It was stupid of him to forget such a powerful ability but he knew why. He put too much emphasis on his traits and after he learnt he can enhance his strength with images he focused on that.
While the boost of an image was incredibly high it put too much burden on his soul unlike haki. He sighed once more, ' I should start focusing more on that ability.'
If he did that before it would've saved him a lot of trouble and after suffering such a set back from using images he knew haki had to be the go to ability from now on.
And just like that 3 more months passed, now he can use his traits as long as he doesn't over do it. He still cannot use haki though as it needs too much will.
It's the reason using it for so long leads to a headache. He crawled out of his hole under the boulder and swam away. He felt disgust the moment he saw weeds and grass.
