In the end of chapter 918, it is implied that Kinemon, Kanjuro, Raizo and Momonosuke are all dead, and are ghosts. I have a theory that it might just be true.
I made a video on this theory on youtube, feel free to follow it there: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZykKxb1WqbY&t=1s
My theory is that Momonosuke, Kinemon, Kanjuro and Raizo are all “Yūrei” (ghosts in japanese folklore) created from Oden’s devil fruit.
The Yurei
In Japanese folklore, there is a creature called “Yurei”, which essentially is a ghost, but the interesting part is how a person becomes a Yurei. I have taken out some text from the wikipedia article about the Yurei, notice the bold text as it is important:
According to traditional Japanese beliefs, all humans have a spirit or soul called a 霊魂 (reikon). When a person dies, the reikon leaves the body and enters a form of purgatory, where it waits for the proper funeral and post-funeral rites to be performed, so that it may join its ancestors. If this is done correctly, the reikon is believed to be a protector of the living family and to return yearly in August during the Obon Festival to receive thanks.
However, if the person dies in a sudden or violent manner such as murder or suicide, if the proper rites have not been performed, or if they are influenced by powerful emotions such as a desire for revenge, love, jealousy, hatred or sorrow, the reikon is thought to transform into a yūrei, which can then bridge the gap back to the physical world. The emotion or thought need not be particularly strong or driving, and even innocuous thoughts can cause a death to become disturbed. Once a thought enters the mind of a dying person, their Yūrei will come back to complete the action last thought of before returning to the cycle of reincarnation.
The yurei then exists on Earth until it can be laid to rest, either by performing the missing rituals, or resolving the emotional conflict that still ties it to the physical plane. If the rituals are not completed or the conflict left unresolved, the yurei will persist in its haunting.
So, for a Yurei to be created, they need to have been murdered violently and have a emotional conflict as a last thought. If Kaido and his crew actually killed them, it was probably violent. That leaves emotional conflict, which we know they all have. If you want more concrete evidence, I want you to take a look at chapter 819, where they all say something really interesting.
Their Emotional Conflict:
Kanjuro: “Lord Oden left us but one message before his death”
Kanjuro, Kinemon, Raizo, Nekomamushi, Inuarashi: “Open Wano’s borders!!!”
Kanjuro: “Now we have to live with this terrible shame over our heads…”
Kanjuro: “…our only choice is to dedicate our lives to his dying command!!!”
Raizo: “We must strike down the shogun of Wano and open the closed borders of our country!!!”
Kinemon: “That is our deepest desire!!!”
Momonosuke: “I WANT TO DEFEAT KAIDO!!!”
So it’s safe to say that they all have emotional conflict that needs to be resolved. But how could these Yurei have been created?
The Yurei Yurei No Mi
In One Piece, most of the supernatural things happening is because of Devil Fruits, so I propose the idea that there is a Yurei Yurei No Mi, a fruit that can make people into yurei or ghosts. And the one who ate the fruit is most likely Kozuki Oden. He was the one who “ordered” them with his last request, so he should be the one who made them this way.
Kanjuro: “…our only choice is to dedicate our lives to his dying command!!!”
If we even take what kanjuro says here literally, it could mean that they literally MUST put their lives on the line for Odens last request.
Could it be that Momonosuke and the three retainers are Yurei created by Oden’s devil fruit to accomplish a last task before they can die peacefully?
The Outcome Of The Wano Arc
What does this mean for the future of this arc? Does this mean that they all will move on to the afterlife once the conflict is resolved? Will we have a sad death scene at the end of Wano where the four Samurai fade out of existence? Will Momonosuke never be able to become the new Lord of Wano?
This may not be the case, at least in the case of Momonosuke.
Remember the panels I brought up from chapter 819? Notice that what Momonosuke said was different from what the other Samurai said. It could be that his hatred for Kaido is greater than the desire to fulfill his father’s last wish, and therefore his “emotional conflict” keeping him in the physical world is to kill Kaido and not to open the borders of Wano/ take down the Shogun.
This means that Momonosuke will only fulfill his desire once Kaido is dead. So if Kaido really is “immortal”, that could mean that Momonosuke will stay alive as long as Kaido is alive, because I really want to see a zhulong dragon rule over the flower capital.
This still means that Momonosuke will be the only one living of the Samurai quartet at the end of the arc. To me, this seems like a really sad Oda-esque ending to an arc, Momonosuke being the only survivor of the four, miserable that he won’t see his three friends for a long while.
So Momonosuke, Kinemon, Kanjuro and Raizo are all “Yūrei” (ghosts in japanese folklore) created from Oden’s devil fruit. They have to resolve their emotional conflict, which is to take down the Shogun and open up the borders of Wano kingdom to move on to the afterlife, except from Momonosuke who wants to kill Kaido. Since Kaido is thought to be “immortal”, Momonosuke won’t be able to move on to the afterlife and will stay in the physical world.
Thanks for reading! I know that this might be a bit far fetched, but I really liked this connection between japanese folklore and Wano.
*Theory by CharlieQue
