Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear

Sherry walked into the kitchen while rubbing her eyes.

「Good morning, Big Sis Yuna, Fina-chan.」

She looked sleepy, probably because she had just woken up. She looked a lot better now, at least.

「Did you sleep well?」

「I did. What are you two doing?」

「We just finished making a cake.」

「A cake! You two made a cake?!」

Sherry reacted strongly at the word ‘cake’, and her sleepy expression disappeared in an instant. Well, she was a girl, after all.

「Do you want some?」

「Can I really?!」

Was it really okay for her to eat right after waking up, though?

I looked at her face, and she seemed pretty excited, so it should probably be fine.

「Just one slice, though. It would be a problem if you couldn’t eat the dinner Headmistress and the other children prepare for you.」

I got both of the girls to sit down and took out a cake from the Bear Box. I cut three slices, one for each of us.

「It looks delicious.」

「You okay with black tea?」

「Yes, I’m fine with it.」

I took out the tea and poured it just like Lala-san had shown me. Soon, a nice fragrance started to drift around. With everything in order, we began to eat.

「Ahh, it’s so good.」

「Yeah, it’s delicious.」

Fina and Sherry both seemed to be enjoying the cake. It had been a while since I last had some cake too. Cake was delicious, as long as I didn’t eat it too often.

「Oh right. Big Sis Yuna, Swaying Bear-chan and Hugging Bear-chan plushies are both finished.」

Right, the very reason Sherry had come to my house was so that she could deliver the plushies.

Sherry took the plushies out of the item bag I had given her yesterday.

「It… It’s so cute.」

Fina reacted strongly and embraced the Swaying Bear plushie. That left the Hugging Bear plushie for me.

Both plushies looked similar to the ones she had brought over yesterday, but these two did look a bit better.

「Their faces were a real challenge to get right.」

Sherry said and pointed at the head of the Hugging Bear plushie.

She then happily proceeded to explain in detail what parts were the most difficult and how she had managed to overcome them. She really liked sewing, huh.

「By the way, Big Sis Yuna. Did you need something from me?」

「Yeah, I do. There’s a girl I want to give the plushies to. Could I ask you to make some more plushies for me in five, no, four days time?」

I said then looked at the plushies in front of me.

She had already finished them, didn’t she?

I could just give these two to Misa and have her make the ones for Princess Flora and the other children later.

I happily looked at the Hugging Bear plushie again just as Sherry asked me something.

「Bi-Big Sis Yuna. About those plushies, uhm, could you wait just a bit longer than normal?」

「…?」

「Ehm, you see… when I was making the plushies at the orphanage, some of the younger children wanted to have them, but when I told them I couldn’t give it to them because I was making them for you, they ended up crying, so… I promised to make them their own plushies. I will pay for the materials myself, of course. Also, I will make you new plushies within four days, I promise. That’s why, you see…」

Sherry lowered her head as if this was difficult for her to say.

Acting like this, even though she was a child as well…

「You can give these two to the children. Also, I will still pay for the material costs of all the plushies, so you don’t have worry about that at all.」

I was planning on giving some plushies to the children at the orphanage anyway. It would just be a bit earlier like this. As long as I got the plushies for Misa before we left in five days, there should be no problem.

「Will two be enough for all the children, though?」

There were a lot of young children at the orphanage. Two plushies surely wouldn’t be enough.

If they ended up fighting over them, they could damage the plushies. Swaying Bear and Hugging Bear’s hands and legs might even get ripped off. Even if they were plushies, that would be sad. Sherry, their maker, would surely be sad as well.

「I’ll work hard to make enough of them!」

The way she said that made me a bit worried that she would skip sleep again.

I should really talk to Temoka-san.

「You can’t skip sleep anymore, okay?」

「…Okay.」

I was definitely worried, so I made Sherry promise me that she wouldn’t start making them today.

Since I also wanted to help her out a bit, I decided to go to the tailor shop tomorrow.

「Get plenty of rest tonight. If you look tired tomorrow, I’ll get mad at you.」

「Okay.」

Sherry replied and headed back to the orphanage.

She still seemed a bit suspicious, but I would just have to believe her for today.

When I returned to the house after seeing off Sherry and saw that Fina was still standing there, I suddenly remembered something.

