Chapter 1: Omi's Secret
Needless to say, the other Dragons in training didn't understand Omi's sudden Friday night trips to Chase's lair, especially when they started to think about the time Chase had made Omi evil. How does one forgive someone for that sort of thing?
Which was why Raimundo thought it necessary to search Omi's sleeping area well he was at Chase's. If he didn't find anything, no one had to know he'd been searching through Omi's stuff.
And if he did find something, it'd show that he was a good leader, who was only looking out for his team-mate.
Which was all the reason Raimundo needed to decide looking through Omi's things was a good idea.
Raimundo grinned as he stepped into Omi's tiny sleeping area. As to be expected the area looked different when compared to his own, mostly because Omi didn't have a sleeping mat. Raimundo wondered about this for a moment, than noticed the trunk that was placed right next to the wall.
Moving with barely contained giddiness, Raimundo tried to open the trunk, only to find a lock on the trunk, that needed a key. Raimundo glared at the keyhole, and glanced around the room, which was completely bare.
"Where would Omi hide a key?" Raimundo pondered aloud as he leaned on the trunk with his elbow, hands holding his head as he thought.
Something struck Raimundo as odd, and he got up and looked at the trunk. He checked the floor, which was made of hard wood.
Raimundo then dropped to the floor, his eye on ground levels. He could see that the trunk was being held about an inch off the floor. Raimundo picked the trunk up and looked underneath where to his delight he saw a small golden key.
He moved the key with his foot, dropped the trunk which made a loud bang and quickly unlocked the lock and opened the trunk so fast that he might have left permanent damage to one of the hinges.
Raimundo didn't really care though, and began rummaging around. Raimundo was actually surprised, there was only four items in total, all of them some form of book.
He opened the biggest book, and saw pictures that he could only assume were taken before he, Kimiko and Clay had arrived at the temple. He wasn't sure of his age, but Raimundo saw what he believed to be a four year old Omi, with a white sash performing a handstand.
What Raimundo took from this was that Omi had been in training for longer then Raimundo realised.
He opened the newest book, and this one simply contained pictures of all four of them together.
One of the last books was an old picture book, that told the story of Dashi strangely enough, and the last book was written in what Raimundo believed to be Chinese.
'Hmm, now who could I get to decode this?' Raimundo sat for a moment. He realised that every monk in the temple could read Chinese, but Raimundo knew from experience that most of the monks had high morals, and going through someone else's things was greatly frowned upon.
Than a thought struck him.
He left Omi's room, and quickly made his way to Clay's room. Raimundo checked his wrist watch, and confirmed to himself that Clay should be in his room at the time. Raimundo knocked, there was momentary pause, then "Yeah?"
"Hey Clay, it's me. Come on, group meeting in the Garden." Raimundo despite being fairly happy with the turn of events, was still trying to convey that this was important.
"I'll be there soon." Raimundo didn't need much else and was off to the dining table. He didn't need to grab Kimiko as she used this time of night to be alone, and web surf.
As he all ready knew, she was in the kitchen sitting on the floor, engrossed with her incredibly expensive smart phone.
"Hey Kim, you seen Dojo?"
"Main Hall."
"Thanks, group meeting about something to do with Omi."
"Usual spot?"
"Yep."
Kimiko rose from her spot, and made her way to the Gardens, Raimundo on the other hand went into the main hall, were he spotted Dojo, in a night gown laying around some midnight reading. He also happened to have a torch with him, for reading in the dark.
Raimundo smirked, Dojo hadn't seen him just get. Raimundo jumped into the air without making a sound, landed behind Dojo, picked him up and jumped one again to the nearest archway. Dojo had started screaming as soon as he'd been picked up, and even more so when they were in the air. Raimundo laughed as he made his way to the Garden, Dojo on the other hand started grumbling.
"Hey Dojo, can you read Chinese?" Raimundo asked like what he just did was perfectly normal.
Dojo was understandably experiencing a bit of emotional whiplash at the conflicting nature of events. After a long breath he answered,
"Yes I can. What do you want me to read?"
"Wait till we're in the Gardens."
It didn't take long for the duo to arrive in the Gardens, where Kimiko was sitting on the edge of the fountain and Clay was sitting on the ground where he was carving a small statue out of a chunk of wood. Raimundo was happy that there would be no pointless waiting around.
As soon as the Dragons of Fire and Earth noticed him, they looked at him expectantly. Raimundo didn't want to disappoint.
"Okay, so I've asked you to talk about Omi's trips." That opener was enough to make Kimiko and Clay pay attention.
