Lunch that day was Shouichi’s “Spring Cabbage and Bacon Pasta.”
The cabbage was from his garden.
Cabbage was originally something that was only eaten during the winter, but thanks to selective breeding, it’s now available all-year-round.
In Japan, cabbage is divided into 3 different categories depending on when it’s harvested. November to March being winter cabbage, July to October being autumn cabbage, and April to June being spring cabbage, all differing in flavor depending on the season.
Spring cabbage is known for being softer and juicer compared to the firm and crispy winter cabbage, making it suited for eating raw in dishes like salads.
Cabbage is also abundant with vitamin U, which is efficient at regulating gastric acid and repairing intestinal tracts, and was often used as a health food for improving stomach health in ancient Greece.
Mana and Shouichi were at the local grocery store shopping for ingredients for dinner.
Mana asked Shouichi if he had remembered anything as casually as if she was asking him what dishes there were going to be for the day’s dinner.
It seemed that he didn’t remember anything. The usual response.
Mana thought to herself.
While he might have amnesia, he still remembers some things.
Things like words, general knowledge, and in Shouichi’s case specifically, cooking.
If I’d be able to choose what I’d remember or forget, I wouldn’t mind getting amnesia, too.
I’d leave only the good memories and wipe all my bad ones clean.
As she walked while thinking about that, a young woman casually called out to her.
She had a slender body at least 170 cm tall with a stylish outfit composed of a matching chiffon tunic and denim jeans. Her chestnut-colored hair was filled with waves.
Mana thought that she was someone beautiful enough to be a model.
“Hey, I’m pretty sure they shouldn’t be closed right now. Do you know anything that might be going on?”
The girl was pointing her slender finger towards Patisserie Hanamura, which had its shutters down.
Mana and Shouichi exchanged glances.
Shouichi spoke in an uncomfortable tone.
“Actually, the owner, Hanamura, passed away about a week ago…”
The girl’s face instantly turned into a frown.
“That’s so sudden… What happened?”
“It was one of those Unsolvable Crimes.”
“What…? Really?”
Shouichi nodded with a serious face.
“I see… I always thought that those incidents would have nothing to do with me, but I guess they’re affecting me in unexpected ways… But that means that Hanamura…”
After muttering something, the girl put her hands together and prayed with her eyes closed while facing the shutter.
She then opened her eyes and flipped her hair.
“That seriously comes as a shock for me, though. Their cabbage cake had really good reviews online. I love sweets, I even have my own eating tour blog. But…”
The girl let out a sigh and drooped her shoulders.
“I should have come sooner… Now I’ll never get to eat it for the rest of my life…”
“I’m able to make Hanamura’s cabbage cake, you know.”
Shouichi responded with a bright smile.
The girl looked at Shouichi with a confused face.
“Really? You can?”
“I bought it once before, and I thought it was so good that I wanted to try making it myself. It took a lot of tries before I got it right, but my replication is pretty much 100% on point now. Right, Mana?”
Mana was caught off guard at the conversation turning to her and responded with her eyes cast downwards.
“I can’t tell any difference between it and the store’s…”
“If you come over to our place, I can whip some up for you in no time.”
The girl stared at Shouichi with her long eyelashes.
“Are you a patissier?”
“Hmm…”
After thinking about it for a bit while looking upwards, Shouichi responded.
“I might have been.”
“I don’t really get it, but… at the very least it doesn’t seem like you’re hitting on me, so I suppose I’ll take you up on your offer. All kinds of crazy things are happening in this world right now, so I better take whatever chances I get to eat something while I can.”
“That’s right, let’s enjoy ourselves eating cake!” [TL Note: Another pun I couldn’t be bothered to translate. Shouichi uses “keiki”(景気) which means something like “with vigor”, which rhymes with the japanese pronunciation of cake, keeki. ]
Upon making that pun, Shouichi bore witness to a scene like nothing he had ever seen before.
The girl was chuckling with her hand to her mouth.
“What the heck’s up with that? Stop that, geez…”
She was laughing. For real.
Shouichi couldn’t remember a single time anyone had ever laughed at his puns before.
Shouichi had no idea how to react to something like this, so he just bashfully scratched his head.
