Video version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvvHqh-AIoU

Etymology of Kizaru’s Attacks

So starting off, Luffy manages to toss Kizaru into the ocean, but Kizaru simply flies over it. Since he is light, which can float in mid-air as long as it is shined, Kizaru can very much essentially just fly wherever he wants.

Kizaru then fights back using an attack called “Yasakani no Magatama”. This is one of Kizaru’s classic set of attacks, which have a specific history associated behind them. This trinity of attacks involves the aforementioned, “Yasakani no Magatama”, an attack where Kizaru shoots a torrent of flashes of light, “Yata no Kagami”, a move where Kizaru moves really fast by shining a mirror of light to create a road for him to move through, and “Ama no Murakumo”, where Kizaru creates a sword made of light.

These three attacks are all named after the three Imperial Regalia, the National Treasures of Japan. According to myth, these treasures were crafted by deities and eventually passed down to the Imperial Line, where they still reside enshrined within possession of the current emperor line. The treasures are forbidden from public view because of how sacred they are, and only the emperor and a select group of people are allowed to lay eyes on them, which has given these national treasures an aura of mysticism. Each of these treasures embody the three forces of values in shinto belief, being benevolence, wisdom, and courage.

The first of the three items is the “Yasakani no Magatama”. The term translates literally to “eight-span jade magatama”, with a magatama being a traditional stone from ancient Japanese culture with a lot of ties to its mythology and the mystic. The Yasakani no Magatama in specific is a sacred stone said to ward off evil that is used alongside the other treasures to bless the coronation of the Japanese Emperor. The reference here could be due to the fact that “magatama” literally means “rounded sphere”, and with his attack, Kizaru creates several small spheres of light, which act like sacred jewels that smite his opponents.

The second item, the “Yata no Kagami”, is a sacred bronze mirror that represents wisdom, literally translating to “eight-span mirror” due to its length. In this case the reference is evident as Kizaru uses this mirror to shine a light to teleport around.

Finally, the third item is the “Ama no Murakumo”. Also now more commonly known as the Kusanagi no Tsurugi, the Ama no Murakumo is a sacred sword whose history runs deep into Japanese mythology, which generally translates to the “Clouds that gather in the heavens”. Interestingly, the sword was said to have been originally found within the body of the Yamata no Orochi, the legendary eight-headed creature that inspired, of course, the powers of Shogun Orochi within One Piece. In this case, Kizaru embodies this sacred blade in the form of a sword made of light.

The connection with Kizaru to these treasures is interesting, as there isn’t as much apparent connection to them at first aside from the association of the holy with light, but perhaps it could serve to symbolize Kizaru’s position as a divine being who enacts the will of the gods.

Is this Kizaru’s Logia Awakening?

Putting aside the treasures however, something really interesting happens within this chapter, as Kizaru unleashes a regular “Yasakani no Magatama” attack, but then suddenly each of the particles of light becomes a completely individual clone of Kizaru, with each of them even being able to wield their own Ama no Murakumo swords.

Luffy is confused by this, as he tries to hit them but even despite using Armament Haki, these clones simply disperse into light without suffering any damage. Luffy compares them to the “hollow hollows” he found earlier in the island, which refers to Vegapunk’s holograms that were introduced at the start of the arc, no doubt at this point some sort of Chekov’s gun to help introduce the concept of Kizaru’s fight. In that case, Luffy referred to the holograms as “hollow hollows” as he does here, in reference to Perona’s ghosts which Luffy was also unable to catch back then.

We were introduced to the concept of how Atlas was able to punch the holograms with gloves that can hit light, so maybe those could help assist Luffy in this fight. Even with haki, Luffy can only harm Kizaru’s main body, but he can’t do much against the clones since they are all made of light, so perhaps the gloves could assist in some form?

However, this still doesn’t explain… just how was Kizaru able to form so many clones? At their core, these likely function on a similar basis as Vegpaunk’s holograms, but even so, it shouldn’t be possible for Kizaru to so easily control so many clones at once, especially with his real body being elsewhere, and the clones are even able to hurt Luffy directly. So how does this work?

