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.
Kenkaku lunged at Junsa, leading with a stab of Muramasa. Junsa simply blurred out of the way, letting one jitte fall from his hand to hang by the cord attached to his wrist, and grabbing a kunai, which he slung at Kenkaku.
'GLICHK!'
The blade buried itself in the meat of Kenkaku's shoulder. "Ahg!" Kenkaku gritted his teeth and pulled the blade out, sending it right back at the jitte-wielder.
'CLANG!'
A sweep of one of Junsa's jitte deflected the throwing blade. "Oh, come now nephew. You can do far better than that."
Blood leaked out from Kenkaku's wound, staining a small patch of his jacket red. "Nephew?"
"Indeed. Like you, I am a descendent of a Demon of the Air. I am simply a hybrid of demon and human. However, one of my brothers sired a son with a hybrid of a human and a Demon of the Soul. I understand that roughly half of your human blood is that of the Roma group, while the rest is a mix on nearly every other blood on the planet. You have quite a bit more demon blood in you than you realized."
"What do you want? You aren't like the others."
"Very true. I was sent to perform a task, but I wish for you to come out on top of the prophecy."
"What?"
"I, unlike you, am bonded to my Lord, a Demon of Power. A bonded demon is granted one request that is unconditionally granted by their Lord, except their freedom. I asked for my lover's safety, but I found that I have made a great mistake. My children shall have to follow in my footsteps. I do not wish for them to be bonded to this demon. Unless my Lord is killed within a month, the first of my children shall be bonded to him. You are the only one that I know of that can kill him."
"Considering the way you are owning this fight, you might have the wrong guy for the job."
"No. You must simply harness your dual demon heritages. Your speed of the Air, and your skill of the Soul. If you can bring both together, you shall be more than powerful enough to eliminate me without trouble."
"I rather doubt this all, but you said you had a task to accomplish."
"Yes. I must unleash Kanesada's true potential. Regrettably, this means the loss of a stunning option, but Muramasa should be sufficient." He held up a jitte. "I am ready. Heed my words. Let me turn you into the fighter you should be, then spill my blood and save my children."
"I don't wish to ki…"
"Kill me? I have been caught up by the bloodlust far too many times. End my life, so that the prophecy may go on and my children shall be free. And I fear that that is the last sensible thing you will hear from me."
Junsa's eyes glowed silver. Kenkaku could feel power simply radiating from him. Kenkaku went accelerated and nervously brought his swords to the ready.
Suddenly, Junsa disappeared and a brace of eleven kunai were flying at the swordsman.
'CLACK! CLANG! TZANG! GLICHK!'
Kenkaku desperately dodged and blocked but a blade still got through and hit him in the calf. He panted, shunting the pain away, as he searched his vision for Junsa.
'Cling!'
Junsa had trapped Kanesada with one of his jitte and twisted in the classic sword-breaking technique.
'CRACK!'
Junsa smiled and slid the jitte off the apparently unmarked but vibrating blade.
'FLASH!'
A pulse of light burst from the blade and Kenkaku. The ronin's eyes glowed silver-white. "KIAI!"Kenkaku slashed Muramasa across Junsa's belly, the already powerful force of the blade reinforced by a wave of force from kiaijutsu. The combined force sent Junsa flying through -two- buildings, the swordsman hot on his trail.
Junsa looked up in time to hurriedly defend himself from an overhead attack of Muramasa, the blade of the bokken nearly forcing his jitte to the ground. This was the right choice, was the last thing he had time to think before he lowered his jitte and Kanesada came around in a blinding arc that separated his head from his body.
Kenkaku's eyes stopped glowing, his face covered in blood. Shakily, he flipped blood off of Kanesada and sheathed it, before falling to his knees, using Muramasa to support him.
He heard heavy footsteps and the whining of servos. He turned a blurry vision up to the sources, just in time to see a huge hand and arm grab him and lift him into the air. "So this is the new Titan," observed a voice which obviously belonged to a very large and strong person. "He's not afraid to kill."
"Drop that crud-muncher, Mammoth. I'm going to kill him here and now." The buzzing hum filled the air again. Kenkaku's vision cleared up enough to see Gizmo up again and a long-haired, vaguely animalistic tank of a teen holding him up. Gizmo seemed to want to use his pack's vibrosycthes to carve Kenkaku up before burning him to an unidentifiable carbon stain with the flamethrower.
"We might want to keep him as a hostage. Perhaps Jinx has fallen in battle."
"A prisoner exchange, yeah, maybe. Or the new headmaster might want him. But what are the odds of Jinx losing to that snotty idiot, Raven."
