Saint Dio did not lack combat personnel.
If he truly desired, he could use his stockpiled Devil Fruits to amass a company-sized army of Ability Users in a short time.
But such an effort would be pointless.
Low-quality, mass-produced combatants were nothing more than cannon fodder when facing true masters.
What he needed was subtlety and refinement.
High-end combat power was the only thing truly worth investing resources in.
In comparison, a talent like Stussy, who excelled in the field of intelligence, was even more precious in Saint Dio’s grand design.
Her value did not lie in how many hard battles she could fight, but in her ever-present eyes, her ever-listening ears, and her mind that could always accurately anticipate her master’s desires.
After gaining the Bat-Bat Fruit, Model Vampire, her intelligence-gathering and stealth-infiltration capabilities were among the best in all of CP0.
Because of this, Saint Dio now found himself somewhat unable to let go of Stussy.
She was simply too useful.
Whether it was gathering and analyzing external intelligence or serving and coordinating with him in bed, she was the one who understood Saint Dio best.
She always grasped his intentions before he even spoke, always completing the preparations before he even issued an order.
Such tacit understanding was not something any random person could replace.
Saint Dio had considered cultivating another talent like her.
He had once asked Stussy to keep an eye out for suitable candidates and try to train a successor, but her reply had been blunt.
Suitable candidates were too hard to find.
A person who possessed the aptitude of a spy, could adapt to the powers of a Devil Fruit, and could pass the test of loyalty—such a candidate was a rare find, not something one could simply seek out.
Sandersonia’s massive serpentine body slithered rapidly across the desolate land.
Each undulation propelled her dozens of meters forward, leaving a winding trail in her wake.
Marigold followed closely behind, her ochre-yellow serpentine body moving just as flexibly across the ground.
The two sisters, one before the other, were like two moving fortresses.
A crimson bat flew back from the distance, landing precisely on Stussy’s outstretched finger.
The moment its body touched her skin, it melted into a drop of crimson blood, seeping into her fingertip.
Stussy closed her eyes, reading the information the bat had brought back.
After a moment, she opened them and tilted her chin toward a specific direction.
“Master, that way.” Saint Dio nodded slightly and gave the serpent head beneath his feet a gentle tap.
“Change direction.” Without a word, Sandersonia turned and surged forward at full speed in the direction Stussy had indicated.
Before long, clear signs of human activity appeared on the ground ahead.
Two parallel railway tracks stretched into the distance, glinting with a metallic luster in the afternoon sun.
Though the tracks were crudely laid, they were still extremely conspicuous man-made structures in this desolate world.
“Stop.” Saint Dio signaled Sandersonia to halt.
He leaped down from her head and landed beside the tracks.
Looking down at the two rails embedded in the ground, he confirmed his judgment.
That’s right.
This is a railway.
This world really is Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress.
Stussy followed from behind.
She listened intently for a moment before reporting, “Master, an armored train is approaching from a distance.” Saint Dio gazed in the direction she had indicated.
At the far end of the railway tracks, a tiny black speck appeared on the horizon.
Accompanied by the faint roar of a steam engine, it was slowly making its way toward them.
In this world overrun by the undead creatures known as “Kabane,” the survivors of the Far Eastern Island Nation of Japan had built fortified citadels called “Stations” to withstand the threat.
They were trapped within, struggling to survive.
The only means of transportation that could travel between these Stations was the armored steam locomotive, commonly known as a “Hayajiro.” The Stations maintained basic survival by exchanging produced goods, but every journey carried immense risk.
The armored steam locomotive currently approaching was the Koutetsujyo.
It belonged to Aragane Station, a citadel whose main industries were heavy industries such as ironmaking and steam engines.
Aragane Station was governed by the Yomogawa Family, and the person currently aboard the Koutetsujyo was the eldest daughter of the Yomogawa Family—Yomogawa Ayame.
She had just completed a resource exchange with another Station and was now on her way back to Aragane.
Inside the Koutetsujyo’s carriages, the atmosphere was heavy and oppressive.
Several samurai, clad in armor and armed with steam guns, were stationed by the firing ports, vigilantly scanning the outside for any movement.
Their gazes swept back and forth between the desolate land and the distant hills, their fingers resting permanently on the triggers, ready to engage any Kabane swarm that might emerge from any direction.
At the front of the train, the workers operating the locomotive tirelessly shoveled coal into the boiler.
Sweat poured down their soot-streaked faces, hissing as it dripped onto the scorching furnace walls and evaporated.
The roar of the steam engine and the rhythmic clatter-clack of the wheels grinding against the rails intertwined.
In the center of the carriage, a young woman in a kimono sat formally on her seat, her hands folded gracefully in her lap.
Her features were beautiful, her eyes holding a mixture of youthful innocence and maturity.
Yet, the slight furrow in her brow betrayed her inner turmoil.
