Ordinary Happiness

Denji passes rows of televisions and chattering students, soaking in the public's divided view of Chainsaw Man. Word of the prophecy has spread so far that pupils mistakenly claim he is destined to battle Nostradamus himself. Back home, he washes Nayuta's hair as she describes the Church clashing with police. Denji confesses he has chosen to stop becoming Chainsaw Man, both because his current life already feels ideal and because he refuses to trade her life for his own contentment. Nayuta pushes back on the first reason, planting a doubt that surfaces as an epiphany later that night while he talks with Pochita and Meowy wanders in.

Unable to sleep, Denji flips channels and lands on another of Haruka's addresses. An audience member raises pointed worries about who the Church recruits and the damage it causes, and Haruka answers that they brief the city and the defense ministry beforehand and enlist only seasoned hunters. He adds that members must obey Chainsaw Man's tenets so they fight purely for selfless ends. Asked what those tenets are and whether they hold up, Haruka claims the tenets were handed to him by Chainsaw Man face to face and offers to let the man hear from Chainsaw Man himself.

As Haruka stirs the crowd into a chant, Denji bolts for the phone, thrilled to speak to the masses, then freezes in shock as a random hunter steps forward declaring himself Chainsaw Man. The impostor spins an origin tale of a half-human, half-Devil body granted power after a clash with the Justice Devil, framing his crusade to purge the world of Devils in scriptural language. Denji screams at the screen, waking Nayuta, and rants that he never acted toward any grand purpose and that people named him Chainsaw Man only in recognition of what he had done. As he crumbles, Nayuta moves to comfort him.

Opening Volume 16 and continuing the Chainsaw Man Church arc, this chapter pivots on Denji's struggle between an ordinary life and the recognition his identity brings. The Church's fabricated account of Chainsaw Man, though false, lines up more closely with the term hybrid than the truth does. Featured characters include Denji, Nayuta, Meowy, Haruka Iseumi, the Fake Chainsaw Man, and Pochita.