- And turns black into red.
Fifth Pierrot is the fourth light novel in the Deadly Sins of Evil series, as part of the Evillious Chronicles. It was written by mothy, illustrated by Ichika, and released in 2015.
An expanded look at the story in a song by the same name, it's a story of action and intrigue surrounding the criminal organization Père Noël in Lucifenia. In particular, it focuses on one of its members—Lemy Abelard, who lives happily with his mother Julia Abelard and speaks with a voice coming from his wine glass named Neynote . A series of incidents leads him to take up the titular codename of Fifth Pierrot in work for his mother, though it’s a dangerous job with many forces at work that he couldn't possibly understand.
The book is a direct sequel to ''Gift From the Princess Who Brought Sleep and is divided into two parts; the first concerns Lemy and his life as he enters into Père Noël, while the second concerns the Duel of Merrigod Plateau teased in other installments of the franchise. The story was made intentionally by mothy to be a game-changer for the entirety of the Chronicles and as such it includes several spoilers for the rest of the franchise as a result.
This page contains unmarked spoilers for both Gift From the Princess Who Brought Sleep and its tie-in bonus story.
The novel's website can be found here
(note however that it’s all in Japanese), and it can be purchased on Amazon.
This novel contains examples of:
- Accidental Kidnapping: Lemy's kidnapping of Rin Chan was actually a result of trying to rescue her from her unscrupulous manager—whom he ended up killing in the process of said rescue. Said killing frightened Rin Chan and led to him taking her away by force.
- Alas, Poor Villain: Kaidor, surprisingly enough. He shows in Hellish Yard after Gumilia is dropped down there and he's shown to have become completely guilt-ridden since his death.
- Amnesiac Dissonance: This shows up particularly in the novel's second half. Levia lost her memories once she took over Elluka's dead body during the Catastrophe and so believed she was her, becoming close with humans and fighting for good as a result.
- And Now for Someone Completely Different: As per usual for the end of an arc, the final chapter focuses on Gallerian and his own "Père Noël" hundreds of years later.
- …And That Little Girl Was Me: After Lemy becomes Fifth Pierrot, the spirit of Ney tells Lemy about someone who was brainwashed and manipulated by her mother until she became so deranged that she killed her with her own hands. This is a reference to Ney's actions from Praefacio of Blue prior to this novel.
- Androcles' Lion: Willus Zorach recounts a Freezis Fairy Tale wherein a hunter, after freeing a robin from a trap, is taken by the robin to a paradise in the forest. However, it all turns awry when the hunter exits the paradise only to find out centuries had already passed in the outside world, shortly before rapidly aging and dying. The whole thing is a reference to a similar Japanese legend involving a turtle instead of a robin.
- Anti-Villain: The book makes it very, very hard to dislike Lemy, despite the actions he commits as the story goes on.
- Ascended Extra: Ein, a supporting character from the previous book, gets a larger role in the first half as the detective investigating Lemy, with several scenes from his perspective.
- Artificial Human: All the known Ghoul Children of Levianta, which the book reveals were created by Seth Twiright as a means of spreading HER—as such, this included Irina.
- Back for the Dead: Yuzette returns here only to get brutally killed fairly early on.
- Because You Can Cope: Julia demanding that Lemy assassinate an important target, while said target is in full view of two police officers, naturally implies she's willing to sacrifice him for the good of Père Noël. It's a kinder example of this trope than it seems at first, because Lemy as a sin contractor can't be killed by normal means—meaning he would likely face a lot of pain and discomfort, but ultimately survive.
- Becoming the Mask: Julia came to truly care for Lemy as a mother (albeit an evil mother,) despite mostly adopting him because he was a reincarnation of Hansel that she could use.
- Also Kaidor Blankenheim, although initially acting nothing like Bruno Marlon, appears to have taken his new identity to heart (albeit still being evil): he does a lot of what he does for the success of the Freezis Foundation, had a genuine friendship with Shaw, and distances himself from his own son's fate because he's Bruno Marlon now.
