1. Sniper from Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood

2. Lower Ranks Demon Slayers from Demon Slayer

Since this is a kinda simple and perfect solution, everyone ignores it for the ending, so I'm gonna use it.

Yoru established that during R1, Pochita was capable of partially erasing her, thus wiping major wars after WW1 from history, and war became just a thing from video games and movies. This tracks with the new timeline, with Pochita still being in a weakened state inside Denji and chainsaws still existing, but most events related to him wiped from history. It's also consistent with what we saw.

Pochita only erased his heart, since it's impossible to logically eat yourself completely—you wouldn't be capable of eating your own head and mouth. The Hero of Hell form still exists, so Pochita most likely wiped only 90% of himself and is still alive and kicking.

Furthermore, Asa calling Denji Chainsaw Man could mean she likes the manga, movie or video game franchise Chainsaw Man in the new universe, whose author is Tatsuki Fujimoto, if you wanna go full meta-narrative.

As somebody said, chainsaws were used at birth. The thing is, there is precedence with the Falling Devil, where "fall" can mean both physically, with gravity, and emotionally, with trauma. So chainsaws being used for birth would still mean that unbirthing powers would belong to Chainsaws, not to the Birth Devil, so Pochita is the Chainsaw Devil.

The same logic is used several times. Fire also metaphorically has transformative powers. Why couldn't chainsaws?

One of the most annoying, clusterfuck, incoherent characters in Part 2 is, without a doubt, the Fire Devil. There is hardly a better example throughout the Barely-Any-Time-Spent-in-Academy Saga of a character who makes it painfully obvious that there is no well-written cast here—just dogshit plot devices to move along the suffer porn of Asa and Denji.

In its conversation with Denji, the Fire Devil mentions how it admired FakeSaw and his twin for pursuing justice because they saved it. It criticizes Denji for acting immorally by saving the cat. Nowadays, it's popular in discussions to constantly excuse somebody's stupid decisions in Part 2 by saying they're lying, but whether that's true or not, it's clear that the Fire Devil does have a somewhat accurate understanding of what a genuinely immoral choice is. Even the most fucked-up contractors, like Prez or Yuko, wanted to do something good, and the Fire Devil never openly supported anybody who was outright evil.

So when this piece of shit tries to criticize Denji, it's complete hypocrisy.

First of all—and I will be writing this until the day I die—Denji made the best utilitarian choice in Chapter 102 by saving the cat, because if he hadn't, even more people could have died after the devil escaped. The first annoying thing is that the same Denji who is capable of coming up with a million excuses at other times never points this out to the Fire Devil. Nor does he call it out for what he learned in Chapter 146: that the Fire Devil was part of the evil plan to turn hundreds of thousands of people into monsters, which did absolutely nothing to prevent the Apocalypse.

Even though, just before meeting the Fire Devil, Dennis has no problem calling out Yoru for being a nutcase and a devil despite having a boner for her, for some reason he doesn't call out the Fire Devil. There is no reason why he shouldn't.

Not only is the Fire Devil hypocritical, but it also could never have honestly cared about FakeSaw or his twin. If it truly cared about them, why didn't it do jackshit to save them in Chapter 102? The Fire Devil talks about the event as if it was there, so why is it talking shit to Denji when it didn't do anything itself? There was nothing preventing the Fire Devil from saving the twin or helping Denji. There was nothing stopping it from giving the boys stronger contracts. It is literally one of the most powerful devils on Earth. Surely it could have given them something to defend themselves, right?

And Denji doesn't even ask why the Fire Devil didn't help them, even though it's suddenly acting annoyed that FakeSaw died. What the actual fuck?

It gets even worse because, unless you assume the Fire Devil can give people overpowered abilities they don't already possess, it must have mind-reading abilities like Yuko. That means it had to know who Lil D was from day one. So why did the Fire Devil send FakeSaw to his death to try to 1v1 the Famine Devil? Why didn't it warn him? If it genuinely loved the twins, then it's just dumb, it should feel dumb, and Denji should be calling it dumb.

It presumebly also was behind killing Yuko, because it didnt like what it allowed Yuko to do? FakeSaw say that Fire never steered him wrong but then does this. And to add if Fire Devil cared about twin´s death why it didnt ask its boss Lil D to revive it? Seems to me like obvious thing to do and yet he couldnt give a shit to do anything. Dont let me start on all the contrivances that starts if you assume that Fire was already eaten pawn pre part 2 by death because then FakeSaw inervention in Falling Devil ARc is even more stupid.

Now let's assume the Fire Devil is more like the Future Devil and simply wants to see people suffer. Even that interpretation doesn't make any sense. Why didn't it ever tell Asa about Yuko? If you have a suffering fetish, that seems like the obvious target. Since it supposedly has mind-reading abilities, why not call out Denji for even shittier things, like what happened in Chapter 119, to make him suffer even more? Instead, it gives him a rant and then fucks off.

So what truly was the Fire Devil's motivation? Does it just want to test people's idea of justice for some reason? Why is the Fire Devil even interested in the concept of justice when, as I've already shown, its admiration for the twins is written in an incredibly dumb way?

But the biggest problem is that the Fire Devil—an objectively hypocritical scumbag—is still portrayed as being right when calling out Denji. You can't really argue that the Fire Devil's hypocrisy is the point when the story itself treats this hypocrite as a legitimate moral authority for judging Denji.

After all the setup surrounding the Fire Devil, this garbage-written character—one that would fit right in among the cast of Game of Thrones Season 8—is an abysmal payoff to all the teasing. And this problem more or less applies to Lil D, Fumiko, and Yoshida as well

I just love how this guy was genuinely concerned about the fact that Macht was harmed, and Macht politely assures him that he doesn't need to worry about it. For some reason, this was a really nice moment of kindness. I also agree with what somebody on this sub once joked — that Macht was probably really popular with the people of Weiss because he literally ate the rich. 😂😂😂😂

DEATH DEVIL ARC

In the aftermath of Public Safety's defeat, with government leadership wiped out by Fumiko, everyone meets at the café. Fumiko mocks Yoshida for basically letting his emotions decide for him and betraying Public Safety by getting attached to Denji. Yoshida points out her own betrayal and counters that after what happened with the erasure of Snow, and how drastically it changed the world — which wasn't completely the same even when barfed back — he came to the conclusion that erasing the Four Conclusions would be madness. With so much reality-warping at play, they might try to beat the Death Devil conventionally or die in the attempt. Both of them have trouble really remembering their working relationship with Public Safety. Fumiko even points out that the return of nuclear weapons caused her to barely recognize her coworkers most of the time.

Denji is overcome with grief at this point and tries to shoot both Fumiko and Yoshida, blaming them for Nayuta. Yoru interrupts him just like in the manga, shoots the wall, and drags him away, to the bafflement of Yoshida, Fumiko, and Fami. The Yoruden moments play out exactly the same, and Asa still tries to warn him about Yoru's plan and tries to kill herself. There is still the promise of sex, etc.

Later, Denji is sleeping while Asa contemplates what she has done, asking how Yoru could harm so many people. Yoru counters that she merely does what Asa is too cowardly and weak to do, prying into every moment when Asa thought about killing the people who used to bully her. Asa refuses to acknowledge this, saying that's not the same; Yoru laughingly calls her a hypocrite. She even mentions that she doesn't mind sharing Denji with Asa, that she likes them both, and that in her never-ending new world she would keep them both.

Then Fami finds them again, crying about how they could just leave her. Yoru mocks her, calls her a failure, and, to Asa's horror, tries to turn Fami into a weapon — but nothing happens. Fami asks Yoru to refrain from killing more people, because it will improve their situation. Yoru dismisses her complaints, saying she intends to fight their big sister at her best and that she is tired of Famine's roundabout ways, voicing her frustration and questioning why Famine hasn't been turned into a weapon. Fami says she herself is surprised Yoru is still alive, given that she promised to harm Asa; Yoru retorts that she is only making Asa stronger by showing her what she truly is — that she doesn't harm her but helps her. Fami is clearly terrified, crying and annoyed, but then wipes her tears and tells Asa that she is still there for her.

