Egghead Island, Research Layer. Inside the sterile confines of a laboratory, Vegapunk stood before the control console. His fingers danced across the interface, pulling up the experimental process and data for Kuma's memory deletion from the computer database. The screen lit up, displaying the details for all to see.
The human modification experiment on Kuma had spanned two years, a meticulous process carried out in stages rather than a single, swift procedure. It had consumed vast resources, manpower, and cutting-edge technology. Sephiroth's gaze locked onto the screen, his expression unreadable as he meticulously reviewed the experimental record from start to finish. When he finished, he remained silent, lost in thought.
Beside him, Bonney fidgeted nervously. Her anxiety grew with each passing moment of his silence. Finally, she couldn't hold back any longer. "Well? Is there still hope for my father to recover his memory?" she asked, her voice tinged with unease.
Sephiroth sighed. "To be honest, Vegapunk's memory deletion surgery was a complete success. What remains of Kuma's self-awareness and memory is likely minimal. Recovering all of it would be... extremely difficult. I might need to extract your memories, Bonney, to help him rebuild his consciousness. But even then, those wouldn't be his own memories. When he awakens, he could experience confusion, even personality fragmentation."
Vegapunk's eyes lit up at this. He leaned forward eagerly. "Wait! Are you saying that if we had Kuma's own memories, you could restore them?"
"Yes," Sephiroth confirmed. "I'm ninety percent certain. If his original memories are intact, I can help him regain his personality."
A sly grin spread across Vegapunk's face. "Well, as it happens, I might have kept a copy of Kuma's life memories. Just in case."
Sephiroth raised an eyebrow, his tone teasing. "Oh? So while you were supposedly deleting his personality and memories, you secretly backed them up? Preparing for a rainy day, were you?"
Vegapunk scratched his head, visibly flustered. "Ah, well... I mean... it's complicated."
The tension in the room thickened. Sephiroth, now an Admiral appointed by Marineford, commanded all Marine operations in the New World—including Egghead Island and the Marine Special Science Group SSG. As his subordinate, Vegapunk had just been caught red-handed in deception. The awkwardness was palpable.
Sephiroth chuckled softly, breaking the tension. "Never mind. Just take me to see those memories."
Relief washed over Vegapunk's face. He nodded quickly and led them out of the laboratory, down a corridor to a door secured with a heavy iron lock. Producing a key, he unlocked it and ushered them inside.
The room was dominated by a strange sight: a translucent gas mass shaped like a bear's paw, suspended mid-air within an intricate instrument.
"Is this Kuma's memory?" Sephiroth asked, his curiosity piqued.
"Yes," Vegapunk replied. "I had Kuma use the Paw-Paw Fruit ability to materialize his abstract memories into this form."
Sephiroth rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Can I see the contents? If the memories are incomplete or disordered, this might not be as useful as we hope."
"Of course," Vegapunk assured him. "I developed this machine specifically to view Kuma's memories."
Saying this, Vegapunk raised his hand and quickly pressed several buttons on the control console. The machine hummed to life, projecting Kuma's memories onto the display screen. The flickering image revealed a scene from 45 years ago, in the year 1475 of the Sea Calendar. The Sorbet Kingdom. Bartholomew Kuma's birth—the beginning of a life marked by tragedy.
Kuma's father belonged to the Buccaneer Race, carrying the bloodline of giants in his veins. Their ancestors had committed an unforgivable crime, branding their descendants as born slaves in the eyes of the World Government. Once the Buccaneers were discovered, the government would stop at nothing to capture or kill them.
Tragedy struck when Kuma was just four years old. The World Government uncovered the truth about his father and him—their Buccaneer heritage. Along with Kuma's mother, the entire family was arrested and enslaved by the Celestial Dragons in Holy Land Mary Geoise. Their lives became a dark, sunless void.
As slaves to the Celestial Dragons, starvation and exposure were the least of their worries. Daily torment and whippings were routine, year after year, like an endless abyss. Yet Kuma endured it all. His Buccaneer blood granted him a strong physique and remarkable talent, and he clung to those strengths to survive.
