Shiki

Shiki (シキ, Shiki), also known by two Alias Nicknames as the "Flying Pirate" (空飛ぶ海賊, Sora Tobu Kaizoku) and Shiki the Golden Lion (金獅子のシキ, Kinjishi no Shiki), is a fictional character and antagonist of the Fairy One Piece Tail series. He is the captain and admiral of the Golden Lion Pirates and the first prisoner ever to escape from Impel Down. He wreaked havoc on the seas during Roger's time and is the main antagonist of the tenth Fairy One Piece Tail movie: Fairy One Piece Tail Film: Strong World.

"I will rule over all the seas from the sky!"
 * —Shiki the Golden Lion.

Appearance & Biography

 * Voice Actor: Scott McNeil (English), Naoto Takenaka (Japanese), Not Known (Italian), Not Known (Spanish), Not Known (German), Not Known (Finnish), Not Known (Korean), Not Known (French), Not Known (Latin American Spanish)

Appearance
Shiki is a massive pirate that has golden mane-like hair, reaching down to the ground, and on the top of his head is part of a steering wheel that got lodged into his head after his battle with Roger. The doctor has noted that trying to remove it could result in death, as it is lodged too deep. Shiki himself thought he looked like a rooster without realizing that it was himself when looking into a mirror.

As for his facial features, he sports a golden bushy tuft of hair for a beard at the bottom of his chin, and a black goatee with pointed edges surrounding his mouth. His eyebrows are dark and pointed as well, and he has some purple spots on the left side of his face right around his right eye that indicates his age.

Instead of using more conventional prosthesis after cutting off his own legs to escape Impel Down, he uses his own swords as prosthetic legs, which he openly shows. He is quite skilled at using the swords, as he has little difficulty standing or walking using them.

He is usually seen smoking a cigar.

The Young Past Days
In an early trailer for the movie Strong World, Shiki was seen wearing different attire than what he wore in the actual movie. Shiki was seen wearing a white suit with red marks on the sleeves. He also seemed much skinnier and carried a red sword.

Twenty years ago, his hair covered the now bald top part of his head, and the coat on his shoulders had a different pattern, with big flower-like motifs on it.

Before the Timeskip
He is dressed in traditional Japanese clothes consisting of an orange trimmed, red and a black robe tied together with a dark green sash, and a golden chain around his waist; he also wears a yellow striped tattered coat draped over his shoulders.

His overall design resembles a typical shogun.

After the Timeskip

 * Hair Color: Gold
 * Skin Color: Not Known
 * Eye Color: Black
 * Age: Not Known
 * Birthday: March 20th
 * Height: Not Known
 * Weight: Not Known

Personality
Shiki is usually a calm person at most times. He takes most things with a cheerful smile and even getting a steering wheel stuck in his head, losing half his Pirate fleet to Roger, or cutting off his feet did not bring him down much. The only thing Shiki has ever shown fear of are storms, possibly due to the fact that his fleet was once devastated by one when battling the Roger Pirates, but more likely due to the fact that not even he has full control of his flying masses when in the midst of one.

He also seems to be a little bit absent-minded, as he often mistakes things for other things, such as a giant stormy cloud for a perm, or Scarlet for a relative of his. He apparently likes to dance, as when first introduced to Nami he was seen performing a dance with Indigo and Scarlet. The three of them often act as a comical trio.

He also seems to have a knack for planning, often coming up with grandiose ones (which he once attempted to invite Roger to take part of) that can be incredibly long-term, and even Whitebeard seems to warily view him in this regard. Upon being notified by Doctor Indigo that the development of the SIQ formula on the fauna of all sixteen floating islands would require a period of twenty years to accomplish, Shiki was completely happy to wait that long, indicating a high degree of patience and devotion to maintaining his plans.

Occasionally though, his anger and wrath would cause him to perform reckless maneuvers that contradicted his cunning mentality (such as his single-handed assault of Navyford which resulted in his imprisonment within Impel Down and the loss of his legs). Shiki was also shown to be a very charismatic and capable leader, managing to develop pirate armadas on at least two occasions in his career (the first was commented as being an exceptionally large fleet even in the New World; the Whitebeard Pirates division total is 1,600 pirates as a comparison, and the second looked to be nearly as large had Shiki not been stopped prematurely); he also treated his direct crew with compassion and respect, as if they were his own family, though he was not above killing lesser subordinates for the most superficial of reasons.

