Dalton

Dalton (ドルトン) is the king of the Sakura Kingdom (formerly called Drum Kingdom). He is a former Royal Guard who once served under Wapol.

Appearance
Dalton is an imposing man, with slicked black hair and a goatee. He wears a long, white fur-lined green tunic and has armor plates on his arms; these plates are retained on his fore legs when assuming his full-bison form. Sometimes he covers his head with a green and white fur lined hat, equipped with ear-flaps against Drum Island's intense cold, and he always wears long boots. He carries his weapon of choice, an extra-large spade, in a sheath that hangs on his back. In Chapter 0, he was seen wearing a more regal armor, and his hair was also parted in three points, instead of one.

After the timeskip, as the king of the country, he started wearing a fur-lined cape with the kingdom's symbol on it over his standard attire.

Personality
Because there's no cure for a fool! Dalton is a brave warrior and a man who cares for the people of Drum Island and in return the people of Drum have learned to trust him. As the new king of Sakura Kingdom, he lives a simple and humble life. He refuses to live in the castle, preferring to live amongst the common people of Drum Island even though Kureha has offered him a room in "her" castle. He claims that he likes the rice with chestnuts in the village. He has the habit of giving people completely trivial information that they never asked for.

Friends
He is on good terms with Dr. Kureha; she approves of him as the king of Drum, though she treats him with disrespect. He displays no grudge nor protest against her for her actions; in fact, he seems to respect her for her role in the events of Wapol's ultimate defeat. The two remain on friendly terms; while Wapol disliked her for being a rogue doctor, Dalton is quite content with allowing her to do as she pleases.

Dalton also has a sound view of Chopper, whom he views with the highest respect having saved the kingdom of Drum and was the one who saved his life six years ago by stopping an angry Chopper from fighting a hopeless battle against Wapol and his army to avenge Hiluluk's death, having recognized what he was trying to do. He keeps an eye out for Dr. Kureha's "son" and was the first to tell her when Chopper gained a bounty.

He also has respect for Princess Vivi, whom amazed him when she was a child. It was because of her actions that first made Dalton criticize his own king, Wapol. He compared her against Wapol and noted how even at her young age she was fully aware of her political status and how one minor incident could have descended to a drastic situation. Though the present Vivi did not reveal her identity to him on Drum Island during the Drum Island Arc, Dalton was even more amazed by her actions with the Straw Hat Pirates after realizing who she was following their departure, and how one such as her would ally herself with pirates such as them.

Enemies
Dalton was the humble servant of King Wapol, who originally obeyed the orders of his King through loyalty. Dalton however, unlike other members of the Kingdom minsters, had a conscience and once he was encouraged by Hililuk's actions, refused to be Wapol's obedient guard any longer. After Wapol fled Drum Island, Dalton harbored a deep hatred for his former king and refused to allow him to revert Drum Island back to what it was before his departure.

Abilities and Powers
Dalton is a capable fighter. He possesses great strength, enhanced by his Devil Fruit power, and he is fast enough to surprise Wapol and decapitate him with a single blow. He is also very resistant and resilient, as he took many arrows from Chess and was covered by an avalanche, and yet survived.

Devil Fruit
He has eaten the Devil Fruit known as the Ushi Ushi no Mi, Model: Bison. A Zoan-class Devil Fruit that allows him the ability to transform into a bison and into a half human/half bison form that resembles a minotaur. His Hybrid form is primarily utilized for combat, and is powerful enough to stop Chopper's Heavy Point.

The main advantage of this fruit, however, does not seem to be the enhanced strength but, strangely enough, the speed: his quadrupedal bovine state allows him to run at a much higher speed than his default human state, making it ideal for transportation. He proved to be incredibly fast, evading the bullets shot at him by Wapol's soldiers with tremendous agility. In his hybrid form Dalton uses Fiddle Banff, which allows him to twirl his sword and charge the opponent at an incredible speed, slicing up anything in its path. This attack works especially well against large groups of enemies.

