I'm a soldier, znatchit ya... I'm a soldier, and that means...
...i otvetchik i sud'ya ...that I am both defendant and judge.
Ya stoyu na dvuh kontsah ognya I stand at both ends of the fire.
Ogibaya virazhi, Leaning into the curves,
obgonyaya smert' i zhizn', overtaking life and death,
ya begu srazit'sya s ten'yu lzhi I'm running to fight the shadow of lies.
Skol'ko b nitej ne plyol obman, No matter how tangled the web of deception is woven,
pokazhet lik sveta istina... truth will always illuminate the outline of the light...
Save your tears for the day...
...when the pain is far behind.
On your feet, come with me.
We are soldiers, stand or die.
Save your fears, take your place.
Save them for the Judgment Day.
Fast and free, follow me.
Time to make the sacrifice.
We rise or fall...
HQ, I just got back from the peninsula.
I managed to get my hands on some interesting intel on Kuze.
The Chief and the Major are out at the moment. They got called in by the Prime Minister.
They said for me to listen to your report here.
What could be more important than this?
To tell you the truth, we're looking at the possibility of a general refugee uprising.
That's bad news.
Ever since the uproar caused by the Individual Eleven suicides, I've been receiving reports...
...of refugees from residential districts across the country beginning to gather at Dejima...
...in Nagasaki in response to the rapid increase in anti-refugee demonstrations.
The mass media have been rashly fanning the flames,
...claiming that this is a prelude to an all-out uprising.
Do you have anything to say on the matter?
I'll admit that I've been getting reports to the effect that the escapee arrest rate is going up,
but linking that with an uprising would probably be premature.
Any flow of refugees into Nagasaki would be prevented by the water.
That shows a certain lack of understanding of the situation.
This month alone, we of the Coast Guard have prevented...
...two suspicious ships, as well as 16 boats, from docking at Dejima.
It's as clear as day that there is a flow of refugees occurring in Nagasaki.
So I see. Nevertheless, the police have several other matters that require our attention.
The individualists, you mean?
If that's the case, I'd like to know what the Public Security Bureau has been doing?
By letting the instigators run free, they're largely responsible for this situation.
As for those Individual Eleven who killed themselves,
it's unreasonable to expect that Public Security should have known their location beforehand.
In spite of the fact that most individualists admire what they did,
most of them say that the Individual Eleven were a breed apart.
In any case, I'm of the opinion that the Defense Agency is responsible for this refugee issue.
After all, they wanted an arms buildup so badly that they held a live-fire exercise...
...right under the noses of the refugees, stirring up the hornet's nest.
If you want to get into a "chicken or the egg" argument, I'm up for it.
It seems to me that it's you in the Security Department...
...who are squabbling over jurisdiction even now.
If we're going to bring that up, why is Maritime Self Defense Army is turning a blind eye?
Before you get into matters of jurisdiction and such,
we'd appreciate a little more cooperation from you, since we're the ones risking our necks!
It's my understanding that with the matter having reached this point,
jurisdiction over the refugee issue has been handed over to my people.
How can you talk like that?
Do I need to remind you of the disputes over the Security Treaty in the last century?
Meaning no disrespect to my defense lobbyist colleague who got involved in this too late,
but the police force is going to maintain the country's public order during this matter, too.
Debate over such issues are important,
but what we need now is a consensus among the various government bureaus.
Let's adjourn for the moment and take a break.
I see that you can't even spare the time to clear your head.
Part of the problem is my lack of clout,
but everyone is focused on their vested interests and losing sight of problem at hand.
The refugee issue demands cooperation from all of them, but they...
Prime Minister, are you aware of the primary reason...
...behind the weakening of any given country's military and defense agencies?
It's because of the very thing that you just spoke of.
The instant that those who are at the top of an organization...
...start to use it as a tool to further their own interests,
it begins to die a slow death.
I do feel bad about giving the Coast Guard the short end of the stick, though...
Well, there's no guarantee that my own section won't be visited by similar misfortune.
I suppose not...
By the way, have you managed to obtain...
...any concrete information regarding the actions of the refugees?
Yes, ma'am. Do you know what a hub cyberbrain is, Prime Minister?
