Shiki

Shiki the Golden Lion (金獅子のシキ) was the notorious captain of the Golden Lion Pirates and the first prisoner ever to escape from Impel Down. He wreaked havoc on the seas during Roger's time and is the main antagonist of the 10th One Piece Movie. He is also known as the "Flying Pirate" (空飛ぶ海賊).

Appearance
Shiki is a massive pirate dressed in traditional Japanese clothes consisting of an orange, a red and a black robe tied together with a dark green sash, with a golden chain around his waist; he also wears a yellow stripped tattered coat draped over his shoulders. He has golden mane-like hair, reaching down to the ground, and on the top of his head is a part of a steering wheel that got lodged into his head after his battle with Roger. The doctor has noted that trying to remove it could result in death, as it is lodged too deep. Shiki himself thought he looked like a rooster without realizing that it was himself when looking into a mirror.

As for his facial features, he sports a golden bushy tuff of hair for a beard at the bottom of his chin, and a black goatee with pointed edges surrounding his mouth. His eyebrows are dark and pointed as well, and he has some purple spots on the left side of his face right around his right eye that indicates his age. He is usually seen smoking a cigar.

Twenty years ago, his hair covered the now bald top part of his head, and the coat on his shoulders had a different pattern, with big flower-like motifs on it.

Instead of using more conventional prosthesis after cutting off his own legs to escape Impel Down, he uses his own swords as prosthetic legs, which he openly shows. He is quite skilled at using the swords, as he has little difficulty standing or walking using them.

His overall design resembles a typical shogun.

Personality
Shiki is usually a calm person at most times. He takes most things with a cheerful smile and even getting a steering wheel stuck in his head, losing half his Pirate fleet to Roger, or cutting off his feet did not bring him down much.

He also seems to be a little bit absent-minded, as he often mistakes things for other things, such as a giant stormy cloud for a perm, or Scarlet for a relative of his. He apparently likes to dance, as when first introduced to Nami he was seen performing a dance with Indigo and Scarlet. The three of them often act as a comical trio.

He also seems to have a knack for planning, often coming up with grandiose ones (which he once attempted to invite Roger to take part of) that can be incredibly long-term, and even Whitebeard seems to warily view him in this regard. Upon being notified by Doctor Indigo that the development of the SIQ formula on the fauna of all sixteen floating islands would require a period of twenty years to accomplish, Shiki was completely happy to wait that long, indicating a high degree of patience and devotion to maintaining his plans. In that twenty year span, even the World Government had no information regarding his activities or his living status.

Occasionally though, his anger and wrath would cause him to perform reckless maneuvers that contradicted his cunning mentality (such as his single-handed assault of Marineford which resulted in his imprisonment within Impel Down and the loss of his legs). Shiki was also shown to be a very charismatic and capable leader, managing to develop pirate armadas on at least two occasions in his career (the first was commented as being an exceptionally large fleet even in the New World; the Whitebeard Pirates division total is 1,600 pirates as a comparison, and the second looked to be nearly as large had Shiki not been stopped prematurely); he also treated his direct crew with compassion and respect, as if they were his own family, though he was not above killing lesser subordinates for the most superficial of reasons.

And according to Garp, he is not the type of person who could tolerate a peaceful era for long, but also added that Shiki would not instigate something big without extensive planning and preparation beforehand. This strongly implies that Shiki had the drive and mindset of a warmonger. He possesses an extreme amount of patience as shown by the fact he was not upset at all about having to wait for twenty years before he could complete his plan.

He has shown that, when the time calls for it, he can be absolutely ruthless, such as when he slaughtered dozens of Marines at Marineford, shot one of his subordinates in annoyance, destroyed the only village on Merveille just to prove the strength of his mutated animals to his allies, and tried to destroy the entire East Blue, a sea which he refers as the weakest and which during the years he has started hating, because of the man who defeated him coming from there and having died there.

Like other characters in One Piece, he has a distinct laughter which is "Ji ha ha ha ha".

