Haraguroya's Owner

Standing at ordinary height, the owner sports a short beard and tired, shadowed eyes, with a scar cutting across the bridge of his nose. Dark hair reaches down to his shoulders, curling up at the tips and bound into a topknot. His outfit pairs a dark kimono with a pale tasuki cord and geta sandals.

Toward paying customers he put on a bright, hospitable front, but any challenge flipped him into something hostile and intimidating. Scornful of the poor, he exploited them by substituting cheaper stock while still demanding the full rate, all the while boasting fierce pride in both his soba's flavor and the quality of his ingredients. He looks up to Sanji as a chef, and the moment he grasped that 'San-gorou' was that very man, his animosity dissolved.

His thriving stall proved he held genuine culinary ability, though he leaned far more heavily on premium ingredients than on actual technique, and his ties to both the yakuza and Paradise Farm let him corner the capital's supply of quality stock. Two years before the tale, he pulled Sanji's wanted poster out of a wreck that drifted onto Wano's shore and began idolizing the cook. When Sanji and Usopp wandered past his stall, he coaxed Usopp into a bowl, then sold two portions of inferior noodles to a shabbily dressed woman and girl. That evening Sanji called out the scheme, and the pair settled on a soba contest, putting up the stall itself against Sanji's exit from the capital. Judged by three hours of sales, the duel saw Haraguroya lead at first before Sanji's cooking and his explained recipe won the crowd over. Scheming to ruin 'San-gorou' with the Kyoshiro Family, he instead overheard Sanji's true name, recognized the chef from the bounty poster, and praised his rival's craft as his men dragged him away. He later traded his old poster for Sanji's updated bounty.