Chapter 71: Bath

Morning finds Power draped over Denji's chest as Aki prepares food. Denji grouses that she shrieked all night, then brings up Aki's arm, the one surgeons managed to reattach after the Darkness Devil struck. By comparison, Aki points out, he got off easy: Angel Devil lost both limbs, Beam and the Violence Fiend perished, and Kobeni walked away from the job. Mention of Power's new terror of darkness jolts her awake, screaming and in tears.

Trying to gouge into her own mouth where she believes the Darkness Devil lurks, Power is restrained by Denji and pleads with him to look inside. A remembered meal shows Makima inviting him along on her journey; his delight collapses once he recalls that Power and Aki are far too fragile to abandon, and he rejects her idea of handing Power over to a Public Safety facility. Once that memory passes, it is Aki who presses Denji on his reason for staying, and the boy only mutters that he cannot say.

All day Power yanks Denji aside to scan random spots for the Darkness Devil, eventually insisting he share a bath so she stays guarded. In the water Denji notices the intimacy feels oddly free of anything sexual. Aki proposes taking watch shifts overnight, and after dark Power wakes Denji, begging that he not hate her for the lost trip and offering blood to atone for once hitting him with a car. Drinking from her neck, he again recalls Pochita and how none of this stirs romance, deciding certain truths are better left buried as he vows the nightmare door must stay shut.

The cost of the Darkness Devil's rampage is laid out: Aki retains a single reattached arm, Angel Devil is left armless, Beam and the Violence Fiend are dead, and Kobeni quits Public Safety. Power is gripped by a crippling fear of the dark and refuses to leave Denji's side. A recalled conversation reveals Denji turned down Makima's trip for the pair's sake. Their bond reads as familial rather than romantic, and Denji commits to never opening the door from his dreams.

This installment opens the Gun Devil arc and sits within Volume 9. Both Makima and Pochita surface only through recollection. The repeated motif of the sealed door hints at the bleaker developments awaiting Denji.