Fighting Back

"Ah, Conis! To see us off on this journey to rescue our dear Nami and Robin, it's nothing short of amazing that an angel like you would come along." Sanji swooned as the remaining Straw Hat Crew wandered through Lovely Street; After watching Nami, Robin, Chopper and Zoro get taken off towards Upper Yard to be offered up as sacrifices to God Eneru, the remaining members knew that they had to go after them and with luck: Conis was able to provide a boat to take them to what people labeled as God's Territory.

"Y-Yeah, once we find my boat…That should be able to help get you three up to go find the others." Conis mentioned as she glanced around; noticing that a good number of people were giving them a very wide berth or flashing a rather suspicious set of glares at Conis and the group following her.

"Uh…Conis, is this place always so….judgy?" Usopp would ask as he noticed the rather frosty stares from the local populace and even when Morgan stopped to look in the stores, he got curtly nudged back out again with a barely coherent apology.

"You can't really blame them, Usopp…If they believe in this "God Eneru" too, then people are obviously going to talk." Sanji pointed out as he felt a little downtrodden with the fact that a lot of the women treated him with open disdain.

"Here it is, Crow!" Conis announced as she showed the three to the boat that she had set up for them; where there were giant boats that looked like ships on their own with grand figureheads, Crow was about the 3 times smaller with a crow's figurehead; "I know it's not much but if you follow the current up this way, it'll take you to where Nami and the others are." She explained and then offered up a smile to them.

"Conis, this is all amazing….You really went out of your way to do all this for us." Usopp mentioned while thanking her, unaware that someone of the White Berets watched them from afar.

"Just get them on the boat…Don't do anything stupid…."

Sanji would climb in to prepare but noticed that Morgan was eyeing the other citizens around and then looked to Conis who started to pale; "Morgan, what's wrong?"

"Conis, Are you sure that everything's okay? We've opted to leave since that whole White Beret thing, but wouldn't that still put you on the radar to be punished as well for harbouring us?" Morgan asked her with a look that seemed to mix concern with suspicion.

"H-Hey, Morgan…What exactly are you saying? Of course Conis is going to put us on the right path to find Nami and the others." Usopp mentioned, starting to get a little unnerved by the fact that Morgan was acting strangely.

"I….I am okay, I'm just a little anxious to see you all go so soon." Conis tried to shrug off her growing anxieties, knowing that one wrong step could mean trouble.

"What are you doing?! They're on the boat, just send the heretic on his way and away from us!" One of the citizens thought as the sullen silence was deafening.

"Anxious? Ever since we left their house, Conis has been shaking like a leaf and watching us at every turn…I can understand other people getting suspicious of us but Conis knows us somewhat better than they do." Morgan pointed out; "If we go to Upper Yard willingly to help Nami and the others, would you still b-"

"I WAS THE ONE WHO CALLED THE EXPRESS SHRIMP!" Conis blurted out loud for everyone to hear, shocking Morgan, Usopp and Sanji along with making every citizen in the area pale and vanish inside their houses to get away.

"W-What? Conis, what are you talking about?" Sanji asked in confusion as he got worried for Conis.

"That…That thing that took the ship was an Express Shrimp, it's one of God's Messengers and takes people to Upper Yard for Sacrifice…And it's our duty as citizens under the God Eneru's protection that we report all those who would turn against his will and take them to be judged…." Conis kept on talking and collapsed under her own weight as she felt a mix of relief for telling them but also horror at what would come next.

"W-Wait, you did that?!" Usopp questioned her as he started to get anxious and looked around for anyone.

"Stop blabbing, you imbecile! If you keep talking like this, you will be faced with God smiting you!" The Soldier mentally reprimanded her but kept their distance.

"But if it's your duty, then why tell us? You could have easily kept quiet and let us wander without knowing." Morgan pointed out, noting that if she hadn't told them then none of them would've been any the wiser.

"Because I truly don't want to see you die after you protected our home from being assaulted….And if we DID tell you…" Conis sadly confessed as a rumble of thunder would be heard overhead; "Eneru would strike us down for not obeying his wishes…."

"You…"

"You…"

"Idiot!" Morgan yelled at her; "You could've saved yourself if you hadn't said anything! Now you'll be targeted by this Hod too!" He then saw a glimmering light above and realised what was about to happen; He rushed forward at a full sprint towards Conis.

"MORGAN!" Usopp yelled as he saw Morgan rushing suddenly and was ready to jump after him.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" Sanji barked at Morgan since he thought that Morgan was about to do something rash towards Conis and remembering what Robin said about his Devil Fruit being of Wrath meant that he was going to assume the worst.

"BOTH OF YOU STAY ON THE SHIP!" Morgan yelled back to them with a furious sense of desperation as he delivered a powerful shove to Conis as suddenly; a powerful pillar of light flashed down on top of him and he vanished into a flash of light.