"Pretty high, apparently," said Raven in a deadly tone as she stalked onto the scene, a depleted uranium sphere primed and ready, and Jinx's unconscious body following along in a aura of obsidian energy. "Drop Kenkaku now."
"Give us Jinx first!" yelled Gizmo.
Raven floated Jinx to halfway in between the two groups and trained the sphere on Jinx's head. She took another in her other hand and trained it on Gizmo. "These are more than capable of killing you or her. Call them insurance. Give me Kenkaku."
Gizmo nodded to Mammoth, who slowly walked over to Raven and lay Kenkaku down gently. "May I retrieve Jinx?"
"Go ahead, then get your asses off the streets." Raven watched as the HIVE agents ran for it, then breathed a sigh of relief and looked down at Kenkaku. She shook her head. "I swear, I can't really see you losing to Gizmo." She peeled back his jacket and placed her hand on his wound, gritting her teeth as she healed it.
The swordsman shook his head. "Wasn't him. I had to fight a half-demon named Junsa." He groaned as he weakly pointed towards Junsa's body. "His corpse is over there." His finger shifted a bit. "His head is over there."
Raven looked over at the corpse and severed head. "I've seen him before! He was with the guy with a rapier that dropped me into the sea before I met you!"
"Apparently he was my uncle."
Raven's eye widened. "You're a…"
"Half-demon, yeah. I was pretty sure I had some demon blood, but it turns out I have about as much as you. He did something to unlock Kanesada's full potential as well as mine." His eyes fluttered. "Agh. I seem to be in a state of ki exhaustion, yet again."
Raven helped him stand up, supporting him with his arm looped around he shoulders. "How'd you know I was a half-demon?"
Kenkaku smiled wearily. "I can sense ki, and demon ki feels very different from human." He stumbled. "We'd better get back to the Tower."
"How?"Raven looked over at the Shinobi. "Do you think you can hold on?"
"You're going to drive?"
"No time like the present to learn." Raven grabbed Junsa's jitte with her telekinesis as she helped Kenkaku onto the bike. She took off her cloak and tied it around them.
"My grip isn't that feeble."
"Nostalgia."
Kenkaku gave a weak laugh as he laid his head on Raven's shoulder. "It wasn't that long ago."
"Maybe not, but it feels like it."
Cyborg dusted his titanium and polymer hands off. "Boo-yah! Alright dawgs, the T-car is now Japanese road compliant." He smiled a huge grin. "I knew making the third T-Car's interior modular would be useful someday!"
Robin quirked an eyebrow. "Right."
Beast Boy cackled. "You just wanted to add another feature to the list."
Cyborg fumed and chased Beast Boy around the hold. Robin watched amusedly until Starfire flew down into the hold in a flying tackle and wrapped him up in a hug. "Japan ho!" yelled the affectionate Tamaranian girl.
Robin's grin, which had already broadened when she hugged him, now threatened to split his head in half. "Great!"
"Gotcha!" yelled Cyborg as he grabbed Beast Boy and took him to the floor. Beast Boy went gorilla and responded in kind.
He wriggled his way out of Starfire's arms and cupped his hands around his mouth. "Guys! We're coming up on Japan!"
Beast Boy and Cyborg stopped wrestling and dashed up to the deck. Starfire lifted Robin and flew past the boys.
Up on deck, Soothsayer was waving the other Titans towards the prow of the ship. The Titans all lined up as Mt. Fuji seemed to appear from the waves. The young heroes gasped as the majestic white peak hove into view. "Well there it is. Mt. Fuji," said Robin. "Is everyone ready for this?"
The Titans nodded. "Let's get to saving Terra," said Beast Boy.
The T-car sped along a road leading out of Tokyo, Cyborg at the wheel. The half-mechanical Titan tapped his fingers on the wheel as he hummed along to some Hendrix that the car was pumping straight into his auditory processors. "So where are we going?" asked Beast Boy of Soothsayer, who had programmed the GPS coordinates before they had left the boat.
"It's an island known as Okishima in the Seto Inland Sea. It's located quite near to the city of Takamatsu. Apparently one of two shrines on the island contains an underground passage to the storage room containing these weapons. We've got a bit of a trip ahead of us. Want to talk? I doubt that Robin would appreciate you interrupting his time with Starfire."
"Sure, I guess. So what's your deal? Do you have any powers at all?"
"My mind is connected to every prophecy ever made and has a record of every legend. The clarification of any said prophecy can take some time, and with so many legends, finding the right one can take quite a while."
