"Passengers and crew have been evacuated as per terrorism response manual." "All arriving and departing flights are in a holding pattern or waiting on the apron." "Divert only those planes that are expected to run low on fuel to other airports." "305 calling 102." "Public Security Section 9 has arrived." "Give any assistance they need." "This is priority one." "Full authority for this incident has been transferred to them." "my people have taken casualties!" "there'd better be a damn good reason for us to..." "Keep this line clear." "There's no telling if there's a back-hack on it." "what's going down here is way out of our league." "Found him." "Immigration Gates Currently Closed" "the initial reports say that the suspect willingly submitted to questioning. he almost seemed happy about it." "Happy?" "Yes..." "That doesn't make much sense." "the Big Man isn't gonna meet up with us?" "He said he's gonna stick with his "I only work cases that I pick... too." "the fact is that we were only able to connect the dots in this case because Batou stuck his nose where it didn't belong." "take the two rookies with you and come in through the north gate." "We're on it." "The two of us are taking the frontal approach." "Roger that." "Boss." "I can't believe you outgrew that Mateba fixation of yours." "Nobody said I outgrew it." "right?" "Yeah." "then." "What does it look like?" "It's an unexpected development." "So now there's a chance that he's armed?" "it's just a 9mm." "This is just peachy..." "Colonel Ka Gael!" "We're with Public Security!" "We're willing to consider granting you safe passage out of the country as you demanded." "Start by releasing your hostage." "Then we can talk." "Ka Gael!" "Are you listening?" "Ka Gael!" "Drop your weapon!" "give me the gun." "The Enemy Cannot Be Allowed to Live Under the Same Sky looks like he's high on a military-use reflex booster." "Understood." "Ka Gael!" "The Puppeteer is coming!" "I don't want to die!" "hurry up and drop the piece!" "What did you say to me?" "You're not gonna make a public spectacle outta me!" "Don't!" "Shit!" "What the hell did he do that for?" "!" "huh?" "Not a bad name at all..." "Prime Minister Kayabuki." "Special operatives tattooed with "true believer" to show their loyalty to General Ka Rum have been committing suicide one by one here in Japan." "too." "You still insist there is no need to interrogate the General in spite of these incidents?" "Some reports are saying that Col. Ka's death was the result of a botched arrest attempt." "I find it hard to imagine that General Ka is involved in the plan while under house arrest." "Please do your utmost to avoid fueling the actions of the opposition faction that have accompanied my enactment of the Refugee Naturalization Policy." "I was under the impression that such work falls under Public Security's purview." "ma'am." "Ishikawa." "Send me the files from Ka Gael's debriefing." "Coming right up." "We're moving out!" "sir?" "I don't believe she gave you authorization for that." "I didn't break my word to her." "7072." "Has the scene provided you with any new material data?" "I haven't found anything yet." "Call in the Supervisor." "There's some old..." "Batou." "Batou?" "I'm listening." "Where are you?" "True Believer" "We found the body of a 13th tattooed man." " Is this one another suicide?" " Yeah." "This place looks a lot like our own safehouses." "It was probably one of their hideouts." "Let the Prefectural Police handle this." "Grab one of your subordinates and go to this location." "It's a secret hideout that Ka Gael told us about in his debriefing." "You sure that a mainstream job like that isn't more up Togusa's alley?" "Togusa's coming with me to the Dungeon." "I follow you." "Togusa." "How long has it been since the Major resigned from Section 9?" "I guess." "That long..." "I'm sorry about what happened with Ka Gael." "There was nothing you could have done." "This is a vital matter which might prove to be Prime Minister Kayabuki's Achilles' heel." "Her intention is probably to keep a lid on things that she doesn't want to see right now." "Kayabuki was scared that the other countries at the six-party talks would look too closely at the real motivation behind the Refugee Naturalization Policy." "This whole damn mess got started because she was forced into looking after Ka Rum! he said that he'd carry out acts of terrorism in retaliation." "I will visit terror throughout the world." "huh?" "right? we should be able to get a feel for the overall plan." "We'll also learn how far along this terrorist plot is right now." "Chief." "We just got word from the Coast Guard that they've opened up the airspace over the island." "Good." "Thank them for me and take us down at once." "Make sure you doctor the records of our flight plan!" "Roger that!" "No firearms or knives detected!" "Clear!" "Proto." "Turn the power back on and open the blinds." "Roger." "What's the matter?" "Chief..." "It looks like he pulled them out himself." "This is bad news... their plan might already be in motion." "What's that?" "This?" "It's a terminal that links to the nursing net." "it's used to exchange a patient's medical data with all medical facilities." "Looks like those rumors about Ka Rum being seriously ill before he fled his country were true." "even though he was hooked up to that?" "Hm?" "Bingo!" "He was going through a back door in the system!" "I guess there was more to the good General here than meets the eye." "Looks that way." "The comm log shows that he was in contact with his people. but they definitely seemed to be planning a terrorist strike using a micromachine virus." "were planning? he talked with Ka Gael about whether they should abort