Crew
By Shiki's own admission, he values his crewmates very much. This respect, however, does not seem to extend to the lower members of his fleet and will not hesitate to injure them if they do not live up to his expectations, as he was seeing shooting one of them in a leg simply because he informed him of Roger's capture; he also shot one of his navigators for his incapability in forecasting weather conditions.



Dr. Indigo has spent over twenty years at Shiki's service, and the two now seem to share some sort of friendship relationship, as Shiki does not mind being slapped by the Doctor whenever he mistaken something for another thing, and he stands the noises of Indigo's shoes, despite them irritating him. The two also dance together, with Scarlet as the third one. He (among with everyone else) become completely surprised when they realize he can talk, despite the fact he spoke to them before. Whenever Shiki says or does something stupid, Indigo slaps him. Indigo also has an habit of trying to explain something to Shiki through odd movements and gestures until Shiki tells him to just come out and say it (though at one point in the movie, Shiki understood what he was trying to say much to Indigo's surprise).

Shiki seems to be fond of Scarlet, since the gorilla is almost always seen at his side, and he even takes part in his and Indigo's "dance shows". He often mistakes Scarlet as a relative. Shiki admires both Nami's forecasting capabilities, having enlisted her as his crew's navigator, and her beauty, for which he refers to her as "Baby". After she betrayed him, however, he showed no hesitation in leaving her to die.

Gol D. Roger
Shiki is one of the many Pirates whose utmost respect had been gained by Roger. In fact, during their youth, the two Pirates flew into several skirmishes against each other due to their separate ideals (Shiki wants to control it all, while Roger simply wants to remain free), but in their last battle, Shiki has shown to be willing to treat the past as letting bygones be bygones, if Roger would just agree to form an alliance with him, and was even ready to work together with the Pirate King for his grand dream of conquest, offering to have the known world as spoils. However, Roger may not have regarded him likewise, apparently having refused Shiki's hand of friendship many times in the past; the fact that Roger did not bother to at least talk with Shiki prior to his execution, as he had done with both Whitebeard and Garp, suggests that he did not think much of Shiki as a rival. When Roger was "captured" by Marines, Shiki angrily invaded Marineford, saying that he should have killed him himself, and when in Impel Down, he thought of his old rival, showing sadness because of all the new rookies wanting to invade the Grand Line, and veterans like Roger dying.

World Government
Shiki also is a firm opposer of both the World Government and the Marines: he tried to conquer the former with an army of mutated animals, as seen in Strong World, and in Chapter 0 deemed the Marines of being too weak to capture a man like Roger. He was however defeated by Sengoku and Garp, and this may have caused him to hate the two as well. The first time he resurfaced to the world after 20 years he once again attacked the Marine HQ, "as a warning". Sengoku viewed Shiki as his main enemy twenty years ago in the same sense that Garp viewed Gol. D. Roger. Shiki was also the first prisoner to escape from the great prison Impel Down, by cutting off his own shackled legs and later replaced them using his own personal swords as prosthetic limbs. Shiki's incident hurt the prison's pride as well as Magellan's, who was a vice warden at that time.

Straw Hat Pirates
Shiki made his biggest enemies out of the Straw Hat pirates by threatening East Blue. Luffy was the most eager to personally defeat Shiki after the latter abducted Nami. When he came across Nami, he noted on her exceptional navigational skills and beauty so he forced her to become a member of his crew by holding her comrades as hostages. Eventually, the rest of the Straw Hat Pirates attacked Shiki to retrieve Nami and to stop the Golden Lion Pirates from attacking East Blue.

Edward Newgate
Despite not apparently being an ally of him, Shiki did not have a bad relationship with the other powerful pirate from the Roger era, Whitebeard; he thought of him as a strong man, able to take over Roger in the dominion of the sea, as he said when they were drinking together on the Moby Dick and speaking about old times. Whitebeard is apparently knowledgeable about Shiki's penchant for planning.

Abilities and Powers
Shiki commands a large pirate crew, of at least 51 divisions, somewhat similar to Don Krieg's Pirate Armada and the Whitebeard Pirates. It is unknown how strong his crew is, but what is known is that the largest pirate fleet was under his control at that time.

