Video version: https://youtu.be/4g4nLas0qNo

Chapter 1180

The very first page of the chapter gives us a better look at Imu’s full body design. We can see better here that he has baggy oversized pants and that he is mostly covered all over in those strange dots, save for the hands past his bracelets which have lines ending in eyes, as well as for the single line going over his chest all the way to the left side of the face, which remains covered the entire time. There’s a second large ring attached to the outfit, although beneath it we can see this pattern of two lines and a circle with smaller circles that almost looks like the logo of the Government. You may recognize this odd button as it’s the same we see on Celestial Dragons like Saint Charlos, so it’s a small visual indication that Imu’s clothing choices and those of the Celestial Dragons are slightly correlated. This time we also get a better feel for Imu’s size, which is clearly considerably taller than someone like Zoro, seeming at least twice his size (Zoro being 178cm for reference), but still considerably smaller than any of the giants.

We get a good feel for Imu’s supernatural abilities, most considerable his incredible speed. He appears to move from the top of the castle to the center of the village in an instant, and also cuts Gerd’s fingers faster than she can even process it. However, when he disappears from the castle, there’s this odd effect drawn around the spot, which could be just vanishing clouds but are more reminiscent to the bizarre shapes we saw coming out of Imu when transforming in the previous chapter.

Zoro tries to attack Imu with Rengoku Oni Giri, the Purgatory version of his traditional attack that he first used in Fish-Man Island, except this is the King of Hell version (閻王三刀流煉獄鬼斬り, or En Ou in Japanese) in which we saw him using a Purgatory Oni Giri against his fight with King. As we see in his blades, Zoro appears to be applying advanced conqueror’s haki which is manifested in the form of green flames, but Imu easily parries the attack simply with his devil tail.

Imu then fights back with a move called “Omen”, which doubles as the chapter’s title. Phonetically it’s spelled out in katakana just as it sounds in English, omen (オーメン), but what’s interesting here is the kanji writing, which is that of “maki” (魔気). The first kanji “ma” (魔) is one that essentially means “devil”, or “demon”, or just simply “evil” in some cases, which you might recognize from “akuma no mi” and the like. It is used in a lot of compounds like mahou, or magic, since witchcraft was originally associated with the demonic arts. The second kanji “ki” (気) instead means “feeling” or “spirit” and is essentially just the Japanese term for the Chinese concept of “chi”, the life energy that we all possess, although it is commonly used in Japan to refer to feelings or emotions (you may be familiar with the word “kimochi” 気持ち). As such, “maki” literally can be taken as “the spirit energy of the devil”, but at the same time can also be taken to mean a “bad feeling”/”evil feeling”. This fits its phonetic reading of “omen”, because an omen is the belief that a certain event is a sign of some great evil coming, particularly in religion.

A bad omen could be the sign of the devil or the forces of evil in action, and so this omen is literally a “bad feeling” that something is about to come, while also meaning the “spirit energy of the devil”, as Imu appears to be capable of bestowing this omen to his subordinates to make them stronger. Interestingly this “Omen” manifests in his subordinates in the form of a black ring similar to the one behind Imu’s back, which looks similar to the hagoromo scarf cloud that awakened Zoan users have, meant to look like the scarf clouds that Japanese deities have, except this one is in the form of a circle floating behind them, although similarly having a cloud-like texture. The distinction becomes clearer when differentiating this Omen from the regular black hagoromo the Gorosei had (and Killingham having a white one instead), as it seems like only Imu directly can grant it. Worth noting as well is that Sommers and Killingham’s omens are pure black, while Imu’s is the only one to feature the eyes on it, which make it look more like an Ophanim the so-called “Biblically accurate” angels that guard the throne of God, although arguably you could say they look like massive halos too. A worthy parallel is noting that someone like Enel, who fancied himself as a “God” also had a wheel behind him, although that was meant to look like the drums of a Raijin, a thunder god from Japanese mythology, but the long baggy pants similar to those of a deity can be observed in both.

