Introduction Arc

The Introduction Arc opens SPY x FAMILY, covering the manga's first two chapters (volume 1) and the anime's first two episodes. Its fan-assigned title reflects its function: assembling the Forger family and establishing Operation Strix, the mission that drives the entire series. It leads directly into the Admissions Interview Arc.

When one of their diplomats dies in an Ostanian car crash, the leaders of Westalis read it as an assassination by the East's far-right National Unity Party and conclude the party is maneuvering toward war. Their countermeasure is Twilight, the ace of the intelligence agency WISE, who is ordered to get close to the party's reclusive leader, Donovan Desmond. Desmond surfaces only at events tied to Eden Academy, the prestigious school his son attends, so the bachelor spy must produce a family and a student. In Berlint he becomes "Loid Forger," psychiatrist, and adopts a small girl named Anya from a run-down orphanage, choosing her because she can seemingly already read and write. What he never learns is that she answers his unspoken thoughts because she is a telepath.

Their early days are chaos. Left barricaded at home while Loid meets his informant Franky, the bored Anya plays with his spy gadgets and accidentally broadcasts their location to Edgar, an old enemy. Loid fights off the ambush, decides his cover is blown, and briefly resolves to hand Anya to the police for her own safety after rescuing her from Edgar's hideout in disguise. Berating himself for endangering a child, he remembers why he became a spy at all: to build a world where children do not have to cry. Anya, having heard every word of it in his head, chooses to wait for him, and Loid, recalling how often she has been returned by adoptive families, keeps her. She scrapes through Eden's written exam on the studying he drilled into her, only for the pair to discover that the next stage is a family interview requiring both parents.

The search for a wife leads to Yor Briar, a 27-year-old city hall clerk mocked by coworkers for being single, who moonlights as the Thorn Princess, a contract killer of fearsome reputation. She needs a presentable partner for a coworker's party and a cover story to calm her worried brother Yuri; Loid needs a spouse on paper. A chance meeting at the tailor's produces a bargain. Loid arrives at the party late, straight from a mission, and accidentally introduces himself as her husband rather than her boyfriend, then defends her so warmly against a jealous coworker that the lie starts to feel comfortable. Fleeing armed leftovers from Loid's mission, the two demolish their pursuers side by side in an abandoned factory, after which Yor, seeing the mutual benefit, proposes marriage. Loid delivers his vows with the pin of a grenade for a ring.

Two chapters assemble the premise the whole series runs on: a spy father, an assassin mother, and a telepathic daughter, each hiding their true self from the others, with Anya alone holding every secret and delighting in all of them. Donovan Desmond is fixed as the distant target, and Franky, Yuri, and the Shopkeeper all make their first appearances in some form.

With the household formed, the story moves straight into Eden Academy's family interview, the subject of the following arc.