East Blue, Goa Kingdom. Colubo Mountain.
A pale bolt of lightning tore through the pitch-black night, and the torrential rain pounded into the dense primeval forest like a river pouring from the heavens. In this harsh weather, where visibility was completely blurred by the curtain of rain, a wild chase was unfolding deep within the mountain pass.
A mutated saber-toothed tiger, over five meters long and covered in hard scales, was currently sprinting in terror through the mud. It was the overlord of this forest, but now, only despair remained in its cold, vertical pupils. It was running for its life.
"Hahaha! Don't run, big cat! Didn't you want to eat me just a moment ago?!" A crisp yet incredibly wild laugh suddenly erupted from the canopy above the tiger's head.
A thick tree trunk was instantly snapped by a violent force. Accompanied by a gust of wind, a black-haired boy who looked only about ten years old descended from the sky like a meteorite, slamming straight down in front of the beast.
The boy had slightly curly black hair and a few freckles on his cheeks. Although he was only ten, his muscle definition was as taut as a leopard's. Despite the cold rain lashing against his bare chest, wisps of hot white steam were rising from his body. In his hand, he held a heavy, broad-bladed iron sword, full of notches and completely unsharpened.
There was no stance for drawing a sword, nor were there any refined techniques. The boy just grinned, revealing an arrogant and excited smile. The next second, he exerted force with his legs, and the muddy ground beneath his feet instantly exploded into a deep pit as he charged toward the massive beast like a cannonball.
"Get down!"
The boy laughed, gripped the hilt with both hands, and used the heavy iron sword as a pure club, smashing it down toward the tiger's skull. The air emitted a piercing sonic boom. The muscles in his arms bulged instantly, veins popping out under his skin like coiled dragons, pouring out the monster-level strength contained within his young body without reservation.
Accompanied by a bone-chilling crack, the tiger's massive body was smashed to the ground. Its entire skull sank deep into the mud, and after twitching twice, it completely lost all signs of life.
"Whew, you really are tough-skinned." The boy casually shouldered the iron sword, taking deep breaths of the rain mixed with the smell of blood. He laughed heartily, "Still, at least I've got a midnight snack for tonight!"
"You brat, your strength has increased again!"
Just then, a voice like muffled thunder rang out. A burly old man wearing a floral shirt appeared ten steps away, seemingly out of nowhere. He looked at the beast's corpse on the ground, his eyes hidden in the shadows flickering with undisguised shock and complex emotions.
"Oh? Old man Garp, you're back quite early this time." The boy named Portgas D. Ace did not turn his head; he just casually flicked the blood off his sword and grinned. "I heard your footsteps and that terrifying aura of yours from a kilometer away."
Garp's eye twitched. Heard it? In these deep mountains amidst a thunderstorm, hearing someone's heartbeat and aura from a kilometer away?
Observation Haki. And it was that top-tier, innate talent similar to the "Voice of All Things," which one possesses from birth without needing intentional training.
"What a... monster who breaks all common sense from birth," Garp muttered to himself. He strode forward and raised his massive fist, instantly coating it in pitch-black Haki before smashing it down hard toward Ace's head. "Take this! A Fist of Love!"
Facing this fist that could shatter mountains, Ace did not dodge like an ordinary child. Instead, he laughed excitedly, raised the unsharpened iron sword, and smashed it head-on against Garp's fist.
A visible shockwave exploded between the grandfather and grandson, instantly clearing away the surrounding rain. The iron sword shattered upon impact, and Ace flew backward like a kite with a broken string for over ten meters, crashing through three large trees before coming to a stop.
"Ouch, ouch, ouch! You old geezer, you still hit so hard!"
A blow that would have shattered an ordinary person to pieces, yet Ace climbed out of the ruins as if nothing had happened. He patted the mud off his body, and the terrifying bruise on his chest was actually fading at a rate visible to the naked eye.
Garp watched this scene and fell completely silent. This son of Roger, whom he had adopted since childhood, had displayed hair-raising talent from the moment he was born. He had been fighting beasts in the forest since he was three, as if he never knew fatigue. That kind of seemingly inexhaustible energy was something not even Roger had possessed back in the day.
"Brat, take your prey and get back to Dadan's!" Garp snorted, turned around, and strode into the rain, though his back carried an air of helplessness. Roger, what kind of monster did you leave behind, after all?
The rain continued to fall. Ace glanced at the hilt, which was all that remained of his sword, tossed it into the mud, and dragged the heavy corpse of the saber-toothed tiger with one hand. He lowered his head, and by the light of the lightning, looked at his own young, freckled face reflected in a puddle.
"Portgas D. Ace... Heh."
Ace whispered to himself, a wild and arrogant curve appearing on his lips. Garp had no idea what kind of mature and ambitious soul was hidden within the shell of this ten-year-old boy.
He was not the original Ace who was plagued by insecurity, desperately craved affection, and ultimately died in the summit war because of a ridiculous provocation. He was a transmigrator. To be precise, his soul had already completed the deepest level of fusion with this body while still in the womb.
This trans-dimensional soul reconstruction had given him three trump cards. First, innate Observation Haki and the Voice of All Things; he had been able to hear the voice of the world since regaining consciousness. Second, his energy was monstrous, giving him enough help to perfectly digest Garp's hellish training regimen. He was so energetic that he almost didn't need sleep; when others were exhausted, he only needed to sit and catch his breath for a moment to stand back up.
And the third, most terrifying point... Ace slowly raised his hands, feeling the "two abysses" within his body created by his soul's doubled strength. In this world, everyone could eat one Devil Fruit; eating a second would cause them to explode.
But he was different. His soul capacity was naturally enough to bear the arrival of two demons.
"What Second Division Commander of the Whitebeard Pirates, what tragedy of being pierced through the chest by Akainu..."
Ace dragged his prey, facing the thunderstorm, and laughed loudly in the mountain forest. There was not a shred of fear of fate in that laughter, only an unruliness that trampled all rules underfoot.
"Since the world has allowed me to live another life, arriving in this era with these innate trump cards, I will absolutely not just be some son of a Four Emperor. Whether it be the World Nobles or the heavens themselves—I will conquer this world with my own hands!"