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 high-level hacking has occured at the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare. Section 9 has traced the source of the hack job back to a vocational aid center located high in the mountains.

The hack was done by someone very skilled since it only took two hours to crack the MHLW's ultra-secure barriers. The odd thing is that the MHLW has not filed a formal complaint about the incident. Togusa is sent undercover to discover what is going on at the aid center.

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.

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 highway accident involving a large commercial truck has left a fully prostheticized man dead, his body torn apart from the impact. Togusa is summoned by Aramaki to delve deeper into the matter as the dead man had recently tried to blackmail the Energy Ministry.

The dead man's name was Kanji Kotan and he had recently arrived to Niihama by way of Tōkyō. Due to the rest of Section 9 guarding the Prime Minister ("INDUCTANCE"), Aramaki can only send Togusa, with a Tachikoma as protection, to dig up what he can about the man's recent activities before he died.

Togusa aids a woman who has been chased by a man through the streets of Niihama. With his Mateba, Togusa is able to disable the man's prosthetic body. However, he does not secure the man's pistol. When Togusa helps the woman up, the man has enough movement left in his body to aim his gun and fire at the woman, killing her instantly.

The murderer is brought to trial. However, due to the events that occurred immediately following the murder, Togusa is brutally cross-examined by the murderer's lawyer.

The Major and Batou are flown to Berlin in an effort to track down a terrorist called "Angel's Feathers". While there, Batou attracts the attention of a young girl in a wheelchair.

The girl is waiting for the yearly visit from her father, but Batou's appearance piqued her curiosity. As the days lead up to her father's visit, her curiosity in this stranger grows stronger.

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.