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.
Waves of Fate
"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.
"HOUGH!" Kenkaku sat bolt upright in bed, clutching at his chest. He breathed heavily, bent over. After a few minutes of calming down, he lifted his head to look around the room. Titans' Tower sickbay. Cyborg was looking down at him.
"Oh, good! The nanobots worked." Cyborg handed him a laptop. "Take your time man."
What happened?
"You nearly died, but Rae and Green Lantern saved you. Some metahuman named Soothsayer who claims to know you and speaks Japanese is here too. Want me to go get her?"
Don't bother. And for that matter, I killed Kunoichi. Why'd they save me?
"You were protecting Rae."
I should've been able to Dammit. Been able to stun Kunoichi.
"Soothsayer says that's not your fault. Look, man, everyone makes mistakes."
She wouldn't have said –why- it wasn't my fault, would've she?
"Outside of it being a byproduct of that prophecy you're under, no."
Good. I suppose I should thank Raven. Help me u
"That might be a little problem, man."
"NANDA!?"
"Rae is in bad shape."
Her healing power, right?
"Uh huh. Nanobots do nothing."
"Konpai no ki. Raven-kun no baka!"
"What did you say?"
Take me to her. I might be able to help.
Cyborg walked into the main room to the expectant looks of the other functional Titans, Soothsayer, and the visiting JLA members.
"Well?" asked Robin.
"Kaku should be just fine. Raven is still out but Kaku thinks he can get her up. Last time I saw him, I think he was meditating."
Beast Boy laughed. "Gathering up courage to kiss her?"
"Heck of a way to go," mused Cyborg.
Kenkaku's eyes flicked open and he drew himself to his feet, taking slow, even breaths. He stared down at Raven's apparently comatose body. He was barely able to control his worry. This was the first time he had ever done this. He had been told about it, sure, and had seen it happen, but this was a little different.
He took a deep, calming breath. Stop worrying. If Soothsayer-san is correct, and she is my soul mate, this should be easy. So just take a couple more deep breaths and get on with it.
Kenkaku bent down and hoped this wouldn't kill him.
Robin smirked. "There's definitely chemistry at work there, but I don't think that's what he's going to do."
"Chemistry, Robin?" asked Starfire with a puzzled look.
"Attra…"
"KIAI!"
"…ction," finished Robin. "Well, that answers what he was going to do."
"I bet they just did that to throw us off," joked Beast Boy, not really believing his joke.
Kenkaku and Raven blinked in synchronization, staring into each other's eyes, disbelieving. Blushing too. Neither had expected something like this to happen. But Raven had jolted up a bit when Kenkaku's ki had brought her back to the land of the living from far too close to her.
Cause, effect. Their lips had met, and neither was moving.
Blink, blink. Air finally separated their lips, as they looked away from each other, blushing heavily, and laughing small, self-conscious laughs.
Kenkaku was too distracted to note it, but a small corner of his mind filed away an interesting little fact: Even taking into consideration being possible soul mates, that was far too effective, and I lost far too little ki.
"Uh, the other will probably want to see us…" mentioned Kenkaku, grasping at straws.
"Yes, we should go," agreed Raven, dazedly.
Both of the Japanese-speaking metahumans stood there for a few more seconds before jolting a little bit and walking out the door, their hands brushing and withdrawing.
Soothsayer laughed as Beast Boy and Cyborg bantered. Robin clapped his hands. "We should get to business. We have no idea when Raven and Kenkaku will be here, especially…" he smirked, "as they might be having a make-out session. As the JLA has tasked us with this military technology problem, we will do our absolute best to crack the case, but I think we might want to think about expanding the team."
"What for?" asked Beast Boy, "We handled Slade on our own."
"Yes," replied Robin heavily, "But Slade was obsessed with us, so he made mistakes. This is different."
"Well," said Cyborg, "We already added Kaku."
"True," said Starfire, "Perhaps we could call on Thunder and Lightning?"
