WARNING: The following contains spoilers for One Piece Chapter #1024, "So-And-So," by Eiichiro Oda, Stephen Paul and Vanessa Satone, available in English via Manga Plus and Viz Media.
In One Piece Chapter #1024, readers are given more insight into Yamato's traumatic childhood, which may or may not confirm a long-standing theory about Conqueror's Haki. As a child, his father Kaido would keep Yamato chained up, refusing to feed him on the basis that Yamato was claiming to be Kozuki Oden -- the hero Kaido executed 20 years ago. After a week of Yamato's fits, Kaido goes to see the child himself, only to find his men knocked out around Yamato, who is still chained to one of the tori gate legs.
Yamato has a swollen eye and says that he's starving, but claims that the men all just fell over for no reason. Kaido recognizes this as "Supreme King" Haki, realizing that his son has inherited his ability.
In One Piece, Supreme King Haki is the shortened term for "Color of the Supreme King" Haki, also known as Conqueror's Haki. It feeds off the determination of the user and overpowers the will of others around them. Many times, this results in incapacitation, as seen with Yamato and even earlier in the chapter, Charlotte Linlin. Other known users of this type of Haki include Luffy, Charolette Katakuri, Whitebeard, Shanks, Kozuki Oden, Ace, Zoro, Eustass Kid and Gol D Roger.
The inclusion of Big Mom and her son Katakuri on this list is interesting as it further hints that this type of Haki is determined by genetics. Kaido uses Conquerer's Haki, so it stands to reason that Yamato would inherit the ability to use this type as well. Ace, being the confirmed son of Gol D Roger, also supports this. And as this pattern is cropping up more and more, it may even suggest that Haki usage and type, in general, may well be determined by parentage. This doesn't mean that all children born to a Haki user will inherit their ability, but there's always a chance that at least one will.
In short, Chapter #1024 of One Piece making Yamato the newest member of the list of Conqueror's Haki users furthers the idea that while it appears to be a rare gift in the world of One Piece, more people can use it than originally thought. While not outright confirmed, the evidence for the theory that Conqueror's Haki -- and maybe even other types -- is inherited is mounting. Slowly, we are beginning to piece together the mysteries of the One Piece world, one revelation at a time.
