Chapter 11

Batou had hopped into his car with Togusa as his passenger and they were off to head back to the apartment. He knew something was gravely wrong and he needed backup in case things got messy. Togusa had tightened his seatbelt and was practically clinging onto anything he could find for dear life due to how fast Batou was driving. He passed car after car and would briefly drive into the opposite lane when they were too many "slow" drivers ahead of him.

They pulled up to the curb at the lot the apartment center was on and right when they exited the car, they heard a loud crash from a window. Two females had jumped from the twelfth floor and were hurdling toward the earth. They landed on a delivery truck, denting it to the point where it was almost broken in half. Batou knew that only full-prosthetic bodies could cause such damage so he ran towards the scene.

Bystanders were spooked by all the commotion and they went to the delivery truck to see what was going on. Of course, the young adults pulled out their phones and began to record the situation. From the wreckage of the truck, there stood Kusanagi. She was wearing her grey low-cut tank top and black shorts and was barely damaged from the drop. Everything seemed normal except at closer inspection, one could see a pattern of circuit board-like lines spreading from her neck port, down her upper back, and up to the corners of her eyes. The look on her face was placid and though it could be taken as one of her normal looks, it simply was not. Sayaka sat up and was just below Kusanagi. She had an angered yet wounded look to her and she too did not seem like her normal self. She tried to get up but Kusanagi threw a hard punch to her face, causing the girl to fall back down.

"Holy shit, Batou! She's in the final stages of the virus…" Togusa looked afraid of the woman whom he called "Major".

"Dammit…" Batou cursed and was almost horrified by the sight of a transformed Kusanagi. She was no longer herself and he could not help her.

Kusanagi saw Sayaka as the geisha like before and when she looked around at the bystanders, she saw them as mere dolls. Her irises were no longer blue but instead a dark green color. The sclera of her eyes had turned a dark grey as her skin seemed to have gotten paler. She stepped off of the truck and silently walked toward the crowd of people. The spectators moved away from her and were suddenly frightened by the infected woman. Their phones and other electronic devices began to glitch and shut off automatically as she walked near them.

Kusanagi then walked back over to the truck and pulled out a GLOCK 43 pistol from Sayaka's hand. The crowd must have noticed because the sounds of screams could be heard from them. Kusanagi pointed the gun at Sayaka's head and was ready to fire it at any moment.

"Don't do it!" Batou yelled as he began to run towards them.

Kusanagi ignored the yell and just when she was about to pull the trigger, a shot could be heard from a faraway source. The GLOCK had been shot out of Kusanagi's hand by Saito whom was in a building just two blocks down the road.

[I was just in the area to search for that Hypnos Bastard] Saito contacted Batou, [You're lucky I received a report of what was going on here.] The sound of him reloaded his trusty sniper rifle could be heard in the background.

The pistol was now on the road below and Batou hurried over to it to pick it up. He reached his hand for it yet recoiled when it was almost struck by Kusanagi's foot. As a last resort, he kicked the gun underneath the truck so neither of them would grab it in the middle of their confrontation. Togusa saw this as his opportunity to retrieve it himself so he began to try and sneak by to make it on the other side of the truck.

Kusanagi was throwing a combination of quick kicks and punches at Batou. To her, he looked like the cybernetic werewolf from earlier that morning. He refused to fight her back so he simply tried to block the smaller attacks and dodge the stronger ones. Either way, he felt pain spreading through the organic parts of his body. He was taking much damage but he would much rather take it than for Kusanagi to get hurt whether she was really in that shell or not.

Togusa was crawling underneath of the truck and he extended his arm to reach the GLOCK. He grabbed it and slid out from the truck yet he was met with infected Sayaka. She had a wide grin on her face and she cocked her head saying in a peppy voice, "I would like my gun please~"

Togusa was startled by the girl's presence and he aimed the gun at her in defense, "Sayaka…I suggest you get down on the ground…"

"Why would I do that?" She asked with a pout, "You can go ahead and shoot me! I don't mind~"

"You're crazy…" Togusa had trouble understanding her logic. He remembered that she was most likely being controlled by Hypnos though he was amazed that the hacker could control two people at once. She lunged to attack him but he evaded it by rolling aside. He finally shot her ankles which now left the girl unable to walk. Sayaka fell against the road and pushed her upper body up. She smiled at Togusa and began to quickly crawl towards him; there was no stopping her madness.

Back over to Batou and Kusanagi, the battle seemed to drag on. Batou was getting tired from constantly dodging and blocking the attacks yet Kusanagi did not hold back. When the man stumbled back a bit, Kusanagi pulled her right fist back before releasing it like an arrow to a bow. It hit him square in the chest and he fell back a few yards, the wind was taken out of him. He was struggling to catch his breath and before he knew it, Kusanagi pressed her heavy foot against his chest, making it a hundred times harder for him to breathe.

