Valentine B. Carter

"You're all pretty funny thinking you can use me to get to the top. Thinking you can get to the top without work of any sort. You're all being trained by me now and I won't tolerate any of you taking the easy way out. I offer deals but not the likes of you. If you want to make a deal with me you better damn well earn it. Now nobody leaves this room to you can all jump to the ceiling."

- Valentine training marines.

Valentine B. Carter is a marine instructor who still retains his rank as. He is stationed at the marine base on Al-Shams. He had previously been training marines at the Marine Headquarters but was moved to the new world and Al-Shams due to their need of a Instructor that could survive the harsh conditions of the island and train the marines there to survive as well. Though he does tend to travel all around the world, visiting other marines and offering to make deals with them. He earned the epithet of "The Calamity Fiddler" from his younger days when he used to appear on pirate ships while playing his fiddle. Shortly after they would be bombarded by marines but helpless due to his music. As a Vice Admiral, Valentine is known as Akaoni (Red Devil). Though he is usually only referred to as such in official business.

While he doesn't agree with all of the marine philosophies he is extremely devoted to training those under him. Believing that even if those under him don't think the way he does, they deserve a fighting chance. Valentine is also the devourer of the Oni Oni no Mi, Model: Kiro, giving him the power to transform into a crossroads demon. He was previously a full time Vice Admiral and a disciple of the late admiral Alfred Glave. He had quit being a full time Vice Admiral and became a marine instructor a few years before Glave died, though he retained his rank. After Glave died Valentine only pushed himself harder as a marine instructor, to pass on the many lessons he learned from the admiral.

Early Life
Valentine D. Carter was born to Philipe and Ruby Valentine on a marine base. His father, one of the princes of the Bourgeois Kingdom, met his mother on one of her visits to the island. The two fell in love but the Philipe’s parents were strictly against their marriage, wanting their son to marry into the Wano Kingdom for political power. Philipe thought the idea preposterous however and rebelled, running away with Ruby when he ship left his kingdom. The king was outraged and called for a manhunt on both of the, however he did not know Ruby’s last name so Philipe took her name when they were wed. Since Ruby was the famous rear admiral she managed to pull a couple strings, begging her superiors to hide them from the king. Her superior stated that he could send them to a base in paradise, but they’d owe him a debt. Upon arrival at the base the two lived in peace until their son was born.

The young Valentine was a natural troublemaker, stealing objects from the very low ranking marines and playing pranks on others. Despite his mischievous nature the Marines treated him like their extended family, calling him their little brother and taking care of him when his parents had to go on trips or missions. When the vice admiral of the base entered one day he found a eight year old Valentine in his office, breaking into his safe. Apparently Valentine had hung around his office enough that he’d seen the safe combination. The vice admiral jumped for him but missed, ending up collapsed on the table as Valentine pulled a fruit from the safe and shoved it into his mouth. The vice admiral grabbed him and attempted to make him spit it out but it was no use, he’d eaten the Oni Oni no Mi, Model: Kiro, a mythical zoan the vice admiral was going to send back to base. The man gave Valentine a stern talking to about stealing and such before telling him that with his newfound power, he should take a place in the marines. Valentine agreed and a began training with the marines at the base almost immediately.

The Fiddler
When Valentine became a captain he was ecstatic, he was finally able to freely hunt pirates. He traveled throughout most of paradise with his new title taking out weaker crews. It was one fateful day that Valentine began on the path that let to his infamy. He was in pursuit of a very elusive crew of pirates, one with a much faster ship than his. He decided that the best option would be to attempt to distract them and teleported up to their crows nest. He began playing his fiddle, drawing all eyes to the crows nest. In that moment his own ship fired a volley at the temporarily confused crew, making some serious dents in the ship. As the pirates scrambled to attempt to get away while both repairing and getting him, he simply laughed.

This was a tactic that Valentine began to enjoy employing. It was pretty impossible to not acknowledge a marine captain on your ship, even if only for a brief moment. Valentine would set up strategic chokepoints, appearing just before his ship came into view and allowing crippling blows to be dealt to his enemies ships. His use of this with extreme effectiveness eventually gave him his epithet, The Calamity Fiddler. When pirates heard music from above they knew horrible things were about to happen to their ships. When he became a commodore Valentine still employed this tactic, but with a much larger fleet. Many wannabe pirate captains were crushed at the entrance to the new world by fiddler on their deck.

