Issho

Issho, more commonly known by his alias, Fujitora, is an admiral in the Marines.

He was first mentioned by Sakazuki when the Fleet Admiral was discussing plans to deal with Luffy and Law. Due to his mission and actions he can be regarded as the secondary antagonist of the Dressrosa Arc.

Appearance
Issho is a blind man with only the whites of his eyes showing, though he is usually seen with both eyes closed. He has an X-shaped scar centered on the left side of his forehead that stretches over both eyes. He has short dark hair, a mustache, and a beard. He seems to be very tall, a trait shared with other admirals.

Issho sports the standard marine coat with his personal clothes underneath. While previous admirals and high-ranked marines wear the conventional suit and tie underneath their marine coats, Issho wears a light-purple yukata held up with a dark purple belt, all underneath a purple cloak, matching the color in his alias. Issho wields a shikomizue (a Japanese swordstick) that doubles as a cane for his blindness, and also wears geta sandals. He has white bandages wrapped around both of his forearms, with handguards on both hands.

Personality
In this world... There are many horrible things that you do not want to see.

Issho appears to be a reasonable man that is very trusting of people, as seen when he believed that he kept on losing at roulette purely by chance. The moment he was told that he was being cheated and that the swindlers tried to kill Luffy for revealing their trickery, he retaliated mercilessly and believed that being blind spared him from seeing the corruption in the world.

He is also responsible about collateral damage he inflicts, as shown when he compensated the shop owner for the damages he caused when creating a massive crater to attack the swindlers. He appears to follow his own ideals instead of adhering to the Marines' doctrine of Absolute Justice. However, he still follows the law, as he chose to spare Caesar Clown simply because he was a subordinate working under Donquixote Doflamingo, although he can understand that Doflamingo could be up to something and desired to investigate further into the problem if it were not for the law and lack of solid evidence.

He is rather modest, as he barely commented on the remarks Doflamingo and Law made on his formidable reputation and display of power respectively.

During the first time he was seen in battle, Issho was shown to be willing to use excessive force as he summoned down a meteor to attack both Law and Doflamingo. Doflamingo even commented that he does not hold back.

He exhibits concern about the safety of innocent civilians more than his desire to arrest and punish criminals, unlike Sakazuki.

Despite his responsible personality, he seems to enjoy gambling and is not entirely serious with his duties, as he was playing roulette even when he was supposed to be apprehending Luffy and Law.

Another trait Issho displayed is his ability to remain calm. Even when one of his own meteorites was sent flying back at his ship, he was calmly slurping a bowl of noodles acting as if nothing was happening while his whole crew was in panic, even commenting on his choice of timing for a meal.

Marines
As an admiral of the marines, Issho is well-respected within the organization.

He seems to be trusted by fleet admiral Sakazuki, who sent him to deal with the Straw Hat Pirates' and Heart Pirates' alliance, with the two captains of the groups being a notorious pirate and a Shichibukai respectively. Sakazuki even apologized to Issho when he informed him about Donquixote Doflamingo's false resignation from the Shichibukai.

Shichibukai
Issho revoked Trafalgar Law's Shichibukai's status when Law declared an alliance between him and the Straw Hat Pirates. He then cooperated with Donquixote Doflamingo to defeat him. Even though he clearly understood that Doflamingo was up to something, he followed the law as he had no further evidence. Doflamingo arrived to Green Bit, alongside Admiral Issho and his battalion of Marine soldiers. In front of the Marines, Doflamingo immediately declared Caesar as his subordinate, thus drafting the rogue scientist into his crew while pardoning him for his crimes.

Having allied himself with Doflamingo, Issho proceeded to attack Law and the Straw Hat Pirates. Issho has shown great disgust in working together with Doflamingo. When helping Doflamingo fight Law, Issho purposely tried to harm him in the process. Doflamingo shows very little respect towards his high ranking status, and enjoys being able to manipulate him for as long as possible.

