Today I am going to write about the newly introduced character “Toki” and her importance to the great mysteries of the series and in particular what occurred during the void century. But let’s begin by explaining how her devil fruit works.
1- Toki Toki no Mi
Let’s extract all the information we get from these panels:
1. Toki was born long ago, in the ancient past
2. People can never return to the past, but…
3. they can travel into the future
4. “I have ever ventured farther into the future”
5. “I have found my final destination”
So concerning her abilities we know how they function. She can send herself into the future or multiple people at the same time into the future. She can’t do both or she would have used it here. There is no point in her dying and losing this ability for her people and family. Additionally a mother wouldn’t die on purpose if she could prevent it for her children’s sake alone. There is a reason why she couldn’t travel with them. Now we get more or less how her fruit works. It works like this:
1. She can’t travel into the past
2. She can travel into the future by herself
3. She can send people into the future but if she does so she can’t use her ability afterwards. A time limit(pun intended) is the key here. If she uses her fruit there is probably a cool down period until she can use it again. That would explain why she didn’t travel with them.
/3. Another explanation could be that she can use her devil fruit only so many times but I think this is less likely than a cool down period. For example she can use her devil fruit only 10 times but I think we don’t know of any fruit that works that way. A cool down period just makes perfect sense here.
That would also explain why she was fine with dying. She knew Oden was dead and that she can’t get revenge by herself and that her only hope for that revenge where Oden’s retainers.
2- Wano and Zou
Here I have to give credit to Marco One Piece Theorist who made a great catch noticing that Zou is part of Wano. I already assumed in my theories that a former Kozuki member gave the order to Zunisha of walking the earth but now we know why. The reason is to take the city away and protect it from its enemies. Not as a punishment for a crime but to prevent a crime that would befall the city. In order to protect the road poneglyph within it. Its the only treasure that needs protecting on Zou. It’s quite possible that this person was Toki and of the current cast of people she is the only one we can assume that gave the order. Another character might be revealed but its safe to assume that it was Toki.
3- Toki and the Void Century
Now we come into speculation territory (yes, only now. Those claims above almost are guaranteed with the internal logic of the series). There is a reason why Toki went into the future. We know she is from the Ancient Kingdom because every time the word “Ancient” is used it refers back to the Void Century. Like when Zunisha was ordered in the “Ancient Past” that was over 1000 years ago and more and more. So what is her mission? Well, the answer is in the next page.
Her smile says it all, she knows more than Kinemon. She knows what really happened during the Void Century. Toki was probably sent into the future by Joyboy himself. Why? She follows the “Will of D.”. She is Oden’s wife who was a crew member of Roger. A direct connection and her mentality proves that. Toki is even willing to die and let her will be passed on. We get additional information though. One being where Momonusuke got his powers from.
It wasn’t Oden’s family but from Toki. We already know that Joyboy was connected to the Ancient Weapons(Shirahoshi with Poseidon, Momonusuke with another version of Poseidon/Uranus, Pluton with Alabasta) and now we get more confirmation. Additionally this smile is implying something else for me personally. Remember, she knows Joyboy and probably was send by him. Now it begs the question.
Why didn’t she sent Joyboy into the future?
Well, for the same reason she couldn’t send herself into the future. Joyboy wanted her to go by herself. If she would have used the ability on Joyboy she couldn’t have followed because of the cool down period. This is deliberate to no end. Oda closed possible plot holes with this cool down period. I already guessed before that Joyboy knew his doom was coming and as his last act he hid Raftel and therefore One Piece away but maybe he told Toki to leave without him. You know, like she did herself…and that made her smile…she fulfilled his will and returned the favor. This is how story telling works and how themes can be mirrored in different characters(you must have noticed at this point how many stories mirror each other on purpose. this is fundamental story telling by putting themes/ideologies into characters that oppose each other based on these themes/ideologies).
Another interpretation could be that he uttered the words of Joyboy and that made her happy. Joyboy’s will wasn’t forgotten and Kinemon said unknowingly Joyboy’s words or something he would have said. Opening the borders of Wano is definitely a thing Joyboy(we know because Luffy supports it) would have supported.
*Theory by Donal D. Trump
