"Not bad, two more corpses collected."
Looking at the sinking bodies of Akane Sawatari and Katana Man, Arata put his hands on his hips and nodded in satisfaction.
Subsequently, he walked out of the secluded corner and onto the main street.
The street at this moment was exceptionally quiet. Not a single pedestrian or car was in sight.
After seeing their two main fighters killed, Katana Man's accomplices had abandoned their van and fled the scene.
Right now, only Denji's two cold, severed halves remained in the middle of the street.
Perhaps because of the gruesome corpse, traffic on this road had become exceptionally clear.
"Arai," Arata called out.
"Present!" Arai, who was hiding behind a parked car, hastily stood up.
"You and Kobeni piece Denji's body back together."
"No problem, Arata-senpai." Arai tugged on Kobeni's braid. "Let's go, Kobeni."
"Go where?"
"Didn't you hear Arata-senpai tell us to piece the corpse together?"
"Ah! Piece together a corpse!! I want to resign." Kobeni was so aggrieved she almost burst into tears.
"We can talk about that when we see Himeno-senpai. Let's piece the corpse together first."
Arai pulled Kobeni along, and the two walked toward their respective halves of Denji's body.
Arai dragged Denji's upper half.
Kobeni struggled with all her might to drag Denji's lower half.
"Arai-senpai, I don't have any strength left. You drag Denji's upper half over here."
"Are you kidding? The upper half is way heavier, and it has three chainsaws attached to it."
Arai tossed Denji's upper half onto the ground. He ran over to Kobeni, and the two of them grabbed one leg each, dragging the lower half over to where the upper half lay.
After aligning the wounds of the two severed pieces, Arai pulled a small knife from his pocket.
"Kobeni, give me your hand."
"To do what?" Although she had no idea what he was planning, Kobeni obediently extended her hand.
"To revive Denji." Arai grabbed her hand and gently sliced her finger open with the knife.
"Ah! Arai-senpai, what are you doing?!" Kobeni screamed.
"Denji can only revive after drinking blood."
"Wh... why didn't you cut your own finger?!"
"You have Type O blood, it should be more suitable for Denji."
"Hey, you two hurry up. We still need to head to the hospital later," Arata urged.
"Right away!" Arai positioned Kobeni's bleeding finger directly over Denji's mouth.
After a few drops of blood dripped in, the horrific wound separating Denji's upper and lower halves slowly began to knit back together.
However, the recovery speed was agonizingly slow.
Seeing this, Arata walked over to the two of them.
"We need to sacrifice more blood to bring him back to life."
"Don't look at me, I've already resigned," Kobeni hastily waved her hands in refusal.
"Don't be afraid, Kobeni. If worse comes to worst, I'll donate the blood."
"I can't count on you guys." Arata bent over, and a massive mouthful of fresh blood spewed directly from his mouth.
A torrential amount of blood plasma poured into Denji's mouth.
This caused the wound's regeneration speed to instantly accelerate.
The healing rate skyrocketed from KB/s straight to MB/s.
"So painful!"
The revived Denji slowly climbed to his feet, casually canceling his Chainsaw Man state as he did.
"Pain is nothing. As long as you can absorb the combat experience, all these injuries are worth it."
"Why do you sound exactly like my master?"
Denji turned his head to ask.
When he saw Arata standing right behind him, the expression on his face instantly froze.
"A living master!!!"
"I already told you guys I wouldn't die. You should have stopped Himeno and the others from holding a funeral for me."
"Master, you resurrected!!!"
Denji instantly lunged forward and hugged Arata tightly. He was indescribably overjoyed.
Watching this master-apprentice reunion, Arai was quite moved.
Only Kobeni stood to the side, contemplating how she was going to bring up her resignation to Himeno later.
"Master, Miss Makima still hasn't woken up. Do you know what's going on?"
"I don't, but by now, Makima has definitely woken up."
Just as Arata finished speaking, Arai's phone rang.
It was a call from Himeno.
"Himeno-senpai."
