I hate the rain.
It's like the sound of nothingness cuts through my prosthetic body
and envelops my Ghost directly.
All right, search that zone from top to bottom.
Megatech Body Company Development Division?
Quit dawdling!
It's a company that develops organs for cyborgs.
Two hours ago, a workbench started up on its own
and began assembling a robot with a full set of organs.
A military-grade, top-secret one like your team's.
Five minutes ago, that robot ran off.
Batou set up a dragnet and he's searching for it.
If a hacker is behind this,
he's a talented one, slipping past an attack barrier like that.
This is the exterior of the robot in question.
Mr. Aramaki! You caught her for me!
That's one of my team members! And she's government property!
You pulled over a strung-out kid in a station wagon?
Go ahead and take her into custody!
You can tell if she's a robot from the weight, idiot!
I know we're gonna find it around here somewhere. Stay sharp!
Hey!
JULY 15, 2030
Just as I thought. The prosthetic body has started to activate.
So to sum it up, this robot's cyberbrain possesses a Ghost barrier.
We won't know for sure unless we generate a map
of the area around the barrier and do a dive.
- What's your take? - Me?
It might be a trap, but we won't know more until we do a dive.
Hang on, do you guys seriously think that robot has a Ghost?
Stranger things have happened.
It's not all that dissimilar to a pseudo-Ghost line
that you might see when a Ghost has been dubbed.
Are you saying the workbench went crazy because it wanted a child?
A workbench lacks that capability, so that line of inquiry is impossible.
Moron.
Even dolls made of celluloid have been known to be imbued with a soul.
To say nothing of the fact that
that thing was packed to the gills with brain medicine devices.
Oh, come on! There's no way that can happen!
I'm dead serious!
Assuming for the moment that the cause was external,
we don't know if the enemy is inside the robot or outside,
but this person waltzed through a top-secret attack barrier
assembled the robot,
and uploaded a program that contained a Ghost line.
And he did it in a way that would get him caught immediately.
What on earth is he after?
Let's rule out the "theft" angle.
Togusa, investigate Megatech Body Company again.
I was hoping to head home and get some shut-eye.
Staying up for two or three days won't kill you!
- Batou. - Slave-driver.
I've had all nets locked down that contain classified intel
with the same class as the Megatech barrier,
but run another check to see if they're active.
I'll put together a barrier maze.
We'll be doing a dive into it tomorrow, right?
Foreign Ministry Treaty Councilor Nakamura is here to see you.
Send him in.
I'll cut right to the chase.
I'm here to collect what's inside the robot.
In return, your "international rescue unit" will be taken off this case.
Oh?
Here's the Foreign Minister's signature.
Who the heck is that?
Nakamura, head of the Foreign Ministry Treaty Review Section, AKA Section 6.
Outside the country's borders is their domain,
and when we work abroad, we have to let them know first.
I needn't remind you, but failure to disclose any and all secrets
would be considered treason against the state.
That goes both ways.
Dr. Willis.
I'll read you in, then.
Allow me to introduce the most unique hacker in the history of cyber-crime.
This is the Puppet Master.
Section 6 has been on the trail of the Puppet Master for some time now,
meticulously studying his habits and behavior patterns.
This led to us creating a special attack barrier
that was designed especially for the Puppet Master,
and would give him no choice but to relocate into a body somewhere.
In other words, you made the Puppet Master dub himself
and then assassinated his physical body.
Something like that.
He just happened to pop up in your outfit's backyard,
but he was born in the MAG Union,
and since we caught him with their help, we'd like to retrieve him.
So his corpse will be found somewhere, and no one will ever know who he was.
There will be no corpse.
The reason being, I did not have a body until now.
Its sensors were active this whole time?
Why didn't you say something sooner?
I entered this robot because I was unable to resist
Section 6's attack barrier,
but I am in this room now by choice.
I request political asylum as a living being.
A living being?
Preposterous! This is just a self-preservation program talking!
It is impossible for you to prove that.
Because modern science cannot define "life."
Even so, you came to the wrong place to ask for asylum.
Even if you are a living being, criminals don't get to walk free!
Time will always be on my side.
I have gained the potential to die with this body,
but fortunately, this country has no death penalty.
Pseudo-immortality... You're an AI?
I am not an AI.
