#it’s just so… *oda* for him to make seven seas

[leftmysoulbythesideoftheroad]

if you don’t count the calm belts, there are seven seas in one piece. four blues, paradise, new world, and the mythical all blue. either the calm belts don’t count or oda didn’t think of them until later because i really think this is too good to be unintentional. he uses a lot of pirate/sailor lore, and i honestly can’t imagine he wouldn’t use the seven seas thing too. it’s just such a lovely, romantic thing to have the seventh sea be the all blue.

(and no, the sky sea does not count. because i said so.)

[eirist]

Scent of Christmas

Disclaimer: One Piece (and its characters) belongs to Eiichiro Oda-sensei.

Reminder: I have no beta-reader. Any grammatical and spelling errors are solely mine.

Warning: OOC possible. One shot.

Rating: T

Note: A ZoNa Holiday Events is up at Tumblr for the month of December. We got selected themes for each day and we’d love other ZoNa shippers to join and celebrate our favorite couple with holiday-themed fanarts and fanfics! Feel free to check it here: @zonamievents

I am late, so late for the other themes and for this event. But still, I cannot pass this opportunity to make something for my favorite pairing. So here’s one. Just a cozy, not even that romantic one-shot.

Theme: #11 – Scent of Christmas

Summary: Right now Nami is almost at her wits end trying to figure out why Zoro, of all people, was coming and going in the library while she was in there working.

It was the sixth time he had stepped inside the library that day.

Nami could count on her fingers how many times Zoro was able to get himself lost in the Sunny’s library in day—sometimes once and sometimes zero.

But never more. Especially if she was inside it and drawing her maps.

He knows she doesn’t like distractions when she’s charting. It’s almost the same as when he was working out in the crow’s nest and didn’t like anyone going up and interrupting him.

That is the unspoken rule. Their unspoken rule. And the whole crew knows it. No interruptions unless it was absolutely necessary—like someone better be dying necessary.

So right now Nami is almost at her wits end trying to figure out why Zoro, of all people, was coming and going in the library while she was in there working.

He does nothing while inside. He doesn’t talk to her. All he ever did was gave a slight nod to indicate he was aware that she was there and then goes to sit on the farthest part of the bench, close to where they placed the Christmas tree the day before. After a few minutes he would stand up, nod at her again and leave the room.

And Nami was dumbfounded.

“What’s going on?” She blurted out when he finally stood up to leave after another instance of him silently sitting inside the library. Zoro was officially distracting her and in the last minutes they kept on glancing at each other to the point that it had turned awkward.

“Nothing.”

That’s it? That’s all he is going to say?

Nami turned her body to his direction so she could fully look at him. “Why do you keep going in here if it’s nothing?” Her hands made the ‘air quotes’ gesture at the word nothing to emphasized her point.

“Can’t I?” Zoro asked with one raised eyebrow.

“Don’t be difficult,” Nami folded her arms across her chest. As much as she wanted to throw her ink bottle at him, she was also trying not to get irate or she’d lost her mapping mood. “Do you need anything?” She tried again.

He just shook his head. “Nothing.” He repeated again. “Don’t mind it.”

With that he just gave her a dismissive wave of his hand and without another word, exited the library.

Nami was left to slumped back on her chair with a confused expression on her face.

------------------------

After that Zoro didn’t came inside the library any more. Nami had timed his coming and goings. The green-haired man might not realize it but he did have some actions that are pretty predictable that she can easily discern them.

Like some of the things he did are kind of habitual. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out Zoro’s everyday schedule. Except when he gets lost or when he is fighting.

So it really didn’t take much for Nami to figure it out his weird routine that day. It only stopped because she finally called it to attention.

But of course, Zoro is just as stubborn as her. And when he wants to do something, he’s not gonna let anyone stop him.

Only this time he didn’t bother going inside the library and he just stood outside the door and after a few minutes he walks away.

And that, that was driving her crazy.

What in the seven seas is he doing?!

Nami was now ready to tear her hair out. She cannot concentrate anymore. Instead of paying attention to her maps, her attention was drawn to the library’s door where he lingered outside for reasons only Kami knows why.

And she spent the whole time he was out there staring at the brown, wooden door that separated him and her, wondering.

This went on up until dinner time. And Nami was so ready to confront him again. And this time no more niceties. This time there will definitely be some fining and punching.

But Zoro disappeared before her dinner was even finished. Either the idiot went up the crow’s nest for a post-dinner work-out or a post-dinner nap.

Or he knows she plans on talking to him and made his prompt escape to avoid her.

She headed back to the library, mentally reminding herself that if Zoro so much as hover outside the door again, she’s gonna put him on a chokehold to make him spit out way why he’s being odd.

When she opened the door to get back to her maps, she stopped short.

She was holed up inside for so long that she didn’t even noticed it anymore. Sitting and bending down her desk to make the perfect maps must’ve immuned her to it.

Their library had never looked this festive before. The Straw Hats did decorate it yesterday in preparation for Christmas. They had hung decorated wreaths and ornaments all around the room and erected a Christmas tree that boys cut down from the island where they were docked. There were big scented candles in red, green and white that she and Robin had carefully hand-picked and Nami recalled she had lit them up before she started working to give the room a cozier ambience.

But it wasn’t just that. The scents coming from inside was warm and cool and woody and sweet; crisp and fresh and inviting and delicious…

The combination of scents was overwhelming yet calming. It was like stepping inside Christmas and being wrapped in it.

It was like stepping inside home and getting a warm, welcoming hug.

And she understood what was going on.

The next time she heard Zoro’s footsteps approached the door, she stood up, opened it and stared at him.

He looked taken a back. Which is quite surprising that it almost made her smirk. Because honestly she rarely catches him off-guard.

“Just get inside,” she said with sigh.

He was about to open his mouth to retort but she beat him to it.

“Just shut up,” she turned and headed back to her desk. She heard Zoro followed her inside without saying anything.

Once she was back on her chair, she huffed slightly before resuming drawing on her maps again. “Just lie down on the seat. The floor wouldn’t be that comfortable.”

Zoro grunted. But Nami choose to ignore whatever it was that he was saying.

She didn’t bother glancing up when he propped his swords against the library’s surrounding bench and stretched out on it. Quite near her to be honest.

Nami threw something at him. A beautifully designed Christmas blanket she had purchased when she was shopping with Robin.

“Weather’s gonna turn much colder tonight,” Nami snorted as she continued working on her map. “And you’re still not dressed in your winter clothes.”

Zoro mumbled something under his breath. She was damn pretty sure it wasn’t a nasty retort or comment that would set her off.

It shouldn’t be. She was generous enough to let him nap inside after all, even if she was still doing some work. She’d break their unspoken rule just this once. Because honestly, it was cute that he keeps coming back because he wanted to spend some time there… where the scents of Christmas are all-around, surrounding them.

This could be her gift to him.

“Oh and Zoro,” she called out, watching him amusedly as lifted his head to look at her crabbily for disturbing the start of his dozing off.

“Just don’t snore too loudly. I’ll kick you out,” she cheekily reminded him.

He scoffed and Nami just ignored him again.

There was a smile on her lips as she turned back to her drawing again.

And if she had just stolen a glance at the swordsman, she would have caught that same smile as he drifted off to one of his many naps.

[kyros-tha-soldier]

⚠️ ONE PIECE CHAPTER 1113 SPOILERS ⚠️

Spoilers aheeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaad!

You've been warned

We are SO back with another glorious set of brief spoilers until the scans drop, so I'll give you a quick spin on what's gonna happen (spoilers by @pewpiece from twitter btw)

🔥last time we saw Mars wander into the lab from where the live broadcast was ALLEGEDLY being aired and searches around for the den den mushi, he finds it but then looks up at something that's making bubbling sounds, turns out it was a big jar with vegapunk's head inside it which is... Odd? Like, didn't he die a couple of chapters ago?

🔥Mars destroys the den den mushi but it turns out it's only a decoy, the broadcast keeps on running and vegapunk resumes talking after a 10 minutes long pause.

🔥 we can see the reactions of various arc and island characters, i still don't know which ones but I'm hoping... just hoping 🥺

Oda pwease answer my plea 😔

🔥The gorosei are absolutely clueless about what kind of hot tea Vegapunk will be spilling this time so they're trying to stop the broadcast at all cost because either way he'll end up serving some SERIOUS tea. And having worked with the elites of the world, he sure does know a lot of dirty stuff.

🔥Nusjuro and Sanji encounter and Sanji attacks him.

My boy saw a centaur and said "Giddy up"

🔥 back to our silly willy goofy but formerly shady scientist, vegapunk says that if this broadcast plays then that means that he's dead (RIP) he confesses that he has done so many misdeeds and bad things which is why he decided to record a message where he wants to share something important to redeem himself

🔥Saturn arrives to Usopp's group and starts talking (I don't know exactly what he was saying) and Robin remembers his voice.

NO FUCKING WAY SATURN GETS AWAY WITH TRAUMATIZING LITERAL KIDS!

First robin and now Kuma, ginny and Bonney????

Your spider ass better be PREPARED for my making my Robin cry!

🔥 at the end, Vegapunk drops some truth bombs and says that the world is going to sink into the ocean!

(let's hope your OP favs live in an area higher than sea level like Alabasta or dressrosa or wano or in fishman island or water seven or anywhere that cant be fully submerged in the flood)

Also is it just me, or is Oda trying to bring his fans to think back on the noah arc back in fishman island because, you know, this sounds like the abrahamic/biblical/quranic retelling of the great flood?

But how will he use it is what's still a headscratcher to me but we'll figure it out soon.

On a sidenote ive seen some people theorizing that the OP world actually went through a flood before which is why islands like wano and long ring long land ended up being submerged and their geography changed.

I dunno man, i think those theories are correct. Also what caused this flood? Was it Imu? Was the world government itself? Was it because Poseidon fell in the wrong hands?

So many questions! But i hope we get to answer them soon

[atinytokki]

Orbit

Chapter 1: SS Aurora

07:21 Open Space Calibrated Time

They were stranded, stranded in the astral sea.

The spaceship’s auto navigational system spoke into the darkness with a request. “Would you like to set a course?”

“No.”

For now, they would remain adrift.

Untethered. Directionless.

A frail wisp of steam curled upwards from the cup Seonghwa was holding. A calming tea made of rare leaves from his home planet. One that should’ve relaxed him.

It should’ve been a day like any other in between jobs, floating along in their spaceship through the open space that connected distant planets just outside the Aten-Odae Asteroid Belt. A leisurely morning when the residents of SS Aurora took their time rising from their bunks and wandering to the central area.

But this time no one had gotten more than three hours of sleep, and instead of enjoying breakfast together, they were huddled around the table under the lowlight, waiting in an anxious silence.

Because today they were only seven, with their missing leader in the clutches of the Intergalactic Trade Guild, an empire with control over the farthest reaches of the galaxy that waged war on the surrounding systems.

He was gone and for three days now they had heard nothing.

“He’s dead,” Mingi whispered, terrified of his own words as he said them, while Yunho calibrated the holoscreen to tap into the Guild’s most popular news network. “They’ve killed him already, they’d be insane not to.”

“We don’t know that,” Wooyoung scolded, ever the optimist. “Even the Guild has to follow their own rules. He’ll be on trial.”

Seonghwa met his eyes with a wavering smile that quickly died out. He had no encouragement to give when his own breathing was laboured with the stress of the situation. He was a moment away from passing out if he forgot to breathe properly.

Inhale. Exhale.

Relax.

“But do you really think there’s any point in a court proceeding?” Yeosang questioned softly, picking at the food on his plate. “After what he did?”

He was referring, of course, to their Captain’s surrender. Hongjoong had insisted on being captured to allow the rest of the crew to escape the ambush three days ago with their loot and not even Yunho knew why. The credits they had been stealing at the time were not worth Hongjoong’s life.

And, loathe as Seonghwa was to admit it, Yeosang made a good point. They had more than enough evidence against him already, so why not put him to death and be done with it? It didn’t make sense for the Guild to make a judicial spectacle when the price on Hongjoong’s head had been astronomical.

Seonghwa should know, because that price had once been of great interest to him.

The sour taste of bile rose in his throat and he forced it down, focusing on the broadcast when San shushed the discussion and pointed everyone’s attention to it.

“A new case of great interest has taken over the intergalactic networks today due to the figure in custody,” the announcer was saying, his eyes practically devoid of life even as he spoke with an animated voice. “Notorious pirate Kim Hongjoong, whose full identity was revealed upon his arrest, has supposedly been a known public enemy to the Guild for fifteen years, about whom authorities have provided very little information from their investigation.”

A collective outburst of relief swept the room as it sunk in that Hongjoong was indeed alive. “See?” Wooyoung whispered encouragingly, squeezing Seonghwa’s hand from across the table.

Jongho, their mechanic, was shaking with rage. “Fifteen years— are they even hearing themselves?” He barked a mirthless laugh and scanned the room for approval. “That would mean he was branded a traitor when he was just a kid!”

Seonghwa trained his eyes on Yunho, technically their second in command, who had been quiet and singularly focused since setting up the holoscreen. “Did you know about this?” He asked him quietly, unable to keep a hint of betrayal out of his voice in his efforts to restrain the panic overwhelming him. That Hongjoong’s identity had apparently put him at risk since childhood was an unexpected blow on this morning of continuous punches to the gut.

“No,” Yunho responded solemnly, still not looking away from the screen. “But I can’t deny I had my suspicions.”

Seonghwa didn’t have time to dwell on that fact as the broadcast tuned back in.

“The proceedings today will be significant in uncovering potential rebel activities, terrorist acts, and connections to other anti-Guild factions,” the second news presenter continued with growing interest even as she read her lines from the prompting screen behind the camera. She glanced at her partner for a moment before returning to her mark. “And we’ll have all the coverage for you right here when we come back from the break.”

Frozen to his seat, Seonghwa tried and failed to wrap his head around what was going on. The botched heist and Hongjoong’s capture three days ago had already sent him reeling, and now their captain was about to be tried in possibly the most biased courtroom in the universe for all the galaxies to see. How could this be real?

How could he have let this happen?

Suddenly needing to busy his hands while the nauseatingly bright advertisements began to play, Seonghwa stood to collect plates. None were empty, most barely picked at, but he couldn’t blame anyone for their lack of appetite when he wasn’t able stomach anything at the moment either.

Alone in the galley, he wasn’t sure now which was worse; waiting to discover Hongjoong’s fate, or watching it be handed to him live.

Light hovered over him while he scrubbed with limp and useless hands. A stain of food still stuck to one of the plates despite his efforts.

When the obnoxious sounds died down, he hurried back from the galley to see the Guild’s high courtroom on the holoscreen.

It was too soon, much too soon.

“What did I miss?” He nearly choked out.

San’s hands were in his hair, tugging at unruly strands while he explained, “They’re expediting the trial process. His entire case is happening today, now.”

Seonghwa forced himself into a chair to quell his shaking legs. It was all so fast, with no chance for anyone to scheme a way out of the situation.

How would Hongjoong even formulate a defence for himself?

“This whole thing is a sham,” Mingi gritted out, getting up to pace the room angrily. “Just a media circus. They won’t even give him a chance.”

“He’ll find a way…” said Yeosang around an audible gulp, glancing at Yunho for confirmation. “Right?”

The second in command and aristocrat-turned-thief merely shook his head and sighed, jaw locked immediately after. He had known Hongjoong the longest by some slim margin, but evidently it wasn’t enough to be privy to some sort of secret emergency measures for this kind of situation.

There had never been a need to appoint an official second in command, a provisional captain of sorts. Not outside of targeted missions.

Seonghwa folded his arms across his chest to mask the way he shuddered and watched on the screen as their captain was led into the courtroom, an amphitheatre-type space with harsh lighting. The judiciary council remained shrouded by their dark robes and headpieces, a stark contrast to the spotless room and the white-clothed prisoner.

The moment he saw him, his eyes blurred with tears.

It was easy to assume Hongjoong had been locked in a holding cell for three days from his dark, unruly hair or the dull pallor of his skin but what really stood out were his eyes. They found the camera immediately and stayed there for just a second too long to be comfortable, betraying nothing about the feelings inside.

Was he afraid?

Was he angry?

“No visible injuries… that’s a good sign…” Wooyoung was muttering his observations in an effort to convince himself of his own words. As the team’s trained medic, he naturally scrutinised their leader’s physical condition first.

“Injuries we can see, anyway,” San pointed out and, despite having the same thought already himself, Seonghwa felt that much more uneasy hearing it voiced aloud. He shifted his weight from one leg to the other and kept his eyes fastened on the display.

Hongjoong was ushered into the seat of the accused and the opening remarks were in full swing without any more introduction. He seemed to be listening with a disdainful expression on his face until the head speaker addressed him directly.

“Kim Hongjoong, you stand before this council accused of piracy. How do you plead?”

Guards on either side of the defendant’s seat dragged him to his feet and it boiled Seonghwa’s blood to see his captain manhandled this way.

He shook them off in annoyance and stated his answer clearly for even the drone cameras to hear.

“Guilty.”

Seonghwa’s jaw dropped.

“No!” Yunho burst out, bringing a shaking hand to his mouth in shock. Surely they had all misheard. “Pleading guilty?”

“What else can he do?” Jongho cried with a helpless laugh that quickly became tears and trembling lips. “They’ve already decided his punishment. If they set this up to make a fool of him, he has no reason to play along.”

Wooyoung’s breath hitched in an attempt to protest, “But—”

“Yes, I took those credits,” Hongjoong was continuing to speak, and silence fell in the Aurora while he commanded the stage. “But they never belonged to the Guild in the first place. Those served by cause I donated my share to are the rightful owners. So which one of us is the real thief?”

One flickering moment of silence resounded before shouts broke out from an unseen audience on the broadcast and the holoscreen’s display quickly switched back to the newsroom where the first presenter smoothly formulated an excuse.

“Our apologies for the disruption, but it appears there have been technical difficulties—”

“Censorship,” Yunho muttered, collapsing back into his chair with a shaky sigh. “They’re afraid of what he might say.”

Though he had likely sealed his own fate, he would speak without being silenced. Glancing between Yunho and the screen, San shook his head and added, “If they think they can control him… well, then they’ve lost their minds.”

Individual access to public channels via holoscreen had been a luxury in Seonghwa’s childhood, but even having become acquainted with the intergalactic network in recent years, he had never seen anything quite like this.

There was no question what the Guild was trying to do.

This was a performance. A taunt. A message— to Hongjoong’s friends and supporters, yes, but also to anyone who might even consider questioning the total authority of their government. It was a promise they would be silenced in turn.

It was a threat.

And Seonghwa couldn’t help but feel the guilt coursing through him, because he knew deep down, no matter what the others said, that this was his fault.

___

3 days ago

“Seonghwa, can I talk to you for a second?”

Hearing the captain’s voice behind him, the former bounty hunter glanced up from his weapons store. “Alright,” he agreed, joining Hongjoong in the hall and signalling the armoury door to slide shut behind him. “Something I can help with?”

Hongjoong opened his mouth to respond and suddenly thought better of it, dropping his head and allowing himself another moment to think.

Seonghwa could sense an unusual level of anxiety about the upcoming job and made an attempt to relieve it. “If this is about the plan—”

“It’s not the plan,” Hongjoong cut him off tiredly and finally looked up so Seonghwa could meet his eyes. They were as warm and trusting as ever, but with that calculating shine that hinted at a sharper edge inside. “How sure are you that Yang’s word is good?”

The source of the tip that had led to this job, the crime boss known only as Yang, had multiple systems under his control and the Intergalactic Trade Guild themselves struggling to operate on Venop 4, the planet he and Seonghwa himself hailed from.

He had sent route information about a Guild cargo ship, including the name of the planet where it would be refuelling, and proposed a generous split of the payload it would be carrying should the Aurora crew succeed in robbing it; 5 million credits.

Seonghwa hadn’t intended to have any business with the notorious gangster, but a life of poverty growing up on that world left few options. As a bounty hunter, he had taken what commissions he was given and without complaint. The strength of a client’s word was rarely part of his considerations.

And so Hongjoong’s doubts, while not entirely out of place, weren’t particularly relevant.

“Does it matter?”

“He wants me dead, Seonghwa,” Hongjoong reminded him, quietly but intensely. “Enough to make multiple attempts. I mean, do you really trust him?”

“Not completely,” Seonghwa admitted, because he knew the fact was hard to ignore. He had personally been extremely fortunate that Hongjoong had overlooked this earlier. “But Yang loves money more than anything else and he knows we’re the best crew to get it for him. I don’t think he’d pass up his share of the payload just for the chance to take us out.”

