Ryu Ryu no Mi, Model: Kirin

Ryu Ryu no Mi, Model: Kirin
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Japanese Name:	リュウリュウの実 モデル麒麟
Romanized Name:	Ryū Ryū no Mi Moderu Kirin
Official English Name:	Dragon-Dragon Fruit, Model: Kirin
Meaning:	Dragon, Kirin/Qilin
Usage Debut:	Chapter 1140
Type:	Mythical Zoan
Current User:	Rimoshifu Killingham

For other models of this fruit, see Ryu Ryu no Mi (Disambiguation).

The Ryu Ryu no Mi, Model: Kirin is a Mythical Zoan-type Devil Fruit that grants the power to transform into a qilin and half-qilin hybrid, which can put others to sleep and manifest their dreams into reality, making the user a Dream-Manifesting Human (夢具現人間, Yume Gugen Ningen^?, VIZ: "Dream-Manifesting-Man"). The fruit was eaten by Rimoshifu Killingham.

Etymology

• Ryū (竜・龍^?) means "dragon" in Japanese.
• Kirin (麒麟^?) is the Japanese name of the qilin, a chimeric beast from Chinese mythology with dragon-like features. Additionally, kirin doubles as the modern-day Japanese word for "giraffe" (based on the longstanding identification of qilins with giraffes, dating back to Ming-era China). The same etymology is reflected in the name of another Zoan fruit, the Ushi Ushi no Mi, Model: Giraffe.

Strengths

Killingham's qilin-headed transformation.

A user of this fruit's power can transform into a mythical qilin. The qilin form comes with an elongated neck and a head that seem both draconic and giraffine in appearance; the user gains dark skin contrasted by wild, light-colored hair resembling flaming clouds, which grows on their head and down the sides of their face (paired with matching eyebrows), down the back of their neck as a mane, and over their chest; the user gains a single backwards horn on their head, two ungulate ears, dragon-like whiskers on each side of their snout, and a cloud-like tail. In their Human-Beast Form, the user takes on a centauric form, with their legs replaced by an ungulate's lower body akin to a horse's, with a light coat, while their upper body remains human (Killingham also displays sharp fangs in this form, though if they are part of the transformation is uncertain). Notably, Killingham has demonstrated a form featuring a qilin head and tail, but with his body still humanoid from the neck down and able to stand upright; if this is some partial transformation is unclear.

In their Human-Beast Form, the ability user can fly by creating flaming clouds beneath their hooves to tread on. On top of this and a physical power boost, the qilin transformation confers two special abilities: to make others fall asleep and to materialize their dreams into reality. To do the former, the user can emit ringed energy beams that put whomever they hit to sleep; these work even at long range, as seen when Killingham made several students of Elbaph's Walrus School pass out while being far enough away that his presence went unnoticed. While the ability user can forcibly re-awaken those they make fall asleep at will, it appears difficult for anyone else to wake them up. The ability user can also control the extent of sleep and, apart from full sleep, may induce a state resembling sleep paralysis, wherein the victim is conscious yet their body immobilized.

Killingham pulling a desired object from a sleeping target's dream cloud.

Once a target is slumbering, the ability user can give physical form to their dreams. One way to do so is to pull a dreamed-of object or being from a dream cloud that forms directly above a target's head, like a thought bubble. Killingham has proven able to manifest multiple "dreams" in succession and keep them going simultaneously without visible exertion. In addition, the one dreaming does not need to remain asleep for manifested dreams of theirs to remain in existence. When Killingham observed that salt was missing from a "dream" dinner, he made Shepherd Sommers think of salt right before putting him to sleep and extracting the salt from his dream cloud, suggesting that manifesting specific dreams is facilitated by first planting the corresponding image in a target's mind.

Manifested "dreams" may range from mundane objects, like furniture or food items, to "living" entities, including nightmarish monsters that embody the dreamer's greatest fears. Generally, creations will possess whatever properties they have in the imagination of the dreaming: e.g., the Walrus School students' incarnated fears resembled illustrations previously made by the children to visualize said fears, and conjured food will taste how the dreamer remembers it.

MMA monsters emerging from a Nightmare Hole.

