I don’t think this will turn out to be case but there is a rather large amount of hints pointing towards the fact that Luffy’s Devil Fruit is actually not the Gomu Gomu no Mi fruit but rather something else.
There have always been theories surrounding Luffy’s Devil Fruit not actually being the Rubber Fruit, I’ve never paid much attention to it but in the light of multiple recent reveals I changed my tune a bit.
The Game Changer
So, in Chapter 1037 we get the Gorosei hyping up the existence of a Devil Fruit that hasn’t “Awakened” for centuries and seemingly it did now. Clearly, this Devil Fruit is supposed to be something special and something of utmost importance. Besides the obvious pick for the fruit being Zunisha, which I don’t think it’s the case considering we don’t know about any Devil Fruit that it ate, I decided to have some fun with this notion.
So, in my mind there could only be a handful of people in possession of this fruit, the two main suspects being Blackbeard (Yami Yami no Mi) and Luffy (Gomu Gomu no Mi). I would expect nothing less from this fruit other than it being either Main Protagonist’s or Main Villain’s devil fruit judging by how much it’s importance has been played up.
Another big thing revealed by these five is that they hid the real name (identity) of the fruit by calling it something else. This is a rather interesting notion because this has been debated in the fandom but always dismissed as hearsay or nonsense. Well now this seems like a possibility.
Note: The Devil Fruit that Gorosei are talking about doesn’t necessarily have to be Gomu Gomu no Mi, but the notion that there exist a Devil Fruit that had its real name hidden opens up the possibility for other Devil Fruits to have the same done to them.
Why Gomu Gomu no Mi is a Fake Name
Wano is an arc that feels like no other as it really sped up the One Piece mysteries reveals. We got more information and answers about the mysteries of One Piece in Wano alone than the rest of the Manga and the prime suspect to be blame for this is Who’s Who (featuring Queen).
Who’s Who dropped this banger in Chapter 1017 about him being imprisoned for losing the Gomu Gomu no Mi to Red Hair Pirates, 12 years ago. Shocker I know. But the question immediately seemed to arise about him being imprisoned for simply losing a Devil Fruit he was guarding. After all, CP9 agents were reinstated as CP0 agents (some of them) after the massive failure that was Enies Lobby simply because they were strong. And they lost the blueprints for Pluton, which is a much more important than a simple Gomu Gomu no Mi Devil Fruit! Or is it…?
Naturally the theories started to arise how Gomu Gomu no Mi is special:
“It’s to counter Gura Gura no Mi with its awakening” some said.
“They mistook it for a Yami Yami no Mi as they look very similar” other said.
And very few suggested that perhaps, just perhaps, Gomu Gomu no Mi is not actually Gomu Gomu no Mi. And I think they are onto something.
As I said before, Wano is an arc like no others as it seems it sped up the mystery reveal process by tenfold but it also started introducing new mysteries, or rather introduced new concepts, and really hit us over the head with them. One of these concepts is Luffy’s Gear Fourth striking resemblance to the “Wisdom King” (Myouou), the Guardian Deity mentioned by Hyougoro in Chapter 990.
Now obviously, this could very well be just a reference to the “real life” Wisdom King which is highly revered among the Japanese Yakuza, the ones Hyougoro draws inspiration from, and on its own this doesn’t mean much.
However, there is another Deity mentioned in the same arc just 30 chapters later and again, it’s from the fangs of Who’s Who in Chapter 1018, that being the infamous Sun God Nika.
That makes two Deities mentioned in the same arc and they both can be linked back to Luffy. Three if you consider Joy Boy as a deity. As the saying goes “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me thrice, well there is clearly something going on here”.
