Dinner

Sage gritted her teeth. She was uncomfortable fighting her opponent. The guy was basically drooling as he sized her up. He took a couple of steps towards her, "A good chef knows that to properly prepare the most luxurious meats they must first massage it. Be firm as you press upon the tender meat, don't give it the chance to squish away. And that's exactly what I'm going to do to you.

"A thousand hard presses against your body until your finally ready to be cooked, fileted, sliced thinly, perhaps with a nice seasoning. You're not allergic to paprika, are you? I find seasoning people in things they are allergic to often results in bad taste."

"Do people usually tell you what would make them taste good?" Sage asked, "I know most of the meals I talk to don't."

"Most of them don't, but that's because unlike you and me, the chefs of this world they are just like animals. Unintelligent, weak, you know, all-in-all an unsavory bunch of halfwits," growled the man.

Sage shivered, "no thanks." She sighed and looked around before taking a deep breath, "may I at the very least get your name?"

"I'm a little bit annoyed by your stupidity," the man scoffed at Sage's inquiry. "Does beef have a name? The simple fact that you are acknowledging my name means you have no intentions of eating me and by showing me you have no intentions of eating me you are showing me that you are not superior to me. The superior eats the inferior that is the way of the world."

"One, I have no intention of eating you," Sage pointed out, "and two, its just your name. At least tell me if you are veal or kobi."

"Fair enough," agreed the man as he slowly nodded before chuckling, "Hannibal. At least that's what the people on this island call me. I have no interest in revealing my true name. It is sacred in many cultures not to just flash your name to people you don't know."

"At least when I beat you I can say I beat Hannibal rather than nameless villain A," Sage smirked.

"Yes, you will be ingested by Hannibal," the guy chuckled.

The guy suddenly kicked off of the ground and barreled at Sage. Sage rolled to the side dodging by the barest of inches, however, the guy was just as quick on his feet as before. He pivoted around and blasted back at his opponent. This time Sage didn't avoid it.

The guy's head hammered right into Sage's gut. Sage stumbled back, her leg twisting beneath the force as she fell back and onto the floor. Hannibal skidded to a stop as he pivoted around, flashing his teeth. The meat on her bones was nice. A good ratio of fat and muscles, well designed to the point of perfection. Great meat. He could already imagine sliced thinly, wrapped around a meatier chunk, soaked in spices.

Hannibal began to drool at the thought. He'd start with the smooth, nice and rough massage. Pound the meat, tenderize it and mix the juices. From there he would shred off the excess fat, begin the pre-cooking seasoning. His mind was already buzzing with the thoughts. Humans generally don't have that much good meat to them, they weren't like cows in that manner.

They had too much bone, too much bad meat that had to be thrown out, the preparation was horrible as well. Humans had so many diseases they were like walking, talking petri dishes so they had to be taken care of. However, with these two factor coming together alongside the universal hatred for cannibalism didn't that just make the meat all the more exclusive, all the rarer, all the more succulent.

Hannibal strode up to Sage with nothing short of hubris. Hannibal's grin grew wide, "I'll cut you wide open and then grill you up all nice and brown. Golden brown."

Sage took a deep breath. There are many more ways to cook someone. As a chef she knew them all. Most techniques for cooking involved flames, however, there were several techniques that did not involve fire.

Sage took a deep breath. She remembered Zesiro and Mikoto always saving up their biggest moves for the finale. They couldn't afford to waste their stamina on a move that big only to have it fail. However, Sage didn't have that luxury. She didn't have as many techniques as they did. Going full blast from the beginning was her best option.

"Pressure World."

The entire world around Sage and Hannibal began to warp. Everything changed. Sage's Osu-Osu no mi powers gave her the unique ability to control the air pressure around her. Ordinarily she just controlled a small space. Usually just an area like the inner ear or sinus or something similar. An area barely a couple of inches in diameter. Her Pressure Ball which was probably only three or four inches in diameter.

However, her control over the pressure around her was much greater than that. She had never been limited to inches. Her control ranged much higher than that. 15 feet was her limit. 15 feet from her body in all directions was the maximum and yet she never stretched it fully. She had the ability and yet she never fully used it. That had changed recently.

She found she kept having to push it. Push her power further and further with every fight, but she never tried to push it to the limit. She supposed she had to though. She had to give it her all from here on out, she couldn't keep up with everybody else.

Mikoto's Rapid-Fire nearly breaking his arm with every use, Ridley pushing his body further and further while he was sick, Hiro-Shu's weight shifting twisting his legs, everybody had pushed themselves to their utmost limits and she was just coasting along. She had decided here and now that that was gone.

Fifteen feet everything within that area was turning into a pressure cooker. Well, not everything. A smaller radius around her was safe. She was safe, but her opponent wasn't. He may have been the cannibal, but she was going to be the one to cook him. She was the chef of the Infinity Pirates and they weren't any run-of-the-mill pirates.

