Chapter 301: Ending, Damage and Work

Chapter 301: Ending, Damage and Work

___________ POV Narration ___________

The cheers of the war's end rang out throughout the remains of the Holy Land.

The entire place was a mess, the World Government's forces were wiped out, and Enel's own were tired, dead or heavily injured.

For the injured, they had the best doctors in the world, including Bonney their very own time machine. But even time could not heal the dead...

The loud cheers following Enel's announcement, there was only deafening silence. At least from the top brass of Enel's army.

The footsoldiers and regular people conscripted in Enel's army continued to celebrate, burning up their weapons and dancing around the fires.

Cooks immediately started making their most extravagant dishes, prepared to feed an army. An army of winners.

The atmosphere spread out across all the islands, as a grand celebration was exactly what they needed after such a stressful situation.

Vegapunk was rather quick in rebuilding Franky's body, and he also helped repair Brook's skeletal body.

Vegapunk himself was celebrating despite having lost one satellite in the process... And that was York, the one that had betrayed them.

It was rather unfortunate, but she would have been executed after being caught anyway, so no tears were shed. She could also still be brought back if needed.

As long as the Punk Records were intact, no Vegapunk Satellite could ever truly die.

And the Punk Records were still sitting very well on the Thousand Sunny, as the Mad Scientist had already become a member of the Straw Hats.

In general, the Straw Hats did not really incur any losses...

Well, Ussop had lost his father, but he decided to bottle up his grief for now and celebrate their hard-fought victory.

He was among the many who had decided to do so for now, to enjoy the sweet taste of victory before feeling the bitter aftertaste of the price of victory...

But the leaders of the army were not going to be among those enjoying the celebrations.

Instead, their job was a lot more grim... Counting the deceased and planning for the future.

Their table and war room had now moved into the one building within the Holy Land that was still barely standing. The building was previously occupied by the Elders and IMU.

They had slapped their table right in front of the broken-down staircase leading up to the empty throne.

Occupying enemy territory and taking advantage of the chilling silence of the battlefield, they had decided to have their meeting there.

The losses they had incurred were great. But what could they have done differently?

If only Enel and Luffy had gone head-first into the battle, they would have been overwhelmed by the World government's forces alongside IMU.

Enel's army was conscripted and built for a reason, and the losses they had incurred felt like they had all been necessary... Yet they also felt avoidable.

"We were too unprepared... We may have all squabbled at the same table, but not one of us was prepared to work alongside the other." Akainu sighed as he looked at the empty spot to his side.

Aokiji. He was a man of few words, a man who always lived his life trying to live up to the expectations of others, few times did he do things as he truly wanted.

His powers were monumental in keeping the World Government's forces at bay. It was monumental at keeping casualties low against the pacifists, against the recording of Poseidon that the World Government employed.

Hell, he was the only reason why Enel's hydrogen bomb didn't kill off half their army.

But, in his tiredness, he had not been able to protect himself against the mother flame.

He was not the only one to fall there. Tokikake, Gion, and even Tsuru had lost their lives. Around a thousand regular marines had fallen as well. Those were just the losses among the marines.

The Revolutionaries had lost thousands more, same for the pirates.

Many of Whitebeard's children and commanders were slain in the same place. The only survivors of the Mother Flame from the sea level were Ace, and Haruta, the youngest of Whitebeard's commanders, who only survived because Jozu shielded him with his diamond body.

Jozu was burned to a crisp, unfortunately, same for any other unfortunate soul to have been in front of the Mother Flame that fateful moment.

"This is why I tried to avoid this war my entire career... Such massive loss of life is simply unavoidable during a war." Sengoku sighed as he rubbed his white goat's back.

He looked at the two empty seats near him at the table.

Zephyr and Tsuru. They had been Sengoku's friends and comrades for as long as he could remember. Now? They both passed away. Both of their bodies were too desecrated for even a proper burial to be held.

Garp was the same as him. He grieved everyone who had passed away, especially Aokiji, who had been his pupil at one point.

On the other side of the table, Dragon now stood alone. Kuma and Sabo were off celebrating while they could. However, the Revolutionary Leader could not follow their lead.

The Revolutionary Army was not just an organization to him, they were a group of friends that founded an insurgency to win back the world from oppressors.

Losing a single person was painful for him, but losing so many? It was just downright depressing.

Francisco and Shiki were also not in a celebratory mood. Whitebeard's seat was now empty, and Marco stood behind it with a grave expression.

