Chapter 213: The Bear Thinks of How to Make the Bears Seem Less Frightening

Chapter 213:
The Bear Thinks of How to Make the Bears Seem Less Frightening

 

“YOU GAVE SOME PEOPLE quite the fright with your bears,” Gran said.

I’d heard that from Cliff too. Apparently, I’d terrified the townspeople quite a bit when they saw me with Kumayuru and Kumakyu on our way to save Misa. Since I’d been seen riding my bears around, they wanted me to lay low for the time being. They’d already told everyone we weren’t dangerous, but I think they wanted to avoid any additional mayhem.

“In that case,” I said, “I’ll just stay in my room until we go back to Crimonia.”

They’d best not underestimate the skills of a former shut-in. I could even kill a few days without television, computers, video games, movies, or books to entertain me. Maybe I’d just pass the time sleeping.

“Ah, I’m sorry,” said Misa, pulling me out of my thoughts. “This is my fault. Kumayuru and Kumakyu were just coming to save me. They’re not scary at all…”

“You’re the victim, Misa. You didn’t do anything wrong,” I told her. “It’s the Salbard family that kidnapped you. It’s their fault.” The toad and his bumbling idiot son were the ones who’d kidnapped Misa, after all.

“But...”

“All I need to do is avoid going out for a while.”

“But…then they’ll be afraid of you and your bears forever.”

“I can just avoid town in the future. It’s all right.”

“That’s not all right!” Misa exclaimed. “I still want to walk around town with you, and Kumayuru and Kumakyu too!” She looked like she was going to cry. “Kumayuru and Kumakyu aren’t scary,” she repeated. “They’re really nice bears.”

“Misa...”

As far as I was concerned, it was fine if people didn’t like me. I didn’t mind whatever they said about me—I’d take any fight they picked with me. That’s why I was fine with avoiding town if they were scared of my bears…but Misa herself wasn’t okay with that. If we left town as is and Misa still blamed herself for my bears being feared, I wouldn’t be able to come back again…and it’d traumatize Misa. Even if I was wrong on that, Misa was probably still frightened from being kidnapped. I wanted to do something for her, but this would be a tough nut to crack.

“Grandfather, you did explain to everyone, didn’t you?” she asked.

“Of course! I told them Yuna’s bears are nothing to be feared. I even explained that they were acquaintances of mine and that they would never attack anyone,” Gran said. “But there’s only so much that words can do.”

“They wouldn’t even listen to you, grandfather?”

“If a raging dragon appeared in front of you, and His Majesty approached, telling you it was safe, would you believe him? We’re in a similar situation.”

Well, it wasn’t easy to convince people of that kinda stuff. Even if the president or prime minister told the people not to be afraid of something objectively freaky, why would anyone just believe it? Still, something about that explanation kind of got to me—why was he comparing us to a dragon?

“But Kumayuru and Kumakyu aren’t scary...” Misa objected.

“Well, then we just have to convince the people that they aren’t, right?” Noa said, seemingly coming up with an idea. “In that case, Misa, why don’t you just do the same thing you did earlier?”

“What did I do earlier…?”

“Didn’t you hug Kumakyu to show the children they didn’t need to be afraid?”

“Yeah! Since they were afraid, I showed them that I could hug and pet Kumakyu.”

“So, if we go into town while riding Kumayuru and Kumakyu, I think we can show them that they aren’t scary.”

“You’re saying that you want to ride my bears into town and walk around with them?” I asked.

“Exactly!” said Noa. “If girls like us ride Kumayuru and Kumakyu, I think the townspeople won’t think they’re scary anymore.”

“You don’t think adventurers will come to slay them?” I asked.

“We’ll be riding them. It will be fine!~”

“Yeah! And I’ll protect Kumayuru and Kumakyu.”

“Me too!”

The three little girls were really going out on a limb for my bears. I suppose they were right; it wasn’t like anyone would attack if three cute kids were having fun riding bearback on bears.

“Got it,” I said. “In that case, should we give it a shot?”

I accepted their sentiments and Noa’s proposal. If that was the price for helping Misa feel better, it was cheap enough to pay.

“Well, then, I’ll go with you,” Gran said.

“You too, Grandfather?”

“The plan will be much more effective if I am there too, don’t you think?”

“But Grandfather, do you have the time for that? Aren’t you busy?”

“I certainly am, but I am indebted to Yuna for rescuing you. If I let her go home as things are now, I won’t feel right. But I do have many things to attend to at present. How about we do this tomorrow?”

Misa brightened. “Yes! Thank you so much, Grandfather.”

 

After that, I returned to our room and started a mini-meeting with the three girls concerning how we would do our walk around with Kumayuru and Kumakyu.

