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One Piece chapter 1091 marked an exciting development for Eiichiro Oda's manga, as the situation on Egghead reached its true climax. Monkey D. Luffy challenged Marine Admiral Kizaru, while Roronoa Zoro started fighting with the merciless Rob Lucci.
Kizaru and Lucci were stated to be the two mightiest enemies currently on Egghead, which only gives additional hype to the upcoming fights. Interestingly, these battles will also allow fans to rate exactly how Luffy and Zoro compare to each other, as the former already fought Lucci in the Egghead arc.
Disclaimer: This article contains major spoilers from the One Piece manga up to chapter 1092.
Luffy vs Kizaru and Zoro vs Lucci are set to be the two main fights in One Piece's Egghead climax
The hour of reckoning has come for Luffy and Kizaru
After making short work of Vegapunk's bodyguard, his former friend and student Sentomaru, Borsalino "Kizaru," was ready to proceed in search of the scientist. However, they came across Luffy, who declared himself and his comrades to be "a hundred times stronger" than they were at their previous encounter.
Brimming with confidence, Luffy attacked Kizaru with a Haki-enhanced kick, but the Admiral parried the strike with relative ease, not even bothering to use his Devil Fruit powers or his Haki. With his typical loosened smirk, Kizaru commented on Luffy's impudence.
Luffy and Kizaru have a prior history, as two years before One Piece's present narration, the Admiral wrecked the crew in Sabaody Archipelago. Kizaru was about to annihilate the Straw Hats. Only Silvers Rayleigh's intervention stopped Kizaru from crushing everyone, as the Admiral couldn't get past the "Dark King."
Kizaru's actions directly led to the crew's temporary disbandment, with all its members sent to completely different places by Bartholomew Kuma's Paw-Paw Fruit powers. Moreover, during the Paramount War in Marineford, Kizaru, as one of the mightiest Marines, stood against Luffy's attempts to free his brother Ace.
At the time, Luffy was no match for Kizaru, who could have casually killed him. Things are different now, as Luffy has become an exceptional fighter. He is one of the very few individuals in the One Piece world who can use the advanced versions of all three types of Haki, including the Color of Conqueror.
The fact that Luffy can use the Advanced Conqueror's Haki is a feat in itself. As far as it's currently known, not even Kizaru or any of the Admirals can use this extremely rare ability, which was described as the signature power of the very strongest One Piece characters.
Luffy is now one of the mighty Four Emperors and should be regarded one of the most powerful pirates to ever achieve such a status. Moreover, he even proved himself superior to Kaido, an Emperor who was hailed as "The World's Strongest Creature."
Some fans considered that Luffy used his base form to fight Kizaru a disrespect for the Admiral, but such reasoning is flawed, as the captain of the Straw Hats fought in base form against Kaido in several instances as well. The fight has just begun, and Luffy will progressively use his Gears in the course of the battle.
To this day, it's unknown how Kizaru's overall combat prowess measures to Kaido's, whom Luffy managed to beat. Most fans consider Borsalino "Kizaru" less powerful than Kaido, but that's debatable, and even if it were true, the gap would be slight.
Even though it was just an opening strike, Kizaru easily blocked an Advanced Conqueror's Haki-enhanced blow by Luffy, which is telling of Borsalino's might. A member of the "Color Trio" of Logia-empowered Admirals, Kizaru is one of the few combatants who left Marineford's battlefield totally uninjured despite having fought against Whitebeard and Marco.
Owing to the Glint-Glint Fruit, Kizaru can create and control light, as well as turn his body into it. He can thereby move and attack at the speed of light, shoot ravaging and yet extremely precise lasers, and even create a massive lightsaber, which he can wield with enough prowess to fight on par with Rayleigh (although the latter was aged and rusty).
Kizaru also holds exceptional Haki and physical strength. He can use an advanced form of the Color of Armament and is able to hold down Whitebeard's bisento, preventing the latter from lifting it, despite his unreal muscle power.
In addition, Kizaru is yet to show the full extent of his abilities, and he will likely do that during the battle with Luffy. When the newly-appointed Emperor will unleash his Gear 5 transformation and his Advanced Conqueror's Haki, Kizaru will likely respond with the Awakening of his Glint-Glint Fruit.
Zoro vs Lucci, a showdown between deadly fighters
Despite having called a temporary truce with the Straw Hat Pirates, Lucci suddenly tried to kill Vegapunk. Stussy protected the scientist but ended up severely injured by Lucci's Finger Pistol attack. As such, Roronoa Zoro, the second-in-command of the Straw Hats, took the matter into his own hands and challenged Lucci to a fight.
