I formed the El Cat Investigation Team in Pirates.

"boom--!"

A ball of fire exploded out of nowhere near Marigorude's body. If she hadn't used her Observation Haki to detect the danger and dodged it first, she would have been hit by Mewx's "Elu Cat Karate".

"Eh hey hey? What just happened?"

"That little cat clearly didn't take out a bomb, so why did an explosion happen next to Lord Marigold?"

The level of isolation of Nine Snake Island is no less than that of Wano Country, so most people here have no idea what Devil Fruits are.

"Devil fruit powers?"

Of course, Marigorude, who is also a devil fruit user and often goes to sea, would not be surprised by this. After avoiding Mewx's attack, she also activated her own devil fruit ability and turned into a half-human, half-snake.

"It appears! The Curse of the Gorgon!"

The audience around cheered again.

"Wow~~~ What a majestic figure!"

"This is the proof of being a warrior that you got by defeating the monster Gorgon!"

"Even the cursed Marigold-sama is so charming!"

"Mr. Kaido, what are they talking about? This is clearly a devil fruit ability."

Shirahoshi heard the cheers all around and looked at Kaido-meow in confusion.

"It's probably because the so-called king didn't tell his people the truth, but used the excuse of the Gorgon Curse."

Kaido frowned, also showing a puzzled expression, "But... why is this happening? Is it to prevent others from gaining the power of the Devil Fruit and affecting his rule?"

"I don't think so, meow." Although Suika was drunk all day long, she was also very smart when she needed to be smart. "With the love of the people of this country for Hancock, even if she has no power, it is unlikely that they will oppose her. She doesn't need to go through so much trouble to consolidate her rule."

"Maybe there's something else we don't know about," Kaido nodded, then said to Shirahoshi, "If you're curious, you can ask Huamei and Robin later. Maybe they know something."

While the cats were talking, the fight on the ring was going on simultaneously.

"What the hell are you? Are you the cat or am I the cat? You keep dodging and I can't hit you!"

(=`h=)

The little crazy cat swung her exploding cat fist "boom boom boom", but she couldn't hit Marigorude, who looked chubby but was actually incredibly agile.

After entering the half-human, half-snake state, the already very flexible Marigorude has further improved her agility attribute. Combined with her observation Haki, it is naturally difficult for Meowx, who currently only knows how to use armament Haki, to hit the opponent.

Even if he occasionally encounters an attack that he cannot avoid, Marigorud can rely on the defense granted by the Animal-type Fruit and the blessing of the Armament Haki to withstand it.

Of course, this is also related to the fact that Meowx is not exerting much strength now. She did not even use the empty soul possession that is specifically used for her observation Haki, because the little crazy cat wanted to take this opportunity to exercise her own observation Haki.

The awakening of Meowx's Observation Haki has been stuck at the critical point, and the main reason is the lack of a suitable opponent.

Needless to say, when sparring with other cats, it is impossible for everyone to really use heavy hands. There is no problem in honing one's own skills and improving combat experience, but it is not so easy to break through the bottleneck of observation Haki.

In the battle with the enemy, Meowx is a ranged unit, and most of the time it only needs to hide behind and play a supporting role. Even if it encounters an enemy that is good at dodging, it can still blow up the enemy by throwing a few AOEs.

Even the "Klee's Explosion Method", which is the most suitable method to stimulate observation Haki in the investigation team, has its effectiveness greatly reduced due to the ability of the Explosion Fruit.

So it is actually quite rare to meet an opponent like Marigorude, who not only knows Observation Haki, but is not that strong, and can still keep up with Maomao in terms of speed.

If Mewx was really allowed to attack freely, even without using her weapons, with her development of the Explosion Fruit, it would not be impossible for her to create an explosion as large as a bouncing bomb with her fruit ability alone.

But if that happened, not only Marygrod, but also the spectators around would be blown up into the sky...

Although the little crazy cat was crazy, he didn't want to be caught and put in solitary confinement by Huameimao because of such a "little thing".