Appearance
Valentine was always described as quite the fine looking young man. As a child he kept his striking red hair neat and tidy on his head as he trained, wearing the standard white shirt and navy shorts of the Marines. At the age of 41 his looks were much different than his as a child. His once short and neat hair had exploded into the massive red mane that runs from his head to his lower back. He also has patch of scarlet on his chin, lacking any more hair on his face. Beneath the locks lies his face, sharp and defined with calculating brown eyes.

His eyes have said to bore holes in people before, some have claimed they seem red or black at times. Atop his head he wears a wide brimmed hat, perfect for holding low to simply ignore the world if he wishes. He also wears a small white mask on the right side of his face, though none know why. The rest of his clothes can be summed up quite simply. He wears a simple white shirt with ruffled sleeve ends and a pair of white gloves below that. His lower body is simply a pair of black pants and boots. Over the whole thing is a large dress-like coat reaching to almost his ankles. The coat's base is black while its decorations are colored gold. The back of his coat displays the marine logo but his hair is usually in the way.

When transformed into his hybrid devil fruit form, Valentine's appearance changes somewhat. His scarlet hair becomes shorter only reaching his neck in length. His once deep brown eyes become much different. Where there once was a white eye, there is only black. His irises have changed to the scarlet red that covers his head. The only other changes to his body itself would be the black piercings in his ears and the black stitch-like pattern surrounding his neck.

His attire changes completely, tossing the black and gold for black and red. He wears a ,black and red striped, collared shirt that's unbuttoned down to his pectorals. Over that he wears a striking scarlet vest that extends down and covers a bit of his belt. His pants stay black but have become more stylish, tailored in a much more sophisticated manor. His shoes also change from black boots to black dress shoes. Valentine's wrists also become adorned with various bracelets and bands, his fingers gaining many rings as well as red nail polish.

When fully transformed Valentine's appearance is drastically different. Where his head once was is a outline of one basked in a raging flame. Around the roaring flame and floating skull-like head there are various spikes protruding from his armor. The armor itself is black and covers his entire body, ending in claws on his hands and boots on his feet. However they are all armor. This armor also has cloak bottom extending from his waist. The from of is body also has a red piece of armor running from his chest to his waist where it becomes a hanging piece or armor along with some other black pieces. This form of Valentine appears to be extremely terrifying, Valentine himself has even stated that he dislikes assuming the form.

Personality
"There are two sides to every coin. If you don't like one side you can just look at the other side but both sides still exist. I feel the best way to make any decision is to take a close look at both sides before you make your call."

- Valentine

Students of Valentine would describe him as quite composed, confident, and occasionally demonic. As an instructor Valentine cares deeply for his students, attempting to get them as far as he can. His lessons consists of him both pushing their bodies and minds harder than they ever have before. He uses his experience as a veteran marine to teach his students extremely valuable information and life lesson, not just how to fight. Valentine also wishes for his students to understand the marines themselves and what they do in the world. Valentine stresses an idea of forming your own version of justice.

While Valentines believes the Marines are a necessity, he also believes that in some cases pirates are the good guys. As a Vice Admiral he is well aware of many of the shady operations that go down all around the world. In cases where he feels that his mission isn't in line with his justice, such as being told to get some pirates away from a slaving operation. Valentine will instead free those slaves or cause enough ruckus that the slave hall will simply fall apart, freeing them. Despite his occasional disobedience, if Valentine has no moral quarrels with his mission it will get done. His climb through the ranks was partially because of his almost perfect record.

Valentine can also be considered a partial sociopath. While he normally can feel emotions and empathy the more he transforms with his devil fruit, the less he feels. In his human form Valentine still shows feeling in almost every aspect expect killing. Even shooting a comrade will not phase him. In his hybrid form he will only still feel high emotional connections. In his completely transformed for Valentine is completely void of feeling. It should also be noted that Valentine almost always has some sort of ulterior motive. This usually has to do with deal making. In some cases Valentine will specifically put people in places where they'll be forced to make a deal with him. He will not even hesitate to hurt or betray his comrades to make a deal, an odd contrast to how caring he is as an instructor. This behavior was likely brought on by his devil fruit, causing him to crave making deals and exploiting whatever opportunities he can to make them.

Physical Prowess
As Valentine ate his devil fruit at a very young age his strength, speed, and durability were increased greatly and their natural power only grew as he did. His natural physical power is something to behold. Valentine is capable of lifting ships from the water and matching blows with giants. With the enhancements from his devil fruit he is naturally capable of matching blows that could shatter mountains. His natural speed allows him to move so fast he can run on water. His top speed however is unknown to him even as he opts to teleport more than run.

