6Pacifista, Kuma the Tyrant
Once upon a time, the giant of a man had longed for power. He hadn't cared which kind of power, whether it be to help people or to destroy them... no, scratch that. He desired the power that made people fear him. So long had the boy named Bartholomew been subjected to fear, he had eventually come to realize that he was the one that his tormentors feared, which was why they did what they did.
This reasoning was not sound, and had never been, he knew. He certainly didn't want to feel the pain that being feared had brought him then. However, that fear, the one that those people projected, it made him... special. To be treated like no everyone else was... not necessarily above the rest, but not below them either... that was his desire. At first.
That was before his parents had been arrested, and then, executed for trying to defend him. He'd not even had time to grieve for them before he was being hunted again.
Then he'd realized, that because he was 'special', he could go places that no one else could. Yes, it was because he had need of those places; to hide, to sleep without fear of dying before waking up, to be... alone. How did he know no one else could find those places? Easy - it was because no one ever found him.
In his solitude, somehow surviving that month, he went insane (for lack of a better word), went sane again, and became... bored. After all, the same things happening, over and over again, as the days passed by... it tended to get old. Even the bible he had read and re-read so many times began to lose its reason.
As if a miracle -or curse- had been tuning in on his thoughts, the next thing to happen couldn't have been predicted. As a matter of fact, years later he would look up the probability that such a thing could possibly happen normally, and the conclusion was that it could only happen if someone was born under some kind of demented, disfigured star. Then he tried putting in the probability of it happening where he lived, near the Red Line, and the chances skyrocketed.
In a word, pirates. Or rather, one pirate in particular.
Now, normally, his town (he knew it better than anyone by now), a violent port city protected by the thing called World Government, could take care of itself well. No pirates bothered it because, if the Marines didn't stop them, the citizens did. After all, every one of the elders had been a renowned rookie pirate at some point... which makes the 'protection' provided by the World Government not make sense.
However. The citizens had been running themselves so ragged trying to track him down, that none of them had actually noticed the simple (grand, according to its rider) raft that infiltrated their docks. By the time anyone noticed, it was too late. They all charged at the intruder, one group after another, but...
Within a day, his town was burning, and he was left alone to face the single man that had caused all this destruction. The man named...
"Tyrant of the sea, Shichibukai, Bartholomew Kuma?"
His whole body jerked as he woke up, and he blinked, squinted through his glasses at the light above him- wait... where are my glasses? Why am I on my back? Why can't I move?
'Wow, using your own brain for the first time in a long time and already the questions are flowing. Good to have you back, boy.' The large man blinked some more, ignoring the voice that had woken him up in his surprise.
'What? What is this? Why am I thinking again? Did something go wrong? Where's my bible?'
He was confused; after those years spent traveling the Grand Line, gaining his reputation as a warlord of the sea, and being recruited by that doctor for that experiment... Shouldn't I be dead by now?
'Finally, a question that can be answered... ah, yes. Kuma should be dead by now. That is a fact... don't ask why, because even I don't know.'
'Hmm... okay then, who are you?'
'Me? I am the the great...! I am... er... Hmm. Who am I?'
For a moment, the giant Devil Fruit user stared up at nothing, wondering just when this would all start making sense. Then he remembered that somebody woke him up; after that 'final' procedure, he should have been deactivated. Seeing as he wasn't...
Kuma bent his head at an angle (seeing as the rest of his body still wouldn't move... he had, at least, tried to get up before, right? right?), but still couldn't see much more than a shadow. Giving up after trying again, he just decided to play dead... again.
"What was the question?" Or not.
"Uhh... are you Kuma the Tyrant?" The voice from before... did it sound unsure, or was it just his imagination? Hadn't he heard it... somewhere before? Or was he just imagining things?
"... As far as I know, yes. Your guess is better than mine right now. Who wants to know?"
"Hmm... ah, how do I say this? The man who's putting you under arrest wants to know...?"
"Is that a question? And if so, why are you asking me?" Here the man -it was a man, right? Probably a Marine if getting arrested was involved- coughed.
'Okay, now you're confusing me.'
"Ah, well, I mean... I'll be asking the questions here, er... sir."
"If that is how it is, I am not altogether sure that you will get many answers..." They both paused here, more for the sake of their own mental health than anything. Then,
"Let's start over, hi, my name is Captain Curry. I am not new to this rank but I have a reputation for doing things to lose it. I have been reappointed it for this mission and this mission only. You may refer to me as... uh... Bojangles, and your name is?"
"Well, uh, first of all, what is today's date?"
"What?"
'What?'
"Just tell me, please... you."
"... This may come as a shock to you, but... I don't know."
"Why would that come as a shock to me?"
'Hmmm... should I? Nah, I shouldn't... so I won't.' Kuma's eye twitched.
"You know... I don't have the slightest idea why. Uhh... it's been, oh... over a week since your Pacifistas at Marineford were, er... engaged in battle with the... well, a lot of pirates. Pirates from the New World. And... well, the government was impressed with their effectiveness... for the first few minutes. Then they took a headcount later on and counted only four... out of about fifteen." The Shichibukai cocked his head to the side
"They only made fifteen in the first place, didn't they?"
"Yeah, and thanks to a couple of rookies and yourself back at Shaobondy Archipelago, only twelve made it to the actual fight. So that's about... uhh... some of them didn't make it through the night. And since they costed... a lot. Since they costed a lot to make in the first place, they just canceled the project altogether..."
'Ah, I see.'
'Eh? See what?'
'A couple of days ago, my research with Dr. Vegapunk ended, so I was supposed to be disposed of once the first seven were operational-'
'Seven? Why seven?'
'One for every warlord... even though I would already be dead. Maybe they were already looking for my replacement? I do not know...'
'Ah, okay. Continue.'
'Anyway, Bartholomew Kuma was to be disposed of once the first seven Pacifistas were operational. Of course, that was delayed when two were unexpectedly taken out of commission near the Red Line... Still, I did not see the day of the war, so I suppose I was deactivated sometime before then.'
'You seem to be taking this -no- have taken this rather well, don't you think? The World Government uses your body for their demented experiments, they throw you away when they think they've made a perfect warrior, they try and fail to bring you all the way back to life when that fails... and then try to arrest you. Well, sorry, no try. They HAVE arrested you...'
'Yeah...'
'You know, a lesser man such as me would have a problem with that... although I do not seem to be a man at all...!'
'Yeah...'
'That was your cue to laugh... I think.'
'Yeah... wait, what the hell?! Disposed of?! Deactivated?! ARRESTED?!'
'Eh?'
'What the hell does he mean, canceled?!'
Captain Bojangles 'CK' Curry, had no idea just what was happening when the large Shichibukai, who had only moments before been a prone figure lying on a steel table in front of him, listing in a daze, suddenly sat up and screamed.
That being said, his squad had no idea what had happened when they, having been been calmly waiting in the background for further orders besides 'take it easy', suddenly found themselves in a brothel full of particularly desperate women. None of those laid back soldiers were seen for the next few weeks.
O.o Where did this come from? Alright, Tor knows Kuma may have been a little OOC in this... and most of this one was very confusing...
Chapter 2: Kuma, FTL! XP
Disclaimer: If the guy writing this story owned One Piece, why would he have come up with this?