the plan for the time being." "What do you mean?" "Are you saying that the suicides weren't meant as the plot's "go" code?" "I don't know." "But what really worries me is that there was a program planted in here from the outside designed to make it look like Ka Rum was still alive." "The government probably still hasn't caught on to the fact that this guy is dead." "an assassination set up to look like suicide?" "Yeah." "Committed by somebody who doesn't want the goverment to know Ka Rum is dead." "or... what about the micromachine virus?" "Looks like it was delivered to that Ma Shaba guy's hospital." "he might be able to recover it for us." "Togusa!" "What the hell is this?" "Puppeteer"?" "didn't Ka Gael say something about a puppeteer just before he died?" "I think he did... too." "Looks like it's the codename for one of his men." "Looks like we need to apprehend Ma Shaba as soon as possible." "go meet up with Batou." "It's imperative that we ascertain the full scope of this plot." "What should we do with the stiff?" "but we were never here." "Understood." "A hospital?" "That car sticks out like a sore thumb around here..." "This security system setup kinda reminds me of..." "You head around from the outside!" "Roger." "What the hell?" "You can't hack my cyberbrain if I'm in here!" "Puppeteer!" "huh?" "Batou?" "That looked like... 657)}Open" "Get clear!" "You dumbass!" "I'll come back for you later." "Play dead." "Roger." "Hold it!" "Major?" "what brings you to this part of town?" "I knew it was you..." "I should ask you the same thing." "I guess you could say." "Here it comes!" "Just a second." "What the hell?" "Hold on to this for me." "Hey!" "wait a minute..." "Isn't that Ma Shaba?" "I'm surprised you know who he is." "surprised"?" "What the hell are you up to?" "give that back." "Hey!" "Has your taste in cars changed?" "When did she swipe my... this isn't too shabby at all." "I'm guessing that the reason you're here is because you're following a lead on that string of suicides of tattooed men." "But let me give you a friendly warning." "Stay away from the Solid State." "you'll end up killing yourself just like they did." "wait a..." " You can find your car yourself." "Didn't I tell you to bring along one of your men?" "!" "that's why I brought this hunk of junk." "too." "Cause of death?" "Neck trauma resulting from impacts during the runaway." "Looks like Ma Shaba wasn't the Puppeteer." "why the hell did he attack you in that thing?" "Beats me." "That's what I'd like to know." "Maybe he attacked you because he thought you were the Puppeteer." "what's this "Puppeteer" you keep talking about?" "but it seems to be a rebel's codename." "We have reason to believe that deaths of the tattooed men and Ka Rum were all crimes orchestrated by this person." "He hacks other people's cyberbrains and forces them to commit suicide." "we seem to be dealing with a super-wizard class hacker." "Wizard-class?" "we figured out how Ka Rum's terrorist attack was going to work." "What did you learn?" "You should come see this for yourself." "It looks like Ka Rum was trying to spread his virus by implanting children with micromachines." "my ass!" "No human being could come up with something this sick!" "Section 9 is going to figure out my M.O. one of these days." "hold the fort while I'm gone." "Looks like controlling two prosthetic bodies at once is my limit." "I suppose our only option is to start their training again from square one." "and we even tried using natural oil again... so perhaps this means that their previous environment hasn't been perfectly replicated." "huh?" "Africa was a lot harsher than I imagined." "but it still hit me hard. your O2 extraction rate's gonna take a hit." "I didn't have much choice." "Not as long as I'm working here." "now you..." "I gotta hand it to you guys. we've determined that the group is composed of 16 members: and someone named Raj Puhto." "Who's this Raj Puhto guy?" "What's the likelihood of him being the Puppeteer?" "He doesn't seem to have successfully entered the country yet." "We've verified that much from their communications log." "There aren't a whole lot of people who will follow you to the grave when you tell 'em to die with you." "Things always seem to work out that way when dictators buy the farm." "16 people is nothing to sneeze at..." "Batou?" "When'd you get back?" "don't let me interrupt you." "let's continue." "Next. was brought into the country. a genetically-engineered form of smallpox that's had a time-release function added." "That's one nasty little bug that they lost track of..." "Batou." "There's something that I need to make sure of." "You're sure that you didn't see anyone at Ma Shaba's hospital?" "Yeah." "there wasn't any indication of intervention by a third party?" "Nope." "If you say so." "What exactly are you getting at?" "Well... we weren't able to ID the owner of that crushed car in the parking lot." "Maybe it was stolen." "that's pretty doubtful." "part of the security camera footage had been deleted." "I'm thinking that we should work under the assumption that someone else was there." "And that "someone" was the Puppeteer?" "Possibly. but there's lots of evidence to suggest that this "Puppeteer" hacker will pick up where Ka left off. while investigating the Puppeteer at the same time." "Roger." "Togusa." "What do you want me to do?" "get some RR." "Eliminating the main cause of human error is your top priority." "Gotcha." "I'll take you up on that offer." "and Batou?" ""It's about time you reeled him in. or you can work under me on the Puppeteer investigation." "I'll leave the choice up to you." "What'll it be?" "Do you even need to ask me that?" "I'm on the Puppeteer." "All