Dark Entity

Summary: During a rescue operation to save hostages from a group of terrorists, Togusa is captured, unaware by the rest of Section 9 until it was too late. The group brainwashes the ex-cop with a virus called Dark Entity, which was used on most of them too, and Togusa is being used for assassinations of high-profiled government officials. The Major and Section 9 have to save him before it's too late, and time is on the essence.

Rating: M for violence and language.

A/N: Ghost in The Shell and all characters belongs to Masamune Shirow, unless stated otherwise. Just borrowing them for this fiction because I enjoy the anime. No profits have or will be made, and was only written for entertainment purposes only, and plus, I love writing. Togusa's one of my favourites from the series because for one, he's more vulnerable at being killed on the job – not that there's anything wrong with it, and two, he's a cool character Next to Batou and the Major. Anyway, enjoy this GiTS fic as much as you want. If you like, I'll continue it...actually, I'll continue it anyway. Feedback though, is appreciated.

ONE: A CRISIS COMMENSE

Togusa quietly sat watching his two children as they played in the backyard with the other kids from the street they lived on, while he relaxed on a step of the porch. He smiled thoughtfully while the children played hide-and-seek, and he remembered the games he played when he was their age. The afternoon was hot and humid, but not as bad as yesterday; nonetheless, he was enjoying being home with his family even though he was given four days off due to being injured during a scuffle with a criminal a couple of days ago. At that moment, he wished he didn't do anything stupid that day, but he needed the break from his job after all.

He leaned back against the top of the cement porch, and watched as the clouds slowly blew across the sky. Closing his eyes, he felt the long-awaited comfortable breeze swirl around him. He let out a sigh of relief, and wished the wind could continue during this hot, summer day.

Togusa's wife, Kuniko, opened the sliding door, and then carefully walked out of the house; balancing a tray of cold drinks for the kids, and two larger glasses for the two of them. Kuniko smiled at him when he opened his eyes, and moved out of her way so she could get down. He watched her set the tray on a shaded picnic table, and then picked up their glasses of iced tea. She called out to the kids for them to get their drinks whenever they feel thirsty, and returned over to Togusa.

"Here you are," said Kuniko, handing him his glass of tea.

Togusa smiled. "Thanks, hun," He took it from her, and drank some of it before setting it down beside him. He sighed happily, and then wrapped his arms around his wife when she sat in front of him on the last step. He rested his chin at the base of her neck, and breathed in her scent. "Mmm, Kuniko..."

Kuniko blushed and giggled. "Not in front of the kids," She closed her eyes and leaned against him when he mumbled something to her in her ear. "You only have two more days freely with us left, right?"

There was a long pause between them. They never have anymore true free time with each other since he started working with Section 9, but the family needed it. The only time he can spend some time with his wife is at night, not like there's anything wrong with that, but it's the time when they're both tired. Togusa wished the time now was slow, and not moving so quickly. Maybe they should've went away somewhere...

Togusa breathed in a sigh, resting his chin on her shoulder, and kept his eyes focused on the ground somewhere."Yeah," he responded. "It really feels like it went by too fast to my liking."

"And mine," Kuniko whispered, "I do know that our children feel the same." She tilted her head back to look at him, and studied his sad expression on his face. When he fixed his eyes on hers, she then inquired, "What's on your mind for the last two days before going back to work?"

"These two days were to spend time with the kids," he mentioned and went on, "Though, the last two days, I wouldn't mind spending more quality time with you." Togusa held her tighter in his arms. "What do you say, we drop off the kids at your parents house, and then go somewhere for the last couple of days?"

She smiled warmly and nodded, and he lowered his head to nimble on her neck, which prompted the children to let out disgusted sounds when they were looking their way.

"Eww! Why do adults have to do that for?" One child commented to their daughter, Tamiko. "Your parents should get a room or something."

Tamiko turned red in embarrassment before sticking her tongue out at the boy. "You shut-up, Sasake-chan!"

"No," the boy protested, "Why don't you?" He crossed his arms, and pouted silently while the other children laughed.

"It's my birthday today, so I can do whatever I want," replied Tamiko.

"Well, when my birthday comes up, I can do whatever I want too,"

Togusa and Kuniko stopped what they were doing, and gazed at the kids in amusement.

"Hey," Togusa interrupted them. "If you all be good, then you can have some cake here in a few minutes."

Sasake quieted, and sat down with an innocent look on his face. "I'm being good," The children let out a round of giggles.

Togusa sighed. "Kids..." he muttered with a smile.

