SCP-571-JP-1 moving in isolation
Item #: SCP-571-JP
Object Class: Euclid
Special Containment Procedures: SCP-571-JP is to be accomodated in a standard humanoid object housing, and given standard Foundation staff meals thrice a day. SCP-571-JP can purchase luxury goods and accommodations for his housing with his monthly pay with the permission of both the housing specialist in charge and the Site manager.
SCP-571-JP has been employed at the Foundation’s cafeteria, and has the same power as Level 0 staff.
The following items cannot be approved to be obtained by SCP-571-JP.
- Tiger puffer’s liver (Takifugu rubripes)
- Japanese emperor oak’s roots (Quercus dentata)
- Arsenic trioxide (As2O3)
Description: SCP-571-JP is a Japanese male born in Tokyo in the year 19██, with his name in the census being “Saigyō ██”. SCP-571 shows signs of aging such as hair loss, consistent with the census recording his age at 53 years. SCP-571-JP shows no differences from standard humans, save the abilities mentioned below.
SCP-571-JP’s abnormality only occurs when preparing the Japanese dish “Nigirizushi”1 in a special manner. Normally, nigirizushi is prepared with vinegared rice (Referred to as “Shari” from now on), the sushi ingredient (Referred to as “Neta” from now on), and a small quantity of wasabi in between these two. With SCP-571-JP, in addition to the wasabi, the items below are ground into a powder and kneaded with water.
- Tiger puffer’s liver (Takifugu rubripes)
- Broth made out of the root of a Japanese emperor oak (Quercus dentata)
- Arsenic trioxide (As2O3)
Following this, SCP-571-JP firmly grasps the sushi and shakes it up and down while yelling for approximately five minutes2. Following this performance, the nigirizushi held by SCP-571-JP (Referred to as SCP-571-JP-1 from now on) begins moving autonomously. Without this 5-minute operation (Referred to as Protocol Saigyō), the sushi held by SCP-571-JP will become SCP-571-JP-2.
SCP-571-JP-1 attempts to maintain itself in as best a state for optimal consumption as possible, ensuring its own temperature, moisture, umami, shape and other factors related to its taste are preserved perfectly. For example, if the sushi is neglected for several hours, the neta will crawl and dive into saline water, the shari will remove the grains of rice that have dried out, and the nigirizushi will recover its shape once more. If not consumed, and it reaches the point where maintaining a state ideal for consuming can no longer be reached, approximately 90% of SCP-571-JP-1 cases will throw themselves into the nearest trash can, and will stop moving autonomously. The rest will jump towards the nearest human, cling to their faces and block out the nostrils in order to force open the mouth, forcing the person to consume them.
SCP-571-JP-2 is produced when the powder mentioned above is added to sushi by SCP-571-JP, but with Protocol Saigyō not being performed or is interrupted, causing the sushi to become aggressive. These sushi jump towards people’s heads and attempt to force themselves down their throats to be consumed, occasionally causing people to choke on them.
Despite SCP-571-JP-1 and -2 containing both tiger puffer’s liver and arsenic trioxide, two deadly poisons, they do not cause any negative effects unto human beings, other than choking due to parts of the sushi getting caught in one’s nostrils or throat. Also, because to create SCP-571-JP-1 and -2 wasabi in between the ingredients is required, sushis that do not require wasabi such as gyoku3 and gunkanmaki4 cannot be transformed into SCP-571-JP-1 or -2. Experiment results show that all wasabi-free sushi cannot be transformed into SCP-571-JP-1 or -2. From this, it has been established that wasabi is always required to make sushi into SCP-571-JP-1 or -2.
SCP-571-JP was secured by the Foundation in 201█ following a 119 call about a “Chef at a conveyor belt sushi place suddenly acting violently, making strange noises”, with SCP-571-JP-2 beginning to attack the customers and the paramedics who had arrived a the place.
Addendum 1: Interview transcript
Interviewed: SCP-571-JP
Interviewer: Researcher Suminoe
Note: For a smoother interview, SCP-571-JP’s containment specialist and therapist have granted permission to refer to them by their name, “Saigyō ██”.<Recording start, 20██/██/█>
Suminoe: Good day, Mr. Saigyō.
SCP-571-JP: Good day to you too, prof.
Suminoe: What I want to ask of you today is, first of all… Um. SCP-571-JP-1, which is to say the moving nigirizushi that you’ve made. When, where and how did you learn how to make them?
SCP-571-JP: Ah, it’s about that. Err, first of all, you know my family’s old home’s a temple, yeah? Seems an air raid burnt it down.
Suminoe: Yes. The [REDACTED] temple.
SCP-571-JP: Got disowned because my job makes me smell like death. According to my father, that is. Apparently our house was built by a descendant of Saigyō Hōshi.5
Suminoe: Saigyō Hōshi… I see.
SCP-571-JP: I didn’t believe it either. My father was a monk with no temple, after all, so I became a hangure6, after that, well-
Suminoe: Ah, let’s leave that story for another time. The story about the nigirizushi, please.
SCP-571-JP: Oop, sorry about that. Er, well, at the time I became independent with my sushi place chain, my father was no longer with us. Then, at the wake my brother said to me, “Dad told me to give this to you”, handing me a worn-out memo written by hand. I looked at it and saw it was a recipe with an exaggerated title: “Saigyō Hōshi’s secret arts of reanimation”, and it contained the ingredients it needed and the way to chant for them.
Suminoe: Reanimation… But according to legend, Saigyō Hōshi failed at reviving the dead7. Never heard about using wasabi or pufferfish liver either…
SCP-571-JP: Ah, that’s the thing though. They say Saigyō Hōshi failed at reanimating the dead because he stopped souls from continuing the cycle of samsara. Living beings must be tightened and spiced up by the wasabi, and those who walk the animal path must be eaten to continue onto such a path. These secret arts are also not compatible with fire. So it’s correct for a buddhist man to perform the ritual on sushi that contains wasabi and is eaten raw. I also read that it’s necessary to call to it so that when it’s eaten it’s wholeheartedly flavorful, and to shake it to mix it all in.
Suminoe: Er, so, did you believe in all that and put it into action?
SCP-571-JP: Eh? Is there a problem?
Suminoe: Er… (Approximately 5 seconds of silence) Nevermind, please continue.
SCP-571-JP: So yeah, I then tried it, and it worked well. I feed them to stray cats and they’re full of life. I eat them too and there’s no problem. I used poison and the poison disappeared! And then problem with conveyor belt sushi’s that the neta does go bad, but that sushi voluntarily remains good to eat. I was jumping for joy. Then I served them to customers.
Suminoe: Go ahead.
SCP-571-JP: I was a bit eager and enthusiastic. I got a message, and the calls didn’t go well. If you don’t preach the happiness of being eaten properly, they end up wanting to be eaten in any way possible, acting frantically. And, well, you know the rest.
Suminoe: Haa… By the way, why did you add the puffer fish liver?
SCP-571-JP: Nothing better than puffer fish liver you don’t have to worry about cutting wrong, no?
Suminoe: Eh? So no voodoo zombies or anything of the sort?
SCP-571-JP: That’s just a myth from the movies.8
<Recording end, 20██/██/█>