Egghead Arc

The Egghead Arc is the thirty-second story arc in the series and the first in the Final Saga of One Piece, continuing from the Wano Country Arc and Saga.

As the world recovers from the aftermath of the Levely and the fall of Kaidou and Big Mom, the Straw Hat Pirates, following their Log Pose, arrive in the mysterious, futuristic Egghead Island, where the Marine supergenius Dr. Vegapunk resides.

Shifting Balance: The World's New Great Powers
After recovering from their dangerous plummet down Wano's waterfall, the Straw Hats put Luffy in a cage to punish him. They then received the newspaper, from which they learned of their new bounties and about the many massive events that had occurred during their time on Wano. They were left aghast at the news of Cobra's death and Vivi's disappearance; Luffy immediately wanted to go and rescue Vivi, but Zoro talked him out of it, saying they should allow Vivi to take care of herself until it became clear she was in imminent danger. Luffy refused to believe that Sabo would kill Cobra, recalling the time he declared his dream to Sabo and Ace and thus revealing it to his crew for the first time; they reacted with a mixture of disbelief, wonder and mirth. Usopp said that such a thing would be impossible, but Luffy replied that the Pirate King might be able to do it. Franky declared that they needed to find the last Road Poneglyph to help their captain become Pirate King and achieve the dream as soon as possible, but Robin said that this would not be easy as its whereabouts had been unknown for a long period of time.

The Red Hair Pirates dropped Marco off back at Sphinx, and as he bid farewell to them, Marco remembered his farewell with the Straw Hats on Wano. Yamato had informed the crew of his decision not to join them, as he believed that Wano would need his protection for the time being from threats like Ryokugyu. Marco then arrived to tell the crew he was about to leave, and he, Luffy, and Jinbe reminisced about their first meeting in the Summit War of Marineford; Marco said Ace would have certainly been delighted to see how much Luffy had grown.



On Karai Bari Island, Crocodile and Mihawk confronted Buggy over why he was labeled as the leader of Cross Guild, which in reality was created by the two of them. Some days ago, Crocodile contacted Mihawk as the now ex-Warlord was under attack by the Marines and proposed that the two of them team up to take on the Marines. Later, as Buggy was under attack by the Marines, Crocodile arrived at Karai Bari Island and ambushed the attacking fleet. Buggy's henchman believed that Crocodile was working for him, but in reality, Crocodile was after Buggy to collect the money the pirate owed him. With no options, Buggy offered to work as a servant for Crocodile's new company in order to pay off his debt. However, Buggy's subordinates put their captain front and center when creating a poster to spread word about the Cross Guild, and the World Government misinterpreted the poster as well as Crocodile's attack on the Marines to label Buggy as the company's leader and deem him one of the Four Emperors. Because of the massive threat posed by Cross Guild, Crocodile's bounty was raised to over 1,000,000,000 while Buggy's and Mihawk's were raised to over 3,000,000,000. Although Crocodile was enraged by this development and proceeded to physically abuse Buggy in response, Mihawk stated that he had no desire to be an Emperor and that it might actually be advantageous for them if they were to keep Buggy as their figurehead leader, which Crocodile accepted.



On Amazon Lily, Boa Hancock contemplated her next move as her kingdom recovered from the great attack weeks earlier. As Koby, Yamakaji, and their fleet assaulted the island, they brought in a new line of Pacifista known as the Seraphim, and the Kuja were left in shock as they came under attack by a cyborg resembling a young version of none other than Hancock. The battle was then interrupted by the arrival of the Blackbeard Pirates, who came to take Hancock's Mero Mero no Mi power. Blackbeard was attacked by a Seraphim resembling a young Mihawk, and Hancock used her ability to turn all the Marines and pirates, save for Koby and Blackbeard, to stone. Blackbeard was able to grab hold of Hancock and nullify her ability, and a standoff formed as Hancock said that if she was killed, her victims would remain petrified, and Blackbeard would never be able to use her fruit to undo it. Blackbeard ultimately decided to kill her regardless but was stopped by the sudden arrival of Silvers Rayleigh, who told the Emperor to depart the island with the concession that Hancock would reverse the petrification of his crew. In the present day, Rayleigh remained on Amazon Lily along with Shakuyaku, who was the former Amazon Lily empress and Kuja Pirates captain two generations before Hancock. The legendary pirate remarked that the events were fortunate to go the way they did, as he was not sure he would have been able to take on Blackbeard in a battle at this point. Out at sea, a Marine ship reported via Den Den Mushi that they were setting course for Egghead and that Koby's status was unknown as he had been kidnapped by the Blackbeard Pirates.



