The Carousel Project

An Affiliated Project between Teniyume and Endless Dreamers

Part Three: A Sugary Memory / Marui Bunta

Marui felt really sick. The Lethal Weapon ride had been too much for him. Too much for his stomach to handle actually.

“Eugh… I don’t feel so good…” said the red-head walking dizzily towards the bench nearby the snack booths.

“You should thank me because you would feel even worse if I didn’t drag you away from the cotton candy booth earlier!” Jackal sighed as he helped Marui to a nearby bench.

“Shut up… Eugh…” the red-head covered his mouth as he gagged.

Jackal sighed and sat beside his friend, patting his back slightly.

“Let’s go over to the medic, Marui” he said but Marui only shook his head.

“Come on, you can’t just sit here!” Cried Jackle as he looked at his team mate, slumped over on the bench

“I don’t… Eugh… Think I can walk…” Marui gagged.

Jackal frowned. What should he do now? Carry his friend to the Medics?

“And then he vomits on my head? No way!” he thought.

He contemplated for a while. Jackal turned back towards Marui and saw a familiar figure walking towards their direction.

“Bun-chan, Jackal, how is you two?” smiled the girl as she walked closer to them.

“ -chan, surprise to see you here” said Jackal, smiling at the girl.

“Un, tou-san is handling the cotton candy booth. He told me that a certain red-head bought so much cotton candy that he had to sent me to the store to buy more of the ingredients for it. Ara, Bun-chan daijoubu?”

“He’s the one your dad’s talking about. Unfortunately, he had too much and felt sick after the Lethal Weapon ride” laughed Jackal.

“Eugh…”

“Hai, kore” smiled as she handed Marui an empty plastic bag. was a third year in Rikkai Dai and by chance was in the same class as Marui and sat directly in front of him.

Marui took it gratefully and place it in front of his mouth. As the red-head regurgitated into the plastic bag, Jackal and turned away to stifle their laughs.

“Ne, Jackal… If it’s okay, I’ll take care of Bun-chan. You can go on and explore the place.” reassured Jackal.

“Really? I mean, don’t you have to help your dad or anything?”

“No, my shift’s over.” smiled the girl, flashing him a peace sign.

“Arigatou” thanked the boy as he got up from the bench.

“Don’t go and over-eat again, Marui!” he called out as he walked towards the stage performance area.

sat beside Marui silently. Occasionally patting the boy’s back.

***

“Here, have a drink.” said as she handed him a bottled water.

“Thank you…” mumbled the boy as he took the bottle from ’s hand. He felt better now that everything’s out. He certainly regretted eating too much for the first time in his life.

“Sorry for giving you so much trouble -chan…”

“It is alright, Bun-chan. Don’t worry about it.” said gently, patting Marui on the head.

“How do you feel now? Better?”

“Aa, but I got to tell you, your dad makes great cotton candy!” beamed the boy.

“Ahaha, thanks!” laughed . “Wow, Bun-chan can surely become fine fast!”

“ -chan’s so lucky! You get to eat a lot of cotton candy right?”

“No, but I do get to eat the cakes tou-san makes.”

“Your dad makes cakes too?! Wow~!” beamed the red-head excitedly.

“Un, you know the cake shop near our school? Kaa-san runs it. You can come over anytime and I’ll treat you.” said with a warm smile.

“Aa, thanks -chan.”

It was fun for to see Marui become so active in such a short moment. ‘Marui Bunta is a rather interesting person’, she thought with a smile.

“Ne, since you’re all energetic now… Wanna go see the rest of the place?”

“Hai! Let’s go to the petting zoo. I heard -chan likes animal right?” said Marui, pulling the girl up from the bench and headed towards the petting zoo.

***

“Kawaii~!” squealed one of the girls at the petting zoo.

There were so many animals there. There were rabbits, ponies, baby kangaroos, koala, parrots, orang-utan, chimpanzees and a baby elephant.

“Kya~ there’re so many animals here!” squealed in excitement.

“Let’s go this way!” said the red-head and dragged her towards the East section of the petting zoo.

“Wow” exclaimed Marui as he stood there staring at the large animal.

“Why are there elephants here?!” exclaimed in shock.

“Sasuga Atobe-san. They even managed to bring a baby elephant here.” Marui stated as he stepped closer to the elephant.

“Bun-chan, it’s not nice to stare at an elephant’s behind…”

“Let’s go to the other side where the elephant is facing.” continued the girl.

“ … You don’t have to. It’s already turning towards you.” he smiled.

