Chainsaw Man #10-11: "Kon" and "Compromise"

"Kon." Interesting chapter title. The name of a new character I assume, or perhaps an otherworldly concept. In any case, the little Pochita sketch to head off this chapter is definitely something.

So gruesome and foreboding, yet that little face is still just so kawaii.

The action starts immediately, with dick-devil shooting its lightning fast appendages trying to impale Denji, and Denji scrabbling around evading these attacks and trying to get in close enough to use his all-too-short facechainsaw. Watching, recovering all too slowly from her paralysis, Power wonders at Denji's insistence to keep on fighting even when he could easily walk away and save himself. Is he really just that determined to get his hands on her titays? Or is there something else to this, now?

We get an answer shortly, though I'm not sure how honest of an answer it actually is. As Denji ineffectually tries to fight the dick devil with his barely-existing weapon and his bleeding arm-stump, she marvels at how "Batty" could have possibly been slain by such a weakling. Denji just fights even more furiously upon hearing this, and more furiously still when she laments having to kill an entity with a face as cute as his. Unfortunately, his fury doesn't translate to combat effectiveness; he's just too low on blood, and too hampered by his wounds. When asked why he's doing this, he roars out that he is NOT going to die before he gets to cop a feel.

Once again. Not sure if that's an honest answer at this point or not.

The dick-devil seems to concur with Power that this is a pretty pitiful thing to throw away one's life for. In fact, she's even more anguished now, to learn that her boyfriend was killed by such a petty, scummy little creature. She and Batboy had a dream that they shared; a dream of consuming every human in the entire world. For such a magnificent ambition, even if it was never a realistically attainable one, to have been ruined by a worm like Denji, it's just insufferable. She HAS to kill him now.

Denji has...a bit of a mid-battle reverie. One that spurs him to issue a new challenge to his opponent.

The terms of this dream-battle are that...um...

Whoever kills the other one will have proved that their dream was greater and more important than the other's.

Denji...that's not...you know what, I don't think I even need to explain all the problems with this line of "reasoning." It's especially dumb of him to make this kind of assertion now, when the practical realities of the battle - Denji coming into it weakened and wounded from the outset - kinda gives one dream an unfair advantage over the other.

And, dick-devil proves my point just a page later. Denji manages to make a few more shallow cuts with his facesaw, but it just can't get deep enough into a body as thick as this monster's to hit anything vital. Dick-devil, on the other hand...

Oof.

Even if he were at full strength, I think he'd probably have to take five and eat some iron-rich snacks to regenerate that one.

Denji is losing consciousness. Dick-devil picks him up by the tongue she's impaling him with, and starts to reel his limp body into her mouth. Then...we back away, and see someone making their fingers into a puppy-dog shape, pantomiming eating the devil with a perspective trick. On the next page, we see that the person doing the finger-dog thing is Aki, and that it seems to have some very dramatic sympathetic effects on the scene in front of him.

Dick-devil is down, leaving Denji to collapse on the snout of the giant dog-apparition Aki summoned, still impaled by the late devil's severed dildo-tongue.

That dog-thing looks pretty diabolical itself, but given Aki's attitude toward cooperation with devils in any capacity I'm not sure how he could reconcile that. What are we looking at, exactly?

The giant ghostly dog-head tells Aki that it's confirmed the identity of the torn-up creature in its mouth as the Leech Devil, and asks for permission to consume it. Aki ascents, and the dog-head swallows its mouthful and vanishes into the air, leaving the mortally wounded Denji laying on the pavement under the spot where it used to be hovering. Aki speaks into his wrist, confirming the elimination of the target. Then, he addresses a squad of uniformed devil-hunters - all new characters, as best I can recall, and seemingly under Aki's command - and has some keep a lookout for more devils while others triage the wounded and comb the rubble for additional casualties.

Aki's squad all seem sort of nervous and unconfident. Some showing it openly, others acting "badass" in a performative-seeming way that suggests it's to hide the nerves. Considering how young Aki seems to be, and already in a position of moderate authority, I can't imagine that any of these people have been on the force for longer than a few months.

...between one thing and another, I'm starting to think that this whole organization is a brand-new, untested project. Civilian bounty hunters seem to have more legal authority than they do. Makima has these skeptical overseers breathing down her neck for reasons OTHER than her being awful to her underlings. Squad leader Aki looks like he's in his teens or early twenties at best. The only others we've seen look like green recruits. This agency may have only been a few weeks old when Makima shanghai'd Denji into its service. It would explain a lot.

As he loses consciousness, Denji gasps about "the dream battle." I'm not sure if he considers this a victory or a defeat, considering. He DID end up being the survivor, after all. If the importance of a given dream is determined purely by Darwinistic outcome, including all factors impacting the battle, its context, and its results as he seemed to be doing when he made the challenge, well...yeah, the titty dream was the greater of the two.