In the Kamabakka Kingdom, the Revolutionary Army officers expressed relief that Sabo was still alive, although Dragon was concerned about the report of King Cobra's assassination and said he and Sabo would have a reckoning if his Chief of Staff was indeed the one responsible. Dragon then went up to the liberated Kuma and asked him what he had seen. Right then, the revolutionaries received a call from Sabo, which the Marines were able to intercept. They traced the location of the call to the Lulusia Kingdom, which was one of the kingdoms that had revolted in the Eight-Nation Revolution; the Five Elders were made aware of this and remarked that Sabo was unlucky. In his call, Sabo told his comrades that he had not killed Cobra; in reality, he had seen something terrible. As he was saying this, the citizens of Lulusia looked up as a massive object appeared in the sky, shrouded by clouds. As Sabo began to tell the revolutionaries that the Empty Throne actually possessed an occupant, said occupant Im unleashed a rain of lasers from the sky which instantly obliterated Lulusia and left nothing in its wake; it was declared during this attack that Lulusia had never existed to begin with.

Arrival at Egghead: A Certain Scientist's Island of the Future
A few days after their departure from Wano, the Straw Hats were in a brutally cold climate zone as they approached their next island. They came across a giant Warm Eddy, and spotted a person trapped inside it. Zoro cut through the eddy to free them, and Jewelry Bonney emerged in child form. Luffy jumped in midair and stretched his arms to catch her as well as a blown-overboard Chopper, but the Sunny and crew then came under attack by the Mecha-Shark, a giant shark made out of metal. As Luffy, Bonney, and Chopper fell into the ocean, Jinbe went to rescue them while Franky tried piloting the Sunny out of harm's way. However, the Mecha-Shark fired homing torpedoes out of its mouth which caused the Sunny to capsize and sink. It then attacked Jinbe's group with cannon fire as the fish-man tried to save the Devil Fruit users, forcing him to dive underwater to escape. The Mecha-Shark turned its attention back to the Sunny but was suddenly punched by a person inside a giant mecha.

Meanwhile, at the G-14 Marine base nearby, Helmeppo and several other Marine officers pleaded with Tashigi and Rear Admiral Prince Grus to let them go and rescue Koby from Hachinosu. Prince Grus refused their request to deploy a Seraphim from Egghead, saying they were in no position to act as they had not been able to get ahold of X Drake.



Jinbe brought Luffy, Chopper, and Bonney onto the nearby island, where they dried their clothes and got warm. Bonney revealed who she was to Luffy and told the Straw Hats that this island was Egghead, a place home to Dr. Vegapunk's research lab and has been said to be 500 years into the future. She revealed that she came alone, as she had business with Vegapunk, though her ship was devoured by the Mecha-Shark before she could reach the island. Meanwhile, the mecha that hit the Mecha-Shark lifted the Sunny out of the ocean, along with the rest of the Straw Hats and a woman emerged from it, saying the Mecha-Shark was a creation she built to guard the island but was acting awry due to its primal desires to eat ships. The woman then introduced herself as Dr. Vegapunk, to the Straw Hats' great shock.

Story Impact

 * A few characters make their first appearances in the manga after the timeskip. The characters (in the order they were reintroduced) are: Daz Bonez and Vasco Shot.
 * Every Straw Hat's bounty is revealed to have been raised following the events on Wano Country. Zoro's bounty is 1,111,000,000, Jinbe's is 1,100,000,000, Sanji's is 1,032,000,000, Robin's is 930,000,000, Usopp's is 500,000,000, Franky's is 394,000,000, Brook's is 383,000,000, Nami's is 366,000,000, and Chopper's is 1,000.
 * The Seraphim, upgrades to the Pacifista, are revealed as the new fighting force of the SSG to replace the Seven Warlords of the Sea as part of the Three Great Powers.
 * Sabo is aware that the Empty Throne has an occupant and is thus targeted by Im and the World Government, who annihilate the Lulusia Kingdom in the process and erase its existence from history.