"Since our gods and our aspirations are no longer anything but scientific
Villiers de L'Isle-Adam
Eye in the Sky 202 to Control. Now on station above scene.
Opening data link.
Sit-rep?
52 minutes ago
...and fled the area.
Suspect is now holed up in the second crime scene
where it's killed two officers.
All entrances have been blocked. In two minutes
That's a Section 9 cyborg.
When those guys cross your path
Sounds like the Cyber Police are itching to step in.
They're requesting a data link.
First Public Security
Politely ask them to take a hike.
Please help us...
The moon fails to shine down on either day or night
and the night bird calls out in sadness.
When I turn to look
the flowers had all fallen away.
It was as if all comfort...
...had vanished from the world.
As the gods leave...
...to gather in the new world
day breaks
The blossoms beseech the gods.
"Even though in this world..."
"...we may know grief and suffering
"our dreams shall never die
...and they fall from the branch in anger.
There have already been eight homicides committed by gynoids this week.
In each case
and their cyberbrains were reformatted.
The units were all made by the Locus Solus company
...the type 2052 "Hadaly."
They're preliminary betas of a mass-production model.
Apparently
but all of the units have now been recalled.
According to the latest report they submitted to the authorities
no bugs had been detected in either their hardware or software.
You were paying attention
A new line of gynoids went berserk for reasons unknown and killed their owners.
The manufacturer recalled them in a panic.
Next will come the usual lawsuits from the next of kin
...centering around producer responsibility
I'd say I understand the gist of it
You understand
More often than not
At this time
The first is that no suits have been filed by the next of kin.
All the cases have been settled in-house at the manufacturer
And the second is that among the victims is a politician
as well as a retired Public Security official.
It's possible that this might be an act of terrorism
so determining if we ought to take lead on the case also falls under our purview.
Ishikawa and Azuma
You two
No questions. Get going.
Just so we're straight on this
I'll be the first to admit that I might not measure up to the Major.
That's not it.
I hear she's still listed as missing.
The only things she really owned were her brain and her Ghost.
Of course
Her prosthetic body and cyberbrain were just government-issued equipment
and the memories inside that cyberbrain were government property
top-secret intel and all.
What the top brass want to get back is those memories.
They couldn't care less if she's alive or dead.
So
Well
Let's start with the basics and pay the local cops' crime lab a visit.
"Police"
You
We're here about that doll the Big Man here smashed up the other day.
That thing killed two of our guys.
You don't expect to walk out of here with it
Part of our investigation is to make that determination.
Forensics is on the 19th floor
Do I need to show you the way?
No thanks. We didn't come here for a tour.
"Not even crows will peck at a persimmon that is still green."
But you can be sure they'll be circling overhead when they're ripe.
Back when you were a cop
...for somebody who swooped in out of the blue and swiped a case from you?
That's what pissed me off. It's like I was looking at the old me.
"Don't find fault with the mirror when it's your own face that's distorted."
"The mirror is not a tool for realizing the truth
Hell
If I told you once
Keep pestering me
I'm Togusa
The one who filled this poor girl with double-aught buck
If you'd have used .50-caliber hollowpoints
it would've been a simple matter to restore it.
It killed three people. And two of those were cops.
Before she was shot
What do you mean by "suicide
Haraway.
Miss
The gynoids give themselves authorization to attack humans...
...by deliberately malfunctioning.
But as a logical consequence of those malfunctions
they're also freeing themselves from Ethics Code article three.
"Protect your own existence so long as such protection does not harm a human being."
I think it would be more accurate to call it "self-termination
Yes
Is this "suicide" phenomenon limited to a particular model?
I wish I could say it is
These past few years
It's especially bad in the "pet" models.
Any idea as to the cause?
Who knows? Cyberbrain corruption caused by a virus or microorganism?
Human error during the manufacturing process?
Degraded functionality due to age-related deterioration?
Take your pick. Personally
What?
If you ask me
You know
When the new models come out
some of the discarded ones end up on the streets
...where they gradually deteriorate from lack of maintenance.
The robots just want us to stop treating them as disposable.
Oh
Humans and robots are different.
But that sort of faith is nothing more than the recognition that humans aren't robots
which is on the same level as saying that white is not black.
