A day and a night later.
The calm before the storm.
Perhaps it was just my imagination, but the atmosphere over the sea seemed to have grown oppressive.
Pitter-patter!
Marineford was no longer blessed with its usual clear skies. That day, beneath the gloomy heavens, raindrops as large as beans came pouring down.
"Fleet Admiral Kong, good news!"
The Headquarters Building, destroyed by the Golden Lion four years ago, had been rebuilt, more magnificent and imposing than before.
Tsuru hurried in, but a smile spread across her face.
She looked rather excited.
She pushed open the Fleet Admiral's office door and entered, holding a report in her hand.
"What good news?"
Kong looked up, put down his quill, and took the report Tsuru handed him, slightly puzzled.
He rarely saw Tsuru this visibly excited.
He lowered his gaze to the report in his hands. Several photographs were tucked inside.
The images were simple.
A woman lay in a pool of blood, covered in it from head to toe, her hair disheveled. Her left arm had been severed at the elbow, and her tattered clothes exposed much of her skin. The sight was almost too horrific to bear.
She looked utterly wretched.
Presumed dead.
If she had been an ordinary woman, Kong would not have reacted at all.
After all, he had seen things far more brutal and inhumane.
Since Roger's final words, the number of pirates had surged. Killing, plundering, rape, and pillaging happened across the seas every moment.
It was also thanks to the Cultivation Era ushered in by the Golden Emperor that even the common people of the world had gradually gained the strength to resist injustice or protect themselves and their families.
These crimes had become far less common.
In the Great Pirate Era of the original