Chapter 3

Waking up with a searing headache is never a fun experience. As Ace stirred awake, he heard voices around him.

"Ace? You're awake! Hey, hey, don't force yourself. Lie down. You fell pretty badly yesterday," the voice of a woman said.

'Wait, what did she call me?'

Ace had enough strength to open his eyes. He saw very familiar faces. The Dadan Family. Curly Dadan, Dogra, Magra, and other bandits stood over Ace who was currently lying down on a comfortable futon all bandaged up. Then, his headache flared and got worse.

Memories surged into Ace. It was more than just memories though. Each of them felt so real. As if he's the one that experienced them. All the emotions, thoughts, feelings, and sentiments were real. Ace knew who he was.

Portgas D. Ace! Ace D. Goldstein! They were both him!

'Did our souls fuse? I'm neither of those two, yet I'm both of them. This is strange. Whatever, this isn't the time to think about it. This headache is something else!'

"Someone get me a glass of water," Ace heard Dadan call out to one of the bandits. One of them went away and returned soon with a glass of clean water.

Dadan propped Ace up on her arm as she helped him drink water. It somehow eased the pain Ace felt slightly. Feeling a soothing sensation ease the pain even slightly made him feel relaxed and drowsy. He fell asleep again…

…

When Ace woke up, his headache was gone. He got up from the futon he was sleeping in and removed the bandages around his head.

He stood up with a jump. He felt… strong. Stronger than he ever felt.

'Damn. Five year old Ace was stronger than twenty-one year old… Ace. Having the same name is confusing.'

What a jarring experience. Two different souls fusing. Ace needed to clear his head.

Ace ran outside and away from the Dadan Family's hut. His legs ran through a familiar path. The path he usually takes to go to the place he goes to whenever he wants to be alone. Despite being just five years old, his body moved with such speed, power, and grace Ace could only dream of in his previous life.

Eventually, Ace got there. A small clearing atop a cliff overlooking the vast blue ocean of East Blue. The one he knows they'll call in the future as Sabo's Ocean.

'What a strange feeling this is. To know someone I haven't even met yet.'

Ace sat down at the edge of the cliff, his feet dangling over the edge. The ocean breeze blew on his face and caressed his healthy black hair. The smell of the ocean was very familiar yet new.

'I just feel it… calling out to me.'

This is who Ace was now. His body belongs to the child who called himself Portgas D. Ace. He was still that child, but the memories of Ace D. Goldstein made him so much… more.

The man who he hated so much, the King of the Pirates, Gol D. Roger has become someone he respects and admires at the same time after acquiring the memories of Ace D. Goldstein. He now realizes that he shouldn't pay any attention to those fools in Edge Town who only knew Roger because of the crap the World Government put in their brains.

Ace grabbed his head, still feeling confused and baffled about his situation.

'I feel like I'm two people at once. How is God handling this? Being an innumerable amount of people at once? I'm already struggling at two!'

"DAMN IT!"

Ace stood up and shouted at the heavens. The ocean is his witness.

"I'M NOT THOSE TWO! I AM ME!"

With the souls of the two that fused, he was the result. Portgas D. Ace had the will and strength, Ace D. Goldstein had the knowledge and ambition. To live a life with no regrets! To leave his mark on the world! To surpass his father! To live as free as he could be!

Ace will rise to the top and rule the seas!

"MY NAME IS GOL D. ACE! THE MAN WHO WILL BE THE EMPEROR OF THE SEAS!"

But, that's in the future. For now, he shall live his life and prepare. Practice. Hone himself. Get stronger. Become the strongest in Dawn Island, then set out to sea. That is the plan for now.

And so, Ace resumed his usual routine. Explore Mount Colubo, challenge the beasts in it, hunt for food.

As Ace walked away from the cliff to begin hunting, he suddenly realized that he knew a lot about what would happen in the future. But…

"FUCK THE PLOT!"

Ace just said that he'll live freely, doing whatever he wants. He'll use this knowledge he now has as he sees fit.

-----

(FIVE YEARS LATER)

The years quickly passed as Ace lived every day preparing for the day he sets out to sea. Some interesting things happened in those five years.

First, he met and befriended Sabo! The blonde boy is just as interesting and amazing as the person in his memories. Maybe even more!

They hit it off nicely when they first met back at Gray Terminal five years ago, a few months after his two souls fused. Ace was walking around to find some hoodlums he can challenge to a fight. Only knowing how to fight animals isn't good, after all.

As Ace looked around for hoodlums to fight, he heard a commotion behind a huge pile of junk. He jumped on whatever he could to get on top of the pile to see what was happening. There on the other side of the junk pile, he watched Sabo fight off guys more than thrice his size and age.

Despite being that much smaller and younger, Sabo gave them one hell of a beating. Being so humiliated by a child, one of them was angered and tried to be sneaky. He was about to stab Sabo from behind when Ace interrupted him.

Ace used his steel pipe to thwack the hoodlum on the head. He heard an audible crack when he did so. But it wasn't his steel pipe…

It was Ace's first ever human kill. Strangely, he didn't feel any remorse. He still had the ruthlessness of the young Portgas D. Ace within him.

