A man was sitting among huge boulders, he sat cross-legged and eyes closed. The man wore red colored aloha shirt with flower patterns and a shorts pant. It was the last day before they set sail so Vash had been practising with intense enthusiasm.
These seven days of training session was only comprised of him climbing the Red Line which turned out to be a good power up for Vash. He now became as strong as Mihawk's one third strength which is huge improvement from previous one fourth. At his full power using devil fruit ability, he could now even give Mihawk a run for his money in a fight.
He also trained in the color of observation. Through the training he came to know about the difficulty of achieving future sight. It has precondition of requiring high intelligence and full mastery of the basic observation haki which includes sensing non living objects too. It was very difficult in practice. Dead objects though don't possess a will of their own, they do in fact aquire the lingering intent of their creator or the user or it could be both. These auras are faint upon objects left for good, or hadn't been used for a long time; a random rock wouldn't possess an aura unless it is being used for something like throwing it, or smashing someone with it. In the same reasoning, a well maintained and regularly used katana would acquire the intent of the user. Once Vash got hang of it, he could now visualize an area of 100 meters radius around him which is a lot less than his normal color of observation range of 10 km. It's where the prerequisite of high intelligence comes into play. He had to have highly intelligent mind to sense, process and visualize large areas. Right now Vash could feel he is very close to achieving the future sight ability.
Vash also trained color of supreme kings by floating himself in full weight of 1 kiloton with extra weight added to his limbs. He could now easily lift thousand meter high mountain with his mind alone. Vash inadvertently also found that he could boost the power of armament haki with it. The force field he generates has lightening hue to it, a lot different from black hue the other people in this world has when they coat their bodies in haki. He hadn't used this haki in any fight cause his devil fruit is already overpowered so there wasn't any need of it. Over all his strength increased a lot and Vash was prepared for his next adventure in the seas.
After Vash got up from his meditative posture he went to take a nice relaxing bath. He knows that proper rest of the body and mind is necessary to stabilize his rise in strength. He prepared a hefty lunch and shared some of it with Crocus and Mihawk. He went to sleep after eating, and planned to sleep till morning of the next day as he was really tired from all the physical and mental exercises that he had done in the week.
Vash woke up refreshed in the morning of the next day, and went see Mihawk and Crocus. Mihawk was already on his boat reading a book and Crocus was nowhere to be seen. Vash extended his color of observation and found Laboon under the sea, he thought Crocus could be already boarding the whale.
Vash went back to lighthouse to relieve of his daily needs and came back with a bag hanging on his shoulder. He jumped in the air and flipped accurately landing on the mast of the coffin boat and said, "Mihawk did you get the eternal pose of Kingdom of Alabasta?"
"Yes... Crocus let me borrow it." Mihawk replied.
"So what are we waiting for!! let's go now." said Vash and unbuckled the sails. The coffin boat sped up catching the wind and left behind the abandoned lighthouse. Laboon followed the boat underwater. It swam at leisure speed producing powerful undercurrent with it's huge body.
This four days journey was also a bit boring for Vash so he also sparred with Mihawk regularly. Mihawk in turn was shocked with Vash's new strength and they fought going all out in their attacks. Mihawk's black sword was already enhanced with color of armament, even the hilt of the sword became black. The whole sword looked like it was made up of precious black crystal. Vash also coated his limbs with lightening like manifestation. Black and White streams of lightning collided at the speed inconceivable to a normal human. The shockwave of their clash was horrifying as it could had been felt from miles away. Their spar resulted in injuries to both of them.
"You became this strong in only a week of training!??" Mihawk asked tending to his wounds and changing his half destroyed shirt.
"What can I say?? I must be a god gifted genius. Iiyahahaha." Vash laughed and said.
"I didn't know you were a narcissist too." said Mihawk annoyed at the answer.
"What!!?? Are you jealous of my awesomeness?" Vash said in joking tone.
Mihawk gave him a dead eye stare and said, " You should know that there may be many people who are stronger than me. So you shouldn't be overconfident in your ability."
"I know that. But let me tell you this, I will grow even stronger in the future and at that time even Hundred Beast Kaido would pale in comparison to me." Vash said in confident voice. Mihawk just shook his head and checked the eternal pose to go in correct direction.
In this travel they encountered many newbie pirates and some of them even challenged Mihawk not knowing their own limits. Vash just dispatched them in hurry and looted their ships. He got hefty rewards of berries and miscellaneous treasures. Vash sank their ship beneath the ocean, and let the surviving pirates on small boats naked saying that they deserved a chance to fight for their lives. He got enough money to buy the necessities he required.
After four and half days of sailing Vash who was as usual standing on the mast saw a shadow on the horizon. The shadow approached them quickly turning large.