- A more tragic example, after being a disciple of "Elluka Clockworker" for so many years, Gumillia can't bear to carry out her other duty and seal away Levia even though she has regained her memories of who she truly is.
- Boom, Headshot!: How Lemy is ultimately killed.
- Cold-Blooded Torture: Castle Hedgehog is still being used for this purpose with the World Police using it as a secret "interrogation center"; after being arrested, Kaidor Blankenheim alias Bruno Marlon is brought to it and tortured as part of their investigation into Père Noël.
- Creepy Crossdresser: Behemo. Only not really.
- A Day in the Limelight: Irina, who normally keeps primarily to the background as the plot unfolds, takes a much more direct position as Julia and gives narration at the end of every chapter.
- Dead All Along: Elluka Chirclatia, Kiril's fiancée, wasn't revived in the Sin at all—her body was used as a host for Levia. Of course, not even Levia realized this.
- Dead Person Impersonation: Continuing the trend from the Gift novel, there are more examples of this in Kaidor Blankenheim continuing to masquerade as Bruno Marlon.
- From the second half it's also confirmed that, as some expected, Levia impersonated the dead Elluka Chirclatia to entice Kiril to try to revive her... less expected was that she continued to impersonate Elluka after entering her body, believing she was her.
- Deal with the Devil: A few examples exist in this novel; Lemy makes a contract unwittingly with the Glass of Conchita, while the previous Seventh Magician Yuzette Ora made a contract with the Demon of Lust prior and makes use of its powers as a prostitute. In the second half, Gumillia makes a contract with the Demon of Wrath in order to kill Lemy for good.
- Demonic Possession: Lemy’s possession by the Glass of Conchita, particularly whenever he perpetrates a killing.
- The Ending Changes Everything: To say the least. Turns out Elluka never came back to life. The one we've been following this whole time is an amnesiac Levia, and Gumilia had actually been assigned by Held to keep an eye on her. This is just one of the plot twists the ending pulls.
- Enemy Mine: At the end, stuck with the possibility of being trapped in Hellish Yard with a miasma that'll eventually drive her insane, Gumilia agrees to team up with Seth in order to survive.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: For all her crimes, the scenes from her perspective shows that Julia/Irina genuinely does love Lemy.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Bruno Marlon is an unrepentant killer and a member of a criminal organization, but parents or parental figures using their children for their own gain appears as a bit of a sore spot for him.
- Evil God: Levia and Behemo, who as Irina says, are the ones who manipulated Maria Moonlit, jumpstarting the series events. Eventually both of them avert this when they show they've dropped their motivations; Levia unwittingly worked as Elluka Clockworker to save the world and retains this personality even with her memories back, while Behemo decided it wasn't worth it to follow through on their plans after so much time had already passed.
- Foregone Conclusion: The original song shows that Lemy is going to get gunned down by Gumilia. Furthermore, the lack of references to her post this point and the strong implication in Seven Crimes And Punishments that she became the Master of the Hellish Yard heavily imply at least something will happen to Gumilia. Subverted in the first case, since it turns out Lemy actually survived.
- Handicapped Badass: The strain of taking in Eve's sprit has left Elluka in a wheelchair. This in no way hinders her.
- Hate Sink: Like Kaspar in the previous novel, Ton Corpa, a greedy, cold-hearted manager and child murderer, plays this role to divert hate away from Lemy and Irina, who become considerably more sympathetic in this story.
- Hearing Voices: Lemy hears the voice of a girl named Ney from the Glass of Conchita, who’s actually quite helpful to him. It’s also noted that in the Magic Kingdom Levianta, certain humans were capable of hearing Levia and Behemo from inside the Sin ark, including Maria Moonlit—which is definitely the Evil variety.
- Heel–Face Turn: Behemo reveals near the end that, since humans have become the dominate race of Third Period, he's more or less lost interest in helping Levia destroy the world.
- Humanoid Abomination: Seth, who Irina reveals who the Demon of Wrath in human form. Near the end it's revealed he's part of a race of mask people from Second Period.
