Original subtitles

We have a follow-up report from live at the scene

of today's armed occupation of the East Asian Economic Federation's Far East trade embassy.

You're the ideal person for the job, Major Kusanagi.

Thank you, Special Advisor Fujimoto.

Our victory is close at hand, Lt. Col. Kurutsu.

I agree, Ambassador Wong.

Our interview is just a formality.

These days Als and administrators do the deliberations.

Won't this conversation affect the outcome?

Humans need not be daunted by machines.

Your unit aligns perfectly with a critical governmental problem.

When the war ended, the world entered an era of change.

This country is no exception.

The war accelerated cyberbrain and prosthetic development.

The cybercrimes resulting from that process are serious,

but the real problem is more fundamental.

The cyberbrain and prosthetics businesses

spawned the largest profit-seeking system in history.

The massive amount of data now shared in real time

has gone beyond what any country can manage.

Even assuming that conglomerates will eliminate all nations and races one day,

the state's role isn't over yet.

Yes. The anarchical system calling itself the "global economy"

will destroy any private financial security, which is the foundation of the state.

Fall back!

Cyberbrains and prosthetics are the bridge

connecting the systems of munitions industry and household economics.

Government regulations are meaningless at this point.

While no executive organ exists which can truly contain the system,

that doesn't mean it transcends laws established by the state.

Systems which break the law must be taken care of directly.

Informatization forces us to choose between becoming the system

and subordinating ourselves to it.

What we need now...

...is an executive organ to offensively pass judgment on the system.

...Is a network to integrate with the system and sort people appropriately.

We recognize you and your organization

as an enterprise we should welcome, Lt. Col. Kurutsu.

Anti-terror activities under direct governmental authority.

State-of-the-art cyber investigation. The power to bring charges for corporate crimes.

Nothing is taboo for your unit.

You done yet, Major?

In a few minutes. What's the sitrep?

One hour into the raid, it's a circus over here.

Dammit! It's Ape-Face from Public Security Section 9.

Isn't Chief Aramaki the one that requested us?

He wants us working for him.

That doesn't suit our separatist leader.

The ape's assumed authority.

What now, Major? Want me to break into Section 9's Net?

I'll negotiate. Just wait for me.

The Prime Minister would like to see this incident resolved promptly.

And you've just been given the authority to do it.

Thank you, sir.

Do you like this country?

Enough to exert my full abilities, at least.

The country should work to earn your love, then.

I'll begin immediately.

Oh, and...

Sir?

Your smile is too perfect.

You don't need to devote so much of your prosthetic memory to it.

I've never given a programmed smile, sir.

I have no intention of questioning your soul-your Ghost.

I'm heading to the scene.

Good luck.

lshikawa, information.

I see a report from federal council session 320 approving the budget.

Nice work, Major.

Get in my lobby. We're taking this case.

Kusanagi. I didn't expect to see you here.

Did you come to wag your tail for our antiquated government?

And you? Going to become a corporate profit-seeking machine, Kurutsu?

Most of the military is going to be privatized.

This is a war. Side with the losers, and you have no future.

The war is over. I won't let them put a serial number on my Ghost, too.

Everyone is replaceable and expendable.

We'll soon find out which of us is the disposable one.

ETA seven minutes. I assume you have my info.

Eleven soldiers who opposed downgrading Defense from "Ministry" to "Agency"

have occupied the East Asian Economic Federation's Far East trade embassy.

Here are their current positions, backgrounds, and affiliations.

Um...

All eleven are prosthetized, and two of 'em have heavy-class converted prosthetics.

Nothing the riot police oughta fool with.

Out of 42 hostages, 36 are confined in the hall with the bombs.

The others are higher-ups who escaped into the panic room.

They're probably the real targets.

If that door opens, we're screwed.

They'll either hole up in there for a year or start staging public executions.

What are their demands?

They want the government to keep the Ministry and suspend military trials.

They didn't ask for their own escape.

They just want their own little battlefield.

Execute domination on my signal. We're going in.

Wait, just the seven of us?!

We have a sniper, cyberbrain hacking for support, and Logicomas for shields.

The riot police at the perimeter will keep enemy reinforcements away.

You need anything else?

Seriously?

Guess the rookie can't do anything without a textbook and a necktie.

It must be rough, being the only one with a natural body.

Why not take this chance to go full cyborg?

If you die, I'll call your pretty wife for you.

I can at least collect your last words before your cyberbrain's blown away.

Call me if you want someone to make your death painless.

Screw you jerks! Fine, I'll do it and show you all!

You're top-notch parts I collected.

If you can't perform anymore, I'll purge you.