Suddenly, Fami starts acting strange, and her voice changes. Lil D is running out of patience and tells Fami she's waited long enough — the world is already chaotic enough that they can perform the ritual. Yoru starts to understand why she wasn't able to turn Fami into a weapon and takes a defensive stance, saying with fear in her voice, "If that's her—?"

Denji, while sleeping, is kidnapped by Yoshida. Denji, annoyed, asks why they're bothering him again; they tell him the Future Devil told them they are dying sooner than expected. They share a pizza, and both of them reminisce about the days when Fumiko was chasing Denji and Yoshida was trying to get her off him.

Yoshida once again apologizes that this will be their last meeting and thanks Denji for enabling him to go to school, saying that he is "the switch." Denji has no idea what that means, but then the Fire Devil shows up too. Denji is clearly confused, but the Fire Devil calls him out for killing Fake Saw Man with clear disdain, saying that Denji was always selfish. It recommends he choose more wisely next time, before it changes its appearance into Makima and tells Denji he doesn't deserve to be happy, burning Yoshida in front of him. This causes Denji to transform.

The Fear of Hunger has risen significantly, so Fami's powers now ignore distance, just like Yoru's abilities. Lil D turned Fami into a pawn a long time ago and was waiting for her to get powerful enough so she could steal the life force of billions of people for the ritual. Impatient, and feeling that Fami is trying to undermine her by resisting her control, she decides to simply arrive earlier. Yoru tries to kill Fami, but she dodges effortlessly.

Death orders Famine to kill billions and summon her. Fami is about to use her ability to steal the life force of so many humans, but the thing is, the Famine Devil has changed. All those moments she spent with Yoru, Asa, and Yuko meant a lot to her. She became that one person Asa was thinking of to connect with, even if Asa didn't realize it herself. So she decides to stand up to her elder sister, and instead of killing humans, she decides to transfer billions of units of life force from ants and other animals around the entire world to humans.

All humans suddenly feel refreshed. The crippled are healed, the sick are cured, old people get younger — and this happens across the entire planet. The Fear of Death drops massively as a result. Lil D is absolutely livid, calling the Famine Devil an ungrateful failure, and immediately orders her to kill herself. The Famine Devil damages her own heart and, bleeding, collapses to the ground.

Yoru and Asa watch all of this in shock. Yoru starts to say that's one less worry, but then the entire area suddenly chills and everything blackens. Yoru is terrified because she notices a huge dark figure standing next to the Famine Devil. Yoru asks how it's possible that Death has crossed over. Lil D retorts that the conflicts around the world, the chainsaw zombie apocalypse, and her own recent massacres have already caused enough death for her to cross from hell — not at full power, but enough.

Lil D then tells Yoru that she hopes Yoru will have more sense than the Famine Devil did, and orders her to turn Denji into a weapon. Yoru refuses, telling her she is arrogant for someone who can't use all of her abilities and crossed over sooner than she should have, and attacks her. Death easily smacks Yoru away, saying she will simply turn her into a pawn and force her to transform Denji into a weapon. Lil D's plan is to use the Chainsaw Man sword to partially erase her, so that she is severely nerfed to the level where she could live among humanity.

Lil D is about to beat the living hell out of Yoru, but then Pochita jumps her. Pochita attempts to eat her but breaks his teeth, and it doesn't work. Lil D comments that only a guilt-empowered sword made from him is powerful enough to erase her, and goes after Yoru.

Yoru attempts to summon weapons; nothing works. Pochita attempts to fight her, but Death is too strong and starts to overwhelm them with revived zombie swarms of both devils and men. They are getting cornered, so Pochita starts to barf things out of his own volition — first, the Four Conclusions, bringing them to life instead of just death.

The entire setting changes, and an even weirder Flashpoint-style paradox occurs. More strange things pop up, and the fight continues, with Lil D clearly struggling but, even with another debuff, still strong enough to fight on par with both War and Chainsaw. Pochita continues to barf out other concepts, like the Sixth Sense, which allows Asa and Denji to join the fight and outmaneuver Death, since it's strictly a human thing.

Yoru uses nuclear weapons and summons more things to fight Lil D. Interestingly, Death puts herself at a disadvantage, mitigating the damage and taking a lot of punishment — her goal is to experience humanity, so the battle becomes disadvantageous for her, since she has to limit herself, while Yoru doesn't give a damn.

At a crucial moment, Fami returns to the battle, healing Pochita and Yoru when they're on the back foot, and gets quickly hit by Lil D, who is annoyed by her interference. With several parts of the world being nuked as collateral damage from the battle, the Fear of Being Burned is at an all-time high. Pochita and Yoru manage to hold Lil D down, and at the crucial moment, the Fire Devil shows up, transforming into the Hell Devil and casting the nerfed Death back to hell, dying in the process.

With the timeline reset several times, people's memories changed, and Fami doing her best to keep most people alive at the expense of other life forms, Death no longer has the strength to come back, with the Four Conclusions now part of the new world. She is back in hell, not experiencing the humanity she wanted, annoyed by Famine's betrayal, contemplating how she didn't expect the most cowardly of her sisters to finally stand up to her after all those reincarnations.

Back on Earth, Famine is dying with Asa near her. Famine tells her this is her sister's doing, and that her already being a reanimated pawn means she is going back to hell. She spends her last words admiring her sister: "My big sis, Scythe — she is strong… she is so strong." Asa, feeling very emotional about this, thanks Fami and tells her she will be there for her. Then Yoru takes over and turns Fami into a weapon.

UNLOCKING THE SECRET FINAL BOSS FIGHT: WAR DEVIL ARC

Yoru is at an all-time high — she has both the Yuko sword and the Fami sword, laughing maniacally. With the Four Conclusions restored to life, and Fami having prolonged the lifespan of most humans, making them harder to kill, she can now reach her dream of eternal warfare, with Death now too weak to come back from hell.

Pochita attacks, and they finally get their rematch. Everything can now play out exactly like in the manga — a battle across the world. What I would change is that Yoru is much more durable and fights like the Hulk, so Pochita can't just cut through her, and has some trouble, making it somewhat more challenging.

Things in the dream dimension turn out the same. Asa tells her backstory, and since I changed it slightly for the Falling Devil Arc, it's about how there was a traffic accident and her father was hit by a car. Before that, he threw Asa away so she could survive. Asa decided to slow her steps and call for help, because her father had killed the Crambon and was extremely abusive toward her. I am tying that to the first chapter of Part 2, to explain why Asa always looks at the road.

Asa then tries to commit suicide, but instead of just banging her head, she tries to commit seppuku with the Yuko sword. She fails, just like in the manga, but Yoru sustains permanent damage that heavily annoys her.

Pochita does not take the opportunity to erase Yoru and instead targets her children, causing even more havoc.

Asa is horrified at what Denji is doing, and he says he can't control Pochita. The conclusion is the same — Denji says he killed his father too and decides to make a wiser, less selfish choice this time around.

He and Yoru battle it out, and Yoru nukes the planet even more, creates a Tokyo Katana to fight Denji, but ultimately Pochita manages to come back no matter what, since that's what Chainsaw Man does. Meanwhile, Asa is putting pressure on Yoru from the inside with her femcel rants about the War Devil's feelings. She says that Yoru can act all high and mighty all she wants, but she can still sense that Yoru is sad because of her children, because of killing Fami, and how many things she wants to throw under the bus. This is very distracting for Yoru.

During the battle, Denji manages to entangle Yoru in chains, causing her to crash out. Yoru, wielding four swords, accidentally takes even more damage when her own weapon cuts her.

Everything plays out the same by the end. Yoru contemplates while Asa calls her out — it pisses her off so much that she admits, yes, she is still grieving for her children, that she is angry that she killed them. The entire conversation plays out the same, except that, aside from Yoru telling Asa she shouldn't blame herself so much, she also tells her to be more confident and assertive. She should tell Asa, once more, that she always thought Asa was weak when it came to many things. I think Asa's problems were always bigger than just blaming herself too much, and Yoru should call that out more.

