Drifters: Fighting in the Unknown

Warnings: Genderbend, Female!Shimazu Toyohisa, Blood, Gore, War, Spoilers for the manga and anime under the name Drifters, Swearing, AU,

Disclaimer: I don't own Drifters in any way, shape or form.

Summary: There were only two paths that she could take once she stepped foot on the battle field. Live to go home, or die. There are no other paths. So, why was she suddenly in a strange, white corridor with only her blood, odd doors and a stranger man breaking the void apart?

Note: I don't know if I'll be continuing this, it was written out of boredom and a new found love for the anime and manga called Drifters.

As many people are going to point out (even with writing this) I do know that having females on the battle field was looked down upon at the time, to get around that I'll be tweaking the Shimazu family line a small bit and as such, also changing Toyohisa's upbringing along with other things. Does fanfiction ring a bell?

…F.I.T.U…

Chapter 1: October 21st, 1600

…F.I.T.U…

-Sekigahara-

Dressed in black fitted clothing and decorated with red armour for the shins, hips and forearms along with a close-fitting, short red kataginu displaying the white mark of a hollow circle divided into quarters hanging on her shoulders, Shimazu Toyohisa, daughter of Iehisa of the Shimazu clan, stood out from the rest of the war simply because she was the only female who stood on the battle grounds.

Her grip on the hilt of her nodachi shifted as she drew it while running, leading the small group of samurai behind her to flank the nations enemy army from the hill side of the valley that was being coated in red. Her other hand tightened on the empty sheath, resisting the instinctual urge to draw the wakizashi that was gained from learning dual wielding as her first form of combat. All the while, her tanegashima thumbed a familiar beat on the small of her back.

"Kill as many as possible!" Toyohisa ordered as the flanking group burst out of the tree line, going unnoticed by those involved in the battle. No sound came from the men behind her as the small group continued to move forward on foot steps that where muffled by the sound of yelling, cries of pain and metal meeting metal. Their scent riding on the wind was over taken by the smell of blood, smoke and burning flesh.

The first enemy lance wielder Toyohisa came across was left in half, cut through just above the hip. The second lost his head before he could stab a bearer of the hollow circle. While a third was jumped over, left for someone else to kill.

Grey eyes narrowed on the form of three spear wielders jabbing their weapons at a floored samurai who looked over to the uneven, mid-length cut, raven haired woman before looking back to the threat in front of him.

"…Don't mess with Shimazu!" the partly hairless man called out, raising his sword and swinging it in the air.

'Idiot!' Toyohisa cursed as three lances pierced through flesh. Using an enemy as a way to get into the air, the lone female dropped into the group of three, delivering a slice that split the armour her opponent decided to wear before she rounded on the second male and delivered a messy blow that caused blood to dance in the air and tangle in her hair. Shifting her stance to hold herself lower to the ground, Toyohisa ducked a swing of a sword that was aimed at her neck while also changing her grip on her blade. Her arm extended, letting sharp metal pierce the soft flesh of a neck.

Standing at full height, Toyohisa absently flicked her nodachi out to the side, catching an enemy troop's neck and beheading them. Taking no note of the two dull thuds and the clatter of metal meeting dirt, the Shimazu Clan heiress watched her Uncle Yoshihiro – the seventeenth Shimazu Clan Head and a General – fall back with multiple horsemen and gunmen following.

The raven haired female turned quickly, her sword easily passing the cheap armour of the now split in two samurai. "We're falling back!" Toyohisa called out, her voice loud enough to cut through the sounds of battle. Not waiting for the affirming cry of her Uncles' men that would no doubt follow, she took off, removing the heads and other body parts of anyone who didn't bear the Shimazu mark and made the mistake off getting in her way as she moved towards her Uncle.

"Our lives for our commander!" Following the unmentioned code, the Shimazu army started to withdraw, those who were heavily injured stayed their ground along with anyone who wished to give more time for the other troops to retreat.

-Utouzaka-

"Toyohisa!" Yoshihiro pulled at the reins on his horse, causing the animal to rear up and turn after noticing that his niece wasn't riding along with him. The sight he was met with was familiar but at the same time foreign. Toyohisa – his dead, younger brothers' eldest child of five – stood in the middle of the path, her back towards him and the gunmen flanking her sides in kneeling positions, tanegashima trained in the direction they came from.

"Withdraw, Uncle! Please fall back!" Toyohisa didn't turn her head, instead kept her grey eyes forward, "You said you trust me to lead your men! So leave this to me!"

"I do trust you! As do my men! But you are returning to Satsuma too, Toyohisa!"

