The three of us went up to the second floor. Fina checked out the room on the right. It was over six-tatami-mats wide, which, to my Japanese sensibilities, was pretty roomy. Fina opened a window to air out the room.
“Shuri, open the windows in the other rooms. After you do that, could you start cleaning?”
Shuri nodded and left.
“Yuna, could you place the furniture?”
Just as Fina told me, I started setting the furniture and beds down. Even if I put them down in slightly the wrong place, I could use my bear strength to finetune their placement. At the end, I put down the boxes with Fina and Shuri’s things on the floor.
I set Tiermina’s bed, furniture, and boxes on the floor of her room, figuring she’d have her own ideas about what to do with them. I held off on taking out the smaller things and went back to the first floor, where little Shuri was working her darndest to get it clean. I deposited the table, chairs, tableware, and such in the kitchen. Finally, I put the leftover items I wasn’t sure about in an unused room on the first floor.
“Fina, this is everything. I’m going back to Gentz’s.”
“Thank you so much,” said Fina.
“Thank you,” said Shuri.
“Make sure you put some elbow grease into it, you two.”
When I got to Gentz’s house, there was a mountain of boxes waiting outside. It smelled of a quick and dirty fix. Gentz seemed exhausted but followed Tiermina’s instructions obediently. Apparently, he was already whipped.
I followed Tiermina’s instructions myself, and soon the last of Gentz’ stuff was in bear storage. His house now empty, we headed to their new home.
Inside, the mountain of stuff was half-cleaned up. Fina and Shuri came over as they realized we were back.
“Fina, Shuri, good job.”
“But it’s not done yet.”
“It’s not getting done in a day. For now, let’s just make sure we have a place to sleep. Yuna, could you put anything that we can move by hand, other than the furniture, in the back room on the first floor? I’ll tell you where to put the rest.”
We set up the larger items we’d brought from Gentz’s house, placing them in the corners of the rooms where they belonged. Apparently, Tiermina and Gentz would figure out exact placement later. When we weren’t sure where something should go, we put them in the first-floor room from earlier.
“Well, we’ve made sure we have a place to sleep, so let’s call it a day.” Tiermina came down from the second floor to the first. “Fina, is the kitchen all set up?”
“I’m sorry. I haven’t cleaned that up yet.”
“It’s okay. You’ve been working very hard, Fina, Shuri. It’s not your fault that a certain idiot didn’t clean things up in advance.”
“Sorry.” Gentz hung his head low.
“Dinner’s gonna take a while if we start now.”
“Why don’t we go eat out somewhere?” Gentz said, hoping to recover his honor.
“We can’t. Now that the four of us are living together, we’ll have new expenses. I don’t have any money saved up, and we can’t use your savings for something like that.”
“But it’s too late to start cooking now. What are you planning to do?”
The two of them glared at each other. I wish they’d stop acting like they were about to divorce right on the first day they’d moved into a new place.
“Oh, okay,” I said. “I’ll pay, so let’s go eat somewhere. That works, right?”
“We can’t impose on you any more than we already have, Yuna. We’re already grateful that you moved our things. It would have cost us to hire movers, and doing it ourselves would have taken us several days. We can’t eat out on your dime after you’ve done so much for us.”
I didn’t mind, but I could see why she’d think that way. “In that case, how about you make a meal at my place?”
“At your house?”
“You can use any ingredients you want, so whip up something good.”
“Umm. I guess that should be fine? Okay! I’ll make something delicious for you.”
Relieved to finally reach a compromise, the five of us set off for the bear house.
Chapter 35:
The Bear Takes a Bear Bath
“NO MATTER HOW MANY times you see it, it’s an impressive house.”
Tiermina and Gentz had been to the bear house more than once now. After I saved Tiermina’s life, she had wanted to thank me again and to see Fina at work, so Fina had brought her over.
“Well, I’m going to borrow your kitchen. Fina, could you help me?”
“I’ll help too,” Shuri declared.
“Go to town,” I said, “I’m flush.”
“Okay, thank you. We really should be the ones bringing the ingredients, though.”
“Really, don’t worry about it.”
“We’re always receiving wolf meat from you. The debt we owe you just keeps building up.”
Tiermina took her two daughters and headed to the kitchen. Left behind, Gentz and I decided to wait in a couple of chairs in the living room.
“Pretty amazing house,” he muttered, looking around. “Is that tigerwolf fur?”
I had the tigerwolf pelt that I’d gotten from the first time I went slaying with Fina over the mantel. I was using the other one in my room in place of a blanket.
“When I first saw you, bear girl, I didn’t think you’d be this amazing,” he said, like he was reminiscing.
More than a whole month had passed since I’d changed worlds. My bear costume had become famous around town. It was kind of scary how quickly I’d gotten used to it. I no longer felt embarrassed.
“Bear girl.”
“Ms. Bear.”
“Little cub.”
“The Bloody Bear.”
Though there were many names people used, they all referred to me. I still couldn’t butcher a kill, but I’d gotten used to defeating monsters. The gamer life had prepared me well. I’d met Fina, and there were tons of interesting things about this world, too. Though I hadn’t gotten a letter or message from the god/admin/whatever it was since that first day, I was grateful they’d brought me here.
“But, miss, are you sure about this?”
“Excuse me?”
“About
