Sushi Stream (Second Half)

Three red tuna pieces, three white ones, salmon, shrimp, and one each of ikura and uni gunkanmaki. Ten pieces of sushi in total.

And among them, the very first piece Karona reached for with her chopsticks was… the salmon!

"O-salmon! The o-salmon just melts in your mouth～!! Mogu… hoa… the fatty richness is to die for, and it's got this springy bounce when you bite into it～! Springy and turun～! I love this～!"

"ojou's actually giving a proper food review!"

"ahh, she eats with such a good expression. looks tasty"

"worth chipping in for the sushi fund. come to think of it, salmon's technically a white-fleshed fish"

"Eh!? O-salmon is a white-fleshed fish!? But it's so pink!?"

As Karona munched contentedly on her sushi, her viewers watched on, warmed by the sight.

"Next is o-uni! O-uni has that distinctive scent of the sea… hmm. Creamy, a little bitter, and a touch sweet! I've heard that pudding with soy sauce tastes like uni, but I don't think it's anything alike～?"

"you mean like cucumber with honey tasting like melon"

"well, texture's a big part of it"

"the slight bitterness of uni is supposedly from alum. they use it to hold the shape"

Oh, huh, she thought, taking in the uni trivia as she moved on to the next piece. This time, one of the two white-fleshed pieces.

"There are two of the same kind here. Tai, perhaps? Or… hirame? O-hirame-sama, then. I love how it brings out the flavor of the shari. There's a subtle kombu-like taste, too. And such a nice, sticky mouthfeel～"

"it's probably kombu-jime, so the kombu hunch is right"

"ojou might actually have a pretty good palate"

"white-fleshed fish have that deep flavor hidden inside a light taste"

"Hohou. So this is the kombu-jime flavor of o-hirame-sama…!"

Karona popped the second hirame into her mouth as well, chewing thoroughly.

And next, the third white fish—kanpachi.

"Kanpachi tuna, o-kanpachi-tuna-sama～!!… So thick! The chew on this is irresistible～! That faintly melty texture is right up my alley, too～!"

"fyi ojou, this one's actually a red-fleshed fish"

"It's the opposite of o-salmon, then! What on earth is the criterion? There are blue-backed fish too, right?"

"googled it. it's the myoglobin content in the muscle tissue"

"amount of a specific color-protein. salmon's pigment is a totally different thing, so it's classed as white-fleshed"

"endurance fish like tuna are red-fleshed, burst-speed fish like hirame are white-fleshed"

"'blue-backed fish' just means edible fish that look blue along the back from the outside. apparently there's no formal definition"

"Hoheee, everyone's so knowledgeable～. Oh? You looked it up? Thank you for going to the trouble～. I'm learning so much～."

Karona swallowed the piece down, admiring all the knowledge her Karonites were serving up.

"Next! Shrimp! Now it really feels like sushi～. The slightly crunchy firmness of boiled shrimp, that chitin-y flavor that just screams 'shrimp!!'… wonderful～!! The tail is nice and crisp～."

"ojou, you don't have to eat the tail"

"are you the type who eats the tail on ebi-fry too?"

"fyi, salmon's red color comes from shrimp"

"… Eh, you don't have to eat this part? I was wondering why it felt a bit hard. I see."

But she finished it off properly all the same. This was a premium 1500-yen list-price pack of sushi, so she wasn't about to leave behind a single grain of rice, let alone a shrimp tail.

"I'm past the halfway mark, so it's time for the final stretch～! Which means… ikura!… Ah! It pops and bursts inside my mouth～! The way it bursts on the tongue, why, it's just like multiple missiles of flavor～!"

"first time i've ever seen someone describe ikura as multiple missiles lollll"

"well, i get that the popping is fun!"

"ikura is delicious. it's salmon eggs, so effectively salmon"

Now that they mentioned it, ikura is salmon roe, huh. She crushed each bead on her tongue with little putchi pops. The salty juice burst and spread through her mouth.

And now, just three pieces left. She'd already eaten the kanpachi tuna, which meant the remaining two were the headliners of this 1500-yen list-price sushi pack: the final two of the three types of tuna.

"Tuna! Honmaguro! That chewy, fibrous feel really says 'o-maguro-sama' to me. It's like the taste of fish blood, maybe? The flavor has a red color to it～."

"the expensive stuff has no fibers and just melts in your mouth"

"ahh, the classic sushi staple. so good"

"now i want sushi"

"And now, at last, the main event… two pieces of chutoro-sama～!"

She popped one into her mouth with gusto.

"… There's none of that fibrous feel the earlier o-maguro had, so the flavor comes through even more clearly～!! Ahh, the taste of o-maguro-samaaa～. The aftertaste just screams 'this is sushi!'… it really does～!"

"chutoro might just be the best one"

"THE sushi"

"this is the sushi you picture when you think of sushi, no mistake!"

She took the last chutoro into her mouth as well. Mogu, mogu, chewing slowly, savoring the flavor of sushi with a smile, taking her time before finally swallowing it down.

"Puhaa… gochisousama～!… But if chutoro-sama is already this good, what on earth is o-otoro-sama going to be like～!?"

"melts. in your mouth. the fat is practically meat"

[Oreshi0436]: "[500 JPY] first comment here. leaving some otoro money. one piece's worth at a certain Zanmai"

"A newcomer-sama's first comment is a SuperChat!? Oreshi-san, thank you so much～! Now that I've been given otoro money, I'll have to eat it someday～… do they sell it at the supermarket, I wonder… also, how do I read the number part? Just normally, 'zero-four-three-six'…?"

Karona munched on gari for dessert while thanking her SuperChat.

"gari's supposed to be for cleansing the palate between pieces though"

"gari's good though. i actually kinda like it on its own"

"btw ojou, you're not using any soy sauce. that's real connoisseur behavior"

"… Fuee? Soy sauce?"

… When she looked, sure enough, a little packet of sashimi soy sauce was tucked away in the shadow of the gari.

Sushi, soy sauce… come to think of it, legend had it that you ate sushi with soy sauce and wasabi!!

Looking more carefully, she noticed a recessed dip on the inside of the lid, sized exactly to serve as a little dish for the soy sauce. A clever bit of industrial design in this pack of sushi.

"… O-oh-ho-ho-ho-ho!! I was deliberately savoring the flavor of the o-fish-samas! De-lib-e-rate-ly! Yes, I intentionally chose not to use it, I diiid～!!!"

"well, it's a rare sushi treat after all…! i'm gonna have sushi tomorrow too"

"once you add soy sauce, soy sauce is all you taste. i get it"

"in ojou's case, she's probably used to lightly-seasoned food anyway, so it was actually the right call"

And so Karona laughed it off. The Karonites obviously knew full well that this was just an excuse and that she'd flat-out forgotten, but they let it slide with fond smiles.