The Native Hunting Competition is a triennial contest orchestrated by the World Government. It involves an island-wide Manhunt (人間狩り, Ningen-gari?) contest where the slaughter of the resident population by the World Government's World Nobles is translated to points, leading to victory for the top scorer.
So far, the only seen edition of this event was the one that occurred at God Valley in the West Blue 38 years ago which culminated in the God Valley Incident.[1]
Overview
This tournament occurs once every three years in individual islands unaffiliated with the World Government. Once an island is chosen for the contest, its population will be annihilated by World Nobles and the land will be forcefully claimed by the government, regardless of the consent of its actual rulers. This effectively coerces entire nations to join the World Government under threat of complete erasure.
Various "Rabbits" with targets on their backs.
Right before the start of the attack, the native population is rounded up with the help of Marines using tranquilizer shots and kept captive in cages to be later released and hunted down for sport throughout the tournament, with problematic slaves and criminals also being employed as additional game if necessary. As Marines nominally do not target civilians, they are only told the most basic info, such as that it is for training. For the purposes of the event, the hunted all have a target symbol on their back and are referred to as Rabbits (
The civilians are given one hour to hide before the hunt officially begins. The competition seemingly lasts for three weeks, with civilians being told that they get to be freed if they manage to survive for that long. According to Emporio Ivankov, this is a lie meant to motivate Rabbits with a false hope of escape and trick them into immersing themselves into the hunt as prey, and previous editions of the tournament have always ended with zero survivors, further reinforcing that there is no real way to survive the competition besides leaving the island somehow, which is also virtually impossible as large fleets of Marines are tasked with encircling the island in order to prevent any escapes.[3] Furthermore, Marines are not allowed to even save civilians; if even one of them acts out, they will be guilty of defying the World Nobles, and the entire platoon the Marine belongs to will be executed. However, as shown with the case of the survivors of the God Valley edition, such as Marshall D. Teach and Bartholomew Kuma, it seems like the World Government does not actively attempt to hunt down any survivors (unless they get involved with the World Government again in another way).
A points system is used to determine the winner. Rare rabbits are seemingly worth more points than common ones, and super rare rabbits are worth 10,000 points each. Also, single-hit kills receive bonuses.[4] Penalties also exist, usually for attempting to kill a target before the hunt begins. Figarland Garling, for example, was struck with negative 10,000 points for false starting; he ended up slaying God Valley's king before the starting signal.[1] The competition is divided into two categories: Family Competition (氏族戦, Shizoku-sen?), where noble clans compete among each other in scoring the highest overall points,[5] and Individual Competition (個人, Kojin?), which focuses on individual performance. World Nobles also use the results for gambling purposes.[6]
Participants can use their own powers or skills, including any Devil Fruit abilities they have, to rack up larger body counts. This allows any World Noble with proper combat experience and training to gain an upper hand compared to their standard brethren, and thus families serving under the Knights of God frequently come out at the top during the attacks. [7]
Shakuyaku and Devil Fruit chests being presented as tournament prizes.
Among the winning prizes of the God Valley tournament, the top one consisted of the former Kuja Empress, Shakuyaku, considered the world's most beautiful woman at the time. There were also two known Devil Fruits: the Uo Uo no Mi, Model: Seiryu, and the Nikyu Nikyu no Mi.[8] The former would end up being stolen by Ivankov before Charlotte Linlin took it for herself by force before it was stolen from her by Kaidou. The latter was stolen and eaten by Bartholomew Kuma.[9]
In the God Valley edition of the event, there were approximately 200 Nobles participating, including at least seven members of the Knights of God, with the hunt being broadcast live in Mary Geoise for other World Nobles to watch. At least one of the Five Elders is also present to supervise the event, although they do not participate in the competition themselves. The competition itself is a guarded secret not meant to be known to the outside world or the public at large, and the few who have heard of the event tend to believe it is just a rumor (such as Edward Newgate).[4] Even high-ranking Marines are not allowed to explain the competition itself to other Marines, as they are not supposed to know about it.[10][4] This was primarily evidenced on-site, as a young Dragon, himself only a Marine sailor at the time, was reprimanded by his superiors for questioning the nature of their mission at the time. Any Marine who reveals the true nature of the competition in any manner will be erased, even if they only spread rumors.[11]
Participants
Competitors | ||||
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 ?????  ?????  ?????  ?????  ????? | ||||
Super Rare Rabbits | ||||
Rabbits | ||||
Organizers | ||||
Prizes | ||||
- †: the character is deceased.
- ?: the character's status is unknown.
- ≠: the character is non-canon.
- ‡: the character is no longer part of this group. Hovering the symbol may give further details.
- *: other relevant information. Hovering the symbol gives further details.
History
At some point throughout history, this custom of cleansing islands of their natives became a popular event among the World Nobles, using the custom to acquire more territory under their control and cull any opposition.
God Valley
- Further information: God Valley Incident
Garling kills the King of God Valley.
