Chapter Two

The smell of popcorn and fried dough wafts through the air, titillating Kimi with memories and Nishiki with future possibilities. Laughter flows and carefree children argue with their parents and Kimi can't help but imagine bringing their child here, someday. Despite her myriad emotions, this one thought is definitely happy.

Above all, a Ferris wheel looms, tall enough to see the limits of Tokyo. She can't wait to ride it.

That's when she'll tell him.

"This is fun, isn't it?" Kimi smiles at Nishiki, her lips laced with nerves. Maybe it's her anxiety; maybe it's her nausea and the fact that Touka told her that the morning in morning sickness is a lie. Maybe it's that she doesn't want to worry Nishiki.

She trusts he'll be supportive. But happy? Is she even happy?

Maybe not. But she wants Nishiki to be happy.

"Very," he agrees, as a gaggle of schoolchildren shove them aside in a race to see who can enter the fairgrounds first. His nose wrinkles. "Minus the disrespectful booger brats."

Kimi tries to laugh, but her heart sinks. Well, kids are booger brats, but they might have a booger brat of their own soon – ugh, what if Nishiki has just been reminded he hates children?

Nishiki swallows in an attempt to force down his suspicions. Kimi seems on edge, unlike herself.

Did Touka warn her about the proposal? No, Touka wouldn't betray him.

Or – or – or what if she knows and is about to say no?

Nishiki tries not to panic as he purchases their tickets. He's being illogical and he knows it, which only serves to piss him off more. "All right, I've never been to one of these, so you better guide me."

Kimi laughs. "The spinning rides used to be my favorite as a kid. I'd be disoriented and stumbling like a drunk, and I loved it."

She hesitates. She shouldn't ride it now, though. Not when she's already nauseated.

"Well then, we have a date with the spinning rides," Nishiki says innocently, slipping his arm around Kimi. A delay for the Ferris wheel, which he knows she loves. Proposing at the top of the Ferris wheel will be beautiful.

Kimi nods. It's surely against her best interests, but she wants this spinning ride. She wants to share it with Nishiki.

And it's a distraction against her news.

As they lower themselves in the car, an announcer reminds them that small children and pregnant women are not recommended to ride.

Kimi shrugs off the advice, as per usual, until Nishiki has buckled her in.

That's when she realizes. She freezes. No.

She can't tell Nishiki now – right?

But she has to get off –

No, she should be fine, she's barely six weeks along. They probably only mean heavily pregnant women –

"Are you okay?" Nishiki is alarmed by the sudden horror on her face.

"Huh?" Kimi blinks, but she doesn't know how to tell him, what to say, and the ride has already begun.

Tears prick her eyes. She's already betrayed her child.

She's going to be a horrible mother.

She tries her best to dissociate as the ride spins and spins and spins, and exhilaration fills her brain, and that marvelous tingling down her spine –

When the ride is over, Nishiki is green-faced. He fumbles for their seat belts. "Oh, I feel drunk all right."

"You must admit," Kimi says, her stomach lurching, "it feels pleasant. To lose all your senses."

"You're a brave woman," he says, pinching her nose.

Kimi laughs, and feels the decaf coffee rising in her throat.

"You look sick," Nishiki says, on high alert.

"I'm fine," she insists, stepping out of the car and pasting a smile over her mouth.

She's sick. That's why she is behaving so strangely. Nishiki has an idea. "Can I get you a funnel cake, then?"

Kimi's mouth waters even as her stomach rebels. "Yes, please."

"Hey, I'll even try it." He winks and sits her down at a bench. He hurries over to the funnel cake stand.

"One funnel cake."

"Do you want powdered sugar?" A familiar face beams at him. Yoriko, too, is here to witness tonight.

"What's the word?" Takeomi sticks his head out.

"Shut up, shithead." Nishiki pauses. "Uh, do people usually have powdered sugar? Also, why is it powdered? Why not crystals? What's the damn difference? Humans are weird."

"It's texture, Nishiki, texture. Powdered sugar has a delicious texture and a more potent taste," Yoriko replies sternly.

"Do it soon, Nishiki," Takeomi instructs.

"I'm working on it."

"Not soon, now." Yoriko points inside the funnel cake.

It is the perfect place to hide a ring.

"It will get all sweet," Nishiki says, a glint in his eyes. "I like the symbolism."

"Good." Takeomi grabs Nishiki's hand and forces the ring into the funnel cake.

Nishiki trots back to Kimi, cake in hand and a smile of pure fear on his face.

"Hey," she greets him, barely noticing his anxiety. She pinches off a piece of cake. The dough is perfectly crisp on the outside and soft on the inside. Sugar explodes across her taste buds. "You said you were gonna try, but you don't have to."

"Thanks," Nishiki says, his lips pursing.

"Sure you don't want to?"

"I'd rather not get sick here," Nishiki says glumly. "But, thanks to you, someday I might even enjoy this."

"I hope so." Kimi smiles now as they exchange genuine smiles.

"Really, the true suffering of ghouls is their inability to eat funnel cake," Nishiki intones.

Kimi snorts. She pops another piece into her mouth. "Oh, definitely."

Suddenly, her stomach screams. "Uh – where's the trash?"

