The Grand Line, Marine Headquarters at Marineford.
Three days after the Paramount War ended, the battlefield cleanup was still progressing slowly. Shattered buildings, blasted defensive walls, and shell craters and corpses scattered across the square left this once-imposing Marine fortress steeped in desolation and ruin. The sea breeze carried the smells of blood and gunpowder past the ranks of Marine soldiers, every face weary and bewildered.
Of the one hundred thousand elite Marines, twenty-three thousand had died in this battle and nearly twenty thousand had suffered serious injuries. More than half the senior officers had been lost, and all Three Admirals were wounded. Nearly half the strength Marine Headquarters had accumulated over decades had been crippled. More devastating still, news that Hua Country had conquered the entire Four Blues had already spread throughout the camp. The soldiers' morale had crumbled, everyone feared for their own safety, and not a trace remained of Marine Headquarters' former fighting spirit.
Inside the Fleet Admiral's Office, the atmosphere was as oppressive as solidified concrete.
Sengoku sat behind his desk, his white hair making him look even older in the sunlight by the window. The desk before him was piled with urgent reports from across the world, yet not one brought good news. All their territories in the Four Blues had been lost, and nine out of ten ships in the fleets sent as reinforcements had failed to return. The Affiliated Nations on the Grand Line were gripped by fear as well. Countless pieces of bad news surged in like a tide, leaving the Fleet Admiral who had commanded the Marines for decades barely able to breathe.
The office door was gently pushed open, and Garp walked in.
The Hero of the Marines no longer wore his usual carefree air. His Marine justice cloak was