One Piece: Imu’s Contracts Could Be the Key to Blackbeard’s Unique Body

The Elbaph Arc was our complete introduction to the new group of antagonists, Imu’s personal guards, the Knights of God.

However, there is a lot more to the order than meets the eye as they belong to a deep inner circle that is far beyond the Marines and Cipher Pol.

And if we study the covenants more deeply, we could even draw a connection between Imu and one of his two mortal enemies: Davy D. Jones.

Overview

Artur from the Library of Ohara made an apt summation of Imu’s Covenants by comparing it to a subscription package for online services, particularly for streaming and video editing.

The three-tier subscription Imu offers depends on how much of himself he is willing to invest and that perhaps Imu had limited spreading his power to thirteen hosts in varying degrees and as we will see, the hierarchy is not as clear-cut as it first appears.

This is apt as well since the Shallows Covenant is only a free trial and offers only political benefits rather than specific ones attached to the powers.

Each covenant has the kanji for “sea” is written, which is 「海」 (umi).

If you reverse the romaji spelling of umi, you get “Imu”, implying Imu’s powers are from the sea, the entity that curses all Devil Fruit users.

Furthermore, Imu is able to apply a fourth contract called A Kowaru or Diabolical Covenant that turns someone into a Demon by force rather than by receiving the seal by their own free will.

Like the main Covenant system, they are written with the Japanese characters for covenant, “keiyaku” (契約) but lacking the umi character, indicating a distinct system and likely one that suppresses will as opposed to empowering a willful recepient.

One application of the Diabolical Covenant is called Domi Reversi (Return Home), which coincidentally converts those who live in a homeland into Demons.

Devoted Blades of God: Shallows Covenant

As the name suggests, the Shallows Covenant (literally “Shallow Sea Covenant” in Japanese) represents the coastline, the shallow portion of the sea and thus a “faint tie” with Imu.

As we learn in Chapter 1168: “Elbaph’s Snow”, this is merely a ceremonial tattoo applied by the Five Elders as a representation that the willful recepient is a candidate for the other two, actual Covenants, the Depths and Abyssal Covenants.

The first circle of Imu’s innermost group are the Devoted Blades of God, who are the squires that serve the Knights of God.

These Devoted Blades seem to be more trusted than CP-0 since one of them, Gunko, had long served Imu in his Room of Flowers, decades before becoming a Knight of God.

There are three unique cases among the Devoted Blades of God.

Foreigners such as the Elbaph Giant King Harald can join the order if they have proven their commitment to the World Government over many years or feats.

The found orphan, Figarland Shanks, a Celestial Dragon who spent 24 years of his whole life in the lower world, can quickly rise of the ranks as a Devoted Blade of God, with the possibility of a deeper promotion once he proved his devotion.

Finally, there is Gunko, who is formally given the rank of Devoted Blade of God yet has the Perennial Youth and potentially yokai forms associated with the Five Elders and the Abyssal Covenant.

That being said, Gunko is the only Devoted Blade of God in One Piece history to have access to Imu’s Room of Flowers or to Imu’s actual presence prior to her full promotion.

Immortal Soldiers Depths Covenant

The real contract with Imu comes from the Depths Covenant (literally “Deep Sea Covenant in Japanese”).

This grants all the actual powers given to those devoted to the “True God”, namely access to the Abyss and thus being among the “thirteen chosen ones”, telepathic link with Imu and, most of all, immortal bodies that can regenerate quickly.

However, this comes with significant costs: a portion of the user’s lifespan like the Diabolical Covenant and Imu’s freedom to control the recepient of this seal.

This control is also why Imu is able to communicate with both Knights of God and the Five Elders since he can control them at any point via the Depths Covenant.

Another limitation of this contract is that while the recepient is immortal, they are not given Perennial Youth, which is a facet of the Ope Ope no Mi Devil Fruit and of Imu’s demonic powers.

Case in point, Figarland Garling has naturally aged across 38 years of his life, meaning he has not actually received the highest Covenant, the Abyssal Covenant.

