One night when he and his mother were walking back from the orphanage hand in hand, he suddenly felt his heart begin to race, and his palms start to sweat. He came to a sudden stop as he clutched his chest, hoping this feeling of ay would pass.

  His mother seeing the state he was in, started to panic. “Ace? What’s wrong?”

  hing she knew, he was down on both knees clutg at his chest as if he wao grab his heart.

  “SOMEBODY HELP… PLEASE HELP MY SON!”

  People stopped and began gathering around them, but Ace was in too much disfort to pay them any mind.

  ‘This almost feels like…’ Ace decided to stop resisting and embrace the feeling tugging away at him. ‘Haki! This is observation haki!’

  As he allowed his observation haki to focus on what ulling it in the first pce, he sehe aura of three powerful individuals.

  Turning his head away from his g mother, he noticed three robed figures running on the rooves of the buildings besides them, and in the arms of the lead man was a woman.

  ‘Isn’t that Lina Baruch? Isn’t she supposed to be…’

  Before he could finish his train of thought, he felt two more powerful auras chasing them, but the gap only seemed to be widening.

  ‘The whole town was excited as today was the day Lina was supposed to give birth to her sed son.’

  It was then that he saw the pani her eyes as she seemed to be looking ba the dire of the Baruch family manor.

  At that moment, her face seemed to overp with the image of his mother from his first life. He realised that if the kidnappers got away, there was a good ce that a newborn baby could grow up not knowing his mother's love.

  “STTOOOPPPP!” Ace roared furiously.

  An invisible energy exploded out of the toddler, and one by ohe people around him started falling unscious. Despite being further away and signifitly stronger, evehree kidnappers had to stop as they felt a pressure they’d never experienced before.

  Ultimately, the only one able to stay scious was the man in the front, but even he had to stop for a few seds to shake off the fear welling up inside him.

  He looked towards the boy oreet beside him, who shouted stht before that terrifying pressure enveloped him. He shook his head, instantly dismissing the idea that it inated from a child, especially as said child – like the other ordinairy civilians – was now unscious.

  He looked around for anyone else present, but he was the only oill scious.

  “I don’t know which esteemed expert is watg, but as long as you are willing to let me leave with my little life, I am willing to leave the woman.” He said, believing that the expert roteg his target.

  Seeing that there was no response and knowing it wouldn’t be long before Hogg caught up to him, he decided to drop Lina and escape. But not before killing his two rades and stripping them of their valuables.

  Moments ter, two men arrived on the se. The one in the lead had a full head of brown hair tinted with white edges showing his age. He was dressed in regal golden armour, with a rge crimson-tinted war bde in his hand that emanated a fearful killing aura that seemed to match his own.

  The other man had long, flowing bck hair and was dressed in an all-bck armour with a rge saber sheathed by his side.

  The bck armoured man studied the enviro warily, but the more he looked around, the more fused he became.

  “What happened here?” He asked as he looked at the unscious civilians littering the floor.

  The Golden armoured man didn’t have eyes for anyone or anything but the woman on the ground.

  “Thank goodness you’re okay!” He said, holding Lina into his chest after ensuring she was still breathing and cheg her for injuries.

  “Lord Hogg, I checked the bodies of the two remaining kidnappers, but I don’t reise them, and they were carrying nothing on them.” The bck armoured maed.

  “Don’t worry about them for now, Hillman. First, check to see if the citizens are okay. I’m going to take my wife back to the manor. e and find me when you’ve finished.”

  Hogg instructed, not daring to take his eyes off his wife for even a sed as though she would disappear at any moment.

  “Yes, milord!”

  Ace woke up the following day in his mother’s arms. He could tell from how hard she held him that he must have given her quite the fright. A helpless sigh escaped his lips as he remembered what happened. ‘I guess the idea of a mother being forced to separate from her child has bee something of a trigger for me.

  But that doesn’t expin how I use haki in this world. I wonder if Haki is something that humans use in every universe, or if it’s something uo me…’

  As his thoughts reached that point, he spread his observation haki as wide as possible.

  ‘500 meters? That’s over double what I could do in my past life; I wonder if that has anything to do with my increased intelligence.’

  He then tried to coat his arms in armament haki. But almost immediately, he grimaced in pain as his bones began to creak uhe pressure.

  ‘I guess my body is too weak to bear the pressure of armament haki. Haha, it’s hard to believe, but it looks like I’m going to excel in observation over armament in this life. I guess Pops was wrong when he said I would always be brawn over brain!

  But why is it I still ’t sense my queror’s haki?! I know I have it; I used it st night, for heaven’s sake! Even in my previous life, no matter how much Pops sat down to teach me, I couldn’t use it other than by act!

  Was he right? Do I really have a mental knot where Roger is ed, preventing me from tapping into it?

  Even if I do, how would I even start to tackle that?’

  “Ace…”

  Hearing his mother’s waking voice, Ace’s body tensed as he sidered how to expin what happeo him.

  “Are you ok?”

  Milianna asked as she pced the back of her hand on his forehead.

  “I’m okay, mom.”

  Ace replied weakly, making Milianna think he might still be in some disfort. She instantly grabbed his wrist to take his pulse.

  Ace smiled helplessly, knowing how overprotective his mother was on a typical day, let aloer st night.

  To prove he was fine, Ace jumped out of bed and flexed his ent muscles. “See, I’m all good.”

  Seeing his eic dispy mao put a smile on her fad quell her worry, even if only in part.

  “That’s good, but we’re still going to yranny Surielle’s so you get a check-up.” She said, ruffling his jet-bck hair.

  Ace could only agree helplessly, knowing he didn’t actually have a say iter.

  Despite being unbelievably healthy, to the point of having never suffered so much as a on cold, he would still be dragged to see the town’s doctor, Surielle, at least once a month.

  Whether he tripped over and banged his knee or just sneezed, his mother’s first rea was t him to get checked over.

  As inve as it was, it still warmed his heart. He’d never been lucky enough to feel the love of an overprotective mother in his st life, so he did whatever he could to embrace it in this life.