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Editor: Sky
“Now I remember! I had always thought there was something missing from this country!”
“Where did this come from so suddenly?” asked Thira suspiciously.
Thira looked at me suspiciously at my abrupt words.
“It was nigiri sushi[1] that was missing!”
“Nigiri sushi?” Filia tilted her head.
“What’s that?”
“Sounds delicious.”
Ellen frowned and Shiro started drooling at the mere mention of the word.
The Demon Nation has a similar culture to Japan.
Perhaps it’s because the climate and land shape are similar.
The regional cuisine is quite similar too.
Rice, sashimi, donburi, udon, tempura: no matter the Japanese dish, if you could name it, it existed here.
All these familiar Japanese dishes were common household dishes in this country.
But there were still differences. There was still a dish that I could find neither hide nor hair of anywhere – even in this country that was so similar to Japan. Nigiri sushi.
There’s chirashi sushi[2] and nare sushi[3] around, but it seems like nigiri sushi hadn’t been invented yet.
《Nigiri sushi was only invented in the Edo period, so it’s actually relatively new.》
I wonder how Nabiko knew about Japanese history. But back to my point. This country has great rice and fresh fish, but no nigiri sushi!
I wanted to eat it, but there wasn’t anywhere I could go that would serve it.
Why don’t I give it a go then?
I decided to try to make the first nigiri sushi in this world with that thought in mind.
The first step is to choose the rice.
They don’t have the same understanding of rice varieties as Earth did, but they can at least make the distinction between good rice and not so good rice along with something close to breeding.
I went around to several regions to choose the best variety for nigiri sushi.
I definitely had to get the right kind of vinegar for the rice too.
It’s best not to skimp on the essentials of sushi – wasabi and soy sauce either.
But the most important thing is the topping.
Freshness is especially important for seafood toppings.
On top of that, even the same types of fish caught in different areas have a different taste, so I went fishing in the deep sea as well as the shallows with 〈Detection・Extreme〉.
When all the ingredients were ready, it was time to start cooking.
Since nigiri sushi is best eaten immediately after being made, I’ll serve it right straight after having made it.
“Hey, welcome!”
“Why are you suddenly opening up a store here?!”
I was scolded by Ouka when I set up shop in the middle of the palace with my homemade kitchen and counter .
《Why wouldn’t I open a store here?》
I didn’t back down and taunted Ouka like someone from the Edo period(?) while wearing a big grin on the inside, saying
“Why don’t you try this sushi I made before you start complaining?”
“It’s not a complaint about your food per se, but this building is the heart of our nation’s government you know
” Ouka said as she reluctantly sat down at the counter.
“Hey, hold on a second!”
”What is there to wait for
 ?!”
Ouka peeled her eyes away from two pieces of nigiri sushi with difficulty.
”What the hell is this
? Why is it glittering? I’ve never seen such fresh fish before
 Am I supposed to be eating it just like this?”
“No, just dip it in some of that soy sauce first.”
“Oh, like this?”
Ouka brought the sushi to her mouth nervously.
In the next moment, her raised voice could be heard echoing throughout the palace.
“Why does it taste so delicooooouuussssss!?”
A loud voice echoed through the palace.
”Wh, wh, wh, why is this so delicious?! It melted in an instant, just when I placed it in my mouth! Mmmm, I just can’t get enough of this!”
“That’s the ootoro. That’s a particularly fatty part of tuna.”
“Tuna! Isn’t that a fish that almost no one eats because the flavour just isn’t worth the effort of catching it? “
Tuna goes bad quickly but is easy to catch.
Even if it was caught nearby, the flavour would worsen significantly because this world doesn’t have the appropriate technology to keep it fresh before it’s eaten.
That’s why tuna was thought to be a terrible ingredient for food.
Ouka stared at the plate in wonder, but it was still too early for her to be surprised.
“Broiled Tuna.”
“It’s sho gooooooooooood?!”
“Yellowtail!”
“So nice and chewyyyyyyyyy!!”
“Salmon roe!”