Unlike things like industrial robots
...weren't designed with utilitarianism and pragmatism in mind.
Why did we feel the need to create them in man's image?
In an idealized image
Why does humanity go to such lengths to create these reflections of itself?
Do you have children?
Yes
Children have always deviated from the human norm.
That is
...and acts in accordance to its own free will.
What
Internally
The dolls that little girls use when they play "mommy"...
...aren't merely a surrogate for a child or something to practice on.
Perhaps these girls aren't practicing raising children.
Rather
What in the world are you talking about?
In other words
...the act of creating an artificial human.
That's the way I see it.
Children aren't... They aren't dolls!
Descartes didn't differentiate between man and machine
There was a doll that looked just like his daughter Francine
He named it after her and lavished it with love.
I almost forgot about that...
Look
I'd like to hear your initial opinions on that robot.
Locus Solus' type 2052 "Hadaly."
True.
It's a fine piece of work.
I'm told it's a beta-model mass-production unit
Unusual specs?
It's equipped with organs that aren't exactly necessary on a maid-type model.
Meaning what
It's a sexbot.
It's not a hobby you can brag about to the public
Now I get it. It's no wonder that the next of kin dropped the lawsuits.
As their cyberbrains shut down
It's a standard practice to safeguard the control software's technical data.
However...
"However" what?
There was a file left in the audio buffer. Shall I play it?
Please help us...
Please help...
Thanks for all your help.
Hey!
Um
I've never given birth to any children
I'm not registered at the egg bank
Thank you for your time
Just "Haraway." No Miss or Missus needed.
That lady wasn't your typical engineer
She's the type who fills out the "personal comments" column in forms.
I used to do that a lot
That's why you took so long to climb the ranks.
Anyway
I guess we won't be talking with that lady again
She the type you like to hang out with?
Yeah
We follow the playbook.
Talk to the shipping inspector
09 calling 907. 602 in progress at a boathouse in sector 201.
Victim is a shipping inspector at Locus Solus.
Scene secured two minutes prior to arrival of local police.
907
Goodness gracious
On every spring day
What's up
Yeah
...after getting reacquainted with the tuna sandwich he had for dinner.
Geez
The crime scene as of 22 minutes ago.
You made a rookie carry that back?
Hey
Okay
Match run on the vic's cyberbrain.
Jacques Vaucanson
Submitted vacation request five days ago
Three days ago
...with a planned stay of five days.
Murder weapons were kitchen implements that came with the boat.
Search run on vehicles in the area. Record of parked criminal vehicle located.
Check for yakuza affiliation in progress.
Seven cards of various types found in overcoat believed to belong to victim.
Check for usage in progress.
Oopsie daisy. Got ourselves a .38-caliber Smith & Wesson here.
Model 2602.
Looks like he didn't have time to use it.
That might not have done him any good.
An illegally amped-up cyborg. Or a pro pretending to be a psycho.
969 calling 906. Crime scene ETA
- Hey
Let's let Forensics take it from here.
907 to 09. Relinquishing crime scene to 969.
09
Today's my daughter's birthday.
A family man
I'll drop you off.
I'm in the opposite direction. Ishikawa?
I'm the other way
They say a daughter's birthday takes priority over everything else.
Looks like you guys are having a grand old time.
Coming out in person
Our stiff was missing some parts
We'll get outta your hair
Why aren't you letting the local cops handle this?
The Old Man's got his knickers in a twist over it for some reason.
Found them! They're sitting in jars in the refrigerator!
Heart. Liver. Kidneys. The pancreas
This is one tidy SOB...
Inumaru Foods' wet dog food
If you bought dry food
I can't feed her that garbage.
So
Better him than some rookie fresh out of the academy.
He's competent enough for a former detective. I've got no complaints.
'Cause the only person you ever partnered with...
...who you thought made the grade was the Major.
- Look... - Ishikawa.
I liked you better when you were the silent type.
Later.
Batou.
Yeah
Take my advice. Switch to the dry.
Just from a nutritional balance perspective
Cause of death was crushing of the cervical vertebrae by blunt force trauma.
We determined that the kitchen tools weren't the murder weapon
but were instead used to mutilate the corpse.
