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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"He got the cold pizza again," said Robin as he looked in the fridge. "What's this?" The Boy Wonder pulled a typed note out of the fridge.

Hi, it's Kenkaku. I went out shopping for a few things. (Yes, I can type or write in English if I think letter-by-letter instead of in words.) Don't bother sending Raven after me. Where I'm headed, I won't need a translator, so long as you actually have one of these shops in the city. I should be back soon. I'm pretty fast.

P.S. Robin, I didn't get the pizza this time. Raven TK grabbed it.

Robin laughed before heading for the Lucky Charms yet again. Wonder what he's getting?

---

Kenkaku hummed contentedly as he left the Japanese market with his purchases. He had the duffle slung over his shoulder, contents one very nice knife, one rice cooker, two legendary swords, various ingredients, a special dish set, a bamboo mat, a set of nice chopsticks, and a DVD. He picked a bit of a roast beef out from his teeth. Nice to see an Izzy's out of Cincinnati. Wonder why they moved all the way out here though.

He walked down the street, striking a slightly odd, but fairly unremarkable figure in the city. He was wearing the blue jacket ensemble, and really wasn't a well known superhero. As such, he really wasn't in danger of being recognized. A happy thing for now. As he brushed by varied city dwellers, a small park came into his view. Shrugging, he headed there, dodging a wino on the way.

He unslung the duffle and sat under a tree, watching the city pass by. Some people were sitting nearby, but none of them looked threatening. Some kids in the sandbox, a man reading the paper, a blonde teen reading tarot cards for someone else, and cliché of clichés, an old lady feeding the birds.

Even with no visible danger, he left the duffle just open enough to be able to easily pull a sword without making it too noticeable. "No motorcycle, stuntman?"

The ronin's hand shot into the duffle as he looked for the speaker. The tarot card reader's erstwhile customer was walking away, and the blonde girl with the deck was looking straight at him. "No." The wave man cocked his head to the side. "Do I know you?"

Apparently the girl could speak Japanese. "No, or at least, you shouldn't."

Kenkaku stood up and reslung his duffel, walking over to her. "Okay, so am I going to know you?"

"Not biblically, I don't think. Someone else in the city though, if you play your cards right, just might though."

The metahuman quirked an eyebrow. "I'm headed off to Japan, first chance I get."

"That would very likely be the wrong way to play your cards." She shuffled the deck and started laying out cards.

"You going to tell me what each one means?" inquired the ronin as the girl set out each card.

The girl looked up at him. "Prophecy and legends aren't simply random chance. These cards are an affection."

"Metahuman?"

"Yes. You may call me Soothsayer. And you are?"

"You seem to know about me, you tell me."

"I am simply using my gift on a stranger."

"Name's Kenkaku. And it's no worse than your name, Soothsayer-san."

"I said nothing." Her eyelids closed partially. "I really can not tell much about you, Kenkaku-san, but you are in the middle of the fulfillment of a legend. You carry a pair of extremely powerful objects that are coveted by demonic warriors who know more than you do about these objects. You shall either triumph and be united with your soul mate, or…well, it'll be extremely unpleasant. That's about all I see. Take two pills and see me again in a few weeks."

"You are a very strange person. You know that, right?"

"This from the nut who flew not six inches over my head on a motorcycle."

"Point. See ya."

"See you. Heed my words Kenkaku-san. They are not empty shells."

---

Kenkaku walked into the main room to absolutely no fanfare. Cyborg and Beast Boy were playing F-Zero X and Raven was reading Battle Royale. Totally engrossed in it, it would seem, by the fact that no veins on her forehead were twitching. Kenkaku walked up behind her and stood there, head over her shoulder, just barely out of her vision. Raven finished the chapter and lowered the book, her vision switching from a highly focused mode to a more normal view. The upshot of this was that she got more peripheral vision. The upshot of that was that she finally noticed Kenkaku.

"YAAH!" Raven jumped, all the muscles in her body tensing in an instinctive reaction. A freak wind blew through the main room. "How long were you there?"

The ronin chuckled. "Eh, about three minutes." Cyborg and Beast Boy were laughing their asses off. Raven was thankful that their eyes were squeezed closed as she blushed. "So, how far did you get into Royale?" For being an ultra-observant swordsman, he could be awfully thick sometimes.

