Will Shiryu Awaken his Devil Fruit? Can Zoro “Cut Nothing”?

The cover page of chapter 1031 revealed the right-hand commanders of the top crews in One Piece including the Straw Hat Pirates and the 4 Yonko crews.

Seeing Shiryu up there along with Zoro confirmed that Shiryu is second to Teach/Blackbeard. This suggests that when Luffy takes on Blackbeard, a face off is due between Shiryu and our boy Zoro.

Zoro has already defeated King, who is lesser in power only to Kaido. The fact that he was able to beat the strongest Lead Performer means that Zoro has seriously upped his game. Zoro vs. Shiryu needs to be bigger, better, and badder than Zoro vs. King, since it will be closer to the series finale.

Currently, Shiryu has a pretty cool Devil Fruit ability. But he’d need a power boost to be a worthy first commander in the final battle of the Straw Hats vs. the Blackbeard Pirates.

Will Shiryu awaken his Devil Fruit?

Shiryu will awaken his Devil Fruit to become “nothing”. Blackbeard is an expert tactician when it comes to Devil Fruits; it’s obvious that his right-hand-man will be able to become more than just invisible – he will turn into nothingness, the ultimate form of invisibility.

This way Shiryu can bypass Observation Haki, and become invisible to all senses, not just vision.

I know a lot of people believe that Shiryu won’t awaken his fruit because he’s only had it for around 2 years and that awakenings are very rare. But you gotta remember, we’re talking about the Blackbeard Pirates here.

Blackbeard’s whole thing is going around the world and acquiring the strongest Devil Fruits for him and his crew. If there’s anyone who knows how to induce an artificial awakening, it’s him.

Even if we don’t consider artificial awakening, the Blackbeards vs. Straw Hats will possibly take another year or more; so Shiryu still has some time to awaken it naturally.

In the Wano Country arc, Shiryu kills Absalom, the leader of the Zombie Soldiers and one of the Mysterious 4 of the Thriller Bark Pirates.

Shiryu poaches Absalom’s Paramecia-type Devil Fruit, the Suke Suke no Mi, or the Clear-Clear Fruit, which grants the user the power of physical invisibility, along with turning anything they are in contact with invisible as well.

This could mean that when Shiryu awakens his Devil Fruit, he might also be able to turn other objects in the environment invisible too, despite not being in direct contact with them.

In chapter 486, we see that the Suke Suke no Mi can turn an entire small ship invisible; in its awakened form, Shiryu should be able to affect the larger environment by a) making it invisible, and b) turn it into nothing. Well, not nothing, but perceived nothingness.

We’ve seen Katakuri and Doflamingo turn buildings and walls into mochi or strings, respectively. Their fruits allowed them to create mochi or string, and the awakened forms let them extend this ability to the environment.

With Shiryu, his fruit already lets him influence the environment (if he’s touching it) but does not let him create invisibility, only become it. This means that he won’t be able to turn the environment into nothing, but make it seem like he did.

This would play well with Zoro’s horrible sense of direction; if Shiryu is able to knock out the ground below Zoro’s feet by making it “clear”, or make Zoro’s swords invisible to himself, it would be an amazing challenge for Zoro to beat him.

Additionally, we haven’t even considered Shiryu’s Haki. If Shiryu already has advanced Observation Haki, he can use it in conjunction with his Devil Fruit to completely hide his presence. I feel like Oda could choose this path if he doesn’t want to go down the whole “nothingness” route for Shiryu.

When Rayleigh was training Luffy, Luffy doesn’t sense Rayleigh’s attack at all because he was hiding his presence. It’s possible that Shiryu of the Rain replicates this – it would make him virtually untouchable.

How will Zoro defeat Shiryu if he turns into nothing?

Zoro will defeat Shiryu by learning to master the “breath of all things” which will grant him the ability to “cut nothing”.

In his flashback in Alabasta 10 years ago, Zoro asked his sensei, Koushiro, whether it’s true that some men in the world can cut anything, even steel. Koushiro replied saying, “In this world we live in, there are swordsmen who can cut nothing.”

Zoro proceeded to defeat Daz Bones/Mr. 1, who turned his body into steel. Mr. 1 then asked him whether he would cut through diamond next, but Zoro replied saying that would be a waste.

People assumed that Shiryu would attain Jozu’s diamond Devil Fruit, but turning into nothing (or perceived nothing) definitely trumps turning into diamond.

The thing is, the Suke Suke no Mi grants the user invisibility, not intangibility. This means that Shiryu won’t be invincible, even with an awakened Devil Fruit.

I’m willing to bet that when Koushiro said that some swordsmen can cut nothing, he was talking about the Shimotsuki samurai clan, and Dracule Mihawk, the world’s greatest swordsman.

Zoro has been training with Mihawk during the 2-year time-skip. Zoro might have learned the ability from Mihawk, so when the time comes, he will slice Shiryu even though he is “nothing”.

And if not through Mihawk, Zoro would have inherited the power from his Shimotsuki ancestors, since it is almost confirmed that Zoro is somehow related to Shimotsuki Ryuma, the Sword God.

Speaking of Shimotsuki, let’s go back to Thriller Bark for a second, to consider a few seemingly unrelated events.

Ryuma last appeared during the Marineford arc as a zombie to serve Absalom and Moria, the captain of the Thriller Bark Pirates.

Then, during the Summit War of Marineford, Absalom saves Moria with his Devil Fruit power from Doflamingo, even though Doffy has Observation Haki. Years later in Wano, Absalom is kidnapped and killed and his Devil Fruit is stolen by Blackbeard’s Shiryu.

On the other hand, Ryuma in his zombie form was defeated by Zoro and that was when he got Shusui. Zoro later gave up the Shusui in exchange for Enma.

We know that Shusui is stronger than Zoro’s other two swords – Kitetsu and Ichimonji. Before Zoro had to give up the Shusui, he thought it was a necessity to defeat the Beasts Pirates.

I think, because of the links between Zoro, Ryuma, Absalom – and thus Shiryu, Zoro will acquire the Shusui once again to help him defeat Shiryu in his awakened Devil Fruit form.

Additionally, Zoro has spent the most time training with Shusui – he even used it while training with Mihawk and realized that it enhances the power of his techniques.

There is going to be some sort of reveal that puts Zoro down as a Shimotsuki, which would make him the rightful owner of the Black Blade.

Shusui was also used to defend against the Ancient Weapon Neptune’s trident. Blackbeard is going to acquire Pluton. The Straw Hats need everything they can get their hands on to defeat Blackbeard and his crew.

I think Zoro will use the Shusui to cut Shiryu when he turns to nothing using the awakened power of the Suke Suke no Mi.

About One Piece

One Piece is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Eiichiro Oda. It has been serialized in Shueisha’s Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine since July 22, 1997.

The man who had acquired everything in this world, the Pirate King, is Gol D. Roger. The final words he said at the execution tower were “My treasures? If you want it, I’ll let you have it. Look for it; I left all of it at that place.” These words sent many to the seas, chasing their dreams, headed toward the Grand Line, in search of One Piece. Thus began a new age!

Seeking to be the greatest pirate in the world, young Monkey D. Luffy also heads toward the Grand Line in search of One Piece. His diverse crew is joining him along the way, consisting of a swordsman, marksman, navigator, cook, doctor, archaeologist, and cyborg-shipwright, this will be one memorable adventure.