Shiki was also shown to be a very charismatic and capable leader, managing to develop pirate armadas on at least two occasions in his career (the first was commented as being an exceptionally large fleet even in the New World; the Whitebeard Pirates division total is 1,600 pirates as a comparison, and the second looked to be nearly as large had Shiki not been stopped prematurely).

During the Roger Era, he was one of the most powerful figures of the time, being in line with Sengoku, Garp and even Whitebeard or Roger. He was also sent to Level 6 in Impel Down, which may also give an idea as to how powerful he is. It is unknown how different his strength is since first being imprisoned twenty years ago.

Upon being notified by Doctor Indigo that the development of the SIQ formula on the fauna of all 16 floating islands would require a period of 20 years to accomplish, Shiki was completely happy to wait that long, indicating a high degree of patience and devotion to maintaining his plans. In that 20 year span, even the "World Government" had no information regarding his activities or his living status. Occasionally though, his anger and wrath would cause him to perform reckless maneuvers that contradicted his cunning mentality, such as his single-handed assault of Marineford.



However, during his confrontation with the Straw Hat Pirates, he displayed tremendous fighting abilities. On their first encounter, he effortlessly defeated Luffy, Zoro, Usopp, Sanji and Chopper, consequently trapping them in a giant pillar of earth. He was able to block one of Sanji's kick with just one hand and later fight on par with Luffy in Gear Second mode, dodging his punches and attacking him at the same time. He also managed to negate one of Zoro's powerful slashes with his leg, and sent him crashing to the ground with one crunching punch.

Shiki also has a huge tolerance for pain and great endurance having cut off his own legs and then escaped Impel Down, which, as seen during the Impel Down Arc is a staggering feat. He suffered almost no damage from Chopper's Kokutei Roseo Metel.

Swordsmanship
He possesses great skills as a swordsman and was able to kill a mountain of Marines before getting captured. After the two swords became his new legs, Shiki is also capable of attacking from a distance with them, by sending slashes from his sword legs in a Rankyaku like fashion. These air-blades have a light-yellow/gold color-scheme, matching his epithet.

He also combines his sword skills with his Fuwa Fuwa no Mi, such as slashing open a body of water and then levitating it to drown his opponents. He fended off all the slashes from Zoro's Nanajuni Pound Ho with great speed and reflexes, and later another attack from Zoro's was countered in mid-air and he knocked Zoro back down to the ground with great force. He was also able to fight on par against Roger, and later both Garp and Sengoku in their prime.

Devil Fruit
Shiki ate the Fuwa Fuwa no Mi, a Paramecia type Devil Fruit which allows him to make almost anything he touches levitate, and also make surrounding non-living matter levitate once he has come in contact with it. Shiki states that once he makes something float it will stay that way until he himself undoes it or he loses consciousness. He has been shown to make several Marine vessels and even vast island areas float.

He seems to have mastered the use of this fruit, as he has shown a variety of skills which manipulates the surrounding non-living environment in complicated ways, even manipulating it from its simplest components, such as earth's fragments and snow flakes being used to build up gigantic, elaborate structures that are then used to attack for a variety of purposes. When attacking Shiki uses the surrounding environment against his enemies, shaping earth or snow into giant lion heads and launching them towards his foes, or even making water float to drown his opponents in it. As stated, his powers are unable to be used on any living matter other than himself, meaning he cannot touch another person, animal, or plant and allow them to levitate.

Swords
Shiki possesses two double-edged swords by the names of Oto and Kogarashi, which according to him were famous. In the past he used them like regular swords but after escaping Impel Down replaced his missing legs with them. Despite the cumbersome appearance, Shiki has no trouble with his balance or walking capacity.

Flintlock
He was also seen using a flintlock pistol in various occasions, and seems to be quite accurate with it.

The Edd War
Twenty five years ago, two years before Gol D. Roger and his crew reached Raftel, Shiki had learned that the Pirate King had located an ancient weapon. Seeing the opportunity, he asked Roger if they could join forces. With his large pirate fleet and Roger's weapon, Shiki believed that together they could take over the whole world and asked Roger to become his right hand. Roger however refused Shiki's offer saying that there was no point in being a pirate if he could not do as he wished. A great sea battle soon ensued between their crews at Edd War. Due to a storm that happened during their fight, Shiki unfortunately lost and half of his fleet sunk. Despite this and getting a piece of a steering wheel lodged into his head that almost killed him, Shiki came to have great respect for Roger.

