Chapter 10

Kusanagi could not sleep at all that night. The sunlight filled the room and hit her restless eyes. She looked miserable and exhausted. She needed to be in rest mode for at least two hours to function normally but she could not even nap for five minutes without being haunted by another gory vision or hallucination from Hypnos. She heard footsteps walking towards the room so she pulled out a long deba knife that she had taken from the kitchen and placed underneath her pillow. She stood with her left arm hovering across her chest as her right arm was extended out a bit more while the blade was pointed toward the door; she was in an excellent fighting stance and was ready to attack anything that entered.

Entering the room was a large werewolf-like creature. It had rows of sharp teeth and glowing white cybernetic eyes. It snarled at her and when it did, blood dripped from its mouth. It stood on its hind legs and was hunched over as it began to take a step closer and closer to her. Kusanagi used her knife and swiped at it but the beast dodged the attack. She stepped forward swiping again yet after doing so, she was pushed up against the wall with her wrists well pinned to it as well as her body so she could not make another attack. The monster's face was near hers and it was breathing coarsely. She closed her eyes, feeling defeated and when she opened them back up, she saw Batou before her. He was the one pinning her up against the wall. She had suffered yet another hallucination.

"What the hell are you doing?" Batou almost barked at her, "Are you trying to kill me?!"

Kusanagi's eyes stared at him for a long moment before slowly turning her head to look over at the knife she was still holding. She rolled her wrist and let it fall from her hand without injuring herself or Batou. "I thought…I saw…" She began but knew that if she explicitly explained what happened, then Hypnos would do something unpredictable.

Batou struggled to keep the serious look on his face because he could not help but look saddened. She really was losing control of herself and it terrified him greatly. He did not know what to do at this point besides talk to the others at Section 9 but after what Aramaki said about the Major yesterday, he just wasn't sure. He realized that he still had her up against the wall so he loosened his grip and began to step back.

To his surprise, Kusanagi moved forward and had her body pressed to his while she placed her hands and forearms on his chest. Her forehead touched his sternum and she said quietly, "I would never hurt you…at least not like how we did when we first came across each other…if I want to throw a punch at you…I would make you punch yourself…but other than that, I would never hurt you…"

Batou's arms slowly wrapped around her body and he gently embraced her. He trusted her word. What Kusanagi did moments ago was something she would never do to anyone else (unless a criminal), though according to her, never to him. "I would never hurt you either, Motoko…" He practically whispered, "I would never lay a hand or weapon against you…"

Kusanagi looked up at him and in her eyes were melancholy and fatigue. Batou had the greatest urge to kiss her. He wanted to simply kiss the ever living hell out of her until the virus went away…but alas, he could not bring himself to do it.

Kusanagi gently pushed herself away from him suggesting, "You should leave now…It is best if I do not see anyone…others tend to trigger more 'realistic' hallucinations…"

"I understand…" Batou stepped back, "Are you sure you'll be okay by yourself?"

Kusanagi looked out the window and replied, "I made it this far…how hard could another day be?"

"You'd be surprised…" Batou turned and picked up his cooking knife. He then declared, "I'm not letting you wash the dishes again."

Kusanagi could not help but give a small chuckle at the comment, "Just get to work soldier…" She was beginning to feel better before she remembered that Batou had the monitor device still lodged in the back of his neck. It was small enough for him not to feel it when he had put his hair up in a ponytail. She wished that he could feel it so he could yank it out as soon as possible. She did not know what Hypnos was planning to do with it and frankly she was afraid to find out.

All the members of the Major's team were gathered in the meeting room. Aramaki had called them in over his concern about the reappearance of the "Dream Catcher". Togusa was assigned to research anyone else whom may have received the Sleep Consciousness virus these past few months to see if there was a sort of pattern to this Hacker's cyber-attacks. Saito, Borma, and Pazu were present in the room and awaited orders. Ishikawa was at his computers and was decoding the components of the virus using an emulator. He was close to finding a solution but he was supposed to keep quiet until it was 100% sufficient. Batou soon entered the room and the meeting began.

"Batou, I spoke with the advisors yesterday after you all left," Chief Aramaki began, "And they all agree that it is best to take Major Kusanagi back to Megatech for proper examination."

Batou corrugated his brows a bit; he did not like the idea. All he could think about was the technicians tearing away at Kusanagi's body until she was only scrap so they could practically replace her with something "new" and "better" all while losing memories of him and the team in the process. He kept silent.

"I know what you are thinking Batou…" Aramaki was able to read Batou's face like a book, "And that would be their last resort…I put Ishikawa in charge of finding the best upgrades and protection programs to install into her which can help combat Hypnos' control over her..."

"Have any trouble with her?" Togusa looked up from his small laptop that he had in the meeting room, "Sources say that the virus has full control of a full prosthetic host after three days though when the host is in shut down mode, it cannot affect them for that time."

Batou sighed and admitted, "There was a little trouble…but I have it all under control."

"Quit making excuses to keep her!" Aramaki squawked, "I wouldn't be surprised if she developed Stockholm syndrome due to how long she has been in your care…"

"Alright…I've had enough of your chatter…" Batou felt like walking over to the small man to slap the shit out of him yet Borma and Saito pulled him back by the sleeves of his coat, calming the hot-head down.

Aramaki looked over at the screen which had projected images of Hypnos' mugshot and pictures of his victims. It was astonishing to see how many people were affected by this single hacker even if some of the people suffered only minor damage.

