After a long while, the sustained rumbling in the waters near Elegia finally died down, and the battle came to an end.
The Red-Haired Pirates waited until they felt Louis and the others had gone far away. Having paid the price of every crew member being seriously injured, they eventually sailed off in front of Garp.
Grand Line—Navy Headquarters, Marineford.
In the dead of night, every senior officer still at Navy Headquarters received a summons from the Marshal's office, whether they had already gone to bed or not.
They were to attend a meeting in the Navy Headquarters' senior officers' conference room.
Fifteen minutes later, every senior officer still at Navy Headquarters had arrived.
More than fifteen figures in spotless suits and Justice capes sat upright, their eyes sweeping across the room.
In one of the two seats closest to the head of the table sat a middle-aged woman with snow-white hair and faint wrinkles on her face.
She wore light clothing, with a Justice cape draped simply over her shoulders. Her gaze was unfathomably deep.
Across from her sat a tall, slender man, nearly three meters in height, wearing a yellow-and-white suit. He was nonchalantly tending to his nails.
Aside from the tall man, every person in the conference room looked grave and solemn.
Being summoned at this hour meant that something had happened—or was about to happen—in some corner of the sea: a major incident the World Government could not afford to ignore.
They had been through such things countless times.
Many of them had witnessed colleagues who had attended the same meetings fall in the major incidents that followed.
Though they had dedicated themselves to Justice and did not fear death, that did not mean they wanted to see a major incident occur.
Just then,