Having allied himself with Doflamingo, he proceeded to attack Law and the Straw Hat Pirates. However, Issho revealed that he dislikes the Shichibukai system and plans to end it, despite being willing to help Doflamingo in defending Dressrosa for the moment since the safety of the country was a priority.

Pirates
As a marine, he views pirates as enemies, although he is more flexible than most and able to look past them and see their good qualities. He was willing to acknowledge Luffy's character for his help with the swindlers, and felt obligated to fight him because he considered it "biting the hand that feeds him". However, he puts the civilians' safety above the pirates' arrest. When he realized that he was being cheated by some of Doflamingo's underlings, he quickly took care of them.

Revolutionaries
Due to being an officer in the Marines, he is an enemy of the Revolutionary Army. As such he and his battalion engaged Sabo to capture Luffy. He personally clashed with Dragon's second-in-command. Despite this opposition he confesses to Sabo it is not possible for the military to stop Doflamingo and leaves the Heavenly Demon's defeat in the control of the pirates.

Abilities and Powers
As an admiral, Issho has command over the many thousands of soldiers ranked lower than him, his status being second highest within the entire Marine organization, just below Fleet Admiral Sakazuki. He also has the power to initiate a Buster Call on any island he deems to be a threat, as well as grant lower ranking World Government agents such a privilege. As an Admiral, he has the authority to revoke a Shichibukai's title.

In terms of combat strength, Issho is considered to be one of the strongest individuals within the entire World Government structure, as an admiral is considered the "Greatest Military Power". Fujitora is at least strong enough to have Sakazuki's confidence in dealing with both Monkey D. Luffy, a notorious pirate, and Trafalgar Law, a rogue Shichibukai.

Despite being blind, Issho has proven to be able to handle himself extremely well in battle, as he was still able to perfectly time his defense against the meteor he summoned and deflected it without a problem. According to Doflamingo, Issho and Ryokugyu are two very formidable and venerable beasts within the Marines. His strength was also admired by Monkey D. Luffy, when the latter watched his fight against Doflamingo's thugs. When Doflamingo tried to attack him, he showed absolutely no concern and easily blocked his attack.

Issho is also shown to be very good at gambling, having won many games in roulette before the owners started to cheat him out of his money. In roulette, he seems to be relying on his sharp hearing and sense of gravity to predict the outcome. The only reason he was losing was because he was being cheated by Hustlers taking advantage of blindness.

Devil Fruit
When exacting retribution on Doflamingo's thugs that were cheating him because of his blindness, he used an unknown Devil Fruit power. It grants him the ability to manipulate gravity around a chosen location at will by sending gravitational forces. He first used this power to create a gravitational force of such intensity that it caused the swindlers to be pressed heavily against the floor, which caved in to create a gigantic hole as a result. Later, he used immense amounts of gravity to accomplish other feats, such as summoning a meteor to fall from the sky. After the battle against Law with Doflamingo, he used his power to increase gravity on one point to pin Law to the ground and immobilize him.

He can also reverse gravity to create a circular barrier around him which repels attacks. As a testament of his power, he stated that the meteor he brought down was merely to test his strength. He usually unsheathes his sword in order to create the gravitational forces. He is also able to use his powers to levitate materials like a battleship or a rock, similar to Shiki's Fuwa Fuwa no Mi, and use the rock as a platform for levitation; though unlike Shiki's power, Issho's is not hindered by the necessity of having to touch the target beforehand, and he can affect both living and inanimate objects.

