Narrator POV.
Isagi was trembling like a soaked chihuahua while sitting on the couch with his legs tucked in, completely wrapped in a sheet that left only his face exposed.
—Aaaaahhhh! It's freaking freezing! —he complained as he stood up without removing the sheet, looking like a depressed ghost.
He walked barefoot across the wooden floor straight toward the window. The weather that day was cold as hell… and the rain only made it worse. The drops slammed mercilessly against the glass.
—Japan's weather is so damn weird… —he muttered, dark circles under his eyes from exhaustion—. Yesterday it was hot, and today it feels like I'm dying of hypothermia.
Dragging his feet, he returned to the couch and flopped down, curling up like a human croquette, ready to take a little nap.
[Doorbell]
[Today marks the beginning of the Chainsaw Man storyline. The player may participate and alter events. As the player participates, the system will grant rewards.]
[Mission: Tonight, the hybrid of the Chainsaw Devil will be born. Go to the location where it will occur and witness the beginning of everything.
(Optional: Kill the Zombie Devil)]
[Reward: +5 points to all stats]
[Do you accept the mission?] [Yes/No]
Isagi opened one eye… then the other… very slowly, with an expression that screamed "I hate existing." He stared at the holographic system window floating in front of his face and frowned lazily.
—Can't you see it's raining, you piece-of-trash system? —he growled, pointing at the real window, where water was pouring down as if someone had opened a giant faucet in the sky.
—Besides… five lousy stat points? Hard pass, system. Don't sell me smoke.
He curled up again, fully prepared to ignore everything like a professional champion of laziness.
Isagi turned over on the couch, blatantly giving the system his back. No way in hell was he risking his skin for five measly points in all stats. He wasn't an idiot.
[Ding]
[Additional reward: T-Virus — perfected version]
Isagi cracked one eye open, a mix of suspicion and curiosity crossing his face.
—Depends… is it the T-Virus from the Resident Evil movies? —he asked, raising an eyebrow while the sheet still covered half his body.
[Yes]
In an instant, Isagi went from "curled-up larva" to "soldier ready for war." He shot upright with an explosive burst of speed he didn't even know he had, standing firm with a serious expression lit by a single word echoing in his mind: power.
—The system is goated. —he declared solemnly, clenching his fist with renewed conviction, as if he'd just received divine revelation.
Why the hell would Isagi want a virus capable of causing a full-blown apocalypse? Simple:
Umbrella might be a bastard corporation, but they sure knew how to make useful stuff.
The T-Virus—at least in the movies—granted absurdly broken abilities: enhanced strength, increased speed, superhuman reflexes, weapon mastery, insane durability… and most tempting of all: telekinesis.
Alice, the protagonist of that kind-of-trash saga, had gotten an insane power package, but telekinesis was the crown jewel. And not the weak kind either. The kind that lets you fling an entire army if you wake up on the wrong side of the bed.
Isagi swallowed, imagining the possibilities… then suddenly froze, his face going blank as logic caught up to him.
—Though… —he muttered flatly—. Participating in the Chainsaw Man story just for rewards… tch. —He waved his hand dismissively, like shooing a fly—. Whatever. As long as I keep getting stronger…
He took a deep breath, mentally preparing for what was coming.
—Now… how the hell do I find the exact place where Denji is about to get narco-executed?
.
.
.
.
He sighed. He didn't even have GPS for this.
Night had fully fallen. The sky, dark as ink, shimmered with a handful of scattered stars along the horizon. The air was cold and heavy with moisture, and the incessant chirping of crickets vibrated through the nearby grass, contrasting sharply with the loud metallic screech that echoed when Isagi pushed open the massive door of the building.
Factory? Warehouse? No idea.
Isagi honestly hadn't bothered to check. He'd only seen some blurry coordinates on the system interface and sprinted over fueled solely by the motivation to obtain the T-Virus.
—Tch, system, system… you can't even give me a damn map… —he muttered under his breath as he moved through the darkness of the abandoned place. According to the system, Denji was around here somewhere. Or at least what remained of him before the tragedy.
His footsteps echoed inside the vast, empty space. Each step made the silence feel deeper, heavier—almost oppressive. Suddenly, Isagi wrinkled his nose and brought a hand to his face in disgust; a thick, putrid, damp stench slammed straight into him.
—Moments like this are when I wish I didn't have a nose.
His voice came out muffled as he pinched it shut. Then, as he raised his gaze, he saw the full scene… and the hair on the back of his neck stood on end.
In the middle of a wide section of the factory, surrounded by hundreds of staggering corpses, floated a gigantic torso with no limbs.
Its many organs hung exposed like grotesque ornaments: pulsing lungs, torn muscle mass, taut veins… and at the top, an enormous brain from which fleshy tentacles emerged, directly connected to the surrounding zombies like living marionette strings.
And to top it all off, a human face—distorted, dead, yet disturbingly expressive—jutted out from the right side of the torso, occupying the space where a head once would have been.
Isagi narrowed his eyes, resting one hand on his hip.
—No way… looks like someone played human jigsaw puzzle. —he let out a short, mocking laugh.
The Zombie Devil, despite its grotesque appearance, lifted its torso slightly. Its "nose"—or something close to it—twitched. It had sensed something. A smell.
Human… but different. Exquisite. Intoxicating. An aroma that made it completely forget the disgust it normally felt toward humanity.
—Ohhh… this scent… —the demon's voice boomed, deep and wet—. What kind of human has entered my domain? Such a delicious prey… I must savor you carefully…
And for a moment, its entire horde of undead stopped moving, as if the demon wanted to focus solely on that intoxicating smell.
The delicious aroma radiating from the human was driving the demon insane. It was an irresistible fragrance: warm, vibrant, almost hypnotic. Each breath made its hunger spike, pushing it to want to leap at Isagi, tear into his flesh with its teeth, and feel his blood slide down its throat like a forbidden delicacy.
But before it could move even a single inch, Isagi's voice cut through it like a sharpened taunt.
—In your dreams, mutt. —Isagi grinned shamelessly as he pulled his katana from his inventory, the steel reflecting the dim light of the place. His eyes turned cold, razor-sharp, locking directly onto the floating aberration. —You know, I think having this Marechi blood isn't so bad after all.
And it was true. Isagi could tell perfectly.
The Zombie Devil could barely hold itself together. The slight trembling of its exposed organs, the uncontrolled blinking of the face fused to its body, the restless sway of the tentacles controlling the horde… everything pointed to the same conclusion:
His blood was completely shattering its concentration.
Marechi blood was no joke.
Sanemi, the original wielder of that blood in his world, had made even Kokushibo—the second-strongest demon in all of Kimetsu no Yaiba—lose his composure just by smelling it. And Kokushibo was not someone who lost control easily.
If that blood could affect a monster of that caliber… the poor Zombie Devil didn't stand a chance.
—I'll end this quickly. —Isagi bent his knees, adjusted his grip on the katana, and took a deep breath, feeling cursed energy flow through his muscles. He didn't want to waste any more time than necessary on this second-rate demon.
He only had one task left tonight:
to witness the exact moment Denji would transform into Chainsaw Man for the very first time. After that, he could go back home, dry off, crawl under the sheet, and sleep like nothing ever happened.
And this demon… was just paperwork before the main event.
---
End of the chapter.