The air was thick with tension and could be cut with a knife as Kuro backed off after kicking Usopp into the dirt, leaving the Meowban Brothers to steady their legs. With only one option available to them, Siam and Butchie rushed Zoro and began their assault while Morgan rushed forward to close the distance between him and Kuro.
"Don't forget, you and I have some qualms to fix! Swift Style Kenpo: Crane Sweep!" Morgan yelled as he launched a flying spin kick towards Kuro but all he succeeded in hitting was air as the butler vanished.
"You make yourself sound stronger when you name your strikes but you make yourself predictable!" Kuro said to taunt him as he lunged forward with his claws from behind Morgan.
Morgan would duck under the swing and dodged the claws, before dropping himself down and swinging his leg under the butler to knock him for a stumble before thrusting his palms upwards to hit Kuro's chest.
Kuro staggered back as the wind got knocked out of him but he was losing patience fast as he blinked out of sight once more from Morgan's sight.
"That move is getting real old….I'm gonna need to focus…" Morgan thought to himself as he started using his Observation Haki; it was a hazy image but he could see Kuro rushing back and forth before lunging straight at him. "Are sneak attacks all you're good at, you crappy butler?!" Morgan called him out as he lifted a piece of rock that was the size of his own torso to shield himself from the five blades that threatened to pierce him. Once the claws had sunken in deep, Morgan then dropped the rock and swung an axe kick down on Kuro's trapped hand to both get a hit on him and to break off the blades before following up with a solid punch into the butler's face.
With a grunt of pain and a retract of his hand, Kuro was nursing a throbbing hand that had it's claws snapped down to nothing; "You act so much better then me….But you're just some over pumped up fledgling who thinks he can tackle a crew as grand and as notorious as mine?" he growled as he watched one of the lenses in his glasses fall out.
"I don't think it….I know it because how can I call myself a future King of the Pirates if I can't even take on a has-been pirate captain?" Morgan retorted with a smirk, bringing a tic mark up on Kuro's head and dredging up more fear from the other pirates.
"You fell under Jango's hypnosis…that's not exactly a kingly quality, adding to the fact that from what I can see; your crew is comprised of what….two other people? A thief and a former bounty hunter plus you accept help from a chronic liar who is nothing but a kid playing pretend!" Kuro retorted back at him, wanting to get into Morgan's head and throw him off; "Because let me warn you now, brat…this sea is treacherous even without other pirates who are bigger and more dangerous then the likes of you, with it being much, much worse in the Grand Line." He continued to spin the yarn and smirked; "Once this punch happy idiot learns just how out of his depth he is, he'll be too scared to even think straight."
Morgan thought on it but was starting to get annoyed by Kuro's insistence on trying to push his buttons; "Is it any better than what you did? Making a big name for yourself and quitting because you were too scared by the competition…"Oh boo hoo! I set out on the sea so I could be a pirate and I have all these big plans but the Marines keep harassing me!", that's par for the course when it comes to a pirate." Morgan sniped at him, only serving to make the former pirate growl in anger.
"I have a plan for everything…and this plan will give me peace of mind…living in seclusion; Miss Kaya's fortune and her mansion adds to it even more after these years of servitude." Kuro explained and instinctively pushed up his glasses.
"Oh really? And how exactly did it feel for you to accept being like that? The proud Captain Kuro of a Thousand Plans stooping himself so low to become a butler…scraping and bowing, The Captain Kuro who made all those master plans being diminished to serving someone else's whims…Becoming the very tool that you consider your crew to be." Morgan smirked as he could see Kuro's expression darken and grow more murderous.
"Is that guy crazy?!"
"He's gonna get murdered before we do!"
The other pirates were slowly dreading what their captain was going to do next as they could practically feel his murderous intent skyrocketing, but that dread quickly turned to outright fear and panic as they saw Kuro slump his shoulders and start swaying back and forth.
Zoro had cut down a hypnotised Butchie when he started seeing the other pirates paralysed in place and turned to see Morgan standing off with Kuro. "What's he doing to get them all scared? He's just swinging around….and with half a claw glove too."
"CAPTAIN!"
"WE CAME TO HELP!"
"USOPP!"
Nearly all of the people present were taken by surprise and even Kuro was snapped from his stupor when he saw Onion, Carrot and Pepper running up along with Kaya.
"Miss Kaya?" Kuro said in surprise as he dipped back into his Klahadore persona; "What are you doing out here? You should be in bed."
