The silence after the clash felt heavier than the fight itself.
Dust hung in the air of the Marine headquarters, drifting lazily through shafts of sunlight where the walls had cracked and the windows rattled loose in their frames. Unconscious Marines lay scattered across the floor. Some groaning, some completely unconscious. Broken stone and splintered wood told the story of a battle that had ended far faster than anyone expected.
Morgan knelt at the center of it all, eyes growing sharper with each ragged breath.His massive shoulders sagged beneath the weight of his coat. His axe-hand rested uselessly against the floor, scraping faintly as the muscles in his arms twitched. His breathing came in harsh, uneven gasps. His lungs burned as his body tried to remember what it felt like to be fully in control of itself .
His eyes, once wild and burning with a borrowed fanaticism, were focused now. Within them, there was a sense of guilt and horror slowly forming.
"…What…" he rasped.
His voice sounded wrong to his own ears. No longer the booming, tyrannical bark Shells Town had learned to fear, it now seemed rough even to him. It was stripped bare, threaded with disbelief.
He lifted his head slowly.
The first thing he saw was the wreckage.
Cracked stone. Blood smears that hadn't fully dried. Marines sprawled across the floor, his Marines. Men he'd trained. Men he'd punished. Men he'd allowed to become monsters.
The second thing he saw was a boy in a straw hat.
Luffy stood a short distance away, hands resting loosely at his sides, green sparks still fading from his skin. His posture was relaxed, but his eyes were sharp. He was still watchful, alert and assessing him like a potential threat.
Beside him stood a young woman gripping a staff, breathing steady but alert. A swordsman with three blades watched from the side, gaze keen and unreadable. A pink-haired kid hovered near the doorway, stiff with tension.
Morgan swallowed.
Memories crashed into him like a tidal wave.
Not the clean, sharp recollections of orders and reports, but the feelings. Rage without cause. Satisfaction at fear. A distant voice in his head whispering that mercy was a weakness. That pain was order. That obedience to him was obedience to justice. His stomach twisted into a painful knot.
"…I…" His jaw trembled beneath the metal plate bolted into place. "I said… those things."
No one interrupted him.
Luffy tilted his head slightly. "Yeah. You did."
Morgan's hand clenched, the axe-hand gouging the floor again as his muscles tensed. It wasn't the senseless rage from before, it was a reflex. His own body acting on the disgust he felt for himself.
"…Then I deserve to be chained."
The words hit the room harder than any blow.
Zoro's brow furrowed. Nami's grip tightened. Koby sucked in a quiet breath.
Luffy studied Morgan for a long moment.
"…Maybe," he said carefully. "But not like that."
Morgan looked up at him, eyes bloodshot and raw. "You don't understand," he growled. "If even half of what I remember doing is real-"
"It is," Luffy said simply.
Morgan flinched.
Luffy continued, voice calm but unyielding. "But it wasn't all you."
That gave Morgan pause.
Slowly, painfully, he forced himself to his feet. His movements were stiff, like his body hadn't quite caught up with his mind yet. When he stood, he was still imposing. Tall, broad, scarred, but something fundamental had shifted.
The tyrant was gone.
What remained was a soldier.
"…Years ago," Morgan began, staring past them all, "I was sent on a mission."
His voice steadied as he spoke, grounding itself in memory.
"The Black Cat Pirates. Reports of massacres. Villages burned. Entire families butchered." His jaw clenched. "The Marines had been slow to respond. Too slow."
Zoro's eyes sharpened. "Kuro."
Morgan nodded once. "That was the name."
The room grew still.
"We cornered them on an island near the East Blue shipping lanes," Morgan continued. "My unit was confident. Too confident. We underestimated them."
His axe-hand curled. "We underestimated him."
Nami frowned. "Who?"
Morgan's eyes darkened.
"Django. Vice-captain. A performer. A hypnotist."
Luffy's expression shifted subtly.
"…Hypnosis," he echoed.
"Yes," Morgan said bitterly. "He looks like a joke. We took his antics as just that, a performance. It was real control. He waited until we engaged, until the smoke and shouting drowned out reason."
His breathing grew heavier.
"He turned my men on each other. Had them believing they were fighting pirates when they were cutting down their own comrades." Morgan's voice dropped. "I watched a sergeant I'd trained for years slit his partner's throat while laughing."
Koby paled.
"I resisted," Morgan went on. "Because I was angry. Because I hated pirates. Because I'd already buried my home, and now I would have to add my men to the list of people I'd dug graves for."
Silence pressed in.
"My island," Morgan said quietly. "My family. Marauding pirates. No flags. No grand cause. Just hunger and cruelty. It was just me and my infant son after that."
Zoro looked away.
"I joined the Marines to stop that from ever happening again," Morgan said. "To protect people who couldn't protect themselves."
His shoulders sagged.
"Django couldn't break me completely. Not then. So he planted something instead."
Luffy's eyes narrowed. "A suggestion."
Morgan nodded. "Layered. Reinforced. 'Pirates deserve no mercy.' 'Fear is order.' 'Justice must be absolute.'"
Nami exhaled sharply. "That explains…"
"The gaps," Luffy finished. "Why your body was fighting but your mind wasn't there."
Morgan clenched his fists. "When I woke up, my men were dead. My hand was gone. My jaw shattered." His eyes flicked to the metal plating bolted into his face. "And the voice was still there."
He laughed once, a dry and hollow sound. "I thought it was just… me."
Zoro spoke at last. "So you weren't weak."
Morgan met his gaze.
"You were caged."
The word landed with quiet finality.
Morgan closed his eyes.
"…Yes."
He inhaled deeply.
Then, straightened.
When he turned back to the room, something iron-hard had settled into his expression, not rage, but resolve.
"Marines," he barked, voice carrying down the halls.
Those still conscious stiffened.
"Medical teams. Now. Treat everyone. Even the prisoners."
A murmur rippled through the building.
Morgan turned, scanning the room with ruthless clarity. He pointed with his axe, singling out marines with each gesture.
"You. You laughed during public punishments."
"You. You took bribes from merchants."
"You. You turned your back when civilians begged for help."
Each named Marine froze.
"And you," Morgan continued, voice lowering, "looked away because you were afraid."
He paused, then nodded once.
"You will stand trial. All of you."
The room erupted into movement.
Marines who had flinched earlier, those who'd looked ashamed, stepped forward without hesitation, weapons trained not on civilians, but on their former peers.
Morgan exhaled.
"If you flinched when I shouted 'justice' while extorting civilians," he said grimly, "you're still fit to wear the coat."
Luffy smiled faintly. The burgeoning crew followed Morgan out to the courtyard, he paused as he looked up at the gaudy statue he had insisted be raised. Luffy watched as his fists clenched and his shoulders squared.
With a shout, and a fierce backhanded strike, he struck the leg of the statue. Luffy grinned, Koby gaped, Nami and Zoro raised their eyebrows in surprise.
The leg broke easily, chunks of stone flying across the courtyard. Morgan watched in satisfaction as the statue trembled, swayed, and collapsed to the side, shattering into pieces.
Silence settled over the courtyard once again. Before Luffy or any of his friends could say anything, Morgan's head tilted to the side slightly, a strange look settling on his face.
"Have any of you seen my son?"
Luffy burst out laughing as Nami and Koby turned their heads away, whistling, trying their best to look innocent.