The wind ruffled mid-length hair as Toyohisa gave a grin. "You have no idea how much that means to me Uncle, and it's part of the reason why I want to go back. I want to die in Satsuma, but, it's not about what I want Uncle."

Yoshihiro gritted his teeth, 'You are the splitting image of your father. You act just like him at times too, why does this have to be one of them?'

"It's about you returning to Satsuma. Even if I and all these men die here, so long as you return home," She turned partly, letting her Uncle see her blood thirsty grin. "This battle will end with a victory for us!" Toyohisa turned back at the sound of horses growing closer. "Rear-guard! Fire on command!"

With the sound of her Uncles men giving our war cries, Toyohisa swiftly drew her nodachi. "This is where we die! Our enemy is Ii Naomasa's Red Devils, the greatest foe that Tokugawa has mustered. A truly worthy opponent for our final stand, don't ya think?"

"Lord!" A horseman called out, causing the General to grip his reins tighter as he pulled them back, before giving them a shake, causing the dark furred horse to start moving.

The daughter of Iehisa watched her Uncle take off from the corner of her eye before she turned her serious gaze back on the opponents charging at them. "We stall for time, hold the enemy up for as long as possible!"

"I'll be waiting, Toyohisa! Waiting in Satsuma! You are not allowed to die! You hear me Toyohisa!" Yoshihiro called out, his voice growing fainter as the horsemen continued onwards while also causing his niece to give a smile that she wouldn't normally give.

'I really am lucky to have an old man like him watching over me.' Toyohisa raised her blade a little while her other hand grip the empty sheath, 'Now it's time to finish the job!'

"Ready?!" She called out as the enemy horseman closed in on them, running across the flat and open path, "Take aim!" She waited for a moment, drawing in the horseback riders. "Fire!" The sound of fine, burnable dust bursting was both sudden and loud. The burning stench filled the noses of the gunmen while smoke drifted into the air from any opening in the tanegashima.

Not deterred by the round mounds of metal being shot at them, the horse riders pushed forward.

"Don't fear them! Run them down!"

Toyohisa stepped forward and out of the smoke that gathered, her blade positioned in a two handed grip by her head. Moving quickly, she performed four strikes at two riders that pressed forward ahead of the group, killing the men and wounding the horses. The lone female fighter continued running into the mass of enemy troops, dealing more fatal blows to those ridding in the middle of the path, leaving both wings for the gunmen to take out.

"A woman?" Ii Naomasa couldn't help but ask as he watched multiple of his men fall to the woman's blade. "With such skill too!"

Toyohisa huffed as she ran, her free hand sitting on the sheath of her wakizashi. "I am Toyohisa, heiress of the Shimazu Clan! Don't underestimate me!" With those words she removed another body from the back of a horse.

"Why should it matter? You're dead!" Naomasa hissed as he looked down at Toyohisa from the back of his horse, his brown eyes gleaming with blood lust. "I am Naomasa of the Ii Clan, undersecretary to the Ministry of War! Do you Shimazu's have no shame?! Women shouldn't step foot on the battle field!"

Ignoring the foreign blood running down her face, Toyohisa easily took note that she was the only bearer of her clan symbol left breathing in the area, but she didn't remove her line of sight on the man from the Ii Clan. Instead, she placed her other hand on the hilt of her sword. "What do you know, you old fool?! Your idiocy will lose you your head!" She struck.

"Heh!" Naomasa huffed a laugh, blocking the strike with his spear. "Don't make me laugh!" He pushed the female fighter away, allowing for his foot soldiers that just caught up make a wall of deadly metal.

Grey eyes looked over the positioning of the spears and men, looking for any holes in the defence. 'Spear users. Generally they are horseback riders, but this lot use it for distance fighting and keeping opponents away. Meaning,' Toyohisa smirked as she licked away the unknown blood that dribbled onto her mouth. 'They won't expect someone to run right at them!'

She pushed forward, making the some of the troops pull back their defence while others met her in mid jump. Ignoring all the spears bar the ones that would possible deal permanent damage, Toyohisa let the lances pierce her flesh and her blood splatted on any surface while breaking a few with a swipe of her sword.

"Damn idiot… such talent wasted." Naomasa commented, watching the female fighter shift as she lifted her head, "Fighting without fear is how you die."

Toyohisa smirked, "Depends if you fear death or not. But you see…" She swung her empty hand out and around to her back, dislodging a few spears as she gripped her tanegashima and brought it forward to aim at the enemy commander. "You are the idiot, Naomasa of the Ii Clan!" She pulled the trigger, the mound of metal hitting the heart of the wide eyed male while the recoil pushed her back and way from the spears. "Heh… I've got you!" Toyohisa managed out before she hit the ground.