Mana also hadn’t ever seen someone laugh at Shouichi’s joke before, so she was both surprised and impressed.
She also experienced a feeling she had never felt before.
It was like she was a little anxious and annoyed.
The three of them lightly introduced themselves to each other as they walked towards the Sugita household.
The sweet-tooth girl was Yuki Kobayashi, a 21-year-old college student that lived on her own in an apartment off-campus.
Upon reaching the house, Shouichi headed to the kitchen to start on the cabbage cake while Yuki headed to the vegetable garden out of curiosity.
Shouichi had recommended trying some of it earlier since it was pesticide-free, so Yuki bit into a cabbage leaf.
It was much more delicious than anything sold in the grocery store.
She grew even more excited about trying out the cabbage cake.
After hanging around on the living room sofa and flipping through some fashion magazines, Shouichi and Mana came out of the kitchen.
“It’s finally ready.”
Shouichi spoke while carrying the cabbage cake.
The shape and color made it look like a cabbage roll.
The appearance was one and the same as Hanamura’s cabbage cake.
“So cute! Sweets really are all about the appearance, huh?”
Yuki spoke with a singsong tone and an overjoyed look on her face as she took a digital camera out from her bag and began taking shots at various different angles.
“I’ll upload these to my blog later~”
Shouichi himself started to get happy from seeing Yuki get so excited.
“I made the texture of these cabbage leaf imitations using wheat flour, eggs, and also some cabbage I harvested from the garden.”
“Let’s have a taste…”
Yuki cut off a piece with her fork and put it into her mouth.
“Sooo gooood!”
She let out a squeal.
“I see, so that’s why it’s shaped like a cabbage roll. The outside has that cabbage texture while the inside is another cake. This flavor is… Oh, I know! It’s tomato cake!”
“That’s right. This is Patissier Hanamura’s ‘Cabbage and Tomato Married Couple Cake’! I’ll say it again, it’s the ‘Cabbage and Tomato Married Couple Cake’!”
“Why’d you say it twice?”
Mana casually pointed that out.
“The texture of the cabbage and the tomato cake, the sweetness of two vegetable desserts are mixing together in my mouth… Ahh… I’ve never tasted anything like this before…”
Yuki had a spellbound look on her face as she savored the lingering aftertaste on her tongue.
After a little while, Shouichi began to get a bit worried.
“Um, Yuki?”
Yuki then nodded with immense satisfaction.
“Yep, 3 stars!”
That was Yuki’s highest possible rating.
“Thanks for the treat.”
Yuki bowed courteously and gave Shouichi a smile.
“You really are a patissier, aren’t you, Tsugami? Or maybe you’re one in the making?”
“What about you, Yuki? You’re always going around eating sweets, I wouldn’t be surprised if you’re aiming to become a patissier yourself.”
“Me? Well, it’s not like I wouldn’t be interested in something like that, but I’m ultimately more interested in eating then making. I hardly do any cooking, and I think it’d be nice to have a husband that cooked.”
Shouichi suddenly stood up.
“If you want, I could teach you how to cook.”
“Huh?”
“Let’s see… How about we start with your favorite cake.”
“Huh? W-Wait, what are you talking about…?”
Shouichi dragged Yuki to the kitchen by her arm.
Meanwhile, Mana was still sitting on the sofa while watching Shouichi head off with a sullen look on her face.
He hasn’t even taught me how to cook yet…
Even though he promised…
“All right, let’s do this.”
Shouichi threw on an apron and gripped onto a hand mixer.
Yuki was really getting into it.
She did just as Shouichi said.
Lightly mix together eggs and sugar in a warmed bowl and whisk it with the hand mixer.
Add sugar, wheat flour, and milk, and then bake it in the oven.
Slice the sponge cake into two and sandwich some whipped cream in between.
“Then you just need to cover the outside with whipped cream as well and finish things off with some decorations.”
Shouichi was acting just like a teacher.
Yuki was cutting a strawberry into half with a fruit knife.
She was getting excited over how fun it was to actually make something herself.
Shouichi crossed his arms together like a teacher.
“The cream will get messy if you keep redoing the decorations, so try not to get too picky over how you want it.”
“That’s no good!”
Yuki suddenly slammed the fruit knife onto the cutting board and glared at Shouichi.
