Sea Train

Beside the judicial vessel, an announcement that Tom will be put to death for crafting an outlaw's ship leaves both Cutty Flam and Iceburg reeling. According to the presiding judge, those who build vessels for pirates are normally treated as unimportant; this case differs only because the craft served a captain so feared and notorious that its maker is ruled equally hazardous. When the marines move to drag him away, Tom interrupts to describe a paddle-driven steam vessel he is designing, one built to travel atop the waves rather than below them. The island's ruin, he argues, springs from collapsed commerce, and his railway would be the thing that rescues the city.

Told by the judge to hold off, the marines wait while Tom is questioned about the project. He lays out a railway that would carry passengers, freight, and even ships along tracks running from one island to the next, crossing the water at will regardless of the weather. Rival carpenters in the crowd scoff and demand to know how the rails could possibly withstand Aqua Laguna. Tom replies that the track would flex gently underwater instead of resisting the swells, acting as a guide for the train so that logs become unnecessary. He adds that he has worked out a frequency the fish dislike, sparing the train from their attacks, and that three ports would be linked together, namely Pucci, San Faldo, and St. Poplar.

Astonished, the judge asks whether Enies Lobby could join the line as well, and Tom concedes that it could. After he calls the railway the island's hope, the crowd stares in disbelief as he reveals that a full decade of labor lies ahead. The judge responds by suspending the execution for ten years so the project can be realized, wishing him luck. Back at headquarters, Tom's crew shares a meal and rehashes the verdict while their leader laughs. Kokoro hopes the finished railway will clear him, and Iceburg is eager to begin building, but Cutty Flam bolts down his food and stalks off, muttering that he will teach Yokozuna the front crawl. Pressed about his mood, he erupts, raging that the man who built the lone ship to cross the entire Grand Line deserves better than this. Tom only chuckles as the youth lunges and Iceburg intervenes.

Iceburg later insists they be rid of Cutty Flam, yet Tom counts him as one of their own, noting that despite his taste for dangerous weaponry his shipbuilding nearly matches Water 7's best. Tom recalls discovering the boy stranded on Scrap Island, able to fashion a cannon from junk and cast off by parents who were likely pirates. With the plans complete, work begins, and over ten years of setbacks in every kind of weather the team brings the railway to life, Cutty Flam eventually joining in. By the time it is done, broken trade and a rising tide have isolated the desperate city further than ever; the finished train then rolls out across the sea with Kokoro driving and the rest of the crew watching in joy. The chapter confirms that the sentence was deferred a full decade and that the crawl stroke Yokozuna later uses was something Franky originally taught him.