Scholar of Strawhat Pirates

After Douglas showed Ace the head of Teach, Ace decided to burn the head of Blackbeard, as a final satisfaction. A gesture of revenge against Teach, deleting Marshall D. Teach's every evidence in the world, as even his bones did not exist anymore, someone who was killed before making a mark in the sea, with his ambitions getting cut short by someone he had belittled.

"I want to thank you for killing Teach. We have known each other for three years, and I know that he would have some trap card that he could use against me. Thank you," Ace said toward Douglas, while also bowing his head, as he showed his back toward Douglas, a sign of deeper respect.

"It's no problem, I just did it to protect myself and the loved ones that I have that are living here, I used every means possible at my disposal, and made sure that I won for them at the end," Douglas answered, which made Ace smile a little.

"We might be strangers, but I would like to formally invite you to join the Whitebeard Pirates, someone like you is capable and I could see that you have ambition in your eyes," Ace said towards Douglas, as he extended his arms toward Douglas, but Douglas just smiled at him, which made Ace think that Douglas would accept his invitation.

"Forgive me, but I would be blunt here, but despite Whitebeard being called The Strongest Man in the World for a lot of years now, carrying his name from the past era, he has not been a Pirate King all this time. Do you know why?" Douglas said towards Ace, which switched Ace's expression from joy to extremely serious, as despite being thankful about Blackbeard, he would not stand any insults towards his father figure.

"Dougan D. Douglas, I would warn you to mind your next words, as despite me being thankful, disrespecting my Father is something that I cannot just let go," Ace said towards Douglas, but Douglas continued to talk.

"I'm not gonna insult Whitebeard, it's just he doesn't have that ambition for himself, even if you, yourself, wanted to make Whitebeard become the Pirate King, and find the One Piece, Whitebeard might not be interested in changing the world. I heard that he was sick, yet he did not seem eager to start finding that rumored last place, but despite not having that ambition, Whitebeard's strength did not decrease for a long time," Douglas started explaining, with Ace just continuing to listen.

"Ambition has something to do with someone's strength, I'm sure you would know that by now, with all of the adventures that you have in the sea, and Whitebeard, not having a grand ambition is still treated to be the strongest person in the world. I think the reason for that is that Whitebeard does have an ambition, but not something that you think. In my opinion, his ambition is something related to his calling his pirate crew his sons, just wanting to have a family of his own, and that was something that he held on to, as he needed strength to protect those he treated as family. Now, do you see where I'm going with my statement? Portgas D. Ace," Douglas added, which made Ace silent once again.

"Yes, it means he already achieved his ambition," Ace said.

"Correct, and that's something that I want for my Captain, I have a dream myself, and I want my Captain to match that ambition with an equally difficult dream," Douglas said, which made Ace understand.

"I see, then if someone arrived here and said that he would become a Pirate King and invited you to board his ship, would you agree?" Ace then said to Douglas.

"If their ambition is clear from the heart, then I believe I would," Douglas said earnestly, as he already knew who Ace was talking about.

"Ahhhhh, good, good. Do you have any place that you know where I could stay? I have someone waiting for," Ace then suddenly said towards Douglas, which made Douglas gesture to follow him. Ace then followed Douglas, while the villagers who were looking directly at Douglas had already passed out due to the intensity of Douglas' stare, which made them unable to hear their conversations.

Douglas then brought Ace towards the castle of the Drum Kingdom and started introducing Ace to Kureha and Chopper. Ace was stunned when he saw Chopper, especially when Chopper began to talk.

A week passed since Ace joined them in the castle, Ace became another friend of Chopper, which added to his healing towards the humans, as he saw that there are different kinds of humans, and the one that he saw is just some of them.

"Why are you still here? Don't you want to deliver the good news for Whitebeard, to worry about your well-being anymore?" Douglas suddenly asked Ace, as they were having lunch, which made Chopper look at Ace, as if he were leaving already.

"Well, I already said that I was waiting for somebody, plus, I haven't had the strength to go back, and face Father in his face and tell him the news that I was not the one that killed Teach, despite me disobeying his orders," Ace answered honestly towards Douglas, which made Douglas laugh at him.

"Ahahahahah, coward," Douglas said towards Ace, which made Ace mad, which prompted an invitation to a duel. During the week that Ace spent with Douglas, he observed that Douglas does a routine every day, which explains his strength.

The training that Douglas was doing was brutal, which made Ace question how strong Douglas actually was. This curiosity prompted an invitation to spar, which ended in Douglas' victory, shocking Ace. As the second commander of the Whitebeard Pirates, with a lifetime of battle experience, Ace was confident in his strength. But Douglas's power was unmatched. When Douglas struck him with his weapon, Ace—relying on his Logia powers—chose not to dodge, and was immediately knocked out.

This sparked a daily sparring routine between the two over the past week. The more they fought, the more Ace realized he was not invincible. He knew Douglas had a Devil Fruit—he had seen him use it—but in all of their sparring and mock battles, Douglas never once activated it. Despite that, Ace could not land a solid hit, as Douglas was far more proficient in Observation Haki.

"Hoho, I could take you all day, Portgas D. Ace," Douglas said as he stood and faced Ace once more.

"What did you say?!" Ace shouted back. They were causing a commotion that disturbed the table, sending utensils clattering and shaking the plates. Chopper, flustered, looked back and forth between his two friends, trying to calm them down. Meanwhile, Kureha was visibly losing patience. She was about to intervene when Douglas suddenly stopped speaking mid-sentence.

His expression shifted, serious and focused.

He felt it—someone had landed on the island again.

Ace noticed the sudden change and frowned in confusion, but Douglas only had one word in his mind:

"Finally."