Chapter 176: The Bear Orders Stuffed Animals

Chapter 176:
The Bear Orders Stuffed Animals

 

I SPENT THE MORNING after getting back from the capital just lounging on my bed with Kumayuru and Kumakyu. Before I knew it, I dozed away the first half of the day—oops.

It wasn’t like I could stay in bed forever, so I changed from my white bear outfit to the black one, had a quick meal, and headed to the tailor where Sherry worked. I was going to have stuffed animals of Kumayuru and Kumakyu made for Lady Flora. Maybe I could even get her to make a ton of them—the orphans would love that, and I could probably use some as decorations.

 

The nice thing about Crimonia was that, unlike the capital, nobody gave me weird looks for my bear onesie. I always got some stares, sure, but nothing like the ones—so full of ridicule, curiosity, or surprise—that I got in the city streets. I suppose people in Crimonia were just used to the bear outfit…and hey, I wasn’t complaining.

 

Pondering that, I got to the tailor shop—the kind that sold clothes along with fabric and thread. There were already a couple of customers picking out merchandise by the time I got there, with a lady in her thirties assisting them. She was Nar, one of the people looking after Sherry.

Nar finished up before long and came over to me. “Welcome, Yuna. Did you come to buy some clothes?” she asked, wearing her best customer-service smile. “Would you like me to help pick some cute outfits out for you?”

C’mon, she had to know that I wasn’t about to buy any normal clothes for myself. “Maybe some other time. Is Sherry around?”

“Sherry? She’s probably sewing clothes with my husband in the back.”

“So she’s busy?”

“No, it’s not an urgent job. Just one moment—”

Nar went to the back to grab Sherry. Before long, Sherry came jogging out, her shoulder-length hair bobbing as she came.

“Yuna?!”

“Sorry about interrupting your work.”

Sherry shook her head. “Not a problem. What are you here for? Did you have something to ask me?”

“Since you’re so good at sewing, there was something I was hoping you could make for me. Maybe we can talk about it later if you’ve got stuff to do.”

“Like I said, it’s fine. It would be good for you to take a break, Sherry, so why don’t you talk with Yuna in the back?” Nar offered some well-timed support from behind Sherry.

I took advantage of Nar’s offer and went to use the back room. It was small and seemed like more of a break room. We sat down in a couple chairs.

“So, Yuna, what did you want me to make?”

“I was hoping you could make me stuffed animals of Kumayuru and Kumakyu.” Dolls and stuffed animals existed in this world, after all. I’d seen little kids carrying them while I was walking around town.

“Stuffed animals of Kumayuru and Kumakyu?”

“Yep. What do you think?”

Sherry chewed on the question a bit. A few different expressions crossed her face before she gave a small nod. “Um…yes, I think I can make them. But before that, could I see your bears more closely? Though I suppose there isn’t enough room in here, is there?”

She looked around. It wasn’t very spacious, especially with the table, chairs, and other stuff crowding it, so there wasn’t space to summon the bears. Not at their normal size, at least, but I still had their cub forms up my sleeve. Or, uh, puppet.

“It’s fine.” I raised my black bear puppet on my right hand in front of me and summoned cubified Kumayuru right there on the table.

“Whoaa!” Sherry exclaimed, understandably surprised to see the cub version of Kumayuru. “Yuna! Who is this little bear?”

“That’s Kumayuru. I can make my bears small since they’re summoned beasts.” I couldn’t make them bigger, though.

“Kumayuru is so cute!” Sherry grabbed Kumayuru’s paws.

“I want you to make the stuffed animal about this size. That sound doable?”

“Y-yes. That should be fine. Oh, just one moment!” Sherry pulled open a drawer behind her, searched around for something, and came back to the conversation, stretching out a measuring tape. “Yuna, is it okay if I measure Kumayuru?”

“That’s fine. You’re okay with that, right, Kumayuru?” I asked.

Kumayuru let out a small kwoom and sat up on the table.

“All right then, Kumayuru, I’ll measure your armsies first.” She got up close to Kumayuru, measured my bear’s arm, and jotted stuff down. “And the size of your paws would be...mmhm! Now I’ll do the legs, aaaaand…could I measure the bottoms of your paws?”

