Original subtitles

I'm a soldier, znatchit ya... I'm a soldier, and that means...

...i otvetchik i sud'ya ...that I am both defendant and judge.

Ya stoyu na dvuh kontsah ognya I stand at both ends of the fire.

Ogibaya virazhi, Leaning into the curves,

obgonyaya smert' i zhizn', overtaking life and death,

ya begu srazit'sya s ten'yu lzhi I'm running to fight the shadow of lies.

Skol'ko b nitej ne plyol obman, No matter how tangled the web of deception is woven,

pokazhet lik sveta istina... truth will always illuminate the outline of the light...

Save your tears for the day...

...when the pain is far behind.

On your feet, come with me.

We are soldiers, stand or die.

Save your fears, take your place.

Save them for the Judgment Day.

Fast and free, follow me.

Time to make the sacrifice.

We rise or fall...

This afternoon, Prime Minister Kayabuki made an inspection tour of Dejima Camp,

Kyushu's refugee residential district.

The Prime Minster's inspection of Dejima is her first...

...since the announcement of the repeal of the Refugee Special Action Policy,

but the current state of affairs is one in which arise in refugee protests will be unavoidable...

...against this rash course of action which relies on radical legal reforms that are not yet in place,

such as finding work for the refugees who are about to lose their livelihood,

Prime Minister Tours "Dejima Camp" Refugee District in Nagasaki

and whether they will be issued Japanese passports.

And now for the financial news. As was recently announced-

Refugee Liberation Organization

This is a copy of a letter that was found in a bouquet...

...that was received by the Prime Minister during her inspection tour.

We don't have the crime lab report yet,

but they say it's unlikely that they'll get any fingerprints or anything off of it.

A threatening letter hinting that the Prime Minister will be assassinated, hm?

So, what is this mark?

We don't know. We thought that you might know something.

From the looks of it, I'd say that it's a proper noun for an organization or some such.

Right. The truth is that among the various acts of terrorism that the National Police Agency...

...have been keeping their eyes on since that takeover of the Chinese embassy,

we've already found seven cases of an identical logo being used in the claims of responsibility.

We've also recently discovered it on a letter threatening Nanyou Shimbun Press...

...and in that assassination warning to the Prime Minister.

Do the nine cases have anything in common?

We haven't found anything so far.

Admittedly, there was a miscommunication of information...

...between the prefectural police officers in charge of the various cases,

but the criminal motive and ideological background of each was slightly different.

And most importantly, the contents of each letter had the air of an independent crime.

But now that we've noticed that they have that logo in common,

we are rushing to designate this series of events as a Nationwide Serious Crime.

Is there any possibility of this being a thrill crime or a copycat crime?

At this point, we don't think that's possible.

Only a handful of people know about that logo, even inside the police force.

It's never been mentioned in our press releases, either.

If what you say is true, the only other explanation is that all nine must be...

...multiple, simultaneous terrorist attacks by a single group in the guise of independent crimes.

This is the opening stages of an act of terrorism of the"Laughing Man" type...

...that's utilizing some sort of information as a medium.

At any rate, it's not in our best interests for the Prime Minister...

...to be prevented from performing any more of her public duties.

And the Prime Minister's health?

That's just a cover story we fed to the media to distract them.

The Prime Minister doesn't want this death threat to be mentioned in the media at all.

And that is where you and your team come in.

You're saying that you want Section 9 to provide personal protection for the Prime Minister?

You catch on quickly.

Commissioner, could you provide us with the original copy of the death threat, as well?

We'll handle the search for the criminals.

All we need you to do is to see to the Prime Minister's security.

And to keep the media in the dark, refrain from doing anything that would attract attention.

Major. Assemble everyone at the Prime Minister's residence.

So in other words, you're telling us to be the Prime Minister's babysitters.

So, what's your take on this case, Chief?

I suppose we can't write this off as some faddish copycat crime.

The threat is a warning to the Prime Minister for repealing the Refugee Special Action Policy,

which the previous administration enacted as a temporary legislation.

And with there being no progress on the refugee issue...

...after all the protests and their chants of, "End the discrimination! Set the refugees free!"

They're calling it an act of treason against the people,

and that they're going to execute her for it, right?

What they're saying is completely inconsistent!

The police may say that all these crimes were committed by the same organization,

but at this point, I don't see how they could be.

If it weren't for the fact that they have this logo in common, I'd agree.

Although I can't completely trust what the Commissioner General said,

considering that a series of criminal notices bearing this logo were issued,

we have no choice but to operate on that assumption.

A stand alone complex...

I have to admit, this does resemble the Laughing Man incident.

At the moment, our objective isn't to determine the truth behind the crimes.

Focus all your efforts on guarding the Prime Minister.

But at the same time, I also want you to investigate the death threat and the logo...

...to identify the criminal or criminal group that is behind this.

