Haki

Mt. Colubo, Dawn Island

It's been almost 4 months since the incident with Ace but sadly it wasn't the only incident that happened. Ace went into town a few more times after that, always saying that he wants to go alone. Unsurprisingly he lashed out quite often and got into quite a few fights.

Dadan scolded him, but the big softie just couldn't confess that she was worried about him so she spouted shit like she too will get in trouble if he beats people up.

Later in the morning, Garp visited and went to talk with Ace while Jack was still asleep. He has been sleeping for longer periods of time recently, as well as consuming astronomical amounts of food which he provides himself by hunting. Ace welcomed this change in him because Jack was the type of person to share food with the people he likes. Ace's main worry only comes from his brother growing bigger and taller than him. Lucky for him, Jack remained cute and short.

On that night, Ace came to talk with Jack on his own.

"Hey Jack"

"Mhm?" Jack slightly acknowledged Ace with an upward glance while laying down on the grass. The reason why he went out to relax like this is because he loves the mountain cool mountain breeze, with his brother being the exact opposite and disliking the cold.

"Say Jack, aren't you the least bit bothered by it?"

"By what?" He wondered if Ace was talking about the cool air.

"Everything. I asked a few people about our father you know" Jack knew what Ace has been doing and why he got into so many fights, but didn't say anything. At times like this, it's his job as the hot-headed Ace's brother to be the cool-headed one. Contrary to how he normally seems, he rarely gets emotional or makes emotional decisions, especially when it comes to things that would get the people he cares for in serious trouble.

"And? What did they say?"

"That it would have been better if that guy never existed... it was the same no matter who or how many times I asked. And it was the same answer when I asked about his sons. Aren't you bothered by the fact that people think it would have been better if we didn't exist?"

"Nope"

A short, fast and resolute answer that seemed to have caught Ace of guard.

"How...Why..."

Hearing that question, Jack gestured Ace to lay down beside him and answered, "Because there's no point? They don't know us and we don't know them. What I know is that mom risked and lost her life for us but was still happy to hold us for a few moments even when she died. As for dad... the old man's business is the old man's business, he lived his life free and however he wanted not thinking about what people thought of him... so I also want to live like that...

After saying what he has been wanting to tell Ace for the longest time, Jack slowly turned to his brother while waiting for his reaction. He didn't tell Ace that he wanted to follow their old man's way of living because he thought Ace would feel betrayed, and not because he was scared that his brother would get mad at him.

He looked at Ace and to his surprise, he just sat there looking at the distance and not showing any reaction at all.

"Hey Jack..."

"Hmm?"

"Was it good for us to have been born?"

Hearing this reminded him of something he should have no memory of. It was Ace sitting down and asking Garp the same question. He also, for some reason was reminded of Garp's response to Ace, and so he muttered... "That's something... that we'll eventually find out as we're alive, right?"

A few hours before January 1st, Ace's and Jack's birthday

Jack can't sleep because he kept thinking about the dreams and memories he kept having. He didn't mind it much before, because he didn't think much of it but the thing he experienced today felt so vivid and real that it even spooked him slightly. He doesn't know but it might have also been the trigger for the dreams he had last night. Jack used to only have dreams about a sensing ability, and he thought of the dreams as nothing more than inspiration, but the ones he had last night were more detailed and precise, as if something was urging him to get stronger and fast.

It's a few hours before midnight with the day inching towards January 1st, in other word, Ace and Jack's birthday.

Having failed to sleep anyway, Jack decided to go and try out an application of the new sense he's been training since the past two years. After putting his blindfold on, he went outside to do his daily training.

It's a new sense that he has had for the past year, but all he could do with it was sense when he's about to get hurt. Unlike before where he just ran without thinking, he now tried to spread this sense the same way in his dreams.

"Ah...", Jack found himself a bit overwhelmed. A lot of information was being transmitted into his brain and he had no idea from which part of his body that information is coming from. Jack just suddenly could 'see' what's around him. It's about a few dozen meters around him and within that distance, his senses and feeling of life around him was absolute.

"Yosh, finally!" Jack exclaimed semi-loudly.

Having acquired this newfound power, he decided to spend the next few months getting used to that feeling and learning to react accordingly to the information that he sensed, as well as use it in fights.

And like that, Jack spent the rest of the night outside doing all sorts of things like jumping around taking revenge on the trees by punching them away, as well as killing a small pack of wild dogs.