Imprisonment and Escape
After hearing that Roger had been captured Shiki shot the man who had informed him and went to Marineford on his own where he beat up several Marine soldiers. He yelled out how he could not believe how such "wimps" could have captured Roger and told them to bring him out if they had him so that he could kill him with his own hands. Shiki was suddenly approached by Sengoku who went on to explain that he would never have another fight with Roger as he could win and then be able to escape. Sengoku goes on to explain that Roger was scheduled to be executed in Loguetown, "The Town of Beginnings", within a week and that the execution was meant to break the heart of every pirate. As Shiki lamented on the fact that the "Legend of the Pirate King, Roger" would end in the weakest sea and how it would be the greatest insult to him, Monkey D. Garp appears and tells him that East Blue was a symbol of peace while Sengoku explains that they will not let him interfere in the execution. Both Garp and Sengoku prepare to fight and an unseen battle began between the three that destroyed half of Marineford, but in the end Shiki lost and was imprisoned in Impel Down.

Shiki lay broken in his cell and heard about how everyone was setting out to find Roger's treasure. He thought to himself that he would prove to the world how pirates were the rulers of the world. Twenty years ago, Shiki was the first prisoner to escape from the great prison Impel Down, by cutting off his own shackled legs and later replaced them using his own personal swords as prosthetic limbs. Because of this event, Sengoku states it was a serious mistake on their part to let him escape.

He later sought out Whitebeard and offered him to be a part of his plan although he was cut short as Whitebeard threatened to throw him overboard if he did not cut his crap. Shiki then revealed to Whitebeard that he would disappear for a while and that he would show the real fear of pirates to the rookie pirates. Shiki is then seen at a mountain on a unexplored Grand Line island. He asked Dr. Indigo how the experiment is coming and is told by Dr. Indigo that he made a discovery that there is balance between the plants and animals on the island. He also explains that many plants and animals can not be found elsewhere to which Shiki interrupts him. Shiki orders him to get straight to the point and asks Dr. Indigo how long will his plan take and is told that it will take twenty years, at least. Accepting this Shiki says that he will then carry out his plan in 20 years and then he will show "them" hell on Earth by releasing tons of mutated animals in the world similar to Boss, declaring war with the world.

Pre-Movie Arc: Little East Blue
After 20 years have passed, Shiki is set to put his plan in motion. However, one of his animals, a large horned beetle, escapes from his base of operations. He contacts the Amigo Pirates and their leaders, Largo and Corto, and offers them to let them join his conference provided they retrieve the beetle for him. In the end however they fail thanks to the Straw Hats (though Shiki is unaware of this) and Shiki ultimately dismisses the escaped beetle citing one escapee will not stop his plans.

Strong World
During the years spent in Merveille, Indigo managed to develop from a local plant, the IQ, a serum called SIQ, that if injected into animals, enhances their evolutionary process, granting them the ability to adapt to their natural environment better. Using this incredible drug, Shiki started creating his own army of mutated animals, in order to defeat the World Government. After gathering a large amount of these animals, as well as old and new allies, Shiki sent some of them to attack East Blue, causing incredible damage. Then, he resurfaced to the world in Marineford, flying over the island with his ship and destroying several Marine battleships by levitating them and then crushing them to the ground, as a warning for his old enemies.



After that, by chance he came across the Straw Hat Pirates. Nami feels the weather changing and warns of a coming storm. Luffy calls out to Shiki ship, attempting to warn them, gaining Shiki's attention. Shiki sends down a tone dial to record the warning. His own navigators initially disagree that a storm is approaching, but it does indeed appear and with Nami's direction, both ships successfully escape it. Afterwards, Shiki shoots his navigator, and comes down to the Sunny to meet Nami. There he reveals he has a Devil Fruit power to make any inanimate object he touches ignore gravity and float. After learning it was Nami that delivered the warning, and that they are headed to East Blue, Shiki offers to take them there and uses his power on Sunny. However, it was all a deception: the Flying Pirate brought the Straw Hats up in the sky, to his base, Merveille. There, he kidnapped Nami, wanting her as his navigator, and sent the others flying to the nearby islands levitated by his powers, as he prays for his mutated animals.