Hongjoong crossed his arms and glanced out the nearest hall window, withdrawn. There was just open space all around, a dark void for them to hide in, dotted with distant star systems. He was still thinking of an excuse. “It might mean more credits for him in the long run if he does, you know.”

This was more nervous behaviour than usual from Hongjoong. If he let his guard down around anyone, it was usually Seonghwa, but after the communal planning stage, the captain typically kept any further worries to himself.

“I realise that,” Seonghwa replied with a lighthearted shrug. “I’m just hoping he hasn’t.”

There was no more time to debate the future, and Yunho was already poking his head around the corner to interrupt them, “Hyungs? Time to space jump.”

“Alright.” With a final cursory glance at Seonghwa, Hongjoong moved past him and headed towards the cockpit. “Fire up the Infinity Drive.”

Cracking a smile, Seonghwa eagerly followed after a brief stop in the armoury to collect the weapons they’d need. He took the arming of his fellow pirates very seriously.

His position on this particular job was to remain onboard the Aurora keeping watch for enemies, providing a quick getaway, and managing communications between the members and, more distantly, with Yang. This was not a task to be taken lightly, and although Seonghwa’s skills usually lay on the battlefield, his personal relationship with the gangster was of greater value today.

“How did the crossbow work for you in practice?” He asked a stoic Yeosang in the seat next to him as the pair strapped in for the space jump.

“It’s excellent,” the mercenary responded, patting the compact weapon where it hung from his belt. “But is there a way to remove the stun feature? It makes that buzzing sound and I’d like it to be quieter.”

“Yes, there’s a switch to activate silent mode,” Seonghwa described and gestured with his hands. “You’ll just have to make sure your aim is perfect because a near-hit won’t take anyone down with the energy field turned off.”

“Not a problem,” Yeosang chuckled. He hadn’t missed a shot any time in recent memory, and both of them knew it. Life as a soldier for hire on a dying planet required a great deal of precision.

“Hyung,” Mingi suddenly gasped, turning around in his seat to face Seonghwa, clearly having just remembered something. “If you use the drones for intelligence, don’t forget to turn on the stealth feature! We do not want a repeat of QD81.”

From the way Yeosang shuddered next to him, Seonghwa could tell bad things had taken place at the aforementioned incident, but it must have been a time from their history together before he knew either of them.

Mingi and Yeosang both hailed from Diistro, a world so badly scorched by its expanding sun that the atmosphere was nearly sucked away by now, the planet itself turned oblong and misshapen from the pull of gravity. They had been born in different countries, but the arbitrary lines of territory became irrelevant in the worsening climate, leaving a wild and lawless place. The pair were not the simple refugees they appeared to be in the years that followed. They did what they must to survive.

“Right, I’ll take care of it,” Seonghwa assured Mingi, patting him on the shoulder and urging him to buckle up properly. The space jump was always a jolting experience.

“Engaging Infinity Drive,” Yunho called out after the final seatbelt clicked, and everyone braced for the coming plunge through bended space-time. “Prepare for a Level 10.”

Hit with all the G-force of hurtling past systems at indescribable speeds, Seonghwa gritted his teeth until the Aurora slowed to a normal pace on arrival and his tension melted away. The entire process lasted only a few seconds.

Travelling so unnaturally fast put a great deal of pressure on the body, making the highest setting—Level 10– only for emergencies. Going a fair bit slower was much more sustainable for the Infinity Drive as well, but today it couldn’t be helped.

“Approaching Eogawa,” Hongjoong announced as he again took manual control of the spacecraft, banking slightly to the left to bring the planet in view. “Prepare for atmospheric entry.”

Being a gas giant, Eogawa was essentially nothing but atmosphere.

Tinted a soft pink hue in the light of its distant sun, the planet’s peaceful appearance was riddled with hidden dangers. Aside from the storms that raged among surface gases, Eogawa was ringed with massive, thick bands of dust and ice. A lesser pilot might run afoul of such a hazardous minefield, but Hongjoong was careful to avoid the rings and zeroed in on the area Aurora’s radar was pointing him to.

“The refuelling station,” San called out, spotting it first through wispy clouds that flew past once they entered the atmosphere and splattered rain droplets on the windows. “It’s huge.”

Seonghwa shared his astonishment when he leaned forward to catch sight of the station and noticed its size. Not merely a lone rig floating in the sky. Much bigger than expected.

Taking in the sight, Hongjoong directed the ship downwards to the lower platform that appeared to be a service entrance. “First team ready?”

Jongho, Yeosang, and San rose from their seats and filed out, weapons in tow, to their starting position for the heist. Their next task would be to steal themselves some uniforms from the locker room to disguise as robot workers.

Yunho rose to follow them out, assigned to lead their team, but Hongjoong stopped him with a hand on his shoulder and a nod to the right where their next objective lay. He would turn the Aurora eastward in search of a different station.

“When is the train coming next?” Hongjoong asked, sounding somewhat distracted while he scanned the layers upon layers of swirling clouds.

Yunho merely had to check the time to provide an answer. “Thirty seven minutes.”

Thanks to his extensive research, the pirates knew Eogawa’s fuel transportation system was fully automated and operated a levitating train which passed through the station every hour. For a ship as big as the Guild freighter they were after, it would take at least thirty minutes to refuel, likely having maintenance performed by the robotic service workers in the meantime.

This system provided both a way in and a way out with the credits.

“We’ll be on it and ready for transport,” the captain encouraged. “Be careful, the Guild ship should be docking any minute.”

“Understood,” Yunho replied with a smile, and he turned to disembark, sharing a glance with Seonghwa who patted him on the back with a measure of nervous excitement.

It was always a bit nerve wracking splitting up to do their various jobs during a heist or a boarding. Seonghwa knew the risk they were taking every time someone was sent off into hostile territory. If a member was caught, it was expected that they disavow any knowledge of the rest of the group and claim to be acting independently.

They may be pirates, but they all served a higher cause. Something a bit more substantial than mere interference in Guild activities.

“Comms operational?” Jongho’s voice crackled through the radio as soon as the Aurora had set off for the levitating train station.

“Loud and clear,” Hongjoong answered to the mechanic’s satisfaction, and soon the train station came into view. It wasn’t intended for humans, so aside from the cleaning droid bustling around, the platform was empty.

Hongjoong, Mingi, and Wooyoung would board the train to clear out a container and pick up the credits and their disguised members, much more discreet there than in the Aurora.

As he handed control of the ship over to Seonghwa, he gave the dashboard a loving pat. “Take care of things while I’m gone,” he instructed, a redundant request for the meticulous bounty hunter.

“She’s safe in my hands,” Seonghwa assured him anyway, saying his farewells and watching the door slide shut behind them.

Suddenly it was very quiet onboard, and put off by the silence, Seonghwa powered up the engines again and directed the Aurora to the waiting point, behind both stations in the direction the train was sure to come when the heist was finished.

Staying with the getaway vehicle made for a bit of a boring job, so for the next half hour there was nothing much to do but fiddle with his weapons and watch the sun set from gold into soft violet.

He listened in on the comms chatter as the teams informed each other of their progress; Yunho’s team securing disguises and Hongjoong’s team successfully entering a train compartment.

And then, fifteen minutes before the train would arrive, the moment he was least looking forward to arrived in the form of a call from Yang.

Schooling his expression into something vaguely neutral and unbothered, he accepted it and watched the hologram materialise on the dashboard.

The crime lord was evidently seated in his sunroom, snacking on a homemade flatbread that made Seonghwa’s stomach grumble just by looking at it. As glad as he was to be offworld, he had missed the tastes of home.

“Mr. Park, do you have a status update for me?” Yang asked him with a monotone voice, brushing crumbs from his shirt in boredom.

“Everything is proceeding on schedule,” Seonghwa answered, slightly reserved, knowing Hongjoong would prefer he keep the details private. “I’ll let you know when we have a count of the credits and—”

“We found the credits,” San’s voice interrupted through the comms, unaware of Seonghwa’s ongoing conversation. “Five million, it’s all here. We’ve been unloading one case at a time, there’s just two left.”

“Ah,” Yang chuckled, overhearing him. “How efficient, just as expected.”

Seonghwa resisted the urge to roll his eyes at the crime lord’s empty flattery. “Before I go, I thought I’d ask,” he regained control of the conversation while subtly muting the comm radio in the middle of Hongjoong’s response to San. “Where do you suggest we rendezvous?”

Yang glanced to the side, probably out his highland window at the marshes below. It was the time of year when Venop 4 enjoyed a brief reprieve from the rainy season and Seonghwa could practically smell it through the holoscreen.

“Surely it isn’t too much trouble for you to bring the money here?” The crime lord posed the question innocently, but his hard gaze was a clear indication of his thoughts on the matter.

“If I recall correctly, we agreed on a rendezvous, not a delivery,” Seonghwa answered him politely but with enough insistence of his own to carry the point across. “Perhaps with one of your currently deployed ships?”

Yang stared back for a moment, but his little blue hologram didn’t intimidate Seonghwa in the slightest. The boss had much less power in this form than he had last time Seonghwa had seen him, at his compound. Even if he was standing there now, there was something about the freedom of becoming a pirate that made him feel indestructible, like everyone else would simply bounce off his invisible shield.

“Halfway then,” Yang relented, flashing a smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “My ship Nexus is in the orbit of Sarkei. You can dock there and split the payload.”

“I’ll inform you when we’ve left Eogawa,” Seonghwa promised, satisfied with the answer, and moved to end the call. “Until then—”

“And Seonghwa?” Yang interrupted him, and it gave him pause to hear his given name spoken so easily by the criminal overlord. While it didn’t come as a surprise, it put him on edge knowing Yang had much more information than he was comfortable with. He chuckled like he knew something Seonghwa didn’t, “I look forward to working with you again.”

The bounty hunter didn’t plan to. He could get his intelligence on Guild operations elsewhere.

He was lost in thought for a while after ending the call with no further response, until something in the distance caught his eye. It was the levitating train, moving toward the Aurora quickly. A hatch was open in the top of one of the compartments, and Mingi halfway out of it, yelling something into the wind that Seonghwa couldn’t hear.

Jolting upright, he positioned the ship above the train and lowered the ramp from the undercarriage. He had completely forgotten to unmute the comms.

“Load up and go back!” Mingi was saying, bringing a couple of cases of money with him as he climbed up into the suspended Aurora and ran to the cockpit. “We have to go back, hyung!”

“Why?” Seonghwa watched with growing dread as the others quickly began loading the ship. “What’s going on?”

Yunho dropped a case in the cargo area and joined him at the controls while Mingi ran back to fetch another. He was visibly angry, face red and breath heavy, though at what Seonghwa couldn’t be sure until he opened his mouth.

“He stayed— the idiot!— he got out of the compartment and went back into the refuelling station just as the train took off,” Yunho panted with the effort of the words, clearly in disbelief himself.

“Who?” Seonghwa breathed the question out, strangled by it. 

Yunho finally looked him in the eyes.

“Hongjoong.”

Cursing softly, Seonghwa set the Aurora to autopilot, precariously hovering above the moving train, and joined the others in moving the last few cases to their cargo hold.

The next train station was on the horizon when Seonghwa reached down for another case to pass along and was met with San emerging from inside the compartment instead. His instructions were curt, “We’re loaded, turn around.”

Seonghwa helped him into the ship and retracted the ramp, hurrying to the cockpit before being stopped by Yeosang. “Wait!” The mercenary insisted on it and wrapped a hand around Seonghwa’s arm. “The drone. Send in the drone first.”

He was right to be cautious, Seonghwa came to realise when he piloted the drone into the refuelling station from the safety of the cockpit a few minutes later. Guild officials had emerged from the freighter they just robbed and someone was watching them from the secrecy of a connecting hall.

Seonghwa could tell who it was the moment he saw the back of his head.

Lips pursed with worry, he navigated the drone closer. “Let me turn on comms and ask what he’s doing—”

“He already switched off his channel,” Wooyoung broke in before Seonghwa wasted time trying.

“But you can try to patch through to the drone,” Mingi reminded them both, reaching over to turn off the stealth feature he had insisted upon earlier. “There, now the speakers.”

“Hongjoong?” Seonghwa called immediately when it was clear the audio was stable. “Hongjoong, answer me.”

The captain turning his head toward the screen was confirmation he had heard him. “You all need to get out of here,” he said under his breath, returning his gaze to the platform. Clearly he knew something they didn’t. “This is an ambush, Yang must have tipped them off.”

Seonghwa’s stomach dropped.

He should’ve known. Yang would never let such a good chance pass him by, even if he had to work with the Guild for compensation. Even if it meant fewer credits. All his teasing had been meant to distract, and it had succeeded easily.

Hongjoong was hurriedly giving out last minute instructions, “Cut off contact and don’t bring him anything, just get the money to Aten-Odae. The Manager will know what to do. I’m counting on you.”

“Why can’t you come with us?” San protested, unable to keep his voice quiet in his distress. “What are you doing in the station? We could be picking you up right now. There’s still time!”

Hongjoong’s eyes fluttered shut with a sigh. “Check your radar,” he murmured, regret in his voice. “There are ten Guild dreadnoughts with hwacha missiles trained on the Aurora right now. We are out of time. You need to leave while I call them off.”

And when Yeosang pulled up the screen, Seonghwa had to catch his breath. Hongjoong was right. Exactly ten of the Guild’s most heavily weaponised spacecraft were advancing on their position silently and undetected until now. It was horrifying.

Wooyoung’s voice stuck in his throat wetly as he fought back tears, begging him, “Please don’t do this, hyung, we can figure out another way, there has to be something—”

“There isn’t another way, Woo.” From the way Hongjoong spoke, it sounded like it was breaking his heart, too. “I wish there was but… I know I have to do this. Don’t come back here, understand? I won’t let them take you.”

And Seonghwa knew he was right, even as he sat frozen in shock and let Jongho and Mingi argue with the increasingly unresponsive captain while he advanced through the hallway toward the Guild officers.

They’d been tricked and there was nothing else but to retreat.

Seonghwa didn’t realise there were tears streaming down his cheeks until he had already said in a haze, “Don’t go. Don’t.”

It was selfish and he should follow orders and be strong for the others but he couldn’t do it. If Hongjoong stayed behind, there was no way out for him. “I won’t forgive you,” he sobbed.

Hongjoong couldn’t see him but he knew.

“Hey, don’t cry. It’ll be alright,” he comforted softly, taking slow steps backwards away from the drone until a doorway separated them.

His hand hovered over the sensor. “I’m sorry.”

And then he hit the switch and the door slid shut, cutting him off from view.

The feed was blank without a subject in view and Yunho took the controls and directed the drone back out of the station, bringing it aboard the Aurora then suddenly tossing it to the floor in a burst of anger and dropping into his seat wordlessly.

For a moment it was still and silent, and then Wooyoung began to sniffle. Seonghwa reached out to comfort him, but it felt like he was underwater.

The world was moving in slow motion and he was drowning in his own despair. A distant beeping surfaced and he noticed the display, bright red with warning symbols and a repeating alert message.

Enemy ships approaching.

Spurred into action, he sent the Aurora upwards, up through waning sunbeams to the higher layer of clouds and then the next layer and then the next.

“You can’t be serious,” Mingi laughed emptily, glancing in disbelief between Seonghwa and the rest of the team. “We’re leaving him?”

Yeosang’s head was in his hands. “They’ve locked targets on us. There’s no choice.”

“Why didn’t he just call it off before we loaded the ship?” San was bargaining with hypotheticals. “We could’ve used that time. We all could’ve escaped together.”

And of course there was no point now in wondering. They might never know.

Rosy pink rays faded to dusk and seven pirates strapped into their seats and shot up past the highest layer of clouds only to be immediately faced with the enemy dreadnoughts.

Silent and hulking, they simply watched the Aurora fly past them, making no move to shoot the smaller ship down.

Wooyoung dried his eyes and craned his neck to look up at the menacing dreadnoughts through the front window. “They’re just… letting us go.”

“Hongjoong hyung. He turned himself in,” Jongho said mournfully and then braced himself for the space jump as soon as they were clear.

Seonghwa’s tears soaked into his collar. 

The stars raced by like a stain on the black canvas and they left their captain behind.

___

18:47 Open Space Calibrated Time

Seonghwa’s light dozing was interrupted by the holoscreen broadcast. After a back and forth of testimonies and cross-examinations by the most incompetent legal representatives the Guild had to offer, a verdict had been reached.

San and Yeosang were called back in to the living area to watch from their various restless activities around the ship.

The head speaker removed her headdress and spoke, unveiled at last, to the accused.

“The council has deliberated at great length to determine an appropriate finding and will vote next on a punishment suitable for the nature of these crimes.” Her beady eyes looked up from the floating wall of text behind the camera she was no doubt reading from and in the direction of the seat of the accused, remorseless. “However, regarding today’s business, it is the decision of this council that on all counts of piracy, assault, corruption, illegal possession of firearms, possession of stolen property, fraudulent or unauthorised access to Intergalactic Trade Guild networks, conspiracy, theft of an Intergalactic Trade Guild spacecraft, and false personation, Kim Hongjoong is found guilty and sentenced to death.”

It was like his throat closed and then was forcefully reopened again as Seonghwa vomited and then blacked out. When he came to, San was rubbing his back. Every eye on him was ringed with red.

He had been expecting it, but the verdict stung like acid in his face.

The broadcast was off now and he hadn’t even been able to see Hongjoong’s face again.

Was he afraid now?

Mingi looked around and finally asked, voice hollow, “What do we do?”

“The Manager told us to split up and lay low,” Yunho scoffed. He was scary like this, stern and sarcastic and so far away from himself.

Hongjoong was their glue. Without him there to hold them together, surely they’d drift off, each going his own way with a heart full of regret and a useless supply of credits in his pocket.

But they hadn’t done so. No one had wandered off yet, ejecting themselves from the Aurora and wishing the rest good luck and goodbye. Even now they huddled together, waiting for something. A sign.

Seonghwa trembled in the cold of realisation washing over him. There was nowhere else to turn. The floor underneath him began to feel firm and he grounded himself in it. He clutched the blanket around his shoulders closer.

More than ever before he pined for Hongjoong’s help, for his guidance.

“I don’t think we have a choice,” Seonghwa finally said, shaking his head with some sort of resolution.

He raised his head to see all the others looking at him.

They knew what needed to be done, but no one was ready to speak the words aloud. No one except Seonghwa.

“We break him out. We have to do it ourselves.”

He watched them realise, one by one, that it was up to them now. That they could not go on as a team without their captain. He had brought them together only to abandon them, but he would not be allowed to give his life for theirs so easily.

Jongho nodded and got to his feet, ready to contribute however he could. “All we can hope for now is that his execution is scheduled far in advance.”

Seonghwa did not care what it took. They had to get to Hongjoong first, even if they burned up on entry.

They could not escape the pull of his gravity.

___

A/N: Welcome to my submission for 8 Makes 1 Family Fest Round 2, 2024 version (shh it's not technically revealed yet there so don't tell lol), based on a lovely prompt that grabbed me immediately and is responsible for probably a good chunk of this story's appeal! It will be multi-chaptered and I'll do my best to portray the slice-of-life (the theme of this round) and not go too heavy on the plot but uhh no promises lol. Also if you happen to be a fan of Andor, the randomly insanely good Disney+ Star Wars show (if not, watch it) I think you will also like this! I took some inspiration from it so, while I did make this AU myself, there are things in common.

Thanks for reading and let me know what you thought!! <3

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[the-bejeesus]

One Piece and Masks that are never used again

      In One Piece there is a repeatedly used technique where a character’s design is hidden by a mask or a costume. Then their true look is revealed. But the strange thing is that this mask is often never worn again. A case of Oda forgot? Or maybe Oda doesn’t care. The mask is meant to keep the audience from knowing what the person looks like, there doesn’t really need to be an in-universe reason. But I wanted to thoroughly examine these cases to see if there was one.

The first thing that comes to mind is Garp. When he’s training Koby and Helmeppo he has an iconic dog mask.

The real-world explanation is that Garp was in Romance Dawn version 2, and had a role very similar to Shanks in the other versions of Romance Dawn. If he didn’t wear the dog mask, fans could see the “He’s Luffy’s grandfather” reveal from miles away.

The only problem is that in Post-Enies Lobby he takes the mask off, and it’s never seen again; not once. This wouldn’t be a problem, it can just be shrugged off as “he stopped liking it.”

