Highlights
- Kuma’s decision to become a cyborg and serve the World Government may have been driven by his desire to save his daughter from a deadly disease.
- Kuma’s past reveals his deep love for Ginny, who was abducted by a World Noble and later died from an incurable illness.
- The most likely scenario is that Kuma sacrificed his own life and ideals to save Bonney’s life, aligning with the World Government in exchange for a cure to her disease.
The flashback to Bartholomew Kuma’s past has been one of the most intriguing segments of the Egghead Arc in One Piece, with regard to the many longstanding questions that have been answered about his character. In a story arc as crammed with action, excitement, and earth-shattering revelations, this is high praise to confer upon a particular segment, but few would disagree about how it is deserving of such appreciation.
Although many important events in Kuma’s past have been explained in a considerable degree of depth, there is undoubtedly one major query that remains on every One Piece fan’s mind. This, of course, pertains to the circumstances under which Kuma agreed to become a cyborg in the service of the World Government, despite how he was once a firm devotee of Monkey D. Dragon and a core member of the Revolutionary Army. Kuma’s decision to give up his freedom is quite perplexing, but there may be an explanation for this lurking in his past.
The Tragedy Behind Bonney’s Birth
Chapter 1098 of One Piece cast some degree of doubt over Bonney’s true parentage, as the likelihood of her being Kuma’s biological child was reduced to all but zero with a startling piece of information about her mother, Ginny. Although it was hinted that Kuma and Ginny had grown to become a couple during the time they spent together in the Sorbet Kingdom, the pair never ended up marrying, even years after their escape from the God Valley Incident.
In part, this was due to Kuma’s fear of Ginny being persecuted for her connection to him, since he was a descendant of the Buccaneers race. Having seen his parents enslaved and murdered by the World Nobles, Kuma was reluctant to risk subjecting Ginny to the same fate. Unfortunately, he would grow to regret this decision later on, when Ginny was mysteriously abducted by a World Noble when they were sent on separate missions for the Revolutionary Army.
For a long time, Ginny’s whereabouts remained entirely unknown, and Kuma struggled to deal with the loss of the person he cared about most. Over this period, he became an indispensable asset to the Revolutionary Army, and one of Dragon’s most trusted lieutenants. When two whole years had elapsed, Kuma received a surprise call from Ginny, who filled him in on how she had been forced into marriage by the World Noble who kidnapped her. Sadly, she had caught a deadly disease while in captivity, and had been tossed aside by the Celestial Dragons, which allowed her to escape.
A Mysterious Incurable Ailment
Hearing her apologies for not being able to make contact with him, Kuma begged to see her, but Ginny refused as she felt that her time was up, and she could not bear to let him see her in such a state. Desperate to look upon his beloved one last time, Kuma rushed to her aid, but it was unfortunately too late. By the time he arrived in the Sorbet Kingdom, Ginny had fallen victim to her illness, and lay dead on the floor of the church where they had grown up together.
Beside her, was a wailing child — an infant Bonney — who Kuma pledged to raise as his own, to honor Ginny’s memory. Growing up with Kuma, Bonney developed into a spitting image of her mother, inheriting both her appetite and her forceful personality. Her initial years in the Sorbet Kingdom were quite peaceful, and Kuma was a doting father whenever he returned from critical missions with the Revolutionary Army. When all seemed well, tragedy struck once again, and Bonney displayed early symptoms — in the form of small blue stones on her skin — of the same disease that took her mother’s life.
Even after consulting with doctors, Kuma could not find anyone who had knowledge of what his daughter was suffering from. Furthermore, the disease progressed at a heightened pace when Bonney’s skin was exposed to sunlight, which forced Kuma to confine her within the limits of the church. Finally, when Ginny was five years old, Kuma managed to find a doctor who was able to diagnose Bonney’s illness as “Sapphire Scale” — a poorly understood terminal illness with a bleak prognosis. As per the doctor, Bonney would succumb to her illness before the age of 10, which made Kuma’s worst fear of losing another loved one seem all too real.
Kuma’s Persistent Selflessness
On overhearing Kuma’s conversation with the doctor, Bonney misinterpreted his words to mean that her illness would disappear by the age of 10, and became excited at the thought of being able to see the world after being stuck inside for so long. Noticing Bonney’s jubilation, Kuma could not bring himself to contradict her. Since this event occurred exactly seven years prior to the events of the Egghead Arc, it could be safe to say that Bonney is biologically 12, but was able to alter her age with her Devil Fruit abilities.
Considering how she has survived encounters with Fleet Admiral Sakazuki, and even Blackbeard, it seems as if the World Government was in no rush to eliminate her, until she attacked Saint Jaygarcia Saturn. Moreover, Bonney would have turned 10 just around the time that One Piece began and Luffy set out to sea, in the same year as the Sabaody Archipelago Arc. At that time, Kuma still appeared to have his personality and memory to some extent, even though parts of his body had already been replaced with cybernetics.
With all this in mind, the most obvious conclusion that could be drawn, lies in the realm of Kuma having sacrificed his own life for Bonney, by allying with the World Government and Vegapunk, in exchange for a cure to her disease. Since Vegapunk was the world’s foremost scientist, it might have been possible for him to find a cure. In exchange, Kuma may have voluntarily donated his body to the Pacifista project and pledged allegiance to the World Nobles in a cruel twist of fate, where he had to give up his ideals to save his daughter’s life. At present, this appears to be the most likely scenario behind what happened to Kuma. That being said, Eiichiro Oda has surprised readers with an unexpected turn of events on several occasions during the Egghead Arc, and he might have a few more up his sleeve in unveiling the truth behind Bartholomew Kuma’s tragic life.
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