Chapters · Sky Island › Jaya

Chapter 229: Let's Eat

Arc: Jaya · Saga: Sky Island · Released: 2002

Summary

On Mont Blanc Cricket’s island, Cricket lays out everything he knows (all of it hearsay, he stresses) about how to reach Sky Island: a “mysterious cloud” called the Emperor Cloud (Imperio-Cumulus) can blot out the sun and turn day to night, and the only way up is to ride the Knock-Up Stream, a violent ocean current that geothermal pressure erupts skyward for one minute, roughly five times a month, at coordinates that change each time. To survive being flung at the sky a ship must be heavily reinforced — Cricket volunteers his Saruyama Alliance partners Masira and Shoujou to do the work. The needle of the Straw Hats’ Log Pose will lock onto the next island in one more day, and Cricket calculates the next Stream and the Emperor Cloud will coincide tomorrow at noon, just south of the island. Usopp, suspicious of why a stranger is being so helpful, snaps and calls Cricket “a descendant of Noland the Liar,” but later apologizes; Cricket forgives them and welcomes them as comrades. Over a feast, Nico Robin examines Mont Blanc Noland’s logbook and reads its last tear-blotted line — written the day Noland was executed — “I saw the gold in the skull’s right eye.” As the crew laughs that they “dive because they see their dreams at the bottom of the sea,” Bellamy’s ship approaches the island at night, his crew sneering that “dream-seeking fools don’t deserve gold bullion.”

New reveals

• The Emperor Cloud (Imperio-Cumulus) is a dense, currentless, rain-less cloud mass that hangs in the sky for thousands of years and can blot out the sun, causing sudden “daytime night” at sea (pages 3–4).
• The Knock-Up Stream is the route to Sky Island: geothermal heat boils seawater in a cavity beneath the sea, erupting it skyward in a one-minute torrent that can hurl a ship into the air (pages 6–9).
• The Stream erupts about five times a month, at coordinates that change each time; reaching the sky requires timing the Stream to erupt under the Emperor Cloud (page 8).
• A ship must be reinforced to survive the Stream; Cricket offers Masira and Shoujou to do the work (page 10).
• The Log Pose needle locks onto the next island in one more day; Cricket’s reckoning puts the next Stream/Emperor Cloud alignment at noon tomorrow, just south, in the southern sky (pages 11, 14).
• Cricket is a descendant of Mont Blanc Noland “the Liar” (Usopp’s accusation, page 12).
• Noland’s logbook’s final tear-blotted line, written the day he was executed: “I saw the gold in the skull’s right eye” (pages 17–18).
• Bellamy’s crew is tracking the Straw Hats / Cricket’s gold-seeking, arriving at the island at night (page 19).

Foreshadowing seeds planted

Payoffs (seeds from earlier chapters that resolve here)

Mentions / appearances

Mont Blanc Cricket · Masira · Shoujou (referenced) · Mont Blanc Noland (referenced) · Bellamy · Sarquiss (provisional, the crewmate at the wheel) · Luffy · Nami · Usopp · Zoro · Sanji · Nico Robin · Chopper · Going Merry · Jaya · Mock Town (referenced)

Notable panels

• Page 1 — Title splash (B&W): Chopper rings a large bell beside a rooster/bird and a lighthouse; “Chapter 229: Let’s Eat.”
• Page 2 — Cricket, shirtless with a sunburst tattoo, announces “I’m going to tell you all I know about Sky Island.”
• Pages 3–4 — Diagram-style explanation of the Emperor Cloud blotting out the sun.
• Pages 7–8 — Cross-section diagrams of the undersea cavity and the geothermal eruption that becomes the Knock-Up Stream.
• Page 12 — Usopp accuses Cricket: “You’re a descendant of Noland the Liar! I don’t trust you!!”
• Pages 17–18 — Robin reads Noland’s logbook; close-up on “I saw the gold in the skull’s right eye.”
• Page 19 — Bellamy’s ship (twin skull-balloon jolly roger) approaches the island at night.

Open questions raised

• What did Noland mean by “the gold in the skull’s right eye” — a city name, a death omen, or a literal location?
• Why is Cricket — a Noland descendant — being so generous to strangers, and is the alignment really tomorrow or a setup?
• Will the Going Merry survive the Knock-Up Stream even after reinforcement?
• What does Bellamy intend by arriving at Cricket’s island under cover of night?