Chapter 72

Cornered by the Berlint City Police, Billy fires a pistol round into the ceiling to crush the children's hopes of rescue, then has them black out the windows with sheets while the female hijacker warns that SSS forces are closing in from the other direction. Escape is impossible on shredded tires, so Billy steps outside holding Damian and delivers his terms: imprisoned Red Circus comrades freed and safe passage to Nortica, with five students released per freed prisoner, or the bus goes up in flames.

Behind the police line, jurisdiction turns ugly. The newly arrived SSS captain wants to storm the vehicle immediately and openly weighs a few dead children against the precedent of capital terrorism, which the police commander refuses to accept without ministry orders. The captain also notes something Billy does not know: several of the prisoners on his list are already dead. Billy, for his part, admits to Vadim that stalling is the whole strategy, betting that anxious parents will squeeze the government harder than any deadline could.

WISE quietly feeds the authorities a sighting of the second missing bus. At SSS headquarters, Yuri, literally tied to a pillar by his captain to keep him off the case, overhears the lead on the Demforest District and begs his way loose, arguing his informant network there can find the vehicle. Reasoning that nobody ditches a bus and moves forty children by car, he begins combing the area.

Hours drag on at the standoff. Students are escorted out one at a time for bathroom breaks, and snipers hold fire so the whole cell can be taken together. Byron Blackbell and Martha reach the scene along with Henderson, who volunteers to carry food and water aboard, then offers himself in exchange for the injured dorm tutor. Seeing bombs on two of his students' necks hardens his contempt for Billy, yet the children's composure astonishes him, especially Anya's declaration that she could devour a whole horse. When Henderson appeals to Billy as a fellow parent, the man reveals the wound underneath the operation: his daughter belonged to the Red Circus back when it was a peaceful student movement, and the state's violent crackdown killed her. He wants Ostania to reap what it planted.

In Demforest, Yuri finds tire marks that lead him straight to a warehouse concealing the missing bus.

Billy demands his imprisoned comrades' release and safe passage to Nortica, using Damian as a human shield during the announcement.

The SSS captain and the Berlint police commander deadlock over an immediate assault; several prisoners Billy wants freed are revealed to be dead.

WISE leaks the second bus's route, and Yuri traces it to a warehouse in the Demforest District.

Henderson swaps himself for the injured dorm tutor Thomas Austin and discovers the collar bombs on Anya and Damian.

Billy reveals his daughter died in the state's crackdown on the Red Circus student movement.

Mission 72 spans 25 pages in Volume 11, released December 12, 2022, during the Bus Hijacking Arc. Its anime adaptation is split, with pages 1 through 11 covered by Episode 44 and the remainder by Episode 45. The cover gathers Billy Squire, the Red Circus woman, Vadim, and two of the hostage students.

The chapter debuts both the police chief and the SSS captain. An art error on page 9 leaves Damian's collar bomb missing from the top-left panel.