Chapter 1045

Kaidou, certain he had killed Luffy, watches him bounce off the ground and concludes he has awakened a Paramecia fruit, since he can turn his surroundings to rubber, yet something nags at him, because the transformation looks more like a Zoan's. Lunging to devour him, Kaidou instead finds Luffy ricocheting inside his body before Gomu Gomu no Fusen balloons them both. Spotting two glowing lights that prove to be Kaidou's eyes, Luffy reaches through them, latches onto the nose, and rockets free, deflating into the clouds. He returns enormous as a giant with Gomu Gomu no Gigant, then uses Kaidou's serpentine body like a skipping rope.

A direct Bolo Breath knocks Luffy down again, but he spins his legs fast enough to sprint back up through open air. Kaidou's Kosanze Ragnaraku then drives Luffy's head through the floor to the lower levels, and as he climbs back he reverts, suddenly worn out and visibly aged, his hair and clothes turned white. Refusing Kaidou's offer of a dignified death and a story told in his honor, Luffy answers that only bones remain after dying. Recalling his promises to Momonosuke, Tama, Kin'emon, and Pedro, he orders his heart to beat louder and forces Gear 5 back on.

Struck again by Kaidou's weapon, Luffy's head wraps around the spikes and warps into a crescent; he springs off the ground and a rock formation to shrink back to normal size, then closes in with his arms whirling like rotor blades and drives a punch that seems to pass through the Emperor's head before flooring him, all while marveling at how much fun he is having. The chapter underscores that awakening lets Luffy alter his bulk instantly and bend even organic matter, but that sustaining it near death exacts a heavy physical cost.