Chapter 6: Battle at the Tea Shop

Leaning against the chair and having taken a comfortable position, Zoro was having one of his usual afternoon naps. It was not like he could do anything interesting at the moment and additionally he doesn't even have anything to drink, what terrible service. Now Tattoo boy together with rabbit girl were gone for a while, doing hell knows what. Meaning the only logical thing right now was to take the opportunity and catch up with his sleep until they got back.

During his nap he got to think a little bit about those guys he was fighting on Wracks ship. They were strong, not on his level of course, if he got all out even with only one sword, he could probably with some mild trouble take them all out unless they had some other nasty tricks up their sleaves.

Zoro had to remember that the world he once knew doesn't exist anymore. Now people had literal magic on their side. Sure back then devil fruits were basically magic, but not every grunt had the opportunity to just learn how to use the powers of the Flame Flame fruit and add it to their repertoire of other devil fruit like powers, as if they tried to imitate Blackbeard, but that was something completely different.

Now Zoro had to watch out and not become too cocky. Just because someone throws fireballs at you doesn't mean that fire was his only ability. It is now entirely possible that one might even combine Whitebeards destructive Earthquake power alongside Kizaru's fast as light speed and you couldn't just throw them into the water, that aspect is gone now and wasn't that a terrifying image to deal with.

Well the only saving grace is that mages tire themselves faster out, not having the limitless power of the devil fruits, meaning fights between mages that lasted longer than one day were stuff of legends apparently. A stark contrast to his own time were a seven-day long battle between the stronger pirates or against Marines weren't uncommon. Sure not as often, but that was still a reasonable timeframe. If Zoro remembered correctly Jimbei once told him how he fought Ace for 5 days straight before losing against him and back then Ace was basically a super rookie which greatest achievement was defeating a Vice-admiral and rejecting the proposal to join the seven warlords.

The doors of the Tea shop were violently opened, waking up Zoro from his nap and also ending his mental note to himself.

"Hello~ Miss Zeref!" came the enthusiastic voice of a man as he made his way to the table with Jellal following behind him with an expression of annoyance that could be mostly found by children going shopping with their mothers against their will.

The bald one who disturbed his sleep approached with an enthusiastic rhythm in his step, practically dancing until standing before the greenheads table and gracefully slamming down a bottle he was holding the entire time in his right hand, while he extended his other one towards Zoro.

"Name's Legos. Legos Iwolf and the one who calls the shots around here. I welcome you to my fine establishment. I hope the interior is not to repulsive for someone of your status?"

The energy he displayed was a big contrast to his overall appearance, but than again Zoro had dealt with odder and a lot more diverse looking individuals, Bartolomeo came to mind, so Zoro just rolled with it and calmly reached for the extended hand with a firm grasp.

"I have dealt with worse." replied Zoro, not in the mood to correct the guy before him who he really was talking to.

Like they say information is key and the less attention the swordsman gathered, the better. The world didn't need to know that Roronoa Zoro has returned from the grave. Even if it sounded cool and would certainly boost his name even further.

People back in the day joked already that even death itself couldn't take his life, so if it couldn't even stop him from coming back than Zoro might just gain the title of 'Immortal' or 'Undying' at the end of the day. He personally would prefer the title "Death Conqueror".

Dismissing that thought process entirely, Zoro's attention was not on the man but on the bottle, he presented before him. It looked like a whiskey bottle missing its label and Zoro was giddy to get a taste of more future liquor he was now able to experience. The taste of that fabulous beer Bender was still fresh in his mind and imprinted on his tongue, so Zoro was looking quite forward to this, which didn't go unnoticed.

"Can't take your eyes of this can you? Not that I can't blame you. It's my favorite self-made homebrew. I hope it's to your liking." Out of nowhere the bald man brought three glasses out of nowhere with ice cubes already chilling inside them, probably thanks to magic or something like that and poured into each one of them an equal amount for everyone.

When Legos finished showing off his mediocre bartending skill, each glass sprouted wings, before one made its way towards Zoro's hand. With an enormous smile Legos dropped the bottle midair as it also grew wings, levitating in place.

