Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear (Chapter 75-260)

Chapter 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 Tirumina-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.