So you're saying that they killed the guy
Yeah
We confirmed that the organs stored in the refrigerator belonged to the victim.
They showed early signs of gastritis and cirrhosis of the liver.
Looks like he had a drinking problem.
Why'd he gut the guy so meticulously?
Maybe to make us think he was mentally unstable or a sicko?
Or to reinforce a message of punishment or revenge.
Which would nix the "pro hit disguised as a thrill kill" theory.
What's the story with the mangled doorknob?
Analysis identified the prosthetic limb as a Chinese-made NR26.
A Crab Claw
Isn't that military?
They're available on the black market. A lot of 'em are defective
It was also a match to the lacerations on the corpse's head.
What about the owner of that car
Looks like there were a lot of illegal mods
Just report your findings.
According to my follow-up investigation on the records of the neighboring parking lot
the car belongs to the Koujinkai
It's been bulletproofed
It's been spotted at the scenes of multiple violent crimes in the past.
Tricked-out wheels for a tricked-out cyborg.
Yeah
Are we looking at some kind of yakuza payback here?
The problem is motive. What do we have on the Koujinkai?
They're a Japanese mob group that goes way back.
Drugs
They've got a finger in just about every pie.
A Hadaly ripped their boss Inoue's head off three days ago.
His deputy
Come on
Yeah
There's just one problem with that. If our vic was expecting retaliation
why would he choose a place to lie low that was inside Koujinkai territory?
His cyberbrain data's been wiped
In any case
And the possibility of it being a terrorist act disguised as a robot runaway?
At this time
That's looking awfully unlikely.
Batou and Togusa will work full-time on these Hadaly runaways
including this incident.
The rest of you
Dismissed.
Togusa.
Come see me before you leave.
What do you think?
I guess we'll have to check into a link between the Koujinkai and Locus Solus to...
I was talking about Batou.
Partners are supposed to monitor each other's mental state.
Even so
"To understand Caesar
You have a family
Sure
A man once said that we are never so happy or so unhappy as we suppose.
That what is important is to never grow tired of your life and aspirations.
What are you getting at
When I look at him lately
I'm reminded of the Major just before she disappeared.
"Let a man walk alone
"let him have few wishes
Chief. Why did you choose me for this?
Because it was the Major who scouted you from the police force.
So
Apparently
That goes without saying.
The world can't live up to standards set by the giants of history.
You planning to start a war or something?
One need not be a yakuza when one goes to a yakuza office
but you do need to pack some heat.
Look
Yeah
We're just going there to talk
Do you hate yakuza?
Can't stand the bastards.
Same here.
We're going there to talk. Just talk. Right?
Hey
Yeah
But you also said that you needed weapons.
I have a family
I can go by myself if you want.
I'm going with you. That's what partners do.
So I want you to give me your word.
We're just gonna talk. I'll avoid shooting as much as possible.
- Happy now? - Fine.
Then saddle up
Who the hell are you two?
We need to talk with your buddy Wakabayashi. Go get him.
You said you were gonna avoid shooting.
I did avoid shooting. As much as possible.
Get moving
A hologram?
The son of a bitch hacked our eyes?!
Blame those cheap-ass cyberbrains of yours.
What's the holdup?
It's a dark
One at a time. I'll go first.
I'll go first. You're so big that I won't be able to cover you.
I set off your little presents above our heads.
Even assuming they'd gone off in their maximum effective radius
it'd take more than two of 'em to take out a cyborg wearing body armor.
Are you trying to insult me?
I don't just want to know about the hit on the shipping inspector.
You're gonna tell me what your connection is to Locus Solus
Was wondering when you'd show up...
Come get some
Come on
He said he knew where the inspector was
Look
I don't know shit about what the old boss was up to with that company!
You still breathing
My wife and daughter's faces flashed before my eyes...
That wasn't your wife and daughter you were looking at.
That was the angel of death coming for you.
I ordered you to conduct an investigation.
I don't recall telling you to cut corners and take the law into your own hands
...and I certainly don't recall telling you to launch an assault on a yakuza office!
This isn't the jungle
Still mad
I'm not mad. It's just
I don't want to sound ungrateful to somebody who saved my life
...but it's pretty obvious that I'll need a few extra lives if I'm gonna team up with you.
