Original subtitles

New information has come in.

The woman's name is Motoko Kusanagi.

Stay awake, you hillbilly hack!

Mr. Prime Minister, surely you've seen the footage.

I put the question to you, did that look like a legal police action,

or did it not?

The Prime Minister has the floor.

Regarding the matter of the LIC...

I will not be answering any questions.

Are you kidding me?!

- Get lost! - This isn't over!

We demand a proper answer!

The opposition party appears to be intent on forming

an inquiry committee to get to the bottom of the incident.

This has been the scene at the National Assembly.

About that footage...

We arranged for Section 9 to storm the boat while our asset was being observed.

I suppose it all depends on how you spin it.

Section 9 has been a thorn in our side,

so it was the perfect chance to tie their hands.

So perhaps your people can lay off now? How does that sound?

It wouldn't kill you to put more faith in our negotiation techniques.

Our asset was killed.

We can't allow that to go unanswered.

An eye for an eye, eh?

It looks like this assassination inquiry is going to drag on forever.

The Foreign Ministry's Middle East Bureau is raising a stink.

Where did our op's intel leak from?

Who tipped off the media?

The only thing we know for sure is that it wasn't our strike team.

Hey! We have returned!

Goodness, welcome back!

It sucks how the Foreign Ministry's been on lockdown

ever since the Puppet Master case.

The trade talks with Ghorantl are in a week.

They're saying that they had planned to use Section 6 to handle the security.

Apparently, the parents of children who were watching on TV

want to take you to court for murder.

I cracked the final block, Major!

For a kid, he sure used an elaborate barrier.

I'm seeing a few phone numbers.

Now to do a reverse lookup.

Hey, you got some hits!

That one's an alias used by an arms dealer named Ogata.

The fourth one is a courier that went missing, Sakai.

And the one at the bottom is the Mesamian Embassy.

- Stand back! Please stand back! - Sugi-baby!

Sugi-baby? Huh?

Sugi-baby...

I said I don't know anything!

I just read what was on the paper that was handed to me!

Who can bring you video and information? What's your director been up to?

Just don't hurt me!

Don't crap your pants, I'm just asking questions.

I feel so much better, Aramaki.

You've finally remembered that the Ministry of Justice exists.

Was it worth reaching out to you?

About that footage.

It doesn't show the boy who was shot reaching for his gun, or the gun itself.

But as for the rest, it proves that the operation was justified,

so it won't be difficult to bring the inquiry committee around.

I've already submitted the paperwork to enter the gun as evidence.

The media will work themselves into a frenzy, claiming it was planted.

Because that will play better on TV.

You need to throw your team member to the wolves.

Sacrifice someone whose talents are even rarer than a psychic?

It would also mean throwing away her entire intelligence network.

A word of warning from a friend.

Unless you want the assembly to pass a law regulating special forces,

accept a verdict of "professional negligence resulting in death."

You let the media have their win

and get the public on your side by telling them they were right all along.

That's how you save Section 9.

You look like you want to ask something.

But what you're thinking is right. I can't answer that question.

It's not personal.

Think the Foreign Ministry leaned on him?

HQ! Current status of the head of the Foreign Ministry's Middle East Bureau.

Acknowledged.

If word gets out that Mesamia was behind the assassination plot,

public opinion will lean towards being pro-Ghorantl.

It'll give a boost to the Ghorantl trade deal that's been so tricky

while also allowing the Foreign Ministry to get their revenge against Section 9.

Yes?

Chief. We have the doctor's report.

Let's hear it.

He says he examined what was left of the boy's cyberbrain,

and although he was skilled in the use of weapons and ammunition,

he found none of the specialized functions

typically used by armed groups for handling highly sensitive information.

HQ! Get me Kusanagi.

I'm a little busy right now.

You're also thinking that Ghorantl is behind this?

I'm going to go inside their place as soon as I see if it's being surveilled.

What place?

A restaurant.

It's a front that Ghorantl intelligence service uses for their Bed.

Incentives of around hundreds of trillions of yen to build plants from Japan,

who is itching to make friends with oil-producing countries,

is a real hot potato issue for Ghorantl.

They have an even stronger motive than the Foreign Ministry to fake

an assassination to manipulate public opinion.

On paper, you're on suspension at the moment.

Don't cause a fuss.

Understood.

On paper, that is.

Is there a problem?

Did you misplace your textbook or something?

Have you considered the whole point of the Chief telling you to tail me?

We're all worried about you.

You've been acting recklessly these past two months.

Worry about yourself.

If you don't want to leave a grieving widow, that is.

Well? What's your plan?

I'll obey the laws of thermodynamics.

My plan is to rekindle an old friendship with an acquaintance

who's assimilated into Ghorantl intelligence service.

Acquaintance?

Sabiro, Volgarena intelligence service.

Sabiro?

The group Agency to crush Ghorantl

has issued a statement claiming responsibility for the bombing,

and is believed to be a crime targeting the restaurant's 12 Ghorantl employ--

They got the drop on us.

It's a false flag, but playing the Mesamia card has lowered the cost

of making a deal with the Foreign Ministry.

False flag?

Only a rookie like you would set off a bomb while the target was outside.

If they make it look like civilians were the target,

it increases public sympathy for Ghorantl.

Sabiro tripped both to save us,

and to preserve Volgarena's interests.

They've been awfully nice ever since what went down in the Far North.

A few more steps, and your organic lungs would have inhaled flames, and--

Yo, Togusa!

What's this I hear about you tripping and breaking your collarbone?

No brains, no luck, and no results, huh?

Here, have a sasanqua!

You should have this, Major.

If you hadn't thrown yourself on me, I'd be six feet--

Even though you have that broken collarbone because I hesitated?

Your wife will grieve over you someday.

The sooner that happens, the sooner she can move on.

You're one lucky duck, you know that?

For now, you don't have to worry about

being blown to pieces and making trouble for the coroner

or writhing around in some factory's waste oil.

At least until the Major finally meets a fitting end.

You got a hot date in the next life or something?

At the very least, you didn't want to get taken out

by some punk on the deck of a boat at dawn.

There will be periods of heavier showers,

so keep an eye out for traffic snarls.

Any chance of this one going kaboom, too?

Ghorantl intelligence service won't blow up their own Beds for fun.

I need to step out for a minute.

Ghorantl did that?

They'd go that far for the trade talks?

A lot of money is at stake, yeah?

I wouldn't put anything past them.

The world needs those plants.

Only rich countries can afford 'em, though.

There's no telling how many decades it would take to do by hand.

Restoration projects, space development projects,

designing and maintaining molecular machines.

You need a huge artificial intelligence to run it all, too.

Is there any guarantee that it won't result in some nasty weapons?

Of course there isn't.

I'm doing everything I can to make sure they don't.

SEPTEMBER 18, 2030

Why should the people of Japan

get involved in a squabble between two countries on the other side of the world?!

Someone answer that!

Couldn't she have been overreacting in self-defense?

Isn't this already covered by Article 67 or the Police Duties Execution Act?

PUBLIC DEBATE SESSION REGARDING THE FATAL SHOOTING OF A MINOR

We're such an upstanding member of the global community.

If those peace activists had engaged with reality more effectively,

we wouldn't have to take the risks we do.

They hate the thought of violence.

They're the same as us in that regard.

They're hypocrites.

A lifestyle that prioritizes consumerism

is the real act of violence against impoverished countries.

Anything?

Just two would-be snipers.

Only small-timers will turn up at this stage. Stay sharp.

Will do.

Your plan is to use this opportunity

to round up everyone who wants revenge against me, huh?

I haven't been in a courtroom since the Hanka case.

I'm obligated to tell you this.

I've been told that if you agree to plead guilty,

you'll get two years' hard labor, which will be reduced to eight months.

The prison will be attacked before three days have passed,

and I'll be blown to bits.

There's something I'd like to ask you to do for me.

What is it?

Even if I die,

leave my paging channel up and running.

You have my word.

And that is when you saw the victim?

Yes.

Did you give a verbal warning or fire a warning shot?

No.

Did you fire at his leg, then?

I fired at his head.

In your professional opinion, did he look like a threat?

Like a dangerous killer?

He looked like a would-be killer.

Please restrict your answers to yes or no!

No.

So in other words, you fired five special rounds

into the head of a child without a verbal warning or warning shot!

You cruelly robbed him of any chance at rehabilitation!

Of all of his future potential!

When I took away his chance to kill the Foreign Minister or myself,

that is when he died.

You're right. It was cruel. Both for him and for me.

Do all of your operations begin with the presumption of not arresting anyone?

Objection! Irrelevant to the matter at hand.

Your Honor! I want to establish a pattern of behavior for the defendant!

Such a disclosure would do great harm to the nation's secrets,

and as such, doing so would be extremely dangerous.

Objection is sustained.

Prosecution will restrict itself to questions pertaining to this case alone.

As Mr. B testified earlier, and as was seen in the footage that aired,

there is a delay of nearly a second after you saw the victim.

