Four Warlords of the Sea had come, yet three of them immediately backed out.
Sengoku, who had thought everything was under control, was left completely dumbfounded.
He had expected that Mihawk and Jinbe might refuse to make a move against Sherwin—but what was going on with Boa Hancock? Wasn't this woman supposed to have a grudge against Sherwin, and an incredibly willful temper to boot?
The only one aware of Sengoku full plan, Vice Admiral Tsuru, calmly sipped her tea, a trace of schadenfreude curling at the corner of her lips.
She had never really agreed with Sengoku methods in the first place. From what she'd seen of Sherwin actions since he set out to sea, he was clearly a boy with a strong sense of justice and a good character.
They could have easily talked it through with him, maybe even staged a little act together to satisfy the higher-ups—and that would have been enough.
But Sengoku insisted on playing his schemes, using this chance to manipulate the other Warlords for his own ends.
Now look who embarrassed.
Tsuru silently mocked the "steal a chicken only to lose the rice" outcome of Sengoku ploy before her smile slowly faded.
Even if the other Warlords weren't going to cause Sherwin trouble as Sengoku had hoped, there was one man who absolutely wouldn't let Sherwin off so easily.
Having once led the mission to capture Doflamingo, Tsuru knew better than anyone how arrogant and vicious that former Celestial Dragon was.
He might not care about those three Devil Fruits, and he could even ignore the destruction of his businesses by Sherwin—but he would never tolerate someone receiving better treatment than him.
Even if the Heavenly Yaksha didn't truly value the title of Warlord.
And of course, Doflamingo wouldn't hesitate to go all out and kill Sherwin in the process.
That former Celestial Dragon status was precisely what gave him the confidence to act without restraint.
"Fufufufufu! I'm not like them," Doflamingo said, hands in his pockets, swaggering forward with his usual air of contempt.
He leaned down slightly, grinning wickedly at Sherwin. "I'm still quite interested in Devil Fruits. Besides… I've got a little score to settle with you!"
Yet Sherwin remained completely unmoved by Doflamingo words dripping with malice. Instead, the little Felyne nestled in his arms—Shermie—flicked her tail in relief.
"Thank goodness, meow~ I thought you weren't going to pick a fight with Sherwin! Then I wouldn't have a reason to beat you up, meow~"
(=`=)
With a cheerful giggle, Shermie leapt onto Sherwin shoulder and shook her tiny fist toward Doflamingo.
"Fufufufufu!" Doflamingo grin grew sharper and more dangerous. "Looks like I've been underestimated."
He drew one hand from his pocket, and with a subtle twitch of his fingers, attempted to manipulate Sherwin with his puppet strings—planning to make him strangle the cheeky little cat himself.
But Sherwin simply lifted his hand and flicked it lightly, swatting aside the nearly invisible threads with ease.
"Such cheap tricks aren't worth showing off," Sherwin said with a faint, teasing smile as he looked at the Heavenly Yaksha.
He then gently scratched Shermie chin. "Why don't you entertain my little cat for a while first?"
Shermie tilted her head in sync, pretending to think deeply.
"What was that line Sherwin said before…? Oh, right!" she exclaimed, deliberately thumping her paw soft pad before raising one tiny paw to her cheek.
Tilting her head cutely toward Doflamingo, she repeated a line that Sengoku, Tsuru, and Garp all recognized very well—
(=ω=)
"Speed is power, meow~ Have you ever been kicked by lightning? Sher~mie!"
In the very next instant, the adorable Felyne perched on Sherwin shoulder transformed into a flash of lightning.
In the blink of an eye, she appeared before Doflamingo and kicked him clean out of the meeting hall.
"A Logia—Lightning Fruit?!"
This time, it wasn't just Fleet Admiral Sengoku who was stunned—even Vice Admiral Tsuru and the other Warlords showed looks of disbelief.
While it was true that some of the Mink Tribe could generate electricity in battle, and according to Marine intelligence,
Sherwin Felynes possessed a similar ability, the difference between the "Mink Tribe electro mode" and an actual Logia Fruit power was crystal clear.
