In chapter #1078 of One Piece, the battle between the Straw Hat Pirates and the Seraphim Pacifista inside Vegapunk’s laboratory continues. After being unleashed by York, who revealed herself as the mysterious traitor, the Seraphim are trying to kill all the Vegapunk Satellites, with the Straw Hats standing in their way (with the unexpected help of Lucci and Kaku from CP0). While Luffy and Zoro are fighting against S-Bear and S-Hawk, Sanji rushes to the help of Nami, who is being attacked by S-Shark. After taking a powerful punch from the Jinbe clone, Sanji doesn’t bulge even an inch, claiming this is due to “the power of love“.

Sanji Doesn’t Need To Dodge The Seraphim’s Attacks

Luffy, Zoro, and Sanji have always been the strongest among the Straw Hat Pirates, even if the recent addition of Jinbe to the crew has somehow altered this dynamic. Luffy is usually recognized as the most powerful, while there is a huge debate on who should take the number two spot, with the fans split into two belligerent factions sustaining Zoro and Sanji respectively. During the Wano Country arc, each of “the two wings of the Pirate King” showed a big power-up. Zoro acquired Conqueror’s Haki, while Sanji awakened the genetic modifications put in his body by his father Judge.

After the battle against Kaido and his minions, the first real challenge for the Straw Hats came in the form of the Seraphim. Luffy and Zoro have been hitting S-Hawk and S-Bear with some powerful attacks, but to no avail, as the Seraphim’s Lunarian blood, extracted from King’s DNA, gives them a form of near-invulnerability. Meanwhile, Sanji enjoys perhaps one of his coolest moments in the entire series, standing with his arms crossed and letting S-Shark hit him. The inverted curl of Sanji’s eyebrows in that panel is a sign that his body modifications are “active”, just like it happened during the battle with Queen in Wano, giving him extra power, speed, and resilience. Of course, Sanji will credit this boost to the “power of love“, rather than recognize it is coming from his Germa heritage.

Sanji Deserves Cool Moments Like This One

To be fair, Luffy and Zoro have also taken no damage from the Seraphim until now. However, this is because they dodged their enemies’ attacks, while Sanji proudly stands still and lets the Seraphim hit him. Also, Luffy and Zoro are starting to show signs of fatigue in this chapter, while Sanji gets a very cool moment. Perhaps this is a sign that Sanji is starting to accept the Germa powers in his body, which he always refused as a bond with his hated family. While this is not enough to settle the endless feud between Sanji and Zoro fans, it is still good to see One Piece giving the Straw Hats’ cook an awesome moment of his own.