Scales

Outside a building crowned with a giant Chainsaw Man head, Sugo explains the place once housed a cult. Denji only wants to know where the promised women are, but Sugo insists on a guided walkthrough first. They link up with Nobana Higashiyama, the student from the earlier aquarium episode, who tells a skeptical Denji that the Church is staffed almost entirely by teenagers because an American ultraviolet weapon in the sky disables adults. He claims Chainsaw Man's super vision uncovered the truth, which Denji refuses to swallow.

Nobana points out the Chainsaw Man Wedding Chapel and the adjoining room where members are expected to consummate before marrying, prompting Denji to protest that he has no wish to wed anyone. As Nobana scrambles to defend the child-marriage rule with more talk of American propaganda, Denji boils over, snapping at Sugo that he has never run into any ultraviolet rays and that the chapel is nothing like what he was promised. Sugo concedes he stretched the truth but argues the Church still does plenty of good, then bites back that Denji signed up carelessly and that harming a few people is acceptable for the greater good. Barem, the flamethrower hybrid, brushes Nobana aside, greets Denji by shoving fingers up his nose, and muses about why Chainsaw Man has gone quiet. He floats the idea that a huge Devil attack, or Asa's death, might lure him back, then asks Denji to picture a balance scale weighing his everyday life and loved ones, pets included, against whatever turns him into Chainsaw Man. Rattled that Barem knows such private details, Denji bolts as Barem calls after him to savor his normal life while it lasts.

Released August 23, 2023 within Volume 16, this Chainsaw Man Church arc chapter draws its title Tenbin from Barem's scale metaphor. The exchange frames the central tension of the arc, with the Church scheming to push Denji back into transforming, and Barem's veiled threat against Asa sets up the violence to come.