For a moment, the Red Hair Pirates were filled with a cheerful atmosphere.
Originally, Shanks had intended to bring the Red Hair Pirates and all of their affiliated forces to rescue the Whitebeard Alliance Fleet.
Even if they could not save Whitebeard himself, they had at least planned to preserve the Whitebeard Pirates.
Because only by doing that, even if the New World changed due to the loss of one of the Four Emperors, the existence of the Whitebeard Pirates would still act as a foundation.
The balance of the New World would only be slowly eroded and divided apart, rather than collapsing outright.
But now, it seemed his worries had been completely unnecessary.
The Whitebeard Alliance Fleet had solved the problem themselves.
"Renji, huh?"
Ignoring the teasing from his crewmates, Shanks looked toward the direction of Marineford.
"Perhaps… a great era of upheaval is about to begin."
Wano Country, Kaido's territory.
Watching the broadcast from the Transponder Snail, Kaido tossed aside the wine jug in his hand.
His face was filled with seriousness.
This was the first time since establishing himself in Wano that he had shown such an expression.
"Renji, was it?"
Kaido searched through his memories.
Soon, he remembered the man who had captured Jack.
"So it was him."
Kaido spoke softly.
"It seems Whitebeard found himself a truly remarkable successor."
"Governor-General."
At that moment, Jack spoke from below with a solemn expression.
"Should we call Queen back?"
"No need."
Kaido thought for a moment before answering.
"Although the Whitebeard Pirates escaped from the Marines, they still suffered heavy losses."
"If we occupy a few of their islands now, that's just normal territorial conflict."
"They won't have the energy to deal with us after fighting the Marines."
"This loss is something they're going to swallow whether they like it or not."
Marineford.
Watching the Whitebeard Alliance Fleet and the Impel Down escapees sail away triumphantly, the Marines finally stopped their pursuit.
There was no longer any point in continuing the chase.
Once the enemy entered the New World, the Marines themselves might instead become targets for every major force there.
"How is this possible…?"
"We actually lost?"
The Marines had fallen into despair.
That feeling of giving everything they had, only to still fail to achieve their objective, was something only those who had experienced it firsthand could truly understand.
"What do we do now?"
The Marines aboard the warships looked at one another helplessly.
None of them knew what to do next.
No orders came from above.
It was almost as if they had been abandoned.
"It's over."
"Completely over."
A small group of Marine Rear Admirals gathered together.
"This defeat will absolutely cause the Marines' reputation and authority to plummet."
"In the future, even missions in the Grand Line and the Four Seas will become much harder."
"Harder?"
Someone immediately responded.
"This war caused nearly fifty thousand casualties."
"You have to understand, these were the absolute elite gathered from all over the world."
"The loss of more than fifty thousand elite soldiers is enough to cripple the combat strength of many Marine regions for a long time."
"The number of criminals and new pirates will skyrocket from now on."
Compared to the lower ranks, the higher-ranking Marines remained much calmer.
Everyone above the rank of Vice Admiral had been gathered together by Sengoku.
"Fleet Admiral Sengoku…"
Aokiji looked at the visibly exhausted Sengoku and hesitated to speak.
"You don't need to worry about me."
Sengoku gave Aokiji a reassuring look.
"With my status, there's no way I'll lose my life over this."
Sengoku sounded very relaxed when he said it.
But everyone present understood the truth.
Not losing his life was already the best possible outcome.
This defeat had destroyed the prestige of the entire Marine organization.
From now on, they likely would never see Sengoku standing at the top of the Marines again.
On the Grand Line, more than a dozen ships sailed toward the New World.
They were the Whitebeard Alliance Fleet and the Impel Down escapees who had successfully escaped Marineford.
At this point, Ivankov and Inazuma had already departed together with the Newkama from Level 5.5 of Impel Down.
Jinbe and Crocodile had also left.
And with them, they had taken many of the Impel Down prisoners as well.
Luffy, Buggy, and the others planned to return to their own pirate crews and did not remain for long.
Some prisoners who still had people or places they cared about also chose to leave.
Combined with those who had died at Marineford, the once mighty force of twenty thousand Impel Down prisoners had now dwindled to just over a thousand people.
Still, this result was already quite good.
After all, if one spoke strictly of headquarters personnel, the Whitebeard Pirates themselves only numbered around sixteen hundred members.
And the prisoners who stayed behind were all people without attachments, as well as relatively powerful fighters.
Most importantly.
They would become Renji's own crew members.
Considering Renji's current identity and status, he had now obtained the greatest force and influence within the Whitebeard Pirates aside from Whitebeard himself.
Whitebeard Pirates, aboard the Moby Dick.
Whitebeard sat at the bow of the ship.
His condition was far from good.
The moment they escaped danger, Marco had immediately arranged for him to be placed on IV drips.
As for Renji.
His exhaustion was even worse.
The moment the Whitebeard Alliance Fleet and the Impel Down prisoners escaped danger, he had collapsed unconscious.
Marco had already arranged for him to be moved into a cabin, with three nurses assigned to take turns caring for him around the clock.
"This really feels like a dream…"
On the deck of the ship, those who still had strength left were steering the vessels.
The rest sat around talking.
The battle at Marineford had truly been earth-shaking.
And somehow, they had survived it.
If there was any event in the world worthy of being written into history, then this war absolutely deserved a major place within it.
The Marines being defeated was not something entirely unimaginable.
Incidents like that happened every year.
But what they defeated was not just some ordinary Marine force.
They had charged directly into Marine Headquarters itself, into Marineford, under the Marines' own trap and overwhelming pressure.
And then defeated them there.
Simply surviving such an event was already enough to earn the title of legend.
"You have no idea. Earlier, I charged straight into the Marine ranks and slaughtered my way through seven times!"
"If not a hundred Marines died by my hand, then at least dozens did!"
"And that's impressive?"
"I formed a battle formation with a few brothers and charged into the Marine army like a meat grinder!"
"Everywhere we passed, we swept through them like a hurricane tearing through fallen leaves!"
Compared to the Marines' fifty thousand casualties, the Whitebeard Alliance Fleet and the Impel Down prisoners had suffered even greater losses.
Together, they had lost nearly sixty thousand people.
But since they were the attacking side, such losses were understandable.
At this point, nearly everyone still alive carried some kind of injury.
Many of the cabins on the ships had already been converted into emergency medical wards.
Even so, the pirates remained far more optimistic than the Marines.
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