Chapters · Final Saga › Egghead

Chapter 1075: Labophase Death Game

Arc: Egghead · Saga: Final Saga · Released: 2023-04-02

Summary

Inside Vegapunk’s vast Egghead laboratory (“Labophase”), the Straw Hats split up across the lettered buildings and floors, each escorted by one of Vegapunk’s satellites, all hunting for the missing “Stella” (the real Vegapunk): Nami badgers the diamond-making satellite (Lilith) over treasure, Robin and Chopper marvel at York’s shape-shifting and lab-grown “organoids,” and a large satellite shows off a “Bubble Gun” on the weapons-development floor. In the command room, the helmeted satellite monitoring the cameras (over comms identifying as Shaka, calling for Edison) realizes the lab’s camera feeds are going dark one by one — there is an intruder inside. Explosions tear through the building; Robin and York find the satellite Pythagoras blown apart (his ball-head survives), and York, cooing over a “cute” little figure, is petrified by it — the figure is a rogue Seraphim that fires Boa Hancock’s Love-Love Mellow. The Seraphim refuse the satellites’ orders (“I’m Vegapunk!!”), and more units (S-Hawk, S-Bear) rampage, attacking the satellites and the cuffed CP0 agents indiscriminately. The satellites — who built the Seraphim as “the ultimate form of humanity” — admit they can’t win in a fight and their comms are down. Zoro is forced to fight; Lucci, realizing the Seraphim were ordered to kill everyone on the island and that the whole trap (“inside the barrier,” the “downed radio”) was planned from the start, proposes a temporary truce with Luffy and Zoro to survive — someone is trying to kill them all.

New reveals

• The interior of the Labophase lab is mapped on-page — lettered Buildings A/B/C with stacked floors (F1–F4), a command room (4F, Building A), and a weapons-development floor (p. 4–7).
• A rogue Seraphim fires “Love-Love Mellow” — Boa Hancock’s Mero Mero petrification — confirming the units inherit the Seven Warlords’ devil-fruit powers (p. 10).
• The Seraphim no longer obey the Vegapunk satellites’ commands (“I’m Vegapunk!!” / “She won’t listen to orders!!”); they attack satellites and CP0 alike (pp. 10–14).
• The satellites built the Seraphim “to be the ultimate form of humanity” and concede “we can’t beat them in a fight”; their internal comms are knocked out (p. 12).
• The assault was premeditated: everyone “trapped inside the barrier,” the “downed radio,” and Seraphim acting on someone’s Vegapunk-level kill-orders were “all planned from the start” (p. 14).
• Lucci (CP0) proposes a truce with the Straw Hats — “hit pause on old scores… take off these cuffs and we can help” — because “someone is trying to kill us all” (p. 15).
• The satellite Pythagoras is destroyed (body blown apart) but his floating ball-”head” survives and keeps talking (pp. 8–9).

Foreshadowing seeds planted

Payoffs (seeds from earlier chapters that resolve here)

Mentions / appearances

• Straw Hats present: Luffy, Zoro, Nami, Nico Robin, Tony Tony Chopper (crew split across the lab)
• Vegapunk satellites: Shaka (command room / comms), Edison (gives orders), York (organoids, shape-shift; petrified), Pythagoras (destroyed; ball-head survives), Lilith (diamond gag with Nami — role-identified; name not printed this chapter)
• Vegapunk (named/protests; the “Stella” still sought)
• CP-0: Rob Lucci (cuffed; proposes truce), Kaku (cuffed)
• Seraphim: S-Hawk, S-Bear (named, p. 13); the Hancock-model unit (S-Snake) fires Love-Love Mellow (p. 10, name not printed)
• Egghead (Labophase interior)
• Technique referenced: Love-Love Mellow (Boa Hancock’s Mero Mero no Mi), wielded by a Seraphim
• Prop / weapon named: “Bubble Gun” (a satellite’s ultimate-deflection bubble weapon, p. 7)
• Threads advanced: Vegapunk Final Message and Sinking World (the Labophase “death game” raises the direct threat to Vegapunk’s survival)

Notable panels

• Page 1 — Cover-story splash: Vegapunk before the silhouetted Five Elders (“Germa 66’s Ahh… An Emotionless Excursion” Vol. 31). Strong background-symbol composition (Gorosei in shadow).
• Page 4 — Lab map panel: Buildings A/B/C, floors F1–F4; Nami’s eyes turn to “jewel” shapes over the synthetic diamonds.
• Pages 8–9 — Pythagoras blown apart; his floating ball-head survives (“It’s just me!! Pythagoras…es head!!”).
• Page 10 — A Seraphim fires “Love-Love Mellow” and petrifies York — the turn that exposes the rogue Seraphim.
• Page 15 — Lucci’s truce offer to Luffy & Zoro; both glare back, displeased. “To be continued.”

Open questions raised

• Who issued the Seraphim’s kill-orders, given they obey only Vegapunk-level authority and Vegapunk denies it?
• Who sealed the island inside the barrier and downed the radio — and when was this “planned from the start”?
• Where is the real Vegapunk (the Stella), and is the intruder hunting him too?
• Will Luffy and Zoro accept Lucci’s truce against the Seraphim?
• Did York survive the petrification, and what does the rogue Seraphim want?