King

King the Conflagration is one of the three All-Stars of the Beasts Pirates, also called "Disasters", and is Kaidou's right-hand man. He is a member of the nigh-extinct lunarian race from the Red Line, noted for their ability to create fire.

Due to his actions and role, he is a major antagonist in the Wano Country Arc.

Appearance
King is a towering man at 613 cm in height. While less widely built than the other two All-Stars, King is better-proportioned, being well-muscled and broad in the shoulders (but not overly top-heavy like Jack) with long limbs. Notably, a plume of fire perpetually rises from his back, owing to his lunarian heritage. Due to King keeping himself clad in a dark uniform that bares no skin, his natural appearance is still mostly unknown. From what little has been seen, King has a pair of narrow, red eyes, a somewhat dark complexion, and light-colored, slicked-back hair under his mask.

Of King's uniform, the bottom layer is a form-fitting, gimp-like bodysuit made of black/dark-blue leather, with lighter-blue, white-studded leather bands variously tied around. Visible of such garment are the head and neck areas, the latter having a zipper in the middle and two of said bands left and right. The head portion, a full-faced mask, leaves only two holes for King's eyes (being fully black around the eyes, otherwise dark blue). Below the eyes is leather of flame-like shape flanking a central, triangular strip of light blue to mark off the nose, mouth, and chin section (also beset with studs). Topping the eyes are blue-lensed, gray-rimmed goggle pieces and on each side of the head, connected by a studded base, is a large, black, horn-like spike. Five more such spikes, only smaller, are located further on top upon a light-blue band that runs coronally into another one positioned like a headband, and crossing yet another that goes sagittally, with airholes around. King's dark-blue pants, possibly part of the suit, each have three studded leather bands wrap around their upper halves plus a ring of the same material on each knee, and go inside black, high-heeled boots (once again with studded straps), the high shafts of which end folded over, in studded jags. On top of the bodysuit is a dark-blue, double-breasted leather jacket, ten-buttoned in gold with notch lapels that have red, square skull patches (edged in gold) sewn on, and wherefrom white ruffles emerge. Running straight down each side of the waist are two columns of yet more studs, and flat, two-part shoulder pads (black and double-trimmed with studs) are present on each side, down the upper arms with three curved spikes atop either (the outer ones the biggest). The tight sleeves of the jacket (each with two additional, stud-covered bands topping thinner strips along with three very small, white spikes above the wrists) are cuffless, ending in black gloves.

Finally, King has a pair of large, black-feathered wings sprout from his back; whether or not they are natural is unconfirmed, but they disappear on King's full pteranodon form as well as when he manifests his pteranodon wings in his humanoid form. When transformed, the aforementioned flames also engulf his back further.

Twenty years ago, King already wore a version of his current leather uniform, which in the anime is shown to have had a dark-red coloration as opposed to blue, as well as his black wings and fire burning at his back. King's spikes atop his head were shorter, more blunt, and he wore his jacket's collar upturned without white ruffles. The jacket's front had just one row of buttons, with two golden cross shapes right there that either served as oversized buttons or were simply patches. Also in the anime, King was seen carrying a blue-flamed torch.

Personality
King is a stern, reticent man who keeps a level head in most situations, rarely exhibiting strong emotion. Like Queen, he tends to be rude toward and critical of his crewmates, frequently insulting and deriding his fellow All-Stars for perceived failures. According to Queen, King is also a "torture-loving pervert", though the exact meaning of that statement is unknown.

Very averse to the idea of showing his face, King wears a head-enwrapping mask that leaves only his eyes visible; it was stated by a grunt of the Beasts Pirates that no one had ever caught a glimpse of King's face, though it is unknown if this also accounts for the crew's higher-ups. When his mask took some damage in his fight with Roronoa Zoro, King reacted by going on a rampage, indiscriminately attacking enemies and crewmates alike, before taking care to relocate his battle with Zoro to someplace that had no one else around but them.

Proactive and seeming good at making big decisions under pressure, King personally engaged Big Mom and her crew to keep them from entering Wano despite not being ordered to do so by Kaidou. Later in Big Mom's presence, King showed himself not intimidated by her in the slightest, despite his surprise at her survival, and bluntly refused her offer to join her. King also took the initiative to summon the Tobiroppo after hearing Kaidou was looking to address a problem with Yamato, acting conniving by framing the summons as one from Kaidou due to knowing the Tobiroppo would not answer to him. When Kaidou became occupied with fighting during the rebel invasion of Onigashima, King was mainly the one to handle their crew's troops, calmly issuing orders.