Yomogawa Ayame.
Every journey outside a Station was a gamble.
Though the resource exchange had gone relatively smoothly, she was never truly safe until they were back within the walls of Aragane Station.
They could be attacked by Kabane at any moment.
She prayed silently for a safe and uneventful return journey.
Just then, a samurai at the forward lookout suddenly cried out urgently, “Lady Ayame!
There are unidentified figures by the tracks ahead!
And…
and two giant monsters!” “Are they Kabane?” Ayame shot to her feet, her voice laced with urgency.
The samurai opened his mouth to speak, but his expression turned strange, as if he didn’t know how to describe the sight before him.
“No…
they’re not Kabane, but…” He stammered for a long moment, unable to find the words.
Ayame frowned.
Deciding not to wait for his explanation, she lifted the hem of her kimono and strode through the carriage, climbing the ladder to the roof of the Koutetsujyo.
The moment she emerged, a fierce wind howled past, whipping her long hair and nearly forcing her eyes shut.
She instinctively raised a hand to shield her face, squinting to keep the dust and sand from blinding her.
As her vision cleared, she finally saw the two figures by the tracks ahead— And then, she froze.
Standing in an open area near the rails were two colossal forms.
They bore no resemblance to any human shape she knew.
They had the upper bodies of human women, but from the waist down, they were thick, coiling serpentine tails.
One of the figures was covered in bronze scales, its massive size as imposing as a moving mountain.
Its upright upper body alone towered several stories high.
The other was slightly smaller, its earthy yellow scales gleaming with a matte finish in the sun, yet it radiated the same suffocatingly powerful aura.
They were monsters, a grotesque fusion of serpent and human.
Just standing there, they were enough to chill the blood of anyone who beheld them.
A wave of unprecedented terror, like a bucket of ice water, poured over Ayame, leaving her momentarily paralyzed.
She didn’t snap out of it until the samurai beside her asked cautiously, “Lady Ayame…
should we stop?” Ayame jolted back to her senses.
Her mind raced for a moment before she gritted her teeth and made her decision.
“No.
Accelerate!
Charge through them!” Though her voice still trembled slightly, her tone had regained its resolve.
A steam locomotive like the Koutetsujyo took a long time to restart once stopped, and it needed a significant stretch of track to accelerate to a speed sufficient to smash through obstacles.
If those monsters truly harbored malicious intent, that interval would give them ample time to do something to the Koutetsujyo.
It was better to charge through at full speed than to stop and become a sitting duck.
If they truly intended to block the way, perhaps the Koutetsujyo’s own weight and speed would be enough to knock them aside.
“Yes, milady!” The samurai hurried to obey.
Soon, the Koutetsujyo’s whistle shrieked a loud blast, and the roar of the steam engine suddenly intensified.
Steam billowed from beneath the wheels as the entire armored train began to accelerate, charging straight toward the two massive figures.
The distance closed rapidly.
Ayame stood on the roof, her hands gripping the railing tight.
As they drew closer, she finally grasped the true scale of the two monsters.
When they were just yards away, the visual impact was almost suffocating.
Their figures eclipsed the sun, casting a shadow that enveloped the entire Koutetsujyo.
And the two monsters were watching them.
Their two pairs of massive, vertical pupils, like two deep and eerie lanterns, locked onto the hurtling armored train.
Their bodies remained motionless, merely watching silently, as if observing something amusing.
Clang-clang-clang— Nothing remained in her ears but the roar of the wheels grinding on the rails and the pounding of her own heart.
The Koutetsujyo hurtled past the two massive figures, kicking up a cloud of dust.
At the exact moment it passed the first figure— The colossal snake head suddenly dipped low, bringing its face inches from Ayame on the roof.
Ayame’s breath caught, her heart seemingly stopping in that instant.
It was a serpentine face so colossal it could swallow her whole.
The bronze scales were clearly visible at this range, each one the size of a palm, shimmering with a cold, metallic luster.
Those golden vertical pupils stared at her in the immediate foreground, ice-cold, as a forked snake’s tongue flickered in the air, nearly touching her cheek.
The uncanny valley effect was magnified to its absolute limit.
The face was both human and inhuman; that eerie ambiguity between the two nearly froze the blood in Ayame’s veins.
Yet, the massive snake head merely watched her quietly for a moment before slowly retracting.
Nothing happened.
The Koutetsujyo passed smoothly between the two monsters, speeding ahead on the rails and leaving their massive figures far behind.
Only when the two shapes had vanished from sight did Ayame finally let out a long breath, her legs going weak, and she nearly collapsed on the roof.
She realized then that her back was completely soaked with cold sweat, her kimono clinging to her skin with a chilling touch.
“…Continue forward.
Return to Aragane Station at full speed,” she ordered, forcing herself to sound composed.