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, as well as the basic 'Prophecies Universe' and characters.

Rolling the Dice:

The Second Prophecy

A 'Prophecies Universe' fanfiction.

"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 took a Motrin and leaned back in his chair, but not indulging in one of the few bare-hands kata he knew, all of which he could perform in his room. Though it would let him burn off some of his pent-up energy, he had work to do, and if he did one kata he knew he would soon find himself trekking up to the roof to do one with swords, as well as meditate, and then his work would be shot. Not to mention the fact that it was raining outside.

He bent back down to one of the ancient scrolls of Touki no Fenikkusu-ryu, trying to find some acceptable early training methods for the eclectic group he was to teach. He knew what he wanted to teach them later on, but the early stuff was tying him in knots. Normally, a sensei would teach basic weapons handling, then move on to kata, but with such an array of weapons, that would be both time-consuming and difficult. He reached up to massage his temples, but someone beat him to it.

His lips curved gently as Raven's slim fingers ran over his skin. "Trouble, Ker?" She started massaging his shoulders.

He grasped one of her hands with his and gave it a little squeeze. "You could say that, Karasu-chan."

Yes, Raven was in his room. Titans policy was that none of the full Titans were monitored in their rooms, or the bathroom. No, they were not sleeping together, though they both knew it was only a matter of time. The whole 'soul mates' deal kinda cinched that.

"What's wrong?"

"Oh, I'm trying to find something for everyone to start off the lessons with before I can get to the actual instruction."

"Why don't you teach them to meditate?"

Kenkaku raised an eyebrow. "Mind telling me where you're going with this idea?"

"Like you once said to me, meditation comes with many martial arts. Besides, you could have most of us meditate while you taught one person."

"The idea, like all of yours, certainly has merit." He rubbed his thumb across the knuckles of the hand he was holding.

She wrapped her free arm around him and laid her chin on his opposite shoulder. "Glad I could help."

The other Titans knew intellectually that Raven's emotions, for the most part, no longer caused interference with her powers, just as they knew that the two half-demons were soul mates, but they still would've been rather surprised to see Raven like this. She was still rather closed and cold, though not nearly as much so as when she had joined the team, except when speaking Japanese, which of the live-in Titans, only she and Ker were fluent in.

In fact, they had gone so far as to request that the other Titans not learn the language, excepting some quick one-word answers and common phrases that Kenkaku could use to communicate on a day-to-day basis without him having to switch over to English, which he was not a great fan of. Japanese was their little refuge, in which it was just them.

Kenkaku kissed the hand he held. "You find anything interesting?"

"Plenty, actually. Do you want to take a look?"

"Not really, but I guess I should, huh?"

"We have time. Want to take a break?"

"Yeah, actually, I do."

"Big surprise there. Lazy bum."

"Don't make me tickle you," he said mock threateningly. There was something he was rather sure he was alone in existence in knowing. Raven was very, very ticklish in a few spots. It was one of the reasons for the old 'no touch' rule.

"You know, if anyone heard that threat, your rep would die. How about we cuddle?"

He obliged her. "Speaking of dying reps…"

"Oh, shush." She smiled as he kissed the crown of her head and started stroking her lavender hair, which she had started wearing a little longer, much like he did. Well, not nearly as much as he had, but it was indeed longer. "I guess you're right though. The motorcycle-riding badass with twin swords, who speaks a foreign language, and the dark, Gothic sorceress, and they're cuddling. They probably expect S&M out of us."

"Hmmm. I'll pass. Better to let our reps die than have to hurt one another like that."

She fake pouted. "Now you've ruined my plans."

The ronin gave her a tender kiss on the lips. "I'm sure we can figure out some thing to appease you."

"Your body is already thinking of ideas," she pointed out.

"You do have that effect on me."

"Oh?"

"Well put yourself in my position. I'm snugged up to a devastatingly gorgeous young woman, who also happens to be smart, in shape, sexy as hell, is possessed of amazing powers, is a half-demon like me, and, oh yeah, is my -soul mate-. I'd say I've got a good excuse."

