[TSSIM] Chapter 504: Akiko's Jam

"Homura-kun... can you tell me what the point of making that thing is?"

Megumi couldn't help but ask as she glanced at the bottle of Akiko's jam in Homura's hand.

"What’s the point? To eat it, obviously." Homura shrugged.

""Eat it?!""

Some of the girls exclaimed in surprise.

"Yeah, think about it. Isn't reality distortion a rare experience? And this Akiko's jam, which is not only completely safe but also good for your body, is basically like a divine item."

Homura spoke with a light smile, then shook the bottle in his hand.

"So, wanna try?"

Hearing this question, the girls frantically shook their heads.

"What a shame..."

Homura sighed in disappointment, dipped a finger into the jam, gave it a taste, and then smacked his lips afterward.

"Uh... yeah, it's kinda strong..."

As Homura spoke, his body wobbled a little before he shook his head and finally snapped out of it.

"If someone wanna experience what dying feels like, I'd probably have to concentrate this jam even more."

Homura casually said something that sounded downright terrifying to everyone else, putting the girls at a complete loss for words.

It couldn't be helped.

He was Homura, someone who could drink the nastiest vegetable juice without even flinching, and yet he actually reacted to the jam.

Didn't that just prove how ridiculously deadly the jam was?

"Here, all of you should try it!"

Whoosh!

Everyone backed away in an instant.

"Relax, I'll dilute it for you. At most, it'll just feel like getting tipsy from alcohol."

Homura scooped out a spoonful, mixed it with water, and portioned it out so everyone had about one spoonful each.

"Heh, this really turned into juice, huh?" Homura smiled wryly. "If I had known, I wouldn't have made Akiko's jam but gone with Misuzu's juice instead."

As the girls heard this, they couldn't help but feel it sounded really suspicious.

What kind of juice was that?

And who was Misuzu?

Was that a character from some new work?

"Anyway, we'll talk about that later. For now, just give it a try."

Seeing the girls still shaking their heads, Homura chuckled.

"It's really good, y'know... Uh, well, after diluting it twenty times, it probably won't taste like much anymore, but it still smells great."

Anything diluted twenty times would be completely flavorless, right?

"Seriously, you girls don't have to be this scared." Homura rolled his eyes, especially at Muse. "You're gonna have to drink vegetable juice later anyway. Isn't that even worse?"

Honoka and the others exchanged glances, almost forgetting about the vegetable juice.

"Uh... I think I forgot to schedule the vegetable juice session..." Umi wiped her cold sweat and looked at everyone.

"Oh, that? No worries, ten minutes should be enough. Just treat it as a break between classes." Homura said nonchalantly.

At this, Honoka and the others had their lips twitched.

"Ten minutes... Wasn't it only two or three minutes before?" Nozomi muttered in a daze.

"Well, I enhanced it a little, so it'll work even better." Homura shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly.

Girls: "..."

Homura was seriously a demon!

Wasn't the previous vegetable juice already bad enough?

Why did he make it even stronger?

Did he want to kill them?

Remembering the vegetable juice she had drunk before, Elf suddenly shivered.

No, she definitely wasn't going to try it again this time!

Meanwhile, Kotori opened her mouth, wanting to make an excuse, but before she could, she suddenly felt a spoon placed into her mouth.

Kotori: "..."

Kotori: "???"

Kotori: "!!!"

She still couldn't say a word, but her extremely expressive face made it clear to everyone exactly how she felt.

"...It really doesn't have much of a taste. Just a faint, sweet fragrance..." Kotori smacked her lips as she calmed down. "Hmm... It does feel kinda light and floaty..."

She closed her eyes to focus on the sensation, then shook her head hard.

"Don't really feel anything now..."

When Kotori opened her eyes again, she looked a little surprised.

"It feels amazing!"

Seeing Kotori's reaction, Homura chuckled.

"People always have a bit of a reckless streak. When it's diluted twenty times, pretty much anyone can handle it. If you ever feel like pushing your limits, you can give it a shot."

"Anyway, even at five times dilution, it's just like what was described in Kanon, something Aizawa Yuuichi could eat without even flinching, so it's no big deal."

Homura gave the bottle in his hand another light shake.

"Either way, you should take it easy with this stuff."

With that, Homura set the bottle of Akiko's jam down and turned to start making lunch.

While Homura's back was facing the girls, a smirk crept onto his lips.

'Heh, there's no way they're not at least a little curious. I even showed them how to dilute it properly—they've gotta try it, right? But, I wonder if anyone's reckless enough to drink it straight...'

Even though the girls had no idea what Homura was thinking, their reactions were exactly what he expected.

They kept sneaking glances at the bottle of Akiko's jam, their curiosity slowly overriding their initial wariness, making the previously enticing feeling creep back in again.

As the girls went silent while glancing at the jam, Mashiro grabbed the diluted version Homura had just made and took a sip.

In the next second, her eyes lit up before she suddenly picked up the bottle of Akiko's jam, dipped her finger in just like Homura had done earlier and put it in her mouth.

Girls: "!!!!"

"Mashiro! Spit it out!" Nanami rushed toward Mashiro with a panicked look.

"Um? Nanami?" Mashiro stared at Nanami in confusion, not seeming to feel anything unusual at all.

"Eh? You okay, Mashiro?" Nanami asked with wide eyes.

Mashiro shook her head, smacked her lips a couple of times, and then couldn't help but dip her finger into the jam again.

Homura: "..."

Seeing this, even he was starting to doubt himself.

In fact, that one sip he had earlier hit him hard, so how was Mashiro acting like nothing happened?

Nonetheless, he kept his expression neutral and continued with what he was doing, deciding to see how the others would react in this situation.

"What's going on?" Kotori looked completely baffled. "I surely felt kinda floaty with the diluted one just now..."

"Could it be... it's only working if it's diluted?" Nico asked hesitantly.

Hearing this, Homura's shoulder flinched.

Seriously?

Had she already forgotten how messed up he was a moment ago from trying the jam directly?

"It can't be... Have you forgotten Homura-kun's reaction?" Maki chimed in while giving Homura a skeptical look.

"So... Mashiro's completely immune to the negative effects of Akiko's jam?" Elf rubbed her chin thoughtfully. "Ara, that's one hell of a cheat! Now I'm curious if I'd be immune too."

In the next moment, Elf puffed out her chest and confidently marched over to Mashiro.

She glanced at the bottle in Mashiro's hand and then reached out, but different from everyone's expectations, she took a portion that had been diluted twenty times instead of the jam inside the bottle.

Seeing this, everyone facepalmed.

Needless to say, the way Elf was acting, it was as if she was about to fight a final boss, and yet, as she went in fully geared up, instead of the final boss, she just kicked a slime to death.

"Ahaha, gotta take it slow, y'know? Not everyone's a walking cheat like Mashiro." Elf gave an awkward laugh.

Shortly after saying this, Elf took a sip of the liquid containing 5% of Akiko's jam.