right." "Learned anything?" "a few things." "Skip the preliminaries and fill us in." "I got the results back from the medical checks we ran on the 16 kids." "There were no signs that they'd been injected with micromachines. they're all basically healthy. and their ID's had been rewritten to turn them into somebody else. they had no memories whatsoever. there was just old people there living by themselves." "Any chance that those old people are really their parents?" "Not likely." "We saw everything from an old woman living alone in a 10-by-8 room to a rich old coot who could afford to pay for nursing robots out of his own pocket." "they were all Noble Rot Senior Citizens who were hooked up to the nursing system." "there were no signs that any children had ever lived there. too." "What are these "Noble Rot Senior Citizens"?" "the term came from the way old people who are hooked up to what's called the "Fully Automatic Nursing System" and given bare minimum medical treatment lie there like grapes infested with noble rot shrivelling on the vine. to prevent them from dying alone and unnoticed. they started mocking it as a thinly-disguised asset collection system." "You sure know a lot about this." "I've heard all about it from the old ladies who come to my pachinko place." "It's kind of like a bare-bones version of the model that was next to Ka Rum's bed." "wait a minute." "right?" "why did he go to the trouble of erasing their memories of their parents? wouldn't it have been smarter to erase the memories of the abduction and then send them back home?" "you're asking the wrong guy." "you definitely have a point there." "he's going to an awful lot of trouble." "The operations seem to have been performed prior to the abductions." "as well." "Labor and Welfare. a consent form signed by a parent or guardian is required by law." "There were 144 missing ampules... we should probably check to see if there are any kids listed there who fit the same description." "Good call." "and Welfare the records would've been automatically recorded in the databases of the MHLW and the Management Ministry." "If they were abducted afterwards and their family registries were altered... there'll be a discrepancy in the number of kids listed as cyberized in the national ID system... and Welfare." "I follow you." "Since we have 16 here who say they have the same last name... that should be true." "000?" "!" "There has to be some kind of mistake." "somebody would've noticed." "you're right." "that number's way larger than anything we expected." "What do you want to do?" "Let's start by eliminating the worst case scenario." "figure out the names and addresses of the excess children in the database." "I'm on it." "I can have that for you in a few seconds." "A trap?" "!" "This is an emergency." "Class E virus detected." "Shut down all equipment immediately." "This is an emergency..." "Beginning virus scan." " Vaccine pattern match in progress." " Shut down all equipment immediately." "Incursion into server has reached..." "It's no use!" "It's not accepting any commands!" "Higaki!" "Soga!" "Lock down the backup server!" "Too late!" "It's already been compromised!" "then!" "Gimme a hand!" "There was a virus planted in the Management Ministry's database?" "too!" "The MHLW's data is intact?" "though." "Move it!" "Management Ministry database is..." "I bet the Management Ministry's buzzing like a poked beehive right about now." "we just lost the best lead we had... 000 abductions." "What do you mean?" "Common sense says there's no way that Ka Gael's crew could have pulled off that many abductions." "the Puppeteer." "The M.O. is just too sloppy. don't you think it's strange that he'd leave traces of tampering in just the national ID system?" "now please find them." "I think he's got something else in mind." "I have to concur with your opinion." "Chief?" "These were delivered to the MHLW's Pathogenic Microorganism Isolation Facility." "Analysis has identified them as a Seok-produced micromachine virus." "This would certainly seem to suggest that our intel was indeed correct." "What did the person who delivered it look like?" "or when." "So there's a chance that this person might be the Puppeteer?" "It's certainly possible." "what's the Puppeteer's final objective in all this?" "It wasn't to keep Ka's terrorist plot rolling?" "It would seem that there's a chance that the Puppeteer is a hacker sent by some government agency or other." "The skill with which Ka Rum's death was covered up has been nagging at me." "I heard rumors of a rather suspicious conversation that took place between the Prime Minister and the Foreign Affairs Ministry not long ago. the man who was such a big thorn in the government's side?" "yes." "we should probably think of the abductions as a decoy." "Which Section was it that took the job? we and the government are on the same page." "I believe we should let sleeping dogs lie and avoid worsening the situation." "but it ends there." "I'm temporarily pulling you off of the investigation into the Puppeteer." "That is all." "man... and now we've got an assload of loose ends to tie up." "the least we can do is track down those kids' parents as soon as we can." "I'm on my way there now." "Sorry I'm late." "I need to ask you something." "what?" "Who made you pull us off this case?" "The Treaty Review Department?" "you mean that." "I cut a deal with Nakamura. we were allowed to take possession of the micromachine virus." "And you're okay with that? you should be offended that they didn't ask us to do it." "old man?" "not when we're like this." "or do we rejoice?" "The answer to that question will determine what path we will walk down in the future." "I completely