Marine Headquarters Hospital, intensive care unit.
Sunlight streamed through the gaps in the curtains, casting dappled patches of light and shadow across the floor.
The medical equipment beeped steadily, as though reminding everyone how fragile life was.
Gern lay motionless on the hospital bed, his face bloodless, his body covered in tubes and monitoring devices.
His chest rose and fell faintly, his breathing weak but steady, as though he had merely fallen asleep.
Lipo sat beside the bed, her eyes red. She had clearly cried many times already.
Yet her hands still clutched a damp towel as she carefully wiped the cold sweat from Gern's forehead.
Gion, now promoted to commodore, stood nearby, watching the man in the hospital bed with a complicated expression.
"It's been three days..." Lipo's voice trembled. "Why hasn't Gern woken up?"
Gion sighed softly and set the basin of hot water she had just picked up on the bedside table.
"His injuries are too severe. It's a miracle he survived at all." She paused, then continued quietly.
"After all, that was Roger, the 'Pirate King'... Anyone else who fought him to that extent would probably have..."
Even now, no one knew exactly what had happened during that battle!
But any battle capable of leaving an area in that state had been anything but ordinary.
Lipo bit her lip and said nothing.
Her gaze fell on Gern's heavily bandaged chest, where a hideous wound marked the strike of Roger's Divine Departure.
Even with her Heal-Heal Fruit abilities, the wound remained horrifying to look at.
"He didn't have to push himself so hard..." Lipo murmured. "He could have waited for reinforcements..."
"Lipo." Gion fell silent for a moment, then shook her head.
"Don't you know him? That man never waits."
Silence settled over the room again, broken