His most impressive physical capability is his durability. His body is strong enough to where bullets and cannonballs will bounce off of him. Swords will break when they are swung against him. Even those that do manage to wound him will be quite surprised when he regenerates almost instantly. The only things that can manage to put lasting damage on his body is haki, seastone, and holy devil fruit. These can all inflict wounds that he cannot immediately heal, requiring at least two hours to fix themselves.

Musical Skills
Valentine had always been fond of listening to music. It was one of the finer things in life for him. As he grew up he learned the piano, sometimes performing for his comrades in the marines. He was an excellent piano player and whenever he played people always seemed to dance. Upon eating his devil fruit Valentine noticed that he was drawn to the fiddle, an instrument he had never touched before. When he placed the bow to the strings it made an evil hiss, and the most beautiful music he'd ever heard exploded into the world. He couldn't quite describe how he was able to create such astounding music but he assumed that it might have had something to do with his devil fruit. Valentine almost always carries his fiddle with him, pulling it out to simply play tunes to pass the time. In his younger days the sound of his fiddle was a warning call. He would appear on ships playing his melodies and when they stopped, the fate of that crew was sealed.


 * Soul Stealing Symphony: This song was created by Valentine on accident. When he first began practicing his fiddle in front of others he found that they would be unable to stop swaying to the music. Eventually he refined the technique to his liking. This musical piece allows for Valentine to force others to dance to his music. As long as he plays anyone who hears his music cannot stop.


 * Forceful Crescendo: This piece was created by Valentine to use between breaks in his Symphony. With one swift movement he pulls the bow across the stings, releasing an evil hiss and a shockwave in a small area around him, knocking those close to him away to be subjected to his dance again.


 * Deus Ex Requiem: This technique was created by Valentine to be his most powerful musical piece. After assuming hybrid form Valentine begins to rock out on his fiddle, playing a piece that affects all those that hear it. Those that hear his piece are forced to move to the rhythm of the piece itself. If Valentine speeds up the music their entire body will speed up to match the rhythm, even their heart will be beating on rhythm. This effect also applies if the music slows down. Valentine can use this technique to speed up someone's heart so much that it overexerts itself. He can also use it to slow the hearts of one or many, knocking them out cold.

Martial Arts
When Valentine was in the marines he was taught their basic fighting style, a simple but effective method of fighting. Valentine however rejected the style, feeling that it wasn't very distinctive. He brought up the issue with his mother once and was surprised to learn that she created her own style of martial arts while serving in the marines as a Rear Admiral. It was known as Grounded Tengu and focused not only on the strikes but the disturbances in the air that they created. Using these disturbances in the air to their advantage the user could direct wind uncertain directions and even create blasts or gusts of wind. Through the use of quick and precise hand motions a user is also able to set up disturbances around themselves that travel with them, feeding into their next strikes. Valentine took to the style like a fish to water, practicing it almost every day with his mother. Valentine himself blends both kicks and punches with this style using every movement he can to put the wind in the correct place. He has stated that he can't really be angry when using the style as it brings up too many good memories.

As a Marine instructor and former vice admiral Valentine was trained in the art of Rokushiki. He is particularly skilled in three of the six powers. The first technique he learned and mastered was Soru. With Soru Valentine is capable of moving at extremely high speeds while not even using his devil fruit. The next technique he mastered was Geppo. By using Geppo, Valentine is capable of quite literally walking on air itself He can combine this with Soru for extremely fast air movement. The last technique Valentine mastered was Shigan. By using Shigan Valentine is capable of using his finger as a bullet, poking someone with the speed and piercing power of one.


 * Palm Gun: This is one of the most basic techniques of the marital art. By using precise movements to stir up wind, Valentine forces his palm forwards, releasing a massive blast of air in front of him.


 * Flame Sickle: The flame sickle is a more advanced technique. The user first creates and air current in whatever direction they wish. They then scrape their toes against the ground as they start a kick. Valentine himself used a piece of metal on his toes but switched to haki after he learned to use it. This quick movement against the ground creates a flame that the user then kicks into the current, causing it to spread through the entire current along with the force of the kick.


 * Full World Crush: This technique requires Valentine to set up an air current around him that he maintains as he moves towards his opponent. When within striking distance Valentine forces his hands forwards in such a way that the current surrounding him surrounds his opponent. However instead of flowing around them, it surrounds them and crushes them from all angels.


