Kage Kage no Mi

Template:Devil Fruit box The Kage Kage no Mi, also known as the Kage Kage Fruit, is a Paramecia type Devil Fruit that gives the user the ability to manifest and control shadows as a tangible physical form. "Kage" means shadow. It was eaten by the Shichibukai, Gecko Moria. Its powers were first noticed on Brook when he first dined with the Straw Hats.

Strengths and Weaknesses

Strengths

The first and foremost strength of the fruit, as demonstrated by Moria, is that its user is able to manifest shadows into a physical form. With this power, the user is able to grab hold of their victim's shadow. They are then able to cut it with a pair of scissors as if it were a cloth. With the shadow, they are then able to place it into a lifeless corpse in order to create a zombie minion. The minion that is created retains the mannerisms and abilities of the victim. The minion, however, is only as strong as the body it is composed of. The minion by itself also doesn't inherit any Devil Fruit powers of the original owner of the shadow. Though the minion doesn't inherit any Devil Fruit powers, the Kage Kage no Mi user can manipulate the minion's shadow so that its body can simulate the body changing abilities, such as those of some Paramecia Devil Fruit users.

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The vaporization of a shadowless victim when hit by sunlight

As for the original owner of the shadow, they will enter a two day coma once their shadow is separated from them. The Devil Fruit user can use this effect to their advantage in battle as the original owner is completely defenseless until they wake up from their coma or are woken up. The original owner of the shadow is then forced to remain in darkness as they will vaporize if hit by sunlight. Being unable to exist in light, the original owner is also unable to cast any sort of reflection and is also unable to be photographed.

The Devil Fruit user also has full control on whether or not the shadows return to their original owners. Simply beating the user, or even killing them, will not return the shadows the user has stolen. The user must willfully say that a shadow should return to its master in order for it to be fully returned.

The user is also able manifest their own shadow as a semi-liquid physical form. They are then able to control their shadow and make it fight for them in their stead. Their shadow, as a physical manifestation, is a being of strengths similar to that of a Logia Devil Fruit user as their shadow, in that state, is impervious to damage. It is also able to change shape and size depending on the user's wishes. The user is also able to switch places with their shadow in order to get to different places. The moment when the user switches places with their shadow can also be used to dodge attacks in a similar fashion to when a Logia type Devil Fruit user transforms into their element in order to dodge an attack.

The most powerful strength of the fruit is that the user can use the shadows they implanted into their zombie minions into themselves to power themselves up. This power up can be devastating depending on the number of shadows they implanted.

Weaknesses

One of the major weaknesses of the fruit is that the user can only fully control minions whose shadows come from owners who are relatively weaker than them. Minions with shadows that come from relatively strong owners are harder to control. One example of this happening is when a Dog Penguin zombie with Sanji's shadow, Inuppe, fought against the other zombies to protect Nami. Despite this, no matter how strong the shadow is, it will soon forget its memories of its original owner and obey Moria completely.

If a zombie given a shadow from this fruit's power is fed salt, it will cause the shadow to return to its original owner. This is because salt is an element of the sea (salt water), which takes away Devil Fruit powers. A shadow will also return to its original owner if the corpse housing the shadow is completely destroyed. Also, if the original owner of the shadow dies, then the shadow disappears from the corpse inhabiting it.

The most major weakness of the fruit, however, is that the shadows that were created by the user's powers can be used against them. After a zombie minion is purified, the shadow that is freed can be caught by anyone since it is still temporarily in a tangible state until properly reunited with its original owner. They can then implant that shadow into themselves or into an ally. If the person is still conscious, they can then gain the abilities of the shadow's original owner and become stronger. More than one shadow also can be implanted into them thus their strength can be multiplied by the number of shadows implanted into them. However, because the shadow that is implanted into a living person is not of the same soul, the shadow will only stay in their body for ten minutes. Afterwards, the shadow will return to its original owner. Also, the number of shadows that can be implanted into a person is somewhat limited to how strong the person's spirit is. If the person's spirit is weak, they'll lose consciousness and the effects of the shadows will go down the drain. For most regular people, two or three shadows is the limit for them.

Other than that, the user is also affected by the standard Devil Fruit weaknesses.

Usage

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Moria's shadow being manifested (above) and attacking Luffy as a swarm of bats (below)

The fruit's bestowed powers, as used by Moria, have been used mostly to create a large number of zombies in Thriller Bark. With it, he has been able to steal various shadows from various people who unfortunately stumble across his island. With the help of Hogback's surgical ability to create all sorts of creatures, and a large freezer filled with tons of corpses, Moria has been able to create a large army of the dead.

Moria is also able to use the powers in battle in a manner suiting his personal motto. Moria is able to manifest his shadow into a dark semi-liquid like silhouette figure resembling himself. This being is capable of being impervious against conventional attacks. This being is also capable of splitting itself into smaller bat-like shapes. Overall, Moria mostly uses his shadow to both attack enemies and protect himself without personally doing anything.

Moria can also use the fruit's powers to switch with his own shadow. This can come in useful, either to travel long distances or to escape from enemy attacks. Since his zombie minions don't inherit Devil Fruit abilities from the shadows animating them, Moria can also aid his zombie minions in the execution of some of their techniques by implanting his shadow into theirs.

The most devastating thing Moria can do with the fruit's powers is empower himself with the shadows he uses to animate his zombie minions.

The named techniques that are used by Moria that involve the Devil Fruit are as follows:

• Doppelman (影法師 (ドッペルマン)): The name of the a dark silhouette like figure Moria made using his own shadow. With this "shadow clone", Moria can use it to fight in his stead. Its name is derived from doppelgänger. This was first seen being used against Luffy. He can also switch places with it at will.

