One Piece: Reborn as Enel

Chapter 181: Struggle, Memories and Apology

_________ POV Narration _________

Bonney didn't really know what to say... She had done as promised, yet her nephew was not yet healed.

Had Enel tricked her?

He did say he'd go speak to Vegapunk, but he then proceeded to go radio silent for a few weeks.

It wasn't unusual for Enel to do something like that. At that point, she was used to it. But Kuma's condition was something that deeply concerned her.

Seeing him sitting in bed like a vegetable simply made her feel wrong. From a strong and energetic man to an unmoving husk...

All of the Revolutionaries were still there by his side, it was clear that Kuma was loved by many... But Bonney had failed him.

She had gone off on her own, left him to fend for himself from a young age, even after she had promised his mother to take care of him...

It was something she would never forgive herself for. It was because she was weak. She wasn't strong enough to stand by his side without worrying about his life constantly.

She was targeted by the World Government after all... The second she used her powers publically once, she was already on their radar.

As long as she was there, he was in danger... So, she left. To her, at that time, it felt like she was keeping her promise.

But in retrospect, she was just running away from her duties.

In the end, she was captured by the World Government anyway. But at least she lived with the thought that Kuma was safe...

At least she did so until she was rescued by Fisher Tiger, alongside the rest of the slaves held at the Holy Land at that time.

She was forced to use her powers on a few decrepit old men... Well, they tried to force her, but she in turn killed one of the old men.

The torture after that incident was, however, unbearable. She was forced to make a few celestial dragons younger in the end... She was weak after all.

But she was also lucky.

She was being transported between her special cells when the invasion began. She wasn't kept with the regular slaves after all...

Had it not been for that, Tiger wouldn't have been able to find her.

After being set free, she erased any signs of the mark that had been placed on her, turning herself younger and allowing herself to age naturally for a few years...

It was during that time that she figured she'd look for Kuma again. She was not out of danger, but at that point, it was unbearable. She simply needed to find out what had happened to he nephew.

Through the underworld, she was able to find out that Kuma ended up being the King of Sorbet Kingdom!

Not only that, he was now a pirate, one associated with the government that was still hunting her down...

All the sources she could find claimed that he was a Tyrannical King that was forced out of his country by his people...

But Bonney simply didn't buy it. Not for one second did she think that Kuma grew up to be that type of person...

But at the same time, she had no way of knowing what Kuma had gone through.

At the end of the day, Kuma was a child that the world had abandoned.

His entire family was killed, and then his aunt left him one night with only a written message, claiming that she was doing it for his sake.

Bonney had no way of knowing what type of man Kuma had grown into... So she dug further. She even visited the Sorbet Kingdom by herself a few years later.

The people of Sorbet Kingdom were afraid to even speak of him.. Their current king seemed to keep the population on a tight leash.

But an old man running an empty bar was happy enough to give her some perspective.

'King Kuma? He was MUCH better than the poser we have now...

He was never afraid to stick it to the World Government, he was also strong enough to protect us... Shame he was pushed out by the government...'

The old man had told Bonney plenty of stories about Kuma and his rule.

That was when she learned more about Kuma.

She learnt of his struggles, of his rise to power, of how he fought and became the strongest man in South Blue...

The times he had cried, the times he had loved. Bonney spent a few years working in that lonely bar, listening to stories and learning more about her nephew.

The old man at the bar seemed to have known Kuma personally. It was only later that she learned who he was... The Royal Advisor of Kuma, Sunomi Pehog.

He was also the man that had helped raise Kuma into the man that he had become... She only found that out when going through his things after he had died of old age.

She felt ashamed... But she still gave him a proper burial. In truth, she had even considered making him younger before he had died... But she was too afraid to use her powers publically at that time.

Yet another regret in her long life. She never even got to thank the old man for doing what she should have done. For helping Kuma turn into a great man.

It was because of that that she decided to set sail and look for him... Which led her to where she was today. Standing alone, speaking to herself at Kuma's bedside...

She was a bit surprised when seeing Enel again.

At first, she wanted to lash out at him for just leaving her hanging for two weeks, but she instantly calmed down when he explained the situation to her.

'... So he was just missing his memories...'

It did make sense in the end... The reason why he was unresponsive was that he really was an empty shell...

Enel was quick to take Kuma to his ship, Bonney followed suit, as she wanted to watch the entire process by herself... Her concern was only exacerbated whenever she found out that Kuma would experience all of his life at once.

'Will Kuma be able to take it?...'

Worry gripped her mind as she struggled with whether or not to try and stop Enel from giving Kuma his memories back...

In the end, she had to slap herself in order to break that train of thought. She remembered the words of Dragon, the trust that the Revolutionaries had placed in him...

She ended up giving Enel the go-ahead.

The Emperor then grabbed the former Warlord and looked at the red paw-shaped bubble with a serious gaze.

