"Anyway, thanks, Cain! That weird brain of yours really does come up with some bizarre ideas."
Vegapunk turned toward the row of screens in front of him, wearing an expression somewhere between admiration and exasperation.
"Sometimes I genuinely think you look at the world differently from the rest of us."
"Or maybe most people are just too rigid and don't know how to adapt."
Cain folded his arms, clearly refusing to accept the blame.
"A lot of plans fall apart because people have plenty of intelligence and absolutely no common sense. Then they act surprised when the result is full of loopholes, accidents, and uncontrollable variables."
"That's exactly why I should've transferred you to Egghead back then."
Vegapunk shook his head regretfully.
"This island needs people who think like you."
"What a waste. You went and became a pirate instead."
As he spoke, Vegapunk completely extracted York's consciousness from the memory-storage system inside her brain and transferred it into a special container isolated from all external connections.
Then—
he tossed the container into a crusher and physically destroyed it.
Once that was finished, Vegapunk dusted off his hands and called toward Bonney.
"Bonney, Kuma's operation will begin shortly."
"During the procedure, S-Bear and I will connect directly to Kuma's stored memories."
His tone became more serious.
"That means you may see parts of your father's past."
"No matter what you see, you need to stay calm. Don't let your emotions get the better of you."
Bonney immediately tensed.
She didn't answer.
Instead, she walked to the operating table and quietly stood beside Kuma, staring down at her father while her fingers unconsciously tightened around the edge of the table.
Vegapunk then turned toward Cain and Uta.
"You two can explore the island for a while."
"We don't need you here during the first part of the operation, though I'll need Bella to stay behind and help stabilize things."
"I'll contact you once the procedure is finished."
Then he remembered something else.
"Oh, and the Marines are still looking for Borsalino."
"You can't keep him unconscious aboard your ship forever. Let him show his face so they know he's alive."
"But don't let him fully wake up and discover what we're doing here."
Uta nodded.
"Leave it to us."
Cain, however, had a more pressing concern.
"So…"
He pointed vaguely toward the battlefield outside.
"Those Pacifistas I kicked apart…"
"I don't have to pay for those, right?"
Vegapunk's face twitched violently.
"You two already blamed the whole incident on Bullet and somehow got Borsalino's salary docked in the process."
He gave Cain a flat look.
"I think you should worry about how you're going to deal with those two first."
"One lost face."
"The other lost money."
"Neither is someone you want holding a grudge."
Then Vegapunk suddenly seemed to think of something.
He hurriedly contacted his Satellites.
"Oh, right! Hurry up and get that finished!"
"Yes, those two!"
"We can make money off this!"
…
Egghead's central control room.
"What the hell is going on?!"
Atlas, the Satellite representing Violence, repeatedly punched a sandbag while complaining at full volume.
"The Stella refuses to explain anything properly, York has completely gone offline, and all he says is, 'We'll talk about it later!'"
She punched the bag again.
"And now he wants us to rush out reconstructed footage of Borsalino fighting Bullet so we can send it to the Marines and World Government!"
"Good thing we have holograms. Otherwise there'd be no way to sell this story."
Nearby, Shaka stood with his arms folded, silently watching the others work.
Pythagoras, the Satellite representing Wisdom, was rapidly manipulating a holographic reconstruction through the control panel. Most of the footage was already complete.
Then Edison, the Satellite representing Thinking, took over and immediately increased the level of destruction.
"The Stella said that if we make this convincing enough, we can use it to secure more research funding."
"So there can't be any obvious flaws."
He pointed at the projection.
"Here, Pythagoras, you're underreporting the losses."
"That testing ground? Completely destroyed."
"Those new robots? Total write-offs."
"And the Pacifistas…"
Edison paused dramatically.
"All destroyed."
"Yes, yes. Make it look worse."
As the embodiment of Vegapunk's inventive thinking, Edison's mind was already producing increasingly creative ways to squeeze money out of the situation.
"And then have Bullet use the Clank-Clank Fruit to gather up the wreckage and steal it."
"That explains why the technology is missing."
"Perfect."
He rubbed his hands together.
"Once the rendering is finished, send the footage straight to the Marines."
"With losses this catastrophic, the World Government will have no choice but to increase our reimbursement budget."
"Hehehe…"
Shaka stared at them in silence.
Then he sighed.
"This is still fraud."
"If they investigate properly—"
"What are you worried about?"
Edison didn't even look away from the controls as he adjusted the visual effects on an explosion.
"Our footage will be flawless."
"Besides, Borsalino apparently lost a month's salary because of this mess."
"If we quietly reimburse him for that amount, he'll probably be perfectly happy to help us keep the story straight."
Pythagoras calmly added,
"Logically, there are no significant weaknesses in that approach."
Shaka stared at them for another moment.
Then he stepped forward and took over part of the controls.
"The footage is too clear."
"That makes it look fake."
He began deliberately degrading the image.
