"Having lost the physical body, the mind still traverses the net maintaining its existence as individual being..." "Is that what you are saying?" "Well... maybe?" "But it's hardly imaginable that a will, liberated from its shell, can preserve its individuality consigned to the sea, which is the net." "Then..." "For a being that, by its existence, keeps losing its individuality this world is... despair..." "That depends on your definition of "despair"." "Anyway, what about just dying to see what happens?" "Is that within the rules?" "Anyway..." "I should first of all say thanks." "Thank you." "The way you kept your promise, I thought it was most charming..." "Section 9, revived #STAND ALONE COMPLEX" "Between us, there cannot be such a cheap excuse as "team play"..." "What we need is only teamwork that results from each member doing his solo." "When Section 9 was established the first thing Chief Aramaki said was this doctrine." "That time..." "Did the chief really abandon us?" "I was left, unable to contact my comrades, unable to get any outside information subject to fruitless interrogation." "Then... the sudden discharge after 15 days..." "I was handed a notice of dismissal which, besides telling me that Section 9 was dissolved also contained the order from the fake security company I ostensibly worked for to be on unlimited home standby, until further notice." "But where should that notice come from?" "I tried to grasp what had happened while I was in custody running around, aimlessly." "A radicalist group within the Public Peace Section planning an armed rebellion..." "That was the official version of the story propagated in the media." "The armed counter-measure to the anticipated coup d'etat carried out by the Self-Defense Army was reported favorously in most media." "The members of Section 9, being accused of high treason were arrested by the Army, and delivered to prosecution." "Then, a quick informal trial, conviction." "But, their further disposition was declared state secret, media reporting restricted." "I couldn't gather more information, being deprived of my privileges and once again just a powerless private person." "There was nothing I could do." "Still, two unanswered questions remained and troubled me." "One considering the fact that the Chief, being the central person in Section 9 was never reported of in the official versions." "His name did never appear in the media reports nor was he listed with the victims of the incident." "Does this mean..." "he really abandoned us?" "And the other thing..." "The Major, who is the only member whose disposition was clearly declared publicly..." "Has the Major really died?" "Three months have passed..." "Sometimes... fulfilling one's duties in the Public Peace Section means to bring up the mental power to endure the investigations which seem to continue endlessly." "But..." "I never feeled that as a pain, or bitterness." "Still..." "In this continuously fleeting time why only I can be here, just as if nothing had happened..." "Days passed playing the role of the unemployed husband in front of my family continued with the nameless pain to crush my psyche." "Maybe it's about time to look for a new job..." "We have information that the prosecution will soon arrive many journalists have gathered in front of the party headquarters which is filled with a tense atmosphere." "The incident reported in some magazines shortly before the elections concerning the Serano Genomics Company and accusal of graft against the Ministry of Health and Welfare has escalated to involve Party Secretary Yakushima, and now, one week after the forming of the new government finally led to the searching of the party headquarters by the public prosecution." "I'm reporting from the opposition party headquarters where the searching is taking place..." "Finally the searching has begun do you think Mr. Yakushima might be arrested within the day?" "Are you expecting to find the rumored Serano shares here?" "We have assured information." "We will have to ask the Party Secretary to accompany us." "Is it probable that the currency mentioned in Mr. Serano's testimony is stored here?" "These things will become clear soon." "We have been investigating patiently until today with the aim to unmask Mr. Yakusima." "Patiently?" "!" "I don't know how the Public prosecution gathered all the information." "But the information leaked to the magazines and to the net was clearly the very same information we had disclosed." "Even the investigation on the money flow between them and Serano was originally our, Section 9's efforts." "Sure, if Yakushima is arrested, our original goal is