He entered a password in a terminal in front of him, which lowered the special glass protective barrier that had been placed around the bubble.

Without wasting any time, Enel threw Kuma at that bubble. He didn't have any other way of doing it, as he couldn't control the bubble.

Neither could Vegapunk. Only the user of the Paw Paw fruit could, so they couldn't portion the memories and feed them to him in a safe manner...

Bonney clenched her teeth and closed her eyes as Kuma's body seemed to absorb the bubble. It immediately started shaking, the former Warlord's muscles started spasming, and his mouth started foaming as his screams filled the room.

Even then, Bonney held on to her hope.

Kuma attempted to claw at his own face, something that Enel immediately stopped.

The emperor acted quickly and entrapped the former Warlord in a ball of metal, to prevent him from hurting himself as he struggled.

But aluminium was nowhere near strong enough to hold Kuma back, so Enel was forced to get close and personal, enforcing the metallic prison with armament haki as Kuma continued to struggle...

After a few minutes, Kuma became unresponsive once again. Blood came out of his 7 orifices, his eyes were rolled backwards and his head was slumped back as well.

Enel finally released him, catching him before he even hit the ground.

Enel's eyes widened when he realised that Kuma's heart had stopped. He didn't yell out or speak in any way. Instead, he knew exactly what to do.

Without any hesitation, lighting arched around his palms and he slapped Kuma's wide chest burning through his clothes and sending a powerful, but gentle shock through his entire body.

After all, if Enel could restart his own heart, then why wouldn't he be able to do so with others?

Bonney finally realized what had happened, and her eyes widened in fear. She immediately ran and called for a few doctors to come and tend to her unconscious nephew.

While she was away, the Former Warlord seemed to regain his bearings, he opened his eyes and looked directly at Enel, before blinking and smiling.

"T-thank you..." His voice was weak... But the fact that he could even speak was already astonishing enough.

Kuma didn't even get to hear Enel's reply, as he passed out once more. His ordeal was, at the end of the day, very exhausting.

Enel still stood near the former Warlord for the next few minutes, checking on him constantly before the rest of the Revolutionaries rushed in.

Sabo was the first to arrive, and he was relieved to find Kuma breathing.

He heaved a sigh of relief, as a squad of revolutionary doctors also entered the hull of the ship and carried Kuma back towards the infirmary.

Enel finally relaxed when seeing that.

'... It seems Kuma will be just fine.'

The Emperor sighed as he collected his ship as soon as everyone had left.

He also felt tired. He hadn't slept in quite some time, and constantly training did put a strain on his stamina...

His day ended as soon as he stepped into his old, currently unoccupied, cabin. He fell asleep as soon as he looked at the bed.

Meanwhile, Shiki was putting the island that Francisco and Garp had destroyed back together... It was now a barren wasteland, but it didn't matter to him.

Francisco went back to drinking, and Shiki joined him as soon as he was done with the destroyed mountain.

Sengoku and Garp went back on their own. Now they were spending most of their time on one of Shiki's islands, they had used the past two weeks to catch up and get used to their power.

Sengoku had also greeted the rest of the marines, Momonga also cried when seeing him. The former Vice Admiral still had a deep respect for his Fleet Admiral after all...

It was a touching reunion, one that Fujitora and the rest also partook in... Well, the blind former Admiral wasn't that emotional, but he was still pleased to feel that Sengoku was better now.

Only Kizaru was missing, but he was bound to return from his mission soon.

He was strong, so there was no use in worrying about him. Nothing short of an Emperor could take him down after all...

Aokiji had finally managed to talk to Robin though! It had gone a lot better than he had expected.

She finally seemed to grow comfortable around him... Well, comfortable enough to exchange a few words.

But that was likely just because she was with Oven and Larthy. She had people she could trust her back to nearby, so she didn't fear him.

It was fine though. He had managed to say what he had wanted in the end.

He got to apologize for what he had done. For not helping her enough. For sending her off on her lonesome when she was still nothing more than a child.

He also made it clear that he wasn't expecting his apology to be accepted in any way... He just wanted to get it off his chest.

At the very least, Robin listened. Even if she didn't forgive him. That in itself was more than enough for Aokiji...

Besides that, numerous things happened to the residents of the Sky Islands... And Akainu wanted to be the one to report them to Enel...

But upon reaching his cabin, he realized that Enel was sleeping. The former Fleet Admiral contemplated waking him up, but he ended up just walking back to his quarters.

'I guess I'll just give him the news after he wakes up...'

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Hope you liked the chapter! Took a bit to write. Btw, there's a fucking blizzard in Romaina right now, which causes constant power outages. Whatthefuck?

If u want to support me look up VeganMaster(Vegan Cult) on Patre_on, you'd also get 10 chapters in advance (or 5 depending on tier)