"Hey! Wait—where the hell did all these mechanical arms come from?! I can change my own clothes! Stop pulling my pants off!"
A tremendous racket erupted from inside the changing room—metal clanging, fabric tearing, mechanical parts snapping loose, all mixed together with Cain's furious shouting.
After quite a struggle, he finally emerged with his new clothes on, looking thoroughly annoyed.
He was now wearing an eye-catching red ruffled shirt with a neat pair of black shorts. A triangular waist pouch sat diagonally across his hips, securing his weapon while also providing enough space to store all of his smaller Den Den Mushi.
Below the shorts were Egghead's trademark oversized futuristic boots.
Surprisingly enough, the whole outfit suited him extremely well.
The red shirt in particular complemented his pink hair, and the contrast made him look noticeably sharper and more energetic, almost like an entirely different person.
That didn't stop him from complaining.
"Why does a changing room even need that many mechanical arms to dress people? Where's the privacy in that?! Good thing I went in first. Imagine if Uta or Bonney had gone before me."
Cain turned toward Uta and gave her a reassuring look, even dusting off his hands as though he had just finished some important job.
"Don't worry, though. It's fine now."
"I ripped all those things out."
Uta and Bonney both struggled not to laugh.
Only then did they enter the changing room themselves.
Changing manually took a little longer, but at least neither of them was going to produce the same sounds as someone demolishing a building.
Unfortunately, one person absolutely could not let Cain's comment slide.
"What?!"
Vegapunk practically jumped out of his skin.
He rushed over, grabbed Cain by the collar, and began shaking him violently.
"I designed those arms specifically so people who can't move on their own could still put on new clothes easily!"
"If you didn't want to use them, there's a button right beside the door that turns the entire system off!"
Vegapunk pointed furiously toward the entrance, where a button nearly the size of someone's face sat in plain sight.
"How did you miss something that obvious?!"
"You actually tore the whole system apart?! Then what is Kuma supposed to do?!"
Cain froze.
He slowly turned his head toward Kuma, who was sitting motionlessly on Bella.
"…Oh."
For a moment, Cain genuinely had no response.
Then inspiration struck.
He grinned.
"Well, all the Pacifistas on this island were modeled after Kuma, right?"
"So why bother changing his clothes at all? Just disguise Kuma as one of the Pacifistas. If he stands there looking serious enough, who's going to tell the difference?"
"Well, technically, that would work, but…"
Vegapunk suddenly began calculating.
"Precision mechanical joints, full-coverage sensors, adaptive analysis modules…"
He counted rapidly on his fingers.
"Even though those components are common here and easy for us to mass-produce, if you priced the entire system on the outside market, it would easily be worth over a hundred million Berries."
"And judging by what I know of you, you didn't carefully dismantle anything. You tore it apart with brute force."
Vegapunk jabbed a finger toward Cain.
"So even with a discount, you owe me fifty million Berries!"
"What?! Fifty million?!"
Cain's eyes nearly popped out.
"I broke one changing-room gimmick you barely even use and it costs that much?!"
"Of course it does!"
Vegapunk shoved a long itemized bill directly into Cain's face.
"Do you think keeping the entire island of Egghead running is cheap?"
"The World Government provides a fixed research budget, but a huge portion of our extra funding used to come from Lilith taking care of outside business."
"Now Lilith is gone, so I have to deal with that entire mess myself."
Vegapunk sounded increasingly aggrieved.
"Yes, all of us are called Vegapunk, but I can't exactly spend every waking hour worrying about how to make money! Ever since she left, our additional income has practically been cut in half!"
He flicked the bill hard with one finger.
"And whose fault do you think that is?"
"I'm already giving you the friendship price."
"Uh…"
Cain immediately lost the ability to argue.
Lilith ending up with the Revolutionary Army really was, ultimately, his fault.
He opened his mouth, closed it again, then scratched the back of his head as his voice softened.
"I'll pay you."
Then he gave Vegapunk a genuinely apologetic look.
"And… I really am sorry about Lilith."
