Looking at the Straw Hat crew Vash saw his past self in them. He was rash and unafraid of any challenges just like them. He had trodden the Martial way, constantly putting his life in danger, whether it be practicing or fighting. Previously, Vash hadn't had any supernatural powers like he did now. And this world is full of people with unnatural might. So he thought he might as well train to catch up with them.
Right now, Vash had many areas to improve. Aside from his techniques, his physical strength is not up to par. His body was just one quarterly strong as Mihawk; he could only use second tier ability of the 'kiloton kiloton' fruit with which he would have maximum weight of 1 kiloton. And regarding haki, he still wants to train them rigorously to better proficiencies; he had not achieved future sight with color of observation.
'I should compile an efficient regime.' thought Vash. Just then, he felt tremors running through the ground he was standing. A lot of large boulders broke off, falling from red line. It was like someone was hammering the Red Line intending to destroy it.
Using the color of observation , Vash noticed the whale ramming itself on the Red Line. ' So that's how the scars on its head came to be.' He thought and ran toward the lighthouse screaming in loud voice. " Flowering old man, Your pet is going crazy again!!"
Crocus and Mihawk came out of the lighthouse. They both knew why Laboon is like that; it wanted to smash Red Line so it could reunite with its friends.
The trio walked to the shore and fixed their eyes under ocean. Although, they couldn't see anything with their eyes, their color of observation caught every action of the large whale. After a while of silence, Crocus started telling the story of the whale. How the whale was once a part of a pirate crew so long ago, and how the pirates had made a promise to return after their adventure, leaving it here in safety to protect him from the horrors of the grandline. In the end, they never returned, probably dead, but the whale's obstinate nature didn't forget the promise. It thought that their friends had been stuck on the other side of Red Line. So it had been headbutting the giant rock structure since. It hopes to meet them after destroying the Red Line and fulfill their promise.
"Instead of doing the impossible, it should just travel the grandline like other people. It should be capable to survive the harsh seas now that it is large and powerful." Vash said after hearing the tale.
The whale stopped its activity as if it had heard what the Vash said, and started swimming in the opposite direction of the red line like it had heeded his advice.
"Hey, hey, does this guy know color of observation? It could understand my words from down their." Vash said in amazement. It was his first time seeing animal use haki.
"Mihawk, stop him. We can't let him venture into grandline like this." requested Crocus hurriedly.
Mihawk projected his will through color of Supreme Kings to make it stop and made it submissive. The whale felt the dangerous aura of Mihawk. It stopped in its tracks and slowly half of its body emerged from water.
Crocus went to convince Laboon to not go at this time. Both of them had to prepare things to travel.
"Old man, as the saying goes, no rest for the wicked and no retirement for the pirates. iiyahahaha..." Vash said and then laughed. Crocus came back and sighed at the new development in situation.
"Laboon has made up his mind to go out there. So now, I either remove all the contraption he has which is, I tell you, is very difficult and time consuming or I could just go along with him." Said Crocus in a tired voice.
"Let's worry about that later. We should entertain our guests first." said Vash feeling the movement of stir among unconscious pirates.
All three of them entered the lighthouse. Four of the straw hats had awoken except their Captain, who was snoring loudly blowing snot bubble.
They felt like they were having nightmare but injuries on their bodies told them otherwise. Their first encounter in grandline turned out be disastrous.
The door of the room they are staying creaked open. Then they saw the source of their bad luck. Sanji just stared at Vash in anger but he didn't make any move.
"Hawk eyes Mihawk, I'll surely defeat you in the future." said Zoro in determined voice. Usopp who was beside him said in fright, "Zoro, don't provoke him. He'll kill us all if he gets pissed." And Nami was just reviewing her life choices if she had made a mistake to become a pirate.
"All of you come, I'll prepare some food for you. Hey, Crocus old man, do you have any ingredients stored? If not I'll have to go get some." Vash said and asked.
"I keep some stock but it won't be enough for all of us." replied Crocus.
"I was gonna fish anyway, I saw a lot of migratory salmons in reverse mountain stream. Hmm... they are plump and look nutritious. Hey Mihawk, let's compete who catches more." said Vash in a challenging tone.
"Hmph, I'm afraid you'll cry after losing." Mihawk replied snorting.