- Gender Bender: Ney, the female spirit inside of the Glass of the Conchita, possesses Lemy during his killings and essentially is Lemy for that time—it even makes him immune to the Demon of Lust.
- Info Dump: Each chapter ends with large amount of exposition on things related to the Original Sin Story, narrated by Irina.
- Jack the Ripper: Lemy's killings of prostitutes in Rolled pays homage to the Jack the Ripper killings, down to his nickname of "Lemy the Ripper."
- Killed Off for Real: Elluka. Turns out she was Dead All Along—on a bigger scale, this means that it really is impossible to bring people back from the dead.
- Last of His Kind: Seth implies that he is the only individual of his race who survived the end of Second Period. It's also hinted that the other Demons are this as well.
- Merger of Souls: In the conclusion of the Duel of Merrigod, the character 'Ma' is created out of a merge of Eve, Levia, and Irina's souls, becoming a new person entirely.
- Meta Twist: In the previous novels, characters die in more or less the same way as shown by songs. Here, this seemingly happens to Lemy, only for him to revealed as alive a chapter later.
- Mundane Utility: Lemy is possessed by the Glass of Conchita, which allows the host to eat anything and enjoy it. He uses it so he can eat his vegetables.
- New Powers as the Plot Demands: Irina mentions in her monologues that Elluka had the power to cure HER, something she has never demonstrated. Turns out this is Foreshadowing of Elluka's true identity, with the fact that she didn't cure Prim being what clues Irina into the truth.
- Not Quite Dead: Lemy gets shot by Gumillia and appears to die, but as a sin contractor he actually can't perish by normal means. He ends up crawling out of his grave a month later, as Julia expected.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Gumillia, who never once cried and is noted for her stoic nature, starts to finally cry after admitting she was only meant to follow Elluka around to seal her away if she ever regained her memories as Levia.
- Rapid Aging: Germaine suffers from this after she regains control of her body.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Elluka gives one to Lemy after he's shot in the first half, comparing him to Allen in that even though Allen also did bad things for the person he loved he didn't ever enjoy killing like Lemy did.
- She also does this to Gatt, comparing him to his mercenary grandfather Gast Venom. She accuses him of rampaging supposedly for the sake of justice, even though it's actually part of their personality.
- The Reveal: Oh boy:
- Seth is the Demon of Wrath in human form. The other person in Grimm the End is Adam, who is seemingly been acting as a parasite contracting with humans.
- The Ghoul Children were Seth's project to create artificial HER's. Pale isn't Seth's brother, but is actually his clone, as is Kiril.
- It is confirmed that the Demons are actually the God-Kin who rebelled with Levia and Behemo.
- Elluka never came back to life. The Elluka we've been following has been an amnesiac Levia with Elluka's memories.
- Gumilia was assigned the role of Elluka's apprentice so to allow Held and Michaela the ability to keep an eye on Levia and reseal her should she get her memories back.
- Rise from Your Grave: Lemy digs his way out of his own grave after Gumillia shoots and "kills" him; he has to cough a lot to get the dirt out of his organs.
- Sigil Spam: The two-headed dragon. Appears everywhere from Lemy's pocket watch to Bruno's back tattoo.
- Snow Means Death: Lemy's death at the hands of Eighth Sniper takes place on a cold night, with snow falling just as he dies. That, however, is subverted when he doesn't quite die yet...
- So Proud of You: Julia praises Lemy for becoming a killer after his first (unintentional) murder, which was quite unlike what the kid was expecting.
- Spot the Thread: Although he had his face changed, "Bruno Marlon" is outed as being Kaidor Blankenheim because he has a dragon tattoo on his back and isn't able to change that.
- Tomato in the Mirror: Turns out Gumilia was fully aware of Elluka's true identity the whole time, with Irina catching on halfway through the series.
- Wham Episode: Deliberately designed to be one according to
Word of God, no less; the reveals of the novel completely change the audience's viewpoint about each of the main characters and the Demons of Sin by the second half.