The one issue is that he does not even wear it in flashbacks. Why did he only wear it while training Koby and Helmeppo?

My conjecture is it has to do with his ship; it’s likely he did not get this ship until he was promoted to Vice Admiral, hence he doesn’t have it in the flashbacks. As for why he doesn’t wear it anymore, I think the answer “he didn’t like wearing it anymore” suffices.

In fact I can imagine the Vice Admiral Dalmatian being a factor. Perhaps he didn’t want to resemble him so much.

Wyper wears a mask when he first attacks the Straw Hats and is never seen with it again.

In the chapter where his face is revealed, there’s a panel that, imo, suggests he’s discarded it for some unknown reason. Which is somewhat of a contrivance, but not really a plot hole. At the very least, Oda didn’t straight up forget the mask.

Franky’s debut costume is quite exotic and not at all like his fashion. Again, once he takes it off, it’s never seen again. This one has a significantly more concrete explanation.

Franky wanted to buy a certain thing during a trade at the costume festival in San Faldo.

This festival is the reason so many people were masked in Water Seven, including the CP9 members. This is even how Usopp got his Sogeking mask; there was a surplus of masks at Water Seven.

It wasn’t until the Post-Enies Lobby arc that we found out why he stole 200M from Usopp, and what that “thing” he wanted to buy was.

Duval is quite simple; he was on the run for resembling Sanji’s fake wanted poster and once his face was changed, he didn’t need it anymore. He doesn’t have it in the flashbacks because he wasn’t on the run yet.

In Punk Hazard, Caesar Clown is in a bodiless gas form for quite a few chapters before finally revealing his true form. He has a few conversations and goes to multiple rooms looking like this, so it’s crazy to think that he doesn’t use this form much after or before.

Well even in the late stages of Punk Hazard, Caesar can be seen back in his gas form. It seems to be a state he likes to be in when he’s in comfort or concentration. And I simply don’t think there were any opportunities in Dressrosa or Whole Cake Island to show him in that state.

And even when he’s in his “human” form, it appears his coat is made of his gas.

Or at least it partially is: when sea prism cuffs are on, the coat is still there but doesn’t look quite the same.

One of the most recent examples is Yamato. The simple real-world explanation is that Oda wanted to make it a surprise reveal that Yamato is not a cis man. But why was he wearing that? “It’s a party” might suffice, except nobody else was wearing a mask, and Yamato was not attending.

My initial conclusion was that “Kaido was going to crown him Shogun of New Onigashima, so clearly this is some sort of ceremonial thing.”

The issue is that Yamato wore this same mask at age 8 during Oden’s execution. So it’s not as simple as that.

I suspect this is more closely related to how Yamato is the “Oni Princess”, he and Kaido are both presumably some sort of race of Oni: hence the horns.

Now I am no Japanese culture expert, but from many interpretations I’ve seen, these Ogre-esque creatures are masked.

It is not disimilar from how Tenguyama Hitetsu wears a Tengu mask.

[kaizokuou-ni-naru]

The Voyage So Far: Enies Lobby

east blue (1 | 2) || alabasta (1 | 2) || skypiea || water 7 || enies lobby || thriller bark || paramount war (1 | 2) || fishman island || punk hazard || dressrosa (1 | 2) || whole cake island || wano (1 | 2)

this is still one of my very favorite nami panels. i think she’s really great through all of water 7 and enies lobby in general, actually, even though she isn’t really one of the characters in focus for a lot of it- like zoro and sanji, she stays pretty steadfast and very badass even though everything that happens, and never gives up on robin for a moment despite being one of the ‘weaker’ members of the crew. and it’s always fun to see her playing with lightning.

one of my favorite jokes from the first half or so of enies lobby is the strawhats both being completely unsurprised that luffy charges in ahead of them as soon as they arrive AND being able to find him immediately by following the explosions. they know him so well. 

luffy’s never been scared of dying, going all the way back to when he told coby he was fine with dying for his dream back in chapter two or three. that conversation is what his exchange with blueno here reminds me of- blueno asks him how long he intends to keep fighting, and luffy says until he dies, like there’s nothing to it.

it’s always been a trait of his to face death unflinching with a grin, so long as it’s for the sake of something he cares about, be it his crew or his brother or his dream, and i just really like that about him.  

i’ll go into it in the dressrosa post too, but i think it’s really impressive just how long oda held off on giving luffy any sort of significant power-up. he gets his first big power boost in the whole series here, forty volumes in. i’ve always liked that oda is very conservative with power boosts like this, because it both keeps the series’ powerscaling in check and makes the times it does happen much weightier. this is a monumental moment, and it feels like it.

also, i love the way gear two is drawn pre-timeskip, especially with the steam. it looks very cool and atmospheric.

i really like how united the strawhat crew feels throughout enies lobby, after all the internal turmoil and discord of water seven. even though the matter of usopp leaving the crew is still unresolved, they’ll all together once more, on the same page, and fully united in the goal of saving robin, whatever consequences it might bring. 

the tree of knowledge has such a cool design- it looks massive, and even more than that, it looks old. you look at that tree and you know its been there for easily thousands of years. its seen entire eras of history, and it would be priceless even without the countless books stored inside it.

and then it burns.

i’m so endlessly sad about the tragedy that is robin’s relationship with her mother. they never even got to see each other until their world was ending, and even then only for a couple minutes.

olvia is a very interesting character, because she’s someone who chose her dream over the people she loved. that’s not an inherently good or bad choice, but it is a choice she made, and it’s what led to the ending she and robin had to have. i’ve wondered a lot what might have happened if she chose the other way, if she never left or if she came back sooner or if she chose to flee the buster call with robin, and how different (and almost certainly better) robin’s life would have been if she had.

in a way, olvia reminds me a lot of kouzuki toki. they both die in order to fling a light of knowledge and hope into the future, and they both send their children away and choose to stay behind to choke on ash for the sake of a better tomorrow. 

i didn’t really notice until putting these panels together, but a lot of things burn in enies lobby. ohara burns, and the pluton plans and the world government flag, and enies lobby itself, and at the end, the going merry burns, too. if you extend it back to water seven, there’s the galley-la headquarters, too. in an arc that deals so much with the preservation and destruction of history and knowledge, it’s a fitting motif. 

the world government flag burning is still to this day one of the most striking panels out of a series full of them, in my opinion. in one act, the strawhats proclaim their absolute defiance against the world government, and their willingness to make enemies of the greatest power in the world for the sake of their friend.

it’s also another one of those moments that’s interesting to think about in the context of luffy’s past. it was a ship flying that same flag that shot sabo down, and while luffy wasn’t there to see it, i don’t think he’s oblivious to that fact, especially given how he says just before this he understands robin’s enemies perfectly.

dadan told him and ace that there was nothing they could do against the whole world, and luffy went and did it anyways.

sometimes i just think about how scary it must have been for robin, someone who’s been weighed down by the shackles of her past with no escape in sight for so very long, to open herself up and let herself hope, for life and freedom and a dream that’s always been out of reach. 

franky has a lot of really great moments between this arc and water seven- his conversation with usopp as usopp is working on merry and his talk with robin on the sea train are two others. it’s almost impressive how quickly he becomes an immensely likable character once we start getting to know him, given how he’s first introduced as an absolute piece of shit.

his burning of the pluton plans is a favorite of mine, and i think it might be because, like so many people before and after him, he’s choosing here to stake all his hopes on the strawhats, on luffy’s ability to pull off the impossible and on robin’s goodness. when robin’s only ever been chased and hated and called a demon by the world, franky chooses to trust her and luffy with the legacy his dad died for, and neither of them let him down.

monster point looks SO FUCKING TERRIFYING in enies lobby, and i LOVE it. look at that. franky is seven and half feet tall, and in front of monster point he’s tiny. monster point is huge, and dead-eyed, and a force of absolute destruction. i do kind of wish we got to see chopper go completely feral like this more often. he deserves to be terrifying!

i love how much FAITH all the rest of the strawhats continue to have in usopp throughout enies lobby. he left the crew and they really would have a right to be angry at him if they chose to, but it doesn’t even seem to cross any of their minds. they’re just happy he’s okay, and they include him again without missing a beat, because he’s still their friend and they know down to their bones they can trust him, even after everything. 

i’ve always really loved zoro and kaku’s little moment of post-battle banter here- zoro relays paulie’s message about cp9 being fired, kaku says he’s out of a job, zoro tells him to try the zoo, and kaku cracks up.

it feels very real to me for whatever reason, and i think part of it ties back into how well one piece handles morality with its characters- zoro and kaku are genuinely pretty similar people who get along decently, it just happens that they wound up on opposite sides. there are series where you’d never see moments like this due to the lines between good and bad being so firmly drawn, and i love how one piece blurs those lines so much they may as well not exist a lot of the time.

this is the other sequence, along with luffy climbing the drum rockies barehanded, that always makes me physically cringe to look at. it looks so painful. robin is so nearly powerless here, but not quite- she can still buy time for her crew to catch up, even if it’s only seconds, even if she risks shattering her teeth or even her jaw in the process. she’s spent so long giving up and has only just started daring to hope- she’s not about to go gentle.

there aren’t many panels that give me catharsis like this one. there really aren’t.

oda’s villains are usually complicated and awful and often a little admirable, if only for how clever or how terrifyingly powerful they are, but every now and then he comes up with someone who’s just pathetic and cowardly and pointlessly cruel. spandam is like this, obviously, and so is orochi, and the celestial dragons, and i’d argue flampe from whole cake island as well. and there’s nothing like seeing characters like them- weak, cruel people so assured in their own power and rightness- get obliterated.

one of the things i really like about enies lobby is that nobody really gets sidelined- everybody gets multiple chances to shine. luffy, usopp, and obviously robin are the most in focus, obviously, but zoro, sanji, nami, chopper, and even franky all get a bunch of individual awesome moments. oda’s ability to handle his cast satisfyingly is consistently really impressive (if sometimes strained in huge ensemble arcs like dressrosa or wano) and it really shows here, i think.

i just really love the entire climax of enies lobby. much like the arc as a whole, it just feels triumphant, even though the situation is extremely dire. luffy unlocking gear three, robin’s cuffs getting unlocked, usopp shooting spandam and the marines all the way from the tower of justice- it’s all just good, a long chain of much-needed victories and catharses, and it feels very good to read.

i’ll always be impressed by just how much characterization oda manages to give merry, a boat. she’s only really a character in water seven and the end of enies lobby, only about two chapters of which she actually speaks in. and yet i don’t think you’d find a single one piece fan who disagrees that merry’s death is easily one of the most heartwrenching in the entire series.

i love the reactions of the strawhats to robin’s thanks. they’ve just gone through hell to save her, most of them are beat to shit and they all risked their lives, and yet they all just smile, or brush it off, because to them there’s nothing else they could have done. it’s all worth it, so long as they got her back, so long as she’s safe and happy.

merry’s funeral just hits me in the chest every single time i read it. it’s tragic, of course, but there’s also something almost lovely about it, something peaceful about her getting to go out on her own terms, carrying her crew to safety one last time, defying every rule of the universe to do it. just like a strawhat pirate.

oda’s ability to communicate emotion through expressions really comes through here, too. merry has the only lines in this scene, fitting for her death in the limelight, but the shots of every other crewmate’s face let us know at a glance just what they’re all feeling and just how strongly they’re feeling it.

you know, i’d forgotten we only learn the name of the new world after enies lobby. we only get proper exposition about the revolutionary army and the yonkou here, too, despite them being set up since loguetown and jaya (or alabasta, or even chapter one if you count from shanks’s introduction) respectively. oda’s ability to parse out exposition and explanation so we always have just the right amount of information is really impressive- we always have more questions, but we also always have the feeling that those questions have answers, and that sooner or later they’ll be revealed.

points at shanks. i just think he’s neat.

it’s my opinion that one of the great joys of one piece is seeing luffy and the crew rise up in the world, and seeing them gain more and more notoriety. i love nothing they do ever happens in a vacuum- everything has impacts, and there are always outside eyes watching, and often those impacts are things that they never could have predicted.

ace and blackbeard is still, i think, definitely one of the coolest looking fights in the whole series. it’s not all that often we get to see two people with extremely flashy and showy abilities go all-out against each other, and the resulting fireworks are still really something to behold, despite how badly it all ends. 

[frobin]

Hi! Ok, I know it isn't very related to Frobin (except if you decide to mention them in the answer), but I am curious about your opionion on this thing. If the end of One Piece have someone of the Straw Hat crew that can die, who can be? OBVIOUSLY I hope nobody, that this thing doesn't happen, but never say never. There're people who say Luffy to recreate Roger's connection. Someone else Usop (but I miss the reason). Or Jinbe, who has also some problems and enemies from previous experiences?

Hey there anon!

No worries about asking questions. This is a FRobin blog but it's also a One Piece blog so it's fine to ask all kind of questions about One Piece. Even though I wouldn't consider myself much of an *expert* so everything I write is very much influenced by my own impressions.

But you're asking for my opinion anyway so that disclaimer is not necessary in this case. XD

---

Okay, first of all: I'm no fan of death flags. I never see them and when I read about them I feel like people pull them out of nowhere.

So I don't think any of the Strawhats will die before or even while the big end fight. Also it's not like they will reach their goal and then just drop dead (don't forget the dream are very different too but more about that later). Like what kind of life would that be?

Also we can't forget that Oda still believes he is writing this story for 14 year old boys. So, even though death is and will be a theme I don't think he will kill off the main crew.

That would not be very clever story wise and is not how to tell a story about adventure and fulfilling dreams for young boys.

Right now it's very "fashionable" to let characters die for shock value. But the more it's done the more annoying it becomes and less of a shock and Oda won't stoop so low to use this kind of element. Why do I think that?

So far we had three deaths in OP and they all shocked us a lot. But they were also used as motivator for other characters. Whitebeards death was a motivator for a whole new Generation of pirates, as well as his crew to try to save Ace and his little brother. Ace's death was a launch of character development for Luffy, Sabo, Garp and even Sengoku and probably more. Pedros death was a motivator for Carrot and other Minks. (Even the fake death of Pell was a huge motivator for Vivi. Interestingly compared to other deaths his sacrifice did not stop the war, which would have been an adequate impact. So him coming back alive actually makes sense.)

But look how few and far between they are. Of course there was more death but the important ones are kept as those.

Why am I talking about that? Who would benefit from a Strawhats death?

Literally no one. They are all already motivated to go until the end for each other. It's more likely that a death would cause Luffy to just give up, him becoming catatonic again.

Who would Luffy fight for if he even loses one of his crew mates? Or maybe two?

If I were a Marine I would try to make Luffy think that his friends are dead and then catch him but that is beside the point.

But for One Piece, a Strawhat death it would not move the story further. There is no additional motivator needed and that would be the only reason to kill one of the crew.

Killing a Strawhat makes no sense in my opinion.

A death would only make sense after they reached their goal.

So it is possible that we see the Strawhats die but long after the story came to an end, them reaching Laugh Tale (if that is the end). And yes, I think all of them will die of natural causes and/or sickness. Most of them at an old age. I think Luffy, Zoro or Usopp being the firsts because of the trauma their bodies had endured would make most sense.

I hope that answered your question anon... and anyone who does not want to read even more about my nonsense can stop here.

But let me break down why I think that all Strawhats have plot armor against death flags, behind the read-more.

-> It is very important that I think the huge clash with the Blackbeard Pirates, which will be the end fight, will happen right before Laugh Tale. And Laugh Tale is the end-goal and the end of the main story. (I MIGHT BE WRONG!!!)<-

Everyones own story can only end after they reached their goal so let's look why I think that these dreams give the Strawhats Plot Armor.

Luffy: Become the king of the pirates. That means he has to reach Laugh Tale. I often hear that Luffy will die early because of the parallel to Roger. That does not mean he won't reach his 40s or 50s. Even after reaching Laugh Tale Roger lived a bit longer and even had time to "make a child" so, killing off Luffy in the end fight makes no sense. So maybe dying after the fight, on Laugh Tale? That could happen and would be the earliest death of any Strawhat imo.

Zoro: Become the strongest sword fighter. That means he still has to kill Mihawk. I don't think Mihawk will go and look for Zoro. So, Zoro has to survive and then return to Mihawk and have his duel. No sense in killing off Zoro. I am 100% sure that he will survive until then.

Nami: Drawing a world map. For that Nami has to travel the world many times more. After they reached Laugh Tale, Nami has only finished part of her dream. She has to visit all of the Blues, travel the Grand Line and the New world multiple times. Drawing a Map of the world will take a lifetime. Her dream will take the longest to be fulfilled.

Usopp: Become the great warrior of the sea. Now here we have a dream that is not really tangible. Usopp will be a great warrior as soon as he realises that he is one. In my opinion he already managed to become a great warrior. Time and time again he has shown how amazing he is but this is all about his own self image and so hard to grasp. This actually makes Usopp the most likely to have a death flag BUT we can't forget that he still has to return home and tell his stories to Kaya and the Usopp pirates. It's part of a promise that is only secondary but for me it's enough to think Usopp too is safe until he did that.

Sanji: To find the All Blue. Sanji thinks that the All Blue is something physical. We can't know that and if it is physical we can consider that it's maybe a part of the New World near the Red Line where all seas somehow come together. So again, until Sanji found that place he hasn't fulfilled his dream. And since I think that would be BEHIND Laugh Tale, again I think Sanji is safe. Alternatively the All Blue is just a metaphor for something completely different but I can't hink about what.

Chopper: To cure all illness. Here too, this is something that takes time. Chopper is still only at the beginning of his career of being a doctor. Finding a magical cure for every illness that exists is not something that just happens. Logically he would need to talk with many other medical experts and together they might be able to find it. When and how and if that happens is impossible to say but again that would be something that would fit best in the time after reaching Laugh Tale.

Robin: To find the truth of the void century. Right now we figure that she will find that at the end of their travel, on Laugh Tale. Maybe it will happen earlier in case the Strawhats storm the World Government. Either way she will learn the truth. But that will not be the end to her. After learning the truth it's up to Robin to bring it to the world, to write it down, to teach, to make people understand that they can't erase history and that they have to learn from it. Again, that is something that takes time and so, truly fulfilling her dream.

Franky: To travel the world in the ship of his dreams. Again that is a vague dream. But it would mean to at least return to Water Seven, so that Sunny has traveled the world once. But even then it's only been a small part of the world and traveling the world would mean to visit at least every of the seas. So far, Sunny had been in two to four, depending on how much you take the movies into account. But to fulfill Franky's dream he needs to survive a bit longer and so does Sunny.

Brook: To meet Laboon again. This is simple. But for that Brook has to reach the end of the New World and then get over the Red Line again. What he will do after that is hard to tell. But again, the Red Line is behind Laugh Tale and so I'm sure Brook too, has to survive... even though he is already dead YOHOHO!

Jinbe: Equality between merfolk and humans. Again this is something that is no easy feat and will probably take more than one generation. Also it is not only up to him and more to Shirahoshi and the World Government. This dream is about teamwork too, but who could be a better ambassador for the merfolk than him? Losing Jinbe would be a huge backfire for the cause. Jinbe too is safe in my opinion. If you have reached the end of the post, let me tell you again my headcanon about FRobin: After the main adventure Franky and Robin return to Water Seven where Franky helps to turn W7 into a boat and after that is done, they travel to the island where Ohara used to be and there they rebuild the island. More people return and it again becomes a hub for scholars and history.

[megashadowdragon]

Warning: this theory contains HEAVY SPOILERS! If you’re not fully caught up with the manga, read at your own risk.

Since English isn’t my first language, I apologize in advance for any spelling/grammar mistakes. Also, this is my first time posting.

It’s practically obvious to everyone that we will get a Kaido flashback in this arc, whether he dies or not: of course, there will be a part about his time in the Rocks Pirates, but we will also get to know possibly one of the most important people for him: his wife.

Because, let’s face it, Oda hasn’t done much yet to give his personality some depth and not being just an arrogant, cruel, child-beating antagonist with a penchant for alcohol and an obsession for death, and a figure such a woman he loved could be a great opportunity for doing so.

Some might speculate that she’s actually dead and that’s why Kaido started drinking.

It could be true but, knowing Oda, he would never introduce a deceased character of that importance out of the blue, without some sort of foreshadowing: a well-kept grave located in a secret place where an important character stumbles upon in the Onigashima raid (on screen, obviously), a framed portrait on a desk or a wall, a name seemingly being thrown offhandedly in a conversation… but there is nothing in Wano which even remotely resembles one of those things.

