Why did Makima kill Power? Power's fate in Chainsaw Man, explained

As more and more fans transition from the Chainsaw Man anime series to Tatsuki Fujimoto’s original manga, they find themselves speed-reading up to weekly releases. While not inherently negative, this often leads to major developments or plot points being misinterpreted or missed altogether.

Disclaimer: This article contains major spoilers from the Chainsaw Man manga.

One such plot point which many new Chainsaw Man manga fans have been asking about centers around Makima and Power. At one point, much later in the manga series, Power is killed by Makima’s hand, and in an incredibly brutal fashion, no less.

With the shock of this death and the events that immediately follow, many fans don't seem to have picked up on exactly why Makima chose to kill Power. As such, this article will discuss why Makima decides to kill Power and the latter's ultimate fate in Chainsaw Man.

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Power’s death at Makima’s hand marks the beginning of the end of her presence in Chainsaw Man

Following the events of the Gun Devil arc, Denji and Power find themselves being forced to move into a new apartment, with Aki’s residence having been destroyed in his and the Chainsaw Man's fight. Meanwhile, Denji is wrestling with the realization that he killed Aki, even if his former senior-turned-friend was a mindless fiend by that point.

One night, Denji finds himself at Makima’s apartment, discussing how he feels and finally being asked what his request to her is. Rather than requesting to get physically intimate with Makima, as he had planned earlier in the story, he asks to become her dog instead. Denji's reasoning for doing so is that he doesn’t want to make decisions for himself anymore since he always feels bad afterward.

Makima accepts. After trivializing the matter by having Denji “do tricks,” she tells him that the ring at the door is Power, and after he opens the door, she will kill her. Despite being shocked by her words, Denji eventually acquiesces as Makima’s latest obedient dog, opening the door to see Power standing with a cake since that day is Denji’s 17th birthday.

However, Chainsaw Man manga then sees Makima use her Force Manipulation powers to shoot Power, obliterating every part of her body above her waist and below her neck. Upon going back inside her apartment, Denji asks Makima if he’s dreaming, prompting her to begin laughing uncontrollably.

She then explains that Denji’s “promise” with Pochita was actually a contract and that her goal was to break the same. Makima implies that the best way to do this was to make Denji “so hurt that [he’d] no longer be capable of living a normal life… never be able to bounce back for as long as [he] live[d].”

She shares that she began by making Denji a lot happier, giving him a job, money, delicious food, and a family in the form of Aki and Power. Essentially, she orchestrated the prior events of Chainsaw Man for this purpose. Makima even made this level of happiness Denji's new normal before ripping it all away from him and destroying everything he came to love about his new life.

While Power dies here, she makes one last appearance before Part 1 of the manga series comes to its end. Shortly after her death, Makima manipulates the now contract-less Denji into transforming into the true form of Chainsaw Man, i.e., the Chainsaw Devil. After a long fight, she eventually kills the Chainsaw Devil’s true form, and presumably Denji as well.

However, Pochita awakens Power via the blood she made Denji drink earlier in the series. He asks Power to save the blond protagonist for him, to which she agrees, causing her to jump out of the Chainsaw Devil’s true form into the Blood Devil’s true form. She then takes Denji to a dumpster, where their consciences talk as he recovers. However, Power’s conscience and body are gone when Denji awakens, cementing her death.

Chainsaw Man sees Makima kill Power in order to take away Denji’s new level of happiness, thus breaking the contract Denji had with Pochita. While she does reappear briefly to save Denji’s life in his time of need, it is implied that she truly died at Makima’s hands and merely used what little strength was in her blood that Denji drank to come back as a Devil briefly.