Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear Vol. 2

by Kumanano

  shoulder length, hung down in front of me. I grabbed the dryer and ran mana through it. Warm wind started coming from the dryer.

  “Eep! What is that?” Fina squealed, whipping around.

  “It’s a tool to dry your hair by blowing out hot air.” I showed her it was fine by blowing it at her hand.

  “It’s warm.”

  “Now that you know, turn around.”

  Fina obediently turned away from me. Once Fina’s hair was dry, I moved on to Shuri, whose hair was a little longer than Fina’s.

  “Yuna,” said Tiermina, “that’s a useful tool you’ve got there.”

  “I made it since it’s so hard to dry long hair.”

  “When you’re finished, may I borrow it, too?” Tiermina’s hair was back-length.

  “Sure.” I handed the dryer over to Tiermina once I finished with Shuri.

  “Are you sure I can go before you?” she asked. I had my hair wrapped in a towel and hadn’t dried it yet.

  “It’ll take me a while, so I can do it after.”

  “I’ll use this with gratitude, then.”

  Tiermina turned it on her hair as her daughters watched. It was such a wholesome scene. When she finished and handed it back to me, Gentz came back from his bath.

  “That was some great hot water. Those bears sure gave me a fright though. Thanks, Miss.” Then Gentz took a good look at me and froze up.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “Bear girl, you sure look different without your hood on.”

  “You think so?”

  “I had no idea that your hair was that long under the hood. Hair makes such a difference to people’s impression of you.”

  Who are Tiermina and Gentz getting their lines from? I thought.

  “I think you look pretty cute in your hood,” he said, “but you look beautiful with your long hair.”

  “Yes, I think that too!”

  “Praising me isn’t going to get you anything.”

  “It’s such a shame that you’re hiding your hair when it’s this pretty.”

  Since I couldn’t tell them I was powerless without my bear onesie, of course, I decided to keep quiet. Fina started helping me when I was partway through drying my hair, and I thanked her. Once we were all done, I led them to the guest rooms.

  “Gentz, you use the room in the back. I only have two beds for Tiermina and the girls, but could you take that room next to it?”

  “Yes, Shuri and I can share a bed.”

  I looked over at Gentz. “Gentz.”

  “What?”

  “Make sure you don’t pay any night-time visits to Tiermina. Fina and Shuri need to sleep,” I told Gentz, with a look that meant business.

  “I wouldn’t do something like that!”

  “Don’t have her visit you in your room, either. I don’t want to wash dirty sheets.”

  “I wouldn’t want you to do that, either!”

  “We wouldn’t do anything like that in someone else’s house,” Tiermina said, “especially with the girls around. In any case, we’re all exhausted, so I’m going to sleep. Thank you so much for everything today.”

  “Goodnight, Yuna.”

  “Night.”

  “I’m heading to bed. You were a big help today. Thanks,” Gentz told me sheepishly and headed to his room.

  I retired to my room.

  The next morning, when I woke up and went downstairs, Fina was prepping breakfast.

  “Morning.” I greeted.

  “Good morning.”

  “You’re up early.”

  “I always wake first and make breakfast for my family, so I just went ahead…”

  “Don’t worry about the ingredients you used or anything. Is everyone else still asleep?”

  “Mr. Gentz, I mean my dad, went to work. He said to tell you thank you.”

  He had been taking days off work to rush over when Tiermina was sick, then while looking for a house, and moving. He couldn’t keep that up, obviously.

  “Shuri and mom are still in bed.”

  “Let them sleep. They must be tired.”

  Even though I cured Tiermina, she was still slowly rebuilding her strength. Being bedridden so long had cost her, and the move must have left her exhausted.

  “It’s fine. Shuri is always asleep until around now, and my mom has been sick for a long time, so she’s not good with mornings, but she’ll wake when I get her up.”

  In other words, they needed someone else to rouse them.

  “I’m finished making breakfast, so I’ll pay them a visit.”

