2 2. Slightly Different Past. Image Training in One Piece.
│1st Person POV of Ace│
[Impel Down, The Eternal Hell]
Well, it seems that even though my past life's memories were sealed away, some knowledge did bleed through in the form of inspiration and dreams.
Because apart from the changes brought by me, things are pretty much the same.
Some of the fortunate changes included my treatment of Luffy in the days following our first meeting.
Every time I went to meet Sabo, and he followed me, I took the hardest path. And when he lost track of me, I would follow him back to Dadan's place or secretly help him out if he got into some dangerous situation.
Eventually, one day he was able to shadow me all the way to mine and Sabo's initial base of operation.
We didn't accept him immediately after that, but we also didn't tie him up while discussing whether to kill him or not.
We were also found out by Porchemy, the crewmember of Bluejam Pirates because Luffy just couldn't stop shouting about becoming our friend.
Fortunately, Luffy was not captured by Porchemy as I had been holding onto his mouth when we hid from them.
At that time, I had a déjà vu feeling that this had already happened and if I didn't hold onto Luffy, something bad would happen.
Knowing what Luffy would have had to endure if he had been captured that day, I am really thankful that I listened to my instinct.
We later heard that Porchemy was still killed by Bluejam for not finding the money that we stole.
After that, everything went the same. Sabo moved in with us at Dadan's place. The three of us spent the next few months training, hunting, stealing riches from the Central District of Goa Kingdom, etc.
Then Sabo's past and his relation with the nobles of Goa Kingdom came to light. The three of us became brothers the same day, after hearing a cup of sake and our respective dreams.
Speaking of which, only Luffy could come up with such a goofy dream. I would have loved to see the reactions of all the One Piece fans after his dream was disclosed. Hahahaha~!
In such a way, until the night of the Grey Terminal fire event, every detail unfolded precisely as it did in the Canon World.
There was only one difference in that incident compared to Canon. When I unlocked my Conqueror's Haki after Luffy's life was threatened, it was strong enough to render Bluejam unconscious along with all of his subordinates.
Subsequently, Dadan and the other bandits arrived to rescue both me and Luffy.
Similar to canon, I didn't run when the smaller bandits took Luffy and left.
I had wanted to stay behind for some time to ensure that the Bluejam Pirates wouldn't just wake up and pursue us. After all, I didn't know at that time why they were suddenly unconscious.
Dadan opted to join me, and together, we spent some time bashing Bluejam Pirates' heads before escaping the fire. Fortunately, it was not too late and we were able to escape relatively unharmed, only suffering minor burns on a few exposed parts of our body.
This allowed us to reunite with Luffy and the rest of the Bandits just a few hours later.
A few days later, we received word of Sabo's alleged demise from Dogura, who had traveled to the Goa Kingdom to witness the arrival of the World Noble and observed Sabo's boat being destroyed by them.
I am really glad that Sabo isn't dead.
Hehehe! Our three brothers' reunion would be legendary. I can't wait for it to happen.
Ah! Right, I also have to keep my promise to Tama and Yamato.
With so many responsibilities and promises to fulfill, how could I ever think it was all right for me to die…?
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│3rd Person POV│
While on one side, Ace was contemplating his life and death, and how it could affect the world around him, on the other side, the Marines had already started their preparation for his execution.
Right now, Fleet Admiral Sengoku the Buddha was in a meeting with the Seven Warlords, informing them of the upcoming war. However, not all of the Warlords were present for the meeting.
Only Donquixote Doflamingo, Jinbe, Mihawk, and Bartholomew Kuma attended the meeting.
All the Admirals and a few Vice-Admirals were also present.
Some time into the meeting, Jinbe, the Knight of the Sea was arrested for refusing to fight against Whitebeard.
Before the meeting even ended, he was shipped to Impel Down and was placed on the sixth level, also known as the Eternal Hell. He was locked in the same cell as Ace.
Though Ace was asleep while that happened and he didn't wake up until the next day.
Considering that he was still recovering from the injuries sustained in the clash with Blackbeard, and the emergence of memories from his past life was still an uncomfortable experience, it was inevitable that he fell unconscious sometime later.
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│3rd Person POV│
Upon returning to the world of consciousness, Ace noted the presence of Jinbe in his cell right away. Jinbe, who was already awake, detected Ace stirring up and lifted his head.