• Brick Bat (欠片蝙蝠 (ブリックバット)): Moria transforms his "shadow clone", Doppelman, into a myriad of balls. These balls then turn into a swarm of bats that can attack an opponent. After being used, the bats can merge back together to reform Doppelman. This was first seen being used against Luffy.

• Kage Kakumei (影革命 (カゲかくめい), Shadow Revolution): Moria implants his shadow into a minion. With it inside, he is able to manipulate the shape of the minion's shadow. When the shadow's shape is changed, the minion's body will be changed too. This is first seen being used on Oars. Moria is able to do this because of the general rule about shadows. It is common knowledge that a shadow will always comply with the body casting it. Because of that, the shadow and the body are always the same shape. By changing the shape of the body's shadow with Moria's powers, the body is forced to match the shape of the shadow. In effect, it's the reverse of a shadow changing shape to match with the body casting it because it is the body that is now transforming to match the shape of the shadow it is casting. It's basically the reverse of shadow puppetry.

• Oars Ball (オーズボール): Using Shadow Revolution on Oars' shadow, Moria changes Oars into a gigantic ball to crush his opponents. This was first seen being used against the Straw Hats and Brook.

• Kagemusha (影武者, Shadow Warrior): A technique in which Moria can swap places with Doppelman at any time, allowing Moria to practice a form of teleportation of sorts, making it very hard to hit him. This was properly shown and explained later when Robin attempted to snap his neck with four gigantic arms. This technique's name comes from the term used in Japanese to refer to an impersonator.

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Gecko Moria after absorbing a thousand shadows with Shadow's Asgard

• Shadow's Asgard (影の集合地 (シャドーズ・アスガルド)): A technique in which Moria empowers himself with the shadows he stole and implanted in his zombie minions. By spreading out his shadow from under his feet so that it can form into dozens of tendril-like appendages, he can pierce his zombie minions and suck the shadows out of them and absorb them into his body. With one thousand shadows implanted within himself, Moria becomes a gigantic monstrosity. His body becomes bloated and several times bigger than average. His neck in particular becomes bloated to extreme proportions. This in particular resembles the way geckos puff up their throats when threatened. His horns also become longer and his hair becomes spike-like in manner. His arms become very huge while his legs become longer compared to their original stubby appearance. Because of his body proportions in this form, Moria walks on all fours like a lizard on its belly. Overall, Moria looks like a gigantic gecko. In this form, Moria is several times stronger due to the combined strengths of the shadows within him. He is so strong that he is able to split Thriller Bark in half in one hit. However, while he is incredibly strong in this form, the strain of controlling a thousand shadows has its toll on Moria. Unless the user has an extreme amount of willpower, shadows may leak from the body when massively attacked and will return to their original owners. Furthermore, much like Luffy's Gear Third, this technique leans too heavily on power, while leaving no room for speed; this, along with the immense amount of willpower to keep the shadows under control all at once, makes this move inadvisable to use against adversaries like Luffy in Gear Second. This technique's name comes from Asgard, the Norse mythological city of the gods.

• Black Box (影箱 (ブラックボックス)): While in his form upgraded by Shadow's Asgard, Moria turns his shadow, made even larger by his Shadow's Asgard colossal form, into several Brick Bats. He then has them transform and completely encase an opponent in a black box made out of solidified shadows. With his opponent encased in the box, Moria is then capable of smashing the opponent with either his hands or feet. This was first seen being used against Luffy.

• Tsuno-Tokage (角刀影 (つのトカゲ)): Gathering his shadow together, Moria shoots out a large shadow spear at an opponent. The tip of this spear resembles a horned lizard. The Kanji for the move reads Horn Blade Shadow, however pronunciation-wise it resembles the Japanese word for Horned Lizard thus making the name a pun. This was first seen being used against Oars Jr.

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Nightmare Luffy

The fruit's powers have also been used outside of Moria's own will by some of Moria's victims. They have learned how to harness the fruit's ability to make shadows tangible for their own benefit against Moria himself. Over the years, while trying desperately to recover their own shadows, they have learned that they can capture shadows that have been purified from Moria's zombie minions. With these, they have learned that they can put the captured shadows into themselves and gain the abilities of the shadow for a short period of time. Using this knowledge, they were able to imbue Luffy with a hundred shadows and turn him into Nightmare Luffy.

Trivia

• The way Moria steals shadows from his victims, by cutting it off like piece of clothing from their feet, resembles the concept of Peter Pan's own cloth-like shadow.
• The way a zombie is purified, by making them eat salt to negate the Kage Kage no Mi's powers, resembles a common belief in Japanese folklore. The belief is that one can purify an evil spirit, like a zombie, by making them eat salt, which is believed to have holy properties.
• In the anime, a shadow zombie will have the same voice of the shadow's owner. For example, Oars sounds like Luffy. In the manga, it is stated that the shadow gets a new voice as well as a new body.
• Although Moria's victims vaporize when they lose their shadow and are exposed to sunlight, Moria is able to detach his shadow in the sun, most likely because he still controls his shadow while his victims don't.

External Links

• Shadow - Wikipedia article about shadows
• Doppelgänger - Wikipedia article about the source of the name of Moria's Doppelman
• Doppelgänger - Monstropedia article about the source of the name of Moria's Doppelman
• Shadow play - Wikipedia article about shadow puppetry
• Kagemusha - Wikipedia article about a Japanese movie which gives the basic idea of the term Moria's technique is based after
• Asgard - Wikipedia article about the mythological city Moria's technique is named after
• Peter Pan - Wikipedia article about the story with the concept of a detachable cloth-like shadow

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