I'm afraid not.
Major, please explain.
Prime Minister, would you mind if I linked directly with you?
No, go ahead.
Originally, the concept of a hub, or core, didn't exist in the network.
But lately, we've been seeing a phenomenon where a host...
...causes isolated consciousnesses on the network to move in a single direction,
and creates a sort of collective entity by inviting them into his own cyberbrain.
Up until now, it was limited to something on the scale of communes...
...that were centered around small religious sects or charismatic artists.
But now, someone has appeared among the refugees...
...who has the ability to win them over and get them to stay in his cyberbrain.
I believe that this is the cause of the flow of refugees to Nagasaki.
Is this a single person? Someone we can think of as their leader?
From a practical standpoint, the thought of it being a single person is hard to believe.
I can't say it unequivocally, but I don't think that any one person's cyberbrain is capable...
...of winning over the consciousnesses of 3 million people simultaneously.
But if I were asked whether this hub is something like their leader,
then I would have to say that it is.
I see.
The appearance of such a person is the primary threat that is facing the government.
Continue to stay on your guard.
Understood.
When I repealed the Refugee Special Action Policy,
my intent was to curb profiteering against the refugees...
...and resolve the problem, starting with the taxation issue.
Which must mean that a political opponent used it to his advantage.
I wouldn't worry about it unduly, ma'am.
Actually... There is one other matter that I would like you to look into.
What would that be?
It would seem that there is a defense lobbyist assemblyman who is in collusion with...
...the former Greater Japan Technical Research over the matter of the Japan-US Security Treaty.
Our country has the world's only radiation scrubber technology,
and the American Empire has always relied on nuclear deterrent in the past.
I believe this new Security Treaty will have the effect of...
...putting us on an equal footing with them, if not greater.
If this proves to be untenable, I'm willing to postpone a new Security Treaty.
However, there are certain assemblymen and industries...
...who aren't interested in such ideology.
With what they are doing, this country will never be fully independent.
Where did you get this information, ma'am?
From a source inside the Foreign Affairs Ministry.
In that case, we'll start right away by following the money trail.
However, if I may ask, should I consider these orders as being given...
...as a result of your personal interests, or of your political ideology?
You shouldn't need to ask that question.
Very well, ma'am.
I should've noticed it earlier.
Prime Minister Kayabuki is exactly your type of woman, Chief.
What, it's taken you this long to realize that?
I can't hold a candle to you, Chief.
Do you think that the "defense lobbyist assemblyman" she mentioned...
...is Chief Cabinet Secretary Takakura, do you?
Probably.
I can't imagine that his objective in this is simply to score some bribes.
Takakura was a pro-American neo-conservative, wasn't he?
He's an old-school member of the military-industrial complex...
...who has yet to get over his blind faith in the American Empire.
From his point of view, we can use our scrubber technology, whose price sank after the war,
and by teaming up with the American Empire once again,
we can use it as a new deterrent against other countries and drive up its price.
By doing that, he lays the groundwork for his bribes...
...and he saves face for the conservatives without going through a needless arms buildup.
That doesn't sound much like the "independence and cooperation" policy...
...that Prime Minister Kayabuki is pushing for.
He's also the top dog of the Cabinet Intelligence Service, isn't he?
Plus, Gohda's resume includes overseeing the production...
...of "Japan's Miracle" at the former Greater Japan Technical Research.
Inciting refugee terrorism, and the Japan-US Security Treaty...
And nukes...
It sounds like it'll be worth helping her get her revenge, doesn't it?
We got tired of waiting for you, Prime Minister Kayabuki...
I'll be right there.
Togusa.
Yeah, Azuma?
I know we weren't asked to come to the meeting,
but are you sure we shouldn't sit in on it?
What about your secret investigation of the Individual Eleven?
There's been less activity on their part than from the refugees,
so, you know, we were kinda getting bored with it.
You dumb bastard!
So what if it's boring?! It's your damn job!
I swear, you two are so green it's not funny!
That was right about the time that the pointless war...
...for Eurasian hegemony was finally winding down.
I snuck my way into the peninsula a few times around then.
They were already pretty modernized by that point.
