Konjiki no Gash!! Chapter 55

**The Dark Tunnel** (暗いトンネル , *Kurai Tonneru*) is the 55th chapter of Makoto Raiku's Konjiki no Gash!!. This chapter was originally released in Japan as part of volume 6 on July 18, 2002.

## Plot

Sherie and Brago finally corner the enemies they had been pursuing for the past three days, the demon Pokkerio and the bookkeeper Belico. Sherie orders them to surrender their spell book but Belico refuses and exclaims that the power he was given allowed him to become rich and he intends on using it to keep making money from it. He then casts *Juron* and Pokkerio summons large roots to attack Sherie and Brago. Sherie however casts *Gurabirei and the spell instantly stops* Juron*. Sherie follows this up by casting* Reisu *and once again orders Pokkerio and Belico to give up their spell book. Belico once again refuses then casts* Barujuron *to summon a hoard of sentient tree warriors to attack before also using* Juruku to conceal himself and Pokkerio in dense foliage. Brago figures out that their plan is to hide from them and orders Sherie to cast *Gigano Reisu* to blow up the entire area. To Brago’s surprise, Sherie only ends up casting *Reisu* which hardly did any damage against Pokkerio’s tree warriors. Brago asks Sherie why she didn’t use the spell he requested and turns back to see Sherie collapsed on the ground due to exhaustion.

Despite the state she’s in, Sherie uses what little strength she has left to force herself to stand back up. As she struggles with this, Sherie thinks to herself that the pain she’s going through is tolerable and that she cannot allow things to end like this. A series of flashbacks are then shown of Sherie’s childhood and her difficult upbringing. Sherie is revealed to have been born into a prestigious family and because of this, she was given unrealistically high expectations to meet at a young age. Sherie is seen forced to the brink of exhaustion with her education in a variety of areas and struggles to do any of these things with the level of perfection that was expected of her. At one point, Sherie’s mother had told her that she wished Sherie had never been born which finally pushes Sherie to her breaking point. During a rainy day, Sherie stands on the edge of a bridge looking down at the rushing water below thinking to herself about her mother’s words. As she jumps into the water to drown herself, she thinks how the suffering she was going through will never stop as long as she stays alive. Presently, as Brago tries to withstand Pokkerio’s attacks without having any idea where he and his bookkeeper were hiding, Sherie finally stands back up and tells Brago that she’s ready to destroy everything around them.

Another series of flashbacks are then shown taking place some time just after Sherie had tried to drown herself as a child. It is revealed that Coco was able to save her from the river and pull her back to safety. Coco cries as she tells Sherie that if she had died, she would have lost all chances of ever finding happiness when she grew up. Sherie asks what Coco means by this and Coco tells her that even while things are difficult now and it feels as if they’re walking through a dark tunnel, she tells Sherie she believes that if they keep walking through it, they’ll find the light at the very end of it someday. Coco then once again tells Sherie to not give up on everything just yet as she wants her to finally find her happiness when she grows up. Back in the current battle, Sherie reminds herself of the promise she made to Coco that day and that she won’t allow the battle between demons to take away their happiness. As more of Pokkerio’s tree warriors lunge forward to attack, Sherie loudly proclaims that she’ll walk the dark tunnel again to save Coco and that they’ll both find their way out together no matter what it takes. Sherie then casts one of Brago’s strongest spells, *Aian Gurabirei*, and uses it to decimate a large circular radius of the area around them.

At the very end of the spell, Brago finds that Belico, Pokkerio, as well as their spell book, had been completely flattened into the ground by *Aian Gurabirei* and the team was unable to fight anymore. After Brago takes their spell book, he looks back and sees Sherie collapsed again from exhaustion. While on the ground, Sherie thinks back to when she had met Brago for the first time. Another flashback is then shown taking place just as Coco and Zofis try to attack Sherie using *Radomu*. After the spell hits, Coco appears convinced that the spell had hit Sherie and soon she and Zofis leave the area. When the dust settles, Sherie appears unharmed. It is then revealed that Brago was the one who had shielded her from the spell. He then throws his spell book just in front of Sherie and asks her to take a look at it. In the present day, Brago puts his hand to Sherie’s forehead and is annoyed to see that Sherie had developed a fever. He then takes off his cloak and tosses it over her before going on to carry her away from the battlefield. As he does this, he tells himself how he still doesn’t understand why he has to team up with weak humans to fight in the battle.

## Features

### Characters by Appearance

* Sherie Belmondo
* Brago
* Belico
* Pokkerio
* Sherie’s Mother
* Coco
* Zofis
* Sherie’s Butler

### Spells by Appearance

* Juron
* Gurabirei
* Reisu
* Barujuron (Debut)
* Juruku (Debut)
* Aian Gurabirei (Debut)
* Radomu