Before long the day when Luffy would meet Ace again had come. He didn't like how his first encounter with Ace turned last time. He was hoping that he would be able to change it somehow. A little later Garp was walking up Mt. Corvo with Luffy's stretched out face in hand. It hurt just as much as last time but Luffy understood why it hurt him now. Garp wanted Luffy to become a great marine and Luffy still wanted to become the Pirate King. After hiking for some time Garp and Luffy made it to the mountain bandits hideout. Garp dropped Luffy on the ground and went to knock on the door. A very annoyed Dadan opened the door demanding to know who was knocking.

"It's Me" Garp said straight faced.

Dadan stumbled back and Dogra as well as Magra appeared from behind a curtain shocked to see who was standing in front of them. Garp got straight to the point as Luffy was running around like the child he had always been as well physically was now.

"Who is that kid" Magra asked

"My grandson" Garp said as serious as ever

"You are going to take care of him as well"

"What" The trio of mountain bandits replied

"Not happening" The trio said again

"Ok, then you have to make a decision. Either you go to prison for all of your crimes or you take care of him."

Luffy was running around and he felt something nasty hit him in the cheek.

"Who's there?" Luffy said even though he knew it was an irritated Ace who had done it. He did his best to hide his excitement seeing his brother again.

"Hey, you"

"Apologize! That's gross!"

Garp had stopped talking with the bandits and walked up behind Luffy who had found Ace.

"Luffy, this is Ace" Garp said

However Luffy already knew exactly who he was. Ace had spat in Luffy's face like last time. This time he didn't get as mad. After Garp introduced Ace he walked off to talk with the bandits again. Garp had decided that Luffy was going to stay with the mountain bandits and they knew there was nothing they could do or say to change his mind so they regretfully accepted. Garp told Luffy that he was going to be staying with the bandits. Luffy wiped the spit off of his face straightened his hat and walked into the mountain bandits' hideout. Bandits appeared and grabbed him and put a knife to his throat. The bandits began asking for money from him but he didn't have any.

"Call your parents and have them bring cash."

"I don't have any parents"

"I've only got my grandpa"

"Then call you grandpa"

"What's your gramps's name?"

"Garp-san" Dogra responded

The mountain bandits were shocked to hear this and all the more shocked when they learned that another kid was going to be staying with them. Dadan then walked in and dropped a huge plate full of meat on the floor.

"It's time for dinner"

The bandits rushed to get to the food before it was all gone. He dove into the madness but was unable to get any food due to his size. He missed out on the meat and was forced to eat only a bowl of rice for dinner. Luffy wasn't worried as he would be able to get his own food later.

"One bowl of rice and a glass of water a day"

"That is all I am giving you to eat"

"You'll have to raise yourself to be strong" Dadan said

"Alright" Luffy said

Dadan was shocked to say the least as she got her head stuck in the floor. That wasn't the answer she was expecting. All the while Ace had finished eating gotten up and left. Luffy got up and followed Ace out of the hideout knowing exactly where he was going. Ace made it to the top of a cliff standing next to a big tree. Luffy had made it to the bottom of the cliff and had gotten Ace's attention.

"I'm Luffy, I'm not angry that you spat on me anymore."

"It's nothing to get worked up about. Let's be friends."

"Are you going somewhere?" Luffy said this knowing exactly where Ace was going but feigning ignorance as Ace was still in a rotten mood. The next thing Luffy knew Ace had kicked down the tree that was standing next to him and sent it rolling down the cliff and down the hill he had just climbed up. Luffy panicked like he did last time this happened and let the tree follow him down the incline. Once he was far enough ahead of the tree he stopped, turned around and said.

"Busoshoku Koka" Luffy was surprised that this worked

"Buso Koka Gomu Gomu no Gatling" And without much delay Luffy began punching the tree causing it to shatter into fire wood.

Luffy avoided getting stuck between a rock cliff face and the tree this time around. By the time Luffy had made it back up the incline where he had seen Ace he was gone.

'Good, he wasn't there to see what I could do.' Luffy thought to himself

'With Ace likely off at Gray Terminal with Sabo I can test myself. I should see how much of my strength I still have.'

