"Father!"
Marco, the ship doctor, rushed over at once to check on Whitebeard condition.
After a moment, he roared at the few little nurses nearby, "Didn't I tell you to keep an eye on Father and make sure he drinks less?!"
"B-But Father only drank three cups in total…" one of the little nurses replied weakly, pointing at the wine bowl that had fallen to the side. "And he didn't even finish the third cup."
"That right, meow. It not these sister fault. This old grandpa just has terrible alcohol tolerance, meow~"
(●ω●)
Suika Meow leisurely drank the fine liquor she had traded from Whitebeard, testifying for the little nurses as she said,
"I saw how boldly he drank and thought his tolerance was really good. If I'd known he couldn't handle it at all, I would've swapped him for some less strong alcohol, meow~"
If this little drunken cat hadn't winked at him earlier, Sherwin might actually have believed that Whitebeard alcohol tolerance was just average. But now…
It was definitely Suika Meow who had tampered with Whitebeard drink, further increasing the alcohol density of what was already highly concentrated liquor.
After hearing Suika Meow evaluation, the members of the Whitebeard Pirates all revealed looks of utter disbelief.
"Father… has low alcohol tolerance?"
Among the Four Emperors, including Charlotte Linlin who preferred food even more, all of them were notorious heavy drinkers.
Whitebeard alcohol tolerance might not have been the best among them, but it was absolutely far stronger than that of ordinary people.
Just with his monster-like body alone, the speed at which he broke down alcohol was several times, or even dozens of times, that of a normal person.
Even though in recent years, as he grew older, Whitebeard had become slightly more restrained when it came to drinking, he was still without question the biggest drinker in the entire Whitebeard Pirates.
As for alcohol tolerance, even though these sons of his didn't dare to challenge Whitebeard to a drinking contest, they could still roughly estimate it from his usual behavior.
In any case, there wasn't a single person in the crew who dared to say their alcohol tolerance was definitely better than Whitebeard.
But now, in their eyes, Whitebeard—whose drinking capacity and strength were both equally formidable—had been knocked out by a tiny cat Felynes with just three bowls of liquor…
They knew this kitty nickname was "Shuten-dōji," so her alcohol tolerance was obviously not going to be bad, but this was still way too outrageous, right?!
Most of the Whitebeard Pirates stared with complicated expressions at Suika Meow, who had already abandoned Whitebeard share of the booze and was holding up her gourd, gulping it down fiercely, and then…
"Um… could you pour me a bowl of that so I can try it?"
"Diamond" Jozu swallowed hard and sidled up to Suika Meow, gazing longingly at the gourd in her hands.
Whitebeard physical condition was naturally something Marco, the ship doctor, would have to worry about.
As for them—combatants who couldn't really help much—they were far more interested in the strong liquor in Suika Meow hands, the kind that could so easily knock their old man flat…
Well. You could only say—this was very pirate-like.
"No problem~" Suika Meow shook the pair of big horns on her head and poured Jozu a bowl. "Here you go. Let hope your drinking capacity isn't as awful as your captain, meow~"
︺(●ω●)
Jozu caught the rich aroma rising from the bowl, swallowed hard again, then impatiently downed it in one gulp.
"Hah—go-good, really really good liquor!"
No one knew exactly how Suika Meow processed the alcohol in her gourd, but the moment that single bowl went down, Jozu immediately began to sway on his feet, his speech turning slurred…
Even drinking pure alcohol wouldn't hit this fast.
The most outrageous part was that, despite its terrifyingly high proof, the liquor didn't taste bad at all.
Even though Jozu was already bleary-eyed and his legs were floating, he still stubbornly held out his empty bowl toward Suika Meow… uh… about a meter of empty air in front of her.
"A-another… g-g-give me another bowl! Hic—!"
But the moment he finished speaking, his swaying body finally gave out. With a thud, he collapsed onto the deck, and right after that, a loud snore rang out from his mouth.
"Ooooooh! What an incredible drink! Let me try it too!"
"With your drinking capacity, you'd be down in one bowl! Move aside and let me go first! I've got the best tolerance in the Third Division!"
"Your Third Division doesn't have a single real drinker! If we're talking about alcohol tolerance, it got to be our Eighth Division!"
"Hearing that, we of the Fifteenth Division can't just pretend we didn't hear it!"
Jozu fate didn't scare the rest of the Whitebeard Pirates. On the contrary, it stirred up their curiosity and competitive spirit.
One after another, they crowded around Suika Meow with all kinds of containers, even making bets with each other over how many bowls they could last.
For Suika Meow, whose abilities had been developed to the point where she could increase density out of thin air, as long as she had a base liquor, she could produce alcohol of any concentration and in any amount.
So even if twice as many people came asking for drinks, it wouldn't be a problem.
And so, Sherwin watched as a group of tall, burly pirates of all shapes and appearances obediently formed a long line in front of Suika Meow.
The little tipsy cat held up her Ibuki gourd—one that didn't look very big at all—and continuously poured out streams of fierce liquor.
What more, Suika Meow was clearly impartial. She gave them all the same ultra-concentrated type that Whitebeard had been drinking earlier, so among everyone in the Whitebeard Pirates who came up to ask for a drink, not a single one managed to last more than three bowls.
The best performers were about on par with Whitebeard—collapsing somewhere around two and a half bowls.
And so, relying on just that single gourd of liquor, Suika Meow single-handedly knocked out more than half of the Whitebeard Pirates.
At this moment, the deck of the Moby Dick was littered with pirates drunk out of their minds—even Teach, who was said to never sleep, was just as drunk as a dead pig…
If Sherwin wanted to get rid of him, this would actually be a very good opportunity. But after hesitating for a moment, he still gave up on the idea.
After all, his relationship with Ace was fairly good, and Shirahoshi also had deep ties with Whitebeard, so he didn't want to fall out with the Whitebeard Pirates over a guy like Teach.
Besides, even if Teach really did obtain the Dark-Dark Fruit in the future, so what? With the strength Sherwin and the others had now, they would be more than capable of dealing with it.
"Looks like the banquet probably won't be happening now…"
Marco, who had just finished giving Whitebeard his medicine and used healing flames to help condition his body, turned his head and saw that more than half of the crew had already gone down.
He could only cover his pineapple head with a helpless expression, while directing Ace and the few other companions who were still conscious to drag these drunken guys off to the side…
At the very least, don't let them all block the very center of the deck.
"Everyone! The food is here—! Thanks to little Sanji Meow help, otherwise you'd have had to wait quite a while longer… Eh?! What going on here? Did enemies show up?!"
Several cooks from the Whitebeard Pirates, together with Sanji Meow, pushed a huge pile of food out from the cabin.
What greeted them was a deck full of drunkards sprawled all over the place, as well as Marco, Ace, and a small number of companions who hadn't gotten drunk, busily "cleaning up the battlefield."
"Old man and the others all… um… got drunk, so for now, only we can enjoy the food you made."
Ace stepped forward and patted the shoulder of the leading chef with a pompadour hairstyle, then introduced him to Sherwin.
"This is our crew head chef, and also the Fourth Division commander we missed earlier—Thatch."
Upon hearing that name, Sherwin finally remembered…
Wasn't this the unlucky guy who had been the first to obtain the Dark-Dark Fruit, only to end up being killed by Teach?