Denji heals her; Yoru calls him stupid; sex is about to happen, but then they get jumped by the insect. They are now the most powerful devils, because everything has been nuked and radiation affects them the least. By this point the world is a mess, and reality itself is barely holding together, which should be made clear by cracks in it.

Everything between Denji and Pochita plays out the same — I won't change a word.

The final chapter plays out exactly the same; the new timeline is here, except that when Asa is running off to play football, both Fami and Yuko are with her, to truly highlight that their relationships indeed carried over into another universe.

CHURCH ARC

This new world is different from the previous one. Technologically, it's much closer to our time. The internet is already here, social media is here, cellphones are here. Keep that in mind, it will be important later!

The government is barely functioning, and people are still going crazy over new memories popping up in their heads or forgetting things when they do work, along with other important information. A huge number of people are going crazy over all the memories rewriting. It still happens that things from the previous timeline are popping up here and there.

This causes a lot of friction on the international scene, where disputes over where borders should be and different parts of historical countries showing up even more draw war nigh, with nations arming themselves and preparing for conflict. The return of nuclear weapons means everyone's arsenal is at least partially back too, with a lot of powerful actors too eager to use them. Not to mention other military technology.

At the same time, there is world hunger thanks to a ton of people randomly popping up everywhere and resources disappearing, causing problems in the global food chains. The situation in third world countries is getting much worse thanks to the complete timeline reset.

Public Safety is even more of a mess than before the reset, which explains their incompetency, and both Fumiko and Yoshida are strongly affected by it, to the point of not even properly remembering what their plan with Denji was. This is how I will be explaining all their choices going forward.

Asa Mitaka is in a coma and in the hospital as a result of being exposed to radiation. There can be a scene where Yoru and Asa are talking in their own version of Denji's mind world, where there are still chicken dreams, etc. That's right, we are putting the femcel on ice, but don't worry, we will be bringing her back out soon enough.

Denji and Nayuta are once again approached by Public Safety, who are much more chaotic. When Denji is held in the basement, Fumiko is there instead of Yoshida, but he barges in later and they both have an argument.

Later, it's once again Yoshida who tells Denji that he must stop being Chainsaw Man or Nayuta will die; you can have that same two-choices grief from Denji once again. Instead of the demonstration, though, he shows him the social media discourse, where there are constant flame wars over Chainsaw Man.

So there is some continuation from the "don't reveal your identity" part; Yoshida says that surveillance is everywhere, cameras too, and that Denji recklessly getting his identity exposed means he can no longer continue being Chainsaw Man. I am creating a bit of continuity in what Yoshida wants, so the jump from "hide your identity" to "you can't be Chainsaw Man" isn't so jarring.

So there is now a period where Denji and Nayuta are getting closer. Again, a few chapters are dedicated to them just living their lives, with Nayuta pointing out that Denji is unhappy. Denji is clearly sad at school and misses Asa, whom he visits a few times in the hospital, but he basically gets the information that she most likely will never wake up.

While playing a board game with the television on in the background, Denji notices FakeSaw Man giving a speech on national television. He has the same reaction as in chapter 134 initially.

Except FakeSaw then switches in tone and reveals that he is the Fake Chainsaw Man who decided to help his idol because he is alone and needs somebody to ease his burden. He introduces himself as Yang Cheng (from a family of Chinese immigrants), who says that he got the information that the real Chainsaw Man must be tired from all the work, and that he wants to follow in his footsteps. There is immediate controversy when reporters ask him if he wants to replace Chainsaw Man, to which he states that he merely wants to follow in his footsteps.

Denji is still annoyed that the guy talks about fighting for a better world, but when Yang Cheng continues to talk about how he loves the feeling he gets from saving people, he starts to grow on him, and by the end of his heroic speech, Denji feels conflicted about the guy. He dislikes him, but at the same time can't help but admire his honesty and positive energy, which is baffling and confusing to him. His misandry is challenged.

Public opinion is a complete shitstorm after that. There are people who immediately hate Yang Cheng as a rip-off poser, and there is violence, and initially FakeSaw Man is quite unpopular. However, by saving people and fighting devils, he quickly becomes more and more popular. The clear contrast here is that, unlike Denji, Yang Cheng doesn't get an adrenaline rush when fighting, and he cares much more about lowering casualties. Over the months, a good portion of the public starts to like him, and even prefers him over the original Chainsaw Man.

Thus Japan is divided between supporters of the original Chainsaw Man and FakeSaw Man, with more and more fans supporting Yang Cheng the longer Denji is inactive. This is obviously problematic for Denji, because he misses being Chainsaw Man and doesn't like his normal life with Nayuta, even though he tries to bond with her. At the same time, while he is jealous of Yang Cheng, Denji can't help but admire how heroic he is, which makes him reflect on whether Yang Cheng isn't a better Chainsaw Man than he is.

Fumiko is trying to make her move on Denji during this, but Yoshida doesn't introduce her and in fact still tries to oppose it. So we will get more romantic-comedy shenanigans, with Yoshida even straight up revealing Mifune's contract to Denji, who of course doesn't mind, as long as he gets laid. Nayuta also tries to intervene in this. Some of the dates between Fumiko and Denji are disrupted by Fami herself.

We get an interesting confrontation between Denji and Fami when she blames him for how quickly he moved from Asa to someone else, saying she thought he wanted to be her boyfriend. This should emphasize the twisted thinking of Denji, who simply refuses Fami, saying that if Asa wakes up he would like to date her too, and that he wants multiple girlfriends. Fami rightfully confronts him, saying that she doubts Asa would like that idea.

At the same time, we get Yang Cheng's perspective and his struggle with fame. He is living his dream thanks to the Fire Devil allowing him to be FakeSaw Man, and he genuinely enjoys saving people. Lots of girls want to date him, and some of them even imply they wouldn't mind sharing him, which comes with his increased fame. However, he isn't happy about having the opportunity to live out Denji's dream of multiple girlfriends, because he is in love with his twin brother Xia Qing's girlfriend, also from the Chinese diaspora in Japan. He of course tries to hide this so as not to cause trouble in his relationship with both of them, but he is secretly jealous of his brother, and it's painful for him to watch them together while they help him with his hero campaign and Church stuff.

There is no visit to the Chainsaw Man Church. Denji is approached by Barem on one of his walks home from school. Barem threatens him, wondering aloud what would hurt him more: killing Asa, Yoshida, Fumiko, or Nayuta, and talks about how Denji is an ungrateful traitor for killing Makima. He says this to Denji because he wants him to suffer mentally and wants him to know that his normal life is coming to an end. Denji has a much stronger self-preservation reaction to this encounter and later discusses it with both Nayuta and Yoshida.

I would make it much clearer and put more emphasis on how Makima being mentioned again completely shatters him, showing how much her shadow lingers over him; he becomes afraid, has nightmares, etc. Yoshida says he will double the protection and coordinate it with other factions, with Public Safety being confused that Barem is here since they presumed him dead.

The story then cuts back to Yang Cheng. One evening, Yang Cheng is alone at Church headquarters, wearing Chainsaw Man helmet merchandise, going through some administrative tasks and preparing new armor for his brother to use in battles. Yang Cheng and Xia Qing arrive there, but his twin is attacked by a masked man with a gun and killed. Yang Cheng tries to save his brother, but he hesitates for a fraction of a second at the crucial moment and is too late to save his twin. The killer gets away.

Yang Cheng is absolutely devastated afterward, and it's big news, which triggers an investigation. He blames himself for what happened, believing he hesitated at the crucial moment because he wanted his twin's girlfriend, and his teenage jealousy caused a fatal delay and a terrible tragedy. Social media uproar is insane and rumors start spreading. This is the first time the Fire Devil starts talking to Yang Cheng while he is depressed, manipulating him into believing one thing: that the one who got his brother killed is the real Chainsaw Man, because he was jealous, and that the killer mistook his brother for him.

