Kaido

Kaido of the Beasts, also known as the "Strongest Creature in the World", is the Governor-General of the Beasts Pirates and one of the Yonko ruling over the New World. He and his crew currently occupy Wano Country in alliance with its shogun, Kurozumi Orochi, and most recently have entered into another alliance with fellow Yonko Big Mom and her crew, the Big Mom Pirates. Decades ago before the formation of his own crew, Kaido was part of the legendary Rocks Pirates as an apprentice. Kaido was first referred to by Monkey D. Garp in the Post-Enies Lobby Arc and then directly mentioned by Gecko Moria in the Thriller Bark Arc, with his Yonko title revealed just after the Straw Hat Pirates defeated Moria. Thus, Kaido is the third Yonko mentioned by name and the last one to debut. Due to his actions and role, he is the primary antagonist of the Wano Country Arc and one of the central antagonists of the Yonko Saga. Kaido is a tanned, seemingly middle-aged man who cuts an imposing figure due in equal measures to his extreme height (somewhat comparable to Big Mom's 8.8 m) and muscle bulk, making him easily dwarf normal humans. Overly top-heavy in build, he has an extremely broad, well-muscled torso with wide-set shoulders attaching to strong, thick arms, and legs that are somewhat out of proportion; far less heavily built than his arms yet about the same length (with his feet much tinier than his hands).

Kaido's head, atop his bulky neck, is disproportionally small as well (smaller than his hands), and has a massive pair of gray, sharp-pointed horns come out of its sides, curving slightly to the front, then upward. He has a longish face with a heavy brow (its ridge hairless) that tops sharp, often bloodshot eyes (parent to small, yellowish irises), plus a hook nose and a large, full-lipped mouth. Kaido is near-always seen wearing a frown, and has moderate wrinkles: lines upon the brow, crow's and tear-trough lines around the eyes, and laugh lines from always sneering. His black hair consists of an unruly, mostly swept-back mane, forming distinctly flat, rectangular locks of which some fall down near the front, over the ears, or jutting upward. His facial hair is neat, done in a wavy, waist-length Fu Manchu mustache that pairs with a spiked goatee across his broad chin. Right of his defined abs is his only scar: a massive, recessed X-shape whose upper points reach to his pectoral. It was given to him by Kozuki Oden using his swords. A tattoo of dim-reddish segments resembling reptilian scales, individually bordered in orange, goes from his left pectoral down the front of his left arm, ending in correspondence to the wrist with a white (dark in the manga), traditionally shaped skull on the lower forearm.

Clothing-wise, Kaido dons a bluish-purple, feathered overcoat draped on his shoulders, without sleeves, and below a lavender, tight-fitting, open shirt that has long sleeves. He has a black bracelet with golden (dark in the manga) spikes above each of his wrists. Upholding said shirt is a thick, off-white belt of laid rope festooned with a pair of white, hanging shide in the front. More outwardly from below the rope hang two additional pieces of fabric: rectangular, hemmed flaps that each have, from two hemmed holes at their bottom, a short, thick, golden torus chain attached to themselves. These flaps may be the bottom of his shirt. Further, Kaido has two yellow straw cords below the shimenawa, serving as waistbands to secure a short, hanging row of thin, reddish ribbons. Finally, the rest of his lower wear consists of simple, baggy pants of gray-green color, tucked below the knees into simple, blackish boots. 20 years before the current story line, Kaido's Fu Manchu was only chest-length, he lacked his current beard, and until his battle with Oden, he did not have any scars on his body. During Oden's execution, he wore the pairing of a black, sleeveless leather jacket and black, tight leather pants. As one of the Yonko, Kaido is one of the four strongest pirates alive, renowned as the "Strongest Creature in the World". Notably, he has a bounty of Beli4,611,100,000, which is the highest of any pirate currently alive, surpassed only by the bounties of the late Whitebeard and Gol D. Roger.