「Oh right, I have completely forgotten. Fina, can you tell Tirumina-san that my Commerce Guild rank just went up?」

「Big Sis Yuna, your rank went up?!」

「Yep, I raised it today. This is all thanks to the hard work of Morin-san, Tirumina-san, Anzu, and all of the children from the orphanage.」

Thanks to the children of the orphanage looking after the cluckers, I got eggs to make things like pudding and cake.

Morin-san’s bread and Anzu’s dishes were both very popular while Tirumina-san played a big role as she was the one supervising everything. She made sure that both the shop and the Commerce Guild got enough eggs, stocked up on ingredients and regulated the prices for my shop, and kept track of the sales.

It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that Tirumina-san was a true manager of everything. Hmm, when I put it this way, wouldn’t it be a huge problem if Tirumina-san quit?

「Fina, please tell your mother not to quit, okay?」

I asked Fina with a serious face.

「Umm, I don’t really get it, but I can just tell her that, right?」

Fina tilted her head trying to understand the meaning behind my words then left the Bear House.

The next day, Fina and I headed to the tailor shop, and when we got there, Noll-san and Temoka-san were in the middle of setting up the shop.

「Good morning. Is Sherry here yet?」

「Yes, she came in early. She’s in the back, making plushies.」

Now I was worried if she had properly slept or not. After getting permission from Temoka-san, I headed to the back.

「Morning, Sherry. Did you sleep well?」

「Yes, I did. I woke up early, though, and ended up interrupting Temoka-san and Noll-san’s breakfast when I came here.」

She laughed to play it off.

Sherry had no panda eyes this time, so it looked like she had slept properly.

「Did the children end up fighting over the plushies?」

「It seems like they were about too.」

Sherry said and laughed again.

「Still, they quieted down when I told them that I would make one for everybody.」

「They are good children.」

「Yep!」

Sherry replied happily as if I just praised her actual younger siblings.

「Okay then, is there anything we can do to help you, Sherry? We’ll do anything you tell us to.」

「Yes, we’ll help you.」

「We can’t work as quickly as you, though. Even Fina and I combined can’t compare to you. We will do our best work at half your pace, okay?」

「Would you mind if I joined you in that case? I think I can be half as useful as Sherry myself.」

「Temoka-san?!」

Temoka-san was now standing at the door, which I had left open on my way to the back.

「Temoka-san, what about your job?」

「Don’t worry about that. The shop isn’t busy anyway.」

That wasn’t something he should be saying proudly…

Well, I had planned on asking him for help since making the plushies for all the younger children of the orphanage would take a lot of time. I didn’t plan on making him work for free, though.

「Temoka-san, I will pay you for your work, then.」

「I don’t want money; I just want to join in on the fun.」

After saying that, Temoka-san walked over to Sherry, and listened to the instructions on how to make the plushies.

This guy was definitely losing his battle against life.

Still, although I had no intention of taking advantage of Temoka-san’s kindness, I knew nothing about making plushies.

Whenever I was troubled, I called for Tirumina-san. Hmm….

I whispered into Fina’s ear to get Tirumina-san for me, and she left the shop without objections.

I then headed over to Sherry to help her in any way I could.

Sherry and Temoka-san had already begun the preparations.

「Umm, so what should I do?」 I thought silently.

「Big Sis Yuna, can I leave the tail and ears to you?」

Sherry said and proceeded to give me a few pointers to help me start out. Making the tail was probably possible, at the very least.

Following Sherry’s instructions, I managed to slowly make several tails and ears, and after a while, Fina returned, bringing Tirumina-san with her.

「Yuna-chan, it’s a rather busy morning, you know.」

Tirumina-san seemed to be angry.

Well, of course she was going to be mad; I called for her during the morning rush hour.

「I’m sorry. There’s just something I wanted to ask you to do for me, no matter what.」

「I heard from Fina. It’s plushies this time, right?」

She seemed exasperated, but still smiled.

「Well then, I will go speak to Noll-san now, so don’t mind us.」

「Thank you very much, Tirumina-san.」

「It’s fine. Also, I won’t quit or anything, so you don’t have to worry about that.」

Tirumina-san said and flashed another smile my way before leaving the backroom.

I wondered what that was all about for a while before remembering that I had asked Fina to pass on a weird message to her yesterday.

I really needed to thank Tirumina-san for everything she did for me.