The Heroic Kigurumi Chapter 09: One Bear Kigurumi is No Longer Enough

Finally, we are back in full slice-of-life territory again. While Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear tropes still revolve around the usual overpowered adventurer clichés, it is still largely more about the community itself than epic fights or opposition-overwhelming moves.

Well, it's never as serious as Honzuki no Gekokujo nor as frivolous as Hamefura, but a healthy mix of both.

"I'd like to introduce this poodeeng thing, on this very festive occasion!"
"Great, now it's never gonna be just a secret between me, Fina, and Noire."

In any case, we start with the mounting pressures Yuna has been facing since the last couple of episodes. Yep, developing and introducing all those reproducible goods and delicacies don't need to be a one-off thing right? Especially not after introducing one of them to the entire kingdom at the behest of the king himself.

" Seems we've already invited the entire delegation here, huh."
"Yuna, were about to go home later so we'd better finish up those groceries."

But before anything significant happens, the last few days of their stay at the capital was pretty much summed up with the rest of the other things they previously done the last episode before. More giggly moments together, more training with the stubborn Shia. Official visits of the royal family members. And, of course, even more shopping sprees at the raw goods market for possible ingredient ideas.

"Yeah, we're pretty much already deep in debt during that scene in episode seven."
"So that's why you had names in the credits even though that scene was super short."

During one of these shopping sprees, Yuna remembered one particular bakeshop that sold the super delicious bread they ate during the first day of their stay at the capital. Turns out that the bakeshop was already in debt for quite some time, and eventually had to close.

You can pretty much guess how this instantly tickles Yuna's "save the downtrodden commoners" mentality. But, even for her altruistic tendencies, directly intruding on one's private life would have been seen as pretty rude, regardless of the best of intentions of someone who is far more privileged.

"As a baker I've never tried to prepare food like this."
"Oh no no, you probably wouldn't have seen such food in this realm regardless."

So, in her attempt to find a good reason to intervene, Yuna turned back her attention to the growing pressures we mentioned earlier. She connected the two dots, challenging Morin and Karin, the mom-daughter baker duo, to create everything she did last episode eight. Upon succeeding the task, Yuna finally had the "official" reason to provide assistance, and offered to hired them professionally.

Hmm, this is sort of getting on a weirdly capitalist direction here...

"Anyway, congrats on passing my test. Now you two can come work for me."
"... ????"

With no other immediate financial option Morin seemed to have little choice but to accept to Yuna's offer. It would have been shady af with any other financer. But with the famed bear kigurumi hero, it might not be too bad to quickly stand up on their feet in exchange for some strange employment in another city.

"Why? I'm opening up a shop, and I want you to manage the place."
"...You're not about to say no to stable employment, are you?"

Back at Crimonia (yes we're back), Yuna set her plan in motion. First, of course, is the plot of land and establishment where the business is to be founded. This is to be discussed with the Commerce Guild, along with her now-overall-business-manager Tilmina. It should be noted here that Tilmina appropriately asked her relation to this project, to which Yuna responded by telling her that this is a paid task.

Yup, she very much figuratively slapped her with more cash to shut her up and do her bidding.

"Kids, say hello to your main cook and unofficial branch manager."

Morin and Karin then arrived to move into the establishment. After that, Yuna introduced them to the grunt employee workforce of the establishment: the very same orphans who were given the reins to operate an egg manufacturing monopoly awhile back. 

Yuna, oh dearest Yuna, employing them to manage a business that could pass off as agricultural studies is one thing. But hiring them to literally become the standing staff of a actual work establishment is another thing entirely. You know, her constant complaint of "not wanting to work all day long" is starting to look darker and darker at each development of this project.

"Uniforms eh? Maybe something more fantasy-setting appropriate could—"
"Ta-da! A cut-out bear kigurumi set!"

Most interesting for this blog perhaps, is the next step to fabricate a uniform for the employees. With Yuna's otaku gamer mind, she naturally had plenty of ideas as to what Mylene had already prepared. But before she could even try to guess, the shrewd commerce guildmaster had already pulled out the finished prototype.

"... How could I not have expected this?"

Definite thumbnail spoiler eh? Yes, the costume was none other than a cut out and modified bear kigurumi. The inspiration was pretty obvious, of course, plus the rest of her grunt employees are already heavily foreshadowing that as well when they were discussing about the name of the restaurant.

"Too many customers? No worries! The official shop name says that we just need to chill."

Finally, the establishment is now set. The employees are hired. The cut-out bear kigurumi uniforms are prepared and taken. The main cooks already know the menu by heart. All that is left to do, is to officially open the restaurant.

"Now this... is what the power of politi— I mean friendship, really looks like."
"Meh, I bet half of them were already expecting that it would turn out like this."

Aaaaand it was almost a disaster. Yuna decided to help out to ease the workload on her staff (albeit quite reluctantly). But eventually, all her acquaintances from previous episodes had to step in and help to cater to overflowing number of customers.

"A toast... to a grand cooperative strategy that we probably can't do every single day."

By the end of the day, everybody patted their backs for working their best to keep the place afloat. I guess for the opening day this isn't bad. But I don't suppose any of these characters are willing to assist for too long. Heck, even Yuna would probably stick back to her lazy lifestyle very shortly, since her original intention was for the place to a be a this super chill and relaxed afternoon café.

"I was already thinking of making the exact same thing for the club but dang, I can't believe that Mylene of all people already beat me to it."

Oh, and before we forget, our equally hard-working fan club president Noire may have been late for the occasion, but she managed to snuck in a few service shots before everyone officially wrapped up for the day.

"Uh yeah, turns out that your debt wasn't even as legit as the merchant that issued it." 

There's also that part where Yuna even used her political prowess to punish the one that issued the debt to Morin, as Cliff evidently found out that there was foul play at the agreement. Even if for a noble (pun intended) cause, this is really starting to get into the elitist aristocratic territory that Yuna had been complaining about since episode two.

Well, as far as stories go, this grand development of her bear kigurumi-related reputation in Crimonia should have been where the main perspective of her story ends. But somehow, we're just at episode nine...

'Till next time in Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear!