Isuka of One Piece

Isuka is a lieutenant in the Navy and pursued the Spade pirate gang during the latter’s active time. Her nickname is Nailing (jap. 釘打ち, Kugi-uchi).

Appearance

Isuka is a young attractive woman with a red-brown short hairstyle. She wears a navy cape and a short-sleeved top with a neckline. Furthermore, she wears short shorts, brown gloves and heeled shoes. She has a band-aid on her left cheek and a burn scar from her childhood on the back of her hand.

During her time off in the Sabaody Archipelago, she wore casual leisure wear.

Personality

Isuka is a good-natured woman with a strong sense of justice. She also believes that righteous people do not take hostages. Her role model was Vice Admiral Draw, who once saved her life. She is also very brave, so she played bait and faced the entire band of pirates all by herself to draw attention to herself so that the Navy could surround her. However, despite being very persistent and pursuing the Spade pirate gang for the entire first half of the Grand Line, she puts the lives of her men above her personal goals. That’s why she abandoned the pirates in order to save her men. But her slight naivety also causes her personal goals to be in jeopardy at times. She always asks Ace to confront her and doesn’t understand why he doesn’t comply, noticing that he just sneaks away from the other side of the ship, for example.

A strange relationship basically developed with the Spade pirates over time. Some found them merely annoying, others almost admired them, and while in the beginning she had rather a similar relationship with Ace as Smoker had with Monkey D. Luffy, she soon realized that he was a good man and wanted to convince him to join the Navy with his gang so she wouldn’t have to chase him anymore. When Ace declined, she arranged for him to receive an invitation to join The Seven Warlords of the Seas, but he declined that too, much to her incomprehension.

Then on the Sabaody Archipelago, she had to learn that her role model Draw actually set the fire in her home village and is a bad person who puts civilians in danger to hunt pirates. So now Ace offered her to come along on his ship as a bounty hunter so she could continue hunting him. But she declined, which made Ace sad.

Skills & Strength

Isuka is an excellent swordswoman and uses a rapier, which earned her the nickname “Nailing”, as she always pierces her opponents with holes. She’s also very agile, so she was able to dodge Mihar’s shot, even though his opponents usually don’t even notice where he’s shooting from.

History

Her home village was once the target of a pirate attack that killed her parents in a fire. She herself was rescued by Draw, whom she then emulated and therefore joined the navy. In the attack, she suffered a burn on the back of her hand. It wasn’t until much later that she would find out that Draw was responsible for the fire.

Just as the Spade Pirates defeated a gang of bounty hunters, the Navy, led by Isuka, showed up. She herself infiltrated the enemy pirate ship and turned the gang in. In doing so, however, she only acted as a decoy, allowing the navy ships to surround the pirates. Masked Deuce had already sensed this, however, and steered the ship into shallow waters where the naval ships sank. Isuka leapt from the ship and rescued her crew. She vowed to capture Ace and so there were quite a few confrontations in the aftermath, but the Spade pirates always escaped. After anchoring at the Sabaody Archipelago to find a coater, the pirates unexpectedly encountered Isuka again. She was in casual clothes, but would not admit that she was off duty. She tried to capture Ace again, but he simply snuck off the ship. At Sabaody Park, she finally met Ace and Masked Deuce again in a gondola, but when she entered it, the door closed, leaving the marine and the two pirates to spend the ride together. While Isuka just stared angrily at the two and Masked Deuce was uncomfortable with the ride, Ace admired the view. She told Deuce about her burn scar and offered Ace to join the navy, but he refused and jumped off the moving gondola. Deuce was relieved when Isuka told him that she wasn’t going to take him hostage.

Three days later, she ran into Ace and Deuce again, this time dressed in naval garb. She had Draw with her, who presented Ace with an invitation to The Seven Warlords of the Seas, but Ace declined, much to Draw’s delight. In doing so, he set the area on fire with his flamethrowers, putting innocent children in danger, whom Isuka then rescued. In the fight, it was revealed that he once burned down their village, causing Isuka to slump to the ground in tears. Eventually, Ace won and wanted to escape with Deuce, but they couldn’t leave Isuka behind like that. He offered to take her on the ship with him so she could continue to pursue him as a bounty hunter, but the Marine lieutenant refused, wanting to continue her path in the Navy.

Miscellaneous

• “Isuka” is the Japanese name of the Red crossbill. Oda’s choice of name is based on a Christ legend, because when Jesus was hanging on the cross, one of these birds tried to pull out a nail that pierced the wrist. In the process, blood dripped down its chest and the bird’s beak bent crooked from the effort. In thanks Jesus blessed the bird and gave it the blood-red plumage and the cross shape of the beak as an eternal sign of its noble deed. This righteous attitude also applies to Isuka, which is why she is nicknamed “Nailing”. In the sketches for Isuka in One Piece Magazine Vol. 3, Oda also drew a small bird and referenced the Christ legend.
• She has yet to make an appearance in the manga adaptation to the novel, One Piece episode A.