  Fina headed upstairs. After a few minutes, Tiermina and Shuri came down, rubbing their eyes.

  “Yuna, good morning. Thanks so much for yesterday.”

  She still looked pretty tired. Shuri looked drowsy, too. In spite of that, they dug into the breakfast Fina had made, which consisted of simple veggie sandwiches and some milk. Come to think of it, I hadn’t had fried eggs since I left Earth. I would have killed for a fried egg sandwich right about then.

  “Fina, I have something I want to ask you real quick.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Do you know where they sell eggs?”

  “Excuse me?”

  “Like I said—eggs. Frying up some eggs to stick between bread is the best, so I’d like to get some. I was just thinking I hadn’t really seen any place selling them.”

  “Yuna, normal stores don’t carry luxury products like that.”

  “Really?”

  “Yes. Only the nobles and a small number of rich people can eat something high-grade like an egg,” Tiermina explained. “You have to go to the woods or something to collect eggs, and if you take too long, they end up going bad, so you can’t bring them back from far away, either. Even if you transport them with a fast horse, it’ll cost more than we can afford.”

  “Uhh, can’t you catch some flightless birds and raise them to lay…”

  “Flightless birds? Aren’t they birds because they can fly?”

  Maybe this world didn’t have chickens? Or maybe this was a region where they didn’t have chickens? If I looked around, would I find some somewhere? I added chicken and eggs to my list of wanted ingredients.

  After breakfast, the three of them went home in order to finish cleaning up their things from moving. I offered to help, but they turned me down.

  “You need to work too, don’t you, Yuna?”

  Actually, I had enough money to live without working for a while. A wise person once said working was losing. Still, I decided to head over to the adventurers’ guild to check the quest boards.

  Chapter 37:

  Fina Gets a New Dad

  WHEN I CAME BACK from going to buy my mom something good to eat, Yuna wasn’t there anymore. Apparently, she went home. I hadn’t thanked her enough, and even though we bought the food using Yuna’s money, I hadn’t thanked her for that yet, either.

  When I looked at my mom and Mr. Gentz, they were blushing for some reason. I wonder what happened?

  “Um, Fina, Shuri. Well—how do I put this—would you like a new dad?”

  “A dad?”

  It was a weird question. My dad was dead.

  “I’m not sure. I don’t really remember my dad, so I don’t know what to think about a new one…”

  “I dunno,” Shuri said.

  Mr. Gentz scratched his head and looked at us. “Your mom and I are going to get married. Fina, Shuri, would you give us your blessing?”

  “Married?”

  “I want to become your dad. I want to protect the three of you. I don’t think I’ll be as good as that bear girl, but would you let me protect you guys?”

  “Mr. Gentz?”

  “Fina, Shuri, would you be okay with Gentz being your dad?” my mom asked us.

  I didn’t really get it. But…

  “If that would make you happy, Mom.”

  Shuri nodded too.

  “Yes, that would. And I’ll make sure you two are happy too. Um...thanks,
Fina and Shuri.”

  Mr. Gentz hugged us. He and Mom did seem happy.

  Everything that followed was a mess. My mom tried to get out of bed now that she was better, and I had to get her to lie down, and then keep doing that every time she tried to make food, clean, or go out. Yuna told me to make sure she rested for a while. I had Shuri stand watch over Mom. She seemed happy to spend time with her.

  Daddy Gentz was looking for a house where the four of us could live together. I had to get ready to move, little by little.

  A few days after Mom was cured, we found a new house and decided to move. I got approval from Yuna for my mom to leave bed. The day we moved, Yuna was going to help, too.

  Normally, moving takes a lot of time and money. We would have had to rent a wagon and trailer and make a whole bunch of roundtrips, but Yuna could fit anything in her bottomless bag, no matter how big or heavy it was. When we went tigerwolf slaying, I’d been shocked to see her pull her house out of it and put it back.

