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Sea Calendar, 1519.
Early February.
A cruel spring wind cut across the southern part of the Sorbet Kingdom. The landscape was a panorama of scorched earth and utter devastation.
Worried that his presence would bring further harm to his people, Kuma had chosen to leave.
King Bekori had retaken the throne!
Despite the humiliating experience of being driven from his own palace by Kuma, the king, upon his return, did not repent. He doubled down. He set another great fire in the southern part of the country, burning tens of thousands to death.
The survivors were all sold to slave traders.
When Jin told him the news, Kuma had rushed back.
From the scorched earth, from the arms of a dead father, he lifted the charred body of a small child.
He knew these people. He remembered this child, his family. Tears streamed down Kuma's face as he looked out at the desolation.
Crows circled overhead.
There were more bodies.
Jin watched in silence.
The world of One Piece, for all its laughter, was filled with a deep and terrible sorrow.
The Goa Kingdom. Ohara. Alabasta. Fish-Man Island. Elbaf...
Every nation had its own twisted, dark history. That was why pirates and revolutionaries existed.
It was the era, and the men who shaped it, that had created this world.
"What is the right thing to do?" Kuma's voice was a broken whisper.
Jin glanced at him.
Kuma was filled with a towering rage, but he kept it bottled up inside. He considered himself a pacifist.
Faced with tragedy, his only response was to endure, to flee.
He was too much of a coward.
"Where there is oppression," Jin said, his voice cutting through the sorrowful wind, "there must be rebellion."
"King Bekori sits on his throne, tormenting his people, sleeping on a bed of money earned from selling them into slavery. What do you think is the right thing to do?"
Kuma was silent.
"The time for rebellion has come," Jin continued. "This is not about inciting hatred, it is about awakening conscience. This is not about destroying order, it is about rebuilding justice. If the world itself is absurd... if its kings are absurd... if they meet the ideals, the hopes and the cries of their people with nothing but cold silence and malicious hostility—then if a man does not rebel, how is he a man? What separates him from a worm?"
"If life itself is absurd—"
Jin pressed on, his words a relentless tide, "—then to avoid being enslaved, to find a reason to live in the midst of that absurdity and despair, ONE MUST REBEL. And only through that rebellion can a man's dignity and meaning truly be expressed."
"With great power... comes great responsibility!"
CRACK-BOOM!
A sudden clap of thunder. Jin looked up. A great, dark cloud had gathered overhead.
"Thunder?" Law said, surprised. "Is a storm coming?"
A fierce wind swept in from the sea, a mournful howl, like the roaring of a thousand ghosts.
Jin glanced toward the coast. He could feel it—a "monster" had arrived.
Rebellion.
Kuma was lost in Jin's words. He remembered what Jin had said when they first met.
KILL THE KING.
He rose to his feet in a single, fluid motion.
KILL KING BEKORI!!
He was the root of all the problems.
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In the north.
In his castle, King Bekori was enjoying a life of luxury. He had made a fortune selling the "peasants" from the south. This year's Heavenly Tribute would be no problem at all. He'd even have a surplus.
The one lesson he had learned was to invest in his own security. He had hired a team of high-priced mercenaries as his personal guard. The castle was heavily fortified, inside and out.
But he was facing a man who had eaten two Devil Fruits and was in a state of pure, unadulterated rage.
The anger Kuma had always suppressed had finally, at the sight of the child's body, broken free.
He shot through the sky like a missile, crossing from the south to the north in an instant and crashing through the five-meter-thick castle wall with a deafening boom.
"Who goes there??"
"Stop!"
Bekori's mercenaries tried to intercept him, but before they could even get close, Kuma sent them all flying with a single "push."
But Kuma was still too kind. He sent them flying, but he didn't kill them.
He landed outside the castle.
Beneath his little bear-eared hat, his massive body seemed to steam in the cold air. He stood taller than before, his aura terrifying.
In that moment, Kuma was the very picture of overwhelming power.
"IT'S... IT'S HIM..."
"KUMA..."
"THE TYRANT!"
Inside the castle, the guards trembled with fear.
"Open fire! Fire!"
Bullets and cannonballs shot from the castle's arrow slits. This was a fortress built on the flesh and blood of his people, stocked with enough supplies to withstand a year-long siege, armed with enough weapons to crush any peasant uprising.
Kuma ignored the hail of bullets and cannonballs and simply walked forward, his mind filled with memories of the people he had prayed for, the children who had brought him joy, the townspeople he had known.
His rage reached its peak.
This change in Kuma hadn't happened overnight. Since he had come aboard the ship, Jin had been feeding him a steady reality-check.
And so, when he was confronted with the proof that his choice to leave had been a mistake, when he contrasted it with Jin's methods... his own worldview had naturally begun to shift.
He walked through the storm of fire and lead and arrived at the castle's massive iron gate. He raised his hand, his palm aimed at the gate.
"Pressure Cannon!" he roared, and a white, paw-shaped bubble of compressed air shot forward.
The impact was a dull, heavy boom. The ten-ton iron gate was blown clean off its hinges, taking a large chunk of the surrounding wall with it.
The guards who had been stationed behind the gate were instantly crushed, reduced to a bloody pulp.
"STOP HIM!"
The remaining guards opened fire.
Kuma stomped his foot. The stone beneath it didn't just crack; it buckled, a spiderweb of fissures spreading out in all directions. The guards in front of him were terrified. They scrambled back.
The sheer force of Kuma's aura was enough to shake the very foundations of the castle.
Anyone who stood in his way was sent flying.
He stormed into the throne room and once again came face to face with King Bekori.
Kuma's shadow fell over him.
Bekori was terrified, but he still clung to his throne, spewing curses.
"You bastard! How dare you come back?? I am the king! If you kill me, the people will pay the price! Even if you drive me out, I will return! I AM THE KING OF SORBET!"
He was screaming hysterically. Not because he wasn't afraid, but because he was so terrified that his fear had turned into a desperate, barking rage.
Kuma looked at him, his expression cold and empty.
He raised his hand.
Bekori's legs began to tremble. This Kuma... he was different. He really was going to kill him.
When he saw the white light gathering in Kuma's palm, his courage finally broke.
He fell to his knees, tears and snot streaming down his face as he wailed, "Don't kill me! Aren't you a pacifist?? You can't kill me!"
The word "Pacifist" gave Kuma a moment's pause.
Seeing a glimmer of hope, Bekori scrambled to say, "Kuma, I know you're a good man! I have money! I can give it all to you! You can use it to save those peasants!"
"Your money?" a mocking voice echoed through the hall. "You stole that money from your people, and then you sold them to slavers. Those Berries are stained with their blood. And you have the nerve to use them to buy your own life?"
Bekori raged. "I am the king! Those peasants exist to serve me! Is it wrong for them to sell themselves to support their king??"
The doubt that had been in Kuma's mind vanished. "Is it not wrong? On what grounds?"
The light in his hand grew brighter, more dangerous. He slowly lowered it.
The kneeling king wet himself in terror.
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