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"Is this the Room of Flowers? Where is Imu?"
Rimuru looked around at the dense flower bushes surrounding them, a puzzled expression on her face as she turned to Kaito beside her.
"Hahaha! Rimuru, since Imu is the final boss, it's not that easy to just walk up and meet them!"
Ramiris, perched on Kaito's shoulder and clutching a strawberry, replied with the air of someone who knew exactly how these things worked.
"Wahahaha! Ramiris, you've grown up too! You've gained a third of my wisdom!"
Milim Nava, upon hearing this, immediately put on a proud 'you've finally matured' expression and declared it loudly.
"Huh? I've always been smarter than you! Milim, you're the dumbest one here!"
"Ramiris, you're the dumbest!"
"You're dumb!"
"No, you..."
"Stop!"
Kaito looked at the group who had gone off-topic again and cut in before it could go further.
"I can sense two auras deeper inside. They should be just ahead."
Kaito hadn't used his divine sense. He had just reached out with his own perception and caught two auras not far ahead.
What puzzled him was that one of those auras felt strangely familiar.
"Oh oh oh! Are we finally going to fight the final boss?"
"Hehe! Rimuru is the mage, Milim is the warrior, I'm the support, so Kai-chan is the healer!"
"What kind of hero party setup is that?!"
Kaito looked at the three of them debating team roles, shook his head, and said nothing more.
He simply took the lead and walked forward.
Creak...
The palace gate swung open easily under Kaito's push, revealing a massive hall beyond.
It was adorned with luxurious decorations, but the complete absence of people made it feel strangely hollow.
At the far end of the hall sat a raised platform, and the sight on that platform made Kaito's pupils shrink instantly.
It was as though he was looking at something that simply should not exist.
"No... no way. Is this development a bit too bizarre?!"
Kaito steadied himself and managed to get the words out.
"Kai-chan, I think you need to explain this."
"Why is it like this?!"
Rimuru pointed at the platform, her expression demanding answers.
"I want to know what's going on too! Why are you here?!"
"Tom!!!"
That was right. What stood before them was not just Imu, bound up like a dumpling.
It was also Tom, who had vanished after Kaito set him loose to roam free.
Tom sat on the throne, holding a glass of red wine, taking a delicate sip.
He gazed down coldly at Kaito and the others below.
"Meow!!! (Hmph, you mortals!)"
"Meow meow!!! (Will none of you bow before this meow?!)"
"Wow! Tom is so full of himself now!"
Rimuru stared at Tom, who looked every bit like a King of the World, and exclaimed in disbelief.
"Heh heh! He hasn't been beaten in three days, so he's tearing the roof down."
Kaito said, eyeing Tom with a deeply annoyed expression.
'Good heavens, you're really putting on a show for me.'
[Host, this system believes you are not annoyed because Tom is putting on a show, but because you are not the one putting on such a show.]
'How... how could that be? Don't slander me! I'll sue you for defamation, you know!'
[Heh! Did I step on your little tail?]
"..."
"Meow meow meow! (It seems this cat need to make a move, otherwise you won't recognize this cat's greatness!)"
Tom looked at the group below who clearly were not taking him seriously and couldn't help himself.
"Alright! Still acting, are we? Just you wait, I'm calling someone right now!"
Kaito glared at Tom, who was still deep in his performance, and shouted in exasperation.
"Meow! (Heh, this cat fears no one!)"
"Hey! Saku..."
"Meow... Meow meow meow!!! (Stop, I was wrong, I know I was wrong, coming down right now!!! Waaaahhhh)"
Before Kaito could even finish the word, Tom's fur bristled straight up in an instant.
He knocked back the rest of the wine, threw the crown off his head, and his legs became a blur.
In an instant he was standing right beside Kaito and the others.
"Meow! Meow meow! (Boss! I was only joking, there is absolutely no need to call Big Sister Sakuya! No need at all!)"
"Heh heh, settled down now?"
Hearing Kaito's words, Tom nodded frantically without stopping.
The speed of his nodding nearly rivalled a spinning fan.
"Meow! Meow! (Settled! Totally settled!)"
"Alright, explain. What exactly is going on here?"
Kaito asked, pointing at Imu, who was trussed up like a dumpling by Tom.
"Meow... Meow meow! (Boss, you're asking about this? Well, it happened like this!)"
Tom's arrival in the Room of Flowers had been entirely by accident.
Because Kaito had set him loose, Tom had spent every day causing trouble all across Academy City.
That had made him a target for just about everyone there.
Just two days ago, while being chased down by the Disciplinary Committee, Tom had bolted in a blind panic straight into a Dimensional Gate.
And landed in the One Piece World.
When he first arrived in the New World, Tom found everything around him fresh and exciting.
He had also heard that people here liked to sail out to sea and become pirates.
On a sudden burst of enthusiasm, he built his own pirate ship, raised a pirate flag, and set sail.
Once out at sea, however, he realised he had no idea how to navigate a ship and simply drifted with the current.
That was until he drifted into a strange vessel carrying a man in a space helmet.
The man found Tom fascinating and brought him back to Mary Geoise.
Since he was well fed and looked after the whole way there, Tom had not resisted at all.
If anything, he had thoroughly enjoyed being waited on.
While wandering around Mary Geoise, Tom had stumbled into the Room of Flowers without meaning to.
And there he had found Imu sitting on the throne with eyes closed.
Out of pure curiosity, Tom had climbed up and started poking around.
Eventually he woke Imu up.
Imu opened her eyes, saw a cat face staring directly at her from inches away, and threw a punch on pure instinct.
Tom was sent flying, rolled across the floor clutching his cat head.
When Imu came back to her senses and saw the scene, she fired a light wave without hesitation.
Tom was hit by the light wave and disintegrated into atoms on the spot.
Imu looked at the blue cat they had just killed and was about to call the Gorosei to demand answers.
Then Tom resurrected on the spot. Not a single scratch on him.
The Tom who came back, however, was livid.
Who was Tom? In this entire world, aside from Sakuya, he feared no one.
And aside from Jerry and his own relatives, no one had ever made him look this foolish.
And so Tom proceeded to tear through the hall, and Imu used every method available to try and put him down.
But no matter what Imu did, that damned cat always came back.
The two of them had kept this up until Kaito and the others arrived to find exactly what they were now looking at.
"Good heavens. Are you actually the protagonist here?"
"This is clearly supposed to be my story!"
Kaito stared at Tom with an expression caught somewhere between disbelief and awe.
"Meow! (I am the protagonist, after all!)"
"...I'm speechless."
"No! I'm the protagonist here!!!"
Rimuru glanced at the trussed-up Imu, then back at the person and cat bickering in front of her.
Only one feeling rose up in her chest.
Exhaustion.
'Let's just destroy them and be done with it...'