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Ever since its introduction in One Piece’s manga three years ago, Gear Five continues to be one of the most mysterious abilities in the series, which only grows more and more intriguing as fans see more of the transformation in action. That said, since the Wano Arc, one other power is slowly proving to be even more of an enigma, and it’s surprisingly the one that fans thought they already knew everything about. Haki, just as Kaido claimed, may be the most important power going into the Final Saga, especially against One Piece’s new immortal antagonists, as further hinted in the latest chapter.
Chapter 1148 of One Piece finally sees Roger’s left-hand man, Scopper Gaban, unleash his true power against the Holy Knights as he severs one of St. Sommer’s arms in one fell swoop. The most surprising part of this feat is that Gaban seemingly manages to work around St. Sommers’ regeneration, with the latter even openly expressing his inability to regenerate his severed arm. The most likely answer for how Gaban was able to pull this off is some form or application of haki that Luffy and the Straw Hats, and by extension, readers, have yet to learn about, with another huge hint being Joyboy’s haki unleashed at the end of the Egghead Arc which sent the Five Elders back to Mariejois.
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One Piece’s Latest Arc Proves Haki Is Still the More Mysterious Power
When Gear Five entered the picture on Wano, it certainly seemed as if devil fruit powers would be the determining factor of any future battles in One Pieceespecially with Blackbeard and his crew on the hunt for powerful devil fruits. By defeating Kaido at Onigashima, Luffy had essentially proved the former Yonko was wrong about haki being the be-all end-all. The revelation of the Nika fruit seemed to be pushing haki as a power system to the side entirely.
However, the Egghead Arc, and now the Elbaf Arc as well have continued to prove that haki will still be a crucial part of the Final Saga. The Egghead Arc proved this through Joyboy’s haki which was powerful enough to intimidate even the immortal Five Elders and Imu. Meanwhile, the Elbaf Arc is seemingly teasing a new, undiscovered form of Haki through Scopper Gaban. It isn’t completely implausible for One Piece to introduce a whole new application of Haki this late into the series, given that Luffy only learned Ryou well into the Wano Arc.
Of course, this raises the simple question of why Rayleigh, who would definitely know to use whatever haki Gaban is currently presumed to be using, didn’t teach Luffy this during their time skip training session. However, Rayleigh didn’t teach Luffy Ryuo either, so it is possible that there’s more he left out. Similar to how Ryou was the key to defeating Kaido, it i possible that this new type of Haki will be crucial to taking down the Holy Knights and the Five Elders, and if so, One Piece may need to have another training session for Luffy very soon.
One Piece is available on Manga Plus and Viz Media.