"Naomasa-sama!" A few troops called out in shock, while the ones on foot gathered around their fallen General.

Kneeling in a pool of her own blood, Toyohisa caught the attention of the horsemen as she pulled a broken spear head from her body. Waiting a moment for the gush of blood, she let her hand fall to the hilt of her nodachi and used it to leaver herself off the blood pool.

'What the hell is she?!'

"Withdraw! Withdraw now!" The second in command called out in fear, sweat falling from his skin. The men didn't need to be told again, quickly picking up their wounded and chucking them on the back of horses before they made a hasty retreat.

Toyohisa gritted her teeth, "Damn bastard could have left me his head!"

…F.I.T.U…

Blood mixed with dirt and rain as it dripped in globs onto the soaked ground. Metal shifted the surface of the ground as Toyohisa dragged her nodachi behind her, not comfortable enough to sheath it as she walked. She let her eyes land on the mixture of bodies of her Uncles men and the enemy soldiers that rested, waiting for the elements to break them down and drag them into the ground.

The female fighter pushed on with battered breath, her body a mixture of warmth from her blood and coldness from the rain and heaviness from her wounds. Her grey eyes gazed past the raven hair that stuck to her face 'I will go home. Back to Satsuma.'

When the familiar squelch of the wet ground didn't meet her ears after her next step, Toyohisa paused, letting her blood drop onto the white floor that belonged to the endless, white, corridor, the walls lined with doors made of different materials. But what caught her attention sat perfectly in the middle of the room.

Behind a tall wooden table littered with trinkets she's never seen before was a blond man holding something paper like in front of his face. On the paper, in big characters, Toyohisa couldn't help but read 'Battle of Sekigahara Over'.

'What the hell…?'

The male slowly lowered the paper, showing his strange, ringed blue eyes framed by glasses and a lit cigarette. He glanced at his desk, taking note of the numbers 1600.10.21 alongside the charactered name Shimazu Toyohisa with additional information listed underneath. Folding the paper with practiced hands, his posture never sagged, even as he reached out to pull a small sign up with characters the Shimazu Clan heiress had never seen before.

"Next."

The sound of her blood hitting the white surface was loud in Toyohisa's ears as she tried to make sense of the word the man spoke. "What? What the hell are you saying?! Where am I?! Who are you?!"

The man pulled his cigarette away from his lips before placing it on the smouldering ash tray full of the same cigarettes. He turned his head to his left, lips parting in hidden eagerness.

"Why won't you answer?!" Toyohisa snapped, drawing the strange blue gaze back towards her. She gritted her teeth as her slacken grip on her nodachi tightened, "I won't stay here! I'm going back to Satsuma!"

Not removing his line of sight on the female fighter, the male pulled the lid off of his fountain pen before writing down on the paper with heiress' name on it. He noticed the change in Toyohisa posture as soon as she took note that something was off. Where there was no air movement before, there was now enough to tussle her uneven hair.

Grey eyes snapped to the owners' right. 'What the hell…?' Toyohisa managed to question as her arm was lifted away from her side and outwards towards the doors that lined the hall. The blood that was mid falling shifted as well, instead of answering the call of gravity, the substance drifted to the stone door directly to the right of Toyohisa.

Her arm followed after her blood, pulled by and unknown force, dragging her into the door against her own will.

…F.I.T.U…

Staggering, Toyohisa managed to take a few steps before she fell, succumbing to her injured body and confused mind. The stone door she was forced into noiselessly faded into nothing as blood pooled around the Shimazu Clan Heiress.

Hearing the sound of footsteps, Toyohisa struggled to push herself off of the blood cluttered ground, determined to take arms if she deemed the owners of the hesitant foot falls a threat.

"What is that?"

Grey eyes narrowed in concentration and pain, 'Why? Why don't they speak in Japanese?'

"Brother, what do you think happened to it? There's blood everywhere…"

Toyohisa turned her head to gain a view on the people who spoke in a language she didn't understand. They were short, both holding a head of blond hair with emerald coloured eyes, one of them holding cheeks full of freckles, what was different about them where their ears. Long, pointed and sticking out to the side.

'What? Did I really die?'

"Are you alright?" the older elf asked, shakily holding his hand out, taking slow steps towards Toyohisa.

"What are you saying?" The female fighter laughed out in wheezes before she coughed out the blood that had rising up her throats. "To think, demons hold their own language…" Coughing out another glob of blood, Toyohisa let her grey eyes close and her body fall limp into her blood.

"Oi! Wake up!" The freckled face elf cried out, reaching to shake the female fighter.

