Caribou

"Wet-Haired Caribou" is an infamous rookie pirate who was at the Sabaody Archipelago around the time of the Straw Hat Pirates' reunion. Deranged, sadistic, and prone to acts of brutal violence, he has earned a bounty of 210,000,000, making him part of the new generation of rookie pirates with bounties over 100,000,000.

He is the big brother of "Blood Splatterer" Coribou, another infamous rookie, with whom is co-captain of the Caribou Pirates. Both brothers gained their reputations for killing Marines. As both of them have bounties over 70,000,000, they both fulfilled the requirement of the Fake Straw Hat Crew, but they eventually left upon discovering the crew's fraudulence.

He is a minor antagonist during the Fish-Man Island Saga, and the central character from Caribou's Kehihihihi in the New World Cover Page Serial. Later, he became an ally of Luffy during the Wano Country Arc.

Appearance
Caribou is a tall man with dark skin and dark hair reaching down to his shoulders, a distinctive wet-looking tuft giving him his epithet, and a beard in the shape of a whirl going upwards on his chin. He has intimidating eyes with many circles around the pupils (with dark and medium green central heterochromia in the anime), pointed ears, and long limbs. He has a long tongue which is often seen sticking out.

He wears a coat which appears to be made of fur, dark on the outside and lighter and spotted on the inside (similar to a leopard's), draped over his shoulders like a cape, dark pants and shoes, and an extremely long-sleeved shirt (which at Sabaody was covered in blood) with a Cross fleury-like design on the chest. With the way he wears his shirt, concealing his arms under his long sleeves, it resembles an unbuckled straitjacket.

After being found and looked after by an old woman on a winter island in the New World, Caribou is seen wearing a coat, which has a darker color than his previous one and a fluffy collar, draped onto his shoulders. He is also wearing plaid pajamas and thick winter boots. He soon went back to wearing his old long sleeved attire, but now wears a revolutionary uniform jacket draped over his shoulders, along with a beret with a star on it.

After becoming a prisoner in Wano Country, Caribou kept his long sleeve shirt, but acquired standard prisoner striped pants and tattered trousers, as well as handcuffs and sandals.

Personality


Caribou is a violent lunatic renowned for killing Marines. He apparently believes strongly in a God, begging Him to forgive the Marine that tried to shoot him, before sadistically ordering his brother to bury the man alive as a punishment for the Marine's "sins". This hints at a deeper depraved nature within the man, as he justifies his own acts of brutal violence using religion, and appears to genuinely believe that murdering in cold blood is done in the good faith of this higher power. He later shoots the Marine when additional reinforcements arrive, as the Marine lied to him about calling for backup, without concern for the consequences of his actions.

In spite of his religious zeal, or perhaps because of it, he does seem to have at least some basic understanding of how corrupt the world is, as shown by his comment on how the Marines need to get rid of their "unspoken rule" about how it is okay to lie to criminals, as well as his comment about how hypocritical the Marines are. However, the comment may be based more on his anger toward the Marine who lied to him about the reinforcements that he called than anything else. He is very merciless, as he ignored the pleas of the fake Straw Hats as he had graves dug to bury them alive. He planned to profit off the lives of mermaids, seeing them as mere means to an end with no value for the lives of others.

He released the mermaids when he stole the treasures of Ryugu Palace, simply considering selling mermaids to be a hassle compared to getting rich much faster by plundering the treasure. Upon learning about the existence of the Ancient Weapons, and that Princess Shirahoshi is one of the three, he grew an obsession to kidnap her for the dreaded power to destroy the world. All these factors strongly hint at a psychotic and ruthless nature within him, showing no remorse whatsoever and taking glee from the cries of his victims, going so far as to even justify his actions as keeping with the whims of a higher power.

He also appeared to show less-than-innocent deviant ideas when eyeballing Nami and planning an ambush in private, actions which Sanji immediately disapproved of.

