Vegapunk

Dr. Vegapunk is the leading scientist of the SSG and in the employment of the Marines. His work includes discovering the secrets and uses of seastone, the secrets of how Devil Fruit powers work, the co-discovery of the Lineage Factor and its applications, the creation of the Pacifista and Seraphim, and various other scientific achievements that are said to be at least 500 years ahead of current technology. He hails from the technologically advanced Karakuri Island and currently resides on Egghead, where his laboratory is located.

Before being employed under the World Government, Vegapunk was part of an outlaw scientific research team known as MADS, where he worked alongside other notable scientists such as Caesar Clown, Vinsmoke Judge and Queen. The team was eventually arrested, and Vegapunk was integrated into the Marines as its head scientist after MADS' dissolution.

He is a major ally to the Straw Hats during the Egghead Arc.

Satellites
At some point in the past, due to being occupied with his inventions, Vegapunk managed to split his being into six different people, referred to as satellites or "offshoots" (分身), which share Vegapunk's brain via Punk Records. These satellites all identify as Dr. Vegapunk and will introduce themselves as such, but also possess their own names and number designations to distinguish them. The satellites are also distinguished by embodying a particular aspect of Vegapunk's personality. They also use different first person pronouns and speech patterns. His true body is called the "Stella".

Appearance
Vegapunk is an elderly man of medium height with slender limbs and red cheeks. He has a noticeably elongated but neatly sliced head and has a shaft driven in to support a structure resembling the top of an apple and its leaf. His forehead is remarkably wide, his tongue is very long, while his eyes are close to his potato nose. He has a bald head on top, but has spiky hair on the sides, as well as a thick mustache. He wears a smock with SSG on the back, a polka dot shirt, dark pants, and DOM shoes.

When he was 43 years old, Vegapunk had an enlarged head accounting for much of his height, and his hair was dark and covered most of his head. He wore a leather jacket, a light shirt, a belt, dark pants, and dress shoes.

Also, during Kuma's explanation on his Pacifista modification, he seems to wear yellow gloves and a striped shirt while wearing a lab coat.

Personality
In his youth, Vegapunk was a generous person who cared very much for the inhabitants of his island, willing to help them with his inventions. He is considered the island's pride and joy, and the residents are still hoping for his return.

Each of Vegapunk's six satellites possess a dominant personality trait that is presumably present in Vegapunk in general. While he has morals and a sense of justice and pride as a scientist (Shaka), he also possesses malevolent traits and an inclination to steal from others in order to fund his research (Lilith) and can be prone to greed (York); there is considerable conflict and reasoning between these two sides. He appears to be quite thoughtful and wise (Edison and Pythagoras) but can be prone to getting angry at other people's inability to properly replicate and utilize his technological developments, to the point of lashing out violently (Atlas).

Unlike his former fellow scientist Caesar Clown, Vegapunk was far more moral about what he would do in pursuit of achievements. He refused to involve children in the gigantification process despite repeated failures. He also vetoed the creation or release of the H2S poison gas weapon for fear of it harming innocent people.

He seems to have an interest for dragons, as he created two of them on Punk Hazard, and an artificial Devil Fruit that allows the user to transform into one. Although he deemed the fruit a failure, but that was only due to the users dragon form not being the same color as the dragon form bestow by the real Devil Fruit it was based on. On that note, Vegapunk is a serious perfectionist.

He appears to be honorable as he granted Kuma his final wish as a human being, which was to program Kuma to protect the Thousand Sunny until the Straw Hats return.

He has a verbal tic in which he adds "Quasar" (クエーサー) to his requests for help.

World Government
Vegapunk was once arrested by the World Government for his dangerous experiments in relation to research conducted into the Lineage Factor and cloning. Despite this run in with the bureaucracy, he was employed as their chief scientist in the Marines. He would go onto becoming the leader of the SSG.

