Black Maria

Black Maria is one of the Tobiroppo, the strongest six Shinuchi of the Beasts Pirates. She owns her own brothel on Onigashima near Kaidou's castle.

Due to her actions and role, she is a supporting antagonist in the Wano Country Arc.

Appearance
Black Maria is a youthful woman of incredible size by human standards. She is 8.2 meters tall, being slightly larger than Kaidou himself. 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.

She wears a low-cut, black kimono that leaves her right shoulder exposed and a turquoise obi around her waist, both with blue and yellow floral patterns. Her footwear are two black zōri with red hanao (straps) and white tabi (socks).

She has the kanji 女難 (jonan) tattooed on her back. In her Zoan form, her spider forelimbs each bear a personalized Jolly Roger, indicating she may have them tattooed on her original body.

Personality


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. 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.



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.

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. 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.

Crew
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".

Sanji
Black Maria took a liking to Sanji because of his "rough attitude", a trait she admits to find charming on men she manages to capture. In spite of her playful attitude towards him, however, Black Maria's primary interest in Sanji was to use him as bait for Nico Robin, not being afraid to repeatedly beat the Straw Hat cook until he complied with her requests. She also held a secondary, personal interest in keeping Sanji as one of her "pets", men who underwent constant physical torture from Black Maria herself in order to be fully submitted to her will.

As is the case with any other beautiful woman, Sanji was attracted to Black Maria, refusing to fight back against her and even her female subordinates due to his chivalry code. Because of this, Sanji was painfully aware that he could not physically overcome Black Maria as an enemy, putting his trust in Robin's strength to confront the Tobiroppo in his place.

Nico Robin
As part of her mission to make Kaidou the Pirate King, Black Maria has Nico Robin's capture as one of her priorities, so the Beasts Pirates can exploit her ability to read the Road Poneglyphs in order to locate Laugh Tale. Otherwise, Black Maria does not see any other possible value on Robin, viewing the archaeologist solely as a tool and even contemplating mutilation as a potential measure to keep her in line with Kaidou's objectives. Once she outlived her usefulness as a Poneglyph translator, Robin would be killed and cast aside, per Black Maria's own words.

Despite knowing that she was being targeted by the Emperors and the obvious trap that had been set up for her, Robin was not afraid to show herself to Black Maria, valuing the life of her crewmate more than her own safety. She was enraged about the punishment Black Maria had imposed on Sanji, proclaiming that her "devil child" side was about to emerge and make the Tobiroppo woman regret the treatment she had given to her friend. Black Maria ended up underestimating Robin's capabilities during their fight, which eventually led to her downfall.

Abilities and Powers


As one of the Tobiroppo, Black Maria holds great authority in the Beasts Pirates, with only Kaidou and the All-Stars ranking above her. As the owner of the Pleasure Hall, she oversees the goings-on in it.

As one of the six strongest Shinuchi with a 480,000,000 bounty (second highest among the Tobiroppo), Black Maria is very powerful and considered potentially able to challenge an All-Star for his position. 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.

Befitting her oiran image, Black Maria is a skilled musician, being a capable shamisen player and songstress.

Tactical Skills
Black Maria has shown herself to be a crafty strategist, having collaborated with her subordinates to come up with an ingenious trap to subdue Sanji, one of the Straw Hat Pirates' strongest members, by taking advantage of his obsessive chivalry, having Sarahebi feign being sexually harassed while she used her spider web to trap Sanji.

As part of her plan to lure and seize Robin into the Banquet Hall, she had several spider webs set up in the two corridors used to access the room, and a few subordinates armed with tranquilizer guns and placed into strategic positions to further ensure Robin's capture. This was, however, countered by Robin's own ability to bypass obstacles by blooming her own limbs through them and Brook's ice freezing Black Maria's webs solid.

Devil Fruit


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; 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.

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 to 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. Her webs are also very flammable.

Busoshoku Haki
Black Maria is quite skilled in using Busoshoku Haki, able to imbue her knuckledusters to strengthen her punches.

Kenbunshoku Haki
Black Maria possesses the ability to use Kenbunshoku Haki.

