The Heroic Kigurumi Chapter 08: The Secret Fan Club You Never Knew

"What?! You guys should be totally cool with using a criminal as a test subject!"
"Umm, you seem to be forgetting the kind of technique that you actually developed."

... Well that didn't start as bright as it should.

Weirdly ominous-ish intro aside, wouldn't you just love it if more people start appreciating your kigurumi? I mean, even Yuna has experienced quite a wide variety of reactions to her unusual getup. But perhaps it's about time that those positive around her take the next logical popularity step.

"It doesn't sound fishy or suspicious at all, right Fina?"

Yup, and that is precisely what Noire is planning to do with her fellowship brethren.

"I really highly suggest switching genres to something more Rune Factory-ish, Miss Yuna."
"...I'm not opening up food production lines, okay?"

The episode proper opens with the thing that Yuna promised to make during the last episode: pizza. During their pizza time Noire cryptically says something about some business with Misana and Fina, to which Yuna oddly never even gave a second thought about.

"The activity that only us three will do, by the way, is an absolute secret from you."
"Doesn't sound trustworthy at all but, mmkay. I'll just loiter around aimlessly tomorrow."

Well, she's probably too modest about herself to think that she always has to be with Noire. But I'd like to think Yuna, with her cautious and semi-paranoid nature, to have at least thought of something the activity that specifically did not include her.

"The episode can't waste its run time, Yuna. You'll come with me instead to the royal palace for some character encounter flags. You did come here officially to observe right?"

I guess maybe she actually did, perhaps the light novels added more details on what's on her mind during this scene. But the anime adaptation itself did not indicate this in any manner at all.

... Oh but, wait a minute...

"Yup, I'm supposed to be a filler character here. An IMPORTANT filler character, hehe."

Why is Misana suddenly enjoying pizza with them? Was it ever indicated that she was going for a visit? I was told that the Farrengram family/clan is—

Ah well, fellow acquaintances meeting at a central town. Let's just leave it at that.

"Man, this castle really have some meta-level high-fantasy vibes!"
"Fantasy? Vibes? And I'm not sure I understand this 'meta' thing either."

In any case, with Yuna having nothing official to do at that day, Ellelaura coerced invited her over to visit the main castle grounds. Our heroic kigurumi lady, always reluctant to be involved with the elite bigwigs, was a bit concerned and tried to decline at the last second. But with Ellelaura dead set to take her in, she had no choice but be swayed by her political(?) might.

"Hmm, I just realized that I might actually be the one running things behind the scenes."
"You explained everything so nonchalantly that it's actually making me scary."

Speaking of political might, we never really thought about her weird position in the capital city, and as to why she and Cliff had to live separately, did we? Well, apparently, she also just wanted to life quietly with Cliff and the kids at Crimonia. However, she was requested by His Majesty and even the Prime Minister to stay at the capital to perform various technical jobs. Her self-described "miscellaneous" tasks included commanding the knightly order, counseling the king (presumably on even minor matters), and handling state-level documents.

What exactly were her professional qualifications before she and Cliff married? Before they even had kids?! But yeah, it seems that in terms of political influence, she can probably even manipulate the entire kingdom as she pleases. Poor, poor Cliff.

"Come on, I'm gonna show miss bear kigurumi around!"
"Wait, is that even royally possible?!"

Since this is the first time the capital palace appears in the anime, the episode, of course, also becomes the first appearance of Flora, a royal princess resident of the castle. Take note, A royal princess, not THE royal princess. According to official records, it seems that she is a younger relative to the king (hopefully a niece of some sort), not his daughter.

"Now that she's not here, I can finally start part one of my heroic kigurumi emulation plan."
"... You mean the establishment of our bear fans club, right?"

Meanwhile, back at the kids trio...

Noire, Fina and Misana are shown walking through the capital's grand market towards some nondescript building. She doesn't seem to want to reveal anything about their upcoming activity just yet. But with the peculiar exclusion of Yuna, the audience is already set to expect something related to it.

"It's important to show the audience our goodwill towards peasants regular folk!"
"Besides, social rank won't matter anyway once the club is officially established."

Aaaaand it does. But first, a social link upgrade!

"So, what do we exactly do for our first bear fans club activity?"
"Well, since its about bear kigurumi... something along the lines of dealing with that."

It's a club, by the way. They're officially forming a bear kigurumi fan club for the one and only Yuna. Noire is the president (because she is the founder), Fina is the vice-president (because she's the closest to Yuna in terms of daily interaction), while Misana acts as fan member numero uno. Oh and, the way Noire explained their positions was quite convincing, by the way, despite the craziness of the idea, and even though it as so simple and obvious.

"Been working out you see. So that I can defeat you one day."
"Well, technically you can beat me easily by challenging me out of my suit but..."

We then get a minor scene from the elder sister Shia, training to one day best our kigurumi hero (despite that being straight up impossible so long as Yuna keeps her kigurumi worn).

"Those faces look even more suspicious than earlier but, mmkay. I'll just continue with the last thing that I had in mind before I saw you three."

There's also another short scene where Yuna catches the trio doing their first official meeting as members of the bear kigurumi fan club. While the three were desperate hide what they were doing, the activity was plain as day, and Yuna would have definitely remembered that incident.

"I have an army of monsters north of the capital by the way. Whatever basic defenses this capital has would  inevitably take a huge hit even if they manage to clear my beasts off."

And so, it was not until the revisit to the market that the story circulated back to the dark intro. Some former royal sorcerer named Gulzam threatened the king with an army of monsters that was standing by at the northern forest, ready to wreak havoc to the capital.

So what did the king and Ellelaura do to save the day? Call Yuna directly for help? Nope. While Cliff did describe Yuna's exceptional abilities, it seemed Ellelaura did not really expect her to be that massively overpowered. Call the knightly order? Well they may not have the time to assemble the knights on such a short notice, though at least some of them must have been present.

"There's something or someone approaching the demon army."
"A fellow demon? No, it looks like... a bear."

In the end, they were not able to do anything. Not (entirely) because of their incompetence, but they simply were unable to react quickly to the near-instant annihilation of the monster army.

"Wait a minute. I don't remember the capital city having you?!"
"Umm, they don't? But my friend's dad is arriving soon, so I've got to cut some weeds."

Wait, did I phrase that correctly? Yup, that's right. The annihilation of Gulzam's supposed monster army.

"Can't you report it in a way that omits me out of the log entry? Please?"
"With this level of devastation? Yuna, they'd instantly know I'm lying."

Uh, basically, Noire was worried about the rumored violent incident at the northern forest (regular townsfolk did not know the full situation), where she knew that her father Cliff would be crossing into before entering the capital city. For her friend's plight, Yuna obligingly cleared the northern forest path, just in time to meet sir noble dad halfway. 

"I pledge to make your deeds known for so long as this anime adaptation allows me to."
"Wait, wait, that's exactly the opposite of what I was requesting minutes ago!"

And with a good deed done in her bear kigurumi, you probably know what's coming next. Yuna once again accidentally brought attention to herself for being the inadvertent hero of the impending monster army crisis. This then also brought up her previous accomplishments, notably the defeat of the Black Viper and Goblin King, officially introducing not just her identity, but her abilities to the king himself.

One king's impending crisis, another kigurumi hero's average Tuesday. That's our Yuna alright.

Huh. So what's left for the capital city to spare next time for Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear? Oh that's right, time to test the waters of Noire's secret(?) bear kigurumi fan club!