[spoilers, chapter 26] Chapter breakdown/transcript for the visually impaired
#Important: please read this before proceeding
As you may or may not know, I used to make weekly transcripts for Chainsaw Man chapters, prior to the series finale, and this is the twenty-sixth of what I refer to as "legacy transcripts". Currently, as of writing this, I have transcribed chapters 1-26, as well as chapters from 153 onwards, and an archive containing links to them can be found here. These legacy transcripts are to transcribe the 152 chapters preceding chapter 153. Even though these chapters have been available for quite some time, I will be writing as if they are brand new in order to preserve the reading experience for first-time readers. Anyway, that's all I wanted to say in regards to this topic.
Have you ever had trouble processing or interpreting the manga's art in some way, shape, or form? Apparently, it's not that uncommon in the community, as I've seen quite a few people express this, and hopefully I can alleviate that to some extent with posts like this going forward. These posts aren't intended as a replacement for the chapters; rather, they're intended as a page-by-page point of reference and a log of details that you can hopefully reference as you read or reread the manga. Without further ado:
p1-6: Pulling out a walkie-talkie, the woman looks down at her left hand, which is now bleeding; taking a closer look, she is strangely missing four finger nails, causing blood to drip from the exposed nailbed. Making a call on the radio, the woman identifies herself as Sawatari and requests backup in the battle against "Chainsaw". Finishing her call, Sawatari turns to look at Aki, likely in an attempt to see if he presents a threat; still in shock over Himeno's death, Aki remains motionless, kneeling in a puddle of his own blood, which Sawatari seems to focus on. Narrowly reacting to the approaching sound of Denji's motor, Sawatari stops focusing on Aki and quickly dodges out of the way; as she does, the transformed man barrels past her, desperately parrying Denji's furious swings as he pursues him. Roaring, Denji delivers a heavy slash, and the man raises his blades to block it; nonetheless, the force of Denji's blow throws the man backward through a nearby wall. Raising his arm and counterattacking, the man slashes downward, cleaving through a different wall and cutting deep into Denji's shoulder. As Denji reels from the pain, he quickly pulls his cord to heal his shoulder; at the same time, two men enter the scene, guns drawn, and stand beside the transformed man. Seeking orders, one of the gunmen asks if they should shoot; grinning, the transformed man orders the gunmen to aim for Denji's arms or heart, seemingly disregarding Sawatari's order to avoid damaging Denji's heart. Rushing forward and shouting "take this", Denji intercepts one of the gunmen and knees him in the jaw, causing the man to fire his gun into the air; quickly pivoting as the first gunman falls, Denji follows up by delivering a roundhouse kick to the other gunman. Seeing this, the transformed man rushes forward and swings his blade at Denji, but Denji uses his momentum to quickly parry the attack in mid-air by spinning into it.
p7-11: Landing from their respective attacks, both Denji and the transformed man skid against the ground, facing each other. Standing up, Denji winces in pain and notices a gash along his chest; as he wonders how and when he got cut, one of the gunmen recovers and fires four shots at Denji, causing even more pain. Sheathing one arm's chainsaw, Denji rushes the gunman and delivers a brutal elbow drop to the man's head, stunning him and causing him to drop the gun. Wrapping his arm around the gunman's neck, Denji stands up and brings the gunman with him. Addressing the transformed man, Denji asks if the gunman is his "buddy"; playing coy, the man questions what Denji plans to do if he is. Sadistically licking the gunman's face, Denji threatens that he'll turn the gunman's face into "mincemeat" if the transformed man moves "even one millimeter". Indignantly cursing Denji for his hostage tactic, the transformed man crouches down and enters his iaido quick-draw stance; unfamiliar with the threat the man poses in this stance, Denji instead views his crouching as an act of submission and taunts the man, demanding that he drops to his knees. In the blink of an eye, the man vanishes, leaving behind a ring of dust. Unaware that the man is standing behind him, Denji questions where he went; the gunman, presumably aware of what just transpired, sweats nervously. As the man's attack takes effect, we see that he cut cleanly through Denji and his hostage, sending their torsos flying; realizing he's been injured, Denji shouts in pain as blood sprays from his abdomen. Looking down at his handiwork, the man watches as Denji and the gunman bleed out on the ground. Standing up and trying to shake off his injuries, the second gunman approaches the transformed man; lifting Denji by his chainsaw head's handle, the man states that he'll carry Denji and orders the gunman to get the car. As the gunman turns to leave, the man orders him to hurry up, even though all of Denji's allies should be "shot dead by now". Grunting, the man's form begins to melt and fall away, just as Denji's does when he returns to his human form.
p12-19: As the last of his transformation falls away like sweat, the man celebrates and triumphantly states that "even devil hunters are humans" and that they "can't win against guns". As if confirming his belief, we then quickly cut to the various members of Division 4 lying on the ground dead, all but one of them executed by gunshots; among them are Arai, Fushi, what remains of Himeno, and, most notably, Makima herself. Returning to the train, Makima's assassins rally together to confirm her death; fearing for their lives, various other passengers panic and cower from the gunmen. Noting that they're nearing the train station, one of the gunmen orders the group to disperse to other train cars and blend in with the civilians. Turning to leave, one of the gunmen finds himself face-to-face with Makima; despite being covered in blood, she seems unharmed and smiles coldly at the man. Panicking, the man raises his gun, but before we can see what happens, our focus shifts to the Kyoto train station. As the crowd hustles and bustles, two public safety agents—one man and one woman—stand by, waiting for Makima's arrival. Running up to them, a third agent notifies the duo that special divisions one, two, three, and four were all ambushed by gunmen in Tokyo, shocking them. Dismayed, the man can hardly believe that Makima is dead; more annoyed than concerned, the woman instead complains that they've been waiting there for nothing. As a train pulls into the station and begins loading and unloading passengers, Makima steps off the train; despite her clothes being covered in blood, her face and hair are now perfectly clean. Calling out to the man and woman, named Kurose and Tendo respectively, Makima bluntly states that they "came under fire on the shinkansen" and that there are bodies on the train that need to be cleaned up; furthermore, she states that the luncheon is canceled. Showing concern for Makima, Kurose and Tendo question whether she's injured, since her clothes are covered in blood, but Makima states that the blood isn't hers; instead, she strangely insists that she wasn't hit by any bullets, which directly contradicts what we witnessed. As we look inside the train, we see a gruesome sight: all four gunmen lie dead with large holes through their chests; their blood collectively pools on the floor of the train and coats many of the surrounding seats, further cementing that their deaths were brutal.
And that's that. I am very sorry for the late-night upload on top of having the chapter release on a weird day; I was crazy busy this week and felt sick by the time I was done. Regardless, as always, the chapter transcript archive can be found here. There is no "break week" for legacy chapters, since they're already all available, but I do plan to post transcripts every Tuesday, now that the series has ended. Until then, I hope this transcript can help anyone who wants or needs it.