Episode 17

Anya's latest befriending scheme, casually dropping a new family photo featuring Bond, fails when Damian walks past it and Becky confiscates the picture after falling hard for the dreamy Loid inside it. In art class, substitute teacher Henderson assigns animal-themed crafts with materials shared per table, seating Anya beside a furious Damian. Hoping to impress the father he never sees, Damian sets out to build the griffin of his family crest, and Anya, reading that longing in his mind, volunteers her paper and labor. Her jet engines and mismatched feathers reduce him to shouting, her tears draw Henderson's scolding, and her own paper model of Bond becomes a small female griffin companion piece. Against every expectation, the battered result wins first prize, the visiting board of trustees interpreting it as the nation's powerful recovery from the war.

The victory rings hollow. Phoning the family butler Jeeves, Damian learns his father will be away over the break while only Demetrius returns home, and the reassurance that Donovan worried over the punching incident convinces no one, least of all Damian. Concluding that only Imperial Scholar status will earn his father's attention, he pulls Ewen and Emile into evening study sessions with the dorm tutor, while a bewildered Henderson stands in the hallway wondering how that wreck took first place.

The middle segment profiles Sylvia Sherwood, Handler of WISE's Eastern-Focused Division, called the Fullmetal Lady for flawless work under constant State Security Service surveillance. Her unvarying Wednesday pool routine lulls her tails into stepping out for food, buying time for a wig and wardrobe swap so she can brief Twilight on the financial records of Donovan Desmond's partners, a forgotten price tag dangling from her new coat all the while. A later meeting arranged through window reflections and cipher yields only Loid's earnest report on Anya's vaulting and jump rope progress. The final sketch rewinds to the Briar siblings' childhood: little Yuri rapturously eats and vomits Yor's omelet rice, pasta, and cake, and her embarrassed slaps send him flying across the room, hardening the body that lets present-day Yuri shrug off a truck collision after four straight all-nighters.

Becky claims Anya's family photo out of infatuation with Loid.

Damian and Anya's chaotic griffin collaboration wins first prize as a symbol of postwar rebirth.

A call with Jeeves confirms Donovan's distance, hardening Damian's resolve to become an Imperial Scholar.

Sylvia Sherwood demonstrates how she sheds her SSS pursuers and briefs Twilight on Desmond's partners.

A childhood flashback shows Yor's cooking and affection forging Yuri's absurd durability.

The three segments adapt Chapter 25, Short Mission 5, and a bonus from Volume 5's Confidential Files, airing October 29, 2022 in Japan under director Shuu Honma with storyboards by Shinsaku Sasaki.

The family photo updates the Episode 3 portrait with Bond and noticeably more relaxed poses, which is why the older photo resurfaces in Episode 20 after Becky keeps this one. Sylvia gains a seat for her introduction, a Harry Bertoia Diamond Chair later drawn on Volume 12's cover, her pool shares its exterior with Berlin's Schwimmhalle Finckensteinallee, and her exit wig is blonde where the manga used black. The Latin American dub lets slip that she is at least forty before the censor bleep. The key visual parodies Napoleon Crossing the Alps, with Anya astride a paper griffin in Napoleon's pose.