Disclaimer: One Piece is the property of Eiichiro Oda. Many of the characters in this story are property of me. Do not use this story or its characters without my permission. Thank you.
The interrogations weren't going well. The child was placed in Reginald's care for the time being but his constantly increasing work with the natives of the island drove him to push the child onto her rightful father, Rupert. The woman who bore the child revealed nothing, she was but a lifeless shell of the pirate she once was, her will completely destroyed by unknown sources. Soon after the Marines began questioning the remaining male prisoners and Crimson Killers that hid away to train in the forest Rose killed herself by jumping into the sea. The last spark of her Amazonian ferocity was spent in the wild sprint that led her to the bay, outrunning even the bullets the Marines has stored and outlasting the sedatives she was given.
Now a little over four years into the expedition, Reginald was contemplating a voyage for a rescue. He would build a ship with what lumber he could, even if it was alone, and sail out to find help. He kept the plans for the ship, its trajectory and all the details that were needed with him at all times. His trust in the others wavered as much as his presence. He spent nearly all of his time with the bears.
"They are lucky" Reginald said as he crouched in a clearing, watching two man-sized cubs tussle while their parents carefully watched over them. "They don't have to worry about treachery and betrayal among friends and allies. All they have to do is live and play so they can get strong and hunt for Sea Kings in the shallows." Reginald got up and slowly walked away, all the while thinking about how the latest dilemma was rushing his own decisions to leave the island permanently.
"The more I think" Reginald said "the more it seems like a good idea to leave these men to their own devices. But then, would I be any better than the bastards who abandoned us in the first place? We still can't prove that those ships weren't sent adrift in the nearby Calm Belt and destroyed by the Sea Kings there. It is a much more likely tale to tell then they simply 'forgot us' some four years ago. Now this trip is becoming increasingly dangerous for the inmates. The drug is working less and less and the ingredients for it are becoming bothersome to harvest. I'm sure we could find more toxic leaves further into the swamps but..." Reginald looked around. He was now in a wide open clearing, the light form above had gone dangerously dim. He blinked and set his feet shoulder width apart.
"Whoops!" he shouted, rubbing his neck and grinning wide. "Looks like I got lost in thought again! KURURU!!!!!" A rustling came from deep within the darkness. Reginald looked back into the dimmest light and saw the shadows move in huge sections at a time. He started retreating slowly but bumped into a tree. Then a hideous growling came from the same shifting darkness, a deep throaty roar that mimicked the island's native bears. Reginald pieced the information together in his mind and then saw the darkness crawl out in one solid form. A black bear, fur blacker than any natural black would permit, was growling with exposed fangs and gums and wild, yellow eyes at Reginald. He took a serious fighting pose and waited, measuring his opponent and watching for an opening.
The black bear lurched forward and swiped with its claws. Reginald was startled and dodged on instinct, watching the tree he was against earlier splinter and burst apart from the impact force of the bear's claw. Reginald decided that he couldn't easily fight an enemy like this and opted for an early retreat, but had immediate second thoughts.
Wait he thought, if I, one of the stronger honorary members of the tribe can't handle this thing, how could the other bears do any better!? The bear growled and stampeded toward him. Reginald led it into the light, which it wasn't used to, and steered it towards the marshy shallows that led out to sea. The bear obviously couldn't sense any of the obvious danger or it wo0uld have stopped. Instead it went head-over-paw into the ocean while Reginald hung from the top branch of a mangrove tree. Reginald acrobatically flipped over the branch and sent himself foot-first into the bear's face, shooting it down into the deep water while he was able to easily flip through the air, hands in his pockets, and land with a thud into the shallows. A smug grin and stern glare hung on his face until the rush of victory caused him to smile widely and foolishly.
"Man, I'm awesome!" Reginald exclaimed. "Let's see anyone else manage to do THAT!!!" Before Reginald went back to his encampment which had grown into a conglomerated sort of citadel with the close proximity of the wooden constructs and the newly carved rooms built into the mouth of the bear mountain, Reginald stopped by the chieftain's cave to pay his honor to the tribe. He did so with a deep, courteous bow and an offering of his own immediate cooperation in any of their tribal affairs. The chieftain nodded, allowing him to depart, and Reginald waved good-bye to the rest of the bears, observing the minute changes that had taken place over only the past few years. The bear cubs were no longer sent into the wilds with their parents, but were instead watched closely by the elder warriors of the tribe until their parents returned.
The community the bears built in such a short time with such little influence on Reginald's part was amazing. When he arrived quarrels were frequent and usually took place over food and territory in the cramped space. Now A simple barter system was set in place so that any amount of food could be traded fairly for ornate flowers or finely-cut lumber. The specialists who caught all the fish and cut all the lumber for basic uses such as fences and walls inside the caves, were all paid and held in a degree of elevated status. Equipped only with the presence of humans and their society, the above-average bears were able to emulate the basics of human society in only four years! The revelation sent Reginald into a dizzy vertigo and time froze. He found himself alone in his enlightenment and watched the leaves slowly fall from the trees.