Despite being of great help in drastically increasing the Marines' military might with his inventions of the Pacifista and Seraphim, among presumably other things, the World Government has elected to kill him, which CP0 is currently on a mission to do, due to the fear he might perceive too much about the truth. Their fear was proven correct, as Vegapunk had studied all the books the scholars of Ohara had saved during the Ohara Incident and learned about the Ancient Kingdom. Understanding what the higher-ups would do were they to discover this, Vegapunk chose to keep it a secret, never revealing to them that Ohara had success in protecting their prized books.

Sentomaru
Vegapunk had a bodyguard named Sentomaru, who after the timeskip became a marine officer. Any relationship between the two has yet to be shown in detail.

Fujitora
Vegapunk seems to be amicable to the newly promoted Admiral. He revealed a new invention to Fujitora that could lead to the abolishment of the Seven Warlords of the Sea system.

Caesar Clown
Despite once being colleagues, Vegapunk and Caesar Clown had a bitter rivalry based on levels of recognition and ethics. When Caesar's erratic behavior got out of hand, Vegapunk decided to dismiss Caesar from his position. Caesar was also considered second best to Vegapunk. Because of this, Caesar holds a grudge against him.

Bartholomew Kuma
Vegapunk seems to have a good enough relationship with Bartholomew Kuma to grant him his final wish as a human being, which was to program Kuma to protect the Thousand Sunny until the Straw Hats return. It is very likely that Vegapunk highly respects Kuma's strength, as he modified Kuma to be the prototype Pacifista, and let Kuma have one final act as a human before becoming a mindless weapon.

Straw Hat Pirates
Vegapunk seems to have an interest in the Straw Hat Pirates. While his interest in the group is currently unknown, he saw no issue with granting Bartholomew Kuma his final wish as a human to protect the group's ship, the Thousand Sunny, until a member of the crew returned for it. He fulfilled Kuma's last wish and programmed him to protect the ship for two entire years, despite his long-established history and connection to the Marines and to the World Government as a whole. One of his "satellites", Shaka even expressed an interest in meeting them after they appeared on the island of Egghead.

Monkey D. Dragon
Vegapunk has a cordial relationship with Monkey D. Dragon, the Revolutionary. Though Vegapunk shares Dragon's contempt with the World Government's corruption, he did not join the Revolutionary Army when Dragon invited him, as he deemed the army to be poor. Regardless, the two shared their respect for Clover and worked to ensure the famous archaeologist's death will not be in vain.

Clover
Vegapunk was a friend of the famous archaeologist, Professor Clover. He was devastated when the Government launched a Buster Call and propaganda against Ohara for their research of the Void Century, and paid tribute to the lives lost there by placing flowers. Vegapunk also went to Elbaf to read the library of books that the New Giant Warrior Pirates retrieved and saved, intending to continue Clover's research and legacy.

Jewelry Bonney
Vegapunk has known Bonney since she was a child. However, Bonney holds a grudge against him for turning her father Kuma into a mindless cyborg, and upon meeting him, she threatened to kill him and demanded that he change her father back to normal. Fortunately for Vegapunk, the invention that she used to threaten him was faulty, and instead of functioning properly, it attracted bugs which caused her to faint. Vegapunk has shown to understand reason why Bonney held a grudge against him and wished to do something for her.

Abilities and Powers
While it is unclear when Vegapunk started using his satellites to split his workload, he himself is famed as the greatest scientific genius the world has ever known, having tremendous knowledge and unmatched understanding in all fields of science, from cell biology to military technology, at the beginning of his work on Karakuri Island as noted by Franky. His scientific expertise is said to be at least 500 years ahead of his contemporaries. It seems that even in his youth, the scientist was a prodigy already considered a genius, but lacked the skills, funds, and materials to develop his inventions, although that did not stop him from theorizing the creation of Pacifista cyborgs, including their laser weapons back then. This is proven by the fact that Franky was able to recreate the technologies by self-studying the blueprints Vegapunk left behind on his home island. Regardless, the creations and blueprints that he has left behind are considered invaluable, and any damage inflicted to them is considered a crime. He has read and fully memorized every single book that had been rescued from Ohara.