Well, there have been many theories across the years about how Logia awakenings work. Whereas Paramecia users are able to affect their environments and Zoan users attain transformations, we still don’t have an official confirmation on how Logia awakening works. Some believe that perhaps they change the weather and environment around them, perhaps being what happened to Punk Hazard, but personally I disagree with that belief since it is too similar to Paramecia awakenings, and we’ve seen how much different types of awakenings differ. Rather, there’s another theory I’ve had for a long time regarding Logia awakenings that perfectly explains how Kizaru was able to execute this attack.

I’m of the belief that Logia awakenings allow the user to turn their element into living creatures that can move, talk, and act on their own based on the will of the original user. The perfect example of this is Karasu, who has the Susu Susu no Mi, the seemingly Logia fruit that lets Karasu transform into the element of soot. Karasu can shift freely into soot, but the soot he transforms into also manages to take the form of actual crows. These crows are very much alive, being able to move, make noise, and even talk with Karasu’s voice. However, they don’t have eyes or any distinguishing features because they are all pitch-black, as they are all made of soot.

We’ve seen similar cases with other characters, particularly, the Admirals. Aokiji was able to create a giant pheasant out of ice in his “Ice Block: Pheasant Beak” attack, and Akainu was able to create a giant magma dog in his “Inugami Guren” attack, literally meaning “biting dog”, both which behaved on their own. Enel also similarly created a few creatures made of thunder, such as the Jamboule, Kiten, and Hino.

These living creatures aren’t just attacks shaped like an animal, but living beings that behave on their own, even speaking on behalf of the original, as we see here with Kizaru where his clones can name the attacks as well. It’s possible that perhaps this is simply a natural ability of all Logia rather than an awakened power, but given how we’ve only seen the most expert of Logia users using this type of attacks, with many of its weaker users never being able to use them, it’s not a ridiculous assumption to believe that this is the ultimate stage of Logia awakening.

In the case of someone as powerful as Kizaru, his supposed awakening can be pushed to its biggest extent by allowing him to create countless clones that fight on his behalf, pursuing and hunting down Luffy, and yet even if they are defeated, these clones are but particles of light, making it impossible to seriously harm them and making them very easily expendable soldiers. Hopefully, however, Oda can shine more details about the innerworkings of this ability soon enough.

Bonney’s Secret

While we’re at it though, I also wanted to mention something interesting that Vegapunk mentions in this chapter. He says that he doesn’t want to let a little girl get killed, and even blames Franky for not being a responsible adult and letting a kid get harmed like that. Even Saturn referred to Bonney as a little girl, and last chapter, Kizaru sarcastically remarked that “kids sure grow fast”. This is something that I’ve been saying for a long while, but what if Bonney… actually is still a kid? What if the picture we saw of her and Kuma is only from a few years ago before Kuma was fully turned?

You see, given Bonney’s fruit, there is no guarantee that her current age is her real age. When giving out the ages of the Supernova in an SBS, Oda mentioned that pre-timeskip Bonney was biologically 22 years old, but remarked how this was only her current appearance. Given how Bonney can shift around her age, it’s totally possible that her kid self is her actual current appearance. This would explain why she is often childish and tends to resort to temper tantrums, because she is someone still being forced to grow up.

This could even be why when in contact with water Bonney was a little kid, as perhaps the water forces her to revert back to her original state. Water doesn’t always nullify devil fruit properties, such as Luffy still being rubbery underwater, but it does in the case of some powers, like the Kage Kage no Mi, so ultimately it’s totally possible that water could revert Bonney back to a younger age. Though this does bring into question as to why seastone cuffs didn’t revert Bonney, but it’s also possible those were just regular iron cuffs as Bonney needs to touch her targets to age them, so just cuffing her would’ve been enough for Blackbeard to stop her.

Saturn on the Move

Regardless, as the Punks head down to rescue Bonney, they use their authority to reverse the orders of the Pacifista. This should put them at an advantage as even if some of the Punks are defeated, the other ones still being conscious should still allow their orders to remain. However, of course, no one could account for the fact that one of the Five Elder Planets is on the island, and will now be forced to make their move.

If the belief that the Five Elder Planets are all from the Void Century, then we could be at a point where three key figures from the Void Century, Saturn, the Iron Giant, and Joyboy are about to meet each other for the first time in 800 years!!