Chapter 78

Mission 78 (: 78) is the seventy-eighth chapter of the SPY x FAMILY manga, written and illustrated by Tatsuya Endo. It was released on April 3, 2023.

Summary
As morning rises in the messy home of Sylvia Sherwood, she quickly goes back to sleep after shutting off her alarm, only to have her dog wake her back up. Heading to the Westalis Embassy in Ostania, Secretary Sherwood talks with her co-workers, who comment on her untidy appearance. Sylvia then takes the elevator down to a WISE office, where she greets her subordinates. As Handler, Sylvia receives several status reports and commands her agents. At her desk, she is confronted by the WISE Agent, who chastises her for slovenliness around the office. An annoyed Sylvia returns to the embassy and declines a lunch invitation to walk her dog.

Returning home, Sylvia calls for her dog, Aaron, for their walk (which, in truth, is her meeting with Twilight). Aaron excitedly runs over to her but slips on a piece of paper and hits his head on a cabinet. Sylvia apologizes for the mess and begins cleaning up but stops after reminiscing her past with her late daughter and unknown partner. Meeting at the dog park, a disguised Sylvia sees Anya playing with Bond, and Loid explains to her that Anya wanted to play after her half-day at school. As Loid greets Aaron, he obtains a note from the dog's collar and receives an extra mission for the following week. Sylvia then asks for progress with Melinda Desmond, to which Loid answers none.

As the spies talk in code, Anya recognizes Sylvia and approaches her. Loid recognizes Aaron as one of the bomb dogs used in Minister Brantz's assassination attempt, which Sylvia confirms, adding that she took him into her care. Bond and Aaron get close, and, with her telepathy, Anya can hear the two talk. Bond does not remember Aaron, which upsets him, and having finished their meeting, Sylvia decides to leave. However, Anya knows Bond wants to play with Aaron, so the two run after Sylvia, asking for his name. Anya declares that the two dogs should have a showdown to see who is better, and to Loid's surprise, Sylvia accepts, wanting to see who trained their dog better. She tells Loid she will remove his extra mission if he wins, and Loid quickly accepts.

The first event is the obstacle course, and whoever finishes it to the end faster wins. Aaron and Sylvia finish with a flawless 39 seconds, but Bond stumbles across the course and finishes at over 2 minutes. However, Loid refuses to back down. The next event is "tracking and retrieving," in which the dogs must find their opposing owner's handkerchiefs, which have been hidden around the park. The dogs begin by familiarizing themselves with Loid and Sylvia's scents, who have wiped away their scent as much as possible. The dogs start tracking, but Bond quickly gives up and starts getting hungry. He catches the smell of pasta, which he begins tracking. He locates the scent on Sylvia's jacket, which has some dried pasta stuck to it, and coincidentally was where she hid her handkerchief. Thus, Bond wins the event.

The final event is frisbee tracking and the dog who can catch a frisbee thrown the farthest wins. Bond suddenly foresees Loid and Sylvia throwing their frisbees, but a sudden gust of wind brings it back to them, and they restart. Anya sees the vision, and she and Bond believe that the match is theirs. The events of the vision play out as Loid and Sylvia throw their frisbees, but Bond stays in place, to Loid's confusion. As the sudden gust of wind comes, the frisbee returns to Bond, who runs over to catch it. However, the frisbee hits him in the face, and he falls over, and Sylvia decides to call it a tie.

Afterward, Anya tells Aaron that she had fun playing with him, and together with Bond, the three play some more. On the side, Sylvia informs Loid that there are rumors that some of the Project Apple research teams may still be operating, and WISE intends to find out if they are connected to Donovan Desmond. Sylvia prepares to leave with Aaron, and Anya accidentally strikes a nerve when she says that someone at her age had fun. Despite that, Sylvia confirms that she did have fun and tells Anya they should play again sometime. On their way home, Sylvia promises Aaron that she will tidy up their home when she returns from work.

Trivia

 * This chapter reveals that Sylvia is quite slovenly outside of work, and that she adopted the German Shepherd that attacked Twilight in Chapter 22 and named him Aaron. Both of these facts were mentioned in SPY x FAMILY Official Fanbook: EYES ONLY, but had not appeared in the manga proper before.
 * This chapter reveals Sylvia's family, including the daughter she mentioned to Twilight in Chapter 22.