-unwinding from stress- Ok, I've decided to update this thing for fun. Though the story lacks seriousness, I am hoping people would leave a comment, negative or positive I don't mind. And I've come up with a silly rating system:
C - cool
GW- good enough, it works
T – tolerable
D – déjà vu (boring, I've seen this thing before)
IC- It's crap
BM – the whole thing's a bleeding mess
WT – probably written by a troll

So, hehe, if you're planning on leaving a comment, you could use that rating system. Thankies!

o-oooo-OO-oo-Oo

Chapter 7: The Evil Eye and The Frog

She was running fast. He couldn't catch up. The bear was sprinting alongside of her. "That two…," he told himself as he tried to double his speed, keeping his eyes fixed on the duo hastening their way along the shore of the lake. Their incredible speed managed to keep him many meters behind. But then suddenly, they halted and Hwoarang couldn't figure why.

"They must be laughing at me, slowpoke, slowpoke…." He muttered. He quickened his pace once more and in a jiffy he reached the spot where they stood. However, the two friends weren't giggling as he had expected. Rather, they were silent with their backs turned from him. They seem to be gazing at something amazing; he just couldn't see what it was.

"Ha, ha, star-stricken?" He stepped at Xiaoyu's side so he could see her happy face. It wasn't wonder that was painted across her face though, it was shock.

"Wha?" He raised one eyebrow and followed her gaze. From the cemetery gates beyond, about ten meters from where they were standing, a harassed-looking old man covered in cinder, ash, soot emerged. His clothes were torn and tattered. Rage was etched along the wrinkles of his face, making an impression that he had gone through an absolutely rough ordeal. His lips were moving, maybe uttering low unintelligible curses, and his fists were tightly clenched at his sides. He threw one last dirty look at the peaceful resting place of corpses where he still doesn't belong to then slowly limped away. He was so familiar. His head was bald except for two little white tufts of hair (which were now gray) noticeably sticking out like overgrown ears, or maybe little horns, at both sides of his head. He was muscular too, quite tough-looking for an old man. But it seemed someone had tried to beat him into soft dough and bake him into brown bread, and he was dusty and sooty… Then it dawned to the trio that it was…

"Cinderelly?" gasped Xiaoyu, wide-eyed. Hwoarang let out a silly, uncharacteristic laugh at this remark whilst Panda snorted. Xiaoyu shook her head twice and said "no, no, no" then patted her head before running forward to meet the poor limping man.

As Xiaoyu approached him, he grunted and looked away from her. "Gosh grandpa Heihachi, what have you done this time!" Xiaoyu exclaimed upon reaching him.

"Explode and scram little girl! I advice you to shove yourself off my path!" the old man retorted. "And don't call me grandpa!" he added in vexation.

"Aww, you seem beaten up and brainwashed. Don't you recognize me? I am Xiaoyu, remember?" Xiaoyu said in a hurt tone.

"Ahhhrrrgghhh, my mind is buzzing with problems, I am in the middle of a quagmire, and I am burdened with tribulations so leave me in absolute peace! Get out'ta my way!" Heihachi yelled back in exasperation. He didn't have the energy to talk or to argue or to even withstand her interference.

"You're turning into a perfect meanie!" Xiaoyu retaliated then added quietly in a teary-eyed state, "I just hope you haven't blasted someone into space with a rocket ship". Xiaoyu sniffed then stepped aside to let the old man through.

Heihachi just grunted again and continued on his way. As he passed by, Xiaoyu had a good view of the hideous marking on his back. It appears that angry flames had licked at his clothing, burning a huge portion of the rear side of his upper garment. Xiaoyu concluded that the flames left a huge scorch mark on his skin - a tattoo of an eye, an evil-looking eye. The eye glared at her menacingly and she equaled that with her best death glare. However, she was still baffled so she called out to Heihachi, "Hey, hey, wait you have an eye on your back! It's scary!"

"Pah! Delusions! That's nothing compared to the son-of-a-goat assassin, with a great X scratched on his demonic face, I glimpsed while I was blasted my way to this cursed place! I'm gonna crush his bones and drain his blood," Heihachi swore as tried to quicken his hobble away from Xiaoyu's sight. Xiaoyu's sharp eyesight however could still see that he stepped on an innocent frog happily frolicking along the lake shore.

"Watch your step Heihachi!" she warned him. Then Heihachi vanished completely. "Poor frog!" Xiaoyu sprinted to help the little creature. She passed by Hwoarang and Panda who turned to be silent, amused spectators of her short drama with the grumpy old man.