Meanwhile, Gunko has barely aged across 56 years, still resembling a young woman.

Perennial Youth and Yokai Forms: Abyssal Covenant

The highest and most esoteric of the three levels is the Abyssal Covenant (literally Deep-Deep Sea Covenant in Japanese), indicating the ocean floor itself, a pit that is impossible for normal humans to reach but where unspeakable horrors and monsters lie like giant squids.

With this description, we can see the full powers of Imu’s covenant, surpassing even the Diabolical Covenant forced upon enemies of God.

The Abyssal Covenant grants the previous benefits of accessing the Abyss, telepathic link with Imu and immortal bodies, along with two more significant boosts to their power.

First, the Abyssal Covenant recepient is able to have an upgraded form of immortality, Perennial Youth, halting their age and keeping them at the age by which they receive the contract.

Second and more importantly, the Abyssal Covenant shifts the nature of the recepient into something simialr to a Devil Fruit but instead they take on the horrific form of yokai and monsters, reflecting the

So far, we have seen five Yokai forms from the Five Elders, such as Saturn’s Gyuki spider, Mars’ Itsumade bird, Nusjuro’s Bakotsu horse, Warcury’s Fengxi boar and Ju Peter’s sandworm.

Imu is Playing Favorites

With this distinction in covenants, this also seems to indicate different degrees of favor.

Both Gunko as a Devoted Blade of God and Shepherd Ju Peter as the youngest-looking of the Five Elders seem to be the most favored or at least the quickest to prove their worth to receive their seal.

Although Gunko was only given the rank “Devoted Blade of God” by the time of the God Valley Incident, Imu had elected to give her the Abyssal Covenant and preserved her in her youth, indicating that she somehow earned Imu’s favor so much earlier in life than any of the Holy Knights of God or the Five Elder Stars.

Gunko had also offered to make Elbaph’s Accursed Prince Loki into a Knight of God, indicating the need of a replacement, either due to Garling’s promotion or because Harald had taken the Deep Sea Contract as a full-fledged Holy Knight before his death.

This offer could also suggest that Gunko is an Abyssal Covenant bearer and since the Five Elders are able to apply the Shallows Covenant, which has no real powers, then by extension, Gunko and possibly Sommers are able to do the same, akin to a knight naming their own squire.

Furthermore, Garling is the first case of a promotion from Knight of God to Elder Star as Jaygarcia Saturn, the Elder he replaced, has been around for at least 200 years and it could be that this promotion is the first time that Garling will receive Perennial Youth via the Abyssal Covenant that halts aging entirely.

This is also in contrast to the lower-ranked yet similar in age Shepherd Sommers, who aged more gracefully yet has the Abyssal Covenant, although it could also be said that Sommers might have been promoted recently, especially with Garling becoming an Elder Star.

Perhaps their names could be a hint as Gunko’s name means “army child”, likely representing how Gunko was raised to be Imu’s vessel, having served Imu personally for 56 years even as a Devoted Blade of God or mere attendant in the  top secret Room of Flowers.

Meanwhile, Ju Peter is a combination of two important names: Jupiter, the Roman sky god and king of the gods, and Peter, the leader of Jesus’ 12 Apostles.

Imu and Davy Jones Might be More Connected Than We Realize

However, Sommers could hint at a second Devil Fruit-like power outside of his Iba Iba no Mi, which could not only answer as to the type of nature of the Five Elders’ yokai forms but potentially be the missing link to how Blackbeard was able to acquire multiple Devil Fruits without dying.

The only counter to this idea is that Sommers’ sword does have a thorn pattern and maybe the sword, like Shamrock’s Cerberus, ate the Iba Iba no Mi.

As a side note, Davy D. Jones has been given the title, “Pirate of the Deep Sea” (深海の海賊, Shinkai no Kaizoku), which coindentally shares the same characters for Deep Sea as the Depths Covenant.

Time will tell and it is coming soon as we could get a confirmation of Jones’ connection to Imu and thus the cause for Blackbeard’s unique body.

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