Not seeming to realise Ace's dilemma, Wukong tinued with his analysis. "What about your ability to turn part of yourself or your on bck, is that part of the same ability?"

  "Yeah. I call it Haki." Aswered, realising the cat was almost pletely out of the bag.

  "Haki? That's a weird name." Wukong said. "Well, whatever you want to call it, it's a pretty unique bloodline ability."

  "Bloodline ability? I thought only the four supreme warrior s had bloodline abilities?" Ace asked, trying to pry for more information.

  "They're defihe most famous of those with bloodline abilities, but there are others. There just happens to be very few of us!"

  "Us?" Ace asked in genuine surprise.

  "Yup. It's a bloodline ability allow that allows the user to copy any teique they see." Wukong expined casually.

  "Is that how you so easily mao catch up with Alissa regarding yger mastery, despite having apparently never used one before?" Ace asked in surprise

  "Pretty much," Wukong answered, casually revealing what most would sider secret information. "This king calls it [Monkey See Monkey Do]."

  Ace had heard Alissa pin of Wukong's monstrous rate of improvement in wielding daggers. "Is that why you haven't been able to carry on improving any further?"

  "Pretty much. It really is a cheat-like ability. As long as it's a teique that doesn't surpass this King's current level of prehension, this king copy any teique or ability, be it spell or martial art. But to improve further would require this king to put in additional work."

  "That is a cheat ability!" Ace said with a hint of envy.

  Wukong gave A odd look before turning back to face the path ahead. "What about you?"

  Aced at Wukong before expining. "My ability has two parts:

  First is [armament hak, which allows me to harden my body or anything I touch by turning it bck. And sed is my [observation hak. That allows me to sehe world around me, including everyone and everything in it."

  "And I'm guessing your [observation hak allows you to sehe path of your oppo's attack?"

  Ace looked at Wukong in surprise.

  "It wasn't hard to guess after your battle with that Baruch brat and yht today. Despite starting your attacks after the Horned Hippo, yive would always mao intercept its charge at the perfegle for a battle of strength. Those kinds of calcutions should only be possible for a warrior with a tonne of battle experience, and you…

  Your battles show that you have virtually no battle experience."

  Ace took that personally. What kind of battle hadn't he taken part in or seen? He had literally been killed in a war that shook his former world to its core. How could he be said to have no experience?

  "Even though you had a much longer reach with your on, you decided to engage in a battle of strength with a beast whose power was superior to your own. It's like you only know how to try and hit hard, even if your oppo hits harder.

  Even when you were fighting that Dragon Warrior kid, it may have looked impressive to those weaklings in the crowd as you dodged his punches, but your movements were wasted in each of your dodges. If you were up against someoh more experiehey would've easily punished you for it."

  After putting his pride away, Ace realised Wukong might be right. 'Weather it was against Teach or Akainu, the most I could do was rely on my devil fruit to try and overpower them, even after they proved they were strohan me in a direct csh.'

  After spending a few seds deep in thought, Ace looked up at the young man who'd bee something of a mentor to him over the st couple of weeks with resolve shining in his eyes. "What do I do to improve?"

  Wukong smiled when he saw that. Ace was one of the most talented children he'd ever seen, alehan himself. He knew full well that the more talented a child, the more prideful they were, but if Ace genuinely wao improve, he had to lower his pride!

  "Don't worry; this king has an idea!"

  .

  .

  .

  The day instead of going hunting like he usually would, Ace followed Wukong to a small clearing in the forest where they could train freely.

  "Ok, the first thing you o work on is your shoddy givesmanship." With a flick of his wrist, a give with an emerald pole and a crystalline bde appeared in Wukong's right hand.

  Ace didn't have to ask to know that Wukong's was of a far higher quality than his.

  "This beloo a rank seven warrior bandit that was stupid enough to try and rob this king!" Wukong said when he saw the look of longing in Ace's eyes.

  As Wukong neared Ace, he spun the Give around his hands in a way that seemed to captivate Ace. 'It's almost as if the give became aension of his hand.'

