Chapter 202: 202

Chapter 202 – Bear-san holds a Mochi-Pounding Event

Two days after making the red bean paste, I went to the forest to gather some wood . I had to make an usu and a kine, so that I could start making mochi .

The question was, what type of wood should I make them out of?

For a while, I just rode around on Swaying Bear, searching for suitable trees .

Was there a specific tree required for making an usu? If there was, it also might not be in this world, or simply hard to find .

It had to be wide enough that I could carve out an usu with enough space to place a lot of mochi in while also be sturdy enough to withstand the continuous pounding that would commence . For now, I should probably just try looking for a big tree .

After wandering around for a while, I finally found one that seemed to be large enough .

Would it do?

I got off Swaying Bear and stood in front of the grand tree . It had thick branches with many leaves lusciously growing out of them .

Without a second thought, I casted some wind magic to cut off a thick branch, making it fall straight towards me . In a panic, I had to jump backwards to dodge it . I should have probably planned a little more before cutting it .

After successfully felling the rest of the tree, I began to cut the trunk up into round slices, large enough to make an usu out of them . This should do, right? The slices reached just about reached my waist .

Next, I needed to hollow out a hole in the middle to make room for the mochi . How should I try to do it? Cutting it was simple enough, but carving a hole inside was bound to be more difficult . Could I maybe try using some sort of spiralling magic?

To test it out, I visualized a mini tornado and used it on the wood .

Oh, it did drill a hole but didn’t stop and pierced through the wood instead .

After a few trial and errors, I was able to make a nice, round cavity in the wood . Although I didn’t know what a real usu looked like, the one I made did look quite similar to the ones from TV . Well, it should be fine as long as it didn’t break when pounding the mochi .

I then used a plane to smooth out the exterior and it didn’t look half bad . I still had the remaining slices of wood left though, along with the rest of the tree, of course .

I couldn’t just throw them away, so with a bit of effort, I made four more usus . Because of my Bear Box, carrying them all wouldn’t be a problem .

Next, I needed a kine for pounding the mochi . Couldn’t I just make a large wooden mallet?

In theory, as long as I could pound mochi with it, anything would work . Would it be better if I commissioned a woodworker to make one? I should have probably discussed this with Terumi-san or Mylene-san beforehand… . For now, I would just use some more of the downed tree branches to create a makeshift kine .

Once I was done, I gripped it tightly and swung it around a bit then tried tapping it lightly . It seemed to work just fine . Still, since I didn’t want it to break on me, I had ended up making it a bit larger than a normal kine would be .

I took off my Bear Hands to see if I could hold it up using my own strength, and, unsurprisingly, I couldn’t .

As I slammed the kine down into the usu, I realized something: who was going to flip the mochi while it was getting pounded by the kine?

Mochi pounding wasn’t a solo activity . The kine was heavy, so I was the only one who could wield it, with my Bear Hands on, of course . There was no way children could handle it, and even if they could, they wouldn’t be able to do it constantly .

I looked at Swaying Bear, which was sitting down to rest while I was busy . Flipping the mochi would be impossible for Swaying Bear, despite how impressive it was . I could only imagine its fur getting all over the mochi if we tried it .

Actually, since it was a summoned beast, maybe the fur stuck in the mochi would disappear if I unsummoned it afterwards? I didn’t think its fur was dirty, but I did wonder how sanitary it would be to eat it .

Was teaching Fina and the other children how to flip the mochi the only option I had left? I had seen children on TV do it before . As long as we didn’t try to copy the speeds of the pros, we should be able to do it .

As I racked my brain for a different solution, Swaying Bear came over and lifted up the kine .

「Swaying Bear?」

Swaying Bear stood on its hind legs and lifted the kine up high in the air; instead of flipping the mochi, it seemed like it could do the pounding .

「Can you do it?」

Swaying Bear look at me as if saying, 「Leave it to me . 」, then swung the pestle down with tremendous force .

「That looks a bit dangerous . Could you hold back your strength a bit?」

This means now I could do the flipping . I was a little scared of getting hurt, but it should be fine, right? I still had some mixed feelings, but giving it a try at least was probably the way to go .

