Vash went to a stall which displayed various kinds of products; there were delicately cut gems, different ornaments, some old things probably dug out from lost civilizations sites, irregular weapons and much more.
"Hey... Do you have some Bananawani leather?" Vash asked the vendor.
"We don't sell leather but there is a shop which is at the end of the street, it's called 'Menail weapon Shop', though the name implies they sell weapons they also provide good quality adult Bananawani leather." Said the shopkeeper.
"Ok... thanks." Vash thanked the vendor and went to the weapon shop at the end of the street. He walked through the door and saw various kinds of weapons put in the racks. He checked them out carefully but all the displayed pieces were much inferior to the ones he made at Nanohana smithies. Vash directly went to the manager of the shop and asked him the price.
"So how much for the uncut processed leather? I want it whole, if you can prepare five sets it would be good." Vash asked.
"Hmm... a big customer. We do have some uncut version, it's in high demand among Nobles. The set of five would cost you 630,000 berries. Sir Crocodile is the only supplier of the commodity so it won't be cheaper than the price I just told you now." The manager at the front desk replied.
"uhh..." Vash was having shortage of money, he only had half the amount. He started thinking of the ways to earn some.
"If you are after quick cash, I recommend you Rain Dinners. It's a casino, and if you are good at gambling you could try your luck there." The shop manager said as if he had read Vash's mind and knew he was short on cash.
"Uh huh.. thanks, I'll visit there now and see if I can earn some." Thanked Vash but in his heart he was cursing the store manager because he knew the manager was baiting him to lose all his money. Vash thought that this store was probably to find unsuspecting loaded people to make them lose their money in gambling.
Vash came out of the shop and directly went to the pyramid like structure which was Rain Dinners. Vash wore casual shirt and shorts so the mercenaries guarding the place thought that Vash was a troublemaker and tried to stop him on the way. Vash just gazed at the offenders and unleashed a thread of color of supreme kings haki. The guards were knocked out, frothing from their mouths. Vash walked inside wantonly like he owned the place and observed everything around him.
The person at the cash cage was a beautiful slender woman in white overcoat with white top hat. She had a slightly tanned skin. Vash went to her to exchange for chips worth of 100,000 berries and went to the roulette. A man with crooked moustache was the croupier there and a large crowd of gamblers were betting.
Vash watched nonchalantly and put some chips on the number table. He used color of observation to sense lingering intent of the inanimate objects, that were roulette ball and the spinning wheel. He tried estimating the force with which the ball was dropped on the spinning number wheel as well as accurate feel of the spin; he felt the indents on wheel hitting the ball juggling it in process. Like that Vash's mind began calculating the results from previous estimates and observation. For this, he used all of his six senses as he was not proficient in future sight ability with his color of observation alone. Vash bet many times, of which he only won half of them, the wrong predictions were very close to the winning numbers.
To Vash this kind of gambling became amusement as well as good training opportunity. As the game of roulette progressed his winning percentage increased, he now won seven out of ten times. The croupier thought Vash was very lucky and became annoyed, so he invited him to people's table for this world's version of black jack. Although gambling with cards relied on luck most of the time, but Vash used his mental capability and color of observation to win a lot of money.
"Now do you want to draw card or not." The dealer asked to Vash. And Vash at this time was busy observing other Co-players thought patterns and faint auras of the cards that they were holding, then he again analyzed the remaining cards that the dealer held, and his brain processed all this fragments of information to piece together a probable future.
"I'll draw a card." said Vash, and visualized a mental picture of winning card and next moment his vision became reality as he indeed won the game. The dealer was stunned at the continuos winning streak of Vash. The dealer then decided to pin Vash against other players in the game of bragging, but it was too easy for him to know the lies of other players so he wiped the floor with them.
"Uwaaah... I lost all the money. I would be in debt now. I'll never come here." cried a loser who played against Vash.
"Damnit, I'll never come to Rain Dinners, the dealer must have rigged the game to make that bastard win. I'm out of here." said another gambler. Like that whoever were pitted against Vash left there in underwear losing everything. The dealers at the Rain Dinners Casino were gritting their teeth in frustration due to loss of their business.
"iiyahahaha...Mr. Ronny take these chips and get me your best food, I have heard that you also provide good lunch. I hope it doesn't disappoint me." Vash said to the dealer, faking his happiness to appear cocky so that they would allow him to continue gambling.
"Certainly Mr. Vash" Said Ronny the dealer with a smile hanging on his face but inside he thought otherwise. 'I'm a dealer not a waiter, just you wait bastard!!! I'll make you cough out all the money.' He didn't say it out loud but Vash captured his intentions easily and gave the dealer a knowing smirk. The face of Ronny the dealer became stiff while still smiling and went to the pantry.
