Chapter 17

Ace yelled as he sprinted forward, fire burning in his fist as he got near his target. "You are dead old man!!!"

The old man had a carefree smile on his face as he had his sword out. He didn't even move when Ace landed a punch on him. But it was blocked by him with only one of his fingers, which was of course coated with Haki. Though his figure didn't touch the flames at all.

"I don't even need to use my sword for this..." Rayleigh said, stabbing his sword into the ground as he moved his palm near Ace's direction.

Ace wanted to blast him away with fire, but he was too late, as he got blasted away by just the old man's Haki.

"Still so weak... And you were trying to face Whitebeard with that strength. You can't even use Haki." The old man said, before disappearing from his spot. "It's actually a wonder how you have conqueror's Haki, when you don't even have the basics... Genetics doing half of the job I guess. Your father was a carefree man, but he wasn't weak..."

That seemed to tick Ace off. "Why you!" He wasn't able to finish as he had to roll to the side to avoid the sudden attack.

"Oh... So you seem to be picking up on observation... At least you are not all waste," Rayleigh said as he attacked again, his sword coated with Haki. "You are not getting off this island unless you can land a hit on me."

Ace didn't have the luxury to speak as he had to use his instincts and everything he had to avoid getting hit. Of course, Rayleigh was using a rusted-out sword, but with Haki, it gave just as much as a regular sword.

This happened for a while, several hours in fact before Ace couldn't keep up anymore and he collapsed in exhaustion.

"Fuu... You actually made me sweat a bit." Rayleigh said, grinning, as he rested his sword on his shoulder. "That was a nice workout for these old bones of mine. But you have a long way to go kid. For now, have some rest, we will continue this tomorrow."

With that the man left Ace behind, bloodied and bruised.

The boy was annoyed, being stopped on his journey. Rayleigh only had interest in him, and his crewmates were alone without their captain.

Now Ace wasn't worried about his crewmates surviving without him. But he was at the same time, a bit anxious that all of them knew that he was the son of that man. A part of him was afraid that his crewmates would leave him for that, and as a captain, he was doing a poor job. Getting kidnapped by an old timer that took him to an unknown island in the calm belt might be the stupidest way a pirate crew lost their captain.

Sure, the old time was the Vice Captain of his father's pirate crew, the Dark King Silvers Rayleigh himself. And he seemed to be very eager to train him, and make him learn about Haki, deeming him unworthy of crossing to the New World unless he was able to use Haki to a good level.

His crewmates of course tried to stop him, and failed miserably. Even after that his crewmates tried to come to the island, with flame dials boosting the ships. Thank God they had those, because the calm belt would have been a nightmare for normal ships. But Rayleigh didn't let anyone of them come near the island.

He also gave them an ultimatum, that unless he deemed Ace worthy he wouldn't let go of their captain. So for now the Spade Pirates were captainless, he was sure that Deuce could keep them in check, but Ace didn't like it one bit.

Though, if he were to be honest he wasn't completely against it.

Ace had mixed feelings about this. On one hand, he was annoyed and wanted nothing to do with Rayleigh, but on the other hand, he was kind of glad that someone out there was worrying about him.

Sure Rayleigh liked to taunt him, but he could see through it.

Maybe being born as the son of the Pirate King wasn't a curse... All his life he watched other people cursing down on his dead father, but now seeing that people actually cared about him... It made him glad in a way.

Even though Rayleigh didn't show it... He did care about Ace. It was kind of similar to Garp in a way. His adoptive grandfather was just as pushy with his tough love.

But what Ace didn't like was losing... After a year into the Grand Line his strength had increased greatly. He was sure that he could give some challenge to his grandfather, but if Rayleigh was to go by. Then he was off by a huge margin. It's already been one month, and the things he saw Rayleigh do with Haki made him quite jealous.

Who needed supernatural fruit power when you had Haki. And if he didn't point out the obvious faults in his logia powers, he would have been in power. Haki was kind of amazing.

Even more so when he was told that his father became the Pirate King without the use of any devil fruit. And he was a man that would often clash with the wielder of the strongest known devil fruit user.

He was kind of glad that he didn't encounter Garp on the seas. Well, he did a few times, but he wasn't stupid enough to challenge him. It was a good thing he didn't... Because then he might have been forced into an early retirement. It almost scared him how strong those old timers were.

And Whitebeard still held the title of the World's Strongest Man...

One might think that Ace would get discouraged by it. But no... He was excited. He was going to surpass everyone, and he was going to be better than his father. And if that meant learning the stupid thing called Haki. He will do so.

No, he won't just learn it, he will master it.

For now, he had to find some dinner. And that was without the use of his devil fruit powers. Usually, it wouldn't be a problem, but the creatures on this island were tough opponents, even for him.

Ace winced as he got up. Almost all of his wounds were nonlethal, but it hurt like a bitch. And he had to find his food this way... After one month, one would think he was used to it.

The fire user just sighed... This was going to be a long day.