It's just you and me working this case full-time.
Half-assed measures aren't gonna get us anywhere.
If there's something shady going on between them and Locus Solus
they'll definitely take the bait.
That's why you did something so over the top?
If the Old Man was really angry with us
Pull over up there.
See ya.
You've stepped inside the kill zone.
Don't go screwing around with the settings on that right arm.
Updated drivers have been known to conflict with...
...fire control software and cause degraded functionality.
If it happens
Hey
Don't bother.
The organic components in that arm have been matched to your DNA.
In other words
Ow! Wait a minute
Hey
Sorry
The thought of her sitting there howling for her missing master
starving and covered in her own shit broke my heart.
I may look gruff
Yeah
My daughter was ecstatic
How long did you have us under surveillance?
It's no big deal
Damn straight it is. Using me as a smoke screen...
It's not my fault you were too green to spot the tail.
If you're gonna hate anyone
Is she a clone? Originals cost a fortune
Apparently
It's not like you to let somebody hack into your cyberbrain like that.
When your daily routine falls into a pattern
I told you to switch to dry food
It's her favorite. That's the only store around here where I can get it.
Somebody pulled your strings to make you go berserk.
You ended up putting five rounds into your own arm
and came this close to blowing away the store owner.
You might be off your game
Other than the Major
Why didn't they make me blow my brains out right off the bat?
Because their goal wasn't to eliminate you
You busted into a mob office and sent a dozen people to the afterlife or the hospital.
And then before the day was out
Anybody would think that you're nuts or have one serious cyberbrain malfunction.
Hey
This attack proves that this case isn't a simple accident. If we back off now...
"Then what's the point of there being a Section 9 in the first place?"
If she were here
Message from the Old Man. "Continue the investigation."
"But until you have material evidence
"...no official support from this point forward."
Guess we'll have to go check out Locus Solus in person.
"Speed is key when preserving secrecy. Fly to the Northern Frontier ASAP
Up north?
You two aren't up to it?
No
The issue here is a guy in this line of work
having a dog in the first place!
Of all the dogs in the world
Come up with something your own damn selves!
In its heyday
built to be the greatest information-intensive city in the Far East.
All that's left to show it was ever here is this forest of giant grave markers.
Its iffy sovereignty status has made it the perfect hangout...
...for multinationals and the criminal organizations that feed on their scraps.
A no-man's-land outside the reach of both UN Net Police and ASEAN Cybercops.
Reminds me of that quote about how an artifact that a single individual builds...
...is as much an expression of the builder's genetic phenotype as the builder itself.
That guy was talking about beaver dams and spider webs.
I'll take coralline algae and the coral reefs they create
These are nowhere near as pretty
If life's true nature is information that's passed down via genes
then society and civilization are also nothing more than gigantic memory systems
which makes cities huge external memory devices.
"How precious also are thy thoughts unto me
"If I should count them
Psalm 139 from the Old Testament
The way it calls up quotes like that at the drop of a hat
maybe your external memory's phenotype has a bit of your philosophical bent.
Yeah
Sorry to interrupt
I'll do a slow flyby for you guys
All right
"Angel Forms
"Nine dayes they fell; confounded Chaos roard."
Quoting Milton this time? I got news for you
The night bird calls out in sadness.
When I turn to look
the flowers had all fallen away.
It was as if all comfort...
...had vanished from the world.
As the gods leave...
...to gather in the new world
day breaks
The blossoms beseech the gods.
"Even though in this world..."
"...we may know grief and suffering
"our dreams shall never die"...
B-Batou!
Oh
I haven't forgotten the debt I owe you!
"I never recall you to my memory because I have never forgotten you
C'mon
But I also have too much dignity to be buttered up by you calling me "sir."
Forgive me! I beg you! I'll be in your debt for life!
You know a guy by the name of Kim?
Never heard of him.
I mean
Maybe
Hey
"There are two kinds of loyalty. One maintains secrets
"The two cannot coexist." Which kind do you have?
The same guy also said that without lies
I'll ask you one more time. You know this guy named Kim
I don't know the guy! Uh
"When we face death
"As soon as one string is cut
"Even though in this world..."
"...we may know grief and suffering
"our dreams shall never die"...
