What do birdie's marine companions think of her? Is Koby open about his feelings for her?? Does Smoker care for her as much as Aokiji did??

Thank you so much! That's fun, roll the Marines!

Koby. He has this sorta adoration for birdie since she interfered with a bullying incident when he first arrived to Marineford. Like many nice people that fall for the wrong ones, he always felt like he could "save" her from herself. He never admitted to anyone his feelings but they are quite clear.

Helmeppo. He came to know her a bit by hanging out with Koby, and ironically birdie ended up liking him (slightly) better. They communicate with banter. Even if he always thought she was bad news, Helmeppo used to respect her, even if she unsettled him a little. But after the shit she pulled and the way she hurt Koby, he definitely doesn't like her anymore.

Tashigi. She's probably the closest thing to a friend birdie ever had in the Marines, and they were mainly just... friendly. They bonded over their shared hate for formalities, ceremonies and uncomfortable dresses. They also respected each other's talents. When they were both in the headquarter, Tashigi would often look for birdie in the cafeteria and be one of the few people sitting with her to eat. She was distraught by the news of her captivity and immediately called her from G5 once birdie was back to Marineford.

Smoker. He was surprised when Kuzan started going around with a standoffish kid, but the admiration he holds for the Admiral told him she had to be worth it. He soon came to respect her talent as a sniper. Later on, when he took Tashigi under his wing, he understood even better. Smoker once briefly expressed his concern to Aokiji on how much birdie seemed to be dependent on him, but the topic was quickly dismissed and he shrugged it off. After Kuzan left and he was assigned to G5, Smoker put in a request to have birdie transferred to his unit, because he knew how hard it would be for her in Marineford without any friend. The request was denied by Sakazuki.

Tsuru. She invited birdie to join her all-female crew, both when Aokiji was still around, and after he left the Marines. Birdie turned her down twice. Tsuru also expressed concern for her attitude and tried to protect her after her rehabilitation period.

Sakazuki. Birdie is nothing more than a tool to him. He despised her as an underlying of Aokiji that could barely follow orders. Ironically, he came to respect her a little after seeing how she handled her re-integration after her captivity. So he took a closer look to her records and he was... slightly impressed. Until he found out she deserted of course, now she's the worst kind of scum.

Fujitora. He treats her with indifferent respect, like he does with everyone. She despises him for being irresolute after seeing how he handled Doflamingo.

Bastille. He thinks she's an insolent, annoying girl and should be kicked out from the Marines (many agree).

Chaton/Tokikake. He was responsible for her rehabilitation, he trained her in armament haki. Chaton liked her, he found her dry sarcasm amusing.

Grount. He hates birdie for being always by Aokiji's side and later on the only one allowed to remain in Marineford. He was taken under Aokiji's wing when birdie was around already and she didn't like to share, so the resentment was mutual. They used to spar as teens, and he would often beat her up, but he could never win when weapons were allowed in the match. She threatened to kill him once when he wasn't able to keep his arm under control. They never had any contact after he was transferred.

'If' Coby finds out?? Oooh 👀

But does that mean 'Emperor's isn't canon to your 'Captive' story? Because I feel like as an Emperor, people would know who his crew is 🤔

Exactly, Emperors isn't canon, it's a what if future scenario. I still haven't revealed anything on the future of birdie and Kid, the next book could go in a totally different direction.

For example, in Emperors you have the Gomu Gomu no Mi and no mention whatsoever on its real nature. There, I even imply Luffy died.

Captive, Bonds, and Mission Dressrosa are the only "canon" books of the series and strictly follow the manga events, this is why I waited so long before starting Bonds.

With Emperors, I feel free to pretty much write what I want without worrying too much.