Caribou originally shows a complete lack of fear towards the Straw Hat Pirates (both the real and fake ones), completely disregarding the fake Luffy's orders despite knowing Luffy's 400,000,000 bounty, and still opted to go after the real Straw Hats after escaping from Sentomaru (though it is not known whether or not he witnessed the ease at which the Monster Trio dispatched the two Pacifista units that Sentomaru brought with him, or even acknowledged the strength of the real crew). Apparently, he had planned to kill the crew from within after joining, and decided to do the same to the real crew after the fakes were exposed.

However, Caribou is revealed to have some common sense when dealing with them. When he found himself alone in the presence of the entire Straw Hat crew, his own crew having been unable to board their ship with him, he immediately understood that he could not win. Instead, he begged for mercy and pretended to be cannon fodder as a ploy to get them to let their guard down; ironically, his overconfidence of his escape from the ropes that bound him led him to drop his own guard, which led Franky to seal him into a barrel. However, he has the patience and the intelligence to remain silent long enough for some unwitting mermaids to unseal the barrel.

Notably, when encountering the Kraken, he expresses fear of death. He seems to be somewhat perceptive as he was the only one who noticed the Kraken beneath them, though he may have been aware of its presence there beforehand. He also showed some concern when his crew suffered a shipwreck from the Kraken, and was angered when Zoro insulted them by calling them jellyfish. However, this concern was only displayed when they were about to save him. Caribou did not hesitate to abandon his own brother and crew after they saved him from Yarisugi and his men and showed no remorse in leaving them behind.

He is also a hypocrite and a liar, as he buried the fake Straw Hats alive and murdered many Marines, but when captured by Franky, he cried out that human lives are not to be wasted so quickly, molding his beliefs and words to whatever will best benefit only himself. When confined into a barrel, he went as far as to beg to become Franky's slave in exchange for his release. Caribou shows the same trait in Wano when he offers to become Luffy's slave for food. Later on, he was surprised when Luffy agreed to his help with the escape plan.

Despite his cruelty, insanity, and cowardice, he appears to have a something of a soft spot for the elderly, possibly stemming from a childhood of being raised by his grandmother. After he was saved and nursed back to health by an old woman, his first instinct was to steal her valuables and leave. But when her life was endangered by a housefire, he returned out of genuine concern for her well-being and saved her. Moreover, when she allowed herself to be captured by Scotch in order for him to escape, Caribou returned with his crew, saved her life, and defeated Scotch, placing the island under the control of the island's rebels.

Like many other characters, he has a distinct laughter style, starting with "Kehihihi".

Crew
The Caribou Pirates are very loyal to Caribou. Coribou is too afraid to look at his brother. He was facing the wrong way when answering his brother about smearing the plaza with a Marine's blood. He is also rather obedient to Caribou's requests, as he immediately started digging a grave to bury the Marine alive upon his brother's orders without question and showing no signs of compassion or mercy. He has a habit of calling Caribou "bro-bro" (兄助). He is also always very nervous, and is constantly stuttering and sweating, which could suggest he is afraid of his brother. In spite of this, he is nevertheless very loyal to Caribou, proven when he and the rest of their crew made the journey to a Marine base in order to rescue him. Even after Caribou abandoned him at the said Marine base, Coribou still remained loyal to his brother.

When Caribou hopped on board of the Sunny, Momoo, the one carrying the Caribou Pirates' ship, fled in terror at the sight of his old enemies: Nami, Luffy, and Sanji. This separated the Caribou Pirates from their captain. Shortly after this, the rest of the Caribou Pirates forced Momoo to bring them back to rescue Caribou.

Unfortunately for his followers, Caribou only appears to value himself. After being freed by his crew, Caribou abandons them at the hands of the G-5 marines and flees to save himself all while showing no regret for leaving them behind, Coribou included. When Coribou reunites again with Caribou, he easily forgives him, despite the latter having left him at the mercy of the G-5 Marines. This is due to the fact that their Grandmother told them to get along no matter what and it is implied by the bandages on their heads that she punished them to do so.