The sounds of Sanji and Usopp yelling out for their captain was drowned out by the rumbling lightning as it collided with the ground and bathed the entire square in light.

Once the light died back down, there was a crater where the light had struck and in the centre of it was Morgan who looked charred and broken from getting hit, luckily Conis was shoved out of the way in time to avoid getting hit by it too.

"Mor…."

"MORGAN!" Sanji and Usopp yelled out as they dashed over to examine him and to check him for a pulse.

"Oh this isn't good, this really isn't good…" Sanji muttered to himself as he rushed over to Conis; "What happened?! We saw a light and then this happened!"

"Sanji…."

"God…He heard me and he tried to smite me for defying his will….And now…And now…" Conis mumbled but when she saw Morgan laying on the ground, the guilt piled up and she began to burst into tears for the man who sacrificed himself to save her.

"USOPP! How is he?!" Sanji asked back as he then saw the Sniper's crestfallen face and realised the scope of what happened.

"There's no pulse…He's dead…."

——Meanwhile——

Morgan felt his eyes open as he found himself in a familiar setting; clinging to a wall, staring upwards towards the light and downwards toward the abyss. "I....I'm back here?"

"My my, you certainly can't seem to keep away from this place, can you?" A familiar voice could be heard in Morgan's line of hearing as he looked around.

"You again? But…What was that?" Morgan asked as he reached upward to start climbing again; "I remember seeing a bright light and then everything felt really hot."

"You were struck by a bolt of lightning from above….I hardly think that needs explaining as to how you ended up down here." The Voice continued to say. "As for why I'm here again, that is because Naraka is my home and YOU, my friend; are an interesting case when it comes to the souls that pass through here."

"What..Exactly makes me special? Is it that Devil Fruit in me?" Morgan asked as he stopped climbing briefly to talk but nearly flinched when he saw something crawl along the side of the wall towards him.

Sat near his head was a golden spider that looked like it was cobbled together with clockwork parts and yet still natural; "Not the Fruit itself but it's power itself…The power of a Go-"

"Don't! I've heard enough about that and I don't care if my friends say it! I don't care if a soldier says it and I don't care if the Lord of the Cosmos comes down with a golden scroll to tell it to me in person…I. am not. A God!" Morgan snapped as he glowered at the spider.

"Well, Care or not…You are exactly what you claim you are not…Physically that is…" The Spider pointed out and tapped one of it's legs to Morgan's forehead; "From the day you ate until the day you die…Well…In your case will be never unless you just give up."

"Give up? You mean that I…Can't die?" Morgan asked as that fatal question landed on him; "Is that why I keep feeling…Different?"

"Mhm, You may claim that you are not a God but I can assure you that your body does not lie. As a God yourself, you are not bound to the Mortal Plane in the same way that most other people do; You can be poisoned, stabbed and incinerated beyond all measure but you will always come back if you have a clear goal in mind…Which you clearly do." The Spider explained; "The only way that you may die for good is if you get killed while you are not angry or if you give up at this point…Let go of the wall and fall to the afterlife…You do that and you'll die for good."

"I understand that part…But I'm not entertaining the idea of using these powers unless I have to." Morgan replied honestly as he returned to climbing while the Spider climbed up it's thread.

"Now, don't you think you're being hasty…And perhaps a little selfish regarding this whole power restriction of your's?" The Spider asked as they followed; "It's now an intrinsic part of you and as a Martial Artist, you can't ignore a part of you to train…Can you?"

Morgan twitched a little in anger but restrained himself; "Perhaps I am…But to become Pirate King and a Martial Artist, there's no shortcuts or easy paths and I won't allow the Fruit to become my crutch…"

The Spider hummed in dissatisfaction; "You truly don't understand, you're like a child who complains that their favourite food isn't the same just because they found a stray vegetable in it."

"Don't you dare dismiss my principles like it was just something so simple!" Morgan yelled at the spider and punched into the wall; "Just because having powers makes it easier doesn't mean that I want it to be like that…."

"Just because you have powers now, that doesn't mean that what you strive for is doomed to fail." The Spider remarked after watching him lash out; "Despite what you think about it, a Martial Artist with your Powers could still become one of the greatest since it is still your own fists…You just happen to have more of them."

Morgan started climbing again as he tried to ignore whatever temptations that the Spider was trying to spin on him; "It still wouldn't be the same…"

"You can keep doing what you're doing but you just have to get creative with the process…And I might know a little something that'll get you thinking differently on the matter~" The Spider remarked playfully like it was teasing him.

"…Fine, What exactly is it?" Morgan relented as he decided to hear out the Spider on his way up to the world of the living.