"We've known each other for quite a while now, even if most of it was through Den Den Mushi. Can't you let that part go?"
"Let it go?"
Vegapunk's eyes instantly lit up.
An extremely suspicious smile appeared on his face.
"Sure."
"I still have plenty of devices that need field testing. You can help me with those instead. Hehehe…"
The moment Cain saw that look, his instincts screamed danger.
'Is this because Lilith isn't connected to Punk Records anymore?'
Without Lilith feeding back into the network, was Vegapunk's own "evil" side starting to surface more openly?
And if that was happening to him…
what about the other Satellites?
Cain immediately changed the subject.
"Right. Let's talk about something important."
"Vegapunk, do you remember what I told you before?"
"About the traitor."
"You mean York?"
Vegapunk waved dismissively.
"That's impossible."
"I followed your request and didn't tell the other Satellites that you were coming here, but I trust every single one of them."
"After all, they're still me. Parts of my own personality separated from my original self."
He shook his head.
"How could someone betray themselves? Logically, that makes no sense."
"But have you ever considered this?"
Cain's voice suddenly became serious.
"Lilith is already capable of functioning as a completely independent person even without access to Punk Records."
He looked directly at Vegapunk.
"To put it more plainly, even if you disappeared tomorrow, Lilith would still be a living person with her own thoughts, choices, and life."
"At that point, can you honestly keep treating the Satellites as nothing more than extensions of yourself?"
Cain had gone straight to the heart of the identity problem.
"Every Satellite inherited one specific part of you, and each of them still carries your underlying nature."
"Even Lilith's so-called 'evil' is ultimately constrained by your own understanding of where the moral line is. Most of what she does amounts to pranks, scams, intimidation, and causing trouble."
"At worst, she enjoys scaring people."
Cain paused.
Then he delivered the real warning.
"But don't forget what the most dangerous part of the world's greatest scientist actually is."
He lowered his voice.
"Desire."
The atmosphere seemed to freeze around that single word.
"Human desire is like a boulder rolling down a mountain. Once it starts moving, it becomes harder and harder to stop."
"Do you remember when you first became genuinely interested in science?"
"You learned one thing and immediately wanted to understand the next."
"Then the next."
"And the next."
"The more knowledge you gained, the more you wanted, until that curiosity grew into an endless drive to uncover every secret the world still kept hidden."
Cain's gaze sharpened.
"Even when certain knowledge is explicitly forbidden by the World Government—knowledge that could literally get you killed—you still feel compelled to reach for it."
"Almost like digging your own grave."
"Am I wrong?"
Cain deliberately kept the wording vague.
He never explicitly mentioned Vegapunk's research into the Void Century.
Even so—
Vegapunk fell silent.
Cain had struck far too close to the truth.
Vegapunk's own desire for knowledge had indeed driven him toward researching the forbidden history of the Void Century, despite knowing exactly how dangerous that was.
And Cain's point about the Satellites was equally difficult to dismiss.
Each one had inherited only a portion of his personality.
Yet each could function independently enough to become their own person.
If so—
then York truly could betray him.
Cain saw Vegapunk fall quiet and continued.
"What you call curiosity is ultimately just another form of desire."
"Even if York still carries your original nature, she can still follow her own desires far enough to place the main body—you—in danger."
Cain intentionally lowered his voice further.
"So, Vegapunk…"
"One day, your own desire will bury you."
Fortunately, they hadn't reached the worst point yet.
According to the original timeline, York wouldn't first contact the Five Elders until three months before the Egghead Incident.
From the present point in time, that was still roughly four months away.
York hadn't actually done anything yet.
Egghead was still safe.
If they placed restrictions on her now, there was no reason the situation had to spiral into the same disaster.
But before Cain could take that final step—
Vegapunk needed to truly believe him.
"You can have someone investigate York's recent upload records right now."
Cain turned slightly and looked toward the Punk Records terminals deeper within the island clouds.
"I doubt it'll take long before you find something suspicious."
"Cain…"
Vegapunk's voice faltered.
His expression became complicated, caught somewhere between pride and emotion.