Therefore, she must be alive.

(Also, there are already too much fundamental figures in various characters’ history who ended up dead in flashbacks, such as Bellemere, Rocinante, Russian and so on. Come on, Oda.)

Is she going to be someone new, at least?

Well, that’s a possibility, however in next arc(s) new characters will be introduced and One Piece has got more than a thousand of them already… quite a lot, aren’t they? Consequently, there is a very good chance for her to be someone who has been already introduced into the story.

Of course, there must have been some sort of foreshadowing when she had been introduced, too: she was the lover of a Yonko, after all. Has there been a woman with an unknown lover in the past arcs?

Yes, actually.

It was her:

And I believe that the mysterious man she fell in love with was none other than Kaido himself. But wait, there’s more: Gloriosa has also eaten a Devil Fruit. An extremely powerful one.

Don’t worry, I will explain everything on the way. Now, hold onto your seat, because this will be quite the long ride.

Kaido and Gloriosa comparison

Kaido of the Beasts, Governor General of the Beasts Pirates, one of the Four Emperors, the Strongest Being in the world and Gloriosa, a former Kuja ruler. These two may have little to nothing in common... or have they?

Probably the most striking difference between them is their respective height: while Kaido easily dwarfs normal humans, Gloriosa is shorter than Luffy; however, both of their heights are currently not canonically stated.

Unstated as both of their ages are, although it’s clear that both of them are past their younger days: in Gloriosa this is highlighted by her grey hair and wrinkled face, but it’s clear that Kaido is not that young any more, too, having crow’s feet under his eyes and forehead lines. It is likely that these two are quite close in age, actually.

A notably interesting fact is, canon heights and ages of the various characters, along with things such as their favourite food, are revealed in the SBS corner in manga volumes. And yet, not even one of these little pieces of information has been revealed for both Kaido and Gloriosa.

It’s very unlikely that nobody has ever sent these question to Oda, or that the latter forgot to answer them; given the importance of the two characters in the arc where they have appeared, there must be a very specific reason why Oda didn’t tell us a thing. More than that, when Gloriosa talked about her Love Sickness in chapter 522, there was no flashback; not even silhouettes.

With these things and questions on mind, let’s move on to their position. Kaido is now an Emperor of the Sea, and Gloriosa was an Empress of the Kuja. Also, while Gloriosa was an Empress Kaido held no particular position, except by maybe being a pirate captain; and now the tables have turned, Kaido being an Emperor and Gloriosa being a nobody. A neat little parallel, isn’t it?

Now, let’s get to their Haki usage and knowledge: Gloriosa seems to have some knowledge about how it works and the characteristics of the people who are able to use the various Colours: in fact, in chapter 521 she comments about Luffy’s Haki, surprised by how he willingly bowed his head to Hancock to help those who saved him instead of a boat to leave the island without a second thought. She is not a confirmed user of any form of Haki; however, in a place where pretty much every powerful warrior can use at least Observation and Armament, it is hinted she is a wielder of these two colours at least and, since she used to be an Empress, there is also a chance she can use Conqueror’s, too. Kaido is a confirmed Observation, Armament and Conqueror user, and also one of the very few people, as he himself stated in chapter 1010, who can make the latter colour flowing through their body and coat their weapon(s). In the very same chapter, he also recognized Zoro’s illusions while performing Ashura as a manifestation of Conqueror’s Haki, revealing his in-depth knowledge about the subject.

Last but certainly not least... their strength. Kaido one-shot Luffy in Gear Fourth despite the Emperor being so drunk he could not stand on his feet properly; also, he was able to clash against a fellow Yonko for days and tanked pretty much both all the Scabbard’s hits and the majority of the Supernova’s attacks on the rooftop. Moreover, how can his absolutely epic introduction not be taken into account? He fell from a Sky Island literally 10000 metres above the sea level and he ended up with... a strong headache. I’ll tell you what: Gloriosa fell from a great height, too! In addiction to it, she landed without suffering any serious consequences, as shown in chapter 517, where she landed on her feet seemingly undamaged after Hancock quite literally threw her out of the Kuja Castle. As Gloriosa herself said, she might have grown old, but she is still a Kuja warrior. Also, being a former ruler where strength is beauty, she undoubtedly was a force to be reckoned with in her prime.

That being said*... Maybe they’re not so different, after all, huh?*

Mythology references

One Piece has loads of references to Japanese myths and folklore, however Wano is especially loaded with these; and how could it not be? It is inspired by Japan, after all.

Moreover, since Kaido can transform into a dragon, there must be some kind of reference to Japanese myths and legends regarding these legendary creatures.

There’s one in particular, which might be the key to Kaido’s backstory: the story of the Enoshima Dragon.

According to this myth, in the mountains near the Koshigoe village lived a five-headed dragon, called Gozuryu, who terrorized the inhabitants over a period of some-thousand years by provoking countless natural disasters such as huge storms, floods and earthquakes, as well as eating their children. The villagers kept praying and praying, until something happened: in 31st May, 552 AD, during a bigger and more violent storm than the usual, the clouds split in two and a rock began to emerge from the sea. A beautiful woman descended from a ray of light where the clouds slit and sat foot on the island just created, making it her home. The dragon, who assisted to the whole thing, immediately fell in love with her and asked her to marry him.

The woman, who was perfectly aware of the dragon’s evil actions, was none other than the goddess Benzaiten herself.

Benzaiten on a white dragon

Now, there are two versions of how the story ends: in one, the goddess turned him down at first, and told the dragon she would have considered his proposal only if he helped the people he used to terrorise. Gozuryu accepted and the village prospered thanks to their dual protection; in the end, the goddess agreed to marry him and the couple lived happily until the dragon met his demise. In the other version, Benzaiten straight up refused Gozuryu’s proposal due to his evil actions; ashamed for his wrongdoings, the dragon promised the goddess he would have never disturbed the village again, and retired in the mountains where he died of guilt.

Anyway, regardless of how the story goes, when the dragon died he fused with the land of Kamakura, creating the Dragon’s Mouth hill (Japanese: Tatsu no kuchi yama) facing south, the direction of the island where his beloved lived. Needless to say, the island of the myth is Enoshima.

The comparison between Kaido and Gozuryu is immediate: both are extremely cruel towards children, with the former having no qualms beating them, even his own, and the latter eating them. Moreover, the Emperor, much like the five-headed dragon, terrorizes the inhabitants of the place near where he lives (Wano Country and Koshigoe Village respectively) turning the land into completely inhabitable wasteland in the process, and is capable of causing huge storms; his apparition in chapter 921 is also being accompanied by a thunderstorm. Note that, in Chapter 1003, Zoro states that fighting Kaido was like “facing a natural disaster”, much like the natural catastrophes Gozuryu caused.

Now, let’s talk about Benzaiten.

Goddess of water (especially rivers), eloquence, and good fortune, Benzaiten is considered one of the protector deities of Japan, where she’s one of the most beloved and revered gods: every major city has at least one place for her worship and countless temples and shrines dedicated to her cult are present in many other areas across the country, all located near water sources such as rivers, ponds, lakes or even in the sea. She is part of Japan’s Seven Lucky Gods, and she’s the only woman among them.

Benzaiten, however, is not originally Japanese: she is in fact a syncretic deity derived from the Hindu goddess Saraswati whose cult was brought to Japan by Buddhist monks who arrived in the VII century from China.

Due to her extreme complexity, only the most relevant facts to this theory will be reported.

She wasn’t very popular until the XI century, when her cult was fused with Ugajin’s, an obscure Japanese Kami of water, agriculture and good fortune, often represented as an old man with a snake body. Once this happened, her popularity skyrocketed as a goddess of water and by assonance ‘of everything that flows’: rivers, eloquence, knowledge, music, art and Haki. Even nowadays, Uga Benzaiten, the goddess with Ugajin on her head, is one of the most common Benzaiten representations.

Both lived in an island inhabited only by women: Gloriosa in Amazon Lily, and Benzaiten in Enoshima, since she was the sole inhabitant of said island and also a woman;

Benzaiten originated from an Indian goddess and Gloriosas, the flowers which Gloriosa was named after, grow in India too! Gloriosa superba is even Tamil Nadu’s national flower.

Due to being goddess of water, Benzaiten was naturally associated with animals connected with said element: snakes, turtles… and dragons. Especially the white ones, since this colour is linked with water in Japanese culture.

Snakes are a big part of Amazon Lily’s culture: almost every warrior on the island has her own Snake Weapon which can be used as a bow, the island’s dome is sculpted with snake motifs, the Perfume Yuda, Kuja Pirates’ flagship, is carried by two Yuda snakes, even Kuja, the name of the tribe, means ‘Nine snakes’

White snakes were considered to be Benzaiten’s main messengers and avatars and Gloriosa in Share the World opening appeared with a blue top and*...* a white snake.

Also, the traditional representation of the Black Warrior is a turtle intertwined with a snake, much like Kujas with their Snake Weapon. Due to these facts, I believe that Gloriosa has eaten the Mythical Zoan Kame Kame no Mi model: Genbu.

Timeline and character analysis – a PERSONAL take on what could have happened and when (and why)

For this section, other than time markings scattered throughout the story, Momonosuke’s (biological 8 – actual 28), Yamato’s (28), and Hancock’s (31) ages will also be taken into account for comparison.

It is known that the Rocks Pirates were defeated and subsequently disbanded 38 years before the current time. Also, Kaido was captured, and presumably sentenced to jail, eighteen times; given his reputation and danger, it’s pretty safe to assume that at least one of those nine prison ships he sunk was directed to Impel Down.

Impel Down is actually not that far from Amazon Lily: the journey takes one sailing week with an average ship, while Marine ones can make it in just four days, about half the time, because of the reserved currents. In my opinion, it makes sense thinking that Kaido has sunk a prison ship in the Paradise and somehow ended up in Amazon Lily.

Now, everyone here knows the supreme rule of the Island of Women:

NO. MEN. ALLOWED.

For any reasons.

So, by the laws of the island, he was imprisoned and, just like Luffy, was sentenced to death. But, like the latter pirate did, Kaido defeated/broke/knocked unconscious all the animal/things commonly used for executions on the island, therefore the Empress finally decided to take the matter into her own hands.

I believe the Kuja Empress at the time was Gloriosa. Why?

Well, it was stated that 33 years ago the remnants of the Rocks Pirates sent off to found their own crews, and probably Kaido arrived in Amazon Lily even earlier, between 38 and 33 years ago. As Hancock stated, Gloriosa is actually the former-former-former empress of Amazon Lily: this means that there were two Empresses between her and Hancock; since the latter is stated to have become Empress at the age of 18, 13 years ago, and given that the other two unnamed Empresses died of Love Sickness which probably is more likely to strike the unlucky rulers at a fairly young age, 20-25 years are more than enough for two Empresses to have reigned.

To estimate her actual force at the time, let’s analyse her name a bit.

Like all Kujas, Gloriosa is named after a flower (or a genus of those): Gloriosa is a genus of 12 flower species, widely spread in areas of the world such as Africa, the Arabic Peninsula and tropical parts of Asia. It can reach 3 metres in height and they display showy, vibrant-colored flowers with distinctively shaped petals, earning them the nickname of fire lily.

So, the question arises spontaneously: why is this short, wrinkly old woman named after one of the most beautiful (and tallest) flowers in the world? Given Oda’s attention even for the tiniest details, I highly doubt he chose this name randomly; at least, not for her.

Either she’s a grotesque parody of her own name… or it could be a foreshadow.

Gloriosa is also the Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and Catalan word meaning ‘glorious’, if the subject it’s related to is feminine and singular. A truly fitting name for a ruler and the wife of a Yonko, isn’t it? And Kaido want his death to be… glorious.

Maybe Gloriosa in her prime was actually even more beautiful and stronger than the current Hancock, to the point where nobody had ever beaten her in combat.

Anyway, you know how the saying goes: if it’s one on one, always bet on Kaido.

Therefore, Gloriosa was defeated for the first time. By a man.

Hancock’s case probably gives us how Empresses fall ill with Love Sickness: it happens when a man catches them off guard by behaving in a totally and positively unexpected way, defying all the previous experiences the rulers have. Hancock fell in love with Luffy because he showed her kindness and didn’t judge her when she told him about her past; Gloriosa got Love Sickness because she fell in love with Kaido for his strength.

Because love… is always like a Dragon Twister hurricane!

How about Kaido?

It is common knowledge that he respects physical strength, even in his enemies.

That’s probably why he joined the Rocks Pirates in the first place: out of respect for Rocks D. Xebec, because he was actually the first person ever to defeat him in combat.

Just like Zoro with Kuina, or Douglas Bullet with Gol D. Roger (in the Stampede movie).

Gloriosa may have not defeated him in combat, but she surely gave him a very good run for his money, maybe she almost won. And he respected her for that, to the point where he actually accepted to leave Amazon Lily, even if he won. He stayed there for a little more, while a ship for him to sail the sea was being prepared, and lived peacefully (meaning: extensively touched and examined) with the Kujas.; what are the chances that one of his favourite (or least) foods is actually penne with Gorgonzola and Sea King’s meat, the island’s culinary speciality?

When he sat sail, he probably found out that the Empress snuck aboard his ship when he was far away from the island already. He thought of bringing her back, but, after listening to her reasons, he decided to let her stay with him because, let’s face it, Kaido is not Luffy, he actually appreciates the company of women.

The most beautiful woman in the world fell in love with him and contracted a mysterious illness which would have killed her if she didn’t go with him and follow him anywhere?

Oh no! /s

I’ll tell you what, I don’t think that Kaido was actually in love with her at first that much. He surely enjoyed spending passionate nights with her, and was amused by her curiosity due to Gloriosa knowing little to nothing about the external world.

There was a specific moment when he actually fell in love with her.

Have you noticed that, despite being often shirtless, Kaido's back is never fully uncovered even in his dragon form? He always wears a coat, a shirt, or both.

That hints that Kaido has some kind of mark on his back he wants to hide from public view, just like the Gorgon Sisters. Something must have happened that made him show her said mark, maybe Gloriosa caught a glimpse and asked him to see it. Anyway, Kaido was reclutant at first, but she had the right to know, she was his wife after all.

So he showed it to her, in a way that, when it will be shown in the flashback, might be a callback to when Hancock showed Luffy the Celestial Dragon hoof.

That mark meant that for the world he had and would always have been something inhuman, a failed experiment, a monster; even Big Mom, who has the best spy network in the world, calls him a 'thing'. But Gloriosa didn’t judge him for said mark, nor she believed he was a monster. For Gloriosa, he was just Kaido, the man who she had fallen in love with.

That's when Kaido fell for her. And he fell hard, probably to the point of no return.

At some point, the two conceived a child, and that's when Kaido decided that it was time to move to Wano instead of travelling the world: the pirate life is dangerous for grown people let alone for a child, plus he was one of the most wanted men by the World Government, meaning the child was in danger simply by existing.

But how did Kaido know about Wano?

He probably heard something about the Continent Puller and the ‘country’ he formed about 600 years before but, since it was a closed nation, he probably didn’t know much more until he met someone who escaped from said island: Kurozumi Higurashi.

41 years ago, she told Orochi that she fled the country because of the persecutions against the Kurozumi clan, and because she knew nothing about the outside world, joining pirates was the easier choice. Also, in that way she could have found allies and power for the Kurozumi cause easier.

The Mane Mane no Mi allows the user to create a perfect copy of a person whose face has been touched. She transformed in a woman, who, judging by the color scheme in the anime, is heavily hinted to be Bakkin and a young Shiki, both known members of the Rocks Pirates, so Higurashi may have traveled with said crew for a while. There she met Kaido, who she sensed he could have been a great help for the Kurozumis: big, powerful, and stupid, easy to manipulate.

A closed off country not part of the World Government: a perfect nation for Kaido to reside to ensure the safety of his family (mainly his child, because Gloriosa was more than capable of defending herself) and to use as a base for his operations.

When Oden went with Whitebeard 29 years ago, there were no factories in Wano, but they were there when Toki arrived in Wano with Momonosuke, who was 3 at the time, and Hiyori; so Kaido must have arrived in Wano three years earlier at last.

Gloriosa may not have been the Kuja Empress anymore, but had everything a woman like her could ask for: she was one of the heads of a soon to be powerful army, plus a devoted, loving husband and a child.

Why did she leave it all behind?

I have already talked about the parallels between Gloriosa and turtles in the mythology section, but here’s another one: in Chinese culture, turtle (especially turtle egg) is a very serious insult regarding the morality of one’s mother; that’s why Genbu is called Black Warrior instead of Black Tortoise.

This also expands one of Wano’s most prominent themes: betrayal.

Gloriosa was forced to leave Wano and Yamato behind because she cheated on Kaido. But with who?

Well, the Beast Pirates follow a card games and decks naming theme, and currently there is none named Ace; also, when Oden faced Kaido, Jack was only 8, so my hypothesis is that the third Calamity before him was called Ace. He probably had a crush on Gloriosa and when she went to him for comfort while Kaido was away, probably out to recruit subordinates or captured, he couldn’t resist.

But Kaido caught the two in the act, and was absolutely furious.

He killed Ace, and his position remained vacant for quite some time, until Jack finally took his place in the Calamities; that's why, in Episode 972, there were only King and Queen along with the fodder.

However, Kaido couldn't bring himself to kill his wife personally, so he offered her a choice: be dispatched by the hands of King or Queen, or leave and never return.

Gloriosa chose the second option.

She packed her things and left, only to realize she had nowhere to go: Wano obviously was not an option, but she couldn't just go back to Amazon Lily, not after she betrayed Kujas by abandoning them while she was an Empress. Plus, as a pirate, she was wanted by the Marine. So she lived on the run, continuously assuming new identities and never staying in the same place for too long.

Also, Love Sickness certainly has played its role in weakening her, making her age faster and dramatically decreasing her height in the process.

Taking a look at Hancock’s bed, it’s decisiverly oversized for her: said bed could comfortably fit a laid Boa Hancock together with her Snake Weapon, which is way larger than the others, her sisters, the doctor and Gloriosa, and still have room left for someone else to stand on it.

It is very likely that this bed was the Empress’s for a long time, and, since that position is not inherited, it had to fit Kujas of all sizes. So Gloriosa could have been taller in her youth, maybe a little shorter than Kaido, but still enough to handle him.

Anyway, Gloriosa managed to survive through sheer willpower, the same that allows her to snap out of Hancock’s charm much faster than the others, until her feelings for Kaido eventually faded away, thus healing from said illness.

When she finally arrived to Sabaody Archipelago, at least fifteen years ago, she was unrecognisable. Coincidentally, Shakky's Rip-Off bar was searching for new waiters, and Gloriosa applied because she needed money. The former pirate immediately recognised her.

How is that possible? Feminine intuition!

In chapter 591, she correctly predicted that Hancock would became smitten with Luffy despite not seeing her for thirteen years and every evidence in Hancock's behaviour pointing out the contrary. (Also in the very same chapter Hancock asks Gloriosa how to have a proper marriage while surrounded by monkeys wearing Wano's typical hat. Let that sink in).

Shakky understood that Kaido had no interest in her anymore and let her stay with her and Rayleigh, until the Boa sisters arrived and Gloriosa could finally return to Amazon Lily with the excuse of bringing them back home.

On the other hand, Kaido was devastated, to say the least.

Can you blame him? His beloved wife was cheating on him with one of his most trusted subordinates. He needed to forget, to get rid of all those negative feelings overwhelming him: that's why he started drinking.

However, Kaido isn't stupid. Okay, he may not be as smart as Benn Beckman, the most intelligent person introduced in the East Blue arc, but he surely has some brains: you don't reach and mantain high positions within a crew without some smarts, let alone being an Emperor of the Sea. Kaido soon realised that he caught the two relatively easily. Too easily.

Almost if they wanted to get caught in the act.

While Kaido was drinking his sorrow away, someone else was toasting to a risky plan gone smoothly.

The Kurozumi clan.

Higurashi may have lured Kaido into Wano and the alliance with the Kurozumi, but she didn’t predict that he would have arrived with a wife and a child. Gloriosa probably had a great influence on Kaido, who was (and maybe is still) regarded as little more than a muscle head; and the Kurozumis were actually afraid that she may have been plotting something. This impression was confirmed by the Onibanshu who spied the two pirates: probably Gloriosa wasn't happy about the shogun and suggested her husband some ways to dethronate him.

She was a threat, and they needed to get rid of her as soon as possible.

