On an unknown island coast, Dreadnaught saber was docked, numerous pirates were loading crates and barrels on it. Don krieg, the ship's captain sat on the breezy beach, stuffing himself with meat and fruits like a hungry ghost. Gin, the vice captain, was overseeing his fellow pirates' work, and sometimes he would look in the direction of Don krieg with drool in his mouth.
"Load all the things quickly you maggots, and be done with it. We're gonna be sailing in short time. I'll kill you first if Mihawk catches up to us due to your lazy assess.", shouted Gin to some random pirate grunts, who were lethargically moving crates, as they were probably starving due to hard work they had been doing and had not eaten in a while.
Meanwhile, at some distance, Vash was slowly walking in the jungle, feeling his surroundings. 'This ability to feel the liveliness of life forms, and predict their action without actually seeing would be very practical in fight.', thought Vash. He gradually discovered this ability while he was meditating under waterfall to remove his weakness of water. He named it 'mind's eye'. For a Martial artist, it is basic of the basics to predict opponent's move. It is done through observing opponent's stance and breathing. But this ability takes different approach to directly feel the intent and predict the action before it takes place. Vash guessed that with enough practice he could even predict the future to some extent.
'I can also use telekinetic abilities and generate force fields. All of this abilities are using 'mental energy' to take effect.' Vash contemplates further as he reached the spot where Krieg pirates were camping.
'Almost all of the powerful people in this world possess devil fruit power, so I have to be cautious. I'm not complacent enough to think I'm strongest here. So this ability would be life saver in the situation when I can't defeat my opponent.', thought Vash and perceived the power levels of Krieg pirates through his 'mind's eye'. But he was disappointed by the weak auras they projected.
Vash took cover behind some trees, and quietly watched them do their things. Twenty or so numbers of pirates gathered in front of the ship were discussing the whereabouts of their comrade who haven't returned. While the remaining pirates were unfurling the sails and pulling the anchors, probably making preparation to set sail soon. 'If I kill all of them I won't be able to leave this island as I have no experience in sailing this type of ship which only uses wind as propeller, so I'll spare at least 10 people with the least malicious intent.', thought Vash, and just as he was about to take action his 'mind's eye' caught a frightening sharp intent steadily approaching towards island. ' So that's Mihawk, he seems strong.' , thought Vash. Feeling the presence approaching he decided to swiftly knock out the pirates.
An fan shaped invisible wave of 'mental energy' laced with overpowering intent spread in the direction of Krieg pirates, suppressing their intent and making them unconscious. After that, Vash came out in open and waited for Mihawk.
Vash could see a small boat with cross shaped mast, it has black sails, and a person sitting in it like an emperor. This person also has a cross shaped item strapped to his back. Vash guessed it to be a sword by the aura of the object.
As the boat reached the shore, Vash saw a tall lean man with black hair, in red and black ornate attire with cross shaped pendent on his chest. The man also wore wide-brimmed hat decorated with a large plume. But the most prominent feature was the man's piercing eyes. Any normal man looking at the eyes would tremble in fright.
Hawk eyes Mihawk had destroyed Krieg pirate fleet but due to an unexpected storm, a ship had escaped along with the captain. He had been chasing them around grandline in boredom. And when he finally caught up with the remaining Krieg pirate, he saw them all knocked out and a man in Martial artists' clothing was staring at him as if the man had expected his arrival.
"So you are the world's strongest swordsman Dracule Mihawk, You certainly live up to the name.", said Vash and made a vertical chop, a white compressed air blade shot out at incredible speed toward the swordmaster. Mihawk felt the power and intent behind the air blade, and held the cross shaped hilt of the blade 'Yoru' and slashed. White and green air blades collided in the middle of the two men, cancelling each other out in white smoke, the shockwave of collision toppled the Dreadnaught Saber in the sea along with the pirates laying around, who were flung far away from the battle zone.
"I see, you are also a fellow swordsman. Are you challenging me for my title?" asked Mihawk with serious face. He could clearly feel the sharp and dominant aura of the man in front of him.
"I am called Vash, and I don't care about some flimsy title, all I care about is getting stronger. So let's fight." said Vash.
"I was bored anyway. but aren't you too arrogant to fight me barehanded? take out your sword." said Mihawk.
"My body is the sword itself, and with my intent, I swing it however l like." said Vash and flew toward the center of the island with help of telekinetic abilities. Mihawk felt inexplicable power in Vash's statement and started pondering on it while following Vash.
"Interesting." said Mihawk after sometime as he could feel his sword mastery, which has stagnated for a long time, increase a little when he contemplated on the sentence said by Vash, and a smile appeared on his face.