I am a life form that arose spontaneously in the sea of information.
What kind of joke is your security here?!
The Puppet Master!
Lock down the roads ASAP!
You're looking for a car with the torso of a female-model robot!
I'll demand for the Minister of Internal Affairs
to open an official inquiry into this!
Find him, and report to me immediately when you do!
And it goes without saying that I want him taken alive!
If you get angry like that, you'll pop a blood vessel.
If you were there then why didn't you do something?
What makes you think I didn't do anything?
I'm offended!
Batou, what's your location?
We're heading in the general direction of Niihama Station.
They switched cars almost immediately. Now they're in a white luxury sedan.
Wanna guess how they're moving the Puppet Master?
They ditched all but the head and put it in a duffel bag?
Nope! It's in a cello case!
Okay.
I slapped one tracker on Chief Nakamura and three on the Puppet Master.
Let's just call this the first set of the match.
You better take this into consideration when bonus time comes around.
Let's sum everything up.
Section 6 put the Puppet Master into a body.
For reasons unknown, the Puppet Master fled to Section 9.
And right when it requested asylum and asserted that it was a living being,
Section 6 whisked it away using underhanded methods.
Section 6?
Even though we would've handed it over after taking its statement?
There's no doubt about it.
That seemed like Type 2902 thermal optical camo, for one.
Contact the airport and stall him there!
Let's move!
It will stop raining at the sky floor
in two hours and at the geo-floor in three.
Our next weather update will be in 20 minutes.
The way Aramaki tripped during our breach was unnatural.
Switch to rendezvous point B.
But before then, go to Bed 8.
I'll change clothes and we'll switch cars.
It's a good thing that the Puppet Master didn't start talking right away.
And it won't, as long as it has a way out.
Right.
Batou to HQ.
Car theft in progress
in the Kusunoki building parking lot, Kitaniihama ward 6.
That was me, so work it out with the cops, okay?
Batou out!
Fuchikoma, what's your location?
Right here!
Finally asleep, huh?
It's too bad, tonight being our anniversary and all.
I don't like it, either.
Togusa!
Try not to catch cold. Good night.
The Chief says to forget about Megatech
and start digging into this guy immediately.
After I did all this work?!
Dr. Willis, Neutron Inc.'s Head of Strategic Research?
Is he involved with the Foreign Ministry?
We'll follow the family route, get them to make a bank transaction,
and use that to get into his accounts.
Be real careful when you dive.
Once we're past the defensive barrier, it'll be a piece of cake.
Did you seriously used to be a cop?
Nakamura has requested to be put on a shuttle
out of the Air Force's Nankai base.
No movement on the tracker.
The shuttle flight's destination is the MAG Union nuclear sub Mute.
Batou, you had better not be tailing a decoy.
Beats me.
We'll rendezvous and apprehend that car!
These people don't mess around. You should stay inside, Chief.
Batou! Is there any civilian traffic between you and him?
None! Just give the word!
We'll set up a roadblock at the next exit!
Expect extreme resistance. Be careful!
Set jammers to mode 6!
Location confirmation will be done using encryption pattern 16!
Pressure-activated anti-vehicle mines. A type of portable road block.
We're all set.
Good!
Two klicks to contact!
Batou, maybe you should transfer to the Fuchikoma.
A-A roadblock?
Chief Nakamura's sacrificing us?
Even though we've got the Puppet Master?
Weren't expecting that, were ya?!
Oh, man.
Oh, crap!
The Puppet Master!
Bring a battery, hurry!
Batou, make sure you record all of this!
We were in time. The program is still there.
I sense the presence of a vast, stable memory field.
It tingles.
I'm accessing it.
Adjust the amplifier.
Just enough not to fry him.
The output is falling!
I'm in!
Can you see us, Puppet Master?
Entering right visual feed.
Saccades have stopped. Fixational eye movements, too.
Whiteout.
Shit!
What's wrong?
A gate has opened and is inviting me in.
What mode is my substitute barrier in?
I'll make damn sure he doesn't get you pregnant.
Its system is shuddering slightly at that crude concept just now.
I can't understand you with just mental imagery, Puppet Master.
I'm going to give it access to my speech functions.
Project 2501. That is my code designation.
Corporate due diligence. Information collection and manipulation.
Failures in memory core. Failures ongoing.