Attacks

 * Gravito (重力刀(ぐらびとう)): Issho's signature technique. Issho can manipulate the gravitational forces by channeling his Devil Fruit's ability through his sword. He can send the gravitational forces by swinging or just simply moving his sword. The direction of the gravitational forces can be upwards, downwards, or sideways. He is shown to be able to only use one at a time so far. It was first used against the thugs of the Donquixote Pirates by manipulating gravtitational forces downwards. However, this technique wasn't named until his fight against Sabo.
 * Moko (猛虎): Issho generates immense levels of gravitational force around him which knock aways anything including his enemies, buildings, trees, and whatever else that is unfortunate enough to be in the attack radius. The force is so strong that it easily destroys the ground and buildings, reducing them to rubble. While using this technique, the gravitional force generates black lightning around Issho. The name of this technique is a reference to Issho's epithet, Fujitora, which means wisteria tiger. It was first used against Sabo in Dressrosa.

Haki
It was stated that all Marines ranked vice admiral or higher possess Haki, so Issho can also use the ability.

Issho was able to clash head on physically with Sabo, a Logia-class Devil Fruit user, implying he is able to use Busoshoku Haki.

Weapons
While other admirals have been shown to mostly rely on their Devil Fruit abilities in battle, Issho wields a shikomizue (a cane sword) in tandem with his Devil Fruit ability. The connection between these two factors has yet to be explained, though it seems he channels his power through the sword, as shown when he pointed the blade at Trafalgar Law to create a gravitation field to pin down the young pirate and cause a rock to crumble.

So far, Issho has been seen wielding his sword in the reverse-grip style, with the blade pointing in the direction opposite of his thumb. Whether or not this way of holding his sword involves his technique in general or just the use of his ability remains to be seen. However, it is worth noting that whenever his mysterious ability is used, his sword is unsheathed. His swordsmanship level is still unknown.

Due to his blindness, Issho uses his sword as a cane outside of battle to check his surroundings as he walks. Despite this, his blindness does not seem to impede him in battle.

Past
Not much is known about his past, but sometime during the two years when the Straw Hats were separated, he was promoted to the rank of admiral in the World Military Draft. He joined the Marines because he wanted many things to come to fruition, one of which is to end the Shichibukai system.

Dressrosa Arc
Fujitora was dispatched by Fleet Admiral Sakazuki to deal with Luffy and Law.

He was first seen in a restaurant in Acacia, gambling with some of Doflamingo's men that were cheating. Luffy called the thugs' bluff and helped Issho. After giving his thanks to Luffy, he unsheathed a sword from his cane. As the thugs were crushed and collapsed into a hole in the ground, he said that being unable to see the world's filth could be considered an advantage of being blind. Everyone stood in awe after his display of power, the crew speculated that he must definitely have some Devil Fruit ability and Luffy immediately asked outright who exactly he was. Issho laughed and stated that for both their sakes it would be unwise to reveal who he is. As he walked off, he gave the bartender a piece of paper and told him to forward all the damage claims to the address on it.

He was later seen as a spectator at the Corrida Colosseum. He was apparently scouting out all of the big names competing in the monthly tournament, and told his subordinates that they should leave. He requested three battleships and a large number of medical officers and said that he would go to Green Bit first. Then, he asked his subordinate about the number of spectators as well as the populations of the town and country. When his subordinate asked why that was needed he replied that before counting the number of enemies they should count the number of people needing protection.

At Green Bit, Fujitora was seen leading his men to the southern beach where Law and Caesar were present. On the way, he was contacted by Sakazuki, who informed him that Doflamingo's resignation was a false report. Issho and his subordinates arrived at the exchange site at the same time as Doflamingo.



While Law and Doflamingo were exchanging words, such as how their negotiations were off, Issho noted Caesar's presence. Upon seeing Issho, Doflamingo commented on how he and Ryokugyu are beasts in terms of power. Issho explained that he is aware that Doflamingo was not following the rules as a Shichibukai and that he noticed that Caesar referred to Doflamingo as Joker. Doflamingo simply replied that if the admiral wants to investigate him, he had better be prepared to back up his claims. Issho then turned his attention to Law and stated that Law would be forgiven if the Straw Hats were his subordinates. After Law declared that he and Luffy are indeed in an alliance, Issho took away Law's Shichibukai title and used his gravity ability to bring down a meteor. Before the meteor impacted, Issho, Doflamingo, and Law used their abilities to reduce the meteor to pieces. After emerging unscathed, Issho, Doflamingo, and Law faced each other in a three-way confrontation.