Yes, it was 0.82 seconds.

Given that much time,

surely someone such as yourself might have spared him.

And yet you killed him. Why is that?

Because death is the only reality,

and I am a realist at heart.

More than any individual life,

it is the software that is life, its potential, that has meaning.

The thing that has value.

Was he really him?

Was he even a person?

There's no way of knowing.

But it's clear that he snapped out of the nightmare of his programming.

If his program was to be human sewage,

that makes me a sewage treatment unit that's covered in the stuff.

His real killers are the programmers who made him.

What I did, albeit inadvertently,

was save him.

Come again?

When we first met,

it was under a sunset sky like this, wasn't it?

How long do you suppose it takes for a TV jury to reach an interim verdict?

Around 12 minutes of the 15 minute recess, I hear.

I guess this won't end with just a damages payout, huh?

The prosecutor's office and the public

are out for blood even more than the victim's own mother.

The abuse of authority cannot be tolerated.

I'd like to see your draft of your closing arguments in my defense.

There won't be one.

Am I wrong?

The toilet is calling. I'll be right back.

Unbelievable.

You're such an anachronism, Chief.

Batou. What's your status?

ETA to your Bed No. 3, just shy of two minutes!

Grab a full set of spare parts for my body. I'll need them all!

And don't forget to grab my green bug-out bag.

Will do.

You planning on fleeing the country?

You might say that.

Aramaki!

What are you trying to accomplish with this plan of yours?

Explain yourself.

The Foreign Ministry Middle East Bureau says they'll lodge a protest

using the responses in the assembly!

They're threatening to work with the opposition

to tank the Cabinet's credibility.

I demand that you explain this operation.

Section 9 should retrieve its own member who fled the courthouse.

According to your report, she's on suspension due to mental instability,

but that excuse won't fly this time!

If you don't bring her back ASAP,

I'll charge you with treason against the state!

You summoned me here just to tell me that?

I have a search to conduct, so if you will excuse me.

What's the status of your investigation?

Everything that's happened since the shooting,

the Mesamia assassination plot, supplying terrorists with weapons,

getting Section 9 involved and filming our intervention,

the bombing of the restaurant,

her assertion is that all of it was Ghorantl's handiwork.

She says she will turn over the evidence,

but I assume she'll try to get a new face before doing so.

Katagiri. You have Public Security tailing me, don't you?

Come with me. It will save us all some time.

- Report to me directly. - Yes, sir.

I assumed you would spot our tail.

Of course. I was the one who wrote the playbook.

- Saito calling the Chief. - It's me.

I'm standing in the studio of Chev Mudouma, the face artist.

According to a note the Major left, she's kidnapped him.

She's demanding a fully-equipped, fully-fueled, high-speed chopper.

She says she'll exchange the hostage at West Central Park 25 minutes from now.

"The media's also on the way, so hurry and clear the scene," she says.

We have to stall for time!

Against a pro who wins by being faster?

Get the site locked down and dispatch a sniper team ASAP.

Resigning after being humiliated on camera isn't a dignified way to end your career.

If that happens, it's all over for Section 9, too.

Excuse me.

Sit rep!

There's the hostage, the face artist!

A cop who walked up to the hostage a bit ago was injured!

At the hostage's feet are what appear to be explosives and a wireless device!

Seven minutes until the designated time.

Five minutes until the sniper team arrives!

We only have two minutes to spare?

It means that we've moved two minutes faster than she anticipated.

If she gets the helicopter, I'm assuming it'll fly NOE through the mountains

and then make for the mainland.

It'll be empty.

She'll probably bail out and go into hiding somewhere around this area!

- Cut her off! - Yes, sir!

Chief!

Have the armed soldiers who are hiding in the chopper get out.

Have them line up where I can see them and put their hands up.

You have 30 seconds.

That's her voice! Surround the area where it's coming from!

Director! We've spotted her!

Good!

The hostage, he's...

Take her down!

Don't move!

Over here!

Huh?

The hostage is secure! Do you copy?

We're spraying the suspect and are moving in to--

It's just her boots.

What?!

Come on, that move doesn't merit gasps of shock.

My jacks aren't the same spec as the helicopter's control jack.

Bring me a connector unit.

There must be one that you took from the helicopter.

The sniper team is on site.

The media is watching through super-telephoto lenses.

I'll give you 30 seconds.

She's your member! You should be the one to talk her down!

Former member.

Cheap ploys to buy time won't work on her.

The smart move is to let her escape and then take her

once she's away from the hostage.