"We're not going anywhere special. I just felt that only being able to sail on the water was sometimes too limiting, so I wanted to turn the Toot Toot Forward into a ship that could handle all kinds of situations."
Since Kalifa was always by Iceburg's side, Xie Wen naturally couldn't tell the truth and let the World Government learn his whereabouts.
Still, what he said wasn't entirely a lie. Besides flight, Xie Wen and the others had later proposed adding functions such as "land travel," "diving," and "burrowing" to the Toot Toot Forward, as well as the transformation ability Klee Meow had been pining for ever since watching Warrior of the Sea: Sky. Meowrah had successfully incorporated all these requests into the New Toot Toot's design.
"As it happens, I found a new companion in the Alabasta Kingdom." Xie Wen picked up Little D-Roll and showed her off to Iceburg. "I think Purah is every bit your equal when it comes to ship design."
While showing off Meowrah, Xie Wen was also feeding Kalifa a false piece of information-his clash with Crocodile had little to do with Nico Robin, but rather with Meowrah, their "lost" companion.
Of course, such a roundabout scheme wasn't something Xie Wen, a fellow who had put practically all his intelligence points into teasing cats and playing pranks, could have devised. It was the joint creation of the far-sighted Scarlet Tiger-sama and the brilliant Ai Haibara Meow.
They didn't know whether Kalifa and the other members of Cipher Pol No. 9 would fall for it, but adding that one remark cost them nothing.
"This truly is an astonishing design..." After looking over the blueprints in his hands, Iceburg didn't think Xie Wen was boasting. "I never imagined a ship could be designed like this. Miss