第175回：Needs More Cowbell

The question on everyone’s lips is, “What Devil Fruit were the Five Elders talking about?!”

Is it about Zunesha? The Fish-Fish Fruit?! Perhaps maybe even…the Gum-Gum Fruit?!

Although it’s anyone’s game at this point, I feel somewhat confident that they’re discussing Luffy’s fruit. Even if it raises some questions like, “Why wouldn’t they have been interested in the fruit since the Paramount War?” the implication seems to be that they’re worried about a fruit being awakened and I get the feeling that a beast like Kaido or a literal behemoth like Zunesha would already have awakened their abilities. And lest we forget, as Who’s-Who recently revealed, the World Government was interested enough in the Gum-Gum Fruit to order it an escort by CP-9.

Even though that’s just my two cents, let’s run with it and say it’s the Gum-Gum Fruit. Then why would they have had to change the name? Perhaps the most logical answer is the most obvious one: like Nika and the Poneglyphs, the World Government seeks to eliminate anything related to the Void Century. This would suggest that the Gum-Gum Fruit played some kind of role in the world-changing events of that period and whatever those events were, they certainly didn’t favor the current World Government. Although our knowledge of those events is limited, Nika and Joyboy (perhaps one and the same) seem to be the World Government’s most doggedly pursued individuals in terms of wiping and rewriting history. Although we’ve only seen a single silhouette of Nika, the figure appears to be quite flexible and was evidently known for bringing laughter (or joy) to people. Kind of like our favorite stretchy captain has done at each and every party so far!

The Grim Reaper?! Really?! Like for really, real?! I dunno, I’m pretty doubtful about that.

Sure, we know there’s an actual Land of the Dead, but is there an actual reaper (or team of reapers) that harvest souls??? Let’s look at this from a few different standpoints:

1. It’s the actual grim-freaking-reaper!

Huh…okay, didn’t ever expect that to be a thing in the series but I guess since there’s an actual land of the dead and normally strict-on-fantasy Odacchi even felt satisfied giving a ship a ‘soul’ of sorts, this could work. I mean, souls are the very basis of Big Mom’s power so it stands to reason that if everyone has a soul and that soul just transfers to Yomi in death, it’s not too outlandish to believe something guides them there. In fact, this might be a way to introduce foreshadowing a climactic and emotional conclusion to the conflict in Wano that involves souls thanks to the Fire Festival!

2. It’s side-effects of the medication!

Aha! Seeing apparitions could logically be explained as being a side-effect of the mink medicine that Zoro took in order to fight King. Will he be haunted by visions until the side-effects wear off?!

3. Oh, wait, Caribou?!

Yes, although easy to forget, Caribou has been running around this entire time in the background and may have hitched a ride up to Onigashima. Was he able to scrounge up some bones from around the island in order to disguise himself in order to move around the battlefield unchallenged? He certainly has the body type to pull off the slim look and he was already seen using a different scythe once on Fish-man Island!