Since the Fire Devil has never steered him wrong, Yang Cheng believes it and starts planning his revenge against Denji, intending to kill him. On live television, he publicly accuses Denji of murder and challenges him to a duel, denouncing him. Hatred for the real Chainsaw Man grows across the country. Denji watches at home, terrified, confused, and angry, and thinks about clearing his name, but Yoshida stops him, saying that revealing his identity to the public now would be worse than ever.

Yang Cheng trains and prepares for his battle with Chainsaw Man, completely disregarding Xia Qing, who tries to warn him about accusing Denji so definitively, pointing out how strange it is that someone who can transform would send an assassin, especially since they still don't know how the killer got into the building. Revenge completely overtakes Yang Cheng and causes a rift between them.

After Xia Qing leaves, Yang Cheng is approached by Barem, who, as an influential member of the Church in this version too, gives him the Reze weapon in order to kill Denji, and leaks his identity to him.

FakeSaw Man attacks Denji on his way home from school, and they get into a fight. Denji tries not to pick a fight, but Yang Cheng cuts him in the eye with the Reze weapon, causing extreme pain to Denji, who, to his astonishment, can't heal even after it regenerates. Denji realizes he needs to take this seriously, still trying to talk things down and insisting he didn't kill his brother. Yang Cheng is furious, saying Denji should never question his brother's judgment, and attacks him.

In the middle of their battle, Denji is injured several times and his injuries aren't healing well. Denji realizes that if he doesn't take this seriously, he might really die.

Despite the injuries, Denji still has the upper hand but gets a dopamine high and toys with FakeSaw Man. Denji nearly dies several times, yet it excites him, and he gets thrilled that he can be Chainsaw Man again after such a long time. Just as FakeSaw Man didn't act immediately because of jealousy, Denji doesn't act immediately because of the rush of being Chainsaw Man, and thus throws away the opportunity to end the fight quickly — a huge mistake which will come back to bite him later. In the middle of their battle, Barem kickstarts a Chainsaw Zombie Apocalypse. That pisses off Yang Cheng even more, while Denji is completely lost in bloodlust, not registering what's happening around him.

Meanwhile, at the hospital, Yoshida is in the room with the unconscious Asa, preparing an injection to kill her. He seems very hesitant to do it, but eventually does, watching her heart rate monitor flatline, suggesting Asa is dead. Then, on the television, Yoshida sees the Zombie Apocalypse, and after checking that Asa is dead, he heads outside immediately to help. A few moments after he leaves, Yoru opens her eyes triumphantly, laughing, saying that people have finally remembered her again. The resurging conflict causes her resurrection. After slowly getting up from the bed, still weak in the legs, she starts to walk slowly but steadily, her steps becoming more stable as the conflict rises. She then goes to join the chaos.

Back at the battle between Denji and Yang Cheng, FakeSaw Man blames Denji for all the carnage too and tries to kill him, but Denji, realizing Nayuta might be in danger, goes for the kill. Yang Cheng, who hesitated with his twin, refuses to hesitate about killing Denji. Denji, who hesitated with killing Yang Cheng, ultimately doesn't. The final exchange ends with FakeSaw dead, and Denji quickly running back to their apartment.

They find it burning and overrun by zombies, with Nayuta in the corner and Barem about to kill her. Fumiko is already lying dead on the floor. Denji is half-blind and slow. Barem is able to overpower him now, prioritizing killing him upon Denji's arrival. Nayuta, just like in the original timeline, is able, despite her injuries, to control a few of the zombies and attack Barem at the expense of her own defenses. She gets swarmed by them while Denji is carried to safety, just like in the original arc. The same flashback of him believing he doesn't deserve a family because he killed his father occurs.

PUBLIC ENEMY ARC

This will be the arc that changes the most, replacing the Aging Devil Arc. However, it starts the same way, with Denji waking up in the hospital asking where Nayuta is. The entire confrontation with Yoshida turns out pretty much the same; I don't need to make extensive changes there. Maybe a more defeated Yoshida and a more triumphant Fumiko, since her faction got its way.

Now Fumiko is once again prevented from sleeping with Denji, because Public Safety agents are concerned that Denji, missing an eye, is compromised, and want to dissect him and study him to determine his overall condition after his injuries before turning him into a weapon, and perhaps try to fix him so he is in peak condition before being tested for transformation. So the same panel with Pochita — "where are your legs," etc. — happens.

Asa and Yoru, meanwhile, meet up with Fami. They realize they are public enemies and watch on social media how Chainsaw Man is accused of killing both twins and causing the Chainsaw Zombie Apocalypse. FakeSaw fans absolutely hate him. We can even have Xia Qing condemning him somewhat after watching recordings of FakeSaw Man's demise. Fear of Chainsaw Man is skyrocketing.

Asa isn't really convinced by all of this, thinking it doesn't seem to fit the character of the Chainsaw Man who saved her. Yoru mocks her for defending FakeSaw Man while still intending to kill him. Fami once again tries to calm the situation, crying and saying that Yoru shouldn't kill Chainsaw Man before they're both dead. They should also be wary of Public Safety, who now has them on the wanted list too. Yoru wants to wage war against them, but Fami warns her that they should refrain from killing people as much as possible, so as not to unnecessarily empower Lil D, saying that what already happened gives her already-unstable powers a boost, and that now they need less killing, ideally making people fear things other than death again.

They reach a consensus that Chainsaw Man can't stay in Public Safety's captivity, and that they need to save him one way or another to prepare a united front against Lil D's arrival. So they decide to rescue him, just like in the original timeline. They use their mole in Yoru-controlled Katana Man to learn about the facility where Denji is held, and thanks to him they infiltrate it fairly easily, causing much less commotion, with more stealth than brute force.

Katana Man constantly complains that he can't believe he's busting out Chainsaw Man at the expense of some stupid teenage girls, to which Yoru tells him to shut up and do what he was told. Everything proceeds the same way; they manage to save Denji and cause the same commotion.

The biggest difference is that on their way out, they run into a dying Kishibe, who has been held in prison ever since the Part 1 events. Kishibe and Denji have one last heart-to-heart, where Kishibe apologizes to Denji for burdening him with Nayuta, and admits that in retrospect it was a stupid choice, since Denji was in no way ready for it. Denji tries to counter that, while life sucked, Nayuta was one of the best things that happened to him. Kishibe, realizing he failed Denji, tells him he must grow up fast or his desires will destroy him. The entire conversation should be framed as a sort of reverse of the Gaia—Guts talk in Berserk: Kishibe realizing that Denji is doomed because of his nature, but despite that, wishing him the best, dying with some sort of closure while still knowing the world is doomed.

After their escape from prison, for weeks, Fami, Denji, Asa, Katana Man, and Yoru are on the run from Public Safety. They engage in guerrilla warfare, where Yoru doesn't kill anybody but tries to spread fear through massive delinquent attacks, robbing stores, etc. They hide in the sewers under the city, changing hideouts every day.

Denji, just like in the original timeline, asks Yoru and Asa for help searching for Nayuta in exchange for fighting Lil D, and promises Yoru a duel afterward. Yoru openly acknowledges Nayuta as the Control Devil, and there is a big discussion where Denji explains himself to Asa/Yoru. They bond by talking about their families, where Denji somewhat explains how he came to take care of Nayuta, after Yoru and Asa press him on it. Denji apologizes for killing his previous partner, leading to a somewhat morbid scene where both Fami and Yoru say not to worry, they know she was a bitch. Katana Man immediately agrees with that too.

They search everywhere for Nayuta. There is discussion about whether Nayuta is still alive. Yoru says she really doubts it, but Fami says they would probably have already heard if a new Control Devil had appeared. Katana Man barely remembers how Barem was obsessed with Makima, so he might be devoted to harming the new Control Devil.

There is a month-long period during which they move around, hunted by Public Safety, while searching for Nayuta. Yoru/Asa and Denji grow closer. You can even add the whole handjob dilemma at the brothel too, but this takes place over a longer period of time.