Marines
Caribou is famous for killing marines. When the Marine attempted to draw his gun, Caribou injured him with his weapon and then begged God to forgive the man for trying to kill him. He then ordered Coribou to bury the Marine alive as punishment. The crew followed Jinbe and Caribou to the G-5 Marine base. Before Commodore Yarisugi starts torturing Caribou, Coribou and the Caribou pirates come to save him. The pirates engage in battle with the G-5 Marines.

Straw Hat Pirates
Caribou, in thinking that he joined in the real Straw Hat crew, planned to kill them from the beginning. The Caribou Pirates attacked the Straw Hats in the depths of the sea only to lose his ship and crew, allowing them to easily capture him. Caribou showed great fear of the crew's strength after he witnessed the monster trio defeat the Kraken, leading him to resort to hiding to figure out his next move.

Even while hidden, Caribou still planned on killing the rest of the Straw Hats until Franky sealed him in a barrel, calling him an idiot but recognizing he would have been dangerous if not captured sooner. After the Sunny charged into Fish-Man Island to escape the New Fish-Man Pirates, Caribou's barrel somehow made its way to the Mermaid Cove where he began kidnapping mermaids, framing the crew for his actions. Later on, in his kidnapping attempt on Shirahoshi, he was found by Luffy, Zoro and Sanji before being quickly defeated.

He later came across the Ryugu Kingdom's treasures and released all of the captive mermaids to take it. However, the Straw Hats were also searching for the treasure, eventually finding and defeating Caribou for it.

Caribou encountered Luffy again in Wano Country, where both were imprisoned by Kaido. He offered a team-up upon learning that Luffy intends to break out but Luffy bluntly denied his request and was annoyed by his begging for help.

After Raizo freed him and they spoke with Luffy, Caribou once more pleaded with him to let him join him. This time, Luffy agreed and Caribou was shocked but hastily accepted Luffy' mercy though stated that he is even more scared of him.

Fake Straw Hat Crew
The Caribou Pirates joined the Fake Straw Hat Crew, but had no intention of truly following them. Instead, Caribou planned to kill them from the inside. After discovering that the crew they joined were fakes, the Caribou Pirates buried the impostors (without Black, Cocoa, and fake Chopper, all of whom were captured) alive and then set sail, using their coated ship to follow behind the Thousand Sunny and the real Straw Hat Pirates.

Fish-Man Island
When Caribou escaped from his barrel, he kidnapped the mermaids. Figuring that he is in a treasure cove, Caribou thought that by capturing the mermaids, he could sell them for a good profit. However, he eventually changed his operation, releasing the mermaids into Ryugu Palace, but he stole all the treasure within instead. Caribou eventually received word that his crew survived and made it to port, as well as overhearing about the Ancient Weapon Poseidon being Shirahoshi. He attempted to kidnap her and meet up with his crew in the New World, but Luffy kicked him out. When Caribou woke up, he attempted again to kidnap mermaids but was defeated and captured by Jinbe. Jinbe takes him into a coated boat up to the surface and eventually turns him over to G-5 Marine Commodore Yarisugi.

Beasts Pirates
Caribou made an enemy out of the Beasts Pirates when he defeated Scotch and destroyed one of their factories. He is later taken by X Drake as a prisoner and forced to work as a slave in Wano Country. He was eventually freed by Raizo and joined the alliance against the Beasts Pirates.

Gaburu's Grandmother


Caribou bears a striking resemblance to the deceased Gaburu, whose grandmother loved very much. Due to this, she initially appears to mistake the pirate for her grandson, and doted on him when she found him exhausted on the island's shore, and even defended him from attackers.

