White smoke spurted from the pipe overhead, and scalding steam struck their faces, carrying the smell of coal cinders.
The wheels began to turn, not paddling through the water but rolling across the surface of the sea.
The vibration of iron against the rails climbed from their soles, shooting up their spines vertebra by vertebra.
Tsuru watched the waves retreat beyond the window.
Her pupils contracted slightly-there were no sails, no oars, not even any reliance on the mysterious power of a Devil Fruit.
It was simply fire boiling water, water driving an axle, and the axle turning the wheels.
It was startlingly simple.
If tracks like these could be laid between every island...
"Crude."
The mechanical knight suddenly spoke, his electronic voice cutting a cold, hard arc through the carriage. "A trick with boiling water.
"The reactor I designed is only palm-sized, but it produces enough steam to send this iron lump into the sky."
"But once your reactor is taken apart, how many people in this world could put it back together?"
Someone answered him.
The voice was calm, as though stating the temperature of the seawater that day. "This is just right.
"A farmer could pick up some firewood and get it running."
The iron vessel continued forward.
Waves slapped the pontoons on either side, the spray shattering into dazzling silver scales in the sunlight.
Some leaned against the windows, others stood in the aisle with folded arms. All silently watched the rails plow two white wounds through the sea.
Tom stared at the trembling needle on the instrument panel.
He heard the boiler roaring deep inside, like a beast locked in an iron cage.
Heat seeped through the gaps, scorching the soles of his feet.
Would this vessel fall apart? He did not know.
But at