Interestingly though, the Omen also appears to be usable not just as a buff, but also as a direct attack, as it’s what Imu uses to hurt Zoro without even making contact with him. This is incredibly similar to the move that Gunko Imu used just a few chapters back in 1177 against Brook, which likely was a version of Omen. Again, I bring the parallel to how this is similar to Saturn’s ability to attack others at a distance simply with his gaze, which we attributed to his Gyuki powers since in mythology the Gyuki is able to hurt someone just from staring at them, but I wonder if that’s still the case or that was some kind of Omen. If I had to guess, I’d say probably the former, as I’m not sure if Imu can directly grant the Omen to his subordinates.

The particular thing about Omen though is that its kanji reading of “maki” is of course similar to that of “haki”. The word “haki”, when broken down, is written with two kanji. The first one “ha” (覇) simply means “conqueror” or “supremacy”, but can be interpreted as something like “ambition” too. This same kanji repeats in “Haoushoku haki” (覇王色の覇気), what we often shorten to “conqueror’s haki” as fans, although the more correct full translation is “color of the conqueror king haki”, or “color of the supreme king haki” as the official uses which is just as correct. Again, the “ha” means “conqueror” or “supremacy”, the “ou” means “king”, like “kaizoku ou” (Pirate King), and the “shoku” is just “color”, same with busoshoku (武装色, color of armament) or kenbunshoku (見聞色, color of observation). So the same is used in “haki”, as the concept of haki as a whole embodies the idea of ambition and achieving supremacy. The second kanji however, “ki” (気), is once again the “chi” we mentioned before, the spirit energy that lives within all beings. So in this case haki is just the spirit energy of those with ambition. As such, the parallel with maki, the reading for Omen, is quite interesting, as it gives the idea perhaps that Omen is some kind of parallel to haki, but as it indicates instead of a spirit energy of ambition, it represents the spirit energy of the devil itself.

Interestingly, while Imu used only one open palm to attack Zoro, in order to attack Hajrudin, which causes a massive explosion, he needs to use two hands, using the second one to create some hole with his fingers to turn the Omen into a larger bomb like minion, which is incredibly reminiscent in design to a Bomb from the Final Fantasy series, as is likely the intended design since it quickly blows up. Also, as Imu leaves the village, the possession on the houses stops, and the first panel of the chapter seems to show that only the houses closest to him were possessed, while those further away weren’t. So there’s likely a range to this power, which again seems quite reminiscent of Paramecia awakenings. And of course, Imu can summon wings to fly, but oddly enough, these are different from the devil wings that he used while taking over Gunko’s body, instead looking more feathered and angelic, although they are black in color. This again brings into contention the discussion on if Imu is a lunaria due to the darker skin, although until we get an official color scheme it’s hard to tell if this isn’t some transformation color like red or blue. But I have to point out that these wings look slightly different from King’s wings in the manga, appearing to have smaller feathers or some kind of scales on the upper side, and there’s also the fact that he can seem to summon these at will rather than being on his back at all times like King did. The fact the wings are covered in black flames also seems to suggest they are some part of the powers, which we’ve seen incorporate both motifs of the Devil while also divine motifs of angels and Gods, so it would check out.

Imu then transforms the tip of his staff into a gun barrel (similarly to the pistol he summoned against Brogy) and fires another one of the omen bombs to blow up the ice Gunko was encased in, so we’ll see if Loki’s claim that nothing can unthaw that but Ragnir really is true. Even if Gunko is freed though, I’d imagine that Brook will be the one to reconcile with her rather than her becoming an immediate threat in the long run.

We also see that a massive circle accompanies Imu on the ground wherever he goes, which characters claim is immensely powerful haki, what Gabin mentions being stronger than even anything he’s felt in God Valley, what could really give the idea of this being the most powerful haki we’ve seen yet save for perhaps that of Joyboy. Jinbe even points out the black flames (which again we saw plenty of times before with the likes of the Gorosei using the abysses and whatnot) as being so overwhelming like they are tangible flames.

