The Ark

This is an ancient version of the final battle atop Naraku's fortress citadel. I've kept the general idea intact, but I've done away with the OCs Hakari, Ivan, and Ivanoto, as well as all other things that I have deemed too silly to keep on. I've got it down to this: Naraku fights against Son Goku/InuYasha/Sesshoumaru in the castle courtyard while a Russian colonel named Vladimir Andropov leads a strike team into the castle and rescues Sango and Kagura, evacuating them to Kaede's village where one of Andropov's medics removes Naraku's mind-controlling brain leeches (think Star Trek II) from them. This may sound wacky now, but it'll be much cooler and make much more sense with a story behind it.

A low, squeaking rumble began to rattle the walls of Naraku's stronghold. Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru's ears perked up at the alien sound. Was it a stampede? Was it one of Naraku's demons? What could possibly make such a noise? Hakari caught Kohaku's scythe between the magazine and magazine catch of his Kalashnikov rifle, jamming the magazine in permanent position and rendering the weapon unreloadable. The lieutenant snarled at the fact his favorite battle implement was rendered useless, and responded to the demon-slayers assault by yanking hard on the rifle's handle and bringing his enemy's face into the laminated hardwood of the weapon's stock. The concussive force of Hakari's surprise assault knocked Kohaku over, his legs and arms flailing weakly in the aftermath. Eito looked down at his prey.

"Sorry, kid, but Goku wants you alive."

Eito Hakari slammed the rifle's butt into the taijya's right temple once more and totally knocked him out of action. The disgusted lieutenant discarded his AK, knelt down to the ground, and pulled both pant legs up, revealing a Czech CZ-52 on each calf. He drew each pistol and thumbed both slide catches, locking two 7.62mm rounds into both chambers. He then readjusted his leggings and began backing up towards the south wall, ceding ground to an advancing platoon of Naraku's demon spawn. Carefully, the rearmed soldier leveled his guns at a demon, and carefully squeezed the triggers, causing pure white flame to split the darkness and drop two demons each time. Eventually, his two magazines expended themselves of ammunition, leaving their user defenseless. Eito hurled both CZs at the demon horde, then screamed into his radio.

"NOW! DO IT NOW!"

The low, squeaking rumble melted into that of a revving engine, and a Soviet T-55 burst through the stone south wall of Naraku's castle, raining chunks of rock everywhere. Moments later, the olive-drab tank plowed into the horde of demon troops, mashing their flesh into paste with solid steel treads. Hakari ran up to the combat vehicle and leapt on top of it, opening up the main turret hatch and climbing inside. His allies greeted him.

"Hello, jackass!" General Ivan said, with an insane grin.

"Nice to see you, too, sir" Eito replied, sitting down at the gunner's seat, behind the main gun's telescopic sight.

Ivan switched on his radio in preparation to alert the rest of the JSDF.

"All MGs, open fire!"

From the treeline a half-mile away from the castle, four plumes of yellow-white flame split the night once again as tracer rounds barreled their way into hundreds of the undead soldiers Naraku had created. Each machine-gun kicked up sticks and leaves directly in front of the muzzle as four of Eito Hakari's copies fed ammunition to the weapon the other four were firing. While 7.62mm bullets shredded their demon enemy, Eito was working on a bigger target.

He pressed down on the left turret traverse pedal and lined up his crosshairs squarely on the front door of Naraku's residence. He squeezed the trigger on the massive cannon. A ball of light the size of a Bird of Paradise exploded into the night as a high-explosive shell tore through Naraku's house, setting it aflame after splintering it into thousands of smaller, wooden pieces.

Inuyasha held his ears in pain from the sheer volume of the blast. A huge brass casing ejected from the tank gun's breech and clattered onto the steel floor of the turret. General Ivanoto reached behind him and hefted a 105mm shell into his arms, then slammed it into the gun, closing a thick metal plate behind it with a chattering clack.

"High-explosive up!" he said.

Inuyasha doubled over from the noise as the cannon erupted again, its shell this time blasting clean through what remained of the housing and out through the stone wall 200 yards away. General Ivan, the tank's driver, yanked the control levers into a hard right turn then shoved them forward, and his tank plowed through the debris, finalizing the gun-induced destruction.