Back in Enies Lobby, Lucci gave Luffy a hard time, pushing him beyond his limits. After the timeskip, the agent returned much stronger, ready to take his revenge. He trained his Haki and achieved the Awakening of his Zoan Devil Fruit, rising up as the most powerful member of CP0, the World Government's major secret agency.
Sent on Egghead with other CP0 elite agents Kaku and Stussy, Lucci was entrusted with the mission of killing Dr Vegapunk and thus stood in the Straw Hat crew's way once again. Based on their feats and abilities, Zoro should emerge victorious over Lucci in all likelihood.
In One Piece 1091, Zoro pushed back Lucci, making him crash through a wall. Granted, Lucci was in his base form, but he was still using his own Armament Haki. Likewise, Zoro was not employing his Three Sword Style as well as his Advanced Conqueror's Haki, which he can use to enhance his blades in addition to the Color of Armament.
Zoro is also holding back his King of Hell Style, the peak of his combat prowess, in which he concurrently unleashes the advanced versions of Armament and Conqueror's Haki. It is likely that Lucci is strong enough to give Zoro a decent fight without being one-shotted, while the swordsman has all it takes to beat the CP0's spearhead pretty assuredly.
Lucci is now a fighter easily above the average Commander-level individual. During their rematch in Egghead, Lucci, while in his Awakened Zoan form, he was able to equalize Gear 5 Luffy in a clash of Armament Haki. This is an outstanding feat, given the immense boost this transformation gives to Luffy.
Lucci is notably tough, as he was able to endure several named attacks from Gear 5 Luffy. However, during their fight in Egghead, Lucci ended up wrecked by Luffy, who didn't even need to use his Advanced Conqueror's Haki or the mightiest moves of his Gear 5 to overpower the CP0 masked agent.
During their fight, Lucci was still able to immediately recover from one of Gear 5 Luffy's blows. With the latter unable to intercept him, in a flash Lucci attacked Sentomaru, breaking through his Armament Haki defense, and grievously wounded him.
Sentomaru is a skilled Haki user. Thus, the fact that Lucci easily defeated him, while simultaneously being engaged in a fight with Emperor-level Luffy, is another commendable feat for the CP0 agent.
A testament to Lucci's fearsome prowess, he was implied to be stronger than Sanji. Even though the latter's principles forbid him to let anyone insult or, worse, harm a woman, Sanji didn't dare to attack Lucci despite the CP0 agent having nearly killed Stussy in front of him.
Overall, Lucci's level seems to a bit above Katakuri's, so probably comparable to Marco and King's. Too bad for him, even in the previous arc, Zoro was already much stronger than King, a mighty Lunarian survivor who Kaido of the Four Emperors chose as his right-hand man.
Upon unleashing the peak of his Conqueror's Haki with the King of Hell Style, Zoro achieved a whole new level of power. This enabled him to brutally beat King, only needing three hits to defeat him and completely overpowering whatever the Lunarian tried to do.
Even before unlocking this game-changing ability, Zoro was already powerful enough to perform against an Emperor, Kaido, better than how Lucci could do against another one, Luffy.
Big Mom, worried that Zoro's attack could significantly injured Kaido, shouted at him to dodge the green-haired swordsman's slash. Thus, Zoro already had the offensive power required to threaten Emperor-level fighters.
In his injured state after blocking Kaido and Big Mom's destructive combined attack, Zoro challenged the former to a 1v1 fight. Although he wasn't able to beat Kaido and collapsed shortly after, Zoro was strong enough to inflict him a wound so deep that it left the Emperor with a scar.
Before Zoro, only Oden achieved this feat, an accomplishment that the Red Scabbards, a group of Commander-level fighters, couldn't replicate even by joining their efforts together.
With the addition of the Advanced Conqueror's Haki and the King of Hell Style, Zoro should be on a different level than Lucci. Granted, both are deadly combatants who stand out as powerful Haki users, notably fast fighters, and particularly tough individuals.
Thus, they will undoubtedly give to a thrilling and fast-paced battle. Lucci's fate is marked, but the bloodthirsty CP0 agent will sell his skin dearly before inevitably succumbing to Zoro.
Be sure to keep up with all updates from One Piece's manga, anime, and live-action as 2023 progresses.