Did you guys start already?
Not yet. We were just warming up while we were waiting for you.
So, what say we get started?
A thousand pardons for putting you straight to work so soon after your return.
Oh, thanks.
It was 2024, and nations across the world were exhausted from a fourth world war.
The peninsula was still in the throes of a civil war, and now that the world war was over,
the American Empire called for the UN to send in troops.
This was the direct impetus for the Self Defense Army being dispatched there.
But the truth of the matter was that the American Empire...
...was looking to get itself back on its feet and reestablish itself as the dominant world power.
They were using the deployment to get the unified government to cede the mining rights...
...to the uranium deposits that were buried in the northern peninsula, right?
Yeah, that, too. But even though their ulterior motives were as plain as day,
Japan couldn't say no to the UN, not when they were making a bundle off of war procurements.
Aside from the battle to recapture Nemuro, the Self Defense Army...
...had managed to avoid seeing any combat through two world wars,
...so this would be their first trial under fire.
But the Big Guy and the Major were both overseas...
...in an unofficial capacity during the war, right?
Pretty much.
Unofficial, 'cause the PM who was killed by a terrorist bomb back then...
...was one of the few politicians who had an international outlook.
Anyway, because of all this stuff going on behind the scenes,
the government had strict press control in place to keep domestic public opinion in check.
And the location chosen to deploy the PKF troops was Sinuiju,
which was considered relatively safe.
I still remember the uproar over the deployment.
But I guess everybody eventually lost interest when all the news reports showed...
...was bored-looking SDA soldiers spending time with the locals.
I'm not surprised. The reality of the situation was something entirely different, though.
And the people running the press control from the shadows...
were the forerunners of today's CIS, the Cabinet Press Agency.
So, what was this "real state of affairs" with the PKF?
Well... Apparently, things there were a lot more tragic than we'd heard.
The unit that Kuze was attached to was a mechanized unit...
...that was the last of the main forces to be sent into the country.
At the time, Sinuiju was a special administrative area as well as a trade center,
so it was off everybody's list of targets.
But the place that the fleeing remnants of the People's Army...
...chose to make their last stand after the unified government was set up...
...was a rural area about 20 klicks to the east of the city.
Once you cross the border there, it's a mountain area, right?
More like a mountain pass.
The elevation there was 800 meters at best.
So it was the perfect place for guerrilla warfare.
The cyborg infantry unit was to be deployed in two companies as a guerrilla suppression unit,
and almost as soon as they arrived, they began moving into the mountains in the dead of winter.
Although this was their first large-scale deployment on the front lines,
the hybrid PKF prosthetic bodies probably weren't stressed very hard,
not even when moving through the snow at four below.
Around that time, the main force was on a heightened state of alert after receiving intel...
...that the last elite troops of the People's Army were planning an assault on Sinuiju.
The plan was for the company Kuze belonged to...
...to circle around from the north and launch a preemptive attack.
But Kuze's platoon, which had moved out ahead,
discovered a refugee camp not in their intel sitting on the river that flowed along the border.
A brutal raid was underway by soldiers of the People's Army.
These men who were soldiers in name only had been reduced to mountain bandits.
Seeing this, Kuze and his platoon were spurred into action by righteous indignation.
It was a battle of 120 against 30,
...but it was all over in the blink of an eye.
This was because Kuze's platoon was an elite cyborg unit,
and the people who were attacking the camp, although they were ex-military,
were mostly flesh and blood, and every last one of them was starved half to death.
Even though that they received several reports on the People's Army afterwards,
this incident was the only time they saw combat.
Even though there was stress from the extreme cold...
...and not knowing when or if the guerrillas would attack,
the main forces, which had set up camp inside the city, didn't have it very hard.
I remember seeing this footage.
Yeah. But before long, there was trouble in the squad camp out in the rural area.
PTSD, huh?
You got it. Post-traumatic stress disorder.
The experience of going through combat for the first time, and a one-sided slaughter at that,
slowly began to eat away at the spirits of the young soldiers.
Those who still had their own lungs and other internal organs...
...desperately tried to escape the flashbacks and nightmares of the massacre...
...by turning to synthetic alcohol and hashish that the refugees had brought them.
