Konjiki no Gash!! Chapter 58

**Suzume’s Strangeness** (スズメの異変, *Suzume no Ihen*) is the 58th chapter of Makoto Raiku's Konjiki no Gash!!. This chapter was originally released in Japan as part of volume 7 on October 18, 2002.

## Plot

It’s the start of another school day and as Kiyomaro leaves his house, he sees Umagon sleeping in his new shelter outside but notices the name sign displaying the name he had given him was scribbled out. Kiyomaro quickly fixes this and promptly leaves for school. Umagon appears disappointed to see that this name sign was fixed as he wanted to be referred to by his real name, Schneider. At school, Kiyomaro and his classmates talk about how they had spent their summer vacations. When Kiyomaro briefly mentions his trip to England, his classmates note that he looks a bit different now. Iwashima adds that Kiyomaro was not the only one who changed over summer and points out how their other classmates such as Kaneyama and Suzuki appeared differently too. When looking around the classroom, Kiyomaro calls out to Suzume who was in the middle of cleaning the windows. When Kiyomaro tells her that it’s not time for them to be cleaning up yet, Suzume nervously plays this off and quickly runs out of the classroom. Yamanaka laughs this off saying that Suzume had hardly changed but Kiyomaro suspects otherwise as he noticed that Suzume had bandages all over her hands.

Throughout the day, Kiyomaro notices how unusually absent minded Suzume appeared to be as she was constantly forgetting different things. At the end of the day, Kiyomaro is just about to head home before he is suddenly stopped by Mariko. She asks him if he had seen Suzume around but Kiyomaro tells her he hadn’t and asks if she went home instead. Mariko is confused by this and states it’s unusual for Suzume to miss any meetings with the chorus club. Mariko asks again if Kiyomaro thinks Suzume had gone home but Kiyomaro brings up the fact that Suzume had been acting strange the whole day. Mariko then theorizes that something during summer break had caused her to change and brings up an example where summer break could change someone who is usually good into suddenly being bad. Mariko also tries to suggest that Suzume may have become more serious as a person but Kiyomaro doesn’t think this is the case as he mentions that Suzume was her usual self when he last studied with her a few days earlier. Kiyomaro tells Mariko that there’s likely nothing to worry about and the conversation between them ends there. Despite telling her this, Kiyomaro begins to wonder about how Suzume’s had was wounded and begins to entertain the idea that she may have been in a fight.

As Kiyomaro leaves school, he sees Suzume just ahead of him and he decides to quietly follow her for a while. As he does this, he notices that Suzume wasn’t going her usual route home and Kiyomaro really begins to wonder if Mariko was right about her suddenly becoming a different person. Kiyomaro continues to follow Suzume as she heads past the river. Somewhere on the other side, he sees Suzume helping a little boy setting down a large rock by the water. It is soon revealed that the pair were trying to stack large rocks on top of each other to resemble the boy and his parents. The boy thanks Suzume for her help but Suzume tells him that this idea was his and that his father had taught him about it. The boy then tells Suzume about how he learned this idea when he used to go camping in that same area with his family. His father had shown him that by piling up rocks on top of each other and making a wish, this wish would come true. The boy shares that when he had wished for a pair of soccer shoes that he wanted, it came true for him. This time though, the boy is hoping that by stacking these rocks together, his parents will get along again so they can live together like they used to. Suzume tells the boy that she’s certain this wish will come true and that she’s just glad to have had a chance to help him with this. As Kiyomaro watches the two of them stack the rocks, Kiyomaro finally figures out that Suzume had been more focused on helping that boy than anything else going on and that she looks happy helping him.

Two days later, Suzume energetically greets Kiyomaro and Mariko in class. Mariko tells Suzme to not miss the chorus club meeting that day like last time and Suzume promises to be there. Kiyomaro then asks Suzume if things had turned out okay and Suzume happily tells Kiyomaro that the boy and his family will be living together again. After saying this, Suzume thinks that Kiyomaro doesn’t know what she’s talking about and decides to tell him all about it.

## Features

### Characters by Appearance

* Kiyomaro Takamine
* Gash Bell
* Umagon
* Hiroshi Yamanaka
* Mamoru Iwashima
* Takeshi Kaneyama
* Suzuki
* Suzume Mizuno
* Mariko Nakamura

### Locations

* Mochinoki City
	+ Takamine Residence
	+ Mochinoki Middle School

### Censorship & Other Localization Differences

* While the boy that Suzume helps doesn’t have his name mentioned in the original Japanese chapter, he is referred to as Kanta in the English localization.