Taking a mouthful Zoro finished half of it in an instant and regretted his choice immediately as he was having a coughing fit as a result of his greed. This homebrew was certainly packing quite a punch and Zoro's throat was getting the worst of it. The taste was amazing, not Bender level great but if Zoro ever made a list of all his favorite drinks he ever had, then this one would be in his top five for sure and somehow Zoro knew that his list might change considerably if he got to taste all the liquor this present future had in store for him.

"Hohoo~, someone was thirsty, but I think after four hundred something years even I would pour every drop of alcohol I could get on my hands to relish in its heavenly taste again, but please, don't be so greedy, there's enough of it. In fact I could probably treat the whole Royal Army of Fiore for a week continuously with everything I manage to collect in the last month." pondered Legos at the end, trying to show off.

"I was just caught of guard." Said Zoro ignoring his remark after taking another, more leisure sip from the homebrew, where his senses were attacked by this mouth-coating, firm taste, practically bathing in the spicy feel, as his cheeks turned into a reddish color.

Having emptied its content the swordsman held his glass slightly higher, asking for a refill. The floating bottle caught on it in a heartbeat, that it hopefully lacked and fulfilled the alcohol loving green heads request. Zoro started to wonder if he should get one of those for his own personal use.

"You sure have a great talent for this kind of stuff." complimented Zoro with a grin as he poured the second load into his mouth, while Jellal just watched his partner in silence, not even reaching for the glass in front of him.

"It's an honor that its to your liking. But what about you Fernandes? Afraid that I spiced the drink?"

"No, I already checked when you tried to impress my partner with your dance number," Replied Jellal in his most monotone voice yet, " I'm just not in the mood."

"Well that's a shame, either way since we are waiting so or so for Kagu to come back why don't we talk a little bit?"

" I pass, I had enough of your voice for a day "

" That's awfully cold of you Siegi. What about you Miss?"

"Huh?" having finished his fourth glass already, Zoro failed to follow the conversation, having stopped paying any attention to his surrounding as he was feeling a little wobbly in his seat. It was just four glasses and Zoro was sure his body could take it. Well his old body could have for sure.

Zoro just looked at Legos with utter confusion as a result, while the swordsman face was as red as it could get. As a warrior he always prided himself to never overdrink, but this time he didn't took his new form into account, which started to seriously annoy him. Nevertheless it seems that eighteen barrels full of Bender where nowhere near the potency of one bottle of Legos self-made homebrew.

But before Zoro had anytime to ask what the question was, Legos and Jellal suddenly straightened up as if they felt something with their Wizard senses. Not wasting a moment the blue haired mage acted on instinct and grabbed onto the dazed swordswoman with his only arm before he jumped out of the window. Not as second later the whole structure was crushed before something exploded behind them, launching them a good distance away from the tea shop.

Landing face first into the earth, Zoro slowly picked himself up as he tried to access the current situation, despite the dizziness in his head and the long-lost feeling of complete drunkenness he promised himself to never get into again.

First of all they were facing twenty or so people standing before them, but Zoro knew this was just a fraction of the force, the rest remained hidden in the forest. Jellal had already taken a defensive position, while Legos has more or less managed to escape the blazing hellscape behind them and was busy putting out the fire that caught on his clothes.

The enemies were all dressed in dark robes obscuring their face, except for a young blond woman in the middle of the crowd holding her wooden staff above her head. Maybe she was the one in charge here, but Zoro doubted it. She lacked the aura of one.

"Ah, really? I just had it get a new paint job!" lamented Legos the moment he turned around to check his tea shops state, only to be met by a still burning crater the size of a football field with a car sized rock embedded in its epicentrum.

"And on top of that they dropped a damn meteor! Those bastards, I will show them! Do they not know whose wrath they are bringing forth!?" enraged Legos walked forward facing the enemies head on and stretched his arms outward preparing a devastating attack….and he remained standing there for a few moments longer, before holding his hand before his face as if he couldn't understand what's going on.