At first, Caribou was true to his nature, taking advantage of the situation and robbed the old lady of her jewelry. However, he later grew fond of her and returned to rescue her from a fire in the house, showing genuine concern. When Scotch attacked, Caribou initially ran away, leaving the old woman to fend off Scotch. However, after Caribou reunited with his crew, he returned to save the old woman when Scotch was about to make an example of her. After X Drake arrived, Caribou stood between him and the old woman. Eventually, when Caribou left, the old lady thanked him for his kindness while praying to Gaburu's grave, revealing that she knew all along that he was not Gaburu.

Abilities and Powers
Caribou is a pirate captain reputed as a fearsome killer of Marines, who has managed to reach Sabaody Archipelago, sailing through the first half of the Grand Line. He was able to defeat several marines at Saboady Archipelago and gain the upper hand in the battle against Scotch and defeat him.

Though he lacks knowledge of Haki and lacked knowledge period that anything could counter his Logia defense he has shown some degree of knowledge in other topics such as the sea creatures like the Kraken and Sea Cows, coating bubbles and the slave trade. He has also shown some degree of forethought as well, noticing when the Strawhats were going to engage in the Kraken he quickly deduced a way that would put him in the least amount of danger by informing them of a way to fight in water, and purposely hid his Logia intangibility when out numbered and escaped when he saw the situation arise.

In his first appearance, he was able to detect the presence of a Marine hiding nearby who was spying on the recruits and reporting their presence to his superiors, and even noticed the Kraken before any of the Strawhats could despite their members consisting of Haki users. However, contrary to this, he later failed to notice Franky was right next to his hiding spot, looking at him; and a mermaid could walk up right behind him without him noticing.

While the Fake Straw Hats saw Caribou to be a valuable asset and a terrible force to get on the wrong side of due to his fearsome reputation and abilities, none of the real Straw Hat Pirates even see him as a threat, but instead as nothing more than an annoyance. Franky stated that the reason why Caribou is no threat is due to him being an idiot but also acknowledges that he may have been a threat if he had not been apprehended quickly.

Indeed, despite his Logia-class abilities, Luffy easily sent him flying out of Ryugu Palace and knocked him unconscious with one punch, showing that Caribou has low endurance, compared to Luffy's strength. He was also easily defeated with a single punch from Pekoms, who went on to claim that Caribou was overconfident just because he is a Logia-class user, which is what led to his defeat.

Devil Fruit


Caribou ate the Numa Numa no Mi, a Logia-class Devil Fruit which allows him to change his body into, and control, a swamp; he can create swamps of various size, either in his hand, such as the hand sized one he used to drown Drip, or a larger one as he did to capture a trio of mermaids. He can also use this ability to absorb most forms of attack using the swamp mass.

It seems that people who step on his swamp mass can sink in it, even if its outer appearance looks shallow, similar to Blackbeard's Yami Yami no Mi. It also seems that the people who sank into his swamp and were absorbed satisfied his hunger and filled his stomach, which also acts as some form of storage space. Caribou claimed that the swamps he could produce were bottomless, thus giving him the power to store virtually everything inside his body. He uses this ability to store kidnapped mermaids and weapons. When released, the mermaids were said to be a bit groggy.

A major weakness of this fruit is that, if he is in his Logia form, he is confined to his volume, as seen when Franky locked him up in a barrel and he was unable to escape.

Weapons
He used some sort of spear or pole-arm to stab the Marine who was spying at the Fake Straw Hats meeting point. He was also seen wielding a flintlock pistol. During his battle with Pekoms in Fish-Man Island, he used a Gatling gun and a scythe, hiding them within the infinite space of his swamp body.

Past


When Caribou and Coribou were young children, their now deceased grandmother told the two to always stick together and love each other no matter what. Caribou and Coribou would later form the Caribou Pirates, and while he was still a rookie, Caribou would earn a 210,000,000 bounty for his activities which included prominently killing Marines.

