Gaban, Who Failed to Notice Usopp
In Chapter 1192, Gaban thought, “Huh? Where has this guy been all this time…?” noticing Usopp’s presence.
Readers seeing this scene speculated: “A Haki master like Gaban didn’t sense Usopp until he appeared?!” “Can Usopp completely erase his presence?” “In Dressrosa, Usopp used his newly awakened Observation Haki over extreme distances” “Is Usopp’s Observation Haki top-tier? Then can he use the ultimate ‘Miengoroshi’?”
Various speculations spread.
Indeed, we know Gaban possesses excellent Observation Haki — capable of detecting the God’s Knights from far away.
But did Usopp, who escaped Gaban’s notice, really use Miengoroshi?
What Is Miengoroshi?
“Miengoroshi” is a note written beside Shanks in the character profile pages of “Vol. 4 Billion RED” — the special gift for attending ONE PIECE FILM RED in theaters.
Conqueror’s Haki — “Miengoroshi” — Controlling presence / Not showing the future.
Whether you read this as “can use both Conqueror’s Haki AND Miengoroshi” or “Miengoroshi is a variant of Conqueror’s Haki” leads to different theories.
However, many readers who read Chapter 1192 applied it to Usopp — interpreting it as the former: a separate technique unrelated to Conqueror’s Haki.
For this analysis, we’ll dig deeper from the angle of trained Observation Haki or superior presence control, regardless of Conqueror’s Haki.
Observation Haki That Sees the Near Future
If you overtrain your Observation Haki, you begin to see a little into the future. This was the specialty of Katakuri, the effective final boss of the Whole Cake Island arc.
If you can see a little into the future, you can shut down your opponent’s movements entirely. The enemy can do nothing and loses.
To break through this situation, Luffy awakened his Observation Haki in the heat of battle, gaining the ability to fight on equal footing with Katakuri.
It has also been shown that Shanks can use Future Vision, demonstrated in the battle against Kid near Elbaph.
So if in the future, an opponent who can also use Future Vision challenges the Emperor Shanks — would they read the same future and be forced into an even standstill?
One Piece’s final boss candidate, the strongest Emperor Shanks, always struggling in even battles against Katakuri-level opponents? Readers wouldn’t want to see that from Shanks.
So Shanks was given the “Miengoroshi” skill — a technique that makes Future Vision ineffective against him.
Future Vision reads the aura of attacks to predict movements. “Miengoroshi,” in contrast, controls your presence so the future cannot be seen.
In Luffy’s terms, it’s like “Gom Gom No Bo” (Rubber Rubber Blank).
With Luffy, being “blank” meant he could deflect attacks by reflex, but couldn’t attack on his own — his weakness. Can Shanks strike from a “blank” state in an instant?
The Real Meaning of Gaban’s Suspicion About Usopp
From all this, we can see how high-level a skill “Miengoroshi” truly is.
So it’s still unnatural for Usopp, who just awakened his Observation Haki, to use it — though in terms of presence control, perhaps he has a natural gift for it.
Usopp played dead in his fight against Chuu at Koko Yashi Village↓
And he hid inside Kuma’s shadow in the Thriller Bark arc↓
You could argue he was controlling his presence in those scenes — but Usopp basically never engages in close-combat brawling, so even with a Miengoroshi setting, there seems to be little opportunity to use it.
After all, the theory that Usopp can use Miengoroshi seems unlikely.
So what was the true intent behind Gaban’s suspicion? We need to read it carefully.
“Huh? Where has this guy been all this time…?” The reason Gaban had this suspicion was Usopp’s immediately preceding line.
“I don’t know! You keep saying ‘Nika’ and ‘Joy Boy’ and now you’re comparing him to ‘Roger’ too?!”
This line about comparing him to Roger was something Gaban said during his battle against Im↓
And immediately after that, Gaban unleashed his great technique “Shinmon” in a wide-area attack.
At minimum, there should have been no other human presence within range of that technique — yet Usopp had heard Gaban’s words.
So if we put Gaban’s suspicion into more careful words:
“Only Im should have known that Luffy was compared to Roger — there was no other human presence in range when that conversation happened. Why does this person know its contents? Can he really hear distant conversations through Observation Haki? So where has he been all this time? How far away can he pick up conversations? This person’s Observation Haki might be no ordinary thing.”
That’s probably what Gaban was thinking.
Usopp’s Observation Haki
The moment Luffy was stabbed by Im, Usopp reacted.
It seems his Observation Haki reaches quite a long distance.
However, Jimbei, who was in the same area, had also sensed that Luffy’s Haki was weakening — so this alone doesn’t prove Usopp’s Observation Haki is uniquely extraordinary.
But if Usopp’s Observation Haki can not only sense distant presences but also clearly hear conversations — that would be a power rivaling Enel, who combined Mantra with lightning.
If that’s the case, it would be an Observation Haki truly befitting the title “God Usopp.”
