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.


Raven and Kenkaku watched the ship the other Titans were on sail away, waving at the figures on the afterdeck. Both were in full uniform, a new one in both cases. Cyborg had somehow found time in the last two days of frantic preparation for the expedition to make Kenkaku a set of clothing that matched his purchased outfit in most respects but incorporated a degree of body armor and fireproofing. He had made a similar dark blue and black riding outfit for Raven with pockets for a number of depleted uranium spheres for when she needed heavy firepower on the go with no improvisation. It had roughly the same looks and characteristics as Kenkaku's outfit, but she still wore her cloak over it.

Kenkaku looked at Raven and grinned. "Orders, Raven-sama?"

The half-oni rolled her eyes and floated their helmets over to them. "Once around the park, James."

Kenkaku used the integrated com system in his jacket to call the Shinobi. "Heh. If I must." The ultrabike pulled up next to them and he flung his leg over it, settling into riding position. Raven climbed on behind him and wrapped her arms around his waist. She settled the helmets on holders on the bike. Kenkaku started the bike and drove off the pier, pulling into traffic, and moving at a sedate pace. "So where to, really?"

"I don't know. Outside of crime fighting, I generally don't head into town." She looked at his hair. "Since when do you wear your hair tied back?"

The swordsman shrugged. "I just adopted it recently. I found a rather plain tie laying around and decided to make use of it. What? Too Kenshin-ish?"

"No. Actually, it looks good." Raven blushed. What did I just say!?

Kenkaku could feel his cheeks heating as well. Please don't look in the mirrors, please don't look in the mirrors. He laughed a small nervous laugh "Guess I'll keep it then." Where are those helmets when you really need them? He gave himself a quick mental shake. Wow, maybe Soothsayer-san was right…

The light turned red. Kenkaku put on the brakes and put his leg down to wait for the light to change. A convertible pulled up next to them, loaded with four teenage girls. "Hey! It's two of the Titans! Hi!" The driver smiled and waved.

"No way!" The girl riding shotgun leaned over the driver's lap to look at the two metahumans. "Omigawd! It's Raven and that new guy! What's his name?"

Kenkaku gave a lopsided smile to Raven and quirked an eyebrow. "Looks like I still have a certain degree of obscurity."

One of the girls in the back shrieked and swooned. "Take me now, Kenkaku-sama."

"Perhaps not," amended the two in stereo, with matching slightly disturbed expressions.

"Don't mind her," said the final girl, who was holding a camera. "Could I get a shot of you guys?"

"Shua."

"Go right ahead."

The girl snapped their picture. "Thanks!"

The light changed and the high schoolers took the turn, while the Titans went straight on.


"Well, that was slightly disturbing," said Kenkaku as he pulled to a stop at the next light. "Gah! I hate badly timed lights!"

"You'd rather always be on the move, never stopping?"

"Sometimes…" The light went green and he started the bike again. "Come on, you have to have some favorite places to go."

"I suppose. Turn right at the next light. I'll give you directions."

Kenkaku smirked as he changed lanes and took the turn. "I won't have to check Kanesada and Muramasa at the door, right?"

"Depends."Raven smirked a bit, "Can you compose a poem about it?"

He smirked right back. "How charitable are you feeling on the definition of 'poem'?"

Kenkaku had to duck a little to get through the door of Raven's favorite poetry club. Raven barely fit through standing upright. Inside it was dark and rather drearily decorated. There was surprisingly little smoke. By the swordsman's estimation, no one in the club was a great threat. He headed towards the table Raven nodded at while she went to get them something to drink.

"Is green tea okay? They don't have Dr. Pepper here."

"Oh yes, quite. I'm pretty close to being addicted to green tea, too." He raised the cup to his lips and took a sip. "Mmm. Very good. So when do I get to hear your poetry?"

"I have to write it first. You too." She handed him a few sheets of paper and a pencil she had brought over from the counter. "Don't worry about it being Japanese. You can get the point across by feeling alone."

