Chapter 137

Loid wakes in Berlint General Hospital after collapsing at the end of the SSS gathering. Fiona and another doctor examine him, noting that a medical symposium that day has left much of the staff unavailable, and order him to rest. Loid had planned to attend the event himself, hoping the visiting neurologists might yield leads tying Sigmund Authen's former medical group to Donovan Desmond, so Fiona volunteers to dig in his place. Yor and Anya then arrive, and as the family chats, Fiona watches Yor fuss over Loid, privately faulting her for his condition and telling herself that she alone can truly support him.

The moment rekindles Fiona's shelved "Neo Strix" scheme to supplant Yor, and she opens her campaign by courting Anya. The girl's telepathy exposes the ploy instantly, though a gift of sweets briefly buys her goodwill. When Yor cautions Anya against overindulging, Fiona misreads interference and panics at the thought of Yor revealing her feelings for Loid. Determined to raise her standing within WISE and revive support for Neo Strix, she departs to work the symposium; Anya, having overheard the plan in her mind, chases after her under cover of a thank-you, ignoring Loid's reminder about Language Studies at Eden Academy while a startled Yor gives pursuit.

Fiona pulls the attendee roster and narrows her focus to doctors and researchers active around the war years, then shakes off the tailing Anya with candy and slips away toward the administration building. Combing through hospital records, she is approached by Director Gerald Gorey, who mentions that Surjay, the hospital's onetime director, has just arrived. Fiona knows the name from Sigmund's old circle, yet the roster lacks it; Gorey guesses a late registration or a simple visit. She traces the vehicle Surjay came in and heads for the underground parking garage. Anya, lost along the way, bursts into tears until Loid's coworkers find her asking for the administration building and the "one-eyed lady."

In the garage, warmth from the car's hood and undercarriage tells Fiona it arrived only recently, meaning Surjay remains somewhere inside the hospital. Before she can resume the search, she notices a ring of bodyguards observing her; she dismisses them as escorts for some official attending the symposium until the license plate registers as Desmond family property. Frozen in shock, she turns to find Operation Strix's target, Donovan Desmond, standing before her.

Fiona takes over Loid's symposium investigation into doctors linked to Sigmund Authen's former medical group, while privately plotting to revive her Neo Strix proposal.

Word of former director Surjay's unlisted arrival sends Fiona from the hospital records to the underground parking garage.

The car's Desmond family plates precede Fiona's first face-to-face encounter with Donovan Desmond.

Mission 137 runs 17 pages and was released on July 6, 2026, opening the arc that follows the SSS gathering. It marks the first time Fiona sees Donovan in person. Endo apologized after release for flipping the trim orientation of page 12 during production, and the chapter illustration reuses Chapter 119's Tanabata art with a new caption joking about how fast the year passed.