One year later, in Foosha Village, Ace stood in front of a massive iron block. This was his new training equipment. The rocks had become too easy and no longer helped much in training his fists. He needed something harder, and that was iron.
Using a portion of the berries he had saved from selling pelts, along with those he occasionally stole or earned from selling items stolen from rich nobles, and some berries given to him by Foosha Village's mayor, Woop Slap, in exchange for rocks he sold, Ace had purchased this iron block.
"Wow, Ace, you're going to use this iron block to practice your punches now? That's amazing!" said Luffy, jumping around excitedly.
Wood Slap, who was looking at the iron block and at Ace, now 13 years old and taller than most adults in height, muttered, "Another powerful pirate will appear. Let's hope these seas can take it."
As the mayor of the village, he didn't have the best impression of pirates and didn't approve of Ace and Luffy becoming pirates. However, he wasn't Garp, but just an ordinary old man, and he was sure that even a playful punch from either of the two kids would send him to an early grave. So, he could only wail about it.
Makino, a young woman with dark green hair who was the bartender and owner of Partys Bar, came outside with some refreshing lemonade. She handed one to Wood Slap, one to Luffy, who had stopped jumping around, and one to Ace. Before he could take a sip, she asked him, "Are you sure you won't get injured? Iron is much harder than rocks."
"Don't worry, Sister Makino. I am strong, and old man Garp taught me how to punch correctly so I wouldn't get injured," Ace replied. "Did you know the old man trained in his youth by punching ships?"
Makino gasped and said, "Considering he is the hero of the navy, he must have trained very hard."
Luffy, who had overheard this, exclaimed, "What? The old man trained like that? That must be why his fists hurt so much. Then I will use the most powerful ship in the world to train my punches and give the old man a fist of love."
The three of them, upon hearing this, could only think that Garp must be truly blessed to have such a filial grandson.
At Marineford, the Navy headquarters, Garp was attempting to steal Sengoku's senbei. Sengoku, the Fleet Admiral and the highest-ranking officer in the Navy, noticed Garp when he sneezed.
"Garp, don't steal my senbei!" Sengoku exclaimed.
"Fine, fine, keep your senbei," Garp replied, thinking that someone must be thinking about him if he sneezed. He ate a senbei before walking out of Sengoku's office.
After Garp left, Sengoku took his senbei bag from his desk and opened it to eat some, only to find it empty. Garp must have switched the bags.
"Garp!" Sengoku called out in frustration.
Garp sneezed again, thinking that someone must really be thinking about him.
After finishing their drinks, they didn't stay much longer. They talked a bit with the mayor, who mentioned that he wouldn't have to come to pick up the good rocks to sell anymore. However, Ace then said that Luffy would make sure he will not experience a lack of rocks in the future. Wood Slap didn't look pleased; it was a hassle to come or send some men from the village, but he couldn't leave the good rocks there if they could be sold or used.
They left with Ace carrying the iron block on his back to their training spot. It was quite a good exercise, with the iron block being two meters wide and tall, one meter thick, and weighing 30 tons. Maybe when he got older, he could use it for exercises, and for now, when not punching it, he could walk and run around with it.
Wood Slap, seeing the scene with Luffy rushing ahead while Ace carried the huge iron block, almost fell down but was caught by Makino.
"The world will surely have another top pirate," Wood Slap remarked.
Makino nodded while smiling. She had sisterly affection for these two young boys, Ace wasn't so little in height, but he was still only 13 years old. She hoped they would be strong enough to fulfill their dreams.
Arriving at their training spot, a clearing of trees Ace had made close to a location on Mount Colobu where there were many rocks, he dropped the iron block down. Besides using this iron block to train his fists, he also wanted to try to awaken and train his armament haki.
Haki is an extremely special power that dwells within all those who live in the One Piece world. However, very few are able to make use of its true potential. Simply put, haki is a person's willpower or ambition. There are three types: armament, observation, and conqueror's haki.
Observation haki gives the user a sixth sense of the world around them, allowing them to sense the presence, strength, and emotions of other people, even if they are out of sight or far away.
Armament haki allows the user to use their own aura as armor to defend against attacks, as well as make their own attacks more potent.
Conqueror's haki grants the user the ability to unleash their own willpower in order to overpower the will of others.
From his memories, Ace knew that he had already awakened his conqueror's haki when fighting a group of pirates led by a captain named Bluejam. Bluejam crew and another two pirates crews were hired by the Goa Kingdom to burn down the Gray Terminal, the slum of the Goa Kingdom. Sabo's father, a noble of this kingdom, also hired Bluejam to retrieve Sabo and take care of Ace and Luffy.
While fighting in the burning Gray Terminal, Ace, who was restrained by a pirate, was about to watch one of Bluejam's crew members kill Luffy before his eyes. It was then that he awakened his conqueror's haki, knocking out every pirate except Bluejam.
Bluejam was then defeated by Ace and Dadan and died in the fire he had started with his crew. The original Ace didn't know that he had awakened his conqueror haki at that time, but with the help of the new memories, he understood what had happened.
As for observation haki, he had started training it some months ago by tying a band around his eyes and having Luffy try to hit him with a stick. He also tried to do this with Luffy, but Luffy's rubber body made him immune to blunt damage, and it wasn't registered as harmful.