 * Air Gun: This technique requires Valentine to set up an outward flowing air current in front of him. He then used Shigan on the air, sending out a bullet of air with both the piercing power and speed of his own strike. This allows Valentine to hit long range targets with Shigan as well as eliminate the risk of breaking his finger by messing up and attack.


 * Hurricane Arm: This technique requires Valentine to set up a circular wind current around his arm that rapidly increases as it goes, creating a twister like armor around it. He can then thrust his arm forwards to release the cyclone towards his opponents. The raging wind will expand as it flows away from him, wreaking more havoc as it goes. Valentine can also add fire to this attack, making it even more devastating.

Weapon Proficiency
While Valentine owns and uses multiple weapons he is not particularly skilled with any of then, save for his revolver and zweihander. With his revolver Valentine is able to shoot most targets with relative ease. He excels in fighting weak or unskilled opponents however. Against a well trained marksman there wouldn't be much he could do, most likely resorting to his devil fruit. The same goes for his swordsmanship, Valentine is not trained in any particular style. He simply has a large sword that he can wield with one hand and swing quite fast. Against any trained swordsman he would most likely lose, against masses of pirates though, his carefree style tends to work quite well. Valentine of course would never restrict himself to solely using his sword in a fight he combines his many powers. Most notably creating cross blades in opponent's blind spots as he assaults them with his sword.

Devil Fruit
Valentine ate the Demon Demon Fruit, Model: Crossroads. This is a devil fruit that gives him the powers of a crossroads demon. It also let's him transform into a demon/human hybrid form and a full demon form. The main strength of this fruit is the many powers it grants Valentine. These include enhanced speed, strength, and durability as well as regenerative capabilities. Valentine has also become semi immortal as well, his aging process has stopped and he lacks the need to eat, drink, or sleep. As a demon Valentine is granted extremely heightened senses, being able to hear, smell, and see further and better than any human. He also has the ability to generate fire or heat at will as well as the ability to teleport himself and others.

The most powerful gift this devil fruit gave Valentine is the ability to make deals with people. In exchange for something, usually the person's soul when they die, Valentine can do a number of things. While unable to directly kill people he could create a fatal plague in the city they are currently in, sink and island, transport anyone anywhere, give someone riches beyond their wildest dreams, give them a devil fruit they desire, and the list goes on. Valentine someones soul he becomes able to summon that person to fight for him should he wish.

This fruit is not without weaknesses however. Though he is immortal in terms of not dying of old age, Valentine can die in battle or by drowning in water. Though he is naturally immune to most powers he is weak to holy or angelic devil fruits, as well as light based fruits. He is also weak to purifying powers. Though he has regenerative powers he cannot regenerate if touching seastone or the sea itself. He can be harmed by haki or seastone weapons and regenerate, but at a much slower rate. This forces him to retreat from battle if wounded too much. The standard devil fruit weaknesses also apply.

Techniques

 * Cross-Fire: This is one of Valentines most basic techniques and one that he employs quite often. Valentine manipulates flames into crosses of various sizes. These crosses usually have a point at the bottom, almost looking like a large blade rather than a cross. Valentine will usually create these crosses and fire them as projectiles, however he can employ them for other purposes such as creating weapons for himself to use.


 * Grand Cross: This technique is one of Valentine's most powerful. He condenses as much heat and fire into one very small cross within his hands and fires it outwards. On his command the cross explodes into a massive cross shaped inferno of heat and flames. Valentine has stated that when used over water the water touching it all the way to the ocean floor evaporated and the heat produced was enough to evaporate most of the water close to it as well. When used on an island Valentine has observed that it cut right though it, reaching the sea below.


 * Snake Eyes: This is an extremely powerful long range technique, created by Valentine. He creates two balls of heat in front of his eyes before morphing them in to extremely hot beams of heat. This makes it look like red lasers are coming from his eyes. These concentrated beams of heat can move extremely fast as well as melt through steel.


 * Craps: This technique is a more powerful form of snake eyes. With this Valentine will create beams of heat from each of his fingertips making ten in total. This gives him the ability to slash through many types of objects using concentrated beams of heat with ease, attacking as if they were claws. Valentine will also simply point one or two fingers towards an object and just release two superheated beams.


 * Roulette:


 * 21: Blackjack:


 * Slots:


 * Aces High: This is a quite interesting technique created by Valentine. He first creates six playing cards out of fire and holds them in his hands. He then throws the cards towards his opponent, burning them if the cards hit. If they do not hit however the cards take positions all around the enemy and create a box around them. The fire then flies at them from every angle, possibly burning them to death.


