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.


The Titans, including the now-conscious Thunder and Lightning, cheered as Kenkaku acted out his fight with Trigon with a pepperoni stick covered in blue mold. He finished with a flourish, leaving out the whole soul mates and kissing part, then looked at the pepperoni stick. "You know, if I had this the fight would have been over in one blow. This thing is far more deadly than Kanesada!" Raven did the honors translating and everyone chugged Dr. Pepper and stuffed their faces with sushi, which according to Thunder and Lightning was: 'on par with a master's craft'.

Raven sipped green tea and smiled as Kenkaku tossed the pepperoni stick away and flopped down next to her, grabbing her hand sneakily after cleaning his hand with a very strange application of kiaijutsu.

Cyborg hauled out a couple of metal DDR pads and stuck DDR Max into the Gamestation. "Right dawgs! Who thinks they've got the moves?" He looked out at a smirking room. "No powers."

The room's evil smile quota dropped rather quickly. Beast Boy stood up. "I'll show you all what this is about. Gimme some time to get up to speed." He selected light mode and chose Dark Black Forest (Short Trip).

The changeling barely made it through, sweating and winded. "Whoo. I'm out of practice. Someone want to take over?"

Raven gave Ker a little telekinetic nudge towards the pads. "Hey!"

"Go for it, koishii." She gave him a more noticeable TK push.

Cyborg laughed as Kenkaku walked towards the pad reluctantly. "And the whipped boyfriend takes the stage!" The swordsman grabbed Green Destiny, which was lying on the table, unsheathing it and whipping Cyborg upside the head with the flat of the blade.

"Arigatou, Beast Boy-san. I am not whipped." Thunder and Lightning gasped. "Me and my big mouth," he groaned. He flicked his thumb against Kanesada's tsuba. The two shut up.

Raven smiled and stood up wrapping her arms around the ronin. "While Kenkaku is not whipped, he is my boyfriend."

The cheer was deafening. Starfire was first over by virtue of her flight, scooping the two up in a crushing hug. "GLORIUS! I must make a Pudding of Celebration!"

Most of the Titans grimaced. Robin shook his head. "This one is good, guys. Congrats, you two. Star, you might want to give them some air."

The half-demons finally got their much needed breaths, their faces going back to the standard color. Soothsayer gave Kenkaku a superior smile. "Perhaps you will trust my prophecies in the future?"

"Hai, Soothsayer-sama," replied Kenkaku with a large dose of sarcasm.

Cyborg picked himself up from the floor, having been knocked down by Green Destiny's force. "Great! Am I right to assume that the Japan trip is canceled?"

The room froze and the Titans got horrified looks on their faces, none more so than Raven. She had not talked to Ker about that. The tense second was the worst experience of Raven's life.

"Hai. I would like to request full membership as a Titan, though I have one matter out of town to take care of first."

"YOU'RE IN!" yelled all of the full Titans, outside of Raven, who, hearing the best news of her life outside of the fact that he did love her, threw poise to the winds and leapt up in his arms, kissing him so fiercely that she actually knocked him over.

"Ah, Karasu-chan," mumbled Kenkaku as they broke off for air, "Talk about your warm welcomes." He stroked her hair before they both realized where they were and frantically stood up.

"While we're at it," said Robin, "Soothsayer, you are free to join under full status as well."

The blonde smiled. "Many thanks, but I think it best that I stay in at most an honorary role."

The Boy Wonder shrugged. "Have it your way, but if you would listen to the communicator?"

"Of course. And I'll keep it secret from the people at school too." At the room's weird looks she shrugged. "What? It's not like every teen saves the world every other day. I'm only 17 and not a dropout." She smirked. "Though my teachers probably do wonder where I've been for the past few weeks."

Beast Boy scratched at the back of his head. "Yeah, we're sorry about that."

Robin turned to Thunder and Lightning. "What about you two?"

Thunder bowed his head. "We must also decline. Though our handler did grant us the freedom to join, we both have acts to repent for, and being in the service of a country is a good thing. Perhaps in the future. Who can say?"

"Besides," added Lightning, "Japan has very few heroes. We are needed. But this party should serve as a good going-away present! Get that swordsman up on the pads!"

The metahumans chuckled and pushed the half-demon up onto the pad. "Matte, matte. I can get up here by myself. Now, I'm several years out of practice, but I'll see what I can do." He drew his now dual katana and selected Sandstorm.

"Sword dancing?"

"Why not?"The song started and Kenkaku stated a smooth gliding motion with the swords as he hit the pads. The blade speed sped up as the song did, the blades freezing during freeze arrows. His hair spun as he did, moving to the beat of the song. Near the end of the song, he spun, alternating feet and swords to tap the pads.

The Titans watched in amazement as the score was toted up. Cyborg remembered a few figures. "Dawg, that was a flawless run. I thought you said you were out of practice."

Kenkaku sheathed the swords. "Hai. Guess some things never leave you."

"Huh?" asked Beast Boy.

"I used to make money in DDR tournaments . That was an old routine of mine."

"Muscle memory, huh?" asked Robin. Kenkaku simply shrugged. "Alright, let me in."

The half-demon abandoned the pad to Robin, who selected PARANOiA EVOLUTION.

And they though Kenkaku was good. Robin had chosen a substantially more difficult song, and his routine was even more involved.

"And people like Robin-san were why I gave that up. People loved the swordwork but I'm only okay."

"You been practicing, Robin?" asked Beast Boy.

"Yep. I have to wait for the late-night digital sword duels to end, though."

Cyborg and Beast Boy looked over at Kenkaku and Raven who merely shrugged. "You two?"

Again, more shrugs. "Speaking of sword duels," said Kenkaku in his heavily-accented English. "I can teach a little kenjutsu if we're going to keep the enchanted weapons. I don't have much polearm training, but I can help."

Robin nodded. "Good idea. You could probably benefit from a little bare-hands combat training, too."

"Shua. We can start as soon as I get back."

Starfire finally spoke up. "Where are you going?"

"I made a promise to visit my sensei if I ever completed a prophecy. I have to do that. Should be a pretty quick trip. No more than a week, round trip."

"Okay," said Robin. "I assume you'll go tomorrow?"

"Hai."

"Raven?"

"I'll be going too, assuming Kenkaku doesn't have any objections." She gave his hand a squeeze. He squeezed back.

"None at all."

"Well then, let's enjoy the party before you head off."

The Titans were all nodding when a jade gorilla pulled a machine with a microphone attached to it. He morphed back to elf and cupped his hands around his mouth. "KARAOKE TIME!"

The teenaged metahumans partied long into the night, singing, playing, dancing, and eating. They had earned it. And for a while there would be peace. But soon a new prophecy would start, and the Titans would have their hands full again.

But for now, the heroes could be, despite their powers, normal.

WAVES OF FATE: END


Important authors note, please read.


Japanese Flavor Text:

Koishii: "Beloved."

Arigatou: "Thank you."

Hai: "Yes."

Karasu-chan: "Little Raven." Kenkaku's pet name for Raven.

Matte, matte: "Stop, stop."

Shua: "Sure."


A/N: Well, that's it, the end of Waves of Fate. Stay tuned for the next story, tentatively titled Rolling the Dice.

Also, I've been thinking about starting a C2 community dedicated to the stories set in this Titans universe. If other authors would like to write using my universe, they are welcome to, providing they talk with me about it, and I am given rights to use your characters (with consultation) and plotlines in the overarching storyline.

I think it might be possible to create a multi-author Titans universe of rather high quality. Please e-mail me if you are interested in this idea or have something to say.