They sensed that one of Kaido’s top subordinates had feelings for Gloriosa, and they decided to use this fact to their advantage. So Higurashi transformed using her Devil Fruit powers and seduced the crew’s Ace, in a time and a place where she was sure Kaido could see them, while someone else distracted Gloriosa. In the end, everything went according to plan.

However, when Kaido saw the old hag using her powers some time after, he understood everything. But he had no concrete proofs, and certainly wasn't in the position to kill someone so important to his pawn based only on simple suspects; so he waited, until the perfect moment arrived.

Meanwhile, Kaido kept drinking, to forget his actions and to numb his guilt. At first, a little quantity of alcohol did the trick, but eventually he needed more and more, slowly falling into addiction.

You know, Gloriosas’ beauty is only matched by their toxicity: as proud members of the Colchicaceae family, they contain colchicine, a powerful metabolic toxin; all parts of these plants can be fatal if eaten, even a simple touch can cause skin irritation. Due to this, Gloriosa superba has been used for centuries to commit suicide.

Just like colchicine corrodes the body, alcohol, together with shame, guilt and anger, slowly eroded Kaido’s soul, corrupting him from within.

While Kaido's original plan for Wano was simply to make the island his operational base, after all that happened he decided to destroy and utterly annihililate it, just like Orochi destroyed his happiness. The shogun was fine with his ally’s devastations and never suspected that Kaido knew. The latter made Orochi believe he wouldn’t touch the Flower Capital, just to completely erase it from the face of Earth once his army would have been powerful enough to fight an all-out war. Revenge is a dish best served cold and then smashed on the forehead.

The rest is history.

Surely Kaido will be defeated, but he will not be completely dealt with in this arc.

Yamato probably got their kind, selfless nature from Gloriosa. The latter would have never approved of the terms of Kaido’s promise to Oden, let alone all the hostages and atrocities done by her husband; since Oden began to dance naked in the streets 25 years ago, probably Gloriosa was already gone at that time.

Because of this, Yamato has little to no memories of their mother, so they will likely ask Kaido about her at the end of the battle. However, Kaido himself doesn’t know her whereabouts because he didn’t send spies after her; at first, because he didn’t care about her anymore. When he realised his mistake, he still didn’t search for her because otherwise it would have shown that she was still important to him. He is not naive, he knows there are spies in his ranks, even at high levels; therefore he wants to avoid attracting unwanted attentions to her.

Plus, Kaido doesn’t even want to know, because Gloriosa probably is dead or has found another person to be with; and he deep down knows that those news would definitely break him.

However, there’s one little detail: Gloriosa’s speech quirk-nyon. Even if her appearance has changed quite a bit, she surely did nyot change her way of talking. Luffy would probably understand Kaido is talking about her because of this, and will tell them that she’s alive and well in Amazon Lily.

It is a known fact that our protagonist either kills the villains’ dreams or changes them: Kaido will change his goal too. He wouldn’t want to die yet, he will probably want to meet Gloriosa again to apologize properly for what he had done to her.

Thus, he will survive the battle and somehow, after almost thirty years, Kaido and Gloriosa will meet again.

Will Gloriosa forgive him? Will she not?

Only Oda will tell.

Other references

Black Maria Many people actually believe she’s a Kuja, and I admit, they have pretty good reasons for thinking so. Let’s start by her name: other than being a card game, Black Maria is also a variety of bougainvillea, a clear reference to Kuja’s floral naming theme; there is also a flower named Spider Lily (Lycoris radiata) referencing her Devil Fruit powers and Amazon Lily alike. Black Maria has also flowers in her hair; the most prominent ones, colored in red, have also five petals, much like the one Gloriosa wears in her hair! She is also the owner of a brothel in Onigashima and, also due to her size, it’s heavily implied that she and Kaido have a… passionate relationship, as Oda would put it (However, Kaido probably views her as nothing more than a distraction). Of course, Kaido and his wife must have had their passionate moments, since they have a child. Moreover, Benzaiten is almost always represented playing a biwa, and, as shown in chapter 992, Black Maria can play it very well. She also has a remarkable singing voice, a feature which was one of the basic requisites to become a geisha. Geishas also were protected by Benzaiten. All in all, Black Maria is actually the biggest reference to Gloriosa... in a literal and figurative sense! Oh, one last thing: the men tied to her webs in Chapter 1005 can be a symbol for Kaido’s soul, unable to move on and perpetually being trapped in the memories and regrets of his relationship with Gloriosa together with his alcohol addiction.

Kaido’s flagship Currently, Kaido’s flagship is the only one among the four Emperors’ which has yet to be seen or named. Some speculate that it’s actually Onigashima, but, in my opinion, that’s not the case: why would he travel with his entire home, with the concrete risk of it being destroyed every time he faces an opponent? Also, Yamato is in there: they have explosive handcuffs which doesn’t allow them to leave the island, but what if someone with internal destruction haki actually removes them thus freeing Yamato and letting them escape? Also, what if Yamato actually gets severely wounded, or worse, killed by invaders? Kaido actually strikes me as an overprotective dad, thus he will never directly expose his child to external danger. The handcuffs will explode if and only if Yamato actually tries to leave Onigashima: if they stay there, nothing will happen. Plus, in chapter 997, when Kaido started lifting Onigashima someone said that the island had never trembled like that before. Kaido actually has his flagship, and the reason why it hasn’t been shown is its name. I’ve said before that Gloriosa means glorious in some languages, therefore there’s a big chance that the ship will have in its name also the Japanese word of the same meaning. Maybe it’s called ‘Glorious Dragon’ in Japanese, or something like that.

Yamato Now, this will touch one of the most controversial topics within the community right now, which is Yamato’s gender; I wish not to discuss about it under this post, because this isn’t the time nor the place (IMO it’s better to delay the discussion at the end of this arc, when Yamato will hopefully detach from the Kozuki Oden persona and find their own identity). Regardless of all this, Yamato was born as a female: and Kujas give birth to female babies only.

Kaido and Big Mom comparison: Although they were part of the same pirate crew for some time and both of them being now Emperors, there are a lot of things about their characters which mark these two as counterparts: first of all, Kaido is male and Big Mom is female. Big Mom belongs to the older generations of pirates, while Kaido belongs to the new one (together with Shanks). Kaido drinks a lot while Big Mom eats a lot. Big Mom has more than 80 children, while Kaido just one*. Lastly, Big Mom has had many unknown husbands, who she married and treated as equals only to discard them when their children are born, revealing she had zero feelings towards them. With the previous comparisons in mind, it would make perfect sense for Kaido to have had only one wife who has already appeared in the story and who he has loved dearly and maybe still does.

*In my opinion, Katakuri, Oven and Daifuku aren’t Kaido’s sons. Even if the physical resemblance is uncanny, there are two major arguments against this supposed paternity: first, the triplets don’t display any type of horns, which Yamato, the known child of Kaido, has. Secondly, the Yonko’s age: he is surely younger than 68, since this is Big Mom’s age and she considers him like a little brother; however, being heavily implied that Shakuyaku was part of the Rocks Pirates as well and she was considered a pirate, while Kaido was only an apprentice, it’s implicitly stated that he must be younger than her, too. She’s now 64, and this puts his maximum age at 63; given the triplet’s age, 48, Kaido may have had them when he was 15, which is an age when men usually have reached their sexual maturity, but he may be even younger than that, so draw your conclusion.

I admit, this turned out a lot longer than I actually expected. My sincerest kudos to you, dear reader, for reading all this time-consuming post – I hope you enjoyed it as much as I had fun writing it.

Please, let me know your thoughts, they are more than welcome!

TL;DR: Gloriosa is Kaido’s wife and Yamato’s mother, she has eaten the mythical variant of the Kame Kame fruit, Katakuri is not Kaido’s son and Gin will become Pirate King.

comments on reddit  :

kaido has been revealed to be 59 

I really want to know who yamatos mother was and I am willing to accept any theory for now

[reginaldqueribundus]

what is a One Piece?

One Piece is a wacky pirate adventure about inherited will, found family, genocide, and the chains of classism and capitalism that enslave us all. Everyone wants to be a pirate because a pirate with an excellent moustache died and left his ultimate treasure somewhere. A rubber idiot and his eight nine platonic life partners hunt for this treasure so he can become the Best Pirate Ever™ while fighting other pirates, crying a lot and overthrowing the occasional head of state. But perhaps the real treasure is the friends they made along the way, and/or an 800-year-old mystery involving ancient superweapons and a bunch of people with the letter D in their names. No one knows because Eiichiro Oda has been writing this story since 1892 and is expected to finish it shortly before the heat death of the universe.

One Piece takes place in a world of mostly oceans all cut off from each other by a giant wall of mountains or nests of colossal sea monsters, yet somehow has a one-world government. Much like real life, the populace has to hand over most of their hard-earned cash to a bunch of assholes on a mountaintop who already have all the money they could ever need and in return are permitted to scrape by on whatever is left. The entire planet is run by inbred spacesuit-wearing fucks with Dr. Seuss hair who can’t go five seconds without committing multiple crimes against humanity. They don’t seem to do anything other than horrible atrocities and the government is actually run by four old bearded white men and one Gandhi with a sword. They enforce their will with a more fashion-conscious version of the CIA and a global army of sailors, most of whom are either corrupt thugs or violent fanatics, formerly led by the literal Buddha but now led by a militant volcano. When they’re not busy oppressing people, they kill pirates, except they can’t kill any of the ones who matter, or when they do it just inspires more pirates. In response, they have recruited their own private army of pirates, who primarily use their diplomatic immunity to get away with crimes. Half the equator is ruled by überpirates who run their own countries, usually built around an aggressively-enforced theme like “the animal kingdom” or “diabetes” and the only thing stopping them from overthrowing the government is that they all hate each other. The worst ones are an immortal alcoholic dragon (not to be confused with the guy named Dragon) who wants to start WW3 because he’s tired of being alive, a giant woman who just wants to eat candy all day with her 382 children and her talking hat, and a literal black hole who really needs to start flossing more.

The main protagonists are Hat Gang, a found family of misfits whose capacity for hijinks is surpassed only by their combined childhood trauma. They’re always fighting oppression, saving children and preventing violent coup attempts… y’know, typical pirate stuff. Three of them fear everything, three of them fear nothing, one just makes bone puns, and all seven are complete dumbasses, with two entire non-dipshits to hold it all together.

Captain Rubber Boy, the most ride or die bitch you will ever meet. This motherfucker will fight god for you if you buy him lunch. Hat Gang is named after his iconic hat. If he sees you picking on somebody weaker than you, watch out.

a green-haired bitch with no sense of direction who cheats at sword fighting by using 3 swords at once (he holds the third one in his mouth)

thief girl, can control the frickin weather yet somehow is not as strong as the guy who kicks people really hard

Pinocchio with a cool slingshot

homophobic chef

a reindeer with a medical degree

archaeology lady, who usually has the brain cells at any given time, is looking for a whole century of history that just disappeared

a soda-powered cyborg who refuses to wear pants

a violin-playing skeleton

a big fish who can drive

a princess who rides around on a duck (she hasn’t hung out with them in years but she still counts, dammit)

There’s also a mafia boss made of sand, a drag queen with a giant head trying to overthrow the government, a Terminator in a teddy bear hat, secondhand smoke, and 10 billion more characters who all have their own unique weird-sounding laugh. Many of them have eaten a magic fruit that tastes like toasted assholes but gives you a random superpower, and in exchange you can never take a bath again. There are many different kinds of these fruit. You could become an unkillable demigod composed of pure light, an animorph, or spin your arms real fast. This is not counting the myriad other powers in the series that have nothing to do with magic fruit, like hair tentacles, karate that lets you fly, and the Force.

The story consists of 8,918,472 chapters broken down into 563 story arcs:

Rubber boy meets the sword guy and they beat up a corrupt cop

Rubber boy meets thief girl and they beat up a clown

Rubber boy meets Pinocchio and they beat up a Freddy Krueger cosplayer

Rubber boy has to get a minimum wage job

Thief girl tries to leave but the gang saves her from a racist shark

The gang almost gets arrested

The gang sails over a mountain and saves a whale

Sword bitch fights a whole town (and wins). Princess joins the gang

The gang meets giant Vikings on a dinosaur island and almost get killed by the mafia

Thief girl almost dies so the gang goes to doctor land and leaves one reindeer richer

The gang takes the princess back to Egypt and stops Mr. Sandman and his mafia from fucking up the whole place

The gang decides to visit the sky because why not

They fight god (and win)

Pirate Olympics!!

The gang just want to get their damn ship fixed but the crew keeps falling apart and hands lady is being weird

The gang fights the CIA’s strongest furries to get hands lady back

We find out rubber boy’s dad is trying to destroy the government and his grandpa is a cop

The gang meets the skeleton and fights an army of zombies

Everything all goes to hell, also slavery

Rubber boy lands on an island of women who try to tear his dick off

He tries to rescue his brother who is made of fire, from pirate hell prison, and meets a big fish and a drag queen instead

They all break out of prison and fight in a giant war involving pirates, cops, killer robots, and earthquake man, everyone is dead

The gang chills for two years before getting back together

The gang fights another racist shark on the bottom of the sea

The gang teams up with Dr. Pirate and kidnaps a mad scientist

The gang goes to Toyland and shit is just fucked up, oh my god

The gang hangs out with a bunch of furries on the back of an elephant

Rubber boy, thief girl, reindeer and skeleton go to Candyland to rescue their chef and nearly get murdered over a chocolate cake

The kings of the world have a meeting and find out Rubber Boy has personally saved half their asses, also Oda drops a shit ton of plot hooks that’ll pay off in like 2 years

The gang goes to feudal Japan to save it from Satan and his army of dinosaurs

Yes, it requires a significant time commitment to read (almost as much as this post lol), but the characters and plot and the promise of finally seeing where all this shit is going make it all worthwhile. Also where else are you going to see Pinocchio and a reindeer fight a mole woman and a baseball player who hits exploding baseballs from his sentient bazooka that turns into a dachshund? 

[victorie552onepiecespeedrun]

Reading One Piece pt 297: On Fate

Chapter 544

Thoughts:

- Fpos/cs: Sanji in a dress!!! His hair is amazing, his make-up is abysmal and honestly I’m scared. I don’t understand why they put him in a dress if he didn’t want to have one. It makes me remember childhood traumas and I would rather not

…Well Sanji, at least you don’t have fish stockings?

- how many rings can a person have, calm down Blackbeard

- Blackbeard is making a very important speech. I guess I’ll type all of that

- “After first meeting you, I soon found out that you were the one who defeated that former Warlord of the Sea, Crocodile, over there, Straw Hat Luffy!” *cue annoyed Crocodile*

- I wanted to become one of the Seven Warlords so I figured the best way to show the Government that I was the man for the job was to bring them your head” not a BAD strategy I must admit

- oh, he wanted to attack Luffy at Water 7. Wow, there was disaster after disaster in that place, imagine adding Blackbeard to the mix D: we would have to say goodbye to One Piece, really lucked out on this one, Luffy

- “But Fate… protected you!” …um, no, Ace and dumb luck protected him

- “Ace has been chasing me because I committed a terrible crime aboard Whitebeard’s ship. And by curious coincidence, he was your brother! Because I said I was going to kill you, he was unable to turn back! You see? If he let us go, not only would he defile the name of Whitebeard… his own brother would be killed!” …It kinda sounds like what I just said but it’s said by Blackbeard so I don’t like it. It also seems to me like it was Blackbeard who lucked out – his plan worked, he only just kinda shrugged and traded Luffy for Ace because why not, and if Ace’s already there…  

- “There’s no such thing as a coincidence, there’s only Fate.” “You’re a very lucky man.” “Captain doesn’t need your head anymore.” “Your brother fought bravely!” I applaud a loyal crew but they annoy me too. Also, Champion, why would you say that last thing to Luffy, it’s plain stupid

- “You’d better remember to thank Ace at his grave! If he hadn’t shown up then, you’d be dead now.” HOW ABOUT NO and Blackbeard, don’t act like Ace showing up was some divine intervention or something, he was Literary looking for you all over Grand Line

- “THEN WHY DON’T YOU TRY ME NOW!!??” *WHUP*  ha! Told you to leave Luffy alone!

- NO WAIT DON’T FIGHT SHIT ABORT MISSION!!! SHIT SHIT SHIT

- “Blood? Isn’t he made of rubber?” He is!!

- “That’s enough! You have to control your temper! Remember what you’re here for!” oh thank God for Jimbei, he’s stopping Luffy!

- “Don’t waste your time and energy fighting him! It’s not going to help you rescue Ace!” yeah!

- why is everyone just looking at that conversation, DO SOMETHING PEOPLE (strong people that is. Prisoners and guards should stay down)

- Crocodile speaks

- (why are they standing and talking. If Blackbeard isn’t here for Luffy, then why is he here. All of this feels very dangerous)

- “You’re Blackbeard, right? I heard some no-name pirate from Whitebeard’s ship had taken my place… but this is strange.” Crocodile’s asking why he’s here, he should be at Navy HQ. Well, YEAH

- “Everything is going according to my plan. Which I’m not telling you” ok then. Smart of him

- “Fine, I don’t care anyway” gee, ok

- Magellan is here! For a moment I was actually really happy about it. But he’s not here to rescue Luffy from Blackbeard of course. I have a very short memory

- and just like that everyone is moving again

- RUN RUN RUN to the higher levels!

-  “Awakened zoan types” …didn’t I read about that somewhere. I think that’s important

- guys, I think Shiryu deserted. He wasn’t planning at helping guards at all. Oh, what a betrayal

- (I’m not really surprised, he was a prisoner on LEVEL 6, but I also kind of am - WG indoctrination runs deep after all)

- Cameras are down. Everything is falling apart in this prison. I’m smiling so much my face hurts

- “Nothing is going our way! How could a single intruder spark all this mayhem!?” *maniacal laugher*

- on Level 2, Buggy and Galdino are up and at them again :) Blackbeard sure helped them here

- uh?

- “I’m gonna rescue Ace no matter what!” “Haha… I won’t say you’re wasting your time. Nothing’s impossible in this world.” …?  ? ??  ???

- “Sky Island existed, didn’t it? It’s the same with One Piece! It definitely exists!” is he…

- “Ha ha! Just you wait and see!” he’s walking past them

- “In a few short hours we’re going to put on a show that will shake the world!” …he went to do his own thing. Time to move on.

- (I feel very uneasy right now. We should not leave Blackbeard like that. He’ll be trouble in the future)

- Our pirate group feels as uneasy as me but there’s nothing to do about it now. To Level 3!

- …Magellan vs Blackbeard? Is this really happening

- damn, that poison works on them

- “Hannyabal… You did well holding them back for so long. You better not die. You’re the only one… fit to succeed me!” !! What a plot twist. WHY do I have to have feelings about prison wardens and their working relationship???? Is this really necessary???? Oda???

“Straw Hat!! You will not set one foot outside of this prison!”  

rOP 296  rOP 298

[soukokuwu]

NAKAHARA CHUUYA

TO CATCH A DREAM

》 fluff, for a change

》 word count: 2.3k

》 one of the prompts my sweet anon sent me, hope this isn’t too disappointing! (i’m also going to work on your other suggestions)

》 also, to the other anons— yes I’ll work on the Fyodor and Gogol requests too

“it takes you by surprise”

It had been, what, three years since you’ve left the Port Mafia? Why was it still causing an emptiness within you? Yes, it had been your home since you could remember, you practically grew up in the mafia. But Mori had practically sent Oda to his death. You had thought the world of Mori, admired him and his witty ways, how he managed to command the respect of such a huge organisation. But sending Oda into a suicide mission? Letting slip of the orphans under his care, using their death as a form of ‘motivation’?

That was too much. Way too much.

You weren’t close to Oda, not by a mile. You’ve only seen him interact with Dazai a few times, and other times you’ve only heard about Dazai rambling on about them drinking in Lupin. But you had heard enough about Oda to gain a certain amount of admiration for the man. He was part of the mafia, and yet you knew he could do much better.

His death led to Dazai’s departure from the Port Mafia. And yours.

The day he died, Dazai had visited you in the wee hours of the night, drunk and upset. He had told you everything. What Mori did, why he did it, what happened to Oda and what his last words were. It was the first and only time you’ve ever seen your best friend so distraught. You were in disbelief, but there was no denying– Mori could be that despicable.