 * Straight: Using this technique, Valentine will wave his hand and create a line of flame cards. These cards can be detonated in fiery explosions with a simple snap of his fingers. They can also fire off, extremely fast and piercing, fire projectiles.


 * Flush: This technique creates a circle within the air, on a surface or around an object. This circle is made of heat and fire and displays the four card suits, on in each corner. Valentine can cause masses of heat to gather and erupt from these circles at will or when they are touched, making them like remote or motion activated bombs. Valentine can also create them around his own arms and detonate the heat away from him and down his arm. This gives him a sort of heat gun on his arm. He can also create the rings around objects by physically touching them. When activated the heat will gather in the middle of the ring, melting the object.


 * Full House:


 * Straight Flush:


 * Royal Flush:


 * Dead Man's Hand:


 * Joker Flush:

Busoshoku Haki
Valentine is extremely skilled in the use of Bososhuko Haki. With this power he is able to create an invisible armor around himself. This armor can defend against seriously powerful attacks though with enough force or a more powerful haki user it can be broken. Wynn can also extend his haki to his weapons. This invisible armor gives him the ability to hit users of logia and some paramecia fruits. He can use this to hit their actual body, negating one of the huge advantages of a logia. It should be noted that Valentine's particular skill in Busoshoku does not extend to only creating invisible armor, but putting his armor around objects to render then invisible. He first developed this technique to cheat in poker, hiding kings and aces on his body and making smooth transitions without anyone being the wiser.
 * Busoshoku: Koka: Valentine is capable of using this technique to enhance his haki. With it he can harden various parts of his body, giving them a black coloring and severely increasing his strength and durability on those parts of him. Valentine is extremely skilled with this form of haki, being able to coat his entire body with it.
 * Busoshoku: Setsudan: Valentine has also created his won technique using Bunsoshoku haki. This technique allows Valentine to sharped his invisible armor, creating invisible blades along his body. He is capable of creating large blades for more blunt attacks or extremely thin but strong blades for slicing. The best part of this is that Valentine can create these invisible blades from literally anywhere on his person or anything he is touching.

Kenbunshoku Haki
Valentine is a skilled practitioner of Kenbunshoku Haki. With this power he is able to sense the world around him, particularly living things. With this power Valentine can sense people extremely far away from him and even see people concealed by objects. He does this by seeing their aura and using that to follow them. Valentine is also particularly talented in the use of Kenbunshoku's precognitive abilities. Valentine is capable of predicting attacks with ease. Using these powers he has walked through a large ambush by new world pirates without a single scratch on him, despite the amount of bullets being fired.
 * Kenbunshoku: Kandan: Valentine has also created an perfected a technique stemming from kenbunshoku haki known as, kenbunshoku: kandan. This technique allows Valentine to perceive time and events in an area around him at extremely fast pace, so fast that the rest of the world seems slow to him. This allows Valentine to react to seemingly too fast attacks or give him time to prepare his next move in his mind.

Rozencrantz
Rozencrantz is a large, specially made zweihander using the Jauhara sands of Al-Shams. Because of the special way it was crafted the sword is able to emit pure cold from its entire being. Because of his immunity to temperature, the sword was forged to be able to output as much cold as it could. When Valentine stabs the sword into something it will easily freeze. Even the ground around him when the sword is active will freeze and the air will become extremely cold. Valentine is also able to wield Rozencrantz with one hand because of his massive strength.

Guildenstern
Guildenstern is a specially made revolver using the Thahab sands of Al-Shams. The gun was created to fire with or without bullets. With bullets loaded the gun fires flaming bullets of justice. Valentine can immune the bullets with his haki or load special seastone tipped ones for devil fruit users. Without bullets the gun can still be fired like normal. Instead of bullets the barrel will simply release blasts of pure condensed fire. While the pure fire lacks the force of a bullet it gains the spread of fire upon impact as well as extremely powerful burning capabilities at close to medium range.

Quotes
"Wanna make a deal?"

Trivia

 * This character was thought up while listening to the song "The Devil Went Down to Georgia"
 * Valentine prefers to be referred to by last name as opposed to most characters.
 * Valentine's favorite phrase is "Want to make a deal?" or a version of it.
 * Valentine's favorite food is grilled meat.
 * Valentine's favorite descriptor is "as hell".
 * Valentine's theme is "Fiddler on The Deck" by Santiano.