Chapter 1181

The flexibility of Omen continues to be shown as Imu uses the black bomb to quite simply parry Loki’s attack, which he calls “Ragna Izuchi” (ラグナイヅチ). The first part, “Ragna”, is written with the kanji “iron thunder” (鉄雷), which is the same kanji by which Ragnir’s kanji reading is formed, being a reference to the hammer’s name and of course ragnarök more specifically. On the other hand, “izuchi” means hammer”, and thus the kanji reads as “one hammer” (一槌).

Imu then uses that same omen to also make himself bigger, in yet another parallel to how Luffy is able to enlarge his size while in Gear 5th. The way that he and Loki describes it, it seems as if the Omen as a term is extended to the black flames we see Imu using in general, which as I mentioned we similarly saw black flames as well when the abysses were used by the Gorosei back in Egghead.

Imu’s staff also appears to be incredibly versatile, because its very shape seems to morph, changing shape to that of a sword which Imu refers to as “Nemesis”. The phonetic reading here is of course that of “nemesis” (ネメシス), but the kanji reading is that of “tenbatsuken” (天罰剣), which means “blade of divine punishment”, which is fitting enough of Imu’s motifs. I wonder if the name of Nemesis is meant to be just the name of this attack or would extend as the name of Imu’s blade. Also interestingly, in this shape the blade quite resembles the Yoru, but the attack as a whole is reminiscent of a move that Mihawk used in Marineford as well. It makes you wonder if this is just a coincidence or if there is some connection there, particularly as Mihawk also has ringed red eyes quite similar to Imu’s. The parallel is also interesting because the blade that cuts through Loki appears to be black, but I’d reckon that the blade itself here is made of Omen clouds rather than being a black blade like the Yoru, as the edge seen on the other side appears to be clear. The staff later also changes into a flail, with the bomb omen on it acting as an explosive ball at the end of the chain, so it seems like Imu uses the opposite flat end of the staff to change the shape of its flame clouds with the power of Omen.

Imu has a brief memory where he recalls the time he spent with Joyboy, suggesting that the two did know each other as many of us thought. The way the panel is framed, it would seem to suggest the hooded figure there is likely Imu, as the hood is similar to the one that Imu currently wears with the crown. As a reminder, what we are seeing here is Imu’s transformed form, so we still don’t know what his real face looks like. Joyboy can be seen wearing his iconic straw hat as well as pulled up sleeves that are reminiscent of what someone like Roger or Shanks wore. You can just barely make out a tuft of short hair, while his laugh also is very reminiscent of the Nika silhouette. The lines drawn next to the two of them usually expresses cheerful dialogue in manga, which is giving the idea that at some point, the two of them may actually have been friends, maybe even nakama. But Imu believes that the world benefits from being under his dominance, and even questions Joyboy, implying that may have been where the divide between the two happened. This is even enough to make Imu go mad and start screaming, which seems to suggest this idea that he really is mentally unstable as we thought, paticularly as we’ve commented several times, Imu seems to treat others as if they were their past incarnations, calling Luffy Nika, Xebec Davy Jones, or Loki here Nidhoggr.

When we saw him come into contact with Joyboy’s haki during Egghead, which I assume he likely felt through the Gorosei and the Abyss connection, he looked so emotionally overwhelmed, and given the way that the Gorosei like Saturn shrugged it off after the initial impact, I think it has a lot less to do with its power and much more to do with Imu still having some deep seated trauma regarding Joyboy. This kind of archetype of a character that fancies themselves as being like a god, above all others, which remind me of characters like Sephiroth from Final Fantasy as an example, often are very mentally damaged and emotionally overwhelmed, which should hopefully make Imu’s story and character arc a fascinating tale to find out more about.

