This is a work of fanfiction. I do not own Teen Titans or any DC comics alluded to in this story. Kenkaku and his swords are mine, however.
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Waves of Fate
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"text": spoken English
"text": spoken Japanese (translated or flavor text)
"text": war cry, English
"text": war cry, Japanese.
text: thoughts
-text-: stressed word
text: printed or typed English
text: printed or typed Japanese
'text': sound effect
Japanese flavor text will be in a glossary at the end of the chapter.
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"Wh…What are you doing here?" asked Raven, blushing a bit under her hood, the shadow hiding this. Focus! Nothing melted or went flying, to her great relief.
"The ship I was on sunk," deadpanned the ronin.
Raven arched an eyebrow under her hood. "You must be joking."
"Okay, so it wasn't so much sunk as it was sank. I'm even the only one that went into the ocean."
"What?" This was strange.
"Some nutjob with a claymore ripped a hole in the side of the ship, then got in a fight with me. Everyone else got out, and he jumped into another boat that was waiting for him. I got to swim back to shore. Not pleasant at all," grumbled the wave man.
"Was he affiliated with Brute?"
"Insomuch as he repeated the same command, warning me that next time, people would die if I tried to get away, and he was a nut with a blade or two on him, I'd say yes, yes he was," said Kenkaku in a light tone.
"And unlike Brute, he gave you trouble?" Raven was a bit skeptical. Kenkaku was an elemental force with Kanesada in hand, at least as far as she could tell. Okay, so steel is an alloy, not an element!
"He was a -lot- better, and he wasn't affected by the knockout or paralysis technique. And I wasn't about to kill him. He had a crappy name too."
"And this was?"
"Highlander. Now, it's nice to see you and all, but I'm about to continue a pattern. Sorry." He passed out, falling into Raven's arms.
"Nice to see you too," whispered Raven as she caught him, not noticing the winds going crazy.
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"Guess who's back?" asked Raven in her normal flat tone as the elevator doors opened on the main room. None of the other Titans so much glanced back at her, too engrossed in a four-player game of Timesplitters 2. Starfire was losing by a wide margin, even though Robin was doing his best to not kill her, and in some situations, protect her. This had somewhat hindered his score. Cyborg and Beast Boy were trading off the lead.
"You, Friend Raven?" asked Starfire, with a technically true guess.
Raven sweatdropped. "I suppose that is true."
"Glorious!" exclaimed Starfire. Not only had she got the riddle right, she had just fragged Beast Boy.
"What happened to the meditation?" asked Cyborg interestedly as he lobbed grenades at Robin. He of course, knew exactly why she had gone outside to meditate. Obviously, it surprised him that she'd be back so soon.
"Who," deadpanned Raven.
"Eh?"
"-Who- happened to my meditation. Not what."
"Ah. Dammit, Beast Boy! Hah! So who happened to it?"
"Who do we know with long hair, a propensity for getting soaked, who considers a duffle to be a fashion accessory, carries around a stick of wood, and a sharpened one of steel, passes out regularly, and speaks only Japanese?" -That- got their attention.
"What?" The Titans spun around.
"Hint: I'm supporting his very moist unconscious body as we speak," grunted Raven.
"KENKAKU?" asked the four other Titans simultaneously.
The rather loud question restored some level of consciousness to the waterlogged wave man. "Gashi," he said, waving weakly. He went out like a light again.
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Kenkaku slept in a guest room as Raven filled in the other Titans on his situation.
"Any questions?" asked the half-demon.
"In a manner of speaking," answered Robin. "So it's safe to assume that he's stuck in Jump City for a while?"
"I would think so."
"Also safe to assume that he needs a place to stay?"
"Probably," answered Raven, liking where this was going, even if she would deny that fact mightily.
"Well, I think we could have him stay here a while." A good answer. Not perfect but good. And it was well within her range of control to not show after that answer.
"Hey!" said Cyborg, "Why stop there? Let's make him an honorary Titan at least. He's got the skills, and he has proven himself in battle. The passing out all the time is a little annoying, but I'm sure he can fix that."
