Episode 4

**The 100 Demon Battle** (100人の魔物の戦い, *Hyakunin no Mamono no Tatakai*) is the 4th episode of the Konjiki no Gash Bell!! Anime. This episode first aired in Japan on April 27, 2003.

## Overview

Ever since their encounter against Hosokawa and Reycom, Kiyomaro has noticed how dejected and quiet Gash has been after he started believing how he is a monster. While walking home from school, Kiyomaro spots Gash trying to boast about his lightning powers to the kids at the playground and immediately scolds him for doing so. After a heated argument, Gash wanders around the city and ends up befriending a curious little dog in the pouring rain. Meanwhile for Kiyomaro, meets with some unexpected visitors at his front door who wish to speak to him about some important matters.

## Plot

In the middle of a rather gloomy and rainy day, Sherie and her demon partner Brago make their way through the city discussing their latest plan for that day. As Brago tries to pry for further information on what Sherie plans on doing when they finally meet with Kiyomaro face to face, Sherie calmly states that her goal is to put an end to things as soon as possible.

Back at school, Suzume and Mariko are trying to work together to carry a large and heavy box to drop off to the music room. As the two are slowly carrying the box, Suzume quickly notices Kiyomaro walking right past her heading home for the day. While seeing him off, Suzume sees that Kiyomaro doesn't seem to be his usual self as he simply walked by in silence looking rather dejected leaving Suzume to wonder if anything had happened to him recently. As he walks home, Kiyomaro thinks back to his battle the previous day against Reycom and Hosokawa. In the aftermath of that battle, Gash had finally come to terms with the fact that he's no ordinary child.

When their battle against Reycom and Hosokawa had just ended, Kiyomaro tells Gash that it's time to head home. Before going with him, Gash stops Kiyomaro to talk about what had just happened. Gash points out that Reycom had a similar book just like his that they both held onto and the two of them had the ability to cast spells from their mouths. Gash then makes the connection that all the various places that his lightning had been brought out, such as the school rooftop, the bank, and just then in their recent fight, had all been created by him and was not the result of some special tricks that Kiyomaro had been doing. Gash then presents Kiyomaro with a single question asking him if he was the one that has the power to make lightning come out of his mouth to which Kiyomaro confirms that this was true. Gash solemnly accepts this then concludes that he's nothing but a monster.

After thinking about this, Kiyomaro also notes how since then Gash hadn't said a word to him which was a complete contrast to his usual outgoing and cheerful demeanor. As Kiyomaro tries to think on how he could help cheer him up, his thoughts are interrupted by something going on at the park. As he looks over, he sees Gash standing on top of the playground's clock structure. Kiyomaro immediately rushes over to Gash fearing that Gash is going to jump from the structure only to soon then hear Gash shouting in an attempt to summon his lightning powers. Gash is then confronted by a group of kids at the park accusing him of lying about his ability to shoot lightning. As Gash soon decides he'll try to summon lightning in a different location at the park, Kiyomaro steps in and demands an explanation from Gash as to what he was trying to do. Gash then explains to Kiyomaro he's been having a hard time being unable to figure out how to summon his lightning attack but with Kiyomaro's help, he'll be able to show this off to the playground kids who would agree to be his friend if he could prove he was able to do so.

Kiyomaro becomes upset with Gash and expresses to him how much he had been worried for him only to find him doing something as reckless as that. Gash, not fully understanding why Kiyomaro is upset with him, responds to Kiyomaro how proud he is of his abilities and doesn't see anything wrong with trying to show off something that an ordinary person can't do at all. Kiyomaro becomes more angry with Gash telling him he could easily get someone hurt with his powers and it's nothing to be bragging to people about. Gash eventually tells Kiyomaro to leave him alone and that he doesn't want to see him. Kiyomaro, both hurt and angry after hearing this, decides to leave Gash at the park and heads home by himself and tells Gash he regrets having worried about him to begin with. Gash watches in silence as Kiyomaro walks away and stands alone in the park as the rain begins to pour in.

Gash eventually leaves the park and takes a walk around the city before he stops on the side of the road looking over at the rushing river of water below him. Suddenly, a small dog, Gofure, comes over to Gash and begins to inspect him. Gash finds some comfort in speaking with the dog asking if he too is all alone just like him. Having the companionship of the dog brings Gash to tears as he thinks about his confrontation with Kiyomaro saying to himself that to just be known as a monster is too depressing for him to think about and still feels that it wasn't wrong of him to feeling proud of his abilities as a way to cope.

Back at home, Kiyomaro comes back to his bedroom still upset about his confrontation with Gash and how Gash doesn't realize how much he had been worried over him. As Kiyomaro vents his thoughts to himself, he looks over and sees the Vulcan 300 by one of his bags and goes over to pick it up. As he looks at Vulcan and is reminded of Gash, Kiyomaro suddenly hears that someone is ringing the doorbell. As Kiyomaro walks downstairs and opens the door, he's immediately taken back in surprise as the first thing that catches his eye is a black spell book. The reader of the black spell book, Sherie, and her partner, Brago, finally arrive at Kiyomaro's home reassuring him that they're only here to talk.