Kumayuru sat down and raised the sole of its paw.

“I’ll measure your waist now, so don’t move.”

Kumayuru stayed motionless, just like Sherry asked.

“Next, your tail.”

Kumayuru did a half turn away from Sherry to reveal a cute tail. It wagged as Sherry measured.

“I’ll do your head now, okay?”

Kumayuru nodded.

Sherry measured Kumayuru’s head and took some smaller detailed measurements, all the way down to Kumayuru’s ears.

I’d be terrified if she were doing all that to me. Getting a measurement of every part of your body seemed kinda frightening. I shivered at the thought.

 

“What’s wrong, Yuna?”

“N-nothing. More importantly, is that all you needed?”

“Yep. I got all of Kumayuru’s measurements.” Every detail was in the memo pad in her hands. If those had been my measurements, I would’ve shredded the thing to pieces, then set the pieces on fire.

“So I didn’t want to get just Kumayuru. I was hoping for a Kumakyu stuffed animal too,” I told her.

“Kumakyu is the same size, right?”

“Yeah. Still, do you need measurements?”

“Mmhm!”

I summoned Kumakyu, who got the same measurement treatment from Sherry as Kumayuru. Well, Kumayuru and Kumakyu were kind of like twins, so they didn’t really have separate measurements. Only their faces and colors were different, and barely so.

“So, how long do you think it’ll take?” I asked.

“Hmm, I have my other projects, too. If I work on them at night...”

“Sherry, what are you worrying about?” A slender man in his thirties appeared from the next room.

“Hello, Mr. Temoka,” I said.

Temoka was Nar’s husband. He was the one teaching Sherry embroidery and how to make clothing.

“Hello, Yuna,” he said.

“I’m borrowing Sherry a bit,” I explained.

“That’s fine. We’re not that busy. But Sherry, is something the matter?” he asked gently.

“Yuna ordered stuffed animals of Kumayuru and Kumakyu from me.”

He looked at the bears on the table. “Are Kumayuru and Kumakyu these little ones?”

“That’s right. These are Kumayuru and Kumakyu.”

“Ah, Yuna’s famous bears! They’re cute.”

Sherry nodded. “Uh-huh, very cute!”

Temoka looked at the bears thoughtfully, then to Sherry. “In that case, why don’t you take a break from work?”

“But...” Sherry seemed bewildered by the sudden offer. I guess that’d be a pretty normal reaction, though.

“Like I said, the shop isn’t busy,” said Temoka. “Up to now, Nar and I have been managing with just the two of us. Besides, this’ll be good practice. You should try making them.”

“Can I really?”

“If you have any trouble, I can show you the ropes. Go ahead and give it a shot, eh?”

“Umm, thank you very much!” said Sherry cheerfully. “I’ll try.” It looked like she was apprenticing in a good place.

Temoka and Nar didn’t have any children, so they treated Sherry like their own daughter. The headmistress had told me they’d even discussed adopting her. For now, though, they were going to wait and see how things worked out. There was a chance Sherry might say no if they asked too suddenly, so they were trying to foster a closer connection before asking.

“Feel free to use anything we have at the shop,” said Temoka.

“Are you sure?”

“Making a stuffed animal will be good for your studies.” Temoka gently patted Sherry’s head.

Still, it wasn’t like I could just borrow Sherry and use up their supplies. “I can pay for the materials,” I said, “so feel free to charge me for everything you use. And don’t worry about making any mistakes.”

As a wise person once said, mistakes are the path to learning. I learned that in the online game back in the day. If you failed to beat an enemy one way, all you had to do was try something else. She was making a teddy bear from scratch. Any mistakes she made would have a material cost, but I didn’t want her worrying about that.

“Thank you, Yuna.”

“I ordered it from you,” I told her with a smile, “so it’s a bit odd for you to be thanking me.”

“In that case, Mr. Temoka, is it okay if I start working on it now?”

“As if I could say no to that face! We don’t have any pressing work, so go ahead.”

“Thank you very much!” With his permission, Sherry started excitedly preparing to make the stuffed animal. I wasn’t about to get in the way of somebody that motivated, so I thanked Temoka and left the shop.

I couldn’t wait to see what they came up with.