Perona

Perona (ペローナ) is the former Wild Zombies and Surprise Zombies Commander of Thriller Bark before the collapse of Gekko Moriah's zombie army. She is able to produce ghosts from her body through the powers of the Horo Horo no Mi. She was one of the major antagonists of the Thriller Bark Arc, being one of the Mysterious Four, but has since begrudgingly cooperated with Roronoa Zoro.

Appearance
Perona is drawn in a rather different style from the usual, with big round eyes. Her hair is light pink colored and very long. Her feet are usually seen with her toes pointing inwards in a 'pigeon-toed' manner, whether or not she actually has the medical condition is unknown.

Her looks are inspired by the 'Gothic Lolita' style, with black, white and bright red. Perona's usual hair style has it tied in two high pigtails with somewhat flower-shaped black and white hairpins, and she always wears a red crown with a cross on top. Her tights cover her entire legs and wears a mini-skirt and red buckled boots to match. She is always wearing red lipstick and a thick layer of eyeliner. She is often seen carrying around a red umbrella shaped somewhat like a cute version of a mini devil before her battle with Usopp.

In Hogback's flashback, she is seen as a child. While her crown is visible, the rest of her outfit is hard to see, however she seemed to be wearing a dress that gave her a childish appearance.

After the two year timeskip, Perona has a more mature look than before. Perona is seen on Sabaody Archipelago wearing a long black strapless dress with lavender ruchings, red high heeled boots and a big black top hat with a white floral decor. She has a pink bat tattoo on her left bicep as well as a watch on her left wrist and wears pink nail polish on her fingernails. She still has her signature umbrella and also carries a stuffed animal with her that very much resembles Kumashi. She also has a different hairstyle now; before the timeskip, it was in two straight pigtails on the side of her head, now her hair is at the back of her head in at least four spiral braids.

Personality
Perona is confident and firm with herself. She dislikes people telling her what to do and dislikes anyone disobeying her will. She was even willing to put Absalom in his place and remind him of where her authority lies on Thriller Bark. Despite this, she is normally loyal to Gekko Moriah and apparently sees him as a way of protection, as she is seen crying to rejoin him. In the manga, she normally speaks using a very masculine language, despite her looks. After Zoro appears, she tends to his wounds, displaying a willingness to befriend even those she sees as a foe. It also shows that she is not completely incapable of being kind to others, despite how cruel she can seem at times.

She apparently likes cute creatures and will only allow someone to work for her if they are cute. Her dream is to create a country where all the cute people are turned into zombie animals that obey only her. She disliked Kumashi because, although he is cute in appearance, his voice is not, and thus she prefers him to just be quiet. Her desire for cute things gives her a slight childish outlook on some issues. She is very playful, threatening to burst Usopp's heart when she was in her ghost form. Usopp nearly died of the fear itself, and got enraged when Perona simply laughed it off, saying she could do no such thing.



She seems to have katsaridaphobia, a fear of cockroaches, even to the point of screaming and crying. She is somewhat naïve, not doubting for a second that Usopp can lift ten tons.

Like many of the One Piece cast, she has her own unique laugh that uses the word Horo, which is also part of her Devil Fruit, the Horo Horo no Mi (i.e Horo-horo-horo-horo-horo!).

After the timeskip, she has become more mature, although she was still seen carrying a teddy bear around indicating she still held onto many of her past values.

Straw Hat Pirates
In the short amount of time she appears, she becomes enemies with one particular member of the Straw Hat Pirates, Usopp. This is mainly because of him defeating her in battle, handing her the first defeat she had ever suffered. She completely ignored Nami when she met her later, stating "the long-nose" is her natural enemy, not her. By this, she meant that Nami is an easy opponent for her and she could defeat her only with her Devil Fruit abilities.

After encountering Zoro on Kuraigana Island, she decided to treat his wounds, and despite the initial quarrels the two develop a relationship of mutual trust by living on the island for two years alongside Dracule Mihawk. She was also nice enough to bring Zoro back to Sabaody Archipelago and held back the Marines to allow the Straw Hats to escape.

Thriller Bark
Perona has followed her master, the Shichibukai Gekko Moriah, for at least ten years. Her loyalty to him is somewhat contradictory: when she sensed defeat, she attempted to leave and abandon him, but tried to take Bartholomew Kuma down as a final gift for Moriah; when the newspaper reported that Moriah died in the Whitebeard War, Perona was deeply saddened.

Perona has another mixed relationship with her teddy bear Kumashi (Bearsy). While she thinks of him cute in appearance (which suits her likings), she forbade him from speaking because his voice is not cute. However, she was devastated when Usopp purified Kumashi.

