章 50: Unaccountable Losses

[ Third Person POV ]

Mariejois

The Five Elders were once again engaged in another intense debate on how to move forward from this. It had been a week since the attempt to perform a Buster Call on Falke Island was executed.

The losses they had after this incident were just too much for them. The World Noble's bodies who were in Falke Island were never recovered. Moreover, the agents that were sent to Falke Island to recover their bodies never reported back; they were assumed as dead.

Thet wasn't all, the marine fleet that was sent to perform the Buster Call on Falke Island were all destroyed; save for the one fleet that Admiral Zephyr had returned with. Asides from the marines that Admiral Zephyr had managed to save from the stormy sea, the rest of the marines were all either missing in action or dead.

The World Nobles were angry, the marines were angry, and more importantly; Whitebeard was angry. Well, angry would be an understatement over what had just happened. Whitebeard was furious, and what wasn't helping was the fact that Big Mom had just started attacking Marine fleets.

Objectively, what the World Government had planned had failed on all levels. Tarnishing its reputation along with the Marines. Normally, they would have been able to hide this from the world if it wasn't for the fact that on the next day, The World Economic News had already released a story on this incident.

What had people concerned over the World Government wasn't the fact that the Celestial Dragons had paid Falke Island a visit. It was the fact that they had attempted to attack Falke Island and failed.

This was causing a wide spread of fear of the Whitebeard Pirates. One pirate had not only managed to kill six World Nobles, but also destroy a whole fleet of Marine ships and defeat an Admiral! This was unheard of, you could only count on your fingers the number of people who could perform the same actions.

Thus, leading to the current predicament that the Five Elders were debating on. How would they respond in return to this predicament? Saint Warcury began with another proposal.

" The current situation at hand calls for appeasement, the Marines were already skeptical of our command to do a Buster Call on Falke Island. We can send them some more funding to build more ships to replace the ones lost during the operation." The other Elders nodded on in agreement.

"I will go and speak to the World Nobles unsatisfied with the results of the operation. It's about time they learn their lesson on authority." Saint Nusjuro added to it.

Saint Ju Peter seemed more dissatisfied with the situation more than the other elders. He promptly let out a sigh before asking, "Are you sure that my proposal wouldn't have been effective? We sent one Admiral out there and look what had happened."

Saint Mars promptly scolded him after he asked that question by saying, "If anything, that proposal would have tarnished our reputation even more than this outcome. What would have happened if Garp and Sengoku lost to him? For the first time we didn't even know that there was a World Economic News ship on the scene."

The Five Elders suddenly became quiet to the name of the World Economic News. Thanks to them, the current situation was at hand, and there was nothing that they could have done. Suddenly, Saint Jaygarcia Saturn made another proposition.

"I propose that we take control of the World Economic News. They gave us quite some trouble when we had told them to bury everything concerning Rocks. They have been getting quite bold recently, we cannot let them go unchecked." The other Elders accepted the motion and it was passed.

However, a more pressing matter remained unsettled; what would they do to appease Whitebeard?

"I propose that we leave it to the marines. The marines would never agree to give Whitebeard a peace offering as they are marines and Whitebeard is a pirate. Let them handle it, also, I believe that it would be a great oppurtunity to test out their new talent." Saint Marcus Mars proposed.

"Have you forgotten that we are trying to maintain balance in the world? Letting the Marines handle it would be equivical to starting a war between them and the Whitebeard pirates." Saint Warcury opposed. The other Elders also rejected the motion.

"This is a situation that requires delicate manipulation. It would cause more of an uproar if we decided to attack them after what just happened. Instead, let us wait and see what the Whitebeard Pirates will do. Then we can make a plan as a response to it, in the meantime, we can just increase the bounty of Codename: Storm Dragon." Saint Nusjuro proposed.

The other Elders agreed and the motion was soon passed. The World Government agents had already begun to make a bounty for the Storm Dragon. Buying pictures off the World Economic News to get a more clearer picture of him.

Marineford

When Zephyr had returned, he immediately took some time off to be with his wife. His wife was currently with child, and it seemed that this was the only thing that would keep his anger at bay. What could the higherups do other than accept?

Morale was at an all time low for the marines. What the Storm Dragon had did at Falke Island was heard and seen far and wide across the New World, it even managed to leak into the Grandline and also the Four Blues.

Pirates, on the other hand, were getting more and more rowdier even before the attack on Falke Island. However, this news just made them even more bolder than they were before. They also started to admire and fear the New World.

This only caused more pressure on Admiral Kong, who was already tired from sorting out the reports from Falke Island. He had just received news from the Five Elders that they would be sending more funds to replace the lost fleet.

Moreover, he was ordered to remain on standby to see how Whitebeard would react. Instead, increasing the bounty that they had given to the Storm Dragon before. Kong accepted the orders without complaint.

His main focus at the time was to quell those rowdy pirates who seemed to keep spawning out of nowhere. Although Whitebeard's retalitation was a pressing matter, it would only cause more stress to Kong if all he worried about was just that.

Garp was already on the chase after Roger, who seemed to have started looking after the Poneglyph after a brief dissapearance. Sengoku was still chasing the Donquixote family, an activity that would later rest on Tsuru as Kong would order Sengoku to return to base.

That would be later, for the moment. Zephyr was currently in Marineford with his wife, that would be more than enough protection.

Kong, who had realized this way before, continued sorting out his paperwork. There were many marines who's lives were lost within the incident. He needed to send money to their families and organize a proper funeral procession for them, which would happen in another week.