Major Kusanagi was called into the office for a private meeting with her boss Chief Aramaki. The "old ape", as his fellow employers like to nickname him behind his back, looked very concerned about the events that have taken place recently. False memories, infamous hackers, powerful AIs, it all clumped together as one massive obstacle for Section 9 and its future.
"I want you to be prepared for anything Major." Aramaki spoke in his raspy practically senior citizen voice, "I have a feeling that things are just going to roll even further downhill from here…but I trust that all is well with you."
"Yes." The calm Major replied. She was like the rubber band of the public security team; she always seemed to keep everyone together no matter how many issues tried to pull them apart.
"Good." He sighed as he leaned back in his black office chair. He motioned himself to a stand before turning his back to her so he could look out the large window. The view he looked out upon was of the vast cyber city. For most, it would be a most spectacular sight yet to him, it was rather mundane.
"Was that all you wanted to tell me?" The Major asked with a subtle lift of a brow.
"No…" Aramaki barely turned his head to respond to her question, "I also wanted to tell you…not to let it get to your head."
His words were unusual and for once the Major could not process them, "'It'? What do you…?"
"You can tell them to leave; I have no more meetings for the day." He finally turned his full body around toward her and seemed to completely disregard her curiosity.
Major had both brows furrowed a bit as she ended their conversation with a single nod. She exited the room and there stood the boys: Ishikawa, Togusa, Saito, Borma, Pazu, and her dearest friend Batou. They watched the queen enter the regal hallway of their facility as they pressed their backs against either sides of the wall.
"Did he want us to speak with him?" Ishikawa asked as he mindlessly stroked his bushy beard.
"No." She looked over at him before looking at the others, "You are all free to go."
"Thank god," Saito sighed in relief, "I need to get some sleep…"
"If I leave in time I can make it home for dinner." Togusa said in content as all the men dispersed to walk toward the elevators.
Batou was walking near the back of the group before stopping to look over at Kusanagi whom had not moved from in front of the office door. She was looking at the ground and was almost frozen like a statue. A look of concern spread across his face as his brows lifted and the corners of his lips lowered, "Everything all right?"
The sound of his voice made her head lift and she looked up at him with unblinking eyes, "I'm fine."
"You sure as hell don't seem like it…" Batou's face now looked a bit stern.
Instead of replying, she looked forward and walked past him, their arms barely brushing against each other. What's her problem? He thought to himself as he followed her. The other guys had already taken the elevators as he and Kusanagi were speaking so now they had to share an elevator for themselves.
Kusanagi had a tendency to lean against the right wall of the elevator facing the automatic doors as Batou leaned against the back wall next to her.
They stood in a sort of awkward silence but eventually the man asked, "So…what'd the Ape call you in for?"
"A brief chat." She crossed her arms and looked at her feet.
"Really?" He almost scoffed in surprise, "He's not one for small chats…he's more into endless seminars."
Kusanagi almost smirked at his words, finding them both true and amusing, "He sure is…but today was different…"
"How so?"
"That's classified information."
"You're pulling that one on me again?" He sighed since he was frustrated that he was so close to getting a proper answer out of her. He then said, "Look…it's obvious that you're bothered by something and if you don't tell me what's wrong then I can't help you."
"I didn't ask for your help." She retorted and looked him directly in his circular lenses. They stared each other down as a way for asserting each other's dominance yet to his surprise, her eyes wandered back to the floor.
The elevator doors opened and Batou began to walk out first saying, "Well sorry that I was concerned about my fellow companion…"
'Companion'? Kusanagi lingered on the noun in thought. He had never used such a term before and she was not sure of how she felt about it. A hint of guilt crept up on her as she watched him walk toward the front doors. She finally began to realize that perhaps she was a bit too cold toward him since he simply wanted to help her.
Even though they had a brief spat, Batou still held the front door open for her. He was the kind of man who would get a temper and trudge away but when it came to her, he still showed her respect and kindness but with a slight scowl. Kusanagi exited the building and walked down the steps with him now following a few steps behind her once more. She almost forgot that she had one of her girlfriends drive her to work in the morning so she did not have a personal vehicle to leave in.
"Need a ride?" Batou offered her, noticing that her car wasn't around.
Kusanagi looked ahead at the passing cars and said, "I think I'll walk home."
