It was four hours later when the reinforcements reached Holiday Island, and what they witnessed shocked them.
A series of constant ripples erupted every time the two swords clashed against each other, damaging their surroundings, and making the sea uneasy.
And the two men responsible for all of this were engaged in a Sword Dance without a care for anything else.
The smiles on their faces chilled the hearts of the onlookers. And though it was clear who was on the winning end since the famed World's Strongest Swordsman bore not a single cut on his clothes and body, Sin bore wounds, but his wounds were only superficial as they did not seem to hinder his movements or hurt him.
Once again, the Captain of the Blackstar Pirates was sent away as he shielded a strong Slash from his opponent. But he soon stabilised himself and rushed right back at the Warlord.
"I haven't had this much fun in a long while!" Sin declared.
"You are interesting enough to kill time," Mihawk replied as he deftly cut through and deflected the Air Blades that Sin sent his way.
And in reply, he sent a long Air Slash that was strangely green in colour, and Sin narrowed his eyes, accepting the challenge.
Imbuing more of his Armament Haki in his sword, he took the attack head-on, which sent out devastating ripples in the surroundings.
"I shall cut you..." Sin gritted his teeth, and then put all his force and Will behind his sword. "Haaa!"
A swish sounded out when the green Air Blade was cut in half, but instead of stopping, the now two air blades moved past Sin, landing more cuts on his coat, and kept going until they collided with the buildings on the Island and neatly cut them in half.
"My Turn!" He grinned as he raised his blade and then axed it down, sending a powerful Air Blade at Mihawk, which cut the ground cleanly as he rushed at its target.
The Warlord only grinned as he slashed the Air Balde with both his hands, and he managed to cut through it effortlessly before manoeuvring the blade and blocking Sin's sword that was reaching for him from the side he had left open.
Blades clashed once again, and the two engaged in another Sword Dance, sending out more shockwaves in the surroundings.
The Marines who were watching the battle were unsure about what to do, even the two Vice-Admirals who had come as Reinforcements only watched the battle, not giving out any commands.
"Gion, Ma'am..." A Rear-Admiral stepped forward and tried to speak to the lady with a mole under her mouth and a Spider tattoo on her left thigh.
"Stand by." She unhesitatingly said. "We will lose our men if we interfere right now."
Hearing her words, the man quietened and simply nodded his head.
The other team had already made preparations and prepared Canons to throw Prison Bullets at Sin, intending to catch him in their Seastone nets.
However, Gion suddenly narrowed her eyes.
Sin was once again sent flying back, and Mihawk had sensed what Gion had sensed, and so had Sin.
Suddenly, a laser bullet reached Sin, who was rolling in midair but managed to disintegrate his body to let the bullet pass right through him.
The bullet went on to hit the beach and an explosion occurred.
It was a very close call, and Sin was tensed when he looked at the man who was standing in the air hundreds of metres away.
"Oooh, you are fast." The man spoke in a sarcastically intonated, slow manner.
"Kizaru." Sin narrowed her eyes and then swung his sword in a circle, sending out Air Slashes to meet the Prism Bullets that the Marines shot at him.
His body disintegrated into Lightning, and then he appeared in the Sky that once again started rumbling with lightning jolting through it.
"That was a stupid mistake." He smiled as he sent pillars of Lightning at all the Marine Vessels, and without waiting to see what happens to them, he glanced at Mihawk. "My apologies, but I must go now."
Mihawk closed his eyes and placed his sword on his back before he turned around to walk to his boat without care.
Sin saw Kizaru's body disintegrating into speaks of light, and without waiting any time, he bolted away.
"I won't let you get away," Kizaru spoke as he gave chase, but Sin smirked at his words.
"Do you think you can really travel at the speed of light, Kizaru?" He spoke, knowing well that the one chasing him would pick up on his words. "You are faster than me and would always win in a race." He spoke, and then immediately changed direction as he reached higher in the sky, narrowly missing Kizaru who had caught up with him. "But you have weaknesses and you can not move like me."
His words were indeed true as Kizaru could not stop in time, and he had to materialise before dematerialising again to change directions or use Reflective surfaces. He was pretty much Invincible only in a straight line.
As the Admiral chased after Sin, he too realised that he could not catch up with the Lightning Man, who was making full use of his Powers to gain distance between them, and in just under an hour, he lost his lock on the target.
But he would have never imagined that instead of running away, Sin arrived in the Sky above Holiday Island.
The Marines were stunned when they saw him, but they got no time to react as he sent several powerful Pillars of Lightning at their Vessels.
"This is for spoiling my fun!" He gravely said, and then sent out a Powerful burst of Haki, which made the soldiers lose consciousness.
