@An76685 - As the translator for this chapter (and the past several), I can clear up this mystery. At the time I translated this chapter, two weeks ago, I had no idea as to the gender of Kuma-Kuma, and the Japanese language does not provide many clues in normal speech. If Kuma-kuma were to speak in Japanese, and refer to herself as 私 (watashi or atashi), I would almost instantly say she was female. On the other hand, if the character had used 俺 (ore) to refer to themself, I would say it was a male. But Kuma-kuma does not speak in this chapter other than to make vague fluffy noises. And I am not as well versed in the lore of this series as you readers are.
All that said, I watched the fifth anime episode the other day (after having completed the chapter script), and in that chapter it was perfectly obvious what her gender (or at least personality) was. Feminine. Unfortunately, I forgot to go back through the script for chapter 178 and fix it. And our typesetter and final QA person didn't notice it either.
Shame on us. The next chapter will have a returning translator (
@GreenMoriyama). Hopefully his memory for lore in this
very long series is better than mine.