While everyone is sleeping in one of the hideouts, Fami is approached by the Fire Devil. They tell her she is growing impatient and should already move forward with the plan. Fami, less timid than usual, says she is doing whatever she can. The Fire Devil accuses her of getting too attached to humans, which is unbecoming of a devil. Fami counters that the Fire Devil herself was attached to Yang Cheng, calling her a hypocrite. The Fire Devil refutes this by saying she enjoyed watching him die. Fami counters this by asking, if the Fire Devil enjoyed FakeSaw Man's death, why is she so miserable? The Fire Devil goes silent and visibly angry at that point, then leaves. Fami then again seemingly talks to herself with a strange, blank expression.

Eventually, after several weeks, they get to the sushi restaurant, where things play out pretty much the same. Barem shows Denji Nayuta's head, and he transforms. Barem is immediately erased by Pochita, dying a very similarly painful death. Yoru fights, but the entire confrontation is much more balanced. Public Safety joins the battle with multiple of their devils. The Ear Devil special division is much stronger in this timeline.

Thanks to the Future Devil, Public Safety figures out and confirms that Pochita can barf up devils. After analyzing Denji's flesh, they plan to try to make Pochita barf back into existence the Four Horsemen to depower Death. It becomes a free-for-all between the army of Public Safety agents and devils, Yoru, and Pochita.

Yoru, much more capable in this timeline and still using the Yuko sword, almost gets beaten by Pochita, but she is saved by the arrival of her weapon children, the Tank Devil and Gun Devil, who jump Pochita. Together they manage to push him back, but Pochita still almost wrecks them. Desperate, Yoru decides to turn her children into weapons despite them just having saved her, which gives her the upper hand, and she manages to beat Pochita into submission.

There is huge collateral damage. You can still have Asa absolutely horrified at how vile Yoru can be — all the "children are their mother's property" sociopathic material from the manga.

But then they get jumped by multiple divisions of dozens of Public Safety devils and are almost overwhelmed. They need to retreat, leading to a similar team-up against Public Safety.

Pochita, during the battle, does what he does in the original timeline, and the battle takes place across all of Japan. Pochita erases snow, just like in the manga, causing another reset, which creates chaos among everyone. He barfs it back up. Denji has a similar heart-to-heart with both Asa and Yoru while they are hiding in the mountains, planning the counterattack against Public Safety.

Yoshida appears to fight them too, but when it looks like he's about to attack them, he strikes Public Safety agents and devils alike. Asa/Yoru and Denji are surprised, asking what he's doing. Yoshida replies that they now share a common interest.

Fami hilariously joins the fight too, and, Kobeni-style, depowers everyone but kills almost nobody. All of them eventually fight their way toward the Japanese government, but when they arrive, they find them all dead. Multiple Fumikos welcome them there, saying it was obvious that Public Safety's plan was a desperate Hail Mary. She apologizes and says that she always chooses the winning side, which is obviously theirs, and offers Denji, in exchange for everything bad done to him, multiple girlfriends in the form of her clones, if he won't pursue revenge against her. Denji is tempted to agree to that offer, to the great annoyance of everyone.

TEPIA ARC

Asa is still extremely depressed from killing Yuko, and Yoru is getting more and more impatient. Fami is to the rescue and tries a lot of things to cheer Asa up, including bringing up setting up a date with Denji. She is the one who gets them together in this version. Yoru has to promise through a contract that she won't interfere for one day during this particular date, which she is hesitant to do, but Asa promises in return that she will put more work into empowering the War Devil in the future. Instead of the Aquarium, Denji and Asa visit TEPIA sentan gijutsukan, literally "TEPIA Hall of Advanced Technologies."

Everything except the setting is the same. Instead of the fish, Asa rants about energy and radiation theories, and Denji, just like in the OG timeline, gets bored and goes to see the robots. Asa has the same interaction with Yoru, but they are interrupted, instead of by Lil D, by the Eternity Devil himself, who says basically the same stuff and leaves them locked up.

They are closed inside it, and everything turns out the same, except there is no Devil Hunter Club, but both Fumiko and Yoshida are here. There is clear tension between Fumiko and Asa. Yoshida says similar stuff to Denji, asking him about eating death, etc. — I wouldn't change much there. He is very antagonizing towards both Asa and Fumiko, warning Denji, who dismisses his concerns, actually glad the two girls are fighting over him.

Asa is also constantly bombarded by a frustrated Yoru, who, while she promised not to do anything, is getting impatient with Asa, urging her to turn Denji into a weapon. Everything proceeds the same, with more Asa-Denji-Fumiko love-triangle shenanigans, and then Asa finally gets them out the same way as in the OG arc.

Yoshida has a similar standoff with the real Fami, who gets scared and runs away through the roof and falls.

Chapters 119–120 basically happen the same. Denji brings Asa home, Yoru tries to kiss him and turn him into a weapon, etc. But then Yoru smells something and gets extremely terrified — Asa has never seen her this scared before. Nayuta kicks the door open, and Yoru narrowly avoids the chain jumps from the nearest window and falls to the ground, getting injured in the process.

Bleeding, she runs away as fast as she can. Asa does not understand this fear but then gets flashes of Yoru's memories: a tall, red-haired woman leaning over the half-dead body of the War Devil. "That goddamn braid," mumbles Yoru. Asa asks her what is going on, but Yoru refuses to talk, saying they need to get as far away as they can. This is how I am exploring the relationship between Yoru and Makima. I think it fits, and it gives the entire sisterhood more attention. Nayuta is Tanjiro, Yoru is Muzan, Makima is Yoriichi.

Asa is depressed, wondering who that strange girl at Denji's home was. She understands that Yoru thinks that girl is a devil, which makes her wonder what the hell is going on with Denji. Yoru says that they can't trust him if he is anywhere near Control, because he is already brainwashed. Asa gets depressed at that realization, wondering if everything with Denji was a lie.

Depressed about yet another person she tries to get close to being targeted by a devil at the worst possible moment — FALLS DROP!!!

FALLING DEVIL ARC

This arc opens with a similar discussion between Fami and Yoshida and the Falling summoning, but aside from that, we are introducing Lil D herself, who at this point in the series is in hell.

Now I am making it clear that Lil D is the one who sends the Falling there. We could have a group of devils on Earth simultaneously killing a huge number of people as a sort of suffering ritual.

In my version, it isn't easy for Primals to cross onto Earth from hell. They require a demonic summoning, which basically entails killing a bunch of people. This is connected to why the King of Terror, Lil D, arrives on Earth during the 1999 Nostradamus Prophecy: it's because during Halloween that year, the border between Hell and Earth is thinnest, just like in the old legends about the supernatural, so things can more easily cross from the other side.

Lil D's powerset is basically the same as in the OG timeline, except for one detail. Death kills people passively just by her presence. She is alone. She can't be near devils or humans for long, or they die. She admires human culture and wants to experience it, even briefly, even if it means destroying humanity. That is her main motivation and her dream in this version. So it's still pretty much the same as in the OG timeline; however, I decided to introduce this — what I think is a compelling conflict: someone who can't coexist with anyone but desires to. This could be tied into the theme of contradictory desires, which was a big theme in Part 2.

So the crux of her plan is to arrive on Earth during 1999 and live her life, then vanish together with mankind, finally experiencing the joy she was denied for eternity. I would put much more emphasis on how old and sad she is, and she should be shown on some sort of throne, similar to the Aging Devil, interfering from Hell but not yet able to cross herself. Villains need limitations — Part 2 always suffered a lot from Asa and Denji taking on seemingly unstoppable beings.

Summoning the Death Devil, even during 1999, will require a huge number of deaths to complete the ritual and make her crossing even scarier than it already is. The Falling Devil's main purpose here is to kill enough people so that Death can be summoned. There will be more to this later, believe me, but that's enough for now — that's what will be revealed with Lil D talking telepathically to some unknown party.

The Falling Devil appears, and in my version she is much more sadistic. I am removing most of her gravity-bending abilities and instead putting much bigger emphasis on her sending everyone into a depressed, infinite loop of their traumatic memories. A lot of people get heart attacks or brain seizures from this — the first casualties.

