At Perona command, four Negativ Ghosts lunged separately toward Sherwin, Robin, Klee Meow, and Brook, who had only just recovered.
The one that Link Meow had knocked away earlier even circled around to attack Robin, who was standing further back.
Sherwin chuckled lightly. This Perona really had some sense — aside from Klee Meow, all her chosen targets were larger humans.
But precisely because of that, she had actually made a mistake — after all, aside from Sherwin, neither Robin nor Brook had mastered Armament Haki yet, so they couldn't do anything to the Negativ Ghosts.
"Brook, try separating your soul from your body."
While shielding Robin behind him, Sherwin reminded Brook calmly.
In theory, once Brook entered his out-of-body state, he should be able to interact with the ghostly Negativ Ghosts directly.
"Oh, right! I can do that!"
Brook smacked his palm with realization. Before the Negativ Ghost could hit him a second time, his body suddenly collapsed to the ground, and a faintly glowing green soul drifted out from his mouth.
However—
"Wait! In my soul form, I only have a head!"
As Brook floating ghostly head spun around in panic, the charging Negativ Ghost reached him — and the two spirits collided violently, both crying out at once.
"Ouch!"
"Negative!"
"As I thought — Brook in soul form can touch the Negativ Ghosts."
Satisfied by the result, Sherwin nodded with interest. Then, with composed ease, he reached out and caught the two Negativ Ghosts lunging toward himself and Robin, pressing them together as if to make them collide.
Yet unlike Brook case, the two ghosts didn't rebound — instead, they simply merged into one.
"So it because they share the same source… Souls really are fascinating things."
Sherwin muttered something under his breath, then turned to look at Haibara Meow, who had been following closely beside him.
However, the little Felyne didn't even need his reminder—she had already taken out a small seastone jar.
Back when they were experimenting with Brook, the Felynes had already discovered that seastone was still effective on him even in his soul form.
This was probably because his soul was only visible thanks to his Devil Fruit ability. In that case, Perona situation should be the same.
But there was a slight difference between her ghosts and Brook condition.
The Negative Ghosts weren't actual ability users—they were creations of a Devil Fruit—so they wouldn't go limp and powerless when touching seastone like an ability user would.
Furthermore, since Brook could freely change the size and shape of his soul body, the Negative Ghosts likely had the same ability.
That meant a seastone cage with gaps wouldn't be enough to hold them. Only a tightly sealed seastone jar would work.
In other words, if they didn't care about "keeping" them and only wanted to capture the Negative Ghosts, it wasn't really necessary to go after Perona herself.
So Sherwin spent quite some effort and finally managed to stuff the two struggling Negative Ghosts into the seastone jar.
Meanwhile, the situation with the other two Negative Ghosts wasn't looking good—or rather… even worse.
The one that had been facing off with Klee Meow had obediently crouched to the side, clutching its head after taking several heavy shield blows from Link Meow, not daring to make another move.
The one that had collided with Brook, however, was pinned down by Sanji Meow and Seijuro Meow.
At that moment, Purah Meow was poking at it with a small seastone knife, apparently trying to see if she could slice off a bit of "soul fragment."
Unfortunately for little Deulen, though the Negative Ghost yowled in pain every time it was poked, the seastone knife couldn't actually separate its soul.
The blade passed through as if through air—though the ghost still felt the pain.
"What a strange property, meow."
After a few more pokes with the seastone knife, Purah Meow curiosity got the better of her, and she reached out a paw to touch the Negative Ghost directly…
And, unsurprisingly, she got hit by the effect.
"I'm just a Felyne who only knows how to bury herself in research. I'm not a qualified one at all. Just let me rot here, meow! Check-it…"
orz
Sanji Meow kicked the Negative Ghost hard.
"Behave yourself! Even though gloomy Purah big sister is still cute—wait, no! You're not allowed to attack my companions! Otherwise, I'll kick you to death, meow!"
The Negative Ghost looked wronged. It was Purah Meow who touched it first—what did it do wrong?
Of course, since it could only cry out "negative," it had no way to explain itself and could only curl up as much as possible to avoid suffering any further undeserved punishment.
In just a moment, all four Negative Ghosts were dealt with, leaving Perona completely dumbfounded.
After all, her Negative Ghosts had always been unbeatable. Even Moria had to obediently succumb to them when hit.
Yet somehow, this Hunter and his Felynes seemed capable not only of touching her ghosts but also resisting their powers.
Wait a minute…
Perona suddenly realized something.
If Sherwin and the others could touch her Negative Ghosts, didn't that mean her own ghost form could also be caught?
"Waaahhhh! Lord Moria, save me!"
Perona screamed as she fled toward the castle.
But before she could get far, she felt something tighten around her ankle—then, in the next instant, she was yanked straight down from the air by Sherwin.
"Waaahhhh! Giant ghost!"
Though she was panicking, Perona still remembered to fight back. She waved her hand and summoned a massive ghost, which opened its mouth to bite down at Sherwin.
Monster Hunter Style — Iai Slash: Sever All Blades.
The enormous bomb-like ghost was instantly sliced into countless fragments by Sherwin, and those fragments quickly faded into nothingness until they completely vanished.
"Oh? So ghosts can be killed after all…"
Sherwin held Perona upside down by her leg, flashing her a wicked smile.
"Waaahhhh! Don't kill me! I don't want to die yet! Kumacy! Lord Moria! Somebody save meeee!"
Perona alternated between pleading, crying, and screaming for help, clearly breaking down in terror from Sherwin expression.
Whether it was because Kumacy heard her cries or just by coincidence, at that very moment, the stuffed bear known as Kumacy finally arrived.
"Let go of Lady Perona!"
Kumacy shouted as he charged straight at Sherwin.
"Whoa! It a stuffed bear, meow!" Klee Meow eyes sparkled the instant she saw Kumacy.
She quickly pulled off the little teddy bear hanging from her backpack and threw it forward. "Dodo Bear! Go challenge it, meow!"
"Roar-mu!"
Flame Bear made his fiery entrance, blocking Kumacy path.
"Waaahhhh!"
As a proper stuffed bear, Kumacy was even more afraid of fire than the zombies. The moment he saw Dodo Bear, he turned tail and ran without hesitation.
Perona, still dangling in Sherwin grasp, didn't even have time to feel relieved before watching her only hope vanish in an instant.
"Waaahhhh! Lord Sherwin, please spare me! I'll let you keep me!"
Perona, who had only been helping Moria for fun in the first place, immediately surrendered the moment her life seemed in danger.
Sherwin rubbed his chin thoughtfully.
Does this count as completing a capture quest?
Although, according to the story setting, Perona was raised by Moria since childhood, in the manga, when she saw Moria losing his fight against Luffy, she immediately packed up the island treasures and prepared to run away…
However, later on, she willingly teamed up with Coby to save Moria, so it clear she still cared about him—just that she cared more about herself.