The only way was to use sharp things, but Ace wouldn't do that. Now he needed to awaken armament haki to be able to coat the stick and make it hurt, Luffy rubber body being hurt from haki coated attacks, allowing Luffy to register it as dangerous. It would take time to get armament haki, but there is no rush. Luffy is only ten years old; he has plenty of time.
Ace felt his physical condition was already very good, and with more training, it would become even better. He believed he would have no problem awakening his armament haki in a year and a half or two years. If he had a strong enough opponent on the island or a teacher, he would be able to awaken it much faster.
As for Garp, he had only taught him enough to set him on the correct path and avoid hidden injuries while training. The only way Garp would teach him more advanced techniques was if he joined the Marines. However, Ace would never become a guard or attack dog for the World Government.
As for conqueror's haki, the only way he knew to improve it was to battle someone strong enough to use it at will and then start learning to control it much better.
"Bang!"
"Bang!"
Ace punched the iron block twice in succession, feeling its hardness. Seeing only a faint mark on the block and feeling a small pain on his skin and knuckles, he smiled before continuing to punch it, trying to summon something to harden his fist.
While Ace was focused on his training, Luffy was running around, mastering the basic techniques that used his devil fruit power. Ace had shared all the techniques he remembered with Luffy, mentioning he had ideas about his fruit's abilities. Luffy liked them very much and started practicing them on rocks.
If rocks were sentient, they would feel deeply wronged, a destroyer of rocks had ceased, only for a new one to emerge.
Ace also found it ironic that his father, along with Luffy's grandpa, had once stopped the sea overlord of a previous generation, Rocks D. Xebec. Now, he had destroyed so many rocks that he couldn't even remember the count, and Luffy had begun his own rock-destroying journey.
The only sounds that could be heard were:
"Bang!"
"Gomu Gomu no Bazooka!"
"Bang!"
"Bang!"
"Gomu Gomu no Gatling!"
"Bang!"
"Gomu Gomu no Bow Gun!"
"Bang!"
A few months later, a Marine ship with a dog figurehead was heading for Dawn Island. This was the ship of Vice Admiral Garp.
Garp who was munching on senbei and looking at the island, had a strange feeling that something unusual would happen during this visit.
"Your dog hat, Vice Admiral Garp," said a marine wearing a brown uniform and a hat, with a sword at his side.
Garp, hearing this, took it off. "Right, I am on vacation right now. Thanks, Bogart."
Garp then asked, "Bogart, do you also have a weird feeling?"
"No, Vice Admiral Garp," Bogart replied.
But Garp realized why he had a weird feeling: Ace, who was now close to two meter tall, was waiting for him in Foosha Village and started annoying him. So he got beaten.
Then, hours later, he returned after recovering.
"Old man, I wonder where Luffy's father is. Does he also want to be a pirate king that he is such a deadbeat?"
Then he got beaten again. While Dragon is indeed a deadbeat, Garp would not let Ace disrespect his son and Luffy's father. With Luffy being his brother, Dragon is Ace's uncle, so he must be a filial nephew.
But the same thing happened the next day. After recovering, Ace came again.
"Old man, your ship really matches the Navy theme of being the Celestial Dragons dogs."
So he got beaten again, even more severely. Garp was really puzzled as to why Ace was doing this, and his puzzlement continued all these days as Ace annoyed Garp every time after recovering from a beating.
Even Luffy was puzzled, seeing Ace being annoying and asking for beatings every day.
But finally, Garp's puzzlement was stopped when he gave Ace his last beating before leaving. Both of them felt something as his last fist connected.
In that moment, Ace smiled happily. He felt a trace of armament haki. These past months, he had felt nothing and was worried he wouldn't be able to awaken it in two years. He tried fighting beasts on the island, but they were too weak. He thought about jumping into the sea to fight sea kings, but the ones on the coast were too weak, and going farther into the sea was too dangerous right now.
So the only "beast" was Garp.
Now he would be able to train to fully awaken his armament haki and even use it at a novice level within a year, which would be good enough for a future 14, almost 15-year-old.
"You annoyed me all these days so you would get beaten and learn armament haki, you little devil!" shouted Garp, annoyed.
He realized now why this kid was so annoying. Ace knew that if he asked him to help with haki, he would refuse unless he joined the Marines, so this kid annoyed him so that he would get beaten.
He wanted to continue the beating, but realizing it would help Ace, he said, "You're a smart kid for sure."
Ace looked back at Garp as he left for the ship. He felt a little sad all of a sudden for not getting any more beatings to help him further with his armament haki.
After Garp left, Luffy ran out of Makino's bar and hugged Ace, saying, "Ace, is it true that you annoy Grandpa so that you would get beaten because you're a masochist?"
Ace, who heard this, was shocked. "What? Who told you this? I will beat that shithead till he can't move for months!"
"Is it true?" asked Luffy.
"No, dumbass! I was trying to feel armament haki."
"Armament haki?" asked Luffy, looking thoughtful. "Is that a type of food?"
"What?! Didn't I already tell you about haki? Did you also eat the Fish-Fish Fruit, Model: Goldfish?!"
As Garp's ship was leaving, both Garp and Bogart looked at the island.
"Vice Admiral Garp, you have two unique grandsons. They will surely be strong people."
"Yeah, yeah, I know it. But what did I do wrong that my son is the world's worst criminal and my two grandsons want to be pirates?"
Bogart thought, maybe it was the beatings you gave them while they were growing up.