Chapters · Final Saga › Elbaf

Chapter 1194: All Things Are in Flux

Arc: Elbaf · Saga: Final Saga · Released: (VIZ Shonen Jump — official localization; Translation: Stephen Paul · Lettering: Vanessa Satone)

Summary

The duel at the Sea Cloud Port carries on from where it stood. Sommers reels back coughing (“KOFF!! HUFF… BWAAH!!”) from a thrust that was “going straight for my heart!!” He is baffled that Zoro’s blade carried no Supreme King Haki this time: “I know he was using it earlier!! … He can’t use Supreme King at will?! … What a waste!! You amateurish fool!!” But Zoro also “did cut through my thorns,” and Sommers wonders whether the power is “infused with some kind of heat” (pp.2–3). Zoro runs him through again (SHUNK!!, “OUUGGHH!!”), and an inset shows a blade striking a heart marked with a round, dial-like emblem that rings out “KA-CHING!!” (p.3). The wound pulls closed (SHWUP / CRAK CRAK). Zoro mutters “That wasn’t it, either. Am I trying too hard to force it?” and Sommers sneers: “I bet you do!! The problem is… you can’t control the color of the Supreme King, can you?! You’ve got some nerve, trying to practice on a Holy Knight of God!!” He then unleashes “Thorn Launchers!!!”, a swarm of thorn-studded crocodile/serpent heads (p.4). Sommers sneers “Your next attempt will have to be in a future life, you insolent knave!!” as Zoro hops through them (HOP!). Zoro answers with “Three Sword Style… Leopard… …Spinning… …Balls!!” (pp.5–6). Sommers’ hand comes off at the wrist and grows straight back (“NYOOP”, “CRAK CRAK”). Zoro: “That wasn’t it, either!! He’s growing right back.” Sommers sheathes his blade in thorns: “THORN-GRAM!!!” (p.6). Zoro thinks it over (p.7). He always assumed Supreme King Haki “only manifested in captains and leaders.” It’s “that thing Luffy does, where he knocks out a bunch of people at once,” shown in a recalled panel of a crowd collapsing around one standing figure. He then recalls Gaban’s glare from Ch. 1152: “How do you expect to support your captain… an Emperor of the Sea, without knowing that?!” Zoro concedes: “He’s exactly right!! I can’t even tell him to mind his own business.” Zoro’s “1,080-Pound… Phoenix!!!” meets Sommers’ new “Thorn Bulent… Dragon Fang!!!”, and this time Sommers feels it: “It’s there!! Color of the Supreme King!!!” His next thought is the chapter’s biggest lore line: “Don’t freak out. Omen is the counterpart of that power!!!” A huge black, skull-faced dragon surges off his blade to meet the Phoenix (p.8). Debris from the clash smashes into the giant drakkar moored at the port. Sommers howls “The shiiip!!” and admits that “if the ship gets any more busted up… I can’t ferry the brats in it anymore!!” (pp.9–10). In the next clash (“GA-CHING!!”), Zoro remembers Mihawk’s voice, which gives the chapter its title: “Listen closely, Roronoa… all things are in flux. However… there is one thing that can resist all change.” Zoro: “What’s this, a riddle?” (p.10). Zoro then works through it on Sommers’ body, cut after cut (“Not it.” / “Not it.” / “Not it.” / “That’s not it.”), while Sommers regrows each limb (NYUP ×4) and wails “STOP IIIIT!!” (p.11). Mihawk’s voice continues: “It is another kind of haki. But this one is not learned through discipline.” Sommers complains “It’s tiring to keep regrowing those!!” and “Stop using me as a practice dummy!!!” Wreathed in black flame, he crows “Giha ha ha!! Give it up, you swordsman peasant!!” and “You do not have the quality of a king!!!” A black crackle (ZZT!!) runs over Zoro’s blade (p.11). The next ZLASH!! takes Sommers’ hand at the wrist. Sommers only says “Owie…”, but the stump just steams (SHHH…) and does not regrow. Zoro is startled: “It’s not coming back!! But I didn’t do anything!!” Sommers laughs that Zoro “just can’t seem to use Supreme King Haki! But look, my hand will soon be healed…”, with a severed hand dropping at his feet (BLOP / KWOP!!) (p.12). The flashback finishes the lesson at Mihawk’s dinner table. Mihawk: “There is one thing that the Supreme Kings share. Something unchanging.” Perona raises her hand: “Beards?” A recalled Luffy adds: “You didn’t know that?! It’s flowing out of you!!” (p.12). Then: “Remember this. The color of the Supreme King… is something so strong, the weak cannot remain standing in its presence.” Zoro pulls his bandana tight (FSH… TUG!!), and his blade crackles with black lightning as Mihawk’s voice gives the answer: “A sense of self.” Sommers shrieks “AIIIEEEEEEE!!”, and the chapter ends on his face: eyes bulging, sweating, shaking (“SHIVER SHIVER” / “RATTLE RATTLE” / “DOOM!!!”). To be continued! (p.13)

