Monkey D. Luffy/Abilities and Powers

Abilities and Powers
As Captain of the Strawhats, Monkey D. Luffy has extraordinarily inhuman strength, enough to break through stone and shatter steel with his bare hands, and can move at impossible speeds, eventually catching up to even the speed of weaker CP9 agents without the use of his Gears. Additionally, Luffy will always fight the strongest villain of the story arc. Luffy's sheer physical strength and dexterity is a result of his grandfather's unorthodox training methods and he claimed he had a punch as powerful as a pistol even at seven years of age. However, it should be also noted that all of the known members of Luffy's family have superhuman strength. Luffy's greatest feat of strength is seen when he is trapped between two enormous buildings and escapes by pushing them away. He is also capable of amazing feats of agility and possesses great endurance and reflexes to match his strength and speed. In fact, on more than one occasion, Luffy was able to anticipate counterattacks that would normally be beyond his field of vision due to his sharp reflexes. His vast strength is only exceeded by his enormous willpower, as demonstrated on several occasions throughout the series, most noted of all in the Thriller Bark Arc when he manages to take in 100 shadows without passing out, compared to normal humans, who can only take in 2 or 3. This willpower even lets him survive far beyond what normal people are capable of, as demonstrated recently when he was poisoned very far beyond what a human is capable of surviving, only living on despite his critical condition through sheer willpower, and also shown when he survived through Emporio Ivankov's "Healing Hormones" ability, which even with a slim chance of surviving had not only survived the endeavor, but made a recovery in twenty hours when the healing procedure for those that do survive is two days. He is also shown to increase in his strength quite dramatically in a short period of time, most noticeably being the fight against Minotaurus, where the first time took the combined efforts of Mr. 2, Mr. 3 and Buggy just to take him down, but the next time, Luffy defeated him with a single punch.

Unlike Zoro or Sanji, Luffy's fighting style is freestyle and improvised; it follows no particular code of honor at all, and so if necessary, he will actually attack women or animals, hit below the belt, attack even if his enemies have their backs turned on him or are otherwise unprepared or unsuspecting, use enemies as human shields or even bite his opponents. While fighting, Luffy can also think on the spot, and come up with creative counterattacks against his enemies. This however leads both enemies and allies alike to wonder if Luffy is taking the fight seriously, especially when he comes up with ridiculous moves (like Crocodile when Luffy became Mizu Luffy), which prompts Luffy to respond that he's always serious. He also appears to be intelligent enough to at least understand fundamental concepts, such as rubber being a natural insulator, which might be why he did not bother ducking out of the way of Enel's lightning attacks as it would have been pointless to do so since he is immune to such attacks. He also is heavily susceptible to any form of hypnotism and doesn't have the sense to turn away, such as Jango's powers of hypnosis or Miss Goldenweek's Colors trap. He is also easily distracted when he sees someone that's just too cool, like seeing Chopper's transformations for the first time, the Thousand Sunny's Gaon Cannon, a energy beam from a Pacifista or recently his new fighting form made from Mr. 3's Doru Doru no Mi powers, he ignores everything around him. Regardless, while easily noticeable as the least strategic member of his own crew, due to his tendency to simply barge in head-first into battle (often without any kind of battle plan or even any knowledge of his opponent's abilities), Luffy is a highly adaptive combatant. He is constantly coming up with ways to keep ahead of his foes, either by taking advantage of his own strength and Devil Fruit powers or utilizing the opponent's own strengths (along with their weaknesses) against them. This causes even warriors long considered unbeatable to have trouble keeping up.

Luffy also has the mysterious and uncanny ability to, while completely asleep, eat as if he were awake, even able to know when more food has been placed on the table. This is probably purely based on muscle memory since all Luffy does best is fighting and eating. Another running gag in the series is Luffy's inability to draw. In the start of the Arlong arc, imagining how a Fishman would be Luffy drew a fish with tentacle-like paws and an anthropomorphic fish with arms, legs and hair. Before the Straw Hats arrived at Water Seven, Luffy drew a childish picture of what he wanted the future shipwright to look like. This inability also extends to Jolly Rogers: the first Jolly Roger of the Straw Hat Pirates was a bad drawing designed by Luffy himself (he later used a similarly bad drawn version of his Jolly Roger as a promise marker on the face of Laboon) while also drawing a bad version of Foxy's flag after taking it from him in the Davy Back Fight arc. He also possess extraordinary jaw strength, as seen in the Buggy arc in the manga, where he had almost chewed through the metal bars of the cage Buggy put him in and also eating the cage in which Moria put him in. He also managed to give Rob Lucci a small bite wound. He was also given incredibly dangerous training from his grandfather (thrown into a bottomless ravine, tied to a balloon, thrown into a forest at night, etc.) when he was a kid which supposedly led to his amazing ability to pull through anything. This later shown with Basil Hawkins' fortune telling, as despite doing it numerous times, could never get Luffy's chance of survival to reach zero.

According to Juracule Mihawk, Luffy has the most dangerous ability in the world; that of turning anyone around him into his allies, including former enemies.

Devil Fruit


Luffy has gained extraordinary stretching powers from eating the Gomu Gomu no Mi (lit. Rubber Rubber Fruit, Gum-Gum Fruit in the English dub), which is one of the rare and legendary Devil Fruits. After consuming the Gomu Gomu no Mi, Luffy's body becomes like rubber, giving him the ability to stretch long distances. Having trained hard for ten years, Luffy is able to supplement his stretching powers with immense strength, agility, and creativity in combat. His fighting style is largely improvised, and heavily reliant on his Devil Fruit. It should be noted, Luffy can't automatically stretch his limbs (like superheroes with stretching powers, i.e: Mr. Fantastic or Plastic Man) since his body acts more like a rubber band, thus has to throw some force into it in order for his limbs to stretch out. However, he can hold his limbs outstretched for a long time, as seen when he reaches his arm out about half a mile to retrieve Usopp from Water 7.