Shiki asks Nami to become his navigator but she refuses. Dr. Indigo appears with an 'evolved' bird, called Billy, that can use electricity, demonstrating it to Shiki, but after being shocked by it, Shiki tosses it aside. It is explained that a plant here, called IQ, can cause animals to evolve very rabidly, making them very strong. Dr. Indigo reveal he enhanced the drug dubbing it SIQ which Shiki has used on the island's animals causing them to mutated to large proportions as well as increasing their intellect and aggression. Nami protects Billy, and the bird is left with her as Shiki and his men leave.

Zoro and Chopper rescue a young girl, Xiao, and are lead to her village. Along the way they learn the large poisonous plants, called Daft Green, around the village emit a stink so powerful that the animals stay away. However, long term exposure to the plants is poisonous to humans, and Xiao's grandmother has become ill by it. Xiao was outside looking for the cure, which is the IQ plant, and managed to find one, but Shiki has taken all the IQ plant for his experiments. Sanji and Usopp, also at the same village, where everyone appears to have small wings on their arms, learn that Shiki also takes all the men and young women to his royal palace, leaving the village with only the very young and old with strict monitoring around the clock. They soon after meet up with Zoro and Chopper.



Nami manages to escape her captivity with the help of Billy, and finds the Thousand Sunny. Only moments later, Luffy, being chased by several giant scorpions, arrives. Billy defeats the scorpions using electricity, and Nami and Luffy talk about what has happened. They soon after decide to search for the others, using Billy to fly. Robin's group, meanwhile, find a large building where many pirates are gathering, similarly protected by poison plants. They learn there that Shiki is planning to let loose the animals on the island into East Blue in a gambit to force the surrender of the World Government. They also learn that to prove the power of the animals he is planning a demonstration using a village on the floating island. He chased her to the only village on the island, where she had taken refuge with some other members of the Straw Hats. The Golden Lion effortlessly defeated Luffy, Zoro, Usopp, Sanji and Chopper, trapping them in a giant pillar of earth with his powers, and eventually convinced Nami to join his crew, with the promise of sparing her former crewmates and East Blue. Usopp, the only remaining crew member conscious tries to stop her, but Shiki knocks him out.

He gave the girl a Tone Dial, in order to leave a last farewell to her friends, and then brought her up again to his base. Here, he had his allies witness the destruction of the village at the hands of his mutated animals, as proof of their strength. After that, he was informed of something by Indigo which was revealed to be Nami's attempt to destroy the trees protecting his palace from the wild animals, in order for the place to be destroyed by his own bestial minions. Having seemingly foiled her plan, he had his subordinates immobilize her with long spears and left her to die from the Daft disease she contracted during her attempt to blow away the trees.

He summoned the pirates under his command to drink with him, explaining his plan. While preparing a toast to the commencement of the operation, the Straw Hats burst into the palace using Sunny, then march into the main meeting room brandishing various firearms. After a short confrontation, where Shiki calls them simply a suicide squad, and reveals hundreds of men around them. Luffy says that Nami was simply the vanguard and that they are the main force. They unload their firearms in the room, defeating most those gathered, then split up to defeat the rest.



Luffy chases after Shiki, telling Chopper and Usopp to find Nami. Nami is found by Billy who helps her ignite the explosives just as Chopper and Usopp find her. While all escape harm from the explosion, animals from outside storm the palace adding to the chaos within. Chopper realizes the only way to save Nami is to find the IQ medicine, but Shiki attempts to stop them. However, Luffy appears, in Gear Second, and starts fighting him, with the help of Billy. Luffy, still battling Shiki, is overcome when Shiki surrounds him with water. Shiki then receives a Den Den Mushi call warning of the storm and asking him to redirect the island which he does. Unknown to him, the call was in fact coerced by Usopp and Chopper, and that Nami has lead them directly into the storm. The various remaining pirates realize this and retreat, while the Straw Hats rig the palace with explosives. Shiki returns to the palace and confronts them, but Luffy also reappears, having recovered.