“Eh?” turned towards the baby elephant. It was already reaching it’s trunk out to her.

“Go on, pat it” said Marui as he lead her hands towards the elephant’s trunk.

“Aa, kawaii~!” said as she stroked the elephant.

“Good day, this is Bubu-chan. He really seems to like it a lot.” said the zoo keeper.

***

“Weren’t the chimpanzees cute Bun-chan?” asked the girl as the two walked away from the petting zoo.

“Nah, they kept trying to imitate my actions.” said the red-head popping an apple flavoured bubblegum.

“That’s because you were teasing it baka~!” giggled , hitting the boy slightly on his arm.

The boy pouted slightly and turned towards the girl. “Where do you want to go next?”

“Etto, let’s go to the game booth!” answered excitedly.

“Okay, but where?”

“It’s behind the snack booths, right next to the carousel… I think. Hold on, let me look at the map.” said as she rummaged through her sling bag searching for the map.

“There. See, it’s just like what I said.” Smiled as she pointed at the map in her hand.

“Let’s go!” said and pulled Marui with her as they squeezed their ways through the crowd.

“Hai, we’re here! Which one do you want to play Bun-chan?” she asked.

“Uwaah~! The one with the frog looks fun! Let’s try that -chan!” replied Marui excited as they headed towards the booth.

“Hai, two tokens for a game” said the man in the X-Zed’s mascot t-shirt.

Marui and handed the man two tokens each to the man.

“The aim of the game is to fill the frog with water when it opens its mouth. The person who fills the frog with the more water than the other wins. Use the water gun to squirt the water into the frog’s mouth” explained the man.

“Do you guys understand?”

“Hai!” said the two in unison.

“Okay, start!”

and Marui used the water guns and squirted water into the frogs. Most of the time Marui managed to squirt the water in but missed. In the end, ended up squirting Marui till the water gun was empty.

“ -chan! I’m all drenched!” pouted Marui as he looked down at his shirt.

“You’re so good at aiming, I envy you” said , pouting a little as she poked the boy on the sides.

“Hey, stop that! It’s ticklish! Haha!” laughed Marui, covering his sides.

“Congratulations, young man. Here’s your prize” said the man handing Marui a plushie of X-Zed’s cat mascot.

“Arigatou” said the boy popping the bubblegum in his mouth before handing the plushie towards .

“This is for you.”

With a smile on her lips, took the plushie and hugged it tightly. “Arigatou”.  She blushed as she looked at Marui.

As they moved to the other game booths, Marui accidentally bumped into none other than Hyoutei’s Mukahi Gakuto.

“Kuso kuso. Watch where you’re going bubblegum boy!” cursed the Hyoutei red-head.

“I’m sorry, I don’t think Bun-chan meant to do that.” quickly apologised.

“ , please. You don’t have to do that” Marui said, pulling her to his side.

“Is she your girlfriend bubblegum boy? How did someone who got sick after ride get a girl huh?” sneered Gakuto.

“How the hell did you know?” exclaimed Marui in surprised.

“Overheard your tennis partner and the captain talking…” said Oshitari. Smirking, as he walked towards them.

“Su-sumimasen! We’ve got to go!” bowed and quickly dragged Marui away from the Hyoutei tennis players.

“Kono baka! Wait till I get my hands on them!” fumed Marui glancing back at the other two.

“Bun-chan, just ignore them. You’re here to have fun right?”  She said softly.

***

Marui sighed as they walked towards the Ferris wheel. After bumping into those two earlier, he didn’t really had the mood to talk. Their walk to the Ferris wheel was a silent one.  Even when they entered the Ferris wheel carriage he was silent.

“Bun-chan…” called the boy softly but he didn’t respond.  She tried calling him again but he still didn’t respond. She sighed and moved across the carriage and sat next to him.

“Bun-chan…” she called him again softly.  As he turned to face her, she placed a soft kiss on his cheek.

 “What was that for?” Marui managed to say after staring at her for a moment. 

“It’s a sign of ‘thank you’ and also to cheer Bun-chan up” said the girl, smiling before resting her head on his shoulder causing the boy to blush.

Marui smiled to himself. This was a good day for him afterall.

_________________________________________________________________

Written by Marishka (05/09/2006)

Edited by Kashii

Japanese edited by Kaho

Illustration drawn by Kawamoto

I’m sorry this fic took such a long time. I had too many school activities and duties to fulfil. I hope that you guys did enjoy the fic! =)