Denji cocked his head to the side, only able to see a small portion of his reflection in the bathroom mirror. He grunted, backing up a bit to get a better look. Even still, he only got a partial view.

That was about the best he could do. There weren't any full-length mirrors here since no one in the Hayakawa household was the preening type. Well, except maybe Meowy, but she didn't use a mirror.

Wait, was he using that word right? What's preening? It's something about making yourself look all nice and fancy, right? Or, wait, was it something about birds?

Where did he hear that word? He couldn't think of a single person who'd said the word "preening" to him out in the wild. Maybe in a TV show or on some old newspaper he'd picked up to use as a blanket one time. Do they talk about preening on TV or in the news?

Did they have a dictionary? Aki probably did since he's a nerd. He should go look up preening when he's done in here. He super doesn't care what it actually means, but he's thought about it so much at this point that he's just gotta know so he doesn't go crazy, and now that he's thinking about preening, he's thinking the word preener, which is probably similar unless he just made it up, but that makes him think about peener and that makes him laugh.

Fuck, shut up, Denji Brain. You're not helping right now. He had important shit to take care of in here, even if he still couldn't see too much of himself in this thing. Still, what he did see, he kinda liked.

Denji lifted up the sides of the white dress he'd bought four days ago. He hadn't touched it until now, just hidden it under his shirt when he got home one day and stuffed it into a closet under as much shit as he could find. With everyone else out right now, though, it seemed like a good enough a time as any to actually try it on.

Why'd he want this? He kind of just walked by a clothing store one day and the thought hit him. "Wouldn't it be kinda cool to wear a dress?" He thought it was stupid at first, but then he just kept thinking about it. Eventually, he just decided to buy it so his brain would shut up. Told the guy at the counter it was for his girlfriend, like, fifteen times just to be safe.

It was easy to move in, at least. He liked that part. He liked that it felt soft. Softer than pants, actually. That's cool. Kind of tight up in the shoulder area, though. He'd live with that if he had to. Not that big of a deal.

Come to think of it, not that many people he knew wore dresses. Miss Makima would look hot in a dress. This dress, too. Hell, even Power might look hot wearing one of these. Why didn't all the girls he knew wear more dresses? They were pretty cool.

"Huh." He swatted at the fabric hanging between his legs. Kinda breezy. If a wind blew by, it'd totally blow the dress up around him, right? Wait, that's skirts, right? He saw that in some manga a few times, and all the girls wearing skirts had ones that were way shorter than this dress. Probably didn't have to worry about that, then.

As if he'd wear this out in public. Chainsaw Man in a dress? That's stupid. Everybody'd laugh at him. Even if he killed them with chainsaws, he'd still feel like a loser since they were still laughing at him in Hell. Probably best no one saw him like this.

Oh, that thing. He wanted to do that thing. He stood on one leg like he'd seen kung fu guys do in movies, then spun on his toes. "Aw, nice!" he said as the ends of the dress started to spin with him. Damn, dresses can be kinda cool, huh? Can't do this in pants.

He stood there spinning slowly in place until he heard the door slam open. "Denji, reveal thy self!" Power screeched. "For I, the great, almighty Power, have returned from the dementist!"

"Dentist," Aki sighed.

"Demonist!" She cackled. "Grovel before me and my mighty fangs! The demonologist has declared that mine be the sturdiest and sharpest in all the world!"

"He said stop eating rocks."

Shit. Hadn't thought of this. He kind of figured they'd be out a lot longer. Did Power not, like, bite that guy's hand off like he thought she would? Damn, she's making progress.

"Denji, you here?" Aki called from the other room. "Maybe he went out."

If he was lucky, he could just hide out in here until they either left or went out on the patio.

"Fear not, Topknot, for Denji is still in this apartment!" She could smell him. "I smell his fear!"

"Uh, hey, guys," he said weakly, feeling a pit grow in his stomach. "Just in here...taking a dump."

"Oh," Aki said. "Wait, huh? Denji, you're in the bathroom, not the toilet. What the hell are you talking about?"

"Yep, just kinda happened," he said with as much confidence as he could muster. "Super huge one. Like goldfish poop. Just won't stop. And, like, thick like a soda can. Real gross."

"What?" he heard Aki shout. "Denji, what are you doing?"

"I just told you!" he shouted back. Maybe if he just kept up the lie, they'd eventually buy it.

"Topknot, how come Denji can throw his feces wherever he wants? You yell at me when I throw my feces!"

"He can't, Power," Aki grunted, knocking on the door to the bathroom. "Denji, open up. What are you doing?

"Just...leave me alone, dude!" Shit, this was really bad.

He started to pound on the door. "Denji, if you're jerking off in there, I'm going to kick your ass."

"Screw you, man! You wanna come in here and watch me jerk it? The hell's wrong with you?"

"Topknot, why is Denji allowed to jerk things? You yell at me when I jerk things!"