understand the point you're trying to make." "But we also must consider the possibility that the Major will never return to Section 9." "Her talents were even rarer than ESP." "no one can fill her shoes but her." "I myself won't be able to stay here forever. shouldn't we create an organization capable of tackling three at once using only 80%?" "Don't you think that's the best way for it to carry on our ideals even after we're gone?" "That's what I had in mind as I worked to expand our organization." "Making Togusa the squad commander was part of that larger plan." "things might have worked out differently." "I'm not cut out for positions like that." "perhaps you're right." "But it's different with Togusa." "A man has to overcome a great many hurdles for his innate talent to blossom." "I want you to give him the support he needs." "I think he's doing a fine job." "The Major'd say that he's keeping his personal feelings out of the way of doing his job. as well as the prosthetics he got." "But I doubt he had an easy time of winning their understanding." "That's something that I was never able to do to the very end." "I'm glad we were able to talk like this again." "It doesn't look like I'll be able to make it home again tonight." "It can't be helped." "You're in a position of responsibility now." "have the kids been behaving?" "Yes. it's been a little quiet around here without those two fighting." "huh?" "She's growing up." "she's six now." "she's six already... okay?" "Sure." "Will do." "we have an emergency!" "Get to Flat 47 right away!" "What happened?" "!" "sir..." "The children are..." "They were gone by the time we realized what was up." "It's just like what happened with Ka Gael..." "Sure looks that way." "The Puppeteer... he would've made him pull the trigger a long time ago." "He's just trying to buy time!" "Shit!" "Ishikawa!" "Borma!" "Use the IR-System to find those kids ASAP!" "We're barely able to keep the damn lights on right now!" "too!" "Get Proto to the analysis room." "Togusa!" "We need to talk!" "It can wait until later!" "Finding those kids comes first!" "This is important!" "I think I might know who the Puppeteer is." "It's Aramaki." "Pardon me." "What kept you?" "things are hectic at work." "Colonel Tonoda?" "I see." "Don't be so hard on him." "They tell me that his health problems are due to the stress of prison life." "Where's that ingrate Tsujisaki?" "He hasn't come to see me even once." "He's forgotten the debt he owes to the man who looked out for him more than anyone else!" "too." "Let's step outside for a minute." "There's something I want to give you." "There's nothing left now of the man they called Colonel Red Demon." "You should think about remarrying." "There's no sorrier sight than a single old man." "I decided long ago that I'd never own anything that I couldn't take to the grave with me." "I see." "what was it that you wanted to give to me?" "Right." "This is it." "I ran into the Major at Ma Shaba's hospital." "The Major?" "You can't be saying that..." "I didn't think it was possible." "I became more and more convinced that she had to be the Puppeteer." "I missed my chance to bring it up earlier." "Did you see her kill Ma Shaba?" "No." "But I did see her walk off with the ampules." "I'd always butt in whenever it seemed like the Major might be involved in a given case." "I always thought that she was helping us solve the case in her own way." "But this time is different." "What the hell is the Major trying to do?" "Hell if I know." "But it was the Treaty Review Department that set up the hit on Ka Rum." "That's probably where the Major is." "Batou!" "I want you and Saito to head for beltway #16 immediately!" "This has top priority!" "too." "He's what?" "!" "but I think the Puppeteer is..." "Let's keep this to ourselves for now." "I'll try to verify it for myself." "right?" "I suppose it is." "what's happened on your end?" "security cameras in coastal district 2 happened to catch sight of an internationally-wanted criminal." "Huh?" "Who is he?" "He must be a tough customer if you want me and Saito on it." "formerly of the Seok Republic." "Lieutenant Raj Puhto." "that was one of the names from... huh?" "He was the commander of Ka Rum's personal guard." "he'd sought asylum in China after Seok fell... there must be something to this..." "Right." "the Intelligence Bureau has a fix on his current position." "I want the two of you to tail him and find out what his objective is." " Roger." " Roger." "if it turns out that the Major is the Puppeteer and we have to take her on... either." "I'll repay you for this favor." "I'm afraid I can't stay any longer today. but you didn't turn out anything like me." "It makes me happy that a fool like me produced a genius like you." "all right?" "Colonel." "What's his M.O. gonna be for his sniping?" "The same as mine." "and then take his shot." "Which means it's only a matter of time before we lose the ability to track him by GPS." "we have to catch him before then." "Lemme take over." "I'm gonna get a look at his face." "Don't let him spot you." "I have confirmation." "this is our guy." "Togusa!" "The IR-System has picked up one of the kids." "Really?" "What's his location?" "Walking through the grounds of the Kohoku public housing projects." "that's near where I live." "I'll go check it out." "I'll put in a call to the PPD." "000 abduction cases for us..." "Looks that way." "I guess we have to put the Major on the backburner for now..." "Treaty Review Department #6 Archive Room" "I presume?" "It's certainly a fitting name." "I received an inquiry a few minutes ago from Public Security Section 9 asking me if I knew who a hacker known as the Puppeteer might be." "I don't." "what