Batou, Saito, and Paz, you're with me on the Prime Minister's security.

Togusa, you work the logo and death threat angles with Ishikawa and Borma.

Roger.

As for Prime Minister Kayabuki, who took a sick day yesterday,

she was back in high spirits again today as she held an extraordinary Cabinet session.

However, with a budget committee meeting looming just a few days away...

...and no sign of developments in the still-unsettled refugee policy in sight,

Japan's first female Prime Minister has lost the luster she had when she formed her Cabinet,

and her expression has seemed to have clouded over, as well.

So, there has been no reaction to my death threat.

I see that living up to your ideals has been a heavy burden for you,

paying lip service for a brief time to the liberation of the refugees...

...while at the same time doing nothing about it.

I will spur you on by meting out a punishment you so richly deserve.

However...

I must see to it that my rendezvous with her will be a special one, for it will never come again.

Once an action is undertaken,

withdrawing without completing one's objective cannot be tolerated.

But an ideal that acted upon with no objective in mind is doomed to failure,

and you will be foiled.

I am a man with a motive.

The Individual Eleven.

This makes eight cases...

You could have someone else do that for you, sir.

You caught me with my hand in the cookie jar.

This is something that I do because I enjoy it.

I'm reinforcing my memory by acquiring printed information...

...so that I'll be able to rattle off effective ideas on the spur of the moment.

Yes?

Intel sent to us from the Secretariat, sir.

Well, well. Some strange elements have sprung up.

Threatening to assassinate the Prime Minister...

...means that we've got another audacious one on our hands.

Don't they know anything about him?

The police haven't managed to identify the culprit yet.

Why am I not surprised?

What are they doing about her security?

Public Security Section 9 has been put on it, apparently.

Section 9?

With them on the case, I suppose we don't have anything to worry about.

We can't have her actually getting assassinated, now can we?

All right, I'll assign someone to tail the Prime Minister, too.

Find out who issued this death threat.

If it looks like he's going to fall into Section 9's hands, we'll step in and reel him in here.

Understood, sir.

Major? You don't seem very gung-ho about this.

Really? Must be because I'm on my period.

Quit joking around.

What do you think of our missions lately?

As I recall, we were supposed to be an anti-crime offensive organization.

Even if there has been a death threat against the Prime Minister,

having our hands tied like this ain't my idea of a good time.

Are you fed up?

What I'm getting at is, are you feeling that way?

I'm not sure. Maybe.

Doesn't look like there's ever been a group that's part of...

...the Refugee Liberation Organization that's used a logo identical to this one.

We don't even know how you're supposed to read this thing.

Come on, people, use something that outsiders could at least read your name off of.

"Vengeance," "infinity," and "samurai"...

It does sorta hint at an ideological background, but still...

Maybe they're just using an existing motif.

As in?

Lemme think...

Literature handed down by great historical figures. The title of a play or movie.

Or a trademark that represents a person or organization that figured in historical events...

I see where you're going.

Hey, I found it.

Says here that it's supposed to be read "The Individual Eleven."

It's the title of a collection of essays on revolutions written half a century ago.

Put it up over here.

"Reflections on Nations and Revolutions:"

"Collected Preliminary Essays on Revolution," by Patrick Sylvestre.

Oh, I've read this before.

"Collected Essays on Revolution"?

At the time the collection came out, the essays didn't make much of a splash, though.

"The Rise of the Third Estate," "Breaking Free from Domination,"

"A Farewell to Kings," "Aspiring Towards Socialism,"

"Eve of the Rapture," "Parting Ways With the Gods,"

"Castro and Guevara," "Twelve Years of Nihilism,"

and "A Return to Principles."

It's a collection of preliminary essays with those nine, plus a tenth one on the May Revolution...

...which he saw firsthand and which kindled his own dreams of being a revolutionary leader.

But there are theories that there's an elusive eleventh essay that the author himself...

...locked away because he didn't consider that incident that happened in Japan as a revolution.

It's an essay with a story behind it. "The Individual Eleven."

But there's no records of it ever being published.

Yeah, and even this data is just information that was uploaded to the net by hardcore fans.

But the thing that we can't overlook is that those hardcore fans are all fanatical individualists.

A bible for individualists, huh?

Hey, I just remembered!

This logo...

During that case with the runaway GSDA helicopters,

we searched the dead pilot's apartment, right?

Yeah.

I saw a note with this logo written on it at his place.

And those people who took over the Chinese embassy...

Didn't they also call themselves The Individual Eleven?

Major!

I see. That's some interesting information.

But that won't get us any closer to identifying our perp.

Besides, the police have probably uncovered that much, too.

Dive deeper and turn up something that'll identify our man.

I don't care how small the clue is.

Understood.

Please check the contents.

Think over the meaning of the message from my newly-awoken comrades.

What is it that makes the bible of my struggle, "The Individual Eleven," so magnificent?