Once more using Gear Third, he places his giant foot into the clouds, gaining an electric charge and uses this to enhance his giant axe. Shiki at first thinks the lighting will kill Luffy, not realizing Luffy's rubber state will protect him. By the time Shiki realizes his mistake, Luffy hits him with the attack, both smashing and electrifying him to the ground, defeating him and destroying an entire island in the process. The other Straw Hats escape using Thousand Sunny, using Shiki's pirate sail as a parachute. Luffy is recovered by Billy while the villagers are shown flying away using the wings on their arms.

As he is beaten, Shiki questions whether he was meant to be defeated once again by a man from East Blue before yelling Roger's name. With his defeat, the control his power held over the flying islands disappeared, forcing them to crash into the sea. Shiki was last seen falling unconscious into the sea as well, followed shortly by his subordinates Indigo and Scarlet. Apparently, the Marines spotted him, and were hurrying to capture him, but it is unknown if they managed to.

Major Battles

 * Shiki vs. Gol D. Roger (unseen, several times)
 * Golden Lion Pirates vs. Roger Pirates (Battle of the Edd War)
 * Shiki vs. Sengoku and Monkey D. Garp
 * Shiki vs. Monkey D. Luffy, Roronoa Zoro, Usopp, Sanji and Tony Tony Chopper
 * Golden Lion Pirates vs. Straw Hat Pirates
 * Shiki vs. Monkey D. Luffy and Billy

Early One Piece
In the early design sketches of Shiki, Oda originally drew Shiki as bald and with more lion-like facial features. In a later draft of Shiki, Oda drew him with the steering wheel but embedded in his head in a different position.

In an interview about Strong World, Oda also revealed that he originally intended this concept of Shiki to be used for Bartholomew Kuma. However he turned down the idea but later decided to use it for Shiki.

Anime and Manga Differences
A notable difference between the anime's and manga's episode 0 is that, during the scene Shiki escapes Impel Down, when his cut off feet are seen, in the manga, they are barefooted, while in the anime, they keep the traditional Impel Down's shoes..

Trivia

 * Like other characters in One Piece, he has a distinct laughter which is "Ji ha ha ha ha".
 * A fan noticed Shiki being mentioned in the manga and asked Oda if the character was one and the same with the character in the movie. Oda confirmed that the two characters were one and the same, and explained more about him. Originally, Oda wanted to have Shiki be mentioned during the meeting between Shanks and Whitebeard. He however held back because he thought it might be too much info for readers and confuse them. At that time, he did not know that the story about the pirate who caused havoc during Roger's time would be made into a movie.
 * Oda personally selected Takenaka for Shiki due to his large range of character roles.
 * Like other One Piece characters (such as Franky), Shiki has undergone some of the strangest appearance alterations as the result of an injury. He has a steering wheel jammed in his head and replaced his feet with his swords.
 * Of his known surviving crew members, they all have a color in their name. His color is "Golden" as per his epithet "Gold Lion".
 * Shiki is a support character in Gigant Battle and playable character in its sequel.
 * The lion is traditionally referred to as the 'King of Beasts', so it is symbolic that Shiki uses an army of beasts to do his bidding.
 * In an early trailer for the movie Strong World, Shiki, like the rest of the Straw Hat crew, was seen wearing different attire than what he wore in the actual movie. Shiki was seen wearing a white suit with red marks on the sleeves. He also seemed much skinnier and carried a red sword.
 * Shiki was seen on a normal ship during the Edd War and not with his Island Ship, like he has during the movie Strong world.
 * Shiki shares many similarities with the new character Z:
 * Both are the antagonists of movies overseen by Oda himself during the whole process.
 * Both have their origin from the Roger era.
 * Both also have remarkable prostheses, with Shiki having two swords replacing his feet and Z, a huge mechanical arm.
 * Both characters have elements found in ships in their own bodies, with Shiki having a steering wheel on his head and Z having two mast rigging across his chest, possibly supporting his mechanical arm.

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