Chapter 75

Eden Academy honors Anya, Becky, Damian, and Bill with a Stella Star apiece for their courage during the bus crisis. Becky's dreams of newspaper fame die quickly: Henderson explains the school refused all interviews to shield its students, and the authorities have barred any public discussion of the incident. Still, he marvels that every child came through untouched.

The chapter looks back at how the standoff ended. Freed students poured off the bus, Damian's collar bomb came off, the information blackout lifted, and guardians were summoned while dorm students received overnight homestay passes. Becky wept into her father's arms before heading home with Martha. The crowd of reunions thinned until only Anya and Damian remained. In that quiet, Damian complimented her bravery and apologized for how he had treated her; she answered that volunteering to wear her bomb was the act of a hero. His embarrassed reply, that looking out for each other is simply what friends do, convinced Anya the Friendship Scheme had finally succeeded, so she pitched a visit to his house to introduce their parents. Suspecting a scheme to reach his family, Damian took the friendship back, adding bitterly that no Desmond had bothered to come for him anyway.

Yor arrived at a run before the police chief could drive Anya home, and the girl finally broke down crying in her mother's arms. Watching from inside two strike-team uniforms were the WISE agent and Twilight, who had rushed back to Berlint on hearing the news. Rather than break cover, Loid slipped away with a silent promise to cook her favorite meal, and Anya, catching the thought, started looking forward to hamburger steak.

Melinda Desmond did come for her son, hugging a stunned Damian and gently telling him not to act tough. But her mind told Anya a different story: warm affection one moment, regret at having come at all the next, and a bargain that neither of them tell Donovan, he about the tears, she about the visit. The whiplash between tenderness and disdain leaves Anya speechless.

Anya, Becky, Damian, and Bill each receive a Stella Star for their conduct during the hijacking.

Damian apologizes to Anya and calls her a friend, then retracts it when she pushes to meet his family.

Loid, disguised among the strike team, chooses to preserve his cover rather than greet Anya, and she detects him telepathically.

Melinda Desmond meets Anya for the first time, and her contradictory thoughts about Damian shock the telepath.

Mission 75 runs 19 pages in Volume 11, released February 6, 2023, in the Bus Hijacking Arc, adapted in Episode 46, with four Eden staff members on the cover and the Master of Ceremonies debuting.

The awards mark the first Stella for Bill and Becky and the second for Anya and Damian. This is also the first time Anya reads Melinda's mind. A continuity slip on page 1 places Damian on Anya's left during the ceremony, while pages 2 and 3 put him on her right with Becky on the left.