There should be more interaction between Asa, Yoru, and the Falling Devil. Falling mocks the state War is now in, saying that the mighty has indeed fallen hard, and wonders how interesting it will be to mentally torture someone like War. She even mocks Asa and her deepest trauma.

Yoru tries to summon the Yuko sword, and that proves effective, doing lasting damage, but Falling uses her force powers to fling her out of Yoru's reach and beats her up.

Meanwhile, Denji and Nayuta are approached by Fami, who begs him for help against what just arrived. Both of them incredibly jump in to help, especially Denji, who is very ready to do so after hearing it's a chance to mend things with Asa and explain himself. Nayuta reluctantly tags along, but both she and Fami fall behind Denji, who is too quick to join the battle.

The Falling Devil makes it very hard to reach the destination, and there is chaos everywhere as she disrupts gravity to the point where it's not possible to walk normally, while an increasingly large number of people get stuck in a loop of their past trauma. The Falling Devil is high on this, calling it an exquisite feast.

We now get the Asa flashback. In this version, I am mixing things up a little. We mostly get a buildup toward Asa's mother's death, showing how dysfunctional their family was and how her father was abusive, leading up to her mother dying. However — and this is important — her father is still alive. Things turn out pretty much the same, and her father witnesses what happened and is heartbroken, but he still abuses Asa. Eventually, it is he who kills the Crambon under the pretense that they can't have a cat because he's allergic, and when Asa confronts him about killing it instead of giving it to a shelter, he bursts out blaming Asa for saving the cat, which caused her mother's death.

I am choosing to portray the events this way because that out-of-nowhere, nameless psycho caretaker is still one of the most dogshit parts of the entire manga, and I think it's very easy to give that role to Asa's dad instead.

We also get a brief flashback of the War Devil — Yoru getting her trauma from losing her children. I am touching on her being depressed and hating Pochita because he took her kids, while emphasizing the love she genuinely felt for them even in their devil era. So we can get a cool Pochita cameo devouring various devils during their fight.

Asa still decides to give up after this, but in this version, the Falling Devil refuses to let her fall, instead saying that her trauma is too tasty not to repeat on loop. I am putting more emphasis on the Falling Devil not killing them, and more on torture. Not every flashback has to be shown — Asa and Yoru can seemingly just be screaming in pain on the floor.

Denji shows up again, as in the OG timeline, and manages to take Asa away. Nayuta is unaffected by the power because Denji raised her so well and so nicely that she doesn't have real trauma, and Fami is unaffected, seemingly because she is already in a trauma loop all the time, constantly losing her shit.

Denji is desperate to help Asa/Yoru and begs Nayuta to use her powers to save them. Nayuta argues with him but eventually, and very reluctantly, agrees after Denji keeps pushing her and she sees Asa/Yoru starting to bleed from the nose, showing remorse and commenting that nobody deserves to die like that.

Asa/Yoru gets up, and Asa is so depressed that she tries to kill herself, but Denji stops her, just like in the OG timeline. His speech is entirely the same, and it backfires just like in the OG chapter, about how he wants sex.

We cut back to Lil D, who, plot twist, is getting affected by the Falling Devil's powers herself. She gets a memory-trauma loop of losing previous reincarnations of her sisters, many of whom died as a result of being near her. Lil D snaps out of it for a moment to ask: "What treachery is this?"

The Falling Devil pulls an Uchiha Madara, and thanks to being empowered by putting so many people into Falling trauma loops, she is capable of going up against the Death Devil's pawn control, which is imperfect in my version too. Falling triumphantly laughs and says she will put all devils and humans into a never-ending torture loop for all eternity, empowering herself even further.

This is catastrophic, because everyone starts being affected — all people on Earth, all devils in hell, everyone. We cut to several characters. Barem relives learning about Makima's death again. Fumiko gets her POV on the Aki-47 flashback. Yoshida gets traumatic flashbacks from his time as a Devil Hunter. Kishibe is affected by trauma in jail too. It's a mess.

Thanks to Nayuta's fixed control, Asa/Yoru are unaffected, but Asa is still slipping despite Denji's encouragement. The Falling Devil notices again that they are able to resist and decides to pursue them.

Asa is still heavily depressed and suicidal, and this is where Yoru gives her a pep talk. That's right — Yoru decides to tell Asa that she might be a devil, but no mother would want their child to die, and that's why her mother saved her. She emphasizes that her mother would never blame Asa for this, because every parent should do everything to protect their child, and that if Asa wants to honor her mother's sacrifice, if she really wants to make up for her mistake, she should continue living so her mother didn't die in vain. She emphasizes that if her mother could talk to her now, she would tell her to LIVE!

After Asa's morale is lifted, she thanks Yoru and realizes that maybe there is a way to stop this. The Falling Devil is here again; Denji and Fami slow her down while Asa manages to escape on the Chainsaw Motorcycle.

Asa gets an idea and goes home. Yoru asks what she intends to do, to which Asa says there might be something they can use as a weapon back in her apartment. The Falling Devil destroys the city and shreds it to pieces. People are dying on all sides, slowly but steadily. Notably, this would be the first time Fumiko dies on-screen, setting up her power.

Asa gets into her apartment thanks to the bike and finds her mother's urn with ashes there. The Falling Devil follows quickly into the apartment and laughs at Asa when she throws the ashes all over her, thinking this is a desperate attempt to do something. Yoru is angry at Asa for doing something useless.

We then get a flashback to Asa's physics classes, where they talk about energy and how she always felt there was something weird about the scientific knowledge of radiation, which in professional literature was always portrayed in an eerie, sort of missing way. She then says she always felt an odd déjà vu when she saw Yoru's memory of nuclear weapons. Based on the information she already has about Pochita erasing Yoru's children, she pieces things together.

Asa touches the line of her mother's ashes, saying: MOTHER'S ASHES — NUCLEAR BOMB. Yoru, horrified, screams at Asa that she is dumb for nuking them; the Falling Devil is still laughing that not even this kind of technology will work on her — but then Asa mentions that something can exist and not exist at the same time, quoting the Schrödinger's Cat paradox in her femcel rant.

Denji pukes up the Nuclear Devil, who rushes at the Falling Devil at lightspeed to save Asa/Yoru. In that moment, there is a huge nuclear explosion; in the last moments, Fami appears again and manages to get Asa and Yoru away.

And then reality itself starts to be rewritten. In my version, the thing existing and not existing is already a paradox. Asa gambles on the paradoxical nature of this working even against a Primal. The Falling Devil dies from being hit by this and is sent back to hell, but furthermore, the entire timeline is rewritten, Flashpoint-paradox style.

The city is still damaged but somewhat intact. Suddenly there are modern technologies, like cellphones, the internet, social media, etc. Things are suddenly popping up. Random people vanish and reappear. The reset works in a much more chaotic way, as the return of the nuclear weapon causes a butterfly effect, with things coming back into existence along with the knowledge of their existence.

Things that happened still exist for the most part, but at the same time they did not, and new things are popping into existence. People are still dying because random buildings are showing up somewhere, random new cities, etc. Two timelines are colliding.

Everyone's memory is a mess; society as a whole is heavily affected, with nobody properly remembering what just happened, and new information popping up that causes complete chaos on the international stage, with nations preparing for war and blaming each other for the entire thing.

Nobody properly remembers anything. We once again get, as the finale, a standoff between Fami and Nayuta. Nayuta seemingly tries to off Asa anyway, out of jealousy, but is still clearly hesitant; Fami then protects Asa, asking Control if they can work together, and Nayuta, once again, because her memory is messed up and she is a child, says she thinks she has school. Asa is burned from the nuclear weapon, but Fami uses her powers to heal her.

And we can end in Kindergarten anyway

So, I decided that for once, instead of just whining, I'd offer constructive criticism of how I think Part 2 should have been written. This was something that couldn't be done before the series was finished, given how Fujimoto is writing the plot. I believe that for the ending to work, Part 2 needs to be rewritten from the start. That being said, I will lay out several rules. First, the ending stays the same, and the major theme of Denji being incapable of overcoming his worst impulses stays the same. I have no problem with what the destination was, but I do have a huge problem with how we got there. I respect Fujimoto's vision, so the ending stays the same, and if you're looking for some character to get an extensive role, you won't find that here. Nevertheless, I rewrote this with the destination in mind and changed everything according to it.