did you want to talk to me about?" "I came here to refund your payment. we don't care what you do to get the job done." "but you won't be seeing me again." "I'll leave a net channel open for you to contact us." "Feel free to... too?" "too..." "The sun's about to come up... why do you think he decided to come here now?" "You don't think it's to carry out Ka Rum's revenge?" "but how would he have gotten his hands on that intel?" "Even we were left out of the loop on that little tidbit." "You have a point." "how much longer is this guy gonna keep driving around town?" "there's that building again." "isn't that the... the kid just went into apartment 602 in building N25." "Can you find it?" "I know this neighborhood like the back of my hand." "A Noble Rot Senior Citizen..." "Give him back!" "Everything I have is invested in that boy!" "I'd sooner will it to somebody off the damn street than let the government take it!" "the boy would've died of abuse if I hadn't taken him in..." "That's the will of the people of all those who live in the Solid State... our just economic action!" "keep your nose out of our society!" "Consider yourself... warned..." "I'm definitely getting the feeling that his sniping target is in there." "Yeah... okay?" "sir." "Cardiac arrest confirmed." "Requesting disposal of remains and retrieval of nursing system." "didn't he have some family somewhere?" "There's a six-year-old kid listed in his file... maybe?" "that's one less job for me to do..." "Sacred Citizen Relief Center he's missing because I rescued him." "the boy would've been taken into custody by them as part of their standard procedure." "Special operatives committing suicide..." "Vanished children..." "Noble Rot Senior Citizens..." "The will of the people of those who live in the Solid State... what does "Solid State" mean in the first place?" "What did that old man mean?" "It's me." "I finally got through!" "you've got to come home at once!" "Our daughter is missing!" "That clinches it..." "Let's get after him!" "Wait!" "he's got optical camouflage?" "What the hell is going on?" "!" "Her GPS is turned off..." "Is it the Puppeteer?" "But she doesn't have any cyber implants yet!" "I need you to pinpoint which satellite he's using!" "the instant he starts to shoot is gonna be our first and last chance to get him! but how are you gonna actually spot the guy?" "He should be in this zone... but we'll be able to spot his position from up here." "Change into this." "You're too easy to see." "I should be able to take him!" "Let's get started." "Bingo!" "Send it to me!" "This guy's his target?" "I've got a back-trace on his position!" "SE-37..." "That's where he is?" "Send my data back at him!" "They're lining up a shot on me?" "!" "Saito!" "Did I nail him?" "Sit tight!" "I'll go check!" "hurry up!" "Huh?" "Daddy?" "Well?" "why don't ya?" "That's a relief... then... who was that guy you were gunning for?" "Why were you trying to kill him?" "It was to avenge the General's death..." "I'm gonna kill every last one of you Japs." "To get revenge?" "Don't give me that crap!" "Where'd you get your hands on that piece of intel?" "It was a tip that I got from a double agent." "so I should go kill him." "And what's the name of this double agent?" "An assemblyman named Munei who spends a lot of time at the Foreign Ministry..." "I need you to collar an assemblyman by the name of Munei ASAP." "here's a picture of the guy that Raj was trying to kill." "Looks like he's the mastermind behind the hit on Ka Rum." "the man in this picture is the assemblyman named Hitoshi Munei..." "What're you trying to pull?" "The guy you were trying to whack is the same guy who fed you your intel!" "That's his problem." "Maybe he wanted to commit suicide or something." "Commit suicide?" "pal?" "Shit..." "Maybe it is." "I would've killed it right off the bat..." "I'm gonna be so pissed..." "The Puppeteer isn't human?" "It's the name of the mechanism for abducting kids that's built into the Solid State..." "The Solid State?" "Hey!" "What the hell is the Solid State?" "You really don't know?" "It's the nursing net..." "The government of this democratic country of yours goes around abducting children..." "It's too damn funny..." "I need a paramedic team and a chopper over here." "And do some digging into this Munei guy's background." "Something fishy is going on." "Understood." "I found her right after I called you." "It sounds like she was with the neighbors since this morning." "I'm just glad that it was a false alarm." "You shouldn't leave the house without telling Mommy." "Okay!" "Good girl." "I'll drop her off at school." "though." "Are you sure?" "You look exhausted." "Just seeing you two makes me feel better." "if you say so." "See you later!" "What is it?" "Nothing!" "Togusa!" "too." "Which means that the Major is..." "Yeah." "But the Major might not be the Puppeteer after all." "Raj Puhto says that the Puppeteer is the name of an abduction mechanism that's built into the nursing net." "Abduction mechanism?" "Yeah." "and implied that the government is involved somehow." "she told me to stay away from the Solid State." "I thought that "solid state" was referring to cyber implants." "she was telling me to stay away from her." "But maybe she was actually telling me to stay away from the nursing net." "and got themselves purged." "That makes sense..." "It's from Mommy." "Give me a minute." "Hello?" "You ignored our warning." "Hey!" "That mistake will cost you your adorable little daughter." "Togusa!" "What's wrong?" "!" "Ishikawa!" "Can you get me Togusa's current location?" "!" "I can look it up." "Why?" "What's up?" "His cyberbrain's being hacked!" "Daddy?" "This isn't the way to