"I'll go and and get the cake, hun," Tamiko stood. He stood with her, and gave her another kiss before helping her up the steps.

Togusa turned back to the kids, and noticed that his three-year-old son was sitting on the grass with his back turned, and his little hands clutching his bare foot. The other kids didn't seem to know that anything was wrong with him.

"Koan," Togusa called his son's name, and waited for him to turn around. Koan didn't respond, and his father walked briskly over to his son, and knelt next to him. "What's wrong, little guy?" He asked mildly.

Koan looked up with tears in his eyes. "Daddy, a bug hurt me," He showed Togusa his foot where a red spot formed at the heel. "It hurts..."

Koan started to cry louder while his dad leaned down to see what stung or bit him, but didn't find anything. His son reached out to him, and Togusa picked him up in his arms and soothed him as he carried him back toward the house. The kids watched, wondering what happened, and talked quietly amongst themselves.

Kuniko looked up in surprise from the table where she was starting to light the candles of Tamiko's birthday cake. "What happened?" She quickly asked with concern in her voice.

Togusa stopped in the doorway that connected the kitchen from the living room, and turned to her. "He either was bit or stung on the bottom of his right foot," he rubbed Koan's back to try to calm his son down. "He'll be okay once I put some medicine on it." He added reassuringly. "Go ahead, and bring the cake out there. We'll be back out once he's okay. Alright?"

Kuniko bowed. "Okay."

Togusa went upstairs to the bathroom, and carefully sat his sobbing son on the counter of the sink to look for the first-aid kit in the closet.

"It hurts, daddy..." Koan murmured. His crying slowly came to an end when he watched his dad come back with a box of medicine and bandages, and laid it across the sink from him.

"It's alright, Koan," Togusa gently brushed his son's hair back, and wiped the tears from the boy's flushed cheeks. He smiled when his son looked up, and tried to give him a smile. He carefully grabbed his son by the ankle, and lifted up his leg to look at the bug bite, but it looked more like he was stung. "You were stung by something, like a bee." With his free hand, he grabbed a bottle of ammonia for insect bites and stings, and unscrewed the cap.

"I hate bees," Koan frowned.

Togusa patted the area where his son was stung on the foot, and Koan let out a giggle, and then a hurtful look when the medicine started to burn.

"If it burns, then that means the medicine is doing it's job," whispered Togusa after reading the look on Koan's face.

"Like how you do your job, daddy?" asked Koan.

His father smiled, and nodded. "Yeah, something like that."

Koan giggled, smiling from ear to ear, and his dad finished cleaning the bee sting, and covered it up with a bandage.

Togusa opened his arms. "Lets go back outside, tiger,"

Koan jumped to his feet. "Rwar!" He exclaimed, launching himself at Togusa. Togusa ignored the shot of pain in his rib where his son's knee made contact with, but held the gunt back. The ex-cop hugged his son, and carried him back down the staircase.

Togusa instinctively looked toward the front door, which was open except for the storm door. Standing outside was the Major and Batou. He gave them a questioning and surprised expression when he opened the door, and stepped out.

"Major, Batou," he asked, "What are you doing here?"

Batou didn't answer, but Major Kusanagi did. "You were in autistic mode, so we had to come over to your house to contact you."

"Uhh, yeah," Togusa wondered what was up. The Major's voice sounded urgent. "Did something happen?" His son struggled in his arms, and looked at the Major and Batou, but then hid his face in his father's neck shyly.

"Just now, yeah," Batou chimed in seriously.

"A group of terrorists has attacked a building in New Tokyo, and they gained hostages in the raid," explained Kusanagi, "They say they have a dirty bomb and are willing to use it, and the police need our help."

"That's not surprising," muttered Togusa about the police needing them.

"We need everyone from Section 9 to help in taking them out and saving the hostages," Major continued. "We would have called you by phone, but we were already in the area investigating a small case that the police can actually handle themselves."

Togusa looked away, and closed his eyes. "Damn it..." He whispered under his breath, but not loud enough for anyone, like his child to hear. He didn't want to go, especially now. "Of all days," he paused, glaring at them, but not coldly as it would appear to be. "Right now?"

"Yes," Major grimly answered.

"Fine," muttered Togusa. "I'll be back out..."

"Where you going, daddy?" Koan asked curiously, but his dad didn't answer him when he opened the storm door to go back inside. "Daddy?"

"Togusa." A voice inside his head said, which belonged to Kusanagi.

