Heavenly - A Chainsaw Man Story: ON HOLD

Life has a twisted sense of humor, and Kishibe is about to become the punchline.

For years, he's lived by a simple code: kill devils, train rookies who'll probably die anyway, and seduce women with practiced ease. Sure, Quanxi never fell for his charms, but who's counting? With a bottle in one hand and a cigarette in the other, Kishibe has perfected the art of drowning out the screams, the blood, and the endless parade of corpses that define a Devil Hunter's existence.

In his rare moments of silence, though, a question haunts him: What if I'd chosen differently?

Then fate answers.

A phone call shatters an ordinary afternoon, not a telemarketer, not a wrong number, but a lawyer with impossible news. A woman from his past has died, leaving him something in her will. Kishibe expects nothing more than forgotten trinkets, maybe a dusty painting from a relative he can't recall.

When he finds out what is, or more specifically who it is he's shocked to his core.

A four-year-old boy clutches a cloud-patterned blanket to his chest, eyes wide and uncertain. The child has his mother's features, yes, but in the curve of his jaw, the set of his eyes, Kishibe sees the unmistakable shadow of himself staring back.

Kenji. That's his name.

The man who thought he'd die alone, another nameless hunter swallowed by the darkness, now holds the small hand of a son he never knew existed. This child, fragile, innocent, impossibly his, is about to unravel everything Kishibe thought he understood about life, death, and the razor's edge between them.

But Kenji won't just change one cynical Devil Hunter's world.

He'll change the worlds of many.

The world watches. Waits. Wonders whether this boy will become its salvation, or its damnation.

Some doors, once opened, can never be closed again.