'I should be able to follow Ace much easier this time'

'Maybe I will be able to show them the basics of Haki?' Luffy thought

So with that Luffy abandoned his quest to catch up to Ace at least for the next few days and see how strong he was. Luffy walked off into the forest in some random direction as he would likely be able to find his way back to the bandit's hideout with his Kenbunshoku no Haki. After walking for a little while he stopped and figured that this would be as good a place as any to practice.

The first thing he tested was his Kenbunshoku no Haki. He had done as Rayleigh taught him and counted the number of strong animals on the mountain. Well he attempted to but there were far too many animals on the mountain. He also determined which animals were the strongest, but he didn't know if he could defeat them in his current state. He would need another person to test his skills any further. Stuck for now he moved on to his Busoshoku no Haki.

He thought about his body being covered in the black "armor". Instead of being completely covered he only managed to cover his fore arms and legs up to his knees. He wasn't as proficient in this as he had been. By the time the Straw Hats had made it to Raftel, Luffy had learned to control this Haki and cover his entire body in it. He had still needed work on protecting himself from blades cutting him but he was making progress. Satisfied with that for now he moved on to his Gear Second moves. He would hold off on Haoshoku no Haki and test that on a larger animal once he knew how he stacked up in terms of strength in case it didn't work as he had hoped.

Luffy moved on to Gear Second. He stood in his old stance before his training with Rayleigh. He pumped the blood in both of his legs a few times up into his body turning himself red and causing steam to radiate off of him. Luffy knew that his method of activating Gear Second would hurt his body but he hoped that this would be the only time he had to use it like this. Knowing that he still could do it he let it dissipate and tried it again like Rayleigh taught him. He focused on pumping his legs just enough to get the desired effect. It worked as he hoped it would and only his legs were red and emitting steam. In conjunction with his Gear Second he tried the only move he picked up from CP9.

He said Soru, kicked off the ground ten times or so in an instant and he disappeared and reappeared all over the forest. He was a little disappointed that he wasn't as fast as his twenty year old self but he couldn't expect to be that fast. His little body just wasn't as strong as it had been in the future. He continued to do this for a little while. After determining about how fast he was in comparison to how he had been he stopped jumping around the forest and went to go catch some food. Doing all this in succession had really tired his little body out. After spending two years on Rusukaina as well as his previous 10 years on Mt. Corvo Luffy had no problem getting food for himself. After Luffy finished his dinner he went back to the bandits' hideout where Ace was surprised to see him alive after he attacked him earlier.

The next morning Ace wandered off into the forest to go about his business. Luffy followed Ace out but went off into the forest in a completely different direction and did not bother chasing after Ace. After walking for a while Luffy found an area with lots of boulders to break. He figured these would be best to test his Buso infused Gear Second attacks. He began practicing and found that he was actually able to break many of the smaller boulders. He wanted to test his Gear Third techniques but he decided to hold off on those for a while.

"I am not nearly as strong as I was but this is pretty good for only being seven."

"I am just glad my body is able to take the strain I am putting on it. I will have to be careful using all of these techniques around people. I can't go showing off too much. What would happen if grandpa found out about what I could do?" Luffy sweat dropped at the thought of what Garp might do to him.

"Once I get to know Ace and Sabo again I should be able to go all out, maybe they will be impressed and want me to teach them?"

"Shit" Luffy said

"I guess I am going to have to figure out how to explain this to them. Starting out the same way Rayleigh taught me would work. This is going to be fun."

"I still can't believe I never beat them once as a kid."

"I should have an advantage for a while."

"Yosh, one more thing to try"

He began searching the jungle for a large animal. He had to find a larger animal he could practice on, or it really wouldn't be worth practicing right now. So he used his Kenbunshoku no Haki and found the closest large animal around. And to his surprise he sensed two people chasing after the beast. He figured it had to be Ace and Sabo. So he followed the three until he finally caught up with them. Ace and Sabo were attacking the animal but were having some trouble beating it. So Luffy being the idiot that he is just walked up and sat down on a rock behind the two boys who were attacking the animal.

"Yo" Luffy said

Ace turned and saw the younger boy just sitting on a rock.

"You?"