"Thank goodness, you're still alive!" Hearing Arai's voice, Himeno let out a massive sigh of relief on the other end. She quickly asked, "Are the others okay? What about Kobeni?"
"Himeno-senpai, we are all fine," Kobeni answered.
"Where are you guys right now?"
"We are with Arata-senpai."
"Head back to the Public Safety Headquarters shortly. Miss Makima has woken up."
"Understood, I'll head back immediately."
"Wait... did you just say you are with Arata?"
"That's right. He saved Arai, and he also killed Katana Man and Akane. This way, Himeno-senpai doesn't have to die either."
"What Katana Man? Besides, how could I die that easily? Hurry back to HQ, Miss Makima has important matters to discuss with you all."
Hanging up the phone, Arai looked left and right, trying to hail a taxi.
"Kobeni, you check over there. We'll split up to look for a cab."
"No need to look. There's a perfectly good van over there with no one driving it."
As he spoke, Arata climbed into the van that was originally meant to transport Denji's heart.
This was also the third vehicle he had managed to commandeer for absolutely free.
Soon, the van, blasting the eurobeat song Deja Vu, sped all the way back to the Tokyo Public Safety Headquarters.
The moment the vehicle parked, Denji shot out like a skyrocket.
Whoosh— He sprinted straight for Makima's office.
"Miss Makima!!!"
Before the office door was even opened, Denji's excited shout breached the room first.
BANG!!
Immediately following, the door was violently busted open.
Denji rushed in frantically. His eyes darted around the room, finally locking onto the person he wanted to see most.
When he saw Makima standing there looking completely normal, his heart filled with an overwhelming joy.
"Denji-kun has returned," Makima said calmly.
"Miss Makima, are... are you fully recovered?"
"Don't worry, Miss Makima is already completely fine." At that moment, Arata walked into the room.
His appearance made Makima's expression visibly freeze for a split second.
Her brain instantly recalled the humiliating image of being collared and walked like a dog by Arata in the dream.
However, Makima didn't lash out in revenge.
Instead, she acted as if absolutely nothing had happened between them.
"Miss Makima, we're back." Arai and Kobeni arrived last, both genuinely happy to see Makima recovered.
"Miss Makima, the reason I had everyone return was to see how many people from Division 4 had been killed."
"As of right now, besides Power, who died, everyone is present," Himeno explained.
"Power died?! How did she die?!" Denji was shocked. Scanning the room, he realized Power was indeed missing.
"Relax, she's fine. She ran away the moment the Katana Devil appeared. Good thing she ran fast, otherwise she really might have been killed."
"She ran away! No wonder there was no one around when I woke up."
"Miss Makima, Kobeni and I were almost gunned down. Fortunately, Arata-senpai appeared and saved us."
"Gunned down?" Aki Hayakawa's gaze shifted to the two of them. He had heard Denji mention guns earlier but was half-skeptical at the time. Now that Arai brought it up again, it proved the shootings were very real.
"Actually, the Gun Devil has already begun making its moves in the shadows," Makima stated. "While I was asleep, a resistance force composed of civilian Devil Hunters appeared. They attacked many of our Public Safety personnel. Besides our Division 4, other departments have suffered heavy casualties."
After Makima spoke, the lingering tragic memories in Aki's mind surfaced once again. He clenched his fists tightly, having long since prepared himself to fight the Gun Devil to the bitter end.
"Arata, what is this Katana Devil you mentioned?" Himeno asked.
"The Katana Devil was the main fighting force of this operation," Makima interjected.
"However, before he could even encounter Himeno-senpai, I had already slaughtered him."
"Arata-senpai is amazing! He fought two devils by himself and killed them both."
"I didn't see it, I was dead at the time," Denji said. "Master, that Katana Devil was incredibly strong. How did you kill him?"
"There is no devil your master cannot kill."
"Tch, then could you beat Miss Makima?" Denji asked, deliberately trying to throw a difficult question at Arata.
Little did he know about Makima's utterly degrading encounter in Arata's Dream Dimension.
If Denji were ever allowed to watch the blockbuster movie of that specific dream, his nosebleed would absolutely shoot down a straight three thousand feet.