First off, I think "War Saga" is a much more fitting name than "Academy Saga." All the parallels between Yoru and Pochita scream it, and she — no matter what you think about her — is a central part of this saga, much more so than the academy setting, so I would definitely change it to "War Saga." Given Asa's initial status as protagonist, you don't really spoil anything. So, let's get to it.

So everything starts pretty much the same. Asa's introduction was literally perfect. What I will change is that I am removing the entire PDF bullshit with Tanaka. It was completely irrelevant and the story really addresses it only in a joke way in the last chapter, making it pointless. Prez hates Asa because of her constantly falling annoying him on several occasions. You could even add some information about how Asa's tendency to fall in important moments ruined some school occasions. Basically I am talking Agot vs Coco from Witch Hat Atelier, or the reasons why the Silent Voice protagonist was hated.

Also, I am changing Asa's character, or rather putting emphasis on one thing: her hero savior complex. Asa in my version is a nerd. She was obsessed with heroes even before all the bad things with her parents went down. She also loves math and science and even admires robotics. In the first chapter of part 2, she criticizes how corrupt the city is and Chainsaw Man's flaws rather than superficially dismissing real issues as a femcel rant; Asa has a point. Keep all of this in mind, it will be important later.

Another thing I'm changing here: Barem is the one who is trying to kill both Prez and Asa because he is a goddamn psycho, and he is already working at the school as a PE teacher/janitor. This could be interesting when it's actually him who shows up with Prez, whom Barem manipulates into killing Asa together with Fire Devil because of his sadistic tendencies. The entire chapter plays out pretty much the same: Yoru turns Barem into a sword, kills Prez, business as usual. This would be a good setup for Barem to bridge into becoming important later and connect him to Asa too. Given how central he is, he needs more time, and this would make him even more despicable. Not to mention guessing theories about whether he is really dead, and setting up that Yoru's power works on hybrids too.

The next chapter plays out exactly the same: Yoru tells Asa to follow her, otherwise she will kill her, and informs her of her intention to wage war with Chainsaw Man. Except instead of Yoshida meeting Asa in front of the school, the one who shows up is the real FAMI! That's right, our funny girl-failure already shows up so soon and bumps into Asa/Yoru. Yoru is extremely annoyed and baffled that her least favorite sister is showing up.

Another change is that Fami is acting here as a failure negotiator. She warns both Asa and Yoru that she has arrived because of the Nostradamus Prophecy, which I introduce sooner. There is a lot of arguing, with Yoru saying she cares only about Chainsaw Man, to which Fami counters that her stupid revenge doesn't matter if everyone dies. There is a lot of comedy potential with Yoru pulling Fami's hair and arguing.

Asa is baffled and very reserved in this version about any of this. She simply refuses to harm anybody and argues a lot. Fami then manages to convince everyone to cooperate, explaining that Death Devil's arrival will be a problem for everyone. She is trying to manage the situation and plays into Asa's hero complex and how important it is to save the world. Asa, who feels guilt and wants to help, is gradually swayed by this but is still hesitant. The deciding factor is that Fami offers a contract: if Asa helps them, Fami will be her friend and Yoru won't harm her. Asa, knowing full well that devils are obligated, shakes hands and seals the deal.

All three of them join the Devil Hunters and meet Yuko, who still shares the shoe scene with Asa, and this is the moment where the sort of Golden Age/Hidden Inventory phase of the story starts. Fami convinces Yoru that this is much more effective than relying on the guilt weapon for now, trying instead to increase the fear of War itself, which will be necessary either way for fighting Death and Chainsaw Man. Yuko is the one who suggests that bad people's fear empowers devils as well, and all three come to the conclusion to not only hunt down devils but become vigilantes. This foreshadows Yuko's development later on.

We then have a compilation of Fami, Yoru, and Yuko burning cars, stealing things from the Yakuza, making graffiti, etc. Scaring the bullies and acting like delinquent girls. Asa feels strangely good about this and at the same time guilty, but takes pleasure in the time she spends with Yoru, Fami, and Yuko. At the same time, Yuko is getting more and more frustrated at being the weakest of the group and not being able to keep up with the rest, which is leading her down a darker path.

To parallel part 1, this is where I would bring back Katana Man. Rather than going back to the organization that brainwashed him, Katana Man takes over the Yakuza with his hybrid power, planning another hit on Denji, but Asa/Yoru, Yuko, and Fami become a much bigger problem, and Katana decides to eliminate them. The fight between them ends with Katana Man dominating at first, until Yoru orders him to stop. I am now introducing the idea that War has dominion over weapons and that their origin is tied to the War Devil. The girls wonder what to do with him, and Katana Man is then ordered to go join Public Safety to spy on them, because meanwhile, of course, our girls' actions have not gone unnoticed either, and Fami is worried somebody is spying on them.

There is something weird going on with Fami, who, aside from acting like Kobeni in my version, is portrayed as very schizophrenic and sometimes talks to herself. Keep this information in mind, it will be important later.

The War Devil gets slowly stronger, not only because our main group is spreading fear of her, but because the situation on the international stage is getting progressively worse. A big change I am making now is that Makima becomes a public scandal. It's revealed that Public Safety was working with the Control Devil; there is a government fallout and a lot of problems. You could show it through offhanded comments, but the situation is problematic, and it's an international incident, with the USA and USSR now extremely pissed off at Japan, and rumors of foreign intervention circulating.

As Yoru is getting stronger, so is her bond with Asa. They have the same mental link as servants and masters in the Fate franchise; they do share memories. Asa is having nightmares from memories of Yoru's carnage and nuclear armageddon, while Yoru is seeing flashes of Asa's parents. They share a brain, and their relationship should be much deeper when it comes to this kind of thing.

All of this is ignored by Denji, whom I would keep exactly the same. He hunts devils, lives his dream as Chainsaw Man, goes to school, and takes care of Makima. He is already familiar with Yoshida, who is his link between him and Public Safety. Kishibe is mentioned as being in jail, but Denji is informed that he can trust Yoshida, who is closer to him than in the manga version, although Denji is shown to be quite antagonistic toward Public Safety. Yoshida is the one who makes papers for him to go to school, supplies him with money, etc.

The main conflict I am introducing at first is not only that Yoshida warns Denji that he needs to keep his identity secret, but that there are Public Safety factions working on exposing him, and that spies are everywhere. This version should place much more emphasis on Denji's complete lack of caution. He loves being Chainsaw Man to the point that he ignores almost everything. I would even have him dismiss Nayuta's complaints about her thinking somebody is spying on them. Yoshida should be shown coldly dispatching some foreign agents spying on them, and it's ultimately shown that tension is rising. This is how I show that the ending of part 1 has much more direct consequences, but also how Denji intentionally ignores all the problems.

Speaking of Nayuta, there should be at least one chapter dedicated entirely to her and Denji bonding, showing development and change in real time: them playing games, them planting the seeds for their flowers, them having farting contests — all things that were just implied in the OG manga, must be shown already at the beginning.

I would also have a compilation showing Denji hunting devils and getting more and more high on dopamine, which causes casualties. The public discourse tries to complain about how Chainsaw Man causes more collateral deaths than he otherwise would, and it could still be argued by his supporters that more people would have died had there been no choice. Denji should be shown to be remorseful at the start, but more and more, as he gets high on the dopamine and fame of being Chainsaw Man, he cares less about the collateral damage, and more people die, sometimes even unnecessarily.

All of this leads to this version of the events in Chapter 102: Saves the Cat. On their usual routine, Fami, Asa/Yoru, and Yuko run into the Bat Devil, who turns out to be stronger than they expected and is demolishing them, and, just like in the OG timeline, Denji throws the devil he is fighting into the Bat Devil. He causes insane collateral damage, and a lot of people die in the crossfire. He still saves the cat. The difference is that neither of the twins is part of the final choice the Cockroach Devil puts to Denji; they just watch. Here I create an interesting contrast between the two brothers: one admires Denji, but the other questions his methods and is far less enthusiastic about him. Keep that in mind, it will be important later.

