Luffy right now is on another level, it isn’t Conqueror’s Haki, it isn’t what he has learned in Wano. It’s his usage of Gomu Gomu No Mi.
Look at this:
Does anyone see what Luffy is doing? This isn’t the only panel like this. Can anyone notice what it looks like right now?
No? Ok I’ll tell you. Luffy is swapping between Gear 3 attacks, Gear 2 attacks, combining both, and going into base mode.
If you read this entire fight, every time Luffy lands or attacks with a Gear 3 attack. Oda shows us the enlarged part, the only moment would be this chapter where they both kept hitting each other with their Gatlings. That panel does not show it.
Meaning Luffy pulled his attack all the way out, enlarged it, creating this massive force/drag making him use more power to whip it back, and then he swaps it back to a normal kick but full of ALL THAT POWER! All that speed coming in, all the force, and applying Conqueror’s Haki to it.
Look at the black sparks, look at the foot, look at the steam, look at the speed sound barrier thing.
Look at the line of the foot. How it’s big, then it eventually goes back to normal.
He has not blown into his arms or anything for these Gear 3 attacks like we have seen him many many many times before this arc. In fact he was doing it when he vs’d Katakuri which isn’t that long ago.
Hell when he first vs’d Kaido Luffy had to blow into his arms just for Gear 3.
Luffy hasn’t blown into shit this entire fight. The man is easily manipulating his devil fruit. The man is effortlessly combining all his modes into one.
Same way how Katakuri was using his devil fruit vs Luffy.
Same way how Kaido is using his devil fruit vs Luffy.
Luffy is now IN MY OPINION at his PRE-Awakening state.
In the manga it’s kinda hard to notice Gear 2, but if you look at this entire fight Luffy has a lot of steam coming out of him when he attacks sometimes.
Now some of you guys will say, but “what about Gear 4!” and I’m gonna tell you Gear 4 means nothing at all.
Luffy has really mastered Gear 4, the only ISSUE is HAKI. Luffy is not going into Gear 4, maybe for the final attack he will, but I don’t see him going into Gear 4. Gear 4 uses so much Haki, and if he can’t use his Haki vs Kaido right now, he is 100% dead, and he knows that. So why even go Gear 4, when he can just combine/alternate between all three? WHILE also applying Conqueror’s Haki into those attacks.
Luffy is on another level, he is at the stage where his devil fruit seems to be mastered pre-Awakening.
Really, tell me what else he needs to learn in terms of his devil fruit usage? Gear 4 is Haki base, so he just needs to train his Haki more, which is actually what his fight is about.
Luffy is currently combining Gear 2 and 3, swapping between them, like it’s nothing.
What else does he need to learn about his devil fruit? The only thing left is AWAKENING!
*by Amasero