"Nice to feel wanted."She kissed him deeply.

Cyborg was typing away at his computer when someone rapped a gloved fist on his door. "Come in," he said, not even looking up, though if it was a gloved fist, it could be basically anyone except for Starfire or Soothsayer, neither of who, if he remembered correctly, were in the tower.

Granted, neither Raven nor Kenkaku normally wore their gloves, but both of the riding outfits he had made for them to replace their old costumes did have gloves with them.

In any case, Robin dispelled the confusion when he spoke. "You got any ideas?"

"Yeah dawg. Come and take a look." Cyborg waved Robin over to look at the file he had open in CAD (Computer Aided Drafting and Design).

The schematics were Greek to Robin. "You're the real engineer here. I've invented some things but nothing like this. What is it?"

"It's a holographic projector. I'm trying to miniaturize it as well as add a function that gives the holograph a real feel. It's going pretty well. Gonna be a 180-proof bitch to make, though."

"Right. Will Kenkaku be able to use one?"

Cyborg turned to the screen again. "-That-, I can't do. Take a look." He pointed at a few notes he had made to organize the human part of his mind, especially one in particular.

Miniaturization of a holographic projector is possible, excepting the problem of the power source.

"That's the trouble, dawg." Cyborg picked up a pair of rings with disc-shaped housings on them. "This is what the system's going to be mounted in." He showed Robin a pair of identical power sockets on the inside of the rings' bands as well as matching sockets on his middle fingers. "These rings are going to feed off my internal cell, as well as hook into my cooling systems. Kaku, talented as he is, just doesn't have something like that, unless he could use his kiaijutsu somehow. I could rig up a belt or backpack generator with a few hours to a day of power, depending on the size of the powercell, but we'll probably be in the HIVE for much longer than that."

"Yeah…what are you going to do about power?"

"Got it covered," smiled Cyborg. "I can use food as an alternative energy source."

"I know, but you're going to need a lot."

"Like I said, dawg, I've got it covered." He brought up another document on the computer. "Meet Stone." A burly black teenager with Cyborg's basic size and shape stood in a pair of gray sweatpants and a white muscle shirt on the screen. In fact the face looked kinda familiar…

"Cyborg, is that…" Robin trailed off.

The former high school football star sighed. "Me before the titanium and polymer, yeah." He moved the cursor over the picture and it changed to a picture of what was recognizably the same person, but with living stone for skin and a number of metal adornments, including a headband. The picture changed once more, showing the human and stone halves, next to each other. Robin shuddered. The gray, stony skin next to the healthy human skin, reminded him of Two-Face, who, he remembered, had used to be a friend of Bruce Wayne's before his accident and subsequent slide into madness. "Stone is the creation of some mad scientist, who, while he wasn't known of at all, was rather skilled. To power his transformation to the living rock form, he has a very powerful metabolism. Therefore, he has to eat a lot. Power on a plate."

"Clever. Well, it's time to start weapon lessons. I've got to go change, but you should meet the others in the gym."

"Right, dawg, see ya there."

Robin walked into the gym wearing a white muscle shirt and a pair of loose black silk pants, still wearing his mask. He carried his yari with him. Cyborg it seemed, had arrived just before him, the nodaichi known as Inousin-kai strapped to his metallic back. Beast Boy was holding his jian, Green Destiny, by the sheath and was in sweatpants and a t-shirt. Starfire was in a tight tank top and a pair of workout pants, her naginata propped up against the wall.

Robin walked over to her and leaned against the wall. "So where are our intrepid teachers?"

"I do not know. I have been waiting here for some time."

Robin stole a kiss and was about to say something more when Kenkaku and Raven walked in. The ronin was wearing a giand hakamawhile Raven was wearing her old leotard. "Sorry," said Raven. "We got lost in our research."

"Right," snickered Beast Boy, "Research."

