Black maria

Black Maria is one of the Tobiroppo, the strongest six Shinuchi of the Beasts Pirates.[5] She owns her own brothel on Onigashima near Kaidou's castle.[2] Black Maria is a youthful woman of incredible size by human standards, yet still well-proportioned and slender. She is 8.2 meters tall[4], being slightly larger than Kaidou himself.[6][7] Her long blonde hair is styled like a geisha's, with two swords notably being part of its arrangement. Her eyes are sky blue, and a strand of hair tends to dangle in front of her left eye. She has a pair of long, slightly curved red horns atop her head, wears prominent lipstick, and carries a long smoking pipe.[5]

She wears a low-cut, black kimono that leaves her shoulders and cleavage exposed and a turquoise obi around her waist, both with blue and yellow floral patterns.[5] Her footwear is two black Zōri with red Hanao (straps) and white tabi (socks).[8] Black Maria is a flirtatious, courtesan-like figure who takes a laid-back approach to her missions and duties as one of the Tobiroppo. When assigned to fight or hunt for a target, Black Maria instead prefers to stay back from the action and enjoy the company of her captain or play music with her subordinates, taking refuge in safe locations away from all the strife while letting her peers deal with the problems themselves.[11] She also has a soft spot for children, taking pity on Momonosuke after he got brutalized by Kanjuro and tending to his injuries before Orochi took him away.[12] That being said, Black Maria can be just as violent and sadistic as the rest of the Beasts Pirates, if not even more. In stark contrast to her usual playfulness seen during the banquet, Black Maria is a ruthless torturer when actually performing her job as a pirate, not holding back her punches for the sake of the crew's objectives. Even if the victim actually decides to cooperate with her, Black Maria may not honor her word and just keep them trapped under her power. When asked about her methods to keep Robin in line should the Beasts Pirates manage to capture her, Black Maria simply stated that she would mutilate the Straw Hat to the point of helplessness, then kill and discard her corpse after her purpose to read Kaidou's Poneglyphs was fulfilled.[13]

Black Maria enjoys keeping captive men as "pets" for her to play with (particularly those with rebellious personalities). Through torture methods, she forcefully implants obedience and devotion inside the heads of her victims until they become unable to say anything else but declarations of love and worship towards her, effectively turning herself into their subject of adoration. Black Maria is extremely possessive of those men and will not tolerate any attempts of "infidelity" from them, resorting to further violent discipline if necessary.[14] Apparently very vain, Black Maria likes to keep up her look as an attractive courtesan, having modified her own Devil Fruit abilities in order to display a more conventionally beautiful form. Black Maria holds a different disposition among the higher ranks of the Beasts Pirates, being far less rude and aggressive compared to the other Tobiroppo and even the All-Stars. Black Maria likes Ulti's fierce temper (although she can get shocked by her rudeness when directed towards Kaidou) and is humored by Who's-Who desire to succeed an All-Star. Otherwise, she does not seem to be as competitive as the other members of her group.

Black Maria holds a flirtatious attitude towards her captain, Kaidou, preferring to stay by his side and enjoy herself despite being assigned a mission directly by him, and is also friendly and courteous towards Kurozumi Orochi. Black Maria is generally beloved and respected by her subordinates, who refer to her as "big sis". As one of the Tobiroppo, Black Maria holds great authority in the Beasts Pirates, with only Kaidou and the All-Stars ranking above her.[5] As the owner of the Pleasure Hall, she oversees the goings-on in it.[2]

As one of the six strongest Shinuchi with a Beli 480,000,000 bounty[3] (second highest among the Tobiroppo), Black Maria is very powerful and considered potentially able to challenge an All-Star for his position.[15] She has confidence in her own strength, enough to believe that she could easily kill the Nine Red Scabbards after their loss to Kaidou. When the All-Star Jack cast doubt on her ability to do so, Black Maria felt that she was being underestimated.[16]

Befitting her oiran image, Black Maria is a skilled musician, being a capable shamisen player and songstress.[11] Black Maria ate the Kumo Kumo no Mi, Model: Rosamygale Grauvogeli, an Ancient Zoan-type Devil Fruit that allows her to transform into a full Rosamygale grauvogeli—a prehistoric, carnivorous spider—as well as into a human-spider hybrid at will. Her hybrid form has a centaur-like body;[10] this is a modified version from her regular hybrid form, which has two legs and 6 arms. Although unconfirmed, it is suggested the alteration in this form might be the result of some drug concocted for this very purpose, similar to the Rumble Ball created by Tony Tony Chopper.[18]

She has several spider abilities, including the ability to walk on walls and ceilings with her spider legs, as well as having poison barbs at the ends of her spider legs. She is also able to shoot extremely sticky webs from her body that she can use to trap and bind her opponents, as well as create a shield of nets. She claims that anyone trapped in them will never be able to get loose. Her webs can even be made into an intricate series of traps, so that no matter where someone steps, they will get captured.[19] Her webs are flammable,[20] which can be used in conjunction with the fire breathing face on the spider part of her body.[21]

Haki

Main article: Haki Black Maria possesses the ability to use Armament and Observation Haki.[3] Despite this, she has never been seen using either in combat, being more reliant on her Devil Fruit and various weapons. Black Maria uses a pair of brass knuckles to pummel immobilized opponents.

Techniques

Oiran Knuckle (花魁ナックル, Oiran Nakkuru?, literally meaning "High-Ranking Courtesan Knuckle"): Black Maria launches a barrage of punches while wearing her knuckledusters. This was first used to physically torture the captured Sanji to force him to shout for Nico Robin to come save his life.[14] It was named when Black Maria used it against Robin's Gigante Fleur technique.[20] Oiran may also be a play on words on iron. In the Viz manga and Funimation translation, this is called Oiran Knuckles. Black Maria also has the ability to create illusions using an "illusion mist" (幻霧, genmu?). When used against Nico Robin, it caused her to hallucinate Black Maria's subordinates as Nico Olvia, Clou D. Clover, and Jaguar D. Saul, though she saw through the trick. It is currently unknown exactly how Black Maria generates and controls this mist.[23] she thinks woman are the superior gender!