Brass Knuckles


Black Maria uses a pair of brass knuckles to pummel immobilized opponents.

Techniques

 * Oiran Knuckle (花魁ナックル): Black Maria launches a barrage of punches while wearing her knuckledusters, she'll also imbue them with Busoshoku Haki to increase the damage. This was first used to physically torture the captured Sanji to force him to shout for Nico Robin to come save his life. It was named when Black Maria used it against Robin's Gigante Fleur technique. Oiran may also be a play on words on iron. In the Viz translation, this is called Oiran Knuckles.

Wanyudo


Once Robin and Brook infiltrated her banquet hall and freed Sanji, Black Maria picked up a polearm, at the end of which was a figure of a wanyudo, a flaming wagon wheel-like demon with a man's face on the side.

It is later revealed that Wanyudo is actually a Pug SMILE user who runs on the inside of the wheel to generate flames. Robin noted that Black Maria could potentially burn down the entirety of Kaidou's castle with Wanyudo. Even without the flames, the polearm can be swung with enough destructive power to smash through a wall.

Illusion Mist


Black Maria also has the ability to create illusions using an "illusion mist" (幻霧). When used against Nico Robin, it caused her to hallucinate Black Maria's subordinates as Nico Olvia, Professor Clover and Jaguar D. Saul, though she saw through the trick. It is currently unknown exactly how Black Maria generates and controls the mist.

Past
Black Maria was born 29 years ago in Wano. At some point, she ate the Kumo Kumo no Mi, Model: Rosamygale Grauvogeli and joined the Beasts Pirates, eventually becoming a member of the Tobbiroppo.

Wano Country Arc


Black Maria and the other Tobiroppo members arrived at Onigashima during the Fire Festival. Kaidou had them brought into his fortress, and as they waited to meet with him, Black Maria enjoyed watching Ulti become confrontational with those who annoyed her. However, she and the other Tobiroppo members were shocked when Ulti spoke rudely about Kaidou after she questioned the purpose of their meeting. As the group came before Kaidou, he gave the six the mission of finding his son Yamato, saying he would let them battle one of the All-Stars for their post if they succeeded, with Black Maria noting that such a mission would be difficult.

Instead of searching for Yamato like her comrades, Black Maria decided to stay on the Live Stage with Kaidou and Orochi. After Kanjuro arrived with the badly beaten Momonosuke, Black Maria tended to the young boy's injuries and let him rest his head on her lap. However, he was soon seized by Orochi, who revealed his plan to have Momonosuke crucified, much to the discomfort of Black Maria.

As the Ninja-Pirate-Mink-Samurai Alliance waged war on Onigashima, Black Maria received a call from King informing the Tobiroppo that the challenge for an opportunity to fight the All-Stars was cancelled, and that they were to stop the enemy alliance from getting to the roof of the dome, where Kaidou was fighting the Nine Red Scabbards. Rather than engage the invaders, Black Maria and her subordinates retreated to the castle's tatami room, where they intended to wait out the battle. To help pass the time, Black Maria played her shamisen and sang a song about two lovers meeting on a moonlit night.



She later encountered Sanji after two of her subordinates lured him into a trap and captured him. Brought before the Tobiroppo member, Sanji exchanged banter with Black Maria, who admitted that she had a soft spot for "boys with rough edges" like Sanji. Although initially insulted by Black Maria referring to him as a "boy", Sanji soon became smitten with her. When Sanji tried running away, Black Maria activated her spider hybrid transformation and chased after him, saying she wanted him to stay as her "pet". Although Sanji was able to fend off Black Maria's male subordinates, his refusal to hit her or her female subordinates allowed Black Maria to trap him once again. She then told him to call out to Nico Robin through a special mask that her subordinate Caimanlady wore, saying it would broadcast his voice through the whole castle and lead Robin to them. Before she could use the mask, Black Maria received a call from King that the wounded Nine Red Scabbards had been spotted in the Treasure Repository on the castle's second floor. Since that room was not too far away from her, Black Maria volunteered to head there to kill them after dealing with Sanji.



