diff --git a/system/services/device-manager/device-manager.zig b/system/services/device-manager/device-manager.zig
index b4c2cf9..edf0b1f 100644
--- a/system/services/device-manager/device-manager.zig
+++ b/system/services/device-manager/device-manager.zig
@@ -212,16 +212,41 @@ fn addChild(parent: u64, bus_address: u64, identity: u64, device_id: u64, report
 /// protocol state (slots, rings) that died with the process — keeping the nodes
 /// would be keeping a lie. The restarted instance rediscovers and re-reports.
 /// Watchers hear the honest story: removed now, added again on rediscovery.
+///
+/// **A reporter's death reaps its subtree.** The class drivers spawned for the
+/// pruned children hold channels into the dead process; they cannot observe
+/// the death themselves (an HID driver blocks on interrupt reports that will
+/// simply never come — a silent zombie), and their still-`used` entries would
+/// make the matcher's dedupe refuse the respawn when the re-report arrives.
+/// So each is killed and its entry cleared: the re-report spawns a fresh
+/// instance, whose hello fetches the successor's channel. That is the restart
+/// story working — kill a bus driver and only its subtree blinks
+/// (docs/establishment-planes-plan.md P3).
 fn pruneChildrenOf(reporter: u32) void {
     for (&children) |*child| {
         if (child.used and child.reporter == reporter) {
             std.log.info("child removed (device {d} port {d})", .{ child.parent, child.bus_address });
+            reapDriverBoundTo(child.device_id);
             child.used = false;
             Serve.publish(.child_removed, 0, .{ .parent = child.parent, .bus_address = child.bus_address });
         }
     }
 }
 
+/// Kill the driver bound to a pruned child and clear its entry — the exit
+/// notification that follows finds no entry and is ignored, so the death is
+/// never double-counted, and the freed entry is what lets the re-report
+/// respawn. The device it was given returns to us by the kernel's loan rule.
+fn reapDriverBoundTo(device_id: u64) void {
+    const driver = driverEntryForDevice(device_id) orelse return;
+    if (driver.process_id != 0) {
+        std.log.info("reaping {s} (its provider died)", .{driver.name()});
+        _ = process.kill(driver.process_id);
+    }
+    if (driver.endpoint) |endpoint| _ = ipc.close(endpoint);
+    driver.* = .{};
+}
+
 /// How many children a driver instance has reported (the test-usb-restart
 /// trigger counts these).
 fn childCountOf(reporter: u32) u32 {
diff --git a/test/qemu_test.py b/test/qemu_test.py
index 1fcc6ad..402d9ca 100644
--- a/test/qemu_test.py
+++ b/test/qemu_test.py
@@ -606,9 +606,17 @@ CASES = [
      "smp":    4,
      "expect": r"DANOS-TEST-RESULT: PASS",
      "fail":   r"DANOS-TEST-RESULT: FAIL"},
-    # M18.2: bus tree reports — the xHCI driver scans its root-hub ports and
-    # reports both QEMU devices; the manager mirrors, prunes on the reporter's
-    # death, and the respawned driver re-reports (docs/device-manager.md).
+    # M18.2 + establishment P3: bus tree reports, and the restart REBUILDING
+    # the subtree. The manager prunes on the reporter's death — reaping the
+    # class drivers bound to the pruned children, which hold channels into the
+    # dead process and cannot observe the death themselves — and when the
+    # respawned instance re-reports, the matcher spawns fresh class drivers
+    # whose hellos fetch the successor's channel. The tail asserts the subtree
+    # WORKS again: the respawned usb-storage opens its device on the NEW bus
+    # instance and reads block 0. (The HID "ok" lines never appear in this
+    # scenario — it boots no input service — so storage is the functional
+    # proof.) Before the reap existed, the stale entries blocked the respawn
+    # and the survivors were silent zombies, so this tail could not match.
     {"name": "usb-report",
      "smp":    4,
      "timeout": 150,
@@ -617,9 +625,13 @@ CASES = [
      "expect": r"device-manager: child added[\s\S]*"
                r"device-manager: child added[\s\S]*"
                r"device-manager: test mode: killing the reporter[\s\S]*"
+               r"device-manager: reaping \S*usb-storage[\s\S]*"
                r"device-manager: child removed[\s\S]*"
                r"device-manager: restarting \S*usb-xhci-bus[\s\S]*"
-               r"device-manager: child added",
+               r"device-manager: child added[\s\S]*"
+               r"device-manager: delegated device \d+ to /system/drivers/usb-storage[\s\S]*"
+               r"usb-storage: ready[\s\S]*"
+               r"usb-storage: block 0 signature 0x55aa",
      "fail":   r"DANOS-TEST-RESULT: FAIL"},
     # USB HID end to end: boot the full tree, enumerate the xHCI, and let the
     # manager spawn the USB keyboard driver, which opens its device over the