstein Island, I shouldn't have listened to Kuzan and Borsalino dissuasion. I should have just gotten rid of you, an unstable element, right then and there!"
Sakazuki did not think that Sherwin, who killed Celestial Dragons as easily as slaughtering chickens, would spare his life.
Therefore, he did not waste any words, and it was even more impossible for him to beg Sherwin for mercy.
Instead, he even found the leisure to mock him, saying, "You've kept me alive all this time without doing anything, could it be just to please this woman who was lucky enough to escape from Ohara back then? It turns out the so-called Hunter is nothing more than a horny, bratty kid after all."
He continued to say with a cold sneer, "Speaking of which, before Nico Robin met you, she had taken refuge in quite a few factions. With her figure and looks, she must have served quite a few people. The skills she developed over the years must serve you very comfortably, right? To think she actually got you to go to such lengths for her."
Because of Akainu face and his decisive, ruthless actions, many people might have a stereotypical impression of him, thinking he was a cold-faced, taciturn, dark-countenanced deity.
However, anyone who had carefully read the manga should know that this guy actually had a pretty toxic mouth and was very skilled at talking trash.
In the original work, Ace precisely because he couldn't stand Sakazuki provocation, actively ran back and threw his life away even when he clearly could have escaped, and the people around him couldn't even stop him...
Although this was also somewhat related to Ace own personality, if Sakazuki did not possess this adept mocking skill, he still wouldn't have been able to make Ace stay behind.
However, neither Sherwin nor Robin personality was as impetuous as Ace, and since they were currently the victorious party, although they were somewhat displeased by Sakazuki barking, they merely frowned at most and would not fly into a raging fury because of it.
"I wasn't able to escape back then because of good luck. It was Admiral Aokiji—oh, wait, he should be Fleet Admiral Aokiji now—who prepared a small boat for me and used his freezing ability to create a sea route on the ocean surface leading directly to other islands, which allowed me to successfully escape Ohara."
Robin smiled beautifully and struck back, saying, "Otherwise, relying just on me, an eight-year-old little girl, even if I escaped from Ohara, without a nautical chart and not knowing navigation skills, I wouldn't have had the ability to survive at sea, right?"
"Ku! Zan!"
Sakazuki, who had originally wanted to infuriate Sherwin, was infuriated in turn.
Under normal circumstances, he definitely wouldn't have lost his composure so easily, but right now he was Sherwin prisoner, his life in grave danger, and not long ago he had had a huge argument with Aokiji over their ideals.
That was why he couldn't accept this "backstab" from twenty years ago.
However, at this point, Sherwin had no interest in continuing to communicate with this "soldier" who believed in a twisted justice under the Great Pirate Era.
He stepped forward and gripped Sakazuki throat.
The other man stopped his roaring, merely looking at Sherwin with those bloodshot, yet unexpectedly calm eyes.
Originally, Sherwin had intended to say something like, "I'll make good use of your Mag-Mag Fruit," to make Sakazuki die with his eyes open in confusion. But upon seeing the complex gaze intertwined with fierceness and calmness, he instantly lost any interest in such boring thoughts of "getting a verbal advantage." He silently tightened his fingers, cleanly and decisively snapping Akainu neck.
Next, Sherwin pulled out his hunter knife and skillfully made a carving motion on the freshly deceased Sakazuki.
A moment later, a bright red, arabesque-patterned fruit emerged from his body.
I knew letting Klee Meow make the move would work!
Sherwin happily caught this Mag-Mag Fruit, a "gift" from Sakazuki. The fruits of the three Admirals should carry a very high weight, right?
Except...
What happened to the promised "fruit"? Isn't this a damn chili pepper?!