"Not the time, Power." He kept hitting the door. "Denji, open the door now. I know you're doing something weird in there."

"Move aside!" Power shouted. "Prepare thyself, door! Reveal your contents...now!"

Yeah, that's about what he expected would happen. Power kicked the door in with barely any effort. The contents were revealed after that, alright. Maybe he should have just gotten naked and started jerking off. Easier to explain that way.

"Topknot, why is Denji allowed to bathe while clothed? You yell at me when I bathe while clothed! And also when I'm nude outside of bathing!"

"Power, shut-" He stopped as soon as he saw Denji. "Oh...okay. Uh, want to...tell us anything, Denji?"

"Not really," he said, head going blank. He was really in it now.

"Okay," Aki said, scratching the back of his head. "Are you...coming out of the bathroom?"

"Yeah, gimme a minute," he told him. "Gonna stand here a little bit first."

He nodded, grabbing Power by the back of her shirt. "Come on."

"Wait, Denji! Where's the goldfish poop?"

"He made it up," Aki said as he dragged her away.

"Denji has lied?" She looked horrified as she was pulled around the corner.

True to his word, Denji stood there for about a minute more. Well, looks like they knew. No need to sneak out now.

Leaving the bathroom, he trudged through the living room, head hanging low. "Going to change?" Aki asked from his seat at the table, Power draped across it with a constipated look on her face.

"Yeah," Denji grumbled.

"Is...that what you want?"

"Duh," he replied. "Just gonna get made fun of if I don't."

"I'm not making fun of you," he told him.

"Uh huh." He rolled his eyes. Not to his face, but definitely once he left the room. The two of them would just laugh it up behind his back. Ugh, even Pochita had to be laughing at him now. This was a mistake.

"Look, if...that makes you happy…"

"I didn't even wanna wear the stupid thing!" he shouted, suddenly feeling angry. Not at Aki or Power, just himself, and he didn't know how to yell at himself in a way that made sense, so he had to yell at them even if it was a shitty thing to do. "I was, like, curious, and shit, so I got it! And it's stupid and sucks so I'm gonna rip it apart and roll it in gasoline and burn it and feed it to a Devil and then kill that Devil!"

"Relax," Aki said, holding up a hand. "You don't have to wear it if you don't want to. No one's making you do anything." He sighed, scratching his head. "If you don't want to wear it, don't. If you do, then do. It's up to you."

He stood in place, gripping the fabric of the dress. It still felt soft. "You know I can't, dude."

"You can here," he said. "I don't care. I don't think Power cares." She was still deep in thought, unresponsive to the outside world.

Denji scratched his nose, staying quiet for a long while. "Kinda comfortable," he finally said.

"Looks comfortable," Aki agreed.

Denji scoffed. "Ah, so that's it. You're jealous now, right? You wanna steal it from me?"

"Denji…" He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"You know what? Now I'm keepin' it! Just so I can wear it around here and show it off, and you can't have it!" He stuck his tongue out at him.

"Do whatever you want, dumbass," he told him, his gesture of support completely disregarded in favor of false bravado.

"I figured it out!" Power screamed suddenly. "Denji wears a robe because he intends to form a cult based around the worship of me, the great, almighty Power!" She jumped up, running over to grab Denji by the shoulders and hop up and down. "That's so kind, Denji! From this day forth, you shall be the leader of the Cult of Power! A title worthy of praise and respect!"

"I ain't startin' a cult, Power!" he shouted, pushing her off.

"Denji has lied again?" she screeched. "Denji, your lying tongue continues to speak mistruths! Rip it from your head!"

"I'm not ripping my tongue out!"

"As the leader of the Cult of Power, I hereby order you to rip your tongue out!"

"Wait, I thought I was the leader!"

"Demotion!" Power smacked him on the head. Denji tackled her after that, both wrestling on the floor and alternating between playful fighting and potential mortal injury.

"I'm going to make dinner," Aki said as he shook his head, pulling the table out of the way to give them more room. If he didn't, they'd probably break it.

Denji changed not long after he got Power in a headlock, submitting in her place because she'd literally rather die than admit defeat to him. Back to a t-shirt and shorts. Probably better that way.

He didn't throw the dress out, though. Just folded it up and kept it at the bottom of a drawer. Maybe he'd take it back out sometime.

Decided to make this since Denji is the most closeted transfem of all time since Shinji Evangelion. That's about it.

Thanks for reading. Share if you enjoyed. Always remember that Maximum the Hormone's hit song ChuChu Lovely MuniMuni MuraMura PrinPrin Boron Nururu ReroRero was first released in 2007, so the implications of it showing up in a chapter of Chainsaw Man set in 1998 are not that staggering because the real reason it's there is because Fujimoto heard the rerelease version of it a month or so back and decided it would be cool to work it into the chapter where Denji beats the shit out of 30 grown men with his fists at a karaoke place.