Gerard: Loving Someone Who Fights Demons

Gerard: Loving Someone Who Fights Demons Gerard shows up with a shovel. That's his introduction to Masumi's world. She's dealing with actual demons, and this guy runs into the middle of it with something you would normally use to dig up the yard. I like that the book doesn't immediately reward him by revealing some hidden power or making him a natural monster hunter. He's a person who saw somebody in trouble and stepped in. Masumi handles the banishment. He's left standing there asking what the hell just happened, and then decides the better question is who she is. That moment matters because Masumi has gotten used to removing herself from people's lives. She saves them and moves on. When a little girl asks who she is, she calls herself a bad memory. It's a pretty miserable way to describe yourself after helping somebody survive, but that is where her head is. Gerard gives her a reason to stay instead. Their relationship gets actual space in Demons: The Unseen. We see the apartment, the dates, him reading in bed while she's beside him, and the ordinary conversations after she comes home from something awful. He's telling her about a drunk coworker while she's been trying to get a family out of a burning house. He suggests going to his friend's comedy show. She's exhausted and wants to rest. For a little while, she gets to have those problems instead of only having the supernatural ones. He knows what she does. That's important. This isn't somebody dating Masumi under the impression that she works a normal job and occasionally keeps strange hours. He has seen the things she's fighting, and he still wants a life with her. He also keeps offering to help. He jokes about the two of them and his shovel making a good team, but the offer underneath it is serious. Masumi shuts it down. She considers the fighting her duty and the worrying her responsibility too. Gerard points out that knowing she's trained and he's not doesn't stop him from worrying about her. That is probably the most believable disagreement they have. Neither of them is being ridiculous. She knows how badly this can end for an ordinary person. He can't just turn off caring about her every time she walks out the door. She admits to herself that insisting the burden is hers alone doesn't really satisfy either of them. Unfortunately, Gerard eventually makes the decision she has been trying to prevent. After letting her leave for another fight, he goes to a book on demonic teleportation. He works through the spell and turns up with that shovel again. The first time he did that, it brought them together. This time, he's walking into the confrontation with Legion. He refuses to leave, gets close enough to hit the combined demon with the shovel, and Legion tears him apart. There isn't a last-second awakening or some hidden strength that suddenly makes the matchup fair. That's a horrible ending for somebody whose most consistent quality was that he wanted to help. I don't think calling him brave means pretending he understood the fight or made the right decision. Masumi had a very real reason for wanting him out of it. He loved her and couldn't stand leaving her to face everything alone, but loving somebody doesn't make you capable of surviving what they survive. The end stays with Masumi looking at a photograph of them and remembering what he said. She hears his words as if he's still there, but that isn't Gerard coming back as a ghost or getting another chance. It's her carrying the memory of somebody she had started imagining a future with. That is why I think he deserves his own mention outside a summary of Masumi's powers. We spend a lot of time looking at what these characters can fight, kill, or survive. Gerard lets us see what she wanted to come home to. For a little while, she had somebody who knew about the demons and still wanted to take her to a comedy show.