But most of you would wind up in jail or shot in the back

if you weren't on my squad.

Don't forget that.

Get in position and prepare to go in.

She's calling us machine parts now?

Our unworldly princess probably meant that as a pep talk.

That's demonic.

Damn gorilla.

She's a cruel woman.

It just means she trusts us.

Dammit, I seriously might get killed.

We need more personnel to storm them!

Where's Special Forces? Where are the Rangers?!

Everyone refused to come.

They don't want to shoot their own people to save some foreign war merchants.

Tell them to help these guys by stopping them from committing more crimes!

Any squads associated with them will be charged with conspiracy!

Pull out the negotiators, Chief.

You're finally here, Major?

Sorry, but you'll need to stand down.

Oh, so that suspicious squad budget the council just passed was yours?

It's not like you to rely on politicians.

I saved myself some hassle by negotiating with the top.

"Directly under the Prime Minister" only means something on paper.

I recommend a squad that follows international law.

A "shell squad within the international rescue team," I think you said?

We'd already have one if it weren't for the war.

It would nip crimes in the bud, and stop incidents like this before they happened.

Nice thought, but I'll take this case over your fantasy squad.

When are you going in?

In 20 seconds.

We'll try not to kill anyone, so you'll have something to do afterward.

She's like a kid with a new toy.

Dominate now.

Our comm lines just got dominated!

I like a good opponent. Bring it on!

My sights... She's infiltrated my vision!

Hey, what's wrong?

Hello!

Bastards!

Logicomas, protect the hostages.

Order acknowledged!

Are you my prey?

Move it! Don't turn over the hostages!

Do whatever it takes to buy time!

Hello.

See? I contribute.

Go down, dammit!

Where are you aiming? Don't kill them!

Don't monitor my vision all the time!

Break your kill shot habit. The war is over.

All these guys are still fighting it.

Bummer for you.

Guess your conversion was all about might.

I bet when you went full cyborg after almost dying on the battlefield,

you thought you'd become your best self.

I did, too.

All done here, Major.

How's the panic room?

The door's fine. Two men on the move.

Batou and I will box them in.

Free the hostages and put everyone you've captured in the hall.

Should we go in, too?

You like playing the clown?

As long as we beat the central authorities to inspecting the scene, we're fine.

Seven people stealing the perps we used 200 to surround...

Now that's entertainment.

"A Stalemate at the Occupied Embassy"

He's all right, Mr. Prime Minister.

I'll issue a directive.

Batou?

Major? Where's the enemy?

lshikawa, what's going on?

I was jammed for a second. There's a twelfth person on the property.

A twelfth? Find them!

Look.

Friendly fire?

Come on, everyone outside!

Something's off. We're one person short.

There's been some noise on the comm line...

Hey, don't touch those!

The hostages' cyberbrains are contaminated! This pattern is...

The false memory virus.

It's Fire-Starter! Give them the virtual vaccine!

I thought they were ghost locked! Why can they move?!

I found the twelfth perp!

They're the host for the packaged virus. Destroy their cyberbrain!

It's been a while since I got permission to kill.

Mr. Prime Minister, wait!

MY ear!

That was a flesh part! I'll kill that bastard!

This is horrible...

A false cyberbrain... This is just a remote-control doll with no Ghost!

Where's the twelfth perp?

I lost track. I'm searching now.

The government's "state of emergency" alert?

Secret talks at Yagasaki Hotel? Bombing?

What the hell are you talking about?! Who died?!

The first assassination of a sitting Prime Minister in our nation's history

happened while Japanese soldiers occupied an East Asian Federation embassy.

The relationship between these events is unknown,

but authorities requested an analysis of the Ministry faction's military Nets

from Vice-Minister Yoko Kitahara in her interim role due to the Minister's resignation.

The administration is expected to force the downgrade to Defense Agency,

increasing the bad feeling between government and military groups.

"Which of us is disposable"...

Did someone use you and throw you away?

I'll find them and put them on the slab next to you, Kurutsu.

The PM's talks were with Ambassador Wong from the Far East trade embassy.

Investigate the simultaneous embassy occupation

without making any assumptions.

--Yes, sir! --Find out what's been going on at the PM's residence.

Put surveillance on anyone who makes noise about their immunity to arrest.

Yes, sir.

We should have stopped this from happening somehow!

All patched up?

Amazing what having a budget will do for maintenance.

Who knows what'll happen with the budget now that the PM's dead, though.

Give me two hours to fine-tune.

I'm gonna blow the brains out of whoever shot me!

You go after the one with the Major's body, Saito.

You're the only one who saw her.

I'll do both!

So what now, Major?