Robin drummed his fingers on the back of the couch. " Good idea, but I'm not sure where they are. Could the JLA help us with finding them?"
"That can be done," said Green Lantern. "By the way, we're leaving soon. We'll wait to say good-bye to Raven and Kenkaku, but after that, we're off."
"If you would have my knowledge of prophecy and legends, you may have it."
"Thanks Soothsayer. Consider yourself an honorary Titan."
The elevator doors swished open. "If only we could bring Terra's statue back to life," brooded Beast Boy.
"Did you say bring a statue back to life?" asked Kenkaku. "Raven-kun, is he talking about the statue I almost died under?"
"Hai. How did you know?
"Because that statue has a ki."
"A ki?"
"Hai. So it should be possible to bring her to life."
"Really?"
"What are you two talking about?" asked Robin.
"Kenkaku thinks that it's possible to bring Terra back."
Beast Boy's head shot over to the two non-blonde Japanese-speakers. "You think we can bring her back?" he asked, hoping against hope.
"Theoretically…" said Kenkaku, scratching the back of his head.
"Theoretically…" translated Raven.
Beast Boy shot across the room and grabbed Kenkaku by the collar. "HOW?!" He shook the ronin. "HOW?!"
"Matte! Matte!" Kenkaku held his hands up in front of him. "It's a matter of simply transferring enough ki to her that she can regenerate on her own. Sounds a lot easier than it is though." Raven translated.
Beast Boy released Kenkaku's collar. "So how do we do this?"
"The same way I brought Raven back, just on a greater scale." Again, Raven translated.
Cyborg couldn't resist. "So instead of just kissing her, you French her?"
Kenkaku squeezed his eyes tightly shut, grimaced, blushed, and tried to control the twitch in his hands, which wanted to move to iaijutsu position. A lamp also blew out, evidence of Raven's displeasure. "Iya."He sighed. "From what I can tell, she is in a state that she has the absolute minimum of ki to stay alive, but is so low that she cannot regenerate any. The effect is much like cryogenic freezing."
Soothsayer translated to let Raven calm down. Beast Boy looked overjoyed. "Well, let's go!"
"It isn't quite that simple." The ronin sighed again. "To bring a person back from this point requires an extremely large amount of ki, almost equivalent to three-fourths of the ki from a person with -extremely- strong ki. I am at the low end of that range, but the amount is roughly the same." Raven translated this.
"So what is the problem?" asked Starfire.
"The ki must be transferred. Some of the ki is lost in that transfer, like a directed energy weapon losing power over range. And, if my ki is too different from…Terra-san, ka?" At Raven's nod, he went on. "If the ki of the two people are not similar enough, then the transfer is screwed up even more. Easiest is between so-called soul mates." Before any of the Titans could say anything, he went on. "Yes, they do exist, but finding out who is one's soul mate is often never accomplished."
After Raven had translated, the Titans looked among themselves. Finally, Robin looked dead into his eyes. "Can you do it?"
"Moshikashitara…hai." He nodded. "Hai."
"Whatever you need to do, tell us."
"I will need to regenerate my ki, and then do quite a bit of meditation and kata. It will take roughly a month to prepare and," he grimaced, "I cannot use a single bit of kiaijutsu during that time period."
"In other words?" asked Beast Boy after Raven had translated.
Robin bit his lip. "He can't fight a duel against these people who want his sword."
"Hai."
Beast Boy screamed. He knew that much Japanese. "SO WHAT GOOD IS IT!? THOSE BASTARDS COME EVERY FEW DAYS! WE CAN'T SAVE HER UNTIL THEY'RE ALL GONE!?"
"Iya." Kenkaku shook his head. "Not if we can train someone to fight for me. You know, like a test to get to me. They could use Muramasa." The Titans nodded and smiled as Raven translated this.
"Or another weapon like it," put in Soothsayer. "I will search my mental library for pertinent legends and prophecies."
