Depite Asura having never been shown post-skip, many people believe that we will see some new super powered version of Asura.
I hate to bust the bubble guys, but from what I have analyzed, this probably won’t happen. So what is the state of Asura post-skip? Well the thing is, Zoro most likely didn’t master Asura over the timeskip.
What do I mean by master? If a technique is mastered, it can be used casually. Let me show you guys a few examples of what i am talking about:
Luffy
- before the timeskip Gear 2 was a high-difficulty technique, with it coming with a dangerous side effect and only being used as a last resort.
- post timeskip, Luffy can use Gear 2 with little difficulty.
Sanji
- before the timeskip, Diable Jambe was a high difficulty technique, with it only being used as a last resort.
- now it is used casually.
Zoro, on the other hand, doesn’t use Asura casually. Rather, it seems as if instead of mastering Asura, Zoro mastered 3 swords style, as if Zoro trained his Asura, he would be using it in the same way Luffy uses Gear 2. Due to this, we can assume that post timeskip Asura
- looks exactly the same as pre timeskip Asura
- can only be used for a very short period of time and can only pull off 1 or 2 attacks
Now obviously it will be stronger than pre-timeskip Asura, as Zoro overall is stronger, but it does beg the question. Why didn’t Zoro master Asura over the timeskip? So what causes Asura?
Well Kaku says it was an illusion caused by Zoro’s spirit. Many suggest this to be haki but being as haki was never shown in this fashion, we can assume that it is most likely not Haki. Rather I suggest that it is the manipulation of Zoro’s soul by the Sandai Kitetsu. This makes sense as
- the “cursed” element of the Kitetsu has been highlighted several times in the manga;
- Kitetsu means “demon cutter”, the true name of asura is “demon aura 9 sword style: asura”;
- Oda made the Kitetsu the focus of an entire chapter back in Loguetown;
- Cavendish, someone who also has a sword(it is unknown if it is cursed or not) seemingly also has a demon form;
- we have seen that swords can have certain powers, for example Kinemon can cut fire;
- there really isn’t a better explanation as of now.
So if Zoro’s sword does cause Asura, why doesn’t he master it? What more, why hasn’t Law mastered his cursed abilities either? I think this goes back to the downsides of Asura, we haven’t really seen the downsides of Asura pre-timeskip, so we don’t know what they are, but we can assume that they exist as if they didn’t Zoro would use this technique all the time. I believe that the downsides to Asura are so bad, so terrifying that Zoro rather would master his base form than master Asura. So now we have Wano, an arc that I believe will focus more on Zoro than any other Straw Hat, albeit I believe it will be a point of high development for all Straw Hats. I believe this could be the arc where Zoro learns to master Asura.
How could this happen? Well something cool Oda could do is make the key to mastering Asura and cursed sword abilities in general Conqueror’s Haki. This would be a really good move by Oda as he could use it to give Zoro and Law Conqueror’s Haki.
Rayleigh had Conqueror’s Haki, Zoro will likely surpass him and therefore should have Conqueror’s Haki as well. As for Law, he is going to be one of the leaders of the new generation and therefore should have Conqueror’s Haki. It would make no sense if Luffy is the only one from the new generation with Conqueror’s Haki.
So what will happen if Zoro masters Asura? Well that would mean that he would be able to use it casually. Once that happens, then and only then will we see advanced Asura techniques. So what will those techniques be?
Zoro gaining fire swordsman ship has been foreshadowed multiple times, one example can be seen above:
In Thriller Bark, Zoro used a technique with the Wado Ichimonji, which caught Ryuma on fire. This leads me to the belief that the true power of the Wado Ichimonji is to cut fire. So if Asura is from the Kitetsu and fire is from Wado, what about the last sword that Zoro has? Shusui?
Well Shusui used to belong to Ryuma, Shusui’s power is Ryuma’s power. So what feats do we have from Ryuma? Well none apart from the fact that he slayed the dragon.
So here’s the thing right, we need to remember that even though Ryuma is canon, Monsters is most likely not canon, this can be seen as the country in Monsters looks nothing like Wano, which is supposed to be based off Japan So the dragon… we know that Kinemon hates dragons and that the Shogun and Kaido have basically took over Wano. This leads me to believe that the Shogun has the Ryu Ryu no Mi(Dragon DF) as Zoro has been foreshadowed to fight a dragon(he has Shusui, he killed a dragon in Punk Hazard) and will most likely fight the Shogun(cuz Kaido isn’t a swordsman, but the Shogun is). So being as dragons haven’t been shown to exist in One Piece(the ones in Punk Hazard were artificial), we can assume that Ryuma fought the previous user of the Shogun’s DF.
Being as Ryuma defeated the Dragon DF user, I believe that the Shusui counters the dragon DF. How? Well in Punk Hazard as well as in Monsters, the dragon was shown to be a european dragon and being so could breathe fire. This leads me to believe that the shogun’s DF is of a european dragon. If Shusui counters the abilities of a fire breathing dragon, what could it be? Well the name Shusui means autumn water. This leads me to believe that the power of the Shusui is either water or weather.
So what will Zoro look like in Wano? Well as I said before, Asura techniques will be casual, but he will have enhancements on top of those.
Zoro’s technique is named “demon aura 9 sword style: asura”, similarly how “gear 4th:boundman” suggests other variants of G4, such as “gear 4th: tankman”, “demon aura 9 sword style: asura” suggests other variants of demon aura 9 sword style.
By combining the powers of the Kitetsu with those of the Wado Ichimonji , Zoro will be able to use “demon aura 9 sword style: agni”, where he will “become” agni, the hindu god of fire.
By combining the powers of the Kitetsu with those of the Shusui, Zoro will be able to use “demon aura 9 sword style: indra”, where he will “become” indra, the hindu god of storm.
The names of these techniques i created might be a bit off since they use the names of gods, not demons, but you get the jist of it; combining Asura with the wado/shusui to create stronger 9-sword style forms. Zoro will use these new forms to counter the abilities of the shogun and ultimately defeat him.
*Theory by Monkey D Theories