Paz, you're on the embassy. Borma, you're on the bomb site.

Figure out whether this was an operation on two fronts.

What about Kurutsu and company's cyberbrains?

They're too damaged for me to read. I'll investigate her death and the virus.

Let's say the chick with your body model unleashed the virus. Can I kill her?

Do corpses give us info on the ringleader? Quit the kill shot habit, idiot.

Are the rookie and I goin' after the perps, then?

They oughta be halfway around the world by now.

Nah, if their goal is to mess with domestic affairs,

they'll have operatives in our government who can't move right away.

In which case, there's a third party who used these guys and then iced them.

I'll pray they're foreigners. I'm sick of killing my countrymen.

Do background checks on everyone. Don't get tripped up by petty spy battles.

Special Advisor Fujimoto...

I came for the DNA testing on his body.

He's not recognizable anymore, after all...

I promise to find the culprit.

My mind is so mixed up

that when they question me, I can't even remember yesterday.

Or what Father and I last talked about...

I've experienced that, on the battlefield.

Did your memories come back?

All of them. I'll never forget again.

Right before he died, he issued some kind of directive to me.

But someone jammed the signal.

Please... I want you to tell me his last message for me.

Oh, and...

Could we have dinner sometime?

Pardon?

I'd like to talk to you again, if that's all right.

There aren't many restaurants I can go to.

lshikawa, I assume you heard.

Yep. I'll find evidence.

Want me to keep tabs on him, too?

Get the perps' Net and don't do anything uncalled-for.

Who tries to pick up women the day after his dad dies?

Not to mention the Major!

They probably hit it off from the start.

Rich third-generation politicians don't meet her type every day.

Now let's get to work, old-timer. Can't waste our new authority.

It's been 900 hours since I last saw someone move.

I heard about Unit 501 being privatized,

but I didn't realize it would become an automated factory.

Everyone went to work for Harimadara.

What did you want? A factory tour?

Why was Kurutsu at that meeting?

For profit and survival.

Ambassador Wong and the PM

were working on an agreement to avoid a prosthetics development dead end.

To keep production lines going

by deliberately delaying technological improvements.

Doesn't the government give research grants so that development won't dead-end?

It's the opposite. Most of the existing prosthetics

will be impossible to version up within the next generation.

Others weren't full cyborgs from birth like you.

You were developed on the premise of further growth,

thanks to the keen insight of your designer, Dr. Kusanagi.

So you're making parts here?

Yes, to keep us alive.

Technology conservation keeps vested interests going,

while a technological revolution means control of an enormous market share.

Kurutsu bet on the former, and was annihilated by the latter's system.

That makes a strong motive

for the perp to kill the ambassador and the PM in the same hit.

Thanks for telling me.

You should say hello to your parents.

Another time.

Come whenever you like. Much like us, they're not going anywhere.

Koichi Sawada, former Army armored division signal man.

Would a military Net admin really hole up here?

If the access logs left in the perps' cyberbrains are right, he did.

Logicoma.

I see one person's heat signature.

And nobody's dead?

My investigation doesn't go that far.

Dead men tell no tales. He'd better be alive, or we're back where we started.

You're a dangerous guest.

Learn to shut your door.

I thought someone might come to speak with me. Did you need something?

Koichi Sawada, I presume? We're part of a special squad.

We'd like to ask you a few questions about the Prime Minister's assassination.

What's that data?

Soldiers' last words.

They have no money to pass down, so they only send their dying messages.

They program them to be automatically sent to me after they kill themselves.

Since they have no families, they choose me, an admin they've never even met.

I wish they'd at least come talk to me...

ls someone dead?

Somewhere out there, yeah. You stand by until we get back.

Okay!

Get any transmissions that hinted at the Prime Minister's assassination?

Not once. I do have the occupiers' testaments, though.

Are there any you've lost contact with?

Plenty. I'll forward you a list.

Anybody you figure was in command?

Hmm, Army Colonel Haruyoshi Nada would have the most clout.

He was an informal advisor to Vice-Minister Kitahara,

but he disappeared before the incident.

You come talk to me first, too.

Why me?

Most suicides are full cyborgs.

Cyberbrain standards change, meaning they can't use the newer prosthetics,

so they fall apart while still alive.

Like me.

Without my role to play as a relay point, I would have killed myself, too.

If the cyberbrain version you chose doesn't fit the tide of the times later,

this is what prosthetization dooms you to.

What did you do with the dead person?

We couldn't do anything.

If he can't be repaired, I recommend recovering his data!

You can't recover his life or his Ghost if he's dead.

What a badly designed unit. Have you ever died, Mr. Batou?

