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...

Hear me, nameless masses!

We are the Individual Eleven,

...individuals who gather together independently and reform the world!

This country is fast approaching the end of its life cycle as a system!

Suicide bombings by refugees!

An untrustworthy government! Friction with countries all over the world!

It is individuals who come together to form a complex...

...that will save this country from the dire straits it now finds itself in!

Awaken, nameless masses!

Awaken, and become part of the system!

Recognize these foolish acts of the refugees as a declaration of war,

Hey! Is the 7 o'clock news getting the audio of this? They are?

and lead them to their freedom!

Good, we'll get you the video!

The deeds we have carried out were merely a taste of what is to come!

Sugi! Look at that!

And today, we have come here to carry out one final act!

Take up our cause!

- Wait! - No more talk!

Their heads! They just chopped off each other's heads!

One by one, they... They're killing each other!

What an unbelievable sight!

These men who have appeared on the roof...

Stop the playback.

That was the footage taken of the Individual Eleven...

...that suddenly appeared on last night's 7 o'clock NHTV news broadcast.

They finally surface, and then they up and kill themselves?

...based on the info I got from Gohda's virtual persona.

The creation of mediators who will trigger a Stand Alone Complex.

"The birth of a hero is completed upon his death..."

I guess their actions followed Patrick Sylvestre's writings...

...on the Cuban revolution to the letter.

And he was thorough enough to fabricate a phantom essay entitled "The Individual Eleven."

That skillfully camouflaged the fact that it's a virus.

I bet that there are lots of people all over the country besides the reporter I went to see...

...who tried to commit suicide under suspicious circumstances.

I guess I had a close call, too.

It's clear that all those who were infected by the virus...

...were programmed to kill themselves in the end.

Refugees are already taking action with these suicide bombings.

It's unclear how many copycats will turn up as a result of this suicide broadcast,

but the majority of the populace, who had been unaware of the refugee problem,

...are now acutely aware of the existence of this powder keg issue.

I suppose we're going to need a vaccine to prevent another outbreak...

...of people who have manifested symptoms.

It's likely that Gohda's plan has only reached the end of phase one.

And while the reaction of the populace and the copycats to this broadcast concerns me,

there is no longer anything that we here at Section 9 can do about it,

not with our numbers.

Which is why we will focus our efforts on the Cabinet Intelligence Service.

And to do that, I guess we'll have to take this man into custody.

Exactly.

But who the hell is he? Why was he the only guy who didn't off himself?

It will be impossible to determine that with any certainty...

...without analyzing the man's cyberbrain.

We in the crime lab refer to people like this, those who behave entirely differently...

...even though infected with the same virus, as "spontaneous mutations."

So, have you been able to glean any new information on our mutant from this footage?

Of course. First of all, take a look at this.

This bothered me when I saw it in the footage from the attack on the Prime Minister, too,

but this man doesn't move his mouth when he speaks.

- Right here. - You will be eliminated!

At the time, I had believed that he had cut the connection to his neural net...

...in order to boost his prosthetic body's performance.

But after seeing the same phenomenon in this latest incident,

I've come to a rather different conclusion.

- Wait! - No more talk!

It seems likely that he is hardly using any of the micromachines...

...that comprise his facial muscles' neural net.

You're saying that his mouth never moves?

No, it moves, all right. It's just that he is barely able to move it.

And that's supposed to help us track this guy down?

Don't be so impatient. I also want you to take a close look at his face.

He has a rather handsome face, wouldn't you say?

What the hell does that have to do with anything?

You people are so impatient...

Just listen. What I'm trying to say is,

why would he have such a human-looking face, but not have the muscles for facial expression?

His face was made by a skilled face sculptor?

I knew you'd catch on, Major.

This face was probably created by a first-class face sculptor.

My impression is that its creator was an artist, someone unaffiliated with a large company.

In which case, there are only two such artists in the entire country.

I had no idea that face sculptors were such a rare breed.

They say that Japanese people are skilled artists,

but true-to-life artwork has never been their strong suit.