38 years ago, God Valley was chosen as the venue by the recommendation of Saint Figarland Garling over their refusal to join the World Government and, in part, also because of the discovery that the Davy Family was hidden there. The official pretense for the attack, however, was the island's name being an affront to the Celestial Dragons.[12] Right before the start of the massacre, its king was slain by Saint Garling for protesting the event while the population was mostly caged to be used as hunting game.
Kuma was among the slaves that were to be used as game as well, but he managed to briefly escape only to be later found by the slave group he was part of, who then proceeded to beat him up until he lost consciousness so he would be dragged back to the event by force, lest they all be executed otherwise. It was then that Kuma was approached by fellow slaves Emporio Ivankov and Ginny, who had plans to escape the game.[1]
Ginny, who had managed to leak the tournament's existence to the outside world, was able to attract the eyes of the Rocks Pirates towards God Valley for Rocks D. Xebec to save his family from eradication using Shakuyaku as a pretense. The Roger Pirates also learned of this and made a move as well to save Shakuyaku, with Marines led by Monkey D. Garp following soon after solely to confront Roger. The sheer number of pirates forced the Knights of God to turn their attention away from God Valley's population and gather to defend their fellow World Nobles. Seeing that the Knights of God were unable to deal with the pirates, however, the secret leader of the World Government, Nerona Imu, intervened by possessing Saint Saturn, and members of the Davy Family were turned into Demons. The powerful pirates and Garp turned their attention on Imu, but he easily overwhelmed them and turned Xebec into a demon, forcing Roger and Garp to defeat him, at which he was slain by Saint Garling right after.
By taking advantage of this battle and the World Nobles' retreat, Kuma and Ivankov were able to sneak into the tournament's prize venue and steal the fruits, although Linlin managed to swipe the Uo Uo no Mi, Model: Seiryu, from Ivankov. Kuma ate the Nikyu Nikyu no Mi, however, and later used its powers to save around 500 victims of the hunt before escaping himself with Ginny and Ivankov to the Sorbet Kingdom.
Trivia
- This competition is likely based on the Hundred man killing contest, an infamous Japanese war crime during the Nanjing Massacre that occurred during the Japanese invasion of China where two Japanese officers participated in a contest to see who can kill 100 people with a sword first. Newspapers in Japan allegedly covered the war crimes as if they were a sporting event, similar to how the Native Hunting Competition is treated amongst the World Nobles.
- It also bears similarities to the Spartan institution of Crypteia, where Spartans would periodically massacre their own Helots as intimidation and soldier training, similar to how the seldomly-deployed Knights of God were direct participants of the Native Hunting Competitions and how they are utilized to intimidate any remaining independent countries to become aligned to the World Government.
- Doflamingo's Birdcage survival "game" after he lost control of Dressrosa is very similar to this competition. Since Doflamingo once held stature as a World Noble, it is possible he based his plan off the Native Hunting Competition; although this is unconfirmed.
- If the Native Hunting Competition has been held continuously every three years since the end of the Void Century, then about 266 islands would have been annexed for the competition over the course of 800 years, though there is no indication that it began right after the World Government's founding.
- If the Native Hunting Competition's triannual status has continued to the current day, then 12 additional islands have been annexed since God Valley, with the most recent one occurring two years before the present, around the start of the story when Luffy first set sail.
- When the prizes for the Native Hunting Competition on God Valley were first revealed in Chapter 1095, 6 chests containing Devil Fruits were seen. Later during Chapter 1159, the number of chests was increased to 9.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 One Piece Manga and Anime — Vol. 108 Chapter 1095 (p. 13-15) and Episode 1129.
- ↑ One Piece Manga and Anime — Vol. 108 Chapter 1096 (p. 2-4) and Episode 1130.
- ↑ One Piece Manga and Anime — Vol. 108 Chapter 1096 (p. 4-5) and Episode 1130.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 One Piece Manga and Anime — Vol. 108 Chapter 1096 (p. 2-3) and Episode 1130.
- ↑ One Piece Manga — Vol. 114 Chapter 1159 (p. 16-17).
- ↑ One Piece Manga — Vol. 114 Chapter 1160 (p. 2-3).
- ↑ One Piece Manga — Vol. 114 Chapter 1160 (p. 6-7).
- ↑ One Piece Manga and Anime — Vol. 108 Chapter 1096 (p. 6) and Episode 1130.
- ↑ One Piece Manga and Anime — Vol. 108 Chapter 1096 (p. 11-12) and Episode 1130.
- ↑ One Piece Manga and Anime — Vol. 95 Chapter 957 (p. 7-10) and Episode 958, Sengoku talks about the God Valley Incident but does not go into details about why the World Nobles were there.
- ↑ One Piece Manga — Vol. 114 Chapter 1162 (p. 4), Vice-Admiral Garp and Sengoku converse about the competition.
- ↑ One Piece Manga and Anime — Vol. 108 Chapter 1095 and Episode 1129.
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