Chapter 218: The Bear Makes Mochi

Chapter 218:
The Bear Makes Mochi

 

I DECIDED TO MOBILIZE and get myself some mochi to eat.

See…if you have mochi rice, you’ve just gotta pound it into mochi. Doing that alone is boring, though, so I decided I’d make it at the orphanage during the shops’ next day off. I’d have the orphans, Morin’s group that worked at the Bear’s Lounge, Anz’s group at the Bear Dining Room, and Fina’s family help me out. Gentz tagged along too.

“That seems fun!” the headmistress had told me when I’d asked.

Anz’s group seemed very interested in the rice cakes. “A dish made with mochi rice? Count us in!”

Morin’s group replied with a frank “Of course we’re going!”

And, of course, Fina had asked me if Shuri, Mom, and Dad were invited.

I started prep work right away. I used the same trick I’d used to make the stone bears in order to create a stone mortar—that is, I dug out a groove in some stone to make a stone mortar like I’d seen on TV.

(It did look like this, right? I’d never seen a real one…)

The next thing I had to make were the mochi-pounding mallets. They needed to be made from wood, and they looked kind of like huge hammers.

All I really needed the mallets to do was pound mochi, so anything would work. Then again, maybe I’d be best off asking a woodworker to make them?

Hm. If I couldn’t make the mallets, I guess I could consult Tiermina or Milaine. I’d give it a shot myself first, though. I cut some lumber with wind magic, shaped it, and was able to make something mallet-like.

I…hadn’t expected it to work.

I tried holding the mallet, twirled it around, and gave it a light swing. It seemed okay? As a test, I tried removing my bear puppets and lifting it up, but no dice. Once again, I could see just how much of a weakling I was without the onesie…

While swinging the mallet down onto the mortar, it hit me: Who was going to fold the mochi?

Mochi couldn’t be made alone. The mallet was heavy and impossible for anyone but me to manage. I was sure the kids couldn’t hold it, much less swing it again and again.

I sat down to rest and looked over at Kumayuru and Kumakyu. Maybe…? No, Kumayuru and Kumakyu wouldn’t be able to turn the mochi—plus, it’d get all fuzzy from their fur.

Then again, they were summoned beasts. Did summoned beasts even shed? They didn’t look dirty to me, but it’s not like I’m an expert in bear cleanliness.

Would it be dangerous to let the older kids, like Fina, try it if I taught them? I’d seen kids doing it on television. Yeah…it’d be fine if we didn’t go too quickly. As I was thinking about that, Kumayuru came over and lifted the mallet.

“Kumayuru?”

Kumayuru stood on their hind legs and lifted up the mallet with their forelegs.

Looked like they’d be participating—just not by turning.

“Can you do that?”

“Cwoom!~” Kumayuru’s face seemed to say, “Just leave it to me!~”

Kumayuru tried swinging the mallet down. Now that packed some punch.

“Ease up a little, that’s dangerous.”

I guess I could turn the mochi. I was a little scared to, but I’d probably be fine? I felt like we’d kind a found our answer—and also like we hadn’t. All we could do was try it out.

Just in case, I made a few more identical mallets and mortars. From watching Kumayuru, there was a chance things might break. This way, having spares around would never be an issue.

The day before the mochi-pounding event, I soaked the mochi rice with plenty of water to prepare for the following day.

 

I got up early the next morning and got to work steaming the mochi rice. It had absorbed a good amount of the water.

Ugh…I was tired.

Maybe it would have been better if I’d made it yesterday and put it in my bear storage. Too late now, though; I continued to work. I left my bear house after finishing the prep work. When I arrived at the orphanage, I was greeted by the little kid gang.

“Where’s everyone else?” I asked.

I didn’t see Tiermina, Fina, or Anz. Maybe I’d arrived a little too early?

“Everyone went to go take care of the birds,” one of the kids told me.

Another one piped up. “They said if everyone does, it’ll be over right away,”

Yeah…even if they took a break from the shop, they couldn’t take a break from taking care of the birds. But if everyone pitched in, they could finish that work quickly. In that case, I’d get the mochi pounding prepared before everyone returned.

I took the stone mortar and mallet out of my bear storage, and I prepared buckets of steamed mochi rice and warm water.

“What are you making, Yuna?” a kid asked me.

“A thing called mochi. It’s a type of food you make by smashing rice.”

“Does it taste good?”

The boys and girls, all around five or four years old, started questioning me. They were holding onto stuffed animals of Kumayuru and Kumakyu. Other children had stuffed animals too. Looked like those were popular, just like Sherry had told me.

“Umm, I’m not sure how to describe mochi. I think they’re tasty. You should try some after they’re done!”

“Okay!”

After I completed the prep work, the last thing was summoning Kumayuru and Kumakyu. Once I summoned my bears, the little kid gang happily ran right over.

“Yay! It’s Kumayuru!”

“Kumakyuuuu!”

There were kids holding bear stuffed animals and collecting around Kumayuru and Kumakyu…it was a total overload of bear. If the children had been in bear uniforms, it would’ve been an unbearlievable amount of bear!

“Kumayuru will be helping me,” I said, “so you can all play with Kumakyu. Kumakyu, please take care of everyone.”

“Cwoom.”

Since it’d be dangerous for the young children to get too close, I asked Kumakyu to look after them. In the meantime, Kumayuru and I started practicing pounding mochi.