Weapon
Dalton's main weapon is a spade, a large pole-arm with an over-sized blade. It is not shaped like most spades though (which have fan-like shapes such as the famous Shaolin Spade), and is rather unusual in its shape, being a long double-edged sword-like polearm with a round tip instead of a sharp point. Its overall appearance looks like an oar, but with a metal head instead of wood.

Dalton proved to be quite proficient with his blade, combined with his Devil Fruit powers, which allows him to attack at tremendous speed and slice up anything in his path, defeating a large group of soldiers swiftly.

Past
Twenty years ago Dalton served the former kind king of Drum Island and both he and the king worried about prince Wapol's behavior. However, as time went on, the king passed away, leaving the spoiled Wapol to inherit the throne.



Dalton then became a guard to the new King Wapol, but he was opposed to Wapol's treatment of his subjects. He was seen with Wapol in Mariejois in a meeting King Nefertari Cobra and his daughter Princess Nefertari Vivi. He was inspired to rebel by Hiluluk. After seeing Hiluluk's noble sacrifice, he turned against Wapol, but was subdued and thrown in prison, constantly mocked by Wapol and his henchmen, Chess and Kuromarimo. After Wapol abandoned his kingdom when Blackbeard invaded, Dalton took charge and kept the island from falling into disarray, soon gaining the trust of the people.

Drum Island Arc
When Monkey D. Luffy and his crew came to Drum Island in search of a doctor to cure Nami of her illness during the mission to get Princess Nefertari Vivi to Alabasta Kingdom, they encountered Dalton and some men who thought they were there to attack the island. Dalton and his men were initially hostile to the pirates, but after seeing that they had no ill-intent, Dalton led them to Big Horn. Dalton then took them to his house to warm up. When asked about a doctor, Dalton said that the only one who could heal Nami was a witch named Kureha. Luffy and Sanji volunteered to take Nami to the doctor. Before they left, Dalton warned them of the lapahns.

Dalton then told Vivi and Usopp about the attack by the Blackbeard Pirates and how they led Wapol to flee like a coward. Dalton was then told by Negikuma Maria about Kureha's visit to Cocoa Weed. Dalton quickly took Usopp and Vivi there only to miss Kureha. After receiving word of Wapol's return, Dalton immediately went back to Big Horn in his bison form. Dalton confronted Wapol and cut him down. However, the Isshi-20 saved Wapol's life. Dalton was later seriously wounded by Chess because he defended the townsfolk from arrows launched by him. Wapol and his two henchmen then fled when an avalanche was approaching. Dalton was buried beneath the snow.

The villagers wanted to dig him out, but Wapol's soldiers was preventing them from doing that until Zoro came along and defeated the soldiers. The villagers were able to dig Dalton out and the Isshi-20 treated Dalton's wounds. After Dalton slightly recovered, he planned on going to Drum Castle and put an end to Wapol. Zoro carried Dalton to the Drum Ropeway. As they were making their way to the castle, Dalton was preparing to blow the castle up with dynamite. Before they reached the top, Luffy defeated Wapol and knocked him off the island. Upon arriving to the castle, Dalton saw Chopper and recognized him. Dalton then rested in the castle. After the Straw Hats left, Dalton then watched Hiluluk's cherry blossoms bloom. Later, the people of Drum elected Dalton as their new king and renamed the country Sakura Kingdom.

Post-Enies Lobby Arc
He appears later as king of the newly crowned Sakura Kingdom (formerly known as Drum Island), where he shows Dr. Kureha the new bounties of the Straw Hat Pirates.

Two Years Later
He is seen after the timeskip employing lapahns as peace keeping troops while reading about the Straw Hats.

Trivia

 * He is currently the only known person of a noble class who was not born into the status.
 * Dalton has a habit of mentioning trivial things about the subject he is speaking of; such as mentioning that Kureha likes pickled plums when informing Luffy, Sanji, Usopp and Vivi about the island's only remaining doctor; and that Gyasta is a fine place for skating when giving directions to Usopp and Vivi while they were searching for a doctor.
 * Dalton is the first Zoan Devil Fruit user to be introduced in the series.

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Dalton