achieved." "Who actually carries the arrest out is a trivial question." "Even though." "What is this emotion?" "The Public Prosecution's arrogant attitude even the whiteness of their shirts annoys me." "Is that right?" "The truth the Major and my comrades have discovered wasn't it the truth behind the Laughing Man incidence that continued for 6 years?" "Even if the graft case is prosecuted..." "Yakushima doesn't even neccessarily need to resign from office." "What difference does it make?" "I... didn't want to be a hero." "But I always followed the justice we believed in, without fail." "Laughing Man..." "Weren't you the one that wanted to reveal the truth behind all this in the first place?" "Maybe you, too... are feeling the same way I do?" "No, that can't be... (The Catcher in the Rye" " J.D. Salinger) You're not the type to brood over such a thing..." "You already discerned someting and watch the situation from a higher perspective..." "Isn't that so?" "I know it's like that." "Major..." "If this is going to end the way I'm expecting..." "Don't move!" "Get your hands out slowly and turn aroud!" "With your skills, they'll get you before you reach Yakushima." "Bateau..." "You're so stupid.." "Come." "Here comes out hero!" "You're late." "And?" "Where did you follow him to?" "As expected, he went straight to the Party headuarters." "Really?" "Hey..." "What's up?" "You crying?" "Stop kidding!" "And... what happened over there?" "The secretary seems to have given up." "As you expect from an ex-military man, he takes the investigation manly." "Well, the guys from Public Prosecution will be treated as heroes for a while." "For sure." "But... is that all right?" "The ones who got Yakushima so far were us, Section 9 - is that what you want to say?" "Well, couldn't say I don't understand your feelings..." "But this was all as our Chief had planned in the first place." "Plan?" "The chief knew that the Prime Minister wouldn't want a scandal just before the elections." "So he deliberately chose the way to make Section 9 the bad guys." "From the point on where the Major got the true story out of Serano..." "Section 9's existence got public, and we couldn't act secretly as before." "So the Chief made a deal with the Prime Minister and moved the Public Prosecution by seemingly abandoning Section 9." "He sacrificed Section 9...?" "But still..." "Do you know what I went through the past three months?" "Well... don't take it so bad." "Think of it as a special leave." "We too didn't know about the plan beforehand." "The Chief believed that we all would survive and gather again and decided to go on with this operation." "Yeah... that he got you arrested beforehand was to keep you out of the attack on Section 9." "You're not even cyborged." "And, since you're married, information manipulation is more difficult it was necessary to get you out of Section 9 before the operation started." "Take it easy." "By the records, I'm still in Abashiri High-Security Prison." "Throw away the name, take the real thing!" "Now, we really don't exist officially and can go back to our original mission." "Now I see..." "But... what about the Major?" "Well..." "I don't care about such a person." "Yeah..." "Bateau was the one who was really crying then, weren't you?" "Shut up." "So...?" "Shall I get you the picture from some satellite?" "Yeah... send it to the Major, too!" "Hey..." "Stop!" "Motoko!" "Hehe." "Hey!" "I told you to stop!" "Let go...!" "Looks like you're done." "Now it's all up to the jurisdiction." "My job is finished now." "Now the Public Prosecution will be heroes to the people." "But... what is left to you?" "I could assert the justice I blieve in." "That's enough." "And..." "What do you do next?" "You want to continue playing war with guns and tanks...?" "Don't you want to work for us?" "I was always thinking you would do nicely in the jurisdiction" "I don't think so..." "Section 9 isn't finished yet." "I'll start looking for new members for the new Section 9." "I see..." "You sure aren't a laughing man." "Welcome." "You took longer than I thought." "How can you say that?" "You didn't even send an invitation." ""When you stay still, people will come to you to meet you."" "Was that a saying of Doisneau?" "Yes." "Well, one reason was that I couldn't decide what to do about you." "I almost thought you were going to die just like that..." "I really did worry." "I don't expect that much from death - yet." "Although from the shock when my remote body's brain was dcestroyed..." "I had a sort of near-death experience." "You got your brand-new body destroyed, and didn't have the time to get a proper new one." "You're