...I just realized how much that sounds like Kimblee Logic. Denji, have you been listening to the Philosophy Club's podcast? I think Makima needs to scrutinize your internet activities a little more closely, or next thing she knows you'll be comparing hair dye to interdimensional genocide.

As the junior devil-hunters scoop Denji and Power onto ambulance cots for treatment and subsequent debriefing, Power asks if Meowy is okay. Aki, in a surprisingly compassionate gesture, tells her that the cat is being taken to a vet to ensure it's okay after being inside a devil's stomach.

Granted, he didn't say whether or not Power will be seeing the cat again afterward. But I can't imagine he'd bother sending it to a vet if he didn't have anything to do with it afterward. If he just wanted to make sure it wasn't possessed or whatever and had no concern for it being Power's pet, he'd probably just shoot it.

Or...summon his giant dog-head to eat it. What the hell was even up with that? I'm kind of surprised he didn't use those powers a few chapters ago, when Denji was subjecting him to sustained testicle abuse. Either Aki has much more self control than I would have thought going by his personality, or he only got these powers very, very recently, since that incident.

Or maybe he just needs concentration to summon the dog-thing, and Denji got the first nutshot in before he could do it. That could also explain it. Heh, that also parallels the hand-gesture with the chainsaw string that Denji needs to do to call on the powers of his dog-thing.


Another short chapter, due to it being largely fight scene. On to the next.


"Compromise" begins with Denji in a hospital bed and Aki sitting across the room. They managed to find Denji's severed arm, and when they held it to the stump while administering his blood transfusion it just reattached itself good as new. The giant hole through his gut has also completely sealed itself, though it took a lot of blood. Denji's physiology is even more devil-like than anyone thought.

Devils can reattach pieces of themselves? I guess Batboy must have actually lost his arm when he lost it, then.

That reminds Denji of what he saw before passing out, and asks Aki why he's working with a devil friend himself if he hates them so much. Aki sneers contemptuously, and tells him that all devil-hunters have a contract with a diabolical patron; mere humans wouldn't be able to go toe-to-toe with the stronger ones otherwise. The terms of Aki's own pact with the fox-devil is that he can summon it for brief moments in combat in exchange for some flesh from his own body.

...

Also, it was since brought to my attention that "kon" is Japanese children's onimotopeia for the sound foxes make, so that's funny. What does the fox say? Now we know! I suppose we should all be grateful it wasn't "yiff."

...

Denji unconvincingly pretends to be sympathetic. The injuries he takes as a matter of course, both before and after he became Chainsaw Man, sort of makes Aki's situation look enviable.

More importantly though...what the fuck is even Aki's problem?

He was going on and on to Makima about how he doesn't want devils on the roster, but he already has a devil on the roster HIMSELF. And so do all the other human devil-hunters, apparently. Denji made a pact with Pochita, just like Aki did with his fox buddy. Denji's pact was a lot more intimate, and its results are more obvious in his subsequent state of being, but there doesn't seem to be any fundamental difference. So, where is he drawing the line?

In fact, Aki draws attention to the contradiction just a panel later, when he sternly reminds Denji that devils - ALL devils - desire the death of humans.

Erm...except for the Fox Devil, apparently? And all the other devils who make pacts with hunters that have the ultimate effect of preventing rather than causing human deaths? What the hell is Aki even talking about?

...

Power said that devils have an innate hatred of humans, but honestly, I'm not sure if that's true either. Or, if it is, then it's at least a hatred that they can suppress if they set their minds to it.

More than anything, it just seems like devils know they need to feed on humans to survive, and make up various justifications for hating them to make that easier on themselves. The ones who are capable of making pacts to feed on humans with much less harm appear, based on the two examples we've seen so far, to be largely satisfied with this.

...

Aki starts grilling Denji on the sequence of events, trying to get him to admit that Power betrayed him. He doesn't know about that, of course, but he suspects it. Denji doesn't do it. He starts bitching at Denji about how he's being a fool by sympathizing with and protecting devils once again. Denji tells him that he's sorry, but that's just not what happened.

Neither of them are being what I'd call "sane" in this conversation, but Denji is coming across as less unhinged than Aki. Like, what, is he just bothered by Denji having some degree of camaraderie with the devil he's partnered with, rather than being performatively resentful of it? Is that really it?

And, his objections to Power are...look, there are a TON of perfectly good reasons to object to Power. I wouldn't want her in my agency either. But the problem isn't that she's a devil, it's that she's Power. How do I know that? Because they already have other devils on the squad. One for every human field agent, in fact. Having a devil serve bodily rather than symbiotically isn't any different from what they already do; it would just amount to that devil making a pact with the agency rather than a specific person.

Aki's problems make zero sense and seem like the result of truly massive cognitive dissonance. They also don't seem to be shared by anyone else we've met so far, so I'm pretty sure this is just his own damage and not general society-wide misconceptions.

