"Mm… that really is pretty nice."
Sherwin looked at the little kitten proud expression. In the end, he still suppressed the urge to complain, reached out, and scratched under her chin as he praised her.
It was absolutely not because a certain Hunter had chickened out and was afraid Haibara Meow might command her new pet to give him a dose of the Satan Potion.
Absolutely not!
"Hmph~ Why do I feel like there something behind your words, meow?"
(=ˇˇ=)
Haibara Meow sharp senses kicked in instantly, her gaze turning piercing. "If you don't need tasty recovery potions, then from now on I can always—"
"I need them, I need them, I need them!" Sherwin hurriedly interrupted the little schemer. "What I just said was sincere praise, absolutely no other meaning… Oh right, have you given this little guy a name yet?"
Such an obvious and stiff change of topic was of course impossible for Haibara Meow not to notice, but since she was in a good mood after successfully completing the experiment, she couldn't be bothered to argue with the idiot Hunter.
"Hmph~ Of course not. I came out right after finishing 2511, meow!"
2511… Sure enough, that familiar naming style again. It was hard to tell whether it referred to the White Bat Fruit itself, or the transformable potion used to carry the White Bat Fruit.
"Then do you have any preferred name in mind? If not, how about I give it one?"
Sherwin asked eagerly.
"Meow?"
(ω)
The little kitten looked at Sherwin suspiciously. "You're not planning to give it some weird name, are you?"
"How could I?" Sherwin shrugged. "If you don't like the name I come up with, you don't have to use it at all."
"That true, meow…" Haibara Meow nodded her little head, then crossed her arms and put on a magnanimous expression. With her chin held high, she said arrogantly, "Then go ahead and tell me. If I think it good, I'll use the name you gave it, meow~"
Sherwin, who wanted to play on the "winery" joke with a "Slime Legion," couldn't be bothered to argue with the little one at this point, and simply said the name he had in mind—
"Let call it Vermouth."
Half angel, half demon, and silver-white—then of course it had to be Big Sis Vermouth.
And later, when making other members of the "Slime Legion," he could also use winery codenames…
Winery BOSS Haibara Ai—just hearing it sounded awesome!
"Vermouth?" Haibara Meow tilted her head and thought it over for a moment.
After realizing that the name really didn't seem to have any problems, she nodded, brought the little white bat in front of her, and said, "It sounds pretty nice. Then from now on, your name is Vermouth, meow."
"Chi~"
The white bat that had gained a new name was very happy. It let out cheerful cries while flapping its wings, flying back and forth between Sherwin and Haibara Meow.
"Then next, are you planning to change Sherry main body into something like Vermouth too?"
Sherwin extended a finger to let the little white bat land on it, then used his other hand to tap the hexagonal salamander on top of Haibara Meow head.
"Unfortunately, Sherry main body can't be changed anymore, meow."
╮(ω≡ω)╭
Haibara Meow shook her head and explained, "Its main body was originally converted from Caesar poison gas.
Removing its toxicity and changing it into a universal base fluid that can fuse with various potions is already the limit.
There no way to further alter its properties, meow… unless I can find a method to directly transfer Devil Fruit abilities."
She reached out a paw and gently patted Sherry on the head. Sherry emotions were clearly a little down, so she spoke in a tone that was half comfort, half explanation.
"And besides, although a self-regulating situation like Vermouth is very convenient, its versatility is still a bit lacking.
We also don't have that many Zoan Fruits to carry every type of drug, so I still need a member like Sherry, who can switch between different drugs at any time, to deal with all kinds of situations, meow."
"Ba-ao!"
When the axolotl heard Haibara Meow say that, it instantly perked up. It braced itself on its four stubby little legs, lifted its not-so-obvious neck, and let out an emotionally charged "roar," then lowered its head again and licked the fur on top of Haibara Meow head.
The little white bat that had been hanging from Sherwin finger also began flapping its wings. While chirping "ji-ji," it flew a few circles around Haibara Meow, then imitated Klee Meow on Sherwin shoulder and landed on Haibara Meow shoulder as well.
"So you already have ideas for the remaining two fruits too?"
"Of course I do, meow!"
Haibara Meow nodded hard and excitedly began telling Sherwin about her plan…
(=`=)
"Besides the Recovery Drug, the only one that can currently undergo property changes is the Demon Drug.
After all, it was originally modified using that potion you called Hao Water, and later I upgraded it by drawing inspiration from the vicious drugs of Fish-Man Island.
So in theory, it should be able to switch between the characteristics of these three medicines… that is, demon, severe poison, and aging, meow! As for the other drugs, I still haven't found a direction yet, meow."
As she said this, the little kitten who had been full of excitement let her ears droop again, pouting unhappily.
"Ji~"
Vermouth immediately spoke up to comfort their little master.
However, Sherwin and Sherry were completely unmoved…
It wasn't that they had any issues with Haibara Meow it was simply that they had seen this kind of scene far too many times.
After all, in scientific research, running into failed experiments or moments with no ideas at all was perfectly normal.
The little kitten still had a whole pile of other projects waiting for her to tinker with.
So there was no need for them to comfort her at all—Haibara Meow would recover very quickly on her own.
Knowing this, Sherwin followed along with what she had just said and guessed, "The Demon Drug series, huh… so you're planning to give it the ability of the Tiger Fruit?"
"Nope," Haibara Meow, who had already recovered, raised her little paw—round like a mangosteen—and shook it at Sherwin.
"I'm not planning to use the Tiger Fruit as a drug-based main body. That would be too much of a waste of the tiger own combat power, meow."
"So I'm planning to use solid powder to make the Tiger Fruit main body instead, meow.
Although that means losing the ability to switch between gaseous and liquid forms, and it won't be able to serve as logistics that apply status effects to everyone like Sherry and the others,
only a solid main body can better bring out the tiger inherent combat power, meow!"
Then the little kitten sighed again. "It a pity that Sea-Prism Stone and fragments of the Poneglyphs can't carry Devil Fruit abilities.
Otherwise, they'd be the best materials—and they could also restrain other ability users…
For now, I can only settle for using alloy fragments strengthened by Sister Suika instead, meow."
"As long as you've got an idea, that fine," Sherwin said as he pinched her ear.
"Leave the Devil Fruit matters to me. Whatever fruit you want, just say it—I'll find a way to get it for you."
"Mythical Zoans! I want to research Mythical Zoan Fruits, meow! Of course, I won't turn my nose up at Ancient Zoans either, meow!"
(=ω=)
Haibara Meow immediately shouted with sparkling eyes.
Sherwin: "..."
This little schemer shameless habit of pushing her luck—who on earth did she learn that from?!
And besides…
Why did what she just said sound so oddly familiar?