Mont Blanc Cricket

“Jaya’s biggest weirdo” · alive · Saruyama Alliance (named off-panel Ch. 226; first physical appearance Ch. 227)

Hulking lone diver living on the eastern coast of Jaya in a half-fake plywood “castle.” A direct blood descendant of the explorer Mont Blanc Noland, he has spent his life diving the seas off Jaya searching for the sunken City of Gold to clear his ancestor’s name. Fights bare-fisted with detonating, firework-like gauntlet punches (“MAROON” effects) — no Devil Fruit shown. Epithet box at debut: “Last Boss / The Monkey Mountain Allied Force” (Saruyama Alliance). Suffers chronic decompression sickness (“the bends”) from diving too deep, day after day, without decompressing. Associated with the salvage ape Masira. Keeps a portrait of Noland on his wall. Member of the Mont Blanc lineage.

Profile

Profile (mentioned-only as of ch. 226; not yet seen on-page): Named on p. 8 as the man whose home is marked with an X on Nico Robin’s map of Jaya, on the island’s opposite (eastern) coast. Described as “Jaya’s biggest weirdo,” who “was chased out of town for talking about dreams.” Robin draws an explicit parallel to Luffy (“you have something in common”). The “Big Ape Brothers” (Shoujou and Masira) control the sea around his home. The Bellamy Pirates separately resolve to seek him out over a discovery of gold bullion in Western Jaya (pp. 19-20).

Etymology

Surname “Mont Blanc” — the family name (see Mont Blanc), after the French sweetened-chestnut-cream dessert; Vivre Card confirms the Mont Blanc dessert (sweet chestnut paste) is Cricket’s favourite food, the same as ancestor Mont Blanc Noland’s.

Given name “Cricket” — within the family’s Pinocchio overlay (Noland = the liar-whose-tale-proves-true; cf. Liar Truth Inversion), “Cricket” evokes the Talking Cricket of The Adventures of Pinocchio — Disney’s Jiminy Cricket — the conscience who insists on a truth no one wants to hear. That is precisely Cricket’s role: he has spent a decade diving the Jaya seafloor to prove “Noland was no liar,” against a world that brands the whole bloodline a joke. The chestnut motif is reinforced on-page when Luffy pulls the drowning Cricket from the sea and calls him a “chestnut” — the literal ingredient of the Mont Blanc dessert.

Confidence: surname-dessert link high (Vivre Card); Talking-Cricket conscience layer medium (thematically supported by the arc, not SBS-confirmed).

Arc-by-arc updates

Jaya epilogue (Ch. 303) — El Dorado search closes

• Calls off the seafloor search for El Dorado (“There’s nothing on the ocean floor… El Dorado was in the sky”) now that the Straw Hats proved the gold was in Skypiea (pp. 2-3).
• Thanks Masira and Shoujou, who pledge to follow him on whatever adventure comes next (pp. 2-3). Closes the Saruyama Alliance’s El-Dorado quest — the Noland-vindication payoff.

Skypiea — the bell heard on Jaya (Ch. 299)

• Hears the Great Golden Bell of Shandora toll down from the sky to Jaya (pp. 9-10, 13-14) — the proof his ancestor Mont Blanc Noland was no liar. Grins “Now that’s a great adventure,” then collapses in tears of relief: “I’m so glad they’re okay… I was so worried.” His lifelong quest to clear Noland’s name is vindicated. (No change to alive status; still on Jaya with the Saruyama Alliance.)

Skypiea — bell heard on Jaya (Ch. 298)

• Off-screen from Upper Yard but reunited with the main plot by sound: Cricket and the Saruyama Alliance on Jaya hear the Giant Golden Bell of Shandora toll across the sky after 400 years (pp. 15-19).
• His decades-long quest is answered indirectly: the City of Gold was real, and it rose into the sky. “REACH!! We found El Dorado!! Mister!! Can you hear it?”, “…was in the sky!” (pp. 15-19). The “Noland was no liar” payoff he gave his life to (The Noland Legend and the City of Gold) is delivered by the bell’s voice.

Jaya — Knock-Up Stream launch (Ch. 235)

• Sees the Straw Hats off; receives his salvaged gold back from Luffy (pages 6, 9–10).
• Delivers his thematic credo: legends like El Dorado / Sky Island are unproven and laughed at, and “That’s what makes it a great adventure!!” (pages 8–9). His generosity (raised as an open question in Ch. 229) is confirmed sincere.
• Note: Cricket does NOT join the escort to the launch point — the Saruyama Alliance ships (Masira, Shoujou) tow the Merry; Cricket bids them farewell from the island (“Bye, Mister!!”).