I was supposed to, but I wound up a full cyborg instead.

Are you working as one of the Major's parts so that you can die?

Hey. now!

A stud like me doesn't die too easily. Got it?

Yes! Thank you for another valuable learning experience!

Request it through Foreign Affairs.

We're victims here. I won't allow you to "strip them of military affiliation."

I want compensation from the government.

That "victim" is trouble.

That was Robert Lee, the Far East Trade Representative.

He's also an infamous fixer.

He almost got deported once at the Americans' request,

but he weaseled his way out of it.

He's got balls. For all he knows, he might be attacked again.

He's probably got a lot of secrets he doesn't want exposed.

Makes me want to know who arranged the PM's secret talks.

And who leaked their location.

Tell the Major I'm always open to a joint investigation.

Standards are the national borders for corporations,

just as they are for cyberbrains and prosthetics.

No country relinquishes its borders just because

national boundaries give rise to technology gaps.

Lt. Col. Kurutsu and I were trying to find the way to the next epoch.

Aren't you the ones who've profited from a system

that transcends those borders, Deputy Director Amagata?

That's no longer my title.

Kurutsu told me the same thing-- that a day was bound to come

when cyberbrain Nets would transcend even corporate borders.

That's a long way off yet.

If you feel you're in danger, I recommend our protection and monitoring.

That's not necessary. Your former colleagues will protect my company.

Major.

You've got the info?

No joy with the jamming yet, but I did find a data transfer from Kurutsu.

It was an outside transmission, automatically sent one minute after the blast.

And it wasn't some testament sent to the military Net, either.

Give me the address. I'll go.

So, all the members of the 501 are corporate employees now?

Or are you research subjects?

Please stay out of this, Kusanagi.

Instructor lbachi.

We'll get justice for Kurutsu. Don't involve yourself any further.

You're an outcast with no developmental organization who just self-modifies.

Get in our way, and I really will take you out this time.

Keep tabs on everyone at Harimadara from the 501.

Expect them to obstruct our investigation.

Roger. They probably want to retaliate anyway.

I found the plan for averting dead ends in some government docs.

There's a security plan set up based on what happened over 20 years ago

when they tried the same national policy.

Security? What happened?

A ton of people went missing.

At the top of the list are a prosthetics researcher and his pregnant wife.

They were last seen at the site of a chemical weapons explosion.

Some organization is keeping their bodies for research... Are you listening?

I'll have my Als analyze the data. Find out the connection with these crimes.

They tell me you're with another unit now.

We have more non-military companies interviewing here recently.

Now we foster a broader range of personnel.

Are they good purchases for the corporations?

The point is that we can promise these children a future.

They're over there.

Hello.

Hello. What's your name?

Chris.

I'm Motoko Kusanagi. I used to live here.

Do you feel nostalgic?

Yes, I suppose it does bring back memories.

Do you know Kurutsu?

Everyone here does. She was going to build a future for us.

But she died.

May I listen to her message?

Yes.

If you are watching this, it means I'm no longer of this world.

Check your individual Nets for the rights, assets, and duties I've assigned you.

I'm sure you're worried, but there is a future.

If you believe in the Third World, we'll meet again one day.

"Third World"?

A world not of people or things, but of data.

Do you believe that there's someplace we can go

even if we become unable to swap prosthetics and we can't go on living?

That's not something I know.

Is this the only message?

Yes.

Will we meet again?

Good idea. Let's.

Why meet up to talk? Are you implying my cyber lobby is bugged?

No, it's just... It's important to talk over a meal sometimes

instead of just doing it via cyberbrain, you know?

What are you talking about?

You're the one who chose to bring this flesh guy into our unified-spec team.

Our rookie's afraid you might secretly be a robot.

I didn't go that far! I just want to deepen our understanding and trust--

He says this is a terrible working environment:

No vacation, no fun, and no cherry blossom viewing even though it's spring.

I didn't say that!

So, about the Ministry faction...

The eleven hostage-takers, plus Colonel Nada and seven MIAs,

all left the same testament.

Meaning they're all lying low somewhere, and they're likely to strike again.

Colonel Nada's testament has an extra line, and it's a weird one.

He said he'd "received a gift from the Third World."

Doesn't that mean he got the virus from the broker?

No... It's weird.

"Third World"? Is this some occult thing?

Find out if anyone at the Ministry of Defense or affiliated companies uses that phrase.

Hire some more people, dammit.

I will if I find optimal parts.

Calling us parts again?

Got a problem?

The rookie says you're a crappy leader who talks about people like things.

Seriously, I didn't go that far!

Report for ya, Major.