While loyal to his crew, King has no qualms about betraying even long-standing allies who are outside of their direct organization, especially if so doing is pertinent to Kaidou's plans, and so lent his sword to Kaidou so he could decapitate their ally Orochi, whom they had been friendly with for over two decades. Similarly, King had no scruples about personally taking down turncoat subordinates who, in fact, had been brainwashed into betrayal. Sharing Kaidou's streak of ruthlessness, King has likewise shown himself not above executing a child, demanding that Sanji hand over Momonosuke for him to kill in accordance with Kaidou's New Onigashima Project.

It is implied that King greatly respects strength above all else, with Kaidou's immense power being what originally induced King to join his crew. In combat, King has expressed his belief that one ought not limit oneself to a single way of fighting, as there should be no need for adherence to any one school or style in a real battle. In general, the All-Star's stolid and no-nonsense attitude carries over into fights: he does not bother with posturing, monologuing, or following fighting etiquette. Instead, he wastes no time in going for the kill should the opportunity present itself, personally goes after noteworthy enemies when they are physically disabled, immediately strikes at foes who are distracted, and may relentlessly mount attack after attack on his opponents to leave them little chance to defend themselves.

Kaidou
King is Kaidou's right-hand man, thus enjoying a great deal of trust from him; King originally joined Kaidou due to being amazed by his strength. Steadfastly loyal to his Governor-General, King is always ready to execute missions on his behalf. When Big Mom and her children arrived at Wano Country, King was swift to attack and knock her ship into the sea, on his own initiative rather than Kaidou's orders. King also immediately lent his sword to Kaidou so he could behead Orochi with it as soon as the shogun protested about Kaidou taking over the Flower Capital, despite having received no verbal instruction to do so from Kaidou, showing a great degree of trust and knowledge of another between the two.

Another sign of King's loyalty to his Governor-General was when King bluntly and immediately refused Big Mom's offer to join her crew, in spite of her stated willingness to forgive King's transgressions against her. Kaidou, though seeing King as one of his confidants, did not hesitate to give the lower-ranked Tobiroppo a chance to challenge any All-Star of their choice to take their position, as the crew's hierarchy is determined by an individual's power, something King, on the other hand, did not complain about.

Queen
King and his fellow All-Star, Queen, have a seeming rivalry with one another and are frequently seen trading barbs. In the anime, King has shown annoyance over Queen's performative tendencies.

After escorting Big Mom to Onigashima, Queen furiously blamed King for Big Mom's remaining presence in Wano, since King had been the one to prevent to the Big Mom Pirates from entering the country prior. When Queen expressed his irritation at Straw Hat Luffy leading the former prisoners of Udon into battle on Onigashima, King sarcastically responded that he would not blame Queen as someone who had been useless from the start.

Jack
King and Queen look mutually down on their fellow, younger-aged All-Star Jack. King views Jack as incompetent, shown when he scolded him for how few offerings he procured from the Wano province of which Jack is in charge, calling him "Foolish Jack" (ズッコケジャック). Jack, in turn, refers to King and Queen respectfully as "elder brothers" and, despite his savage personality, takes their verbal abuse without protest.

Tobiroppo
King has a rather hostile relationship with the Tobiroppo Sasaki and Who's-Who, being aware of their ambition to become All-Stars and acknowledging that they would likely ignore any summons order they knew came from him. When they expressed their aforesaid ambition before him and Kaidou, King disdainfully told them to know their place, and when Kaidou asked him and Jack if they would object to the Tobiroppo being granted a chance to fight one of them for their All-Star post, King said that he had none, showing confidence in his superiority over them.

King views Ulti and Page One as brats, like some of their fellow Tobiroppo.

Big Mom Pirates
Since Big Mom is a rival of his Governor-General, King sees her as an enemy. King personally kept her and her children out of Wano by knocking their ship into the ocean as they tried climbing Wano's waterfall. He was later surprised to see that she survived once she was brought to Onigashima by Queen. Big Mom stated that she would forgive King's attempt on her life if he joined her crew, since he is, as a lunarian, part of a unique and thought-to-be-extinct race that she wanted in Totto Land, but he bluntly refused.

Charlotte Perospero also expressed his intention to get his revenge on King for what he did to his mother and crew.

Roronoa Zoro
As their leaders were enemies, Roronoa Zoro became King's enemy as well. The two battled each other fiercely during the Ninja-Pirate-Mink-Samurai Alliance's attack on Onigashima and commented on their different views on combat. King earned Zoro's wrath when he tried to kill him with his wing instead of a sword as he saw it as disrespectful, while King truly started to resent Zoro for damaging his mask.

