Maglia, the Aerial City Overlowing with Steam

The high-pitched scream of a steam whistle and white smoke venting from an overpressure valve burst, mixing with the damp upper-layer steam current from Northmaglia.

Pushing down his leather flight goggles, which bore the faded logo of 'Cello Steam-Wing Workshop,' Cello tightened his grip on the Single Steam-Wing's control stick.

Two thousand feet up, in the skies above Centamaglia. Through the gaps in the rusted high-rise pipe networks and the breaks in the clouds, 'it' was falling in a straight line. It wasn't a bird, nor a toolbox dropped from the upper levels. It was a small human figure, fluttering something like a white piece of cloth.

Cello slammed his foot down on the pressure pedal. A heavy metallic thud echoed through the soles of his feet. The small cast-iron boiler installed directly beneath his seat let out an eerie low-frequency growl from deep within its gut. The red needle of the pressure gauge leaped past the safety zone and straight to the limit point in an instant.

——SHHHHHHH-WAAAAAAAN!!

Ultra-high-pressure superheated steam erupted from the main thruster, tearing through the sky like a dull silver breath. The lightweight duralumin frame screamed from the recoil, and intense G-force slammed into Cello's body.

Cello roughly threw the sidebars on his left wide open. High-pressure steam hissed out in intermittent bursts—hyu, hyu!—from the micro-thrusters positioned on either side of the nose, forcing the Single Steam-Wing to pivot its axis against the strong winds.

He dove down from the workshop's landing pad. His vision was filled by the giant mesh of rusted steam pipes and the white, hazy silhouette of the ground far below. The falling figure was right in front of him. They were going too fast. If he caught them like this, the impact would knock them both out of the sky!