クレジット
Title: Dark Sushi File No.042 "California Roll"
Original: 闇寿司ファイルNo.042 "カリフォルニアロール"
Author: ©︎FattyAcid
Translator: Zatto13
Year of creation: 2020
Year of translation 2021
California roll ver.Fried shrimp
Overview
The name, California roll is not that of a specific sushi, but a name of a type of shape or cooking method. It is necessarily "a rolled sushi without encircling seaweed". Westerners seem not to like seaweed, so foreign sushi often reduce the amount of seaweed used and/or place the seaweed on the inside.
Its ingredients are various: typically avocado, omelet or cooked seafood (most are crab, shrimp or crab stick) and sometimes mayonnaise sauce, cucumber, cream cheese or smoked salmon. Also, because of the lack of external seaweed, its shari1 is exposed or covered with sesame or flying fish roe.
Sushiblade usage
Attack
Defense
Speed
Stamina
Weight
Usability
It has no fatal flaw and is an easily usable sushi. Even a Westerner who is not accustomed to sushi culture can use it easily. I hear that its usage rate in international conventions is high, but its use tends to be treated as heresy in Japan still.
Previously, I wrote that it has no flaw. Conversely, it has no specialties, either. Notably, its Attack and Defense are sometimes less than other roll sushi, because of the lack of external seaweed. When you use it, you should try to let it run away and endure. Fortunately, its speed and stamina are not bad.
If you use it to directly attack a blader, it is not an effective sushi. In other words, we can use it to do mine-uchi —giving damage which makes an opponent faint for a short time, without fatal injury. It is difficult to control Ramen's power.
I would also like to mention the scalability through customization of ingredients. Sushi's ingredients are mainly concerned with Weight and Speed. The difference between one customization and the other is so slight that it doesn't matter much, and the main determiner is the difference in the bladers' skills. However, in a match between two players of the same level, the difference can determine victory or defeat. As an instance of such a game, I refer to the final game of the Sushiblade World Championship 2017 North American B Block Elimination Round.
Other usage
It can be used to perform a mental intervention with sushi (sumeshi brainwashing). Tuna sushi is often used to do sumeshi brainwashing, but using California roll is considered when performing sumeshi brainwashing on those (including many Westerners) who mentally reject raw fish (and seaweed).2.
Episode
I write about a strange California roll user whom I encountered in the following.
On November 27th 2019, I was in Osaka, actually in order to research about the food culture of flour. When I finished research in that day and was coming back to the lodging place, I felt a strange aura from a maze of the alley. It might be at over 22 O'clock. A new moon and the city could not cast its light in the dark, but my curiosity leet me enter to there.
There, two figures were facing each other, and seemed to be arguing about something. One of them is a woman with animal ears3 and the other is a long hair person whose gender I couldn't recognize. I knew that neither was human.
The following is a transcription of their conversation. It's written from memory, so please note that it may not be precisely what they said.
Animal ears: Why do you, one of Mihashira-no-uzu-no-miko lose your mind on Sushisumo4? Your sister is worried about you!
Long hair: Hmph! What meaning does Uzu-no-miko have? Everyone worships only my sister and brother! One is the greatest Japanese god who administrates Takama-ga-hara! The other is the hero who defeated Yahata-no-orochi! Do I have anything like that? No!
Long hair: If you want me to come back, defeat me in Sushisumo…No, Sushiblade!
Then, the one with long hair took out a California roll. Its surface rice was very brilliant and I almost shouted in admiration. In the other hand, the one with animal ears took out an Inari-sushi5. It, too, was an attractive sushi, made with fluffy fried tofu. I wanted to approach and to observe it, but I didn't want to spoil the game, so I hid so as not to be found.
Animal ears: Though you are a Japanese god, you choose a foreign sushi…
Long hair: Say what you like!"
Long hair: 3, 2, 1, HEY RASSHAI!
Animal ears: Hī, Fū, Mī,6 HEY RASSHAI!
Both launched their sushi. At that point, I predicted that the California roll's user would choose the tactic of running away. The California roll is faster and more persistent than the Inari-sushi, while its attack is blocked by the Inari-sushi's fried tofu, or so I thought. However, this prediction did not come true. The California roll crashed straight into the Inari-sushi and scooped up its fried tofu.
Animal ears: What? Shari can't possibly have such power!
Long hair: If it has just ordinary shari, it is correct what you said…isn't it?
Animal ears: "Perhaps this shari is…!"
Long hair: "Yes… It is the very rice I got when I killed Ukemochi!"
The California roll bounced off the Inari-sushi with its own momentum. And the game was over. The one with animal ears gathered some pieces of the Inari-sushi and ate it, and then disappeared. Long hair watched her disappear, and then disappeared too. I would have loved to have fought against them. At that moment, I succeeded in recovering some pieces of the Inari-sushi in secret.
"Ukemochi", the name said by the long-haired one, is supposed to be referred to as Ukemochi-no-kami, a fertility god described in the Chronicles of Japan. The myth goes like this: Ukemochi-no-kami had the ability to generate food from her mouth, but Tsukuyomi-no-mikoto was so angry to be served them by her that Tsukuyomi killed her. Then, every crop was born from her corpse. That is the origin of Japanese agriculture.
I guess that the person made the shari from rice grains with a spiritual energy, and cooked the sushi in the shape which best harnesses of the power of the shari: the California roll, whose seaweed doesn't interfere with the shari's power.
Attack
Defense
Speed
Stamina
Weight
Usability
A graph of the performance of the California Roll would look like this (note that it is based on the subjective opinion of the file author). It is worth noting that Attack and Defense are greatly improved. However, because of the need to use special ingredients for customization and the possibility that the user will also need to have special skills, I estimated Usability to be low.
I can't tell whether the California roll user was an actual god, a wizard or something that just calls itself by that name. However, the incident made me once again recognize the basic strategy that "a sushiblade can be enhanced by carefully selecting its ingredients" and led me to see the value in exploring mystical and magical ingredients.
I put a home shrine in my kitchen now. Tsukuyomi-no-Mikoto is enshrined in it. I pray to once again encounter the California roll user, the long-haired blader, again and defeat her. I'll get the power to defeat even the gods someday. The possibilities of sushi are boundless.
Related Documents
Dark sushi file No.021 "Shrimp Avocado"
If you want to have a deeper understanding of the compatibility of avocado and sushi, and western sushi ingredients, refer to this file.
Sushiblade World Championship 2017 North America B Block Elimination Round Final Game
Record movie file. Mirror match of California roll vs California roll.
Japanese Foods Internationalization
I want new generations of sushibladers to read it, so recommend this. For newcomers.
FIRST REPORT ABOUT IMPACT OF RELIGIOUS RITUALS ON QUALITY OF FOOD AND ITS POSSIBLE APPLICATIONS IN THE FOOD PROCESSING INDUSTRY
A document recovered from Prometheus Foods, a bankrupt company. For experts, since there's a lot of technical content.
The spiritual unification of kappa roll sushi and Kappa7
A monograph by Researcher Divani8. The representation of approaches from the occult field to sushi. For experts.
Author: Yami