What's In a Name? Well, I'll never look at Ashura the same way ever again. Finals week! X_X

Disclaimer: I don't own anything in here. Any reference to Islam, ridiculous or otherwise, comes from a purely historical point of view and is not intended to offend anyone. If the al-Qaeda comes to get me, let it be known that I died like Hussein. Who is NOT Saddam Hussein. And I will shut up now before I screw up really badly. Kthxbye.

It seems like in every world, they had to spend some time in the library, researching.

This one was no different.

Yes, it was a bigger library. And yes, the database was bigger. And yes, it was a heck of a lot quieter.

There was an oddly tense vibe running through the library, though. Everywhere the travelers walked, they could see people as young as eleven to as old as seventeen huddled over tables buried under a mountain of textbooks, paper, and electronics of the academic nature.

"Fai-sa—" Sakura began to ask, only to be met with irritated, harassed glares and harangued "SHHH!"'s

"Sorry," she whispered meekly. Kurogane almost slapped himself.

"SHHH!"

Syaoran wandered over to an empty table. Or, a table as empty as it would ever be. It was covered with packets, papers and binders that all seemed to have one word in common: Islam.

Intrigued, he picked up a packet at random and flipped to a page.

"Hussein," he read aloud, but quietly enough so that only he could hear. "The son of Ali (the fourth and last of the Rightly Guided Caliphs (656-661)), to whom the caliphate was given to by the Shi'ite when the caliphate was seized by the Shiite upon the death of Mu'awiyah in 680 AD in Madinah. He was martyred in the massacre of the battle of Karbala by Umayyad troops in the same year. See Ashura for more details."

Obediently, Syaoran flipped to the entry for Ashura. By then, Fai had wandered over and was reading over his shoulder.

"Ashura," Syaoran whispered quietly again. Fai paled. "One of the—"

"—key centers of Shi'ite practice, it worships the martyrdom of Hussein, Ali's son, at the battle of Karbala in Madinah," a different, female voice joined in acidly. "More often than not, the emotions produced by the worship causes self-flagellation."

Syaoran and Fai whirled around in surprise, Syaoran with a noticeably guilty look on his face. The girl looked murderous. Her weapon of choice? A pen.

"And what," she hissed, "are you doing with my study guide? Didn't anyone teach you not to take things that aren't yours?"

"Umm…"

"We're very sorry, miss," Fai butted in smoothly, still somewhat pale. So Ashura-ou in this world is a holiday for an organization known as "Shi'ite," who celebrate some poor guy who effectively killed himself? This world is bonkers. "We weren't aware that it was so important to you." He was met with a chorus of irate "SHHH"'s.

She threw up her hands in frustration. "It could be the difference between me making it out of this semester alive or as a cadaver, if that's what you mean! Now give me back my study guide before I stab you with this pen." The pen clicked threateningly.

"Syaoran," Fai murmured, "do what she says. I highly doubt Kuro-chichi will enjoy fighting his way out of a mob of angry, over-stressed out students."

Syaoran replaced the study guide in a hurry.

I've actually heard the stupidest things said before (not to me, per se, but still): "Do you speak Muslim?" "Is Islam in Asia?" "Wait…so you have, like, oil wells in your backyard?" And, a personal favorite: "Wait, so is Taiwan, like, a province in Singapore?"

Actually, this has a lot of potential. How 'bout we make 'em run into more irate, studying teenagers? The chapters will probably get longer...