school... huh?" "and how do the abducted kids fit into it?" "000 children disappear to?" "We are simply recycling Ghosts that have been foolishly allowed to go to waste." "I am about to let you experience for yourself exactly what some of them went through." "Kohoku Cyberbrain Surgical Hospital" "Batou!" "I have a fix on Togusa's location!" "He's at the Cyberbrain Surgical Hospital over in Kohoku New Town!" "Now I get it." "the doctors will perform the cyberization surgery without suspecting a thing." "and the abduction is complete." "and my daughter will have vanished." "You don't need to feel bad about having your memories altered." "memories are constantly being altered on a subconscious level." "The probability of such alterations already exceeds that of being in a traffic accident." "huh?" "That's the place?" "I'll never let you people take my daughter." "honey." "Do you think you can do what Daddy's about to ask?" "run away as fast as you can." "Run away?" "That's right." "just like field day at school." "run with all you've got." "don't look back." "Can you do that?" "then." "Close your eyes." "honey." "Togusa!" "I love you." "Togusa!" "Max!" "Musashi!" "Everything's okay." "Don't worry." "Major?" "I had to wait until the very last second." "Sorry about that." "I guess this means that you aren't the Puppeteer..." "Where have you been all this time?" "Daddy!" "secretly stepping in on my own to solve crimes that couldn't be dealt with through organization-based methodology. and have been conducting an independent investigation of my own." "I can't believe you used Togusa as bait!" "Did you ever stop to think that you might be putting his family in their crosshairs?" "I made sure that I had safeguards put in place." "we should now know who the Puppeteer really is." "What?" "You mean "Puppeteer" isn't the name of a system that's running on the nursing net?" "it would probably be more accurate to call it a gestalt of all the senior citizens who are attached to the nursing net." "But there's an independently-running hub cyberbrain that manages the whole thing." "A hub cyberbrain?" "are those what I think they are?" "!" "I constructed them out of data I found drifting in the net." "no see!" "It's nice to see that you're doing well!" "The nursing net has had a back door installed in it ever since its design stages." "Look." "This is the full view of the rhizome that's been woven by the senior citizens' gestalt." "A rhizome doesn't contain the concept of a "center."" "That's why the hub cyberbrain is constantly in motion." "or the rhizome itself might be acting as the hub." "so now I know what's going on." "But who or what is the hub cyberbrain?" "Max!" "Musashi!" "Report your findings." "What's the problem?" "I don't know how to break this to you..." "You failed?" "though!" "where is it?" "The Sacred Citizen Relief Center building!" "That's where the heart of the nursing net is!" "They've arrived." "Disengaging locks." "Major." "I suppose it has." "It's too bad that this reunion wasn't under happier circumstances." "What made you decide to come back?" "Let's save that discussion for later." "Our first order of business right now is to apprehend the Puppeteer." "Hitoshi Munei." "Assemblyman in the Lower House." "The reason why he was marked for death is our sole lead in uncovering the true identity of the Puppeteer." "He's a reactionary conservative nationalist who's always been a vocal supporter of the formation of a ruling class comprised of pure-blooded Japanese. and he also has strong ties to the Treaty Review Department." "He was also involved in Ka Rum's assassination." "Major?" "I contracted out to the Treaty Review Department so that I could make it look like Ka Rum had been assassinated." "But the Puppeteer got to him before I could." "you were only responsible for covering up his death afterwards." "more or less." "We've also learned that Hitoshi Munei has secured a leadership position in the day-to-day operations of the Sacred Citizen Relief Center." "What's in it for him?" "The place is just a relief center that provides senior health care and vocational training. it acts in reality as a training agency for the power elite." "So the place is a veritable brainwashing factory..." "That must be what Raj Puhto meant when he implied that the government was involved. it means that the fact that Munei is using it as a brainwashing factory is what the Puppeteer has a problem with." "Chief." "How about conducting a compulsory investigation?" "Our top priority is to find the missing children." "but raiding the place will cause a scandal." "it won't just be a scumbag of a politician that catches heat for it." "Ishikawa!" "How's it coming?" "Major?" "You picked a hell of a time to rejoin the fold..." "I found evidence of a massive amount of equipment being brought in..." "but that's pretty flimsy evidence as a basis to conduct a raid." "How about footage from the inside?" "I only found footage from their manual labor wing." "The defense barrier protecting the education wing is a complex virtual experience maze." "I had no luck at all sneaking in." "Just looks like refugees..." "So the abducted children are being held in the education wing..." "Which means that the abduction mechanism had already been built into this place during its planning stages." "I'd have a hard time imagining that a rank-and-file politician would have the guts to propose such an audacious policy." "So you believe that the Puppeteer was among those who were involved in laying the project's groundwork?" "Ishikawa." "Use decoys to make it look like hackers are trying to dive the place." "I'm going in." "it'll give you guys some cover." "Section 9 will be able to carry