Devil Fruits are a major source of power in theOne Pieceworld. Introduced in the very first chapter of the story,these mystical fruits offer great powerto those who eat them but take away their ability to swim at the same time. Over the years, Devil Fruits' importance has continued to grow and with each passing arc, Oda has introduced several new abilities with tremendous potential. At the same time,One Piecehas also introduced a new level to Devil Fruit power, called awakening.
Although introduced first in the Impel Down arc, Devil Fruit awakening was properly explained by Donquixote Doflamingo in the Dressrosa arc. According to him, under very rare circumstances, Devil Fruit abilities awaken and give the user access to a whole new world of abilities, making them much stronger in the process. Luffy, being the first Devil Fruit user that the fans have known and have been following for ages, will most certainly get a hold of this power at some point.
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How Devil Fruit Awakenings Work
Devil Fruit awakenings are quite complex and, by the looks of it, how they work varies from one fruit to the other and depends heavily on the nature of the fruit. As Doflamingo stated, all Devil Fruits have the ability to awaken, however, it only happens in the rarest of cases. Once awakened, however, the fruit allows the user to affect things other than their bodies, making it feel like the ability is completely different from what it was before.
In Doflamingo’s case, the Ito Ito no Mi allowed him to produce strings andcontrol them according to his will. Once awakened, however, Doflamingo wasn’t just able to produce strings from his body. In addition to what he already had, he was able to turn the entire surrounding into strings and then manipulate them accordingly as well. Luffy commented that the ability didn’t even feel like a Paramecia at this point.
Charlotte Katakuri, another awakened Devil Fruit user, possesses the power of the Mochi Mochi no Mi and it allows him to produce, control, and become Mochi itself. The awakening of the fruit is quite similar to that of Doflamingo’s and allows him to turn his surroundings into Mochi as well, further strengthening the fruit. In the Wano Country arc, fans sawEustass Kid and Trafalgar Law use the awakeningsof their Devil Fruit powers as well. In Kid’s case, instead of just turning himself into a magnet, he gained the ability to turn others into magnets as well. Meanwhile, Law’s awakening is rather strange and doesn’t seem to work along the lines of standard awakening rules. Instead of affecting the surroundings, Law’s awakening just strengthens his power further and allows him to deal damage from the inside of his enemies.
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As seen with Law,Devil Fruit awakenings work in different ways, meaning Luffy’s Gomu Gomu no Mi, when awakened could have different powers as well. Being a standard Paramecia, however, it is likely that Luffy’s Devil Fruit awakening will follow the same rules as that of the likes of Charlotte Katakuri and Donquixote Doflamingo.
What Luffy’s Devil Fruit Awakening Could Be
If Luffy’s Devil Fruit awakeningfollows standard awakening rules, then it would allow him to affect his immediate surroundings with the power of rubber. While this doesn’t seem all that beneficial, it could seriously boost Luffy’s fighting prowess even further. By turning the world around him into rubber Luffy can access a whole new world of abilities and increase his output by gaining more momentum due to elasticity, making forms such as Gear Second, Third, or even Fourth more effective.
At the same time, awakening could also grant Luffy greater control over his Devil Fruit abilities, meaning Luffy could potentially use forms such as Gear Fourth without having to waste Haki to compress air in all of his body. By manipulating the density of rubber, Luffy could also increase his toughness and gain access to what could be described as ‘vulcanized rubber.’ This would inevitably end up making him much stronger than before and allow him to attack and defend with much more ferocity.
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Interestingly, there is a chance that Luffy’s Devil Fruit doesn’t follow the standard awakening rules, just like Law’s Ope Ope no Mi. After all, the nature ofthe Gomu Gomu no Mi is special, to begin with. In the Wano Country arc, it was revealed that the Gomu Gomu no Mi was guarded by the World Government on a vessel that was transporting it to somewhere. Surprisingly, the Government went as far as using the secret intelligence agency, the CP9 to protect this Devil Fruit, meaning it is quite special indeed. Shanks, a candidate for one of the Yonko at the time, went after this fruit and managed to acquire it. Once again, someone like Shanks wanting to acquire the Gomu Gomu no Mi means that there is more to this fruit than the fans know.
Even more suspicious is the fact that inOne Piecechapter 1037, it was quite clearly stated that the World Government hid a particular Devil Fruit’s real name to hide its true power from the world. The Devil Fruit in question hasn’t awakened in ages, meaning its true power lies in its awakening. If the Devil Fruit is the Gomu Gomu no Mi, then the awakening of the fruit is going to be something incredibly special and won’t be predictable, no matter how much fans theorize.
Evidently, the Gomu Gomu no Micarried tremendous potential. Once awakened, it will make Luffy much stronger than he is currently, regardless of whether the fruit’s awakening is special or just the standard Devil Fruit awakening that fans are used to seeing. With the conclusion of Luffy’s fight against Kaido upon us already, it is likely that the answer will arrive sooner rather than later.
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