Pochita

The version of Pochita most readers first meet is a pocket-sized creature worn down to a near-death state, roughly the shape of a small orange dog. A working chainsaw juts up from the crown of its skull, grips sprout along its body so it can be held and swung, and the stubby tail ends in a starter cord. This battered shape hides what he truly is.

At full power the Chainsaw Devil stands as a towering, heavily muscled humanoid clad in dark plated scales. Each arm forks at the elbow into a second hand, and a chainsaw extends from every one of them as well as from his brow, echoing the silhouette Denji later takes. He bears horns, lacks any obvious eyes yet sees without trouble, and keeps a length of his own intestine looped around his neck like a scarf, useful for cradling an ally or running an enemy through.

Once the contract binds him to Denji, the devil shrinks down into the boy's heart, shedding his limbs, grips, and skull-mounted blade while keeping the endearing canine face. A cord runs from the top of his head straight into Denji's chest, the trigger for the transformation. When he needs to deceive Makima, he can also rebuild a near-perfect copy of Denji's hybrid body, betrayed only by the armored plating on his arms.

For all his power, the original Pochita expresses himself the way a real dog would, yipping and whimpering rather than speaking. That changes once he becomes Denji's heart, after which the two share a telepathic link and the devil slips into his friend's dreams to caution him against opening a certain door. His devotion is the bedrock of his character: Denji's kindness in his lowest moment earned a loyalty so complete that Pochita surrendered his heart just to hear the boy chase his small, ordinary dreams. He knows Denji so intimately that he can imitate his speech and manner well enough to fool the Control Devil herself.

Loosed in his full devil shape, he turns volatile and lethal, cutting down anyone in a burger restaurant who so much as bristles at him, though he later admits the carnage was the tragedy of a creature too strong to ever simply hug someone. Even then his promises to Denji guide him, which is why he abducts Kobeni Higashiyama to chase a decent meal and a date. He responds to pleas for rescue whether they rise from people or from other devils, and across his long existence he has swallowed concepts too dangerous for the world to keep, from nuclear arms to the horrors of past wars. He never erases lightly, reserving the act for the deadliest ideas, and in the end he turns that power on himself to gift Denji a life unburdened by his shadow.

Devils are said to fear the Chainsaw Devil above nearly all others, ranking him just below the primordial devils and even the Four Horsemen, and the mere hunt for his heart was enough to spark conflict between nations. His body shrugs off explosions, piercing blows, and even the burning plunge of atmospheric reentry, while his speed lets him fall on opponents before they register the motion. His strength is so extreme that it isolates him; he once explained he could never give or receive a hug without crushing the other person. Regeneration lets him rebuild from his heart alone, and his hearing reaches across enormous distances.

His signature gift is erasure. By devouring a devil, often just its head, he wipes the concept it represents out of reality and out of memory, and the world quietly reshapes itself as though the idea never existed. The effect can be partial, as with war, which lingered as a notion even after no new wars broke out, and it can be undone, since powerful blows may force him to vomit a swallowed devil back into being. Beyond erasure he wields the chainsaws that grow from his head, arms, and legs, can detach their chains to snare and reel in foes, and can fuse with a human to heal them completely, which is exactly what binds him to Denji as a living heart. Should that contract ever break, he can claim Denji's body for himself and revert to his monstrous form.