You had packed up all your belongings and left with your best friend. It wouldn’t have been such a hard decision if there wasn’t anybody you would miss, but there was. And you couldn’t even warn him, you didn’t want to put him on the spot. If you told him you would leave, either one or two things would happen: he would help you keep it a secret or he would try to stop you. Both of it would end horribly, and you didn’t want to affect his life negatively. The Port Mafia was his home, the one place he felt that he belonged, and you didn’t want to take that away from him.

It had been three long years after you left the mafia and Yokohama. But now that you were back in the city, you felt emptier than you thought you would. As you took a seat on the ground, you peered out into the open sea. You remembered the last time you were here. With him. It was the last time you saw him before you left the mafia.

◢◤◢◤◢◤◢◤◢◤◢◤◢◤

“Do I finally get to call you mine?”

You shook your head at the redhead, exasperated, chuckling silently as you playfully pushed him. “Do you not get tired of asking me that?”

“Oh someone is still adamant on rejecting me, huh?” he droned on dramatically. The ginger poured some wine into your glass and looked up to the sky, pondering out loud, “Why doesn’t this beautiful lady want to be Mrs. Nakahara Chuuya?”

“Oh shut up,” you groaned, cringing at how cheesy he was being.

You got to know him through Dazai, since they had become partners, and he had transitioned into a dear friend of yours. It was always endearing to watch them squabble. Like two proud people who would never admit they actually work well together.

You remembered laughing a lot that night, wishing more nights could be like that. It was filled with innocent wonderment, the light brushing of your arms against his. The two of you were much more than friends and everyone could see that, but your aversion to anything that made you happy always reared its ugly head somehow.

The way you managed to ruin everything that made you happy the moment you obtained them– you didn’t want it to happen with Chuuya. You wanted him with you, forever, even if it meant you two weren’t together.

That night was filled with drinking wine and chilling by the seaside, talking about anything and everything all at once. You remembered laughing more than you did all day, and enjoying yourself more than you thought you could.

It ended when he realised you were getting a little too inebriated. He didn’t want you to be feeling too hungover the next day, he didn’t want it to affect your work. If you wanted to get wasted he would always entertain you on the weekends.

“Okay, we’re all out of wine tonight, let’s head back.”

“But I don’t want to,” you whined. You weren’t drunk at all, just a little light-headed. But you drank enough to be shamelessly honest. The normal you would not admit you enjoy the redhead’s company, but now the words were coming out unfiltered.

“Come,” Chuuya said, holding out his hand, patiently waiting for you to accept it.

You looked at him, dubious. “Come where?”

He sighed, hands reaching down to help you up, to which you resignedly complied. “I’m taking you home.”

A wave of surprise came over him as you replied, “As long as it’s you.”

Minutes later, you were clinging onto Chuuya for dear life. This was not what you had in mind when he said he’d take you home. You were practically standing on a small piece of land flying over the city, made possible thanks to Chuuya and his gravity manipulation. Thank god you didn’t drink that much, if not you were sure you’d be puking all over the city right now.

You were too busy burying your head in the crook of his neck to notice how much Chuuya was enjoying this. He was grinning widely, surprised to find that you were afraid of heights. Your face was all scrunched up in such an adorable expression of fear, and your hair was flowing so elegantly due to the wind. He tried to ignore the feelings bubbling up inside him, well aware you would only try to bury any that you harboured for him. If this was the only kind of intimacy he could afford with you, he would take it. He would enjoy this moment, hugging you and feeling your touch in return. This was better than nothing.

The trip home was quick, and you found yourself a little disappointed after pulling yourself away from Chuuya. He ruffled your hair affectionately after noticing your disheartened reaction. Why would you keep pushing him away when it’s evident that you wanted more? He always questioned himself of that, not that he ever allowed himself to actually ask you. The last thing he wanted was for you to feel uncomfortable.

“Get some rest, okay?”

“Yes, dad,” you mocked, sticking your tongue out.

Chuuya couldn’t help himself. He laughed at how adorable you were being, ruffled your hair, and let a ‘cute’ slip out. Your eyes widened, astonished by the sudden compliment. It was funny, Chuuya had thought he would be more embarrassed, but somehow he liked this. Being able to tell you how he felt– he liked it. His grin turned into a soft smile as he gazed at you, ruffling your hair, before leaning down to place a kiss atop your head.

“Goodnight.”

◢◤◢◤◢◤◢◤◢◤◢◤◢◤

Your heart beat faster as you recalled his tender kiss. It was pure, which made it all the more precious. You knew you were still in love with him, but that was something you had tried to keep buried deep within you. It was hard enough getting you to admit that to yourself while you were in the mafia, it would be even harder now that you were practically a fugitive. You managed to always give yourself an excuse, claiming that if it was supposed to be then it would happen.

Maybe it wasn’t meant to be after all.

The sun was setting over the horizon. The sky was painted in mesmerising orange hues. It felt calming, tranquil. You looked at your watch. It was almost seven. Time to get going. Dazai would start drinking without you at this rate. You got up and stretched, excited about meeting your best friend after three long years apart. You had heard he found a nice job and you couldn’t wait to get to know all about this new Dazai. With a slight skip in your step, you walked off.

“Who are you so excited to see?”

You froze at the friendly voice. The voice you’ve wanted to hear ever since you left. His shadow got closer to yours, and you could smell the familiar musky scent. You were stuck rooted to the spot, uncertain of what to do.

What was the best course of action here? It wasn’t like you could outrun him. You were still a Port Mafia fugitive, and he was still a Port Mafia executive, one very doted on by Mori himself at that. What if Mori found out you were here? What if he sent Chuuya here to test his loyalty? It would result in so much trouble. As much as Chuuya used to be intimate with you, you knew his role as executive would always come first to him. There was no escape if they already found you. Should you just jump in the river and hope you drown?

“Hey, I asked you something,” the redhead muttered impatiently. Once he realised you were too deep in thought to listen, he stepped closer toward you. Why are you shivering?

Panic was still afire in your mind. It was always a bad trait of yours. You weren’t very quick at thinking on your feet. Your mind was whirling through hundreds of different scenarios, but what happened next wasn’t something you would’ve thought of.

Arms embraced you from behind. From the corner of your eye you could make out his ginger hair, and you could feel his cheek against yours. His face was tilted in toward your neck, and you could feel his shallow breathing, your ears turning beet red from the proximity. You could feel his heart beat as he gently squeezed you, seemingly not wanting to let go. You had dreamt about this reunion countless times before, and now it was finally real.

“I- I was going to meet Dazai for a drink,” you choked out, half-surprised and half-terrified.

“Don’t be like that,” his warm, velvety voice pleaded.

The warmth in his tone calmed you down enough to make you stop overthinking the situation. If he was here to kill you, he would do it. If you ran, he would catch you in the end. Any kind of resistance would be futile. Any way this situation played out, you would be at his mercy. You might as well face your old friend genuinely. So you turned around, catching sight of that familiar face of home.

“Be like what?”

“Afraid of me,” he muttered. You could almost melt at his soft puppy-like expression. It almost looked like it pained him to see you. You wanted to assure him that you weren’t— not anymore, but you couldn’t get the words out. You were too happy. Tears were forming in your eyes. You didn’t even realise you had started smiling sweetly up at him.

Chuuya finally saw the smile that had been haunting him for years, the smile that he thought he’d never get to see again, the one he could only imagine being the reason behind. Now here it was, standing in front of him, and it was more magical than he thought it would be. He felt the glee building up inside him. The lady he was in love with since he first got to know her, the one that gripped his heart the instant he caught a glimpse of her smile and heard her laugh— she was back, and very real. This was not in his head. He enveloped you in another hug, a tighter one.

“Ditch him.”

“What?”

“Screw that shitty Dazai.” The ginger tucked your hair behind your ears before cupping your face with his gloved hands. “This time, come with me.”

There was a fire in his eyes that you’ve never seen before. Right in this moment, he was determined.

“But what about the mafia?”

“Mori let you go,” Chuuya stated, much to your surprise. “He asked me what we should do the moment you and that bastard left. I told him you were just an assistant medic. You knew next to nothing about the Port Mafia’s top secrets. But I also told him that if you threatened our existence that I would be the one who would stop you. It pacified him enough.”

So that’s why nothing bad ever happened to you by their hands. Right till the end, even after you left, Chuuya still protected you. It didn’t take a genius to see how betrayed Chuuya felt after he heard you had left with his partner with not so much as even a warning. No note, no explanation. He figured out why you left, Dazai was your best friend after all and he knew Oda was someone you looked up to from afar. It didn’t ease his anger, though, because your wordless departure had left him feeling fucked up even months after. It was as though you thought he wasn’t worth any explanation. He had thought that he could never forgive you for leaving, but now that you were together again he forgot he ever got mad at you.

Slowly, Chuuya inched toward you, his face drawing closer. When there was barely any space between the two of you, he stopped to ask, “So what do you say?”

“Okay, let me-” Just as you were reaching for your phone to postpone your plans with Dazai, hands pulled you toward them, crushing their lips with yours. It was soft and loving, patient and sweet— everything you imagined and more. Your brain was screaming at you to push him away, reminding you of the endless possibilities of how this could all go wrong, why you should protect yourself from it. But this time, your heart had reign over you. You were back in Yokohama and you were here to stay. Maybe this warranted you a chance to make yourself happy, to stop pushing his affections away.

Chuuya stopped the kiss, slowly pulling himself away, eyes fondly looking into yours. His hand was still holding the back of your neck and his heart was still filled with overwhelming exhilaration at your return. “I’d love to catch up but first things first,” he said in between breaths as he continued kissing you, “are you going to stay with me this time?”

“Always.”

“That’s my girl.”

“there is no other”

[opbackgrounds]

Do you think the Seven warlords are used to their best potential? I always felt they were the weakest link compared to emperors and admirals.

So y’all are picking topics that I’ve written about before. Short answer, I think the Warlord system has been brilliantly implemented within the series. For the answer, click on the link https://creative-type.tumblr.com/post/173506105506/several-months-ago-someone-asked-what-i-thought.

But to expand on your point of the Seven Warlords being a weak link between the Admirals and the Emperors, that’s kind of the point. At some point in time the World Government realized that if one of these mega-powerful pirates ever decided to openly challenge them, there was as good chance that they wouldn’t win. The Warlords are in essence mercenaries, and no one hires out a bunch of firepower unless they feel like they need it, nor are they going to put people on their payroll that they think are too strong for them to control. 

The Warlord system exposes the blinding hypocrisy within the WG. I mean, how can an organization kill babies in the name of “justice” allow themselves to ally with actual murderers? The Warlords were born out of and benefit from a corrupt system, and it makes me wonder of Sengoku knew about Ace’s parentage before sending out his invitation to join. If so, he was offering blanket immunity to the same guy he would later have publicly put to death as one of the worst criminals of the age.

You kind of get the impression while reading that the Warlords as a system haven’t been around all that long, which would make sense because I don’t think the idea of Pirate Emperors has been around all that long either. 

While there have always been extremely powerful pirates roaming around trying to build up a base of power (thinking about Shiki’s rivalry with Roger and the Rocks Pirates) Roger’s death is what sparked the current pirate age, inspiring a huge number of people to go to sea who might not otherwise have become pirates. Even if the Marines are able to contend with the Emperors they can’t concentrate all their power in the New World since its their responsibility to police the entire world.

There are a pressing few pirates that 1) can strike the fear of god into other pirates 2) are willing to work with the WG and 3) the Government feel that they can at least somewhat control. And that last one is pretty iffy, considering that the only Warlord they could get to regularly show up for meetings was the one who was also secretly a Revolutionary spy. 

But as with most things the WG does, the appearance of control and order and justice and power is just as important as actual order, justice, and power. That’s why its such a big deal when Crocodile gets arrested and why they were quick to hush up Moriah’s embarrassing losses—going so far as to try and quietly kill him when it becomes apparent that he’s not the military asset he once was. 

And of course pirates are going to notice this desperate need to maintain power in a world that’s quickly spinning out of control. And, of course, pirates are going to take advantage of the system. Like Smoker says during Alabasta, they’re pirates. How can you expect men and women who have lived outside the law for the majority of their adult lives to suddenly play by the rules? The flaws were already there—Luffy just exposed them, first with Crocodile, then with Moriah, and when the system finally breaks down to the point where Buggy’s your best option to fill in the ranks then you know it’s doomed to fail.

What I like about the Warlords is that they served a very distinct purpose, both in terms of worldbuilding and as a stepping stone for Luffy on his journey to become the Pirate King, and when the story outgrew them Oda didn’t strain himself trying to find reasons to keep them around. Around the time of the timeskip I found myself really hoping that they would just go away, and I think that’s about the only time I’ve predicted something that actually ended up happening within the story.

So are they weak compared to the Emperors and the Admirals? Maybe. But remember, the balance of power is such that all the Admirals and all the Warlords were needed to face one of the Four Emperors. There’s a reason why the marines were freaking out when Shanks decided to pay Whitebeard a visit. 

The difference in strength is seen by the influence they have over the world. Most of the original Warlords were in control of one (1) kingdom, or working toward such a goal. They, generally speaking, were the head of a single core crew. 

The Emperors control large swaths of the New World and have the military power to match. They have subservient crews and have the power to collect taxes from the territories they control, so say nothing of the underworld businesses and economies they rule over with an iron fist. 

You can see how that sort of progression works for a guy like Luffy. He starts off going against pirates and marines who have no influence in global politics, works his way up to fighting people who are important to a single island or region, and has now forced himself onto the world stage and is challenging literal forces of nature that have been deadlocked for decades in a power struggle that, should it go the wrong way, could destroy the world as we know it. 

Its power creep done right, and the Warlords are a big reason as to why it works. 

[kinemonsamuraiwano]

Ranking The Top 15 Strongest One Piece Characters

Ranking The Top 15 Strongest One Piece Characters 323 hours. That’s approximately how long it would take for someone to completely catch up to the ONE PIECE anime. When a show goes on for this long, it’s for a ton of different reasons. Innovative storytelling, creative world-building, and an engaging protagonist all play a role. However, one thing that makes ONE PIECE truly special is its cast of characters. Over the course of 20 years, creator Eiichiro Oda assembled a cast with over 1,000 characters in it. These characters cover a number of areas, but our focus now is their powers and abilities.

In the ONE PIECE universe, characters can eat something called a “devil fruit.” When this happens, they are granted a special ability. For example, when protagonist Monkey D. Luffy ate the gum-gum fruit, it gave him the properties of rubber. Luffy could stretch his limbs at will and was even immune to lightning damage and the sensation of pain. With so many characters possessing interesting abilities like this, it’s fun ruminating over who the strongest ONE PIECE character is.

Before we get into the list order, I want to talk about my ranking system. When creating this list, I envisioned the ONE PIECE universe as a giant battleground. The person ranked #1 here is, in my opinion, the last person who would be left standing on this battleground. The person ranked #2 would only lose to the person ranked #1, and so on and so forth. Also, we’re only including anime characters. Sorry manga readers, but you might not see your favorite character here or ranked to your liking.

So, without further ado, let’s get into the character rankings.

> Kefla is Coming to DRAGON BALL XENOVERSE 2!

https://jwoodard.instructure.com/eportfolios/640/Home/Fast__Furious_9_THE_FAST_SAGA_2021HK94K

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https://kinemonnn.wordpress.com/2021/05/20/one-piece-the-10-best-episodes/

  15. Caesar A lot of you might be surprised Caesar made this list at all. At this point in the ONE PIECE anime, Caesar is essentially a meme character. Luffy’s crew, and fellow pirate Capone “Gang” Bege, always belittle Caesar and call him a loser. Part of this is because his devil fruit power has been restrained for a while now, and he is at the mercy of other stronger characters. However, it wasn’t too long ago in the story that Caesar was the main antagonist of the Punk Hazard arc. People have forgotten exactly how dangerous this guy is, so let’s take a look back at his accolades.

Caesar ate the gas-gas logia fruit, making his body gas. A seemingly useless ability unless matched with genius intellect, and luckily, Caesar has that. He’s acute enough to recognize air is oxygen, a type of gas. As a result, he can physically manipulate the air around people. If Caesar wills it, he could cut off an opponents air-flow and kill them within minutes. It doesn’t matter how strong you are; that technique is impossible to block. Caesar’s also shown ingenuity with the simple castanet instrument. He fills this instrument with explosive powder, clamps them together, and uses his devil fruit powers to fan the flames throughout the air.

Caesar hatching another plan. | Image: Crunchyroll Caesar has many more abilities. However, he doesn’t do much fighting due to his cowardly nature. He goes to extreme measures to avoid fighting, but his devil fruit abilities alone earn him a spot on this list.

14. Trafalgar Law Coming in at #14 is one of ONE PIECE’s most popular characters, Trafalgar D. Water Law. It’s a superfluous name for sure, but the “surgeon of death” isn’t a person you want to make an enemy of. Like Luffy, Law is a member of the worst generation. He earned this title by committing countless heinous acts against the government and quickly accruing a bounty of 500,000,000 bellies (5,000,000 USD.)

Law is a ruthless individual equipped with the op-op fruit, nicknamed “the ultimate devil fruit.” With this fruit, Law can create a giant spatial sphere called the “room.” And within this room, Law can control anything he wants. It gives him an undeniable edge over anyone he can fit in this sphere.

Law traps a Navy soldier in his “room.” | Image: Crunchyroll However, Law’s biggest downfall is dealing with foes outside of his rooms. He’s adept with a blade, but not enough to stand up to skilled swordsmen like Mihawk or Zoro. His gamma knife ability, which destroys a person’s internal organs, is certainly powerful. But, it requires a lot of energy and is difficult to hit unless the person is trapped in his room.

Law has potential. There’s no doubt about it. But I ranked him low due to his a few weaknesses in his game.

13. Doflamingo Donquixote Doflamingo, more commonly referred to as Doffy, is one of the seven warlord’s of the sea. This elite group of pirates is so powerful the World Government in ONE PIECE actively turns a blind eye to their misdeeds. The power of these warlords range quite a bit, but make no mistake about it, Doffy is a force to be reckoned with.

He’s a towering specimen, standing over 10 feet tall with an overall imposing physique. He’s able to use the “color of armaments” Haki, a difficult technique that only skilled fighters can use. Doffy is also blessed with the Conqueror’s Haki ability, which only one in a million people can use. This ability can be used to defeat thousands of enemies at once without moving a single finger.

These abilities make Doffy a dangerous fighter, but he also has the string-string devil fruit to further augment his strength. It might sound like an underwhelming power, but these are no ordinary strings. They’re strong enough to support his tremendous size and weight, allowing him to use a make-shift flying technique. He can also use them as stitches to heal his internal/external injuries, and create copies of himself to fight. Last but not least, Doffy awakened his devil fruit power, allowing him to perform more advanced moves. For example, he can turn buildings into string simply by touching them.

Doffy manipulating others like puppets. | Image: Crunchyroll Doflamingo is extremely powerful and can hold his own against any character in the ONE PIECE universe. However, I believe he’d end up losing most hypothetical fights against everyone listed ahead of him.

12. Sabo Sabo is second-in-command of the Revolutionary Army. This organization directly challenges the corrupt officials of the World Government. It’s home to some of the most dangerous fighters in the world, and Sabo made them look like total chumps as a kid. He fought his way to the top of the organization, and as a teenager, is already strong enough to fight Navy admirals. His battle with Fujitora was brief, but people shouldn’t overlook the fact that Sabo stood on even ground with him.

> DARLING IN THE FRANXX: You Poor Darling

Arguably the most impressive part about their battle was that Sabo didn’t even have full control of his devil fruit yet. The flare-flare fruit is highly lauded for its destructive abilities and is the perfect fit for an anarchist. He recently acquired it earlier in the Dressrosa arc and was merely feeling out his abilities. He’s already shown the ability to use armament Haki as well, which will catapult his strength further.

As the story continues, Sabo will only continue to hone his abilities. He’ll be absolutely lethal when he finally fulfills his potential.

Sabo the Inheritor. | Image: Crunchyroll 

11. Kuzan Kuzan is one of the original three Navy admirals, although he eventually forfeits this position. He arrived rather early in the series while pursuing Luffy’s crewmate Robin. However, Kuzan had to go through Luffy first if he wanted any piece of Robin. Even though Luffy has taken down strong foes at this point, Kuzan made him look like an amateur. It’s not just Luffy though. Kuzan has taken down giants and even halted emperors with his combat prowess.