Chapter 1182

Following up the previous claim, Imu refers to Nidhoggr as a “traitor” (裏切り者), which is quite the interesting claim. Particularly as we were told by Yarul that supposedly in the myth, the God of War who supposedly originally had the fruit historically fought against the Sun God. But this would still line up, as perhaps originally the giants did fight on the side of the Government alongside Imu, but the War God wielding the Nidhoggr fruit switched sides and thus “betrayed” Imu, leading to what we know today of Elbaph having been allied with the sun. Imu further also recognizes Ragnir, but here he addresses it as the hammer rather than the fruit, whose name is confirmed as, what we expected, the Risu Risu no Mi (Squirrel Squirrel Fruit), Mythical Model: Ratatoskr. Interestingly, the fruit name here is quite pecuilar, as the model is phonetically spelled as “ratataoskr” (ラタトスク), but the kanji reading is “氷リス” (koori risu, or ice squirrel). This is similar to the fact that the Nidhoggr had the kanji reading of “lightning dragon” (雷竜) when the children talked about him leading to a MMA, but when the fruit name was introduced it was simply written in phonetic katakana. This is technically not unprecedented though, because one other mythical zoan has had a different kanji reading from its phonetic reading, and it’s probably not even one you thought about: the Tori Tori no Mi (Bird Bird Fruit), Model: Phoenix. The phonetic reading is “phoenix” (フェニックス), but the kanji reading is “undying bird” (不死鳥, fushichou). Although in that case, the kanji reading is simply the way to write “phoenix” in kanji rather than a separate meaning, so the Ratatoskr is technically the first fruit name in the series that essentially has two completely different readings of its fruit name. I wonder if this was just a slip up by Oda and will be fixed in the volume release, or if this is an intentional choice to stay.

Anyway, there is again some question on if the myth Jarul cited was from the first world or the second world, but given Imu’s familiarity with both Nidhoggr and Ragnir it seems to be the second one I’d reckon. Particularly as in the myth, Ratatoskr was the loyal servant of the War God, but later his soul possessed the hammer Ragnir, but I think it’s more likely that this is just an embellification of a servant previously having the fruit only for it to be transferred onto the hammer. Whether that was intentionally done, through ancient technology that Vegapunk later rediscovered, or accidentally, as was the case with Sukiyaki’s kettle Bunbuku which seemingly accidentally “ate” a fruit, is tough to say.

We see Loki consciously shrinking down to a smaller size, showing he can affect the size his powers have, as Ragnir becomes bigger by comparison. Loki fires another attack at Imu called “Ragna Gouarrow”. The “ragna” like before reads as “iron thunder”, while the “goarrow” reads with the kanji for “five” and “arrow”, as “gou” is just Japanese for five. Imu responds with an attack called “Tzitzi Mitl” (ツィツィミトル), which is likely in reference to Tzitzimitl, the deity of Aztec mythology that came to be later associated with devils, thus fitting Imu’s motif of devil entities. The kanji reads as “nisshoku bakugeki” (目食爆撃), which reads as “solar eclipse bombardment”. The first half literally reads as “eaten sun”, because an eclipse is a case where the sun is quite literally “eaten”, while the second half instead is pretty much just replaced with “bakugeki”, which means bombardment, fitting the falling omen bombs. The name is fitting, as Imu trying to eliminate the Dawn can be seen like an “eclipse”, trying to eat away at the sun, although ironically, Eclipse (though this time written in phonetic katakana, エクリプス), is also the name of Xebec’s sword.

Zoro later mentions how the omen turned into bullets and explosives, which seems to indicate that the way Imu attacked Zoro and Hajrudin in previous chapters was by basically turning his omen clouds into weapons. He wasn’t hitting them remotely, he was literally just shooting bullets at them, in the same way that his spear’s omen clouds turned into things like a sword or a mace.