"Don't tell me you want me to go up there and read some of my drivel."

"I'm sure it's not drivel. Try it. You might like it."

"Okay," said Kenkaku, still not convinced. He absentmindedly held the mechanical pencil against the paper as he tried to think of something, anything to write. No such luck. He looked over at Raven, who bit her lip as her pencil skittered across her sheet of paper. She slightly shook her head before crossing out a line, adding another, then changing it again. How is this so easy for you? I can't think of a thing. She flew through sheet after sheet, idea after abortive idea thrust onto the paper, then changed, flipped around, or simply discarded. It's a shame I can't see what she's putting down there.

'pak'

Kenkaku felt a jolt run up his arm as he finished his signature. He looked down at his hand, still holding the mechanical pencil. He nearly did a double take when he saw the papers beneath it. "My god…" he breathed softly. The papers each had a poem on them. Four poems in all, and he had also drawn a pretty credible sketch at the top of each one. One was about battle, one about wandering, one about Kanesada and Muramasa, and the final one…was about Raven.

Kenkaku's eyes widened. The other poems had good sketches, yes, but the picture that headed this sheet was nothing short of magnificent. It was a picture of her as she appeared before him now, hood off, biting her lip as she crouched over her writing. He had even captured the lighting conditions. She was the very vision of loveliness in the dark.

He scanned the poem, his eyes going yet wider. It was of a -very- romantic nature, and far better than he would ever expect from his feeble mind. Wow. His eyes finally alighted on the signature. What in the hell!? He had signed his real name. All the others were signed with his superhero alias. Dear lord. He carefully folded up the page and stuck it in his jacket.

He took a sip of green tea. I really shouldn't be thinking of her like that. I'm always moving. It would not be fair to her…to either of us. He sighed. Another poet droned on at the mike as he took another sip. He clapped politely as the poet finished, only to hear the sound of folding paper, herald of Raven pocketing her poems.

Raven looked over the table at him. "Did you write anything good?"

The swordsman shrugged. "I don't know. I guess I wrote something. Here."

Raven took the poems, written in kanji, hiragana, and katakana. She mumbled the poems as she read them, her eyes wide. "These are amazing. I wish the whole crowd could understand these. I thought you said you couldn't write poetry well."

"I don't know how I wrote them. My hand just kinda started moving on its own."

Raven gave him a smile. "Then you were writing from you ki."

"I guess," said the ronin, taking them back, "But I don't think I want to read any of them on stage."

"I'm glad I got to see them, at least."

"You're welcome. So what about you?"

Raven looked a little uncomfortable. "Some very good things, but nothing for the stage." She looked slightly embarrassed. "Actually, I found myself writing in Japanese. Ready to go?"

"Sure." They stood up and left money on the table. Kenkaku put his other poems in another jacket pocket. The Titans walked towards the door. Raven sighed as she went out the door, casting a forlorn look back at the stage. She really did wish she could have read her poems. But like Kenkaku's poems, they were not to share with the world, no matter how much she wished to shout their message to the world. He certainly has a penchant for creating turmoil. She raised her fingers to her lips, thinking back to an earlier accident. And I'm really starting to like it.


Kenkaku blinked at the dark street. By his estimation, the sun had just gone down. Wow. We were in there for a while. I wonder how long I was staring at her. He tapped the hidden button on his sleeve that called the Shinobi. The door opened behind him and Raven joined him as the Shinobi pulled up in front of them. "Time flies in there."

"It certainly does. So where do you want to go?"

"Meh, I don't know. I haven't been here that long, you know…WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT!? Was that kid driving a car with a video game controller?"

Indeed, Gizmo had just shot by in an extremely nice muscle car. Raven dragged her hand over her face. "Not again."

"Who was that?" asked Kenkaku as he mounted the ultrabike and put on his helmet. Raven got on behind him, putting on her helmet.

