Higuma

An X-shaped scar cut above his right eye distinguished this tall, deeply tanned brute. His hair and goatee were both black. For clothing he favored a long red coat thrown over a white shirt, with dark trousers and a gold necklace.

Boastful and thuggish, Higuma loved to glorify himself while preying on anyone weaker, children included. Having spent his whole life inland, he held pirates in open contempt after crossing paths with the Red Hair Pirates, branding the lot of them cowards once Shanks declined to be provoked. Beneath the bluster, though, he had little real nerve. When the Red Hair Pirates flattened his men with ease, and later when the Lord of the Coast bore down on him, all he could do was panic and run for his life. He did possess a streak of cunning, carrying a smoke bomb for quick getaways and gambling that no one would look for a mountain bandit out at sea.

Higuma rose to become a feared bandit chief, claiming fifty-six kills and carrying a bounty of 8,000,000 berries, far above the usual East Blue figure. One day he led his gang into Foosha Village hunting for liquor and ran into the Red Hair Pirates drinking with a seven-year-old Luffy at Partys Bar. Unimpressed by Shanks, he smashed an offered bottle, dumped a shelf of drinks over the captain, sneered at the pirates as cowards, and left. Days later, after the pirates had sailed off, he returned and loudly mocked them, which drove an outraged Luffy to strike at the bandits. The gang dragged the boy outside, and on discovering his rubber body Higuma mused about selling him to a circus. When Luffy kept hurling insults, Higuma moved to kill him, only for the Red Hair Pirates to return. He ordered an attack, watched Benn Beckman crush his whole gang, then triggered a smoke bomb and fled by boat with Luffy as hostage. Confident he had escaped, he kicked the boy into the sea, but the commotion drew the Lord of the Coast, which devoured him whole. His death indirectly led Shanks to give up an arm saving Luffy, sealing the boy's resolve to chase the title of Pirate King.