"She isn't normal brother." Long ears twitched as the younger of the two crouched on the other side of the woman to his brother, "'Earless', armed, speaking just like those other two."

The older brother sunk his teeth into his lip, "She's a Drifter." He pulled his arm away from the limp but still breathing female. "Grab her weapon." He lifted his gaze to lock it with his younger brothers'.

"Eh?"

"We'll take her to that destroyed castle. Where the other two Drifters are."

…F.I.T.U…

Blue eyes snapped open along with golden-brown.

"Someone's here…"

"Why not give them a welcome?"

…F.I.T.U…

From the middle of the day to full moon sitting in the starless night sky, the two elves struggled to carry the female fighter to what was left of the destroyed castle. All that was left was a still standing but crumbling tower and stones from walls scattered about the clearing surrounded by leafless trees.

"Why is it so heavy?!" The two brothers cried out just before the older one stubbed his foot on an uprooted root, resulting in the three bodies to collapse onto the ground.

Waiting a moment for the pain the dull, the younger brother struggled out from under the body of the female, staining his white clothing with blood and dirt.

"Sorry little brother, but…" The freckled elf removed the arm from around his neck before his emerald eyes landed on the broken structure. "We're here. Though we'll need to hurry back, if they notice we've been here then…"

"Stop!"

Both boys stiffened at the one word, sweat dampening their skin.

"If you get close, I kill you!" Broken elvish filtered through the night sky, "You make sound, I kill you!"

Sitting in the branches slightly behind the two boys, a young, feminine male – dressed in a blue, short, fitted hakama, a modified, blue kimono shirt tied with a white obi sat over the top of the hakama (with one mid-length sleeve while the other arm held no sleeve) leaving skin to be shown at the hips and thighs of the clothing, he wore two arm guards (his right hand was covered with a white fingerless glove) a green, long sash held a quiver full of arrows on his back and long raven hair was tied up with a green ribbon – pulled an arrow against the string of his yumi.

"What do you want?"

With the gleam of the metal tipped projectile aimed at the back of their heads, the older elf spoke in quick words, "This thing is one of you right? She's dying! We brought it to you despite how much trouble we can get into for being here!"

"…Slow down. I don't understand. Speak louder" The bowman struggled, causing the faces of the two elves to drops. "If don't speak slower, I kill you."

'What?' The two blonds turned and let their eyes lock onto the raven hair male. "Can't you tell? Isn't this a Drifter like you?"

Blue eyes widened as the owner fully took note of the body that was lying face down with blood leaking from the soaked cloth. 'A samurai? And that's one of those things Nobunaga has…' The archer slowly released the pressure on his yumi's string. "Leave him here."

Two sets of emerald eyes blinked before the younger elf sighed, "I still don't understand what they are saying."

The long haired male pushed his lips together. "Leave."

Wearily, the two boys watched the archer as they walked away, taking the invitation without the need to be told twice. Blue eyes watched back, waiting for the two elves to leave his eye sight. 'Does this mean he's from the Land of the Rising Sun?'

"…Who are you?" the archer whispered to himself, but was evidently caught in the wind when the voice of the other male that was left to take shelter in the fallen castle spoke up.

"What's happened?"

"Two elf boys brought a dying man. He carries two blades and a smaller thing of what you carry. Seems like he's from the Land of the Rising Sun and by the looks of it, he's a prized fighter from a clan."

"Is he still breathing?"

"Barely, but he's still alive."

"I see." The other male shifted, "Bring him inside and tend to his wounds as well as you can. His strength and will might keep him alive…"

The archer slipped off of the branch he nested on and walked toward the battered body. Raven hair was tussled by the winds as he toed the fighter, turning Toyohisa onto her back. Blue eyes blinked as the owner tried to make sense of what he was seeing.

"Ah…"

"What is it?"

"He's a she."

"Huh?!"

"He's. A. She."

"I heard you the first time! Doesn't stop it from making no sense!"

Loud shuffling was heard from within the broken tower walls, it wasn't long after that the raven head of a middle-age man with cut down facial hair was stuck out a window, the wind instantly catching his lose long hair. A single golden-brown eye blinked, the right eye unmoving from behind an eye patch. The male wore a simple white, shitagi tucked into black hakama while a red kosode with golden edging hung around his waist.

"What the hell…?"

…F.I.T.U…

Chapter end.

I know it's short, but this is really a try out to see if anyone is interested and it's written out of a boring day. If people are interested I'll see to continuing it, if not then it'll probably sit here or be deleted.

Anyway leave a review on your way out!

Till next time, ninjapanda16 out!