Mihawk arrived at the spot of Vash and saw him hovering above ground in cross-legged posture. "So you are a devil fruit user, but how do you have float-float fruit's power? Shiki should be still alive." asked Mihawk in confusion.
"I have eaten a different fruit. But I'm not using devil fruit powers to fly, and who's this person called Shiki?" Vash asked back.
Hearing such reply further confused Mihawk.
But he replied anyway, "Golden Lion Shiki is dangerous pirate of Gol D Roger's generation and he is float-float human with float-float devil fruit power. So how can you float if you aren't using devil fruit?"
"hmm, I'll give you a hint, I'm using the reactionary force of air resistance along with some secret power to fly." said Vash and landed on the ground.
After the short conversation both of them simultaneously released their auras, ready for the fight.
Mihawk launched numerous flying slash, Vash also hand chopped many air slash in response. Each of their attack had uncanny precision as they collided. It was only possible due to observation skill otherwise a single mistake would be fatal for any of them.
After a round of attack using compressed air blades, they got close and personal. If Mihawk swung his sword horizontally, Vash would dodge it narrowly by jumping up or down. Vertical cuts were fended off using corkscrew punches bypassing the sword's trajectory while Vash simultaneously dodging the strikes.
Vash's each movement released air blades from parts of his body so even Mihawk had to be careful not to get fatally wounded. For both of them, it was dangerous to fight in close combat. As Vash also had to be careful of black blade so as to not get killed cause his defence is not strong enough to directly meet it head on with his limbs.
Vash's normal physical strength is inferior to Mihawk because he had only trained for three months; as a comparison, If Vash could flip a freighter like a toy then Mihawk could shoulder a large mountain. So Vash has been using overpowered ability of his devil fruit from the start of the fight.
To hit harder, and match Mihawk in strength, he's increasing his weight to elevate the amount of momentum in his attacks. He's also using his telekinetic ability to hinder Mihawk's fast movement and reducing his weight to increase speed. This transition in weight change is done in split second so Mihawk couldn't get any opening even if he knew it.
Unlike most others, Mihawk as well as Vash, don't bother naming their techniques simply because they have mastered their respective arts to very high degree, so much so that their every movement releases unreal power.
Their bout of clash had been only going on for a few minutes but the island was already on the brink of destruction. Both of them stopped with tacit understanding, when they felt the land couldn't withstand anymore fighting.
"iyahahaha..." "wahahaha..." Then they started laughing heartily for different reasons; because Vash lost. He had been invincible his whole life so losing is fresh experience for him, he didn't consider this fight draw, for him it was either winning or losing, there's no in between. And Mihawk was laughing because he unexpectedly found an opponent which made him exert a great deal of power.
When they stopped laughing, Vash noticed something unusual. "Shit, they are escaping with my ship.", he said in panicking voice and ran toward the edge of the island where the pirate ship was docked. "Your ship? oh, you were planning to get your hands on it." said Mihawk as he followed Vash. "Damn right, that ship was my ticket out of this God forsaken island." replied Vash and tried flying toward the ship which was barely visible in the distant horizon.
"Wait! let them go.", shouted Mihawk.
"What?? And why are you stopping me from chasing them?" asked Vash in angry tone.
"I have already marked them. They can't escape from me." replied Mihawk in calm voice. Vash also calmed down hearing that, and flew back to the ground beside Mihawk.
"Let's follow them." said Mihawk pointing to his boat. "I had them knocked down cold. How did they escape then?" said Vash with some confusion."They probably woke up due to external shock when we previously clashed here." replied Mihawk. "Tch... lucky bastards, I'll kill them next time.", said Vash in cold tone.
Unknown to both of them, a seagull equipped with den den mushi was recording the whole incident on the island. The world was in for a surprise.
(Author's note)
//hello readers, it took me lot of time to write this chapter. It's tough being a writer, to organise your ideas in meaning ful way, at the same time making it so that it's enjoyable to read. Hence I'm explaining some thing so there won't be confusion reading the chapter. 1. Vash's mental power is basically haki; mind's eye= observation haki; force field= armament haki; Telekinesis=conqueror's haki. In canon, conqueror's haki could only make people faint. As Oda has not shown any advanced usage yet, so I'm gonna go with 'move object with mind' as of now.
2. In one piece, Rankyaku aka air blade and moonwalk can be used by most of them with some training, if they are strong enough physically.
3. They were not using armaments haki in the fight, otherwise the island will sink in a single blow. They are already very powerful with just their physical strength.
4. Mihawk doesn't possess conqueror's haki so he couldn't cancel out Telekinesis of Vash.//