Some weird text materialized midair for all to see, but for Zoro it was impossible to encipher, and it wasn't because he was drunker than the first time he tasted alcohol with his peers at the dojo, which resulted in him no being able to get out of his bed for five days straight thanks to a massive hangover.

"Every use of space magic is nullified…. oh shit you know then." growled Legos under his mouth. "What do you want!?"

"You!" the woman with the staff walked forward with grace in her step and faced the trio without any fear eminent on her pretty face. "Because of you our dear master Zark, was imprisoned and sentenced to death. We gather our strength for five years, just to face you and now you are going to face our wrath. The wrath of Glory String!" With a serious look she slammed down her wooden staff on the ground and all around the village some walls with some strange letters could be seen appearing and disappearing at random.

Zoro couldn't make any sense out of this so he ignored the exchange of words between the livid Legos and the determined woman and turned to the only reliable source of information he could ask.

"Hey, Jellal. Can you tell me what the hell is going on?"

"That woman has placed runes beforehand and has effectively trapped us here."

"Runes?"

"It's basically magic that rewriting the laws in any given space. For exampled if she writes 'everyone who draws their weapon cannot move from their spot' this will be the new law and your body is forced to follow. Creating such runes takes time and the bigger the area and the more complicated the law, the more magic you need to create it and to maintain it's effect. "

"So what are the current rules?" asked Zoro, reaching for his weapon knowing that combat was inevitable.

"There are only three in effect right now. One. you cannot leave. Two. No one except Glory String members may enter the space. And three. Every use of space magic is nullified. Which is exactly the type of Magic Legos here specializes in." said Jellal as he eyed his surrounding for anything he might have missed.

"JELLAL!" shouted the rune woman, "I ask you to stand down. We have not desire to collect your bounty, so you and your partner can just sit on the sidelines and make out for all we care. If you get in our way you too will face our rage!"

Legos turned around with horror in his eyes. It didn't take a genius to see how much he was screwed and if Jellal decided to accept and feed the poor man to the hungry wolfs, then it would be better if he started to pray now before he would not be able to again.

Straightening his back Jellal got into his polite Siegrain persona out of habit and spoke, " While I appreciate the offer, I have to decline for obvious reasons that I can't disclose to you. I'm sorry for the inconvenience."

"THEN EAT THIS!" with her staff high in the air, multiple red points could be seen speeding down towards them at incredible speeds, " DRACO METEOR"

"Hey Jellal, give me a boost!" with that declaration the still drunk, but not useless Zoro sprinted towards the Glory String members, his eyes fixed on the pretty lights above his head which increased in size before he jumped as high into the air as possible, while his hands were secured on his sheeted Shigure.

Jellal was stunned for half a second before he activated his Meteor and speeded towards Zoro. The blue haired mage grabbed the swordswoman midair and spun in rapid succession around his own axis showing of an impressive rotation per minute stat, before using the accumulated force to throw Zoro towards the falling meteor shower at neck breaking speeds.

It took not long before Zoro was face to face with the first meteor and using his amazing swordsmanship, he sliced it clean in half, making sure the falling debris would avoid hitting the ones under him.

After dicing the last of those nuisances Zoro was met with a new problem. Well two to be exact. His stomach started to inform him it did not like those speeds and voiced a complaint using a very effective method. The other one was that he was high in the air, like Thousand Sunny Coup de burst high and he didn't really have a plan to land safely. A normal human would surely die if he hit the ground at that heigh. So with most options removed Zoro did the only thing that made sense in his mind. He sheathed his weapon, crossed his hands and…. left it to luck, as he was speeding down towards his doom. Surely tattoo face would catch him… hopefully.

While Zoro was suspended in the air and playing catch with meteors, the enemies made a bee line towards the defenseless Legos while casting multiple spells that were meant to kill the businessman.

Of course Jellal couldn't allow for that and promptly, as quick as the wind picked that poor bastard out of harms way by launching him into the crater.

