Petting cats is also a skill that depends on talent.
Even though Sherwin had already taught Robin everything he knew, all the Felynes—including Sanji Meow, who usually sided with Sherwin—still unanimously agreed that when Sherwin was the one doing the petting, it just felt more comfortable...
This made Sherwin quite proud of himself.
Moreover, this talent had nothing to do with his cheat ability, because even before he crossed over, Sherwin had always been especially popular with the cats and dogs at the rescue shelter and in the neighborhood where he lived.
However, this talent of Sherwin didn't create an overwhelming difference between his cat-petting skills and others, so Robin—who had successfully learned—was already capable of helping Sherwin share the daily work of petting Felynes.
After all, as more and more Felynes joined, Sherwin two hands alone simply couldn't keep up anymore.
And for Robin, with the powers of the Flower-Flower Fruit, petting one cat or petting a hundred cats really wasn't all that different...
Truly enviable!
Aside from daily training and cat-petting, everyone often gathered together to discuss how to improve the Dodo Advance.
Because Sherwin had anticipated the possibility of summoning shipwright Felynes, he had already asked Iceburg for the blueprints of the Dodo Advance back then. On that basis, Purah Meow worked on upgrading the ship design.
Haibara Meow served as technical support, figuring out how to integrate the existing technologies of the Research Commission into the design.
From time to time, Purah Meow even crafted a small-scale model of the Dodo Advance to confirm whether the current design could actually work.
By the time their voyage once again brought them to Water 7, the new blueprint of the Dodo Advance had already been revised to the sixth version. And this version received unanimous approval from everyone, essentially being confirmed as the final draft.
But to be safe, they still needed to show the blueprint to Iceburg, the real expert.
"Once we dock, let go rent a few Yagara Bulls. The port at Water 7 is reliable, and since we'll be sending the Dodo Advance back to the shipyard soon, there no need to leave anyone behind to watch the ship."
Sherwin spoke to everyone (and the Felynes), though his gaze was fixed firmly on Nico Robin. The other Felynes also widened their eyes, staring at her expectantly.
Robin expression grew conflicted. "Can't I just wear a mask?"
"Wouldn't wearing a mask make you look even more suspicious? Besides, Haibara Meow and Purah Meow spent so much effort making that equipment for you—you can't just let it collect dust, can you?" Sherwin reasoned seriously.
"And besides… everyone been looking forward to it."
Having long since grown familiar with Sherwin personality, Robin couldn't help but roll her eyes.
But when she saw the shining, eager gaze of the other Felynes—especially Klee Meow sparkling eyes—she finally let out a long sigh and pulled out a claw-canister that looked similar to Sherwin battle suit.
Only, the two claw-canisters were slightly different in color. The one in Robin hand had a white base, with irregular patches of yellow and black scattered across it… in other words, the pattern of a palico cat.
Click.
Robin pressed the button on the canister, then placed it against her abdomen.
A rainbow-colored glow instantly wrapped around her whole body, and when the light faded, standing before everyone was a perfectly flawless disguise:
a member of the Felyne race covered in calico fur, wearing a robe styled after the Espada from Bleach.
Unlike Sherwin battle suit, which looked more like a mascot costume, Robin suit had been designed entirely for "realism."
Not only was the head crafted to look exactly like a cat, but whenever Robin moved her mouth, blinked, or furrowed her brow inside,
the "cat head" mirrored her expressions perfectly. It could even twitch its ears and stick out its tongue!
On top of that, the tail behind her could swish and move freely at her will. This wasn't due to any advanced tech, though—it was Robin herself, using her Devil Fruit ability to grow a chain of fingers inside the tail, serving as its "bones."
As for that Espada-style outfit she was wearing… that was purely Sherwin twisted sense of humor.
Fortunately, the Espada uniform was stylish enough, and Robin was quite satisfied with it. She even asked for another one in normal size to wear casually.
In addition, Robin Felyne battle suit incorporated the latest research on bloodline factor technology from Haibara Meow and Purah Meow.
The effect was—when Robin used her powers while wearing the suit, the limbs she manifested were cat paws identical to those of the suit.
And since the suit was fully enclosed, Robin could even swim in the sea while in that form.
In short, in terms of technological content, Robin battle suit was absolutely the most advanced one in the entire Research Commission.
"Robin big sister turned into a Felyne again, meow!"
(=`=)
Klee Meow immediately pounced on her, climbing all over Robin Felyne form and even giving her a few playful licks here and there.
"Ahem, at times like this, you should be calling her Odelia," Sherwin reminded the little furball.
Since he needed to hide his identity, naturally he couldn't use the name Nico Robin. Fortunately, Robin had already used an alias with Sherwin and the others before, so they just used that directly.
After everything was prepared, Sherwin brought along a group of real cats and one fake cat, disembarked from the ship, and headed straight to the Bullfish rental shop with practiced ease.
"Ah, it the Hunter! You've come to Water 7 again!"
The rental shop owner clearly still remembered Sherwin. He greeted him warmly and even gave him a 20% discount on the rental fee.
Although Sherwin didn't really care about saving that little bit of money, the owner gesture still left him feeling quite pleased.
After chatting casually with the rental shop owner for a while, Sherwin and his group finally rented three small Bullfish and headed toward the upper levels of Water 7, straight to the Galley-La Company.
This time, instead of going to the shipyard like last time, Sherwin went directly to the Galley-La Company headquarters.
As for whether the front desk would stop him—Sherwin wasn't worried about that at all…
"Mr. Sherwin, hello. Welcome back to the Galley-La Company."
The sight of him surrounded by cats was simply too distinctive. Besides, it hadn't even been a full year since his last visit to Water 7.
Naturally, the receptionist remembered this former big client and the recently famous "Hunter."
When Sherwin requested to meet with Iceburg, the front desk didn't bother giving him the usual excuse about needing an appointment. Instead, she directly called Kalifa, then led Sherwin and his group to Iceburg office.
"It been a while, Sherwin. Are you all satisfied with the Dodo Advance?" Iceburg first question was about the ship he had designed,
and only then did he exclaim, "Your reputation has really grown lately—you actually defeated an Emperor officer and a Warlord of the Sea. To have built a ship for someone like you is truly my honor."
As expected of a shipwright—three sentences in and it all came back to ships.
"The Dodo Advance is fantastic. We all like her very much…" After exchanging a few polite words with Iceburg, Sherwin finally stated his purpose.
"I've been planning some upgrades for the Dodo Advance recently. Could you take a look at this blueprint and see if there are any improvements needed?"
As he spoke, Sherwin handed over the latest version of the design plan.
Iceburg didn't think there was anything wrong with Sherwin wanting to modify the ship, nor did he take it as dissatisfaction with the Dodo Advance.
After all, the Grand Line climate was unpredictable and full of all sorts of strange phenomena. Modifying ships to adapt to different environments was perfectly normal here.
However…
"Where exactly are you planning to go? Could it be that even a ship made from the Treasure Tree Adam isn't able to reach it directly?"