Puffing Tom

Wanting Luffy and Robin fully rested, the Going Merry stays anchored at Long Ring Long Land four more days before weighing anchor, and the scene picks up on the third morning since departure under gentle, springlike weather. Every crewmate indulges a private pastime: Nami suns herself over Sanji's dishes, Zoro dozes until he is shaken awake, and Chopper and Usopp clown about doing impressions of the "Frozen Luffy." Robin steps out onto the deck to the others' delight, their worry over her health still lingering.

Mid-meal, a giant frog cruises past doing the freestyle, and the crew resolves to catch it because Luffy fancies it as food. Veering off heading, Nami picks out a lighthouse ahead that the Log Pose pointedly does not indicate. A huge train then comes roaring across the water, and the Straw Hats barely scramble clear, while the frog stands its ground, tries to halt the train, and is sent flying a fair distance. From a platform nearby, a small girl shouts for someone inside, and a woman the crew judges far too drunk steps out. She gives her name as Kokoro, introduces her granddaughter Chimney, and presents their cat Gonbe, who is in fact a rabbit.

Chimney explains that the sea train, the Puffing Tom, rides rails laid across the water and runs nowhere else on the planet, while the frog, Yokozuna, routinely hops onto the line to pit himself against it. Told the animal is a hard worker, Luffy decides against eating it. Kokoro reveals the Log Pose now aims at Water 7, a metropolis built upon the sea, home to the world's finest shipyards and trusted even by the World Government, so Luffy sets his sights on recruiting a shipwright there. This installment marks the opening of the Water 7 Arc, and its cover shows Gedatsu digging while forgetting to blink.