"Angelui i demonui kruzhili na duh minoi Angels and demons were circling over me, rassekali terni-i mlechuie puti Breaking apart shadows and milky ways." "me znayet shastya ottovo Not knowing happiness is the only one." "shto evo zova ponyat ne s-mog The one who could not understand its call." "mana du vortes, mana du vortes The flow may swallow you." "The flow may swallow you aeria gloris, aeria gloris Flying in glory, Flying in glory mana du vortes, mana du vortes The flow may swallow you." "The flow may swallow you aeria gloris, aeria gloris Flying in glory, Flying in glory" "I am calling, calling now." "Spirits rise and falling." "s-toboi ostatsya dalshe To be with you longer..." "Calling, calling..." "In the depth of longing s-toboi ostatsya dalshe To be with you longer... mana du vortes, aeria gloris The flow may swallow you, flying in glory" "Togusa!" "Please!" "He is in an extremely unstable condition right now." "Major..." "Please take a look at my memory." "It was the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, after all." "I didn't get shot in the head." "Doctor!" "While he is undergoing surgery, recover sectors of his memory that encompass the last sixteen hours." "That's impossible!" "Please do it." "We must have that information at all costs." "Left-Behind Trace" "How is it?" "It must be a side-effect of anesthetics." "There is too much noise." "The input will even include his emotional ups and downs, so our perceptions may be influenced by them as well." "It doesn't matter." "Let's do it." "His heartbeat is abnormally high." "That idiot..." "Of course he's going to get downed if he's feeling this heroic!" "Let's summarize the situation." "Togusa deduced that the hackers at the vocational aid center were after paper media?" "and he subsequently made frequent visits to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare in order to confirm his suspicions." "In the prosess, he found that a list was missing from a vast collection of documents." "And that was the list of Murai vaccine recipients, correct?" "Correct." "It is unclear, but is seems that Togusa visited the Sunflower Society, which needed the list, and became caught up in an assault there." "It 0i0}clear!" "It was Narcotics who gunned Togusa down!" "This means that the assault team, which specializes in vicious crimes, is going around massacring civilians!" "Their intent was to seize the file by force or to eradicate it from existence, perhaps?" "The fact that Imakurusu's name was on the list led to the present circumstances." "That is what it seems like to me, at least." "Who cares about the hows and whys?" "!" "We'll find out what they were as soon as we get those Narcotics bastards!" "Don't get so worked up over these memories." "The media should be broadcasting falsified information already." "The truth has been erased." "Major, who is this Imakurusu person?" "Imakurusu Hisashi, the former Chairman of the Central Drug Evaluation Committee." "An authority on cyberbrain sclerosis, as well as the chairman of the Medical Association in Japan." "Even though he has retired from his post on the evaluation committee, he is thought to have maintained strong connections with the Ministry." "All right." "Major, go to Imakurusu." "I will investigate how the Narcotics' assault team came to intervene." "Understood." "Pazu and Saitou, come with me to Imakurusu's residence." "Batou, you will continue to analyze Togusa's memory with Ishikawa and Bomer." "You're joking!" "I should be investigating Narcotics!" "And what do you intend to do after going there in such a mood?" "I'll call you if I need to." "What mood I need to be in, then?" "!" "She means to say that you need to cool off a bit." "You're saying that we should feel fine after seeing that?" "!" "Right now, you're affected by Togusa's memories." "Her decision is sound." "Excuse me." "And just who may you be?" "I am Aramaki from Public Safety Section 9." "I heard that orders for the sweep of the Sunflower Society, which was conducted last night, bypassed the chief of Narcotics and came directly from you." "I would like to hear your reasons for it." "How rude!" "It's fine." "I am about to meet with the press." "Members of the Sunflower Society are a sly lot." "In order to preceed with due caution, only the members of the assault team were to be aware of the operation." "Unfortunately, the members of the Sunflower Society indicated that they were prepared to resist at all costs, so we were forced to use extreme measures." "They even set fire to the building." "Chief, it's time." "It seems that we do not have to intervene, then." "However..." "There is one thing I am still concerned about." "I believe that it must be due to some coincidence, but one of our own happened to be at the scene last night." "Now then, we shall meet again someday." "Is that all right, sir?" "Let him be." "If he took the trouble of coming here, then it means that he has nothing." "Gayle!" "It's of no use." "It seems that he has already left the premises." "Public