Just in case Swaying Bear accidentally broke it, I decided to use the remainder of the tree to make one kine per usu, so we had spares in case they broke .

Once all the kines were finished, I returned to Crimonia and headed straight for the orphanage . I wanted to ask the Headmistress for permission to use the backyard to pound mochi . Also, if I were to summon Swaying Bear, it would be better to do it at the orphanage, where fewer people passed by .

「I don’t mind, but what are you planning to do?」

The Headmistress asked while also keeping her eye on the kids .

「I’m thinking of making some food . 」

「You’re going to make it outside?」

「Well, I can’t make it unless I have a lot of space . 」

「Bear-oneechan, what are you going to make?」

「Is it delicious?」

A boy and a girl, who looked to be around five years old, came over . They held Swaying Bear and Hugging Bear plushies in their arms respectively .

Now that I looked at it, there were quite a few children with the Bear Plushies in their arms . One of them was even taking a nap while chewing on Swaying Bear’s ear . The plushies seemed to be quite popular .

「Hmm, I guess so . I think it’s good . If I make some, will you try it for me?」

I definitely needed people to taste test the mochi .

「Can we really?」

「Yup . I would be happy if you did . 」

I happily patted their heads and promised the children that they could try out the mochi .

I then arranged a date with the Headmistress for the mochi pounding event and left the orphanage . It was decided that it would be held on the shop’s next day off .

The Headmistress said, 「If you’re going to make food, then please do it on a day when the children don’t have work to do . 」

That made sense, so I agreed . I would feel bad if the children were to finish their work only to find out that the event was already over .

I also invited Anzu, Morin-san, Terumi-san, and some others, as well .

As I thought about it some more, I realized that there were a lot of preparations to do .

The next day, I asked Fina and Shuri to come over to my place to help me with the prep work .

I had already soaked some mochi rice in water overnight, so today we steamed it while also making large amounts of red bean paste .

「We’re done, Yuna-oneechan . 」

「Thank you . 」

We placed the red bean paste into the refrigerator and the freshly steamed mochi rice straight into the Bear Box . In my opinion, chilled red bean paste tasted better because the sweetness got milder . All together, we prepared enough for more than fifty people .

On the day of the mochi pounding event, I headed to the orphanage early in the morning, and, when I got there, the younger children and the Headmistress were the only ones to greet me .

「Where’s everyone else?」

Not everyone was here yet . I didn’t see Terumi-san, Fina, Anzu… Did I come too early?

「They went to check on the cluckers . 」

「They said that if they all went together, they could finish up quickly . 」

Even though the store was closed for the day, they still had to take care of the cluckers .

It was probably smart to start setting up while waiting for everybody to arrive .

I asked the children to stand back since it could be dangerous, and they obediently followed my instructions .

Once they were at a safe distance, I took out all the usus and kines I had made .

I didn’t forget to also bring a bucket of warm water, which was very important when pounding mochi .

I finished up by summoning Swaying Bear and Hugging Bear, and the children immediately exploded in excitement and ran to them .

I tasked Hugging Bear to keeping them far away from the working area, since swinging the kines could get dangerous .

With this, everything was all set up, but Terumi-san and the older children were still not back .

Hmm, maybe they would rush back if they heard us pounding the mochi .

Swaying Bear and I began, just like we practiced .

I took out the steamed mochi rice from the Bear Box and put it into the usu . With steam still rising from it, I kneaded the mochi rice with the kine and gently pounded it for a bit .

I didn’t think Swaying Bear could handle such fine movements, so I did it instead . Once the mochi rice was ground enough, I handed the kine to Swaying Bear .

「Alright . I’m going to flip the mochi as you pound it . Start off lightly, okay?」

「Kuuun . 」

I took off my Bear Hands and held the mochi .

「Hot!」

「Bear-oneechan!」

「I’m fine . 」

The children looked at me with worried eyes . I shook the heat off my hands to reassure them .

That was dangerous, though . It was much hotter than I had expected . I knew I was a hikikomori, but I didn’t think my hands were this delicate .

I should really be more careful .

If I remembered correctly, on TV they would wet their hands and only lightly touched the mochi at the beginning .

I tried again with this approach, but it was still really hot .