"Keep your head down and don't die!" said Jellal to Legos mid swing before the man could even question him and disappeared into the crater with a somewhat manly shriek.

More and more spells were thrown at the young mage as the grass itself tried to grab him and magical bullets whizzed past his head a tad to often. Feeling a little but overwhelmed by this fire power, Jellal decided to make all of them fall using one swift spell.

Using his superior speed, Jellal readied his signature move, which the enemies failed to notice before it was to late, as he marked specific places on the ground in order to catch as many of them as possible. After placing the last one Jellal skillfully dodged a staff that was aimed at his chest and activated his spell.

"Grand Chariot" multiple spots where glowing as the magic unloaded its power and brought onto the enemies the true power of a Meteor strike, creating a crater thrice the size as the one that thrashed Legos tea place.

The only one that managed to avoid its effect was the woman with the staff, as she safely managed to use her premade runes to create a small room around her, where apparently nothing could hurt her. It did break apart in a matter of second not soon after, if it was from exhaustion or something else Jellal didn't know. Still he was impressed she had a way to block that.

While the blondie was on her knees more and more people stepped into the runed area, while grasping the opportunity to encircle the village completely as they all rushed to the crater. Which wasn't good.

Using his superior speed again, Jellal put out the closest members out of commission before rushing over to the crater to get the rest.

Levitating over Legos position to better defend him, Jellal was throwing long ranged magic spells after magic spells all around him, hitting every target head on. Despite having lost already half of their mages they still continued to push forward, closing the distance, and forcing Jellal to get a lot more serious.

Suddenly the Staff woman appeared out of nowhere before him and she managed to press the tip of her wooden staff against his chest above his heart, paralyzing him as he levitated motionless midair.

Jellal recognized that staff as a magical item he too had in his possession and was one if his favorite in fact. It would have massively helped him in his fight with the Salamander, but he was forced to use it for another purpose. And for the record he was not a fan to be on the receiving end of it.

"I could kill you, but you know how it is with bounties. Living ones are worth more and who knows what the Council will give to us in exchange for you, but first let me witness that flea's final moment!" said the woman before facing away and relish on the view of her men, magic seals readied towards the poor bastard who was pressing his back against the meteor for some meaningless sense of cover.

"KILL HIM!" with her shout each one of them unleashed their most devastating attack. Torrents of water were sent to crush him. Countless of Ice shards were launched to cut him open. The very earth was split apart trying to swallow Legos whole, while the clouds above his head transformed as a dozen or so lightning strikes were raining down on his position. It seemed this was the end of him and in his last pathetic moments Legos closed his eyes, not wanting to witness the onslaught of spells thrown at him.

Lucky for him an angelic being crashed down, parting the clouds apart doing so and save him in its protective bubble from harms way.

It didn't take long for his signature shit eating grin to manifest on his face. Legos didn't even need to open his eyes as he felt the two shining auras standing beside him. One was the familiar feeling of unbound rage his personal bodyguard gladly displayed whenever she was pissed while protecting his life with her Resonance, while the other was a lot more sinister and dare he say demonic in nature as if the devil himself stood beside him. Well it was Zeref after all, smelling exactly just like his demon toys, full of malice and forbidden magic.

"Moss head, take care of him!" not waiting for Zoro's response Kagura speed towards the dumbstruck mages that dared to touch her best chance of finding her brother and massacred all of them.

It was not a pretty view and even a drunk Zoro felt a little unnerved seeing a teen pulverize a human's torso into mincemeat with her bare hands, not even bothered by the blood staining her clothes and tainting her white rabbit like hairpiece in exchange for a set of crimson demon horns.

"Gravity Pillar" with a swift move of her left hand Kagura turned around and send a purple beam of concentrated gravitational forces towards the flying blond woman who was forced to dodge the incoming spell, disrupting whatever spell she in turn tried to use.

Turning around to face the perpetrator, the blondie came literally face to face with the enraged battle maid having closed the gap in an instant and greeted the new customer with a punch to her nose at speeds she couldn't comprehend.

