"Special drinks! Tasty and cheap, special drinks! Tasty and cheap!"
Cries like that rang out all over the cultural festival.
This one, though, caught Amasawa's attention right away. She'd eaten a bit too much dessert and was starting to feel overloaded on sugar, so the moment she spotted someone selling drinks, she was interested.
"Senpai, Senpai, so your class is selling drinks too~?"
That's right—the one shouting his lungs out selling drinks was none other than Ishizaki from Yukio's class, along with his silent partner, Albert.
At Amasawa's teasing, Yukio answered honestly.
"No. We secretly added some of our own personal points on top of the official cultural festival prep budget."
"After covering the main attraction, we still had some left over, so I let the class do whatever they wanted with it. Looks like Ishizaki and the others came up with some idea and decided to set up a stall."
"Perfect. Then let's see what kind of drinks Senpai's classmates came up with~"
With that, Amasawa dragged Yukio straight over to Ishizaki's stall.
Unlike most students, Amasawa didn't care about the details at all. If someone else had heard that, they probably would've been shocked by what Yukio's class had done. Secretly adding personal points into the official festival prep budget—wouldn't that cause problems?
Hadn't the homeroom teachers been told to inspect and verify everything?
Questions like that would've piled up one after another.
But Amasawa didn't care in the slightest. In her eyes, if it was Yukio, then those things were all tiny details not even worth asking about.
Yukio looked Ishizaki's setup over carefully and found Ishizaki's expression strikingly genuine—confident, even.
That meant he really thought he had something good.
It left Yukio a little puzzled. He'd never noticed before that Ishizaki had some hidden talent like this. Was he actually good at making drinks? At that point, Yukio was curious enough that he really did want to take a look.
So he and Amasawa headed over together.
The moment Ishizaki got a good look at his new customers, he lit up.
"Yukio-bro! And, uh... and this what's-her-name. Wanna try my latest special drink?"
Amasawa's attitude toward Ishizaki was way better than the one she'd shown Hosen. Maybe that was affection by association. Either way, she didn't seem bothered at all by being called "this what's-her-name," and even introduced herself.
"You can just call me Amasawa~"
"Anyway, what kind of drinks are you actually selling?"
"Take a look! Albert and I worked together to create these masterpieces!"
With that, Ishizaki reached under the stall and pulled out a can of chocolate-flavored protein powder. Then he also brought out a sour lemon-based drink.
Both were the kind of thing gym regulars drank all the time. If you had to classify them, they'd probably count as fitness drinks—or muscle drinks.
Amasawa's expression froze when she saw them.
There were drinks like this at a cultural festival?
Still looking confused, she watched as Ishizaki pulled out a row of disposable cups and mixed up some of the protein powder, offering samples to Yukio and Amasawa first.
How to put it... the chocolate protein shake still had that unmistakable powdery taste. It had a hint of chocolate aroma, sure, but it definitely wasn't good.
That said, both Yukio and Amasawa had drunk stuff like this before. Yukio had it occasionally during training at home, and Amasawa had also taken similar supplements during White Room training, so both of them could at least stomach it.
Then, surprisingly thoughtful for once, Albert brought out two tiny cups of mineral water to let them rinse out their mouths.
After Yukio had done so, Ishizaki pushed the lemon drink over next.
The result?
The second it hit their tongues, both Yukio and Amasawa narrowed their eyes from the acidity. It genuinely felt like their teeth were being dissolved.
They rinsed again.
Then came the finale.
Wearing a particularly composed and confident expression, Ishizaki mixed the chocolate protein powder and the lemon drink together, then handed the result over in two fresh disposable cups.
His face was full of hope.
"Go on, try it! This is the exclusive, perfectly balanced, one-of-a-kind special drink created by Ishizaki and Albert! Once you drink it, Yukio-bro and Amasawa, you'll never forget it for the rest of your lives!"
Beside him, Albert nodded repeatedly, clearly endorsing that review.
Looking at the cloudy, pale-black liquid in the cups, it brought to mind cola with sand mixed into it.
Since Ishizaki and Albert were both hyping it so much, Yukio and Amasawa braced themselves and gave it a try.
"Senpai, cheers~"
Even now, Amasawa stayed playful enough to insist on clinking cups first. Yukio naturally didn't refuse. He lightly tapped his cup against hers and then took a cautious sip.
...
"Yukio and Ichika Amasawa, deceased. The end."
That was a joke, obviously.
But the flavor spreading across Yukio's tongue genuinely made him wonder if this counted as biochemical warfare.
If he had to describe it, it was like getting punched hard in the stomach so that a rush of stomach acid came surging up your throat, mixed with the foul taste of last night's dinner still sitting half-digested in your gut.
Sharp and acidic and awful, like it was burning and corroding your entire throat. Just one tiny sip was enough to twist a person's face out of shape.
"Blech!"
Amasawa completely abandoned any sense of composure. She spat every drop back into the cup, then kept going, spitting into it over and over as if she was trying to purge her ruined mouth.
Yukio had only taken a tiny sip, but by the time he realized he wanted to spit it out, he'd already swallowed it. There was nothing left to do.
"Th-That's unbelievably awful!!"
No matter how much goodwill she had for Ishizaki because of Yukio, Amasawa couldn't stay nice after a drink that had nearly killed her.
"It really does make sense now why you were so confident we'd never forget it! Once something tastes this bad, there's no way anyone could ever forget it!"
Yukio sighed lightly and set his disposable cup down on the table.
"Quit while you're ahead, Ishizaki. There are guests everywhere. If somebody ends up with food poisoning, it's going to be a huge problem."
"Huh?"
The dumbfounded Ishizaki scratched his head.
"No way. Albert and I both thought it tasted incredible. It's got a really unique flavor."
"Yes," Amasawa cut in irritably from the side. "So unique it tastes like stomach acid."
Yukio tapped the table with his knuckles, producing a light tok tok.
"Anyway, shut the stall down. Or just sell the ingredients separately. Either of those is fine. Just stop selling this mixed version. I'm seriously worried some guest is going to call the police and report you for developing a biological weapon."
Seeing Yukio-bro being this serious, Ishizaki had no choice but to nod obediently.
Still, his expression looked a little regretful, and that left Yukio with just eight words for the whole situation:
When idiots get to work, all you can do is sigh.
...
For every 50 Power Stones → +1 extra chapter.