Chapter 20 Run Away With ME

Denji felt his guts explode out from his stomach; his intestines flew out like a serpent and wrapped themselves around his neck like a noose. Dieter used his flamethrowers to boost forward towards Denji, landing just a few feet behind him. He aimed both his flamethrower arms towards the chainsaw boy, witnessing armor beginning to jut out from Denji's skin. With a maniacal cry of "Auf Wiedersehen!" he unleashed two massive plumes of fire, large enough to fill the streets, erupting from the tubes. Dieter couldn't contain his laughter, watching as the chainsaw man was enveloped by the bright orange inferno. His laughter echoed through the chaos.

He heard two clinks to his left and right. He looked in either direction and saw two chains lodged in the ground at either side of him, the ground they embedded themselves in creaking and groaning as the asphalt was pulled up. Dieter kept the flames burning as the sound of saws revving grew closer. His eyes, if you could even call them that, began to widen when he saw it. The massive hunk of burned metal and bursting molten chainsaws grew closer to him.

He was using a lot of energy to keep the inferno growing; the barrels of the flamethrowers began to melt. He felt every fiber of his being telling him to run. His heart, which had been replaced with the flamethrower devil, beat and bumped until it felt like it was going to explode from his chest and run away down the road.

His flames stopped, and in front of him, the asphalt boiled and burned like tar. His eyes widened when every single thing in front of him was burned and destroyed, but the Chainsaw devil, the hulking creature, stood firm. Its jaw opened, and steam from its breath made contact with the now cooling night air.

Dieter slowly began to back away, but the chains erupted from the ground, their sharp, serrated edges embedding themselves into Dieter's calves. The Chainsaw Man grew closer, the chains pulling Dieter into the air. He thrashed and jerked his arms around, trying to reignite his flamethrowers. He looked into the helmet of the Chainsaw Man and saw only darkness.

The behemoth's jaw opened slowly, the darkness, the gnashing of teeth kept approaching. Dieter was right in front of its mouth, staring into the dark abyss within. The chainsaw man's jaw enveloped Dieter's head, and he let out one last scream. His flamethrowers slowly dissipated until he was human again.

"Please, Denji, don't do this! Please!"

Reze heard a crunch from the road in front of her. The crying, pleading, and screaming of the flamethrower fiend stopped. She watched the Chainsaw Man crush and stuff the man's body into his practically dislocated maw before closing it, letting Dieter's blood run freely down the edges of his mouth like a waterfall.

The Soviets in the gunships didn't fire; they watched with uncanny horror at what had just occurred. The older among them, those who were generals and had seen the nature of war in Korea and Vietnam, felt the slow, terrifying death of the flamethrower fiend forever etched into their memory. An older man grabbed the gunner by the coat. "Shoot, shoot, goddamn you!" The gunner was raised out of his stupor, shook his head, and pulled a cocking mechanism on the machine gun he manned, giving a thumbs up. The other gunner followed suit, tilting his machine gun to aim at the Chainsaw Man. "Fire!"

White flashes of light illuminated the street. "I want everything we have to fire on him!" an old commander yelled to his subordinates. The Chainsaw Man let out a guttural roar, a sound that Kobeni could only compare to Gojira's cry. She clutched her head in indignity. Kishibe held Angel's body close to him, staring transfixed at the helicopters.

The Chainsaw Man jumped to one of the buildings, stabbing his saws into them like they were ice climbing hooks. He rose to the top of the building before the helicopters could adjust. Chains shot forward from the Chainsaw's arms, the pilot feeling the hard, stabbing pain of the teeth-like ropes pierce his chest and pull him from the helicopter. The old commander tried to order his men to brace for impact, but their eyes were fixated on the pilot who was pulled to the Chainsaw Devil and ripped apart before his head was consumed.

The helicopter began to fall in a tailwind from the sky towards the Angel statue, set to collide with it. Chainsaw Man sent what Kishibe guessed were thousands of hooks to the helicopter, grabbing it and throwing it back towards the other copter, causing the two to explode in a burst of bright flaming light. He stood, staring at the statue for a moment, its mouth open in a mix of human and beast, the cry causing Kobeni's ears to ring from the sheer sound.

Chainsaw Man turned around towards the lake. Reze raised her hands, making up her mind. "He's going too far. I need to stop him." Chainsaw Man charged forward. The bomb girl made a finger gun and shot a spark off towards him; he jumped over it, twisting at an inhuman angle to dodge. He landed and leaped towards her, tackling her to the ground. While Chainsaw Man roared at her, Reze could almost hear Denji in their cries. The two slid out onto the ice. She tossed him off of her, shooting another spark, this one exploding in a massive blast that shook the ice, cracking the entire thing. Powder was launched into the air, blocking her view. She tried to jump up and maneuver with her missiles, but Chainsaw grabbed her with his gauntlets, tearing into her arms. Her wrists were crushed by his larger hands. She willed her head to unattach itself and headbutted the Chainsaw Man, launching him backward from the blast, blowing one of his arms off

"Denji, stop this! We can stop now. They're gone, there's no one left! We can run away now," Reze pleaded desperately. The Chainsaw Man breathed in long, guttural huffs. "LYING!" he yelled, catching a bomb she threw at him and hurling it back at her. She was unharmed by her own explosions, but her visibility was lessened by the blast. A long chainsaw arm cut through the smoke, slicing everything below her thigh off as she barely managed to get away. She floated in the air for a moment, blood pouring from the Chainsaw Man's armor. "I have to stop this."