...and they fall from the branch in anger.
Man From Machine
Well?
He started out as a long-range scout for the military.
"Having failed in leading
"...he is fit only to die by the side of the road."
His career was shot to hell for things like running black market arms deals...
...while he was bouncing between Special Forces and cyberwarfare units.
In the end
One of those "colorful history" types
"If an ass goes a-traveling
He's just a dumb son of a bitch who bit off more than he could chew.
You coming?
Batou. In the study on the upper floor.
I guess we got here too late.
He must've tried to hack into somewhere and gotten fried by an attack barrier.
He probably wouldn't have been any use to us even if he was still alive.
"In accordance with the deceased's wishes
"...any offers of live flowers
Hey!
"In bed he did not lie like a corpse."
Even the great Confucius says you shouldn't play possum.
I haven't got time to play your stupid games.
It's been a long time
I'm here on business.
Locus Solus
but once they switched focus to developing and producing high-end gynoids
their business started to expand rapidly.
It's rumored that they're cozy with politicians
high-ranking bureaucrats
They got paranoid about visits from the authorities
...their production line inside a multinational factory ship anchored off the coast.
The dolls they make there are fine pieces of work.
Good enough to commit murder and then kill themselves?
If that's true
I don't understand people who try to mimic humans...
...by breathing souls into dolls.
The definition of a truly beautiful doll is a flesh and blood body devoid of a soul.
A corpse standing on tiptoes
And that's why you decided to turn yourself into a cyberized invalid?
In terms of appearance and grace of movement
no
The flaws in man's knowledge leads to flaws in man's reality.
That sort of perfection can only be achieved by something...
...that possesses no consciousness
In other words
Look
Actually
Animals
Shelly's skylarks are filled with the joy of the deep subconscious
something that creatures like us
For the descendants of those who ate of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge
that's a far more difficult proposition than becoming as gods.
So you put yourself into the body of a doll and played dead. Is that why?
As Confucius said
"Few people know death..."
"...we only endure it
"usually from determination
"and most men only die because they know not how to prevent dying."
But to a living doll
That was the reason Kim decided to get a full prosthetic body.
Well?
His career was shot to hell for things like running black market arms deals...
...while he was bouncing between Special Forces and cyberwarfare units.
In the end
One of those "colorful history" types
"If an ass goes a-traveling
What's the matter? Let's go.
Batou!
"On this day of this month
"...of the happy occasion of his death."
Hey!
This is seriously disturbing
It's the uncertainty that maybe something that appears to be alive actually isn't.
And the uncertainty that on the other hand
maybe something that doesn't appear to be alive actually is.
If you want to know what makes dolls so unnerving
it's because they are modelled after humans.
In other words
The fear that humans might be reduced to simple mechanisms and materials.
The fear
...is fundamentally devoid of meaning and purpose.
Stop this crap
Even science
has played a major role in fomenting this fear.
The belief that nature is quantifiable leads to the conclusion...
...that humanity can also be reduced to simple mechanical parts.
"The human body is a machine which winds its own springs."
"It is the living image of perpetual movement."
The 18th Century "man as machine" theory...
...has been resurrected by cyberbrains and prosthetic body technology.
Ever since it became possible to externalize memory through the use of computers
man has been aggressively mechanizing himself...
...in order to expand the upper limits of his abilities as a living creature.
It's a manifestation of the desire to overcome Darwinian survival of the fittest
and to break free of the evolutionary rat race through sheer strength of will
as well as the desire to outdo the natural world that gave birth to humanity itself.
The fantasy of a lifeform equipped with perfect hardware...
...is what gave rise to this nightmare.
"God forever geometrizes."
Let's go!
Batou!
How do you feel?
I... What the hell?
You were in a virtual experience maze. Your cyberbrain got hacked.
Just like good things come in threes
bad things also turn up in sets of three.
You don't want to see
And if you say something
But in our world
If we miss that first hint
I thought I told you that we didn't have time for your games.
When did you figure it out?!
Nobody's easier to trick than somebody who thinks he's tricking you.
You might have been a cyberwarfare specialist
...but I'm an old infowar pro myself.
And besides
Call up the hall data from that huge external memory device of yours.
