AD 2030. Major Motoko Kusanagi stands on a rooftops eavesdropping on a man who is trying to set up a gas bomb in the
air conditioning vents of a building below her. She engages him, and he is no much for her. When he tries to
flee, she shoots his ankle, blowing his foot right off. After the subject is subdued, Aramaki contacts her,
telling her that the group has to assemble. Batou, who is close by, comes to pick Kusanagi up. Something
important is going on, and Section 9 is needed.
The police and the military heads are arguing about a situation, and whose jurisdiction it is in. Aramaki
enters the room, he is colleges with the army head, a man named Kubota, and the police respect him, so he is
able to get Section 9 to take on the situation. It seems that at a restaurant, the geisha robots have turned
violent, and taken hostage the customers inside, which just happen to include be the Minister of Foreign Affairs and
his colleges, as while as two visitors from a North American Industry. It is feared some might already be
dead. No demands have been made.
Still curious as to why the army would want to get involved in the first place, Aramaki cable connects with
Kubota and asks why. Kubota explains one of their men is inside the restaurant, but can't say anymore then
that right now, Aramaki understands.
By now, Section 9 is all ready well on their way to getting the situation fixed. Aramaki contacts Kusanagi,
warning her that the army wants to get involved, and to be careful. Section 9 gets ready to strike the
building and rescue the hostages. Kusanagi, Batou and Ishikawa get ready to storm the building, Saito stands
back with his sniper rifle aimed at the windows, Kusanagi deduces that someone nearby must have hacked into the geishas in order to control them. Paz and Borma wait nearby in a car to pursue the person if the rest fo the team is able to
flush him out.
Aramaki gives the order to strike, and the team goes in. Kusanagi, Batou and Togusa activate their thermoptic
camo, making them invisible. They strike silently, terminating each geisha. Kusanagi quickly plugs into one
destroyed geisha and sends a tracking tracking virus back to the person who's controlling them on a
nearby rooftop. It destroys his equipment and gives him a bit of a shock. The man runs, but Borma and Paz
follow the tracking virus and chase after him. Kusanagi and Togusa take care of the hostages, while Batou goes
to help Paz and Borma with catching the suspect. The Minister of Florigen Affairs is luckily unhurt, as well
as most of the other customers. Unfortunately, the Minster's secretary has been critically injured and a man
from the North American Industry has been killed.
The man who was controlling the geishas is heavily cyborged, and as a result is able to outrun Paz and
Borma. Batou cuts him off and jumps him, keeping him in a head lock. Seeing no way out, the man does
something totally unusual, he erases his own memory. Paz, Borma and Batou are annoyed.
The next day, Aramaki calls Kusanagi to his office where Kubota has already arrived. Kubota explains to Aramaki
and Kusanagi that the Minister's secretary, the person who was badly hurt in the attack and still unconcious in hospital,
was actually an agent of the military, who Kubota sent to keep an eye on the Minister. It turns out that
there seemed to be some information floating around which linked possible interest in the Minister and
something known as the Ichinose Report, a document that outlines military and diplomatic procedures in a
national crisis. Is it possible that this attack was an attempt to get the Ichinose Report from him? Because the military placed someone to watch The Minister, this creates all kinds of problems for Kubota. There's also the possibility that this
Ichinose Report business is somehow related to the restaurant incident. Aramaki tells Kubota that he will look
into the case, and see what he can do about it.
Kusanagi gets Togusa from shooting practice, and the two go to review the tapes from the restaurant for any
clues. Aramaki is curious about why Kubota and the military would be interested in the Ichinose Report, and
goes to any old colleague for information, meeting him in the park. The colleague says the military really
wouldn't have any reason to care about the Ichinose Report, and tells Aramaki not to try and investigate
further, giving strong hints that it's not something wise to do.