"Death of Yoshio Akamatsu."

"So not to the really gruesome part yet." At Raven's skeptical look, the long-haired boy elaborated. "Death of Kazushi Niidai is real bad. That's pretty much the only one that got to me." He seemed to remember something. "Tonight is movie night, right?"

"Right."

He smiled broadly, pulling a DVD out of the duffle. "Want to try and get it past Redbreast-san?" Battle Royale was clearly marked on the cover. "Subbed, not dubbed."

"Sounds good," replied Raven with a small smile.

"Great! I'm going to go make my lunch."

"What are you making?"

The quirky wave man pumped his fist into the air. "SUSHI!"

---

Raven watched as Kenkaku sliced strips of raw sushi-grade tuna and placed them on small riceballs. It was the final set on the monstrous platter he had made. He finished off the tuna with a few riceballs left to spare.

That was when Beast Boy walked in. "That's a rather large platter of murder there. You do realize I've -been- most of the things on that platter, right?"

"Can you be them again?" asked the ronin as he looked down at the spare rice.

"Can you be them again?" translated Raven.

"Of course," said Beast Boy proudly, "I am called Beast Boy for a reason."

"Maguro," said Kenkaku without looking up.

"What?"

"Tuna."

"Uh…"

The ronin pointed the knife at him. "I'm out of maguro. Mind donating some?"

"What'd he say?" asked Beast Boy confusedly.

Raven smirked as she translated. "I'm out of tuna. Mind donating some?"

Beast Boy freaked as the Japanese-speakers laughed. Kenkaku skewered one of the three extra rice balls on the knife and flipped at Beast Boy, who caught it, before passing one to Raven and munching on the last one himself. "Don't worry Beast Boy, there's enough vegetarian sushi for you."

"He was nice, Beast Boy. He made vegetarian sushi for you."

"Oh, fanks," mumbled Beast Boy around his rice.

"Don't mention it."

---

"This is really good Kenkaku," said Robin as he finished off the unagi. "I'm going to miss you when you head off to Japan."

Kenkaku looked up from the tekka maki he was devouring. "I'm sure you could learn to make sushi."

"Iya. None of the Titans can cook for anything."

Kenkaku shrugged as he finished the tekka maki and ate his last piece of hamachi, patting his stomach as he pushed away the empty tray. Beast Boy looked over at him, amazed. "You had more than any of us. How'd you finish so fast?"

"Simple. I'm addicted." Raven quirked an eyebrow as she translated this.

"That was extremely good Kenkaku-kun," said the short-haired girl.The ronin smiled and bowed his head.

Cyborg burped and pushed his chair back from the table. "Hey, Kaku, you mind coming down to the garage with me? I've got a surprise for you."

"Shua. Raven-kun, do you mind?" asked the ronin as he stood up.

Raven finished off her tea and stood up. The three headed over to the elevator.

---

"Okay, my sword-toting buddy, I've got something special for you." Cyborg walked towards a tarp-covered vehicle in the Titan's garage.

"Uh, okay," said the confused waveman.

Cyborg whipped the tarp off the vehicle. "Ta-dah!"

"Whoa! A Ninja ZX-12R! But that's way too much…" Raven translated this on the fly, pretty much knowing what he would say.

Kenkaku was a little confused when Cyborg leapt into the air. "Boo-yah! It passed the test!"

"What's up with him?" asked the swordsman of the sorceress.Raven shrugged.

"Okay Kaku, I'll explain," said Cyborg as he saw the bewildered look on the two other Titans' faces. "I made it to look like a ZX-12R. But you can't buy one of these down at Kawasaki. I call her the Shinobi. She's faster, faster than any bike I know of, has an autopilot, a second mode for water not unlike a jetski. But what I'm really proud of is the combat functionality." He pulled out a remote and pushed a button. A weapon cluster came out of either side of the bike with a three-barreled energy weapon on top and what looked to be a rotary magazine rocket launcher on the bottom.

"Sugoi."

"The top weapons are pulse cannons. They're less powerful than the hovertank had, but they fire faster. The bottom weapons, as you've probably guessed, are mini-missile/rocket launchers. Six shots per side. You can choose the payload. There's a limited payload of caltrops in the back as well, and everything is armored, wheels to windscreen."