"His name is Gizmo-san. He's a gadgeteer with no idea of what makes a good insult. He's kinda a rival to Cyborg-san, and is part of a three-person supervillian team from an academy called H.I.V.E."

Kenkaku gunned the bike and they shot off in pursuit. "His teammates?"

"A strongman with little smarts but plenty of muscle called Mammoth-san, and a girl who can fire probability-changing hex blasts called Jinx-san. She'll probably go after me if we see them. Any other questions?"

"Yeah. Why'd you say not again?"

"When Cyborg-san first made the T-car, it was stolen and ended up in Gizmo-san's hands. He went on a crime spree with it. Cyborg-san and I finally caught up to him, but the first T-car was stolen by yet another villain and Cyborg-san had to blast it. He and I built the second one. The third and current model was a collaborative effort by all the Titans."

"Ah." Kenkaku took a turn that looked likely to him, due to the skid marks. "Found 'em. A pink-haired girl is getting into the car."

The muscle car's engine roared as it took off. "That'd be Jinx-san. Are we going after them?"

"Is the sun going to rise tomorrow?"

"In this line of work?"

"Point." Kenkaku fed the engine a little more power, keeping the car in sight. "So, do you want to get a little practice riding?"

"Not driving, but I suppose I can try riding normally."

"I thank you from the depths of my spleen. Let's go."

'VRRRRROW!'

Kenkaku opened up the throttle. The Shinobi popped a wheelie from the sheer power, and the Titan's rode it for close to 100 meters before the front wheel hit the road and they assumed a normal riding position.

'VRRREEEEEEEEEEEEM!'


Gizmo rejoiced at his good fortune. Not only had he stolen a sweet ride for his team's evening on the town, Mammoth was sick, leaving him alone with Jinx, who he had huge crush on. Yep, everything was awesome! Everything except the sound of a sportsbike engine that he could hear over his car's engine, no mean feat. "Crud! That isn't that snot-for-brains, Robin, is it?"

"ORA, OMAE! ZUIBAN BUSUINA YAKARU DA NA!" yelled a pair of voices. Both the H.I.V.E. agents looked over to see Kenkaku and Raven flipping them off.

"You must be joking," said Jinx in disbelief at her rival's completely out of character behavior. The Shinobi slipped behind the car. Gizmo gunned the engine, but Kenkaku easily kept up. "It's Raven and the other one must be the new Titan. This could be fun." She took one of Gizmo's energy rifles and crawled to the back seat.

'SMASH!'

The pink-haired witch smashed the rear window with the rifle's butt and lay the weapon down on the sill, snugging the weapon's stock up against her shoulder. "Blast those crud-munchers, Jinx!"

"With great pleasure," smirked Jinx as she lined her sights up on the Titans behind her.


"I admit, that was a great deal of fun," laughed Raven.

"The looks on their faces were priceless," said Kenkaku, shaking with laughter. "Oh, heads up." The glass in the rear window shattered and Jinx set up the rifle. "Ready on the shield?"

"Ready. Let's get them."

The ronin smiled a wolfish smile as he sideslipped the first blast from the rifle.

Jinx cursed. "Well, he can certainly ride. This might be a little harder than I thought." She fired a triad of energy blasts, which Kenkaku easily dodged. "Hold still!"

Surprisingly enough, the ronin obliged her, even if he couldn't hear her. Jinx lined up the shot and fired, only to have it impact on an obsidian shield. She growled and triggered another two blasts, both of which were easily dodged. She could just imagine the smirks on the faces of the Titans. "Dammit, die!" Another brace of bolts, and still no hits.

"This is really pissing her off," said Raven as they wove in and out of fire.

"Don't I know it," laughed Kenkaku as he activated the Shinobi's weapon systems. The gun mounts folded out from the bike's body and started tracking. He placed the crosshairs of the system right alongside the driver's side front wheel, and selected just the left-side gun.

'NEOWOWOW!'