From the confiscated rifle and what I've seen at the crime scene, it was an RMC.

They used a remotely controlled machine gun, not a human sniper.

Someone did the shot, the virus, and remote-controlled a body at the same time?

That's not the Major's body model-- that's the Major!

Just makes me wanna kill her more.

Also, I keep sensing someone watching me.

What a coincidence-so do I.

Me, too, actually.

Ape-Face from Section 9?

No, this feels different.

I found something that's probably related.

Come to my lobby, and I'll show you something interesting.

What'd you wanna show us?

I used a forensic search to reproduce the movements of objects caught in the blast.

This is pyro reverse measurement-- it's like replaying the explosion backwards.

Pretty amazing.

The case with the bomb in it used fingerprint recognition.

Only the Prime Minister or his aides could open it.

A surveillance cam?

It's military, but it's got a limited range of transmission.

I did random testing with some white noise.

This is cheap encryption by Al.

Okay, I'm connected to our Peeping Tom's Net.

I want your name and outfit!

And FYI, my assassin's itching to kill someone.

I'm with the Treaty Review Department, Section D! Contact them!

He's on loan to Foreign Affairs from Public Security.

They're involved with the PM's secret talks?

I'm Akiyama, Treaty Review Department section leader.

Give me the short and sweet explanation.

We captured her on camera a month ago.

Fire-Starter, the supposedly impossible trifecta

of brainwashing, Ghost infiltration, and false memories...

She's the seller. A crazy bitch who goes by the same name as the virus.

You approached her to get the virus, and you fell into her trap.

So you put tabs on me, since we have the same body. You're a fool.

You're a super-wizard-class hacker. I'd be stupid not to suspect you.

It was two officers that she manipulated.

Office rs?

People who helped implement the PM's established policies.

One of them was Colonel Haruyoshi Nada.

The one who went missing before the incident?

His job was to isolate the radical elements within the Ministry faction.

And then he up and pulled the trigger on a two-pronged terrorist attack!

It's like he had a personality transplant.

He was infected by the virus. Would the broker go that far, though?

Enemies of the PM must have bought the virus at auction.

I want to find out who they were, and get hold of them and the broker.

Who was the other officer?

Yoko Kitahara, Vice-Minister of Defense.

Wh-What's the meaning of this?!

Don't move!

You protocol-ignoring scumbags! You're under arrest for unlawful investigation!

Knock it off.

I... never expected this...

Let's hear your story.

She was infected by Nada, and she induced the Ministry faction's flare-up.

She manipulated public opinion for the "Agency" downgrade

and the layoffs of several thousand troops in the restructuring.

Was she involved in the PM's assassination?

Not that we've discovered.

So a Foreign Affairs squad

and the backbone of the MoD got used in a plot to assassinate the PM.

The virus itself hasn't been found.

If it's all this woman's scheme...

I saw this from the cyberbrain infringement stage.

I'm aware that I'm a victim.

Who orchestrated this to make this look like my set-up?

Excuse me?!

He's not Section 9, is he?

That's Kuwahara, head of intelligence's strategy office.

He's after the broker who could be your twin.

Aramaki!

So it was the intelligence bureau that outbid the treaties bureau for the virus?

I've got nothing to do with the treaties bureau.

The purchase was a ruse to arrest the broker,

and she got away from us before we could secure the virus.

I'll pretend I believe that.

Right now we need everyone working together on this.

Quit being stubborn and team up with us, Major.

An organization that locks up witnesses to protect itself

deserves to be punished along with the perps.

You're just some upstart rogue squad!

I'll call you when we take her down, so you can have something to do afterward.

That squad has traced things back to Kitahara, Fire-Starter.

They're nuisances. Can't you take them over with your virus?

No need to panic.

Intelligence and the Treaty Review Department are both under my thumb,

and the truth is the biggest trap, the biggest tragedy, of all.

Simply taking advantage of people's patriotism isn't a foolproof plan.

We should eliminate any possibility of them tracing this back to us.

That will cost you.

Motoko Kusanagi... Now, when shall I steal your name?

Prime Minister Fujimoto definitely issued some sort of directive.

And our only related lead is that Vice-Minister Kitahara remembers

a ghost ship of unknown origin off the coast of Niihama.

Nada's hideout... And yet intelligence isn't making a move.

If Nada's infected like the treaties bureau says...

Odds are ten to one it's a trap.

The ship's likely location is near a cluster of undersea cables.

Could be a spy vessel.

This is all the info we have, thanks to intelligence stealing Kitahara from us.

Now what?

We find out the rest by taking over the ship.

You just love storming enemy positions, don't you?

Quit the squad if you've got doubts.