"Q never did that good." Raven raised her eyebrow as she translated that.

"I know, Mr. Kaku. Kaku, Ken Kaku." Cyborg started laughing. "Bring this back in pristine order, would you?" He shook his head. "Anyway, we're not done."

"Nani!?"

"Well, I've made it so the whole bike can be operated with just the left hand, so you can use your sword. Little tricky to drive like that. And your new helmet has a HUD with fire zones for your weapons superimposed. The mounts have a little bit of play in them, slaved to the helmet. And she'll never need gas."

"Wow. How?" Raven translated this again.

"Cold fusion cell. Just like the T-car and the R-cycle. Wanna take it for a spin?"

"One question first."

"How much did it cost?" finished Raven, knowing what the swordsman would ask.

"Hey!"

"Nothing really. I had been working on this before, and all I did was finish it up and make it look nice for you." Sure enough, the bike hada black and dark gray paint job with a pair of two-tone silver flashes. "And if you don't take it, I'll feel hurt."

Kenkaku put his hands up in surrender. "Right then. I accept. Time to see what this baby can do. Helmet, dozou?" The alarm went off. "Oooh. Combat testing. Awesome."

---

"You certainly finished up Kenkaku's bike at the right time, Cyborg," said Robin as he paced in front of the main computer screen. "We seem to have a motorcycle gang armed with more stole military hardware. It's starting to seem like someone is distributing the goods. We'll definitely have to look into that. But as it is now, we've got a bunch of drunken thugs with rifles that could 'blow chunks out of tanks.' That's probably an exaggeration, but not one I want to test. And we've been hearing reports of a 'large armed vehicle that floats over the ground'. My guess is another hovertank."

Kenkaku groaned. "Just what we need."

"Much nicer bike this time around."

"True."

"Doesn't look like an easy fight, and it's going to likely be mostly vehicular. So we're going to have Starfire on aerial duties, Cyborg and Beast Boy in the T-car, Kenkaku on his new bike with Raven coming along to provide shielding and translation, and me on the R-cycle."

Cyborg looked at Robin funny. "The Shinobi already has armor, Robin."

"But the rider doesn't. And before you say it, I have body armor. Beast Boy, unless we can get this fight stopped, you're likely to be stuck as gunner for the photon cannon."

"Aw man…firepower!" Beast Boy chuckled and rubbed his hands together. "I'll do just fine."

Raven turned to Kenkaku. "How safely are you going to drive?"

"For the first five minutes, you'll be fine. The rest of the time, you might want to do the corset impression."

"I was afraid of that. Okay, let's go."

---

"YOU CALL THIS SAFE!?" yelled Raven as the Shinobi sped between a pair of buses.

"Just seeing what she can do! Besides, we've been riding for five minutes and ten seconds…ergh." Raven had wrapped her legs around his body again. "Hey, at least we have helmets and communicators this time."

"I feel -so- much safer."

"Good to hear." The ronin twisted the throttle -hard-. The speedo jumped to 200 mph. "Hell yeah!" He let off on the gas.

"So Raven, does he like it?" asked Cyborg as he came up behind them.

"A little too much."

"So I see. Interesting riding position, Raven," said Robin as the R-cycle pulled alongside.

"Shut up. Kenkaku-kun, I'm going to kill you."

"Learn to ride, Raven-kun. Ergh!" He winced as she squeezed. "Dozou. You're going to rupture my spleen soon."

"Deal with it."

"Alright, go to combat formation and ready weapons. T-car in the middle, bikes flanking."

"Right. Beast Boy, get the photon cannon ready."

"On it." The top of the T-car opened and the extremely powerful photon cannon rose from its shielded compartment. The weapon traversed and elevated as Beast Boy tested it.

"Youkai." Kenkaku dropped speed and pulled in to the left of the T-car before arming his weapons. The weapon clusters slid out of the bike right in front of his legs, servomotors making them track his head's movement. "How much flexibility do the mounts have?"

"How much play do the guns have, Cyborg?"

"60 degrees up, 20 down, and 30 to either side, but only half of that can be covered by both guns."

"Tame."

"Good," translated Raven.