“All right, then!” Noa got right into it like she was the class president at some studious school, with Misa and Fina sitting down in front of her, listening to what she had to say. “We’ll brainstorm if there are any other ways to show how Kumayuru and Kumakyu aren’t scary.”

“You don’t think it’s enough just to walk around town?”

“If that’s all we do, then no,” she replied. Noa was probably right…walking around town wouldn’t be enough.

“Do you have a good idea, Fina? You’ve known Kumayuru and Kumakyu longer than I have, right?” Noa asked. Fina had been listening silently, but she had definitely spent the most time with my bears out of the three of them.

Fina thought for a bit, then offered up an idea. “How about we play with them? That should show everybody that they’re not dangerous.”

“Yes, you’ve got it!” Noa exclaimed. “Playing with the bears strikes two birds with one stone.”

I guess seeing my bears play with kids would make people feel more at ease…right? Then again, in my original world, that would’ve just made people extra anxious. They probably would’ve started yelling at the kids to get away from the bears.

“But how should we play?” Noa pondered.

“We could ride them like normal?”

Noa shook her head. “Insufficient. Yuna, can Kumayuru and Kumakyu do anything special?”

I’d just been listening in when the conversation turned to me. “Uh…they can do a lot of stuff. You have to keep it a secret that they change size, though.”

“Hmm…then what shall we do?” Noa wondered.

“Couldn’t we just talk to them?” Fina offered.

Noa tilted her head. “Just talk to them?”

“Yes. Normal bears can’t understand us, but Kumayuru and Kumakyu can.”

“That’s right! I forgot. They’ve always been able to understand us, after all.”

Uh, she really shouldn’t forget something like that. If she talked to a wild bear like that, it definitely wouldn’t understand her...probably. I think.

I remembered the bear family from the honey tree…but I’d only understood them because my own bears had interpreted for us.

“Yuna, I want to talk to Kumayuru and Kumakyu,” Noa said. “Can you summon them?”

She wanted to talk to the bears? Now this situation seemed like it was getting out of hand. I summoned Kumayuru and Kumakyu in their cub forms in front of Noa, then they started talking.

“Well then, Kumayuru...” she said.

“And Kumakyu...”

“Can you do something like this?”

“Cwoom,” one of my bears answered.

“And how about this?”

“Cwoom!”

The girls and the bears talked. It was such a surreal scene. Was this how people looked me when I was talking to my bears? Still, seeing how much fun they were having talking with my bears made me feel more relaxed. Just as Noa had said, maybe people wouldn’t be scared seeing girls getting along with the bears.

I was just glad Misa had her smile back. She’d been crying when I rescued her and anxious ever since. On top of that, she’d been so sad when she learned how scared people were of my bears. But no, now she was dedicating herself to helping my bears and seemed to be really having fun.

As I was thinking about that, Noa looked over at me. “Please give us some ideas too, Yuna. This way, everyone will know that Kumayuru and Kumakyu aren’t dangerous.”

“Yes, please think with us, Yuna!” Misa said.

“Please help too, Yuna!” Fina added.

“Cwoom!”

“Cwoom!!!”

I couldn’t say no to all five of them, so with that, I joined their little circle.

 

Once our meeting was over, Cliff and Ellelaura returned, and we ended up having lunch together.

“What? You’re going to play with Noa?” Cliff laughed after listening to Noa.

“Not me. Kumayuru and Kumakyu are going.”

“All three of you are bears,” he stated. “It’s the same thing.” How was it all the same? It totally made a difference.

But Ellelaura seemed to agree. “That’s right!” she said with a laugh.

They both needed to get their eyes checked, I swear…

“I’m impressed you came up with the idea to show everyone as you play with the bears,” Ellelaura said.

“It was Fina’s idea,” Noa said. “But we worked together to figure out what we’ll do!”

“Oh, then I’ll have to go see that.”

“You mean it?!” Noa seemed delighted. I didn’t really think Ellelaura needed to watch us, though. Cliff and Ellelaura were busy right now, after all. They had a tough job ahead. They didn’t have that kind of spare time, considering everything that had happened.

“You’re not busy?” I asked. You really don’t have to come, I was trying to say.

Ellelaura smiled. “I don’t see anything wrong with stopping by for a bit.”

“It’s also important to take breaks.” Cliff seemed like he was enjoying the idea.

Misa’s parents were gung ho about going too, after hearing all of that. They were acting like this was some sort of school performance or something. Should they really have been doing this after the whole fuss—and with how busy they were?

I looked over at Fina. I felt bad her parents were the only ones who weren’t around.

“Um, should I get Tiermina?” I asked her.

“You don’t have to. It’s embarrassing.” Fina flat out rejected that idea.