Ace was too depressed to even attend the meeting, let alone celebrate and Luffy had gone off to comfort him and help break him back out of his depressive state.

"That might be for the best... The Marines have a low reputation right now, whilst the Revolutionaries are the opposite. It may be for the best if Dragon is the public head of the marines for now." Enel also rubbed his chin as he spoke out.

The merger between the Revolutionaries and the remainder of the marines would create a significant enough force to deter most greedy contenders for the throne of the world.

Justice and order could prevail if they worked together.

Akainu looked at Dragon for a second, his eyes narrowed. But he ended up just sighing and nodding along.

He may have distrusted the Revolutionaries at some point, but they were comrades in arms now. There was no point in doing so.

In the first place, the Revolutionaries were only ever against the World Government, not the Marines themselves, so Akainu could forgive any past transgressions easily.

"Now that's settled... What about the Emperors in this room?" Francisco nodded and looked at everyone around them.

"I will continue to look over my territory, take care of my people and make sure nothing bad happens there." Big Mom was the first to speak out, the others only nodded when hearing her.

"I shall pick up Pops's mantle, and lead my remaining brothers to secure his territories. We'll try to keep the peace." Marco also spoke up, still standing by his father's chair, not sitting down.

He had big shoes to fill, but he was willing to put in the work. The strength of his awakened devil fruit would certainly come in handy.

"I will also ensure that nothing happens in my territories." Shanks sighed as he crossed his arms and looked to the side, where Mihawk just nodded, silently agreeing to help his friend.

"I'll take over Kaido's territories in the new world and keep the peace there, I guess...

Not much else for me to do, unless Captain has any other suggestions?" Shiki the Golden Lion also seemed to have his future planned out for the most part, despite looking to Enel for agreement.

Francisca was not even brought into question. He was always going to stand by Enel's side, no matter what happened or what the Sky King decided to do.

"Good... So the balance in the New World will remain mostly unchanged." Sengoku nodded, rubbing his beard.

"Well, it's bound to be much calmer. There won't be any clashes or territorial wars. We're all brothers and sisters in arms now." Shiki smiled as he spoke out, he looked at his comrades with a smile, which was returned in kind from his fellow Emperors.

No one was against the Golden Lion becoming an Emperor, it was just a natural step forward. He certainly had the strength to back up his title.

"Good... But we will need to establish some sort of central government. We don't want to be disorganized right now." Sengoku, once more, looked at the only person in the room who could decide such things.

"Well, I believe that the time for a ruling class has passed us.

Any remaining World Nobles will be charged and persecuted for their crimes, there will no longer be a king of the world... It's better if this is run like a republic."

The Sky King had not given much thought to what would happen afterwards. He had been too worried about the process, but he believed they could work it all out.

"A republic?" Garp tilted his head, a question mark almost popping out of his skull.

"Different institutions and kingdoms working for the good of the people and voting on policies and rules that the other bodies need to follow." That was how the Sky King explained it, not a fully accurate depiction of a republic, but it was what he wanted to achieve.

Everyone nodded when hearing that, it really was the best possible strategy that any of them could think up, at least it helped them avoid making the mistakes of the past.

"And what do we do with that?" Kizaru turned his gaze towards the empty throne currently still in the room with them.

"... We could keep it as a reminder of our past mistakes," Fujitora muttered as he grasped his sheathed blade.

"That's what it was initially meant to be. An object to signify that there was no one ruler to the world... But that didn't last for long throughout the ages." Enel slowly stood up from his seat and started walking up those ruined stairs.

Everyone looked at him with curious gazes, their eyes tracking his every move. Some feared for a moment that Enel would sit down on the throne, effectively replacing IMU.

But what happened was rather the opposite.

In a flash of light, the throne was vaporized. Enel's finger was pointed towards it, with a slight bit of smoke coming out of it.

"We do not need a symbol to remember history as long as we write everything down properly."

That was the only thing he said. And it was all that the people in the room needed to hear.

"Well, then good people... It's time we get to work. Let's let our comrades enjoy their victory for a bit more though."

_____________________________________________

Heh! One more to go friends!

The end is near!

And plenty of ppl died in the war, not as many as one might think though.

Even with all of the twists and turns, Enel's army still mostly dominated the battlefield.

Sacrifices were still made, but that can't really be helped at this point ;(

I still have to write an epilogue, but tune in tomorrow for the actual final chapter!

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