"After everything that's happened…"
His eyes even began to redden slightly.
"It seems I really did make the right choice back then."
"You've grown up."
"I'll have someone investigate immediately."
The sudden sentimental tone completely blindsided Cain.
He scratched the back of his head, utterly confused as to why the conversation had become emotional.
Just then, the changing-room curtain opened.
Bonney and Uta stepped out in their new outfits.
Bonney was dressed in purple, almost exactly like the outfit she wore on Egghead in the original timeline.
Uta, meanwhile—
was dressed almost entirely in white.
A white long-sleeved jacket with red futuristic accents covered a pale pink-and-white fitted bodysuit underneath. Vegapunk's new headset was already resting over her ears, while the small pink-and-white wings on her back fluttered lightly.
A pair of unusual red boots completed the outfit.
Strangely, she also had a pair of goggles strapped around one arm.
Uta was a Devil Fruit user.
She couldn't swim.
So what exactly was she supposed to do with diving goggles?
Still, as an accessory, they looked pretty good.
Especially with the bodysuit.
Cain's eyes swept over her.
His brain stopped working for a full second.
At least it was a proper one-piece design without anything ridiculous like underwear worn on the outside, but the close-fitting cut still had an immediate and devastating effect on his imagination.
To anyone else, it was simply normal futuristic clothing.
Cain's mind, however, was perfectly capable of causing trouble all by itself.
The exact direction his thoughts took was probably best left unexplained.
Uta spun around openly and tilted her head toward him, amusement dancing in her eyes.
"Well?"
"Do I look good?"
"Perfect!"
Cain immediately gave her a thumbs-up.
His expression, however, said far more than his words.
His eyes had narrowed into delighted crescents, and the grin on his face was so wide he clearly wasn't even attempting to hide how much he liked the outfit.
Seeing Cain wear an expression that shamelessly appreciative was surprisingly rare.
"Hehe."
Uta laughed.
"Cain, you could at least try to control your face."
Then she glanced down at the marking on her jacket and paused.
"But…"
"This logo looks familiar."
It was a simple set of letters.
SSG.
"SSG—Special Science Group."
Cain read it aloud, raising an eyebrow.
"Come to think of it…"
"Didn't that Visual Den Den Mushi we found before have the same marking?"
His gaze shifted toward Vegapunk.
"You mean one of the Den Den Mushi we produced here?"
Vegapunk had just finished ordering his staff to investigate the Satellites' recent upload records.
Hearing Cain's question, his interest immediately returned.
"If you found one somewhere…"
He thought for a moment.
"Could it have been one of those?"
Uta nodded.
With a light sweep of her finger, she activated the Sing-Sing Fruit.
Soft light gathered in the air and formed a lifelike outline of the Den Den Mushi they had found.
Vegapunk leaned closer.
Then slapped his forehead.
"Yes! That's definitely one of them."
"It was part of an experimental batch I created while developing expanded communication functions."
"The main feature was the ability to transmit its signal to several targets simultaneously."
"A shipment of prototypes was lost during a maritime accident years ago. I never expected you two to be the ones who found them."
Uta immediately looked embarrassed.
She gave Vegapunk a small bow.
"Sorry."
After all, they had been using his Den Den Mushi for ages without ever giving him anything in return.
Worse, she had beaten up one of his Satellites, insulted him as an old geezer, and done it all while standing in front of the original Vegapunk himself.
That was starting to feel a little excessive.
Vegapunk didn't seem particularly bothered.
He waved it off.
"Don't worry about it. Those prototypes became obsolete ages ago."
"I've already finished the newest version."
He puffed himself up proudly.
"And its capabilities are far beyond those antiques."
"Now, with only a single Den Den Mushi…"
Vegapunk grinned.
"…I can broadcast information simultaneously to the entire world."
Cain immediately understood.
The newest model Vegapunk was describing—
was the very Den Den Mushi he would eventually use to broadcast his message to the entire world.
Cain just hadn't expected that technology to have such a strange connection to Uta's old Visual Den Den Mushi.