"Kimi?" Nishiki asks with alarm, but she's already taken off.

Kimi scrambles to the nearest trash pail and leans over edge. Her chest heaves, and she retches over and over.

"Kimi!" Nishiki rubs her shoulders. "Don't tell me you've finally become a ghoul."

"Ha – you wish," she manages before gagging again. The flies and sickly sweet odor of decaying apples and melted ice cream certainly aren't helping.

She stays hunched over until the nausea is entirely past. "I – I think I am okay."

"You want to go home?" Nishiki asks. Her health comes first, obviously.

"Nah, I've been queasy all day. Maybe just something I ate," Kimi says lightly, hating herself for lying.

"Sorry I ruined your funnel cake, though." Kimi stares at the powdered asphalt that looks almost like fresh-fallen snow. At the center lies the valiant corpse of her funnel cake, which dropped in her efforts not to puke on the fairgrounds.

"Here." She grabs the cake and flings it into the trash. "Well, look at us not littering."

Nishiki squeaks.

"What? I'm doing my part to save the environment," she teased.

"You're starving the pigeons," Nishiki says. His voice doesn't sound like his, not at all. What can he do? The ring isn't on the ground; it was wedged in there.

Kimi points to a fat pink pigeon that waddles by. "They're not exactly in need."

"Yeah," he says.

Behind Kimi, Ayato and Kaneki's heads peek out behind Yoriko's stall. They wave frantically to Nishiki as Yoriko looks about to faint.

Let us take care of it.

Cursing himself, Nishiki agrees, allowing Kimi to lead him away from his dream for the future and life savings that just got tossed into a trashcan.


"Ayato," says Kaneki, standing before the trash can. "We can't just toss the trash on the pavement."

"Why not?" demands his brother-in-law.

Kaneki grimaces. "She'll notice."

"Fuck." Ayato grabs the entire can. "Well, fine then! Let's take it behind Yoriko's stall."

Kaneki nods. The two of them look absolutely preposterous, lifting a garbage pail and scurrying away before Kimi can notice.

"Should I text Tsukiyama to delay?" Takeomi asks, hurrying behind the stall to talk to the two heroes.

"Yes," Kaneki says.

"God, there's vomit," Ayato grumbles, staring into the trash.

"Ayato, you've dealt with blood and severed limbs," Kaneki points out.

"Vomit is worse." Ayato grinds his teeth. "Nishiki better fucking appreciate me."

"Have fun, ghouls. I'm going to help out my wife," Takeomi says in a saccharine tone.

"Hey! Maybe I'll eat you," Ayato shoots back.

Takeomi shrugs lazily in response, and Kaneki bites his cheek to hide a smile.

It's fun, it really is. Finally getting to see how the people from both his lives interact when neither needs to hunt the other.

"He's such a phony, that Marude," Urie mutters.

"Hmm?" Mutsuki turns, mouth full of the cotton candy he's forcing himself to eat like a human, to see Marude and Tsukiyama in a DJ booth. "I thought he was busy."

"Turns out he was. Here. Manning the music." Urie scowls.

"Ha!" Mutsuki chuckles.

As they watch, Marude pulls out his phone.

His face pinches almost as much as if Urie had punched it, and the sight is about as satisfying.


"We have to delay?" The Gourmet clasps his hands together. "Oh dear, dear, that won't do."

Marude eyes Tsukiyama Shuu. "I am not letting these records out of my sight. I will stay here until the end."

"Very well. I must say," Tsukiyama says with a dramatic sigh, "I did not expect the leader of TSC to have such swoon-worthy songs. A fastidious music palate. Prized records, indeed."

"I like them, okay?" Marude's face pinkens. He used to dream of Yoshitoki and he swaying to the music.

Yoshitoki would like this. This carnival, this engagement, the idea that his species was not a lie. Chika would be proud of him.

Marude has to remind himself of this every day.

"How long do we have to delay?"

"Our unwitting heroine threw the ring in a trash can, so I haven't a clue." Tsukiyama sounds ill at the thought of such a beautiful ring lingering among garbage.

"She what?!"

"Kaneki and Ayato are combing through the trash whilst Nishiki distracts his dear Kimi." Tsukiyama claps his hands, quickly recovering from the thought of the ring amidst trash. "This will be a fun story to tell at their wedding!"

Marude shakes his head. "How full was the trash?"

"I haven't a clue."

He punches a number into his phone. "This calls for desperate measures."

"Oh?" Tsukiyama watches with interest as Marude's mystery friend answers within one ring.

Marude barks into the phone. "I don't care if you no longer work here. Haul your ass to the fair."


Touka spies Kimi and Nishiki walking slowly towards the Ferris wheel. Kimi leads Nishiki, who makes eye contact with Touka across the way.

Help, his eyes plead.

Touka shrugs. Kaneki is doing his best, after all. And Ayato, too.

"They haven't found it?" Yomo shakes his head.

"Time to call in the true trash, then." Touka smirks.

"Who?" asks Yomo.

"Your boyfriend," says Hirako Take, arriving with his Shiba. He immediately knows who Touka would still call trash.

"His what?!" Touka replies, nearly dropping the phone.