"No combat powers?"
"No. But not all of crime-fighting is combat." Soothsayer nodded at Robin. "He is a consummate detective, and this has contributed greatly to his success."
"Huh."
"You seem very committed to saving Terra." Beast Boy crossed his arms and growled. "I'm sorry."
He uncrossed his arms and sighed. "No. You couldn't have known. Terra is a very sore spot for the Titans. Me…" He sighed again. "Much more so."
"Do you wish to talk about it?"
"No, but I don't have any thing better to do. Where to start?"
"The beginning?"
"In the desert then." Beast Boy leaned back and thought back. "We were hunting for a giant, mutated scorpion that we still don't know how it got that way. " He looked back at Soothsayer from the front with a faint smile on his face. "It was chasing Terra. Just as we were ready to take it down, she dropped a rock bridge on it."
"Resourceful girl."
"You have no idea. Actually, she was a lot like Kenkaku."
"What do you mean?"
"Terra was a drifter too. She had her reasons, but she liked it."
"I think Kenkaku feels that he just doesn't fit in, but what was Terra's reason?"
Beast Boy got a dejected look on his face. "She couldn't completely control her powers, and because she had control of the rocks and earth…"
"I see."
"Actually, that's where the trouble came from. I learned that early on and promised her I'd keep it a secret."
"You were close to her, weren't you?"
"How'd you know?"
"When I was still in high school, I took an elective psychology course. I've got a knack for it."
"Ah. Yeah, Terra and I were close. Robin later figured out that Terra couldn't control her powers. He mentioned it and she got mad at me. She left."
"And you found her as this statue?"
"No, it was much worse." He took a deep breath. "She came back with perfect control of her powers, and joined up. She and I ironed out the misunderstanding and everything looked great." He gave a happy sigh. "She was just amazing. She made me feel like I was worth something, made me complete, I don't know. I got up the courage to ask her out, and she said no, but later showed up at my window and took me out for what would've been the best night of my life if it wasn't for the fact that she betrayed my friends to Slade."
"Slade?"
"Yeah, he was our big enemy for quite a while. He orchestrated most of the trouble sent our way when we were still pretty new, and for a while afterwards. We've been getting a break from him since a bit before Kenkaku showed up. We think he's dead. Robin also thinks he's the same man as Deathstroke the Terminator, a rather famous assassin. Anyway, I rejected Terra, and she went entirely over to Slade's side. She nearly killed us all, but instead just sealed us underground. We escaped, fought back, and Terra redeemed herself by fighting back against Slade and stopping the volcano her powers accidentally set off. That's when she went statue."
"Oh."
Beast Boy hung his head. "It just feels wrong with her that way. Actually, I feel wrong like that. I really can't say what the others think."
"They seem to want her back."
Beast Boy shook his head. "That's more for my sake than anything. Sometimes I actually wonder if we're going to stop short of bringing her back."
"When the prophecy of the warrior of the waves ends, the prophecy of the maiden of the dust shall begin. Assuming all goes well, of course."
"What?"
"Just think about it a bit."
"Well, this is the second shrine," said Cyborg. "Figures it'd be the one without a path to it."
'BOOM!'
A ray of blue sonic energy hit the ground just in front of Cyborg's feet.
'ZZZZAP!'
A ray of lightning turned dirt into glass in front of Soothsayer. She jumped back. "Ah!"
"MINIONS OF THE ONI LORD! RETREAT NOW OR BE ANNIHILATED BY IKAZUCHI AND RAIDEN!" boomed a deep Japanese voice.
"FEEL FREE TO STAY THOUGH, BAKA! WE WILL ENJOY ROASTING AND SMASHING YOU!" yelled a much higher pitched voice.
"Oh, it couldn't be," said Beast Boy. "THUNDER!? IS THAT YOU!? IT'S BEAST BOY!"
"Green one?" The blue-hued villain-turned-vigilante flew down from the tree he was perched in. "It is very good to see you."
"Ototo!" Lightning flashed down from the tree he had been in. "Oh! The Titans."
"What are you doing here?" asked Thunder.
"We're here on business," said Robin. "We need to get the yari, naginata, nodaichi, and tai chi sword.
"Why?" snapped Lightning.
Soothsayer bowed to Thunder and Lightning. "Greetings, honored sirs. My name is Soothsayer. I am an expert on prophecies of all sorts. A prophecy now being acted out requires us to remove those weapons previously stated from the shrine for combat."
"We are not permitted to let anyone take even a single one of the weapons," replied Thunder.
