"You think if Pochita devours you and erases the concept of domination from the world, everything will magically become perfect?"
Makoto crouched down, locking eyes with those strange spiral irises.
Makima's brow furrowed. Something bewildered flickered in her gaze, as if to say: Isn't it obvious?
He scoffed. "Forget humans. Even animal groups have hierarchies of dominance and submission. Control itself was never inherently evil. Sure, the people holding the reins in this world are mostly bastards. But capable people guiding ordinary ones? That isn't wrong."
A figure surfaced unbidden in his mind. Someone from his previous life, silhouetted against a setting sun.
"Even if the Chainsaw Man devours you and the concept vanishes temporarily, humanity will keep developing. They'll rebuild order. It won't take long before the idea of control resurfaces, and a new Control Devil is born with it."
To Makoto, Makima was no different from the obsessive Uchiha lunatics.
They all shared the same pathological fixation on peace. All of them convinced that one grand gesture could solve everything forever, buying eternal tranquility in a single stroke. Madara and Obito chose the Infinite Tsukuyomi. Makima chose erasing the concept of domination.
At the end of the day, all of it was fantasy.
Real peace was never that simple. Humanity in his previous life had spent thousands of years failing to solve the problem. A handful of fanatics weren't going to crack it.
The composure that defined Makima was gone. Her pupils trembled, and her whole body shook with them. The core belief that had sustained her entire existence was fracturing, inch by inch, right in front of him.
She didn't understand humans as a species. She never had. But she wasn't stupid. Far from it.
She knew, on some level, that even if the Chainsaw Man consumed a Devil and its concept temporarily vanished, time would erode the absence. Nothing was truly permanent.
Everything she'd done amounted to treating the symptom while ignoring the disease.
In some ways, her plan didn't even measure up to the Infinite Tsukuyomi.
"Makima, have you heard this story?"
His voice shifted. Something close to compassion.
She raised her head slowly, eyes hollow.
"A long time ago, humans still walked barefoot. A king traveled to a remote countryside, and the roads were covered in sharp stones that left his feet aching and raw. When he returned to the palace, he issued a decree: pave every road in the kingdom with cowhide, so that neither he nor his people would ever feel pain underfoot again."
"But even if they slaughtered every cow in the nation, there wouldn't be enough leather. The cost would be staggering, the labor unimaginable. Yet everyone feared the king's authority, and no one dared defy the order."
"Then one person spoke up. 'Your Majesty, why go to all that trouble? Why kill so many cows and spend so much gold? Just wrap two small pieces of leather around your own feet, and you can walk anywhere without pain.'"
"The king saw it at once. He rescinded the decree and took the advice. That, supposedly, is how shoes were invented."
Makoto's gaze settled on Makima, heavy and quiet. "Trying to eliminate the concept of domination by reshaping the entire world... isn't that exactly what the king was doing? Instead of exhausting yourself trying to change everything around you, try changing yourself."
Makima lowered her head. Wine-red hair fell across her eyes, hiding them.
She said nothing.
After a long silence, she looked up and leaned in close. Their lips met again.
Ishigami and the others whipped their heads the other direction.
When Makima pulled back, her expression hadn't softened. If anything, the confusion had deepened. "I still can't understand it. Why humans find happiness in something like that..."
Her other hand drifted toward his collar. Fingers found the pull-cord and yanked it with a loud rev.
The chainsaw erupted from Makoto's right hand, teeth gleaming cold in the dying light.
"Next time we meet, will you let me try? No control. No manipulation. Eating together as equals. Walking the dog as equals. Holding each other as equals." Her voice dropped to almost nothing. "Let me feel it one more time. That kind of happiness."
he Tokyo Public Safety headquarters had been reduced to a mountain of rubble and ruined walls.
Makoto sat on the highest slab of debris, and below him, Ishigami, Beam, the four Macho-bros, and the rest of his subordinates stood at attention like servants awaiting a king's command.
"I still don't understand something, boss."
Ishigami spoke first, his tone genuinely puzzled.
"Hm?" Makoto tilted his head.
"You said any attack against Makima gets automatically redirected onto Japanese citizens. So how were your attacks able to..."