New reveals

• Omen is “the counterpart” of Supreme King Haki, stated on-page (p.8, Sommers’ thought): “Don’t freak out. Omen is the counterpart of that power!!!” “That power” points back to his own line in the previous panel: “It’s there!! Color of the Supreme King!!!” Until now the vault held the Haki 覇気 ↔ Omen 魔気 counterpart idea only as an etymology inference (see Omen §Etymology). Here a character says it outright. See Omen Is The Counterpart Of Supreme King Haki.
• A Holy Knight answers Conqueror’s Haki with a black-dragon attack. “Thorn Bulent… Dragon Fang!!!” (pp.7–8) throws out a huge black, skull-faced, fanged dragon drawn in the same solid-black idiom as Imu’s Omen. Black flame also wreathes Sommers on pp.10–11. That the black dragon is Omen is strongly implied by the juxtaposition but not captioned.
• Mihawk’s doctrine of Supreme King Haki (timeskip flashback, pp.10–13). Mihawk puts it as a riddle: “all things are in flux. However… there is one thing that can resist all change.” It is “another kind of haki. But this one is not learned through discipline.” “There is one thing that the Supreme Kings share. Something unchanging.” It “is something so strong, the weak cannot remain standing in its presence.” The answer is “A sense of self.” Mihawk addresses Zoro as “Roronoa” (p.10). Whether Mihawk himself has Supreme King Haki is not stated.
• Zoro cannot yet call Supreme King Haki at will and is training it mid-fight. Sommers diagnoses it twice (“He can’t use Supreme King at will?!”, p.2; “you can’t control the color of the Supreme King, can you?!”, p.4). Zoro’s own thoughts confirm it (“That wasn’t it, either. Am I trying too hard to force it?”, p.4; “But how do I infuse it?!”, p.7). He had believed it “only manifested in captains and leaders and such” (p.7).
• Zoro’s cut negates a Holy Knight’s regeneration, and he did not mean it to. Sommers’ earlier wounds and limbs regrow at once (SHWUP / CRAK CRAK, p.4; NYOOP / CRAK CRAK, p.6; NYUP ×4, p.11). After the p.12 ZLASH, the stump only steams, and Zoro thinks “It’s not coming back!! But I didn’t do anything!!” Sommers insists his hand “will soon be healed…” The page does not settle whether it regrows.
• Regeneration costs Sommers something: “Huff, huff… It’s tiring to keep regrowing those!!” (p.11). He coughs and gasps through the whole chapter (pp.2, 4).
• Gram’s wielder confirmed by callout. “THORN-GRAM!!!” (p.6): the thorn-user names the Shepherd-family founder-weapon Gram (Ch. 1189) as he coats it in thorns. Without a printed personal name, this is the firmest on-page link yet between Gram and Sommers.
• New Sommers techniques: Thorn-Gram (p.6; JP イバ憤怒剣〈グラム〉 Iba Guramu, “Thorny Wrath-Sword”) · Thorn Bulent… Dragon Fang (pp.7–8; VIZ letters “BULENT”, confirmed at zoom; JP イバ乱〈ラン〉牙竜〈キリュウ〉 Iba-ran Kiryū, a pun on 乱気流 rankiryū “turbulence”, so VIZ’s “Thorn Bulent” is “tur-bulent”; see §Name etymology). Re-used: Thorn Launchers (p.4; first Ch. 1175).
• Zoro technique, re-used (not new): “Three Sword Style… Leopard… …Spinning… …Balls!!” (p.5 → p.6; a leopard-shaped aura on p.5). JP 豹琴玉 Hyōkindama. First used against Kaku Ch. 417 p.11 under the same VIZ callout (“Three-Sword Style… Leopard… Spinning… Balls!!!”); 1194 is its first post-timeskip use. Re-used: “1,080-Pound… Phoenix!!!” (p.7 → p.8; vault first-use Ch. 754). This time Sommers confirms it carried Supreme King Haki.
• The drakkar is Sommers’ child-transport. “If the ship gets any more busted up… I can’t ferry the brats in it anymore!!” (p.10). The giant drakkar with its row of round shields, moored at the cloud port (p.3, p.9), is the ship the Knights mean to carry Elbaf’s children away in. The children are not shown.
• Sommers calls himself “a Holy Knight of God” (p.4) and calls Zoro a “swordsman peasant” who “do[es] not have the quality of a king” (p.11).
• Attribution correction from recalled panels (VIZ): the @1152 Haki exchange is recalled twice. The vault currently gives “it’s flowing out of you!!” to Gaban. Both 1194 p.12 (Luffy’s face) and 1152 p.4 (the horned-helmet Luffy under that balloon) show that Luffy said it. Gaban’s line is the glare: “Unbelievable… Haki is a power that’s only useful when you consciously control it!! How do you expect to support your captain, an Emperor of the Sea, without knowing that?!” (1152 p.4, recalled at 1194 p.7). A correction is routed in the queue file.