There might be some Japanese artists who can make generic ones, but there definitely...

...aren't many who have the artistic talent to create one-off faces.

I guess that makes sense.

Hey!

Section 9! What happened here?

Looks like a murder, sir.

Major, we just got here, and things are getting hinky already.

What's up?

It's possible that our target's been eliminated.

He beat you to the artist?

I don't know, but the prefectural cops have the studio cordoned off as a murder scene.

I'll send over Paz and Saito. Don't let the local cops disturb the crime scene.

I'll try, but it might be too late.

We're Section 9! Would all you guys mind taking a hike for a minute?

Why's Section 9 poking their noses into a cut and dried murder case?

Is the victim the face sculptor?

That's right.

He was a material witness in a case we're working.

Gee, I'm sorry to hear that.

But we'll have this case wrapped up in no time.

We'll send you our files once we catch the perp, so be good boys and go on home.

What's that supposed to mean?

Take a look.

You don't have to work in a crime lab to tell that you can get prints off that handle.

Plus, the victim and our perp knew each other.

They were having a drink together up until the murder.

And to top it all off, that security camera picked up the killer's face, plain as day.

I don't think that I need to connect the dots for you guys.

Let us take a look at that footage, then.

No can do.

Say what? Look, we can strip you of your authority here if we have to.

That strong-arm crap doesn't scare me. This is our case.

You little bastard...

C'mon, Batou...

Hey, can't we all get along?

That's the guy who was...

Who are you?

That's Paz, all right. No two ways about it.

What about the fingerprints on the evidence?

They say they're a match.

Same with the lip prints on the glass.

The cops were itching to arrest him, so it wasn't easy to get them to back off.

The prefectural police have to realize that this footage isn't conclusive proof,

but with those fingerprints and lip prints, it makes things more complicated.

Yeah, but you can fabricate either one of those, right?

Sure, if you also steal the DNA data that's recorded in the person's prosthetic body.

If that guy with the prosthetic body is the killer, would he go to all this trouble?

I find that hard to believe.

It's possible that this is something totally unrelated.

Paz, can you think of any likely suspects?

Not at the moment.

Okay, Ishikawa and Borma, go over the data we retrieved...

...and see if there are any records of our prosthetic man in them.

Batou, Saito, and Togusa, coordinate with the prefectural cops...

...and work the face sculptor murder angle.

Paz, you're staying put until you're cleared.

Report any and all information you can think of that might relate to the case.

There has to be some reason behind this.

Roger that.

So tell me the truth. You really know something, don't you?

No. Nothing.

If it's something you can't talk to the Major about, you can talk to me.

If you remember anything, come to me.

I'll do that.

A matched set of death masks.

I guess it's the manager's new hobby.

What can I get you?

I'll have what he's having.

You want something?

I thought about tailing you, but you look like you would've spotted it right away, so here I am.

I don't really think that you killed that guy.

After all, it's not like there's any shortage of people in this town with prosthetic faces.

But the guy I saw didn't just have the same face as you.

He was a perfect copy of you.

The vibe I got off of that footage was some kind obsession towards you.

The killer's definitely got some kind of connection to you.

So I'm gonna be keeping a close eye on you. I came here to give you a heads-up.

Suit yourself.

This is a first. I've never seen you here with a man before.

Usually, you're either alone or with a different woman each time.

I don't know the guy.

I see.

Got yourself a new hobby?

Oh, you mean those?

I met a wonderful master face sculptor recently.

A face sculptor?

I decided to have him make a new face for me,

but I realized something when we did a test fitting of the face he made.

It was that maybe your Ghost isn't in your braincase, but rather in your skin.

...for soldiers who were wounded in battle.

He said that one day, he noticed that the severity of their psychological wounds...

...always matched the severity of the wounds to their faces.

Oh, it's just you.

What're you doing?

You're that other guy!

Well, I'll be. It's him.

Found him, Major.

His name's Hideo Kuze. The guy's body is full prosthetic.

Judging from the specs in the file,

it's pretty safe to assume that it's a PKF-use prosthetic body.

