Graphic Novel (Manga) Review

This chapter, Hierocles’ Delusion,  begins with a flashback – it’s of Johnny Rayflo getting dressed in an all white outfit and a little boy, whose name is Chris, remarks how pretty the man looks in white (is this Chris the Charley we all know and love? Me thinks, yes).

Back to present time – Charley is returning to his hotel room to find his master looking out the window at all the prepping commotion downstairs. They both plan to attend the Neo Union Church party being held across the street. As Charley leaves the room to get dress he orders his master not to wear white at the party. For Charley the color white should be worn by holymen (and we all know Rayflo is not a holyman).

At the church gathering Rayflo sneaks away from Charley and starts flirting with a group of young ladies. Charley enjoys the party the best he can but he starts to feel a little hungry. He has been on a fast for 5 days and the smell of all that blood is starting to get to him. Charley steps out into the hallway to gather himself. While there, he assists a young boy back into his wheelchair. The boy politely thanks him (he thinks Charley is a reverend) and leaves. As soon as the boy is around the corner Rayflo unexpectedly appears. He catches a glimpse of the boy around the corner and drags Charley to a confession room. While the reverend is speaking the holy word, Rayflo and Charley begin their routine of feeding and satisfying one another. Just as Charley is about to feast on Rayflo, a little nun comes alone and whacks Charley on the head. She believes the two of them are vampires (and she’s right!) but she quickly apologizes when she sees Charley’s cross (he does looks like a priest).

She’s curious as to what the two of them were doing and luckily for them Rayflo comes up with a fantastic story. He explains that he has a terrible disease and that God (that’s right, God) spoke to him saying he would be cured if he would receive a kiss on his neck while hearing the people’s prayer (da-dah that’s the story). And guess what? She believes it and Charley can’t believe Rayflo came up with such a lie in church.

Rayflo then removes the nun’s glasses and head covering to discover that she’s actually a super adorable little girl (Rayflo can’t contain himself. He finds her just soo cute). Meanwhile the reverend has just finished his sermon when all of a sudden the huge cross behind him comes crashing down on top of him but that’s not the strange point. What’s strange is that there is a dead female tied to the cross.

The police arrive. They interrogate Rayflo and Charley more then the other guest because they were in the confession room alone (the police guy is a total a##hole). He doesn’t believe their story in particularly about the little girl with the glasses (she’s nowhere to be found). Luckily the young boy in the wheelchair tells his version of the events and it matches with Charley’s and Rayflo’s story so the cop decides to let them go.

Charley and Rayflo leave and begin looking for the little girl and it doesn’t take them long to find her. It turns out that her name is Cheryl Shane Kates and she’s a vampire hunter who was hired by the church founder Mr. Samuel Kazan, to determine the cause of all the mysterious deaths happening within the church. She positioned herself within the case as bait to lure the murderer out of hiding; unfortunately she doesn’t measure up physically like the ladies who were murdered.

Johnny comes up with another brilliant idea! He and Charley will help the girl solve her case. She happily accepts their help but before they can start on the case Johnny decides to dress Cheryl up in the exact same outfit as Charley. Once Rayflo sees Cheryl is her new outfit he once again flips-out. He comments on how much Cheryl looks like “Chris when he was younger” (Chris . . . we agree this is Charley, right?). Rayflo picks-up the adorable Cheryl and the 2 of them leave to discuss a plan of attack, leaving poor Charley all by himself.

Two days later – Johnny is dressed up as a woman pretending to be an agent investigating the murders at the church. Charley and Cheryl tend to the founder of the church Mr. Kazan. Charley will be his bodyguard while Cheryl continues her investigation. Cheryl takes her leave and Charley is escorted by Mr. Daniel (the founders assistant) to a guestroom where he will be staying as the bodyguard (Once Cheryl has left Mr. Kazan’s home she makes a comment to herself about Charley. She says that Charley is easily fooled and how she can not believe he is a vampire hunter but at least he makes up for his lack of knowledge in physical strength. What does she mean by this?)

Three days later – Charley is feeling fatigue once again. He needs to eat. As he lies on his bed and starts to drift to sleep his master suddenly appears (he seems to do this a lot) and gives him his “meal.” They carry on a brief conversation where Charley reveals a hint of jealousy toward Rayflo’s admiration over the cute Cheryl. He wakes up and wonders if his master really did appear or if it was a dream? He doesn’t have much time to think this through because he hears a disturbing sound coming from Mr. Kazan’s room. Charley goes and checks it out. Mr. Daniel is inside and tells Charley that Mr. Kazan is okay. He’s just experiencing one of his episodes. Charley leaves.

The next scene is of a female agent name Rayfell (looks like Johnny dressed up as a woman) reading the bible. Mr. Daniel appears and tells her that he has something to show her. He takes her to a secret tunnel. While they are walking he takes the opportunity to discuss Mr. Kazan’s condition: he explains how his master tries so hard to maintain his sanity during his illness and how he tries to lower or not even take his medication. He goes on to reveal how Father Mailer (the man struck by the huge cross earlier) even helped Mr. Kazan with his illness by disposing of the victims and how the cross stunt was most likely his way of putting an end to it all. Mr. Daniel and Agent Rayfell make it to the end of the tunnel and arrive inside Mr. Kazan’s mansion. And then WHACK! Mr. Daniel knocks out Agent Rayfell.

