Vegapunk

Dr. Vegapunk (Dr.ベガパンク) is the leading scientist in the employment of the Marines. His work includes discovering the secrets and uses of seastone, the secrets of how Devil Fruit powers work, and various other scientific achievements that are said to be at least 500 years ahead of current technology.

He has a bodyguard named Sentomaru and hails from the technologically advanced Karakuri Island. Many of the inventions and blueprints in his house were destroyed by Franky during the Nightmare of Barujimoa. The explosion, however, uncovered another one of his labs, in which Franky spent two years studying and improving himself. Despite Vegapunk's achievements, he has yet to make a personal appearance in the series.

Appearance
He has yet to make an appearance, but a G-5 marine states that he is an old geezer, suggesting he is somewhat elderly.

Personality
In his youth, he was a kindhearted 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. He also respects the wishes of his colleagues, as he agreed to give a command that Kuma himself requested.

Bartholomew Kuma
Vegapunk seems to have a good enough relationship with 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 he let Kuma do things that go against the World Government, as well as granting him his last wish by including a mission into his programming that Kuma himself had requested.

Abilities and Powers
Vegapunk is a knowledgeable scientist whose 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 genius, but lacked the skills, funds and material to develop his inventions. Regardless, the creations and blueprints that he has left behind are considered priceless, and any damage inflicted to them is considered a crime.

Through his research, he discovered ways of allowing Marine ships to pass through the Calm Belts without fear of Sea King attacks by covering the bottom of the ships with Kairoseki. 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 to inanimate objects, such as swords or 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, and lack Kuma's own Devil Fruit powers. After the two year timeskip, Sentomaru revealed that the latest Pacifista had been further modified, but these units have yet to be seen. The light lasers that are installed into the Pacifista were apparently supposed to be so advanced, that only Vegapunk knew how to create them.

Early Life
As a child, he designed and built several devices in his lab on Karakuri Island, 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.

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 kairoseki can serve to counteract the effects of Devil Fruits on the user.

Four years prior to the current storyline, he was testing chemical weapons in his lab on Punk Hazard. The experiments went wrong, turning Punk Hazard into a wasteland. The island was closed off after this 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 war at Marineford, he performed the final operation on Kuma, causing him to lose his free will. However, upon Kuma's request, he programmed the mission to protect the Thousand Sunny into Kuma's memory banks.

Scientific Achievements

 * Kairoseki usage
 * Restraining items (nets, handcuffs, stun batons, etc)
 * Covering the bottom of ships for avoiding Sea Kings
 * Devil Fruit research
 * What Devil Fruits really are.
 * How Devil Fruits react with humans.
 * What would happen if a person eats more than one Devil Fruit.
 * Allowing objects to "eat" the fruit.
 * Research into the Pika Pika no Mi.
 * Pacifista project
 * Modifying Bartholomew Kuma into a cyborg.
 * Creating cybernetic replicates of Kuma.
 * Installing devices that have a similar ability as the Pika Pika no Mi to project explosive lasers.
 * Other
 * Climate Control (unfinished, destroyed, showing a benevolent nature).
 * Chemical Weapons (apparently a disastrous failure)
 * Many blueprints of unmade creations (destroyed).
 * The cyborg animals.
 * Various weapons.
 * Studying everything from battleships to human cells.

Trivia

 * In relation to a SBS question asked by a fan stating "How come Luffy's Devil Fruit was already in the Devil Fruit encyclopedia when he ate it?" Oda hinted that Vegapunk might know what Devil Fruits really are.
 * Vegapunk is comparable to Leonardo da Vinci, who is often thought of in modern history as a man who was ahead of his time. Some historians also go so far to say Leonardo was more than 5 centuries ahead of his time, just as Vegapunk is likewise considered 500 years ahead of his time.

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