'%20x='0'%20y='0'%20height='100%25'%20width='100%25'%20%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20xlink%3Ahref='data:image/jpg;base64,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'%3E%3C/image%3E%3C/svg%3E)
One Piece’s entangled storytelling reaches its peak during flashbacks, linking the present narration with the subplots that started in the past. The touching backstory of Bartholomew Kuma and Jewelry Bonney is no different, as it unraveled several episodes of major significance.
While the flashback solved many mysteries, it also raised further questions. This is especially true for the events recounted in the latest chapter. Set to officially release on Monday, December 11, 2023, One Piece 1101 will continue the journey back in time, delving into the start of Bonney’s pirate adventure.
Owing to a Paramecia Devil Fruit, Bonney can manipulate the aging process, which allows her to hinder her enemies as well as conceal her true age. However, a pivotal scene featured in One Piece chapter 1101 hints there’s more to Bonney’s powers, to the point where they might be much more surprising than previously imagined.
Trending
Disclaimer: This article contains major spoilers from the One Piece manga up to chapter 1101.
Bonney’s Age-Age Fruit turns imagination into reality like Nika in One Piece 1101
The unexpected twist in One Piece's latest chapter
Blackmailed by Saint Saturn, Kuma accepted all of the former’s requests, as long as the Elder would allow Vegapunk to cure Bonney of her disease. Unaware of the terrible conditions to which Kuma had to submit, Bonney underwent her treatment, spending six months in Egghead alongside Kuma, Vegapunk, Sentomaru, and Admiral Kizaru.
For the remaining year of post-surgery convalescence, Bonney was sent back to Sorbet Kingdom, where Alpha, a CP8 agent posing as a nurse, would keep her under observation. As Bonney turned ten years old, Sorbet’s queen, Conney, decided to plan her escape from the country.
However, Alpha noticed their attempt. As the agent used Geppo to chase after Bonney’s ship, the little girl remembered when she asked Kuma what Nika would look like. Within the lineage of Buccaneers, of which Kuma was part, the legendary tale of Nika was passed on from father to son.
Told by his father Clapp that Nika was a mythical warrior who fought to free the slaves and would eventually return to liberate all the oppressed, Kuma mentioned the same story to Bonney. Notably, Kuma told her that Nika’s body was rubber-like and that he could fight in any way he wished.
As such, Bonney used the Age-Age Fruit to perform Distorted Future, a technique that allows her to age into a potential future version of herself. Based on Kuma’s depiction of Nika, the little girl allegedly envisioned herself as the fabled “Sun God" and generated an enlarged arm.
With her temporarily enhanced strength, Bonney punched Alpha in the face, utterly defeating her. Following this outcome, the ten-year-old Bonney and her comrades escaped from Sorbet and started their pirate life.
The eclectic Age-Age Fruit
Using her Devil Fruit, Bonney started concealing her true age and aspect, feigning to be a woman in her twenties. Her abilities were substantial, to the point where she gained fame as one of the Worst Generation’s Eleven Supernovas, the mightiest rookie pirates.
Every pirate who gets awarded a bounty of over 100 million berries before entering the New World earns the status of Supernova. However, the eleven rookies who reached Sabaody before the Paramount War attained an even greater reputation as members of the so-called Worst Generation.
The Age-Age Fruit played a fundamental role in Bonney’s accomplishment as a pirate, allowing her to compete on an equal footing with much older and more experienced individuals. As long as she can physically touch her target, Bonney can manipulate the aging process of anything, whether organic or inorganic matter.
When used on living beings, however, the effect of age manipulation is only temporary. A person struck by Bonney’s Devil Fruit powers will immediately and rapidly rejuvenate until they turn into a helpless child or age, becoming a frail elder.
Other than directly weakening her enemies, Bonney can use her abilities to age objects, for instance, corroding and eventually breaking metallic items. She can also alter her age for various purposes, spanning from the infiltration of tightly guarded places to the enhancement of her bodily features.
The Distorted Future technique that was especially emphasized in One Piece 1101 is not a recent introduction, as the manga already showed it a few times. It must be noted that Bonney can use it not only on herself but on other people as well.
In One Piece chapter 1072, Bonney performed the move to age herself into an alternate future in which her body becomes large and muscular, like that of a Buccaneer. While it was presumed that this was a callback to Bonney’s connection with Kuma, the latest installment of the manga seems to hint that there’s more to it.
Bonney’s hax is substantial, and time will only make her stronger
Bonney’s technique didn’t just enable her to become an alternate version of herself; it also allowed her to reflect one of Nika’s powers, the same that Luffy uses to grant his body rubber-like properties.
According to the spoilers, Bonney’s attack resembled Luffy’s Gear 3, but, looking at the scans, the move seems much more akin to the Gear 5 transformation. While Gear 3 inflates the bone, causing only the arm to enlarge, in Gear 5, the whole arm is thick, as the boost doesn’t concern the bones but the muscles instead.
In Bonney’s case, the arm is entirely expanded, visibly showing the veins, exactly like Luffy does in Gear 5 form. As of today, no explanation has been given, but when Luffy enlarges his muscles when transformed into Gear 5, his body truly resembles that of a Buccaneer.
The World Government tried in every way to avert Luffy's unlocking the Nika-Nika Fruit's real potential. As the same institution holds a grudge against the Buccaneers, it’s possible that the fabled Joy Boy, of whom Luffy is implied to be the second coming, was a member of the now barely surviving race.
Nevertheless, Bonney’s Distorted Future seems to be a peculiar technique, which opens up new scenarios with regard to the Age-Age Fruit’s features. Bonney factually converted imagination into reality, simply by wishing for it to happen.
What she did seemed to match Vegapunk’s words about the origin of Devil Fruits, which he claimed to be the concrete evolution of people’s profound desires. As a matter of fact, Bonney realized what she wished for.
While this might seem like a characteristic of every Devil Fruit, that would only be true with regards to the item’s specific powers. In Bonney’s case, that seemed something even beyond the spectrum of the Age-Age Fruit’s established potentiality.
Needless to say, the first question that comes to mind is, to what extent can Bonney replicate the traits and capabilities of other characters? As objected to by several fans, she could turn herself into an alternate future version where she imagines being strong enough to be Pirate King or something like that.
Potentially, she could just transform into an imaginative version of herself more powerful than her opponent, whoever said foe was. Based on the mechanics shown in One Piece 1101, a similar thing wouldn’t be so far-fetched. Still, other than the temporary effect, there might be some other limit for Bonney’s Devil Fruit abilities.
Before the timeskip, Bonney, together with her comrades, was easily defeated and captured by the Blackbeard Pirates. Despite witnessing her abilities in battle, Teach was unimpressed by them, to the point where he regarded Bonney as too weak to join his crew.
Concerning the recent events, no one can blame Bonney for being quickly defeated by Saturn, given that a fighter of Sanji’s caliber was likewise powerless against the ominous Warrior God of Science and Defense.
Based on their performances against Kizaru, she seemed weaker than Sentomaru. Before being beaten, the latter at least blocked an attack and even landed a hit, although unsuccessful, on the Admiral. Ultimately, both Sentomaru and Bonney lost, but the latter was swatted aside effortlessly.
There is nothing wrong with being outclassed by an Admiral, but with Kizaru far from giving his best effort, Bonney should have been able to do something more. Regardless, it must be considered that Bonney is not even a teenager yet. With more time to master her Devil Fruit, she could become a force to be reckoned with.
Keep up with One Piece manga, anime, and live-action as 2023 progresses.
