Kuja Pirates

Women handpicked from the Kuja people of Amazon Lily fill every post on this crew, whose title reads literally as Nine Snakes Pirates. The captaincy always falls to whoever wears the tribe's crown; that role now belongs to Boa Hancock, who held a seat in the Seven Warlords ranks until the government scrapped that institution. Backing her as her seconds are two younger siblings, Boa Marigold and Boa Sandersonia. After she signed a pact protecting the island, the World Government labeled all Kuja pirates, whether they sail or stay ashore.

Their emblem is a jawless skull without crossbones; nine serpents instead climb out from behind it and bend toward the right, a nod to the Gorgon of myth. They travel aboard the Perfume Yuda, a galleon that carries no figurehead but is towed at the bow by a pair of domesticated Yuda sea-serpents steering it through the Calm Belt.

Renown has trailed this crew throughout everything known of its past, reaching as far back as the days of the Rocks Pirates. Its roster changes with each generation, yet every version is picked from the tribe's mightiest women and captained by the reigning Empress. That celebrated history is part of why Hancock earned her Warlord seat off a single campaign. Haki comes standard to each member, usually combined with the tribe's serpent arms, and Hancock alone wields Conqueror's Haki; when Luffy nearly died at the arena, most of the crew brushed off his own Conqueror's aura even as regular islanders dropped unconscious.

Beyond Haki, the Gorgon Sisters carry Devil Fruits pressed on them years ago by the World Nobles: the Mero Mero no Mi for Hancock, and two variants of the Hebi Hebi no Mi for her sisters, Sandersonia bearing the Anaconda form and Marigold the King Cobra. Anyone drawn to Hancock risks being petrified where they stand, and ships the Kuja raid are said to float back as clusters of stone figures, so their banner alone sends merchants and pirates fleeing. Even their beauty serves as a weapon, unnerving most men who dare to fight or rob them.

As Empress of the tribe, Boa Hancock leads the crew, flanked by her siblings Marigold and Sandersonia, the three together known as the Gorgon Sisters. Preceding captains include Tritoma; before her came Shakuyaku, who rose from first mate to captain two generations earlier and then abandoned piracy to keep a bar. Gloriosa held command three generations back with Shakuyaku beside her, and the pair were already famous across the world forty-four years ago, enough that the Roger Pirates once sought to recruit Shakuyaku.

When the Warlord institution collapsed, Hancock's bounty climbed above 1.6 billion Berries, while the crew's total figure sits at no less than 1.739 billion. Through the Summit War period they responded to a Marine summons, later hid Luffy for a run at Impel Down, and afterward guided both him and the Heart Pirates back to Amazon Lily. Two years later they delivered him to Sabaody Archipelago and swore to help him at any moment he called.