What’s speculation?
That can harden specific parts of your body and not the whole thing every time? Hardening your hand doesn’t automatically harden your head or any other part of you…
I guess it’s still speculation but him not using it in the moment along with it being hardened is pretty undeniable. I think we at least can agree with that
We weren’t told Ryuma’s blade was a black blade till he started to fight zoro. Technically it could also be speculation that it was a blade blade before it was said
It's speculation that Aramaki wasn't using hardening on his sword when we see him use it on his branches.
There's still some chance because Aramaki hasn't used his sword in battle yet, but it is weird that despite seeing him in combat on three occasions, we've never seen him use his sword.
Aramaki clearly isn't a swordsman, so him having a Black Blade would be somewhat surprising.
I had come around to Aramaki having a Black Blade before today, but now, I'm leaning towards it just being hardening in that panel.