The Japanese airwaves are hijacked by a prerecorded message from Nine: as his plans for the press conference were disrupted, the countdown for the atomic bomb's detonation has begun. Knowing she is dying, Five admits her love for Nine and begs him to live for them both, then commits suicide by detonating the spilled gasoline from her car. After killing Clarence for attempting to stop and kill her, Five confronts Nine and confesses that she always wanted to beat him but never could. Twelve interferes, but Five disables his motorbike before stopping the truck carrying Nine. Enraged and desperate, Five leaves to pursue Nine herself. Five's men pursue the police convoy carrying Nine to the press conference, only to find that the truck is a decoy. When Twelve hears from Lisa that Nine has surrendered, he attempts to forget about Sphinx in his shame for betraying Nine, but Lisa convinces him to help Nine like he helped her. Five, who has been hospitalized due to her deteriorating health as a consequence of the Athena Project experiments, learns of Nine's surrender and desperately sets off to try and reach him. Shibazaki visits Shunzo Mamiya, who confesses that he created the Athena Project as part of a plan to revitalize Japanese national morale following the nation's defeat at the end of World War II. He refuses to speak to anyone but Shibazaki, but later relents and issues a demand for a press conference at a specific location at 8:00 p.m., or the atomic bomb prototype would detonate. Nine goes to the police, dons his Sphinx mask, and turns himself in.

Things come to a head as Nine and Twelve go their separate ways and Shibazaki talks to Mamiya, the man behind the Athena Plan.

Zankyou no terror episode 11