sharp sighted." "Peeping is my hobby." "Anyway..." "What's this place?" "A graveyard of information?" "Did you really want to change the world - from such a place?" "Well... in the beginning, a bit." "And..." "How do you feel now?" "I couldn't think of anything special." "Maybe for me, the moment when I shared my memory with you everything had ended." "I thought you'd finish everything nicely." "Geez..." "You're such a liar." "You asked me to not interfere, didn't you?" "I'm sorry." "But all information is, from the point on where it is shared and serialized loses its unitarity, and is embedded into the subconsciousness of people without motives, or in the will of people with motives." "Are those your words, derived from experience?" "Yes." "In fact, in the end even you played the role of the Laughing Man." "It sure was an interesting phenomenon." "Anyway..." "What was the motive in the first place to start an incident like that?" ""To you, anything happening in the world appears to be a scam, doesn't it?"" "J.D. Salinger." "Yes." "Well, still, I myself I'm something like the personification of the acceptance of cyberbrains." "The fear of Cyberbrain Sclerosis sure did play a major role..." "The whole thing it all started from an email I happened to find on the net." "It was an intimidating mail sent to the Serano Genomics Company." "It was armed with a thesis concerning the Serano's MicroMachines' ineffectivity and, in comparison, the effectivity of the Murai Vaccine." "So, whoever wrote this was the original Laughing Man?" "If you put it that way... yes." ""I am a machine for the purpose of showing the world I see to everybody."" "Dziga Vertov." "Wasn't he a movie director?" "Yes." "I fancied it was my calling to verify and propagatethe information that only I happened to have - and started running wild." "And failed marvellously." "Disgusted by the social system's evil, the pure and innocent mediator shut his mouth." "Yes." "And then I was the disappearing mediator." "Like the author whose existence is stressed by the fact of not writing any more books." "This means..." ""By disappearing, it becomes a regulating medium for the vitals of the social system..."" ""Finally it vanishes, leaving traces of its existence neither in nor outside the system."" "Frederic Jameson." "Yes..." "But NO." "The second part was Masachi Osawa." "I knew the words, but I couldn't believe - until I saw it happen in reality." "The absence of the original creating copies of the original..." "How would you call this phenomenon?" "Stand Alone Complex." "Yes." "Stand Alone Complex." "Our social system has, from its beginning facilities that create such phenomena... embedded." "To me, this appears to be the beginning of all despair..." "What do you think?" "Well." "I don't know if that's true." "But I found a possibility to regain individuality at the end of all serialization." "And that answer is...?" "Curiosity..." "I guess." "I see...!" "I didn't think of that one." "My sclerosis is growing continuously." "And... what happens to me now?" "Arrested for abduction?" "Or rather..." "Instigation of multiple terroristic activities?" "Who knows?" "Regarding your case, I entrusted everything to him..." "Why don't you ask him?" "I was listening all the time but that was a conversation hardly to be followed without the help of external memory devices." "Did you read all the books here?" "Not everything..." "Let me introduce." "My boss, the Chief of Public Peace, Section 9." "Daisuke Aramaki." "Nice to meet you." "Are you planning to continue the desolate work of preservation of printed media, merely done out of custom?" "If I am allowed to." "Concerning our current case, the original Laughing Man will be legally concluded to never to have existed." "So..." "My proposal:" "What about it?" "Don't you want to use your hacker skills for a good purpose by joining the Section 9 as our ninth regular member?" "I'm surprised." "So you want to hire me?" "That's right." "Well..." "It sounds like it might be fun..." "But..." "I think I resign." "And... unfortunately..." "I'm no good in baseball." "You got brushed off." "And now?" "Nothing." "Public Peace Section 9 will remain, as long as you or I wish an offensive force agaist crime." "That's all." "CEO Serano..." "Finally..." "Yes." "Finally I can keep my promise..." "It's okay..." "You can't survive without bending..." "Sleep well, Mr. Upright." "Major!" "Summon everybody." "Equipment A2." "Heard that, Bateau?" "Wanna ride?" "Togusa?" "I'm on my way." "Ishikawa, Saito!" "I'll take another route." "All's ready." "Paz, Borma!" "Anytime!" "This time, we're in the right place!"