Kouzuki Momonosuke

The boy bears a strong likeness to his father Oden, sharing the same untamed black mane, a resemblance Shinobu remarked upon. After being physically matured, he stands very tall, his chest reaching the height of Hiyori and Shinobu's heads, and he keeps his face clean of any whiskers. His outfit is a soft peach kimono marked with the red family crest and trimmed at the hem with flames and clouds, layered under a dark cloak patterned with crescent moons, another Kouzuki emblem. At his side hangs Oden's blade, Ame no Habakiri.

Back when he was eight, his look followed the old samurai fashion: a topknot above a shaved crown. The hair left uncut was black after his father, while the shaved sections carried the turquoise tint of his mother and sister. Small in stature then, he favored a pink kimono decorated with peach motifs, a wink at his name, paired with geta sandals. Through the Punk Hazard events he added a red scarf together with a purple sash. Once aged into adulthood, his dragon shape came out almost a twin of Kaidou's, differing only in size, horns, and the pink of his scales.

Shaped by a samurai upbringing, Momonosuke carries himself with pride and stubbornness; while held captive he refused to speak with the other children or accept their food, an obstinacy that accidentally spared him from being poisoned. For all that haughtiness, he wept when he believed Kin'emon had perished. He clings tightly to the bushido virtues of mercy, bravery, righteousness, and honor, and shows deep care for Wano's people, his retainers, and even strangers. His selflessness ran so far that, once Kanjuro seized him, he urged the alliance to keep fighting rather than risk themselves on his rescue.

He proudly proclaims himself the future ruler of his country and insists nothing frightens him, though Doflamingo's cruelty terrified him and he would not deny that fear. Kaidou, who once dangled him over Kuri Castle and threatened to drop him, left him with a dread of heights that he only conquered by sinking his teeth into the Emperor. Beneath the pride sits a humbler nature: he openly admitted he lacked the power to avenge his parents and threw himself into constant training to fix that weakness. Spurred by Luffy, he gradually learned to take command of the Kouzuki cause. A more roguish streak, inherited from Oden, has him playing innocent to win the doting affection of older women such as Nami and Robin, and since gaining his fruit he involuntarily shifts into his beast shape whenever fear grips him.

His birth came roughly 28 years before the present, aboard the Moby Dick, during the second year his father Oden rode with the Whitebeard Pirates. The infant spent his earliest years at sea, later sailing aboard the Oro Jackson when Oden joined Gol D. Roger's last voyage. Once Toki fell ill, the family settled back in Wano. In Oden's absence the Kurozumi seized the shogunate, and the new regime made repeated attempts on the child's life. A Beasts Pirates raid on the family castle left Toki wounded as she shielded her son.

The year Momonosuke turned eight, Oden was put to death, and Kaidou with Orochi set out to wipe the Kouzuki line from existence. Cornered in the burning Oden Castle, the boy was menaced by Kaidou but left to die rather than slain. Toki then used her fruit to hurl him and several retainers two decades ahead in time. Arriving in a ruined Wano, the group began gathering allies, with Momonosuke posing as the child of his retainer Kin'emon to hide who he was.

A shipwreck scattered the party. Drifting to Dressrosa, the boy saw Doflamingo's savagery firsthand before being carried off to Punk Hazard and locked among Caesar Clown's captive children. Too proud to take their kindness, he stayed silent, and starvation eventually drove him to devour one of Vegapunk's man-made fruits, which turned him into a dragon. After overhearing Caesar condemn the children to a slow death, he fled into a garbage pit and there crossed paths with Monkey D. Luffy.

Freed alongside Luffy, he watched Caesar fall, embraced a recovered Kin'emon, and threw in with the Straw Hats and Law. He guarded the Thousand Sunny through Giolla's assault near Dressrosa and escaped to Zou, where his true lineage came to light. Commanding the great elephant Zunesha to repel Jack's fleet, he then knelt before Luffy and begged his aid, forming a grand pact of ninja, pirates, minks, and samurai.

Back in Wano, he survived Kaidou's destruction of the Oden Castle ruins thanks to Shinobu, helped lead an amnesiac Big Mom to Udon to break Luffy out, and watched freed prisoners bow to him as the Kouzuki name revived. He turned down his father's blade Ame no Habakiri, feeling unworthy. The traitor Kanjuro snatched him at Tokage Port and dragged him to Onigashima, beating him senseless along the way. Bound for execution, Momonosuke refused to disown his father even as Kaidou offered to spare a liar, and the Scabbards burst in to save him.

Rescued by Sanji and Shinobu, he fell in with Yamato, who entrusted him with Oden's journal and coached him. He broadcast Luffy's vow of victory across the island, then pleaded with Shinobu to age his body twenty years so his dragon form could match Kaidou's. Carrying Luffy aloft, he conquered his terror of heights and bit the Emperor. As the fight raged, he wove Flame Clouds powerful enough to haul the falling Onigashima clear of the Flower Capital and set it down safely.

With Kaidou and Orochi beaten, the people of Wano embraced Momonosuke as their new shogun. He reunited with Hiyori, abolished slavery, and tore down the polluting factories. When Admiral Ryokugyu came hunting Luffy, Momonosuke fought him and unexpectedly unleashed a Bolo Breath, the duel ending only when Shanks intervened from afar. He afterward met his surviving grandfather Sukiyaki and received a Straw Hat flag from Luffy as a pledge of protection. In the era that followed, an enormous earthquake struck the capital, and a worldwide broadcast by Vegapunk led him to recognize that the ancient weapon Pluton lay within Wano.