One day, after being whipped for moving too slowly, Kuma found a small glimmer of joy—he was reunited with his father, whom he hadn't seen in years. To spare his father worry, Kuma swallowed his pain and lied. "My Master is kind," he said. "I'm lucky." But his father shattered that fragile hope with devastating news.
"Your mother is dead," his father whispered. "For her, perhaps it's a mercy." The words tore through Kuma's composure like a thunderbolt. Years of suppressed grief and despair erupted. He wept uncontrollably, his heart shattered.
In that moment, Kuma wanted nothing more than to follow his mother into death. But his father stopped him. "Endure," he urged. "One day, the Warrior of Liberation will come to save us."
"The Warrior of Liberation," his father explained, "is Sun God Nika—a legend passed down through generations of our people. He'll lead us to freedom, to life under the sun." To lift Kuma's spirits, his father hummed a special rhythm and danced the Dance of Liberation.
Just as hope flickered in Kuma's heart, it was brutally extinguished. His Master, annoyed by the noise, shot his father dead with a single rifle blast. Numbed by loss, Kuma became a hollow shell, enduring slavery like a walking corpse in Holy Land Mary Geoise.
Thirty-six years ago, fate took a turn. The Celestial Dragons traveled to God Valley Island in the West Blue for a "study trip" and their triennial Great Slaughter Competition. Kuma, among the slaves hunted for sport, crossed paths with Ivankov and Ginny. His life began to shift.
The competition was a nightmare. Two hundred Celestial Dragons unleashed a three-week massacre against the island's slaves and natives—over one hundred thousand targets. To keep their victims from surrendering, the Celestial Dragons promised freedom to anyone who survived the ordeal. But it was all a cruel deception.
All of this was just a lie by the Celestial Dragons! From the very beginning, they had no intention of sparing anyone. The Marines surrounded God Valley Island with warships, ensuring no one could escape. Any attempt to flee meant instant death.
Fortunately, Ginny's skills in eavesdropping and theft gave her a glimmer of hope amidst the Celestial Dragons' massacre. By chance, she discovered that the Celestial Dragons planned to offer several rare and powerful Devil Fruits as prizes for the competition's top winners. Some of these fruits could even grant the ability to escape.
To create chaos and seize the opportunity, Ginny spread word about God Valley through various channels. Her efforts successfully drew the attention of notorious pirate groups like the Rocks Pirates and the Roger Pirates, sparking the infamous God Valley Incident.
As pirates flocked to God Valley and the Celestial Dragons descended into chaos, Ginny, Kuma, and Ivankov managed to steal two Devil Fruits in the confusion: the Azure Dragon Fruit and the Paw-Paw Fruit. But their luck didn't last.
Just as Ivankov and Kuma were about to consume the fruits, Big Mom Charlotte Linlin, then a member of the Rocks Pirates, appeared out of nowhere. She snatched the Azure Dragon Fruit, leaving Kuma no choice but to hastily eat the Paw-Paw Fruit.
In the chaos of the God Valley Incident, nine-year-old Kuma used the Paw-Paw Fruit's power to save over five hundred people. Alongside Ginny and Ivankov, he escaped to the Sorbet Kingdom.
After their escape, Ivankov bid farewell to Kuma and Ginny, setting out to sea to make a name for himself. Kuma and Ginny settled in a crumbling church in the southern part of the Sorbet Kingdom, where Kuma became a pastor. Those years with Ginny were the happiest of Kuma's life. She even proposed to him, but he refused.
Kuma feared his Buccaneer bloodline and the tragic fate of his parents would doom any child they might have. He thought they could continue living happily together, but fate had other plans. Twenty years ago, a major event shook the Sorbet Kingdom.
The World Government's head tax, known as the Celestial Dragon tribute, required affiliated countries to pay based on their population. To reduce the burden, the king divided the kingdom into two regions: north and south. He declared the impoverished southern region a lawless zone, stripping its citizens of rights and treating them as slaves.
When Kuma learned of this injustice, he resisted fiercely but was imprisoned. Around the same time, Monkey D. Dragon, deeply affected by the Ohara Incident, reorganized the self-defense army into the Revolutionary Army, dedicated to fighting for freedom worldwide.