Hearing that Morgan was at least willing enough to hear them out, they decided to go for the one thing they knew would change things. "What if I told you…There is a Special Martial Art that is nothing like anything you'll find in a standard Dojo."

"….I'm listening…."

——Later——

"…Gan…."

"Morgan…You hear me?"

The Straw Hat Captain stirred slowly as he woke up and began to sit up; "Wh…Where are we?" He asked groggily as he tried to sit up but then found himself getting practically throttled by Usopp who was ugly crying.

"MORGAN! We thought we lost you!" Usopp wailed as he strangle-hugged Morgan.

"Usopp, take it easy….otherwise you'll just kill him again." Sanji grumbled as they rode on what looked like the Milky Road and disappearing under an archway.

"We're in Upper Yard already?" Morgan asked as he tried to get his bearings; "Wait, what happened to Conis?"

"Well, first of all, you've been….Out…Unconscious…Dead for about a couple of hours so we managed to make it up here." Sanji explained as he and Usopp detailed everything that happened since he got hit by "God's Judgement" ranging from The Sky Knight taking her away to be safe and them making their way through obstacles to find themselves now entering the Trial known as the "Ordeal of Spheres".

"So we've essentially started our trail towards Nami and the others? That's good enough for me." Morgan remarked as he stood back up, though he still looked a little scuffed up compared to the charred mess that he was when he got blasted.

"On that, we can agree."

"Ho! Ho-Hoooooo! You three have made a grave mistake of entering the trial of my design…But then again, you made the mistake of showing up to the Upper Yard as you stand now….Heretic~" A rather large and roly poly figure named Satori danced about on top of a bouncing balloon. "I've heard all about you and your added arms, I cannot express enough how disappointed to hear that you've reappeared with the purpose of overthrowing the gracious name of our God Eneru!"

"You're throwing a lot of claims my way and none of them are true! If you can just let us through and move on, we won't have to fight." Morgan tried to reason with Satori but his response came in the form of a ball shooting towards them. Acting on reflex and spoiling for a fight now; Morgan leapt up into the air and swung his leg up to kick the ball away, however he ended up with getting blown up in an explosion and hit the boat again.

"Ho! Ho-Hooooo! Foolish Heretic~ You can't emulate your brutish God of War by smashing everything you see…This Ordeal of Spheres is stuffed to the brim with Surprise Clouds; One could have a bomb inside of it, one could have blades or one could have a bird hiding in it…Who knows? But without the refined skill of Our Mantra granted by God! You hardly stand a-"

"Strong Style Kenpo!"

Satori stood still and remained unfazed; "A Right Hook…."

"HARPOON HOOK!" Morgan yelled out as he thrust a hook forward exactly where Satori predicted. However because the Priest noticed what was coming, he ducked without a problem and thrust his striped cane into Morgan's abdomen to knock him back.

"He blocked it? No…He knew what was coming even though we've never met before…" Sanji thought when he saw Morgan swinging and missing each time against Satori.

"It's time you understood the true scope of what I have in store for you…Then feast your eyes on the Ordeal of Spheres!" Satori gloated and started to knock the Surprise clouds around so that the entire forest was bouncing with lethal orbs of white.

"This is bad…I can't land a hit on him…It's like fighting the old coot all ov-Wait…This Mantra that he keeps talking about….It's similar to my Observation…I just have to expand on it…" Morgan thought to himself as he closed his eyes and focused on the target at hand; With enough of his body pumping with adrenaline, he could see all of the white Orbs around him with different inners: There were some that had a small flame inside of them and some that looked like a cluster of jagged points.

"Starting to get cold feet? I can understand, on my authority as one of God's priests; I deem you guilty for the crimes of Heresy, disturbing our God's peace and threatening the very safety of these lands…Hence I shall execute you myself: SURPRISE CLOUD DRAGON!" Satori declared as he summoned up a long string of clouds with a paper dragon's face; "This Dragon shall strike your unholy abilities down with the force of all things Explody and pointy!"

"Hey Sanji!" Morgan yelled out and gestured upward.

The Cook looked confused but nodded as he began to climb up the trees as Morgan kept Satori's attention and Usopp was watching the canopy for the boat.

"Trying to get your friends to escape and face me alone? Noble…But still unworthy to receive forgiveness." Satori sneered as he lashed the Dragon forward to mow down the Captain where he stood.

"That's what you think…." Morgan smirked as he jumped towards the lunging dragon and then flipped over it but unbeknownst to Usopp or Sanji or even the Priest himself; He grabbed the wire thin controlling thread that connected Satori to the Dragon and gave it an almighty heave. "Now take this back twice over!"

