In Pangaea Castle, Imu was looking at the round, soft "Little Girl" in front of him, which had a naive and adorable cat face drawn on it, and his mood was extremely bad.
As for Klee Meow, a little cat capable of harming "Uranus", Imu had actually wanted to snatch her away from Sherwin long ago, but there was just never an opportunity.
Just now, with Sherwin attention finally tied up by the Five Elders, Klee Meow was left alone again, and most importantly, she was on "Uranus", which was under his control and could be monitored at any time—one could say he held the advantage of favorable location and popular support.
However, unfortunately, timing was always on Klee Meow side. Thus, he expended a considerable amount of power only to teleport back a "Little Girl", and the bottom of this thing even came with a blob of adhesive, sticking firmly to the floor in front of the "Empty Throne" right after being "summoned".
What made Imu feel the most displeased was that when "Little Girl" was "summoned" over, Imu, having already witnessed its power, made a panicked evasive maneuver. Although no one else saw it, for Imu, who prided himself on being the "King of the World" and the "God among Gods", it still made him feel a intense sense of humiliation.
Furthermore, Imu dodge was completely meaningless, because "Little Girl" had no intention of exploding at all he was entirely scaring himself.
Although not exploding was actually a good thing, this situation—where there was clearly no danger, yet he took the initiative to shrink back—doubled Imu sense of humiliation. He even had the illusion that the naive cat face smiling at him on "Little Girl" was "mocking" him when their eyes met.
Imu took a great deal of effort not to destroy the "Little Girl" in front of him out of anger, the one that could "mock" him...
After all, though he failed to catch Klee Meow who made it, if he could decipher the specific manufacturing method by dismantling this bomb, that would also be an acceptable result for Imu.
A moment later, York, who had become a Celestial Dragon, arrived in the Room of Authority.
"Do you have any instructions, Lord Imu?"
York skillfully knelt down toward Imu.
After defecting to the World Government, her life was actually not much different from her time on Egghead—eating, sleeping, sleeping, and eating, with a large group of people waiting on her.
In fact, because there were no other Vegapunks, York even had to allocate a portion of her time to participate in the research of the Science Unit...
Looking at it this way, York betrayal was actually quite a loss, which was precisely what puzzled Sherwin.
He completely failed to understand York motive for betraying, and he did not even understand why York betrayed in the original story.
Wanting to become a Celestial Dragon was to satisfy her desires, but what York did on Egghead was precisely the work of satisfying desires.
While it was unclear what York thought in the original story, York betrayal in this timeline was actually related to Sherwin...
Because he exposed the existence of Imu and discussed with Vegapunk what specific situation Imu Devil Fruit ability was, York, as the embodiment of "Desire", was no longer simply wanting to become a Celestial Dragon at this point she also wanted to become an "immortal and unperishing" member of the Five Elders.
To this end, she was willing to betray Vegapunk main body, willingly let herself be driven by Imu, and give up a portion of her enjoyment.
"Take this item back for research and analyze its manufacturing method as soon as possible."
Imu flicked their arrow-shaped tail, directly prying loose the floor tile to which "Little Girl" was stuck, and tossed it to York kneeling below. "When you succeed, I shall bestow upon you the position of the Five Elders."
Clearly, Imu also knew full well how to stir up York enthusiasm. Initially, Imu had wanted to use replicating "Uranus" as a condition, but considering various issues such as investment and time, Imu gave up on that idea and had never given York a definitive answer—because Imu couldn't think of anything worthwhile to motivate York with at the moment.
However, "Little Girl," which could rival the Ancient Weapons, clearly possessed that qualification. Moreover, compared to "Uranus," which required immense investment, the materials consumed by Klee Meow bomb were far fewer.
As for the member of the Five Elders who would be replaced by York in the future, Imu already had a candidate in mind—Saint Saturn, whose power had fallen drastically due to consuming a vast amount of vitality and whose research capabilities were inferior to "Vegapunk," was clearly the most suitable subject.