Pulse bolts shot out like a glowing whip, ripping a furrow in the street.


"AHHH! Crud! Crud!" yelled Gizmo as the street seemed to explode next to him. "Jinx! Kill those snotheads!

"I'm trying," gritted out Jinx as she took her next shot. "Come on! Die!"

'PHSSSOW!'

'BWOOOM!'

The Shinobi's concussion rocket blew up right in front of the muscle car, spinning them out of control.

'BRA-BAM!'

The car broadsided a light pole. Gizmo looked around dazedly for a second before unbuckling frantically and climbing into the back seat. "JINX!? JINX!?" The pink-haired sorceress was laid out with a nasty cut on her head and arm. Gizmo worriedly felt for a pulse. It was there. Weak, but there. And she was still breathing.

His eyes hardened as he heard the distinctive sound of the Shinobi pulling up near the wreck, and the two Titans speaking in that strange language. He was going to make them pay.


Kenkaku grimaced as he pulled up next to the wreck. "That was not the effect I was hoping for. I wonder if they're okay?"

Raven hopped off the bike and took off her helmet. "I wouldn't worry about it. They wouldn't die so easily." She pulled out one of the depleted uranium spheres, ready to fire it if necessary.

Kenkaku put down the kickstand and took off his helmet. "If you say so." He hopped off the bike and drew Kanesada.

'RRRREEASK'

The sound of rending metal filled the air as Gizmo ripped the roof of the crashed car off with his pack's spider legs. His pack's servos whined as he rose into the air, holding his controller, two energy rifles on robotic arms appearing over his shoulders. "Die snotheads!"

'PSHEOW! PSHEOW!'

Raven and Kenkaku dove opposite ways as the energy bolts tore up the street where they had been standing. "He looks pissed!" yelled the ronin as he dodged energy fire. "Kuso!" He flipped over a blast and dove behind the car to avoid another one.

"That sounds like a huge understatement, Kenkaku-kun! Where's Jinx-san?" Gizmo started climbing over the car to get at the swordsman. "Oh, no you don't! AZARATH, METRION, ZINTHOS!

'TSSSS-KRANG!'

The depleted uranium sphere she had been holding shot in a streak of obsidian energy towards Gizmo, and trashed one of his energy rifles. "Crud! You stupid idiot!" He wheeled on her and started firing energy blasts, which she avoided or deflected as the situation called for.

"Jinx-san looks like she's out for the…NANDA!?"

'PZANG!'

A pink hex blast went sailing into the air. "Chikushou! Never mind." Kenkaku jumped into the air before landing on the car's wreck and flipping off of it, ahead of two hex blasts. He even got in a slash of Kanesada that trashed Gizmo's other energy rifle.

'tp'

He landed lightly next to Raven. She looked over at him. "You take Gizmo-san. Jinx-san is mine."

"Youkai." Kenkaku slashed at Gizmo, who parried withthe thick part of one of his spider legs. Kanesada made a small gouge in the metal, but no more than that. Kenkaku's eyes went wide. That's some strong stuff.

"Hey snothead! How do you feel about me field testing my Mk. II pack on you?" Gizmo flipped a switch and his controller's cord retracted. The two back legs formed feet and fit onto his legs, while the other two legs locked onto his arms, giving him huge, scythe-like claws. Panels retracted on the front arms, revealing a machine gun on the left and a flamethrower on the right, probably controlled by the triggers on the handles Gizmo was now holding. A buzzing hum filled the air, and the claws seemed to blur around the edges, almost imperceptibly. "Like it? Two vibrosycthes, a .60 caliber chain gun, and a flamethrower. Plus extra speed and as much strength as your Cyborg."

Kenkaku flipped his hand from side to side. "Yare, yare. I seriously doubt the strength claims, gakidomo." He drew Muramasa and slid to a ready stance.

"DIE!" Gizmo triggered the chain gun.

'AKA-AKA-AKA-AKA-AK!'