Aramaki leaves, Ishikawa joins him, telling him Kusanagi is waiting for him. Kusanagi and Togusa have
reviewed the tapes, and have found some interesting things. First off, the cyberbrain from the body of the
dead man from the North American Industry is not the same one that the man was registered as having. The next
is that the story given to them by the surviving visitor from the North American Industry doesn't match up with
what's on the tape. On the tape, The Minister goes into the restroom with a geisha (the Minister was drunk,
and wanted to have some fun by switching bodies with the geisha.) He is followed by the North American
Industry man. After a few minutes pass, the secretary goes to the restroom, worried about how long the
minister is taking. It is clear by the tapes that she sees something that startles her, and then she is
attacked. The survivor said his college was killed before the secretary was attacked... but this is not true
judging by the tapes. This tape also raises the whole new question of what the secritary saw. Is this why she
was attacked? The man who was killed was also in the restroom with the minister, was he killed because he saw
something? why was his brain switched? what happened to his old one? why would the surviving visitor lie about
the story>
Togusa is back at the restaurant wondering the same thing, trying to remember what he can from the night when
it suddenly hits him. After the Minister was rescued, before leaving he and picked up a large suitcase...
[i]the exact same suitcase[/i] that the visitor from the North American industry brought into the bathroom
before the attack happened. Why would the Minister take away the dead man's suitcase? Togusa figures it out,
and immediately contacts Kusanagi and Aramaki. The Minister went into the restroom to switch bodies with the
geisha, but while doing this, someone must have taken control of the geisha, who then worked with the man from
the North American Industry to remove the Minister's brain and replace it with that visitor's. This way, they
could have the Minister's looks and be able to have access to the Ichinose report. The secretary must have
walked in on this happening, and that's why she was attacked. The reason that the visitor was killed was
because he wasn't the visitor at all anymore, he placed a dummy brain in the body (which was in the suitcase
he brought into the restroom) then had it killed. He then put the Minister's brain in the suitcase, in order
to use it for any information later on.
Aramaki quickly phones up Kubota to tell him what's going on, but before he can say anything, Kubota has
important information himself, "the Minister" has just paid him a visit, along with people from the North
American Industry, and he took the Ichinose Report with them. The version they have is encoded, but they have
information that "the Minister" is about to take a plane to the USA, and once he's gone with the Ichinose
report, there will be nothing they can do to stop him. The information will be leaked, and they'll have no
way to prove that "the Minister" is really not the Minister after all.
Section 9 rushes to the airport, while "the Minister" finds out his plane has been deleyed fifteen minutes
due to bad weather. He takes this opportunity to look over the encoded Ichinose Report and try to crack the
code. He is interrupted and told his plane has arrived, and is ready for him. Just before he gets through the
gate, Togusa and Aramaki catch up with him. Aramaki hands him a paper, "The Minster" reads it, it is his
official resignation. Aramaki says that with the Prime Minister's authority, "the Minister" is no longer a
Minister, and is being accused of spying. "The Minster" is angry he's been found out, but when he notices
three sniper dots on his chest, he realizes there's not much he can do. Togusa takes the suitcase and
opens it, sure enough, the real Minister's cyberbrain is in there. Aramaki says that whoever he is, he has a
lot of explaining to do.
Aramaki meets up with Kabuto at the hospital, where the secretary to the Minister is now conscious and
recovering. She will never fully recover, but she will be alright in most basic day to day routines. Kabuto
thanks Aramaki for his help on the case, even if they couldn't figure out why exactly someone wanted the
Ichinose Report in the first place. Aramaki says that Kabota should take some credit to. If he hadn't fought
with the regular police force over jurisdiction, Section 9 never would have gotten involved, and the plot to
steal the report would have gone off without a hitch, people would think the Minister of Foreign Affairs was
really a spy and had gone into exile. Proud of the work they've done, and proud of his team, Aramaki gives
Kabota a friendly pat on the arm, and drives away.
Trivia/Did You Notice?:
The man that Kusanagi fights in the first scene is wearing a chain with the Laughing Man design.