According to Jacob Grimm
...by inscribing the word "aemaeth
But if you erase the first two letters
meaning "death
This was an oracle telling me that there was no truth to be found here in this villa.
You're trying to tell me that someone breached the barriers I set up?
Impossible! No one could pull that off!
Weren't you listening? I said I have a guardian angel.
Game's over
That's an ordinary doll.
You need to learn when to quit
Batou
...of the reality that was manufactured by my virtual signals?
My Ghost is whispering to me.
Humanity is just another thread from which the dream of life is woven.
That is
are rips and distortions that arise in the uniform
You and I are both worthless human beings
but we're not in the same shoes.
Folks who doesn't believe in the Ghost...
...will never know madness
What little flesh you have left will never decay.
I bet it'll keep on functioning physically until you finally get what's coming to you.
We're really back in the real world
There's nothing to distinguish between a memory and your recollection of it.
In both cases
Not being able to save the subjective passage of time makes things tricky.
When you have a cyberbrain and allow your memories to be shared externally
this is one price you're gonna pay sooner or later.
Do you have really have a wife and kid waiting for you at home?
Or are you still a bachelor
sitting alone in some dingy apartment somewhere
Don't you want to go find out?
If you he was gonna try that
I had to find out what his objective was.
He set his trap
then infect us with that virtual experience to get rid of us.
Probably something like that.
Maybe he planted a tap in my cyberbrain when he had me dancing to his tune...
...and made me blow off my right arm.
Just like Ishikawa said
...wouldn't stop at just that.
Locus Solus is probably thinking the same thing.
So you anticipated this would happen from the very beginning?
The plan was to make him think I'd fallen into his trap to get close to him
but Kim is one talented son of a bitch.
If I hadn't gotten that sign
That "guardian angel" you mentioned
She's gone away. Out beyond the rips in the uniform matrix.
Somewhere out in the vast net
If you're looking to prove your own existence
there's as many ways as there are Ghosts.
You yourself have a daughter
Back when we were in the jungle
I've come out of this with a valuable lesson
What's that?
That I don't have what it takes to be your partner.
You wimping out on me?
It's not because of what you said
but I do want to make it back to my daughter in one piece.
Be that as it may
You're not done yet?
The files we pulled from his cyberbrain prove Locus Solus' criminal...
All we can prove is obstruction and violating the Cyberbrain Ethics Act.
And besides
To prove criminal liability in the killing rampage those gynoids went on
we need hard evidence
Maybe
No
His cyberbrain is Ghost-packed
We have to finish this before they say to hell with appearances...
...and tie up all their loose ends.
Long ago
"When right and wrong are in doubt
When talk has failed
Hey! This is worlds apart from busting into some yakuza office!
I'm not counting on your Mateba to watch my back.
"Birds hide by flying high into the heavens
- Contact made with escort. - Roger.
I'm amazed you have the guts to dive with a body like that.
This area's so deep that if you went down
I used to know a cyborg who went scuba diving for fun.
Yeah?
I don't know what the hell she was thinking.
I'm playing along because Lin vouched for you
but they say that nobody's ever gone to that ship and lived to tell about it.
I don't know what you are thinking.
That makes two of us. Take us in.
Hold on tight.
Contact with sensor picket line in 12 seconds.
I'm gonna send out a virtual signal for 2 seconds on their channel.
Acknowledged.
I'll be
Commencing synchronization.
All right
Upload complete. Are you piggybacking my visual feed?
Of course. I wouldn't miss the Big Man's big infiltration.
I'm already recording.
You can be a real smartass
"Please let the dawn..."
"...be waiting in the underworld."
Intruder alert. Reactivate security system at level 2.
Begin facility-wide scan of all cyberbrain activity.
Scanning for terminals where memory usage and virus size matches.
Possible time bomb virus. Be advised.
Unable to establish logic connection with supervisor.
Execute reinitialization.
System reactivation complete. Running at level 2.
Establish diversionary route for intruder.
Rebuilding logic barrier. Loading antibodies.
Virus scan in progress.
Trace route team
Deploying full array of ambush virus variants inside barriers.
Commencing isolation of infected areas.
Rebuild peripheral barriers at level 1.
Barrier 014 breached.
Barrier 032 showing type 280 error.