Luckily her safeguard rune activated again on its own sensing a life-threatening attack coming as it created an forcefield around her, grinding against Kagura's destructive Resonance as it tried to rip her opponent apart.

Never in the mood to drag things out, Kagura pulled her fist back as she delivered a well aimed, magically enhanced punch at the enemy's defenses and successfully penetrated them and the poor woman's abdomen completely.

Coughing up blood as her safeguard rune faded out of existence, the dying woman was moments away from death doors, as she was starting to lose consciousness, but she was not ready to part yet, not until she got what she came for.

"I guess... I have to step as low… as that bastard."

In her last moments the woman pointed a glowing finger at the crater towards Legos, who felt safe enough when his personal battle maid appeared, so much so that he observed the entire spectacle without a shred of worry, even leaning against the car sized stone in a casual dismissive manner.

This carelessness was the last mistake Legos would ever do from this point forward as the meteor next to him suddenly glowed and in a matter of moments exploded, launching his badly damage form across the whole field.

"NOOOOO!" shouted Kagura as she yanked her bloodied arm free from the corpse and rushed towards Legos, letting the grinning woman's remains fall to the ground headfirst, having fulfilled her quest for revenge.

Zoro was also encompassed in the blast, but thanks to his reflexes he was fast enough to coat himself in his protective haki and was able to tank the worst of it. Sadly Zoro was not fast enough to reach for Legos and shield him from that blast.

Lying face first in the ground the explosion had completely obliterated his entire left side of the torso as Kagura turned him around for no other reason than to look him into the eyes. Not knowing what to do, she just sat beside his still breathing form, while having no effective way to help him. She was made for fighting, not healing. Clutching her head between her hands Kagura began to lose it as tears dwelled inside her eyes, mostly from rage. All those years of servitude doing his will, of training her ass off, killing people left and right who laid a hand on him or his merchandise. In one moment all her hard work was gone and meaningless.

"Hehe…how I wished those tears were directed at me in a mournful way, [sigh] but we both know that would never be the case with how I treated you." chuckled softly Legos mixed with his heavy breathing and the occasional cough.

Kagura just gave him a hateful glare as she gritted her teeth recounting her entire life she spent with, in her eye's bastard, but Legos just lifted his arm and rested it on the teens shoulder.

The moment he touched her she tried to bat his hand away feeling disgusted by it, yet despite his dwindling energy his grip increased and remained unmoved much to her surprise.

"Listen, Kagura, I want you to hear me out!" he started with a look in his eyes that screamed determination, something Kagura had no recollection of him ever having. " I know where your brother is. I knew in fact for the last five years what has happened to him."

Kagura blood started to boil.

"WHAt you-"

"I SAID LISTEN!" over shouted Legos her, again something very much uncharacteristic of him, " I lied to you, yes, but it was all because I needed you to prepare for what was to come. I needed you to train as harsh as possible in order for you to be strong and smart enough to rescue your brother as he was surrounded by people that basically ruled a part of the underworld. I knew from the first time I met you that the moment you learned the truth you would rush out and face them no matter how weak you really were. That's how headstrong you are. But time is running out and now I have a last quest for you, Kagura and your reward will be my entire lifework, including all the information I gather about your brother's fate "

Loosening his grip Legos held his arm in front of Kagura after which his hand suddenly caught on fire. It was a majestic blue flame, not giving off even a hint of warmth, and the teen knew exactly what that meant. He was making a pact with her that could not be broken.

"Go to Kamrun Village and deliver a woman named Haja Samrel this message from me. I hope we can see the stars again on the other side."

"Why can't you just tell me!" asked Kagura, her rage seething at a constant pace.

"I'm still a bastard and a businessman, you know. It's just in my nature. " with a soft smile he looked high into the sky, " Now, please don't leave me hanging here, Kagu. I have better things to do you know then worry about your little insignificant problems."

"Don't think I will ever forgive you what you have done to me!" said Kagura with contempt in her voice as she grasped his shaking cold hand, sealing the deal.

