First Attempt: Swamp Monster

Xiaoyu sighed. Why would Grandpa Jinrei have those leg cramps now? Because of this, she was asked to get some sort of plant in the nearby swamp. And because of this, she couldn't visit that new amusement park at the city with Miharu. Why?

She and Panda trudged around, looking for the purple-stemmed plant Grandpa was talking about. "I don't see it anywhere," said Xiaoyu. She was beginning to feel scared. It was cold and dark and gloomy here in the swamp, and rumors abound that swamp monsters haunt this place and eat people who dare come into their territory. But she knew Panda would protect her.

The eerie silence was broken when they heard a loud splash not far from they stood, like something heavy was dropped into the murky waters. "What was that?" said Xiaoyu, her voice shaking. Panda looked around, alert for any sign of movement. But they heard nothing more other than the sound of their breathing and insects buzzing around.

She and Panda started to search for the plant again. Then they heard a high-pitched scream. It echoed around the marsh.

Xiaoyu was really frightened now, but she would not give up on finding that plant for Grandpa Jinrei. She had promised that she would find it. She motioned for Panda to follow her. "Come on, Panda."

"And whose idea was this?" hissed Lili as she tried to put on her green swamp monster costume, which looked like leaves sewn crudely together by vines. She had a hard time finding the holes for her arms. "Ew, this thing smells like rotten poop. Did you sit on this before giving it to me?"

Asuka, who had her own swamp monster suit on (and looked like one of those Tangle Kelps in Plants vs. Zombies), looked offended. "Hey, don't diss it," she said. "I spent all night making them. I even forced Jin to help me out."

"Jin," Lili said, recognizing the name and saying it like it was something unpleasant that she had to get out of her mouth. "Jin Kazama? That emo boy?" She gave up trying to put on the green stuff altogether. "Yuck. I won't wear it."

"And why not?" said Asuka. What is with this girl?

"It's contaminated."

"Watch it," said Asuka, curling her hands into fists. "Whose fault was it? You're the one who wanted to work together. And you haven't thought of a specific plan yet, yourself. So I took matters into my own hands, and -"

"Well, you're not the only one who gets a say in this, you know!" said Lili, struggling to keep her voice down. "Just because Xiaoyu's petrified of swamp monsters, it doesn't mean that we'll become swamp monsters just to scare the crap out of her!" She looked at Asuka, who now looked as if she wanted to strangle her. "You're not being creative, you know."

"Oh, is being creative our key to freedom?" mocked Asuka. Lili answered by chucking the costume into the swamp water, which caused a loud splash.

"What's the matter with you?" said Asuka, looking over the low tree they were hiding behind and seeing Xiaoyu startled and casting her eyes everywhere. She'd heard the noise.

Lili only glared.

"Listen up," Asuka said, taking over the responsibilty of leading them out of this mess. Sometimes, Lili acted so childish she could beat a five-year-old at it. Asuka wondered if she was like this to her father. "We'll at least try, okay? And if my plan doesn't work, it's your turn to think of something."

Lili thought about it; then she grinned. That was enough for her. She'd already thought of something, in fact. But it would have to wait till the end of this silly operation. "Fine." She picked up her suit, which was dripping wet. She regretted dropping it in the grimy swamp water.

"Don't blame me for that, Miss I'd-Rather-Be-Creative," said Asuka smugly, seeing Lili's drenched costume and the look on her rival's face. "You're the one who threw it in there."

"Shut up." Lili tried to put it on again, but was slightly alarmed as she saw a large water bug creeping about in the suit. She swatted it away. "Disgusting. I hate this place. There are too many mosquitoes. My father would never approve of me going here at all."

Asuka smirked. Lili the daddy's girl, all right. "Whatever." After another minute, Lili had finally finished putting it on.

"Let's do this," said Lili, flexing her arms. It was a bit hard to move in her heavy costume, but it would have to do.

"You need to review what we're going to do?"

