第194回：Fighting with Fire

It seems that the presence of Nika has awaken the ancient construct which leads to the intriguing question of what *about* Nika led to this awakening? Once again, as with Zunesha, the rhythm of Luffy’s heartbeat as the drums of liberation seems to play a major role in starting up the construct. Whether or not the rhythm itself serves as a kind of ‘password’ for activation hasn’t been made entirely clear yet, but given the sound effect of the constructs eyes lighting as if they were a fire, I can’t help but wonder if Luffy *himself* as Nika is serving as the construct’s power source.

Since Luffy posseses the form of a so-called ‘Sun God’ and has for years exhibited forms of fire manipulation via his ‘Red’ series of attacks, Luffy himself could be a source of flame. Which, interestingly enough, is exactly the same form of unlimited energy that Vegapunk is trying so desperately to find. I suggest that the beat of liberation, might be a conduit that delivers Luffy’s fiery energy to the construct itself and may even conceivably be able to manipulate it via said energy.

This goes back to what Luffy said early in the arc about being able to awaken the robot by name. Imagine if the very act of him directing his energies to the robot and shouting, “Awaken Robo King!” is exactly what leads to the construct aiding in the Strawhats’ counteroffensive!

Fans have been theorizing about Bonney’s age since she first appeared back on Sabaody Island and while many different ideas have made sense, none of them have ever been confirmed…until now…possibly…

Two of Vegapunk’s lines from this chapter should have raised the eyebrows of careful readers:

Vegapunk to Franky: “How does a grown man like you let her get kicked?!!”

Vegapunk: “I won’t leave that poor little child behind to die!!!”

Both of these strongly suggest that Bonney is actually…quite young! Although the math is difficult to calculate given gaps in our knowledge of Kuma and Bonney’s life, it’s possible that Bonney is actually fewer than 10 years old! With her Devil Fruit age-manipulating abilities, her normal 24-ish body might be in fact putting on airs that she’s older than she appears!

The strongest part of this theory come from Chapter 1060 when Bonney was caught in the warm-core eddy:

I for one assumed that if Bonney had changed her age, if or when drenched with sea water, she would become powerless but retain her altered age. This assumption was fair based on this scene from before the timeskip:

Since we as readers knew that Bonney was a Devil Fruit user, we assumed that in order to have been effectively captured, Teach would have tied her up with seastone chains, especialy since she *seemed* to be powerless and defenseless. But…did Teach (or anyone besides the World Government for that matter) actually know that she was a Devil Fruit user to begin with??? Upon a reread, you’ll note that *nowhere* is it stated that those chains were actually seastone chains!

If they were simply standard chains, then Bonney’s powers were in full effect, explaining why when drenched with seawater, she reverted to being a child, her true age and form!!!

Does this account for her hefty appetite? If she’s constantly changing ages, does that mean she’s going through growth spurts and needs to eat to accommodate her body’s natural pubescent desire for nutritional energy?!