Kenkaku dove out of the way of the cone of tracers. "KOTOWARU!"

'Wheooom!'

Gizmo brought the arm around, trying to keep the gunfire on the ronin, not letting up on the trigger one bit. Muramasa intercepted a few stray bullets. Kenkaku's eyes narrowed. The vibration makes the chain gun inaccurate, and paired with the low cyclic rate, it makes that weapon ineffective for anything but keeping people's heads down. Gizmo realized this too, as he brought the other arm around.

'Whoooet!'

Kenkaku came out of acceleration mode, and dashed forward, ducking below the flamethrower-equipped arm, stabbing at Gizmo with Muramasa. The diminutive genius shrieked and slashed at Kenkaku with his left arm. The ronin blocked with Kanesada, but the blow was powerful enough to send him flying towards the other arm's blade.

'Wheooom!'

Kenkaku entered acceleration mode again and put Muramasa up to block the scythe arm. He took the blow at the base of the blade and used it and the tsuba to flip over the arm without losing any fingers. He jumped back and shook his head, only to see fire boiling out at him in slow motion. The ronin dove to the side and the stream of fire roasted a storefront, which was mercifully closed. Gizmo tried to bring the fire stream around onto the swordsman, but he was fast enough to get out of the way even without being in accelerated mode.

'Whooet!'

Kenkaku jumped into a tree to avoid the next blast of fire. He dove and grabbed another tree's branch and spun around it, flinging himself high into the air, and coming down in a double sword jump slash. Gizmo parried with his gun arm and as Kenkaku jumped back, he triggered another burst of flame. Kenkaku dodged this one too. I hope Raven-kun is faring better with Jinx-san.


Raven's eyes glowed as she dashed about the battlefield, keeping an aura of her energy around her at all times. Jinx and she were firing off rounds of attacks, then ducking and dodging. It was a stalemate that could go on almost forever. She had learned early on that keeping in the skies was a losing proposition. Jinx had plenty of cover and could just act like an anti-aircraft gun if Raven took to the air in anything more than a leap. Raven hurled another chunk of rubble at Jinx, who hurdled it and flung a hex blast right back. Raven caught it in the stomach, her protective aura protecting her from the worst of the blast. Still, the impact was more than enough to send her tumbling backwards. Raven scrambled behind another now-junked car to catch her breath.

This is going nowhere, and rather quickly. Think Raven, think! Our powers are roughly the same, but mine are applied in more of a direct nature, while hers are mostly probability changing. Not that that means anything right now. She's hurt, but while I really don't like to admit it, she's probably got more raw power than me, and is better at running and jumping around. When it comes right down to it, she's a little ahead right now. I have to do something to catch her off guard. But what!? And what the heck is pressing against my leg?

Raven reached down to her pocket and withdrew another depleted uranium ball. Her eyes widened. I forgot about these. She smirked a smirk that would make Kenkaku proud and tossed the ball into the air before snatching it on the way down. This will surprise you a bit. She anchored the ball to her hand with some of her obsidian energy and spread her fingers, creating an impromptu sight. Next she concentrated on Jinx's cover, a trashed minivan. Coating it in obsidian energy, she pushed it backwards.

Just as she had hoped, Jinx dashed out from behind it to avoid being smashed against a storefront. The pink haired witch started running across the street for more cover, playing right into Raven's hands.

The half-demon flipped into the air, using her telekinesis to boost her and slide her behind Jinx. She flipped as thrust her arm out, cloak billowing out behind her, and squinted, lining up the shot between her fingers. She corrected for her fall and…

'TSSS-CRUNCH!'

The uranium sphere shot from her hand, looking like an obsidian arrow. The deadly attack shot straight over Jinx's shoulder and into the street, creating a very large pothole, but doing absolutely nothing to Jinx.

Which was how Raven had planned it. Jinx ran on for two more steps, and prepared to leap the crater, thanking her lucky stars that the sphere had not hit her when…

'PWOOOOSH!'

