Chapter 287: God Killing

Two years into his Grand Line voyage, Mont Blanc Noland insists his crew dock at an island after he alone hears a bell tolling through the thunder. That island is Jaya, where a sickness is steadily killing the Shandia. Their dying priest declares the only remedy is offering up the most beautiful woman as a sacrifice, then passes away. The chosen girl, Mousse, calmly accepts her fate and thanks her mother Herb for raising her, while a young man named Seto, marked by the same illness, flees into the woods in terror and is comforted by the hunter Kalgara.

Noland's party finally reaches the village just as the ceremony begins. They find Seto collapsed, and the ship's doctor diagnoses the disease, prompting Noland to have the whole crew vaccinated with Conine before pressing on through the deserted settlement.

At the sacrificial altar the Shandia bind Mousse and spill her blood to summon their deity. The colossal serpent Kashigami rises from the water and lunges to devour her, but Noland drops onto the platform and cleaves the creature's head clean off. The villagers erupt in horror, screaming for both the foreigner and Mousse to die. Noland tells the weeping girl she no longer has to give her life, as Kalgara fixes him with a furious stare, setting up their confrontation.

The chapter establishes that the bell drew Noland to Jaya, names the plague as Tree Fever, and shows him shattering the sacrifice ritual by killing the supposed god. The color-spread cover, captioned about the heat, shows Sanji running a seafood ramen stall for the rest of the crew and some boars. The story was adapted in Episode 187.