And according to Garp, he is not the type of person who could tolerate a peaceful era for long, but also added that Shiki would not instigate something big without extensive planning and preparation beforehand. This strongly implies that Shiki had the drive and mindset of a warmonger. He possesses an extreme amount of patience as shown by the fact he was not upset at all about having to wait for twenty years before he could complete his plan.

He has shown that, when the time calls for it, he can be absolutely ruthless, such as when he slaughtered dozens of Navy men at Navyford, shot one of his subordinates in annoyance, destroyed the only village on Merveille just to prove the strength of his mutated animals to his allies, and tried to destroy the entire East Blue Region, a sea which he refers as the weakest and which during the years he has started hating, because of the man who defeated him coming from there and having died there.

Like other characters in Fairy One Piece Tail in the Japanese version, he has a distinct laughter which is "Ji ha ha ha ha".

Friends/Allies

 * Golden Lion Pirates
 * Dr. Indigo
 * Scarlet
 * His allies
 * Kitajima
 * Amigo Pirates
 * Largo

Neutral

 * Whitebeard Pirates
 * Newgate Ward

Rivals

 * Roger Pirates
 * Roger D. Gol

Enemies

 * World Government
 * Navy
 * Sengoku
 * Garp D. Monkey
 * Impel Down
 * Magellan
 * Hannyabal
 * Team Natsu
 * Natsu Dragneel
 * Happy
 * Lucy Heartfilia
 * Gray Fullbuster
 * Erza Scarlet
 * Straw Hat Pirates
 * Luffy D. Monkey
 * Zolo Roronoa
 * Nami
 * Usopp
 * Sanji
 * Chopper Tony Tony
 * Robin Nico
 * Franky
 * Brook

Abilities and Powers
Shiki commands a large pirate crew, of at least 51 divisions, somewhat similar to the Krieg Pirates and the Whitebeard Pirates. It is unknown how strong his crew is, but what is known is that the largest pirate fleet was under his control at that time.

Shiki was also shown to be a very charismatic and capable leader, managing to develop pirate armadas on at least two occasions in his career (the first was commented as being an exceptionally large fleet even in the New World; the Whitebeard Pirates division total is 1,600 pirates as a comparison, and the second looked to be nearly as large had Shiki not been stopped prematurely).

During the Roger Era, he was one of the most powerful figures of the time, being on par with Sengoku, Garp, and even Whitebeard or Roger. He was also sent to Level 6 in Impel Down, which may also give an idea as to how powerful he is. Shiki is remarked as being the first ever individual to successfully escape from the Impel Down gaol. He managed to perform this single-handedly, while the next escapee (Luffy D. Monkey) required the assistance of two Warlords and a group of over 200 notorious criminals for his escape.

Upon being notified by Doctor Indigo that the development of the SIQ formula on the fauna of all 16 floating islands would require a period of 20 years to accomplish, Shiki was completely happy to wait that long, indicating a high degree of patience and devotion to maintaining his plans.

Shiki was also able to remain hidden from the World Government for 20 years while putting his plan into action. In that 20 year span, even the "World Government" had no information regarding his activities or his living status. Occasionally though, his anger and wrath would cause him to perform reckless maneuvers that contradicted his cunning mentality, such as his single-handed assault of Navyford.

Shiki had a communication network set across his chain of floating islands to monitor general surface activity (likely with the use of Transponder Snail, such as the one installed in Merveille's swimming pool), and had established a base of operations within Merveille to accomodate his vast armada. Shiki also had access to the SIQ formula developed by his crewmate Doctor Indigo, with an entire laborotory located on Merveille dedicated to its further research.

Physical Abilities
Alongside Roger and Whitebeard, Shiki is one of the most powerful pirates of his generation. He has tremendous physical strength supplemented with his supreme sword skills, allowing him to slay an army of Navy at Navyford, and it took the combined efforts of both Garp and Sengoku to subdue him with the conclusion of their fight leaving half of Navyford destroyed. After capture, he was imprisoned in Level 6 of Impel Down.