A geyser of pressurized water shot out from the water main that Raven had punctured, smashing right into Jinx as the witch started her leap. Jinx was blown backwards, helped along by Raven, straight into a truck where the impact cold-cocked Jinx.

Raven checked to make sure that Jinx was actually out, then turned to find Kenkaku with Jinx in a telekinetic tow. Her battle with Jinx had drawn her quite a ways from Kenkaku.


Kenkaku was starting to dearly hate that flamethrower. Gizmo was having an easy time keeping him at range with it, due to the swordsman's self-imposed kiaijutsu ban, and the same metahuman's desire to keep his poems intact.

And Gizmo's insults were getting annoying. Honestly, could the kid not think of anything but 'snot', 'crud', and 'garbage' and compound words using the aforementioned three for insults. Back when Kenkaku could still speak English, he had a much larger and much more offensive vocabulary of insults.

There had to be a way to take Gizmo down at range without using kiaijutsu. But dammed if Kenkaku could see it. At least until his eyes alighted on the Shinobi. Kenkaku smirked and led Gizmo out around to in front of the ultrabike. Going accelerated, he jumped up and flipped so that he landed standing on the bike. As Gizmo watched, dumbfounded, the ronin dropped out of accelerated mode and kicked his helmet in the air, while sheathing Muramasa. He snagged the falling helmet and put it on.

"Pulse cannons, Target: mechanical upper arms. Utae."

'NEOWOWOWOWOW!'

"Cease fire. Concussion rocket, Target: center of mass. Detonate five feet from target. Utae."

'PHSSSOW!'

'BWOOOM!'

When the smoke cleared, Gizmo was out cold on his back, his exo-suit's arms severed at the 'elbow'.

'clap…clap…clap…clap…clap'

"Very inventive, little Roma. Very, very inventive. But I am afraid that I cannot be defeated by such means."

Kenkaku spun around, casting off his helmet and drawing Muramasa. A handsome blonde man in a rust red bodysuit adorned with kunai stood there. A pair of jitte gleamed in his hands. "And you are?"

The man bowed. "You may call me Junsa. And I am here to perform a task." He assumed a ready stance. "Let us begin."


Japanese Flavor Text:

-sama: Honorific, roughly translating to 'lord' or 'lady'.

Oni: "Demon."

Shinobi: Another name for a ninja, in this case the name of Kenkaku's ultrabike, which Cyborg made to look like a Kawasaki Ninja ZX-12R.

-san: Standard honorific, rough equivalent of 'Mr.', 'Ms.', or 'Mrs.'. Very versatile and may even be used to refer to enemies.

Shua: "Sure."

Kanji: Chinese characters. A form of Japanese writing.

Hiragana: Another form of Japanese writing.

Katakana: Yet another form of Japanese writing.

Ki: "Spirit/Soul", but it means so much more.

Ora, omae! Zuiban busuina yakaru da na!: "Hey, peon! You're a classless bastard!"

Kuso: "Shit."

-kun: The friendly, sometimes romantic, and rarely towards an inferior honorific.

Nanda: "What the hell?"

Chikushou: "Damn." Literally beast(s).

Youkai: "Roger."

Yare yare: A verbal brush-off. "Yeah, yeah."

Gakidomo: "Bratling."

Kotowaru: "I refuse."

Tsuba: A sword guard.

Utae: "Fire."

Kunai: A type of throwing blade that looks like a small spearhead with a stem attached.

Jitte: (Alternatively jutte.) Relative to the sai, it is a metal rod with a hook jutting out at a ninety-degree angle from the shaft to catch (and break) swords. Weapon of policemen in feudal Japan.

Junsa: "Policeman." In this case, a character armed with a pair of jitte. He appeared in the first chapter.


We edge closer and closer to the climax of the first arc of Waves of Fate. Tune in next time for yet another confrontation with the group that wants Kanesada, and a view of what's happening in the land of the rising sun.