Makoto leaned against the cold stone. "To be precise, it's not that all attacks get redirected. Only what she perceives as an attack. And just now, her entire belief system had collapsed."
"In that moment, some part of her thought: let it end here. So she didn't register my chainsaw as an attack. She accepted it as a release."
The Libido Devil's eyes went wide. "So that's how you broke through the Control Devil's invincibility!"
Footsteps approached, scattered and hurried.
Makoto and Ishigami turned to see Aki Hayakawa, Himeno, Kobeni Higashiyama, and a flood of other Public Safety survivors rushing toward them. Denji was mixed in with the crowd, face lit up with excitement.
"Savior-bro!"
His eyes locked onto Makoto and he lunged forward, but before his second step landed, Ishigami's right arm morphed into a heavy machine gun and the barrel leveled squarely between his eyes.
"What do you think you're doing, kid?"
Denji froze mid-stride and dropped straight onto his backside.
Aki stared at Ishigami, disbelief written across his face.
He's alive? He was dead. The Gun Devil possessed him. He turned into the Gun Fiend. How is he standing here like nothing happened?
"Himeno, contact the Metropolitan Police and the Cabinet. Tell them to send people to handle the cleanup."
Makoto's voice cut through Aki's spiraling thoughts.
Himeno blinked, then snapped to attention. "Y-yes! Right away!"
"Hayakawa."
"Uh... yes!" Aki tore his gaze from Ishigami and turned to face Makoto.
"Find the TV crews. Tell them: Tokyo Public Safety's battle against the Gun Devil is over. After tremendous sacrifice, the Gun Devil has been eliminated. The current strongest Devil Hunter, Makoto Nishikado, hereby announces that players scattered across the world may now return."
"P-players?" Aki's brow furrowed. "What do you mean, players?"
"Shut up! When the boss gives an order, you execute it. No questions." Ishigami's voice cracked like a whip.
That absolute, simp-like devotion to Makoto. No one else in the world could imitate it. Undeniably, unmistakably, Yu Ishigami.
Aki swallowed the rest of his questions. One look at Ishigami's face was enough to kill any thought of pressing further. He nodded and left at a brisk pace.
Under Ishigami's direction, Kobeni and the remaining survivors set about organizing the battlefield with methodical efficiency.
When the broadcast aired, something extraordinary happened.
Players who had been scattered across the globe for thirteen years began converging on Tokyo.
Plenty of truth remained hidden from the public, but Public Safety's official announcement that the Gun Devil had been defeated was, without question, the kind of news that set the entire world celebrating.
Kishibe, the former strongest Devil Hunter and now a Cabinet representative, arrived in haste. When he learned that Makoto had not only killed the Gun Devil but crushed the Control Devil as well, the man who was legendary for his composure stood there slack-jawed.
The Cabinet begged Makoto to stay, to lead Tokyo Public Safety going forward. He refused, flatly and without room for negotiation. No amount of persuasion moved him.
Left with no alternative, the Cabinet appointed Kishibe as interim supreme commander.
Days passed. The dust settled.
Players from every corner of the world gathered in Tokyo.
Unlike the panic that had followed the murder of Soe Nakiri and the others, this time the Yukinoshita sisters and Shizuka Hiratsuka came too. They'd seen the broadcast the moment it aired.
When word confirmed that the Control Devil had been defeated, more than a few players broke down in tears, clinging to each other. thirteen years of dread in this fucked-up world, and now, finally, a sliver of hope that they could go home.
The Nakiri mother-daughter pairs, Mrs. Yukinoshita, Mrs. Yuigahama, and every other player with decent kitchen skills rolled up their sleeves and filed into the kitchen. A grand celebration was in order.
Thirteen years of accumulated fear, frustration, and longing poured out all at once, dissolving into laughter and the clinking of glasses.
The guest list extended beyond just the players. Makoto had sent personal invitations to Denji, Himeno, Aki, Aki's younger brother Taiyo, and every other acquaintance he'd made in this world. Beam and the Libido Devil and the rest of his loyal entourage had stationed themselves in the courtyard long before anyone else arrived.
When Aki and his group stepped into the estate, they stopped dead. The courtyard was filled with a diverse array of stunning women, each with her own unique charm.
They stared. None of them had expected Makoto Nishikado to know quite this many gorgeous women.