  Since we got the things in the house ready ahead of time, we were done with everything before the afternoon. We went to Mister Gentz’s house next. It was ridiculous. I don’t know if he ever cleaned it. Mom was super upset. She asked Shuri, Yuna, and me to go to the new house ahead of her and clean up.

  When we got to the house, I asked Shuri to clean. I had Yuna bring out the furniture and beds. Usually we would need a lot of people to bring the beds from the first floor to the second floor, but Yuna just pulled them out of her bear glove and then we were done. After Yuna finished pulling out the things, she went to Dad’s house.

  Shuri and I gave cleaning the new house our all. When the sun started to set, my mom came back with the other two, and we started talking about food. The house still wasn’t clean, and we couldn’t make food there. When Dad said that we could go out to eat, my mom got mad at him since it was a waste of money.

  In the end, Yuna took care of us and we went to her house. I wonder why Yuna is so kind?

  We ate and ended up staying over at Yuna’s house. Since we were staying over and were dirty from moving, Yuna let us take baths. Yuna’s bath was so big that even the four of us could go in together. We made Dad wait outside.

  Yuna was slim and dainty, and really pretty, especially her hair, which was black and went all the way to her back. I wondered if mine would be that pretty if I let it grow too.

  When we got into the bath, we started talking about breasts. Yuna said she’d end up bam, shwoo, bam. I wonder what she meant by that? I wanted my chest to be about as big as Yuna’s. I saw a lot of adults with big breasts, but they seemed like they would get in the way.

  I looked at my own chest and asked my mom, “Do you think mine will get bigger?”

  For some reason, Yuna looked at my mom’s breasts, then mine. “You’re free to dream,” she said.

  My mom got a little mad when Yuna said that. “You don’t need to worry. Yours will get bigger, unlike mine.”

  “I’d like mine to be the same size as Yuna’s.”

  The second I said that, Yuna hugged me. For some reason, it had made her happy.

  Dad got in the bath after us. While he was doing that, we dried our hair. Yuna’s hair was long and it looked like it would be hard to dry. When I was drying my hair with a towel, Yuna brought out a round, long tool that was in a weird shape. Yuna told me to turn around, so I was good and did that. I felt hot wind blowing on me from behind. I was surprised and made a weird sound.

  Yuna told me it was a tool to dry hair by blowing warm wind. The wind was nice, and my hair was dry before I knew it. My sister got her hair dry, and then my mom, and Yuna dried hers at the end. Yuna is so amazing for having such a useful tool like that.

  Right when we finished drying our hair, dad came out of the bath, so we decided to sleep, since we were tired from moving. My dad slept alone, and I slept with Shuri and my mom.

  Yuna talked about stuff I didn’t understand. Since mom and dad would get the sheets dirty if they slept together, she said they couldn’t be together. I guess they wouldn’t get the sheets dirty if they were apart?

  I’ll ask Mom about it next time.

  The next morning, I got up alone. Mom and Shuri were sleeping. I went down to the first floor as quietly as I could. When I was making breakfast, Dad came down to the first floor. He ate ahead of everyone and went to the guild; work there starts early in the morning.

  Yuna came down to replace him. Since I was done making breakfast, I went to wake up the others. While the four of us ate breakfast together, Yuna asked me something weird.

  “Do you know where they sell eggs?”

  Did she mean bird eggs? When I told her she couldn’t get them from a normal store, she looked disappointed. Did she really want eggs that much?

  After we finished breakfast, we went back to our new house to finish cleaning up. Shuri picked up the small things, and mom and I picked up the big things. It would have been nice to have Dad around to help, but we couldn’t do anything about that. We finished putting away everything that we’d brought from our old house, but we struggled with Dad’s stuff because it was all just crammed into whatever boxes they fit in.

  All of these changes—Mom being healthy, getting to eat good food, having a new dad—were because of Yuna.

  Chapter 38:

  The Bear is Thanked by the Guildmaster

  I WENT TO THE GUILD to find something to keep myself busy. I made eye contact with Helen at the front desk, but I passed right through to the board where the quests were put up.