"Grumpy gramps has really lost it eh? Haha, I wonder who tried to kill him this time. But it figures he has a number of friggin' lives more than a cat…" Hwoarang remarked. "I didn't know you love frogs," he added, directing the comment on the now moody Xiaoyu.

"Pfft, frogs are living things. They feel pain and they don't deserve to be squashed under the weight of a senile," Xiaoyu said, all respect for Heihachi momentarily gone. Fortunately, Heihachi only managed to injure the right hind leg of the frog. "Aw, poor thing, it's ok I'll fix it…" Xiaoyu tried to nurse it but in vain. "I'm sorry little one I think I can't do anything. Maybe I'll just bring you to a vet or something. Oh! Julia's managing to have a good influence on me…" she realized.

"Gah! Why do ya have to care for a frog? It's just a frog," Hwoarang uttered incredulously. Panda meanwhile sniffed the incapacitated frog then nudged the broken leg gently with her nose.

"For the meantime, you're gonna be named Frogo Froggins the second," Xiaoyu blessed the frog. Panda growled in agreement.

"I can't believe you named it! Hey, once you name something you get attached to it. Now yer gonna be responsible for the damn frog," Hwoarang quipped, more incredulously.

"Don't curse the frog; it's not capable of inflicting you any harm," then Xiaoyu spotted a merry group of frogs at a further distance along the lake shore preparing for a swim. "Look there are more of them. I do hope the Mishima High School lab professors won't spot this area."

"What's gonna happen?"

"They'll trap them all, pin them on boards, cut their tummies and chests up and poke around their intestines. Curse animal vivisection!" Xiaoyu answered.

"Well it's educational," Hwoarang said carelessly.

"Oh have you dissected a frog! It's horrible. I remember our professor asked us to bring frogs in lab for live operation. Miharu brought one for our group. It was so cute and I named it Frogo Froggins. I abstained from the incising though and tried to convince everyone not to hurt the poor frogs. Evil prof gave me an 'F' and I stormed out of the lab. Miharu told me later that Frogo managed to unpin himself from the board and tried to jump while his insides were spilling out. Gruesome! It made me wonder how high a frog would be able to jump if its insides are spilling at a rate of two ounces per second!" Xiaoyu narrated.

"I bet just a centimeter…"

Xiaoyu gave Hwoarang a disgusted look.

"Oh well, let's get the frog to the vet if you really care for it. But I guess if you'll just leave it there it'll heal by itself. No?" But the frog leapt out of Xiaoyu's hand. It looked at her for a while then gave a croak in what seemed to be a way of extending gratitude. Xiaoyu, surprised, smiled at it. Then with an effort it hoped towards the merry group of frogs.

"See, it's alright, it's a fortunate frog," Hwoarang told her. Panda nodded.

"Yeah and I guess it wants to be with its frog friends," Xiaoyu stood up, her mood slightly improved.

"Ok, that solved, let's go now," then Hwoarang grabbed Xiaoyu's arm and dragged her away.

"Hey, I'm not going with you. I'm going to report to Jin about his mental grandfather. And maybe Julia will be able to help about that evil eye tattoo on his back," Xiaoyu said, trying to wrench her arm free of Hwoarang's grasp.

"Is that so? Alright, then let's go to the mansion and see Jinny," Hwoarang grinned.

"Jinny?" Xiaoyu threw him a questioning look. "Anyway, that eye reminds me of a story Asuka shared with me. What was that book Panda? I think I have to ask her too…"

"We'll be visiting a lot of folks today so just hop on my bike," Hwoarang offered.

"How about Panda? And I just remembered I'm hungry…"

"Damn, no more excuses. Panda can run along again, you can fill your rumbling stomach later."

And thus the trio left the lake and the park, unfortunately missing Frogo's frog choir croak a cheerful song.

Ooo-oo-oooooooo-ooOoo-oOo

Note: Heihachi sort of reminds me of Count Olaf from L. Snicket's Unfortunate Events and vice versa, for some strange reason oo. Hence, the 'eye' tattoo/burn mark. And I have a friend who recounted to me her experience of frog dissection. Her group named their frog Frogo Froggins. … I fortunately managed to avoid ever doing an incision on a live frog. We just studied a cold, lifeless one. And that quote about 'naming' things is from Monsters Inc.

Alright, the chapter's weird. I have to write it down though. Anyways, thanks for reading, people.