Abilities
Being formerly one of the Mysterious Four, Perona had a number of Zombies under her command prior to her defection from Thriller Bark. Her ex-crewmate, Doctor Hogback, acknowledges her value under Moria's employment, stating after the fall of Thriller Bark that they would not manage to get very far without her help.

While she seems to recognize that bandages can help a person who is wounded, she seems to lack expertise in medicine. As seen from her treatment of Zoro's wounds, she covered him from head to toe in an overabundance of bandages the first time she found him. However, despite this fault she has common sense or enough knowledge of medical skills, as Zoro recovered from his injuries. She also has at least some knowledge of navigation, seeing how she brought Zoro to Saboady Archipelago all the way from Kuraigana Island.

Devil Fruit


With the use of her Devil Fruit, Perona is able to conjure up ghosts and form a "ghost network", using them for surveillance. She either conjures up one or more ghosts or projects her own spirit and splits it into many ghosts able to re-enter her body whenever she pleases (it should be noted that, as a Paramecia user, Perona cannot split her physical body into individual ghosts, only her projected spirit). Using this ability to form her ghost network Perona can see and hear whatever the ghosts can and uses this ability for espionage. Once formed, the ghosts are able to split up into even more ghosts.

When a ghost passes through a person they are drained of all their will to live leaving them slumped on the ground regretting even being born, rendering them an easy target. However, when her Horo Horo no Mi powers failed to stop Usopp she herself became negative and continued to persist with using her powers against him even though she had already failed.

An additional ability that Perona has is the ability to create exploding ghosts that can make holes in stone walls, and a giant ghost that is even more powerful (although its destructive capabilities are not shown). She can also create an astral projection of herself, which cannot be hurt through any means. She can pass through solid objects in this form, although she cannot damage them, and she can change in size. However, while she is doing this, her true body remains unconscious and vulnerable. To negate this, she usually hides before resorting to astral projection.

Perona Before Joining Gekko Moriah
Perona's past is unknown. According to her own words, she joined Moriah merely for fun; it is unknown what that fun even meant.

Thriller Bark Arc
Perona has been with Moriah and Absalom for over 10 years. When she is seen meeting Hogback, she was still a young girl. She was holding a bear that seems to have been later used as source of inspiration to make a real life replica, Kumashi.

Five years ago, she was sleeping while Brook was causing trouble in Thriller Bark. This explains why she never heard of him. When Kumashi tried to wake her up, she simply told him to shut up and went back to sleep.

Perona uses her negative ghosts to scout the ship and the nearby area, presumably looking for people whose shadows can be used for Moriah and Hogback's experiments.



She got into a fight with Usopp, who was immune to her negativity ghost attack. During this fight, her faithful servant Kumashi was effectively killed, since his shadow was removed from him, reverting him to a lifeless shell. Usopp pursued her and figured out the way her ability (creating a copy of herself using astral projection) worked and succeeded in defeating her using a super-sticky glue to keep her in place, plastic cockroaches (which she took to be real ones), the Usopp Golden Pound, an attack involving his new 10-Ton Hammer (actually a balloon).

Oddly enough, despite being the leader of a zombie army, Perona is scared fairly easily. She fears Usopp simply because her negative ghosts do not work on him, and she is so terrified that she faints when encountered with cockroaches and Usopp's "10-Ton Hammer" balloon.

She is later seen, still passed out, surrounded by her zombies while Oars rampages through Thriller Bark. When she wakes up later, after having been taken by the zombies to another (probably safer) place, she's still confused and scared, thinking that Usopp is still there, and keeps screaming about the hammer and the cockroaches as if she was still talking to him. She's then informed by the zombies that Usopp's gone already and that the damage done to the building wasn't made by the Straw Hat Pirates like she first thought, but by Oars.



Just after they finish talking, Oars' arm broke the wall close to her, hitting a few zombies. Scared, she hid behind a rock that should have been a part of either the wall or the ceiling before. When she hears Oars saying he's looking for a "woman" (referring to Nami), she freaks out and decides to run away from Thriller Bark using the pirates' ship, as she thinks that this is way too much for her and that Thriller Bark is already done for.

As she comes upon the Sunny, she is confronted by Bartholomew Kuma. When she refuses to tell him about where Moriah is, he asked her where she would like to go, and she replies 'somewhere near an old castle engulfed in malice'. Kuma then seems to make her disappear using his Nikyu Nikyu no Mi ability. When Hogback and Absalom escaped Thriller Bark later, they left without Perona, stating they could not find her anywhere.