However, he smiled when one Ship survived his attack as his lightning bolt was blocked by an Air Balde.
"Look who's here..." He grinned as Gion narrowed her eyes at him, holding her sword in her right hand. "I will see you soon." He arrived right behind her and left these words before leaving the place.
Gion was left confused at his words but then ordered the officers to wake up the soldiers and see to the wounded.
They had lost some men in the attacks Sin had just unleashed on them, and it made her very angry at the boy who was as willful as she remembered him, but he had become a dangerous man now.
Somewhere else in Paradise, a haunting black ship sailed through a storm, with all the crew members busy following Bepo's instructions related to the sails.
Everyone was trying their best to not worry about their Captain, but all wore sombre expressions as they just could not help it.
Robin was silently standing at the Forecastle Deck, and she was clutching the locket she was wearing on her neck.
In her other hand was a piece of Vivre Card, which belonged to Sin, and a smile crept on her face when it suddenly turned upwards.
She could sense him now, and she heard the crackle of electricity behind her, and before she could turn around, two strong arms wrapped around her waist and she was pulled into her brother's embrace.
Sin just stayed holding her like that for a while, not minding being drenched by the rain, and neither did she.
"You lost?"
"I did." He chuckled.
She too giggled and then turned around, but her eyes narrowed when saw some blood on his clothes and cuts everywhere.
"Sin!" And someone finally interfered, and it was, of course, the girl with pink hair.
"Are you okay?" Bonney asked as she looked at his body.
"Yes. I am fine." He patted her head before looking at his Crew. "Let's sail out of this storm and then gather in the lounge."
Robin, Hancock, and Bonney knew that Sin could use his powers to accelerate his healing, and they had taken a good look at the cuts, which were pretty much already healed.
"Aye, Captain!"
The Crew's spirit was back, and no longer holding any worries, they focused on manoeuvring the ship out of the storm.
An hour later, after Sin took a shower and changed into new clothes, he entered the lounge where everyone was waiting for him.
"What happened with Mihawk?" Kuina asked interestedly.
"He was just bored and was searching for fun." He shrugged. "And we duelled, where I lost." He admitted with a smile. "Oh, and I met Admiral Kizaru."
"What?!" Bepo was dismayed at his words and then Sin told everyone exactly what happened.
"So, did you make an inventory?" Leaving everyone else to their thoughts, he asked Robin, who nodded and started giving him details about the prize of their successful expedition.
"We have gathered exactly 2.7 Billion Berries in Cash." Her first sentence shocked those who were not aware of it, and little Nami had Berry Signs sparking in her eyes now. "Other than that we have some valuable Jewelry, Treasure ornaments, gold coins, gems, and weapons, which could be worth another Billion Berries, and then we have Eternal Poses for 57 more Islands in Paradise. "
"Good." Sin smiled. "And Devil Fruits?"
"Seven." Robin handed him a paper that had the details of the Fruits. "Six of them have been identified."
Sin went through the list, a little disappointed as there was nothing good on there, but he was already expecting it.
"Set the useless ones aside, we will be selling them. And keep the unidentified Fruit separately." He said to Robin and Bonney, who nodded their heads.
They had several Devil Fruits under their possession, and selling the useless ones at the base price would earn them well over a billion Neris.
"And the paper Logia?" Bonney smiled and asked, already knowing the answer to her question.
This Logai Fruit could easily fetch them over 2.5 Billion Berries if sold. The Government would be willing to offer them even more, but it was not a fruit that Sin would ever sell.
He knew very well that Logia were very limited in number, maybe even less than three dozen existed in this world of 20,000,000 Islands. Therefore, It was extremely rare for people to come across a Logia Devil Fruit or a Logia User.
"A Paper Logia?" Nojiko frowned when she heard the words. "Did not you say that Logia are always natural elements, forces, and substances?"
"Silly!" Nami embarrassedly pouted. "Paper comes from wood!"
"Oh..."
Nojiko was not the only one who did not know about it, and they all felt a little embarrassed.
Sin chuckled at their reactions and then looked at Robin, who had a light smile on her lips.
"It's an Apple. A golden apple." She told him.
"Not again..." Hancock and Sin sighed in unison and everyone laughed at their reaction.
"We are heading to Nanatsu Islands, which are famous for their fruits and vegetables, Golden apples included," The younger Black informed them and Sin nodded his head.
It was a risk, but a risk they had to take now.
Then Sin smiled at everyone and signalled to Hachi, who got up to pour booze for all of them, and juice for the little girls.
"Well done, everyone! We are about to become a lot more infamous!" He laughed as he raised his mug. "Kanpai!"
"Kanpai!!!"