"Hey you, Your Vash right? I challenge you in fishing." said Sanji who was silent until now.
"Hey curly brows, don't forget me. I'll also join. Let's see who wins." Zoro said as if he was left behind.
"What did you say Marino!! your on now." said Sanji annoyed.
Vash and Mihawk just smirked seeing the competitive attitude of the duo and went toward the reverse mountain. Sanji followed Vash who stood at one side of downward stream, and Zoro went to Mihawk who was on other side.
But before that, they had each gotten a big bucket to keep the caught fish. Vash kept catching fishes which were jumping out of water, and trying to scale the downstream of reverse mountain. Sanji also did the same following Vash.
"Sanji, you try catching fish that are underwater." said Vash.
"Why? so you could get an easy win. No thanks." replied Sanji and tried catching a jumping fish. But before he caught hold of it, the fish just magically changed direction midair, and went straight into Vash's bucket.
"You..., what did you...no, how are you doing that?" Asked Sanji pointing his finger at Vash.
"It's called haki. Anyway, do as I say, otherwise you won't able be catch any fish while I am here." said Vash smirking like he enjoyed watching Sanji get mad.
"Sigh. Alright, fine." Said Sanji in frustration, and tried getting fishes underwater. He could only catch fifty percent of fish that passed by the stream.
"Sharpen all of your senses and focus. Try feeling the turbulence of water and predict the fish's movement. You also have to take notice of nature of water as the fish will appear closer than they are." said Vash trying to help Sanji.
Sanji decided to follow the advice, he wasn't losing anything by trying. So, he concentrated on the task, and did as Vash said. First by trial and error, he got know the accurate position of the fish. The water didn't elude him anymore. This improved his rate of catching fish to sixty percent. If it was water that was still, Sanji wouldn't have such difficulty in the beginning, but the water was moving carrying lot of air bubbles distorting light and made it murky.
After that Sanji tried determining which fish were most healthy. He tried predicting their next position by their way of swimming and body movement. Sanji did this for half an hour, and his rate of catches increased to seventy five percent, then it started decreasing due to him being tired.
'Well, he was already spent previously after the fight. Now he lasted half an hour in the task which is already very commendable.' thought Vash side glancing at Sanji.
"Sanji, it's enough. You go and prepare the stove and start cooking. We'll be there in a while." said Vash driving him out of the spot.
"No!! I can still go on and " replied Sanji with fire in his eyes. He renewed his determination, he would never face such humiliating defeat again. So he t 'Nami chan won't like me if I am beat up all the time.' thought Sanji.
"Suit yourself." Said Vash, and looked at the other side. He saw Mihawk relaxedly sitting there, and a stream of salmon ended up in his bucket. In half an hour Mihawk had filled ten of such buckets. Beside him was Zoro swinging his sword wildly cutting fishes, in the process he was also training.
Vash called it cheating, and then used color of Supreme Kings, All Fishes and other Sea food in three kilometers radius from him jumped flying, like they were attacking Vash. He made a large mound of them and started signaling the other three a victory sign. Mihawk just sighed seeing Vash's action, While other two were dumbfounded at the show of supernatural prowess.
Vash and Sanji made a lot of dishes after the previous event. Sanji brought cooking tools from the Straw Hat's ship. Vash prepared spice and seasoning which he took from Mihawk's stash. Sanji made common meal of fish fries to many of his signature sea food dishes. Vash also prepared many snacks and meals which were famous on Earth. Luffy was also up and eating, he saw the jolly atmosphere and forgot what happened before, even though he didn't exactly knew anything as he was unconscious during whole affair, and no one even tried explaining him the detail. But he noticed a detail which all of them ignored.
"So, who are those two people? Are they our new crew members? I don't remember recruiting them." Luffy asked seeing two shifty people huddled in a corner, and eating from single plate.
""""We don't know them."""" Everyone replied except the older trio. The duo looked awkward in the situation.
"Crocus, what did you decide?" Vash asked in a serious voice. He knew grandline was terrible, whether it be people or the environment; venturing there in the old age would just be asking to die. So Vash was little worried about the 'Flowering old man'.
"Don't worry, Laboon is with, we'll be fine." Crocus replied, he seemingly had decided to enter grandline once again.