"What are you doing here?" Ace said

"Get out of here, run away it's dangerous" said Sabo

"You have to get out of here we are not going to protect you if this boar attacks you"

"Yeah, listen to him. We are having a problem beating this thing. There is no way you would stand a chance against it." Sabo said

"Ok, let's test that out shall we." Luffy said getting up off the rock; he was oozing confidence and excitement to finally get a chance to test this particular skill.

The boar had just been standing there since the boys had stopped attacking it to yell at this other little kid. Luffy began walking toward the boar, the next thing Ace and Sabo knew the boar had gone on the offensive and went to attack this littler boy who should be scared beyond words at this point. Well not today, not this little boy, not this idiot. The next thing Ace and Sabo saw stunned them. The little boy had managed to subdue the large boar without even touching it. The next thing out of the young boys' mouth shocked them just as much.

"Shishishi" Luffy laughed with a stupid grin on his face

"Wow, that worked really well" Luffy said

"What the" was all Ace and Sabo could say as again they were shocked by the little idiot in front of them.

He was grinning, eyes closed holding out his hand two fingers stuck up in the air in the shape of a V.

After Ace and Sabo snapped out of their stupor they looked at the boy. They then realized that they would have to do something about the boar or it might get up and attack them again.

'Will it attack us again?' Ace and Sabo thought

'Is the boar dead?'

'What did he even do?'

The two boys had way too many questions for that particular moment. Focusing back on the boar they decided to tie it up and they began to roast it. Once the boar was done cooking Ace and Sabo began to eat. They then remembered the boy who helped them catch their lunch; they were surprised to see the boy drooling at all the delicious meat in front of him.

"Come on over and have some lunch, you deserve that much" Sabo said

Ace wasn't too happy at the idea but without the other boy would they have been able to beat the boar? Ace began to think back at what he saw just a little while ago.

The boy covered his eyes, one hand on his straw hat tilted down and the other up in the air. All of a sudden Ace felt a strange chill run up his spine, this was nothing like he had ever experienced before. The next thing he knew the boar was down on the ground foaming at the mouth, presumably passed out unconscious.

"Yeah, thanks for sharing with me you two." Luffy wanted to use both their names but figured he would let them introduce themselves when they were ready, even though he already knew both of them.

Luffy began stuffing his face. Ace had gotten rather annoyed at the sight in front of him. So he spoke up hoping to get some answers.

"Alright, out with it. What the heck did you do to the boar?"

Luffy continued eating; this only annoyed Ace even more. Luffy swallowed the food he had in his mouth and began talking.

"I'm not going to tell you, baaaka" Luffy said sticking out his tongue knowing this would get Ace all riled up. Sabo saw this and figured the only way to diffuse the situation was to speak up.

"I'm Sabo, what's your name kid?"

"I'm Luffy, nice to meet you Sabo."

"Introduce yourself; it is the nice thing to do since we wouldn't be eating this without Luffy here." Sabo said to Ace

Ace still rather annoyed, introduced himself

"I'm Ace, nice to meet you Luffy."

"Nice to meet you Ace." Luffy said

"Now was that so hard, I tried introducing myself yesterday but didn't get any response. Instead you just spat on me, which still was gross by the way"

All Sabo could do was laugh at the response Ace got from the boy, but very quickly stopped as Ace glared at him.

The three boys continued eating until there was nothing left but bones.

"So what now?" Sabo said

Luffy spoke up before either boy could get a word out

"Thanks for lunch; I am going to get back to my training." Luffy said

Luffy got up and began to walk into the forest completely at random

'5..4..3..2..1..' Luffy thought to himself as if he knew the two boys wouldn't be able to resist trying to find out what this little boy was going to go do.

Ace and Sabo looked at each other. Ace had a rather annoyed look on his face while Sabo had a rather perplexed look on his face. However both boys nodded their heads and without saying a single word to each other, they had agreed that they wanted to know more about this rather strange and powerful little boy.

Just as Luffy finished counting down in his head, Ace and Sabo stood up.

"Wait a minute" Sabo said

"Yeah" Luffy said

"Can we come and see what your training is like." Sabo said

"Of course" Luffy said with a big stupid grin on his face.

Luffy stood in place waiting for Ace and Sabo to catch up to him before the three of them began walking into the forest.