He also discovered exactly how Devil Fruit powers are transferred over to a user and was the scientist behind the method of adding Devil Fruit powers into inanimate objects, such as swords and guns.

He is the one who modified Bartholomew Kuma into a cyborg, and has produced many Pacifista replicas of him, granting them some of the abilities of Kizaru's Devil Fruit in the process. These replicas bleed actual blood. However, they lack Kuma's own Devil Fruit abilities. After the two-year timeskip, Sentomaru revealed that the latest Pacifista had been further modified; these were later revealed to be the Seraphim, replicas of the Seven Warlords of the Sea in their youth but with Lunarian traits. The lasers that are installed into the Pacifista were apparently supposed to be so advanced, that only Vegapunk knew how to create them. It was also stated that the dragons found on Punk Hazard were of Vegapunk's own creation.

He was able to survive the explosion of Caesar Clown's mass murder weapon. It is unknown if his "Stella" body was present and was sturdy enough to survive the explosion, or if one of his Satellite bodies was present in his stead.

Via his research, he discovered ways of allowing Marine ships to pass through the Calm Belts without fear of a Sea King attack, by covering the bottom of the ships with Seastone.

Devil Fruit
Vegapunk ate the Nomi Nomi no Mi, a Paramecia-type Devil Fruit that allows his brain to store an indefinite amount of information and recall everything he has ever learned. It also causes his brain and head to expand continuously as he acquires new knowledge.

Satellites
Due to splitting himself up into six people, Vegapunk is now able to be many times more productive as his satellites are capable of working independently at the same time. The fact that each of his satellites can also be equipped with weapons, vehicles, and technology also makes Vegapunk drastically more difficult to handle in combat. The satellites are capable of communicating with each other via an earpiece and may also share senses as Shaka was able to see what was around Lilith while the two of them were in different locations. Necessary bodily functions can be assigned to one satellite, allowing the others to forgo them. Currently, York is tasked with eating, sleeping, urinating, and defecating on behalf of the rest of the satellites.

Scientific Achievements
The following is a list of the research projects done under the name Vegapunk, and it is unknown for some of them whether it was Vegapunk himself or one of the satellites that is responsible for them.

Early Life
Vegapunk was born in the Future Country Baldimore on Karakuri Island. As a child, he designed and built several devices in his lab, including robotic animals. He also had hundreds of other ideas, ranging from weapons to experimenting with cellular structures. He once tried to create an in-ground heating system for the island's people using modified animals as his labor force. Unfortunately, Vegapunk lacked the tools and the funds needed to complete his project, but he was able to touch the people's hearts.

At some point, he worked alongside Vinsmoke Judge within MADS, an illegal research team, and discovered the blueprint of life known as the Lineage Factor. When the World Government caught wind of this, they deemed the research a threat, and Vegapunk was arrested.

Service to the World Government
After going to work for the World Government, he became famous for his Devil Fruit research and for discovering that Seastone can serve to counteract the effects of Devil Fruits on the user.

Around 33 years ago, when Kaidou was captured by the Marines, Vegapunk was able to extract a sample of his Lineage Factor to replicate his Devil Fruit, although the results were noted to be unsatisfactory. The World Government wanted him to give the fruit to them, but Vegapunk considered it a failure and refused, leaving it on Punk Hazard. Sometime later, Kaidou escaped Vegapunk's facility together with King, who was also captured.

22 years ago, several months after the Ohara Incident, Vegapunk took a trip to Ohara to pay his respects to the late Professor Clover, where he came across the lake in the center of the island filled with books. The realization that this was the final stand made by Ohara's scholars brought him to tears. Vegapunk noticed a group of Giants pulling the books from the lake before being approached by Dragon, who had also come to pay his respects. Dragon explained to him that the giants were from Elbaf, and that they knew the value of the books. Dragon lamented Vegapunk's refusal to join the Freedom Fighters due to lack of resources, but Vegapunk explained that he felt his abilities were put to better use with the World Government. Though he wished to take the books with him back to Punk Hazard, Vegapunk feared that his superiors would hear about the survival of Ohara's library, and so entrusted them to the Giants. Vegapunk later took a secret visit to Elbaf to read all of the rescued books in order to carry on the work of researching them.