Summoned dream monsters (dubbed "MMA") can be directed to wreak havoc and attack enemies, while acting with a degree of autonomy that allows them to fulfill their designated function without their creator actively paying attention. Given their size and innately fearsome nature, the MMA can pose a notable threat, especially when many are brought forth at once, allowing the ability user to cause wide-scale chaos. Likewise, while the monsters can be defeated via physical attacks, being born from dreams means that they lack a true "concept of death" and can be revived at any time if given the verbal command to rise up again. The creation of multiple MMA is facilitated by the opening of portals ("Nightmare Holes"), through which the ability user can continuously set loose wave after wave of MMA monsters from the collective nightmares of an island's population.

Awakening

This Zoan power like any can be awakened, whereupon the user gains the characteristic ribbon of flaming smoke around their shoulders, which is light in color.

Weaknesses

Killingham has implied that there is a time limit on how long targets can be kept asleep.

While the MMA can be quite dangerous, they remain susceptible to and can be defeated through strong physical attacks, albeit with the caveat that their creator can afterwards revive them. Additionally, the strength of an MMA scales directly to the dreamer's imagination, meaning that it may be weaker than the object of "fear" it is based on if the dreamer never encountered said fear in reality and thus is unfamiliar with its true strength. Similarly, while food derived from dreams may be edible, delicious, and satiating, it provides no sustenance due to its imaginary nature.

Otherwise, the ability user suffers from the standard Devil Fruit weaknesses.

Usage

Killingham's mastery over his Zoan powers is evident from how he "awakened" them without losing his personality. He seems to favor staying in his qilin form for extended periods, even while not actively using his abilities or being engaged in combat, as seen when he was already transformed when summoned to Elbaph without his awareness. Killingham's physical strength in his qilin-headed form is high enough for him to overpower and suplex a full-grown giant warrior with ease. Apart from using brute force, Killingham may also opt to neutralize enemies by putting them to sleep or into a conscious but sleep-paralyzed state, leaving them physically helpless.

Giant children put to sleep by Killingham, then controlled into walking by Gunko's arrow.

Killingham highly adept at manifesting dreams and not above doing so for trivial purposes, such as creating a table with "dream" food to dine with his fellow God's Knights in the middle of their mission, all the while remotely keeping over a dozen targets asleep and many more MMA conjured from their dreams. Killingham also excels at synergizing his power with those of his fellow God's Knights, as shown by the hostage-taking "game" that Shamrock suggested the God's Knights play on Elbaph: Killingham would put batches of Elbaph's Walrus School children to sleep from afar, allowing Gunko to guide them into sleepwalking on a path designated by her vector arrow, while Sommers' invisible thorns left the children untouchable and impossible to stop in their tracks.

Various giant MMA rampaging on Elbaph.

By strategically placing numerous "Nightmare Holes" across an island in order to tap into the nightmares of its populace, Killingham can release an army of MMA monsters to let rampage and create chaos without having to involve himself, which is especially conducive to diversionary tactics. As dreams incarnate, the MMA are deathless and can be revived at any point by Killingham if he simply gives the signal, making it difficult to eliminate them for good; Killingham has employed a horn to more easily relay his commands to the MMA, calling on them to rise up again.

Applications

Sleeping giant children dream of a demon, which promptly emerges from a Nightmare Hole.

• Nightmare Holes (悪夢穴（ナイトメアホール）, Naitomea Hōru^?): Dark, circular holes created on the ground to serve as portals, allowing MMA to come forth from dreams into the real world. By strategically opening multiple such holes all across an island, Killingham can continuously release wave after wave of MMA monsters from the collective nightmares of said island's inhabitants.

• MMA (MMA（ムーマ）, Mūma^?): Quasi-living entities spawned from the nightmares of the sleeping. They take the form of giant monsters, often bestial or humanoid in shape, that are the "fears" of the dreaming incarnate. An MMA's strength is contingent on the dreamer's perception, meaning that an MMA might be weaker than the real thing it is based on if the dreamer does not know its true power, or stronger if their imagination exaggerates their fear; at the same time, MMA seem to be at their most effective when deployed against those already afraid of them. Due to their dream-based origin, MMA are functionally immortal, insofar as they have no "concept of death" and can be revived at Killingham's command. "MMA" (Mūma) is a likely pun on "UMA" (ユーマ, Yūma^?, "Unidentified Mysterious Animal"), a Japanese term for cryptids, as well as muma (夢魔^?, incubus, lit. "dream demon"), referring to demons that appear in dreams/prey on the sleeping. In the VIZ manga, the monsters are named Sleeptids, a portmanteau of "sleep" and "cryptids".
  

