Hey guys! So I had a theory to share today about why Luffy's devil fruit is actually the Mythical Zoan Fruit, Nika Nika No Mi.
If you don't want to read all the text, this video is here:
If you cannot or do not want to watch the video, this is the text version:
Now, Luffy's devil fruit is a very popular topic in the community currently as we are getting a lot of hints that it may not actually be the Gomu Gomu no mi.
So just a little bit of background about Nika, the sun god, before we start this theory.
Nika, as stated by Who's who, was a legendary warrior, who could have possibly been mythical, that was revered by many int he one piece world for freeing slaves and bringing about smiles. It was revered so much actually that it was given the name "Sun God."
In the most recent chapter, we see Zunesha mentioning the drums of liberation, and that Joyboy has returned: We also see Luffy grinning, and seemingly melting.
Now there are three points here I want to outline:
1. Drums of Liberation could be a reference to the freeing of slaves, and we know that Nika was associated with liberating slaves.
2. Joyboy has returned, which could be a reference that Joyboy had Luffy's fruit and was able to use its awakening, which could look very similar to the picture we saw of Nika in Who's Who's explanation. Also, it could be the case that this particular Mythical Zoan awakening gives off a sound that Zunesha recognizes, and it could be an attribute of Mythical Zoans awakening, which could differ slightly from normal Zoans awakening.
3. Luffy has a grin on his face, and is seemingly not out of commission anymore. It was stated by Crocodile previously that Zoan awakenings seemingly revive and help the user recover, and that resilience is a very strong point of Zoan awakenings.
4. Luffy melting might not be Luffy actually melting, but his hair is taking the form of the hair that we saw in the depiction of Nika in Who's Who's explanation.
Also, I want to highlight an SBS question someone asked Oda previously: They mentioned a connection between the Strawhats that ate devil fruits and their devil fruit numbers, as well as how it could tell the next strawhat joining, stating:
Luffys Gomu Gomu no mi gives us the numbers (Go) 5 and (Mu) 6
Robin's Hana Hana no mi gives us the numbers (Ha) 8 and (Na) 7
Chopper's Hito Hito no mi gives us the numbers (Hi) 1 and (To) 10
Brook's Yomi Yomi no mi gives us the numbers (Yo) 4 and (Mi) 3
Which give us the numbers 1,3,4,5,6,7,8,10, but we are missing 2 and 9. However, the Nika Nika no mi fulfills that, giving us (Ni) 2 and (Ka) 9, and all of it added together gives us 325(56 + 10 + 87 + 43 + 29), which is the SANIGO = Sunny Go!
Now you might be asking, well if his fruit is serving the purpose of 2 and 9, arent we missing 5 and 6? Well actually, and credit to someone I talked to on a discord for seeing the 2,9 and 5,6 relation: 2 and 9 flipped look almost identical to 5 and 6. Similar to how we thought the fruit was the Gomu Gomu no mi all along, until recently we might find out its actually the Nika Nika no mi! So in a way, the Nika Nika no mi is serving the purpose of 2 and 9, as well as 5 and 6.
Moreover, you might be asking: If the fruit is so dangerous to the world government, why didn't they send an admiral or CP0 to kill Luffy before he got so strong? Well, it might be the case that the way the fruit is used by Luffy, and the way it was used centuries ago, could differ greatly. In fact, it could be the case that the only things they know about the legendary fruit, is through its awakening, as the previous user awakened it centuries ago. So they may not have noticed Luffy had it until they got intel from CP0, and they could have just thought that it was a random fruit with stretching properties. You might ask, well wouldn't they know the fruit since they gave it the fake name? Well, what if Shanks knew about this fruit, and he actually told Luffy a fake name for the fruit, that is even different than the fake name the government gave it, and he might have done this to protect Luffy from the government. Also, if we look at the portrayal of Sun God Nika in Who's Who's explanation, it seems like their limbs are rubbery or similar to that. So the fruit could have rubber properties.