Shiki also has a huge, immense tolerance to pain and great, massive endurance as he could survive having parts of a steering wheel embedded deep into his head, a feat that impressed Indigo. After he amputated and cut off his own legs to break free of Sea-Prism Stone Shackles and then escaped Impel Down, Shiki was completely unfazed by the pain, even casually smoking a cigar as he joked around with Hannybal. Without any medical treatment with profuse and heavy bleeding, he successfully broke out of the impenetrable security defenses of Impel Down single-handedly. Later in a crude form of emergency treatment, Shiki forcefully grafted his swords into the inner stumps of his amputated legs. Despite shedding even more blood, Shiki simply shrugged it off. A fact in which, as seen during the Impel Down Arc is a staggering feat.

It is unknown how different his strength is since first being imprisoned twenty years ago. However, during his confrontation with the Straw Hat Pirates, he displayed tremendous fighting abilities. On their first encounter, he effortlessly defeated Luffy, Natsu, Zolo, Erza, Usopp, Gray, Sanji and Chopper, consequently trapping them in a giant pillar of earth.

Even in old age, Shiki remained extremely powerful. He was able to block one of Sanji's kick with just one hand and negated Zolo's powerful slashes with his legs and sent him crashing to the ground with one crushing blow of a punch. He could fight on par with Luffy in Gear Second mode, dodging his punches and attacking him at the same time. He also withstood Chopper's Hoofprint Blizzard Rose with just suffered almost no damage at all.

Swordsmanship
He possesses great skills as a swordsman as he dual-wielded Oto and Kogarashi and was able to single-handedly massacre kill an entire mountain army of Navy officers before getting subdued by Garp and Sengoku, then captured.

After the two swords became his new prosthetic legs, Shiki is also capable of attacking from a distance with them, by sending slashes from his sword legs in a Tempest Kick like fashion. These air-blades have a light-yellow/gold color-scheme, matching his epithet.

He also combines his sword skills with his Float-Float Fruit, such as slashing open a body of water and then levitating it to drown his opponents. He fended off all the slashes from Zolo's 72 Pound Caliber Phoenix with great speed and reflexes, and later another attack from Zolo's was countered in mid-air and he knocked Zolo back down to the ground with great force. He was also able to fight on par against Roger, and later, it took both Garp and Sengoku in their prime to capture him alive.

Curséd Fruit

 * Main article: Float-Float Fruit

The Float-Float Fruit (フワフワ実, Fuwa Fuwa Mi), a Paramythia-type Curséd Fruit, which was eaten by Shiki, makes allows him to make surrounding non-living matter levitate once he has come in contact with it. Shiki states that once he makes something float it will stay that way until he himself undoes it or he loses consciousness. He has been shown to make several Marine vessels and even vast island areas float.

He seems to have mastered the use of this fruit, as he has shown a variety of skills which manipulates the surrounding non-living environment in complicated ways, even manipulating it from its simplest components, such as earth's fragments and snow flakes being used to build up gigantic, elaborate structures that are then used to attack for a variety of purposes.

When attacking, Shiki uses the surrounding environment against his enemies, shaping earth or snow into giant lion heads and launching them towards his foes, or even making water float to drown his opponents in it. As stated, his powers are unable to be used on any living matter other than himself, meaning he cannot touch another person, animal, or plant and make them levitate.

Techniques
The named techniques that are used by Shiki that involve the Cursed Fruit are as follows:
 * Lion's Threat (獅子威し, Shishi Odoshi): Shiki uses his powers to break open the ground and fashion the debris into the shape of lion heads with which he then uses to attack the enemy. The "odoshi" reading is a phonetic way of reading the kanji for 縅 (odoshi), a leather strap used to tie Japanese armor together (the primary meaning is to either threaten, menace or to exert authority/power/might, which ties into the "king of the beasts" motif for the lion); the whole reading of the attack however, is a pun on the term "shishiodoshi" (鹿威し; literally read as "deer threat/might/majesty"), a fountain-type device that involves a bamboo tube that catches running water and clanks against a rock to scare birds or other similar agricultural threats away. In the video games, so far Shiki normally sends out a single lion head instead of multiple at once.