As the fight went on, Issho continued unleashing devastating attacks. Once Law was overwhelmed, Issho was then seen sitting next to Law's injured body, holding him down with his gravity ability, as Doflamingo explained the history of the Donquixote Family.

Issho later commented that he heard lightning in the distance, much to Doflamingo's confusion since the weather seemed fine. Law realized that Nami's group is approaching Green Bit and told Doflamingo that he never said that the heart he was holding belonged to Caesar. Doflamingo squeezed the heart to confirm, and nearby Marine started to scream in pain, raising Issho's awareness. Law quickly used this opportunity to escape by using Room. Issho calmly sat still as Law grabbed Caesar and fled, with Doflamingo in hot pursuit of him.

He later sent a Marine ship flying towards the Thousand Sunny while attacking the Straw Hats' ship with meteors. Law redirected one of the meteors to the Marine ship, dealing significant damage to it. As a Marine reported the damage, Issho casually commented on his own miscalculation while slurping a bowl of noodles. To his men's surprise, Issho ordered them to head back to Dressrosa, musing on how the tides have turned.



When a Marine told Issho that a fight just broke out in the middle of town, Issho, with a concerned look on his face, told his men to hurry.



Issho arrived at the scene just in time to block Zoro's swing at Doflamingo. He then used his ability to push Zoro underground, but the swordsman sent a flying slash towards the admiral, which he repelled with little effort. With an unconscious Law in tow, Issho and Doflamingo head for the palace, where the admiral and the Shichibukai would have a chance to finish their conversation.

While Franky attempted to breach the toy house, Issho heard the commotion through a Den Den Mushi. Doflamingo then asked the admiral if the Marines should do something about the Straw Hats.

When the Marines made a move to arrest Franky at the toy house, Doflamingo thanked Issho. Doflamingo told him that he made a wise choice, but the admiral replied that he should not be mistaken as an ally. Fujitora stated that if Luffy decided to fight him, there would be a lot of destruction and protecting the citizens from that destruction was his "Justice" and that was what he had utilized the Marines for. As for Doflamingo, he would deal with him later. Fujitora said that he accepted the position of Admiral because there had been certain things that he wanted to accomplish, and one of those things was the total discarding of the Shichibukai system. He also mentioned about a country where pirates threatened to hijack the royal throne and commented that if the attempt succeeded, it would become as vile as Dressrosa.

Doflamingo then tried to kick him. Fujitora blocked his attack with ease and continued saying that the balance of the Three Great Powers would be shattered and if Doflamingo kept on committing crimes, the bounty on his head would increase after the Shichibukai system was abolished. After finding out his true intentions, Doflamingo assumed that Fujitora was going to kill him, but the admiral said that they should continue being allies for the time being. From that point onwards, he would protect Dressrosa and ignore all of its malpractices.

Issho was later seen with Bastille as all the toys transformed back into their original forms, causing a widespread panic. He later watched as Doflamingo trapped Dressrosa in his "Birdcage" and forced random people to attack each other.

While listening to Doflamingo's explanation of the survival game he created, Issho used his Devil Fruit power to immobilize Marines who were under Doflamingo's control, preventing them from attacking civilians. Later, he ordered Bastille to not capture Doflamingo and to tell all squads to focus on stopping the civilians from hurting each other. He clarified that the Straw Hats and Law are their main targets.

Later, Vice Admiral Maynard left the Corrida Colosseum and reported to Issho about Doflamingo's connection with the underworld. Maynard explained that it would be the best time to arrest Doflamingo, but Issho responded that it is not the World Government's role to play God in the wake of the anger-filled screams of the citizens and instructed the Vice Admiral to continue following his orders.