Everything ties back to the PM.

Will you get to the truth, or back out now? Let your Ghosts decide.

There's a new home where you're headed, yeah?

Not a bloody battlefield or a tight corner to die in.

I plan to get us a position that suits us, if nothing else.

Just stand by. We don't know what we're facing.

"An offensive unit with top priority"...

Plenty have talked about it, but nobody's made it a reality...

...until now.

No sign of anyone on board.

Incoming!

They're pulling out the tanks from the get-go?!

I knew I should've stayed home!

Saito!

I can't pick them up!

Shit.

That's type-2902 thermo-optical camouflage-- Kyo-Re's newest release!

How much capital would it take to get that for your tanks and your troops?

I'm taking the ship. Cover me!

HOW, exactly?!

I'll show you how it's done, rookie.

Go!

Go- Major!

I've reached the intermediate security server.

I have eyes on the barrier's gate array.

It's a variant on Army tactical defense barriers.

Lots of entrances, but only one exit... This'll be a pain.

Opening a tunnel.

Shit, it's full of null data. They're giving me the slip!

This fake looks familiar. The real data is on the other side of the nulls.

I'll look for a way around.

I don't want to wait. I'll just force it open.

The broadcast Van's active protection burned out! Close the connection!

Too late!

What?

Jeez, how many hidden servers do you have?

I don't storm a place unarmed.

I've taken control. The info--

What is this?

Signals 2, 6, and 7 lost.

Number and positioning of enemy troops unknown.

They've taken our fire-control room!

Okay, I've got him.

We're done here, too.

Hit the deck!

Another one?!

Mr. Batou!

Stop!

When are you gonna get a cockpit?!

The request is being processed!

Military restructuring...?

Why my team? Who the hell--

So that's how it is?

Get out of there now, Major!

What's your status, Major?!

Hey, what the hell's going on?!

I know we took over the ship.

Somebody's remote-controlling these from nearby.

Saito! Find them and kill them!

Give me more intel!

That bitch!

Oh, you're good. You can work for me when she's dead.

Dammit. She got away, guys!

Why isn't anyone shooting at us? Isn't their goal to recapture the ship?

Everyone all right?

Major?!

What the--

Did she use Ghost infiltration keys?

She assembled us by force.

There's no time, so I'll make this brief.

I'm redoing the investigation with a new hypothesis in mind.

There's no need for us all to bear the risk.

Major...?

It's not her. Just projected data.

I just declared this squad disbanded.

Say What?!

I'll leave recommendation letters with Chief Aramaki.

Choose for yourselves where you want to transfer to.

You're top-notch parts.

When you're all together, you perform better than I could alone.

That's all. Obey your Ghosts.

Her lobby's been shut down.

She purged herself.

She might've just cut us off.

It's messed up either way.

My ghost lock ain't working!

A remote-controlled body...

Was Colonel Nada captured?

You're upset that the hearing was indefinitely postponed?

I don't even know what the truth is myself!

I'm not upset.

Send the repair bill to the Ministry of Commerce or the Far East trade embassy.

I'm borrowing another car.

"Fire-Starter"... Was that just the virus's code name during development,

or is it your own name?

Is there a difference?

I abandoned the spy vessel, just like you asked. What more do you want?!

We don't know whether Kusanagi is dead or alive.

Search your Net for her.

Cooperate... Or else the biggest scandal since the war is going public.

"Section 9 Office"

Vice-Minister Kitahara was assassinated, and Colonel Nada is still status unknown.

That makes your case hard to corroborate,

and you've also lost your investigative privileges.

But you can stay on the investigation if you do it as members of Section 9.

Not interested.

I'm outta here.

Hey, wait--

You guys are fine with this?!

Where do you want to restart from?

If the boat didn't give us anything,

I'd look into anybody involved who refuses to testify.

You mean Robert Lee, the Far East trade rep.

He's a formidable opponent. Use Section 9's Net.

Yes, sir!

What you cultivated is starting to thrive.

I won't let it be cut down, Major.

There was this intel...

Two developers, a married couple, went MIA during the old project to avert dead-ending.

I just did some digging.

Their bodies are being kept by Unit 501 for research purposes.

You better not tell me the wife was pregnant.

What are you talking about?

Someone who's been a full cyborg since birth.

They're the Major's parents?

I can't be sure. The bodies are so contaminated they can't even be lD'd.

She was born without a body of her own, and raised as Army equipment.

It's not that she has nothing to lose...

It's that she never had anything she could lose.

Until the war ended and she went independent, you're saying?

So your take is that those vics who might be her parents

are the reason she's gone rogue?

This is the Major.