  "The thing you o know about not only the give but just about every polearm ience is that there are three foundational teiques. All the more plicated teiques you will ever enter are all created based ohree teiques." Wukong said, bringing the bck give in his hands to a stop. "Watch carefully; I'm only going to show you ea once!"

  As soon as Wukong said that, he felt Ace's [observation] cover him, but unlike his usual night-time training sessions where he spread his densed haki simply to tire himself out, this time Ace was fog his attention solely on his instructor. Wuko as if his body, both internal aernal, was id bare before Ace's haki. 'Iing. Since he's paying so much attention, I guess I should take this seriously.'

  At that moment, Ace sensed Wukong's leisurely aura disappear, only to be repced with one of unyielding fidence as he walked over to the ree. 'So this is the real Wukong!'

  "The first form yoing to focus on is…" Pausing just long enough to give the tree before him the fai of taps, Ace saw five leaves fall from their respective branches before he heard Wukong call out. "The [Thrust]!"

  Wukong thrust his give towards the first leaf, perfectly pierg its tre before moving his body, so he was fag the leaf and performed another perfect thrust.

  Ace gave Wukong his undivided attention as he engraved everything about his demonstration into his mind. 'It's almost impossible to tell where oads, and the begins. There's ation, no gaps, and every move flows perfectly into the !'

  Before long, Wukong had finished his demonstration of the thrust. Aoticed that each leaf was attached to the tip of the give, having been pierced through their tre.

  Wukong then proceeded to thrust his give towards the sky. Each of the leaves stuck to his give flew into the sky in unison, but before they had the ce to separate, Ace heard Wukong's voice more.

  "The seove; [Chop]!"

  Ace watched as Wukong raised the give above his head with his hand now holding the give from the base of the shaft. In Ace's eyes, Wukong had bee an indomitable God of War.

  As the give came down, the air itself seemed to move aside. If that wasn't enough, Aoticed that the leaves seemed to halt in mid-air as the give cut them in half.

  'There it is again. It's the same thing he did to Brutus!' Ace repyed the shog se of spapressing over and over in his head, hoping to gleam something as the leaves, now cut in half, fell slowly to the floor.

  "The third move; [Ssh]."

  As each half-leaf entered his range, Wukong would deftly swing his give. No ssh articurly fast, nor was there any aggression in his movements, but Ace felt a sense of serenity wash over him as he saw it.

  "Each move is free of fws, but it's more than just that…"

  It was at that moment that Ace's eyes gzed over as if he had been possessed. He crouched down and raised his give to his chest as if to perform a thrust.

  Wukong was about to scold Ace for being too impatient, but when he saw the look of emptiness, he immediately moved bad said nothing for fear of disrupting him. 'This brat couldn't even wait till this king finished his demonstrations to gain enlighte!'

  Ace held his position for over 20 minutes. He didn't say a word. In fact, he was barely breathing. It was as if every fibre of his being was in areme state of focus.

  Wukong watched in surprise as Ace subsciously fixed his form over time until it was virtually perfect. It was as if Ace had bee a carbon copy of him, albeit smaller.

  He then closed his eyes, and as if he wao it the feeling of the form into his muscle memory, he held that position for another hour, not moving so much as a muscle.

  Suddenly his eyes jolted open. Wuko Ace's aura bee simir to the give in his hand, unbending, heavy, and sharp.

  "First Form; [Thrust]!" The give in Ace's hand shot forth like a meteor pierg right through the tre of the trunk. "Sed Form; [Ssh]!"

  As Ace's give tore through the tree trunk like a khrough butter, Wukong's face turo one of shock. 'This brat!'

  "Third Form; [Chop]!"

  Ace was already in the perfect position for his attack as the tree toppled over. His give desded, cutting it ly in two, and the sho Wukong's face had bee one of excitement. 'Oh the Give… He became oh the give after one demonstration?'

  As Wukong was lost in thoughts staring at Ace as if he was some sort of monster, Ace just snapped out of his enlighte.

  "That feeling…

  How did I…?

  What was that?!" Ace remembered everything that happened, he k was him making each move, but at the same time, he felt as though if he tried to do it again, he wouldn't be able to.

  "It's called sudden enlighte," Wukong said to crify Ace's doubts.