"Sounds like you kids have a plan. You've got this well in hand," said Green Lantern as he and Hawkgirl stood up. "Good luck."
"Keep it up," said Hawkgirl, "Good to see kids doing something productive these days."
"Ah. This might be something," said Soothsayer, coming out of a trance. "I found a cache of weapons, related to Kanesada and Muramasa, mentioned in the main prophecy."
"Okay," said Robin, who had been sitting on the couch with Starfire, watching a movie. Soothsayer had been in that trance for a while. "Can we get them?"
"That depends."
"On what, Friend Soothsayer?"
"On how far you are willing to go to get them."
Robin's mask stretched as he raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"
"Well, as much as I can tell, they're in Japan. The legend literally says that they are to be found in 'the country that was dripped from a sword'," Soothsayer tapped her temple. "Another legend in this head of mine is a little more well-known, detailing the formation on the Japanese island chain."
"The legend with the god's sword and the perfect drops, correct?" asked Starfire.
"Yes," said Soothsayer, surprised, "How did you know?"
Robin smirked. "We were watching Last Samurai."
"Oh. Well, that's nice. The point is, these weapons, which are mentioned in Kenkaku's prophecy I might add, are in Japan. And the prophecy does seem to want you to get them."
"You're saying that we need to go to Japan?" asked Robin incredulously, "Well, at least we have three Japanese speakers."
"Actually, you only have two that can leave the city without a fearful cost, and Kenkaku will go stir crazy if he doesn't have someone to talk to."
"True. What else is said about the cache?"
"It contains two polearms, and what I think is a nodachi. The interesting thing is that it also seems to contain a tai chi sword."
"A Chinese weapon?" asked Robin.
"Right. The weapons are earmarked for the martial artist, the visitor, the half man, and the shape-shifter, respectively."
"So you are saying that we will all acquire weapons, correct, Friend Soothsayer?"
"Except Raven, yes."
"Okay then. We'll leave Jump City to Raven and Kenkaku. The rest of us will head to Japan, and you'll play translator, Soothsayer."
"Strange," mused Starfire. "Did not Friend Kenkaku wish to go to Japan before we met him?"
"I think he still does."
"So, that's the plan. Everyone got it?" Robin looked out at the Titans as they looked at him, except for Kenkaku, who was making sushi.
Cyborg quirked his remaining eyebrow. "You're leaving two Titans behind to defend the city while the rest of us go to -Japan-?"
"And why those two?" asked Beast Boy, "They should be going! They actually speak the language."
"I can't leave the city, due to these weapon-toting maniacs."
"Kenkaku can't leave, and he needs a combat partner that can understand what he's saying. As Soothsayer is not, no offense, particularly well-suited to combat, that leaves just me."
"None taken, Raven."
"A question, Robin?"
"Sure, Star."
"Why are we taking a boat over?"
"I figured it would be good to take a boat over. That would let us take the T-car along. Any other questions or objections?"
"Iie."
"Not at all."
"Booyah! Let's get it on!"
"I'm up for it, dude!"
"No objections."
"Glorious! Let us go!"
"Like you said, Star, let's go!"
The Titans dashed off to get ready, excepting Raven and Kenkaku. He smiled. "Oh well, more sushi for us."
Raven's lips curved. "And unlimited access to the Gamestation."
"I'm seeing Battle Royale on the big screen, how about you?"
"Oh yes."
Japanese Flavor Text Glossary:
Nanda: "What the hell?"
Konpai no ki: roughly "Exhaustion of spirit."
Raven-kun no baka: "Raven, you fool."
Ki: "Spirit." See earlier chapters for a more detailed definition
Hai: "Yes."
Matte: "Stop."
Iya: "No." (strong)
Ka: Modifier, equivalent to a question mark.
Moshikashitara: "Maybe."
Nodachi: "Great sword." A larger version of the katana.
