The Case of the Missing Cabbage Pt. 1

**The Case of the Missing Cabbage Pt. 1** is the 58th chapter of the *Ron Kamonohashi: Deranged Detective* manga.

## Summary

Kawasemi, Chicory, Amamiya, Mofu, and Ron are getting ready to investigate an "indispensable" case and bring light to the matter. Toto, who watches them, cannot believe what is happening.

One hour earlier, Totomaru is heading to the Maison du Kamonohashi to visit Ron. Ron wrote him a cryptic text message, telling him about a most important and secret matter, and Toto hurried to wrap up work to find out what happened; he believes Ron could have found out something about the M. Family. On his way, a stray cat jumps on his head before it runs off, leaving behind *enoki*. Toto is quite puzzled by that until Mofu approaches him and apologizes: She dropped the mushrooms, and when she wanted to pick them up, she accidentally kicked them on the head of a stray cat instead.

Chicory then comes to Mofu to inquire if she is well; Mofu affirms this. Toto and Chicory are surprised to see each other, and he asks her and Mofu if they know each other. Chicory clarifies that they meet for the first time today before she and Mofu excuse themselves; they have do some "pressing" business and will see Totomaru later.

When Totomaru arrives at Ron's apartment, Amamiya opens the door for him, much to his surprise. He asks her why she is here, and she tells him that "Kamoo" invited her. However, she almost went back home after seeing that Kawasemi is here too. Kawasemi greets Totomaru, and Toto cannot believe it that he has come down to Tokyo. He asks why he and Amamiya are here, and Ron says he called them over. This does not answer his question though, and Toto asks about the message Ron sent him. Ron apologizes for making him worry; he exaggerated to ensure that Totomaru would come over—after all, it is his birthday today. Ron, Kawasemi, and Amamiya congratulate him, and only then Totomaru remembers that it is, indeed, his birthday.

Ron informs Toto that he called everyone to throw him a party, and Kawasemi happened to be in Tokyo because of business reasons. Then, Chicory and Mofu arrive and wish Toto a happy birthday too. Toto realizes that his birthday is the reason why they were together. Mofu affirms this and says that they were out shopping for his birthday. Ron adds that he asked everyone to bring something as they will be having a hot pot party. Everyone's efforts touches Toto and he thanks them.

Shortly afterward, Chicory tells everyone that she went to three supermarkets but they were all out of cabbage. Totomaru is fine with having hot pot without cabbage. However, Ron and Kawasemi stress that cabbage is essential to hot pot. Kawasemi likens cabbage-less hot pot to a fried shrimp roll without the fried shrimp; Totomaru points out that this is the most important part. Ron says that Spitz is buying the drinks; he will call him to search a bit farther away for cabbage. Toto is happy to hear that Spitz will come too.

In the meantime, Chicory, Mofu, and Ron prepare the other vegetables. Mofu's knife flies out of her hand and gets stuck in the ceiling. She apologizes for her clumsiness. Amamiya, understanding that Mofu must be exhausted as she is, after all, the world's top neurosurgeon, offers to take over, and Chicory remarks how kind and earnest Amamiya is—no wonder she is Totomaru's superior. Amamiya is flattered by the compliment but tells Chicory that she will not give her any information for her magazine. Chicory says she knows that before she expresses her surprise that even "Eagle Eye Kawasemi" from the Aichi Prefectural Police came to Toto's birthday party. Kawasemi is surprised that she knows about him, and Amamiya reminds him that he is pushing his luck again.

The television is running in the background and a news broadcast announces that a Tokyo jewelry store was robbed early this morning. Kawasemi twitches when he hears that, and Ron teases him for reacting to the case. Kawasemi then says he brought *hatchō miso*, dark soybean miso from the Aichi Prefecture, as a souvenir and suggests to use it for the hot pot. Amamiya retorts that they are in Tokyo and will, thus, use the standard soy sauce flavor. He tries to pacify her, in vain. Chicory remarks that she heard they used to be colleagues; it, thus, interesting to see them banter and practically "breathing" synchronically. Amamiya then changes her breathing to show that they are most certainly not in sync.

Ron interjects their hot pot flavor debate to announce that the flavor has already been decided: The hot pot will be brown-sugar-flavored. Everyone stares at the dark hot pot with mixed feelings, though Chicory notes its originality. Totomaru asks Ron if this is the true reason why he wanted to throw this party. In this moment, Spitz arrives and announces that he looked for cabbage in fifteen shops and none of them had any. This shocks everyone. Totomaru wonders if there was a bad harvest this year, but Chicory says there were cabbages available last week. Amamiya and Mofu also note how absurd it is that every shop has run out of cabbage, especially on Toto's birthday.

Toto tells everyone that it is fine if they have no cabbage, but they insists that they have to have cabbage. Without cabbage, hot pot is not hot pot. Ron, Amamiya, Mofu, Chicory, and Kawasemi take the situation very seriously and get ready to investigate the mysterious cabbage shortage while Spitz and Toto think they are exaggerating the matter.

## Characters in Order of Appearance

* Omito Kawasemi
* Chicory Monki
* Amamiya
* Mofu Usaki
* Ron Kamonohashi
* Totomaru Isshiki
* Spitz Feier