Satori's eyes widened as he saw Morgan's body rocket towards him while pulling on the thread with the Dragon in tow; "H-Hold on, if you strike me at this close of a range; you'll be turned into a pile of ash!" He warned Morgan and used his Mantra to try and see if the captain was bluffing.

…He wasn't…

With an almighty yell, Morgan pulled hard on the string and whipped the Dragon forward; causing him and the Satori to get caught in a giant explosion that sent the priest flying backwards into another Cloud and Morgan to hit a branch but getting caught by it.

"MORGAN!" Usopp yelled out as he tried to use his "Usopp AAAA-AA-AA" on the boat to get back but only succeeded in hanging on.

"Well, it's official…That flash of light turned his brain to mush…" Sanji thought as he kept himself ready.

"Ho, Ho-Hooooo! You imbecile! You truly thought that hitting me with that Kamikaze attack would be enough? That's some stupidity on a divine level!" Satori remarked and laughed hysterically as the brush with death made him equal parts relieved and scared.

"Who…Who said I'm done?" Morgan coughed as he got to his feet; the same markings that adorned his body had returned along with his additional arms; "Because there are some people who will claw their way back from that just to prove a point!" Morgan roared as he rushed forward, utilising his rapid fire punches to land some good damage on Satori while his Mantra was swayed and he had more targets to focus on; "Shin!" He yelled as he landed a swing into the priest's side,

"Sho!" He then landed a stronger punch into Satori's stomach to make him double over.

"Ryu!" Morgan's fist then swung under his chin and started building energy.

"KEN!" He yelled out as he spun his body faster and faster until his twisting uppercut sent Satori flying into the air. "SANJI! HIT HIM NOW!" He yelled out for the Cook atop his perch.

"Got it…Time to grind this meatball back into ground beef!" Sanji snarled as he jumped into the air and started falling back down, spinning his body faster and faster until his body was a spinning wheel; "Concassē!" He yelled out as he then let the heel of his shoe drive down on Satori's head and sent the Priest crashing back down to the ground below.

——Meanwhile with Nami and the others——

"Hey! Robin, are you done yet? We need to keep moving if we're going to avoid getting caught by those priest guys!" Nami yelled out to Robin who was currently making a marking on what looked like a large stone tablet which was red in colour and had flame outlines on it.

"I'm finished so please hold on." Robin mused as she took the tracings of the tablet and pocketed it to carry on with the others.

"You really think it was a good idea to leave Chopper with the ship on his own?" Zoro asked as he followed after Nami.

"He's strong on his own plus someone needs to stay with the ship in case the others comes back." Nami pointed out as Robin soon came up; "What kept you, this jungle's freaky enough without having to worry about Tarzan over here swinging from tree to tree."

"I apologise, though I think you'll find that what I have will benefit the Captain in the long run." Robin mentioned with a soft hum as she placed the rolled up parchment in Nami's hand before they started their trek back to the Going Merry.

Since they had split off from the ship, Nami and the others managed to discover that Upper Yard was more than just your typical island and it had actually been a part of Jaya several hundred years ago. "Honestly if what Cricket said was true and this City of Gold does exist, we'll all be set for life~!" Nami was grinning from ear to ear as more and more of the story was proving itself to be more than just a fairy tale.

"HEEEEEEY! NAMI! ROBIN! Your knight in shining armour has returned!" Sanji yelled out once he saw the familiar mop of orange hair and the Merry in the distance.

"See? I told you they would be fine~" Robin would point out as she helped the others to navigate back across and to reconvene about what they had found.

"So you guys not only found out that this whole place was just the other half of Jaya…But you also found God?!" Usopp was still struggling to understand, then again it was difficult for him to accept what had happened back in the Ordeal of Spheres.

"Chopper's currently patching him up but turns out, he was that Sky Night that helped us when we first got here." Zoro mentioned as he leaned to the side, "All while fighting off a priest of his own."

"Chopper, that's seriously amazing!" Morgan complimented the Doctor with a grin as he felt more relieved that they were safe.

"S-Shut up, you godly idiot! I don't wanna hear about your praise, you no good puncher!" Chopper began his usual happy dance as he got issued his compliments.

"You said you found something as well, didn't you Nami?" Sanji asked as he dished out stew for everyone.

"Actually…Robin gets the credit for coming across it but it should be able to help us with thing around here…Or more specifically…With Morgan." Nami explained before handing over the paper to Morgan as he started to read.

"The Secrets of Mantra and The Way of Asura no Ken…You said you found this in the Jungle on it's own?" Morgan asked as he read what he could from it; "It looks like…A Martial Arts scroll…Though it's incomplete…." He mused to himself as he kept reading.

"That's because Eneru had it cast out like so." Gan Fall mentioned as he stepped out from the inside of the ship; "If you would like, young man…I can help you with knowing the full picture on this…Considering what I heard from those two that you rescued."