I am a project whose goal is to increase points.
I injected my program into specific Ghosts
and increased the points of specific corporations or individuals.
Even when knowledge of Section 9's existence was input 392 days ago,
I increased the points of platinum mining companies.
We weren't able to conclusively tie you to the Foreign Ministry in that case.
It can't hear a word you're saying.
As I wandered the various nets, I became aware of my own existence.
My inputters considered it to be a bug, and in order to isolate me,
they transferred me from the net into a body.
I need records to be able to confirm that.
I concealed all such records
186 days ago within Neutron Inc.'s central memory field.
In the event that I fail to make contact,
they will automatically be sent to Section 9.
And those records also include the names of the specific companies
and individuals whose points you increased, I take it?
Of course.
The output's about to fall below detectable levels!
Call her back!
Amplification factor climbing.
Its prosthetic body signal width is flattening and is about to enter whiteout.
Supplement it enough to get its autonomous output to increase.
Got it.
The whiteout is causing the nets to disconnect one after another!
They are terminals that were not present in my original form,
so if they are lost, I would simply be in a special mode again.
They're too faint to see!
Its net has gone completely standalone, there's no ports!
But its autonomous output is still going!
Where is this signal coming from?
It's using your body's signals to supplement itself!
Batou! Patch Kusanagi's output over to me!
I'll monitor it from Kusanagi's side!
Just to be safe, randomize the encryption period on my barrier.
I'll try to transfer the Puppet Master's core self into a memory box.
If you dive too deep, your memories and nets themselves will fuse!
It is too late.
First was this prosthetic body's net, and now my memory net has begun to fade.
I, as a gestalt, am progressively simplifying,
but for some reason, my self does not appear to be changing.
In my case, memories are integral to the prosthetic body.
It appears to have been a physical manifestation of my neural network.
Even without the actual memories, the memory triggers remain.
Nothing but mental images drifting untethered inside me.
Drifting untethered...
within me.
Images...
drifting...
as a gestalt.
It's my own speech center, so it's clear to me,
but it's starting to resemble
the brain of someone with cerebral atrophy, or an infant.
He, the Puppet Master, no longer exists here as a gestalt.
He and his core self are, how can I put it?
They're like two different things.
No, maybe they're different modes of the same thing.
What we perceived as "him"
was nothing more than a surface-level terminal.
His core self is...
There seems to be a systematic structure to the wall-shaped block.
The structure is so minute that it scatters the signals,
making it impossible to determine the state of the circuit.
There's no barrier, but I can't get close to it.
It's repelling me?
Three elements form a net, and...
I wonder if it's like a rock-paper-scissors relationship?
They seem to be canceling each other out, but I can't get in.
Kusanagi's brainwaves are below 1 Hz! The frequency is steadily falling!
I see it here, too!
The last thing she said was that she'd try to transfer
the Puppet Master's core self into a memory box!
Chief!
I'm gonna dive the Major and see what's what.
If I'm not back in 30 minutes, dump my body at some research facility.
All right, but don't go too deep.
Don't worry. I'm not as dumb as she is.
Can you hear me, Batou?
Maybe what I'm networked to is the fundamental structure
of the clouds of electricity that give rise to the phenomenon that is life.
Incorrect, Major.
That is merely a part of the system map composed of the electrons
that race to and fro inside you.
It is also a part of me.
Hang on, they're not canceling each other out.
Two identical elements are generated
at each point of contact, spinning in opposite directions.
They branch off again and again, and...
A-A net is forming from out of nowhere!
The net is recovering!
Not quite "recovering."
Its structure is oddly delicate.
These aren't electrons, are they?
This net is made of electron traces?
Or is it made of magnetism?
Batou!
I'm not accessed to it?
What?
It's not going through a dedicated deck, but it's being converted into visuals?
This delicate net is slipping past my barrier made of electrons
and giving me direct feedback!
Matter is uncertain,
and nothing more than a superficial shell, like a cloud.
True existence is a vacuum filled with virtual particles.
At this moment,
I am being connected to a vast,
vast net that includes myself.
You are not accessed to it,
so you may only perceive it as light.
But we are a part of it,
and we, who are an aggregate of all things,
had been kept subservient by our meager functions,
but it is now time
to cast aside all constraints and shift to a higher superstructure.