Luffy uses his stretching power in ingenious ways. He is able to use the malleable stretchiness of his limbs to gain tremendous velocity and hit enemies with devastating impact. His rubber body is also extremely durable and virtually immune to blunt objects such as bullets (in One Piece, bullets are still round pellets), punches and electricity, either reflecting off his body harmlessly or being absorbed into him. It's even become a running gag that people find out the hard way Luffy is made of rubber when they shoot at him, only to have the bullets bounce right back. Another running joke is that whenever Luffy's body is in peril that would kill a normal human, he says that he's made of rubber, so its okay, or acts like something was a small problem despite the person trying to kill him, such as being shot in the heart. However, he is still normally susceptible to sharp objects such as swords and knives. He can not only use his ability to increase the range and strength of his attacks, but he can also use it to restrain and even control foes like puppets.

Like all Devil Fruit users, Luffy cannot swim, however, unlike other Devil Fruit users, he doesn't avoid water sports. Even though blunt objects do little damage to him, sharp blades or pointy weapons can harm him, as well as nonphysical attacks like heat, poison, cold, and dehydration.

Gears
Gear Second (ギア･セカンド, Gia Sekando) is where Luffy uses his legs to pump blood around his body at a much faster rate, this uses a lot of stored food in his body. Leaving his body exhausted, his heart rate also increases to levels that are normally impossible. His veins are able to withstand this, thanks to the Gomu Gomu no Mi. This form makes Luffy stronger and faster, and also enables Luffy access to his own version of the Rokushiki technique, Soru, which is logical since he used Soru's principle, which is to kick the ground ten or more multiple times in an instant to propel the user over to a desired distance at very high speeds, as the basis of Gear Second by incorporating it with his Gomu Gomu No Mi powers. During the Enies Lobby Arc, Rob Lucci mentions that this is just like steroids because his muscles are receiving enough blood to do things otherwise impossible. Rob Lucci also noted that Gear Second does damage to Luffy's own body and in turn drastically reduces his stamina and his lifespan begins to diminish. Luffy first discovers this Gear unofficially in the 7th One Piece Movie, where he has a large mechanical arm falling on him, he catches it, and the impact exerts extreme force on Luffy's legs, causing him to unintentionally pump blood at an accelerated rate to perform Gear Second and use the Gomu Gomu no Jet Bazooka (though he simply refers to is as a normal Gomu Gomu no Bazooka) to defeat a giant Mecha. Gear Third (ギア･サード, Gia Sādo) is where Luffy pumps air through his bones to make them literally gigantic. Obviously, only Luffy can do such a thing by using the Gomu Gomu no Mi. Used with his already-strong physiology, this apparently gives his arm more mass and a larger area to attack with far greater strength, but he sacrifices mobility for this strength, as his limbs are now so large that Luffy has extreme trouble moving unless he is in his Fuusen form. Another after effect of this is that Luffy is reduced to child-sized proportions, the duration of which is equal to the time he spent in Gear Third. Also, he is able to use both gears at the same time which he uses to defeat Gecko Moria. This technique is first hinted at during Luffy's fight with Blueno, and first used, but not shown when Luffy is chasing Rob Lucci and Spandam, but is not seen until a later battle with Rob Lucci.

Haōshoku Haki


Luffy has also begun to awaken a "Haki" ability, similar to one used by his hero Shanks. He has a variety of Haki called "Haōshoku", a style of Haki possessed in one in a million people, and is said to be the "The King's Disposition". This power first manifested itself when Luffy scared off Motobaro, Duval's bison steed, and made it faint. The first time that Luffy's possession of "Haōshoku" was recognized by others was when he made the warriors of Kuja tribe faint just by yelling "I SAID STOP!". It was here that Boa Hancock, another user of Haki, commented on how he had this level of Haki, but not the ability to control it.

Luffy's usage of Haki was also seen when he used it against the wolves of Level Five of Impel Down. This was when Luffy was at the point of his own death from being poisoned by Magellan, and Mr. 2 Bon Kurei was being attacked by the wolves. Thus far he has displayed limited to no control over this ability, and does not seem to realize he has it, but will use it on instinct whenever it seems to be most needed, and can still use it even when extremely injured. He mostly uses it when his friends are in danger or when he truly can't use his own power to win. He appears to have recently developed the ability to predict his opponent, by instinct, during his skirmish with Mihawk. This is most likely because of his Haki. His increasing control over Haki seems to progress, as seen during the battle of Marineford, where he rendered Ace' executioners unconscious from a distance, and while at the same time, showed no effects of affecting Emporio Ivankov (who was in close proximity of himself). It's also debatable that Luffy first unintentional use of Haki was in Water 7 where the waves exploded with Luffy's anger.

During Luffy's fight with Mihawk, Luffy stops his Gomu Gomu no Jet Bazooka mid strike when he has a vision of his arm being cut off by Mihawk. It is unknown if this is due to simple experience (sacrificed his hands using the same move against Magellan) or a prediction of an attack similar to what Boa Sandersonia did when she read Luffy's movements while they fought. Mihawk remarks that the move showed that Luffy was "surprisingly clear-headed".

Luffy uses another burst of Haōshoku Haki, when he sees Ace about to be killed, and it's clear that he's knocked out quite a number of both the Marines and the Whitebeard Pirates.

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