After York somewhat frantically caught "Little Girl" thrown by Imu and rejoiced for quite a while over Imu promise, she finally began to examine the "ragdoll" in her hands carefully...
"This design style looks a bit familiar... It seems to be a bomb made by little Klee?"
York muttered in some confusion.
Although she had not seen the appearance of "Little Girl" before, York, along with Vegapunk, had seen a few of Klee Meow bombs like the Boom-Boom and Jumpy Dumpty, which came in different models but shared a very uniform design style. Thus, it was not difficult to recognize the maker.
"That is correct. This is what I just seized from her hands—it is precisely that ultimate weapon named 'Little Girl'."
Imu explanation instantly froze York completely, holding "Little Girl" in her hands, caught between throwing it away or keeping it.
However, having already understood the World Government operation this time, she quickly realized that Klee Meow should be fighting the Five Elders thousands of miles away right now and couldn't possibly run over here to detonate the bomb.
"Don't worry! It just a mere bomb! It won't take much time!"
York guaranteed with full confidence.
Then, her field of vision was consumed by a burst of blinding white light...
"BOOM——!!!"
Tremendous heat and light exploded atop Uranus. Having already gained plenty of experience, the Felyne Investigation Team and the Revolutionary Army were blown off-balance by the violent airflow, but were otherwise not severely affected.
The World Government forces, however, were a different story.
Although some among them had witnessed the terror of the "Little Girl" in Sacred Mariejois, this group made up a relatively small proportion most had only heard about it.
Despite superiors and companions repeatedly warning them to be careful, without experiencing it firsthand, they simply lacked a concrete concept of it.
So...
Just as Sabo and the others were rapidly retreating, most of the Marines and CP agents not only turned their heads to look toward the center of the explosion, but those fiercely loyal CP agents were even actively rushing toward Uranus—many of whom had actually witnessed the power of the "Little Girl" before.
While it was hard to judge CP proficiency in other aspects of their work, when it came to brainwashing their members, they certainly met the standard expected of an intelligence agency.
As for the outcome for these "fiercely loyal" individuals...
"AAAHHHH——!!!"
"My eyes!"
"Where is the airship?! Airship, help us!!!"
Even among those who had participated in the Battle of Sacred Mariejois, quite a few failed to brace themselves against the intense light produced by the explosion of "Little Girl."
After a brief moment of panic, a few of them with quicker reactions immediately shouted out loud, calling for those knockoff Valstrax and Paolumu.
However, because they were similarly "blinded" by the intense light created by "Little Girl," they were unaware that most of their airships had been swallowed up by the indiscriminately attacking turbulent air currents, barely able to save themselves. The few that were closer were directly torn to shreds by the shockwave of the explosion.
Are you kidding? Even the Dodo Advance was afraid to get too close to the center of the explosion. Even if these knockoff mass-produced models were outfitted with "Mother Flame" propulsion, it wouldn't be of much use, let alone the fact that it was impossible for the World Government to use expensive materials like the Treasure Tree Adam on all these mass-produced models.
As for the remaining few World Government members who hadn't been blinded and had pulled back far enough to avoid being caught in the blast, their situation wasn't much better—right beside them were Revolutionary Army members and cats who were also taking cover from the explosion aftermath.
Besides that, Purah Meow took the opportunity to release her Sheikah Slate—"Divine Beast Vah Medoh" Form—as well as a large batch of Flying Guardians, launching an attack on the disarrayed World Government members and airships.
"Let me see just how much of my tech the World Government has managed to copy, meow~ Check-it!"
(ゝω)~☆
To conduct a better "test," Purah Meow gave up on using her Devil Fruit abilities.
Meanwhile, the figurehead of the Dodo Valstrax opened its mouth, spitting out fireballs one after another toward those airships.
[The Dodo isn't that ugly, meow!]
(=`н=)
The ship spirit of the Dodo, whose decorations leaned toward a cute style, had major complaints about those plain "knockoffs."