Konjiki no Gash!! Chapter 1

**Kiyomaro, Ally of Justice** (清麿、正義の味方, *Kiyomaro, Seigi no Mikata*) is the 1st chapter of Makoto Raiku's Konjiki no Gash!!. This chapter was originally released in Japan as part of volume 1 on May 18, 2001.

## Plot

On a moonlit night, a boy holds onto the talons of an eagle soaring in the sky. The boy picks up someone’s scent in the air and tells this eagle, Owashi, that they’re getting close. Now morning, Kiyomaro Takamine is lounging in his bedroom, bored out of his mind after having already read an MIT dissertation. His mother, Hana Takamine, pleads for Kiyomaro to go to class today, but Kiyomaro angrily refuses and tells her to shut up. Gash bursts into Kiyomaro’s room through his window, reprimanding Kiyomaro for treating his mother so poorly. Gash hands Kiyomaro a letter from Seitaro Takamine, Kiyomaro’s father and a college professor in England.

In the letter, Seitaro wishes Kiyomaro a belated happy 14th birthday. The letter goes on to explain that Seitaro had found Gash in a forest, injured and with a red book. Seitaro is unable to read the book, and figured his genius son may be able to decipher its text, as well as tasked Gash with helping Kiyomaro turn his life around, thus sending Gash to Kiyomaro. Before ending the letter, Seitaro adds that Gash has no memory of his life or how he ended up in the forest. While holding the book, Kiyomaro yells at Gash. The book glows during this outburst and Gash shoots electricity from his mouth, flabbergasting Kiyomaro and destroying his bedroom. Downstairs, Hana thinks since Kiyomaro won’t be going to school, he should watch after Gash. Hana and Gash both deny Kiyomaro’s claims that Gash shot lightning out of his mouth, so instead of staying home, Kiyomaro steals Gash’s red book and heads to school. Hana apologizes to Gash for Kiyomaro’s behavior, to which Gash assures her he’ll help her son make a friend if that will cheer her up.

In the middle of class, Kiyomaro ignores the lesson as he studies the red book. He’s unable to make out any of the text, until he finds a few lines printed in a different color. He’s able to read these lines, “The first spell, *Zakeru*.” This entire time, Gash is right beside Kiyomaro’s desk on the floor, disguised as a duffel bag and unnoticed by everybody. Kiyomaro’s thinking is interrupted by his teacher, who calls on him to solve the problem on the board. Kiyomaro effortlessly and arrogantly gives the correct answer, and when Kiyomaro sits down he hears all of his classmates mumbling and whispering amongst themselves about Kiyomaro being a showoff and how unnecessary it is for him to be there, all of which Kiyomaro hears.

Kiyomaro decides to leave school after that class, clearly bothered by the overheard murmurs from his classmates. He is stopped by one of his classmates, Suzume Mizuno, begging him to stay the rest of the day because he was smart and could help her with her studies. Kiyomaro yells at her, and Gash shows up to yell at Kiyomaro, blowing his cover, after which Kiyomaro chases Gash around the school and the two end up outside. Gash tells Kiyomaro that he can help him make friends by turning Kiyomaro into an “ally of justice.” Kiyomaro decides to humor Gash and ends up telling him that there’s a bully, Kaneyama, who hangs out on the school rooftop after school, and that they can put a stop to him by beating him up. Gash arrives at the rooftop and sees Kaneyama gripping Suzume by her shirt trying to get money from her. Kiyomaro is at his locker by the school’s entrance, relieved to be away from Gash. Kiyomaro is convinced Gash can just shoot lightning from his mouth if he gets into trouble, so he’s about to head home until he overhears from nearby students that Suzume had gone to the rooftop and hasn’t returned. Kiyomaro is concerned and heads to the rooftop entrance where through the window he sees a beaten and bruised Gash standing up to Kaneyama all by himself. Kiyomaro doesn’t understand why Gash is so beat up and why he hasn’t shot any lightning at Kaneyama yet.

Kaneyama continues beating up Gash, telling Gash that he was tricked and lied to by Kiyomaro. Kiyomaro is still behind the door, overhearing all of this, telling himself that Kaneyama is right and hoping Gash realizes soon that he was lied to, but Gash shouts at Kaneyama that Kiyomaro will show up. He tells Kaneyama that Kiyomaro isn’t a bad person, that it isn’t Kiyomaro’s fault he’s a genius, and that all of his classmates started treating him so poorly out of jealousy. Gash yells that Kaneyama is the one who shouldn’t come to school, and threatens to tear off Kaneyama’s mouth if he continues to say such things about Kiyomaro. Kiyomaro is sobbing behind the door, after hearing Gash’s speech, and is torn about what he should do next. Gash insists that Kiyomaro is simply late to arrive because he’s busy pooping. Kiyomaro bursts through the door infuriated and embarrassed by Gash’s excuse for Kiyomaro. Kaneyama then beats Kiyomaro to a pulp. Gash and Suzume try and root for Kiyomaro, but he’s ready to give up. Gash tells Kiyomaro that their plan was already successful since Kiyomaro made the decision to show up in the first place, and Suzume thanks Kiyomaro for coming to save her.

Kiyomaro starts to strategize what they could do and immediately thinks back to Gash’s ability to shoot lightning from his mouth. He remembers what he read in the book, “the first spell, *Zakeru*,” and it occurs to him that earlier in his bedroom when he yelled at Gash before the lightning struck, he had accidentally casted the spell, which was what caused Gash to shoot the lightning. Kiyomaro holds the book and it starts to glow as he readies himself to cast the spell. He shouts out, “the first spell, *Zakeru*!” The electricity is building within Gash, so Kiyomaro turns Gash’s head so as to not directly hit Kaneyama. Gash shoots the lightning from his mouth and the rooftop is destroyed. The four of them are bewildered at what just happened, even Gash doesn’t know what just happened. That evening, Kiyomaro writes a letter back to his father, thanking him for sending Gash and asking what Gash even is, because Kiyomaro’s afraid of what may happen next.

## Features

### Characters by Appearance

* Gash Bell
* Owashi
* Kiyomaro Takamine
* Hana Takamine
* Seitaro Takamine (Flashback)
* Hidetoshi Nakata
* Suzume Mizuno
* Takeshi Kaneyama

### Locations

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

## VIZ Censorship & Other Localization Differences

* In the original Japanese manga, Gash is fully naked when he first appears in Kiyomaro's bedroom. In the VIZ localization, all panels that originally show Gash naked were edited over to have a pair of boxer shorts drawn onto him.