"Blur it more. Add transmission distortion. Interrupt it with black screens."
"Make it look like the Den Den Mushi was repeatedly knocked unconscious by the shockwaves, then briefly regained consciousness just in time to capture the final moments."
Shaka nodded at his own adjustments.
"That will look far more authentic."
"As expected of Shaka!"
And so the Satellites of the world's greatest scientist found themselves obsessively fabricating insurance-grade disaster footage to squeeze every possible Berry out of the World Government.
Lilith's absence had clearly devastated Egghead's finances.
Atlas became so irritated thinking about it that she punched straight through a nearby wall panel.
"Just let me see Cain again!"
"If that brat hadn't run off with Lilith, would we have been reduced to this?!"
…
At Marine Headquarters—
an emergency meeting was already underway.
The conference room was filled with flag officers.
Even Sengoku and Garp, both of whom had stepped back from active command to varying degrees, were attending remotely through Den Den Mushi.
Commodore Brannew stood before a display board and slapped a wanted poster onto it.
"Demon Heir, Douglas Bullet."
"Former member of the Roger Pirates."
"His combat ability was said to rival the Dark King Silvers Rayleigh in his younger days."
"A Level Six prisoner sentenced to lifelong confinement in Impel Down, who escaped during the Summit War…"
Brannew rapidly summarized Bullet's record.
Then he looked around the room at the assembled Marine leadership.
"That is the background information everyone here is already familiar with."
"However, the recent attack on Egghead has raised the severity of the threat to an entirely new level."
He tapped the board hard with two fingers.
"According to Dr. Vegapunk's report, Bullet has now directly come into contact with Egghead's technological facilities."
Brannew paused.
"His Clank-Clank Fruit already allows him to merge with inorganic material."
"If that ability is combined with the enormous arsenal of advanced technology stored on Egghead…"
His expression hardened.
"…then Douglas Bullet could become a threat capable of directly altering the balance of power across the world."
"That is why we need to decide how to handle him immediately."
Brannew turned toward one particular seat.
"As for the exact circumstances of the attack, Admiral Kizaru was present at the scene and will now explain—"
He stopped.
The Den Den Mushi connected to Kizaru's seat was snoring.
A large bubble of mucus inflated rhythmically from its nose.
"…Admiral Kizaru?"
Silence.
"…ADMIRAL KIZARU!"
After a long pause, someone finally responded through the communication channel.
But it wasn't Kizaru.
It was an ordinary Marine.
The feed switched to Egghead.
Kizaru had only recently been manipulated by Uta into leaving the Going Merry and returning to the Marines.
Now he was lying unconscious in Egghead's central plaza with his eyes closed, stretched comfortably across a sofa someone had somehow found for him while he basked in the sunlight.
His consciousness was, of course, still vacationing inside Uta World.
"Admiral Kizaru says that after resolving the incident, he was accidentally exposed to seawater."
The Marine delivering the message looked deeply uncomfortable.
"He says he became ill afterward and is currently recovering."
"We've tried waking him repeatedly…"
"But he won't respond."
The meeting room remained completely silent for three full seconds.
Then Sakazuki slammed a fist onto the table.
Thin wisps of smoke rose beneath his knuckles.
"If he won't wake up, then hit him until he does!"
"And if he wants to complain about it afterward, tell him to come complain to me personally!"
Before Sakazuki could continue, someone hurried into the room with another report.
Egghead's surveillance footage had arrived.
Well.
That made Kizaru's testimony unnecessary.
At this point, the bastard was useless anyway.
Sakazuki had literally just warned him to stop slacking off, and now Kizaru had fallen asleep in the middle of an emergency meeting while claiming to be sick.
With that absurdly durable body of his, everyone knew he was faking it.
Sakazuki suppressed his anger and immediately found a more efficient solution.
"Forget it."
He leaned back in his chair.
"Don't bother waking him."
"If he refuses to get up, dock next month's salary too."
The sentence was handed down without hesitation.
"The footage is here."
"We'll determine what happened from that."
The recording began to play.
And it certainly looked disastrous.
Mechanical debris flew everywhere.
Several enormous robots were torn apart.
Explosions illuminated entire sections of the laboratory in flickering orange light.
Kizaru moved through the chaos in flashes of light, apparently fighting with considerable efficiency.
But Bullet stayed glued to him throughout the entire battle.
Using Vegapunk's machinery and the laser systems built into the Pacifistas, Bullet repeatedly incorporated advanced weapons into his enormous fused body.
Laser fire filled the sky.
Kizaru appeared to have no opportunity to disengage.
Then, near the end of the footage—
Bullet blasted Kizaru away.
Afterward, he gathered an enormous quantity of Egghead technology into his fused form and escaped with it.
At this point, Bullet's danger no longer required explanation.
A response was clearly necessary.
The Marine officers around the table frowned deeply.
Then, almost simultaneously—
their attention shifted toward the two old veterans who had personally fought Douglas Bullet before.