Chapter 76: Don't Open It

A boy steps out to meet friends for soccer, only for his entire city to vanish under the Gun Devil's mere presence as it bears down on Makima. One scene of ruin follows another, thousands dropping with shots straight through the heart in a single instant. Four seconds to the dot after surfacing, the Gun Devil stops and aims every weapon at Makima. A heartbeat later a round pierces her skull, her 29th logged death, but she springs back at once as her spilled brain knits into a halo above her.

Once more the Gun Devil stalls. As Makima rises, lashed to her body are the corpses of Tendo, Kurose, Angel Devil, Aki, Sawatari, and Princi. Channeling every one of their devil contracts at once, she rips a gap into the sky over the Gun Devil, and a fused mass of a dozen bodies comes plunging down.

Back at the apartment, a knock sends Denji toward the door, certain Aki has returned. His fingers near the handle when a burst of his nightmare hits and Pochita's voice cuts through his mind: don't open it.

The Gun Devil flattens whole cities en route to Makima, killing thousands in an instant. A bullet through the head marks Makima's 29th death, and she revives with a halo of brain matter. Bound to her are the corpses of Tendo, Kurose, Angel Devil, Aki, Sawatari, and Princi, whose contracts power a rift she tears above the Gun Devil. Denji almost opens his door until Pochita's voice stops him.

The chapter is set in the Gun Devil arc and Volume 9. The corpses fused to Makima confirm that Aki perished in the previous chapter's massacre. Pochita's warning circles back to the recurring nightmare door that has shadowed Denji across the arc.