Chapter 61: Catching a Swamp Eel
"It's really completely healed..."
Utaha stared at her palm, completely healed, as if she couldn't believe it.
"Thank you... Yukinos... eh, Yukino-san,"
She said it quietly, and she was happy. She was crying a little.
"It's alright,"
Yukino replied calmly.
"Aren't we on the same team now?"
She didn't expect Utaha to cry.
She didn't expect the girl to suddenly hug her or push her chest into her.
Whenever Yukino realized something like that, she felt a little irritated.
She felt... even Nanako's were bigger than hers.
Annoying.
Her sister and mother both had them too.
Yukino felt like even God was mocking her.
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We got more bear hides than we expected, and it was easier to process them than we thought it would be.
I just soaked and dried them in the sun, and the fishy smell on the fur went away.
Then, wash and soak it again in a mixture of limestone and water. Finally, dry it until it hardens.
The bear hides became soft and could be used to make clothes.
If this were real life, it would require a lot more complicated industrial processes.
But seeing the bear hides neatly arranged on the grassland, Jun felt they didn't need to do any additional treatment.
Everything could be processed quite easily, just like the wild boar hides before.
But turning those bear hides into clothes was clearly difficult.
Yukino's "Skillful Hands" ability made the job easy for her.
She had just found a piece of bone from the bear's skeleton that was strong enough to be made into a sewing needle. It was much sturdier than the fish bones they had used before.
The thread wasn't strong enough because they used grass fibers.
Luckily, Megumi found a plant called the pita palm in the forest.
Its leaves had long fibers that could be spun into strong and flexible thread.
The girls had even managed to make several decent fishing rods using the bone thorns from the fish and bear.
One quiet morning, the girls went fishing.
Meanwhile, Jun buried the rest of the giant bear's bones.
In just a day, those bones were covered in large flies that made his scalp crawl.
Because of their size, the bones couldn't be moved easily.
While Yukino sewed clothes, Jun thought about the other weapons he had for hunting.
He had more than ten sharp bear fangs, eight large bear claws of various sizes (two of which had been used as a shovel and a spear), one giant wasp stinger, two spears made from boar tusks, two arrows made from tusks, and one new bow made from bear bone and sinew, which was very strong.
This bow was much stronger than a normal wooden bow.
However, since it was made from bear bone, it was also much heavier. Currently, only Jun could use it.
He had once tried shooting an arrow at a tree from more than one meter away using a fang-tipped arrow, and the arrow pierced the tree trunk with ease.
After testing the bow, Jun had even played around by attacking the giant spiders across the river.
He only shot one wooden arrow from far away, but it killed a giant spider.
The whole spider forest became noisy, but since the distance was so far, the spiders didn't know who had attacked.
After a short disturbance, everything went back to normal.
"I'll have to find a way to clean up those spider nests sometime."
When he saw the many spiders jumping down from their webs, Jun felt very scared.
He was actually a little afraid of hairy creatures with many legs like that.
"Jun, we can use these as sleeping mats tonight!"
Yukino arranged the remaining bear hides.
After deciding which ones would be made into clothing, there were still plenty left.
"Oh... so, is it okay if we sleep together tonight?"
Jun looked at Yukino in a playful way.
For over a week, he had always slept on the outside of the wooden hut.
Every morning, he woke up and saw beautiful girls around him, and he felt very happy.
But he couldn't do anything.
"Hmph, sweet dreams."
Yukino glared at Jun, then went back to arranging the bear hides.
Every part of the bear's body was useful.
Winter was coming, and the lamp fruits on the lamp tree were starting to decrease.
Those fruits are necessary for them to emit light at night.
Yukino used bear fat to make bear oil and made a simple oil lamp to have a light source besides the campfire.
This way, the girls wouldn't need to wake Jun up every time they wanted to go to the bathroom at night.
Whenever Yukino remembered how Jun always stood behind her when she needed to use the bathroom, her face would turn red.
Even though they were already very close, they were still too embarrassed by things like that.
"I knew it, Yukino wouldn't be that nice,"
Jun pretended to look hurt.
"You always think strange things."
Yukino's face kept blushing as she said that.
"Weird things like what?"
The other girls were still out fishing, so Yukino and Jun were the only ones at the campsite.
Without hesitation, Jun stepped behind Yukino.
"What do you mean... strange things like this?"
Yukino hadn't had a chance to reply when Jun hugged her from behind.
She immediately stopped talking, unable to say anything.
"Like this, you mean?"
Jun rested his cheek on the side of Yukino's face.
Yukino looked down, feeling embarrassed and unable to look back.
This guy... was getting more and more shameless every day.
"Yukinon! Look what I caught!"
Just as Jun was about to tease Yukino some more, a cheerful voice came from behind them.
Yui Yuigahama had returned earlier than the others, and in her hand, she held a giant swamp eel that was still wriggling.
Yukino quickly pushed Kato Jun away from behind her.
"Oh, sorry! I didn't mean to come back this early..."
Yui also noticed the closeness between Kato Jun and Yukino earlier.
She said "I didn't mean to," but she came back on purpose. She lost the rock-paper-scissors game, so she had to check if Jun was secretly taking advantage of the situation and doing something inappropriate to Yukino.
Yukino's face turned red, then she quickly denied the accusation.
"It's not that simple..."
She said quietly, trying to stay calm.
She quickly looked away from Yui's catch.
"That's a swamp eel, right?"
"Yes, it's very big! When we pulled it up, we all thought it was a snake!"
The giant swamp eel in Yui's hand was still moving and trying to escape, but Yui's grip was very strong, and the eel couldn't get away.
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