How are they formed?
Summary:
- Humans and devils can make contracts in Chainsaw Man.
- Humans have to offer something to a devil to use their powers.
- Contracts cannot be broken unless there is a termination clause.
Chainsaw Man offers a variety of devils, each of them having different features and abilities. The first season of the anime also introduced the concept of a Devil Contract, but the series didn’t really provide an in-depth explanation of how they work. So let’s try to figure it out.
Formed between a human and a devil
Humans and devils can form contracts. It’s also important to point out that contracts can only be formed between them, fiends are incapable of this, and two devils cannot form a contract with each other.
Devil contracts work the same way as contracts in real life: one party is getting something out of it and giving something in return. Contracts are binding in nature, and neither party can break them. Unless they want to die, that is.
However, we know that the Fox Devil terminated its contract with Aki and it didn’t result in any of their deaths, which means there’s a way to do that on peaceful terms. It may mean that a termination clause can be added to the contract at the moment of forming it.
Based on sacrifice
Humans have to sacrifice something of value to them in order to use the power of a devil. For example, going back to Aki and the Fox Devil that we saw in the first season of the anime, the man had to feed the devil parts of his body to summon it and use it during a battle.
Body parts are not the only thing that can be sacrificed: humans can also give devils their senses, lifespan or even other people. The only thing is that this person has to be related to them. And they can’t be tricked into sacrificing something, since the terms of a contract have to be verbally accepted or offered.
Terms and conditions can also vary and depend on the needs of the parties. If both parties agree and decide to go through with the contract, it will take effect.
The distance doesn’t matter when a contract is formed. For example, if you decide to sacrifice your legal child to the devil, but you no longer live with them, the devil will still be able to take them. Even if they live in another country thousands of miles away.
Not all contracts have to bring misery for the human party, though. The contract that Denji and Pochita made was based on mutual care. Pochita wanted Denji to show him his dreams, live a normal life and die a normal death, so it’s actually rather sweet. But Pochita has always been an exception, huh?