The third installment.

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This world seemed to have a very large supply of Kangaroos, Yuki noticed.

As he and the odd Kangaroo girl who called herself Uo-chan had reached the shore, so had all of the other creatures, and they were now all sitting, dripping wet, angry and very uncomfortable together, complaining.

The first question, of course, was how they were going to get dry again.

They had quite a large debate about this, and after only a few minutes, Yuki found that he saw it quite natural to be talking to all of these creatures as if he had known them his entire life. He supposed that this was because of the entire Sohma family's relationship with animals, but he was no one to judge.

Indeed, he had already managed to have an argument (Which he very much regretted) with one of the larger Kangaroos (Yuki noted that all of the creatures seemed to be of the classification of that hopping Australian mammal, the Kangaroo, oddly enough), who seemed to think that the way to resolve an argument was to box the one you were displeased with firmly around the ears, which Yuki did not enjoy. He quickly decided that he did not need to have an argument with a Red Kangaroo.

At last, Uo-chan, who seemed to have some sort of authority among the quarrelsome Kangaroos, cleared her throat and said "Sit down, all of ya! I'll find a way to get ya all dry."

Yuki and the Kangaroos, happy to see that something was going to be done, sat down immediately in a large ring, as Uo-chan continued.

Yuki was most careful to pay attention, for he was aware that if he stayed wet for much longer, he might catch cold and just maybe (As things were being so frustrating lately) his asthma might resurface.

"Alright, ready?" Uo-chan asked, and was met with a simultaneous nod "Right, this is the driest thing I know, so listen hard!

'Centuries of conflict had preceded the Battle of Hastings. Both the Normans and the Saxons were descended from the Danes who between the fifth and eleventh centuries continually attacked, invaded and settled in England. In 911 a group of them moved across the channel to the SeineValley where they were given land to live on by Charles III of France'"

"Ugh…" said Yuki's conscience, which had been blissfully quiet for the entire time, and it quite embarrassed Yuki. After all, it was Yuki's conscience that was being so rude. Yuki had to admit that Uo-chan's recital was one of the most boring things he had ever heard, but he was always a polite young man, and he did not find his conscience's display very proper.

Uo-chan stopped her recital, turning towards Yuki's conscience very slowly. "Did you say something?" the Kangaroo-girl asked, narrowing her eyes at the minute raven-winged creature.

"Oh, no, not at all!" the Akito-conscience said hastily, not in the least wanting to be beaten up by something an awful lot larger than itself.

"I should hope not." Uo glared "Now listen!

'They became known by the French as Northmen or Normans. Over the years their population expanded, merged with the French culture, acquired more land, and grew in power. In 1013, King Sweyn Forkbeard of Denmark'"

"How are you now?" she asked Yuki suddenly.

"As wet as ever, I'm afraid." Yuki sighed, sneezing once "Your speech didn't seem to dry me at all."

"In that case," said one of the larger and more important-looking of the Kangaroos, rather quickly, Yuki noticed "I move that we dump this idea for something more energetic…"

"You sure you know what you're sayin'?" asked another, smaller Kangaroo, irritably "Cause' you'd better not be waistin' our time."

"Of course." replied the larger, in a dignified tone "What I was going to say, is that we hold a Caucus-race."

"What, my I ask, is a Caucus-race?" Yuki asked, looking most confused. So many things were confusing these days!

"Well, the best way to explain it is to do it!" said the large Kangaroo. And immediately, the animals began readying themselves for the Caucus-race.

If you are a little curious, and have neither participated in Caucus-race, or read 'Alice's adventures in wonderland', I shall explain here how it is done.

First, the racecourse is marked out ("The exact shape doesn't really matter" the larger Kangaroo pointed out to Yuki), and then all of the party is placed around the course, here and there. There is no "One, two, three… go!" or something along those lines. In stead, one can begin running at any time they like, and leave off when they like. Thus, it isn't really easy to know if the race is over or not.

However, when Yuki and the Kangaroos had been racing about for around half an hour, and were quite dry again, the largest Kangaroo suddenly called out "It's over! Stop!" and they all crowed around, panting, and asking that one important question, "But who has won?"

As it was taking the largest Kangaroo a while to decide this, a few smaller Kangaroos began an all-out brawl, and the middle-sized ones were refereeing and disagreeing horribly. Yuki was not sure weather to be pleased that he was dry again, or if he was to be uncomfortable to be so close to such quarrelling Kangaroos. His conscience, on the other hand, seemed to be enjoying the arguments, but Yuki supposed that this was just the way it was: It did resemble Akito slightly, after all.

"Alright, stop it, all of you!" the largest Kangaroo called out, and they all stopped fighting, save two of the smallest Kangaroos (Which Yuki supposed were wallabies of some kind).

"We," the Kangaroo declared "Have all won, and must all have prizes."

This caused quite an excitement among the creatures, until one of them piped up (And was soon chorused by the rest of the group) "But who will give us our prizes?"

"He is, of course." the largest Kangaroo declared, pointing to Yuki, who looked most shocked, and a little offended.

Unfortunately, he could not refuse, for the Kangaroos all crowded around him, shouting "Prizes, prizes!"

