Curse

Aki draws his weapon, and Power is startled that it looks more like a nail than a sword. The Katana Man swings, but Aki slips the blow and sets his blade. As he yells out his command to fire, an unseen devil flicks the nail's tip into the Katana Man, and a floating mouth counts out the number three.

The Katana Man falters, then attacks again. Aki dodges once more, calls out to fire, and pierces his foe, while the disembodied voice says two. A final lunge buries the blade in the Katana Man's stomach as the voice intones one. Knocked back, the Katana Man puzzles over Aki's tactic. Aki orders the hidden devil to finish him, revealing it as the Curse Devil. On the count of zero, an enormous skeletal hand seizes the Katana Man, and the giant devil tears him apart limb by limb. He drops to the ground unconscious and bleeding badly. Aki checks on Power, who urges getting Himeno to a doctor, and remains shaken by the gun's use and the man's ominous words about the Gun Devil. A young woman then appears, praising the Curse Devil's power. When Aki asks if she works with the Katana Man, she steps up and lifts him back to his feet. The girl, Sawatari, asks why he lost, and he admits shamefully that he let his guard down. She tells him to kill the group fast, and the Katana Man lunges at Aki, slashing open his chest before he can react.

Aki uses his nail-like blade in tandem with the hidden Curse Devil, which counts down with each strike. After three piercing hits, Aki orders the Curse Devil to finish the Katana Man, and a giant skeletal devil tears him apart. Akane Sawatari arrives, revives the Katana Man, and commands him to kill the group. The Katana Man immediately slashes open Aki's chest.

Collected in Volume 3 and adapted in Episode 8 of the anime, this chapter continues the Katana Man arc. It introduces the Curse Devil's countdown mechanic alongside the contractor Akane Sawatari, who controls the Katana Man. Himeno remains critically wounded, and the Gun Devil's threat continues to loom.