Chapters · Sky Island › Jaya

Chapter 230: Pursue the South Bird!

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

Summary

Mont Blanc Cricket finishes reading Noland’s log: arriving on Jaya on “May 21, 1122,” Noland heard a jungle bird’s strange cries and the tolling of a giant bell of pure gold ringing out over the ancient city (pp. 2–3). Cricket clarifies the bell was no fantasy — he salvaged three bell-shaped gold ingots from the seafloor, and Robin explains ingots are a trading weight-standard, proving an advanced civilization once stood here (pp. 4–5). His other find is a penguin-shaped statue fragment; Sanji muses that “bells of pure gold and a bird” may be the symbols of ancient Jaya, and a South Bird — still found on the island and mentioned in Noland’s log — has the same weird cry (pp. 5–6). A sudden blast (Masira and Shoujou reinforcing the Going Merry) interrupts; Cricket urgently orders the crew to catch a South Bird before sunrise — its unerring instinct always points south, and they need it because the Log Pose can only guide them to islands, not to the Knock-Up Stream, which lies directly south of Jaya (pp. 6–9). Drunk and over-full from the feast, the crew stumbles into the pitch-dark jungle and splits into three net teams: #1 Sanji/Usopp/Nami, #2 Zoro/Robin, #3 Luffy/Chopper (pp. 9–16). They chase the bird’s “JOH” cry through swarms of giant spiders, centipedes, beetles, and a beehive; the South Bird is finally revealed up close, mockingly declaring “Whoever invades this jungle… will die!” (pp. 17–18). Meanwhile at the house, Bellamy’s crew arrives in the night demanding Cricket’s gold; Masira and Shoujou stand as his bodyguards, and Bellamy reveals himself as “The Hyena,” relishing that “it’s so much more rewarding to steal someone’s treasure when they’ve suffered a lot to get it” (pp. 19–20). The volume’s SBS Question Corner runs on page 20 (Bellamy named after pirate Samuel “Black Sam” Bellamy; “tempo” = weather in Italian; the Mr. 3 floating-wood gag).

New reveals

• The golden bell was real. Noland’s log describes “the sound that giant bell of pure gold made” tolling over the ancient city (pp. 2–3). Cricket reveals he found three bell-shaped gold ingots on the ocean floor — not the bell itself, but proof gold was here (pp. 4–5).
• Ingots = civilization proof. Robin: ingots are “created as a weight standard” for trading; their existence proves an advanced civilization once occupied the region (pp. 4–5). Zoro counters that a small amount proves nothing, but Luffy/Usopp take it as proof “there really is a City of Gold!”
• Penguin statue fragment — Cricket’s other major salvage, “once part of a statue”; Sanji wonders if a penguin/bird and golden bells were “the symbols of ancient Jaya” (page 5).
• The South Bird. A jungle bird still living on Jaya, mentioned in Noland’s ship’s log; “some animals have an innate sense of direction… its instincts always show it the right direction. The South Bird is the best of them all” — it always points/faces south (pp. 6, 8).
• Why they need the bird. The Log Pose “can only guide us to an island. It’s no good for finding a patch of water.” The Knock-Up Stream is open ocean, so they must navigate by the South Bird to head south (page 7).
• Knock-Up Stream is due SOUTH of Jaya (map, page 7) — the bearing the crew must reach by the next day’s alignment (set up in Ch. 229).
• Bellamy “The Hyena.” Bellamy names his own epithet (page 20) and states his creed: stealing treasure is sweetest when the victim “suffered a lot to get it in the first place” — explicitly targeting Cricket’s decade of diving.
• SBS (page 20): Bellamy’s name comes from English/American pirate Samuel “Black Sam” Bellamy; “tempo” (Nami’s Climate Baton) means “weather” in Italian.

Foreshadowing seeds planted

Payoffs (seeds from earlier chapters that resolve here)

Mentions / appearances

Mont Blanc Cricket · Mont Blanc Noland (referenced, via log) · Masira · Shoujou · Bellamy · Luffy · Nami · Usopp · Zoro · Sanji · Nico Robin · Tony Tony Chopper · Saruyama Alliance · Bellamy Pirates (referenced) · Mont Blanc · Jaya · Cricket’s House · the South Bird (creature, first appearance) · the City of Gold / ancient Jaya (legendary)

Notable panels

• Page 1 — Cover/title splash: Sanji lounging at home with a pug, a chihuahua, a fluffy long-haired cat, an open book, a liquor bottle, and a fish in a bowl. Opens a new Sanji-centered cover serial. “Chapter 230: Pursue the South Bird!”
• Page 2 (bottom panel) — Silhouette of the giant golden bell from Noland’s log — the Shandora Liberty Bell seed.
• Pages 4–5 — Cricket’s salvaged bell-shaped gold ingots and the penguin statue fragment; Robin’s ingot-as-civilization-proof explanation.
• Page 6 — First mention/intro of the South Bird, immediately interrupted by the “DA DOOM!! BLAST!!” of Masira/Shoujou’s ship reinforcement.
• Page 7 — Map panel: Jaya with “KNOCK UP STREAM” marked directly south; Log-Pose limitation explained.
• Page 18 — Close-up reveal of the South Bird: “Whoever invades this jungle… will die!” — a dark-comic talking/mimicking-bird beat.
• Page 20 — Full-figure reveal of Bellamy “The Hyena,” tongue out, declaring his treasure-stealing creed. Character-splash worth a mirror check.

Open questions raised

• Will the crew catch a South Bird in time to make the noon Knock-Up Stream alignment?
• If gold ingots and statues survived on the seafloor, where did the rest of the City of Gold go — did it truly sink, or rise to the sky?
• What will Bellamy do to Cricket, Masira, and Shoujou while the crew is off in the jungle?
• Are the “symbols of ancient Jaya” (golden bell + bird) tied to the Skypiea civilization the crew will meet above?