Episode 5

**The Black Assassins Brago and Sherie**(黒い刺客ブラゴとシェリー, *Kuroi Shikaku Burago to Sherī*) is the 5th episode of the Konjiki no Gash Bell!! Anime.This episode first aired in Japan on May 4, 2003.

## Overview

Gash learns the hard truth about Gofure who turned out to be another demon competitor in the battle to decide the next king of the Demon World. Gofure, as well as his partner, Renji, reveal their true intentions and seek to destroy Gash's red book. Kiyomaro soon comes to Gash's rescue and tries to encourage Gash to escape with him only to be met with refusal. Brago and Sherie quickly put an end to their fight against Gofure and Renji and soon set their sights on Gash and Kiyomaro determined to destroy their book by any means necessary.

## Plot

After hearing a familiar scream ring out from downstairs of his house, Kiyomaro bolts from his room to investigate the situation. Kiyomaro's guests, Brago and Sherie, decide not to act hastily and instead will simply watch the unfolding situation before coming to a decision on how to proceed from there. Downstairs, Gash is cornered and fearful at the sight of Gofure, currently in his *Doruku* form, who stares down Gash before attacking once more. Kiyomaro sees what's going on and quietly moves down the stairs to get a better view. Just then, Gofure's partner, Renji, casts *Doruku* once more. As Gofure lunges toward Gash, Kiyomaro quickly jumps into action pushing Gash out of the way from the incoming attack.

Gash immediately confronts Kiyomaro for what he had just done and tries to explain to Kiyomaro that Gofure is his friend and wouldn't intentionally hurt him. Despite Gash's claims, Gofure still lunges toward Kiyomaro and begins attacking him unprompted. As Kiyomaro then becomes preoccupied speaking with Gash, Gofure takes note of Gash's red spell book that's currently tucked in Kiyomaro's pants and communicates to Renji his desire to burn it. Renji responds to Gofure explaining it's too soon to do so yet and how their battle against Kiyomaro and Gash wasn't as interesting as he had hoped. Renji also reveals from there that the reason he had brought Gofure there in the first place was to seek out worthy opponents. Gash becomes deeply hurt and saddened after hearing their intentions and painfully comes to the realization that Gofure was never his friend to begin with and had simply acted along just to corner him like this.

Renji casts *Doruku* once more and as Kiyomaro moves away from the attack he urges Gash to follow him so he doesn't get hurt. Gash remains standing in place still overwhelmed with grief. As Gofure begins to approach him, Kiyomaro makes the decision to cast *Zakeru* directly at Gofure in order to protect Gash. Kiyomaro once again urges Gash to escape with him to which Gash adamantly refuses and tells Kiyomaro to leave alone and to just forget about him. Kiyomaro, taken back, questions Gash's sudden change in motives bringing up how Gash seemed so proud of himself when he had bragged about his lightning powers back at the park. Gash, now being brought to tears, tells Kiyomaro that he believes there was nothing wrong with him doing that since it's already painful to accept the fact that he's otherwise a monster. After hearing Gash's feelings, Kiyomaro begins to feel ashamed for not realizing sooner how much emotional anguish Gash had been going through all this time.

While seeing Gash and Kiyomaro's moment as an opportunity to attack, Renji casts *Dorusen* at the two of them. Kiyomaro, seeing there's no time to counter, jumps to Gash's rescue and endures the direct hit of *Dorusen* from his backside. This causes Kiyomaro severely injured from the stone projectiles making him unable to stand right back up which leaves him vulnerable laying on the ground both with Gash and his own thoughts. Even as Gash tries to constantly nudge Kiyomaro for a response, Kiyomaro remains lifeless. He is only left being able to think about how much Gash had helped him in his life in such a short amount of time but despite this, he hasn't done anything to help him in return.

As Renji continues to mock Kiyomaro and Gash for the lack of challenge they have yet to give him in battle, he soon casts *Doruku* once again. At the same time as well, Sherie and Brago soon make themselves known and begin to intervene in the battle casting *Reisu* directly at Gofure. The force of *Reisu* sends Gofure flying back towards the front door and his battle form is soon deactivated as well. Renji becomes completely shocked seeing how Gofure is now unable to battle as he tries to recover from the damage he took from the spell. Brago gives Renji a simple yet stern command instructing him to leave his book behind and to leave. Renji does this and leaves both Gofure and his spell book behind. Sherie and Brago soon turn their sights to Kiyomaro and Gash and cast *Gurabirei*, a spell that uses the strong downward pressure of gravity to force Kiyomaro to give up his spell book in order to have them cancel the spell.

Despite the pain and pressure *Gurabirei* continues to press on him, Kiyomaro remains adamant about not giving up Gash's red book. Gash, not understanding why Kiyomaro is choosing to go to such lengths for him, tearfully pleads with Kiyomaro to simply give up the book so he can finally be done with him and all the trouble he had brought with him. Despite this and the amount of pain he's currently going through, Kiyomaro manages to stand up against the force of *Gurabirei* promising Gash that it's his turn to finally do right with him by returning the favor for all the things Gash had done to help turn his life around.