Return to Sabaody Arc


At the Sabaody Archipelago, Caribou and Coribou were recruited by Demaro Black, who was posing as Monkey D. Luffy, to join the Fake Straw Hat Crew who were masquerading as the famous Straw Hat Pirates. Caribou and Coribou joined in order to kill the Straw Hats from within, and gathered with the other recruits in Grove 46. Caribou noticed a Marine hiding out nearby reporting the pirates' presence, and the Marine lied that he had not yet alerted his superiors. Caribou stabbed him, and the Fake Straw Hats arrived before Coribou could bury him alive. A battalion of Marines arrived shortly into the gathering, and Demaro Black ordered for Caribou to use his Marine captive as a shield, but Caribou decided to shoot him instead for lying to him. The pirates then charged to fight the Marines, but were quickly overwhelmed when several Pacifistas arrived. Caribou saw as the Pacifistas exposed the Fake Straw Hats and then witnessed the real Luffy become involved in the conflict.

Fish-Man Island Arc


The Caribou Pirates managed to escape and round up the Straw Hat impersonators except for Demaro Black, who had been captured by the Marines. Caribou had his crew dig graves to bury the impostors in, and used his Logia ability to overwhelm them. Afterwards, the Caribou Pirates began pursuing the real Straw Hats and used the giant sea cow Momoo to pull their ship the Numabou underwater to Fish-Man Island. When they caught up to the Thousand Sunny, Caribou boarded the ship to lead the raid, but before the rest of the crew could do the same, Momoo recognized the Straw Hats and swam away in fear, leaving Caribou alone with the Straw Hats. Caribou lied that he was a menial worker and wanted to join the Straw Hats, and they tied him up, not knowing he was a Logia user.



The Straw Hats later encountered a kraken, and Caribou was delighted as his crew returned to save him, only to watch as the kraken destroyed their ship. Luffy decided to take on the kraken, and Caribou told him, Roronoa Zoro, and Sanji to put on bubbles that would allow them to move underwater and fight the sea monster away from the Sunny. As the trio of Straw Hats defeated the kraken, the crew of the Sunny was sent plummeting down toward the Underworld of the Sea. At this point, Caribou escaped from his ropes and hid inside a barrel, plotting to kill the remaining Straw Hats onboard. However, Franky spotted him inside the barrel and bolted it shut, preventing him from escaping.



The Straw Hats eventually made it to Fish-Man Island, and a few mermaids found Caribou's barrel in Mermaid Cove. They loosened the bolts to see what was inside, allowing Caribou to break out and trap them in his swamp body. Caribou was ecstatic that he was able to sneak onto the island, and plotted to kidnap more mermaids so he could sell them on the slave market. Caribou later captured two more mermaids on the south beach before going to Coral Hill, where he saw the giant mermaid princess Shirahoshi with the Straw Hats. He became very interested in Shirahoshi, believing he could sell her for an enormous price.



Caribou later broke into the Ryugu Palace, where he freed the mermaids he captured and stole the country's entire treasury, including their national treasure the Tamatebako He then overheard a conversation between King Neptune and Nico Robin and found out that Shirahoshi was Poseidon, one of the three Ancient Weapons that could destroy the world. Caribou proceeded to find Shirahoshi and pull her into his body, but Luffy found him while he was doing this. Luffy attacked Caribou and sent him flying all the way to the main island, and he fell unconscious upon landing, causing the treasure he stole to be ejected from his body.



After regaining consciousness, Caribou raced around near the Candy Factory to try to find his missing treasure. He spotted Pekoms and Tamago of the Big Mom Pirates carrying away the treasure in large bags, and brought out a gatling gun to shoot Pekoms. However, Pekoms emerged unscathed by transforming into a turtle, and before Caribou could strike him with a sickle, Pekoms defeated him with a single Busoshoku Haki-imbued punch.

Caribou's Kehihihihi in the New World


Caribou later regained consciousness after Pekoms' attack and started capturing mermaids in Mermaid Cove again, but was quickly stopped by Jinbe. Jinbe took Caribou to the G-5 Marine Branch, and the Caribou Pirates encountered the duo, but were unable to rescue their captain. Jinbe successfully dropped Caribou off at the G-5 base, and the Marines had him burned at the stake. However, the Caribou Pirates arrived at the base, and Coribou beat back the Marines and freed his brother. Caribou then escaped on the Numabou, leaving his brother and crew to be captured by the Marines.