We then flash back to some witness interviews Aki conducted right after the incident. Most of them are very positive toward Denji. People accurately reporting that he made an effort to get civilians to clear the area when fighting the Bat Devil, and that he refused to stand down and let the Leech Devil continue its rampage even when he was badly injured and it offered to let him escape. The little girl who Denji lent his jacket to a few chapters ago even comes by with her father to thank Denji on her behalf. After each interview, Aki's face gets angrier and sourer. Then, unfortunately, he gets to this one, which leaves him looking smug and satisfied:

Well...Denji is paying for that WTF moment of his, it seems. Aki might be biased, but even an unbiased supervisor would take an accusation like this one very seriously.

...

Just to clarify before anyone raises this objection; real life police supervisors are biased in the other direction. That's different. :p

...

Back to the present, Aki tells the bedridden Denji about his discovery, and assures him that if he goes to Makima (or above Makima's head) with these findings, Denji and Power are both dead. He's willing to refrain from doing this, however, on the condition that from now on Denji does everything he says without question. Aki apparently can't help but acknowledge the usefulness of Denji's powers, even if he hates him, and can't quite bring himself to throw that utility away.

Denji takes the fruit Aki sliced for him, and - after sniffing it carefully - tells him that sure, no problem. He's not very ambitious. He doesn't have any grand dreams or aspirations like everyone else seems to have. So, as long as Aki lets him maintain his current standard of living, he'll do whatever he wants and even pretend to respect him. Aki supposes that that's good enough, at least for now.

Aki leaves Denji's hospital room, and meets up with one of his underlings who has Power in chains outside. He instructs her to unlock the cuffs and chains; they have nothing on Power, she's still on the team and has protected devil status. Power tells them that they should have just listened to her all along when she said she was innocent. Lol. The underling asks Aki if he's sure about this; Power really seems like a civilian death waiting to happen, and when it does then that's going to be on Aki's head. Still, Aki tells her to go ahead with it. While also saying this:

So, yeah, exactly what I inferred. Aki is fine with working with devils, but only if you have a bad attitude about it. Otherwise, you're a traitor.

Makima sure knows how to pick 'em, doesn't she?

Cut ahead an unspecified length of time, to Power stomping her way into Aki's own house. A house that he's already sharing with Denji, on Makima's orders.

I'll give some points to Aki here; he was evidently telling the truth about Power's cat. That's better than I've come to expect from him. Granted, he might have just been afraid of what she'd do if she lost it, but still.

Cue Aki on the phone with Makima. It was bad enough that she's making Denji live with him, Aki says, but now Power too? That's just unreasonable. He's completely right, of course, but that has little bearing on how the conversation goes.

Goddamn she's slimy.

The multilateral extent of Aki's hypocrisy is also pretty hilarious, though. Like, he *totally* has a crush on Makima. She knows it, and uses it to control him just like she does with Denji. She just needs to be a little more subtle with Aki, and can't go quite as far with outright threats and abuse due to him having better social and legal status. So far, Aki has proven himself guilty of everything he accuses Denji of.

As for WHY Makima is doing this...honestly, I think she's just trying to make them miserable for its own sake at this point. Or else she has some whacky metaphysical goal that we don't know the context to guess at yet; her interview with the supervisory board sort of pointed in the latter direction, but I'm not sure.

There's a couple pages of Aki and Denji struggling to coexist with Power. She never bathes. She never cleans up after herself. She never flushes the toilet. She's a nightmare to try and feed.

Granted, expecting a member of a carnivorous (perhaps even specifically haemivorous) species to eat vegetables might not be reasonable. On the other hand, throwing them across the room is not exactly the most appropriate response to this.

As a side note, I like how Aki's objections are about decorum, while Denji's are about the value of food. Definitely shows where they're both coming from.

A day or two later, while Denji is struggling to unclog the toilet that Power left in her wake, Power approaches him. He's not very interested in talking to her just now (the words "poop-devil" are uttered by him), but she surprises him with the subject she's come to discuss.

Hmm. Is she sensing that she needs to do something to make at least one of her housemates less annoyed at her to avoid trouble? Or is she actually kind of into this? Both seem equally out of character from what we've seen of her so far. I think the most likely explanation is that, after she and Denji had that moment of empathy and she came to regret betraying him, she feels personally motivated to give him what she promised, rather than just contractually obligated.

Granted, I'm not sure how DENJI could have let that go for this long, what with how determined he's been to touch those boobs. How long is it supposed to have been since Power was sent here? Seemingly at least a day or so. Has this really not come up until now?
Although...hmm. Power's expressions and body language in these next panels really do suggest that she might actually want this for its own sake herself. I don't think she has the grasp of human social behavior needed to fake this kind of flirtatiousness. Even taking into account the fact that her sitting on the toilet she left for him to unclog sort of undermines the allure just a tad bit.

Not that Denji minds, heh.


And on that extremely tense, dramatic cliffhanger, the chapter ends.