Sabo was thankful for Ace's help. They got acquainted, hit it off as friends, and teamed up. Then, everything else was history. Five years later, they were still a team. Currently, they are saving up for a pirate fund. They already saved up around 500,000 Berry!

It was around three years ago that they realized that stealing from people within the capital of the Goa Kingdom was much more lucrative than hunting around the Gray Terminal and Edge Town. Although, they stayed away from High Town where the nobles were.

Didn't want the marines to come and intervene, after all. They were satisfied with stealing from the citizens, especially those who looked at them coldly. Whoever they were, Ace and Sabo followed them home and stole every valuable thing they had.

Needless to say, Ace and Sabo are very much on the Wanted List of the Goa Kingdom. Sabo wasn't safe to sleep alone, so Ace invited him to come live with the Dadan Family. Sabo accepted and helped Ace with the task of hunting for the family's food.

Of course, Ace's adoptive grandfather - Monkey D. Garp - came to know of what they were doing. Whenever he comes to stay at Dadan's house on his leave from work, he would always give the two unusually strong children a taste of his famous Fist of Love.

He also tried recruiting Ace and Sabo for an early enlistment to the marines. He had enough pull and political power as a Vice Admiral and the Hero of the Marines to erase their long list of petty crimes. But Ace and Sabo always refused. Of course, Garp would use his Fist of Love even more afterwards.

Unbeknownst to Sabo, Ace was considering taking Gramps up on his offer. The Navy is an immense powerhouse, after all. He could learn a lot if he enlists and trains there.

Of course, if Ace does enlist, he doesn't plan to stay there forever.

'Imagine debuting as a pirate by betraying the marines. That would be cool. Becoming a pirate after learning about the Navy's secret techniques? That's a gigantic middle finger to the marines if I've ever seen one.'

This was a path Ace was thinking of taking. However, the thought of hurting his grandpa's feelings is a huge part of why he was rather unwilling to do it. Becoming a marine to learn about techniques that would help him be a dangerous pirate would undoubtedly shame his grandfather.

'Gramps may be a violent and scary old man… but he loves me like a real grandson.'

Another interesting thing that Ace was up to in the last five years was practicing the Six Powers of the marines by using the memories he has in the life of Ace D. Goldstein. The Six Powers is the main reason why Ace thought of temporarily joining the marines in the first place. However, he was disappointed.

Shave was easy enough to learn as well as Moon Walk because it was explicitly stated how to do it. Ace strengthened his legs as much as he could. Within months, Ace was able to use Shave then Moon Walk after more practice. His light body made it easier to learn the technique.

Sabo practiced with Ace, too. Both of them are able to perform the two leg techniques that greatly enhanced their maneuverability. Although, Ace was rather secretive of the true nature of the techniques. He told Sabo it was just his idea on how to get even faster. Ace played it off as if he invented the techniques.

Thus, Ace and Sabo called Shave and Moon Walk as Flicker and Air Jump.

The two of them practiced almost all the time. Ace continued pretending that he was inventing the rest of the Six Powers.

Iron Body was difficult to train in some parts where there aren't that many muscles like the head or the groin. Ace and Sabo trained their Finger Pistol, which they called Finger Lance, by doing finger push-ups.

Then there's Paper Art and Tempest Kick which Ace had absolutely no idea how to train. So, he didn't tell Sabo about the two.

Maybe there's a training method he read about somewhere in his past life, but he's not a computer. Ace doesn't remember every single little detail about One Piece despite it being his favorite story. His memory isn't the best there is. Not bad, not good, just fairly decent.

The third interesting thing they were up to over the past five years was training Observation Haki. Specifically, the Presence Sensing aspect. Ace and Sabo took turns with the blindfold and steel pipe.

Of course, Ace was secretive again about the true name of the techniques. When he first suggested awakening and training Observation Haki the way he remembered it to Sabo, he named it as Presence Sensing.

Sabo was doubtful that such a technique was possible, but he eventually relented. It was still good practice. The one with the blindfold would try to use Iron Body on their whole body as they tried to sense where the attacks would come from.

The instrument used to attack was a steel pipe. Needless to say, every hit hurt like a female dog.

With that kind of training, Ace and Sabo quickly developed their Iron Body. Still, without the proper training method, their version of Iron Body was weak around the head and the groin areas where there isn't that much muscle mass compared to the rest of the human body.

Presence Sensing took a lot longer to awaken. Ace needed a whole year to even start feeling Sabo's presence and intent to attack him. At that moment, Sabo realized that such a ridiculous and overpowered sounding technique really was possible. He watched Ace avoid a hit sometimes as if he knew where the attack would come from.

So, Sabo got more enthusiastic with trying to train Presence Sensing. It took him five whole years while Ace needed two and a half to fully master Presence Sensing. Although, that doesn't mean Sabo was weaker than Ace.

Ace had a cheat, after all.

Ace felt it. His abnormal growth and learning speed. He realized this unique aspect to his character when he noticed how he healed twice as fast, learned twice as fast, and developed much faster than Sabo. Despite being a kid, Ace had healthy muscles that were not at all disgusting and unnatural to look at.