Since he’s above the rank of a vice-admiral, Kuzan can use armament Haki. He’s also gifted with the ice-ice logia devil fruit. He uses this fruit to control, create, and become ice. So to Kuzan, it doesn’t necessarily matter how big you are. He can freeze you. It doesn’t matter how far away you are. He can freeze the environment around you, or manifest his ice into projectiles to track you down.

Kuzan is every bit deserving of his admiral rank. He is strong enough to fight for ten days against Admiral Sakazuki, whose magma-magma fruit directly counters his. ONE PIECE fans up to date with the series will enjoy seeing how his uncertain future plays out.

Kuzan showing off his devil fruit powers. | Image: Crunchyroll 

10. Issho Issho joined the ONE PIECE cast of characters in the Dressrosa story arc. He replaced Kuzan’s position as a Navy admiral after he leaves his position. As a Navy admiral, Issho is one of the strongest fighters in the ONE PIECE universe. He mostly relies on two overall abilities when fighting.

The first is his devil fruit, which has yet to be named. It does, however, give Issho the ability to manipulate gravity. This lends Issho an advantage heading into any single fight. He can raise gravity levels so high that people can’t even stand up. Conversely, he can make objects have no density and manipulate them as he pleases. We saw his powers on a grand scale when he manipulated the density of a meteor and sent it hurdling towards Dressrosa.

The second is his Haki. Issho himself is blind but uses “color of the vision” Haki to accurately predict enemy attacks.

Overall, Issho is an absolute powerhouse. However, he is still blind. It’s an unfortunate, self-inflicted handicap that will hinder his efficacy on stronger opponents.

Issho preparing for combat. | Image: Crunchyroll

 9. Shanks Shanks’s combat abilities are a bit of a mystery. However, we know enough about him to give him a high ranking on this list. For starters, he’s one of the Four Emperors, making him one of the strongest pirate captains in the world. His power and reputation are highly feared, and we see this a couple of times throughout the series. For example, Admiral Sakazuki fought through many powerful people, even warlords, to get to Luffy in the Marineford arc. However, he didn’t even attempt to challenge Shanks when he arrived on the battleground. Even fellow emperor Big Mom noted she would have to form an alliance with Elbaf’s army of giants, which is famed as the strongest in the world, to have a chance at killing Shanks.

So, we know at one point that Shanks was an immensely powerful pirate. We don’t know, however, if he’s still a fighter of that caliber. Shanks lost an arm protecting Luffy when he was a child. He’s undoubtedly a weaker fighter, and even his friendly rival Mihawk questions if he’s still in any condition to fight.

When it comes down to it, Shanks’s pedigree alone earned him a spot on his list. However, the uncertainty of his current fighting condition places him in a mid-tier position.

Red-haired Shanks. | Image: Crunchyroll > MY LESBIAN EXPERIENCE WITH LONELINESS Doesn’t Shy Away from Suffering

8. Mihawk If you’ve noticed a trend on this list, it’s that almost everyone has eaten a devil fruit. Mihawk, however, has no such ability. What he lacks in this department, he more than makes up for in sheer power. Mihawk, aptly nicknamed “hawk-eyes,” is the world’s strongest swordsman. His swordplay is so great he can take down master swordsmen with a mere dagger and minimal effort.

He’s also advanced his abilities so far he can overcome any swordsman’s natural enemy: distance. Through sheer power, and possibly armament Haki, Mihawk can fire beam-like projections from his blade. These projectiles are so powerful they’re capable of cutting massive steel ships and even glaciers in half. With this kind of power, it’s no wonder only Shanks of the Four Emperors could match his swordplay.

“Hawk Eyes” Mihawk. | Image: Crunchyroll 

7. Borsalino Like Issho, Borsalino is one of the three Navy admirals. He’s a bit of an oddball, and honestly one of my least favorite characters. But, I have to give credit where it’s due, and there’s no denying how truly powerful Borsalino is.

He ate the glint-glint logia fruit, and gained the ability to create, control, and transform into light at will. Borsalino is capable of shooting laser beams from his hands, fingers, or feet (which are capable of causing massive explosions). He can also travel great distances almost instantly, and attack enemies in their blind spots. When you combine this with his armament Haki, Borsalino can take down powerful foes in a matter of seconds.

There aren’t many weaknesses in Borsalino’s game. You’ll be hardpressed to find people in the ONE PIECE universe capable of combating his agility and devil fruit abilities.

Borsalino leveling cities with tiny finger blasts. | Image: Crunchyroll 

6. Charlotte Linlin (Big Mom) Big Mom, the only female member of the Four Emperors, was first introduced in the Fishman Island arc. Luffy, in his typical brash nature, expressed his desire to kick her butt. We didn’t know much about her then but her insane power was revealed during the Whole Cake Island arc.

Big Mom, as her name might suggest, is an absolute behemoth of a person. She stands at 29 feet tall, and her body is so sturdy that she’s only been cut once in her whole life. Her power is off the charts as well. As a 5-year old child, she single-handedly defeated many of Elbaf’s strongest warriors.

Although she’s 68 years old now, people still fear her name. Showing your fear, however, is the last thing you want to do in front of Big Mom. Showing fear activates the condition of her soul-soul fruit, which allows her to freely interact with another person’s soul. She can remove years from a person’s lifespan, or kill them in one fell-swoop if she wants.

Big Mom’s only weakness is to those who aren’t afraid of her. It’s a big one though, as Navy admirals and new world pirates won’t be afraid of her. Her overwhelming strength, size, Haki, and use of Prometheus and Zeus are still enough to take down ONE PIECE’s mightiest foes.

Big Mom’s immense size measured against Germa 66. | Image: Crunchyroll

5. Whitebeard No list would be complete without Whitebeard. For a very long time, people considered Whitebeard the clear-cut favorite to be the new pirate king. The only reason as to why he never became the pirate king is because he found it rather low on his priority list. Nonetheless, he was unequivocally the strongest man in the world. Part of this was from the tremor-tremor fruit, but Whitebeard’s strength is deeper from that.

Like Luffy, Whitebeard gathered his strength from being hell-bent on protecting his friends. He took an excruciating amount of pain during the Marineford arc to defend these convictions. This includes 267 wounds (mostly from Navy admirals), 152 gun wounds, 46 cannon shots, a point-blank stabbing, and a fight against the entire Blackbeard pirate crew. It took all of this to bring down a 72-year old man.

Whitebeard standing tall. | Image: Crunchyroll 

4. Sakazuki Sakazuki is the current fleet admiral and replaced Sengoku after he stepped down. As such, he is the strongest military power in the world and is a one-man army of sorts. His magma-magma logia devil fruit is one of the strongest on record. It allows Sakazuki to control, create, and transform into magma at will and is even strong enough to burn fire.

The power that burns fire. | Image: Crunchyroll Above all else, Sakazuki is cunning, manipulative, and dangerous. So much so that Blackbeard of the Four Emperors fled on sight after hearing Sakazuki was aboard a Navy ship. Part of that is Blackbeard’s tendency to panic in the face of elite enemies, but it’s also great planning on his part. He recognized any encounter with Sakazuki would likely be drawn-out, and if he’s not careful, could result in his death. Sakazuki’s extremist ideologies also make him a formidable foe. He’ll fight to the end to protect his belief in absolute justice, and purging the world of “unclean pirate blood.”

Right now, Sakazuki is painted as the central antagonist of the series. The inevitable showdown between him and Luffy is likely years away but it’s something fans can’t wait to see.

> You HAVE to Check Out These 10 Summer Anime!

3. Monkey D. Luffy It’s about time we got to our beloved protagonist! Luffy has kicked up a storm everywhere he’s sailed to. At first, he didn’t have much more to his game than out-punching opponents. However, Luffy seriously stepped up in the Water 7 story arc. He honed the abilities of the gum-gum fruit and developed techniques likeGear 2nd and Gear 3rd. In the Dressrosa and Whole Cake Island arcs, he took things up a notch by developing and mastering his Gear 4 technique. Luffy also has the same Haki powers Doflamingo has, which theoretically qualifies him to fight the world’s strongest opponents.

Luffy activates his Gear 2nd technique. | Image: Crunchyroll And if that wasn’t enough, Luffy has limitless energy, and the gall to fight anyone regardless of their badass reputations. He won’t take anyone slandering his friends and has several lethal fighting techniques. However, arguably Luffy’s biggest strength, as noted by Mihawk, is his ability to draw people to him. Luffy has a penchant for turning doubters, haters, and immensely strong people into his close allies. His actions speak louder than words, and part of this is what makes him one of anime’s most fascinating protagonists to watch.

2. Magellan “Magellan is #2? Are you out of your mind?” This name might surprise a few at first, but let’s remember who we’re talking about here. First off, Magellan is endowed with the poison-poison fruit. This turns him into a toxic human, which is perfect for his career choice. Magellan is the chief warden at Impel Down, a prison home to the world’s most dangerous criminals.

Throughout this list, we’ve seen some amazing abilities. Magellan needs to be able to counter all of these should they ever be imprisoned at Impel Down. It just so happens that Magellan’s absurdly strong venom serves as the perfect neutralizer to any foe.

“Ruler of Hell” Magellan. | Image: Crunchyroll To Magellan, it doesn’t matter how strong you are. If you punch him, his poison will kill you within minutes. It doesn’t matter if you’re faster than him. He can manifest his poison into different shapes, like a hydra, to catch you as you run away. Magellan only needs a few drops of poison to kill you, making him incredibly dangerous. The only way someone could possibly beat Magellan is if they could nullify his devil fruit powers. This train of thought is the perfect segue into our number 1 slot.

1. Marshall D. Teach (Blackbeard) Maybe not a shocker, but come on. Let’s be honest here, Blackbeard is an absolute freak of nature, even by ONE PIECE standards. He’s a gargantuan human being (11 feet tall) and has a massive body. The latter allows him to store not one, but two devil fruit powers. This much potential power kills any other person foolish enough to try eating multiple devil fruits. Blackbeard, on the other hand, can balance his two devil fruit powers with no ill-effects.

Furthering his case for this #1 spot are his actual devil fruit powers. The first fruit he ate, the dark-dark fruit, is lauded as the strongest devil fruit ever recorded. It turns Blackbeard into a man of darkness, as he can literally manifest himself into dark matter. Furthermore, his devil fruit can temporarily nullify the abilities of other devil fruit users. To this extent, it doesn’t matter what awesome powers you might have, Blackbeard drowns everything in his darkness.

If, by some miracle, you can survive this ability, then you deal with Marshall’s second devil fruit, the tremor-tremor fruit. This gives him the ability to cause quakes. Blackbeard can cause earthquakes by slamming the ground, or by even punching the air and reverberating nearby objects. With all of these ludicrous abilities, it’s no wonder Blackbeard is the favorite to become the new pirate king. So move over Whitebeard. There’s a new favorite to become king of the pirates.

Blackbeard stating the obvious. | Image: Crunchyroll Only the Strong Survive in ONE PIECE As mentioned earlier, this list isn’t categorical. ONE PIECE has a near infinite cast of characters. As a result, one person might value a certain character higher than someone else. They might feel that Whitebeard is the strongest pirate, and there’s certainly a case for that. Germa 66, Marco, Vice-Admiral Garp, and Silvers Rayleigh all make legitimate cases to be on this list too. But, at the end of the day, it’s all fun and speculation. Even so, I’d love to hear your opinions about who the strongest ONE PIECE character really is.

Comment below with your personal rankings, and let me hear your opinions!

Featured Image Courtesy of Crunchyroll.com

> Celebrating 30 Years of AKIRA: The Film That Forever Changed Anime

[eirist]

Points of No Return

SCRIBBLE #7 : ONE-UPPED

Disclaimer: One Piece (and its characters) belongs to Eiichiro Oda-sensei.

Reminder: I have no beta-reader. Any grammatical and spelling errors are solely mine.

Warning: OOC possible. One shot scribble.

Rating: T

Note: This crossed my mind while eating lunch earlier. And I’m surprised I was able to finish writing the outline on my phone while munching.

Summary: "You better kiss the boo-boo away Zoro."

Nami brought down the newspaper she was reading on her lap, lips jutting out in a pinkish, exasperated pout.

A snore thundered from across the other side of deck and she sharply flicked her gaze at the source.

The idiot swordsman was snoozing for the umpteenth time against the Sunny’s railing.

Another snore came from him and Nami felt a nerve twitching on her forehead from irritation.

That’s the third fucking time and she can only take so much.

Standing up from her deck chair she marched towards the slumbering man.

She pondered on whether she would punch him awake or just screech at his ear—she knows how much he hates that.

With one hand fisted, she stood in front of her still dead-to-the-world nakama.

Nami took a deep breath, mustering the strength to hit him with enough force to knock his non-existent brains out.

Or miraculously correct his busted inner compass.

Then she paused.

Because Zoro immediately stopped snoring the moment she was near him.

Nami blinked. Earlier he was sleeping with mouth wide open, snoring like a pig…

And now…

Now he seemed to settle back more comfortably, the features of his face softening as his head dipped on one side. His eye was still closed… his breathing even.

He was still asleep.

Did he… felt her presence or something like that?

Haki? She thought, glancing at her hand. If that’s the case then it’s futile to whack him awake.

Nami studied him for a moment. He looked like he was still deep in his sleep.

She crouched down beside him and cheekily poked his cheek.

When she did not receive any reaction, she repeated it again.

She watched his brows furrowed as he stirred to wakefulness.

Nami grinned. One more poke and she’s absolutely sure he will be shouting bloody murder at her for disturbing him.

Well… as long as she annoys him then she’d call it even. He did irritate her earlier with all his uncouth snoring.

Her finger pressed into his cheek again.

Zoro turned his head towards her direction, one eye still close with a deep frown on his face...

And surprisingly clamped his mouth around her finger, sinking his teeth lightly on the soft flesh of her digit.

Nami shrieked. And Zoro's eye flew wide open. They stared at each other in shock before Nami tugged her finger... 

... or tried to.

Good grief! Zoro just bit her finger with the same teeth that he uses to hold one of his swords! 

Panicking, she tried to wiggle it to see if he hadn't severed it. Her face heat up when the tip of her finger grazed his warm, wet tongue.

Good heavens. What is that burning sensation racing across her arm to her face? 

“Damn it Zoro! Let go!”

Zoro was too flustered to react. He honestly thought it was Usopp or Luffy, out to disturb his sleep again just like they always liked to do.

But Nami?

His eye looked down on the finger in his mouth. His face turning to ten different shades of red.

"Ouch! Zoro let go!" Nami cried out again and that snapped him out of his stupor. 

He immediately released her finger, scooting back as far as the Sunny's railing would let him.

"I-I-I thought you were Luffy! Or Usopp!" He blurted out. 

Nami glared at him. "Why would you think that?!" She snarled and looked at her finger, now slightly coated with his saliva. "Eeeww. Gross Zoro!" She looked pained and about to cry.

"Are you alright?" Zoro reluctantly scooted closer. "Did I... bit you hard?" He didn't know why in the seven seas that supposedly innocent question made his face heat up more.

Nami stared at him, cradling her abused finger in one hand, her face turning as red as Zoro's.

"Of course not you idiot. You nearly bit off my finger!"

"Lemme see!"

"No!" Nami quickly stood up and ran towards the toilet under the stairs, slamming the door shut.

Inside Nami turned the tap on and placed her finger under the running water. Kami knows what Zoro puts in his dumb mouth. She closed the faucet and studied her finger. His teeth marks still remained embedded on her skin. 

A vague image of him leaving them in other more delectable parts of her body suddenly crossed her mind.

Fuck. She cursed and opened the faucet again, letting the water pour down on her finger as she rubbed it hard. What was that?! Damn Zoro! This is his fault!

There was a knock on the door.

"Nami?" 

"WHAT?!"

"Do... do you want me to call Chopper?"

She stilled. Well that would just cause more drama wouldn't it? Chopper would reprimand Zoro, then Sanji will find out. The two will exchange blows. Then Luffy will find out and he’ll probably chastise Zoro for hurting her.

It doesn’t really need to blow out of proportion.

Especially since it was an accident.

Though accident or not… she will make Zoro pay for this. 

"Nami? Hey, sorry alright?" Zoro said through the door. She can imagine him frustratingly scratching the back of his head. 

She opened the door. And he visibly flinched.

"It really hurt Zoro," she mock-pouted and Zoro, as much as he wanted to point out that it was really her fault, bit his tongue. "Weren’t you supposed to know who's lurking beside you or something?"

"You are the only one on the deck with me. I don’t need to be that guarded… unless you are planning to stick a knife on me or something!"

 "Well you still should’ve known it was me! That’s what hakis are for!"

Zoro growled an expletive under his breath.

He flicked a glance at her hand and sighed, muttering another apology. 

Nami puffed her cheeks. Zoro was looking guilty enough to make them even.

But she wouldn’t be Nami if she didn’t try to one up him. Or squeeze favors. Or make him cringe and feel uncomfortable.

That’s when she'd call it quits. 

Then Zoro mistakenly and ignorantly put a nail in his coffin by saying, “Let me make it up to you alright?”

Nami instantly smiled, lifting the finger he had bitten so he can see the mark he left. She saw him grimaced and her smile turn evil.

"You better kiss the boo-boo away Zoro."

"…WHAT?!"

“It really hurts.”

Zoro glowered at her. “No.”

She pursed her lips. "Alright call Chopper. Let’s let Luffy and Sanji-kun and the others find out what you did."

“Temee…”

Nami shrugged. "Or we can forget borrowing money the next time you are broke and wants a barrel of whatever concoction you currently fancy."

"You evil witch!"

She grinned impishly and wiggled her finger, feigning a hurt look. “Ouch!”

Zoro look livid and she smiled in triumph. 

Nothing beats getting his boxers in a twist. 

He grabbed her hand and a laugh escaped her. She didn't mean that of course. She had teased him enough. 

"Zoro I was just kid—"

And her words got stuck in her throat when he brought her finger to his lips... … and kissed it.  "—ding..." The last syllable of her sentence came out in a sharp exhale of breath as she stared at him with eyes wide. 

They held each other’s gazes. Zoro still has his lips pressed on her finger while Nami was gaping at him.

Electricity raced up from the tip of her fingers, up to her arms, leaving goosebumps in their wake. 

DAMN. IT.

"Aaw! Really now?" Franky's voice boomed from somewhere above and Zoro and Nami stiffened. The shipwright was making his way down the stairs from the Sunny’s helm with their newest member in tow. 

"Sorry to intrude." Jinbe bowed down, a faint blush appearing on his cheek as he followed the cyborg. 

Nami and Zoro remained where they are… motionless. 

"Nah. Never mind that," Franky said with a dismissive wave of his hand as they crossed the lawn deck, probably on their way to the galley. "You'll get used to the weirdness in this ship soon enough."  

[leoandreeda]

Samurai references in One Piece

Even when this is "short" this took me a long time to made but I finally finished it. I know that maybe I do not have ALL the references, but I'll mention the ones I've been seeing since I'm watching One Piece again. Also you'll read a lot about Zoro because he seems to be the character in which Eiichiro Oda likes to represent these warriors. I couldn't avoid pointing them out, especially since we're actually in Wano, to show you all a little of the influence they have in One Piece (at least in this arc.. or just in Zoro...). Of course there'll be manga spoilers.

1. The breath of all things.

While Zoro and Daz Bones were fighting in Arabasta, Zoro sees that he is at a disadvantage against his rival because this one is the user of the Devil fruit of steel, and that is a material that he wasn't capable of cutting. After a few attempts, he remembers a particular moment from his childhood about one of the lessons that his teacher and Kuina's father, Koshiro, teach him after a young Zoro asks if it is possible to cut steel. Koshiro gives him a demonstration when he tries to cut a piece of paper with his sword, but fails. After receiving a confused look from his student, he says what is in the pic beneath.

This teaching is inspired by one of the legends of Masamune Ozaki. In this story, Masamune (Who was not a samurai but a blacksmith who still was closely related to them) is challenged by his disciple Muramasa Shinji to see who of the 2 is the best blacksmith in Japan. Masamune accepted the challenge and after days of dedication and effort he created Yawarakai Te (Soft Hands / 柔らかい手). Muramasa also worked tirelessly and, finally, shaped Juuchi Yosamu (10,000 cold nights / 十千夜寒).