Sherie, witnessing Kiyomaro's determination, remains dumbfounded as to how Kiyomaro is managing to stand up against Brago's *Gurabirei* and soon forces Gash down by casting another *Gurabirei* onto him. Kiyomaro soon speaks to Sherie and Brago directly, and while conceding to how he may not understand their situation or personal motives that drive them, he opens up talking about how much Gash had changed his life for the better ultimately saving him and now more than ever he wants to return the favor to Gash. Before Kiyomaro tries to move any closer to Sherie, Sherie hesitantly casts *Reisu* to distance herself from Kiyomaro. Despite being knocked back by *Reisu*, Kiyomaro forces himself to stand up once more to defend Gash who had just been on the receiving end for Brago's disparaging remarks. Kiyomaro then begins to encourage Gash to stand up and fight and reassures him that regardless of being a human or a monster that it doesn't matter to him as they're still friends to the very end. Hearing this causes Sherie to be reminded of both her friend and her purpose participating in the battle to decide king and with newfound willpower, Sherie decides she will end this battle once and for all with their most powerful attack.

As Sherie and Brago unleash their most powerful attack, *Gigano Reisu*, with renewed trust and determination, Gash's spell book begins to glow with a bright golden light and unleash their counter attack, a larger and more powerful *Zakeru*, against Sherie and Brago's *Gigano* *Reisu* causing both spells to become nullified in the blast. While concealed in the smoke from the blast, Kiyomaro manages to move close enough to Sherie and grabs on to one of her long hair curls. Before passing out, Kiyomaro once again tells Sherie that he'll never hand over the spell book to her and will defeat her again if necessary. Thinking on this, Sherie takes Kiyomaro's spell book from his hands but ultimately returns it to Kiyomaro. As Gash hurries to Kiyomaro's side, Sherie informs Gash that while they'll part ways for now, she's counting on the two of them to hold onto that book and keep it safe until they meet again.

Outside, after burning Gofure's spell book, Brago notices Sherie's demeanor is much different than before and even sees that she appears to be quite happy. Later that night at the Takamine residence, Kiyomaro, now heavily bandaged up, and Gash work on trying to make repairs to the house. Kiyomaro's mother, Hana, returns home that night to see various parts of the house in shambles and Kiyomaro being mostly covered in bandages. As she tries to question both Gash and Kiyomaro what had happened, Kiyomaro eventually passes out from exhaustion from the two battles he had to endure that day.

## Features

### Characters by Appearance

* Brago
* Sherie Belmondo
* Gofrey
* Renji
* Gash Bell
* Suzuki (Flashback)
* Suzume Mizuno (Flashback)
* Mariko Nakamura (Flashback)
* Coco (Flashback)
* Sherie's Butler

### Locations

* Mochinoki City
	+ Takamine Residence
		- Kiyomaro's Room

### Spells by Appearance

* Doruku
* Zakeru
* Dorusen (Debut)
* Reisu
* Gurabirei (Debut)
* Gigano Reisu (Debut)

## Manga & Anime Differences

* In the manga, when being cornered by Gofure, Kiyomaro and Gash are positioned more towards the front of the house just in front of the stairs. In the anime, Kiyomaro and Gash are positioned at the very end of the hallway.
* Flashbacks featuring Coco and Sherie are never seen in the manga chapters this anime episode was based on.
* In the anime, after *Gigano Reisu* and *Zakeru* collide, Kiyomaro manages to make his way close to Sherie in order to grab one of her hair curls. In the manga, Kiyomaro grabs Sherie by her dress collar instead.

## Censorship & Other Localization Differences

* At the start of the episode in the Japanese airing, the episode begins with a shot of Kiyomaro's house from outside and Gash's scream being heard then eventually transitions to showing Kiyomaro running out of his room. Interestingly in the VIZ localization of the episode, the scene featuring Gash's scream is played twice; Once at the start of the episode and once more after Kiyomaro notices.
* A scene that originally features Gofure biting Kiyomaro's face then attacking him was removed and censored over by a brief flashing screen sequence.
* In the Japanese airing of the series, as Gash thinks back on how Gofure had kept him company only to realize he had tricked him in order to burn his book, Gash begins to cry and think on how Gofure was never actually his friend at all. In the VIZ localization of the episode, the scene that would have shown Gash in tears thinking about this betrayal was not dubbed over and he can only be heard crying in silence the entire duration.
* Violent threats, actions, and other generally strong language are usually toned down from the original Japanese airing. Other details such as blood from injuries are cleaned up from characters but details such as scratches and clothing tears are otherwise kept in the VIZ localization of the series. All blood seen on Kiyomaro was removed.