Mission 99 (
Summary[]
As the air raid siren rings, the Eden Academy graduates rush out of the building to hurry to the shelter, and Henry lets go of Martha's hand so they can leave as well. At the shelter, they realize it was a false alarm and decide to end the graduation party. Afterward, Henry asks Martha what she was going to tell him earlier. Instead of confessing her feelings as planned, Martha wavers and asks for a send-off from him.
Martha waits for Henry at the station before her departure
Martha sobs at her failure in her room, but she gets the idea to write a letter to Henry. In her letter, she writes down the time and place of her departure, hoping to confess to him there. However, the letter is heavily redacted by upper management due to the fear of spies, and Henry never arrives, which saddens Martha.
Henry receives Martha's next letter, this time, less redacted and with Martha promising to continue writing to him. Henry responds with a letter of his own, and the two begin writing to each other regularly as they continue their daily lives. However, as the war grew more dire, Henry began receiving fewer letters from Martha. By that time, Henry began yearning to hear from Martha again. While at a dinner party, Henry hears of the women in the military being planned for deployment and becomes pensive.
Martha is going to fight the enemy
The Women's Defense Auxiliary is summoned for the announcement of a new women's combat battalion due to the state of the battlefield and are asked to choose to volunteer by tonight. The panicked women discuss their decision, with one of them hearing a rumor that deserters are being executed and stating that they will be forced into the battalion. Martha decides to fight, wanting to protect Ostania if she will die anyway.
Henry learns about Martha
The Women's Combat Battalion, also known as the Special Women's Military Unit, is formed and announced in the newspapers, with Martha among her fellow soldiers on the front page. Back in Berlint, Henry is dismayed by this news. He is interrupted by a student calling him for their middle school debate competition. The competition, discussing if people could ever free themselves from war, has Donovan Desmond arguing as the opposing position, stating that "human beings are simply liars." The young Desmond argues that people always hide their true intentions and that history will always be doomed to repeat itself even if reforms or innovations are made. Henry, on the other hand, is too impatient to hear out their arguments and is concerned for Martha's situation.
Henry finally hears back from Martha, who has been fighting on the frontlines. She is not faring well and has realized that she has made a mistake, then wishes to see him again. A tearful Henry wishes the same and realizes too late that he wants to protect her. Henry stops receiving letters from Martha and writes one to her, desperately wishing for her to come back. While delivering the letter, Henry is shocked to hear on the radio that the Women's Combat Battalion has died on the battlefield.
Donovan tells Henry that he enjoys his lectures
Sometime later, the military makes a speech to the Eden Academy students in an enlistment campaign. As the speaker uses the Women's Combat Battalion as an example, a worn-out Henry interrupts him, shaming him for using their deaths as propaganda and denouncing the war. Henry is called a traitor and arrested. In prison, Henry is visited by his father, who tells him to fix his attitude lest he lose his teaching job. An embittered Henry accepts and returns to Eden, now bearing his monocle after injuring his eye during his arrest. After a class, Henry is approached by Donovan, who calls him a fool and that one should not expect much from him. Henry responds that if people were to give up on everyone and everything, human history would end, and jokes that he would be out of a job. Donovan tells Henry that he would not want that, as he enjoys his lectures, which touches Henry.
When the war eventually came to an end, Henry waited for Martha to return to Berlint, but she never arrived. Later, Henry's father informs him that he has secured a suitor for him and tells him that he cannot refuse. Accepting his situation and telling himself it is for the best, Henry marries the woman. Meanwhile, somewhere near the East-West border, Martha is alive, recovering at a lone cabin by the sea.
Characters[]
Trivia[]
- The chapter illustration is a reference to a drawing of Anya that Takuya Eguchi (the voice actor for Loid Forger) made during SPY x FAMILY ANIME EXTRA MISSION while drawing alongside the "Anya's Drawing Song" video.[2]
References[]