To test the value of each of them, Masamune and Muramasa were summoned on the riverbank one day at dawn. Once there, Muramasa submerged the first the tip of his sword in the water, against the current. Juuchi Yosamu, the Muramasa blade, cut everything that came close to its edge: it split the leaves that floated in the river and cut in half the fish that swam nearby. It even cut the morning air and the same sunlight. Masamune recognized with a deep reverence the great work of his disciple Muramasa. Indeed: there could not exist in all of Japan a sharper blade than that blade and only a Grand Master could make a sword like Juuchi Yosamu. But now his turn had come. He closed his eyes for a few moments and unsheathed Yawarakai Te. The brightness of the soft forging of his blade was reflected on the water while the old blacksmith dipped the tip of his sword into the river. And, then ...

Nothing happened because the fish that came close to Masamune's sword swam peacefully around him, without getting hurt. The leaves that floated down the river collided with it, turned on themselves and followed their course where the current led without splitting or cutting. Sunlight shone on the sword and the wind whistled softly as it struck its edge. Muramasa began to laugh at his master's sword. "You are no longer able to make a sword that really cuts. Now the best blacksmith in Japan is me" he said. Masamune did not answer. He drew his sword from the water and, still smiling, dried it first and then put it in its holster.

An old monk who had seen everything from the other shore said: "There is a sword that is very well made, that is very beautiful and sharp, but is eager to cut and does not discriminate against who or whom. But the other sword is undoubtedly more beautiful and more perfect because its edge is still finer and does not need to cut what is innocent and does not deserve to be cut. There is a sword that takes away life and another sword that gives it. "

Note: Of course this is only a legend since Masamune Ozaki and Muramasa Shinji are many years apart (almost 100 I suppose), so I understand they did not even know each other, but you get the point.

2. The Kitetsu.

The kitetsu are a "trio" of Yōtō ( cursed swords / 妖刀) that are said to bring misfortunes to their owners until they find death in horrible ways. They are demonic swords whose thirst for blood is insatiable and whose edge and ease to cut things are incredible, almost incomparable.

Now, this is related to one of the aforementioned blacksmiths, specifically with his clan, the Muramasa. Muramasa Shinji was a person of unstable and violent character, it was said that his swords leaves, shorter, more curved and more affiliated than those of Masamune, instilled in the warriors that carried them an uncontrollable desire to kill.

But the swords of Muramasa fell into disgrace when Tokugawa Ieyasu arrived at the shogunate, at the beginning of the 17th century, due to the many misfortunes that these swords caused to his family: the Kaishaku (end of the seppuku ritual in which the assistant beheads the suicidal with a katana) of Ieyasu's son, Nobuyasu, was made with a Muramasa; in his childhood, Ieyasu was wounded with a Tantō Muramasa; Ieyasu's grandfather was killed with a Muramasa katana; Ieyasu's father was attacked with a wakizashi Muramasa. Therefore, the shogun banned the use of Muramasa clan weapons in Japan. Even the Bugyō (commissioner / 奉行) Nagasaki, who was a collector of Muramasa weapons despite the ban, was executed under direct orders from the Shōgun (army commander/ 将軍) Tokugawa Ieyasu for considering this as an obvious conspiracy against his clan.

For all this, they said, Muramasa's katanas brought their owners misfortunes and unnecessary deaths, while those of Masamune were only unsheathed when the situation inevitably required it.

3. Taken from movies.

Maybe some of you already know it, but I do not lose anything mentioning it. Issho (or Fujitora) is based on Zatōichi (座頭市), the protagonist of a television series and a large number of films about a blind, but very skilled swordsman.

Literally is the same thing without scars, they even have the same sword... However, the designs are not the only thing that Oda has been inspired to add to his work. There are a number of thoughts/quotes that he has also taken from different movies like this one, that he says is one of his favorites, called Shichinin no samurai (The Seven Samurais/ 七人の侍).

I won't make much spoilers. In one scene of the film, while the protagonists are looking for another samurai to join them, they hear that one has arrived at the town. To test if he's worth of joining them, one of them hides to the side of the door to ambush him, saying: "If he is a true swordsman he will be able to dodge it, a samurai never lets alcohol take control on himself". Does it remind you of something?

4. Roronoa Zoro's "true" inspiration.

Even though we all know Zoro is based on François l'Olonnais, who was the cruelest pirate of the Caribbean Sea; I can say that he is also a little based on Date Masamune.

Excellent military tactician, was popularly identified because of the lack of one of his eyes, commonly being called "dokuganryū" (Dragon of a single eye/ 独眼 竜). The exact cause for which he lost his entire eye is not known, but it is said that as a child he lost it because of smallpox and to save himself he took it off. After this, his mother told him he could never become a warrior, explaining to Masamune's father that having just one eye already put him in an abyssal disadvantage on the battlefield. Because of that, he swore he would never let anything else get over him, not even something like an illness. At the young age of 17 or 18 years old, he took his father's place as the leader of Date's clan; later becoming one of the most powerful Daimyō (大名) of the old Japan.

This fiery samurai was also known because of his cruelty and cold personality. Not caring who he was talking to, he'd always be a prepotent and shameless man who gained the respect, but mostly fear, of those who were around him.

5. Pirate hunter's journey.

As we all know, in the begining of the serie when Luffy asked Zoro why he sailed, the swordsman told him he was looking for someone (Dracule Mihawk) but then got lost. Sailing to the sea to find recognition and become the greatest swordsman, as he promised to Kuina, sounds like certain practice called Musha shugyō (warrior training/ 武 者 修行) that's based on traveling or pilgrimage to which the ancient samurai were ascribed. A practitioner of this concept has to roam around Japan practicing and honoring his abilities without the protection of his family or his school, all alone and exposing himself to the dangers necessary to prove his worth. The possible activities of the adventurer could include training with other schools, fighting a duel, working as a bodyguard/mercenary, and looking for a Daimyō to serve.

Soooo he found a "Daimyō" to live and to die for.

Note: I'm not saying Zoro is a samurai, in fact and sadly, he isn't. I repeat, I'm just pointing things that I can relate to them.

6. Kaidan.

Kaidan (怪談) is a Japanese word consisting of two kanji: 怪 (kai) meaning “strange, mysterious, rare, or bewitching apparition" and 談 (dan) meaning “talk” or “recited narrative.”In its broadest sense, kaidan refers to any ghost story or horror story, but it has an old-fashioned ring to it that carries the connotation of Edo period Japanese folktales. Kaidan entered the vernacular during the Edo period, when a game called Hyakumonogatari Kaidankai (A Gathering of One Hundred Supernatural Tales / 百物語怪談会 ) became popular. This game led to a demand for ghost stories and folktales to be gathered from all parts of Japan and China.

Originally based on didactic Buddhist tales, Kaidan often involve elements of karma, and especially ghostly vengeance for misdeeds. Onryō (Japanese vengeful ghosts / 怨霊) are far more powerful after death than they were in life, and are often people who were particularly powerless in life, such as women and servants. You all know who were servants? There's certain transtalion or meaning to samurai that says "those who serve in close attendance to the nobility"; Not only that, since Kaidan appeared in Edo period these warriors are the co-protagonists of many of those stories. If we look up at some of those stories we can conclude something; at least two of them are the "inspiration" to certain samurais in Wano and they are Kin'emon and O-kiku. We need to be clear on something, they are considered ghosts by the people of Wano that seek to avenge Oden's death so thinking that Oda made this on purpose is pretty logic, right?

Lets start with Kin'emon. He's, at least a bit, inspired in Botan Dōrō (The Peony Lantern / 牡丹燈籠) This tale tells that on the first night of Obon, a beautiful woman and a young girl holding a peony lantern stroll by the house of the widowed samurai Ogiwara Shinnojo. Ogiwara is instantly smitten with the woman, named Otsuyu and vows an eternal relationship. From that night onward, the woman and the girl visit at dusk, always leaving before dawn. An elderly neighbor, suspicious of the girl, peeks into his home and finds Ogiwara in bed with a skeleton. Consulting a Buddhist priest, Ogiwara finds that he is in danger unless he can resist the woman, and he places a protection charm on his house. The woman is then unable to enter his house, but calls him from outside. Finally, unable to resist, Ogiwara goes out to greet her, and is led back to her house, a grave in a temple. In the morning, Ogiwara's dead body is found entwined with the woman's skeleton.

Why I relate Kin'emon with this story? To be honest it reminded me of him for dumb reasons ;;; The woman's name sounds like Kin'emon's wife's name, O-tsuru. Also I have the feeling that he won't be able to resist any longer being apart with his wife, wich he seems to love very much. Or not necessarilly because he wants to be with her but to warn her to run away at some point and someone will notice and bla bla bla.

Now, O-kiku is inspired by the history of Banchō Sarayashiki (The Dish Mansion at Banchō / 番町皿屋敷 ) that tells that once there was a beautiful servant named Okiku. She worked for the samurai Aoyama Tessan. Okiku often refused his amorous advances, so he tricked her into believing that she had carelessly lost one of the family's ten precious delft plates. Such a crime would normally result in her death. In a frenzy, she counted and recounted the nine plates many times. However, she could not find the tenth and went to Aoyama in guilty tears. The samurai offered to overlook the matter if she finally became his lover, but again she refused. Enraged, Aoyama threw her down a well to her death. It is said that Okiku became an Onryō who tormented her murderer by counting to nine and then making a terrible shriek to represent the missing tenth plate – or perhaps she had tormented herself and was still trying to find the tenth plate but cried out in agony when she never could. In some versions of the story, this torment continued until an exorcist or neighbor shouted "ten" in a loud voice at the end of her count. Her ghost, finally relieved that someone had found the plate for her, haunted the samurai no more.

In some versions of the tale, Okiku is a maid who incurs her mistress' jealousy. Her mistress breaks one of dishes that Okiku is responsible for and Okiku commits suicide. Similar to the other versions, her ghost is heard counting the plates, but her mistress goes insane and dies.

Did you notice the same name, that in her first apparition she is holding a plate and that she refuses someone who's looking for her to be his lover? Hmmm.

7. Extras.

These are just mentions so I'll compilate them here.

⦁ Zoro's name in Wano is Zorojuro, which sounds a lot like Sanjuro, the name of the protagonist from another samurai movie called Yojimbo (which probably Zoro got his personality from); casually made by the same director from The seven samurais, and a lot more movies about these warriors, Akira Kurosawa.

⦁ It's possible that Shuusui is based on, it is said to be, the best sword ever made by Masamune Ozaki, called Honjo Masamune. I think this sword was "stolen" and is still lost.

⦁ Zoro's way of seeing the world is absolutely based on Miyamoto Musashi's lessons writen on his book Go Rin no Sho (The Book of Five Rings/ 五輪書). Not only that, Musashi felt that he won his duels not because he had mastered the strategy, but because he was stronger, prepared or just lucky... we all know Zoro likes to leave all to luck.

⦁ Vivi calls Zoro "mr. Bushido". Bushidō (���士道) is a strict and particular ethical code to which many samurai gave their lives, which demanded loyalty and honor until death. If a samurai failed to maintain his honor, he could recover it by practicing seppuku.

⦁ O-Tama saying that is a disgrace for a warrior to feel hunger is also said in The Seven Samurais.

⦁ The Gorōsei (The Five Elders / 五老星) the leaders of the World Government and, as such, the world's rulers and the highest authority only below Im, are based on The Council of the Five Regents, or council of the five great elders (go-tairō / 五大老). This was a council formed by Toyotomi Hideyoshi to govern Japan instead of his son, Hideyori, until he came of age. Hideyoshi chose his five most powerful daimyō for this task: Ukita Hideie, Maeda Toshiie, Uesugi Kagekatsu, Mōri Terumoto and Tokugawa Ieyasu.  With the creation of the council formed by five people, Hideyoshi hoped that the different components of the same one would be balanced, preventing that none of them took control of the power. However, almost immediately upon the death of Hideyoshi in 1598, the regents were divided into two groups: Tokugawa on the one hand, and the other four on the other. The war, however, did not begin until the mid-1600s, ending the same year at the Battle of Sekigahara, where a difficult peace was agreed upon that left Hideyori alive and in control of Osaka Castle.

⦁ It was said that Miyamoto Musashi, the most famous samurai of all time, could win any duel with one look. Ehem... Haoshoku haki?

⦁ The Iaidō (居合道) is a Japanese martial art related to the unsheathing and sheathing of the katana. It was practiced by the samurai, especially in the Edo period. These techniques arise mainly to be able to attack or defend at the same time that it was unsheathed, beginning therefore the confrontation with the weapon still in the saya (sheath) and unsheathing with the appropriate speed to attack or counterattack the opponent without giving him time to react. The main idea of Iaidō is to be able to react correctly to any unexpected situation. The first letter 'I' has as a translation of its ideogram the meaning of Spirit, Being, Will and also Intention, therefore, decomposing the term Iaidō we find its philosophical meaning as "the path of the harmony of the Being or the path of union of the spirit "('I' is spirit, 'ai' unite or harmony, and the suffix 'dō' way). I don't know about you but it reminds me a bit of the meaning of Wado Ichimonji (Straight Road of the Harmony / 和道一文字); of course not ignoring that this style is used sometimes in the serie.

⦁ In the second point "the Kitetsu", I also mentioned that there was a certain time in Japan when Tokugawa Ieyasu banned muramasa's swords around the country. Well, in chapter 926 we were shown that civilians couldn't carry weapons because that would be a clear statement of rebellion, just saying.

⦁ Ishho is based more in a Sōhei (Warrior monk / 僧兵) than in a Samurai.

⦁ Even when Miyamoto Musashi was known for fighting with 2 Bokken, he had an actual sword. The Tsuba of this sword, now in the Art Musseum of Fukuoka, is a little bit similar to Wado Ichimonji's tsuba.

⦁ Shimotsuki Yasuie or better known as Tonoyasu or Yasu, the happy man from Wano that lives in Ebisu, was shown to be based on the Shōgun mentioned in the second point, Tokugawa Ieyasu. The most famous Shōgun in the story of Japan.

⦁ Gyukimaru on Oihagi Bridge is based on Saitō Musashibō Benkei (西塔 武 蔵 坊 弁 慶 1155 - 1189), popularly called Benkei (弁 慶), Was a Sōhei who was under the orders of the samurai Minamoto no Yoshitsune. He is generally presented as a man of great stature, very strong and loyal, and is one of the favorite characters of Japanese folklore. Tells the story that Benkei would have been located on the bridge Gojo in Kyoto, where he challenged each warrior who passed, taking the sword of their defeated opponents, reaching a total of about 999 swords. In his 1000th duel, Benkei was defeated by Minamoto no Yoshitsune, son of the warlord Minamoto no Yoshitomo. Therefore, he became a warrior of Yoshitsune and fought alongside him in the Genpei war against the Taira clan. Curious, don't you think?

⦁ The relationship between O-kiku/Kikunojo and Kin’emon implies that they’re very close, we can see it in their flashbacks and even when they reunite, however, if we look at things in a more... real life way, we can say that their relationship is, or was, influenced by Shudô (衆道 ). Shudô was a samurai custom in which adult samurai engaged in pederastic relationships with younger samurai. This custom is most prominently seen, or discussed, in the Sengoku and Edo periods. The older man in the relationship, known as the nenja (念者), and the younger man, known by a variety of terms including wakashû (若衆), formed a close, tight personal relationship with one another. A nenja typically engaged in such relationships with only one wakashû at a time, and vice versa. Though much discussion today, based in modern/Western social mores about homosexual relationships, focus strongly on the homosexual sexual acts involved in the relationship, Shudô relationships went beyond this, and were strong personal and sentimental or emotional relationships, which involved as well strong elements of mentorship. Mentorship and training in the "warrior" lifestyle and values of the samurai was a major element of the relationship.

This is all I have so If there's something I missed please let me know, thanks for reading.

[recentanimenews]

FEATURE: Why The Seven Warlords Are Perfect Examples Of One Piece's World-Building

  So, in my opinion, successful worldbuilding requires two crucial things:

  1) Enough details that the world feels fleshed out.

  2) That the details are introduced and arranged in a way that feels natural.

  If you lack one, the other suffers. Too little of the first, and the world will seem dull and lifeless. If you stumble at the second,  the reader might as well look at a series' encyclopedia instead. Luckily, One Piece has both of these aspects in spades, with each new island the Straw Hats discover or character they meet or detail they learn usually feeling like a proper extension of what has come earlier. Even when they launch into the sky to rescue an island in the clouds or find themselves attacked by a horde of zombies or wander through a town made entirely of dessert foods, it never seems out of place or like it's stretching the series' internal logic — such is the strength of the series' world-building. 

  However, if one thing represents the consistent power of the series' world-building as a whole, I think it's the Warlords of the Sea. Based on the real-life privateers who would use their approval by a country's navy to plunder certain targets, they're notorious pirates who, in exchange for some of their money and a government favor from time to time, are allowed to roam the world un-targeted by the Marines. It's a pretty cool concept, one that creator Eiichiro Oda introduces through Mihawk, the world's greatest swordsman.

    Mihawk is first seen cutting through Don Krieg's already wrecked ship, having terrorized the blustering pirate previously in the Grand Line. He is then more than willing to cut down (but not kill) Zoro after the young man challenges him to a duel. This combination establishes a grey area for One Piece, as so far, Luffy has only taken on guys like Morgan, Buggy, and Kuro — men that lean more toward abject cruelty when they're allowed (though we'll see Buggy change a little as the series goes on). It shows that the morality of pirates is a wide spectrum, so the fact that later, when it's revealed that Luffy doesn't see himself as a true hero, it doesn't come out of nowhere. 

  It also establishes the Grand Line as not just a place where Luffy will be forced to overcome bigger obstacles on the way to his dream, but a location of pure chaos for most. Mihawk is both a new character and an omen of terrifying things to come. 

  Soon after, we get our first reference to Jimbei (sadly, we'd have to wait over a decade to see our lovable fish uncle for the first time) and learn there are seven of these warlords. Not only does this number let us know that the Warlords have a fair bit of organization (or at least an attempt at organization by the government) but it also creates anticipation for meeting them and, in some cases, beating them. In many series, the protagonist faces boss battle after boss battle, with new villains seemingly coming out of nowhere after the last one goes down. But by establishing a group and a concrete amount here, Oda begins adding structure to what would normally seem like a revolving door system of bad guys. When Luffy faces Crocodile (and later Moria and Kuma and Doflamingo) he isn't punching an escalating, random assortment of foes. He's taking on a system pre-set by Oda in the beginning.

    Crocodile's role in the series goes a long way in not only giving us an idea of how huge some of these challenges will be for Luffy going forward on his adventure but also revealing crucial details about the political landscape of the Grand Line. Through Crocodile's plot, we learn that many of these kingdoms are ruled by a monarchy, but are often ripe for revolution, as the relationship between the royalty and their citizens is unsteady at best.

  This is not only a reflection of what the Great Pirate Era has done to regular people (many live in fear of pirates and hunger for comfort from the ruling party) but also of the wider relationship with the world government. We haven't even met the higher-ranking Marines or the Elders yet, and yet we know the job they're doing taking care of the Grand Line probably isn't very good if the influence of outside corruption constantly threatens to lead to all-out war in a kingdom. 

  When Blackbeard attempts to gain membership in the Warlords, is rejected, and then finally admitted upon his capture of Ace, it further reveals an unsteady systemic power balance. So hungry for reputation is the World Government that they grant Blackbeard status without much thought given to it. He's allowed to join the club simply because he nabbed Whitebeard's 2nd Division Commander. And when the Straw Hats get to Thriller Bark (and are first told of things that will pay off muuuuch later like Wano and Kaido), this pride is taken a step further when Moria refuses Kuma's help in dealing with Luffy. 

    This kind of worldwide instability and constant thirst for power helps us better engage with stuff like Crocodile's quest to find the ancient weapon Pluton or the fact that, over the years, Doflamingo has seemingly been involved with every criminal activity ever, or the way that Boa Hancock stayed a member of the group even though she obviously seems like she's on Team Luffy for a chunk of the Marineford War. Additional bits like that don't matter in the slightest if it doesn't fit with the world-building themes of the series so far, but in One Piece they all become reasonable parts of the total package.

    Good world-building is so much more than being able to tell readers which way the toilets flush or how a certain character like their meat cooked (though both of those are nice additions). It's taking the over-arching structure of a story and making it so cohesive that no matter what detail you decide to spackle in there, it fits and sticks. Everything works with everything else because the reader understands the system you're playing with. Through the Warlords, Oda didn't just introduce a multitude of characters and locations and new pieces of lore to obsess over but helped to reinforce and strengthen wider themes already in place. That's good writing. 

  Who is your favorite Warlord? Let me know in the comments!

      Daniel Dockery is a Senior Staff Writer for Crunchyroll. Follow him on Twitter!

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