……

"Snake-haired possession, Flame Serpent God!"

Marigorude was not very happy because she had to dodge everywhere because of Meowth's explosive cat punch, so after taking a hit, she decisively activated her strongest mode.

In addition to transforming into a half-human, half-snake form, Marigorude's hair also turned into the shape of a snake, and flames covered his entire body, making him look very oppressive.

The Nine Snakes audience who saw her gesture also cheered.

"Sister Jinx! Come on!"

Shirahoshi in the audience cupped her hands to her mouth and, amid the shouts of a group of Nine Snake warriors, vigorously supported her big sister.

"Hmph~ Just a flame meow!"

(=`へ=)

Meowx turned around and waved to the little girl, then pouted and glanced at the angry Marigorude with disdain.

With the little guy Klee around, the cats often deal with fire. In fact, it is very simple for the members of the investigation team to solve this problem - just put on the combat uniforms made by Haibara and Meowth.

The combat uniforms of the investigation team, which were improved based on Germa's technology, are absolutely world-class in terms of resistance to high temperatures and explosions, not to mention other aspects.

But as I said before, Meowx intended to make Marigorud admit defeat sincerely, so she did not intend to use external objects such as combat suits.

However, the little crazy cat couldn't come up with a better solution for a while, but Marigorude would not wait for her. The next second, the two snakes with burning flames opened their mouths and bit towards Meowx.

Even if we ignore the flames wrapped around the snake hair, the threat they pose is not small. The "snake fangs" with the armed color domineering can easily bite stones into pieces. Even if Meowx also has armed color, she definitely does not want to experience the feeling of being bitten by snake hair.

In addition to these two flaming snakes, Marigorude, who had eaten the cobra fruit, could also spit out highly corrosive venom. With the help of the snakes and the venom, the situation on the field quickly changed. Marigorude, who had been forced to hide everywhere by Meowx, finally took the initiative and in turn forced the little crazy cat to jump up and down to avoid her attacks.

However, this situation was exactly what Crazy Cat wanted. After all, her other purpose was to awaken her Observation Haki. Forcing Marigorud to run around just now did not help her awaken her Observation Haki at all.

Mewx's Observation Haki was just one step away from success, and the little mad cat's fighting talent was no worse than other fighting cats, so under the pressure from Marigord, the little mad cat quickly broke through the bottleneck that had been there for a long time and awakened her Observation Haki naturally.

"Hahaha! It's time to end this battle, meow!"

(=`=)

Meowx, who was jumping up and down, suddenly stopped. Facing two flaming snakes that opened their mouths wide and bit towards him, the little crazy cat did not dodge or avoid them. Just as they were about to approach him, he whispered:

"burst."

"boom--!"

A burst of fire instantly lit up on Meowx's body, followed by a violent explosion around her, which directly blew apart the two fire snakes that pounced in front of her, and even the flames attached to them were extinguished by the air waves generated by the explosion.

Reactive armor is a special armor structure used for tanks in modern warfare.

The principle is to install pieces of armor filled with inert explosives on the outside of the tank. When encountering attacks from anti-tank missiles, armor-piercing shells and other shells that carry great damage, the explosives in the armor will be detonated, blasting outward to reduce the damage of these anti-tank weapons.

Meowx, who possesses the ability of the Explosion Fruit, is equivalent to being equipped with reactive armor that can explode continuously all over her body. So, without considering the ability to dodge with observation Haki, Meowx is actually stronger than Meowjuro, Huameow and others in terms of defensive ability alone.

"Elu Cat Jutsu: Explosive Shoulder Throw, Meow!"

The crazy cat who had blown away Marigorude's snake hair took advantage of the victory to pursue her. She decisively activated the empty soul possession and threw a handful of cat hair at the snake girl who was still burning with flames. With the skills of Ai Lu Cat Ju-Jitsu, these light cat hairs shot towards Marigorude like flying needles and perfectly blocked all her retreat routes.

“Boom, boom, boom, boom—!”