When Caimanlady confirmed that she was ready to broadcast Sanji's voice across the island, Black Maria continued trying to force Sanji to call for Robin, revealing she had laid multiple layers of her adhesive thread at the room’s entrance to trap her. When he still refused, Black Maria put on a pair of knuckledusters and used them to beat Sanji until he finally called for Robin. After doing so, he demanded she let him loose, but Black Maria revealed that she intended to keep Sanji as her "pet" forever, similar to other men she had previously taken captive. When Sanji scoffed at her, Black Maria prepared to assault him again, but Robin, having bypassed the traps, arrived and knocked Black Maria away with her Devil Fruit powers while Brook freed Sanji from the webs. Black Maria was then called by Jack, who was on his way to kill the Scabbards himself, ordering her to stay where she was and not interfere. Although annoyed, Black Maria accepted his decision and prepared to fight Robin and Brook instead.



Using her illusion mist, Black Maria attempted to capture Robin by making the Gifters under her command resemble Robin's deceased loved ones. At first Robin played along, but in truth she was not fooled and used her powers to strike down the Gifters with her giant hands. The illusions did not work on Brook either, having spent 50 years hallucinating that his old friends were still alive. Thus, Black Maria decided to take a more direct approach and attacked the pair with Wanyudo, scolding them for thinking they had a chance against Kaidou. Black Maria then used her webbing to attach herself to the ceiling and set the floor on fire with Wanyudo. However, Robin was able to use her power to move herself and Brook to higher ground. Despite Robin warning her that she could potentially burn down the whole castle, Black Maria simply mocked her in response.

After Brook used his soul to freeze and incapacitate Wanyudo, Black Maria opted to use her pole arm as a bludgeon. Attempting to manipulate Robin once more, Black Maria proclaimed that Sanji sold Robin out and that his actions were indicative about the strength of the Straw Hat crew. Unfazed, Robin clarified that Sanji had faith in her to be able to defeat Black Maria, creating a large effigy of herself. With the "Sea Serpent" move, the effigy grabbed a hold of Black Maria's spider legs. However, Black Maria noticed that damaging the effigy's arms damaged Robin as well. Utilizing her poison, Black Maria caused the effigy to release her, before restraining all of its arms with her webbing. Reapplying her knuckledusters, Black Maria began to pummel the effigy (and by extension Robin) until it dissolved.



Robin tried to use her arms to grab Black Maria again, but was quickly immobilized by her webbing. Setting the room on fire once again, Black Maria continued to beat Robin, telling her that her mind is the only valuable part of her, and that she was just a tool otherwise. Using the "Mil Fleur: Fish-Man Karate: Giganteum" technique, Robin created a giant hand that struck the ceiling, the debris of which doused the room's flames and momentarily distracted Black Maria. Robin then used "Demonio Fleur", transforming into a giant demon-like creature. She then promptly grabbed Black Maria and appeared to break the Tobiroppo member's back, defeating her and horrifying her subordinates.

Major Battles

 * Black Maria vs. Sanji
 * Black Maria and her subordinates vs. Nico Robin and Brook
 * Black Maria vs. Nico Robin

Playable Appearances

 * One Piece Treasure Cruise

Trivia

 * Black Maria's name may also be a nod to the black widow, a highly venomous spider whose females are known to eat their mates.
 * Black Maria seems to be based on two different types of spider yōkai: the Jorōgumo, for her character and the abilities of her fruit, and the Tsuchigumo, for her ability to create illusions.
 * Black Maria was originally planned to have a Stegosaurus Devil Fruit. Another concept was the Obi Obi no Mi (Sash-Sash Fruit).

SBS-Based Trivia

 * Black Maria is likely named after the British card game of the same name, fitting with the card game-themed names of the Shinuchi. "Black Maria" is also a nickname for the Queen of Spades card.
 * While her Devil Fruit powers are spider based, this may be a nod the to patience type card game Spider Solitaire.
 * Black Maria's favorite food is mitarashi dango.
 * Black Maria's hobbies are boxing and romantic relationships.

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