Chapter 101: The Blank Pages of History

Although both Moonwalk and Shave are mentioned in the story, the former involves using powerful leg strength to step on the air and rely on the resulting resistance to briefly hover midair. The latter is about rapidly stomping the ground dozens of times in an instant, generating explosive force to move at high speed.

Yet, when Lan once tried these techniques on the floating island, every attempt ended in failure. From that moment, Lan understood these abilities were far more complex than what the anime depicted. The reason Luffy mastered Shave was surely, in large part, thanks to the protagonist’s aura.

But with Zephyr’s guidance, Lan suddenly realized that it wasn’t as difficult as he had imagined—it was simply a matter of finding the right trick. Once Zephyr explained the essentials of Shave and Moonwalk in detail, Lan was eager to try. It wasn’t arrogance; it was because his system panel now displayed both Shave and Moonwalk, just as it had done with swordsmanship when Teacher Shiki had taught him. Whether he understood the techniques or not, the system would remember them for him.

However, further improvement would still require diligent practice; otherwise, even with the system’s help, the techniques would be weak and unimpressive. When Lan proposed to give it a try, Zephyr was utterly astonished. He had seen talented students before, but even the current three Admirals of the Navy were not able to master the Six Powers after hearing only the basic explanation. Even Akainu and his peers couldn’t do what Lan had just done.

Lan, with a casual tone, directly used Moonwalk to leap into the air. Though he couldn’t stay aloft for long and fell soon after, the fact he could fly meant he had already grasped the basics. All that remained was to continue practicing and strengthening his skills.

Mastering Moonwalk and Shave changed Zephyr’s view of Lan, rendering his previous training plan obsolete. Originally, he had planned to teach Moonwalk one day and Shave the next, but now that Lan had grasped them so quickly, there was no need for such a plan. As long as Lan could learn, Zephyr was willing to teach all the techniques at once.

With this in mind, Zephyr explained the key points of the remaining four techniques in detail, then witnessed what could only be described as true genius. Iron Body and Paper Drawing were hard to demonstrate, but Finger Gun and Tempest Kick were effortlessly utilized by Lan. Especially with Tempest Kick, since he had already mastered flying slashes, Lan saw that this technique was already at level three in the system panel—an astonishing result.

Amid Zephyr’s sighs of wonder, Lan began training according to the plan set by the system. Once Zephyr confirmed Lan had fully mastered the basics, he felt reassured enough to leave the training ground and find a place to quietly reflect.

Lan was truly terrifying. Among all the students Zephyr had taught, none had been like him. If he didn’t meet a premature end, his future achievements would be beyond imagination—perhaps even earning the title of the youngest Admiral in history.

Inside the Navy base’s library, Nami wasn’t sure if it was her imagination, but since coming here yesterday, she noticed only a handful of male marines in the library. Apart from those officers wearing capes, those who could settle down to read and study were mostly female marines. With the belief that men were all brutes, Nami smiled as she carefully searched the shelves.

She had already finished learning about navigation on the Grand Line yesterday and planned to study something different today.

“History of the Kingdom of Alabasta, History of the Kingdom of Dressrosa, Navy Chronicle…” she patiently searched through the history section. She wasn’t sure what she wanted to read, but if something caught her interest, she wouldn’t let it pass.

“I’ll start with the Navy Chronicle!” After wandering around, Nami returned to her starting point, took the thick history book, and found a spot to sit down.

She chose this book because she wanted to better understand what kind of organization Bell-mère and Lan had joined—the Navy, which claimed to protect justice. Why did such an organization produce scum like Mouse and Tutch?

Yet as she read, Nami felt something was off. The book was titled Navy Chronicle, but it didn’t mention when the Navy was founded; history began abruptly eight hundred years ago. The book recorded only events from eight hundred years ago to the present; anything earlier simply didn’t exist.

With curiosity, Nami opened other history books, such as History of the Kingdom of Alabasta, but they too contained no records of events from eight hundred years ago.

“Nothing, nothing, nothing—not a single one…” As if bewitched, Nami flipped through all the history books, and found the same blank.

Nearly eight hundred years’ worth of history, big and small events, were all documented, but every history book ended abruptly at the eight-hundred-year mark, as if the world simply didn’t exist before then.

For reasons she couldn’t explain, looking at these books missing the history before eight hundred years ago made Nami break out in a cold sweat. For the rest of the day, whatever she read, she was distracted, feeling there was some unspeakable secret hidden within.

At dusk, Nami went straight home. It wasn’t until she saw Lan practicing in the yard that she finally breathed a sigh of relief. Quickly approaching, she shared all her doubts from the library with him.

To her, Lan was the one person who knew everything in the world except navigation. If she asked him, she was sure to get the answer she wanted.

But after Nami finished speaking, Lan fell silent for a long time, then suddenly took her inside and shut the door tightly.

Lan was surprised by her question—how had she stumbled upon this secret?

The blank century of history, even after Lan transmigrated, had never been filled by Oda, so Lan himself only had a vague understanding. Yet it didn’t affect his plans much, so he never bothered to investigate further. If Nami hadn’t mentioned it now, he might have forgotten this detail entirely.

Sitting quietly on the sofa, surrounded by Zoro, Koby, little Don, and a terrified Nami, Lan sighed softly. Keeping his voice low and monitoring the area with Observation Haki, he spoke seriously: “Nami, I never intended to tell you about this, but since you discovered it today, I’ll tell you what I know.”

“First of all, I don’t know what exactly happened eight hundred years ago, nor does anyone dare to know.”

“To protect the blank history, the World Government launched a Buster Call, wiping an island off the map. To thoroughly bury that era, some marines even bombarded ships evacuating civilians, supposedly because historians might be hiding aboard.”

“So, Nami, what you saw and wanted to understand today—for now, forget it. At least until I have the power to challenge the World Government, pretend you saw nothing and know nothing. Do you understand?”

It was the first time Nami had seen Lan so solemn. Her face pale, she nodded.

Though she didn’t know what had happened during the blank history, just from Lan’s words, she realized this matter was far more complex than she had imagined.

Meanwhile, in the library, a man in a white suit and mask appeared. When he saw the pile of history books scattered across the table, a murderous aura radiated from him through the mask.