"And this has to do with reading Chinese for some reason?" Dojo asked from Raimundo's arms. Still annoyed with Raimundo's antics most likely.
"Readin' Chinese?" Clay repeated back out of sudden confusion. Raimundo rolled his eyes.
"I was getting to that! Anyways, just to make sure that Omi's visits were of his own free will, and see if we could figure why in the first place, I snooped around in his room." Raimundo explained, which was quickly met with a glare from Kimiko.
"You shouldn't go looking around in his room Rai! What if you found something private?" Kimiko's tone was agitated, she had thought Raimundo was above mindless raids now. Looks like she was wrong.
"That's the whole point! We need to know what's going on with Omi and Chase, by any means." He was starting to get annoyed with justifying himself, but none the less pulled the small book out of his trouser pocket.
"Dojo, could you please tell me what this is, and if it could answer my question?" Raimundo asked the tiny dragon. Dojo for his part, looked annoyed with the request, he and Omi were close friends and it felt wrong betraying him. On the other claw, it couldn't be anything super important...could it?
"Fine." Raimundo handed him the book, and Dojo made a show of putting his glasses back on. He flashed the torch at the cover. The dragon's eyes widened. He looked up at Raimundo who looked back, waiting for Dojo to speak. When it became clear he wouldn't, Raimundo became annoyed.
"Well? What is it?"
Dojo looked at the book again confirming what it was to himself, then he looked back up at Raimundo, "What this? The book in my hand? It's nothing important."
"Come lil buddy, how bad could that there book?" Clay asked, suddenly joining the conversation. He himself was now interested, and he was done carving his statue, which had turned into a nicely done skeleton, he had nothing better to do.
Dojo spared a look at Kimiko, hoping she'd back him up.
"Just tell them, it can't be that bad."
Dojo seeing he was out numbered gulped.
"This...is Omi's diary." There was silence for awhile, then...the evilest smirk Dojo had ever seen sculpted itself to Raimundo's face.
"Read some of it." Ideas were already swirling around his head about what he could do with some of the information in this diary.
"No Rai, Omi would go mental. And I really don't want to deal with it." Dojo crossed him arms, and looked away from Raimundo.
"Oh come on, at least the first page? I'll owe you one!" Raimundo begged. Dojo stopped for a moment and thought about the offer, as Raimundo was the Leader, as well as being a known trouble maker, really there wasn't anyone better to have owe you one.
And Dojo could always give that favour to Omi if he revealed anything too terrible.
"Rai, you've got yourself a deal!" Raimundo jumped for joy, and Dojo opened Omi's diary.
"Now let's see here...it would appear that this diary began...on the first night that you three arrived at the temple. There's a bit of ranting about how unfit you three were for the job." Raimundo's eye twitched slightly at this knowledge, but he managed to keep his cool. Kimiko had a tiny laugh under her breath, as that was the sort of thing she'd expected Omi to have written about. Clay shrugged, not really caring, as Omi had matured since then. Some what.
"Hmm, he thought Rai was an idiot, Clay's accent and saying were by far the most difficult to understand, and that Kimiko was..." Dojo suddenly stopped and stared at the diary, dumbstruck.
The three monks looked between each other, all wondering what was so shocking.
"Dojo? What's it say about me?" Kimiko hoped it wasn't something horrible.
"Um, well. I don't think I should, this is pretty personal info."
"I'll owe you two."
"...okay, but! I'm using one right now. Don't mention this to Omi. At all. My involvement, what I've said. Anything." Raimundo nodded his head, a smirk playing on his face. Dojo knew this was going to come back and bite him, but he was in too deep.
"Um, Omi wrote that Kimiko was the prettiest thing he'd ever seen in his life."
All at once, it happened. Clay looked up in thought, Raimundo fell to the floor in hysterical laughter, and Kimiko didn't know what to think.
"Apparently this evolved into a crush, which apparently still lingers to this day." Dojo said after flicking through some of the more recent pages. He looked around, at the three monks and simply slithered off.
Clay looked up and spotted the Silver Manta Ray pulling in for a landing.
"Rai, you'll best sober up. Omi's here." Raimundo took three deep breaths, and managed to clam himself down.
Omi walked past them and smiled in their direction. The other monks managed to smile back at him, then Omi entered the temple, probably to find some sleep.
Raimundo was about to make a joke about the whole thing, when Omi's voice broke the silence.
"Who's been in my room!" Raimundo couldn't help, and fell over laughing. Kimiko glared at him, and Clay went to find Dojo, before Omi did and got the wrong idea.
Ah, chapter 1. So imporant, but yet...so annoying. Anyways, please inform me of what you think and all manner of mistakes.