The half-demons blushed but recovered quickly, Kenkaku's thumb playing with Kanesada's tsuba. The changeling gulped and mimed zipping his lips. Kenkaku smirked. "Alright. You're going to need to bear with my accent and quite a few Japanese words. Sorry. Also, sorry to disappoint, but we're starting with meditation. I've got some good reasons for this, but let's get down to it. First, you're all going to need to sit in anza. That's Indian-style. I'll be sitting in seiza but there's no need for you all to go through the difficulty. Now, before you all sit down, it is important that you watch me go through the basic motions. I'll do it in anza" Kenkaku slid to the floor and assumed anzaNext, he took Muramasa and took it between two fingers, gripping at the throat of the saya, and pulled the weapon part of the way out of his obi, before gripping the saya about half way down the blade and pulling it completely out of his obi. He set Muramasa on the ground, in front of him, then repeated the process with Kanesada. "That's the motions for placing your weapon. It will have to be modified for each one, but the two grasps should stay constant. It is of secondary importance, but we might as well do this. It helps to clear one's mind once it becomes a habit. All right. You guys try it."

The Titans complied with this order with minimal difficulty. Kenkaku nodded and slipped into seiza"Good. Now place your hands in lightly balled fists on your knees." When they had all done that, he continued. "First we'll start with breathing. I want you to, as close as you can, to breath from your center of gravity, which is in your belly. I'll be referring to this location as your harafrom now on. Take slow, deep, even breaths, as if you were asleep. Do not fall asleep. I will whack you if you do."

He looked out at the others. "Meditation, for our purposes, is the art of attaining wa, which is best translated as accord. Don't ask me to explain. It would take too long. Suffice to say, you'll know wawhen you attain it, and it's something you want to attain. Now, I know Raven chants when she meditates normally, but we're going to do something different. I'm going to give you a koan to think about. Don't try giving me a smart-assed answer. I know them all, and used them to piss off my sensei. And don't give up with the answer that there is no answer. Alright. I want you to tell me what the sound of one hand clapping is. Don't over-analyze, but think about it with your eyes half-closed. Hopefully, this will let you achieve waAnd it is very important to keep your mind focused on solving the koan. Do not let your mind wander. Now get to it."

The Titans got to it. Amazingly, all of them had achieved waby the end of the session. Kenkaku smiled. "Very good, all of you. I'm probably going to ask you to meditate while I teach a student, but that's for the future. For now, I think it best that we get back to what we were doing before."

"That went well," commented Raven as they walked back to Kenkaku's room to continue their research, after Kenkaku did a quick single-sword kata. "I find Zen meditation somewhat strange, but very good. So what were the smart-assed responses to the koan?"

The ronin smirked. "Well, my first answer calculated to piss off sensei was to clap one hand against the stationary one. Only one hand was clapping." He demonstrated. "He, of course, was more than a little pissed at that, and asked for another answer. I swung my hand back and forth. He got annoyed because it was a lot like the traditional 'wrong' answer. I then clarified that if you listened closely, you could hear the hand passing through the air, and with really keen hearing, you could probably hear the muscles working."

Raven was smiling at this. "Any more?"

"Yeah. This one speaks for itself." He held out his hand and started slapping his fingers into his palm. "He gave up with that one. Mind you, that's just what I remember."

Raven giggled. "And the real answer, which I'm fairly certain I know?"

"There isn't one. The purpose of a koan is to help one think about nothing, like your chant. Don't tell the others that." They went into his room, and he sat down at his desk. "So what did we find in the demon tomes?"

"Well…" She brought over a number of scrolls and ancient-looking books with liberal applications of sticky notes. "First thing is, these are originals, not translations."

"Eh?" Kenkaku opened one of the books, Japanese-style, seeing kanji. "But they're written in kanji."

"Right. Demons are from a different dimensional plane, on a planet that corresponds with Earth. Both Demons of the Wind and Demons of the Soul come from the land that corresponds with Japan, and speak the language that for all intents and purposes, is Japanese. So while you don't have any human Japanese blood, fifty percent of your blood -is- Japanese."

"Something doesn't add up. I thought you were from a planet in this dimension."

"Azarath, that's right. Many types of demons were banished by magic to Azarath after a war between demons and humans, instigated by the bloodlust curse."