Four years prior to the current storyline, he was leading chemical weapons tests in his lab on Punk Hazard. His former colleague, Caesar Clown, created an extremely powerful chemical weapon, and when Vegapunk attempted to dismiss Caesar for his reckless behavior, Caesar retaliated by detonating that weapon, turning Punk Hazard into a wasteland. The island was closed off after this incident and a dragon that Vegapunk created was also abandoned. Since Vegapunk had been leading the experiments, he was blamed for the incident.

Before the timeskip, he focused on developing human weapons called Pacifista, with Bartholomew Kuma as the test subject and with his research on Kizaru's Devil Fruit powers. He somehow managed to synthesize them and become the only person in the world with the technological prowess to manufacture functional and tangible laser beams that cause damage, which the World Government now use in full force and mass production. Prior to the Summit War of Marineford, Vegapunk performed the final operation on Kuma, removing the last of Kuma's free will. However, upon Kuma's request, Vegapunk programmed the mission to protect the Thousand Sunny into Kuma's memory banks.

Prior to going to Mary Geoise, Issho met with Vegapunk and the scientist revealed an invention that Issho believed could render the Seven Warlords of the Sea system obsolete.

Egghead Arc
When Vegapunk was working on a warping experiment, it backfired and he got stuck inside the robot's armor. He called for help and claimed that his warping experiment had failed. Luffy headed his way to help Vegapunk and free him. Vegapunk then thanked him and recognized him as Dragon's son and knew he would come to Egghead. Vegapunk was then confronted by Bonney, but he just commented on how much she's grown before turning his attention away to show Luffy and Chopper how to make their shoes float. However, he ended up flying too high in the air and begged for help. Bonney instantly recognized that Vegapunk's head is shorter than it used to be and Vegapunk explained to the group his background as well how he created the satellites and the meaning behind Punk Records as well as his ultimate goal to have a database everybody has access to. He was, though, confronted by an extremely angry Bonney, who demanded Vegapunk explained his reasons for turning her father into a cyborg, threatening him with a light saber she found earlier. However, the saber attracted a horde of insects and after she faded out, Vegapunk admitted to Luffy, Chopper and Jinbe he does not blame Bonney for hating him, well understanding her resentment towards him but then added he had something he wanted to give to her.

Translation and Dub Issues
In the original Japanese, the names of Vegapunk's satellites are written with kanji which have meanings that correspond with the aspects they embody. For example, Lilith's name is written as, with a kanji character that means "evil" while the furigana gives the reading Ririsu or "Lilith". In the VIZ translation, these meanings are presented similarly to epithets, such as "Lilith the Evil" and "Shaka the Good".

Trivia

 * Vegapunk's appearance with gray hair, a mustache and a large tongue may be inspired by Albert Einstein, particularly the iconic photo of Einstein sticking his tongue out, albeit in a more exaggerated manner.
 * The apple-like lid over Vegapunk's head may be a reference to Isaac Newton and the popular story of an apple falling on his head, leading to the discovery of gravity.
 * Furthermore, his apple-like head may also be a reference to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil from the Bible, in which many media and sources depicted its fruit as an apple.
 * Vegapunk seems to be somewhat themed around astronomical objects, as his main body is known as the "Stella" (Latin for "star") while his being is split into six additional people known as "satellites". In addition, his verbal tic contains the word "quasar".
 * The reason Vegapunk's satellites are referred to using the kanji for "cat" is because Kaku uses the Japanese idiom "Neko no te mo kari tai" (猫の手も借りたい) which literally means "I would want to borrow even a hand of a cat" and is commonly used to express that one is extremely busy.

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