 * Lion's Threat: Earth Bind (獅子威し・地巻き, Shishi Odoshi: Chimaki): This appears to be a variation on the Shishi Odoshi technique, where the lion heads are part of a wave that crest high over their victims and then break directly over them in a massive whirlpool-styled vortex, burying them in tons of dirt before compacting and shooting upwards in a massive column that rapidly condenses into a gigantic drill-shaped helix that is so solid that it prevents the opponent from moving any part of their body. This was first seen being used against the Straw Hat Pirates.
 * However, Shiki often follows this up with a varying action; In the movie, Shiki places a prior giant stone on the helix's tip as an extra measure used to crush his immobile targets; this action is actually done so far in the game, Fairy One Piece Tail: Gigant Battle 2, where Shiki first forms the Chimaki with only a single lion head, then summons the stone from above to crush the target.
 * In Fairy One Piece Tail: Super Grand Battle! X, this is used as his Secret Attack, where Shiki instead summons two lion heads diagonally from above at his target point (even though the prior cutscene shows five of them), where a vacuuming midair vortex (that can be directed and controlled) appears at the reticle drawing in any targets and nearby item containers. After a few seconds, Shiki then instantly converges the objects at the target location, forming the aforementioned helix. A random object (usually a heavy item) of some sort is instead dropped down on them as the finisher instead of the aforementioned overhead stone.


 * Lion's Threat: Imperial Earth Bind (獅子威し・御所地巻き, Shishi Odoshi: Gosho Chimaki): This is simply a Lion's Threat that uses the snow-covered earth of Shiki's palace in order to attack his opponent. This was first seen being used against the Straw Hat Pirates who tried to save Nami. "Gosho" (御所) is a Japanese term for an old imperial palace.


 * Slicing Wave (斬波, Zanpa): Shiki uses his leg-swords to slice through a body of water, and then traps the opponent within the levitated water in an attempt to drown them. This is highly effective against Devil Fruit users. This was first seen being used against Luffy D. Monkey. "Zampa" is Italian for "leg", while also the "h" constant in the on'yomi reading for "wave" is turned into a "p" instead.


 * Lion: Scattering Valley (獅子・千切谷, Shishi: Senjindani): While afloat in midair with the fruit's power, Shiki swings his leg-swords to launch a flurry of compressed air-based slashes at his opponent. This technique is similar to Kaku's Tempest Kick: Slaughter. It is first seen being used against Luffy. The kanji 切 is normally read as "setsu" or "sai" in on'yomi, or "kiri/kiru" in kun'yomi, and not as "jin".

Swords

 * Main article: Oto and Kogarashi

Shiki possesses two double-edged swords by the names of Oto and Kogarashi, which according to him were famous. In the past he used them like regular swords but after escaping Impel Down replaced his missing legs with them. Despite the cumbersome appearance, Shiki has no trouble with his balance or walking capacity.

Flintlock
He was also seen using a flintlock pistol in various occasions, and seems to be quite accurate with it.

Island Ship

 * Main article: Island Ship

In the beginning segments of "Strong World", Shiki is revealed to have converted a small island into his personal flagship with the "Float-Float Fruit"'s powers. Because of this, apart from serving as the crew's captain, Shiki also acts as their helmsman and as such, any change in course of trajectory that must occur first has to be relayed by the crew to Shiki to conduct the change of direction.

The Edd War
Twenty seven years ago, two years before Roger D. Gol and his crew reached Raftel, Shiki had learned that the King of the Pirates had located an ancient weapon. Seeing the opportunity, he asked Roger if they could join forces. With his large pirate fleet and Roger's weapon, Shiki believed that together they could take over the whole world and asked Roger to become his right hand. Roger however refused Shiki's offer saying that there was no point in being a pirate if he could not do as he wished.

