Lara's POV:

The party after the block fights was funny. Koala, Sabo and Hack, a fishmen who wears a karate obi, followed our invite and came over to our ship to hold a party.

Lia made really spicy chicken kebab, that was roasted over an open fire. Delicious! Sadly, I didn't manage to push Mrs Chicken Wing inside the fire. She jumped over my boot and landed on my head.

Still, the chicken was tasty, the cola cold and the sex with Lia afterwards could be deemed as very satisfying. The morning after was started with a painkiller from Jo's supply. Well, the others needed one, Lia's and my body have a handy perk that makes a hangover almost impossible.

They must have drunken a lot more than I thought. Fiara was dangling from the lamp, Yosaku was inside Nojiko's bed, with Nojiko sleeping on top of his chest. Hack was floating in our bathtub, still wearing his clothes. Sabo was hugging Mrs Chicken Wing like a teddy and Jonny had curled himself around Koala's feet. Only Noa was 'normal' he had tangled himself into his hammock and wouldn't be able to get out without falling on the floor.

Their faces when waking up were hilarious, good thing that I took them with a photo-dial. Especially Sabo's, he was trying to kiss Mrs Chicken Wing's beak when the hen decided that enough was enough. She had put one of her wings in the way and clucked angrily. Sabo, who was still dazed from waking up, flung her away with a girly scream.

The hen did a majestic backflip and landed right where Lia put a plate of corn down. She then proceeded to eat without giving the panicking Sabo a single fuck.

I think her cluck held the meaning of 'Fuck off human, I am married!' or something similar. Maybe she only was insulting his ugliness. I'm not fluent in Bird.

Anyway, we ate a mild breakfast and then walked back to the arena, where the first round of one vs one fights would start. I was first, and my fight was disappointing. Chlaris, or whatever her name is, did not even come. She has had forfeited early in the morning. Maybe she had seen my bounty poster or talked to the survivors of my round and decided that a fight against me is too dangerous?

For me, it meant that I will proceed without doing anything and for the audience, it means that they have one entertaining fight less. Luckily, Noa's fight was next.

His fight was against some guy named Daniel, a pretty boy or womanizer, who only wore a pair of sneakers and MMA shorts. He was mostly using kicks and quick jabs in his fight. Even gave Noa a broken nose and a few large bruises, but lost in the end by one of Noa's earth-shattering hammer attacks. The changing ground broke his balance and he forfeited before Noa could hit him again. Must not have wanted a pulverised shoulder.

I didn't watch the next fight. Lia and I decided to grab something to eat and came only back when it was over. Dy won, he also froze half of the arena during the fight. His opponent was either pretty tough, he played with him or he has little control over his Devil Fruit. It won't matter, he will fight Mrs Chicken Wing.

Speaking of the hen, her fight was kinda funny. Geppon thought it would be enough to grab a net and throw it on her. She did not evade the attack and let herself get 'caught' inside the net. The idiot then tried to carry her out of the arena and lost his hands upon touching her feathers.

I think she was insulted by his strategy. I mean, it could be excused that no one knew that she was at fault for the mass knock out yesterday, but her bounty alone shows that there is more to her than the eye can see. The World Government would have had revised the bounty if it were a mistake.

That was the last boring fight, the next few ones are promising to be entertaining. First will be Jonny's fight against Tashigi. She hopefully grew stronger, or Jonny will defeat her within seconds.

After that comes Koala's fight against Lia. I don't think Koala will win this fight, but she might be able to land a hit or two, that is if she is fast enough and Lia stupid enough to stay close.

The opposite will happen in the fight after that, Sabo will defeat Yosaku. Yosaku might have improved massively since leaving East Blue but that won't be enough against a commanding officer of the Revolutionary Army. Especially one who has a rather lithe build, Sabo will be faster than Yosaku and he looks strong enough to still inflict damage with one of his punches.

But enough with my rumbling, the next fight is about to start. Jonny and Tashigi were led inside the ring and facing each other in the middle. Jonny, the honorary idiot he is, bowed to Tashigi. She in return gave him a sneer and told him that she won't show a pirate any respect.

By the way, I was increasing the sound waves from them, so that we could hear what they were saying. “Pretty rude this Tashigi”, said Noa, slightly amused by the fact that an uncouth, barbaric pirate has more decorum than a higher ranked Marine officer of the World Government.

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He, Fiara, Jo, and Nojiko were with me in the audience. Mrs Chicken Wing was on our ship, guarding duty. And the rest had to wait in the fighters lobby. “I think something happened in her childhood that made her hate pirates. Maybe her village was raided or she was raped by one. That or the propaganda of the World Government worked perfectly on her,” I mused out loud.

Jonny didn't show any sign of being angered by her rude behaviour and simply drew his weapon. Tashigi did the same and both remained in their first stance, waiting for the signal.

Jonny was relaxed, the sword not fully raised, yet not lowered as well. He would be able to attack or deflect at a moments notice. Tashigi on the other side had her sword in a hold that is good for an attack. Deflecting or parrying attacks will be hard.

That is why it wasn't unsurprising when she rushed at him the second the commentator started the fight. She swung her sword downwards with a loud yell and look visibly shocked when Jonny deflected her attack with little effort.

He posed his own sword for a pierce and let his wrist shoot forward. The tip of his blade raced at Tashigi's shoulder and was only evaded in the last second. But that left her without any real footing and she was unable to evade the crushing Sparta-style kick Jonny had sent to her stomach.

Her body folded together and was sent flying backwards. Yet, she was still able to regain her posture mid-flight and landed with a backwards roll. Both were now almost back in their starting position, the only difference was that Tashigi was rubbing her stomach.