• Min'ei-ka (眠（みん）酔（えい）化（か）^?, lit. "Making Sleep-Sick"): An extension of Killingham's sleep-inducing ability where, instead of full-on slumber, he makes a target of choice enter a state resembling sleep paralysis, where only their body is asleep and thus immobile, while the victim remains conscious and even able to speak. In the VIZ manga, the induced state is called Slumbertized.

Created MMA

• During the God's Knights' mission to abduct giant children from Elbaph, Killingham spawned several enormous (far bigger than giants) MMA from the dreams of Walrus School students as incarnations of their greatest fears (こわいもの, kowai mono^?), resembling drawings that the children had previously made of them. Several of these monsters were based on figures from Elbaph mythology, albeit with power limited by the student's childlike imagination:
  • Jörmungandr (終末の大蛇（ヨルムンガンド）, Yorumungando^?, lit. "Great Serpent of the Apocalypse"): Based on the "Serpent of the Apocalypse" from Elbaph legends, this creature takes the form of a giant snake larger than giants, its mouth filled with sharp fangs. Despite its fearsome looks and size, it was easily defeated by the two giants Kiba and Saul.
  • Nika (ニカ, Nika^?): A figure based on the legendary "Sun God" of Elbaph lore, appearing as a dark-skinned, perpetually laughing giant with fangs, flaming hair and a matching beard of light color, donning a Viking's skirt, and wielding an equally giant sword and round shield.
  • Loki (ロキ, Roki^?): A giant warrior based on the "Accursed Prince" of Elbaph, with fangs, a beard, a horned helmet, as well as a sword and giant hammer as weapons. Despite the strength of its real counterpart, this MMA was easily destroyed by Scopper Gaban, who made note of the MMA's weakness compared to the actual Loki.
  • Fenrir (巨狼（フェンリル）, Fenriru^?, lit. "Giant Wolf"): A gigantic wolf monster that is completely dark in coloration, with a fuzzy coat, a sharp-fanged mouth, and a lolling tongue. Despite its enormous size, the wolf was quickly and easily dispatched by the giant Saul.
  • "Ghosts" (お化け, Obake^?): Giant, flying apparitions with their arms raised, one type resembling a sheet-like ghost of light color and the other a dark, leech-shaped entity wearing a horned top hat, with a flame burning on its back. One of the darker Ghost variants was easily destroyed by Dorry's and Brogy's Hakoku attack.
  • Draugr (火死人（ドラウグル）, Dorauguru^?, lit. "Burned Man"): Many undead skeleton soldiers that are gigantic even relative to giants, which have fires burning on their backs, wear capes and horned helmets, and are equipped with swords and shields. One Draugr proved strong enough to swat a giant flying ship out of the air with a single hand.
  • "A Storm" (嵐, Arashi^?), AKA Lightning (かみなり, Kaminari^?): A cartoonish storm cloud featuring an evil-looking face and zigzagged thunderbolts emerging from beneath it. While far bigger than an average giant, this MMA was easily defeated by Franky, with its lightning-shaped appendages seeming to not behave like ordinary lightning.
  • Nidhöggr (雷竜（ニーズホッグ）, Nīzuhoggu^?, lit. "Thunder Dragon"): A gargantuan, winged Western dragon. Dark on top with a light-colored underside, it has large horns, a fanged mouth with its tongue hanging out. True to its name, it has the ability to emit lightning from its mouth. This MMA was easily destroyed by Dorry's and Brogy's Hakoku.
  • Mothers (母ちゃん, Kāchan^?, lit. "(My) Mom"): Nightmarish versions of the mothers or grandmothers of some Walrus School children, far bigger than regular giants. At least two were created, including one based on Bent's mother, and one armed with a ladle. They proved formidable enough to cause the flying Great Eirik, an enormous ship, to crash as well as frightening some Giant Warrior Pirates crew members to tremble as some of them have terrifying wives and moms.
  • Demons (悪魔, Akuma^?): Following Imu's use of Domi Reversi to transform the Giant Warrior Pirates into demons, the Walrus School children began dreaming of them, causing corresponding MMA demons to spawn from the Nightmare Holes. These demons, much like the real deal, take after cartoonish conceptions of devils: towering black silhouettes with massive horns, fangs, bat wings, arrow-tipped tails, and tridents in hand.
  • A miscellany of other MMA: a giant bear wearing a helmet; a giant octopus or kraken; a gigantic, rooster-like bird that was easily beheaded by Dorry; several giant, lanky, pumpkin-headed humanoids resembling jack-o'-lanterns; a dog-headed spider; more dragons; a winged lion similar to a griffin; a horned canine; a giant bull; some type of massive canine or rodent with striped fur; a giant elephant.