Enemy attack barrier modulation pattern determined.
Commencing virus transfer.
"Please let the dawn..."
Pull out! It's too dangerous for you to stay any longer! You'll get your brain fried!
Not yet! I can keep working a little longer!
You dumb bastard! Don't try to be a hero!
"...be waiting in the underworld
the blossoms beseech the gods.
"When we face death
"As soon as one string is cut
Illegal input in gynoid production line
Unidentified ambush-type virus suspected.
Deploy all antibody variants and stop it.
Unable to track. All machines have been activated.
Unable to establish logic connection.
Now loading self-defense programs for combat-model prosthetic bodies.
Alert. Abnormal startup of bodies on THO7 line.
Security teams
Repeating...
The blossoms beseech the gods.
"Even though in this world..."
"...we may know grief and suffering
"our dreams shall never die
...and they fall from the branch in anger.
"And the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form upon Him..."
Been a long time
Or what should I call you these days?
To be precise
This gynoid's cyberbrain simply doesn't have the capacity.
The combat control programs alone are taking up most of its free space.
This is the best I can do for speech and facial expression.
Go straight up this corridor about 50 meters
and there ought to be an emergency terminal.
We'll gain access through that and take control of the whole system.
You haven't changed one bit.
Get moving
I've got your back. Just like the old days.
"There are few who can hold up a mirror and not become evil."
"A mirror does not expose evil; rather
Hey
"In short
...and they fall from the branch in anger.
Hey
It's just until I get control of ship's receiver system.
Jack into the auxiliary terminal in the floor.
Until I gain control
My only defense will be your.30 caliber
My regular brain can handle the targeting
If I have to go hand-to-hand with those things
I'm starting.
Illegal connection to shipboard systems.
Shipboard? Scan for access point and raise attack barriers.
Multiple virtual signals at multiple terminals.
No increased fluctuations in terminal cyberbrain activity.
Scan all external access points.
Sever all external connections
Physically isolate shipboard input devices.
No response from emergency control systems.
Remote ignition impossible.
Modular viruses assembling system-wide. System-area barriers being breached.
Prepare for system reboot. Commencing data isolation at level 1.
In the sad perpetual darkness...
...of a hundred nights
they pray to the gods of the land...
...for the egg of the next world to be born.
"When we face death
I have control. I've locked out all external access.
This ship is operating in full standalone mode.
It's started moving?
The ship is heading from the extraterritorial Northern Frontier...
...to a neighboring country where the rule of law applies.
The ship itself is hard evidence of Locus Solus' criminal activity.
They're gonna come after us.
Ships will turn up before then to escort us in.
I've already sent out a request.
Now
...Locus Solus used to breathe souls into these dolls?
You don't know already?
You have your suspicions
There's no noise at all. This chamber is completely EM-shielded?
Ghost dubbing...
The technology was able to produce multiple degraded copies in animal tests
but it was banned when they learned that it destroyed the brain of the original.
They take the kids they smuggled in using the Koujinkai's routes
brainwash them
So
Please help us...
You came to save us! Mr. Vaucanson said you would!
He was sure that people from the police would come! That they would save us!
I'm a stage 4
She can't hear anything
The murdered inspector tweaked their ethics code to try to help these children
and when he was found out
That's the long and short of it.
He said that if the robots caused accidents
Someone would come help us!
Didn't it ever occur to you that there would be victims?
I'm not talking about the humans.
Didn't you stop to think what would happen to the dolls that were given souls?
But I... I didn't...
I didn't want to turn into a doll!
"We are saddened by a bird's cry
"Blessed are those with voices."
If those dolls had voices
I bet they would have screamed
Let me ask you something. Are you happy the way you are now?
I haven't seen things that way for a long time.
At the very least
"Let a man walk alone
"Let him have few wishes..."
"...like an elephant in the forest."
Don't forget
Whenever you access the net
Time to go.
Gods in Heaven
She appeared to you on that ship
Being tight-lipped again
I'll come pick you up at 0800 tomorrow.
I need to repay you for looking after my gal
How about it? Want to come in?
Getting all warm and fuzzy with someone else's family isn't my thing.
Daddy!
Did you bring me a present? Where's my present?
- I didn't forget. Here. - Yay!