"Hey Mihawk, I think we reached the sandy island." said Vash.
"Hmm... Do you see the town in front? It's called Nanohana. You take care of the raft and do your own thing. I'll go directly to the King's palace. I'll contact you using this when it's time to leave." said Mihawk standing from his seat, he tossed up a snail like creature toward Vash who caught it immediately. Mihawk then floated up and flew toward the center of the island leaving Vash behind.
"Damn Mihawk!! Working me off as a coolie." said Vash annoyed and also floated up. He emitted faint color of supreme kings haki and called upon Laboon the whale. After emerging, it swallowed the boat and again submerged underwater.
Vash flew up high into sky and leisurely went toward the port city Nanohana. He could see a lot of round hemispherical structured dome on top of square buildings and crisscrossing streets from above. But he noted that the city seemed not as populated as it should be. It was like the whole city is under some kind of lockdown; he felt through his color of observation that many residents were holed up inside their houses, only few pedestrians could be seen walking outside. He flew down to a deserted side street and started exploring the city.
Vash first went to the only restaurant of the town. He ordered their speciality and asked if there are any good tailor or a blacksmith in the town. There were few other patrons of this restaurant who were kind enough to recommend him some people with good skill. After he ate his lunch he went back to exploring the city.
It was Vash's first time in the city of the otherworld. It gave him the feel as if he had went back in time five hundred years ago. People walked the street with camels in their toe. Almost all of the pedestrians wore baggy clothes with their faces hidden in hood. It was probably because of the intensely warm climate and burn inducing sunlight, these wear seemed to alleviate the heat and protection from sunlight as well as give comfort to the wearer.
Vash saw many shops still opened, they displayed various interesting trinkets, cloths and other miscellaneous items like jewellery. He was really amazed by the diversity in market goods. He thought that a desert city would have lack of resources to be so extravagant. Vash again pondered that it was probably because of the city being a port town that there wasn't any lack of goods due to trade being frequent.
In his wandering, Vash arrived at one of his destination. It was a shop that had crooked sign hanging 'Tulip's Weapon Shop'. The shop was closed and looked rundown. Vash knocked on the front. After sometime a man opened the door and asked in loud voice, "What do you want? If you want weapons we don't have any."
"Eh... I just wanted to buy some swords." Vash said in unsure voice as he really didn't feel anything inside the shop except for weapon racks, chairs and tables. "And if you don't have any, can I use your forge? I'll make one myself, and you don't have to worry, I'll pay you for your services and the raw materials will be my own." Vash said in polite tone.
"No" the man replied.
"I'll pay twenty thousand berries?" asked Vash again.
"No" the man replied again like last time.
"Then how much do you want?" Vash asked annoyed after being rejected. The man put his hands up showing five fingers, Vash seeing that asked again, "Fifty thousand? all right, deal."
"No, it's five hundred thousand berries." the man said.
Vash was now really angered and said with voice laced in mind power. "Are you trying to rip me off? Why don't you ask my life as a payment? I tell you, don't be so greedy and we both can profit off this deal. So now tell me again, how much you said you want?"
The middle aged man was frightened by the oppressive aura released by Vash. The man felt he would be killed if he didn't say the price which the opposite party liked. In spite of that, the man gathered his courage and pointed three fingers at Vash. Vash was in turn really surprised, he thought that the middle aged man would wise up and tell him the correct price but it looked there was something more important to the man than his own life. Vash felt through the observation haki that the man was not overpricing him due to greed, otherwise Vash would have taught a lesson to the man in question.
"Hmm... I see you aren't afraid to die. Tell me why are you charging me that much? If your answer is not satisfactory I'll give you a real good thrashing." said Vash.
The middle aged man introduced himself as Doro Nimah and he told the situation of Kingdom as it was on the brink of civil war. He also told Vash how he had to sell his weapons to rebels on low prices. It was his daughter Tulip's recommendation as she was also in the army to overthrow the current king of Alabasta. Doro Nimah was thinking of moving to some other country with his daughter, and he was in need of large funds to travel and settle elsewhere.
"Hmm... but how will you convince your daughter to leave here?" Vash asked after hearing the story.
"Well... I was just planning to knock her out and haul her to ship when I'd made all the arrangements." said Doro Nimah.
"A caring father eh... All right I'll give you five hundred thousand berries but I want indefinite time on the forge. I'll leave when I like." said Vash making his decision.
"Deal" the man said not seeing any con.
"Let me go fetch the materials. I'll be back in short time." Said Vash walking out the store. He flew toward the sea where Laboon was. Doro Nimah's jaw unhinged and hit the floor seeing a man fly so casually.