on." "Batou." "I don't like to hear that kind of talk." "so you're the one who's going to retire this time?" "but the only reason I came here is to ID the Puppeteer." "It's certainly true that you always need someone who can get their hands dirty for you." "I don't have anything to lose right now." "but I'm going in there myself." "The Puppeteer is waiting for a chance to eliminate Munei." "I don't want to let this chance slip by." "But how do you intend to go about finding the Puppeteer?" "We still don't have the foggiest idea who he really is." "I'm going to keep my ears open." "My Ghost will whisper it to me." "huh?" "Hup..." "Hup..." "Hup... huh?" "Here we go..." "Let's do it!" "is there?" "I'm not used to my joints yet... but their response seems strange..." "Go to alert status just in case." " Understood." " Understood." "huh?" "Oops!" "I guess we have each other's attention... huh?" "They're wasting their time." "I'm going out to inspect the facility." "secure an evac route!" " Roger." " Roger." "W-Who are you people?" "What good would that do you?" "Then I'd have to kill you." "I've lost communications?" "Here come the security cyborgs!" "you go on ahead." "The one who got inside is as good as dead!" "Go after the think-tanks!" "Got it." "huh?" "all right... he's following us..." "That's fine with me." "No thermal signatures or shadows... huh?" "Which means they're..." "Your intel's way out of date!" "They don't call Type-3302 a cloak of invisibility." "Son of a..." "Shit!" "You little..." "Get off of..." "Mow 'em down." "Roger!" "Back me up." "I'll be able to gain control of the system in a few more minutes." "Leave it to me." "Haven't we always worked this way?" "Togusa!" "What's your current position?" "!" "Major?" "I'm making my approach up the wall of the building." "Good." "Make your way to the roof and rendezvous with the Chief!" "I've found out where the children are." "Let's go!" "Assemblyman Munei." "We're Public Security Section 9." "We've already seen for ourselves what you're up to here." "a large-scale compulsory investigation... wouldn't it?" "Public Security?" "but it's the government's most vital agency." "You self-righteous Public Security pissants have no business here! this looks exactly like the sort of situation that we have to intervene in." "but I don't think you understand the gravity of the threat that this country faces. our country's prosperity will be supplanted by other races. and entrusting our future to them!" "do you find wrong with that?" "Those taxes are money that you've exploited out of the elderly and the refugees that you bind to this place!" "either." "Stop and think about it." "What have they ever done for the good of this country?" "They don't build families or have children!" "They don't fulfill their duty as taxpayers!" "take care of me!" "Their selfishness is appalling!" "I'd put a new tax on them to make up for the tax revenue we lose because they're too old or can't work anymore!" "You're splitting hairs." "perhaps you could tell me what you politicians have been doing all this time? and constantly putting the pressing problems at hand on the back burner?" "I'm proud of the fact that I have taken responsibility for it." "Are you also proud of violating human rights and cyberbrain ethics laws?" "I believe that those were steps that had to be taken." "don't you?" "I ran a check on the number of children here." "000 at most." "I see." "Switch your comm channel to autistic mode." "Roger." "Assemblyman." "Were you aware that a system to automatically abduct children was designed into this center?" "These children aren't orphans." "The vast majority are children who were abducted." "It was our investigation into those abductions that led us here." "You yourself are a material witness in that case. and I certainly don't recall incorporating a bug like that into the system!" "we'll question the people who came up with the system!" "It was me." "I was the one who devised the core concepts that the Solid State system is founded on." "Togusa!" "Take everybody into custody!" "Roger!" "I'm going to dive this guy's cyberbrain before his memories pull a whiteout!" "Back me up!" "I hope I'm in time!" "I'm connected." "Gotcha." "I'm boosting your signal." "but the output is dropping." "do you think you can boost his output?" "Let's try going in through a Tachikoma." "Come back up!" "There's no time!" "Puppeteer?" "Puppeteer?" "Puppeteer..." "That's the name of the hub cyberbrain that oversaw the Noble Rot Senior Citizens' rhizome." "Yes..." "I'm entering his right visual center." "too..." "Hey!" "What happened?" "I'm patching him into my speech center." " I owe you a debt of gratitude." "then dive again!" "you see." "but he's an old-fashioned type who hates the thought of cyberization." "Who the hell are you?" "What are you using the abducted children for?" "perhaps my motives were the same as Munei's." "This country has reached the point where someone has to step in and take action." "The problem of 6 million-plus Noble Rot Senior Citizens... and the proportionally decreasing worker population that's continuing unabated." "And then there is the declining birth rate..." "There is no end to the problems that must be addressed. 