Kaido attempted to take Whitebeard's life, something very few would dare, and subsequently had an encounter with Shanks. When Gecko Moria was in his prime, Kaido fought him and emerged victorious, having killed his entire crew. The Five Elders mentioned Kaido as one of the few people able to stop Blackbeard. His strength was also recognized by his fellow Yonko Big Mom, who could not fathom the idea of Monkey D. Luffy defeating him. Additionally, Trafalgar Law stated that Kaido can easily kill Donquixote Doflamingo, a world-famous and extremely powerful pirate in his own right. Law speculated that even with an alliance with the Straw Hats, their chance of defeating Kaido is only about 30%, although the statement is questionable, seeing as at that time Law was not serious about fighting him. He, in fact, defeated another member of the Worst Generation, Eustass Kid, whose bounty is Beli470,000,000, with apparent ease, and refused to take Law and Luffy's alliance seriously regardless of what they accomplished, due to viewing the defeat of a Shichibukai as being nothing special. Kaido then later went on to defeat Luffy in his Gear Fourth: Boundman form effortlessly, a notable feat as Boundman could let him fight three powerful pirates who are all Busoshoku Haki users. In this instance, Kaido was not only unharmed by Boundman, but also able to knock out Luffy in a single strike, all without even utilizing his haki. He is also able to clash equally with his fellow Yonko Big Mom, as shown by the force of their clash being strong enough to split the sky in two, which is similar to the clash between Whitebeard and Shanks and to fight her equally for two days without sustaining any injuries. Similar to the other Yonko, Kaido has many underlings and other pirates allied with him and is able to claim self-governing islands as his own territories. With Caesar and Doflamingo as his associates, Kaido has created an army of over 500 Artificial Zoan-type Devil Fruit users: his Gifters. Kaido's will is known to be strong, as shown when he was completely unaffected by Luffy's Haoshoku Haki. Befitting his bulk, Kaido is legendary for his supreme physical power as the strongest beast in the world. He is capable of swinging his kanabo hard enough to send a normal-sized person flying into the distance in one blow, and also broke past the tremendous defensive power of Luffy's Gear Fourth with great ease. He once sunk nine enormous prison ships singlehandedly. According to Yasuie, Kaido singlehandedly crushed the massive armies of samurais under the Kozuki daimyos during their first rebellion against Orochi. Kaido also clashed equally with Big Mom, with the power of that clash causing the sky itself to split in two.  Kaido also possesses nigh-indestructible durability, even without using Busoshoku Haki. He took multiple powerful hits from Monkey D. Luffy's Gear Third while in his dragon form and transformed back into his human form after being pummeled into the ground, and proceeded to receive a barrage of Gear Fourth hits that were even more powerful, yet he felt nothing more than annoyance, received no injuries, and was able to quickly get back up and counterattack without issue. This durability has given Kaido the reputation of being unable to die. He has been caught and tortured 18 times, and people as powerful as the Marines and other Yonko have attempted to execute him 40 times, only to fail as Kaido survived every single attempt because every single execution weapon broke when being used on him. Most notably, Kaido has jumped from 10,000 meters from the sky onto the ground, creating a massive shockwave strong enough to sink a large ship nearby, and emerged only with a headache; it has even become a hobby for him to attempt suicide, only for it to fail. The only known time he ever suffered an injury was in a battle against Kozuki Oden, a legendary samurai dual wielding O Wazamono Meitos, Enma and Ame no Habakiri, gaining the only scar on his body. Kaido is extremely fast despite his massive size, as shown when he moves past Luffy in an instant while attacking him.

Kozuki Oden

Kozuki Oden was the daimyo of Kuri in Wano Country and the son of the former shogun Kozuki Sukiyaki, being a member of the Kozuki Family. He was the husband of Kozuki Toki and the father of Momonosuke and Hiyori. Additionally, he was the leader of a group of legendary and powerful samurai known as the Nine Red Scabbards, with all of them serving as his retainers and most trusted allies. For 5 years of his life, Oden set out to sea and became a pirate, serving as the 2nd division commander of the Whitebeard Pirates and later becoming a member of the Roger Pirates. After finding Joy Boy's treasure on Laugh Tale, Oden journeyed home and made it his goal to open Wano's borders to the world by finally taking his father's place as Shogun. However, he met opposition from his usurper Kurozumi Orochi and pirate Kaido, who executed him 20 years before the present. Oden was a muscular man of towering height that is shown to have been about half that of Whitebeard (6.6 m), much taller than normal people. He had long, wild dark hair that was notably gathered into a large, flat, circular plane at the top, and also included a prominent widow's peak and triangular sideburns. He had relatively small dark eyes, prominent, highly arched eyebrows, a square jawline, and a large, expressive mouth. During the five years before his demise, he grew a short goatee. He typically wore an orange kimono, leaving most of his legs exposed; the kimono had two yellow crescent moon designs on it. Oden also wore a large purple and white nio-dasuki tied around his shoulders that ran down his back. He would often alternate between this and a similar longer kimono, with his nio-dasuki worn as a belt and tied in the front. Oden also wore his favourite swords Enma and Ame no Habakiri across his left waist tucked inside an obi belt. While partying with the Whitebeard Pirates, he wore a light colored shirt, dark colored pants, and crown on his head.