Straw Hat Separation Adventure: Kuraigana Island
Kuma honored Perona's request, having sent her to Kuraigana Island, an island filled with dark and spooky ruins, in addition to the malicious castle. Although she has taken up residence in the castle, Perona is not happy because she has no servants or cute animals. As she laments her situation, wishing she was back on Thriller Bark, Roronoa Zoro then lands nearby her. She goes to investigate and at first she is excited, but then reacts with terror when she recognizes him as one of the Straw Hats. Since Zoro is the only person there, she decides to save him. She brings him to the castle and treats his wounds, but bandages him in a ridiculous manner due to her insufficient medical skills.

When Zoro comes around, he finds out that she has taken his swords away to prevent him causing problems for her. However, some brand of trust seems to have grown between them, as Zoro is later seen with his swords at his side and is casually walking through the ruins of the island as Perona floats overhead (though that makes it clear that Zoro could not have harmed her in any way at that time).



Later, it is revealed that the castle that Perona was sent to is the home of Dracule Mihawk. She reads the news stating that Moriah had died in the Whitebeard War and starts to cry. Mihawk then tells Perona to cry elsewhere. Perona then scolds Mihawk for his lack of sympathy. Mihawk also says that the news about Moriah's demise lacks credibility, but Mihawk could not give Perona a definite answer if Moriah is alive or not.

Later, she helps an apparently injured Zoro read the article about Luffy going to Marineford again by holding it up for him to read. She was complaining that he was taking a long time and that her hands were getting tired.

After accepting Zoro's request for training, Mihawk tells Perona to tend to Zoro's wounds. She tells Mihawk not to order her around. Later, Perona asks Zoro about Luffy's message, and the explanation is given.

Two Years Later
After Zoro's two year training, Perona took him back to Sabaody Archipelago (solving the mystery of how he managed to arrive first). As Luffy, Zoro, and Sanji made their way to the Thousand Sunny, Perona aided them by fending off the Marines with her Negative Hollow. She then asks what they were still doing loafing around on the archipelago when they should be getting ready to leave. She also scolds Zoro for his ungrateful attitude towards her, and brushes off Sanji, who is showing his infatuation for her, commenting that the chef has some kind of illness. She then informs the Straw Hats that Marine vessels were coming soon. Later, she assisted in the Straw Hats' escape by holding back the second Marine platoon with her Negative Hollows.



Much later, she left Sabaody Archipelago and returned to the wandering Thriller Bark, being happy to find Kumashi's lifeless body there.

Major Battles

 * Perona vs. Usopp
 * Perona vs. Bartholomew Kuma
 * Perona vs. Marines

Thriller Bark Arc
In the manga, when Usopp knocked her out, foam was coming out of her mouth. It was edited out in the anime.

Straw Hat Separation Serial
Also, in the anime version of Zoro's cover story, she displays more of a lonely childlike personality, mostly due to living by herself with no servants. She even tries to force Zoro to be her servant by using her Negative Ghosts to make him swear to be her servant and dresses him up as Kumashi.

In the anime, after Luffy's message is revealed, Perona went outside the castle with Mihawk and Zoro. She is seen scolding Zoro to skip his training until his wounds are healed.

In the anime, Perona's scene with Sanji is extended as the latter is seen beaten up and inflicted with Negative Hollow for freaking out the former. Also, as she uses her ghosts to fend off the marines, she is seen looking out to sea and states that she will find another boytoy, implying that Zoro was one, seemingly disappointed at his departure.

Return to Sabaody Arc
When Perona is scolding Zoro at Sabaody, her hat makes bend in contact with the swordsman. This suggests that she was in her physical form and not in the ghost one, however this doesn't happen in the manga. Similar inconsistencies were shown during the filler scenes at Kuraigana: although it was clearly shown she was in her ghost form, she had some interactions with physical objects, indicating they were simply errors.

Early One Piece
An early concept of Perona from One Piece Green: Secret Pieces shows how she was supposed to be a silent, princess-like girl.

Merchandise
She has been confirmed to feature in the series of Portrait of Pirates figurines, in her pre-timeskip attire.

Trivia

 * Perona has a personal Jolly Roger, which consists of a skull with swords a cross on either side of the grinning mouth, yellow hair on the sides with a flaming pattern, and the crown that Perona herself wears. Nami was seen wearing a top with Perona's own personal Jolly Roger on it when she rejoins the other Straw Hats, most likely having stolen them from Perona's room after disposing of the wedding dress Absalom forced her into.
 * In the 4th Japanese Fan Poll, Perona is ranked as the 33rd most popular character in One Piece.

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