A dashing swordsman with a devious side, Cyrano is one of the main villains of the One Piece prequel Monsters. He’s smooth-talking, heralded as one of the strongest swordsmen in the country by those who know him. Turns out though, that he’s much more evil than anyone can expect, and even destroys those who would worship him otherwise. What makes Cyrano such an evil villain though, and why is he that way?
This article contains spoilers for Monsters: 193 Mercies Dragon Damnation. Watch it on Netflix before reading further!
Who is Cyrano?
Known as a rival of King, later revealed as Ryuma, Cyrano isn’t a lifelong foe like others. In fact, he had never even met Ryuma before the events of Monsters, as the devious swordsman was pulling off cons with his pal DR. While he is proficient with a sword, he’s better at villainry, revealing he was the one to summon the dragon to Flair’s village all those years ago when it was destroyed. Cyrano just makes his villainy even worse by being the one to kill Flair’s family, murdering them in cold blood without a care.
He takes it a step further seven years later when he reappears. Cyrano and DR set up their usual con, summoning the dragon in to terrify a town before telling everyone he’ll fight the beast off alone. With everyone fleeing the town, they help themselves to the spoils as the dragon rains down destruction around them. This time though, they didn’t count on the legendary samurai Ryuma, a hero of Wano himself being there. It ends up spelling the end of Cyrano, along with his entire gang.
Monsters
The story of Monsters was written even before One Piece began, but it plays a central part in the lore behind the pirate story. Ryuma, the main character of Monsters, is a long-lost ancestor of Roronoa Zoro, the First Mate of the Straw Hat Pirates. In addition, Ryuma himself reappears in the story in the Thriller Bark arc, except this time as a withered old corpse reanimated with Brook’s shadow. Although Ryuma is the main factor of Monsters, it’s nothing without Cyrano playing the evil murderer throughout the short story.
Cyrano isn’t just the one who kills Flair’s entire family, but it’s revealed he and DR have been running this con for some time. Whenever they start running low on money they just find another town that’s not likely to make it through an attack. Then it’s just a matter of faking an attack by DR with the Dragon Horn, summoning in their companion to light things up after the people flee. Meanwhile, Cyrano improves his reputation as a hero by staying back to fight the creature, desperately trying to drive it off.
Master Swordsman
Cyrano was already a renowned master of the blade by the time the first village burns down in Monsters. It’s only his first take on what eventually becomes his signature ruse, but he has the cred to keep the facade up even after emerging carrying the sole survivor. In reality, when he calls in the dragon to destroy the town that first time, he is the one who does most of the killing. As the dragon set the town in between mountains ablaze, Cyrano ran through the town cutting down any that were left alive. Until Flair came along, of course.
The young girl asks him to go out and save her parents, not knowing this was his doing. He murders them instead, telling the young Flair that he is too late to save them from the dragon’s clutches. Walking out of the flames holding the young girl, a legend springs up that he jumped in to go toe to toe with the monster, but it fled. Hailed as a hero for his brave deeds, Cyrano is now able to travel wherever he wants, taking advantage of anything he needs with his fame.
Dragon Alliance
It’s unknown when they became comrades, but it was likely not long after Cyrano and DR stole the Dragon Horn. Long ago in the world of One Piece, there were fierce dragons that roamed the land, setting blaze to whatever they pleased. Over time there was an artifact discovered that could summon a great dragon whenever the user blew the horn. Now that horn is carried by DR, who blows it whenever they need to loot a village and take more money. There’s a distinct possibility this could be a ruse though, with the dragon joining them of its own free will with a fake Dragon Horn for the con.
The alliance works for them, whatever the idea is behind it. The dragon will calmly sit while they gather the treasure, helping DR to take it from the village before Cyrano disappears while taking credit. It’s clever, and they nearly pull it off again in the small town where Ryuma is staying at the same time. Cyrano is only aware of one man that can go against him, and that’s a swordsman they refer to as the King.
Defeat by Ryuma
What the trio never expects to find in the small town they’re hitting this time is that same legendary samurai. They have a brief stand-off at a restaurant that Cyrano uses to frame the goofy Ryuma as the one who curses the town. It’s all arranged from the beginning for DR to run into someone, starting the attack by blowing the Dragon Horn. Once Cyrano volunteers to stay in the village, Flair breaks down in her restaurant while Ryuma stays back to protect her. The two eventually realize they’ve all been fooled, and Ryuma sets into motion.
It’s not even a fight against Cyrano, showing that Ryuma wasn’t truly being serious when they fought earlier. With one slash, Ryuma the King cuts down the ‘master swordsman’ sparing no bit of effort on his pitiful life. Cyrano is taken aback by the power of the formerly bumbling samurai, and lives long enough to see him cut down the great dragon as it tries to flee. Ryuma the King stands strong, keeping his promise to protect Flair as thanks for feeding him when he was starving. It’s a fitting end for Cyrano, seeing all of his plans for his own greed spoiled over a free meal.
Mihawk Ancestor?
There’s no doubt that creator Eiichiro Oda was getting his ideas in line for One Piece when he wrote Monsters. Ryuma himself is finally confirmed to be a distant ancestor to Zoro, infamous for traveling outside of Wano for a time. It wouldn’t be too far-fetched to think that Cyrano was a distant ancestor to Dracule ‘Hawkeye’ Mihawk considering their incredibly similar looks. That said, this was still a prototype for the series to come, and even with Oda’s somewhat same designs for a few characters, Cyrano and Mihawk are definitely pretty distinct in character.
The adventures of Ryuma from there are mostly unknown, but considering Cyrano and the dragon are now dead, it’s not like he’ll be worrying about them again. From here he returns to his homeland of Wano at some point, leaving Flair to spread his legend through the Grand Line with countless others. The legend of Ryuma, not the master swordsman Cyrano, becomes almost mythical as his heroism is retold. Thanks to the conniving greed of Cyrano, he got a chance to be the hero that his family line would become full of.