"Mo…toko…" He strained himself to say. This was the end. He was going to die by the person he loved most in life. In theory, it would sound like a nice way to go but in this predicament it was ironically tragic.

"Batou…" She seemed to reply on her as she slowly began to realize that this was not another werewolf creature she had to deal with, but her closest companion. She stepped off of him and had trouble deciphering what was real and what was not. Her vision was greatly clouded with hallucinations and would occasionally glitch, showing her the briefest of glimpses of reality.

Four large white ambulance-looking vehicles had arrived. They blocked both ends of the roads and had the rears of the cars facing everyone. The back doors flew open and tall men in white hazmat suits exited the vehicles. Their faces were completely covered by gasmasks and there was no inch of skin showing. It was definitely the quarantine squad.

"Kusanagi Motoko," One of the squad members called out. His gasmask also worked as a small megaphone so he could be heard from under the suit, "We're here to fix you. Come cleanly or we will take you by force."

Ishikawa was the last to exit a vehicle and when he saw the Major he commented in astonishment, "Damn…this is much worse than I thought…"

Togusa was still dealing with Sayaka but he was able to get her arms behind her back, however, he had to hold her wrists together since he did not have time to grab handcuffs. "Could you guys please take Miss Sayaka in as well?" Togusa seemed worn out from running around with the girl.

The man in the suit nodded and sent two team members over to Sayaka. The had a device in which they placed it up against Sayaka's neck port and pulled a trigger contraption, causing a shock wave to go through her prosthetic body. Within seconds, she was in shut down mode, no longer being controlled by Hypnos for the time being. The two men then started to carry her to one of the cars.

On the other hand, Kusanagi did not seem to want to go without a fight. The quarantine squad, in her view, looked like shadow people with large owl-like red eyes. She had a scowl on her face as she made her way over to them. The hazmat men lined up side by side and pulled out what looked to be shotguns.

When she was a certain distance away from them, they began firing. It took a few rounds to knock her down and once she was on the ground, the men rushed over to her and began to blindfold her, place a wax-like substance in her ears, handcuff her wrists, all before shutting her down. The ammunition they fired were rubber bullets so it did no lethal damage to her body. It took three of the men to carry her back to their car.

"Let me…go with you…" Batou was trembling in pain as he forced himself to stand, "I think…I'm infected too…"

One of the men overheard him and brought a separate device over to his neck port. It did an internal scan of the cyborg's hard drive and when it completed he replied, "Negative, Sir. However, I do suggest you see a medic. You may have a few bone fractures you need to tend to." The suited man left and Ishikawa hopped into the car that Kusanagi was in.

Batou was utterly confused. Hypnos himself said that he was infected unless he was lying…but what good does that do? Togusa ultimately made his way over to his wounded friend and patted his back which caused the big man to wince a bit.

"S-Sorry!" Togusa immediately apologized for the friendly pat, "She must've given you a good beating, huh?"

"I'll be fine…" Batou replied before offering, "Do you need a ride home?"

"No, no, I can walk," Togusa reassured him, "Besides, your apartment is right there and you need to get patched up. I can call over a medic for you."

"I can handle this myself…" Batou sounded frustrated, not wanting all the help.

When Batou returned to his apartment room, he noticed that the place was almost completely trashed. From what he saw earlier, he could assume that Sayaka had entered the room and when she saw Kusanagi, she attacked her and they both fought about the rooms. There were cracks in the wall, damaged furniture, a few broken plates, and items in places that they were not originally in. He entered the bedroom and saw that the large window was boarded up, presumably by the apartment staff who overheard the commotion.

"This is going to be a bitch to clean…" Batou muttered to himself.

He went into the bathroom and was relieved that it was untouched by any sort of violence. He removed his clothes and began to examine his bare body. It was covered with fresh bruises and random scars. The metal to his prosthetic arm began to show in a few places since the artificial skin had been slightly torn. He kept note of the possible bone fractures and he was sure that at least two of his ribs were broken.

"So much for never hurting me…" Batou sighed but knew that it was not really her when she attacked him. Even if she did hurt him, he would not mind. He cared for her so much that no matter what happened to him, as long as Kusanagi was alive and well, he was content. The guilt of not being able to help her himself lingered in his mind; He knew she hated being at Megatech or anyplace that kept her caged like a bird and tested like a lab rat.

Now Batou was alone. He had cleaned up his apartment after a long shower and he felt completely sore. He lay in his bed for the first time in 4 days and he stared up at the ceiling. Even though he had lived alone for the past few years, he felt lonely for the first time. He already missed Kusanagi and he felt that she would probably never come back to visit him here.