Up until then, the Self Defense Army had been known as being very disciplined.
When it began to break down, the media in Japan began to criticize them harshly.
Although the facts of the massacre at the refugee camp...
...never reached the ears of the media because of the press blackout,
this made their criticism of the men's behavior all the more severe.
What's more, the freedoms of the soldiers were restricted by the press blackout...
...that was in place to keep the shameful behavior of the soldiers out of the news.
It eventually got to the point where they weren't even allowed to return to Japan.
Almost sounds like an isolation ward...
Yeah, and to top it all off,
news of the massacre at the refugee camp near the border was leaked to certain media outlets.
And rumors even began to circulate that it might have...
...been the work of Japan's Self Defense Army.
The residents of the rural area came down hard on them, demanding an explanation.
But under the news blackout, the young soldiers,
and even their commanding officers, weren't able to say anything in their own defense.
They couldn't do anything but stay silent and hide in their tents.
One day, after this situation had gone on for some time,
a local reporter apparently said the following to one of the soldiers.
He probably meant it as a dig against a soldier who no longer had the lungs he was born with.
Hey.
Do you know where the word "assassin" comes from?
In Arabic, it means "one who eats hashish."
Muslim killers who attacked Crusaders after the recapture of Jerusalem in the 11th Century...
...would smoke hashish and ruthlessly carry out the killings as if in a dream.
They say that when the Crusaders saw this,
they called them "assassins" and were terrified of them.
Did you guys use that stuff and think that this place was Paradise?
You invade the place, and now you keep hanging around like you're guests here!
You bunch of murderers...
W-What do you want?
You're right.
Maybe we did think of ourselves as guests at first.
Trade me. This for one of those.
Saying this, Kuze traded his weapon for a camera,
and then went into the refugee camp.
Then what? What did he do in the camp?
Apparently, he didn't do anything. All he did was carry the camera around...
...and look through the viewfinder at the refugees going about their lives from time to time...
...and fold various origami figures.
I don't get it.
Yeah, I don't have the slightest idea what his real intentions were, either.
But a while after he went in, a strange phenomenon began.
First, the camp's elderly gradually started to take an interest in Kuze,
and eventually offered him drinks.
Next, the children begged him to make paper airplanes for them,
and made friends one by one with Kuze, who never said a word.
And the day after that, even the women and grown men were taking turns talking to Kuze.
Kuze would simply look at them happily and snap a picture from time to time.
Then what?
The People's Army surrendered,
and Kuze kept this up until three months later, when the SDA was relieved of its duties.
After that, no one in the media mentioned the massacre again.
And the day before the SDA was scheduled to come back to Japan,
Kuze suddenly vanished from the camp.
A single photo from the camp still exists.
So, where did he go after that?
They say that he crossed the border and headed west, but that's not reliable intel.
As to where he drifted and how, in the course of my investigation,
I talked to a guy who said that he'd just come back from a refugee area in Taiwan.
He said that he saw a guy there who might have been Kuze.
The hair on his prosthetic body had turned completely white,
but he said he was positive that it was Kuze.
He said the proof that it was Kuze...
...was that there was always a crowd of happy people around him.
Are you Japanese?
Yes.
Well, I'll be. You can talk?
Oh, hey, Major. You were here for the meeting?
Yes. I heard everything.
It's a fascinating story, all right.
Representative.
I had a little trouble with the hub cyberbrain's filtering array,
but I've finally managed to do a back-trace on the refugee's cyberbrain.
As you thought, he appears to be in Dejima.
I've asked the NSA to provide verification,
so I expect to have visual confirmation momentarily.
Finding out a galaxy...
...of planets and stars within me...
Listening to each of them...
...singing the same silent melody...
I've never seen such beauty...
In possibility...
No speck of doubt or fear...
Wake up!
I hear a voice,
hear a voice calling out to me...
I see inside,
see the light now ever holding me...
All the truth, all I need...
...to make of this reality, it's inside...
The beauty within the shell...
I hear a voice,
hear a voice calling out to me...
I see inside,
see the light now ever holding me...
All the truth, all I need...
...to make of this reality, it's inside...
Right here within the shell...