Beast Boy's patience snapped. "Screw that! You'll be helping a girl come back to life! She needs us to get these weapons so we can protect the person that can bring her back to life!"
Thunder looked downhearted. "I wish I could let you take the weapons, but such is not permitted of me."
Before Beast Boy could explode again, Robin cut in. "Are you working for the government?"
"Yes."
"Then perhaps we could go speak to your superiors for permission. You could take us, and we could leave behind some of our people to help guard the shrine."
"That sounds reasonable. Lightning will take you to our superiors."
"Good. Star, Soothsayer, you two come with me. Cyborg, Beast Boy, you stay here with the T-car."
"Right dawg."
Raven had gotten them back without incident, but Kenkaku had fallen asleep on the way. She supported him as she walked to his room, preferring it to the impersonality of telekinesis. She was surprised to see his room, as it was so spare. She knew that it had been done over in a traditional Japanese style, but had no idea that it contained so little. But when she thought about it, it made sense. This was to him, a temporary place. She sighed at this thought and sat him down on the bed that was decidedly most un-Japanese.
She untied his hair, removed his swords, and took off his jacket, lying him down on the bed and putting the covers over him. She smiled as she looked down at his peaceful figure, then turned to place his swords in their places in his sword rack.
"I wish…I wish you could see me as more than just the one that can talk to you." She shook her head, turning and walking out of the room to mend his jacket.
Raven emptied the pockets of Kenkaku's jacket and set the contents aside, holding her hand above the cut in the shoulder created by Junsa's kunai. Obsidian energy coated the threads and they seemed to flow back together, returning to a state as good as new. She narrowed her eyes and pulled the bloodstain from the fabric by force of magic. She held the jacket up and nodded. None of the systems Cyborg had put into it were damaged so for all intents and purposes it was as good as new.
Better really, thought Raven, blushing as the scent of the jacket reached her nose. She put the jacket aside and looked over at the pile of things that had been in the jacket's pocket. It wasn't a very extensive list. His handheld-communicator, his vigilante registration card, his Titans expense card, and four poems with sketches. Wait…didn't he write -three- poems?
Raven sorted through the sheets of paper. Three of them she had indeed seen, but the one with a picture of her at the top… Wow. He draws better than he writes.
Before she could stop herself, indeed before she could even think better of it, she read the poem. Her face went crimson as she read it over. Surprisingly, nothing broke or blew out. Nothing went flying. "Ker Selais. I love Ker Selais." A look of pure bliss crossed her face. "And he loves me."
That was when reality caught up with her. "And we can never be together." Raven threw herself upon her bed and cried her loss, engulfed in a cyclone of obsidian energy and Gothic paraphernalia.
Beast Boy fumed as Thunder tried to explain why it was impossible to just give away the weapons. "Green one, I would gladly give the weapons to you, but the government will not let us!"
"So now you're some kind of government lapdog rather than a juvenile delinquent?" snapped Beast Boy.
"It is so," answered Thunder.
"Huh?"
"All metahuman vigilantes in Japan are not really vigilantes at all. We are either part of the police force, JSSDF, or a government agency. All true vigilantes are considered criminals. We have our orders. I am truly sorry."
"Never mind. Wonder if Kenkaku knows that."
"Pardon?"
"He's the guy who thinks he can save Terra. He only speaks Japanese, so he wants to move to Japan."
"Ah. Who is this Terra? A friend?"
"Yeah. A real good friend."
"I see…"
"YO DAWGS! I NEED SOME HELP HERE!"
Beast Boy and Thunder burst outside to see Cyborg facing off with a large group of ninja. "This is far too cliché," said Beast Boy.
"But very deadly," replied Thunder. "I fear we will not be able to hold out against these attackers. As he said this, the apparent leader of the ninja unsheathed his sword and attacked Cyborg.
"Kenkaku can have this country!" yelled Cyborg as he blocked the slash with the most armored part of his forearm. "I like it back home!"
Beast Boy and Thunder jumped into the fray, followed by roughly fifty ninja. Not good odds…
Japanese Flavor Text:
Junsa: "Policeman." In this case, a character's name.
Kunai: A type of throwing blade.
Jitte: A metal rod with a hook mounted at a ninety degree angle from it for catching and breaking swords. A policeman's weapon in Shogunate Japan.
Oni: "Demon."
Ikazuchi: "Thunder."
Raiden: "Lightning."
Baka: "Fool/Idiot."
Ototo: "Younger brother."
Yari: "Spear."
Naginata: Basically a wakizashi on a pole.
Nodachi: A very large katana.
Tai chi sword: Think Green Destiny from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
