A Duel to the Death

"Whoa, they're coming after us!" Usopp shouted in panic.

"What did you do to the old man?" Shoujou demanded angrily.

"We saw he was sick, so we were taking care of him," Luffy explained calmly.

"They're not going to listen!" Usopp was already getting ready to run.

"So that's what happened! You really are good people!" Shoujou and Masira said, tears streaming down their faces.

"They actually listened to us?" Usopp said in disbelief.

"You guys live here too?" Luffy quickly hit it off with Shoujou and Masira.

"Yeah. The old man's house is the Saruyama Alliance's headquarters." Both sides seemed to have forgotten their earlier clash and began chatting happily.

"How can they get along with Luffy so well?" Sanji asked, baffled.

"Because they're alike," Zoro said.

"They're all monkeys, huh? Monkey?" Li Ziming came out carrying several bottles of wine. "Want some?"

"Thanks." Zoro took a bottle, but Sanji shook his head and lit a cigarette. Li Ziming carried the remaining bottles over to Luffy.

"Luffy, the old man's awake!" Chopper called to Luffy and the others.

"Oh, good! I've got something to ask that square-faced old man!" Luffy cut short his conversation with Shoujou and Masira and went into the cramped house.

"Sorry for the trouble." Mont Blanc lit a cigarette and gave Luffy a rueful look. "I thought you were here to steal gold."

"You have gold here?" Nami asked excitedly.

"If he did, would he still be living here?" Li Ziming said, dashing her hopes.

"Forget the gold. Old man, we want to go to Sky Island. You're Noland's descendant, so you should know how to get there," Luffy said without hesitation.

"How to get to Sky Island?" Mont Blanc looked as if he had heard the funniest thing in the world. "Hahaha! You really believe Sky Island exists?"

"Huh? It doesn't?" Luffy said, annoyed.

"Who knows?" Mont Blanc looked uninterested. "Maybe one person did, but he was a liar known the world over. Even his descendants are laughed at."

"Not just Noland. You can count me too." Li Ziming shrugged. "I believe Sky Island exists."

"Kid, you've got to be joking. Everyone knows it's nothing but a joke, some pointless lie told by that fraud Noland." Mont Blanc sounded angry. "Because of him, his descendants have been cursed at for generations!"

"The king exiled his family because of him. But even then, not one of them resented him." Mont Blanc spoke as though he were telling a story.

"Why not?" Luffy asked, listening closely.

"Because Noland was honest to a fault!" Mont Blanc's words didn't shock the others much. Li Ziming had kept insisting Sky Island existed, and deep down, they had already come to believe it.

"So you keep searching the seabed for the golden city to clear your ancestor's name!" Usopp looked at Mont Blanc with admiration.

"What nonsense are you talking about?" Mont Blanc looked furious. "I don't care how honest and upright that ancestor was, or how great an adventurer he was. He has nothing to do with me!"

Mont Blanc seemed ready to let out years of pent-up resentment. "Can you imagine it? A child getting cursed out by strangers just because he shares a tiny bit of blood with that man? That's the world I grew up in!"

After letting it all out, Mont Blanc seemed to calm down. "Still, you're not entirely wrong. For four hundred years, many people went to sea to look for the sunken gold and prove our ancestor hadn't lied. Most of them were never heard from again." He looked wistful. "I was ashamed of my family, so I left. I became a pirate."

"But the unbelievable thing is, I ended up on this island," Mont Blanc said with a bitter laugh. "Funny, isn't it? I hated Noland more than anyone, yet I came here. It felt like a curse! In the end, I realized it was fate!"

Mont Blanc's eyes blazed with fighting spirit. "It was Noland challenging me! I chose to stay on this island. Whether the gold exists or not, I'm not after it, and I have no interest in clearing Noland's name! I just want a duel to the death with the man who turned my life upside down!" Mont Blanc swung his fist hard, as if Noland stood right in front of him.

"What a hero!" Usopp was completely moved by Mont Blanc's story.

"What about those monkeys?" Luffy asked, puzzled. "Why are they here with you?"

"Those two?" A broad smile spread across Mont Blanc's face. "They're a pair of oddballs who dream of exploring the seabed, and they're fans of the picture book. Five or six years ago, they showed up and demanded to work for me. They said the golden city was real."

"I'm grateful to them." Mont Blanc listened to the noise outside and smiled. "The sea around here is deep. Down in that dark water, you feel even lonelier on your own. I dived alone day after day, until those two idiots showed up one day and insisted on working for me. Stubborn fools, the pair of them." He called them fools, but he didn't look angry in the slightest.

"Old man, we don't want to hear about the monkeys! We want to go to Sky Island!" Luffy complained.

Mont Blanc seemed taken aback by Luffy's determination. "Heh, impatient, aren't you? The only witness to Sky Island is Noland the Liar. Get mixed up with him and you'll be laughed at like I am." Despite his words, Mont Blanc took a book from his shelf. "This is Noland's logbook."

"Does it prove Noland went to Sky Island?" Luffy asked excitedly.

"Unfortunately, it doesn't say that." Mont Blanc turned to a page and handed the logbook to Nami. "Read this page."

Nami marveled briefly at the four-hundred-year-old logbook in her hands, then began reading. The entry mentioned Wavers, Sky Fish, and the Sky Sea.

"Ming, what's a Waver?" Luffy asked. What he'd heard sounded interesting.

"Basically, it's a boat, but it has a very unusual power source. You can't make one anywhere but Sky Island." Li Ziming shrugged. "Sky Island is different from down here. They use things called Dials. Different Dials have different abilities, and Skypieans use them for power or as weapons."

Mont Blanc stared at Li Ziming, astonished that he knew all that. Then he shook his head and went outside, leaving the others to their celebration.

"Old man, are you feeling any better?" Shoujou asked.

"Couldn't be better." Mont Blanc waved a hand. "Let me ask you two: what do you think of those guys?"

"Why do you ask?" Masira said, confused.

"Because it looks like they're going to Sky Island." Mont Blanc's words stunned Masira and Shoujou.

"Sky Island?" Masira thought for a moment. "There's only one way."

"But those guys will get themselves killed if they try it alone," Shoujou said gravely.

"Then let's give them a hand."