“Appearance is the most important thing! Sweets won’t taste good unless they look cute! You can’t compromise on decorations!”
Overwhelmed, Shouichi made a wry smile.
“Sounds like you’re really insistent on that kind of thing…”
“I’m actually mad right now.”
Yuki was dead serious.
Shouichi then spoke with a serious face.
“I’m sorry, I was in the wrong. Let’s go to town with the decorations!’
“Then let’s go shopping.”
“Shopping?”
“I’ll show you my decorations.”
Shouichi gave Yuki a ride on his bike as they sped off to the supermarket, and they returned back to the kitchen with large quantities of fruit.
After slicing, carving, and crushing the fruit she took out of the shopping bags, she muttered while glancing at the sponge cake.
“I can see the final image now.”
Yuki thought of cake decoration in the same way as coordinating a fashion outfit.
She dressed the sponge cake with whipped cream.
She accessorized it with fruit toppings.
It almost looked like she was dancing as she enjoyed herself decorating it.
Eventually she finally finished her cake decoration.
Yuki proudly announced the name of the cake.
“I call it the Fruits Paradise Enjoy Vacation!”
Shouichi and Mana’s eyes were wide with surprise.
The image of enjoying a fruit paradise on vacation came to mind.
On top of the cake was raspberry, kiwi, orange, all kinds of fruits.
It was truly a fruit paradise.
“…Does it taste weird?”
Yuki asked Shouichi with a shy smile.
“Not at all, it’s right on track.”
Shouichi praised the cake after eating a slice he cut out for himself.
“It tastes like nothing I’ve ever had before thanks to your decorations.”
“I can’t tell if that’s a compliment or not.”
Mana softly made a quip as she took a bite as well, which made her go “Oh, it’s actually pretty good.”
“Yeah, I’d put it at 2 stars.”
Yuki self-rated it after taking a bite.
“The foundations I taught you and your unique sense combined together made a pretty good cake. We might actually be pretty compatible.”
Shouichi spoke with a bright smile while looking at Yuki.
Mana glared daggers at Shouichi for that sudden remark.
“Haha, what? Was that your way of nonchalantly confessing to me or something? You’d have a lot of competition if you went after someone like me, you know.”
Yuki spoke while grabbing onto Shouichi’s arm.
“Oh, I know. How about you join us for dinner tonight?”
Shouichi slapped his hands together as if he had come up with an incredible idea.
Mana couldn’t help but interject from hearing that.
“You can’t just ask stuff like that to people without thinking about their schedule first, you know? You might be putting them on the spot.”
“Well, I am free, though.”
Mana internally clicked her tongue to Yuki’s casual reply.
“But I’d feel bad for having you treat me to even dinner, too.”
Yeah, that’s right, Mana thought to herself.
Mana had no idea why she felt so relieved over hearing her say that.
Yuki began to take off her apron in preparation for leaving, but Shouichi said “It’s fine, really” while pushing her back towards the sofa in the living room.
“I don’t mind whipping up something for you to show you what I can do.”
Yuki was taken aback for a several moments, but she eventually decided to take him up on his offer with a “Let’s see what you can do then, Shouichi.”
Shouichi began washing some vegetables while humming.
Meanwhile, Mana was glaring towards Shouichi’s back.
She wasn’t having very much fun.
She was very familiar with Shouichi’s personality.
It wasn’t that Shouichi had particularly fallen for Yuki, it was just that he was the type that showed love and kindness to pretty much everyone around him.
That’s why he ended up saying something that would easily cause misunderstandings like it was nothing earlier.
Thanks to that, now I feel so annoyed and upset for some reason.
Mana thought about how she’d be able to deal with those feelings.
She then noticed the core of a cabbage on the table.
It was leftovers from making the cabbage cake.
It was that moment when she harbored a tiny drop of ill intent.
She suddenly grabbed the cabbage core and aimed for Shouichi’s back who was standing in front of the sink.
I can’t take this anymore!
She made her throw with her feelings concentrated into it.
Woosh.
“Ow.”
Plop.
After looking at the cabbage core on the floor, Shouichi looked at Mana with a confused look.
“Mana, what was…”
“Don’t ask me.”
Mana pursed her lips and looked away.
Kamen Rider Novel Translations 