“This flavor is popping!”
Ouka’s exaggerated reaction every time she tried a different sushi type attracted the palace officials, one by one.
”Even if you’re the one who saved our country, this isn’t an appropriate location to serve foo-ohmygodwhyisthissodelicoooooouuuuuussss!?”
“What are you doing in this sacred pla-ohmygodohmygodgivememoreeeeeeeee!!”
Those stubborn bureaucrats all fell in worship before my nigiri sushi.
“Wha, what
 are you all doing here
?”
“Hime-sama?!”
Even Onihime ended up turning up here.
“Did you say this is Ka, Karuna-sama’s handmade food
?!”
“Uh, that’s right. But everyone who’s eaten it has had an unusual reaction without exception
 I think it would be better if you didn’t try it, Your Highness
”
”This is the most delicious thing I’ve ever eateeeeennnnn!!!”
“Hi, Hime-sama?!”
Onihime couldn’t resist it either.
“Thi, this
 My God
 chewchew
 wha is thi-chewchew-sh dish called
?”
Ouka asks with her mouth full.
“Nigiri sushi“
“Nigiri, sushi 
 Mmm 
 I couldn’t have imagined such delicious sushi existed
 chew chew
 Hey, I want more people to eat it 
 chew chew
 I want to let them eat it too
”
I decided to set up a shop called ‘Nigiri Sushi Zanmai[4]’ near the palace at Onihime’s suggestion after that event.
《Master, isn’t that a total rip-off?》
“No problem. It’s a different world, after all.”
Word of the nigiri sushi spread like wildfire throughout the whole country.
There’s a long queue in front of the store today. Probably like something just over a thousand people.
Demons from all over the country were visiting my shop to eat nigiri sushi.
By the way, I’ve been making around a hundred pieces a second, but the line doesn’t seem to have decreased at all
?
This was partly due to these guys.
“Goddamnit-itssogoodIcan’tstopeatinggggg!!”
“WhatthehellthisfoodissolitI’mprettysureI’maddictedddddd!!!”
“Delicious, delicious, it’s all so delicious!!!!”
Those reactions were from the Dragon Daughters along with a rock bird named Kuuko, who was here for some reason.
They’d eaten enough to feed two or three hundred people each .
“Hey, why is Kuro here?”
“There’s no chew chew reason why I ca-chewchew-n’t be here!”
Are you eating or talking?! Pick one!
Then the line suddenly got really noisy.
When I turned to see what was going on, I saw something long and black coming down from the sky.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa, what’s that?”
“A d-dragon!?”
“Ugh, run!”
It was a dragon covered with jet-black scales.
The people who had gathered were in an uproar, with most running away at full speed.
“I’m not afraid of dragons! I’m going to eat that sushi!”
“If I died after eating the sushi, I wouldn’t have any regrets left!”
“Hahahaha! Thanks to you, the line just got shorter!”
There were some demon tribe members who said things like that and didn’t even try to escape at all. How dedicated.
Eventually, the dragon got really close, and people started screaming. It was because the wind from the wing flaps blew away the sushi toppings.
By the way, is that
?
Black Dragon B
Race: Black Dragon
Level: 39
Skills: [Roar], [Dragon Air], [Breakthrough].
“Isn’t that guy a shiny black dragon like Kuro?”
“Hmm?”
My words seemed to rouse Kuro from her sushi eating trance to notice the appearance of her compatriot.
“What the hell are you doing here?” she asked with a grain of rice on her cheek.
《I finally found it!》
The strange black dragon turned into a human girl and landed on the ground, then turned to Kuro and said, “Nee-sama, we’ve got trouble!”
[1]: Nigiri sushi – Sushi rice moulded in the palm of a hand with a topping placed on top (usually fish).
[2]: Chirashi zushi – Essentially deconstructed sushi.
[3]: Nare zushi – Sushi that was pickled/fermented in brine. Thought to be the precursor to nigiri sushi.
[4]: Sushi Zanmai is a popular sushi restaurant chain in Japan.