One Pieceoften identifies Devil Fruits as a manner in which the strong can become even stronger. In exchange for the ability to swim, aDevil Fruit consumercan gain powers that augment their abilities in combat. However, this is not a panacea against those who are without Devil Fruits. Time and again, more clever combatants have shown the ability to outsmart their opponents, even if a traditional fight would give said foes the upper hand. Furthermore, there are a handful of countermeasures used to deal with particularly tricky Devil Fruitssuch as hakiand seastone. These Devil Fruit users, despite their strength, were defeated by those who had not consumed one.
5Gem and Mikita aka Mr. 5 and Miss Valentine
Defeated by: Nami, Nefertari Vivi, (Mikita) and Roronoa Zoro (Gem)
Although these two are not the first characters to coast off their Devil Fruits or the last Baroque Works Officer Agents to be beaten by a Non-Devil Fruit user, Gem (Mr. 5) and Mikita (Miss Valentine) both exemplify how a relatively strong Devil Fruit can bolster a weaker fighter. Mr. 5’s physical combat is greatly exaggerated by his ability to set off explosions on contact. He can also launch projectile explosives by blasting out his snot, which can also explode. He credits his explosive Bomu Bomu no Mi to his great success with missions. His partner, Miss Valentine, is not shown directly fighting, instead using her Kilo Kilo no Mi powers to physically crush any competition by shifting her weight between 1 and 10,000 kilograms. She often uses this technique slowly to torture her foes or rapidly to bury them alive.
While they are shown to pick onPrincess Nefertari Vivi, Galdino (aka Mr. 3) views the pair as weak, despite not being a particularly strong fighter himself. After the three of them succeed in restraining and nearly killing Nami, Vivi, and Zoro, in Mr. 3’s candle set, hope seems all but lost. Fortunately, Usopp is able to quickly formulate a strategy, by giving Karoo an oil-soaked rope to wrap around the candle set, before being restrained by Miss Valentine. After guiding Luffy to set off an explosion with Mr. 3’s lit head, the three Straw Hats are able to quickly escape containment.
Angered by their continual meddling, Miss Valentine attempts to snap Usopp’s neck by rapidly shifting her weight midair. However, a quick assault by Nami and Vivi takes her out of the fight, despite neither having a Devil Fruit. Mr. 5 is subsequently provoked by Usopp into attacking, only to end up taken out of commission himself by Zoro. Their relatively easy defeats show Devil Fruits are not the be all, end all, especially against physically stronger foes.
4Kalifa
Defeated by: Nami
Kalifa was a member of Cipher Pol Number 9 (CP9), one of many World Government-controlledCipher Pol agencies, specifically focusing on targeted assassinations. While Kalifa’s doriki or “power level” is measured to be lower than that of her peers, she is still quite physically powerful compared to most ordinary people. Her Awa Awa no Mi allows her to create soap that can “scrub” opponents of their physical strength, further asserting her dominance. She used this against Sanji after seducing him, leaving him knocked out and coated in soap.
Nami subsequently arrived to confront Kalifa, but walked into a trap as she too ended up collapsing in a soap trap which weakened her. Although Kalifa was able to restrain and narrowly suffocate her during the first wing of their fight, she proved less capable of ultimately dealing with Nami’s upgraded Clima Tact. Not only was she able to use her Mirage Tempo to hoodwink Kalifa into attacking false duplicates of herself, but she was also able to strike down the agent with a Thunder Lance Tempo.
3Who’s-Who
Defeated by: Jimbei
Who’s-Who was once a member of CP9, previously trusted with guarding the Gomu Gomu no Mi. However, it ended up being stolen by the Red Hair Pirates, which eventually resulted in Luffy eating it. Who’s-Who was subsequently fired and jailed for his mistake. This resulted in him having a lasting grudge against the Red Hair Pirates, and eventually Luffy, once he learned of him consuming the Devil Fruit he was meant to protect. In prison, he notably learned of the Sun God, Nika, and prayed for some form of salvation while jailed. Ironically, this “salvation” was, to some extent, dormant in the Gomu Gomu no Mi, itself, seeing as it allowed its user totransform into Nika once awakened.