At the Owl Library, we find out what happened to the books, being that Biblo took them through an underground passage way deeper into the tree, a room so hidden that not even Saul seemed aware of it. Biblo once more doesn’t speak, as technically it’s just an owl with a growing fruit, but I wonder how it was able to transport hundreds of books having only… you know, wings. It had been established since the start of the arc that Biblo has been alive for centuries, so I wonder just what exactly there is more to hide behind this Owl’s taciturn gaze…

As Killingham and Sommers talk, with the latter confirming what we assumed that Imu cannot remain on the surface for long, Killingham accidentally ends up summoning his own MMA of the creature he fears the most. He does talk about how Celestial Dragons always heard stories of the D. Clan and Nika, which checks out: Rocinante explained to Law that in Mary Geoise they used to tell little children that if they didn’t behave, the “D. would gobble them up”, almost like some kind of boogeyman, as the “D. will always bring another storm”. Gunko also cited Nika as being her most feared thing, though I wonder under how much influence she was saying that.

However, Killingham’s greatest fear is that of the “Rain God, Zaza”! The name “Rain God”, or “Ame no Kami” (雨の神), is one that might sound familiar. During Skypiea, the four gods that the Shandians prayed to were called the Sun God (太陽の神, taiyou no kami), the Rain God (雨の神, ame no kami), the Forest God (森の神, Mori no Kami), and the Land God (大地の神, daichi no kami). The Harley similarly mentioned four gods, though two of them were named slightly differently: while the Sun God and the Forest God are the same, the other two are known as the Sea God (海の神, umi no kami) and the Earth God (地の神, chi no kami). We don’t know for sure if these are the same or completely separate gods, but given the association, I think it’s likely just that the names changed between cultures. The latter one particularly is almost identical, it’s just that one uses “chi no kami”, or earth god, and the other one uses “daichi no kami”, simply using a more archaic poetic word for “earth” akin to “land”. Rain God and Sea God are different enough, but they are both relating to the concept of water, so at least for now I’d be willing to accept they are likely one and the same. And though this MMA bears the face of a woman, I imagine in this case “god” is used as a gender neutral term for standardization.

The name Zaza itself will become incredibly obvious to whoever speaks Japanese, but not as obvious to those who don’t speak it. And that’s because “za za” is the sound effect that rain makes in Japanese. It’s basically meant to sound like “zazazaza” which is the classic sound that raindrops make when falling. As such, the name “Zaza” evokes the image of falling rain, which is evident in the big panel where the “zaaaa” sound effect for rain can be observed. What makes this name interesting is the fact that it’s actually quite the childish name, like the name a kid would come up for some fantastical creature. This is consistent with Nika, whose name is literally just the sound effect for laughter. You may recall that when Luffy first transformed into Gear 5th, some of us called the fact it was likely the Nika fruit because the sound effect when he transformed was that of “nika”, or “smile”, and similarly here we have another god that is named after a sound effect. If Nika, the Sun God, embodies the concept of smile and laughter, then Zaza quite simply embodies the concept of rain.

The design itself is fascinating, evoking a highly buddhist motif. Zaza appears with female features, with long hair tied in braids and a face covered by a veil, with distinctly feminine eyes marked by rings similar to Imu’s, even if we don’t know the color. She wears a kasa hat, although it’s meant to look like a Japanese buddhist monk hat. Her robe is similarly evocative of buddhist robes, although it is visibly wet from the fact that her arms are made of water, which are adorned with rosaries, of which she has four, yet another common trait of buddhist (and also often hindu) dieties. Behind her is what again looks similar to a hagoromo cloud scarf, except unlike the clouds someone like Nika has, this one is more similar to Imu’s omen, except it appears to be much more uniform and almost heavenly, with beads hanging from it similar to those on her hat. Interestingly, she appears quite a bit more detailed than the other MMAs created by the children, but this is likely due to the fact that it came from Killingham’s much more adult mind.

