Thoughts about the chapter:
My first question is: Why would someone drag back the CP5-ship, if the agents didn’t find any proof of the forbidden research anyway? What sense would it make to imprison the agents that had not found anything?
When we see them down there and locked up in the basement, they also seem rather desperate to get food, as if they had been forgotten or discarded. They serve no purpose other than being out of the way.
But maybe this was the reason they were imprisoned: To not report their lack of evidence and leave the WG within the uncertainty of their sharpest tool maybe going against them.
If any of the agents would have made it back and had reported, then the case would have been closed and Vegapunk – the very most important weapons developer of the WG – would have been left alone to go about his business.
However, the fact that the government didn’t receive any report, coupled with the fact that every CP-unit mysteriously vanished while investigating the case, could let the WG come to the conclusion that maybe Vegapunk is doing something on the island that he needs to hide from them and that the agents, who were investigating the case, had found something and therefore vanished.
It indicates that someone wants the WG to take serious measures against Vegapunk. For what reason, is still a mystery. But the caller, who wanted to speak to the higher-ups does seem to want to push things to the worst. And the warning he/she did concerning Vegapunks research could multiply the WG concern that maybe there really is something fishy going on on Egghead. The caller and the person, who had locked up CP5/7/8 could be one individual, who wants to annihilate Vegapunk. And as we see that York knows that Vegapunk and the agents are locked up there, because she isn’t at all surprised to find them there, she could be the one that also talked to the Gorosei. All because of her wish, indicated in the last panels of this chapter.
Maybe this is why the dome malfunctioned as CP0 stood down there with no clue as to how they should flush Vegapunk out. It could have been York helping the WG with their plan.
It is however questionable what security measures she has set up to protect herself from being annihilated, too. And I wonder if she has maybe made a deal with the Gorosei or if she just wants to eradicate them, too.
By the way, there is a mismatch in the chapter: In the end the narrator explains that one of the Gorosei is heading towards Egghead with Kizaru as an escort – I take that for the truth. Stussy however tells Sentoumaru that Kizaru will arrive on Egghead. She somehow leaves out the part where Saturn is actually the main reason Kizaru is on his way towards them. Doesn’t she know that Saturn is coming? Was that a slipup or doesn’t she want to convey that very small detail?
And we need to remember: It is important that especially Sentoumaru needs to know who is coming. As Vegapunk’s bodyguard he has authority over the Pacifista and Seraphim alike. Kizaru could not order those around, since the command hierarchy is in Sentoumarus’s favour – Saturn’s level of hierarchy however thrumps over everyone elses. And seeing as Sentoumaru has set up the defense for the whole island using the Pacifista, this detail is very important for him to know! Not only because the 50 Pacifista are guaring the coast, no less. It is now as if they are having no defense set up at all, because Saturn just needs to command them to cease guarding.
And then there is this phrase from Akainu stating that with the arrival of the SHP at Egghead `Things keep getting messier.´ That means things were already messy to begin with. But than I wonder: What was so complicated about the plan before?: CP0 goes to Egghead and kills Vegapunk, before waiting for Saturn to arrive.
I am sure there is much more going on behind the curtain than we see as of now. Very sure!
Notes: Lucky for everyone, who has gotten injured or is dying in the abandoned basement, that the SHP’s only doctor is heading down there towards them. If Shaka is dead - well bad luck. But maybe he isn’t, right? Who knows … . Anyway – If Chopper needs to examine him, than he has to take off that helmet of his.
I hope Luffy and Lucci will soon remember that behind them there are two sets of prestine seastone cuffs lying uselessly around, only waiting to be used on devil fruit users such as the Seraphim.