Mr. Tom

The strike on the Shihousen carries on as the marines and the people of Water 7 clear out. A bystander recognizes the warships, and aboard the Battle Frankys the raiders describe their rampage as something Spandam called a sacrifice for judgment. Cutty Flam races toward Scrap Island, where Tom and Iceburg have already arrived and are closing on the vessels, only to discover every one of them deserted. As Iceburg struggles to make sense of it, Tom catches sight of two more Battle Frankys lining up a shot, and the ships beneath the pair burst into flame.

Cutty Flam reaches them to find both mentors hurt on the island. Iceburg rises, drives a fist into the boy's face, and lays the blame on his ships, now operated by the World Government. A creator's intent, he argues, means nothing once such weapons fall into other hands and cause harm. Devastated, Iceburg swears he will never pardon what the boy has done, and the two dissolve into tears.

Tom calls for them to stop and, to Iceburg's surprise, defends Cutty Flam as no bad kid, even as a harpoon lodged in him proves impossible to extract; he laughs that he cannot feel it at all. Water 7 residents arrive, stunned by the wounds yet still ready to condemn the trio. Spandam appears on Scrap Island, brands all three as the guilty parties, and they are brought before a judge who accepts his every claim. When the judge observes that Tom's charges would otherwise have been dropped, Cutty Flam blurts out that Spandam orchestrated the raid, only to be laughed off. Spandam insists they were caught in the act and that his company built the ships, yet, recalling the injuries those weapons dealt him, he disowns the lot of them.

At the disavowal, Tom snaps free of his chains and lands a blow on Spandam, a sight that shocks Iceburg, who has never once seen him raise his hand to anyone. Tom condemns the lie that those were not his ships, since he poured care and thought into every one, and declares that no vessel is born good or evil. He says he does not mind what kind of craft Cutty Flam makes, that a ship's parent should love it regardless of its purpose, and he wrenches the harpoon out of his body as he speaks. With the weeping boys before him, he warns them to let no further sound escape. The cover is an Animal Theater panel showing Robin riding a deep-sleeping ostrich taxi whose neck bears a sign reading Wait Until the Noon. The chapter belongs to the Water 7 Arc.