Overview
As the Beasts Pirates' head All-Star and Kaidou's right-hand man, King holds authority in the crew that is just below Kaidou's own.

As a fighter, King is the most powerful member of the Beasts Pirates after Kaidou himself, with his tremendous bounty of 1,390,000,000 illustrating his fearsome reputation. A veteran pirate, King has been part of the Beasts Pirates for at least 23 years and was already considered among the strongest members back then.

Physical Abilities
Like his fellow All-Stars, King has a penchant for melee combat. His fighting style is a wild one, eschewing proper form and technique in favor of a brutal yet pragmatic blend of hand-to-hand combat and swordsmanship. He has been seen disarming his opponents with his swordbreaker katana to leave them vulnerable for a follow-up punch.

King possesses tremendous physical strength. He easily hurled Shinobu with significant force after grabbing her by the head, repressed a Raid Suit-donning Sanji by grabbing his neck one-handed, and blocked a powerful kick from the latter using his own leg. With a downward swipe of his sword, King easily sliced one of Marco's phoenix wings right off.

King has proven himself extremely durable even without his Zoan transformation, taking multiple powerful hits from Marco and a direct hit from Roronoa Zoro's Rengoku Oni Giri without any discernible damage.

King is extremely fast despite his large size, as shown by his ability to leap across a great distance in an instant.

Fire Manipulation


Befitting his epithet, King possesses the natural ability to "ignite" (発火) his body, allowing him to create and control fire in both his humanoid and pteranodon forms. This ability stems from King's racial background as a lunarian.

Using the fire he conjures, King can boost the power of his melee attacks, such as throwing a flaming punch, can launch bullet-like flame projectiles from a distance, and set his surroundings aflame.

Attacks

 * Andon: King conjures a fireball over his open palm, then forms a fist to execute a powerful, flame-clad punch. The attack was first seen when King tried to strike a then-disabled Zoro, but it was blocked by Marco. The attack's name comes from andon (行灯), a type of traditional Japanese lantern consisting of an oil lamp housed in a paper-covered, wooden stand. The Viz manga calls the technique Imperial Flame.

Devil Fruit


King ate the Ryu Ryu no Mi, Model: Pteranodon, an Ancient Zoan-type Devil Fruit that allows him to transform into a full pteranodon and a humanoid lunarian-pteranodon hybrid at will. When transformed, he is more clad in flames than usual and gains the ability to fly at high speeds.

As a Zoan, this fruit greatly enhances King's physical abilities. His full Beast Form is powerful enough to either violently push back or inflict significant damage upon whatever he flies into, be it people or even massive objects, such as an entire ship. Additionally, his long, pointy beak wields immense piercing power.

When he is in his Human-Beast Form, King can use his arms turned pteranodon wings like blades, allowing him to release powerful flying wind slashes. These slashes can cut through anything around him, and he can launch them in rapid succession. His wing blades are also strong enough to clash with and even overpower Meito being wielded by a master swordsman.

Haki
King possesses the ability to use Busoshoku and Kenbunshoku Haki.

Weapons


King carries a large katana on his right hip, befitting his size. It sports a plain-round, golden tsuba, a matching gold kashira and kojiri, and tsuka-ito of dark-orange color forming traditional rhombus gaps to expose the lighter-orange hilt underlay. It is sheathed in a saya of the same orange as the ito, which has two red cords with hanging, tufted ends below its mouth, plus additional red bands around the lower parts of the saya.

King's sword has a swordbreaker design: its blade, along the edge, can become segmentally notched to form comb-like teeth, allowing King to catch and pull away swords that clash against it, thus disarming enemies.

Additionally, King's suit seems to be designed to facilitate hand-to-hand combat, like having spikes that extend out of his gloves and boots when he punches or kicks someone.

Past
King was born on the Grand Line 47 years ago, into the tribe of lunarians that originates from the top of the Red Line—which in the present day is widely believed to be extinct.

At some point, King joined the Beasts Pirates, after being charmed by Kaidou's strength, and together with him eventually came to Wano Country. Twenty-three years ago, King partook in his crew's battle against the Gecko Pirates led by Gecko Moria, which resulted in Moria's crew suffering a crushing defeat in the Ringo province of Wano Country.

Twenty years ago, King was involved in the Beasts Pirates' total takeover of Wano through their final battle against Kozuki Oden, then-daimyo of Kuri. When Oden and his retainers, the Nine Red Scabbards, were on their way to Onigashima, a thousand members of the Beasts Pirates, including King and Queen, confronted them in the Udon region. In the ensuing battle that lasted five days, King fought against the Scabbards, including Raizo and Ashura Doji. King managed to stab Ashura in the back while the samurai was distracted by Kaidou's attack on Oden.