Trivia

• The qílín (麒麟, pronounced chee-LIN, called kirin in Japanese) is a chimera that originates in Chinese mythology and has been adopted into other East Asian cultures. Commonly known as the "Chinese unicorn" in Western parlance, it is depicted as having the body of a hooved animal (goat, ox, deer, or horse) paired with the horned head and scales of a Chinese dragon.
  • This Zoan fruit belonging to the Ryu Ryu no Mi line references the qilin's Chinese dragon-like features: a head surmounted by two horns or antlers (or a single one), fangs, scales, a flowing mane and beard, as well as two whiskers/barbels appended to its muzzle.
  • Qilins have had longstanding association with giraffes in East Asian cultures. In the early 1400s, following Chinese expeditions to East Africa, live giraffes were brought to China and presented as qilins to the emperor, due to their similarities. This conflation of qilins with giraffes had a lasting influence, and modeling qilins after giraffes (i.e., with long necks) became popular during the Ming dynasty. Even today, the Japanese and Korean renderings of the word qilin (kirin and girin respectively) double as words for giraffe. Killingham's qilin form seems to take primarily after Ming-era qilin portrayals, given his long neck.
    • The Ushi Ushi no Mi, Model: Giraffe eaten by Kaku also uses the term Kirin (麒麟^?) as its "Model" designation. This reflects how in Japanese, kirin doubles as a term for "giraffe" (though in the case of Kaku's fruit, the kanji are glossed with jirafu (ジラフ^?), based on the English word "giraffe").

The Kirin Company logo.

• Killingham's qilin transformation heavily resembles the kirin featured on the logo of Kirin beer, a Japanese beer brand that Oda has admitted to enjoying.
• Killingham's "MMA" creatures are named the same as the acronym for "mixed martial arts" (MMA), possibly playing into the wrestling/fighting-based naming scheme for characters and concepts introduced during the Elbaph Arc.
• This is the first Zoan ability where the user's "X Human" identifier, Dream-Manifesting Human, does not mention the animal that the fruit is based on.
• This is the first known Devil Fruit of the Ryu Ryu no Mi series that is not an Ancient Zoan.
• Thematically fitting for someone who puts others to sleep, Killingham himself seems to have narcolepsy, though if this is an actual side effect of his fruit ability is unclear.
• Several parallels can be noted between this Devil Fruit and others:
  • The fruit's sleep-inducing power resembles that of the game-exclusive Nemu Nemu no Mi as well as the movie-original Uta Uta no Mi.
  • The ringed beam projected with this power to put targets to sleep vaguely resembles Foxy's Noro Noro Beam and Boa Hancock's Mero Mero Mellow.
  • The "dream" food, potentially delicious but nutritionally worthless, can be considered the opposite of the Kuku Kuku no Mi's food, which tastes bad but is nutritious.
  • This Devil Fruit's ability to materialize objects and animate semi-living things is similar to the Fude Fude no Mi's, though the food produced by the latter fruit is inferior in taste to the high-quality food created by Killingham's power.
  • This Devil Fruit is similar to Bartholomew Kuma's Nikyu Nikyu no Mi, Bonney's Toshi Toshi no Mi, Big Mom's Soru Soru no Mi, and Charlotte Pudding's Memo Memo no Mi in its ability to draw out and manifest an abstract, immaterial element of a living target into something tangible (Kuma with pain/fatigue and memories, Bonney with age, Big Mom with souls, Pudding with memories, and Killingham with dreams).
    • This is the first non-Paramecia Devil Fruit to grant such an ability.
  • The ability to generate flaming clouds beneath the user's hooves, enabling them to run through the sky, bears a resemblance to the Flame Clouds (焔雲, Homura-gumo^?) generated by the Mythical Zoan Uo Uo no Mi, Model: Seiryu.

External links

• Qilin – Wikipedia article on the Chinese qilin.
• Sleep in mythology and folklore – Wikipedia category for sleep in myth/folklore.
• Sleep induction – Wikipedia article on the deliberate inducement of sleep.
• Sleep paralysis – Wikipedia article on the state sometimes experienced upon waking: being conscious yet still affected by the full-body paralysis occurring during REM sleep.
• Dream – Wikipedia article on dreams.
• Nightmare – Wikipedia article on nightmares.
• Materialization – Wikipedia article on the purported paranormal, spiritual, and/or occult ability to create or summon matter from an unknown source.