Raven -liked- this idea. Though she was very glad Cyborg had made the suggestion, she was getting awfully close to the point where her powers might go wild.
"Hmm," mused Robin, "That's fine by me."
"Hold it," Beast Boy spoke up. "Are we forgetting the last Titan we took on?"
Okay, that held the Titans up. Beast Boy was most affected by the girl with the name of the planet they stood upon, but the other Titans were hardly untouched. Raven's mind spun. She had been suspicious of Terra, but never of Kenkaku, but then, she was hardly the best judge of such things in this case. Even if he had never seemed anything but genuine, for someone who could control their ki like him, so it would follow that they could control their emotions.
"Not the same situation, Beast Boy." Thank the once-again nameless deity for Robin. "I haven't seen anything to mark the situation as one that Slade has his hands in, and can anyone say that they really suspect the guy?"
None of the Titans really could. "But we didn't suspect her, either," pointed out Beast Boy.
"I did," answered Raven.
Robin shook his head. "We're wiser now. We'll be careful. But I think we should invite him." The rest of the Titans nodded. "Raven, if you would go check on him and give him the news?"
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"Are you feeling alright?"
Kenkaku blinked a couple of times. He was not used to waking up to a) a voice and b) a voice speaking Japanese. On the other hand, the voice was familiar. He smiled. "Hello, Raven-san. Yes, yes I am."
She smiled slightly. "Good to hear."
He sat up and swung his legs off the bed, stretching.
"Why did you pass out when you showed up at the door?"
"Oh. Well, I used another technique of kiaijutsu that lets one free their body from pain, fatigue, and lack of energy, but drains one's ki. It can be useful, but only if one has friends in the area. Such as yourself and the rest of the Titans, Raven-san."
Raven gave a tiny frown. "Aren't you using the wrong honorific, Kenkaku-kun?"
He smiled. "I guess I am, Raven-kun." His smile turned a bit sad. "Well, I had better be going. Can't impose on you…" He started to stand up.
Raven's hand placed something in his. "What the…" It was a Titans communicator. "Raven-kun…" He turned to look at her.
"It's honorary. No strings attached. But if you ever want to…" She trailed off, then started again. "And only if you want to for this."
He clutched the communicator. "Yeah, sounds good to me." He smiled. "Sounds really good. And as an honorary Titan, I assume I'm to help out while in the city?"
"Only if you want to stay at the Tower."
"I'm not quite that lazy." He smirked. "I guess I might be able to help out with taking out the trash. Besides, it'll be nice to live off of something other than protein bars."
"Good. Now, I don't care what you say, I owe you a sportsbike. What would your favorite be?"
"Well, the Suzuki Hayabusa might be the fastest, but I'm rather partial to Kawasaki's Ninja series, mostly the ZX-10R and ZX-12R models. But we're talking 11,000 dollars here, Raven-kun! You really shouldn't be spending that much on me, for any reason."
"Don't worry about it. Now, do you want me to show you to your room?"
"After you, milady."
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"This is a pretty nice guest room," commented Kenkaku as he looked around the room Raven had delivered him to.
"There's plenty of room in the tower, what with only five people staying here normally and it being the size of most small skyscrapers."
"True." He set his duffle down on the bed and looked around. "Who built this place anyway?"
"Cyborg-san's dad did," replied Raven, shrugging. "Don't ask me why, or for what."
"Or why in the shape of a T."Kenkaku raised an eyebrow. "Looks like Cyborg-san had a kinda strange dad." He took his swords from his belt, and flopped back on the bed. "Oooh. This is -soft-. Sinfully soft."
"You find the accommodations pleasing, neh?"
"Yeah."He sat up. "Is there a fairly open and solitary place on the island?"
"I suppose so, yes. Why?"
"I have kata to do, and should meditate." He put the swords back in place on his belt and stood up.
"You meditate?" asked Raven, surprised.