There was no way Sengoku and the others could mistake that.
"Garp!" Sengoku snapped, turning toward the old man who was laughing uproariously. "Why didn't you ever tell me about this?!"
"Huh?" Garp froze for a moment, scratching the back of his head. "Didn't I tell you…?"
Then, with his usual carefree grin, he said, "Ahahaha! Maybe I forgot. I'm getting old, you know—bad memory only natural! Wahahaha!"
"How could you forget something this important?!"
Sengoku was about ready to explode. If he had known that one of Sherwin Felynes possessed the Lightning Fruit, he would never have gone through all this trouble!
After all, the Lightning Fruit was among the most powerful of the Logia class. Even if that little cat had no Haki at all, her Devil Fruit ability alone was enough to qualify her as a Warlord.
Fuming, Sengoku grabbed Garp and began his endless scolding, while Garp, who'd originally wanted to say something, shut his mouth with an annoyed expression.
He started digging at his ear with his pinky finger, trying to block out Sengoku lecture entirely.
Meanwhile, as the two old men bickered like an old married couple, everyone else had already rushed out of the hall to watch the fight between Shermie and the Heavenly Yaksha.
"Tch, what a shame…"
Sherwin clicked his tongue in mild regret as he looked at Doflamingo sunglasses, still perfectly intact.
That kick from Shermie had been aimed straight at his head. Unfortunately, though Doflamingo was absolute scum, his strength was nothing to scoff at—he managed to block her lightning kick in time.
Hmm… if you followed the original technique name, that would've been Dance of the Setting Sun or Staff of the Thunder God, right?
"Fufufu… so it really is the Lightning Fruit…"
Doflamingo shook his arm, which was still slightly numb from the electric shock, his expression darkening.
If it had been any other Logia-type fruit, he wouldn't have cared much. But the Rumble-Rumble Fruit was different
— lightning extreme speed greatly reduced the effectiveness of Observation Haki, and its fierce power was enough to cause damage even to a body coated in Armament Haki...
His arm was still numb!
Though wary of the Rumble-Rumble Fruit power, Doflamingo wasn't the type to back down easily.
He swung both hands, pulling out strands of thread that slashed toward Shermie.
"Five-Color Strings!"
"Crackle!"
In a flash of lightning, the elementalized Shermie vanished from her spot, and as expected, Doflamingo attack hit nothing but air.
Without hesitation, the Heavenly Yaksha leapt backward.
"——!"
A small shoulder-mounted keyboard crashed heavily into the spot where he had just been standing, releasing a discordant note.
"Overheat Line!"
Still in midair, the Heavenly Yaksha extended his right index finger, pointing at Shermie, but once again she dodged by turning into lightning.
"Observation Haki too, huh?"
The Heavenly Yaksha face darkened further.
If it were just a Rumble-Rumble Fruit user, though troublesome, Doflamingo was confident he could still take them down.
But with Observation Haki added into the mix, things were completely different.
Once a Logia user awakened Observation Haki, their strength increased not by a small margin but by leaps and bounds — especially for someone wielding the Rumble-Rumble Fruit, whose greatest advantage was speed.
If he wanted to deal with this troublesome cat in front of him, Doflamingo would have to use his fruit awakening.
But he didn't want to reveal that trump card here in Marineford. So even though they had only exchanged a couple of moves, the Heavenly Yaksha was already losing his desire to fight.
After all, he wasn't desperate for those two Devil Fruits, and rebuilding his business empire in the Sabaody Archipelago wouldn't be a big problem for him.
Just as Vice Admiral Tsuru had suspected, the real reason Doflamingo had picked a fight with Sherwin was because he couldn't swallow the humiliation.
However, the situation now wasn't something he could just walk away from with a few words.
Shermie held her keyboard and quickly pressed a few keys. After buffing herself with two effects, she stowed away her hunting keyboard and pulled out a small metal sphere.
Then, just like when the Heavenly Yaksha had pointed at her earlier, she straightened her arm and aimed at Doflamingo—
"Take this! Super Electromagnetic Cannon, meow!"