Kicking things up so many notches.
We start at about the speed Chainsaw Man is used to, with a lengthy morning from Himeno’s point of view, leading up to where the last episode left off. Denji is conflicted about the offer, and ultimately misses out thanks in part to a lolipop Makima left him and in part, seemingly, to Himeno passing out. When they’re both awake, they agree to do a little matchmaking: Himeno will help Denji pursue Makima while Denji helps Himeno with Aki.
This, by the way, is never going to happen. A rash of gun-based terrorism begins shortly: Makima is assassinated on a train, most of the other Devil Hunters get turned on and while we don’t see them spatter the implication is clearly of mass death. For Denji, he’s at a ramen shop whith Power, Aki, and Himeno when this goes down, and before they know what’s happening a gun-toting terrorist (the son of the yakuza boss who once owned Denji, so personal grudge there) declares the Gun Devil wants Denji’s heart and attacks putting a bullet in Denji’s head (not that that’s going to hold him for all that long) and shooting Himeno as well. Aki calls the Fox Spirit’s Head but the guy breaks through, revealed as what appers to be something like Denji: neither human nor devil, and possessed of several bladed weapons in the style of Denji’s chainsaws.
Blade Man (no name given) loses to Aki at first, suffering instant death from a Curse Devil Aki is evidently in contract with. A small girl with a menacing aura arrives, however, picks him up alive, and asks him to stop screwing around. He does the thing where he appears behind Aki and then Aki’s wound appears, which isn’t fatal at once since Public Safety gear. Himeno decides to save Aki no matter what, and offers her entire existence to the Ghost Devil for the power to take their foe down. She disappears, glad that someone will be alive to cry for her… but the enemy even turns the table on the Ghost Devil, with the girl calling the snake devil to bite it’s head off the way Aki called the Fox Devil.
Thus, Makima is dead, as is Himeno. Denji’s going to need a new crush. Scared girl and the other rookie are presumed dead as well, though we cut away from them with the right timing that they might be cavalry instead. Denji looks quite dead, but he’s Chainsaw Man; somebody pulls that cord and he gets up, those are more or less the rules we’ve established thus far. Oh, and since this is a broad terrorist campaign, we have some idea of the scope and influence of the Gun Devil, leaving both immediate and longer term “What now?” sorts of scenarios.
And we’re just going to have to watch on to find out – this is not one I’m going to try to heavily predict..