'Huh! Why is he here right now? In the Canon world, Jinbe was arrested only a day before my execution. And he was locked in my cell after Gramps visited me in that world. I thought that I had at least two weeks to prepare for my execution.'
"Oh, it's you! When did you arrive?" Ace inquired, his voice lacking the urgency and panic that filled his heart.
Jinbe replied calmly, unfazed by Ace's disinterested tone, "Last night. It seemed that you were taking some much needed rest at that time. That's why I didn't wake you up."
Ace's face soured slightly as he muttered under his breath, "Tch~! Still acting cool."
"Hahaha~ It's good to see that you are still lively as usual, Ace." Jinbe burst out laughing, feeling reassured that Ace wasn't harboring any inappropriate suicidal thoughts despite his capture and imminent execution.
"It's good to see you too, Jinbe."
"Hahahaha~!"
The two of them fell silent for a few moments afterwards.
Breaking the quiet atmosphere, Ace commented, "I take it that the Marines opted to go to war against Pops, and you're here because you chose not to engage in the conflict against him, correct?"
Jinbe nodded in affirmation and replied, "A meeting took place yesterday between the top-ranking Marines and the Seven Warlords of the Sea. Although not all of them showed up. Your execution has been scheduled to happen in about a month.
"I was apprehended by Aokiji, following my refusal to participate in the battle against Whitebeard. However, Sengoku said to me that my imprisonment is only temporary."
Ace displayed a sneer of contempt, expressing his disdain for the Fleet Admiral., "Heh! Don't put any faith in his words, Jinbe. You have no idea just what he is capable of doing in the name of Justice."
Inwardly, he was relieved to hear that there was still a month of preparation time in his hands.
"Don't worry. I didn't believe for even a second that I would be released after the war. I only regret that I won't be able to participate in the war through Whitebeard's side."
"Don't be so sure, Jinbe. Who knows what the future holds for the both of us." declared Ace with an enigmatic smile adorning his face, "For now, I am going to start training my Haki. I have a hunch that a certain someone will intervene to prevent my execution.
"I need to be stronger than I am now so as to not squander my only chance at getting out of this war alive. You should also keep your spirits high, Jinbe."
"Hmm… As you say, I will look forward to one day being out in the sea again."
'That day will come sooner than you can imagine.' Ace said in the confines of his mind.
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│3rd Person POV│
A few days had passed since Jinbe was imprisoned together with Ace.
Right now, Ace was training his Observation Haki. The rate at which his proficiency with the Color of Observation continued to increase was fascinating, to say the least.
Even without the talent enhancement, Ace's talent with Observation Haki and Conqueror's Haki was extremely good. Only his talent in Armament Haki was lacking slightly when compared to the other two.
It had only been 9 months since Ace's Haki training started.
And in just nine months, he reached a stage of being able to sense the presence, intent, and strength of someone with Observation Haki.
His Conqueror's Haki usage was also very good, as it was strong enough to knock out some of the lower-ranked Division Commanders.
His progress with Armament Haki wasn't that good, as it had not yet been a month since he was capable of Hardening.
Being the 2nd Division Commander of Whitebeard Pirates, Ace obviously had the knowledge of the advanced forms of all three Haki.
The rate at which he was improving, Whitebeard had stated that he would have been able to use the advanced form of Observation and Conqueror's Haki within a year and a half of training them.
To be able to use Armament Haki's advanced techniques like Emission or Internal Destruction, he would have taken just 3-4 years of continuous training.
Now, with his talent boosted, Ace was able to learn the emotion-sensing part of basic Observation Haki in just a few days.
Still, Ace was not satisfied with how things had been going.
Because of being bound in Sea Stone Chains, he was unable to train his Logia Devil Fruit powers. Haki's training was also getting impeded due to the Sea Stones' continuous zapping of his Stamina.
While pondering on how to make his training more efficient, Ace got hit by a sudden burst of inspiration.
Ace looked at Jinbe and said in an excited tone of voice, "Hey, Jinbe! I have an idea. If it is feasible, we may be able to get a lot stronger while being locked here."
"Is that so? I would certainly like to know your idea, Ace." Replied Jinbe.
"Okay, listen. There's a training method called Image Training."