"Didn't plan to, now go and let me lay here in my final moments." dropping his arm, Legos felt sleepy as more and more blood left his body, but he didn't care. Closing his eyes he started to hum a little tune that reminded him of his childhood and of her, while death embraced him in its arms before his final breath.

Jellal and Zoro approached Kagura from behind, having witnessed their last deal from a distance. Neither one uttered a single word. Standing up forcefully and with determination in her eyes Kagura whipped away her tears and turned around.

"Listen you two, I know you want to get as fast as possible to Aeraos. I know how to make his stupid portal thing work, but first I must travel to Kamrun Village and do his stupid quest. You coming with me? And before you ask, I'm helping you only because I don't want any conflict between us, okay?"

Zoro just looked at Jellal, not knowing what she was talking about and signaled towards the young mage to decide for the both of them.

"It's not like we have any other choice. Aeraos is too far away to reach by foot in time. So for the time being let's have this temporary alliance." Said Jellal, trying to hide his annoyance by that enormous setback.

"Good, then let's go!" turning around Kagura was already marching towards their destination, not feeling like wasting any more time, but Zoro had one more question before they left.

"Don't you want to change?" he was gesturing towards her blood-soaked clothes.

"It's not like I have any spare clothing left with the destruction you all cause when I was absent. Any other time-wasting questions? No?! Good. Now come. We have a one-day march before us towards the closest city, from there we can purchase a pig wagon and we should arrive at Kamrun Village in about four days." Not leaving anything up to discussion Kagura started to move towards a bright future. Free of Legos and reunited with her brother Simon.

Not wanting to be left behind, the duo joined her and together they made their way towards Dinkle City, also known as the happiest place in Fiore.


The lacrima was ringing, disturbing the sleep of a very agitated individual as he used his pet snakes' massive body to cover his ears, but to no avail. He heard it all to clearly and someone with his ability couldn't just say he didn't hear it ring.

So with a heavy sigh he picked up the call, which was dialed under Glory String, one of the lesser dark guilds his Guild ruled over. The man sure hoped it was an important call, because he had a very important dream he had to get back to.

"Yes?" he practically growled like a dog at the person on the other side, "I hope it's important."

"Eh, Ah Cobra, sir... eh Master Cobra sir, the thing is ... you see my name is-" stuttering the grunt was silenced by the glare of the poison Dragon Slayer, which made it pretty clear he didn't like wasting his time, so the lowly mage just coughed into his hands before delivering the message.

"Glory String was demolished- "

"Huh, and that was so important you had to wake me up?! Listen if I ever see you before my two eyes I will–"

"by The Meteor Jellal Fernandes" interrupted the grunt his superior in order to save his skin.

Hearing his name Cobra was silent for a moment before he asked.

"You know where he is now?"

"He together with the White Ribbon and an unknown girl around his age are headed in the direction of Dinkle Town"

"Listen," grinning like a maniac full of joy, which seriously unsettled the grunt on the lacrima, Cobra gave him a simple order, "I want you to follow them from a save distance. Don't get spotted! The moment you lose sight of them I will make personally sure you become Cubellios new toy meal, understand?!"

"YEess!" with that the grunt ended the call, not able to handle Cobras terrifying appearance any longer.

"Brain will be overjoyed, I can already hear it, isn't that right Cubellios?" petting his snake under her head both of them made their way towards their Master to bring him the wonderful news.

/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|

Hello there, dear reader. It seemed I'm not really back in top form, having trouble sitting before the PC and writing things, but that should lift itself over the next few weeks. Here is the promised sixth (huh already) chapter, that was supposed to come out two days ago, but hey, better now then never.
It's a little shorter than the last ones but I think its enough for this chapter. Well then that's really all that I wanted to tell you, well maybe except that I have become a Beta reader for a story called A Gift From God written by Electricsoda. So while you wait for my chapters to come out, you could take a peek at his creation. Well that's really all and remember to walk once in a while, helps the blood flow or so I'm told.

Let's see us again in the next chapter of LIUTF.

Chapter version v3 : 24.12.2021

/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|