Oden was an extremely brash, confident, and self-willed man. This motivated him to commit outrageous and violent actions for his own benefit during his youth and adolescence, such as burning down the yakuza casino after being banned from it and kidnapping women at night to form a harem in the mountains. Overall, Oden was known for getting into a significant number of violent fights, and he cared little for the consequences of his actions, as he gladly stood his ground against the yakuza and the loved ones of the women when fighting broke out as a result of the two aforementioned incidents. Although most men were appalled by his actions, his attitude made him very attractive to women, including the ones he kidnapped for his harem as they stayed with him willingly. After being sentenced to work in the quarries, Oden became less selfish and started acting to improve the lives of the Flower Capital citizens around him.

However, these actions were just as outrageous and ill-thought-out as the ones Oden committed to benefit himself. The most notable example is when he attempted to help out the citizens during a drought by diverting a river into the city, which caused the city to become flooded. Additionally, when a Mountain God attacked the Flower Capital, Oden quickly went to action to try to deal with it. Oden seemed to often mean well, but acted in ways that were reckless and potentially alienating to those around him. For example, to honor a deceased man he once knew, Oden cooked a pot of oden soup over the cremated remains and "shared one last drink" with his former friend, much to the dismay of his mourning family members. After being exiled by Sukiyaki, he seemed to have found an outlet for his unconventional attempts at heroism, as he was able to bring peace to Kuri and rebuild its infrastructure in only two years. As daimyo of Kuri, Oden had a large amount of power and influence over the region before his death. He also had the ability to hear the "Voice of All Things", which his son also inherited. Being a former member of both the Whitebeard Pirates, as a former Divison Commander, and the Roger Pirates, Oden was regarded as being a tremendously powerful pirate with a great level of influence in both crews. His influence even extends toward the members of the Mink Tribe on Zou, with the leaders Inuarashi and Nekomamushi being members of the Nine Red Scabbards. As a descendant of the Kozuki Family, Oden also inherited from his ancestors the knowledge and skill to read Poneglyphs and write its ancient language.

Additionally, the rest of the Mink Tribe has shown enough respect and loyalty toward the Kozuki Family that all of them were willing to die rather than to allow one of Oden's retainers from being captured even after Oden died. In spite of all the conflicts that he had with the Yakuza over the years, his death had such an impact on the leaders of the Yakuza that they staged their own rebellion against Kurozumi Orochi who had allied with Kaido before they were all captured and sent to Udon prison. Oden possessed a tremendous combination of combat skills and charisma. His combat prowess was seen at an early age, when he got into massive battles and altercations with powerful samurai and yakuza and survived, causing an implied high number of casualties over the years. Despite being frequently pursued by authorities in his youth, he was only captured once and eluded capture many times afterward. His combat and charisma combination was best seen in his restoration of peace to Kuri, where he defeated the powerful Ashura Doji and then proceeded to round up the rest of the dangerous criminals and get them to work under him, including Ashura. Prior to this, he also demonstrated his charisma by quickly becoming a figure of high repute as a laborer in the quarry. As Oden admitted himself, he had no talent in sailing and navigation. Oden had tremendous physical strength since infancy, during which he flung his wet nurse across the room. By age two, he could catch rabbits with his bare hands, and at age four, he killed a bear by throwing a boulder at it. At adulthood, Oden could carry a giant Koi carp which he caught at sea by himself and exerted enough physical power in his swordsmanship to clash with Whitebeard's Meito Murakumogiri. To match his tremendous strength, Oden also had astounding tolerance to pain, as he could hold a hot pot with his bare hands. He had immense stamina and endurance, as he was able to fight against the criminals and ronin of Kuri joined led by Ashura Doji for an entire night alone with multiple wounds such as arrows sticking out of his body yet still came out victorious. Additionally, he held onto a chain pulled by the Moby Dick and faced the many dangers and climates of the New World ocean with no protection for three days before eventually letting go, more because he went to rescue Toki than due to exhaustion. When he washed ashore on an island afterward, he received slight treatment from Toki and slept for one night before getting up with exuberant energy, leaving Toki surprised about his tremendous recovery speed. As a testament to his monsterous strength and endurance, Oden was able to hold up all nine of his retainers, each who are very large, on a thick wooden plank while his lower half was submerged for an extended period of time in a large pot of boiling oil, which killed an average man in seconds despite getting out. He survived being boiled alive in oil while the temperature continued to increase to over 700 degrees of heat for almost over an hour, a feat no one has managed before, which impressed even Kaido. Despite being near death, Oden could still muster the strength to throw all nine of his retainers a great distance away from the execution site. However, it appeared that Oden reached his limit from this as Kaido noted that his body was dead.