Kaya however was conflicted as she looked to Usopp and then to Kuro/Klahadore; "I…I did something wrong…Usopp, I'm sorry that I dismissed you like I did and I should have listened to you." She apologised to Usopp and started to tear up.
"You can't really blame anyone for not believing him if he was lying all the time." Zoro pointed out.
"Kind of ruining the moment right now, Zoro!" Morgan yelled back at him.
"Miss Kaya, you must understand, this rogue was trying to tempt you into trusting him so he could steal your fortune from under you…I've only done what was right and instructed by your parents…I owe them that much." Klahadore started to plead with Kaya as she looked to him before pulling a gun on him.
"I-I saw Merry…He told me everything! How you attacked him and your threat to destroy the village! You…You're not the Klahadore I know…you're not!" She would repeat to herself as she held up the gun in shaky hands.
"Miss Kaya…please listen to me…I wouldn't threaten you under any circumstance…remember all the times that you listened to my stories? How I took care of you when you were sick and when you were sad after your parents died?" Klahadore mentioned softly as he closed the gap.
"Kaya…please don't listen to him!" Usopp would think to himself as he was lacking the energy to get up or even speak out after the injuries he received.
"But…But…" Kaya mumbled as she tried to fight the feelings she felt; feelings of anger that Klahadore betrayed her but also the feelings of how he made her feel better during all that time…
"Just put down the gun, Miss Kaya…Please." Klahadore would say as he slipped off his broken glove and closed his fingers around the barrel of the gun; "I know it's been hard…to cope with your feelings and your loneliness…but it was harder for me all the while." Klahadore said as he was starting to slip from his mask and the gun dropped to the ground, "The feelings that I have long bottled up for three. years, all that time I've served you…humoured you…all for this one. Moment…To kill you." Kuro growled as he was now ready to cut her down and raised his clawed hand.
"KURO!" Usopp yelled out as he picked up the discarded gun and aimed it at Kuro, firing off a shot directly at the butler but his weakened state and his shaking emotions threw him off as the bullet missed.
"Usopp…I seem to recall you hitting me in the face with all your might…remember?" Kuro remarked as he ripped the patch from his cheek and exposed the bruise underneath; "Allow me to return the favour!" he snarled before driving his foot straight into Usopp's stomach and made him double over in pain, sending him into the broken wall.
"MEN! This is a direct order from your…Ca…Captain…" Usopp wheezed as he tried to call out to the kids; "Take Kaya…and run! Get away from here!" Usopp ordered the three boys as they hesitantly took Kaya's hands and lead her into the forest, leaving Kuro with an amused look on his face before giving Jango a tilt of his head to follow after them.
"You put faith in those toddlers that you call crewmates? How careless of you, most crew mates are useful at best…and tools at the worst." Kuro lectured Usopp as he rounded on Usopp and ready to finish him.
"Swift Style Kenpo! Crawling Lizard's Tail!" Morgan yelled out as he made himself known by using a swinging kick on Kuro while he ran along the wall; "Only a sociopath would cast aside his own crew and belittle a braver man's own." Morgan narrowed his eyes as the second lens cracked in Kuro's glasses.
"And you are a naive fool if you think a crew is anything but expendable! They fit a role that is given to them, the only thing I expect of my "crew" is that they follow my plans to the letter…but from what I saw today, they can't even do that." Kuro narrowed his eyes at the pirates like they were disobedient children; "And now it falls to me once more to clean up their mess." Kuro grumbled as he resumed his slump and started to sway; his claws jingling in the air and his eyes glazed over to give himself a demonic appearance of a phantom given flesh.
"SHAKUSHI!" Was the only thing that the pirates could hear before Kuro vanished from his spot; no footprints, no sound, not even a breeze from where he ran to. The other pirates either had started to run for it or they were screaming out; begging for their captain to either spare them or to stop.
Morgan watched in confusion as he activated his Observation Haki once more and tried to look for Kuro: Nothing
"W-We should leave, we need to get out of here no-GAHAOGH!" The first pirate fell after getting slashed by an invisible claw, then another fell and started to spread panic among each other like a growing fire.
"What is this…They're dropping like flies and I can barely see what's happening." Morgan was starting to get unnerved as he could barely make anything out; trying his best to put all his concentration into tracking Kuro however there was one problem with it: At his current level, Morgan's Observation Haki was capable of sensing battle instincts and in certain minute instances he could see emotions, but right now Kuro was moving at a speed where even his Observation couldn't keep track. "Damn it…He's moving too fast for me to make a move, he vanishes any time I can see him…Grandpa…I think I'll take your advice for now." Morgan thought to himself as he closed his eyes and focused.