"I'm not as slow at getting things as you are."

Choosing to let the insult pass, Asuka had an idea. She picked up something from the damp ground and held it up. "Hey, you dropped your bracelet."

Lili opened her palm to take it. "Why, thank y-" Asuka handed it over, and no tarsier's eyes would ever become wider than Lili's as she realized that she was holding the water bug she had flicked aside just a moment ago. She shrieked as Asuka chuckled, clutching her stomach. Lili tossed the blasted insect into the water before it could bite her or something, then proceeded to punch the culprit on the nose.

"Ow! What was that for?"

Xiaoyu was almost sure that she was hearing whispers, but they were too faint for her to understand. She sang 'Eye of the Tiger' while dancing about to get her mind off things as they continued to look for the plant.

"Hey, I found it!" exclaimed Xiaoyu, bending down to examine a bush with unusual purple stems. She produced a pair of scissors from her shoulder bag and began to randomly cut off bits of the plant, putting the little pieces in a plastic bag. "There we go. I hope it's enough for Grandpa!" She held up the plastic bag jubilantly for Panda to see. "What do you think, Panda?" Her smile disappeared when she heard a splash.

From the corner of her eye, she saw the swamp waters rippling violently, like something - or someone - had jumped into it. Panda followed her gaze and growled. Then, a green SOMETHING charged at them from the purple-stemmed plant!

"Aaaahhh!" screeched Xiaoyu. "The swamp monster!" Panda stepped forward, shielding her master, and braced herself for a fight. The 'swamp monster' moved forward slowly, growling, taking its time...

But something weird happened. Before it could get any closer, the green something sort of stumbled over something, and it rolled to the side, hitting another green something that seemed to be coming out of the misty water. Xiaoyu heard something like two human voices, but they were so low that she was not able to make sense of anything they said - if they even said anything, or it was all just some weird noise. The 'swamp monsters' got tangled together, then they slipped and toppled into the swamp water.

The sight would have been very funny if Xiaoyu was in an amusement park, but she was in a swamp, and she had to get out of there quick before those monsters decided to resurrect themselves.

Panda made a move towards where the monsters fell in, but Xiaoyu stopped her. "Don't. Maybe the crocodiles will eat them." Her heart was beating very fast, like she'd run from King Kong, or Marduk. "Let's go." Together, they ran off in the opposite direction.

They were following Xiaoyu for twenty minutes already, and their suits were beginning to itch and grow hot. They huddled behind a strange bush with purple stems. "When will we come out and scare her brains out?" asked Lili, growing impatient.

Asuka did not take her eyes away from her target. Her nose still hurt from the blow Lili had given her earlier, and she was quite certain it had become crooked, but she had no time for it now. "This is harder than I thought. How about a change of plans?"

"What?" They heard Xiaoyu singing something. Lili listened. "Crap. 'Eye of the Tiger'? Twenty-first century much?"

"Back to business," Asuka said, waving away Lili's crude comment. "Didn't she say she was looking for some purple-stemmed plant?" She pointed to the bush they were hiding behind. "Well, here it is."

"Yes, I saw it! I'm not stupid."

"It doesn't show." Asuka waited for some kind of retort, but heard none. She went on: "What if she sees the plant, then sees us here? So" - she pointed at the sinister-looking swamp lake behind them - "we ought to hide underwater. Then when she gets here, we'll pounce!"

Lili was revolted. She, dive in that water which looked like it spawned fungi? "Ew. I am SO not getting in there."

Asuka expected as much. "You are if you don't want her panda bear tossing you up like it did to your limo."

"Tch." Lili had never seen her limo again, but her driver did turn up in their mansion, looking like he'd survived an avalanche, that night. It was a good thing her father was away on a business trip, or he would have skinned her alive - or worse, grounded her. She scrutinized the ominously dirty water, remembering how the driver had looked then: limping, clothes torn. She decided that she'd rather spend ten seconds under the swamp water than get flung up by that brutally inclined panda. "All right, then. But you're diving with me, right?"