They're probably secondary to something bigger she's after.

This is just me speculating, but I think she saw something real bad on that ship.

Bad enough to make her purge all of us.

If you're implying she wants to protect us, that's a laugh.

She calls us "parts"!

She talks like we're things, but she doesn't treat us like things.

Full cyborgs are parts anyway, really.

Gotta join some organization who'll do your maintenance,

or fall apart while you're still alive.

Where are you going?

I'm not the type to obey my Ghost.

What I can see with my own eyes is all there is.

One ship, two tanks, and seven infantrymen.

That was one expensive trap.

What were they looking at?

I came to talk.

Sorry for asking you here out of the blue.

I hear you want to work for us again.

If you give me intel on Major Kusanagi, I'll consider it.

You're the one doing the talking.

My role as a relay point... is...

Koichi Sawada, formerly of the Army's armored division.

That name matches one of the Ministry loyalists

who died yesterday on a spy ship of unknown affiliation.

I...

You've been implanted with false memories...

...Colonel Haruyoshi Nada.

"Uesawa Electrical Engineering Kenichi Pazu"

Damn you, lshikawa, do you think you can get away with making enemies of your old unit?!

This is filled with micromachines that increase pain sensitivity 7,000-fold.

It takes them five minutes to reach your cyberbrain.

It ain't the kind of thing you can withstand.

Stop! Stop!

Stop!

From the inside?!

Get in!

The East Asian Federation bigwigs and the cyborg with the Major's model

have been together from the beginning.

That rules out a terror strike on two fronts.

Why were you at the embassy?

I managed to play back a scrap of the data

from that oversized e-paper at the bomb site.

A 3D map of the embassy?

Then the point of the PM's secret talks was...?

The ship was being used for domestic espionage

under a secret deal with the Americans.

Forget a scandal-this is a national security issue!

But you gave it up. Why go so far to set up the Major?

Who's the Prime Minister's enemy?!

The PM wanted to use the Defense Ministry faction

to oust the rebels in the Ministry of Commerce.

That's all I know! Please, give me the antidote!

It's a vitamin injection, idiot.

He's Colonel Nada?

Maybe his sympathy for the rank and file spawned his false memories.

You think the host's desire and guilt form the core of the false memories?

And they left him alive as a card to play when they wanted to intimidate the government.

Unbelievable.

After the incident, Representative Lee took over

a rare earth mine that had been under Wong's jurisdiction.

They were outwardly cooperative, but they were competitors.

This is all about war merchants trying to crush each other.

The PM must've helped with the Ambassador's plan to kill the Representative.

And the Representative counterattacked.

Our broker provided both sides with the virus.

Probably playing a double game.

When you get down to it, this was a war between the PM and the Federation!

Got it.

Someone's ordered the Major's arrest.

Where are you going?

Even the Major decided to go this one alone. I know you guys won't act.

Don't underestimate me.

I'll leave the Major to you. Do not let her die.

Major Kusanagi?

Section 9 told me to call them if you showed up.

You want to keep this secret even from them?

That depends on you, Special Advisor Fujimoto.

You carried the enemy's bomb to your father.

Oh, God...

One more thing. My squad's budget-- I couldn't trace some of it.

Where did that money come from?

I think it's a surplus from privatizing a military wing...

From breaking up a post called Unit 501.

Please, put my memories back how they were!

I can't bear these memories!

I choose the truth.

I don't want to exchange my memories for fabricated ones,

no matter how much my heart might wish it.

Never again.

A remote-controlled body...

Kurutsu!

Show me to the server floor.

A virus development Net... transmitting externally?!

An attack barrier and a barrier maze.

Clearly that info is something worth protecting to you two.

Your brain associated us with our old bodies, I see.

We're sorry, but we're going to restrain you.

On Kurutsu's orders?

No, it's our collective will.

Kurutsu is only one part.

Then she is alive.

Please don't fight, Kusanagi.

We don't want to see you killed.

That's enough. Leave it be, Kusanagi.

Outcast.

Out of my WHY!

You've reached your limit, Kusanagi.

Major!

Yo. Awake now? I cracked your secret lab to use it. No complaining.

It ain't like you to lower your body's functionality with implanted weapons.

Why did you come?

How about you just be honest and say,

"As your leader I couldn't order you to come with me,

but as a human with a Ghost I wanted to give you the choice"?

Run.

Sure, once you're out of the maze.

Until then, we're gonna do our own thing.

I hope you can take responsibility for this!

Don't worry. I'll use members of the unit.

I'll have my subsidiaries give you soldiers. Go through as many as you like.

You don't mind battlefield-level casualties?