Fascinatingly though, Killingham also adds how Zaza is accompanied by the “amagoi” (雨乞い). The amagaoi, literally meaning “rain prayer”, is a traditional Japanese dance that attempts to ask the gods for rain by preforming a ritual dance and singing, though it is quite similar to festival dances performed in Japan. In this case, it is represented here with the sound effects “don chan shan shan, don chan shan shan” (ドンチャンシャンシャン). The “don chan” part is the sound effect of a party, which we’ve seen several times across the series, while the “shan shan” is more like the sound of small bells ringing, similar to the beads or bells we can see hanging from Zaza’s hat. Of course this is similar to the fact that Nika is said to be accompained by the “Drums of Liberation”, which have the sound of “don do to to, don do to to” (ドンドトト), which as we saw during the party in Skypiea, are the sounds of traditional drums. In Nika’s silhouette, there appear to be two drums attached to his hips as well. So it’s possible that each of the four gods has a melody evocative of a traditional festivity associated with them, with the Sun God being the Drums of Liberation (解放のドラム), while the Rain God has the Amagoi (雨乞い), or the Rain Prayer/Rain Dance. Imu also was accompanied by similar festivity sounds as we saw a couple chapters ago, although those oddly enough were much more diverse rather than one single sound, such as “zumu zumu”, “dororon” or “dadadan dadadan”.

So out of the four gods, we currently already know of the Sun God Nika and the Rain God Zaza, also called the Sea God. Now interestingly, while we were debating the Harley, we assumed that the “Sea God” was Imu. This just simply made a lot of sense: Shanks originally referred to as the devil fruits being the incarnation of the “Sea Devil” (海の悪魔), so we assumed that “Sea God” and “Sea Devil” may have been two terms to refer to the same being. After all, we also know devil fruits are weak to water, so if the Sea Devil possesses some power associated with water, it makes sense why it would stand above all other devil fruits in some way or another. Not to mention that the Sea, “Umi”, is just “Imu” read backwards. Though this myth gets muddled with the fact that the sea, Umi, was also referred to as the “Mother of Nature” who punished devil fruit users.

Now in the Harley, it kinda checked out that the Sea God was Imu, because the passage of the Second World, detailing history up to the Void Century, ended with the lines “People killed the sun and became gods. The Sea God Rampaged” (人は太陽を殺し神となり, 海の神は荒ぶった). The first sentence reads pretty obviously, “people”, or “men”, here read as the humans who killed the sun, or the Sun God, the Dawn, the Motherflame, and all it symbolizes, and became gods, representing their ascension to Celestial Dragons. Being followed by the “Sea God Rampaged”, being the closing passage of the Second World before the classic “and they all could not meet anymore”, could be very obviously read as the end of the second world: Imu unleashes an ancient weapon which raises the sea level and sinks most of the world. As such this could be interpreted as the Sea God (Imu) rampaging with his weapon and thus sinking the world.

But things don’t quite add up here. We haven’t yet seen Imu use any water powers, though we can’t fully discount that yet I suppose, but more than anything, the Rain God is depicted as some kind of entity that the people of Mary Geoise should fear. Killingham particularly cited it as terrifying because to they who live above the clouds, the concept of rain is foreign to them, and that which is unknown becomes frightening. But I reckon there has to be more history there and I think there’s even the possibility that the rain god may have once fought side by side with the Sun God. It could perhaps make sense that the Sea God, following the Sun God’s death, rampaged against the Government, though I’d be surprised if that’s really the only mention we have here instead of the rise in sea level, so I still feel like something isn’t quite adding up. However, I do wonder if perhaps this claim of fear of the Sun God ties with the classic old saying of the Celestial Dragons: “the D. will always bring another storm”. Was perhaps the original Rain God a member of the D. clan and thus the Celestial Dragons continue to fear the storm that the D. will bring, perhaps not just metaphorical… but quite literal?