"I found some recent victims." Togusa announced.

"Go ahead." Aramaki permitted.

"Hasekura Komachi, a female from southern Japan, was a full-prosthetic cyborg whom stabbed her grandmother to death with a kitchen knife and after doing so, she stole all the money she could find in the residence. She also took valuable items to sell on the black market…when she was taken into custody, she told the local police that she thought her grandmother was a Caspian tiger…of course no tiger was found especially since that subspecies has been extinct since the 1960s," Togusa informed. The information was disturbing to Batou since it reminded him of what happened just this morning. "Matsumiya Chie, a female from central Japan, was also a full-prosthetic. She went to the bank an hour before closing time and withdrew all of her money as well as her husband's from their accounts. She left the city with the cash and ended up in an abandoned boathouse where she was later found dead. She had shot herself with a pistol that seemed to have been provided to her since her husband could not recognize it and naturally, all the money was gone. These were the two most recent cases that were not originally linked with Hypnos until now…it's quite depressing."

"Over 90% of his victims are female…" Pazu added after scanning some of the information on the screen, "He must really hate women…"

"All his male victims seem to only have dents in their bank accounts rather than on their bodies," Togusa pointed out, "I see no record of them getting themselves or others killed in any way."

"Batou…just let us handle Major from now on." Aramaki concluded as he looked at the burly man with a look of concern.

Batou looked at the ground. He felt that if he turned Kusanagi over to him, he would have failed her but at the same time, Aramaki was probably right…Batou couldn't help her on his own. After hearing those two cases, he could not risk someone being killed by her or her being killed by her own hand. No matter how much he convinced himself that he could help her, he simply couldn't. He didn't have the resources and all he could provide was comfort with no remedy. He gave a heavy sigh and uttered the word, "Fine."

Aramaki nodded and he turned to Borma, "I need you to contact the quarantine squad right away. Tell them that they are going to bring in Kusanagi Motoko to the containment chambers at Megatech. Make sure that Ishikawa leaves with them when he is ready. He will give the squad suggestions on what to do with her since he has gathered more specific information about the virus."

"Roger." The man responded before leaving the room.

Aramaki then turned to Pazu, "I want you to reopen Hasekura and Matsumiya's cases now that we know whom the perpetrator is. The local police may get involved but we can certainly take Hypnos into custody and with those cases open, it will provide more evidence to the court and add more time to him."

"I'm on it." Pazu replied.

"Saito, I want you to track and locate Hypnos. Ishikawa said that when he controls someone, he is within a 50 mile radius of that person." Aramaki looked at the one-eyed man.

"Yes, Sir," Saito replied suavely.

"And Batou…" Aramaki faced him, "Keep quiet. Like yesterday, don't tell her anything. The squad will come and take her this afternoon around 15:00. Just walk her outside and leave her to them."

Batou made no response in word or movement. The chief left the room and Batou rubbed his forehead in stress.

Togusa sat awkwardly at his laptop and he shrugged, "So I guess I'm not needed for this…"

"I have something for you to look up." Batou finally spoke, "Could you go through the Dream Bar's client database and look up who used the machine in row four aisle six these past few days? I remember that weird kid who worked there told me that a fewpeople reported headaches and nightmares after using the machine so there could be a few more victims to add to Hypnos' list."

"I can do that." Togusa nodded as he accessed the Dream Bar's server using Section 9'specialized "key" which allowed them to enter any sort of database from almost any company. He scrolled through the names of people whom used the specific machine until finally noting that the three most recent names were in a red font as all the other ones were black. "The red must mean that these people had a complaints about the machine…the first person is a man named Takagi Soetsu. It says that 'he experienced a nightmare that felt too real and he yelled in fright in the middle of his session'. The next person is Major and it says that 'her friend told the staff that Kusanagi was experiencing headaches after using machine 4-6'."

"Of course Major wouldn't be the one to complain about something like that…" Batou almost chuckled.

"Katsumata Sayaka was the last person to make a complaint before the machine was shut down for repairs. She told the manager that 'she experienced violent nightmares and was suffering a headache shortly afterwards'."

Batou silenced himself once he recognized the name, "'Sayaka'…." He repeated to himself.

Togusa noticed the troubled look spreading across his friend's face and he asked in confusion, "What's wrong?"

"Sayaka, she…" Batou began and he could feel his heart pounding out of fear of knowing that she was infected and had total access to Kusanagi at the apartment.

An incoming call appeared in his field of vision and it said it was from Kusanagi.

[Major! Is everything-?] Batou was suddenly interrupted.

[Calm yourself, Batou. Your heartrate has spiked so dramatically!] A man's voice replied instead of Kusanagi, [She is just fine. She is in my absolute care…]

Before Batou could even respond, he touched the back of his neck and could feel the monitor in his port. He quickly removed it before throwing it onto the floor and smashing it with his foot which caused Togusa to jump in his seat. Batou was afraid of what this could possibly mean. He knew who this voice belonged to even though he had never heard it before until now.

[It's too late, Big Man…You arei͆͐͋͋̔̑͢͏nfe̷̪͇̬̺̭ͤͥ͒̿̓ͪ͗͘͜c̢̖͇͈͌t̯̟͇͖̓ͯͫ͘͢͠ȩ̶͓̿̍̑̎͆d̵̦̭̻̫͖̞̿ͥ͐͞.] Hypnos laughed.