CP9

Unlike the eight openly numbered Cipher Pol squads devoted to gathering intelligence, this secret agency exists to quietly eliminate anyone judged a danger to the World Government. Recruits are taken as children and drilled in body and mind to become ruthless killers, taught to shed their emotions for the sake of efficiency. Rob Lucci, the strongest the group ever produced, grew nearly incapable of mercy through this conditioning, though younger agents like Kaku showed the molding did not always hold. The unit is based in the Tower of Justice at Enies Lobby, standing as the last guardians of the Gates of Justice, and the island's reputation for being unconquerable rests on generations of these agents. This particular generation was called the strongest in its history. Their pride ran so deep that they flatly refused to believe any pirate could beat them, an arrogance that paved the way to their downfall. Failure was never tolerated, and any agent who lost would be dismissed and then killed or imprisoned to prevent leaks.

CP9 holds privileges denied to ordinary Cipher Pol squads, chief among them the right to kill anyone deemed a threat to world stability, plus mastery of the rare Six Powers martial style and, during the Water 7 Saga, a one-time authorization to trigger a Buster Call granted by Admiral Aokiji. The agency's central scheme was the recovery of the Pluton blueprints. Years earlier, Spandam planted four agents undercover in Water 7: Kalifa as Iceburg's secretary, Blueno as a bartender, and Lucci and Kaku as Galley-La dock foremen. Their assault on the Galley-La headquarters ended that long deception, after which they tracked the real blueprints to Franky and seized Nico Robin, ferrying their captives by Sea Train toward Enies Lobby. There the Straw Hat Pirates stormed the stronghold and broke the agency apart in a string of duels.

Rob Lucci led the group and fell only to Luffy after a grueling fight, the lone agent none of the other Straw Hats could match. Kaku was beaten by Zoro, Jabra by Sanji, Blueno by Luffy, Kumadori by Chopper, Fukurou by Franky, and Kalifa by Nami after Sanji refused to strike a woman. The rookie Nero, having mastered only four Six Powers techniques, was bested by Franky and then cast into the sea by a contemptuous Lucci. Chief Spandam, the weakest of all, was crippled by Usopp, Franky, and Robin. After Enies Lobby, the surviving agents became fugitives, wandered as street performers to fund Lucci's recovery, and clashed with Marines before, during the timeskip, earning reinstatement and promotion into CP0.