Highlights
- The Pacifistas in One Piece are clones of Bartholomew Kuma, created by the Navy for a project to maintain peace and protect the weak and innocent.
- Kuma joined the Pacifista project in order to find a cure for the Sapphire Scale Disease that Bonney had contracted.
- Vegapunk, a genius scientist, offered to cure Bonney's disease for free if Kuma became the subject for his cloning project, resulting in the creation of the Pacifistas.
The Pacifista were first introduced in One Piece before the timeskip, when the Straw Hat Pirates reached the island of Sabaody Archipelago. It was clear for the crew to see that these Pacifistas were clones of none other than one of the Warlords of the Sea, Bartholomew Kuma. At the time, the Pacifistas were standing in the path of the Straw Hat Pirates and caused utter destruction on the island. Just defeating one of them took the combined force of every single member of the Straw Hat Crew to combine their forces.
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At the time, fans did not pay too much attention as to why these Pacifistas existed under the Navy's control, however, when Kuma's motivations became clear, questions started emerging as to why he would give himself up for a project as sinister as the Pacifista project in the first place. Finally, One Piece has now provided fans with the answer.
Kuma's Search For Bonney's Cure
To understand how the Pacifistas came to be and why Kuma decided to become a subject for the Pacifista Project, one needs to understand Kuma's goal after he decided to leave the Revolutionary Army. Kuma decided to leave this group after he realized that Bonnie had contracted the Sapphire Scale Disease. This disease was impossibly difficult for anyone to cure – anyone normal, at the very least.
As such, Kuma decided to go far and wide and search for a cure and fans could actually see him go to the places that the Straw Hat Pirates were sent to do as well. Kuma decided to go to the Torino Kingdom in the South Blue, where Chopper was sent during the timeskip. He also went to Kuraigana Island, where Mihawk took up residence several years later. Kuma then went to see Haredes, who, as fans know, was present on Weatheria. He even went past Tequila Wolf and, at the same time, to Namakura Island. Kuma also sought a cure from Heracles on Boin Island and failed. After his hope had run thin, Kuma coincidentally ran into Dragon.
Kuma And Dragon Reunite
Not many fans expected to see Kuma reunite with Dragon in One Piece chapter 1099, however, that is precisely what ended up happening. When Kuma was on yet another journey to find a cure for Bonney's disease, he ran into his former commander and then, decided to board his ship for some time. Kuma and Dragon engaged in a conversation and drank together. By this time in the story, the Revolutionary Army had grown tremendously powerful and their up-and-coming commanders were growing strong too. The likes of Sabo and Koala were dying to see Kuma once again and, at the same time, fans also got a look at the new commanders, such as Bello Betty and, also Morley.
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Kuma mentioned that he would love to join the Revolutionary Army once again, however, only after Bonney's disease would finally be cured. It was clear for Dragon to see that Kuma was not finding any success in his endeavors and that is precisely why he decided to bring up Vegapunk for the first time. Dragon mentioned that bringing up Vegapunk before would not have been possible since he was on Punk Hazard, an island that belongs to the World Government. However, now, after the incident caused by Caesar, Vegapunk has had to relocate to Egghead Island and the security was very thin around this place. Kuma would now have the opportunity to visit Vegapunk and seek a cure for Bonney.
If there was anyone in the world who would be capable of treating the disease that Bonney suffered from, it would definitely have been Vegapunk. That is precisely why Kuma decided to visit this genius scientist and the basis for the Pacificista Project was thus laid by Oda.
Kuma Meets Vegapunk
Soon after, Kuma returned to the Sorbet Kingdom and went straight to Bonney. Asking her to climb in a wooden box, Kuma decided to take her to the New World, where the genius scientist of the Navy, Dr Vegapunk, was situated. It took them quite some time to reach Vegapunk, however, they successfully got to him in the end.
One look at Bonney and Vegapunk immediately knew that the disease that she was suffering from was Sapphire Scale and it did not take him long to tell Kuma that he could cure the disease.
Essentially, he would use stem cells to cure Bonney of her deadly disease and give her new life. Vegapunk mentioned the cost of this process was so humongous that it was comparable to building a cyborg itself. Naturally, Kuma did not have the money to pay for this process. Vegapunk mentioned doing all this for him for free, however, he also knew that Kuma had something else to offer to him.
Right from the moment Kuma walked through his door, Vegapunk realized that his magnificent stature interested him. After running a few reports, he realized that Kuma was a Buccaneer and, by this time in the story, he was already looking for a subject for his cloning project. Vegapunk offered to cure Bonney’s disease for free if Kuma decided to become the subject for his cloning project. He told Kuma that he was looking for the perfect subject for his clone army and now, he finally found one. This army was to be strong enough to defend the weak and the innocent from the evildoers and be strong enough to crush all pirates at once.
The Origin Of Pacifistas
As soon as Vegapunk offered Kuma to treat Bonney for free, he took the offer and Kuma mentioned that he would go as far as to make a deal with the devil itself if that is what it took to cure her. That said, Kuma was certainly interested in knowing what the army would do, and when Vegapunk told him that this army would keep peace all over the world, he was certainly overjoyed. He mentioned that he would love it if something that he did would one day lead to world peace and, at the end of the day, he is just a pacifist at heart. Hearing this, Vegapunk got a brilliant idea pertaining to the naming of his cloning project and decided to label them as the Pacifistas.
Essentially, the Pacifistas were created to keep peace all over the world and protect the weak and the innocent from forces of evil. That is precisely why Kuma gave his body up to be worked upon and how Bonney was cured as well. That said, fans know that things do not go how Vegapunk would have liked. Saturn decided to intervene in the process and gave an order to erase Kuma's entire memory, along with many other things that Oda will now reveal over the course of the next few chapters. One Piece is surely heating up and fans are hopeful that Oda can add more intrigue to this already amazing flashback.
One Piece is available to read via Viz Media. The series can be read by the fans officially and for free on the Shonen Jump and the Manga Plus app. The release date for the next chapter of One Piece, One Piece 1100, is set to be December 3, 2023.