Disclaimer: I do not own Xiaolin Showdown. Don't sue me!

(A/N) This story is dedicated to the people who read my fics and then get in contact with me. They're so nice! You know who you are!

Kaori leaned back and watched her mother cleaning the surfaces in the kitchen, her long black hair tied back in a long ponytail.

"You could help me you know!" She said, turning to her daughter.

"No thanks," Laughed Kaori, sitting forward, "I've got to relax. I've got a martial arts contest in a few days; I've got to keep up my strength!"

Her mother turned around, her blue eyes filled with disapproval.

"What mum?" Asked Kaori.

"I don't like those contests." Said her mother, shaking her head.

"How come?" Asked Kaori.

"I just don't!" Said her mother, turning away as thought that settled the matter; "I'd much rather that you'd do something like dancing or art."

"What hobbies did you have at my age mum?" Asked Kaori.

"I don't remember." Said her mother, not turning around.

"Dad said that he used to do martial arts at my age." Said Kaori, starting to pry a little further.

"Yes, well, your father did a lot of things I didn't like." Said her mother.

Kaori twisted a strand of her own black hair. Her own eyes were a deep red and she liked them a lot. There came a rattling from the front door.

"Dad's home!" Said Kaori happily.

Sure enough, her father entered the kitchen. His brown hair was sticking up awkwardly again.

"My key keeps getting stuck in the lock." He said.

"How was your day?" Asked Kaori's mother.

"Not bad," He said, "Yours?"

"Can't complain. Tea?" She asked.

"Please." He said before turning to his Kaori, "How're you?"

"Fine," Said Kaori, "except for mum giving me the 'I don't like martial arts contest' speech again."

Her mother put a cup of tea in front her father and placed her hands on her hips.

"Do you have homework?" She asked sternly.

"Only maths," Said Kaori.

"Well?" Said her mother.

"What?" Asked Kaori.

"Don't 'what' me! Go and finish your homework before dinner!" Said her mother.

Kaori flicked her side-fringe out of her eyes as she got up and left. Her hair was short and she tied in it cute little bunches which, when added to her perfect figure and pretty face, gathered a lot of attention from the boys in her class. She was only fifteen, but looked older when in her on clothes. Otherwise, people could more or less guess her age from the sailor-suit school uniform she had to wear (as a lot of girls at Japanese schools did).

As she left her mother turned to her husband.

"She's a lot like you were," He said, sipping his tea.

"Unfortunately, she likes to avoid work," Said her mother, sitting beside him.

"Much like her father," Said the husband, staring down at his cup.

Kaori stretched and yawned as she looked down at her maths homework. How should she know how to use the equation 'y mx+c' to find out the gradient of a line … or something like that anyway. She leant down and searched through her bag, trying to find he calculator.

It wasn't in there. Damn. She searched through her desk draws and then looked under her bed, in her cupboards and in her chest of draws. It wasn't anywhere. She had put a few boxes of stuff in the attic at the weekend. Was it possible that she put it in one of the boxes by accident?

She decided to go up and look for it. It beat actually doing the homework anyway. She got up, pulled a torch out from under her bed, left her bedroom and left the unfinished homework where it was. She stretched up once on the landing and pushed up the door to the attic. An automatic ladder slid down and she climbed up and turned on her torch.

Which boxes were hers again? She hadn't put them up here, her dad had. She looked around for the boxes not covered in dust. Unfortunately, it only took a matter of minutes for things in the attic to become dusty. She decided just to look through a few boxes. She knelt down beside one and slowly pealed away the tape keeping it sealed. A cloud of dust rose as she opened it and she coughed sharply.

As the dust re-settled, Kaori searched through the box. Inside was a collection of strange look pyjamas by the look of them. Two pairs; one for a girl and one for a boy maybe? Either way, this wasn't one of her boxes.

She pushed it aside and pulled another box towards her. She pulled off the tape and another cloud of dust rose. She sneezed and then leaned away from the box until the dust had settled. She then looked at the content. Inside were a few photographs and a black book with a lock on it. She picked up the photographs. They were of four people, about sixteen- seventeen. A boy and girl were holding hands and smiling. Maybe they were dating? The girl looked similar to her mother, Miko. The boy looked sort of similar to her dad too, Ray. He had the same untidy hair. Could it be that these two were her parents?

Kaori picked up the black book. She tried to open it, but the lock remained tight. She looked back in the box and started shifting through the photos. Right at the bottom was a small silver key that she put in the lock and turned.

On the inside cover (written in slender Japanese lettering) were the words:

This Diary is the property of Kimiko Tohomiko. Keep your hands off. That means YOU Raimundo!

"Kimiko? Raimundo?" Asked Kaori, "I guess it's not them."