And again, this is all under the assumption that the Sea God and the Rain God are one and the same, because for all we know we could actually have at least five gods instead of four. After all, we’ve seen more gods in the One Piece world, such as literally Sengoku having the Buddha fruit, the mythical incarnation of a deity passed through legends from our time all the way to the Third World. That said though, the Sea (Umi) being referred to as the “Mother of Nature” would be consistent with Zaza being depicted as a feminine figure if anything.

At the very least, I think that we can take the assumption that the concept of the Rain God, at least in times of old, was likely just a myth, but one that became reality through a devil fruit. After all, the hagoromo seen behind Zaza here is just like that of an awakened Zoan. Which brings the possibility that someone at present could have such a power, though it would run a bit counterintuitive to the idea that devil fruit users are weak to water, unless it really is just some passive rain. There’s a lot of guesses that could be made for this now, primarily Dragon, especially when he was introduced during heavy rain (bearing of course the same sound effects), but we’ll have to see. Of bigger interest if anything is the two other dieties at this point.

The Earth God (or Land God in Shandora, assuming they are one and the same) is mentioned in the Harley in the final passage of the First World: following the verse of “The enslaved wished and prayed, the Sun God appeared”, it follows up with “The Earth God was furious, and, together with the Hellflame Serpent, enveloped the world in death and darkness”. Given how the giants of Elbaph seem to associate the Hellflame Serpent, which they also seem to associate with the Jörmungandr, with the Red Line itself, it’s likely that this myth speaks of the creation of the Red Line, which makes sense given the, you know, “earth”. But this line is really all we can currently extrapolate of this Earth God. On the other hand, the Forest God is mentioned at the start of the Second World, in the passage “Within the nothingness, there be breath. The Forest God sent forth devils”. This seems to give the idea that the Forest God is the one that created the Devil Fruits. While Imu stands at the pinnacle of the fruits as the Devil itself, and the Devil Fruits were described as the “incarnations of the Devil”, it’s long been questioned if he’s the one that actually manifested them into the world or simply took advantage of a system someone else created, or if it’s all just getting lost in the myth. But again beyond this, there isn’t much we know.

So while we have at least two of the gods now, I wonder what we’ll see of the other two, and of course, what their current representatives in the present are, likely in the form of fruits, as all we see of Zaza here is nothing more than a MMA just like the Nika ones. Still, I reckon these two other gods will likely have names tied with similar childish sound effects, such as something like the “Earth God Gura” for the shaking of the Earth (gura gura), although this now gets me questioning if the Gura Gura no Mi (Quake Quake Fruit) could have been the fruit of the Earth God in some form, particularly as it’s now possessed by Blackbeard, not just a key figure, but also someone who has the Yami Yami no Mi (Dark Dark Fruit) too, which would tie with the Harley’s mention of the Earth God “enveloping the world in death and darkness” with the Hellflame Serpent, as that darkness is written in the Harley with that same “yami”. The Gura Gura no Mi was even described by Sengoku as having the power to “destroy the world”, being one of the only things, alongisde the Nidhoggr fruit, cited with power comparable to that of the ancient weapons, capable of destroying the world. I wonder if the Nidhoggr ties into this pantheon of gods as well or is just a more minor mythical being though. As for the forest, it’s kind of hard to say what kind of name would it have, as trees don’t exactly make much noise aside the occasional rustling of leaves.

Still, it is fascinating to see the mythology of One Piece come to play, particularly with original gods that Oda himself has designed as being a unique part of this world. The large pantheon of divine beings is finally becoming more clear and we now have two of the four mythical figures that composed the history of this world. But as I said, what stands out to me are both the concepts, but more than anything, the names, as Nika and Zaza are both very childish sounding names. More than gods and dieties, these creatures are almost reminiscent of childish dreams, and so it makes me wonder just how much these beings may have originated from the hearts and dreams of children. Perhaps even having all originally been part of some childish tale, maybe even… a laugh tale.