"Alright," said Robin. "We're coming up on the bike gang. Police cars are tailing at a pretty good distance. No sightings of a hovertank, but be on guard. If it does come up, that's your primary target, BB."

"Gotcha."

"Ready for shielding, Raven-kun?"

"Hai."

Kenkaku flicked his eyes up to the HUD's map, showing the positions of the Titans and the estimated positions of the biker gang. He toggled the pulse cannons for the index finger triggers and the rocket launchers for the thumb buttons. "Then ask Robin-san what the plan is."

"We're all ready here. What's the plan?"

"A soon as we get within range, Beast Boy will open fire with the photon cannon. Star will strafe the gang while the bikes move in, followed by the T-car. Beast Boy, we move when you fire." Robin hunched over his bike, ready to speed at the group of leather-clad thugs on choppers.

"Well then, let's jam!"

'TSSSOW!'

A lance of blue energy stabbed at the biker gang, which was rolling down the road, firing their weapons as they went. Starfire swooped in and started hurling starbolts. Some of the bikers turned their pistols skyward in an attempt to bring down the Tamaranian.

'VRRRRROW!'

Both Robin and Kenkaku twisted their throttles, shooting ahead of the T-car at a skin-peeling 230 mph. The R-cycle's small energy weapons trained on the cruisers and choppers ahead of them. "On the count, we fire. Four."

"San."

"Two."

"Ichi."

"Fire!"

'ZAP! ZAP! ZAP!'

'NEOWOWOWOWOWOWOW!'

The R-cycle spat six discs of energy, but it was nothing compared to the hail of pulse blasts from the Shinobi. The energy fire ripped up the road before Kenkaku belatedly snapped his head up and laid off the trigger, remembering the fact that the gun's targeting was tied into his helmet.

'VRRRRREM!'

Kenkaku sideslipped around the furrows he had cut in the road. "Whoops."

"Wow. Cyborg, can you fit the R-cycle with a pair of those?"

"Get in line. I'm mounting some on my baby first."

Kenkaku laid the HUD's crosshairs on one of the bikes. "Okay, take two. And…" He squeezed the trigger. "Action!"

'NEOWOWOWOWOWOWOW!'

The biker just barely saw the guns start to fire in time, jumping off his bike before the pulse fire ripped it into rather tiny pieces.

"That's going to be one nasty case of road rash," chuckled Robin.

Some of the bikes with a second rider dropped back, the backseaters spinning around and bringing assault rifles to bear on the Shinobi and its riders.

"That looks decidedly unpleasant. Raven-kun, shield!"

"Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos!"

'AKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAK!'

'PSHEOW, PSHEOW, PSHEOW!'

An obsidian force field sprang up to interdict the high-caliber slugs and energy blasts. Raven grunted as the blasts hit her shield, suffusing it crimson and sending flashes of white through it. "Taking evasive action would be a very good thing, Kenkaku-kun."

"On it!" The ronin played the bike like a virtuoso, rapidly changing speed and direction in a random pattern. The mil-spec weapons fire went wide. "My turn."

'NEOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOW!'

The scything energy fire cut the bikes out from under four bikers and ran another two off the road. "These guys are pushovers."

"Plenty of them though."

"Granted." Kenkaku sighted in on a large cluster of the bikers and selected a concussion rocket. His thumb mashed the right thumb button.

'PSSSSHOW!'

'BWOOOOOOOM!'

Bikers and bikes went flying as the warhead detonated. "Kuso! That's some blast! Raven-kun, ask Cyborg-san if there's anything safer to use on the bikers."

"Cyborg, is there anything a little less destructive in the launchers?"

"That was a concussion blast, right?"

"Yeah."

"Well, that's actually mostly non-lethal, but in this situation, that's unlikely to be the outcome. There really isn't a really good way to ensure the survival of our targets at the moment."

"Don't bother worrying about them, Kenkaku," commanded Robin. "Just stop them."

"Right." He triggered the pulse cannons again, weaving in and out of return fire as the Titans' energy weapons decimated the bikers.

---

"Well, that was easy," commented Robin as the final bike was destroyed.

"Dude, what happened to the hovertank?" asked Beast Boy.

"No sign of one on scanners," replied a puzzled Cyborg.

"Are you driving safely now?" asked Raven as she settled back into a normal riding position.

