Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear (Chapter 75-260)

Short Story 3

Third Short Story – Big Sis Bear-san, Orphan’s Perspective (Commemoration Of The Second Year Anniversary)

Cold wind blew in through the cracks in the walls when I woke up that morning, hungry and cold.
It didn’t take long for the other children to wake up, too.
We were in an orphanage: a place for children without parents.
Like everyone else here, I didn’t have parents. I didn’t remember the faces of my mother and father, but I still had a faint memory of being embraced.
I had no idea how long I had been here; the first memories I had were already at the orphanage.

At first, we had been able to eat both breakfast and dinner, but recently, we only ate dinner. When we asked the Headmistress why, she just apologized to us.
We knew that the Headmistress and Big Sis Liz were getting us food, so we all agreed we wouldn’t complain. Headmistress and Big Sis Liz were the only ones who cared about us, and we didn’t want them to hate us; we trembled at the thought of the two of them abandoning us.

We were still hungry, though.
We drank water when we woke up, but water didn’t fill our bellies. We needed food, so we went to the place where a lot of food stands were lined up. The Headmistress told us not to, but we still went there since we were really hungry.
The owners of the stands gave us unpleasant looks when we arrived. We had no other choice but to eat the leftover food; we couldn’t really be picky being this hungry.

A delicious smell was drifting from the stands, and it made our bellies growl.
We were all gazing at the stands and the people buying food, waiting for them to throw away the half-eaten food.
I really hoped that at least the youngest children would be able to get some food today.

We had promised not to steal; one of the children tried to steal food once but got caught, so Headmistress and Big Sis Liz had to go and apologize. If we did bad things, we caused trouble for our dear Headmistress and Big Sis Liz, so we promised we would behave.

While we were gazing at the stands, a Big Sis wearing strange clothes came.
What were those strange clothes?
One of the children said it was a bear. Was it a Bear-san?
It looked really fluffy and warm.

The Big Sis, who was wearing the Bear-san, looked at us and then spoke with one of the stand owners.
The Big Sis Bear bought a bunch of delicious looking skewers from the stand.
As I was wondering if she would eat all of them herself, Big Sis Bear approached us and offered us the skewers.

「Here, one for each of you.」

For a moment, I couldn’t comprehend what the Big Sis Bear had said.

「We can eat them?」

「They’re hot, so eat them slowly.」

We all looked at each other and quickly reached for the skewers.
The meat was delicious; we were all eating them like we were in a trance. Big Sis Bear told us to eat them slowly, but we paid no mind to that warning.
When we finished eating, the Big Sis Bear told us to take her to the orphanage if we wanted to eat more.
We hesitated, but hoping we might be able to eat our fill, we decided to take her to the orphanage.
As we were walking, we were all staring at the Big Sis Bear, but no one dared to speak to her, so I decided to do it.

「Ehm, thank you.」

I didn’t really know what to say, so I just thanked her.
Big Sis Bear said,「Don’t worry about it,」and patted my head.
Her hand was really warm and soft.

The Big Sis Bear was shocked when we reached the orphanage.

「Living in a run-down place like this…」

She muttered.
It didn’t take long for Headmistress to notice and approach us.
When she heard that we went to the stands, she got angry and showed a sad expression.
We all apologized for going there even though she told us not to.