Hi hi! So I had a bit of a 'what if' question. Do you think birdie would have fallen for Kidd even if the whole story of Captive didn't happen? Like if they somehow met and got to know each other "normally?" Cause tbh, the whole situation was like a perfect scenario for it to happen with her hating pirates before seeing how they are vs what she thought

And btw, currently reading Emperors, and like, Kuzan is so fking cute andlkdhevwv. Hilarious that these two somehow made a kid that's nothing like them tbh 😂 But anyway, just really enjoyed how you are writing him as such a big contrast! I wanna adopt him 😭

Hi, thank you for your question!

From my understanding, with "normally" you still mean in the One Piece word, and not a modern!AU for example, right?

Honestly it's hard to picture an alternative scenario that doesn't involve a forced, prolonged contact between the two.

Since they're a pirate and a marine, their encounter would always be violent, they would always be on opposite sides. Plus they're both headstrong and not prone to positive emotions, so I really can't see it happen.

Maybe if birdie wasn't a marine, if she wasn't found by Aokiji as a kid and somehow managed to set sail some other way... maybe she could've become a pirate.

Then yes, probably. Since the chemistry between them is so strong, if they met up as pirates, they would probably pull a enemy-to-fuckers lovers real quick.

Do you think once Birdie gets a bounty her and kid would get playfully competitive with it trying to see who can raise their bounty the quickest?

Mmm, not really.

They might have a playful banter about it, but at the end of the day birdie isn't really interested in wrecking havoc like Kid is, I doubt she would be into such challenge.

It would also depend on what kind of relationship they end up having by the end of Wano, if any at all. 😅 I don't wanna give away anything.

Morning! I was reading through a lot of your answers (which thank you so much for doing so! I love hearing your thoughts!), and just wanted to clairify something for "emperors." In one of your past answers, "buuuut "Emperors" is indeed semi-canon," but recently, you said that only "captive," "mission dresrossa," and "bonds" are canon to your story. Is the Killer thing the only canon part of "emperors<," or would that be getting a little spoilery? Thank you!!

You're right, I've been a little confusing with the status of Emperors in the series, so I'll take this chance to clear things up a little!

That's true, Captive, Mission Dressrosa and Bonds are the only canon books of the story so far -- actually Bonds isn't out yet but you get what I mean.

Now, when I say that Emperors is semi canon, I mean it's the closest thing you can get to a possible future for Kid and birdie as I left things right now (so before Bonds). Not only I wanted to picture them in a happy ending, but I also wanted to give that to myself and all the readers that became invested in their relationship, especially after the bittersweet ending in Captive.

Aaaand I wanted to write it without worrying too much of canon implications of the manga, so I didn't have to wait for Oda to write the whole story, but I can kill off characters and make up alliances without concern.

I already mentioned that, in Emperors, the Gomu Gomu no Mi doesn't involve the new reveals of the manga, but there's also no reference to Killer's SMILE, Kid's newly revealed crew members, etc.

But I also wrote it in a way that I could make it canon in the future, depending what ending Bonds will have (remember I started Emperors long before Wano even started I think, so that was totally up for debate) and what other major events will happen in OP that may have repercussions on the Kid Pirates.

So maybe I can go back and tweak stuff here and there to turn it canon. But I'm not gonna spoil anything for now, I guess you'll know by the end of Bonds.

I hope this clarifies things a bit, if you have more questions feel free to drop them!

By the end of captive would you say that Birdie and Killer are "friends" or at least "friendly"? What I mean is by the end when everyone gets to know and gets attached to her how much of killers feelings towards here are based on his personal interaction and opinions on her vs his opinion on her based on her relationship with his friend Eustass Kid? Do you think that if her and Eustass Kid didn't get romantically involved with each other that Killer would put up with her or do you think her being so similar to Eustass Kid makes him have a kind of predisposition to liking her? 

Killer's behaviour towards birdie until a good half or more of her captivity is dictated by what he thinks is best for Kid. So yeah, it revolves around her relationship with the captain.

In fact, he was the one who wanted to kill her at the beginning because "she's bad news". He has the chance to do it early on because he realizes she was going to try escaping, but he warns instead, just because he knows Kid wouldn't love it if she was gone so soon.

