One Piece (Love Story) [Part One]

Chapter Ninety Nine [Rewritten]

-Chapter Ninety-Nine-

"Just calm down, Nami" Usopp said, already attempting to calm the ginger down before she got too excited over the prospect of gold.

"I don't think that's even physically possible for her, especially not after the mention of gold" I said.

"What exactly is it that you wanted to ask me?" Cricket asked, looking toward Luffy.

"We're searching for Sky Island and we were told that you would be able to tell us how to get there" the captain answered.

"Are you serious?!" the man barked out laughing. "Don't tell me you really believe that place exists?!" he bellowed.

"Stop it, Nami! You can't attack a sick man!" Usopp cried out the minute he saw the enraged look in our navigator's eyes.

"Yeah, no need to be so harsh" I chuckled as we both attempted to hold her back. Angrily clenching her jaw, steam practically blew out of her ears as her reddened face twisted up into a hateful sneer while her arms were outstretched and violently jerking around in an attempt to grab at and strangle the man.

"You mean there's no Sky Island? Are you sure?" Luffy frowned.

"I don't know—see nobody knows if Sky Island really exists or not" Cricket confessed. "I know only of one man who has claimed to have seen the island himself, but he's considered a liar of epic proportions" he said, causing the captain to turn to Usopp.

"What are you looking at?!" the sharpshooter snapped.

"There's an old fairytale that the people of the North Blue know very well, it's called Noland the Liar" Cricket explained, causing Luffy to once again look at the long-nosed pirate.

"Stop looking at me, Luffy! My name's not Noland!" Usopp snapped.

"Yeah, but you're both liars" I snorted

"What was that?!" he glared.

"Nothing" I innocently chirped, causing him to irritably grumble.

"Now that I think about it, Noland's family name was also Montblanc—does that mean that you two are related somehow?" Sanji curiously asked.

"Is he right? And is this island the one mentioned in the fairytale?" Nami asked.

"Yeah, Noland's my grandfather's, grandfather's, grandfather" Cricket nodded. "He's a distant ancestor of mine—I am his descendent, but we're so far removed that I doubt there's even a single drop of his blood in my veins" he said. "The Montblanc family was driven out of the North Blue country a long time ago and we've managed to keep a very low profile ever since" he explained, removing the cigarette from his mouth and tapping some of its ashes onto the floor. "People still denounce the family name, but we've never despised it for this."

"But why?" Chopper asked.

"Because no one, contrary to popular belief, was a very honest person" Cricket answered.

"Ain't that the truth" I softly scoffed, rolling my eyes.

"That's not what the fairytale said" Nami pointed out.

"As the story goes, Noland's last words were as followed, "I can only assume that the City of Gold sunk into the sea," this line is accompanied by an idiotic face in the illustration—but Noland was no idiot, he knew what he saw and I believe he wasn't lying about it" Cricket said. "Noland was sure the island he stumbled upon where he found the ruins of the City of Gold was the island of Jaya, but when he returned with the king, there was no gold—unsuccessful, he insisted that the ancient city had submerged due to shifts in the Earth's crust" he said, retelling the same tale as the book. "But everyone dismissed this as the very last bit excuse of a doomed man. Noland was given a public execution, and when he died, so did his discoveries...only the legend of the liar remained..." he sighed.