Who’s-Who eventually did manage to escape captivity and turned to piracy, even captaining a crew of his own for a time. However, this crew was one of many that became subsequently absorbed into the Beasts Pirates. Like many in both his more recent and former positions, Who’s-Who has a Zoan Devil Fruit, in his case, the Neko Neko no Mi, Model: Saber Tiger. As the name implies, his Devil Fruit allows him full or partial transformation into a saber-toothed tiger. Who’s-who himself became one of the Flying Six, the crew’s strongest officers, save for the All-Stars.
Who’s-Who proved himself deserving of his title, no doubt a result of the grueling training he went through to even become an agent in the first place. However, he is defeated by a fighter with an even more impressive history than his own, the Ex-Warlord Jimbei, who became the most recent Straw Hat Pirate. Who’s-Who’s Rokushiki technique was largely a match for Jimbei’s own Fish-Man karate, but the latter was still capable of squeezing out a win. It is not exactly clear what led to Jimbei winning, but it likely has to do with a combination of superior skill and physical strength, taking into account both his Fish-Man physique and the many years he spent honing his skills.
2Queen
Defeated by: Sanji
Queen was one of the top three members of the Beasts Pirates, a scientist known for conducting illegalresearch under MADS, an organization which also consisted of the late Dr. Vegapunk, Vinsmoke Judge, and Caesar Clown. Queen is a cyborg who notably augmented himself with a prosthetic arm and the various techniques of the suits the Vinsmoke siblings would come to use. The icing on the cake is his own Devil Fruit, the Ryu Ryu no Mi, Model: Brachiosaurus.
While being able to become a gigantic dinosaur is obviously a boon to any fighter, Queen’s own cybernetic nature works hand in hand to give a whole host of extra abilities presumably unavailable to the common Brachiosaurus. Furthermore, the ahistorical nature ofOne Pieceadds even more utility to the creature, insinuating it was capable of launching its head and neck from its body, giving it a snakelike appearance. This capability is reflected in Queen’s own attacks.
Queen notably taunted Sanji for his history as a child of Judge, goading him into unleashing his hand, despite already being intricately knowledgeable about Germa 66. While Sanji’s genetic enhancements were deliberately stalled by his mother, resulting in his estrangement from the Vinsmoke family, they awakened during his fight with Queen, giving him an edge against the powerful scientist. He was eventually able to defeat Queen with his Ifrit Jambe techniques, essentially a stronger version of his previously utilized Diable Jambe techniques.
1Eustass Kid
Defeated by: Shanks
Eustass Kid is a powerful pirate who boasted one of the highest bounties in the Worst Generation, a collection of pirates the government viewed as especially notorious. Kid is acquainted with the likes of Luffy, Zoro, and Law, all fellow members of the Worst Generation, who previously formed alliances in the face of a greater threat that they share a mutual interest in stopping. It was the combination of Kid and Law that resulted in Big Mom’s defeat.
Kid’s Jiki Jiki no Mi allowed him to effectively form magnetic fields, which Kid used to convert scrap metal into weapons of variable intricacy. While he commonly uses this technique to form gigantic metal arms, it can also create fully-functional cannons or lasers. Beyond this use, it can also disarm most combatants whose weapons are magnetized. Kid’s Devil Fruit Awakening further enhanced the ability, as he can now adjust the polarity of non-metallic organisms to make them magnetic as well.
Kid and his crew, the Kid Pirates, are notable for being especially ruthless, incurring civilian casualties and mass destruction in their wake. This was notably one of the reasons for their relatively higher bounties, which led even Kid’s crewmate Killer to gain a spot in the Worst Generation, being the only non-captain aside from Zoro to do so. However, this same cavalier attitude was very likely the reason for their undoing. Upon encountering Shanks' pirate alliance in Elbaf, Kid prepared a lethal attack that would have proved fatal for many had it succeeded. Shanks used his Kamusari technique toknock out both Kid and Killer, the latter of whom attempted to block Shanks' attack. The result was absolute destruction, as the captains of the Giant Warrior Pirates destroyed the crew’s ship as punishment for attempting to ransack their home.
Despite appearing to have no Devil Fruits among their ranks, this is not the only time the Red Hair Pirates succeeded in defeating a crew with Devil Fruit Powers. More recently, Yasopp took out the Straw Hat Grand Fleet’s Barto Club with a singular well-placed shot, although this was not technically a fight, seeing as the latter crew was focused on escaping.