An increase in pressure resulted in an increase in heat. That was how a standard pressure cooker worked. On top of that the pressure around them turned into weight. It would be like wallowing through a thick layer of air. Movement would be restricted. It was as if Hannibal was on the bottom of the ocean.

Hannibal was already beginning to breathe heavily. His entire body felt the pressure weighing down on him. He'd just need to take them down. He realized quickly that fighting back against this pressure wouldn't be easy. He'd need to go at full-speed right now! Hannibal kicked off, slamming his shoulder into Sage and forcing her back, but he realized the force was off. It was like it had been cut in half.

Hannibal skidded to a halt after his attack. He was slightly off balance and it didn't seem like things were going to get better. He wasn't used to this kind of movement, Sage seemed to be easily moving around while he was close to having a heart attack with even the slightest movement. Things seemed to be awkward.

Still things weren't going to be this awkward forever. From Hannibal saw and even from the rumors which surrounded them 'Plant' Sage of the Infinity Pirates had no powerful techniques. She was always the lightweight of the crew and Hannibal would be sure to crush her beneath his boot heel. She couldn't take him out, no matter how hard she tried. She lacked the power.

However, Sage didn't think like that. She brought her hands up and took aim. The already dense air pressure turned even denser within her palms. It hardened and nearly solidified. Ordinarily with the regular air pressure it took long enough to make it dense that she never had the time to make it as dense as possible, but now...the air was already dense.

She just compounded the air. She just turned it denser. Not only that, but Hannibal's slowed movements due to the high air pressure gave her even more time. Allowing her to turn it even denser. Finally the small ball blasted out of Sage's and rotated at Hannibal. The small ball spun through the air. The increase in pressure made it hard, no impossible for Hannibal to dodge the blow. He threw his arms up in front of him to protect him, but he immediately regretted it.

The blast was hot. Incredibly dense, high-pressurized blast that had incredible heat. A hurricane like impact threw Hannibal off of his feet and into the air. Sage flicked some hair out of her eyes. The man had been buried in a wall from a single blast.

Sage wish she said she had expected that, but in all honesty she wasn't. She supposed it was because she only ever faced Shane. Shane had withstood not just one of those blasts, but two. She didn't get a cance to get a third one in though, so Shane may have been able to survive one of those as well. She hadn't really bet on someone just being taken down by one, not after fighting someone like Shane again and again. She vastly underestimated the strength of her shot.

Still if this attack was enough to take down the man that a Shichibukai trusted as a reliable guard it must've been something. And if Shane could withstand not just one, but two of those then that put the man on a whole separate level. And, as much as Sage hated to admit it, on a whole other level from Mikoto.

(-With Kurai Ai-)

Alistair chuckled as he threw the girl onto the ground. He clapped his hands together and got rid of the dust, which had accumulated on them. "Paradise," he began with his chuckling voice, "is a ship which draws its power from your Devil Fruit. It amplifies your power to affect a much wider area. And more importantly it puts me in control of your Devil Fruit.

"With the ability to control what people hear, see, smell, feel, and even tastes it allows me control anybody within its range," Alistair laughed, "your powers are strong and yet you never used it properly. These powers give you the ability to dictate the lives of everyone without ever having to lift a finger. Queen Helen had the same power. And she used it properly. She protected this island forever with her abilities. Kept it hidden from the Void Century and the World Government."

"So this island isn't recorded in any history books then," Kurai put together. "It survived everything the world threw at it because nothing was ever thrown at it."

"Exactly," Alistair pointed out as he signaled to his men to lower a platform. He picked Kurai Ai and threw her on it. "This machine is something that with your power will be complete. It'll allow me to become non-existent or to make anything non-existent. Think about it, I could destroy an entire island and then remove all traces of it or me. I could enslave islands without every trying. A new era will be ushered in under my name."

"So you say," Kurai Ai spat at him, "but this is all following the idea that I go along with you. And even if you do somehow force me, my crew won't stand by during that."

"Your crew won't know where we are, once you are strapped in Paradise will vanish from view! Nobody will know the ship will even exist! Nobody will know you or I even exist any more! Anybody not on the ship will lose sight of it and we will begin to leave. As for you helping me I have the tools for that," Alistair produced a thin metal bar.

"I've developed a whole new system for dealing with Devil Fruit users," stated Alistair, "Seastones are famous for draining the power of Devil Fruit users, but I've created a brand new weapon using this same manner. In other words, if this baton of mine touches the skin of a Devil Fruit user it burns just like a couple thousand kilo-watts through your skin." Alistair just simply tapped the baton against Kurai Ai's exposed skin and immediately she screamed in pain. It took all of her power just to stay conscious.

"Its a deadly weapon against Devil Fruit users their naturally weakness against water increased to an incredible amount. It'll burn your skin at the slightest touch. With this tool no Devil Fruit user can ever possibly touch me."

The Strength of Shane

All of my chapters are mislabeled...what the heck happened?