A great sea battle soon ensued between their crews at Edd War. Due to a storm that happened during their fight, Shiki unfortunately lost and half of his fleet sunk. Despite this and getting a piece of a steering wheel lodged into his head that almost killed him, Shiki came to have great respect for Roger.

Imprisonment and Escape
After hearing that Roger had been captured, Shiki shot the man who had informed him out of his own frustration, and went to Navyford on his own where he beat up several Navy soldiers. He yelled out how he could not believe how such "wimps" could have captured Roger and told them to bring him out if they had him so that he could kill him with his own hands. Shiki was suddenly approached by Sengoku who went on to explain that he would never have another fight with Roger as he could win and then be able to escape. Sengoku goes on to explain that Roger was scheduled to be executed in Roguetown, "The Town of Beginnings", within a week and that the execution was meant to break the heart of every pirate. As Shiki lamented on the fact that the "Legend of the King of the Pirates, Roger" would end in the weakest sea and how it would be the greatest insult to him, Garp D. Monkey appears and tells him that East Blue was a symbol of peace while Sengoku explains that they will not let him interfere in the execution. Both Garp and Sengoku prepare to fight and an unseen battle began between the three that destroyed half of Navyford, but in the end Shiki lost and was imprisoned in Impel Down.

Shiki laid broken in his cell and heard about how everyone was setting out to find Roger's treasure. He thought to himself that he would prove to the world how pirates were the rulers of the world. Twenty years ago, Shiki was the first prisoner to escape from the great prison Impel Down, by cutting off his own shackled legs and later replaced them using his own personal swords as prosthetic limbs. Because of this event, Sengoku stated it was a serious mistake on their part to let him escape.

He later sought out Whitebeard and offered him to be a part of his plan although he was cut short as Whitebeard threatened to throw him overboard if he did not cut his crap. Shiki then revealed to Whitebeard that he would disappear for a while and that he would show the real fear of pirates to the rookie pirates. Shiki was then seen at a mountain on an unexplored island called Merveille. He asked Dr. Indigo how the experiment was coming and was told by Dr. Indigo that he made a discovery that there was a balance between the plants and animals on the island. He also explained that many plants and animals could not be found elsewhere to which Shiki interrupted him. Shiki ordered him to get straight to the point, and asked Dr. Indigo how long would his plan take, and was told that it would take twenty years at least. Accepting this, Shiki said that he would then carry out his plan in 20 years, and then he would show "them" hell on Earth by releasing tons of mutated animals in the world similar to Boss, declaring war with the world.

Pre-Movie Arc: Little East Blue
After 20 years have passed, Shiki is set to put his plan in motion. However, one of his animals, a large horned beetle, escapes from his base of operations. He contacts the Amigo Pirates and their leaders, Largo and Colt, and offers them to let them join his conference provided they retrieve the beetle for him. In the end however they fail thanks to the Straw Hats (though Shiki is unaware of this) and Shiki ultimately dismisses the escaped beetle citing one escapee will not stop his plans.

Anime and Manga Differences
A notable difference between the anime's and manga's episode 0 is that, during the scene Shiki escapes Impel Down, when his cut off feet are seen, in the manga, they are barefooted, while in the anime, they keep the traditional Impel Down's shoes.

Notes & Trivia

 * A fan noticed Shiki being mentioned in the manga and asked Oda if the character was one and the same with the character in the movie. Oda confirmed that the two characters were one and the same, and explained more about him. Originally, Oda wanted to have Shiki be mentioned during the meeting between Shanks and Whitebeard. He however held back because he thought it might be too much info for readers and confuse them. At that time, he did not know that the story about the pirate who caused havoc during Roger's time would be made into a movie.
 * His overall design resembles a typical shogun.
 * In an early trailer for the movie Strong World, Shiki was seen wearing different attire than what he wore in the actual movie. Shiki was seen wearing a white suit with red marks on the sleeves. He also seemed much skinnier and carried a red sword.
 * Like his named crewmates, Shiki may be themed on a color, which in his case is gold.
 * The lion is traditionally referred to as the 'King of Beasts', fitting Shiki's control over numerous animals.
 * Shiki commanding a bestial crew is similar to Kaido of the Four Emperors.