  “Yuna!” Helen called out to me. I wished she wouldn’t yell the moment she saw me. The adventurers in the room were staring, but then again, I guess they’d be doing that even if she hadn’t shouted; they still weren’t used to the onesie.

  “What?” She’d probably call my name again if I ignored her, so I decided to hear her out.

  “What have you gone and done this time? The Guildmaster told me to call you when you came.”

  What was with this lady? “I haven’t gone and done anything. This time. I think.”

  “Are you sure?”

  I sure didn’t remember doing anything, even when she shot me a dubious look. I hadn’t been taking quests the last few days. anyway, and I didn’t remember causing anyone any trouble.

  Regardless of how I felt, Helen marched me over to the Guildmaster’s room. The Guildmaster was working at a desk in the back, which didn’t suit his musclebound image at all.

  “Please sit.” He gestured towards a huge table ringed with chairs. I took the seat closest to the door. “It’s about Gentz. I wanted to thank you.”

  “Thank me?”

  “You healed Tiermina’s sickness and encouraged her to marry Gentz, didn’t you?”

  “I did, but why are you thanking me?”

  “First, it seems that you used a valuable medicine from your hometown to heal Tiermina’s illness.”

  Since it might be bad if word got out that I’d healed her with magic, I asked Gentz and the others to say I’d healed her with expensive drugs.

  “Tiermina was a former adventurer, so I was worried about her illness,” the Guildmaster continued.

  “Are you saying you were involved with having Fina work at the guild, too?”

  “I thought it was the least I could do. I still couldn’t publicly hire her, so we only brought her in when we had a lot of work. That’s why I was grateful to see you bring in so many wolves. You’re still giving her work, aren’t you?”

  “Only because I wanted to.”

  “That’s not the only thing. I was worried Gentz would pine for that woman all the way to the grave. Between Roy, her illness, and the kids, he needed the push from you to feel like he had a place with her. I wanted to tell you that. Thank you.”

  “Don’t worry about it. I sort of coerced them to get married for Fina’s sake.”

  “It was kindhearted coercion. In any case, we don’t have to worry about him anymore, and he can devote himself to his work
now.”

  It was possible that Gentz and the Guildmaster didn’t just have a boss-subordinate relationship. They didn’t seem like they used to be in the same party together, though.

  “If that’s all you need me for, I’ll be heading back.”

  The moment I tried to stand up from my seat, there was a knock at the door.

  “What is it?”

  “Excuse me.”

  A guild worker bobbed her head.

  “Guildmaster, Lord Cliff Fochrosé has arrived. May I bring him to you?”

  The worker glanced at me. I guessed she couldn’t make an aristocrat wait, even if the Guildmaster was busy with me. What kind of business does Cliff have with the Guildmaster? I thought.

  “We just finished,” I said, “so it’s fine.”

  The worker looked at the Guildmaster. He gave a small nod.

  “Then I will call him in.”

  The worker left the room.

  “I’ll head out, too.”

  “Yeah, sorry for calling you in.”

  I stood up from my seat and, the moment I tried to leave the room, the door opened.

  “Sorry for coming in so early.”

  Cliff came in through the door. Our eyes just barely met.

  “A bear? Oh, Yuna.”

  I gave him that little half-nod head-bob you use when you want to do the bare minimum to greet them politely. The moment I tried to pass him by, he called out to stop me.

  “This is perfect timing. Could you hear me out too, Yuna?”

  He grabbed my shoulder, pulled me back into the room, and had me sit down.

  “So then, what is it that brought you here so early in the morning, Lord Cliff?”

  “You can be informal like usual.”

  The Guildmaster looked at me.

  “You don’t have to worry about Yuna.”

  “Well, if you’re the one saying it, then I get it. What’s brought you to the adventurers’ guild?”

  The Guildmaster’s tone warmed.

  “I had something I needed to ask you. You know that the king is celebrating his fortieth birthday next month, right?”