Episode 8

The morning after the party, a hungover Himeno has no memory of dragging Denji home, and he turns down her advances, set on saving himself for Makima. Amused by his odd loyalty, she strikes a pact to play matchmaker for him with Makima if he does the same for her with Aki, sealing a new friendship. The mood shatters elsewhere as Makima boards a train for Kyoto and is gunned down inside a tunnel, the cue for a sweeping assault on every Division 4 member at once.

Over a bowl of ramen, a stranger needles Denji about his stunted palate before revealing himself as the grandson of the yakuza who first put Denji to work. Acting on the Gun Devil's hunger for Denji's heart, he shoots the boy point-blank and sprays the rest of the table. Power and Aki retaliate, with the Fox Devil swallowing the attacker, yet he bursts back out transformed, his body sprouting blades in a grim echo of Chainsaw Man. Himeno lies bleeding from a chest wound as the fight spirals.

Aki counters with the Curse Devil, impaling the swordsman through a ritual countdown until the entity crushes him, but a newcomer named Akane Sawatari hauls the killer back to his feet and orders Denji's capture. When Power cannot even track the man's strikes, a dying Himeno surrenders everything to her Ghost Devil for one final assault. The phantom overpowers the swordsman before Akane's Snake Devil bites its head clean off, and Aki turns to find nothing left of Himeno but her empty clothes.

Denji and Himeno cement their alliance before the Gun Devil's agents launch a citywide ambush, opening the Katana Man arc. Makima is seemingly assassinated on her train, and the Katana Man debuts as a sword-based hybrid backed by Akane Sawatari and her Snake Devil. Aki unveils the Curse Devil's ritual, and Himeno makes the ultimate sacrifice, spending her life and her Ghost Devil contract in a doomed bid to protect her squad. Her death, leaving only her garments behind, marks the episode's devastating climax.

Under the title Jūsei, meaning "Gunfire," the eighth episode launches the Katana Man arc and adapts chapters twenty-two through twenty-five. "Kick Back" opens the episode, and "First Death" plays over the credits. An original sequence created for the anime depicts Himeno's nightly routine in her apartment before bed.