Although Sherwin knew that once he asked this question, it would probably become much harder to obtain the Road Poneglyphs in Big Mom possession, he still couldn't suppress the curiosity in his heart…
It seemed that after spending so much time with the Felynes, he had more or less picked up a bit of a catlike temperament himself.
Since he had already hinted at it, Sherwin continued, "Even if they don't know the meaning of the text engraved on them, the Poneglyphs themselves are so sturdy. If they were turned into Homies, they should be pretty powerful, right?"
As for the possibility that, after turning into Homies and running around, they might be seen by others…
Wouldn't it be fine as long as the Road Poneglyphs weren't involved? Other Poneglyphs held little attraction for most people anyway.
The only real concern would be the World Government coming to cause trouble—but would Charlotte Linlin, as one of the Four Emperors, really worry about that?
Besides, at worst, you could just put some clothes on the Poneglyph Homies or something. There were plenty of solutions.
"Huh? That right!" After being stunned for a moment, Big Mom suddenly clapped her hands and burst out laughing.
"Mama mama mama! You're really smart! None of my children or subordinates ever thought of that! I'm going to try it right now!"
As she spoke, she stood up from the ground and hurried off toward the place where the Poneglyphs were stored.
Sherwin shrugged and then continued leading the others out of the castle.
Although he was also curious about what kind of result would come of it in the end, Big Mom probably wouldn't let him watch.
Still, with Xiaer Meow Observation Haki, maybe they could infer roughly what happened from the "voices" they sensed… and, incidentally, confirm the location where Big Mom kept the Poneglyphs.
Not long after they walked out of the castle…
"Sherwin dear~ it looks like she failed, meow~" Shermie Meow, who was nestled in Sherwin arms with her eyes closed, suddenly spoke up.
"There really was a new 'voice' from a Homies just now, but it disappeared very quickly. I'm guessing it because the stone that carries the Poneglyph itself can't understand the writing on its own body, meow."
"Alright then. Looks like she doesn't intend to let the Poneglyph become a Homies soldier either." Sherwin scratched under Shermie Meow chin and shrugged indifferently.
"If we want to see other Poneglyphs, we'll have to think of another way."
"Hehehe~" Shermie Meow suddenly laughed in his arms. After licking the back of Sherwin hand, she said as if presenting a treasure,
"Actually, I've very likely already helped you get hold of other Poneglyphs, Sherwin dear… we just need to wait a little longer, meow~"
(=`=)
"What did you do this time?"
Sherwin pinched her cheek and asked curiously.
"I didn't really do anything, meow~" Shermie Meow swayed her tail. Her words were modest, but her expression was smug as she explained,
"I just secretly placed a clone inside that cloud called Zeus. As long as I come into contact with it again next time and retrieve the clone, there a high chance I'll be able to read what it saw before, meow~"
After Sherwin decided to attend the tea party, he had already mentioned to Klee Meow and Shermie Meow that they could try improving their flame summons and clones by making contact with the two Homies, Prometheus and Zeus.
So earlier, when they were suppressing them, the two cats weren't just playing around or sleeping.
Klee Meow excelled at shaping and controlling flames, so she had been trying to directly control—or even subdue—Prometheus.
Zeus true body was a cloud rather than lightning, so Shermie Meow hadn't considered subduing it directly.
Instead, she planned to use it to further enhance her Devil Fruit ability, and at the same time see whether she could give her lightning clones a bit of basic awareness.
The specific method was the same as back on Thunder God Island—
First, she would elementalize herself and merge into it, then absorb back the lightning that originally didn't belong to her.
After that, she discovered that although she couldn't make the lightning she created any more "intelligent," she was able to read the memories from the period when Zeus had been "parasitized" by her.
And when Big Mom hunger pangs were dealt with, Shermie Meow conveniently stuffed a low-presence clone into Zeus as well.
"The only problem is that I don't know whether, after such a long time, the information I can read will still remain complete, meow~" Shermie Meow gently nipped Sherwin and complained,
"If you hadn't left the castle so quickly just now, Sherwin dear, that would've been better, meow~"
"This was a spur-of-the-moment idea. I didn't know you'd done all this either…" Sherwin helplessly curled his lips.
"But even if it doesn't work, it no big deal. Now that we know you have this trick, we can completely plan it out and let Big Mom run over to the Poneglyph again."
Although Sherwin could return to the castle right now under the pretext of wanting to visit the library, doing so would be far too deliberate. Besides, Shermie Meow might not necessarily fail, so he didn't do that.
He even stopped Shermie Meow from remotely recalling that clone.
Even though Shermie Meow "Thundercloud" could achieve an effect similar to Observation Haki suppression, the steady Hunter still chose not to invite unnecessary complications.
So for the rest of the time, Sherwin took Robin, Shirahoshi, and the cats to wander around Sweet City.
They even stayed one night at a hotel in town. It wasn't until the next morning that he brought the cats back into BIG·MOM castle again.
"Lick~ You've come again today—are you here to visit Mama collection of rare and exotic creatures? Then follow me."
The one responsible for receiving Sherwin was the Charlotte Family eldest son, Perospero.
After kindly handing several lollipops to Klee Meow and the others, he was about to lead Sherwin toward the library.
"Wait a moment," Sherwin called out to stop him, then pointed to Klee Meow and Shermie Meow beside him.
"Actually, I have another purpose for coming today. Klee and Shermie are very interested in the two Homies that follow Big Mom and want to play with them.
So while we're touring the library, could you let those two Homies accompany my cats for a while?"
"Prometheus and Zeus?"
Perospero naturally remembered the scene yesterday when the two of them had been easily suppressed by these two cats, and the corner of his eye twitched involuntarily.
Only then did he suddenly realize that Sherwin and the cats under his command seemed, to a certain extent, to be quite effective at restraining Big Mom pirate crew…
Aside from Prometheus and Zeus, many members of the Big Mom Pirates had abilities related to food.
So including Perospero himself, most of their abilities were restrained by flames and by the "water-attribute" weapon in Sherwin hands.
As for Daifuku and Oven, who couldn't even beat Dodo Bear, and Cracker the biscuit man who had already been taught a lesson twice, there was even less to say.
Additionally, Katakuri had also mentioned that Sherwin possessed an ability that could interfere with Observation Haki.
Sure enough, they still had to find a way to recruit them.
Perospero mind raced through countless thoughts, yet on the surface he answered flawlessly,
"Kukukukuku… of course there no problem. Mama likes children very much. Please wait here for a moment, I'll go bring the two of them over… lick~"
With that, he had a chess-piece Homie nearby lead Sherwin and the others to a side room to wait for a while, while he himself left to find Big Mom.