Disappointment...

Chapter 7

Title: Disappointment...

…..

-Ace POV-

Two and a half years passed since the day Garp took me to that hellish jungle. 

I am currently lying down on the grass on the outskirts of the forest with Cat laying next to me and his big body providing shadow to stop the sunlight from hitting my eyes. Cat was also wearing a pouch to its side. It had my emergency medical supplies.

I look down at my short sword and take it off my belt and put it next to me, as it feels uncomfortable to lie down with it. Honestly, I have learned and understood many things since the time Garp took me to the jungle. 

The problem wasn't the strong animals. I could beat most of them up and even the giant ones like giant crocodiles and such that I couldn't beat, I could trap them. But the real problem was the poisonous snakes and insects lying all around. Also, I couldn't even sleep peacefully, because any sound in the night would wake me up. Honestly, the worst couple of months of my life, I even had to be careful to not eat any poisonous plants either. 

Hated the experience, 0/10, will never do it again. But it still helped me understand a fundamental truth. I couldn't punch every animal to death in there. Also, swords do way more damage than fists… since then I started using a short sword which is perfect for my body type. I will never be a pure swordsman like Zoro or Mihawk, I don't want to become powerless in case I don't have my sword. But still, if for example, someone like Luffy in his Gear 4 slashed at Dofflamingo with a sword instead of punching him… Doffy would most likely be dead on the first hit as he was overwhelmed by Gear 4. But then again Luffy is someone simple-minded so fists are good enough for him, no need for him to overcomplicate his fighting style.

I contemplated selecting some other weapon, but I chose the sword since in this world it is a good weapon for close and long-range. Though I still can't do those wind blade slashes. (I am nowhere even close to it.)

I open my eyes and see that it will soon be midday. Today I am resting... I also am extremely disappointed in myself. I plan to do the test of being able to punch a bear to death with one punch. But I don't think I can actually do it… I have been training like crazy ever since I was born in this world. I can't even remember ever taking a day off or something like that.

Ahhh… I am overthinking stuff again… 

I know that I was setting a high bar to pass for myself. I wanted to be in the same category as Big Mom when she was my age. I also definitely know that I can't now just casually slap a bear to death without even meaning to. Still, though, I might have lost this time but I am not discouraged. Luffy couldn't beat a monkey by the time he was seven, and in the end, he achieved quite some amazing results.

Also training with Observation Haki hasn't been going as well as I expected it to. I hoped to at least have some basics down by now. I have had monkeys beat me in the head while I wear a blindfold and it still is nothing. 

I can sometimes sense when the attack is gonna come. But I am not sure whether that is Observation Haki or just instinct? Intuition? Or something else entirely. It could be Observation, but raising my hopes at something so insignificant doesn't seem like a good way to do things. Still, I am not training it every day, since going to the place where the monkeys are will take a lot of time. It seems like I will need a human friend to help me with this.

I guess Rayleigh teaching Luffy Haki made all the difference.

Welp, I better get up then…

….

-General POV-

Ace finally decides that this is enough rest, though he knows that it is unlikely. He still wants to try punching a bear today. 

He looks at Cat, the elephant-sized tiger and he touches the animal's snout.

 "C'mon now buddy, we gotta get up." Says Ace gently, the tiger immediately wakes up. Ace then puts his short sword in his belt once again.

The tiger stands up, Ace just exerts some power on his legs and can casually jump on the tiger's back. He is stronger than he seems with his only slightly above average body type for someone his age. Except for his muscles being a little more defined there is nothing special about Ace.

"Let's go to the Northside of the mountain today. There are a lot of bears there." Says Ace as he tells the directions to Cat.

Cat heard that, but it didn't understand anything so complicated so it just walked in a random direction… which fortunately is North.

Ace smiles at that, thinking to himself that Cat is quite smart for an animal.

…..

It doesn't take long for Ace and Cat to arrive at the designated place. They just wander around for a little while and they find a bear drinking some water in a river. Ace tells Cat to hide while he goes to confront the bear, he doesn't want to scare the bear away.

"Oy! Stupid bear!" Calls out Ace. Immediately the bear looks at him, it doesn't seem to want to attack him.

'It's probably full already and can't eat me.' Analyzes Ace, but still, he picks up a small rock and throws it at the bear.

*ROAR* This immediately causes it to get angry. Ace doesn't pull his sword out at all as the bear charges at him.

'He is quite fast for his size.' Ponders Ace as he dodges the bear's charge by simply stepping to the side.

He then punches the bear in the head with all his power.

Bam!

It makes the bear stumble a little and it even falls on the ground dazed. Ace gets to the bear and punches it again.

Bam!

This time the bear falls on the ground as his feet give out. Ace wants to be angry at himself for not being able to finish the bear off in two hits. But he is strangely calm. 

Bam!

He punches it once again. This time it cracks the bear's skull.

Bam!

Once more and the bear seems down for the count. He is about to give it one final punch to the bear's head, but he was distracted for a split second as he was contemplating why his training hadn't been able to overcome Big Mom's natural gifts. 

That split second was all the bear needed as it sank its teeth in Ace's arm. He just looked at the bear's eyes as this happened. This pain was nothing to him, he had endured worse during these five years. 

'Yet still… I can't surpass her.' Ponders Ace as he looks at his arm bleeding. 'Nothing major, just a flesh wound. But it did calm me down though.'

….

Eight more punches later from Ace's other hand and the bear died and it finally let go of the bite it had on Ace's arm. The beast's skull was beaten to a pulp by Ace. Still Ace had a smile at the end of it. He came to a 

realization amongst this.

'This bear... it is kind of like me. Just because I am stronger than it in every way doesn't mean that it can't injure me.' Contemplates Ace. He had been concentrated on raw physical power for so long that he forgot that isn't all there is to battle.

Ace calls over Cat as he gets up from the bear's corpse. Cat comes close and Ace opens the small pouch that it carries. Inside there were a bunch of medical supplies. 

Ace puts some alcohol in his wounds to disinfect it and then he also uses some stitches to close the wound, after that he wraps it up in a bandage. 'I guess I should go to Gray Terminal now.'

…..

AUTHOR NOTE:

Ace wasn't able to reach the goal that he set for himself. It was an unreasonable goal, and in no way can a five-year-old like him just casually kill a bear. Big Mom was born a monster, and Ace didn't have the physical build to be like her. He understood that, so he will continue pushing himself further and setting deadlines for himself once more now.

P.S: If Ace had used his sword he would have been able to one-shot the bear. But he didn't wanna do it like that. He is stubborn about this.

P.P.S: This is the difference in initial build. Big Mom was build like a giant and her power was already stronger than even the giant children. She was born to be a monster... Ace on the other hand... his built is average in comparison. He is strong... but not that strong... yet...