On the sea, a massive metal island gleamed with cold white light.
Egghead Island-Vegapunk's research headquarters, and the most technologically advanced place in the world.
The island resembled an egg half-buried in the sea. Countless intricate mechanical structures covered its surface: gears, pipes, antennas, and thrusters, layered upon one another, as though a city's innards had been turned inside out.
Several spherical satellites floated above the island, slowly circling in low orbit. Occasionally, they cast down pale blue scanning beams, drawing circular spots of light on the sea. The air smelled of sea breeze and machine oil.
Vegapunk stood before the central laboratory's floor-to-ceiling windows, his hands behind his back.
His head had shrunk considerably since his youth. The signature apple cap atop it was actually an implanted external neural interface, gleaming dark red in the sunlight. He hooked his little finger against its edge and tapped it, making a "tap-tap" sound, as though knocking on a rather flimsy door.
Behind him, Kizaru lounged on a sofa with his legs crossed, holding a pair of nail clippers and leisurely filing his nails. Tiny nail shavings fell onto his yellow-striped suit. He brushed them off and continued filing. His expression was as languid as a cat sunning itself, but occasionally his eyes narrowed, sharp glints shooting through the slits.
"Could we," Vegapunk turned around to look at Kizaru, "ask Aaron Ball for some bodily tissue?"
Kizaru's hands paused for a moment, then resumed filing.
"It could be an enormous help to the progress of my Devil Fruit research," Vegapunk added.
Kizaru set the clippers on the coffee table, blew the shavings off his nails, and looked up. "I'm afraid not."
He paused, the corners of his mouth lifting slightly.
"But-you could have a female satellite like Lilith ask him."
He tilted