With the memories of Ace D. Goldstein, Ace supposed his abnormal growth was because of the fusion of two souls. He was basically two people at once. So, he did almost everything twice as fast.

It was a good thing he didn't age twice as fast. His body is still the young Portgas D. Ace with the same height and all, so his body functioned as a child would. But Ace wondered how he didn't age twice as fast when he could heal twice as fast…

He chalked it off as his own little golden finger.

Ace was rather bummed that he was a whole lot slower than Luffy. It took Luffy two years to train Observation, Armament, and Conqueror's Haki to a good level while it took Ace two and a half years to even be decent at Observation Haki! Ace comforted himself with the thought that he was just a child while Luffy was a young man.

When Ace tried to train Armament Haki, he failed. He knew how it was done. It was explicitly stated in the story of One Piece. An invisible armor over your skin fueled by your will and the strength of your spirit.

Still, Ace couldn't even use a sliver of Armament Haki. Maybe it was because his spirit wasn't tempered yet. Still, he was strong. Very strong. Ace was among the strongest creatures on the island. He and Sabo frequently fight Mount Colubo's fearsome giant tiger and bear to practice.

Ace tried fighting the two giant animals at once just to see if his spirit could be tempered so that he could awaken his Armament Haki, but it didn't work. The two animals teaming up to deal with him were a formidable foe and were much stronger than Ace, but Ace knew he wasn't in any true danger.

With his Flicker and Air Jump, Ace could easily get away if the situation got worse. He knew it deep in his heart. Thus, Ace never felt the threat of death and the chilling feeling of immense danger that people need to strengthen their heart and spirit.

Armament and Conqueror's Haki were still too far from Ace's reach. So, with no other choice, he just continued practicing with Sabo. The two of them never really felt that their training was a chore. Getting stronger and fighting was their own way of playing around and having fun like children do. Needless to say, they were abnormal children.

When Garp realized what the two of them were capable of one time he went on a vacation again, he was flabbergasted. He stood there with the iconic Enel Face as he watched Ace and Sabo fight.

There he was, watching two abnormally strong children fight with techniques they weren't even supposed to be aware of. Ace and Sabo fought midair with a pipe in their hand. Each clash they had sent a gust of wind. Sabo took Ace getting stronger as a challenge, thus they were both around the same level. It took a while for Sabo to reach the physical peak he could in his age unlike Ace, but he did so nonetheless.

Garp watched Ace and Sabo use Shave, Moon Walk, Finger Pistol, Iron Body, and Observation Haki in their fight. He heard them call the techniques in a different name, but he knew what those were commonly called almost everywhere else in the world.

Ace and Sabo were so preoccupied with fighting that they didn't notice Garp who was standing by the side as he watched them. They only knew he was there after they were done fighting.

"You little brats!" Garp shouted as he gave both Ace and Sabo a Fist of Love. Bumps formed on their heads. They were strong, but Garp was still much stronger.

"THAT HURT, SMELLY OLD MAN!"

"WHAT'D YOU CALL ME?"

Another Fist of Love came. Ace and Sabo were calmed down as they sat on the ground facing the towering figure of Garp.

"Where'd you two learn those moves?" Garp asked.

"We invented them. Cool, aren't they? I won't teach it to you, Gramps!" Ace answered before sticking his tongue out as a way to gloat.

Inwardly, Ace was nervous. What if he's a terrible liar? Garp would instantly find out. Explaining things would be very difficult. Thankfully, Garp believed Ace. His eyes slightly widened as if assessing Ace.

"Ha! As if! Those techniques already exist!" Garp retorted, sticking his tongue out in a similar fashion to tease Ace.

"What? Aww. I thought we did something totally cool and unique," Sabo said. He was bummed out.

"Still, I'm impressed. Those were the secret techniques taught to high ranking marines and World Government Agents!" Garp said, puffing his chest out in pride. "You two are already shaping up to be great marines!"

"No way!" Ace and Sabo simultaneously said.

"EHH? WHY NOT?"

"We're gonna be pirates!" Sabo said, proudly puffing up his chest like Garp did.

'Sabo, you loudmouth!'

Ace looked at Garp and instantly sweated when he saw Garp's forehead tick in annoyance. Ace slowly stood up and took retreating steps.

"Pirates? You wanna become like those good for nothing fools, you little punks?" Garp shouted before reaching for Ace and Sabo's collars.

"Sabo! Run!" Ace shouted at Sabo before escaping using combinations of Flicker and Air Jump. Sabo did the same.

"Get back here, you brats! You can't escape me!" Garp said before chasing Ace and Sabo.

Ace watched how Garp didn't even need to use the techniques they were using. With just the raw strength of his legs, Garp only needed to kick the ground once to be even faster than their Flicker. He didn't need to jump in the air to catch Sabo who was flying. A simple jump on the solid ground was all it took. Ace and Sabo were instantly caught.

Garp laughed at their misfortune. Shadows formed on Ace and Sabo's faces, not at all excited about the beating they were about to receive. But then, Garp just put them back on the ground.

"I'll show you how much cooler the marines are!"