The crowd roared in approval and I couldn't catch what Tashigi said to him. Whatever it was, it led to Jonny starting the next attack. He pulled his sword close and approached Tashigi carefully.

She got into a defensive stance and got ready for whatever Jonny was planning. It was a blitz attack at the end. He first fainted a move to the right but then spun to the left side. Tashigi fell for the faint and was in the middle of raising her sword when she saw that Jonny tricked her. She hastily tried to twist her upper body around but winced mid-movement. The spartan-kick must hurt more than what I first thought. In the end, she wasn't able to turn around and Jonny started a series of fast cuts.

The attack was ended by him shouting.“Five Pierces of Immobility!” He managed to land five cuts on her left arm within a single second, each on a position that will hurt from moving or hinder movement completely.

Still, Tashigi has at least a strong will, which was shown when she did not cry out in pain, nor wavered when she did turn around. She brought her sword down and wanted to cut into Jonny's back, but her one and a half handed sword didn't have enough strength with only one remaining arm. It got parried by Jonny and then pushed over her head.

Jonny then spun around and pierced his own sword forward, only stopping a millimetre away from piercing skin. His blade was now poised directly between Tashigi's eyes and she had to surrender or get killed. She was mightily annoyed with her defeat and was stomping out of the ring without waiting for the announcement of the commentator.

“And even a sore loser. And Jonny even tried to hurt her as little as possible,” grumbled Noa, he too has noticed that Jonny was holding back. He only used one of his weaker moves. His 'Five Pierces of Immobility' is only for slow enemies. I'm not much into calling out the names of your skill.

“Yeah, but who cares. Next time we see her we can mock her for her disrespect,” I said with a laugh and watched how Jonny gave her retreating back a bow. This time it was more in mockery, he couldn't quite hold back his smile.

“What a fine show of swordsmanship. Next, we have two lovely ladies, Koala and true Shot Lia will fight for the right to proceed to the next round. Whom of them will win? The tiny and cute Lia or the well equipped Koala?”

The crowd cheered and clapped loudly. One half wishing Lia good luck, the other half Koala. There even were some guys with postures of 'We Love You True Shot Lia'. I quickly burned them down with a precise application of my Devil Fruit power.

Jonny has just sat down when both of them were led into the arena. They faced each other until the commentator gave them the go to start. “May the best woman win”, declared Koala with a grin and jumped at Lia with a crouched leap.

Lia flicked a low powered pebble at Koala and used the time the big-eyed woman needed to evade for a jump upwards. She stopped herself high in the air and started to hover fifty or so meters above the arena.

“Well, how am I going to get you back down here?” Questioned Koala while staring up at Lia. Yet, she did not have much time to contemplate her own question. Because Lia started to let hell rain down on her. Dozens of low powered pebbles began to fly down. Each embedded itself into the ground with a loud thud. Still, they didn't make a crater, that's why they were low powered.

Koala was jumping left and right, but then tripped over nothing and got hit by a pebble right at her calf. She rolled out of the way of five more pebbles and then made a forwards roll, directly followed by a jump back to her feet. However, she, yet again, stumbled over nothing.

“Why is she this clumsy? She was easily able to jump and twist around people yesterday,” asked Jonny. Noa too was confused over the obvious display of clumsiness.

I gave them a shrug and told what I thought. “Lia must be playing with Koala's mind.”

“How so?”, asked Jo with interest. “Sure, she is not letting Koala any time to regain her breath, but that shouldn't be something new to skilled fighters.”

“Lia has the ability to control pressure. It isn't limited to the pressure of something that flies. She can also manipulate the air pressure, the pressure the world has on us or even the pressure we feel when we are trying something. In this case, she is increasing Koala's unknown pressure of succeeding in her fight.

Anything we do puts some kind of pressure on us or our body. Breathing puts pressure on our lungs, moving on our muscles, even thinking. Lia is able to increase or decrease this pressure. She can basically lower the strain we feel from doing something taxing or increasing it to such amounts that our muscle rip and our brain gets a headache.

Right now she must be increasing the strain on Koala's lungs and her mental pressure for winning the fight. The first is tiring her, the second is forcing her to do mistakes.” I explained at more length and they gaped wide-eyed at me.

I left out that her ability will have little to no effect on me. My body without limits makes it hard for me to get any muscle ache and my calm mind protects me from her mental 'attacks'.

“That is way too strong. I wonder what else she can do”, said Jo, he was now watching Lia with a calculating look. “Maybe she can also decrease the strain a body has when wounded,” he said in a quieter tone.

“Well, the fight is over. Koala jumped too far to the side and landed in the water, disqualifying her automatically.” Noted Jonny dryly. They lost interest in the fight, now that they knew that Lia was doing more than flinging pebbles at Koala.

Koala puller herself out of the water and limped over to Lia, she got hit a few more times during the rather short fight. They gave each other the hand and then walked back out. Koala was visibly less limping now, probably getting help from Lia. She wouldn't help carry her, decreasing the pressure Koala was having on her legs is more to her liking.

“The next fight is between Sabo and Yosaku, who do you think will win?” Asked Jo.

Fiara, who up till now was busy eating a caramel apple, answered first. “I hope Yosaku, he asked me this morning for some help even.” With that said she promptly stuffed the way too large apple back into her mouth and sucked on the sweet shell.

“Really, with what?”, asked Jonny, but he only got an eye smile from Fiara in return.

“Whatever it is, he will need it. Lia thinks that Sabo is almost as strong as either of us. We won't win without some ace in the hole.” I said. They all looked at Yosaku, who was coming into the arena, with some worry.

“I don't think Sabo will hurt him seriously. He doesn't seem like such a guy. And if he does then he is dead meat walking”, growled Jonny. I nodded. Fuck the story, if he harms Yosaku too much then he will die.