Vash decided to try different games to train his newly acquired future sight ability. He had to heavily concentrate and use every brain cells to visualize a definite future, he wanted to make this ability instinctual and passive so their won't be any slip ups when he used it in fight. He also wanted to free up some processing power by training in it repeatedly.
Vash knew that all the people in this world are capable of training the power of haki, and he also knew that this kind of unusual future sight ability required countless life and death fights through which a person might directly gain this ability; use it instinctually for self protection. But Vash wasn't relying on the chance and he trained it in logical step by step process. It was like knowing mathematical formula to get answer versus knowing how the formula came to be, and Vash followed the latter. And right now he was trying to find shortest equation by which he could solve the problem while having solid basics.
"Mr Vash, here's your lunch and some drinks. Please enjoy." Ronny the dealer came back with two plates with dome shaped covers, and behind him was a waiter with a wine glass and some bottles.
"Hmm... Mr Ronny, I don't drink alcohol so could you get me some nice tangy juice?" Vash said in frown, he knew the intentions of the hosts here as they wanted him to get drunk so he would lose all his chips in drunken frenzy.
"Oh... hahaha... I'm sorry Mr Vash, I didn't know that. Waiter, go back and bring some lemon with ice and treat our customer as their preferences." Said Ronny the dealer.
"Right away sir." the waiter who was behind the dealer said in obligation.
Vash began to chow down the saucy noodle and nicely fried crab meat. He was hungry from the long journey and continuous use of color of observation. He gulped a jar of lemon juice in between his meal and finished all the served lunch.
"Phew... that hit the spot." Vash said rubbing his somewhat bloating stomach which became normal as he digested the food in few seconds. It was basic skill to regulate one's metabolism so people in the area didn't freak out that much.
After that Vash continued gambling and simultaneously training his observation haki. He won all the casino games with pinpoint accuracy and his mental exercises also bore fruits. He noticed that the beautiful manager of this place was nowhere to be found. He extended the range of his haki and found a congregation of somewhat strong auras below him. There were eight of such auras gathered together sitting around a table.
'Hmm... they must be Baroque Works agents who were out to get Luffy and others, and the one sitting in the middle must be Crocodile.... so the beauty is also an agent.' thought Vash analyzing the members of the syndicate and felt the aura of woman who previously was at the cash cage.
'Anyway, I'll strip their casino clean and see what kind of faces they would have after finding it out. hehehe...' thought Vash evilly.
The dealers were in panic and went to find the manager to get them out of the predicament but they couldn't find her as if she had vanished into thin air. They flailed like headless chicken and lost all their chips to Vash. Other gamblers saw Vash and redeemed their chips for the money seemingly deciding to quit.
Ronny the dealer was having bad day, he decided to inform higher ups and took out a den-den mushi and dialed.
RainBase Underground floor
Crocodile and other Baroque works agents were discussing their plans to overthrow the king of Alabasta Kingdom. But other agent didn't know the true agenda behind these actions. Crocodile only wanted to find Ancient Weapon Pluton which was hidden somewhere in the kingdom, and he was deceiving everyone at the same time even his own agents were not spared from the schemes of the Mastermind. Only Crocodile's partner Miss All-Sunday knew.
*Perepereperepere.... perepereperepere*
A den-den mushi rang in the meeting hall and Miss All-Sunday received the call.
"Make it fast, we're at the important meeting so if you called for some trivial thing Sir Crocodile here would feed you to his pets." Miss All-Sunday said in ruthless voice.
"Miss All-Sunday, A man in our casino has won all the money that we had. We have lost all the money that is 180 million berries. Please come here and help us reclaim the money." Said Ronny the dealer.
"What!!!! You incompetent fools, you lost so much of my money, I'll kill you!!!" Crocodile said in anger after listening to the dealer.
"Relax Mr. 0, it isn't like you to worry about some pocket change. I'll go and see what kind of man is making trouble here." Miss All-Sunday said and walked out of the hall.
"Damnit, 180 million is not pocket change, even the sum of our bounties are not that much in amount. Nico Robin, do everything to make that man cough out our money." Crocodile said then he focused his attention on the remaining agents present.
"And you guys do everything according to the plan and we'll have an utopian nation. All this time you have been working hard towards it. So now it's time for the final push. I don't want Straw Hats group to meddle in our affairs. Do you understand!!!??" Crocodile said smoking a cigar.
""""Yes Sir, Mr 0.""""" All the present agents replied in unison.
"Kuhahaha...." Crocodile laughed seeing his schemes coming to fruition.