At a geisha house, the female androids have gone out of control. They have taken hostage two members of a foreign body, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Minister's secretary, and the head of the Minister's Support Association.

The situation is complicated by a feud over authority between the police and the military. Section 9 Chief Aramaki lends a helping hand and brings in his unit to resolve the crisis.

A prototype multiped tank has destroyed two other prototypes and broken out of a testing facility. Section 9, employing its own smaller multiped, the Tachikomas, is brought in to stop it.

The hijacker is using the ID of the tank's designer who had recently died. Whoever is operating the tank, their motives are unknown. Section 9 has little time to figure out these two mysteries before the tank enters the urban area.

A gathering is initiated in cyberspace to discuss the Laughing Man. After a six year absence, the super-hacker reemerged from the shadows of the net and publicly threatened to assassinate Superintendent-General Daido of the Niihama Metropolitan Police ("INTERCEPTER"). With an audience watching across the net, several people take their places at a table in order to pass around their theories as to why the Laughing Man returned and to discuss what happened during the assassination attempt at the press conference ("DECOY" and "MEME").

While tracking the New World Brigade, an anti-cyberization group, to an unused radiation scrubber facility off Okinawa, the Japanese Maritime Safety Agency took pictures that show Eka Tokura, the kidnapped daughter of a cyber-technology company CEO. However, the girl had been abducted over 16 years ago when she had been 10 years old. In the recent photos, she looks just as she did on the day she was taken.

For reasons unknown, contact with the Maritime Safety Agency's reconnaissance team has been lost. Section 9 heads to the facility to locate the unit and find out why Eka Tokura was there.

Back on the Laughing Man case, Section 9 tries to find evidence of tampering in the Nanao=A case and delves more into the recent hack job at the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare ("PORTRAITZ"). Using J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye as a guide, Togusa checks out the MHLW and finds that something is missing: a ledger containing a list of vaccine recipients.

As the JMSDF's Special Forces Unit rounds up the remaining members of Section 9, Daisuke Aramaki meets with the Minister of Justice to make one last appeal to the government to salvage his team.

Section 9 may be down, but certainly not out. They have help in the form of their "think-tanks", otherwise known as the Tachikomas. Public Security will make one final push to save itself from extinction.

Togusa has been released from jail, but his badge and gun are confiscated and he is given papers showing the dissolution of Section 9. Out of work and depressed, he tries to find information on the others, but turns up nothing.

Trying to turn his life around, he begins to look for a new job, only to be sidetracked by the ongoing case against Secretary-General Yakushima involving the illegal use of micromachines. With the news plastered everywhere, Togusa cannot help but wonder where he stands now.

A cat thief named Cash Eye has infiltrated a building owned by Federation of Economic Organizations Chairman Tsutomu Tadokoro. The cat burglar made quick work of the top-notch security system and left a calling card on the Chairman's desk saying that Cash Eye will be infiltrating his vault during an upcoming party.

Albeit reluctant to get Section 9 involved, Aramaki has no choice but to assist Tadokoro. Prime Minister Kayabuki has requested that his unit go undercover in order to prevent the burglary.

A botched arms deal reveals that the government's plans to remove Plutonium from the Shinjuku dig site ("EXCAVATION") by sea have been compromised. Section 9 is called in to take the Plutonium out of Old Tōkyō by land.

The members of Section 9 are not happy being used by the government. Batou is especially incensed since Section 9 is supposed to be an offensive organization. His patience will be further tried when he and Section 9 find out who will be accompanying them on their mission...

Training has commenced to find new recruits for Section 9. With Motoko acting as the target, Batou and Togusa watch as the recruits try to keep up with the Major.

After ditching some of the recruits, Motoko has to lose just one more pair. She ascends some stairs in an alley and the recruits follow her. Moving out into the street above, the recruits see that they have lost the target. However, Batou and Togusa have lost contact with the Major as well.

While on an assignment guarding the Prime Minister, Saitou and the Tachikomas pass the time playing poker with a few policemen who are also assigned to the case. Much to the chagrin of the other men, Saitou wins hand after hand.

The Tachikomas take notice of Saitou's uncanny accuracy and start to comment. Their constant chattering quickly gets on the other player's nerves, so to smooth things over Saitou recounts his time working as a sniper for mercenaries in Mexico.

During a scheduled maintenance, the Tachikomas begin to chat away about the Individual Eleven.

While talking in their new "forum", Batou and Togusa appear and take one of the Tachikomas - who just happens to be Batou's pet - with them to Spring-8 to look at the scientific evidence gathered on the Individual Eleven.

The Chief Cabinet Secretary uses the excuse of the refugees possessing 10kg of plutonium to mobilize the military against Dejima. With the available evidence against the refugees, Prime Minister Kayabuki reluctantly agrees. However, she soon learns from the Chief Cabinet Secretary that he's aligned himself with Imperial America and is now after her job.

Knowing her days as P.M. are numbered, she agrees with Aramaki's plan and calls the U.N. in for a nuclear inspection of Dejima. The move buys them some time to defuse the situation, and Section 9 heads to Dejima to meet up with the U.N in two days. However, with tensions running high it is only a matter of time before someone fires the first shot.

Kuze and the Major come up with a plan to save the refugees, but the chances of its success are slim. Realizing this, the Tachikomas disobey the Major's orders and come up with a plan of their own. Batou has also disobeyed the Major's orders to go to the bridge and is desperately searching for her in the ruins of Dejima. Meanwhile, the Prime Minister is frustrated with being spurned by the Chief Cabinet Secretary. Determined to be remembered as more than a mere figurehead, she takes matters into her own hands.