In the end, Oden and his allies were overwhelmed and crushed. Later on, King, Queen, and Jack were present when Kaidou set Oden Castle ablaze following Oden's execution, to kill the rest of the Kozuki Family.

Marineford Arc
Two years ago before the looming Summit War of Marineford, Kaidou tried to make an attack on Whitebeard. King accompanied him for this undertaking, but they were stopped by the Red Hair Pirates.

Wano Country Arc
In the present on Onigashima, King was first seen alongside his fellow All-Stars. Along with Queen, he reprimanded Jack for how low the amount of offerings from Kuri was, then asked him if he knew where to go for their next trade deal now that they could no longer rely on Donquixote Doflamingo. While having this discussion, King pointed to Queen while noting how the latter was already incompetent, causing King and Queen to engage in an argument.



The following day, the Big Mom Pirates attempted to enter Wano by ascending its waterfall on the Queen Mama Chanter. Just as they had reached the top, their ship still midair, King as a pteranodon flew in and attacked, causing the ship to flip over and fall back down, while sending Big Mom into the gushing sea below. Around two days later, Queen brought a chained-up Big Mom from Udon to Onigashima and scolded King for not having been thorough in eliminating her. Big Mom told King that she would forgive him for what he had done to her if he joined her crew, as she recognized him as one of the few races that were not part of Totto Land, but King refused her offer.

Prior to the latest Fire Festival commencing, King heard that the Numbers had returned to Wano, of which he informed Queen. During the beginning stages of the festival, King appeared before Kaidou to confirm that it was he who had summoned the Tobiroppo in Kaidou's name, for the purpose of having them find the latter's "son", Yamato. Kaidou then offered to let the Tobiroppo challenge the All-Stars for their positions should they succeed, to which both King and Jack had no objection.

Later, King appeared beside his fellow All-Stars as well as Kaidou himself on the Live Stage of the Golden Kagura, behind shogun Orochi, as Kaidou declared his intention to "liven up" the execution of Momonosuke with the announcement of the "New Onigashima Project". As Kaidou gave the explanation of said project, King held out his sword for Kaidou to use to unexpectedly decapitate Orochi. When Kaidou thereupon prepared to execute Momonosuke, the All-Stars and Kaidou were taken by surprise when the Nine Red Scabbards and Izou suddenly appeared from behind them and launched an all-out attack. Izou disarmed King by shooting his sword out of his hand, leaving him helpless to stop Kaidou from being assailed.



After Kaidou and the Scabbards had taken their battle to the roof of Onigashima's Skull Dome, Shinobu attempted to sneakily free Momonosuke. King, noticing her, simply grabbed and hurled the kunoichi away. However, Sanji (invisible thanks to his Raid Suit) was successful in rescuing the boy right after. King then clashed with Sanji in midair, and once Sanji had thrown Momonosuke to safety, King (now in his pteranodon form) sent himself and Sanji crashing into a nearby tower, intent on splitting Sanji in half with his beak. Afterwards, a still-flying King guarded the way to the rooftop, a hole made by Kaidou, together with Queen and a group of flying Gifters. Thereafter, King returned to the Performance Stage and contacted the Tobiroppo with a Den Den Mushi, ordering them to cease their search for Yamato and prevent the rebel alliance from reaching the dome's roof. He later received updates from Bao Huang and ordered all forces to kill Momonosuke, as bringing him down would deprive the samurais of their will to fight.

A while after, King returned to his task of preventing enemies from getting up to the roof of the dome, as was noticed by Roronoa Zoro. As Marco the Phoenix had joined the fray inside the dome and started flying Zoro up toward the roof, a pteranodon-transformed King and Queen stood in their way. Both All-Stars thus tried to stop Marco, but the latter restrained them at once with his phoenix wings before throwing Zoro to the roof.



After he was informed of the Scabbards' location in the castle's second-floor treasury and their badly wounded state, King noted how he was occupied, ordering someone else to go kill them. He afterward entered his pteranodon form once again, then attacking Marco with a rain of bullet-like projectiles. Subsequently, as Marco in his phoenix form was flying at Queen, seemingly attempting to attack, King back in human form was quick to jump at him, cutting off Marco's left wing with his sword. Marco, however, was not fazed and simply used the remains of said wing to form a large fireball, which he sent straight at King in a blunt-force attack, sending the All-Star crashing violently into a building behind him. Before King had a chance to put up his guard, Marco made a follow-up attack, launching himself into King with a flying knee strike and causing an explosion, but King started getting back up shortly.

