This post contains spoilers up until the most recent chapters!!!
Hinokizu is a figure in the world of One Piece that we know very little about. They’re supposedly the person holding onto the last road poneglyph. We also know that many of the other crews knew about this person’s existence while the Straw Hats – even Robin – did not. They’re described as a man with a burn scar, and if this is their epithet then it’s likely in an obvious place. Their black ship sails the seas and anyone that gets close is swallowed up in a vortex. We get most of what we know about this figure through the thoughts of the Blackbeard pirates. They mention that the vortexes could be related to a devil fruit, although I don’t believe such a fruit has been mentioned at this point. Shiryu also remarks that he thinks it’s a government man, but has no basis for this claim. If there wasn’t some interest to this claim, I don’t think Oda would include it, unless it was a red herring, but why throw out a red herring for a character we literally know nothing about? All we truly know about this figure is that they stole the road poneglyph from Fishman Island and are now roaming the seas. So who could this person be? Let’s look at the options amongst characters that we already know.
Before we get to proper guesses, let’s eliminate some options I’ve seen floating around. I’ve heard people claim that Oden was sent ahead in time by Toki to protect the One Piece, but that sounds far-fetched and doesn’t make much narrative sense. I’ve heard theories about former Whitebeard members being Hinokizu, but that doesn’t add up when it comes to the timeline. The poneglyph was stolen well before the timeskip, and Whitebeard’s crew only disbanded at the start of the timeskip. I’ve also seen people claim theories about either Saul or Loki being the man with the burn scar, but those have more or less been debunked with what we saw during Elbaf so far. Clou D. Clover is another name mentioned, but again, I don’t think it makes much narrative sense. I would really like the idea that Nico Olvia somehow survived the fires at Ohara and then roamed the seas. I don’t think this is true. With Saul already being a survivor of this story but not mentioning or knowing about Olvia’s survival it would just feel like fanservice. Kuzan would have been a fun option had he not already been accounted for. Fought a magma enemy, former navy, very powerful, but he doesn’t match the description. So what guesses do I have?
Three pretty open guesses I have are that Hinokizu is a former member of one of three big crews from the story of One Piece. I originally thought he might be Scopper Gaban, but we know that to be untrue. There is still room for another Roger pirate to yet live and want to keep the treasure out of the wrong hands. I’m also thinking it could be a former Rocks Pirates member. We know that many of them went on to achieve great things, including people like Whitebeard, Kaido and Big Mom. The third crew I’m thinking of is Shiki’s crew. He was a big figure among the Rocks pirates but we’ve only ever seen him in a movie which – although canon to an extent – doesn’t show up in the manga. All three of these are pretty loose guesses and admittedly I don’t find any of them super likely, but I wanted to throw them out there regardless.
Another possibility I’ve seen mentioned around that I quite like is it being Dragon. As far as I’m aware, he doesn’t have a burn scar anywhere particularly visible, but he does match the “navy man” description in a sense that he was once in the navy. He also has been shown to use weather manipulation abilities so a devil fruit that can cause whirlpools isn’t out of the realm of possibilities. But Dragon has been at the head of the revolutionaries for a long time. It wouldn’t make much sense for him to roam around on a black ship just sinking random pirates in the New World. He does have reason to keep the One Piece from falling into the wrong hands, but I don’t think he’ll be too invested. I also don’t think this would be a good way for him and Luffy to meet. I’d like them to meet in a different way, where they’re both involved in the final war, come across each other and just kind of don’t care too much about the whole thing before going their own way.
So what is the conclusion to it all? Well, the short answer is that I have no idea. I’ve thrown around a few wild guesses, but in all honesty I think the most likely explanation is that it is a character we have yet to meet. I’ve been thinking back to earlier arcs in the story but I also can’t think of characters from those that fit the position particularly well. So we’ll just have to wait until Oda reveals it to us. But let me know if you have any other theories that fit really well. Or is there someone I mentioned that you think is Hinokizu? Let me know down below and as always, thanks for reading!
Opal Kaharis 