Back at the compound to which Reginald now returned things had settled down considerably. There wasn't a trace of sound coming from the inmate's section and no clattering of dishes or cooking of food form the mess hall either. Things seemed to have stopped without Reginald, adding to his already towering ego another shade of importance. He walked through the empty streets of his fortress until he did finally find a small group of Marines who broke their conversation and saluted him.
"At ease" he said, motioning his hand down. The Marines carried on as if he weren't there, talking amongst each other of somewhat trivial things to the scientist. He marched onward and returned to his central hall, carved deep into the throat of the bear, where all his greatest research notes and documents were held and protected. He opened the doors himself, seeing no need for guards when perpetually silent assassins anxiously waited to nip the buds of rule breakers in the shadows, and intruded upon Kurateka holding the illicit baby in her arms and cooing it. Reginald silently shut the doors and approached.
"There, there" she cooed to the infant. "You're so pale for your age, you know? I think it may be a genetic defect." Reginald suddenly cleared his throat with a banging roar.
"GRRRAAAUGH-HRAAPH!!!!!!" Kura jumped straight up into the air from the sound and landed facing Reginald, panting with her arms held tightly around the sleeping baby. "Was it not under my direct orders that that child was to be kept within the nursery at all times until we divulge who the father is?"
"Uuhhh..." Kura hummed. She looked at the baby and innocently tried to hide it behind her back, then clicked her heels together and brushed the incident off as non-existent.
"That's where she is" Kura said.
"You're a terrible liar!" Reginald shouted. Kura admitted defeat and drew the child out again. Soft, white skin and a head of curly white hair with eyes red as blood. All the signs of a rarely seen birth defect Albinism. Kura looked down lovingly at the child, seeing her as a shining idol of innocence in a world of ravaged sin, and then looked up shamelessly at her superior, who stood scowling with his mighty arms crossed.
"There's no helping it" Kura said. "Her mother died of intense trauma almost immediately after her birth. I don't need to remind you that in labor she incapacitated three male nurses in the struggle. Her child could have some prevailing signs of her mother's metal instabilities, especially without a proper maternal figure to become attached to."
"Then take off your bandages" Reginald said "and allow her to become used to your actual face if you're truly serious about raising her." Kura looked over blankly, then focused back on the child, swinging her in her arms. Reginald sighed, seeing her stubbornness ultimately win, and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Why in here, may I ask?"
"This is the only place" Kura said "where she won't be exposed to the prisoners outside."
"They aren't that much of a problem" Reginald said. "They're in chains constantly, and the ones on truancy are under surveillance by the Killers."
"Seeing murder at a young age" Kura explained "could hasten the mental trauma that her mother had."
"Enough of this crap" Reginald said. He moved in, which prompted Kura to retreat until she was against a wall. He leaned over her and made a scathing, commanding face. "This child is hereby placed under a lockdown and limited only to the nursery in the infirmary! You and I are the only ones who may look after her unless I specifically inform you or your superiors otherwise! Is that understood!?"
"What about the father?" Kura unconsciously asked. Reginald pushed off the wall and moved away.
"Don't you get it?" Reginald asked. "She has no father. That's exactly what she'll know if she's forced to live in this purgatory with the rest of us!" Reginald forced Kura out with his stern, lashing voice and locked himself in. Kura quickly hurried back to the infirmary, trying not to be spotted, but wound up cornered anyway with her hair dipping out of her bandages from the sheer panic of her rush.
"Where are you taking her?" a towering, wide-mouthed male growled, looming in close to her. Kura backed up and defended the infant with a scalpel blade, but the metal glove of her attacker was quick to swat it away. "My daughter is my business only!" Rupert lowed. He snatched the baby Gretta away and cushioned her in the soft velvet of his newly hemmed cape. Several renegade survivalists came out from behind him and Kura found herself helplessly surrounded. Fearing the same fate that met Rose at the hands of Rupert, she back down and straightened up to the strong old man.
"What do you want me to do?" she asked, holding back her stifling sobs of panic.
"Does he know yet?" Rupert asked. Kura shook her head, never ceasing to glare him down. "Good. Mohoho....That makes this easier. It will all go exactly according to plan, tomorrow at noon!" Little Gretta coughed and turned around in the cradle of her father's arm. He looked down at her and smiled proudly, somewhat amused and egotistical at his own handiwork. "That fool has taken his last note...and so have I! Say good-bye to this pitiful life, everyone! Tomorrow we set out on creating an ideal life for all to live!!!" Kura was the only one not cheering with the coup-leading tyrant. She just stood and glanced away, trying to remove herself form the world full of regret.
The next day, the fated day of the scheduled action, Reginald made his rounds outside the complex to see the tribe once more. He descended through his own well-designed and beaten path, trying to beat the looming rain clouds. He slid down an articulate meandering slope with the worn heels of his Sea King boots and arrived with a roll at the empty clearing of the bears. The small huts and structures they had built with their unbelievable force and community were abandoned, as if all the bears had vanished in the middle of the night. Only one smoke stack was alive, the den of the tribal shaman, a bear older than any human Reginald had ever known. He made his way there and entered unannounced. Again, empty.