Cockroach could escape and kill more people; from a utilitarian standpoint, this was the good choice on Denji's part. Rather than having this thrown back at Denji as a purely bad choice, I will have the characters question it. And this will be important.

Yuko does not end up in the hospital in this timeline because Fami heals her, but she is depressed about how useless she was in that fight. She is progressively more annoyed about being left behind, which is driving her mad. Unfortunately, Asa/Yoru and Fami ignore her because they're distracted by other things, like getting a boyfriend.

Denji is at school when one of the people who pays him to sit with him is none other than Fumiko Mifune, whom I introduce first. She is making advances on Denji, to his great joy, but before she can get past first base, she is stopped by Yoshida, who reveals to Denji that she is not a high school student but an agent of Public Safety. Denji gets a little annoyed by this revelation but doesn't mind anyway, because Fumiko is cute. Anyway, Yoshida drags Fumiko away, telling Denji that he needs to do better.

We then get a very heated private conversation between Fumiko and Yoshida, in which there is a clear conflict. Fumiko says that Yoshida is wasting time and that they need to act more quickly. Yoshida counters that he has the situation under control, but Fumiko blames him for being attached to Denji, which could jeopardize the entire operation. Now, you can still have them be very vague, but I think this sells the idea of a divided Public Safety much better than in the OG timeline. I also love Fumiko and Yoshida being basically Bud White and Ed Exley, a duo with a spark who clearly differ in ideology and method.

Meanwhile, Denji is approached by the real Fami, who bumps into him "accidentally." This is how Asa meets Denji in this version, apologizing for Fami. Now we start the romantic comedy shenanigans. Fami is clearly attempting to get Asa and Denji together through a lot of crazy shenanigans; Fumiko is trying to get Denji too. Yoshida is trying to stop everyone and get somebody normal for Denji. You could even have Nayuta stalking Denji at school to throw a wrench into this. Ultimately, I would love this comedic chaos. Part 2 was, in a lot of aspects, a parody, and I always regretted that Fujimoto didn't lean more into the school aspect of part 2. But this would definitely lead to many hilarious situations.

While everyone is busy with love, Yuko is still annoyed by her uselessness, which leads her to reach out to the Fire Devil. In this version, she is shown to be losing her marbles and going through a real madness arc. Things turn out to be pretty much the same: Yuko decides to wipe out the bullies, putting Asa in an impossible position. Fami is conveniently missing during times like these, which is noted by both Yoru and Asa. This ultimately pushes Asa toward the weapon in this timeline too, with Asa clearly torn, because while she doesn't want to give in to Yoru like in the old timeline, at the same time she wants to stop her. In the end, she is unable to make a choice.

The fight at school turns out pretty much the same, except Yuko is buffed. Denji doesn't beat her and is thrown, knocked out, into the wall. Not even the Uniform Sword is enough, although it doesn't break in this version. None of the weapons do. This is where the real Fami returns and gets the Krillin treatment. However, at the key moment, she distracts Yuko long enough for Yoru to take over and turn her into a weapon. This is how Yuko dies in this version.

Asa is then dragged away from school by Fami. She is extremely depressed and angry, blaming Yoru and Fami, etc., and is extremely pissed off. Now, an interesting moral choice I would introduce, contrasting with Makima: Yoru will justify her actions here through utilitarian morality — she did it because if Yuko had been allowed to go on rampaging further, more students would have died. And this is interesting because it fits her War aspects. War always has a casus belli. Everyone wants their cause to be justified. Yoru personifies this aspect. I also think you could create an interesting contrast with Makima here.

Makima never justified her actions directly to Denji and wasn't defending herself, even while Denji blamed her; whereas Makima did evil things but had the good of humanity in mind. Here, Yoru technically does a good thing by eliminating Yuko because of her killing people, but she is obviously using Yuko's threat as a convenient excuse for another weapon. She can clearly tell that Asa knew that killing Yuko was the right thing to do, which is why Asa is so heartbroken by it. Fami helps her grieve and tries once again to meddle in things between them, perhaps even justifying that turning Yuko into a weapon is a good thing to fight against the Death Devil, and ultimately something Yuko herself would have wanted, as someone who championed justice.

This part ends with a chapter dedicated to revealing that Barem survived and grew a new head after Yoru turned him into a weapon. We will show him in his hideout, where he has Reze captured. There is one last confrontation, with Barem twistedly telling her that she will help him harm Chainsaw Man one last time, and showing her a weapon — a special kind of weapon Makima was working on before her demise, but which only recently Barem finished researching. It's a weapon capable of ignoring hybrids' weapon regeneration and permanently killing them. Barem decides to test this weapon on Reze, who dies one final time, ending her life for real. Barem smiles, glad that the weapon works and that the Bomb Devil Hybrid is permanently gone, thinking about how Chainsaw Man is going to pay

It seems that Mr. Bach will not want to see some action....

I hope the voice actors have fun with that. It'd be amazing to hear a line start with Masakazu Morita's voice and slowly transition into Sho Hayami's. Can't wait for it!

One of the greatest problems that wasn't addressed that often about Part 2 is how the story treats collateral damage when it comes to deaths.

Let me remind you that Denji is a reckless, impulsive, battle-loving dumbass who, as you can see in the fight with Yuko, doesn't think about what he is doing. If Chainsaw Man is truly supposed to be an addiction, then Denji is constantly in a state of being high when he is fighting.

You are telling me that there isn't massive collateral damage when it comes to civilian deaths? It's unrealistic that somebody like Denji wouldn't have a very high mortality rate in terms of collateral damage. There would be bodies, and not exactly a low number of them, given his personality. Yet this is not the case. Somehow, despite him being addicted to being Chainsaw Man and despite him being a reckless idiot, he doesn't have a huge number of deaths as direct results of his battles with devils.

When it comes to the complaints about Chainsaw Man in Chapter 103 and discussions of collateral damage, they only mention him destroying a building, not him unnecessarily killing people (and for some reason there were no witnesses to him saving the cat and most of the things when it comes to the civilian deaths are him eating people aka except Makima hearsay). That's bullshit of absolute proportions. There are always some casualties, especially with people like Denji.

I find it hard to swallow that, for example, the Punisher never accidentally hits anybody in the crossfire. In fact, Season 2 of the show had a certain very questionable plot regarding that. But at least I can chalk it up to the fact that Frank has military training. Denji has no such excuse.

I am mentioning that because I genuinely believe that this should have been part of his downward spiral. Rather than one incident, which is still justifiable from a utilitarian standpoint because if he didn't kill the Devil immediately and save the cat, as Fire suggests, the Devil escapes and can kill more people, wouldn't it be much better for the story if Denji was causing people to die as collateral damage during his battles with devils and increasingly stopped giving a fuck?

The number of casualties caused by his actions could increase over time. Denji, at first, would be disturbed by it, but eventually, as he drowned himself in the pleasure of being Chainsaw Man, he would stop being bothered by it, calling it necessary and continuously pushing the moral line further and further.

Hell, it could even play a part in Public Safety's request for him to stop being Chainsaw Man, with the argument that he is becoming increasingly dangerous. Instead, the story tries to put emphasis on one single incident which is justifiable in retrospect while also ignoring other things Denji did.

This is a big failure of Part 2, where I think Fujimoto was holding back too much because, for some reason, he wasn't willing to have Denji be directly responsible for innocent bystanders dying. God forbid he killed some of the mob while defending his fucking sister.

Which is even funnier given the ending that reset everything, so it's not like you couldn't let Denji loose. It could also play into Pochita's decision, who would be heartbroken seeing how Denji changed because of his obsession with being Chainsaw Man.

Invincible and The Boys have a lot of flaws, but I think that they tackled the question of collateral damage and civilian deaths much better than Part 2.