Chapter 74

Night falls with no sign of Anya, and Yor's calls only deepen her unease: the school claims the field trip ran long, yet Sharon's son came home hours earlier because his outing was canceled.

On the bus, with the SSS closing in and Vadim waiting to trigger the explosives, Anya confronts Billy before realizing she never planned what to say. Blurting out the truth about the coming raid could set off the bomb, so she improvises a demand for extra rations instead. Billy threatens to detonate her collar, and Anya, knowing the device is a prop, declares she is not afraid, unknowingly echoing the speech Biddy once gave her father. The resemblance shakes him, and Anya keeps pulling phrases from his memories as she reads his mind. Rattled, Billy strips off her bomb and orders her off the bus; sensing he cannot stomach hurting anyone while she watches, she refuses to leave.

His picture of the students keeps cracking. He remembers Damian and Emile shielding their classmates, misreads Anya's hunger as proof that Ostania's children are starving in a collapsed economy, and marvels at the girl's apparent selflessness. Asked why she is doing all this, Anya borrows Loid's creed, a world where no child has to cry. Vadim levels his gun at her and demands Billy remember his daughter, but the memory that surfaces is Biddy bandaged after feeding stray cats, proudly citing the generosity her father raised her on. Billy understands at last that he never forgot her; he manufactured anger so his reason for living would not dissolve. He gathers the weapons, steps off the bus, surrenders, and claims sole responsibility, asking mercy for comrades he says he coerced.

Vadim refuses to fold. Blocked from driving off by armored vehicles, he drags Anya out as a shield, only for Martha to drop on him from above, taser him unconscious, and catch the girl. Police sweep in, the remaining hijackers are arrested, and the students are freed. Led away, Billy glances back at Anya waving happily as a sobbing Becky runs to her. A breaking news broadcast closes the chapter.

Anya confronts Billy, deflects his collar-bomb threat, and unknowingly mirrors Biddy's words, unraveling his resolve.

A flashback shows Biddy feeding neighborhood cats and crediting her father's ideals of generosity for who she became.

Billy surrenders, declares himself the operation's only planner, and asks leniency for his comrades.

Vadim takes Anya hostage in a final escape attempt; Martha subdues him with a taser and rescues her.

All hostages are freed, the Red Circus members are arrested, and the incident hits the news.

Mission 74 covers 23 pages in Volume 11, released January 23, 2023, in the Bus Hijacking Arc and adapted in Episode 45. Yor and Sharon appear on the cover.

Martha's surname, Marriott, is revealed here for the first time. Sharon's son is confirmed as an Eden first-grader in a different class, and since he got home early he was never among the hostages. Biddy's full name is Bridget: the Japanese text attaches that reading to the word for daughter when Vadim invokes her, a nuance the English translation drops. The line where Billy explains his pretended anger was also reworded between the digital release and Volume 11 for clarity.