Episode 109

**Duel in the Northern Country. Fated Rival. Umagon Frozen!!** (*北国の決闘 宿命のライバル ウマゴン氷結!!,Kitaguni no Kettō Shukumei no Raibaru Umagon Hyōketsu!!*) is the 109th episode of the Konjiki no Gash Bell!! Anime.This episode first aired in Japan on May 29, 2005.

## Overview

Sunbeam needs to travel to Hokkaido as part of his week-long job training and asks Kiyomaro and Gash to look after Umagon while he is away. Not wanting to be separated from Sunbeam, Umagon travels to Hokkaido on his own to reunite with him. While the pair spends time together, a new rival team appears and challenges them to a battle.

## Plot

At Sunbeam’s apartment, Umagon enjoys tea with Sunbeam while listening to him discuss battle strategies they can use in the future. As they go over this, Sunbeam receives a phone call from his work informing him that he is to travel to Hokkaido as part of a week-long training program. Because of the sudden news, Sunbeam invites Kiyomaro and Gash to his apartment to request that they look after Umagon while he is away as he wishes to avoid any potential battles while at his job. Kiyomaro and Gash agree to this and assure him that they’ll keep Umagon safe. Umagon however becomes anxious and upset at the idea of being separated from Sunbeam but Sunbeam tries to reassure him that he’ll return soon and even bring hay for him as a treat.

On the day of Sunbeam’s departure, Kiyomaro, Gash, and Umagon see him off at the airport. While watching the plane to Hokkaido take off, Umagon begins to cry uncontrollably and refuses to go home. Seeing that Umagon needs time to calm down, Kiyomaro leaves Gash alone with Umagon while he goes to buy a drink. Understanding how much Umagon wishes to follow Sunbeam, Gash decides to help Umagon travel to Hokkaido and offers him a duffel bag to let him secretly board a plane. Before letting Umagon go, Gash has Umagon make a promise to him that he’ll return safely by the end of the trip. As the flight that Umagon sneaks onto takes off, Kiyomaro returns after getting his drinks and asks about Umagon’s whereabouts. When Gash tells him that Umagon is travelling to follow Sunbeam, Kiyomaro looks at a nearby flight schedule and learns that Umagon had boarded a plane traveling to Okinawa, which is in the opposite direction of Hokkaido. Like Gash, Kiyomaro also hopes that Umagon is able to return safely from this trip.

Some time passes and Sunbeam is shown to have just completed his week-long training and drives to the outskirts of town to a ranch where he can collect hay for Umagon. While there, Sunbeam gazes at an open field watching the horses graze. Suddenly, the herd of horses began running towards him. In the middle of the herd, Sunbeam sees Umagon running among them. Umagon leaps onto Sunbeam and so does the rest of the horses. Later, Sunbeam finally sits down to ask Umagon what he was doing in Hokkaido. Listening to him, Sunbeam figures out that Gash had helped him get there. Umagon then goes on to describe to him the long and hard journey he endured to find him only to see that Sunbeam began dozing off in the middle of his story. Sunbeam apologizes then decides that since they’re together again, they could use this as an opportunity to spend time with each other and have fun exploring Hokkaido. While in town, the two of them learn that supposedly due to the unusual weather that season, there was still snow in the mountains. Eager to spend some time in the snow, Sunbeam and Umagon decide to leave town and drive towards the mountains.

At home, Kiyomaro returns from school with a video tape he borrowed from Iwashima that recorded the news coverage of the mysterious structure that had suddenly appeared in the Human World. While rewatching the footage with Gash, Kiyomaro tells him that he’ll be sending Dr. Riddles a copy of the tape to see what he knows as soon as he can get in contact with him. Meanwhile, Sunbeam and Umagon play together in the mountain’s snowfield for some time before Umagon suddenly becomes cold from being in the snow too long. After having Umagon wrapped up in a blanket in a nearby shelter, Sunbeam tells him he’ll briefly leave to go get him some warm milk. While Umagon waits for Sunbeam, he begins to sense someone nearby. When he goes out to investigate, he encounters Karudio and his bookkeeper Sauza. Sauza commends Umagon in his ability to sense their presence before going on to question him about him being allied with other demons. After learning that Umagon is alone, the two of them assume that he’ll be easy to defeat as he has no other teams to depend on. Sunbeam however returns just in time, with his spell book in hand, to refute their assumptions about Umagon and challenge their perspective on fighting alongside allies. With both teams present and ready to fight, Sunbeam and Sauza each cast their first spells, *Shudoruku* and *Gidoruku* respectively.

While Umagon and Karudio fight, Sauza points out to Sunbeam that he and Umagon are not fighting in sync with each other and suggests that the two of them only survived as long as they did by depending on their allies. Sunbeam and Umagon attempt to disprove this by relying on combination strategies in an attempt to distract Sauza and Karudio but fail to do so. To recover from this blunder, Sunbeam casts *Gou Shudoruku* and Sauza follows by casting *Gou Gidoruku* as well. Sunbeam and Umagon’s coordination shines through during the battle as Umagon manages to avoid all of Karudio’s attacks and counter them just by listening to Sunbeam call out his name. Just as Umagon tries to run towards Sauza to take his spell book, he and Sunbeam realize that both he and Karudio had suddenly vanished. They then reveal their location to be just behind them where they decide that they will put an end to the battle by utilizing their most powerful, yet dangerous spell. Upon casting their third spell, *Diogikoru Gidoruku*, Karudio envelopes himself and the surrounding area in ice. Despite the powerful chill being emitted from Karudio as body armor is being enhanced, Sauza remains unaffected as he and Karudio mastered the spell by being in sync with each other. Without thinking, Umagon attempts to attack, but Karudio’s new battle form allows him to freeze and shatter Umagon’s horn. As Umagon appears to be defeated, Sauza tells the pair that they have no chance of defeating them at their current level of combination before Karudio emits even more chilling gusts of wind towards them.

## Features

### Characters by Appearance

* Umagon
* Kafka Sunbeam
* Gash Bell
* Kiyomaro Takamine
* Mamoru Iwashima
* Sauza
* Karudio

### Locations

* Mochinoki City
	+ Mochinoki Middle School
* Hokkaido

## Spells by Appearance

* Shudoruku
* Gidoruku (Debut)
* Gou Shudoruku
* Gou Gidoruku (Debut)
* Diogikoru Gidoruku (Debut)

## Manga & Anime Differences

* The order of story events are portrayed slightly differently between the manga and anime.
	+ In the manga, Sunbeam learns about the recent events involving Arth just two days after Ted leaves town.

* In the anime, Sunbeam wears a green jacket. In the manga, Sunbeam wears a long dark down coat and a scarf.
* In the anime, Kiyomaro acquires the tape that captured footage of Faudo by asking Iwashima for it at school. In the manga, Dr. Riddles is later shown to have already had this tape.