There are several points throughout One Piece that seem to suggest Nami has Haki. Here’s a look at the navigator’s potential to gain this rare skill.
Many One Piece fans believe that Nami has the potential to learn and use Haki. This would certainly be beneficial to the Straw Hat Navigator, but it’s also a little debatable whether she’ll get it. On the one hand, gaining Haki would improve her in all sorts of ways and make her a much more valuable asset to the crew. On the other hand, awakening the ability is rare, and it takes time to develop and master. If Nami really does have Haki, it’s going to take some convincing narratively.
As such, fans have come up with plenty of potential evidence to suggest that Nami can, in fact, use Haki. Of course, most of this evidence is circumstantial and open to interpretation. If any of it turns out to be true, that’s fine, but the evidence should be solid and incontrovertible. With that in mind, here’s a look at the potential signs that Nami has Haki and what it would be like if she actually developed it.
To begin, Haki comes in several forms, starting with Observation Haki. This variant gives the user an extrasensory perception that lets them detect the presence, strength, emotions, and intent of others. More advanced users of the ability can even predict the future and dodge attacks with it. Being able to use this variant of Haki would certainly help with a lot of things.
The biggest suggestion fans have put forth that Nami has Observation Haki comes from early in the Straw Hats’ Grand Line adventure. At the time, she was able to navigate the Going Merry away from a freak cyclone, something that’s rumored to be unpredictable on the Grand Line. Apparently, her ability to anticipate and avoid this phenomenon surpassed common forecasting abilities and bordered on the supernatural. If this is a sign that Nami has Observation Haki, then it would make her navigation skills especially important once the Straw Hats begin traveling unmarked waters leading to Laugh Tale.
However, as impressive as this feat, it probably wasn’t a sign of Observation Haki. While versatile, the sensory abilities related to Observation Haki can only be applied to living organisms. Unless it turns out that Grand Line weather is caused by wind spirits or some other sentient being, there’s no way that her intuition in this circumstance has anything to do with Haki.
Another possible avenue for Nami to develop would be Armament Haki. This variant allows the users to enhance themselves physically and improve their offensive and defensive capabilities. It can also be imbued into weapons to increase their potential in battle. This is a common ability among those in the New World.
Armament Haki would definitely be helpful for someone like Nami. Physically, she’s one of the frailest members of the Straw Hat Pirates. If she could use Haki to defend herself or even enhance her attacks, she would seem much more like someone who could handle herself in the New World. She might even be able to imbue Haki into her Clima-Tact to make it more devastating than it already is, thanks to Zeus, then she’d be worth her new 366 million-Berry bounty.
As proof that Nami has an affinity for Armament Haki, many people like to point to her ability to hurt her captain, Monkey D Luffy. Not only is he many leagues above her in physical strength, and not only is he a master of Haki, but his body is made of rubber. Under normal circumstances, conventional blunt force attacks wouldn’t hurt him. The only way for Nami to break through all of these defenses is if she had Armament Haki, which damages opponents regardless of their Devil Fruit abilities. That, and if Luffy doesn’t put up a fight, which he usually won’t against her.
However, even Nami’s ability to hurt Luffy because she has Haki is debatable. According to Eiichiro Oda, Nami is able to hurt Luffy because she’s punching his spirit. There was no direct mention of it having to do with Haki.
Of course, this was confirmed in the SBS for Volume 43, back when the crew was still in Enies Lobby. This would have been long before Haki was established as a power system, but not before hints of its existence were established. It’s possible that if Oda had been asked about this today rather than back then, he might have mentioned that Nami has a minor capacity for Haki.
It’s also important to note that Nami’s ability to hurt Luffy is often used for comedic effect. Besides Nami, Luffy has been shown getting beat up by other members of his crew who also haven’t or hadn’t developed Haki, including Usopp and Brook. In all likelihood, Luffy is getting hurt in these scenes as a gag and isn’t really meant to be looked into too deeply.
Finally, there’s the rarest form of Haki, Conqueror’s Haki. With this, the user can dominate and incapacitate others with their own overwhelming strength of will. They can also exude palpable pressure if they’re good enough with it.
This is probably the least likely form of Haki that Nami would develop. It only manifests in Haki users with a great deal of ambition, and even then, it’s a rare ability. Nami is determined to make a map of the world, but that might not be enough. Even if it were, it’s difficult to imagine her developing this branch of Haki to a significant degree like, say, Zoro of Luffy.
With that said, there is potential evidence that she has Conqueror’s Haki, too. In Chapter 1058, “New Emperors,” she snaps at Jimbei and makes him flinch. The Knight of the Sea wonders if this is the power of the Color of the Supreme King; if anyone recognized that sensation, it would be someone like him. It’s probably another joke in the writing, but if Nami ever ends up developing this ability, this scene can be looked back on as a prior sign.
It’s also important to remember that the series is in its final saga. Even if Nami has the potential for Haki, it’s not like she has the years of time to train with it like other Straw Hats who have it. If anything truly manifests by the end of the series, it wouldn’t be much of a game-changer.
As useful as it would be for Nami to gain Haki of any kind, it’s unlikely she’ll develop it and learn to use it effectively by the series’ end. With that said, if she does end up letting Nami go down this path, there are plenty of ways to suggest that she had the power in her all along. It’s an unlikely plot development but not a wholly unwarranted one.
