Haki is an incredible power that exists within everyone in the One Piece world. Yet, only a handful of people manage to awaken this ability, and those who do get several times stronger thanks to it. Being a power-based around willpower, Haki makes use of the spirit of the user in many ways. Usually, Haki can be divided into two types, while a rare third type is available only to one in a million people in the story.
One of the most incredible types of Haki is Observation Haki. The power acts as a sixth sense and allows the user to do things such as use precognition, sense incoming dangers, gauge powers, sense intent, among many other things. While Observation Haki is quite incredible on its own, taking this skill beyond all its limits gives access to an even greater power called Future Sight Observation Haki.
What Is Future Sight Observation Haki?
Future Sight Observation Haki, as mentioned earlier, is an ability that takes the power of the Color of Observation Haki beyond all its limits. When trained excessively, this Haki type gives one the ability to see a glimpse of the future itself, giving the user the ability to act accordingly. Whereas normal Haki allows the user to predict what attacks come from where, Future Sight allows the user to actually see the precise image of what is going to happen over the next few seconds. Introduced during the Whole Cake Island arc, Future Sight is a specialty of Charlotte Katakuri, the second son of Big Mom and the strongest commander in the crew.
Every user of Future Sight thus gains a massive advantage in battle. By foreseeing the exact movements of their opponents, they can easily adjust accordingly and evade every single one of their attacks. Furthermore, Future Sight Observation Haki also allows the user to attack effectively. By reading how the opponents dodge, the user can launch attacks to hurt them as soon as they dodge the initial strike.
Who Can Use Future Sight Observation Haki?
While there are countless top-tier fighters in the world of One Piece, only some of the very strongest have this ability. Being a Yonko doesn't automatically mean one will have access to it as they do with the likes of Conqueror's Haki. According to Rayleigh, people who are attuned to the emotions of others have a higher chance of sensing what decisions they will take. As such, they have a decent chance to gain the ability to see the future.
Even then, not everyone who is greatly attuned to sensing emotions will gain the ability to see the future. This ability can only be obtained in the midst of a battle against an incredibly powerful opponent when one's back is against the wall. So far, only a few people in One Piece have shown the ability to read the future. Charlotte Katakuri was the first user of this power to be introduced to the fans in the Whole Cake Island arc. He's also the very best user of this power and has refined it to a point where he sees the future all the time despite it being draining on the body. Katakuri's mastery over this power is such that before he fought Luffy, he couldn't even remember the last time his opponent managed to land a hit on him.
Monkey D. Luffy is yet another user of Future Sight Observation Haki and he awakened this power in the fight against Katakuri during the Whole Cake Island arc. Although Luffy's mastery over it isn't as good as Katakuri's, it has improved massively over time and by the end of Wano, he could even dodge techniques performed by Kaido, such as Thunder Bagua. Along with Luffy, Kaido is yet another user of this ability. Surprisingly enough, Kaido doesn't use it all the time. Instead, Kaido only relies on this power when he is being bested by his opponents' speed and needs to dodge more effectively.
What Are Its Weaknesses?
As with every ability is One Piece, Future Sight Observation Haki can be countered as well, in extremely rare cases. The easiest way to counter this power is to make sure the user isn't calm. According to Katakuri, one can't read the future if they're not calm enough. This was evident from when Luffy managed to land a few hits on him after seeing his face, which freaked the Sweet Commander out.
Future Sight can also be countered by excessive speed. In this case, despite the user reading the future, the opponent is so fast that their body simply doesn't get the chance to adjust to the future that they saw. However, against a skilled user of Observation Haki, this is extremely difficult to pull off. Kaido managed to land a hit on Luffy with this ability in Kuri but on the rooftop, Luffy evaded it partially the first time, and completely the second time, showing his growing skill as his Haki improved. Kaido, despite, being extremely fast, needed to read the future to avoid Luffy's Gomu Gomu no Hydra effectively.
The best way to counter Future Sight Observation Haki is for one to have Future Sight Observation Haki as well. The two users effectively level the playing field as both the fighters can read the future and act accordingly. Without it, fighting someone with a tremendous hold over Future Sight Haki mastery, such as Katakuri, is incredibly difficult, and it just goes to show that this power is extremely useful in the One Piece world.