King was later seen looking on solemnly as the enemy alliance's will to fight was reinvigorated by Momonosuke's broadcasted announcement that Straw Hat Luffy, after having prior been declared defeated by Kaidou and about to die, was actually alive and soon to return to the battle.



Later on at the Live Floor, King and Queen began taking out the many renegade Beasts Pirates that had been converted to the enemy's side due to a certain Devil Fruit ability, with Marco temporarily out of action and Sanji overwhelmed by the combined presence of two All-Stars. King had managed to ascertain the enemy's plan to heal the heavily injured Zoro via some strange treatment and gave out the order to put a stop to it. King was then quick to personally find the bandaged-up Zoro, who was being carried away by samurai, and attempted to strike him with his flaming Andon punch, though Marco managed to fly in at the right time and block the attack. Marco commented how he had heard long ago about a certain race living on top of the Red Line that had the power to burst into flames, but King did not respond. Instead, he and Queen initiated attacks to take out Marco for good, but before they had a chance to do anything, a recuperated Zoro and Sanji jumped in to attack them with their respective techniques, with King being sliced by Zoro's Rengoku Oni Giri.



Though thrown to the ground by said attack, King was unhurt and, like Queen, promptly rose back up. As Sanji and Zoro were bickering, King took the chance to draw his sword and swing down at an unguarded Sanji, which was blocked by Zoro. When Queen mentioned how Sanji's flaming leg was an ability inexplicable for a normal human like him, as he could not be a "lunarian", King listened in silence. He then turned his attention to Zoro, who was already busy attacking him. King had his sword form angular notches along its edge and lodged Zoro's handheld swords in them. Pulling his own sword aside, King snatched Zoro's sword pair away from him, then proceeded to throw a powerful punch at Zoro's face that the latter stopped using his mouth-held sword. When Zoro remarked how King's manner of fighting was like a killing machine's, King responded that, to begin with, he never saw use for traditional forms and styles in a real battle. Zoro concurred, stating how King never claimed to be a proper swordsman anyway, but he too would take any measures necessary to win their fight. As their duel continued, King was seen launching a kick at Zoro in the air.

A little later, King along with everyone else on the Live Floor reacted in confusion at the sudden sight of a dragon different from Kaidou — the grown-up Momonosuke — busting headfirst into the Skull Dome.

At some point after this, Zoro broke off a piece on the top left side of King's mask. Irritated at his mask being damaged, King began indiscriminately attacking everyone around him on the Live Stage using his Human-Beast Form. Manifesting his pteranodon wings to use as makeshift blades, he sent out air slashes in a chaotic flurry that struck enemies and allies alike, and hit Zoro with such force that he was blown a fair distance away, into the Right-Brain Tower's central hallway where Franky was. When Queen told off his fellow All-Star for grazing him as well, King merely stated that he wished he had sliced Queen's neck, before following Zoro into said hallway. With his Tankyudon technique, King promptly flew at the swordsman to yet again to strike with one of his wings. Albeit his mask took further damage from Zoro's consequent Ul-Tora Gari counterattack, King overpowered Zoro in their clash and sent him flying further back, causing him to smash through the Skull Dome's outer wall to the outside. With a third divebomb attack, King nearly blew Zoro off Onigashima, but Zoro managed to push himself back onto the island's outskirts where King was standing. When Zoro remarked that King should at least use his sword to deal a finishing blow, as anything else was disrespectful, King (now with more of his face made visible) noted that he would ask the same of Zoro.

Major Battles

 * Beasts Pirates vs. Gecko Pirates
 * Beasts Pirates vs. Kozuki Oden, the Nine Red Scabbards, and Shinobu
 * King vs. Raizo
 * King vs. Ashura Doji
 * King vs. Sanji
 * King and Queen vs. Marco
 * King and Queen vs. Sanji and Roronoa Zoro

Filler Battles

 * King vs. Denjiro

Playable Appearances

 * One Piece Treasure Cruise

Trivia

 * Like his fellow All-Stars Queen and Jack, King is named after the playing card rank, fitting with the card-based naming scheme of the Beasts Pirates.
 * King, with his Devil Fruit and fire abilities, might be inspired by Rodan, a popular pteranodon kaiju that resides in a volcano, and of whom one specific incarnation is the "Fire Rodan".
 * King's physical design may also be inspired by the figure on the cover art of Angel of Retribution, the fifteenth studio album by English heavy metal band Judas Priest.
 * King's first anime appearance is in the opening OVER THE TOP. Originally in it, his wings were shown as white, but this was soon corrected to black.
 * King's favorite food is flying fish sashimi.
 * King's bounty is currently the highest known of any person who has never officially held the title of pirate captain.

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