"You sure? It's quite the hike."
"Yeah, I'm sure." She replied calmly. The wind outside began to pick up and her raven black hair began to shift. It was easy to tell that autumn was drawing near as the air was growing cooler, especially in a late afternoon like this.
Batou wanted to tell her many things along the lines of "It's getting cold…You don't want your body to short circuit" or even "crime is getting bad in this area…I don't want you getting in the middle of it" but all of this was trampled by the fact that it is the Major he is dealing with. Not some helpless girl who can't find her way home or even an elderly woman who can barely cross the street but a woman who can kick ass and watch her enemies (and even coworkers) grovel before her feet.
At the same time, he worried for her greatly. She was not some indestructible superhero; she was a person with feelings and fragility. He knew he could not argue with her any further so he ended their conversation with a shrug saying, "Suit yourself" before turning to head toward his car.
Kusanagi watched him as he walked away in his big beige coat. He stood out from all of the pedestrians and it had nothing to do from how large he was compared to them. His uniqueness and loyalty was what stood out to her. He was her best friend, her 'companion', and the only person who would actually care to listen to her problems. Everyone else she knew would brush her problems off their shoulder, with the mindset of "she's the Major…nothing can bring her down…she can't get hurt…she can't feel hurt or maybe any kind of emotions." She too had fallen for this mindset and thus she masks her feelings with sternness and almost placidness. She would also take on any challenge that could potentially risk her life simply for the sake of knowing that there is the slightest chance that she could succeed out of the greatest possibility of failing. Is this truly the way she wanted to live?
Pushing her thoughts aside she looked back at the road. To her surprise, there were no cars passing by, no traffic. She looked to her sides and noticed that all of the pedestrians had suddenly vanished, including Batou. The city was completely empty and eerie with the only sources of light now being the flickering street lamps and traffic lights. Something was definitely wrong and she had no idea what it could be. She needed to cross the street to see if there was anyone else around so she walked over to the traffic light just before the crosswalk. The green crosswalk signal was chirping and she had only noticed the sound until now.
Just as she was crossing the street, the signal abruptly turned red. Since it did not seem that any cars were around, it did not concern her until she heard the loud horn of an oncoming eighteen wheeler honking. Within seconds, she could finally see all the cars and all the pedestrians just before she felt the impact of metal colliding with the left side of her body. Before she could even blink, her body was being mowed down by what seemed to be an endless vehicle as she rolled just between the wheels. The sounds were almost deafening that at some point she could only hear a high pitched ring. She lay in the middle of the road facedown and cars that were behind the truck had stopped mere inches away from the battered woman. As she regained some normal hearing, she could hear the sounds of women screaming and cellphone camera shutters clicking. But out of all the noises, one stood out from them all.
"Motoko!" She heard Batou cry. His loud, familiar footsteps quickly caught up to her and suddenly, she felt her body being rolled over onto her back. Her grey-blue eyes were dazed from what just happened and her vision was a bit distorted. Batou gently lifted her upper body into his arms and he looked down at her. To Kusanagi, he appeared to be glitching as parts of him became green or pixelated.
She wanted to lift her head to look around but she could not bring any part of her body to move. There was no blood but there were a few broken parts to her that she could not quite point out at the moment.
"I'm going to get ỵ̘̤͈̭̯͎̲ͪ̎̒ͩͤ͊ͦͪ͐̀͘ǫ̙̬͛u̡̲ͭ̎͛̄̏ ̝̹̻̻̮̹͆̈̒o̢̮̞̺̐ͮ͘͞ũ̹͓̣̠̅͊̍̓ͤ́̒ṯ͚̲͒͗̋͐̽̌̏͗ ̨̜̟̗͕̔͊͂̾ͯ͐̚o̎̎̓́̔́҉̺͇̗̙̤͎̥f̡̤̣̩̲͗͒ͪ̌ͦͥͯ̿ ̂͑͏͈͙̱̪ͅͅh̵̠̬͌̽̂̀͢ȇ̫̇̕͜r͉ͥ̀̅̏͡e͈͓̠͍ͭ̓̿ͧ͛ͧͭ͢…" Batou said but his voice now sounding glitched as well to her. He picked her up in his arms and began to carry her to his car.
Kusanagi was sat in the passenger seat but before she could even say his name, her body shutdown into unconsciousness.