Egghead Arc

Also titled the Future Island Arc, this thirty-second story arc launches the Final Saga. Following the Levely, the Onigashima raid, and the wiping out of the Lulusia Kingdom, the world's balance shifts as the crew reaches Egghead, the advanced island home of the genius scientist Vegapunk. Jewelry Bonney arrives bent on killing him over what became of her father, Bartholomew Kuma, whose history and ties to the doctor are laid bare. A Cipher Pol assassination team then triggers a naval siege by the Marines, which spirals into an event felt across the globe.

Fresh from Wano, the Straw Hats read of sweeping changes: Buggy's accidental rise as a figurehead Emperor of Cross Guild, Blackbeard's capture of Hancock's power, and, most shocking, the reported killing of King Cobra along with Vivi vanishing. Far away, Sabo watched in horror as Imu obliterated the Lulusia Kingdom with a rain of lasers. Reaching Egghead, the crew met several of Vegapunk's six satellites, each embodying a facet of his personality, and eventually the original scientist himself, whose head he had converted into the giant brain-egg Punk Records. Vegapunk explained his dream of shared free knowledge and energy, while the satellite Shaka revealed a dangerous theory: that the Void Century was a war between an ancient kingdom and the twenty nations who became the World Government, a truth Ohara's scholars had preserved before their island's destruction. Robin learned that the giant who salvaged Ohara's books was likely her old friend Saul, still alive.

A Cipher Pol team led by Rob Lucci arrived to assassinate every Vegapunk, and the satellites, foreseeing their own deaths, chose to protect the crew instead. In flashback, the full weight of Kuma's life emerged: born a persecuted Buccaneer and enslaved as a child, he ate the Nikyu Nikyu no Mi at the God Valley Incident, freed hundreds of captives, and lived quietly with his friend Ginny before agonizing sacrifices led him to surrender his body to Vegapunk to protect his daughter Bonney. Meanwhile Cobra's murder was revealed in full, with Imu striking him down before Sabo's eyes after he spoke the name Nefertari D. Lili. On Egghead, the Elder Star Saturn descended, admitted to authoring Kuma's every torment, and ordered Bonney's execution, only for a reactivated Kuma to arrive and strike Saturn down to save her.

Saturn called a Buster Call to erase the island, and Kizaru joined the assault. As the Marines shelled Egghead, Vegapunk secretly programmed the Pacifista to obey Bonney above all, turning them against their masters, and Saturn impaled him in retaliation. Luffy came back in Gear 5 to hold off Kizaru, and Bonney unlocked a similar transformation of her own. The Giant Warrior Pirates, led by Dorry and Brogy, sailed in to aid the escape, and the ancient Iron Giant, revealed to be named Emet, awakened at Luffy's presence and fought the Elders. Throughout the chaos, Vegapunk's recorded final message played across the world, disclosing that unique bloodlines were being erased over the Void Century's secrets and that the world's fate hinged on whoever claimed the One Piece. Emet released a stored burst of Joy Boy's Haki that knocked out the Marines and drove off the Elders, letting the crew flee.

Vegapunk perished, betrayed by the satellite York who had leaked the Mother Flame fragment used to destroy Lulusia, yet his broadcast irreversibly changed the world by hinting at its buried history and confirming Luffy as the reincarnation of the Sun God Nika. Bonney learned the truth of her father and her own powers, the God Valley Incident and Kuma's Buccaneer heritage were revealed, and the existence of the ancient kingdom entered public suspicion. The Straw Hats escaped aboard the Giant Warrior Pirates' ship bound for Elbaph, carrying the deactivated Kuma and a Vegapunk clone, while pirate crews everywhere grew hungrier to seize the One Piece.