Meanwhile, Charley enters Mr. Kazan’s bedroom. He finds a very weak Mr. Kazan in bed. Mr. Kazan tells Charley that he needs Mr. Daniel but he is unable to find him and would really appreciate it if Charley went looking for him. Charley agrees and leaves the mansion. As soon as Mr. Kazan sees Charley leave the mansion Mr. Kazan turns into a vampire.

Back at the church Mr. Daniel is on his knees praying for forgiveness for he has sinned. Unfortunately for him he is not alone in the church. Cheryl is right behind him. She requests that Mr. Daniel show her the secret tunnel. He does but when they reach the end of the tunnel they find a dead-end. Cheryl knows the truth and uses a technique that creates a barrier around the church and the mansion making it impossible for 33 minutes and 3 seconds for a vampire to regenerate. She calls Charley to inform him of what is occurring and tells him that the master is being attacked at that very moment (how does she know this?) and he had better do something to save the master.

Cheryl gets off the phone and directs her attention to Mr. Daniel. She reveals to him that she knew all along that her client Mr. Kazan was a vampire and per her policy she must take out all dangerous vampires even it they are the client. Mr. Daniel gets very annoyed with Cheryl and tries to attack her but she easily defends herself and escapes.

Back at Kazan’s mansion, Charley returns inside to discover Mr. Kazan turning into a vampire (and he is one ugly, yucky looking vampire. Nothing like Rayflo or Charley). Charley rushes into one of the bedrooms to retrieve his master, who is still knocked-out. As he is going in to save “her” his dog Sacra enters the mansion and starts attacking the ugly Mr. Kazan allowing Charley and Agent Rayfell to escape.

Agent Rayfell finally wakes up and Charley reveals that he is shocked to find out that Mr. Kazan is actually a vampire. Agent Rayfell is even more surprise to find out that Charley is just now realizing this fact (Remember the comment Cheryl made earlier about Charley being easily fooled? Everyone knew Mr. Kazan was vampire except Charley – strange?!).

Charley and Agent Rayfell notice that Mr. Kazan is an odd shaped vampire. He has no bones in his body. Apparently, Mr. Kazan is one of those old style vampires who can enter a human’s body through any possible hole (yuck!).

Charley tells Agent Rayfell to go some place safe while he takes care of the hideous, ugly blob vampire (As Charley goes off to fight, Agent Rayfell makes a comment to “herself” that Charley “is even cooler than I’d heard” Hey, what’s going on? Isn’t Agent Rayfell Charley’s master?)

Charley and Mr. Kazan fight but it’s a bit difficult for Charley to kill Mr. Kazan because he can’t locate the heart (he is a slimy blob with not bones after all). While Charley is searching for the heart the real Mr. Kazan is begging for Charley to kill him (to put him out of his misery). With the help of Sacra, Charley takes out his huge knife and plunges it into the blob vampire but it doesn’t kill Mr. Kazan. The vampire blob spews out some disgusting liquid which causes Charley to go crashing into the walls (I guess he didn’t plunge the knife into his heart). The vampire blob starts crawling on the floor. Sacra leaps up for the blob giving Agent Rayfell the opportunity to wrap something around Mr. Kazan and capturing him. Agent Rayfell remarks on how Cheryl barrier has made him completely powerless (how does he know about the barrier?) (Okay, now here comes the interesting twist in the story  . . .) In the next scene we are presented with 2, yes that’s right 2 Agent Rayfells’/Rayflos’ faces. Both are saying “Let’s Go” A huge explosion of the blob occurs and once again Charley is sent flying across the room. There is no more Mr. Kazan (ugly blob vampire).

We find Charley sitting on the floor completely wiped out questioning why the Reverend Kazan became a vampire in the first place. Agent Rayfell appears and comforts poor Charley by giving him a passionate kiss! It’s after the kiss that Charley realizes and screams “YOU’RE NOT MY MASTER!!” (ha, ha) His real master (Rayflo) also appears and smacks him on the back of the head for taking so long to realize the truth (it’s a really funny scene. Another one of my favorites).

At the hospital, Father Mailer is still in a coma but there is some mysterious person injecting something powerful into his arm.

Back at our vampires home we find Charley, the 2 Rayflos and Cheryl. It turns out that Johnny Rayflo is actually a twin and his brother is Rayfell. Cheryl is a Vjedo-gonian: a person who has the ability to kill vampires but when they die they themselves will turn into a vampire. Cheryl’s master is Rayfell. (Do you get it now? All that time Agent Rayfell was the twin brother. It was never Johnny. Here is a way to tell them apart when you go back and read the actual manga. Johnny Rayflo has facial hair (on his chin). Agent Rayfell has not facial hair at all. It helps to clear up a few scenes where you’re not too sure who’s who particularly towards the end when the twins are arguing).

The twins begin to argue over the type of “relationship” Rayflo has with Charley. Once the two of them finish Charley and Rayflo decide to take a bath together.

On the news it is reported that Father Mailer has miraculously recovered from all his injuries.

Up next Chapter 3 of Vassalord Volume 1