Chapter 1123

Emet's Haki burst has laid out every Marine in the fleet near Egghead, the Vice Admirals among them. The bound Seraphim S-Snake strains in vain to wake an unconscious Pomsky as the Straw Hats get clear, and the giants remark that the blast surpassed even Shanks's despite holding no hostility at all. Luffy thanks the by-now dormant Emet, and Dorry and Brogy take the opening to make for their home in Elbaph. While the others catch their breath, Sanji lingers beside Vegapunk's body and confesses that much of what the scientist told him still strikes him as too far-fetched to believe.

The narrative jumps to two weeks prior. Vegapunk, Shaka, and Pythagoras noticed their power plant feeding ever more energy into the Seraphim, a sign that some of the Mother Flame had gone missing, with the figures doctored by someone sharp enough to be a satellite. With the remaining four under suspicion and Vegapunk inclining toward his "evil" satellite Lilith, the trio shift their brains into stealth mode to keep their inquiry hidden from the culprit. A week on, Pythagoras pins the traitor as York, whose synced data proves entirely fake, while Shaka finds that the Sea Beast Weapons and a wiretapping snail had also been deployed. Vegapunk salvages a recorded exchange showing that York had informed the World Government of his Void Century research, which accounts for the recent influx of Cipher Pol agents to the island.

The following day, on hearing that Lulusia had been wiped out, Vegapunk deduces the stolen Flame fueled an Ancient Weapon now held by the government, blames his own greed, and accepts he cannot reveal it to the public. Judging it too late to halt York and unwilling to run, he asks only for a ship to carry the researchers and residents, resolving to die on his own island, which unlike Ohara has the means to lay the government bare, and to preserve his Cloud Plant for humanity's sake. He films his message, conceals the broadcast snail within the Iron Giant, sets it to play upon his death, and erases the trio's recollection of the fortnight, leaving himself a note so the amnesiac Vegapunk would grasp that his end was near. In the recalled lead-up, he tells Sanji he has chosen to remain on the lower level despite certain death, promises something world-shaking will follow, and shares his hope that Luffy's crew will be the ones to claim the One Piece, as Usopp and a worn-out Luffy buzz over finally reaching Elbaph.

The Straw Hats, Bonney, Kuma, and the Giant Warrior Pirates flee Egghead and sail for Elbaph while the nearby Marines lie unconscious from Emet's Haki. A flashback maps Vegapunk's last two weeks: shifting his and his satellites' minds into stealth mode after sensing a traitor, unmasking York and her contact with Mary Geoise, learning of Lulusia's destruction and choosing to die on Egghead, then recording the message, hiding the snail in the Iron Giant, and erasing the trio's memories while leaving himself a warning letter. It comes out that Vegapunk confided to Sanji his desire for the Straw Hat Pirates to claim the One Piece.

An Egghead Arc chapter fronted by a Yamato side-story cover, its title riffs on the Void Century, recasting the hundred missing years as a missing two weeks that the flashback restores. The chapter recasts Vegapunk's apparently reckless broadcast as a calculated act of self-sacrifice arranged days ahead of his death.