Caribou was forced to abandon the Numabou on a life raft during a storm and washed ashore on an unknown island, where a granny found him and took him to her home to recover. After Caribou and the granny woke up, she sent him off to the harbor, where a group of armed men mistook him for their revolutionary commander Gaburu. The granny arrived and chased the men away, but Caribou got curious and decided to look around the town. He found that many of the residents were working in a weapons factory, and after spotting him, the residents believed that Gaburu had returned and started a revolt.



The revolt was quickly quelled by Scotch, who set the town ablaze. Caribou found the granny laying on the floor next to a picture of Gaburu, whom he discovered was her grandson. Scotch then confronted the two of them, and the granny got up and told Caribou, whom she called Gaburu, to run away while she took on the pirate. Caribou did so and ran to the harbor, where he encountered his crew who had commandeered a Marine ship. However, Coribou and the crew were happy to see Caribou again as Coribou heeded his grandmother's desire for them to always get along. Caribou then dressed up as Gaburu and his crew pretended to be Gaburu's revolutionaries as they sailed to confront Scotch, who had defeated the granny. The Caribou Pirates then battled Scotch and his men and Caribou trapped Scotch and the weapons factory inside his body, making the revolt a success.



However, right as the revolutionaries started celebrating, X Drake arrived and quickly defeated Caribou. Caribou protected the granny from Drake, and she gave him the last of her meat pies as Drake dragged him onto his ship and sailed away.

Wano Country Arc


Caribou was taken to Wano Country and imprisoned in the Prisoner Mine in Udon. There, he witnessed Luffy and Eustass Kid's confrontation with the deputy warden. After that event, he tried to talk to Luffy with the intention of allying and escaping from the prison, but Luffy rejected him, telling Caribou to go ally with Kid. Caribou began to tell Luffy about the rumors of how Kid lost an arm, until Kid appeared and interrupted him. Caribou got scared on the spot as Luffy and Kid argued over who would defeat Kaido.

Later, he was released from his cuffs by Raizo. Caribou hid Raizo inside his body and went up to the sumo ring where Luffy and Hyogoro were. Caribou told Luffy that he wanted to become his subordinate, promising that he had changed and would be good with him. When Luffy quickly accepted his help, he was surprised. During the night, Caribou and Raizo stole Queen's oshiruko supply and fed it to Luffy and Hyogoro. The next day, Caribou and Raizo hid in the shadows and noted that Luffy and Hyogoro were obviously going to stand out after eating too much food. Caribou later told Raizo how Wano Country's communication network operates and helped him disable Udon's communications. After Luffy and his allies successfully took over the prison, Caribou commented on how well it went and expressed eagerness for the day of the decisive battle against Kaido.

Major Battles

 * Caribou Pirates vs. Marines (past battles; numerous times)
 * Fake Straw Hat Crew and new recruits vs. Marines
 * Caribou vs. Fake Straw Hat Crew
 * Caribou vs. Monkey D. Luffy
 * Caribou vs. Pekoms
 * Caribou vs. Jinbe
 * Caribou Pirates vs. Scotch
 * Caribou vs. X Drake

Playable Appearances

 * One Piece: Gigant Battle! 2 New World
 * One Py Berry Match

Support Appearances

 * One Piece: Super Grand Battle! X

Trivia

 * "Caribou" is another word for reindeer (which is referenced on his ship's figurehead).
 * Caribou is the first new Devil Fruit user and first Logia type user to be revealed after the timeskip, as well as the second known Super Rookie with the powers of a Logia Devil Fruit, the first being Ace.
 * He is also the first Logia user Luffy defeats using Busoshoku Haki, whereas he to defeat previous ones using a specefic element that counteracts the Logia's power (Ex: Crocodile through liquid and Enel through rubber).

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