It can't be helped. This is a 500-billion-dollar business.

Fools out to change the world are a minority group.

Isn't getting rid of those fast what your "democracy" is about?

Don't resist, Kusanagi.

We don't want to see your brain fried.

My barrier isn't that cheap.

To think you reverse-breached the barrier...

There'll be no going back for any of us.

Tell me the real Kurutsu's location and objective before that happens.

We don't know her location. Her having multiple bodies was top-secret.

Her objective is the same as ever: survive no matter who wins this.

I assume you know this, but the East Asian Federation's objectives

are a technological revolution through dead-ending and a monopoly on the market.

Some children aren't facing a dead end yet.

You'd turn them into merchandise?!

They are our successors, to whom we should leave everything.

They will become next-generation models

and make long-term versioning up a reality.

And you'll make them repeat all this? Sell even their Ghosts?!

Why, you...!

You were always free.

Constantly trying to create a future.

We envy you that.

You protected me...?!

Our brains are at their limit anyway.

We'll shift to the Third World before they expire.

Pray that we become part of the sea of data.

Someday, someone may be born who accesses you.

There!

Saito!

How dare that bastard screw with me?!

Hey guys, everybody alive?

We can't repair you if you die, you know!

We studs don't die!

Why are you just standing there? I'll replace you if you don't perform better.

I was just about to show my stuff, gorilla woman.

Major!

You outcast scum!

Major, are you all right?

Normal prosthetics are the best, am I right?

I told you to run, you thrill-seeking idiots.

You're the kind of parts I won't be able to collect again!

We've got an important job still undone.

What good will arresting me do?

The same game will just start up again after this administration dissolves.

Several retiring Ministers have already said that to me today,

but I won't let it happen.

We've used money and technology to fight an unscrupulous system.

It's no different from you with your guns.

We hate crime. You breed criminals for the sake of profits.

You'll understand one day.

That's where you've been?

You're late. She's just leaving.

Kurutsu!

Kurutsu is dead.

Even controlling the same body, I can't behave with the same personality again.

It's a mystery even to me.

How long have you been doing that?

Since the beginning.

I've been compensating for the growth failure with micromachines,

and though I can't be prosthetized, I've operated many prosthetic bodies.

But you're the only one whose name I couldn't use.

And Fire-Starter? Were you the developer?

One day you'll understand

the diversity of information packages, and the birth of a new world...

I'm going there... Going where everyone else is.

I pity you, remaining in a world like this when you were once freer than anyone.

Did you get to say goodbye?

Why did you use her?

Two possibilities existed to avert the dead end of cyberbrains and prosthetic bodies.

You and she were those possibilities. That's all.

Take him.

You should stop searching for the names of the dead. There's nothing to be gained.

Take it from someone who's spent a long time as one of the dead.

What is it?

Won't you take us with you?

Where should we go?!

What do you want?

To gain uniform standards by selling your bodies and Ghosts

and sacrificing those who were given nothing?

You all have cyberbrains. You have Ghosts you should be obeying.

You seek more than that from other people-- what do you plan to offer in return?

Build a future.

It's just the government's "official position." it doesn't conflict with our trade.

Excellent. When the slave state fails to serve, the aristocracy state starves.

The slave trade benefits from labor shortages.

You really gonna do this, Major?

So, here we have the Far East Trade Representative,

Vice-Minister of Commerce Ito, and some union officials.

How dare you?

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Defense Agency are watching this.

I'll have Vice-Minister Ito here

testify in a court of law about the Prime Minister's assassination.

I'm ruined...

Impossible.

He applied for asylum and was accepted. He even signed the written oath.

When?!

I don't have to answer that.

The papers are at the embassy. I'll forward them to you.

The previous Prime Minister's wishes survive. You'll be assassinated.

Ha! This is a civilized, pacifist nation.

Oh, is it?

Outside the window!

H-Help!

Hold your fire!

Off in the distance, a ray of light shines down

I rub the eyes I'd closed for so long

The naive ones are calling me

I flex and bend my heavy, rusted limbs

I need a reason to walk inch by slow inch down that never-ending path

I can still move

I can still see

Cherry blossom viewing together is nice, huh?

This is an assignment.

Long ago, the illusions had names

As terribly precious things do

Aye! We saw the report that the council passed your budget!

Okay. Flower stakeout suspended!

The great ones have left without us

Spread their wings and taken off for that white shining place

They climb higher and higher in the endlessly blue sky

But I can see them

We'll meet again

But I can see them

We'll meet again

I have a reason to walk inch by slow inch down that never-ending path

I can still move

I can still see

I can still move

I can still see

I can still move

I can still see

I can still move