One of the great Mythical Zoans, the Fish-Fish Fruit, Model: Azure Dragon, is one of the strongest Devil Fruits around. Kaido uses it along with his incredible Haki to wreak havoc on the people of Wano, raining fire down on them from the skies. This Mythical Zoan has much more to it than the others though, and is the center of essential research in the One Piece world.
This article contains spoilers for One Piece. Catch up through Viz for the manga or Crunchyroll for the anime before reading further!
What are Mythical Zoans?
Much like their normal counterparts, the Mythical Zoan Fruits allow shapeshifting abilities for their users. While regular types take on the forms of real animals, Mythical will do just that- take on creatures of legends and folklore. These legends can range from the mythical Phoenix to the Nine-Tailed Fox and as Kaido shows, a great Dragon. Though they’re not all built the same, most Mythical Zoan Fruits have a huge amount of power behind them, especially if the user can manage an Awakening for their Fruit.
Fish-Fish Fruit, Model: Azure Dragon
Kaido’s Devil Fruit is one of the strongest Mythical Zoans, with incredible power behind the dragon transformation. The Fish-Fish Fruit, Model: Azure Dragon gives him the form of a long, serpentine dragon much like those in Eastern folklore. He’s massive enough to encircle most of the Flower Capital, and his powers were too much for even Kozuki Oden to overcome. In addition to the flying abilities he gains as the dragon, Kaido can also breathe huge bursts of flames and create massive flame clouds. It’s these clouds that allow him to fly, and later hold up the Onigashima Castle across the land.
Where Kaido’s true power shines is in his hybrid form, taking on the features and power of a dragon while maintaining a humanoid shape. This form reinforces his skin with dragon scales, also allowing him to move faster while creating large claws instead of fingers. Kaido is extra dangerous like this, and only pulls this form out when he’s really desperate, like against Luffy on Onigashima. Even worse, when he’s able to combine this form with his massive Haki, he’s nearly unstoppable and proves it by briefly killing Luffy.
Devil Fruit Lineage Factor
Something Vegapunk discovers through his experiments on Kaido is the Devil Fruit Lineage Factors. These are specific genetic codings that happen to the DNA of Devil Fruit users, with each Fruit making a different recode of the DNA. Vegapunk uses Kaido and his Fish-Fish Fruit, Model: Azure Dragon to extensively study these lineage factors. That leads to massive discoveries for everything we know about Devil Fruits themselves.
Lineage Factors don’t only change the user’s DNA, but in the case of Zoan Fruits, their will. Vegapunk discovers that most Zoan Fruits carry a will of their own, with some goal or another in mind. Likely for Kaido, it was the urge to rule and become a great conqueror, which he did pretty quickly after freeing himself from the Punk Hazard labs. His Lineage Factors were also used for a crucial bit of Devil Fruit research that plays into the Wano arc later, specifically with Kozuki Momonosuke.
Artificial Devil Fruits
Probably the thing Kaido least expected to happen was his Devil Fruit actually being cloned. He knew Vegapunk was experimenting from his DNA, but never knew what he was doing with it. He finds out when the son of his dead foe Kozuki Oden re-emerges in Wano, first as a tiny pink dragon before aging up to an adult. The artificial Devil Fruit that Vegapunk makes, though it turns Momo pink instead of blue, is a wild success when it comes to scientific breakthroughs in One Piece.
Unfortunately, the creator doesn’t see it that way. Despite Momo being able to unlock the abilities and potential strength of Kaido, Vegapunk is disappointed in his invention. The entire reason? It’s pink instead of blue. That’s it, but that’s all it takes for Vegapunk to consider it a colossal failure when it comes to his great scientific prowess.
Is Kaido Dead?
Kaido’s status in the story is currently unknown but presumed dead. Look, getting punched through two islands down into a lava pit that looks straight from hell will take the fight out of anyone for a while. Even if Kaido isn’t dead, he’s going to be out of commission for much, much longer than the Straw Hats were after they barely pull off a win. There’s every possibility he’s kicking back and relaxing in a nice magma sauna, taking a much-needed vacation from his hectic life, and rethinking his career choices.
Yeah, that one is doubtful, and by the standards of One Piece, Kaido isn’t likely to come back. His exit was as good of a death as One Piece has given any of its villains, or at least the ones without follow-up. Most end up in the custody of the Marines, but the real decider of his fate will be if the Fish-Fish Fruit, Model Azure Dragon manages to pop back up somewhere. If it does, all bets are off and Kaido is dead for sure.
If he is, there’s no doubt Blackbeard and his group will be after the Devil Fruit in no time. Seeing how powerful it is, and their drive to collect all they can, it’s got to be on their list. The Fish-Fish Fruit, Model: Azure Dragon might not belong to Kaido when it reappears, but the Devil Fruit isn’t done in the overall story.