After Pommy got a chance to offer up the contents of his stomach to the Almighty Public Porcelain God, the trio set off to explore Happyland. It wasn't long before something caught Pommy's attention.

"Look, they've got games!" Pommy ran over to a booth featuring a ring toss game. "Can Pommy try this one?"

Bomberman eyed a nearby sign. "It looks like you need tokens for this."

"Not to worry." Lilith dug around in her pocket, which jingled a little with the movement. "I loaded up a bit at the entrance, since they had a token machine there." She handed one to Pommy, and he scurried over to the game operator to exchange the token for a set of five rings.

Bomberman watched in amusement as Pommy flung the rings like supersonic frisbees, almost nailing the operator in the face with one of them. "You gotta be more careful than that, marshmallow," he said. "The point is to get the ring onto the stick thing, not to knock it over."

Pommy pouted at Bomberman. "But the stick is so far away!"

For Pommy, who was probably a third of Bomberman's height and had even less of an armspan than he did, it probably was. "I'll show you how it's done. Lilith? Mind lending me a token?"

Four of Bomberman's tosses fell short. The fifth one just barely made it on target. "Man, this is harder than it looks..." he said, frowning thoughtfully.

"Can Pommy try again?" Pommy asked.

He and Bomberman went through two more unsuccessful rounds each before Lilith stepped in to try. "At this rate, we're going to be here all day, and I won't have a chance to check out the rides," she explained with a gentle smirk.

Swish-swish-swish-swish-swish!

In five quick snaps of her wrist, she landed all of the rings on the stick.

"Myu, that was great!" Pommy cheered, hopping up and down. "Lilith's really good at this game!"

Lilith shrugged it off. "Thanks. But you learn hand-eye coordination real fast when you're tossing pointy objects around." She glanced up at the shelf of prizes. "Is there anything here the two of you might want?"

Bomberman tilted his head. "But...you're the one who won the game."

She smiled at him. "I don't need anything. I just felt a bit sorry for you guys."

That earned a slight blush from Bomberman. "I would've gotten it eventually..." he mumbled, scratching the back of his head and glancing away.

She giggled. "I'm just kidding. To be honest, I kinda just wanted to show off a little." She winked and put a finger to her lips, as though she'd just admitted some juicy secret. "Now pick out a prize."

Wait...was Lilith asking him specifically to pick out something? Even though she'd said "the two of them" — meaning him and Pommy — not long before that?

Bomberman cleared his throat for no good reason and took a better look at the prize offerings. There sure were a lot of stuffed animals. He wasn't really a stuffed animal person, but...well, that yellow tiger looked kind of cute, and if Lilith really wanted him to get something...

"Pommy wants the bunny!"

Siiiiigh.

"Bunny it is, then!" Lilith skipped off to fetch the floppy pink bunny plush. She was about to give it to Pommy when she paused. "Huh, this thing is larger than you are, you know. You're not gonna be able to walk with it."

"I'll hold it," Bomberman said, resigned. As he took it from Lilith, though, he had to admit that it was pretty nice for a stuffed animal won at an amusement park. He gave the bunny a quick squeeze, and reminded himself that he was not jealous of Pommy for getting such a girly prize from Lilith. Totally not jealous at all.

Their next stop was a few booths over at a high striker game. Bomberman stared at the game, then at Pommy, then back at the game. "You seriously want to do this?" he asked in disbelief. He doubted the critter could even pick up the mallet, never mind swing it hard enough to ring the bell at the top of the tower.

"Well, Pommy really wants that inflatable hammer. It looks pretty cool!"

Bomberman checked out the prize in question. Geez, that thing was probably even taller than him! "Um...look, I don't mean to be a party pooper, but we only have so much room in our plane," he pointed out. "We can't keep getting big prizes like that." He crossed his arms and tapped his foot. "Or are you just trying to compensate for something?"

"What would Pommy be trying to compensate for, myu?" Pommy asked, blinking confusedly.

Bomberman sighed. "Well, if you really want it, I can try to get it for you." Likely an effort doomed to failure. Even without considering that the game might be rigged against them, Bomberman wasn't exactly a strongman. Who needed physical strength when you could just blow stuff up? He missed the carnival games from back on Bomber Star; something always got blown up, even if it was the booth itself. There were insurance policies tailor-made for that sort of situation.

Lilith knelt down to pat Pommy on the head. "I think it would be a good idea if we looked around first to see what the other games have," she suggested. "You might see something else that you want more at a different place."

"Oh. Pommy supposes that makes sense, myu." The critter grinned. "Okay! Let's go check out the rest of the games!"

"Thank you," Bomberman whispered to Lilith once Pommy bounded out of earshot.

"Don't thank me yet," she said as they set off at a more leisurely pace. "Some of these games have pretty impressive prizes. You'd better hope he doesn't want an electric bass guitar or something."

"If he doesn't want it, I do," Bomberman responded, immediately scanning any game booths he could see for said item. He'd been wanting to learn that instrument for a while now, and if he could get it for close to free, then so much the better. Though it wasn't like he'd be able to try it out anytime soon. They still had to defeat the BHB Army, after all.

She smirked again. "Want me to win it for you?"

Yes. "Nah. It's better if I win it myself. More satisfying that way."

"I can understand that." Lilith gave a thumbs-up. "But anytime you want me to swoop in and save you again, just say the word and I'm there!"

Bomberman laughed. "That was one time."

"Three times, technically, if you want to also count the more serious situations with Zhael and Molok."

"And you're offering to keep on saving my behind? I thought you'd be sick of it by this point."

A cute shrug. "We're in this together, so it's no big deal." She waved a hand. "Besides, winning you a couple of carnival prizes is the least I can do after all you've been through."

"Don't worry too much about it, seriously," Bomberman insisted. Why did it sound a lot like Lilith felt guilty about everything that was going on? It wasn't like it was her fault that some wacko pirate decided to up and play treasure hunter with a ginormous space vacuum. Was it? Before he could think too hard about it, he continued: "Hey, why don't I try to win you something?"

"Sure, if you want."

For some reason, Bomberman hadn't expected it to go over that smoothly. "Okay. Uh. Is there anything you'd like?"

Lilith smiled and moved a bit closer to him. "Nothing in particular. But I'm sure you'll get me something nice."

The blush was returning with a vengeance to Bomberman's face. He turned away, pretending to look around some more, and thought to himself that he could get used to this.

He probably already had.