Jaya (Ch. 232)

• Referenced (off-page) as “the diamond-head man” / “old man Cricket” whose gold Bellamy stole and whom Luffy comes to avenge (pp. 11-12, 17). Bellamy derides Luffy for believing “the 400-year-old lies of his fool ancestor,” tying Cricket directly to the Mont Blanc Noland legend.

Jaya (Ch. 231)

• His house is raided and his decade of salvaged gold (incl. the bell-shaped ingot proving the City of Gold) stolen by the Bellamy Pirates (pp. 8–13). See Bell-Shaped Gold Ingot Proves the City of Gold.
• Insists the gold “doesn’t matter” — the ship can still be readied and the sky reached before sunrise (pp. 17–18).

Jaya (Ch. 230)

• Reveals the physical proof behind Noland’s legend: he salvaged three bell-shaped gold ingots and a penguin-shaped statue fragment from the seafloor off Jaya over his ten years of diving (pp. 4–5). Calls it “not much to show for ten years of diving.”
• Explains the navigation problem and the South Bird solution: the crew must catch a South Bird before sunrise to find the Knock-Up Stream, which lies directly south and which the Log Pose cannot locate (pp. 6–9). “Do not fail!!”
• Off-page at chapter’s end, Bellamy’s crew arrives at his house demanding his gold while the Straw Hats are in the jungle (pp. 19–20).

Jaya (Ch. 229)

• Lays out the full mechanism for reaching Sky Island: ride the Knock-Up Stream up to the Emperor Cloud; survival requires a heavily reinforced ship (pages 2–10). He stresses all of it is hearsay and speculation. See Sky Island Existence.
• Calculates the next Stream / Emperor Cloud alignment as noon tomorrow, just south of the island, in the southern sky (page 14); the Log Pose needle locks onto the next island in one more day.
• Offers Masira and Shoujou to reinforce the Going Merry so she can survive the Stream (page 10).
• Revealed (via Usopp’s accusation) as a descendant of Mont Blanc Noland “the Liar” (page 12); forgives the crew after Usopp apologizes and welcomes them as comrades (page 15).
• Keeps Noland’s logbook; its last tear-blotted line — “I saw the gold in the skull’s right eye” — is read aloud by Nico Robin (pages 17–18). See Noland Saw Gold In The Skulls Right Eye.

Jaya (Ch. 228)

• Apologizes for attacking the Straw Hats earlier — “I thought you were after my gold” (p. 6).
• Reveals he is Mont Blanc Noland’s great-great-great-(etc.)-grandson; “I probably only have a drop of his blood in me” (p. 8). The Mont Blanc were driven into shame as descendants of “Noland the Liar,” yet Cricket insists Noland “was no liar” (pp. 8-9).
• Tells the legend in full: Noland reported a mountain of gold to his king; it had vanished on their return; Noland was executed, his last words that the gold “must have sunk into the sea” (pp. 9-10). Names Jaya as the City-of-Gold island and cites Noland’s crust-shift theory (p. 10).
• Has dived the ocean floor off Jaya for ten years searching for the City of Gold; reframes his motive as a personal grudge “with the man who ruined my life,” not the gold or the name — “this is my battle” (pp. 10-15).
• Backstory: left home ashamed of the family, became a pirate by accident escaping “Noland’s curse,” and landed fatefully on this very island ten years ago despite hating Noland and the family most (pp. 11-13).
• Masira and Shoujou (“those monkeys”) found and saved him while he dove alone and became his self-appointed henchmen; the three are fans of the Noland story (pp. 15-16).
• Produces Noland’s surviving 400-year-old log book and reads it as proof sky islands are real (pp. 17-18) — see Sky Island Existence, Sky Island, Noland Log Book Waver and Sky Fish.
• Commits the Saruyama Alliance to helping the Straw Hats reach the Sky Island — “It’ll be up to us… to help get them there” (pp. 19-20).

Jaya (Ch. 227)

• First appearance (pp. 13-19). Named by Nico Robin as the crew’s destination (p. 3); confirmed in person p. 14. Epithet box: “Last Boss / The Monkey Mountain Allied Force” (Saruyama Alliance).
• Revealed as Mont Blanc Noland’s descendant, hunting the City of Gold to redeem the family name (Mont Blanc); see The Noland Legend and the City of Gold.
• Attacks the crew with detonating gauntlet punches (pp. 15-17), then collapses from the bends; carried in and tended by Tony Tony Chopper (pp. 18-19). Luffy had earlier hauled him — the drowning “chestnut” — out of the water (p. 18).