Chapters · Final Saga › Egghead

Chapter 1068: A Genius's Dream

Arc: Egghead · Saga: Final Saga · Released: 2022-11-13

Summary

Off Egghead’s coast, the satellite Lilith — speaking through a “PUNK 04” drone — coldly thanks the CP-0 ship for returning the Seraphim unit S-Bear, then refuses to let the agents land, needling them about a string of Egghead disappearances: every government vessel (CP5, CP7, CP8) that visited the island over the past two months has failed to return. A wary Rob Lucci suspects he’s been figured out; when the sea-beast weapons make a landing impossible, CP-0 abandon their ship and use S-Bear’s paw-paw-fruit power to fling themselves onto the island. Inside, the original Dr. Vegapunk pours out his dream to a half-listening Luffy: a world of abundant, free energy drawn from the power that surrounds everyone — a breakthrough that would erase one of the greatest causes of war. His real obsession runs deeper: to lift the veil on the forbidden past and reach the ancient energy that once moved the buried machine soldier, “carrying on my friend’s will.” Sensing CP-0’s intrusion, Vegapunk fears the WG will “get rid of me, just like they got rid of Ohara,” and resolves to flee by sea with Luffy and Bonney, vanishing up to the labophase. CP-0 storm the island: Kaku is burned by the Frontier Dome laser grid, Stussy guides them past a holographic “space monster,” and Lucci cuts down the satellite Atlas with Six King Pistol. As Shaka orders an evacuation and Sentomaru is put in charge of the defense, Luffy comes face to face with Lucci.

New reveals

• The Egghead disappearances: a Cipher Pol No. 5 ship went missing 2 months ago, CP7 1 month ago, CP8 2 weeks ago — all of which left port from here and visited Egghead before failing to return. Lilith implies the island’s sea-beast weapons are devouring them. (p. 3-4)
• Vegapunk’s dream — limitless free energy: “A world in which energy is abundant… available, and free to everyone around the globe.” Energy is “all around us”; if science could convert it into usable power, it would eliminate one of “the greatest causes of war in the world” (nations squabbling over the resources used to make energy). (p. 6-7)
• Vegapunk’s deeper drive — the ancient power source: undoing “the veil wrapped around that forbidden history,” he seeks the ANCIENT energy “that gave it strength” — the power source that once “moved this machine soldier” (the buried iron robot). He treads further into the depths of the past “in carrying on my friend’s will.” (p. 8)
• Ohara parallel: Vegapunk fears the World Government will “get rid of me, just like they got rid of Ohara!!!” because he’s “dug a bit too deep into the past.” (p. 9)
• CP-0’s nature: they rank above CP9, act solely on the Celestial Dragons’ orders, and “whenever they’re active… world-shaking events are about to occur.” (p. 9)
• Vegapunk wants to escape Egghead by sea with Luffy (his disappearance “would be an international scandal”), and asks to bring Bonney; he heads up to the labophase above the clouds, then vanishes. (p. 11-12)
• Seraphim units named: S-Bear (a Kuma-model with the paw-paw fruit’s launch power), S-Snake, S-Hawk, S-Shark. CP-0 gave up their ship to ride S-Bear’s paw-paw power to the island; Shaka mobilizes S-Snake/S-Hawk/S-Shark in response. (p. 2, 4, 10-11)
• Frontier Dome: the labophase is ringed by a laser-beam defensive system that fires the instant an enemy crosses its grid lines; Egghead also deploys holographic “space monsters” as decoys. (p. 13-14)
• Lucci’s Six King Pistol (Rokuogan) downs the satellite Atlas; Atlas survives. Luffy then appears and confronts Lucci. (p. 15-17)

Foreshadowing seeds planted

Payoffs (seeds from earlier chapters that resolve here)

Mentions / appearances

• Egghead / Vegapunk side: Dr. Vegapunk (original “Stella” body — apple-headed old man), satellites Lilith, Shaka, Atlas; Sentomaru; Seraphim S-Bear, S-Snake, S-Hawk, S-Shark.
• Straw Hats: Luffy (with Vegapunk; confronts Lucci at chapter’s end).
• CP-0: Rob Lucci, Kaku, Stussy (CP-0).
• Referenced / flashback: Kuma (paw-power “POOF” flashback on the Grand Line), Jewelry Bonney (Vegapunk wants to take her to sea), Ohara (erasure parallel).
• Concepts: Egghead (labophase, Frontier Dome), Seraphim, Pacifista, Celestial Dragons. Naval Base G-14 named (offered as a landing point, not shown).
• Cover serial: Germa 66’s “Ahh… An Emotionless Excursion”, Vol. 25: “MADS, the group to which they once belonged” — subject MADS (the banned-science collective Vegapunk, Vinsmoke Judge, Queen & Caesar once belonged to). No figure individually labelled; cover_characters: [].

Notable panels

• Page 1 — Title page / Germa 66 cover serial (Vol. 25): “MADS, the group to which they once belonged.” A wild-haired young man snarls mid-lunge with a blade, beside a torch-bearing figure — the banned-science collective (MADS) that Vegapunk, Vinsmoke Judge, Queen and Caesar once belonged to. (Cover-story tracked: Germa 66’s Ahh… An Emotionless Excursion, Vol. 25 — the serial’s first subject-pivot to MADS; thematically dovetails with this chapter’s own Vegapunk/MADS main story.)
• Page 5 — Kuma paw-power flashback: the original Kuma, chased on “THE GRAND LINE,” vanishes with a “POOF” via the paw-paw fruit — a visual rhyme for S-Bear’s launch that delivers CP-0 to the island.
• Page 6-7 — Vegapunk’s dream: the apple-headed Stella body delivers his free-energy manifesto to a bored Luffy.
• Page 9 — CP-0 silhouette descent: the agents shown in dramatic shadow as Vegapunk explains the Celestial-Dragon-ordered unit.
• Page 13-14 — Frontier Dome: the laser grid lights up and burns Kaku; the “space monster” revealed as a hologram.
• Page 15-16 — Six King Pistol: Lucci’s Rokuogan blasts the satellite Atlas; “Absolutely merciless.”
• Page 17 — Cliffhanger: Luffy (“Pigeon guy?!”) and Rob Lucci (“Straw Hat?!”) come face to face; CP-0 race for the “vacuum rocket.” “To be continued!”

Open questions raised

• What exactly is happening to the CP ships that disappear at Egghead — are the sea-beast weapons (or the Seraphim) destroying them, and on whose order?
• Whose “will” is Vegapunk carrying on — the unnamed “friend” tied to the ancient power source and the buried machine soldier?
• What is the ancient energy that powered the 900-year-old machine soldier, and how close is Vegapunk to it?
• Will the World Government move against Vegapunk as it did against Ohara — and can he escape Egghead by sea with Luffy?
• Why does CP-0 want Vegapunk, and what “world-shaking event” does their activation here portend?