—8-9 Years back—
"Alright, you little brats….what's the best way to take down an enemy bigger then you?" Garp barked down at two 10 year old kids, being Morgan and Luffy.
"Punch 'em in the jewels." An overeager Luffy yelled out, earning him a Fist of Love; "OW! That hurt, Grandpa!"
"WRONG! A respectable Marine doesn't take the low road! You! Morgan! What's the best way?" The old man turned on the younger Morgan.
"You flip them?" Morgan asked in confusion, both unsure and also not wanting to get bopped on the head too.
"And if they're too heavy for you or too fast?" The older man would inquire, raising an eyebrow; "If you try to then you'll end up squished or YOU'LL get flipped."
"Then…Punch them harder?" Morgan asked, even though Garp was hammering the lessons in; Morgan was still a kid.
"WRONG, WRONG, WRONG!" Garp yelled; "Both of you are missing what I'm telling you, if an opponent is bigger and stronger then you are…then you need to outthink or outmanoeuvre them! Like the light training that I put you through."
"That's you chasing us around the forest to try and hit us, Old Man." Morgan pointed out, remembering the intimidating sight of Garp swinging at them while screaming "LEARN!" at them.
"And you still were able to scurry around them….that's proof enough that you learn!" Garp responded with a proud grin; "And it's "Grandpa", Morgan! Not Old Man!" Garp reprimanded the other boy by tugging on his ear. After he got a response back, Garp then straightened up and stared the two down; "Remember this, study your opponent and figure out his pattern…once you know how he thinks and moves! Then you can use that against him…NOW BACK TO SPARRING!"
—BACK TO THE PRESENT—
Morgan kept his eyes closed as he heard the sounds of blades and the rushing wind more and more clearly, however this focus meant he was keeping still and resulted in him getting slashed up and cut in the result of Kuro's rampage.
"MORGAN, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" Nami yelled at Morgan as she was currently watching this guy who took out several pirates barehanded, just standing stiff as a board in the midst of Kuro's clawing.
"This hurts like hell…Hold out for me, body! I'm getting a clearer picture." Morgan thought to himself as he grit his teeth through the stinging pain of the claws, his Observation slowly getting more focused; whereas before he could only glimpse Kuro before he vanished again, now he was able to see a blur of Kuro moving around at a breakneck speed; "So that's his trick…time to burst the bubble!" Morgan finally braced himself before letting instinct take over: with a lunge forward, he was able to grip Kuro with a bear hug before lifting him off of his feet with the momentum and suplexing Kuro onto the ground with a heavy sounding crash.
Kuro was coughing up blood as Morgan managed to knock him good before he was gripped by the collar and glared down by a heavily bleeding Morgan; "My…My Plan…I WILL NOT LET YOU RUIN MY PLAN!" Kuro wheezed out in a weak shout before he received a headbutt to the face to daze him.
"This is it for your plans…AND for you!" Morgan remarked before rearing his head back to headbutt him once more and knocking Kuro out for good.
The surviving Black Cat Pirates looked amidst each other and then to Morgan with a mixed look of joy and fear; "HE DID IT!" was the rousing cheer that erupted through the group before Morgan staggered to his feet.
"The Hell are you all cheering for?!" Morgan yelled at them as he was starting to sway from the blood loss; "Take your scummy captain and leave!" He barked out at them as he picked up Kuro with his remaining strength and threw him into the crowd; "Never bother this village again!" He barked at them as they ran for the remaining ships and then collapsed onto his back.
"Those were some pretty bold moves you pulled there…how'd you know where he was?" Nami would ask as she climbed up the hill and sat with him.
"Haki or Adrenaline…I 'unno which…" Morgan drawled as he was slowly getting more tired as the rush of energy wore off.
Nami raised her eyebrow and then waited for his response; "Gonna need more than that, Ford…But I'll wait until you can think straight." She snarked at him as she winced from the searing pain in her shoulder. "Though all that talk earlier about Pirates and their crew being more than tools? You're probably the only pirate that thinks like that…Kuro's probably a more standard Pirate then you are in his thinking." Nami mentioned as she grabbed his straw hat before it blew away.