"Of course!" assured Asuka. She looked over the bush and hastily hid back down. She shoved Lili. "Dive in! She's coming!"

"YOU dive first!" said Lili, shoving her back. They could hear Xiaoyu say, "Hey, I found it!" and the sound of scissors snipping. Asuka pointed at Lili's chest, then jabbed her finger at the water. Lili clenched her teeth, but decided to obey. There was no time to fuss around. She pinched her nose and jumped into the water.

Asuka couldn't help smiling. That sucker! she thought. Of course Asuka wouldn't dive in after her! So she jumped out of the bushes and growled viciously at Xiaoyu, who screamed in fright and said, "The swamp monster!" Her panda bear snarled and prepared itself for an assault. Asuka's courage sank. Why wasn't that panda afraid? This might prove to be a more difficult task than she had supposed.

Nonetheless, she walked slowly onward, making growling noises. "Growr, growr!" She had practiced making these noises last night, while she and Jin were making the costumes. She had been so good at it that Jin had cautiously asked her if the Devil had already possessed her as well.

Okay, so she was having fun. But something really unexpected happened: she tripped over a rock. Asuka struggled to maintain her balance, but the heavy costume was turning out to be her worst enemy here. She rolled to her right, completely at the mercy of the weight of her suit. Suddenly, just before she was about to roll into the bog water, she bumped into Lili, who was crawling out of the lake.

"You whore!" hissed Lili. "You said you were diving in after me!"

"She was too close!" said Asuka, trying to get up. "She would've seen me anyway!"

Lili tried to punch her, but Asuka parried it. She pushed Lili, who was pushing her back -

"Woaaah!"

They slipped across the mossy land and SPLASH! they fell into the water. Despite her weighty suit, Lili managed to come up to the surface first, spitting out the disgusting water that had come inside her mouth. It sure did taste as icky as it looked. She heard Xiaoyu say something along the lines of a crocodile coming to eat them. Then Lili watched as she and her panda ran off.

A crocodile coming to eat them? This was not good.

Asuka resurfaced, but Lili grabbed her head and submerged it into the water before she could inhale. "Damn you! See how you like the taste of swamp water, you filthy -"

Asuka, her lungs screaming for air, power-punched Lili in the stomach, causing the latter to reel back and release her poor head. Asuka came up and took a deep breath. "I told you, she was too close!" she snapped. She cast her eyes towards the shore. "Hell! Where are they?"

"They ran away," replied Lili, holding her stomach. She turned to face her rival. "Xiaoyu said something about a crocodile coming to eat us. Are there crocodiles here?"

Asuka suppressed a chuckle. How gullible can this brat get! "Of course not! The last time I went here with my dad, we never saw a single..." She trailed off, her eyes widening to the size of frying pans as she looked at something behind Lili. "C-c-c-crocodile!"

However, Lili was not about to be tricked by her amateur acting. "Hmph. I'm not falling for tha-" She was cut off as she felt a strong ripple on her right. But Asuka was too far away to cause that... She slowly turned her head to her right, and there was the crocodile, seemingly motionless, but it was staring at her with its small, unblinking eyes that said, "It's dinnertime."

Lili squealed like a pig about to be butchered. She kicked the hideous reptile away and swam towards shore, cursing her swamp monster suit loudly for slowing her down.

Asuka was already up on the shore. She had gotten up and was about to run in the opposite direction and just leave both the monsters behind, but she hesitated, looking at Lili, who was struggling to swim. She sighed, then held out her hand for her rival to grab. "Hold on!"

Lili did grab her hand, and Asuka was surprised at her weight. Was it the costume, or did Lili start pigging out after the tournament ended? She tried to hoist Lili up, but the soft soil gave way, and both of them skidded back in the water and straight towards the crocodile's mouth.

"Aaaahh! Get it off me! Get it off me!"

Beware of karma.