She aimed her missiles downward, launching herself at high speed towards Chainsaw Man. He roared and leapt into the air straight towards her, his arm now with four chainsaws on the single limb slashing towards her.

She didn't explode. Her entire lower body felt numb, and she fell back towards the ice, cracking it upon impact, with guts and viscera strewn around her. She knew she was going to lose consciousness soon. Reaching her hand towards her neck, she spotted the Chainsaw Man standing over her. He raised his arm over her chest, the blades beginning to whir, sparks flying through the air like stars, and right when the arm was about to make contact...

she pulled her pin.

The entire lake was enveloped in fire. The Chainsaw Man brought his arm to cover himself, but even he could not block all of it. He was thrown back into the sandbank where Angel was shot, his innards strewn open across the hill. He huffed and groaned as he tried to rise with now non-existent legs.

In an instant, Reze stood over him. She was silent, raising her finger towards him as if to make a finger gun. At the end of her index finger, what could only be described as a small supernova hovered in the air.

Kishibe placed Angel on the floor. Kobeni tried to grab at his coat, "Don't go out there, you're going to die!"

"Old dogs are supposed to die. It's unavoidable," Kishibe replied. He got out from cover, downing the entirety of his flask and grabbing another, drinking the entirety of both. "I've lived the last 30 years battling these things; it's only fair that one gets to take me out."

He brandished a knife, grabbing it tightly. He closed his eyes and thought of his career. The face of an eye-patched grey-haired woman flooded his mind. "I wish I would have died fighting you, Quanxi," he muttered to himself. Kishibe ran forward, clearing 50 feet in under 3 seconds. He threw a knife towards the bomb fiend, sticking it in her thigh. She recoiled in pain and looked towards the new fighter. "Remember me, bitch?"

His face changed in an instant to the blonde-haired man she spotted in the hotel. "I always did want to put a Soviet dog down." She launched herself towards him, leaving the Chainsaw Man on the ground in smoldering pieces. Kishibe dodged a spark which she threw his way. In turn, he threw a single dagger. He snapped his fingers when it made contact with her palm, severing it all the way up her wrist to her shoulder. Kishibe attempted to get in close, but with her free hand, she turned her other arm into a missile and slammed it into the ground.

Kishibe was able to react, and a massive clawed hand appeared from the ground, covering Kishibe before it disappeared into the dust. "You fiends are pathetic, nothing without your toys," the old man muttered. He punched forward, making contact with Reze's throat, knocking the wind out of her. His eyes narrowed, his right hand brought straight to the left side of her chest. The old man felt the crunch of bones giving out.

"You Soviets are pathetic," Kishibe sneered, looking down at Reze, about to bring his fist down on her skull. However, he stopped abruptly, turning his head around upon hearing a noise. He saw the Chainsaw Man lapping up the bloody snow left by Angel's wound. Kishibe heard the crunching and cracking of limbs regrowing and reattaching themselves. He jumped backward, away from the bomb devil, landing on a rooftop. He watched the armor and organs fall away from the boy. Denji stood there, normally dressed with his soiled shirt and normal clothes.

"Why? Why can't I be allowed to be happy?" Kishibe watched Denji trudge on towards Reze, slowly breaking into a run. Reze rose to her feet, aiming her finger blast towards Denji. She blasted his left arm off with a boom, leaving only a bloody stump. Denji kept running forward, questioning, "Am I not supposed to be happy?"

He yelled to anyone who could answer. Reze hesitated for a moment, looking away and blasting the other arm off. Her gaze turned away, and Denji kept on moving, becoming just a pair of legs. He was almost at Reze. Kishibe raised another knife, ready to throw it in case the girl tried to finish him off.

Denji landed on the ground in front of the girl, one of his legs missing, and he kept crawling. "Did you ever care for me at all?" he asked, sobbing. His chainsaw head melted away until it was just him, looking up at her with wet, teary eyes. His voice cracked and tightened, "Did Michael mean anything to you?"

Reze lowered her hand, and it fell limply at her side. "Denj..."

"Bang."

The left arm of the bomb girl was blown off.

"Bang."

The left arm exploded off violently, much gorier than the first.

"Bang."

In one fell swoop, both her legs vaporized. Reze tried to cry out in pain; immediately her mouth was covered by a hand that appeared out of nowhere. Denji looked up to see a red-haired woman walking across the frozen lake, a black coat flowing in the wind. Though he felt fear for Makima, even hatred, seeing her arrive with the top knot and the eyepatch lady made tears flow from his eyes.

Denji heard a helicopter land nearby. He watched Kobeni load Angel inside before taking off with Kishibe.

Reze landed next to Denji, the two immobilized next to one another. Her eyes, full of sorrow and dread, looked into his. He couldn't hate her, he knew he couldn't. He closed his eyes and felt someone pick him up off the ground. When he opened his eyes, swirling yellow ones looked into his.

"Denji," Makima said, "you were very good," she added, offering him a small smile. She retrieved a small blood bag from her coat and opened it, trying to place it near Denji's mouth.

"Why? Why won't you all just let me die?" he cried into her coat, scowling at her. "I hate you. I hate you all."

Makima placed the blood bag's opening into Denji's mouth, and he tried to scream, but she covered his mouth, forcing him to drink. She looked directly into his eyes and whispered into his ears as he sobbed.

"i'm not going to let you die.. because i love you Denji-kun." Denji tried to get away even as they loaded him into the helicopter flying towards the sunrise.