Konjiki no Gash!! Chapter 39

**Kiyomaro’s Summer Vacation** (清麿の夏休み, *Kiyomaro no Natsuyasumi*) is the 39th chapter of Makoto Raiku's Konjiki no Gash!!. This chapter was originally released in Japan as part of volume 5 on April 18, 2002 .

## Plot

It’s the start of summer vacation and Kiyomaro is reminded by Suzume of how busy he’ll be over the break. A flashback is then shown taking place some time earlier at home when Kiyomaro had received a postcard from his father asking him to come visit England over the summer. Kiyomaro tells Tio about this trip then goes on to ask her about what she knows about Gash’s past. Tio thinks about this then tells Kiyomaro she thinks that Gash was an only child and that he’s not any different from how he is now. She then suddenly remembers seeing someone that looks identical to Gash in England about 10 days earlier when she accompanied Megumi for one of her photoshoots. Tio then goes on to state that while the person she saw looks exactly like him, he was nothing like Gash in terms of personality. Kiyomaro then reflects that England may provide him all the clues he’s looking for given how these strange connections to Gash seem to come from there.

Presently though, Kiyomaro isn’t able to focus on his trip just yet as Suzume tells him about all the promises he made to his classmates to hang out with them over the summer. Kiyomaro however had forgotten about this, but he reassures his classmates that he intends on keeping his promises to each of them despite leaving for England in 3 days. At home, Kiyomaro realizes how tight of a schedule it will be for him in order to fulfill his promises. As Kiyomaro wonders about how he’ll handle this, he realizes Gash can help him and he asks Gash to come along. The next day, Kiyomaro meets with Yamanaka, the first person he meets with on his schedule. Yamanaka wants baseball training and only needs Kiyomaro to stick around and play catch with him. The task seems simple enough for Kiyomaro until Yamanaka asks that he stick around until Yamanaka perfects his flaming vanishing baseball pitch. This baseball practice would then go on for 4 hours where Kiyomaro would eventually claim that Yamanaka had finally done it before quickly heading off. Kiyomaro then fulfills his promises to go catching bugs with Tai and catching fish with Inoue. By the time he finishes these, he’s now 4 hours behind schedule to meet with Kaneyama to catch a tsuchinoko with him.

During this, Kaneyama tells Kiyomaro he won’t let him leave until they catch a real tsuchinoko but Kiyomaro had anticipated this possibility. When Kiyomaro hears rustling coming from the nearby bushes, he points out to Kaneyama that a real tsuchinoko had appeared. In reality, this was Gash dressed in costume but this completely fools Kaneyama. Kaneyama prepares to catch the “tsuchinoko” but Kiyomaro tells him that they need to run as a tsuchinoko bite would be deadly for them. Gash in costume chases the pair down before reaching Kaneyama and biting him on the neck. Some time after this, Kiyomaro is shown to be physically exhausted but he pushes on as he only has one more promise left to fulfill that night. The last classmate he meets is Iwashima, who wants Kiyomaro’s help with summoning a UFO. Kiyomaro is embarrassed at chanting aloud a specific phrase for this task but Iwashima insists he does it with him and they spend the night trying to summon a UFO.

The next morning, Gash wakes Kiyomaro up and Kiyomaro sees that he needs to meet with Suzume and the others at the pool soon. Concerned for Kiyomaro pushing himself too hard, Gash urges Kiyomaro to rest but Kiyomaro refuses to slow down as he is determined to keep the promises he made to his friends. Although a little late, Kiyomaro finally meets up with Suzume and the others and he spends the day having fun with everyone like he said he would. After parting ways with Suzume at the end of the day, Kiyomaro finally collapses from exhaustion but he thinks to himself how he hadn’t had that much fun in a long time. The next day, Kiyomaro and Gash finally set out to travel to England. On the plane, Kiyomaro reflects that it’s been a while since he had seen his father and that he hopes he’ll be able to find some answers about Gash while in England.

## Features

### Characters by Appearance

* Headmaster
* Kiyomaro Takamine
* Suzume Mizuno
* Tio
* Gash Bell
* Robnos (Flashback)
* Hiroshi Yamanaka
* Mamoru Iwashima
* Takeshi Kaneyama
* Mariko Nakamura
* Noguchi
* Inoue
* Tai

### Locations

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

## Censorship & Other Localization Differences

* All mentions of “tsuchinoko” in the original Japanese version of this chapter was changed to “dinosaur” in the VIZ localization