Chapter 71

Inside SSS headquarters, the Lieutenant briefs his superior: intelligence from the Blackbell Company identifies the Red Circus as the hijackers and pins down where the buses are headed. The response ordered from above is blunt, crush the suspects and bury the story. Yuri Briar comes asking about the bus carrying Anya and is told to stay behind, since his niece could blow his cover by recognizing him, and to keep city hall in the dark. He feigns indifference toward the girl, but one mental image of Yor weeping over her is enough to send him sprinting after the deploying unit.

Becky's father reacts to the crisis by ordering every tank and jet in Blackbell storage rolled out for a rescue. Martha talks him down, pointing out that a military parade would only provoke the kidnappers, and departs for the scene herself.

On the bus, terror follows Billy's bomb announcement, and classmates shrink away from Anya while Becky fights tears. Then Anya skims Billy's mind and learns the device is a prop, convincing enough to control children and nothing more. Instantly relaxed, she flops into her seat complaining of hunger, then rapping her knuckles against the collar with a smug grin, horrifying everyone within earshot. Damian interprets the display as bravado meant to keep the others from panicking.

That misreading drives him to act. He approaches Billy and offers himself as the bomb carrier, arguing that Donovan Desmond's son makes a far better hostage, silently invoking his family's legacy and his own political ambitions. Billy salutes the boy's courage in his own fashion: Damian gets a second bomb rather than a transfer. Anya cheerfully notes that they now match. As fear creeps back into Damian, Anya takes his hand, promises everything will be fine, and whispers that the terrorists themselves said the bombs are duds. He yanks his hand free and denies being scared at all.

A loud bang interrupts the moment. The bus swerves and stops, caught on a police spike strip, and officers surround the vehicle as the children celebrate.

The SSS identifies the Red Circus as the hijackers through Blackbell Company intelligence and prioritizes suppression and coverup.

Yuri abandons his pretense of not caring about Anya and joins the response effort.

Martha stops Byron Blackbell from launching a private military rescue and heads to the scene alone.

Anya reads Billy's mind and learns the collar bombs are fakes.

Damian offers to take Anya's bomb and receives one of his own; the bus is stopped by a spike strip and surrounded by police.

Mission 71 is a 19-page chapter in Volume 11, released November 14, 2022, within the Bus Hijacking Arc and adapted in Episode 44. Chadwick Curtis and his SSS superior share the cover, and Byron Blackbell makes his debut.

Early English digital copies misspelled the Blackbell Company as "Blackwell" on the opening page, a mistake fixed for Volume 11. The final panel of the last page omits Damian's neck bomb entirely, an error the volume never corrected, though the volume release does add bushes to the road median across the last two pages.