Compared to York, who stayed calm,
The other five Vegapunk satellites were visibly angry, and even members of the Dream Team looked a bit uneasy.
If the Five Elders showed up, they weren't sure if they could stop their attacks.
Ryuen didn't bother with the self-blaming Vegapunk. Right now, the Five Elders didn't know that the Marines were working with the Dream Team.
All they knew, through York, was that Vegapunk had completed the research on the Mother Flame. That still gave them some room to move.
In the original story, the Five Elders only got the Mother Flame easily because of York's help.
But now—
They could forget about it.
"Vegapunk, you should have a way to restore Kuma's mind, right?" Ryuen looked at Vegapunk.
As soon as this was mentioned, Bonney got emotional.
Vegapunk glanced at Bonney. The old memories came flooding back, and he replied seriously, "Of course I can. But it'll take about a day."
"That's great! Kuma can be himself again!" Bonney was so happy she jumped up the moment she heard that.
Her crewmates were just as thrilled.
They had followed Bonney out to sea for this very reason—to find Kuma. And now that he could recover, they couldn't hold back their excitement.
"Good," Ryuen nodded, then turned to Nami.
Nami opened a pocket space and brought out Kuma, who had lost all self-awareness. The moment he appeared, Bonney couldn't help but rush forward and hug his leg.
"Kuma, you can finally come back to us!" she said, her voice full of emotion.
Unfortunately, Kuma didn't react at all.
"Vegapunk, I'll leave Kuma to you. Try to bring him back before the Five Elders show up," Ryuen said, turning to Vegapunk.
"I understand." Vegapunk gave a small nod, then looked at Bonney. "Bonney, you need to give Kuma an order to follow me to the lab."
"An order?" Bonney looked confused.
"Yes, an order," Vegapunk repeated. He had the authority too, but since Kuma was his friend, he didn't want to use it.
"I... I get it. Kuma, come with us," Bonney said cautiously.
Right after that—
Kuma's eyes twitched slightly, then he started following Bonney and Vegapunk to the lab.
Watching Vegapunk's original body leave, York—still under Kizaru's control—shifted his eyes slightly. He seemed to be scheming something. But Ryuen noticed that small movement.
"Nami, put him in the pocket space," Ryuen said calmly, looking at York.
"Huh!?" York gasped in surprise.
Ryuen didn't say another word. She opened the door to the pocket space and looked at York. "You going in on your own, or do we have to force you?"
"I... I'll go in myself. I don't like pain," York grumbled with frustration.
After he walked in—
Ryuen turned to the other five Vegapunk satellites. "I *have* to take the Mother Flame. So think of a way for me to take it without the Five Elders finding out."
"You mean... you want us to make a fake one?" Edison, the satellite in charge of ideas, asked.
"Exactly."
"Even if the Five Elders are coming, they won't get here that fast. Plus, they don't know the Marines are working with us. They might even send the Marines instead."
"So during this time, see if you can make something close enough," Ryuen said, looking at Edison.
"I think... we probably can," said Pythagoras, the wisdom satellite, after thinking a bit. "But if the fake one actually gets used, it'll be exposed right away."
"That's fine. As long as it fools the Five Elders."
"Just come up with a way to make them believe the current Mother Flame isn't fully stable. Like, if it leaves Egghead Island, it'll become uncontrollable or something like that." Ryuen nodded, turning his gaze to Pythagoras.
And then—
Pythagoras and the other four satellites exchanged looks, and all five of them nodded together.
Then Pythagoras looked at Ryuen and said, "No problem, we'll take care of it. Shaka, you go with them and help retrieve the Mother Flame. The rest of us will start preparing."
"Alright, let's begin," Shaka replied.
The group split into two teams—one went to prepare a fake Mother Flame, while Ryuen and the others, led by Shaka, headed to the place where the real Mother Flame was kept.
Kizaru and Sentomaru followed too.
They didn't have anything else to do at the moment.
Taking the Mother Flame went smoothly. After helping Ryuen and the team store it in Nami's pocket dimension, Kizaru finally let out a sigh of relief.
The Celestial Kings were just too terrifying.
If the World Government really got their hands on the Mother Flame, things might turn out exactly like Ryuen said—Marine could truly end up becoming the Government's lapdog, forced to follow their every order.
None of the high-ranking Marines wanted to see that happen.
"I'll go help them now," Shaka said after finishing the task, and then left to support Pythagoras and the others.
"Whew~"
"That was a close one. If we hadn't stopped York in time and the Five Elders found out you all came here, who knows how things would've ended," Kizaru said, now back to his usual relaxed tone.
"Old man Kizaru, what the hell is going on? And who even are these guys..." Sentomaru's head was spinning.
"It's complicated. You're better off not knowing for now. Just remember—this is something the Marine top brass has all agreed on," Kizaru said slowly as he looked at Sentomaru.
"Anyway, I heard there's a lot of cool stuff here. Sentomaru, show us around," Ryuen said, clearly excited about this high-tech place.
"Uh… alright," Sentomaru agreed.
Even the Marines were working with the Dream Expedition Team now—what else could he do? So he started showing them around Egghead Island.
Eventually, everyone saw the "Punk Records" sitting at the top of the island.
Inside "Punk Records" was the most powerful brain in the world.
Ryuen remembered that Vegapunk and his six satellites would sync all their experiences and knowledge to the Punk Records once a day.
Everything on this island amazed everyone.
The tech here was years—maybe centuries—ahead of anything outside. Right now, the most advanced tech in the world was thought to be from Germa 66.
But compared to this place, Germa's stuff looked like children's toys.
That's why Ryuen became so interested in Egghead's technology.
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