Xie Wen had thought that sailing around the East Blue in the Black Cat Pirates' former Pirates Ship would cause at least a few misunderstandings, just as it had at the 77th Branch.
But...
Since Xie Wen and the others weren't flying a pirate flag, no one thought they were pirates at all.
The people of the One Piece world really did take things at face value!
Still, on reflection, this was understandable. After all, Luffy's Going Merry hadn't originally been designed as a Pirates Ship either, but it became one once they raised a Pirates flag. And as Xie Wen had previously analyzed, "Pirates" was also a profession to the people of this world, and its definition was often rather vague.
Other merchant ships, exploration vessels, and even Morgans's news ship weren't necessarily any less heavily armed than ordinary Pirates, so it seemed perfectly normal that people weren't particularly wary of ships without Pirates flags.
The next leg of their journey was fairly straightforward: return to the islands they had missed before to reveal them on the map, then sell the Explorer One along the way.
However, Xie Wen removed the Spark Knight Thruster from the back of the Explorer One. Without the Flame-Flame Fruit, no one else could use it anyway, so he might as well keep it for later and copy Ace's Rocketman to build Klee Meow a "Spark Knight," a vessel exclusively for Little Plushie.
"Our next destination is... Mirapalle Island?"
After lighting up all the islands they had missed, Xie Wen opened his Hunter's Notes again and found the island closest to them, though its name still didn't ring any bells.
Hua Mei Meow, however, leaned her head over and said thoughtfully, "I think I've heard people mention this island. Apparently, it's called the 'trendsetting