"Hopefully," replied Kenkaku. "Hey, where's Starfire-san?"

"Nani? Hey, has anyone seen Starfire?"

"No. Starfire? Are you out there?"

"Be…careful." The Tamaranian sounded pained. "It…is…not a…a hov…ertank."

"STAR!? Where are you!? Are you alright!?" yelled Robin.

"I…will be…f…fine."

"SHIMATTA!" The ronin gunned the bike's engine, streaking ahead. "INCOMING!"

"Kenkaku-kun!? Titans! Move it! Gunship, gunship, gunship!"

Missiles streaked out from a fold in the hills, followed by a VTOL gunship. The highly advanced aircraft had roughly three times the power of the hovertank.

'BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!'

"Well our day just got ten times worse," commented Beast Boy as he fired the photon cannon.

'TSSSOW!'

It was also much harder to hit. The pilot simply kicked in some lateral thrust, the cannon blast cleanly missing him.

'ZAP! ZAP! ZAP!'

Robin fired his energy disc launchers, but it was obvious that the R-cycle was woefully undergunned to take on the gunship. The enemy pilot didn't even bother to dodge the blasts, merely picking up a little carbon scoring.

'NEOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOW!'

Twin streams of blue pulse bolts shot up from the Shinobi towards the gunship, scoring hits, but very little damage. This did not deter the ronin's predatory grin as he held the guns on target, his HUD giving him some very good news. LOCK ON

'PSHOW! PSHOW! PSHOW! PSHOW!'

Four small but powerful surface to air missiles shot up at the tank-buster. A strong play.

'BOOM!'

One of the missiles drew smoke from one of the craft's main engines. The other three missed or were suckered off by counter measures. But as strong of a play as it was, it was also desperate. The missiles he had fired were his full complement of SAMs. He had nothing but two plasma rockets and two kinetic kill hypervelocity rockets left. Very tricky to hit a moving aircraft with.

'RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!'

The Titans scattered as 30-mm cannon fire ripped apart the highway. The gunship mounted four of those monsters, each capable of smashing a tank apart like a soft-boiled egg. Each one was firing.

'TSSSOW!'

Beast Boy's shot went wide as Cyborg jerked the car to the right to avoid a rocket.

'KRA-BOOM!'

Kenkaku jumped the crater and fired back with a plasma rocket. Raven had wisely moved back to her unconventional riding position.

'PSSSHOW!'

A valiant attempt, but badly aimed. The rocket shot under the gunship, detonating in a nova-bright explosion against a hill.

'PSSSHOW!'

'RRRRRRRRRR!'

The cannon fire ripped apart the second plasma rocket in mid-air, showering the white-hot plasma on the road. The Titans were forced to dodge.

'BWEAOM!'

A green blast of light smashed into the gunship, staggering the pilot. Beast Boy and Kenkaku both took the chance.

'TSSSOW!'

The photon cannon blast smashed into the already damaged engine, cutting the gunship's maneuverability drastically.

'PSSHOW!'

The Shinobi's final two rockets lanced up at the former military craft, creating sonic booms. Little more than depleted uranium darts with a -very- powerful, quick burn rocket motor attached, they each exceeded mach 8, hitting the gunship with so much force that they were converted to white-hot liquid metal and that the gunship blew apart much like a orange hit with a sledgehammer.

'BUH-BOOM!'

The Titan vehicles all pulled to screeching, sliding halts. The metahumans dismounted and looked into the flaming wreckage "Kuso. That's a bad way to die."

"Haven't quite pulled it all together yet, huh, Titans?" asked a gruff male voice. The Titans spun around to see the current Green Lantern of Earth standing there with Hawkgirl, she with Starfire in her arms.

Members of the Justice League.

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Japanese Flavor Text:

Sushi: If you don't know what this is, I'm not sure why you're reading this.

Maguro: "Tuna."

Iya: "No." (strong)

Shua: "Sure."

Sugoi: "Cool."

Nani: "What?"

Dozou: "Please."

Youkai: "Roger."

Tame: "Good."

Hai: "Yes."

San: "Three."

Ichi: "One."

Kuso: "Shit."

Shimatta: "Damn it."

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A/N: And now for the start of a new mini-arc. Keep on reading to see where it goes. Should be good.