Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha. Who ever made Inuyasha and his partners owns Inuyasha.
Claimer: I do own the Free Army though and all characters.
"Warriors of Freedom"
Chapter 1
"First Encounter"
Inuyasha and company had been heading south for quite some time now. Surprisingly, Kagura had escaped from Naraku with her heart and managed to run into Koga and company, before the others. She survived thanks to an agreement between Koga and herself. Naraku's head, for her life. Seeing how Naraku had controlled her and knowing that it was pure demon instinct that she has attacked his fellow wolves, Koga relented and agreed, but then Kohaku showed up and Kagome had just arrived in time to save Kagura.
Since then, Naraku relocated southward away from the north where the Northern Wolves had stopped fighting and started looking for him. Naraku had just barely escaped with his life. Even more so with Kohaku and Kanna, but he had left a visible trail for his enemies to follow. Now he was somewhere south and unknowingly in the path of a great human-demon army searching for an enemy just a little further south of him, but still, he was smack drab in the middle of the two.
The now enlarged company of Shard Hunters continued their trek south. They had gained in numbers very rapidly. Koga and Ayame's respectfully large packs were with Inuyasha and company. Then Sesshomaru had joined with a small force seeking vengeance against Naraku. Shori and her mother had also ended up joining the growing group. Now as they enter a new area, they met people streaming northward in large numbers, not because of demons, but of a clan's large army.
At this point with so many people heading north, Sesshomaru knew that trouble would not be far behind. So to keep human-demon peace, he took his force and headed north again to maintain the peace, so Naraku didn't try anything while there were light defenses against him there. Ayame also, reluctantly, turned back north to help, but Koga stopped her and her pack, knowing they'd need the extra strength to the south.
As the group moved south, human soldiers began joining them. They really didn't care about Naraku, but the Jewel of Four Souls had to be protected. While moving south, a large force of Shinto Priestesses joined them. Now if Kagome fell, there was still a chance to purify the Jewel, albeit a small chance. As if Inuyasha was going to allow Kagome to die. The group eventually got warning from a group of lords organizing a push south against an aggressive pagan army moving north. Here a Buddhist monk had requested that the Priestesses join the army group in defeating these traitors. They agreed after Kagome urged them on. There were already eight battalions of Priestesses, they made nine now.
As the smaller group moved south, they came upon a village that was being taken over by this army that the Northern Alliance was preparing to engage. They could see all kinds of people in odd clothes, but only Kagome knew who they were.
"Catholic Missionaries," she said with a cold and venomous voice.
Inuyasha had never heard her speak like that, nor any of the others either. That meant these missionaries were bad news and quite evil, though some were there fulfilling their sworn duties, others were there for money and power back home. One particular missionary was in it for even more than that. A traitor who had yet to learn that he had been followed, but right now, he was having a group of Shinto Priestesses and Buddhist monks "forced" to "repent" and convert to Catholicism.
The group, though, suddenly found themselves surrounded and when Inuyasha tried to draw Tetsiega from its sheath, a loud explosion, like that of thunder, echoed and Inuyasha dropped his sword, blood exploding from his forearm. He fell to his knees screaming in pain, as Kagome moved to tend to his wound, but she was back handed by a foreign man.
Koga and Ayame tracked the man who had shot Inuyasha and saw him to be foreign too. He stood with a smirk on his face and a matchlock musket in hand. Then one of the Japanese soldiers ordered them to march into the village. They complied for now and planned their escape.
In the village, the head missionary drew himself up and looked distastefully at the Shard Hunters. His eyes falling upon Kagome, he smirked, though hid it well. He had plans for her and the other human woman, and maybe the red headed demoness. Though business first, pleasure later.
"Ah, more fallen children and traveling with demons no less," he spoke very broken Japanese, a translator had to, well, translate. "Why is this land full of so many lost…"
"Bloody Git!" Kagome yelled.
Everyone just stared at her. She had just spoken a foreign language. The missionaries and their guards from Europe were taken back by the remark and the language. One of the European soldiers grabbed Kagome by the hair and yanked her up to her feet. The lead missionary looked angrily at her. He, too, spoke English.
"A bloody wench is what you are my dear girl! And were in the Lord's Good Name did you learn English!" he demanded, not ask.
"Houshi-no-baka," was her reply, causing even the Japanese Catholics to try and fail to hold their laughter back. As did the few Japanese speaking Europeans.
He slapped her outright, infuriated that she had the gall to insult him. He didn't know what it all meant, but he knew an insult. Wanting to prove something, he ordered a rifleman from Spain to kill Inuyasha, but before the trigger happy rifleman could lift his weapon, his head exploded and showered everyone with what had been his brains, skull, and just about everything else that makes a head, a head.
Looking to where the shot had originated, a man in a simple suit of reinforced leather and plate of European background stood, a deadly serious look upon his face. His helmet was also unusual. It wasn't traditional European like his armor, but the symbol was. A most feared symbol, a bright, white star with a yellow streak of lighting running through, set atop fire and water. The cloth that held the symbol was green with blue and red shoulders.
The man just stood, but then a large force of men appeared behind him and leveled their rifles at the Catholics.
"FIRE!" was yelled in many tongues, as well as Japanese and Spanish.
The volley scattered the Catholics, but a few of the "Catholic" Japanese had dropped down and taken cover during the initial volley. Now they worked from person to person, cutting their bindings. Two wrapped Inuyasha's still bleeding forearm in a bandage, before moving on to free other prisoners.
When the two reached Koga and Ayame, they didn't hesitate to cut their bindings. Koga grabbed one of them and as he was standing up, the second man knocked them both down. He had just been in time, as a Catholic volley had just been released and missed them by a hair's width. Koga, after hearing the rounds whine over his head, intelligently decided to interrogate on the ground.
"Why are you freeing us?" he asked, humbled a bit by the near-death experience.
"We're loyal Japanese servants to the Emperor," came the reply and Koga dropped the subject.
Volleys of arrows then started to shower the area, many with flaming heads. Then a great gust of wind and then it started to rain, extinguishing the flames. The rain also had the added effect of wetting all the gunpowder in the area, thereby making all muskets useless. Any more flaming arrows were also rendered useless. The sound of swords and spears clashing together rang throughout the land and the two sides went into melee combat.
In the end the Catholics fled the battle, beaten and broken that day. Kagome stared at the laughing group of victorious foreign warriors. She heard many an insult hurled at the backs of the retreating enemy. She heard French, German, Arabic, Chinese, Russian, Polish, Vietnamese, and at least a dozen others languages spoken and religious deities names praised. There were men and women, humans and demons. She was just so amazed to see so many different people working together and seemingly for a single cause, but the question was, who are they?