Chapter 77: Ring Ring Ring

Just as Denji reaches the door, the phone rings. Makima is on the line, briefly recapping the Gun Devil's return and warning that a corpse it has reanimated is the one ringing the bell. She orders Denji to fight the thing without thinking about anything. Both he and Power doubt her, certain the visitor is simply Aki.

Growing uneasy as he nears the door, Denji tells Power to slip out the balcony with Meowy. Still hesitant, he opens it to find Aki's reanimated body, now puppeteered by the Gun Devil. Failing to recognize him, Denji awkwardly asks whether they are supposed to fight.

The view shifts into Aki's mind, where he and Denji are children having a snowball fight. Every snowball Aki tosses, however, erupts as a devastating gun-blast in reality, flattening whole city blocks with each throw. Cut in half by one such blast, Denji yells for Power to run as the two grasp the creature is Aki. When Aki springs out of the building toward Power, Denji transforms and intercepts the strike.

Makima phones Denji to reveal that a Gun Devil reanimated corpse is at his door and tells him to fight mindlessly. Denji sends Power and Meowy to escape via the balcony. The visitor is revealed as Aki, now a Gun Fiend controlled by the Gun Devil, who experiences the carnage as a childhood snowball fight. Denji is torn in half before transforming to block Aki's attack on Power.

The chapter is part of the Gun Devil arc and appears in Volume 9. Aki returns as a Gun Fiend, his perception of the battle warped into an innocent snowball game. Makima appears only as a voice on the phone.