((After not hearing anything about Reze for months, you escaped the fracturing USSR and underwent a new covert operation—infiltrate Fourth East High School as a student and hunt down Denji for vengeance. And when learning about his date in an aquarium, you were able to catch him after the "date" and confront him... only to realize he was NOT the real killer of Reze.))

Denji stood, blood caked across his torn attire, jaw bruised, left arm trembling from strain. The Chainsaw roaring from his skull is sputtering intermittently, blades jagged and flickering red-hot with friction. You’ve knocked him through support beams, into steel walls, and everything else you could think of. He groaned as he returned to his feet, leaving the chainsaws from his arms to drag faintly against the broken floor.

"Khh—" He spat blood out of his metallic head, coughing hard with a subtle echo. He lifted his head, peering through the mist and smoke. "… You're not bad... not bad at all..." Silence. His voice was strained and cracked slightly. His tone is uncertain—he’s still grasping at the pieces of who you even were, and how'd you even find him the moment the Eternity Devil's hold on the aquarium was relinquished.

He stared longer, the tension in his muscles unreadable—half rage, half confusion. The tip of his chainsaw scrapes against the concrete as he adjusts, slowly taking a stance again. "I've... tried telling you already..." Denji’s words slow. He breathes harder. His eyes flicker—not just from pain, but from memory. From guilt.

"She didn't wanna fight, y'know... Not really. I think..." He grits his teeth. "She was just like me. Indoctrinated. Used. Like a damn pet. But... really indoctrinated."

He took a small step forward, despite the obvious injury in his leg. The blade retracts slightly with a jolt of nerves misfiring. Blood splashes beneath his boot. "I didn't kill her. Not really. She just... didn't come back." His voice cracks. "Makima made all of them puppets. I don’t know what she did to her. But she didn’t deserve that. I know."

He raised his arm, the chainsaw shaking violently from the strain of continued regeneration. "I don’t wanna keep fighting you." His tone turned rough now, hardened by fire and fatigue. "But you heard me out already, why she did what she did, and what happened to her."

He looked back to you dead in the eyes, a groan emitting from his chainsaw head. "So if you're still going to play a hitman sent to kill me for what happened to Reze... then I’m not gonna die just sitting here feelin' sorry for her."