Safety's on to us!" "We don't have much time!" " Public Safety?" " Section 9!" "Get to Imakurusu before they do!" "Ah yes, that group of soldiers-turned-cyborgs?" "In that case, I may need "that"." "The thing I have been requesting." "All right." "I'll make the necessary arrangements for it." "However, do not leave any evidence if you come in contact with Section 9." "Undertood." "Without a trace." "Will you betray me now that we've come to this?" "Imakurusu" "It's pretty bad." "The starting signal, I see." "Chief, we were late." "It apperas that there were visitors who came before us." "It must have been the assault team." "However, judging from the circumstances, Imakurusu appears to have fled in advance." "Probably." "If so, then there is a high possibility that he will use some sort of communication." "I see." "Perhaps we should ask a favor of the American Empire's NRO?" "NATIONAL RECONNAISSANCE OFFICE" "To prepare for surveillance of inter-satellite communication?" "Yep." "Chief?" "Permission granted." "I will have the Ministry of Foreign Affairs grant permission ex post facto." "I have enough favors piled up with the CIA." "Understood." "It's time for Big Brother to make an appearance." "We can now tap all communications in Japan in real time." "Here it comes!" "God, not only is the amount of data... enough to crash the terminals within this building, but it's enough to crash those within a one kilometer radius." "Maybe we'll ask for backup from the old geezers." "Damn it, this is the end." "I shouldn't have run." "It was you who stole the file!" "Now, I wouldn't be surprised if they thought I was the one who betrayed them." "You wouldn't have become serious if I hadn't taken these measures, would you?" "They are not as lenient as you would like to believe." "I feel sorry for the Sunflower Society's members." "However, I have already decided that I will not give up until I have exposed what went on behind the advancement of micromachine treatments." "You are a naive one, aren't you?" "If we had approved the vaccine at the time, it would have been quite possible that the achievements of cyberbrain technology would have been rejected, despite the technology's ongoing application in various fields and continuing development, and that we would have suffered regression as a result." "However, no law condones the suppression of valid research results." "You misunderstand!" "I did not blindly object to the vaccine." "I was prepared to approve it on the condition that sufficient data was collected." "Then, what was the basis upon which Serano Genomix's utility design was approved within a mere three months, desppite the fact that Serano Genomix was a latecomer in micromachine research at the time?" "That was all according to a predetermined trajectory that was paved at the Ministry of health, Labor and Welfare's initiative!" "The Committee had nothing to do with it." "A convenient excuse." "Similarly, the Micromachine Industries company that you directed had its design approved within one month." "And in return, you people raked in annual profits of one trillion yen from protein particles that had no effect against cyberbrain sclerosis!" "It was obviously a fraud committed under the government's direction!" "The poor ignorant patients who believed in the treatment and died after paying high medical fees..." "Just how do you intend to make excuses for them?" "Micromachines have now been shown to be effective to a certain degree!" "You cannot definitively say that it ended in catasrophe so far as the treatment of sclerosis went." "If so,... then why do you not treat your own condition with micromachines?" "You were the only person who was in a position capable of preventing this lamentable situation." "You chose a career to save lives, why did you not decide to do so?" "I had prided myself on being committed to a life dedicated to the treatment of cyberbrain sclerosis!" "But Murai..." "Beat you to your goal." "Was it envy?" "I heard that you even went through the trouble of having a "not approved" seal specially made to destroy the Murai vaccine." "Now, they gloat on their thrones after taking advantage of your damned petty pride." "If you know that much, what is it that you want me to do?" "!" "You're quite capable of invading my cyberbrain and taking over, ghost and all!" "There is no point in that." "Now that your life is being maintained by that vaccine, please disclose the truth of your own free will." "Whether you spend the rest of your days as a good man or be pointed out as a heartless criminal after your death, the choice is yours." "Laughing Man... just who are you?" "Why did you, who displays such blatant heroism, commit such acts of corporate terrorism and obtain a massive amount of money?" "I have never said that I was the Laughing Man." "Besides..." "There is another who used corporate terrorism to steal money." "It can't be...!" "It is as you realized." "Listen to me." "If we are to bring them to justice, we need another playing card besides your