As for the face, it doesn't have much in the way of neural nets,

just like the crime lab guys hypothesized.

Looks like what little expressiveness and creases the face has...

...is solely the result of the skills of the face sculptor.

Needless to say, it's a one-off.

It's made of a nanocarbon/biosynthetic skin hybrid...

...that's got a regeneration program incorporated into it.

Now I get it...

I don't know if there's a direct connection, but the murdered face sculptor...

...apparently made a point of only making faces for retired servicemen.

I bet this guy caught wind of those rumors and had him make a face for him, too.

Hideo Kuze, huh?

All the records from back then have been wiped,

so I guess we'll have to track him down the old fashioned way.

Ishikawa, get ready to make a trip to the peninsula.

These old bones are too old to be gallivanting around like this...

You're the one with the most connections over there.

So maybe this guy has nothing to do with the face sculptor murder.

Probably not.

But the killer has some kind of connection to Paz?

This might actually be woman-related.

Major, I've got some bad news.

What's up?

A detective with the prefectural police has been killed.

And they say that he had met with Paz before he was killed.

Paz is with you?

Yeah.

Major, somebody's obviously trying to set up Paz.

Based on the shell casing on the ground,

the bullet was a kind of ammo that's only used in a Seburo M5.

That's a little too convenient.

Paz, you still can't think of anybody who has it in for you?

The problem is that there's too many.

Major, show me the face sculptor's client data, starting with the most recent one.

That might ring some bells.

Understood. Borma...

Major, let me work this case solo from here on in.

If it looks like I'm going to cause trouble for the unit,

go ahead and cut me loose if you have to.

This looks like it's a personal matter. Very personal.

All right. Play it your way.

Thanks.

Hey, where are you going?

You're going after the wrong guy. Are you trying to tell me that Paz here is a suspect?

The circumstantial evidence says he is.

Maybe, but he's innocent.

We need to check him out anyway.

That won't be necessary.

If there was any possibility it was him, we would've done it ourselves already.

Batou.

I uploaded the address of where I'm going into your external memory.

If I don't come back, look for me there.

Got it. You sure you wanna do this alone?

Yeah.

What kept you?

Just as I thought, you really had forgotten all about me.

It was only five years ago that I lived here.

When did you jack that lady's prosthetic body?

About three months ago, I suppose.

I happened to catch sight of you at the bar one night.

You didn't notice me at all, did you?

Where's that woman's braincase?

I have no idea. Probably at the Yumenoshima landfill by now.

I guess that's where you got my fingerprints, too.

That's right.

Why are you trying to be me?

I couldn't understand the reason why you left me.

It wasn't as if you had found another woman.

And it wasn't as if you hated me, either.

You told me not to ask you any questions about yourself, so I did as you asked.

I did what you wanted, but you still left me...

Do you remember what you said to me when we first met?

"I never sleep with the same woman twice."

At first, I thought, "What in the world?"

But when we slept together that second time, I knew I was in love.

I'm sure that you felt the same way.

You're a heartless man.

I hated you so much I thought I'd go crazy.

But in spite of that, I kept on wondering why it was that you left me.

And that's why you took my face?

That's right.

Did you learn anything about me?

The depth of your love for me.

You and I were living in two different worlds, weren't we?

You left me to keep me from seeing the world that you live in.

You give me too much credit.

No, that's the kind of man you are.

But none of that matters anymore.

I have your Ghost inside me now.

So I don't need the real you anymore.

If you have any love left for me, die here.

Yeah, that's okay. I don't mind being killed if you're the one who does it.

We're going after 'em!

Roger!

You get her?

The details are just like I reported.

Sounds like something Paz would get mixed up in.

I guess.

Still, you'd figure that he should've realized who the killer was sooner.

I'm not so sure. There might be quite a few women out there who want to see him dead.

Are you serious?

I haven't verified it or anything, but when I went to meet him for the first time to scout him,

he said something like, "I'm the kind of guy who doesn't sleep with the same woman twice."

Oh, good grief...

The real question is, do you think that Paz is the real one?

Probably.

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...