It is the way the author discussed the true nature of the May 15th Incident...

...by comparing it to Japanese Noh drama.

Even as they scorned all other forms of artistic expression, Noh theater was the sole art form...

...that was recognized by the warriors of Japan's feudal period.

This is because, as opposed to many forms of art, which were nothing more than pretenses...

...whose true nature was to repeat a predetermined set of actions again and again,

in Noh theater, each performance is meant to be unique,

so the mental energy put into them is thought to be exceedingly close to that put into real events.

If a one were to give one's life as a revolutionary leader,

that life would be sublimated into something transcendent.

In death, a hero meets his end, but he gains eternity.

That is what Sylvestre's "Individual Eleven" tells us.

I'll proceed with this, then.

Very well.

Chief Aramaki.

About tomorrow's schedule...

You needn't worry.

We will make every effort to be unobtrusive while we accompany you, Prime Minister.

Thank you.

I'm sorry to involve you in a personal matter.

Come in.

Chief.

What is it?

This was among the letters and parcels that came addressed to the Prime Minister.

What is it?

Perhaps it might be best if you didn't see this.

Undue concern for women is what leads to contempt for them.

It's no use...I can't find anything on the content of the essay itself.

What was the incident that was the topic of the essay?

It was on May 15th, 1932.

That's when some young naval officers, army cadets, and farmer sympathizers...

...took radical action while caught up in a whirlwind of nation-building fervor.

The core figures of the plot assassinated the Prime Minister at the time,

the result of which was Japan plunging headlong into an era of dominance by militarists.

Anyway, you can't consider the officers' actions anything other than heinous acts of terrorism,

but it's what happened afterwards that symbolically shows the incident's significance.

After the assassination of the Prime Minister, the eleven young army officers who took part in it...

...were put before a military tribunal,

but the trial began to take a strange turn.

Based on their conviction in their beliefs, the defendants, who were barely in their twenties,

began to make their statements with tears in their eyes, declining any defense...

...and saying that they were prepared to die.

Apparently, when they did this, the judges, the soldiers of the prosecution,

the press, and the people in the gallery...

...all found themselves sympathizing with them, and started crying, too.

What's more, the leniency movement, which had been unable to see much of the public trial,

turned into a mass movement after the prosecution delivered its closing arguments.

By the time the verdict was handed down on September 19th,

350,000 petitions had been sent in,

and public opinion, which had been displaying ultranationalist tendencies,

reached a fever pitch when eleven fingers, the same as the number of defendants,

were mysteriously delivered to the courthouse.

After the assassination of the Prime Minister by those eleven young officers,

a type of nationalism that viewed them as heroes began to spread.

It's an essay written by an author who was fascinated by the details of the event.

I bet he strongly identified with the people involved in the case as he wrote it.

They aren't real.

They were probably cut off of discarded prosthetic bodies.

Togusa. Eleven severed fingers were just delivered to the Prime Minister's residence.

Track down where they came from.

Did she just say eleven fingers?!

Major, we've been working that essay angle,

and just turned up an episode involving eleven fingers that has to do with the May 15th Incident.

There has to be something to this.

Thank goodness you arrived in time.

Many of those who come to us to meditate have a great affection for that picture.

I'm glad to be of help.

Hey, Zen is not so much a religion,

but rather a means of freeing human karma from worldly thoughts, right?

For us, maybe it's something like deleting data from our cache when it's full.

Maybe that's like that, plus synchronizing our data.

If that's true, maybe we can link up to someone who's meditating and download enlightenment!

- Yeah! - Yeah

The perimeter's clear.

Still, our PM's being awfully self-centered.

Who in their right mind would go off for some meditation when somebody's trying to kill them?

And with us not being allowed into the main temple, this ain't gonna be on my head.

I'd say that in her own way, she's fully aware of the situation she's in.

She wanted to meditate precisely because it's a time like this.

That's why she also agreed to the unofficial use of Interceptors, right?

Look, I admire her courage and all, but if she's only gonna let you link with the data...

Righteousness is on my side.

You will be eliminated!

It's no use. We have you surrounded.

Tachikoma!

I'm all right.

That was one seriously reinforced cyborg.

Start with a search of people affiliated with the military.

I'm sorry about all this trouble.

If you and your team hadn't been here, I would probably be...

I'm not so sure.

It's possible that he simply had no intention of killing you.

Finding out a galaxy...

...of planets and stars within me...

Listening to each of them...

...singing the same silent melody...

I've never seen such beauty...

In possibility...

No speck of doubt or fear...

Wake up!

I hear a voice,

hear a voice calling out to me...

I see inside,

see the light now ever holding me...

All the truth, all I need...

...to make of this reality, it's inside...

The beauty within the shell...

I hear a voice,

hear a voice calling out to me...

I see inside,

see the light now ever holding me...

All the truth, all I need...

...to make of this reality, it's inside...

Right here within the shell...