Chapter 47

The knock turns out to be a fake waiter. Olka says she ordered nothing, and the click of a gun behind the door sends Yor diving to pull her clear as bullets punch through it. While the shooter reloads, throwing darts from the newly arrived Matthew nail his hands; when he swings his pistol toward Matthew and Furseal, Yor hurls her weapon straight through the door, pinning his head to the wall and killing him instantly.

Dragging the corpse inside, Matthew confirms the itinerary has leaked and enemies are scattered across the ship. He sends Yor's group, disguised with domino masks, toward an empty second-class suite while he sanitizes the scene, warning that any public disturbance could force the ship back to port, so she should avoid fighting where possible.

Elsewhere, the informant confirms "Shaty Grey" as the target after the assassin dubbed Knockman goes silent. A leader among the killers proposes a truce: with Garden operatives guarding the mark, they will pool intelligence and split the bounty evenly. When one suggests simply murdering every woman aboard with a baby, the leader executes him on the spot, insisting they are professionals, not psychopaths.

En route, Yor senses a pursuer and steers the group into a masquerade ball where their masks blend in. Feeling bloodlust in the crowd, she flicks a suit button into one rising assassin's neck, dropping him back into his chair unconscious, then intercepts a second by pretending he has asked her to dance, waltzing him away from Olka before crushing his hand and parking his limp body in a seat. The group slips onward toward the shopping promenade.

There, Anya begs for a skeleton keychain and Loid refuses, cataloging listening devices, undercover SSS agents, and suspicious clusters all around them. As he agonizes over whether buying the trinket is the safer play, Anya's telepathy picks up the hitman Sickle-and-Chain Barnaby, who spots Yor's group and resolves to eliminate the bodyguard first. Anya panics: not over the fight itself, but over Yor's identity surfacing, a divorce, and the family dissolving. Just as Loid settles on buying the keychain as a memento, his daughter shouts at him to stay back, and Yor and Barnaby drift toward a collision.

The first direct attempt on Olka's life fails; Yor kills the shooter through the cabin door and the group relocates in masquerade disguise. The remaining assassins agree to cooperate under an acting leader, sharing the informant's intelligence and splitting the bounty.

Yor neutralizes two more killers at the ball without raising an alarm. Anya learns through telepathy that Barnaby intends to strike Yor first and moves to intervene, terrified the fight will expose her mother and shatter the family.

This chapter introduces the Assassin Leader, King of Chakram, Esmerelda, Andre, and Sickle-and-Chain Barnaby, while the assassin known as Knockman is confirmed dead. It is adapted in Episode 31 of the anime.

Matthew's ground rule established here, that a public incident could turn the ship around, shapes how Yor fights through the rest of the arc.