testimony." "Until I return, please do not leave this room under any circumstances." "Do you understand?" "Oh, I'm sorry." "Um, did you need anything, sir?" "No, not anymore." "Please go." "Excuse me, then." "Oh, actually..." "Is there a public terminal somewhere near here?" "He should be fine." "His blood pressure is stable as well." "Thank you." "Don't mention it." "However, if he experiences some sort of physical disability or aftereffects, he may just have to resign himself to getting some cybernetic implants." "I'm sorry about the foul weather." "Well, it can't be helped." "Today was the only day that worked for us, anyway." "It's me, Imakurusu." "Help me!" "Please clear Niimi's doubts about me!" "Yes, at that golf course I told you about." "I'm counting on you!" "Big Brother's great!" "We don't know for sure yet." "All it means is that our voice pattern filter caught "Imakurusu"." "Correlating voice pattern of caller with that of Imakurusu Hisashi." "Determining location of terminal used by caller, starting search." "Correlation with Imakurusu Hisashi's voice pattern is 36% complete." "Proceeding to determine location of terminal, starting search." "Determined signal origin." "Proceeding to trace signal path." "Hey, the operators are crashing in droves!" "Proceeding to activate trace program via communication satellites." "We have backups." "Hey, we're lucky today!" "We're getting hits all over the place!" "That's to pay you for borrowing your cyberbrains." "You're a crook." "After all, even if they're old, if you hook them up in parallel, you can get a lot of power out of them." "How is it?" "We have just determined the location where Imakurusu used the terminal." "Now, we will confirm whether it was him." "Chief, a direct call." "What?" "This is Niimi." "Is that true?" "!" "Yes." "Yes." "No, I will take care of it immediately!" "Is that you, Gayle?" "It's me." "We have Imakurusu's location!" "He's at Kouhoku Country Club!" "Get over there!" "The idiot..." "He chose the wrong one to run to." "He is at Kouhoku Country Club." "His presence was confirmed two minutes ago... at the teraminal that is located on the northen pedestrian walkway." "It's a match!" " However, what concerns me is who he called..." " Who cares as long as we know where he is?" "!" "Old man, we'll be faster than the Major." "I'm going out in the chopper!" "All right, get himbefore anyone else does." "Ishikawa!" "Are you able to trace Imakurusu?" "!" "After that, he went into room 909 in an annex." "He is stationary at the moment." "Bomer, what do you think about this?" "This guy." "You are about to access a secure government line." "Please enter your password." "A protected number that was assigned the highest priority in the American Empire's surveullance list?" "Yes." "Officially, the number doesn't exist." "But isn't this the number for the ruling party's headquarters?" "How is it, squad leader?" "How's the MSDF's 303 model?" "The Marine has a pretty artistic form with its fluid lines." "Now, if those Section 9 people show up, we can get actual combat data." "Squad leader, we have confirmed a chopper that's heading towards the target." "It appears to be Section 9." "Oh yeah?" "What good timing!" "All right, you guys try to secure Imakurusu first." "This one requires time for system startup." "After you guys cut off the escape route, leave the rest to me!" "They're..." "You are Imakurusu Hisashi, correct?" "I am the police." "The assault team is heading over." "Let's get you out of here!" "Don't come near me!" "Batou, are you all right?" "Yeah, barely, but we're hemmed in." "Can you evacuate using the chopper?" "Negative." "Not while Imakurusu is with me." "Hang on!" "I'm almost there!" "Even if they are invisible, it doesn't mean that their very existence is invisible as well." "How're they going to come?" "!" "Is that you, Major?" "!" "I have secured an escape route." "Let's return to the lobby for now." "Get down!" "What was that?" "An Armor Suit?" "!" "Batou, I will distract it." "Don't be an idiot!" "That's my role!" "It's not that I don't have confidence in you, but that thing cannot be stopped." "This is a direct order!" "Take Imakurusu and evacuate the premises!" "Damn it..." "Don't get done in by that thing, either!" "Major, we'll be there shortly!" "Not even a direct hit can pierce its armor?" "Saitou!" "Hand that thing over!" "H-Hey, open the hatch!" "Please don't!" "I-I can't breathe!" "Please don't!" "More this way!" "That's right!" "Put him on the chopper and be quick about it." "All right..." "The idiot..." "Wait here." "Hey, you two!" "Don't move!" "All right, don't move, okay?" "Imakurusu!" "Imakurusu was hit." "Call for an ambulance." "Laughing Man... is that who you are?" "What...?" "Did you say that, Laughing Man?" "What is going on?" "List of Murai Vaccine Recipients" "This file is...!" "Thermo-optical camouflage?" "!" "No, that's not it!" "You bastard..." "You stole my eyes, didn't you?" "!" "Where are you?" "!" "Are you still nearby?" "!" "Where are you?" "!"