Konjiki no Gash!! Chapter 29

**A Stone Statue’s Challenge** (石像の挑戦状, *Sekizō no Chōsenjō*) is the 29th chapter of Makoto Raiku's Konjiki no Gash!!. This chapter was originally released in Japan as part of volume 4 on January 18, 2002.

## Plot

Kiyomaro walks home from school with Iwashima and Yamanaka who talk about Suzume’s absence from school that day due to a cold. Kiyomaro thinks that Suzume’s sickness isn’t serious but it’s nevertheless unusual to him as this was the first time Suzume had missed school. As Kiyomaro starts approaching the door to his house, Gash eagerly waits on the other side of the door as he’s anxious to tell Kiyomaro something important. Kiyomaro opens the door and Gash lunges toward him only for the door to slam on Gash’s face when Kiyomaro gets distracted by a snail in the garden. When Gash finally talks to him, he tells him that there’s a strange statue of Suzume in Kiyomaro’s room. The statue itself is a realistic sculpture of Suzume appearing tied up. As Kiyomaro inspects the statue, Gash shows him a note that was left on it. On the note, Gash and Kiyomaro are instructed to arrive at a specific storage shed on Mochinoki Harbor at 3PM or Suzume’s life would be at stake. When Kiyomaro looks at the time, he sees that they only have 10 minutes to get there in order to rescue Suzume.

When the pair arrive at the storage shed, they quickly notice how freezing cold it is inside. Not long after this, they meet the demon Robnos and his bookkeeper Luc, who were the ones that were going to challenge them. Robnos proudly introduces himself as someone that enjoys picking on the weak as well as singing and sculpting. Robnos then goes on to tell Gash and Kiyomaro that he came to Japan specifically to humiliate Gash in a battle because of how weak he is. Angered, Kiyomaro casts *Zakeru* towards Robnos. Robnos dodges this attack before attacking back with his own spells, *Biraitsu*. The attack grazes Kiyomaro’s arm but Kiyomaro remains confident that it’ll be easy to dodge the next time he uses it. Robnos uses *Biraitsu* again and this time Kiyomaro casts *Rashirudo* in time to deflect it. After this, he follows up with *Zakeru* and lands a direct hit on Robnos, sending him flying back towards storage shelves.

Believing he had defeated Robnos, Kiyomaro demands Luc to release Suzume but soon finds out that the battle is far from over. When Kiyomaro looks back, he sees Robnos standing amidst the spilled over storage shelves appearing completely unharmed. Kiyomaro is then seen in complete  disbelief that his recent attack appeared to have no effect on Robnos. Before he could think on this much longer, Robnos prepares to use another attack. Kiyomaro once again casts *Rashirudo* to defend against it but he is then unexpectedly hit from behind. Kiyomaro becomes shaken up from this as he can’t figure out how Robnos was able to attack from behind while seeming invulnerable to any attacks. When he thinks about Suzume however, Kiyomaro regains his composure as he’s determined to save her. Kiyomaro then gets back on his feet and tries to keep calm in order to figure out how to solve this puzzle he’s now in.

## Features

### Characters by Appearance

* Kiyomaro Takamine
* Gash Bell
* Hiroshi Yamanaka
* Mamoru Iwashima

### Locations

* Mochinoki City
	+ Takamine Residence
		- Kiyomaro’s Room

### Spells by Appearance

* Zakeru
* Biraitsu (Debut)
* Rashirudo