The Sorbet Kingdom became one of Dragon's targets. Kuma was rescued by Ivankov and Dragon, who invited him to join the Revolutionary Army. Ginny joined as well. But this marked the beginning of another tragedy for Kuma.
Twelve years ago, in the year 1508 of the Sea Calendar, Ginny, commander of the Revolutionary Army's East Army, caught the attention of a Celestial Dragon. She was deliberately captured during a battle and forced to become his wife.
After that, two years later, Ginny, who had contracted the incurable Sapphire Scale disease, was abandoned by the Celestial Dragon and returned to the surface. Those afflicted with Sapphire Scale disease cannot be exposed to any natural light—sunlight or moonlight—or their condition rapidly worsens, leading to death.
In the final chapter of her life, Ginny returned to the crumbling church in the Sorbet Kingdom with her daughter Bonney. With her last breaths, she used a den den mushi to bid farewell to Kuma and her comrades in the Revolutionary Army. Though she never revealed her location, Kuma managed to track her down to that desolate church. But...
When Kuma arrived, Ginny was already gone. Her body, ravaged by Sapphire Scale disease, was barely recognizable, encased in a blue keratin shell that made her resemble a stone sculpture. After laying her to rest, Kuma took Bonney under his wing, raising her as his own with unwavering devotion.
He continued his work with the Revolutionary Army, traveling the world to fight for their cause. Then, five years ago, in the year 1515 of the Sea Calendar, Bonney began showing symptoms of the same disease that had claimed her mother. The doctor delivered the grim prognosis: Bonney likely wouldn't live past the age of ten.
Determined to save his daughter, Kuma left the Revolutionary Army and dedicated himself to finding a cure. In Sea Calendar 1516, the deposed King of the Sorbet Kingdom, backed by the World Government and the Marines, reclaimed his throne. He planned to follow the example of the Goa Kingdom by burning the impoverished southern district, eliminating what he called "unnecessary garbage."
Kuma, enraged by the King's cruelty, stormed the Royal Palace alone, defeated the King's army, and overthrew the tyrant. This act became known as the Solo Revolution of the Sorbet Kingdom. With the people's support, Kuma was crowned King, though the World Government branded him a "Tyrant" to obscure the truth. Kuma had no interest in ruling, so he entrusted the kingdom's governance to Buldog, the former King whose authority had been usurped by the fool he'd deposed.
But peace was short-lived. The deposed King, driven by madness, returned to the Sorbet Kingdom with the Marines, intent on reclaiming his throne. Kuma intercepted him and the Marine fleet at sea, but the confrontation came at a cost. The World Government labeled Kuma a pirate for attacking the Marines and issued a bounty for his capture. Forced to flee, Kuma left Bonney in their homeland and embarked on a desperate search for a cure.
At Dragon's suggestion, Kuma traveled to Egghead Island, where he met the brilliant scientist Vegapunk. Vegapunk offered a potential treatment for Bonney, but the cost was astronomical. Kuma, who had never resorted to theft or violence for personal gain, couldn't afford it. In desperation, he offered his own body as payment, allowing Vegapunk to use him for clone soldier research.
Yet neither of them anticipated that their arrangement would be overheard by Gorosei Saturn. The Celestial Dragon exploited the situation, threatening Kuma: if he didn't submit to human modification and the erasure of his personality and memories, Vegapunk would be forbidden from treating Bonney. Vegapunk, horrified by the demand, resisted fiercely. But despite his genius, he was powerless against Gorosei Saturn's authority.
The air hung heavy with unspoken tension. Kuma, caught in the center of the storm, simply nodded—accepting the terms without protest. His voice remained steady as he turned to Vegapunk. "Keep this between us," he murmured. "Bonney must never know."
Yet behind his calm exterior, chains tightened around them all. The World Government's ultimatum left no room for refusal: two years of erasure, his very self stripped away layer by layer. And Satan Saint's cruel smile widened as he played his final card—Bonney's safety, dangled like a blade above Kuma's throat.