Yuki had no idea what to do, and he was most sure that the Kangaroos would beat him up if he did not give them something. He thought of giving them his conscience, and letting them all get their share, but the thought of one's conscience being torn apart did not really please Yuki.

In desperation, he dug his hands into his pockets, and came out with a small packet of rice balls (Luckily the water had not harmed them), that Tohru had insisted Yuki bring along with him. "You could share them with Ayame" she had suggested, sounding so pleased that the two brothers were going to spend time together, that Yuki had crossed out his resolve to escape Ayame even before they left the house.

"I really must thank Miss Honda when I get back." Yuki reminded himself, and then looked slightly downcast as he realized that he may never return. Still, he had a problem to take care of at the moment, so he fixed his attentions on that, and began carefully breaking pieces for the Kangaroos, and handed them around for the prizes.

"I guess he should have a prize as well, ya' know?" Uo-chan said, after they had all received a piece, and there was nothing left over.

"Of course." replied her comrade, who immediately turned to Yuki "What else have you got?"

"Only an eraser." Yuki sighed, holding up one. He had pocketed it whilst at school, and forgotten all about it.

"It'll do." the Kangaroo decided "Hand it over."

All of the Kangaroos crowded around Yuki as the largest solemnly presented the eraser, gravely saying "We hope ya' like this elegant eraser, and accept it for ya' prize, cause' you're not gettin' anything else!"

After he had made this 'Important' speech, all of the other Kangaroos cheered. Yuki found this all rather laughable, but as he decided that he should not offend potentially violent Kangaroos, he bowed, and solemnly accepted the eraser.

The next thing to be done was to eat the Onigiri parts. This caused some noise and confusion, for some of the larger Kangaroos argued that their parts were smaller, and that the littler Kangaroos had larger pieces than they did, and the littler Kangaroos sometimes choked on the smaller parts, and needed to be patted on the back. Naturally, some of the Kangaroos began arguing again, and quite soon there was more boxing and kicking that Yuki tried to stay away from.

However, once it was over at last, they all sat back down in a ring, and asked Uo-chan to tell them another story (Which would hopefully not be as boring).

"It would be nice to know your history, really." Yuki pointed out, still quite sure that he had seen the Kangaroo-girl somewhere before.

"Mine is a long and sad tale!" Uo-chan sighed, turning to Yuki, who was sitting a little way away from the rest of the arguing Kangaroos, next to his conscience.

"It is really quite a long tail." Yuki remarked, trying to be polite, and wondering really what tails had to do with Uo-chan's history "Is it hard to wash?"

"You're pretty irrelevant." Uo-chan commented, looking most annoyed, thumbing her sandy-coloured tail behind her angrily.

"He always is." Yuki's conscience pointed out quickly, eager to cause a fight "You have no idea what it's like, being his conscience…"

Yuki began grumbling to himself about small creatures that were most unpleasant to be with, and how unfair it was that his own conscience was acting against him.

"I see! Well, I've had just enough of all of ya'!" Uo-chan snapped, looking offended, and turning around, walked off sharply.

"Oh no! Please come back and tell us about you!" all of the Kangaroos and Yuki called out, but she had already left.

"What a shame it couldn't stay." sighed the Red Kangaroo that Yuki had argued with earlier.

"I couldn't really care either way." said Yuki's conscience, which was rightly ignored.

"If that baka Neko were here, he'd be losing his temper much quicker than that Kangaroo-girl." Yuki commented, wishing that he could find a way back to places where things made more sense.

"Who is this?" asked one of the smaller Kangaroos, a grey wallaby.

"Oh, Kyou." Yuki replied, folding his arms "He's the Cat of the Zodiac. He loses his temper often."

"A Cat, psh!" the Wallaby "We'd beat it up easily! He couldn't match up against US!"

And at that, all of the Kangaroos laughed, rather haughtily. Yuki was a little frightened of how confident they all sounded, but was not one to comment.

Suddenly, however, their laughter died, and they immediately jumped off in all directions, looking terrified. "Although not at that size!" one of the Kangaroos muttered as it sped past.

Yuki looked to where they were all running from, and saw an enormous shadow. It was very large, and the shape of a familiar feline…

It couldn't be Kyou! Yuki felt as if he would run away in an instant!

And he was just about to do so, when a little, annoying, chibi Conscience flittered up to him, and the shadow got smaller. As it neared him, Yuki could see that the creature was holding its hands in a certain way.

"Isn't shadow puppetry fun?" his Akito-conscience commented, smirking wickedly.

Yuki did not agree with it in the least, and probably would have scolded his conscience severely, had it not been for the sound of footsteps, nearing the two beings…

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This chapter is relatively short, so hopefully the next one shall be longer. ˆˆ'

We shall all hear more of that elusive rabbit Momiji, and meet two more characters of the Zodiac, albeit in a minor role, in the next chapter!

Please, everyone! Review! And nonsense poems would be greatly appreciated! If you have any, please contact me via the E-mail address on my profile. Later!

Z-chan.

Note: The Battle of Hastings speech is taken from the BBC website. My dad is interested big-time in Medieval things, thus, this was the first thing I thought of. ˆˆ'