She flicked over the page where another photograph was stuck onto the page. It was of the four people. Their names were written around it with arrows pointing to them, but they were a bit younger, maybe only about her age. The girl in the other picture was Kimiko, the owner of the diary. The boy holding her hand was Raimundo. The two other figures were also boys. There was a short, bald, round headed boy with the name 'Omi' written below him and a tall boy wearing a cowboy hat called 'Clay'. She had an uncle Clay! But he lived in America and she hadn't seen him in years. She could hardly remember him, except she remembered that he helped look after someone who was disabled and so he couldn't travel anymore. Judging by the mountains in the background of the picture, and the type of flowers in the front, they definitely weren't in America.

Kaori read a couple of pages in.

"Raimundo is totally getting on my nerves. He's such a jerk! He keeps trying to make me jump and tries to distract me in training practice. If I didn't want to train at this temple so badly I'd be on a plane going back to Japan…"

Kaori flicked through the pages until she came to a page with a large love heart drawn on it. Inside the heart were the names Kimiko and Raimundo again. Obviously something had changed from when she first started writing in the diary. She turned to next page. 31st January 2006 …

Kimiko rolled over and looked at her calendar. 31st January 2006. She smiled and got up, stretching. She smiled as she remembered the previous night. Raimundo had lead her out under the stars and used the Golden-Tiger-Claws to take then to the top of the mountain. They had sat at the top of the mountain for hours, just talking and looking at the stars and then they came back down.

Kimiko got dressed and walked out towards the kitchen. She got there to find Clay and Omi talking happily.

"Morning." Said Clay.

"Morning," Said Kimiko, waving her black hair out of her face, "Morning Omi!"

"Good morning Kimiko," Said Omi, "I'll tell Master Fung that you're finally awake."

Omi limped towards the door. Kimiko watched him sadly. They had finally defeated Chase Young; he was six feet under, but before going, he made sure he got one last hit in at Omi, leaving it painful for him to walk and he was now unable to train properly. Instead, Omi tended to turn to deep meditation while the others trained. However, it was easy to see that in his opinion this was no match for the thrill of battle. Omi was only to fight as a last resort and couldn't go on Shen-Gong-Wu hunts unless he stayed in the air with Dojo and just watched, which was worse than being left behind anyway. With his last hit, he had reduced Omi to a fate which he considered worse than death, but he had regained his confidence and was getting on with his life.

Raimundo walked into the kitchen, distracting Kimiko from her line of thought. She smiled and he kissed her. When they broke apart, Clay thrust a cup of coffee into Raimundo's hands and they started to talk fighting. When all else failed, at least they could talk about that.

"Kaori!" Shouted her mother, Miko, from downstairs, "What are you doing in the attic?"

"Looking for my calculator!" Called Kaori.

"You left it in the living room while you were doing your homework in front of the T.V the other night!" Called Miko, "Come down! Dinner will be ready in ten minutes!"

Kaori looked down at the diary in her hands. That poor boy Omi, he had been crippled and was left unable to fight. Kaori could never bear that! But she had been right with her first instincts about Kimiko and Raimundo; they had been dating.

"Kaori!" Called her mother again, "Get a move on! Help your father set up the table!"

"I'm coming mum!" Called Kaori.

Kaori looked back at the diary and the collection of photographs. She put a few photographs between the pages of the diary and slipped it up the front of her shirt. She knew her mother would tell her to put it back if she saw her with it. She climbed down the ladder, feeling the cold book against her stomach.

"I've just got to put my phone on charge," Said Kaori, pulling her mobile out of her pocket as her mother watched her carefully.

"Be quick!" Said Miko, turning away and walking downstairs.

Kaori walked quickly into her room and shut the door. She quickly pulled her chest of drawers forward and revealed a cupboard, which her parents had forgotten she had. She normally used it to hide extra snacks or at special times, presents. She opened the door and slipped the diary out from under her shirt before putting it in the cupboard and shutting the door. She then slipped the chest of draws back into place and put her phone on charge before walking downstairs.

Her mind was full of everything she had just read. Reading it from Kimiko's point of view made her feel as though it was her in the story. She couldn't wait to carry on reading it later, but first dinner and homework. The last thing she wanted was detention from her maths teacher again.

She sat down to dinner wondering if she should mention any of the stuff she had found in the attic, but decided against it. They wouldn't actually tell her anything even if she did ask. They were pretty useless when it came to finding out things about the past. That had been proven by her questioning earlier. Her mother always found a way to avoid giving an answer.

"Kaori?" Asked her father.

"Are you alright?" He asked.

Kaori blinked and looked up.

"What?" She asked blankly.

"Well, you seem kinda out of it." He said.

"I'm fine," Said Kaori.

"Do you ever actually listen?" Sighed her mother, "In your own little world again"

No, thought Kaori, I was in someone else's.

(A/N) trying something different. Maybe some of you can guess where this is going, but that's no fun so just sit back and enjoy the ride!

Tell me what you think of this first chapter.

Lots of luv, Becky.