Foreshadowing seeds planted

Payoffs (seeds from earlier chapters that resolve here)

Mentions / appearances

• Shown, present-day: Zoro (throughout; named “Roronoa” by Mihawk in flashback VO, p.10) · Sommers (throughout; not named on-page, identified by Thorn-Thorn powers + “Holy Knight of God”, p.4)
• Shown, flashback / recalled panels: Mihawk (pp.10, 12; unnamed) · Perona (p.12; unnamed, “Beards?”) · Scopper Gaban (p.7; the @1152 glare, unnamed) · Luffy (p.12, the @1152 line; p.7, a crowd-KO recall figure, identification by Zoro’s line “that thing Luffy does”)
• Named only: Luffy (“that thing Luffy does”, p.7)
• Referenced, not shown: the captive giant children (“the brats”, p.10; Giants)
• Cover only: Blackbeard (lettered “TEECH”, matching the vault alias “Marshall D. Teech”) · an unnamed monkey calligraphy teacher
• Lore / powers: Haki (Supreme King / Conqueror’s) · Omen · Holy Knights · Thorn-Thorn Fruit (Thorn Launchers, Thorn-Gram, Thorn Bulent… Dragon Fang)
• Weapons: Gram (named in “Thorn-Gram!!!”, p.6; Shepherd-family founder-weapon, @1189)
• Places: Western Village: the Sea Cloud Port and its giant drakkar (pp.3, 9; uncaptioned this chapter, continuity with @1189 p.14) · Gloom Island: Mihawk’s castle dining hall (pp.10, 12; inferred, uncaptioned) · Elbaf: the great tree and castle in the p.3 panorama background
• Techniques (named this chapter): Zoro: Three Sword Style… Leopard… Spinning… Balls (re-use; first Ch. 417 p.11) · 1,080-Pound Phoenix (re-use) — Sommers: Thorn Launchers (re-use) · Thorn-Gram (new) · Thorn Bulent… Dragon Fang (new)