"Image Training?"
Ace explained spiritedly, "Yeah, Image Training. It basically requires one to close their eyes and picture a foe, the fighter then imagines themself combating against the imaginary foe. This allows the fighter to determine how an actual battle against said foe would play out."
"But, it is possible to misjudge the opponent's strength and fighting style like this, right?" Jinbe expressed his doubt.
Nodding, Ace replied, "Yeah. That's why we will try to see if the second way of using Image Training is feasible.
"We will try to link our minds by fully focusing our Observation Haki on just the two of us. This will probably allow us to fight against each other using all of our abilities including my Logia abilities and your Fishman Karate."
Since he possessed the incomplete version of Essences of the Blank and the Archmage, Ace was absolutely certain that they could master the technique. It was just a matter of time.
The notion crossed his mind to utilize Observation Haki as a medium, given that Haki was fundamentally a spiritual technique.
Additionally, he wasn't confident that Image Training had no connection to Ki. This hesitation arose from the fact that Krillin and Gohan experienced slight strength gains after their Image Training session on the journey to Namek, hinting at a potential spiritual aspect tied to Ki.
Jinbe was visibly amazed by the idea. He was eager to try it out. They decided to rest for half an hour before trying out the idea for the first time.
[30 minutes later]
After both of them completed their preparation for the first try, they closed their eyes and calmed their breathing.
Ace started counting down from three, "3, 2, 1, Go!"
…
…
…
"Well, that failed spectacularly. Hahaha~" Jinbe opened his eyes when nothing happened for some minutes.
Following suit, Ace also stopped trying for the moment, "Hmm… It seems that my control is not good enough. Instead of sensing just the two of us, I was also sensing the others in the neighboring cells."
"Same here, Ace."
"We should keep trying Jinbe. I have a gut feeling that this will succeed. We just have to refine our control over our Observation Haki." Ace responded to Jinbe with a determined expression.
Jinbe nodded and replied, "I have no problem with that. We don't have anything else to do anyway."
After affirming their resolve, Ace and Jinbe tried to link their minds once every hour.
In this way, Ace was able to increase his proficiency with Color of Observation to the point of being able to keep it focused on just the two of them in just one day.
While Jinbe continued to train his fine control, Ace started focusing on expanding the range of his Observation Haki and observing every aspect of his body with it.
A week after Ace presented the Image Training idea, Jinbe was finally able to hone his control to the required level.
"Let's try again, shall we?" Ace asked and Jinbe nodded in affirmation.
They closed their eyes simultaneously as Ace started the countdown from three, "3, 2, 1, Go!"
…
Suddenly, Ace found himself in a boundless expanse of white. He noticed that Jinbe was also present some meters away from himself.
Focusing on himself, Ace found out that his body's condition was not any different than the outside. Jinbe's situation was also the same.
Both of them high-fived each other over their first success.
"Say, Jinbe. We haven't fought each other since Pops abducted me after our first battle, right? And our last battle was a draw. What do you say? Should we settle the score now?" Ace proclaimed his challenge with a cocky smirk on his face.
"Hahaha~! Let's do it." Jinbe heartily laughed and accepted the challenge.
Each of them took a stance, ready to start the match at a moment's notice.
Just as they were about to start, Jinbe questioned, "By the way, we have not yet tested to see if we could use all our abilities. And how is it that we are able to talk here? Are we reading each other's minds now?"
"Technically, we are reading each other's minds now. How does it work? Haha! I don't know either. As for testing our abilities' usability? I think we can do that while fighting. Ready~? Here I come~!!"
Roaring out the warning, Ace shot toward Jinbe, his already impressive speed enhanced to whole another level by the burst of flames from the soles of his feet.
"Fishman Karate: Gosenmai-gawara Seiken!"
Jinbe responded with equal vigor as he punched out with his right hand. The shockwave that emerged from his fist was strong enough to completely negate Ace's momentum.
They grinned with excitement upon observing that their individual abilities functioned precisely as intended.
They locked their eyes for a few moments before exploding towards each other at the same time.
"Hiken!!"
"Yarinami!!"
...To Be Continued!
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A/N: A new One Piece Fanfic. Wohooo~~!!!
Can't wait to see all of your reactions to the changes I've made in the Summit War.
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