I glanced at the Bear Hands I had left on the ground . The Bear Hands never got dirty no matter what I used them for, so I never had to wash them .

I put the Bear Hands back on and touched the mochi carefully .

Oh, it didn’t stick to my hands at all . What an unbelievable phenomenon .

With my Bear Hands, I flipped the mochi . It still didn’t stick to them .

These all-purpose Bear Hands were amazing .

「Swaying Bear, can we start off again?」

「Kuun . 」

「Go . 」 Pound . 「Go . 」 Pound . 「Go . 」 Pound .

We pounded the mochi in a smooth rhythm and I made sure to wet the mochi periodically .

Somewhere in the middle of pounding the first round, the children in charge of the cluckers returned along with Terumi-san and Fina .

「Yuna-chan, did you start already?」

「Yeah, I thought I should try it out first . 」

As I explained, we continued pounding the mochi .

「Go . 」 Pound . 「Go . 」 Pound .

「Is this a new dish?」

Terumi-san looked into the usu .

「It’s a dish made from pounded mochi rice . 」

「Are you going to sell it at your shop?」

Terumi-san looked at me like she wanted to say, 「Again?」

「I’m making this for myself, so I won’t be serving it at the shop . 」

Making mochi involved a whole lot of work . If I had a machine that could automatically pound the mochi, that would be fine, but obviously, something like that didn’t exist here . It was very physically demanding to make mochi .

Not to mention, most of my shop workers were children and women . It would take an entire day just to make enough for the shop, so mochi dishes were out of the question . After all, I couldn’t force the women and children to do labor like that .

Furthermore, mochi was not something to be eaten everyday .

Once I explained that to her, Terumi-san looked quite relieved .

「Go . 」 Pound . 「Go . 」 Pound .

The individual grains of the mochi rice slowly disappeared as it transformed into a smooth texture .

Just a bit more, and we should be done, right?

Eventually, Morin-san, Anzu, and the other women from the dorm also came to see us .

「Yuna-san, sorry we’re late . We heard you were making a mochi rice dish, so we made some snacks . 」

Anzu and Morin-san made some small dishes for us . It would have been sad to just eat mochi and red bean paste, so I was very grateful for this .

Still, now, there were too many people here . At this rate, we wouldn’t have enough mochi for everyone .

Pounding mochi would take too much time if only Swaying Bear and I did it . Could I maybe get Terumi-san and a few others to help out?

As I pondered on what to do, some more reinforcements arrived .

「Yuna-chan, I heard you’re making a new dish . Can we join you?」

「Yeah, is there anything we can help you with?」

Rurina-san and Gil came here after hearing about this event from who knows where .

The next to arrive was the adventurer who drove other guys mad . It was Blitz, and he was accompanied by his usual harem of cute and beautiful women .

「Let us help out, too . 」

The amount of men who could help out suddenly increased, so I quickly gave out instructions on how to pound the mochi rice .

Rurina-san paired up with Gil while Blitz rotated amongst his party members every so often .

Then, Anzu’s cooking team of women decided they wanted a go at it, too .

To top it all off, Gentz-san swung by and paired up with Terumi-san . Fina and Shuri cheered them on from the sidelines, of course .

Luckily, the extra usus and kines I had made came in handy here . There was one slightly smaller pair, which I made sure to give to Anzu’s team .

Now that there were a lot more people pounding the mochi, we were able to pick up the speed quite a bit .

As it started to pile up, we distributed it to the children, accompanied with small plates of soy sauce, nori, and red bean paste . We made sure to also distribute the snacks that Anzu and the other women prepared . In total, there were now more than fifty people here, but we somehow managed to make enough for everyone .

I first tried the mochi with nori and soy sauce . It tasted delicious .

As we slowly enjoyed out food, we also took turns in making even more mochi, which ended up being stored in my Bear Box .

After a few hours the mochi pounding event finally ended with everyone full and happy .

The next day, however, Noa found out about what had happened and got mad at me for not telling her about it .

「Make sure you invite me next time!」

To appease her, I promised her I would .

Author’s note:

This concludes the cooking arc, and a new adventure will start in the next chapter .

I haven’t really thought about it too deeply yet . w