Notable panels

• Page 1 — Title: “Chapter 1194: ALL THINGS ARE IN FLUX.” B&W reader-request title page (no colour spread): “TEECH BEING FORCED TO PRACTICE OVER AND OVER BY A MONKEY CALLIGRAPHY TEACHER,” by Toshika Zoo. Blackbeard, in a polka-dot headscarf and a cloud-and-wave kimono, kneels over a sheet brushing a large character. A monkey in a robe, brandishing a sheaf of papers, scolds him. The room is littered with rejected sheets. A margin note glosses the kanji: “*Darkness, black, shadow, sea, dragon, etc.” (黒 “black” and 海 “sea” are legible on the wall sheets). The cover’s “practice over and over” matches the chapter’s “practice dummy” duel. That echo is noted, not asserted as intentional, since covers are reader requests. Logged for Elbaf-Reader-Request-Title-Pages (cover-tracker).
• Page 2 — Top tier: Sommers’ back, a cross-shaped stab wound (“SSHH…”) with a grey stain spreading (“ZRRD…”). Main panel: Sommers clutching his chest, bandaged and gasping (“KOFF!! HUFF… BWAAH!! HUFF, HUFF…”), under a huge black brim. Zoro is small at left, sword trailing flame-wisps. Bottom: Sommers’ glasses close-up, “He can’t use SUPREME KING at will?!… You amateurish fool!!”
• Page 3 — Panorama of the Sea Cloud Port: the giant drakkar, its row of round heraldic shields, Elbaf’s tree-castle behind (“GRRGG…”). Middle: Zoro’s blade through Sommers (“SHUNK!!”, “OUUGGHH!!”). Narrow inset: a blade striking a heart marked with a round, dial-like emblem, “KA-CHING!!” (see seed above). Bottom: Sommers sweating, “Hang on… Which is this one?! Supreme King?! Or not?!”
• Page 4 — “B-BMP B-BMP” heartbeat beside a screaming Sommers (“NOTTTTT!!!”, “YEOWWWW!!! KOFF!!”, “But the pain is proof I’m alive!!!” in the same brush lettering; attribution by lettering style). Wound closing (SHWUP / CRAK CRAK). Zoro, smiling: “All right, so I know how to erase you now…” Big panel: Sommers riding a mass of thorn-studded crocodile/serpent heads, “THORN LAUNCHERS!!!”
• Page 5 — Zoro hopping across the thorn barrage (“HOP!”). Bites his third sword (CHOMP), “Three Sword Style…”, a leopard-headed aura (“Leopard… …Spinning…”). Sommers: “This guy’s too dangerous to leave alive!!! I gotta get rid of him before he hits me with a fluke shot!!” Layout mirror (pp.5–6): the name-ladder strip (“Three Sword Style…” → snarling leopard-head aura facing left → ”…Spinning…”), then the spinning-ball impact with ”…BALLS!!” upper right and the opponent’s alarmed face on the right edge, restages the move’s debut page Ch. 417 p.11 vs Kaku panel for panel; see Zoro Leopard Spinning Balls Reprise Restages The Enies Lobby Name-Ladder Layout.
• Page 6 — ”…BALLS!!” (ZWA-BAM!!!): the spinning cut takes Sommers’ hand at the wrist. Regrowth (NYOOP / CRAK CRAK). Zoro: “He’s growing right back.” “THORN-GRAM!!!” (SHKING!), the blade sprouting black thorn-spines. Zoro leaps (DMP!!).
• Page 7 — Zoro’s recall of “that thing Luffy does”: a crowd collapsing (THUD THUD) around one standing figure, swirl-patterned kimono in the foreground. Recalled Gaban glare (@1152) “GLARE!!” with the “captain… Emperor of the Sea” line. Two round, thorn-spiked Thorn-Launcher heads (gaping toothed maws, a ringed eye inside) among the thorn-serpents. Bottom: “1,080-POUND…” vs “THORN BULENT…”
• Page 8 — ”…PHOENIX!!!” (BZAP!!) / Sommers: “It’s there!! Color of the Supreme King!!!” / “Don’t freak out. Omen is the counterpart of that power!!!” / ”…DRAGON FANG!!!”: a colossal black skull-faced dragon (VWOM!!) clashing with Zoro’s strike (BWOOM!!).
• Page 9 — Thorn-heads sliced (SLICE!!). Debris crashes into the drakkar (KADOOM!! BOOM!!), “The shiiip!! Bwaaaah!!!”; Sommers “AAH!!”
• Page 10 — Sommers: “No, no, NOOO!!” / “If the ship gets any more busted up… …I can’t ferry the brats in it anymore!!” Zoro, sword in teeth: ”…” Mihawk flashback (title drop): “Listen closely, Roronoa… all things are in flux. However…” / “There is one thing that can resist all change.” / Zoro: “What’s this, a riddle?”
• Page 11 — The “Not it.” sequence: Zoro lopping limbs and a head-level cut as Sommers regrows each (NYUP ×4, “WHOA!!”, “STOP IIIIT!!”). Mihawk VO: “It is another kind of haki. But this one is not learned through discipline.” Sommers: “It’s tiring to keep regrowing those!!” / “Stop using me as a practice dummy!!!” / “Giha ha ha!! Give it up, you swordsman peasant!!” / “You do not have the quality of a king!!!” A black crackle (ZZT!!) runs over Zoro’s blade.
• Page 12 — ZLASH!!: Sommers’ hand severed at the wrist. “Owie…”; the stump steams (SHHH…) and does not regrow. Zoro: “It’s not coming back!! But I didn’t do anything!!” Sommers: “No matter how hard you try, you just can’t seem to use Supreme King Haki! But look, my hand will soon be healed…” (BLOP / KWOP!!). Flashback dinner at Mihawk’s table: Mihawk: “There is one thing that the Supreme Kings share. Something unchanging.” Perona, hand up: “Beards?” (OOOH!!). Recalled Luffy, in fur-trimmed Elbaf headgear: “You didn’t know that?! It’s flowing out of you!!”
• Page 13 — Zoro close-up under the shadow of his bandana, scarred left eye shut. Mihawk VO: “Remember this. The color of the Supreme King… is something so strong, the weak cannot remain standing in its presence.” Zoro’s hand cinching the bandana (FSH… TUG!!). Reveal panel: Zoro looming, bandana on, blade wreathed in black lightning (ZZT ×3), with Mihawk’s VO “A SENSE OF SELF.” A tiny Sommers shrieks “AIIIEEEEEEE!!” Final panel: Sommers’ face frozen in terror, eyes bulging, sweat pouring, “SHIVER SHIVER” / “RATTLE RATTLE” / “DOOM!!!”. To be continued!

Name etymology

• Title: 万物は変わりゆく (Banbutsu wa Kawariyuku), “All things go on changing.” VIZ’s “All Things Are in Flux” uses flux, the standard English name for Heraclitus’ doctrine panta rhei (“everything flows”). Japanese renders that doctrine as 万物流転 / 万物は流転する (banbutsu wa ruten suru). Oda’s title keeps the subject 万物 “all things” but swaps the Sino-Japanese 流転 for the plain verb 変わりゆく. Mihawk’s riddle then names what Heraclitus’ river leaves out: “one thing that can resist all change”, which turns out to be “a sense of self” (p.13). Confidence medium: the phrase match is real, but Oda’s intent is not attested. See Mihawk Teaches Zoro That Supreme King Haki Is A Sense Of Self.
• Leopard Spinning Balls = 豹琴玉 Hyōkindama (“Leopard Koto Orb”: 豹 leopard + 琴 koto-zither + 玉 orb). The wiki gives two puns. Read koto-dama, it sounds like 言霊 kotodama (“the spirit/power of words”). Read kin-tama, it gives 金玉 kintama, “testicles”, which is where VIZ’s “Balls” comes from. Not new this chapter: first used vs Kaku Ch. 417 p.11. Confidence high.
• Thorn-Gram = イバ憤怒剣〈グラム〉 Iba Guramu. イバ is the fruit’s prefix (ibara 茨 “thorn”). 憤怒剣 funnu-ken, “Wrath Sword”, is Gram’s own name-kanji, which VIZ printed as “Blade of Wrath — GRAM!!!” Ch. 1183 p.5. The kanji translate the Old Norse gramr, “wroth, angry”, and Ch. 1193 p.15 Sommers states the power outright: “Gram turns its wielder’s wrath into strength!!” Confidence high. The wrath-name to wrath-power mapping is filed at Gram’s Name Encodes Its Wrath-Into-Strength Power (1193 pass). Here the wrath kanji simply carry into Sommers’ compound technique name. The dragon-slayer layer stays at The Sword Gram Is The Norse Dragon-Slayer Blade.
• Thorn Bulent… Dragon Fang = イバ乱〈ラン〉牙竜〈キリュウ〉 Iba-ran Kiryū. The kanji say “thorn-riot fang-dragon”. The forced reading 牙竜 → キリュウ (the normal reading is garyū) lets 乱〈ラン〉+牙竜〈キリュウ〉 sound out ランキリュウ = 乱気流 rankiryū, “air turbulence”. That is a skewed-reading pun, the same device as Zoro’s 煩悩〈ポンド〉. VIZ kept the pun in English: “Thorn Bulent” is “tur-bulent”, with Thorn standing in for the tur- syllable. That explains the odd “BULENT” lettering on p.7. As with イバランチャー (Iba Launcher, Ch. 1175), the イバラン run also spells out ibara 茨 “thorn”. Confidence high for the Japanese pun and the VIZ rendering. The ibara echo is medium.
• 1,080-Pound Phoenix = 千八十煩悩〈ポンド〉鳳 Senhachijū Pondo Hō. A re-use, already in the vault from Ch. 754. The kanji 煩悩 bonnō are the Buddhist “worldly passions” (traditionally 108, ×10 here), read as “pound”. The wiki lists this 1194 shot as the first King of Hell-infused version of the move.

Open questions raised

• What is Omen’s relationship to Supreme King Haki beyond “counterpart”? Is it Conqueror’s Haki inverted, a parallel substance, or what Imu’s Domination draws on in place of Haki?
• Is Sommers’ black dragon Omen proper, Gram’s own power, or a covenant gift? The page never captions it.
• What is the dial-marked heart on p.3, and why does it ring like metal? Is it tied to the demonized giants’ steel hearts?
• Does Sommers’ severed hand regrow? Zoro says no. Sommers says “soon.”
• Has Zoro now consciously grasped Supreme King Haki as “a sense of self,” or did it surface only under pressure again?
• Does Mihawk himself have Supreme King Haki? He teaches it but does not claim it.
• Where are the captive giant children Sommers means to “ferry”? Are any on the drakkar now?
• Who is the standing figure in the p.7 crowd-KO recall, and which scene does it recall?