"Yeah well…The Pirates that I know aren't like that so not all of them are that cold-hearted." Morgan said stubbornly as he recalled the kind of crew Shanks had.
"You're a weird guy, Ford…Ever hear that?" Nami quizzed him in an almost playful manner, mentally tracing over the numerous cuts and scratches he suffered because of Kuro.
"Yeah, just now." Morgan snarked back at her before Nami shoved the hat on his face.
"You just have to have the last word, don't you?!" She would grumble and let him go; "Though I guess compared to other pirates…he's not exactly a bad guy." She thought to herself as she was starting to consider some things.
—Hours later after being patched up and feeding—
"You know it's still kinda weird how no one really knows about how close they were to being attacked by pirates." Zoro mentioned as he drained a mug of booze.
"I think it's probably best that we don't let them know, there's no point in causing panic." Nami pointed out as Morgan was finishing off a fish on his plate.
"Plus, who's gonna believe us anyway?" Morgan joked; "We spent time around Usopp, they probably have a different impression of us altogether." he shrugged but then saw Kaya coming in to the diner to meet them.
"It's good to see you've recovered well." Kaya said happily as she then grabbed a chair; "I've come by to thank you for everything, if it wasn't for you helping Usopp then we would all be in trouble..."
"I mean, you are welcome and all but are you sure that you should be out of bed? I thought you were sick." Nami asked Kaya in concern as she remembered Morgan filling them in on what Usopp told him.
"I think that my sickness was tied to the sadness I felt at losing my parents…But after seeing Usopp fighting to live as well as what you three did, I thought it would be time for me to start following the example." Kaya explained as Morgan nodded.
"Once you have something to strive for, that alone can make you all the stronger…trust me, I know." Morgan mentioned to Kaya as she agreed but she clapped her hands together once she remembered what she was there for.
"I know that I can't thank you enough but I seem to remember that Usopp told me about your plight with travel so I wanted to help make things easier for you." Kaya explained as she guided them to the nearby port where Merry was standing next to a large ship with a goat's head.
"Whoa…you're letting us borrow this?!" Morgan asked in both excitement and surprise as he and Zoro looked over the ship while Nami was being told about the ship's details by Merry.
"It's the least that we could do for you, you saved our Lady's life and it would be nothing short of ungrateful if we just let you carry on in a small boat." Merry insisted as he looked back to the ship; "We typically use it for long term travel but after everything that happened, we may need to stay close so we can regroup for a while…We call this ship the "Going Merry"…I trust that you can take good care of it?"
"Don't you worry, I'll make sure these two don't crash it too much." Nami promised but turned back towards the hillside as all of them could hear frightened yelling; Usopp then burst through the trees while being bowled around by a gigantic bag on his back.
"SOMEONONONONONE! PLEASE STOP ME!" Usopp begged as he was about to crash into the ship but was then stopped by Morgan and Zoro holding their boots up as a buffer. "Pshank you…" Usopp muffled under them.
"No Problem." the two said to him as they got him free of the bag; "So what brings you down here? You planning on sailing out too?" Morgan asked Usopp as he climbed aboard the ship.
"Yeah, I figured it was time for me to actually be a real pirate rather then playing at being one…So I'm gonna sail out and make a name for myself as a brave warrior of the sea!" Usopp declared with a dramatic pose, using his slingshot as a scope; "So I guess this means that I'll be running into you guys on the sea some time."
"Well, come on!" Morgan would call out to him as Usopp then started looking confused while Nami and Zoro smirked to each other.
"Come on? But we're going on different ships...Aren't we?" Usopp asked as he gripped his bag, noticing that Kaya was giggling to herself and Merry was smiling.
"He means get on the ship, we are friends right?" Zoro blankly said; "You're part of the crew now Usopp."
Usopp would start to grin widely but started to cry as well as he rushed for the ship to get on; "I graciously accept the position of captain!" He proclaimed with a grin that seemed to put Morgan in annoyance.
"Oi! on this ship, I'm the captain! I'm leading the crew on this!" Morgan would grumble as he helped Usopp get his stuff on the Going Merry.
"You think that he'll be alright with them?" Merry would ask Kaya as she smiled a little at the sight.
"After everything that I've seen, I believe in Usopp and in them…they can help each other." She said confidently; "And it won't be just them making a change…I'm going to start studying, I want to become a doctor."
Merry's smile slowly grew as he realised that Usopp was in good hands and that Kaya would be okay from now on; "It's a fine thing to strive for…and I'll help however I can."