000 children under the age of six needlessly lose their lives every year?" "30% of those deaths can be attributed to domestic abuse." " Well?" "Can you do it?" " And in 80% of those cases..." " I'll try." "but they were unable to prevent the deaths." "and the potential of the individual is declining considerably." "Major!" "and you're gonna whiteout along with him when he dies!" "That's when I came upon the idea of recycling Ghosts that were needlessly being damaged." "and then launder their family registers." "I thought that would give them a new chance at life." "that's the core concept of the Solid State system?" "the assistance of the Noble Rot Senior Citizens was essential." "They hunger for something that will give them a reason to exist." "and there would be someone to bequeath their estate to." "they could simply use the net and continue to take part in this economic action." "They happily gave my plan their approval." "don't you?" "those were the only possible means." "My main task was to save these children who were in danger as soon as I could." "even though it's cost me my life." "it means that my life as a bureaucrat had meaning." "All that remained was to reinforce the Solid State system to make it into a self-perpetuating mechanism. and it was found out. it was an understandable reaction on their part." "but why Munei?" "Because he held the children prisoner here. my giving them a new lease on life was all for nothing. they won't develop a strong will of their own. and it was the main reason why I had to eliminate him." "But you people had to go and show up this time... my plan has now progressed smoothly to its next phase." "but now I've succeeded in getting you to link me directly into it." "Major!" "You killed yourself just to lure me into linking with you?" "!" "I should be able to eliminate Section 9 all at once." "I'm surprised." "but you have so much drive that it's a waste of your talent to be a bureaucrat." "you know all about me..." "Who the hell are you?" "!" "Kusanagi Motoko..." "Surely there can't be many people in your memory who are burning with this much egotistical righteousness." "We've synchronized with countless consciousnesses over the years." "It shouldn't come as a huge surprise that your deep collective subconscious came to life." "the Solid State will be complete." "let's become a vanishing mediator and go take an active hand in the next society." "I can't see anything." "Somebody give me a status report." "huh?" "Batou?" "Are you there?" "What's happening?" "Where am I?" "what have they decided to do with the children?" "it looks like they're going to be returned to their real parents for the time being." "even knowing about the abuse..." "I wonder if that's really what's best for the kids." "Perhaps the fact that they can't answer that question after all this highlights the limitations of our system." "What'll happen to those kids who found foster parents and managed to get out before their brainwashing education could begin?" "We'll probably have to wait a long time for the verdicts of what I expect will be some rather complicated trials as they go through them on a case-by-case basis." "what can we even hope to do about things like this?" "The only thing I can tell you is this:" "All we can do is continue to work within the rules that govern us to make a stand against the unjust." "they've reached their full potential and will find the answers that we weren't able to." "the "Solid State system" is a pretty ironic name." "The guy's metaphor of choice was "transistors" to describe the cyberbrains of senior citizens... isn't it?" "I was a little freaked out to learn who the Puppeteer really was." "How do you mean?" "We learned a few things after you lost consciousness when he died." "That pencil-pusher actually died two years ago." "33." "and was on the fast track to elite status since childhood." "Joined the Ministry of Management and Coordination right after graduating college. possibly because he had become a civil servant with no sense of purpose." "he was allowed to work from home via a remote prosthetic body... he apparently carried out his duties in an indifferent manner. which would be carried out by manipulating both the Welfare and Management Ministries." "Koshiki independently designed and implemented his abduction system." "he wasn't the kind of guy who stood out. not one damn person noticed that he had gotten sick and died at home." "the true identity of the Puppeteer is gonna remain a mystery forever." "So does that mean that somebody else entirely was using that remote body to cause all this?" "It's possible." "that theory is probably more likely. their actions were caused by their collective unconscious." "So there's no way for us to find out for sure now." "Oh." "thatis for the conversation between you and Koshiki that was recorded in the Tachikomas' memory." "It's still in there? ...all of his memories underwent a whiteout." "Batou?" "kinda." "does it? all that stuff is on its way toward being resolved now." "this case is still more or less closed." "Written off as a scandal involving a handful of bad-apple politicians?" "Batou..." "What have I been feeling so jaded and disillusioned about?" "What do you think I was searching for as I was wandering the net?" "Truth?" "Friendship?" "Or maybe a certain special someone?" "Maybe I just wanted to blame this organization or even the system for my own sense of helplessness." "What's gotten into you?" "You turning all meek and modest on me?" "Did you get whatever it was out of your system?" "what're you gonna do now?" "You plan on keeping up that "conducting investigations chosen by personal deduction" routine of yours by yourself?" "too. it doesn't feel like my actions are accomplishing anything." "I guess I'm right back to where I started from..." "What's that supposed to mean?" "That your way of saying you're coming back to Section 9?" "But what about Togusa?" "Won't I get in the way of his development?" "he wasn't gonna go any further anyway." "I wouldn't sweat it if I were you." "Maybe you're right." "the net truly is vast and infinite." "Maybe a new society we've never even dreamed of is already being born."