"What's going on?" Reginald asked, walking in through the familiar air. He finally reached the source of the smoke, a freshly carved slab of wood. The bears, through Reginald's tutelage, learned wood-carving to communicate more articulately with pictographs and hieroglyphs that they used on their cave walls before. Reginald had memorized their alphabet of symbols and picked up the still-warm tablet. As he read he felt a sharp decline of self, a sense of abandonment, and as he reached the end he started to cry just slightly. In his mind he translated the story into words.
To our friend, the Man who wears the Skin of Monster (Reginald, drawn much to his true figure), We are sorry that you must come upon this. The regrettable incident that came last night, an attack of the inner-swamp bears left many of us injured. They are becoming ferocious and have kidnapped our cubs already. The warriors who went to defeat them and rescue the cubs never returned. The island, due to the activity of the Bear-Eaten (the humans who lived at the peak of the plateau in the Bear's Mouth formation), has become to dangerous for us. Fear not, for we are safe. Through your words we have built a sturdy craft to sail the seas with to find a new home. We apologize, but the recent thefts were performed by us as we needed supplies. The Sea Kings are plentiful out at sea and our power has become great in only the last few years. We have only you to thank. With the 'Log Pose' (Reginald recognized the drawing, though it was never used by them before) we will find a new home. We hope you will find us well one day.
Farewell, Monster-Skin, our fellow warrior. We hold you in our hearts as we sail... Reginald threw the tablet away and fell to his knees, clutching his eyes with his one hand. The tears wouldn't stop.
It was because of me he proudly thought that an indigenous species achieved one of the greatest landmarks of civilization! I may have killed them all...or I may have revolutionized the process of intelligence. As a scientist I should be happy...but...If I were one of them, why did they not bring me?
His sadness was broken by the howling of wind coming in through the entrance of the cave. He looked back and saw the distant, churning sea and the dark skies far away. He got up to leave, pinching his nose to try and stop his sadness, but upon leaning on the offertory table where the tablet lay he felt something else familiar. A rough, scaly surface. He turned and found, to his surprise, a suit of scales. The armor of a Sea King fitted only for the man who 'Wears the Skin of Monsters'. Reginald picked it up by the broad shoulders and looked over it long and hard. Man though he was, his emotions took him down and he fell sobbing.
"WHY!?" He demanded into the breast of his breastplate. "Why aren't I with them!?" Reginald Drakengard, a scientist under the study of the illustrious Doctor Vegapunk, a man who had given the greatest power and gift to a species came to newly realize his true purpose. With tears fresh on his face he equipped his suit and made his way proudly out to the bay of where he had long ago been abandoned. In his isolation he learned more than he ever had under the tutelage of his superiors, and with a long drawn breath he leaned back and shouted out to the sea his decree to his bear brethren.
"KURAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!" The skies echoed with roar and the seas crashed into the land once it was done. His magnificent armor reflected the blue of the sea in a brilliant green sheen in all directions. He wore the skin of a monster, the the skin under that was that not of a man any longer, but of a bear.
Suddenly, slow sarcastic applause echoed behind him. Reginald glowered and turned to face Rupert with his billowing mane on his head. For some odd reason he had shaved the rest that circled his face away. He wore his finest, freshly-polished armor and a regal red cape that blew in the soft breeze with a smug tilt of his arrogant face.
"Rupert" Reginald growled, "why are you wearing your armor?"
"Look at us" Rupert said, still applauding. "Mohoho...we look like two nobles facing off in an honor duel, do we not. Ah, but that's right..." Rupert stopped applauding suddenly and grinned a terribly evil grin that wrinkled his whole face. "You aren't nobility! I am!"
"What I am" Reginald began "surpasses you flimsy man-made social-title. What I am is greater than any crap you choose to hold over my head! I am a creator! I am a warrior! I am a GOD!!!"
"How utterly conceited" Rupert said. "As if a feeble bear-man outranks an office-holding scholar of Marinford!"
"Rupert!" Reginald shouted, "you've been playing me for the fool too long! You're the father of that child, I know it!" Rupert was suddenly shocked and frozen with the revelation. "You've dishonored everything I've given you, all the trust I put in you, and now I'm going to make this mistake right! I know much more than you think, you bastard!"
"What are you saying!?" Rupert asked, drawing back.
"No" Reginald growled. He glared up, kicking sparks from his eyes that reflected in the clouds as lightning. "We're knights, after all. We have to finish this duel no matter what, right? What's honorable about a duel that you can skip out on!? KURAAAA!!!!!" Reginald made a bold dash forward, reaching and clutching for the collar of Rupert's armor. He grabbed it, jerked it in and gave Rupert a devastating head-butt that sent him to his knees. The fight for retribution was on, and the rain framed the scene in all its disparity and angst as the Monster stood towering over the corrupt Lion...
