There—it was the exact spot where he had once been stomped on by Kuro.
Kyle bent down, bringing his face close into Morgan's field of view, revealing a smile full of unsettling meaning.
"Marine Morgan, how long do you plan to slumber in your old dream?"
"Look at yourself…"
"A dignified Marine branch captain, so easily brought to the ground by just two pirates!"
"Do you really think someone like you could have possibly defeated a pirate like Kuro, who had roamed the seas for years?!"
"Have you still not seen the truth of who you are?!"
Kyle's words were like the devil's whisper, echoing by Morgan's ears.
But Morgan, still lost in a pleasant dream, was not so easily awakened.
Still, that was fine...
Kyle had plenty of time.
If someone pretending to be asleep won't wake up—then Kyle would beat them until they couldn't pretend anymore!
Crack!
Kyle suddenly exerted force, kicking directly at Morgan's lower jaw.
In an instant—
The metal jaw, embedded deep into his flesh, was wrenched loose slightly!
"Aaaaagh!!"
The pain of torn flesh forced a sharp, guttural scream from Morgan.
But Kyle seemed unfazed by the heart-wrenching cry, asking calmly:
"Answer me."
"What's 1000 minus 7?"
Morgan, writhing in pain, had no intention of answering.
But then—another wave of searing pain shot through his nerves.
Kyle had stomped on his metal jaw again, ripping out more flesh.
Kyle asked once more, in a whisper:
"What's 1000 minus 7?"
"It's... it's 993..."
Morgan gasped for air, trembling with fear as he looked up at Kyle's foot on his face, and began answering.
But Kyle showed no mercy.
Without pause, he stomped on Morgan's jaw again, and asked:
"993 minus 7 equals what?"
"..."
"...986..."
"...979..."
"...972..."
With each vicious kick to his jaw, Morgan numbly responded, his voice soaked in pain.
Eventually—
With a final loud clang, Morgan's metal jaw was completely knocked off, crashing to the ground.
Kyle finally stopped.
At this point, Morgan's face was a bloody mess.
Missing his jaw, he looked less like a man and more like a creature from a horror film—a zombie bathed in gore.
Yet...
Tashigi, standing off to the side, looked down at the battered Morgan, and didn't feel afraid—only pity.
Several times, she had wanted to tell Kyle to end it already—give Morgan a clean death, rather than this torment.
But in the end, she swallowed her words.
Because during that earlier exchange, she'd picked up on something strange.
Maybe… Captain Kyle had his own reason for doing this.
Timidly, she thought this, as her mind drifted back to the newspaper photo of Kyle pointing a gun at her own head.
Thinking of that moment, she shuddered violently.
Her smooth, pale feet involuntarily stepped back—away from Kyle.
Yes...
No wonder he was a special agent under the Fleet Admiral.
So calm and dignified most of the time—
But the moment he got serious, he became more terrifying than the devil himself!
"Where… am I?"
In a daze, Morgan felt as if he had fallen into some bizarre otherworldly space.
The sky churned in bloody waves, and the ground was a darkness that seemed to swallow everything.
Everything felt suffocatingly strange.
Then—
He suddenly found himself aboard a ship.
A Navy warship, deck drenched in blood and corpses.
Morgan saw...
A man in a pitch-black pirate captain's coat standing with one foot on the chest of a Marine soldier, wearing a smirk of disdain and contempt.
The Marine's face burned with hatred—his eyes ablaze with fury.
"Who… is that?"
Morgan's head throbbed.
Two clashing sets of memories began colliding in his mind, sending his thoughts into chaos.
"Aaahhhh—!"
He clutched his head and stumbled backward, trying to flee from it all.
However...
Just as he felt he could no longer endure the psychic torment and tried to escape—
A cold, emotionless voice echoed through the blood-red sky.
"Answer me."
"What's 1000 minus 7?"
"...993..."
A violent shudder coursed through Morgan.
He instinctively replied.
And just like that, the mental torment eased—his mind began to refocus.
He finally recognized it—
The Marine lying on the ground… was himself.
"986."
And the pirate stepping on him… the one who'd attacked the base—
No, wait!
"979!"
That man… was Kuro!
"972!"
He was…
Captain Kuro of the Black Cat Pirates!!!
"965!"
Wait a minute—
Hadn't he already killed Kuro?
Then who was this Kuro stepping on him now?!
"958…"
At that moment, memories surged like a tidal wave, pounding through Morgan's mental world.
The scene unfolded further.
A man appeared before him—
Wielding rings, with a strange mustache, and wearing heart-shaped sunglasses.
It was Jango, the hypnotist under Kuro's command.
Morgan watched as his disheveled self was hypnotized by Jango, then went on to kill a "Kuro" and reported the incident to the Marines.
Everything that followed—he had truly experienced.
He was rewarded with the rank of Captain and became the commander of the G153 branch.
After that…
He changed—growing arrogant, egotistical, and tyrannical.
Under his rule, once peaceful Shells Town descended into suffering.
"So… this is the real truth?"
The bloody sky split open, and a pale light—not warm, but cold and distant—shone into the despairing world inside Morgan's mind.
The dark realm collapsed—
Dragging Morgan, helpless and broken, into an endless abyss.
Reality.
Lying in a pool of blood, brutally beaten unconscious by Kyle, Morgan slowly opened his eyes.
Pain throbbed from his missing jaw, making him wince.
But the pain in his spirit was even more unbearable.
Even though he now understood what had happened—
He couldn't tell which Morgan was the real one.
The just, passionate Marine?Or the tyrant drowned in power?
This question was too difficult—he had no answer.
Just then, a voice cut through the silence and yanked him back to reality.
"Yo~ You're up already?"
Kyle looked down at Morgan, whose life had just been saved by Tashigi's healing.
With amused eyes, he smiled lightly:
"Looks like we can resume your treatment, huh?"
Yes—
Treatment!
To Kyle, Morgan was just a patient with a mental illness.
And the illness?
Simple—
He'd lost the memory of what Kuro had done to him!
As for amnesia?
Kyle's approach was clear...