Meanwhile outside, Gash continues to walk on his own in the rain until he notices the dog he had met earlier was still following him. Happy to see him again, the two of them eventually run in the direction of Kiyomaro's house. When the two arrive, Gash decides then that Gofure will be his new friend and that they'll both claim Kiyomaro's room as their own. As Gash carefully comes back inside the house, he notices two extra pairs of shoes in the doorway of the house and suspects that Kiyomaro must have had guests over. Upstairs, Kiyomaro had informed Sherie of Gash's lack of memory of where he had come from. Kiyomaro, seeing how informative Sherie had been, begins to ask Sherie about what she knows about Gash. As Gash begins to listen in on their conversation in Kiyomaro's room, Sherie reveals that Gash is actually a demon child. She continues explaining that Gash is originally from another world that's much different from theirs that's simply known as the Demon World. The society of the Demon World is overlooked by a ruler, and once every one thousand years, a new ruler is crowned in a battle that takes place in the Human World. One hundred demon children are chosen and are sent from their world to the Human World in order to fight for the right to rule. All one hundred of these demon children come to the Human World with their respective spell books and must search for a human partner who would be able to read and recite the spells in their books in order to assist them in winning the battle. The nature of the battle is simple: The human partners of the demon children assist in making them become strong by any means necessary. The spell books themselves are fueled by human emotion which is then converted into power allowing a demon child's spells to be cast. If a demon child's book is burnt, that child loses all qualifications in becoming the next ruler and with the destruction of their spell book, they are forcibly sent back to their world. All the chosen demon children will continue to fight in the Human World destroying each other's books until only one remains. The one that remains will be then crowned as the new ruler of the Demon World.

As Sherie concludes her explanation, she then tries to convince Kiyomaro to hand over Gash's red book to her explaining that he was thrown into the battle to decide king with no prior consent and would be better off without holding onto the book. Kiyomaro still remains reluctant to trust everything that Sherie had told him and is even more so hesitant about handing the book to her as he recalls that once Gash's red book is destroyed, he will disappear along with it. Sherie, after being met with refusal from Kiyomaro, decides to take matters into her own hands and casts an attack spell, *Reisu*, directly at Kiyomaro. Gash witnesses this and as he initially considers coming in to help him, he overhears Sherie continuing to convince Kiyomaro to hand the book to her warning him that the battle to decide king is a dangerous situation to be involved in and Gash will only continue to invite disaster to them if he stays. After hearing enough of this, Gash quietly leaves with Gofure and heads downstairs.

Meanwhile, Kiyomaro begins to question Sherie's own motives with her keeping her spell book around asking if she doesn't want anyone involved in the battle to begin with, then why must she go around burning other peoples' books instead of her own. Sherie, both saddened and angry thinking back on tragic past events, sternly tells Kiyomaro he wouldn't understand and that her goal is to help crown Brago as king of the Demon World and will not hesitate to destroy Kiyomaro's book by force.

Downstairs, as Gash walks towards the front door, he sees Renji, who had been concealing himself in a dark cloak, standing before him in the doorway. Gofure, standing beside Gash, begins to look troubled seeing Renji to which Gash reassures him he'll ask him to leave. Before doing so, Renji pulls out a light-brown spell book from inside his cloak and it begins to glow bright. He then casts the spell, *Doruku*, from the book and in an instant, the once small and friendly dog begins to shape-shift into a terrifying and vicious battle form appearing before Gash much larger and aggressive than before. Gash cowers in fear before the dog as his transformation completes realizing then that this dog was actually another demon the whole time.

## Features

### Characters by Appearance

* Brago
* Sherie Belmondo
* Mariko Nakamura
* Suzume Mizuno
* Kiyomaro Takamine
* Reycom (Flashback)
* Hosokawa (Flashback)
* Gash Bell
* Naomi
* Gofrey
* Coco (Flashback)
* Zofis (Flashback)
* Renji

### Locations

* Mochinoki City
	+ Mochinoki Middle School
	+ Takamine Residence
		- Kiyomaro's Room

### Spells by Appearance

* Gikoru (Flashback)
* Rashirudo (Flashback)
* Reisu (Debut)
* Doruku (Debut)

## Manga & Anime Differences

* A scene featuring a brief interaction between Sherie and Brago seen at the very beginning of the episode was not originally featured in the manga series.
* Gash never formally introduces Kiyomaro to the various kids he met at the playground who he was trying to impress with his lightning powers in the manga.
* In the anime, after being left at the park by Kiyomaro, Gash wanders around town for some time before he meets Gofure by the side of the road as he looks over onto the river flowing below him. In the manga, Gash continues to stay at the park for some time until Gofure eventually comes over to him there.
* Coco and Zofis were introduced earlier in the anime than in the manga in a brief flashback.

## Censorship & Other Localization Differences

* As a flashback sequence to various parts of Kiyomaro and Gash's battle against Hosokawa and Reycom plays, Kiyomaro thinks to himself about the events that had transpired during this flashback. In the VIZ localization of the episode, there are no lines of dialogue from any characters within the flashback and no commentary from Kiyomaro. The only audio that remains in the flashback is various sound effects from spells and background music.
* All instances of Kiyomaro hitting Gash in the head were removed in the VIZ localization. All scenes that would have originally depicted the very moment of impact where Kiyomaro hits Gash are censored over by a brief flashing screen sequence.
* In the original Japanese airing of the episode, as Gash and Kiyomaro have a heated argument with each other at the park, Kiyomaro eventually leaves Gash there after Gash tells him to go away. In the VIZ localization of the episode, Kiyomaro instead tells Gash that he's on his own and how it will be a relief to not worry about him anymore which implies that, in contrast to the original narrative, Kiyomaro officially kicks Gash out from living with him.