 

To start, I put the steamed rice into the center of a stone. Steam rose up from the mortar.

Since fine movements were impossible for Kumayuru, I kicked things off by crushing the rice and lightly kneading it with the mallet. It was going smashingly.

I guess this is enough…? Once the rice looked sufficiently smooshed, I handed the mallet back to Kumayuru.

“Okay—when I fold it, try pounding it, but go lightly at first.”

“Cwoom!”

I took off my bear puppets and put my hands onto the mochi. “Ouch!” Correction: the hot mochi.

“Yuna!”

“I’m okay!” The kids were looking at me with concern. I waved and showed them my hands to calm them down.

But man, that had been dangerous. It was really hot—I thought I’d nearly burned myself. It was incredible how frail my hands were after being a shut-in for so long. I’d be careful next time.

I think on TV they used water and just barely touched the mochi.

I tried again, but it was still piping hot. I looked at the bear puppets I’d placed on the ground—the bear puppets that never got dirty...the bear puppets that never required washing.

I put on my bear puppets and lightly touched the mochi.

Oh, they didn’t stick? It barely felt real.

I tried turning over the mochi with the bear puppets as a test. Well, there we go. The mochi wasn’t sticking to the bear puppets at all. I was impressed by my all-purpose bear puppets.

“Kumayuru, let’s go again.”

“Cwoom.”

“Okay.” Slam. “Okay.” Slam. “Okay…!” Slam. “Okay!” Slam.

The pounding was going well! We kept at it, keeping the mochi hydrated as we went.

As Kumayuru and I were absorbed in the mochi, the kids came back after finishing taking care of the birds. Tiermina, Fina, and Shuri were with them.

“You’ve already started?” Tiermina asked me.

“Yeah, I thought I’d give it a shot.” I continued pounding mochi as I explained it all to Tiermina.

“Okay.” Slam. “Okay.” Slam. “Okay…!” Slam. “Okay!” Slam.

“Is this a new food?” Tiermina looked inside the mortar.

“Yeah...you make it by...crushing...mochi rice,” I answered while turning the mochi.

“Are you going to sell this in the shop?” Tiermina gave me a wary not-this-again look.

“This time...it’s for...personal consumption...so we’re not...selling it...at the shop.”

As you might expect, making mochi was tough. I wish we had an automatic mochi kneading machine, but we didn’t have anything that convenient. No, this would take some seriously hard work.

And it wouldn’t work well with my shop, since I employed women and children. Even if that wasn’t an issue, making it required a full day’s work. It just wasn’t reasonable to use it for dishes. We could freeze some, so technically, it could work—if we made a ton ahead of time. But that seemed like a pain, so I didn’t have any plans like that yet.

Besides, mochi’s good because you only get to have it every once in a while.

Tiermina seemed relieved by my answers.

“Okay.” Slam. “Okay.” Slam. “Okay…!” Slam. “Okay!” Slam.

The mochi was starting to get nice and sticky. We were almost there.

As I worked with the mochi, Morin, Anz, and the others came over.

“Sorry we’re late, Ms. Yuna! We heard you were making a dish with the mochi rice, so we made some food.”

Anz, Morin, and the others had been cooking something up? I was glad to hear it. A mochi-only meal seemed kind of sad.

But there were a lot of people. I doubted we’d be able to make enough at this rate, not with this amount of time. It took some time for me and Kumayuru to make mochi by ourselves. Maybe I’d have to ask Tiermina and the others to help me out…

Then, right as I was starting to worry, reinforcements arrived—

“Yuna, we heard you were making a new type of food. Is it okay if we join you?”

“Yeah! Anything we can help with?”

Rulina and Gil! They must’ve heard about this around town and came over. Behind them was the adventurer Blitz, accompanied by a harem of super-beautiful, mega-cute women that would make any other dude boil with envy.

“I’ll help as well!”

We had more men now. I guess they’d heard from Gentz, but I didn’t see Gentz himself around. Tiermina let me know he’d be back from work. In the meantime, it was time to teach everybody how to pound mochi.

We made two groups: Rulina and Gil, and Blitz and his party members. Immediately, though, Anz’s group and the female cooks wanted to give it a shot too.

Eventually, Gentz finished his work up early and came over. He paired up with Tiermina while Fina and Shuri assisted.

I guess it hadn’t been a waste to make the extra mallets and mortars. Though I’d made the mallet for Anz’s group a size smaller, the mallets still seemed heavy.

We had a ton more people making mochi, so our output picked right up. The bakery team—Morin, Karin, and Nerin—made bite-size balls of mochi.

I arranged small plates with soy sauce and seaweed, then handed the mochi out to the kids. The seaweed and soy sauce were a winning combination—but we also tried it in the soup that Anz and the others had made.

I ate it with the seaweed and the soy sauce. It was delicious!

We took turns pounding mochi in between munching on the food. I could put any leftovers into my bear storage, so it wasn’t a problem if we made too much.

 

The mochi-pounding event ended with a smashing success.

“Yuna, thank you so very much!” the headmistress said as we were cleaning up. “Ever since you arrived, the children always seem to be enjoying themselves. I was happy seeing them smiling today too.”

The headmistress affectionately watched the children cleaning up the plates, chairs, and picnic sheets. It was nice to see that even she was enjoying herself.

 

Later on, when I told Noa about the event, she got mad at me.

“Next time you simply must invite me!” she’d said.

“Okay, okay. Just calm down…”