Issho later confronted Luffy, Zoro, and Law. While Issho clashed with Zoro again, Pica joined the fray as a massive stone giant.

When Luffy made Pica angry by laughing at his voice, a Marine told Issho to flee before Pica launched his attack.

Issho and the Marines were later stationed at the base of the New King's Plateau apparently to hinder the Straw Hats from reaching Doflamingo. However, while Luffy and his allies were charging up the new King's Plateau, Sabo was seen preventing the Marines from going after them. Issho asked Sabo if that was his duty as a revolutionary. Sabo replied that he was doing his duty as a brother.

Once Sabo defeated several Marines including Bastille, Issho brought down some meteors. However, the meteors were sliced into smaller pieces by the bird cage and they fell onto the city. Issho worried about the damage he caused and he regretted his mistake. After learning about Sabo's relation to Luffy and Ace, he clashed against the revolutionary.

As the battle raged on, Sabo asked Issho why he was acting oblivious. Issho admitted his bluff and jokingly asked Sabo to show mercy towards him due to his blindness. Sabo then told the admiral that he doesn't discriminate against anyone. Issho noted that Sabo wasn't all talk after all, but asserted that he also had a title and reputation to maintain and used Ferocious Tiger to make gravity go horizontally with enormous pressure, destroying several buildings in the process as the sheer force made Sabo burst into flames as he charged forward, clashing with Issho once more, causing Sabo to ponder just what the admiral was plotting. Issho then told the young revolutionary that he was willing to bet his life on their fight.

Issho ultimately decided to end their battle after revealing his views on how it was impossible for even the Marines to become heroes. When Sabo asked him about what would happen if someone discovered how he feels, Issho called it a gamble and wished Sabo good luck. The admiral then went to the Old King's plateau where Riku Dold III, Viola, Usopp, Kine'mon, and Kanjuro were present. He spoke with Riku Dold III, saying that he decided to make the same bet as him by placing his faith in Luffy.

Anime and Manga Differences

 * In the anime, before he went to the restaurant, he had a brief conversation with Zoro. Zoro seemed intimidated by him and was about to unsheath his sword, but then calmed down after Issho walked passed him.
 * In the anime, Fujitora wins 15 times in the game of roulette before he eventually loses to Doflamingo's thugs. In the manga, it only shows him losing.
 * In the anime, Issho slashed Doflamingo's thugs with his sword before creating the hole. He slashed all of them, though it appeared to have no effect, but after he sheathed his sword, the gravity started to take effect. In the manga, Issho did not slash them with his sword, but merely sheathed his sword to make the hole.
 * In the anime, after leaving Corrida Colosseum, Issho uses his Devil Fruit ability to retrieve a lost balloon for a young girl.

Major Battles

 * Issho vs. Doflamingo's thugs.
 * Issho and Donquixote Doflamingo vs. Trafalgar Law
 * Issho vs. Roronoa Zoro
 * Issho vs. Sabo

Trivia

 * Fujitora has the same naming scheme (color + animal) as the three admirals before him.
 * He is the first new admiral to be introduced after the timeskip.
 * His appearance is based on Shintaro Katsu, more specifically his role as Zatoichi, the blind swordsman. The similarities are as follows:
 * They carry a shikomizue (cane-sword) for both walking and battle.
 * Both have a love for gambling (although Zatoichi is able to recognize whether or not he is being taken advantage of).
 * They both rely on their other senses in battle.
 * Fujitora and Ryokugyu's animal aliases (Tiger and Bull, respectively) are the representation of the northeastern quarter where the ogre that Momotarō must kill lives.
 * In an SBS, a reader asked why Fujitora wasn't just named "Purple Tiger" (紫虎), with a simple color like the other admirals. Oda responded that he didn't like the feel or pronunciation of Murasakitora or Shitora (both meaning purple), and decided on Fujitora because it sounded cooler.
 * Issho is the first known Admiral to have a Paramecia class Devil Fruit.

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