Vegapunk/York

York, also designated as Punk-06 (PUNK-06（パンク シックス）, Panku-Shikkusu^?), is one of the six satellites of Dr. Vegapunk, embodying his aspect of “greed”.

She acted as an ally to the Straw Hat Pirates at first, but was later revealed to be a traitor responsible for instigating the Egghead Incident and many of the events prior during the Egghead Arc. Due to her actions, she is a major antagonist in the aforementioned arc.

Appearance

York is a young-looking woman of incredible size, standing twice the height of Brook. She has long and wavy blonde hair and patches of freckles under her eyes. Her mouth is very broad, and she has rosy, chubby cheeks. She wears a purple top cut off just below her breasts with her designation Punk-06 written on the front. She also wears an orange jacket over her top, a pair of purple bikini bottoms, black gloves, orange boots with cyan and black-striped socks that go up past her knees, and a pair of red goggles on her forehead.

When she eats a lot, she becomes immensely obese, but can instantly return to her original figure after going to the bathroom.

Personality

Being designated the “greed” satellite of Vegapunk, York is a very gluttonous and lazy individual. Her primary task seems to be to eat, sleep, and relieve herself for the other satellites so they can perform their own duties unimpeded. She seems to have a vapid personality with her head in the clouds, rarely speaking except for yawning or remarking about sleeping or eating, but wantonly approached a dangerous Seraphim because she found it cute. However, this was later shown to be a façade.

In truth, York is a highly selfish schemer who possesses lofty ambitions, willing to betray her fellow Vegapunks solely for the chance to become a World Noble. She believes that only one Vegapunk is necessary in the world and is not against eliminating her peers if needed, betraying the Satellites’ purpose of ensuring Stella’s safety even at the cost of their lives. York also shows no signs of mercy or remorse should casualties arise due to her actions, as she was willing to accept all of them should it serve her ultimate goal. When defeated, York is shown to be quite cowardly, spiteful and insensitive. Her arrogance also led herself to underestimate her enemies.

Relationships

Satellites

While Vegapunk’s satellites all refer to themselves as Vegapunk, they each exemplify only one portion of Vegapunk’s personality and all have their own wills and desires and are therefore effectively six unique people. While this normally isn’t an issue as Vegapunk is supposed to synchronize his brain with all of his satellites via Punk Records, York decided to betray Vegapunk and her fellow satellites in an effort to become a World Noble. Once her treachery was revealed, she was effectively treated as an enemy by Vegapunk and the other satellites.

Abilities and Powers

Being a satellite of Vegapunk, York has likely been a contributor to the genius scientist’s numerous technological developments. She is responsible for eating, sleeping and defecating on behalf of all the other satellites. As such, she consumes large quantities of food to the degree of attaining a BMI of 600 (20 times the amount considered obese), expels the waste, and sleeps for their sakes, doing so multiple times per day, but this does not seem to negatively affect her body.

In spite of her rather passive role as a scientist, York is very cunning, deceptive, manipulative and skilled at keeping a low profile, having orchestrated most of the incidents that have happened during the Egghead Arc without ever arousing suspicion of herself or being detected by either Vegapunk or the other satellites. This includes prior, arc-leading events such as contacting the Five Elders about Vegapunk’s history research or kidnapping several Cipher Pol agents multiple times, occurrences even Vegapunk admitted he was completely unaware of.

York is capable of replicating the Mother Flame, which makes her valuable to the World Government. York is also a skilled gunwoman, having shot Shaka in the head with a simple, ordinary pistol (albeit a very large one, befitting her size) and from a considerable range.

History

Past

In the past, York had ventured into Mary Geoise alongside the Vegapunk satellites, where they witnessed the cruelty of the World Nobles. Whereas the other Vegapunks looked down on the Nobles’ actions as despicable, York desired to become one of them.

Three months before the Egghead Incident, York contacted the Five Elders and leaked information that Vegapunk was conducting forbidden research on the Void Century. While dispatched Cipher Pol agents never found evidence of illegal research, York used the opportunity to abduct said agents before they could leave Egghead and report their findings, keeping them locked underground in the old laboratory. This served to increase the World Government’s suspicion that Vegapunk was indeed rebelling against them.

At some point, York secretly delivered a sample of the Mother Flame to the Five Elders, which was later used to destroy the Lulusia Kingdom.

Final Saga

Egghead Arc

As Edison and Pythagoras were working and needed to attend to bodily functions, York ate, went to the bathroom, and slept on their behalf, allowing them to keep working without a break.

Summoned with the rest of the satellites (except Atlas), York continued eating while wondering if something fun would happen, but she promptly fell asleep. After CP0’s and the Seraphim’s attacks on the lab were quelled, York, having deduced she had been betrayed by the World Government, snuck down to the Seraphim and gave them new orders: for the four of them to kill everyone else, except her, Stella, and the captured Cipher Pol agents, and for S-Snake to temporarily petrify her to dispel any suspicion of her, while also ordering S-Snake to protect a certain part of the lab. Around this time, York locked the Frontier Dome with a password to impede anyone from escaping.

Afterwards, York returned to the control room and joined in the search for Stella with the rest of the SSG and the Straw Hats. Alongside Lilith, Usopp, and Franky, York went to the third floor of Building C, where they found that Pythagoras had been attacked by S-Snake. As part of the plan, York “carelessly” approached S-Snake and allowed herself to get caught by the latter’s petrification abilities. S-Snake then kicked her aside and attacked the rest of the search group, who were forced down the building and, as a result, became separated from York.

Shortly afterwards, York was unpetrified by S-Snake while no one was looking and secretly followed Shaka to Vegapunk’s prison. She then shot Shaka in the head with a pistol as he tried to free Vegapunk, and revealed herself as the traitor to the latter, proclaiming that she would be the sole Vegapunk from now on, as well as a future World Noble.

However, York was proven to be outmatched by the Straw Hat Pirates and their allies, who subdued and chained her to the ground while Usopp arranged a call between her and the Five Elders. While on the call, York agreed to construct another Mother Flame for the Five Elders, so long as they did not harm her or destroy her lab, as well make her a World Noble. After the Elders agreed to her terms, York then broke down her composure, hysterically begging to be rescued from the Straw Hats. After being assaulted by Nami, York gloated that nobody could escape the lab as long as the Frontier Dome was active, having admitted to encrypting its access with a passcode beforehand. Despite her claim, Vegapunk, Edison, and Atlas managed to crack the code; much to her anger.

Trivia

• The kanji used for York’s name (欲 yoku) is nominally translated not just to “greed”, but also “Desire” in general. This can be considered as a tie-back to the failure of Lilith to control Mecha-Shark’s primal desire.
  • The kanji is also used to describe three interrelated concepts of attachment and desire in Buddhism: Chanda, Kama, and Kamacchanda. Additionally, in Christianity, the kanji is applied to the Japanese words for two of the seven deadly sins: Lust (色欲（しきよく）, shikiyoku^?) and Greed (強欲（ごうよく）, gōyoku^?)
• York’s name may be based on the Cape York meteorite, a large iron meteorite that fell thousands of years ago and landed on Cape York, the southern cape of Greenland.

References