Later on, Killer not only comes to respect birdie (just as the rest of the crew) but he also realizes he has an affinity for her. Maybe because she reminds him of Kid, maybe because he's not used to a personality like hers... Nevertheless, he still acts strictly according to what's best for Kid, or at least he tries his best, until he finally admits that whatever he does for her is not just for Kid's sake anymore.

He also tries to convince Kid to keep her around towards the end.

So you could definitely say that Killer and birdie's relationship becomes autonomous and they do care about each other.

Would Aokiji be shocked to find out that Birdie had deserted?? Also let's say if she were caught and executed, what would his and kidd's reaction be then?

 I cannot reply to the Aokiji part because that would be spoiler.

As for Kid, he would pretty much react just as Luffy did when he found out Ace would be executed. He would go get her, and the crew with him.

This is a bit of a weird thought, but it's been on my mind for a while: So, Kid seemed pretty interested in birdie even in the early days (at least in my interpretation). What would have happened if birdie fell in love with Killer? Would Kid have just killed her because it wasn't him? Would Killer have even done anything?

I assume that in the beginning, Kid would've just killed her since he seemed ok with it up to like Day 8. But assuming this happened towards around the two week mark, would it have made a difference? Or towards the end? 

This is an interesting what if. Yes, Kid would have killed birdie if she openly fell for Killer during the first week (although that would be impossible, too OOC).

After two weeks, or towards the end... it really depends on how things would go. I assume in your scenario birdie would fall for Killer despite consistently having sex with Kid? That would be weird, but let's say she realizes to have feelings for the blond.

She probably wouldn't do anything about it, except trying to distance herself from Kid or escape. If they somehow figure it out, depending on how and the particular moment, Kid may kill her in a surge of rage. If Killer figured out first, he would find a way to convince Kid to abandon her on the first possible island. Always depending on the situation, it might be Killer himself that kills her.

He would never consider his own feelings in this instance, nor hers, but just Kid's.

I do have a bit of a Kid/birdie question. So, when Kid almost chokes her to death, when he was in his 'dark' mode, we obviously see him experiencing guilt later when he sees the wound. But my question is, is this enough to shake him to be more careful? So he doesn't actually risk killing her in the future? Because Killer also insinuated that Kid's killed people he cared about before, in that conversation about coming to him if she gets hurt. I imagine Kid would be pretty messed up if birdie died by his hand at this point (would he even ever be able to forgive himself for it)? But yeah, was just curious if this doesn't get into spoilers for "Bonds."

Kid definitely learned he needs to be more present and careful so events like that don't happen again. Is this enough to actually ensure birdie is 100% safe with him after that? I don't know, I don't think there's an answer, too many factors are at play here. But here's the thing with them: they were messed up but they were learning, little by little, mistake after mistake. So I would probably say that it's difficult Kid will do the exact same mistake again, but there might be another one that endangers birdie (if she's around). Then he'll get better. Then they'll hurt each other again, and if it doesn't break them, they'll learn more.

A big step for Kid (but birdie too) is admitting to himself he cares and he needs to put actual work into this "relationship" if he wants to be with her. We'll see in Bonds if we actually come to this.

If Kid killed birdie in that occasion, he will definitely be messed up. I don't think he would ever be able to forgive himself for it, I think the memory would haunt him forever. I will expand on the what if scenario of birdie's death into another ask because I received a similar question so stay tuned!

Dang that ask about birdie's size is so true 😂 She's tiny! I wonder if Kid subconsciously has to be more careful than he usually would to not accidentally cause serious harm.

 Right?? My headcanon is that Kid fucking loves how small birdie is. He can pick her up and move her around without her being able to do much about it. He can restrain and overpower her easily. She feels super tight. And yet she takes him, she's feisty, she's strong. It's a thing about her that drives him crazy. ❤️