"Yeah. Comes with the territory. Zen meditation is a rather standard part of both kenjutsu and kiaijutsu."
"I guess so."
"So, any good places around here?"
"I generally head for the roof or my room. Sounds like you would need the roof."
"Mind showing me the way?"
"Not at all."
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"Azarath…Metrion…Zinthos…Azarath…Metrion…Zinthos…Azarath…Metrion…Zinthos." The cool night air blew across Raven's face as she opened her purple eyes and looked out through the night at her meditation 'partner'.
He had said nothing through the entire session, sitting in seiza, hands on his knees, eyes closed as he sat upright, with absolutely no expression gracing his features. Kanesada and Muramasa lay in front of him in what looked to be a ritualized position. He was not floating much as she was, almost seeming like he was firmly rooted to the ground. Suddenly, his eyes slid open and he reached forward to take Muramasa with his left hand. He grasped the bokken lightly near the middle of the enchanted staff before moving his grip to right up next to the tsuba. He put the bokken into its place before repeating the process with the other hand and Kanesada. This accomplished, he fluidly got to his feet.
Raven watched as he paced to the edges of the roof, familiarizing himself with the area he had. He turned to her. "Raven-kun, please stand back. I will not have either sword act intentionally lethally, but to be hit by one would be quite painful, and possibly deadly if they should hit wrong."
Raven floated backwards, clearing space for whatever the ronin wished to do. "Will this do?"
"Yes, thank you very much." He drewMuramasa left-handed before making Kanesada appear in his right in a flash of light. The katana's blade shone like a beacon, even with so little light. Suddenly the blades blurred into action, the polished maple and steel creating intricate patterns around the teenager as he seemed to almost dance across the rooftop in a swirl of movement. He suddenly stopped and started moving in short, clipped, very deliberate movements, very much unlike the fluid dance of before. Then he started disappearing and reappearing in poses of completed strikes.
His movements alternated between the three, becoming faster and slower as he dictated. Jumps, spins, lunges, dashes, slashes, thrusts, rolls, all combined in an ever-changing show. As the kata progressed, the three patterns melded together until they became indistinguishable. Moon- and starlight flashed and shattered as blades spun and wheeled, steps thumped against the concrete one moment, becoming soft pads the next, and Kenkaku's heavy breathing filled the air as he jumped into the air, yelling: "Touki no Fenikkusu-ryu, Ryouyoku no Fenikkusu!" He swept the blades out from his sides as fast as he could, leaving twin arcs of light behind them, one brighter that the other, looking much like glowing wings. The ronin hung in the air for five…ten seconds before starting to fall. He spun in mid-air as he came down to earth, trailing a double-helix of light with his blades. Amazingly, he landed lightly, then sheathed his blades.
"That was amazing," said Raven, awed by the display.
"That was the true face of Touki no Fenikkusu-ryu, Raven-kun."
She shivered. "Perhaps we should go inside."
"I suppose. Up for a round or two in Kengo?"
"I think so, yes." The two Japanese-speaking teens walked to the elevator to the main room. Woe be to the force that would try to keep them from their late-night gaming session.
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And so would the next few days pass, a pleasant respite of what passed for normalcy in the T-tower. With no noteworthy crimes, the teens would relax. But trouble would soon drift to them on the currents of life.
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Japanese Language Glossary:
Gashi: "Greetings."
-san: been over this honorific a lot already.
-kun: Honorific, can indicate endearment, close friendship, romantic involvement, superior to inferior. We're mostly looking at #2 here.
Kata: Roughly translated "Routine." Set of moves designed to help a person train in a martial art.
Touki no Fenikkusu-ryu, Ryouyoku no Fenikkusu: "Fighting Spirit of the Phoenix School, Two Wings of the Phoenix."
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A/N: Sorry that it's been a while. Band camp and mild writer's block are a bitch when it comes to fanfiction productivity. Anyway, here it is, a 'filler' chapter before the next 'plot' chapter. Not to say that the events here aren't important, just that it's more of an interlude.
