- For the Straw Hat Theater character, see Tsubaki.
Tsubaki is a young boy living in Nazawaka City. His mother and father were the workshop chief and a craftsman at the town's paper manufacturing workshop.[1]
Appearance[]
Tsubaki is a young boy with short, light hair, estimated by Zoro to be less than ten years old. When he worked in a garden, he wore a white top, black pants, and a bandana.[1]
Personality[]
Tsubaki is responsible for his age, working for money for a woman in town. However, he is very extreme; his dislike of Taketo was enough to get him to seek out assassination of the headman.
Relationships[]
Taketo Nazawa[]
Tsubaki hates Taketo Nazawa, the village headman of Nazawaka City, because he refuses to pay to rebuild the town's paper manufacturing workshop. This hatred is enough for Tsubaki to ask Roronoa Zoro to assassinate Taketo.
Umeno Nazawa[]
Despite his hatred for Taketo, Tsubaki is friendly with Umeno Nazawa, and the two are well acquainted because of their parents' relationship. Umeno was notably willing to overlook Tsubaki attempting to recruit Zoro to assassinate Taketo.
History[]
One Piece novel ZORO[]
While sprinkling water over a woman's garden, Tsubaki accidentally sprayed Roronoa Zoro with water. He apologized profusely, but Zoro reassured him that he wanted to take a bath anyways, and dumped the rest of the water over his head.
Two weeks later, Tsubaki snuck into the headman's estate, lighting the front gate on fire. He escaped through the back entrance, but was seen by Zoro.
Another two weeks later, Tsubaki approached Zoro while he sat outside a Marine base waiting for Taketo Nazawa. He asked the swordsman to assassinate Taketo, explaining that he refused to rebuild the paper manufacturing workshop, and offered the money he saved up from working the woman's garden as payment. However, Zoro told him that wasn't enough money, and told the boy he would need at least 
300,000 for an assassination job; instead, Tsubaki offered Mihawk's Chasing Crane, stating that it was probably at his house. Zoro pressed him for details, but Taketo began to come back, and Tsubaki agreed to meet up with Zoro again that night.
Later that night, Tsubaki met with Zoro outside the Marine outpost. He invited the swordsman to his house so they would have privacy, and explained that he believed Matsuba Nazawa had hidden Mihawk's Chasing Crane for his parents to find. They pieced together that it was likely hidden in the Mihawk Memorial Museum and, wanting to check, recruited Umeno to help them sneak in. They moved to the storage room in the back and began looking through boxes; and after a bit of searching, Zoro suddenly a paper crane. Unfortunately, Tsubaki recognized it; it was simply a paper crane he had made out of Seven-Colored Paper.
Recognizing the paper, Zoro directed the trio back to the Nazawa Family's estate, where he began digging through trash, to Tsubaki and Umeno's disgust. Finally, he pulled out a crumbled piece of paper, revealing it to be a sheet of Seven-Colored Paper. He offered it to Tsubaki, apologizing for having thrown it out. As they admired the paper, Umeno wondered how it got here, and Zoro explained that he found it in the hallway of the estate with Taketo. Umeno pointed out that all the Seven-Colored Paper should have burned during the workshop burning, so there shouldn't have been any of it here.
While the two men talked, Tsubaki grew more and more confused, eventually asking what they were talking about. They explained that Taketo having Seven-Colored Paper meant he had lied about it all burning, and Umeno concluded that he must have stolen the documents on its production, meaning he knew about the fire in advance and had therefore set it himself. Realizing that Taketo had attempted to kill his parents, Tsubaki rushed off to attack him, but was stopped by Zoro, who brought him outside the estate.
There, Umeno suggested that they report Taketo to the Marines, who could investigate and potentially arrest him. He told Zoro to let them handle it as residents of the town, and Tsubaki and Umeno went down to the Marine base. They were able to meet the commander due to Umeno's position, and explained what they had learned; the commander promised to begin an investigation immediately, taking the Seven-Colored Paper as evidence.[1]
Trivia[]
- "Tsubaki" (椿?) is the name of the Japanese camellia.