"Ah. So, let's see if I've got this straight. Demons were originally a race imbued with magical abilities from an alternate dimension from Earth's."

"Right."

"At some point in history, demons came over to Earth's dimension by magic and all was good for a while, until some sorcerer placed a curse on the whole race, causing the whole bloodlust problem."

"Exactly. Then the war, then the banishment." She handed him a pair of familial scrolls. "You're of some rather good stock, actually."

Ker took the scrolls and looked them over. "Two Demon Lords, huh?"

"From my childhood teachings, I remember these two. They were both considered extremely powerful, but both sued for peace during the war. In other words, they worked past the curse. Trigon did not like them being spoken reverently about, but if you read between the lines…"

"Ah." He continued reading the scroll. "Human blood starts to get in here and…here. And the bloodlines merge and spit out me, here."

"At the very bottom of the scroll?"

"Yeah. Anything else?"

"Some very good references on the different sorts of demons, as well as something that's going to provide your disguise."

"Ah, very good. So what is it?"

"Remember my dear old dad's demonblades?"

"Yeah. I've still got them. Nice weapons."

"They're our chance to make your disguise work."

Robin looked up from some computer work he was doing on the HIVE case when Raven knocked on his door. "Yes?"

"It's Raven."

"Come on in." He saved the file and turned around as the sorceress walked in. "How's the search for Kenkaku's disguise going?"

"Very well. Do you have any more of those black silk pants you wore to the meditation? Preferably longer, so Kenkaku might be able to wear them?"

"No, but you could buy them in the mall. Are they for the disguise?"

"Yes."

"I'll pick them up on my patrol. Would seven pairs be enough?"

"I would think so."

"Right, I'll get them for you."

"Cyborg?"

The half-android walked to the door, glad for at least a small break. "What can I do for you, Rae?"

"How many times do I have to ask you not to call me that?"

"Obviously, quite a few more."

Raven sighed. "I've got Kenkaku's cover story and profile. Can you make a pair of bracers for him like Trigon's? "

"Sure. Can I take a look at the file, or do I have to wait till Robin's hand-to-hand practice to see him?"

She shrugged. "Ruin the surprise if you want."

Cyborg did. "Dude! He looks so badass! And I thought Stone was good. How'd you do that."

She smirked. "Magic."

Japanese Flavor Text:

Kata: "Form/Routine."

Touki no Fenikkusu-ryu: "Fighting Spirit of the Phoenix School."

Sensei: Literally "One who has come before." Commonly "Teacher/Master."

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

Yari: "Spear."

Nodaichi: "Great sword." Larger version of the katana

Jian: Chinese. Type of sword previously referred to as a taichi sword. Think Green Destiny.

Naginata: Japanese polearm, roughly equivalent to a glaive. Wakizashi on a stick.

Gi: Martial arts shirt.

Hakama: Pleated pants. Often mistaken as a skirt.

Tsuba: "Sword guard."

Anza: Indian-style sitting.

Seiza: Sitting on one's legs that are folded under oneself

Saya: "Sheath."

Obi: "Belt."

Hara: "Center."

Wa: "Accord." Like Kenkaku said, it would take far too long to explain.

Koan: "Story." Kenkaku is referring to a saying that is contradictory, yet true, impossible, yet true, or just plain nonsense, yet true.

Kanji: "Chinese characters." A system of writing Japanese.

A/N: Well, here's the second chapter. Hope you like. It is still mostly set up, and yes, you will get to 'see' Kenkaku's 'badass' disguise in the next chapter, as well as see a little fighting action. As you may have guessed, this story is mostly inspired by the episode 'Deception', though it should go much further. After all, I have plenty more than thirty minutes to work in.

Reviews are nice. So would someone helping me out with this C2 thing, dammit! I can only provide one look at this. I'd be glad to have another perspective on the Prophecies Universe. Overjoyed, actually. That's rei (underscore) ronin on Yahoo IM, and see my author page for email.

Whatever. Ja na.

--Kai Reased, the Rei Ronin