Togusa blinked, and looked down to see a Seburo MN-23 Assault Rifle held firmly in his hands. He glanced around the back of the dropship at the others who were sitting and waiting around quietly. That's right, he forgot that Major ordered him to come with her and Batou back to Section 9 HQ for more of a briefing about the terrorists who are holding hostages, and have a damn dirty bomb with them. He gazed over to the Major, who stared at him from across the dropship they were flying in.

"Major?" Togusa finally replied through the mind-link.

"Are you all right?" she questioned. "For a moment there, you seemed to have blanked out when I was asking you a question...well?"

Togusa looked a little bewildered, but responded promptly. "I'm okay, just...you know...anyway. Yeah, sure. I don't mind it." He leaned back, and sighed. He then grimaced slightly from the mild pain in his injured rib area. "I'm sorry, Major. I was just thinking about stuff, that's all." The man added as an afterthought.

"Okay," she replied, and then ordered, "Think about whatever was on your mind later because we have better things to worry about now."

Togusa nodded slightly. "Yes, ma'am..." He responded before closing the private-link off. He was worried his injured ribs would effect him tonight, and would get in the way of things. He certainly wished they didn't bother coming over to pick him up.

Batou studied Togusa for a moment, and turned to Kusanagi.

"Are you sure it was a good idea to bring him along?" he asked. "Personally, he still looks like shit, and might slow us down when we get into the building and start fighting the terrorists." Batou paused. "Togusa even knows that."

"No, he won't," Kusanagi simply said, "Togusa's coming with us. I thought we already went over this before picking him up."

"I know, but -" Batou started to protest, but she cut him off.

"If he can still be useful for covering us during a gun fight, and follow orders," she looked at Batou. "then I'm okay with him being here."

"Damn it, fine," he replied, folding his arms in front of his chest. "You certainly do have a lot of faith in that kid. He better keep up with us then, and not complain to me or you about how much his ribs ache while we are in there." He sighed, looking at Togusa again with a slight worry over his face. "Because if we get into a tight spot with these unknown-number of terrorists thugs, he might have to cover his own ass."

The Major smiled. "Are you worried about him, Batou?"

"Me? Worried about that wuss?" he asked in a sarcastic surprise, and let out a short chuckle. "Never in a million years." He noticed the depressed, painful expression on Togusa's face while the ex-cop stared at the assault rifle in his hands.

"Gee...can the kid make himself look like shit anymore?" Batou quickly added, "Not that I care or anything, Major."

"Batou, save it..." Motoko whispered this time through clench teeth instead of speaking through the mind-link.

Batou only smiled, and turned away. His Tachikoma glanced over at Togusa, and then took two steps toward him.

The curious blue Tachikoma made a little, "Oooh?" sound, and Togusa – without looking up – muttered under his breath, but he clearly looked annoyed at the machine being nosy.

"I'm fine," and then his words were followed by, "Go bother someone else."

The Tachikoma moved up a little on its legs in surprise, and turned back to the other Tachikoma they bought along with them.

It whispered, "He's grouchy."

"I wonder why Togusa-kun is so grouchy?"

"Maybe he's grouchy because of the Major making him use the assault rifle instead of his handgun he always carries around."

"Maybe..."

"Oh, shut up..." mumbled Togusa to the Tachikomas before Ishikawa's voice called out from the co-pilot seat. Beside him, Borma was piloting the dropship, and flew quicker toward a building that they were going to land on soon.

"We'll be landing from across the building controlled by the terrorists in about two minutes."

"All right," Motoko stood, and headed over to the open hatch, and held onto a handle bar while she looked out over the city. She switched over to mind-link, and told everyone in the plane the plans. "Listen up. Once we arrive, Batou and Togusa will come with me. Pazu and Saito will go with the other Tachikoma, while Borma and Ishikawa will stay here to monitor the situation, and come in as backup if needed. Understood?"

"Roger." "Yes, ma'am." "Okay." Responded most of them, while a few nodded in silence as they shouldered their weapons.

The Major looked over her shoulder, and looked directly to Togusa. Togusa had his eyes shut and an arm pressed over his torso protectively. He looked no different tonight than what he looked like after the night when he was in the scuffle with the criminal who could've shot and killed the young Section 9 member if they didn't show up in time. He can be foolish sometimes, but he also can be courageous in the most dangerous situations. He has done plenty of those stunts already. Although, she didn't show it, it pained her too see him like this. She knew he was also pissed about going, and he tried to get out of being called to work earlier than expected during the ride at headquarters with Batou. What an argument, she sighed. Yet, he still came after all because they needed him.

She looked away from him, and gazed out over the lighted buildings of the dark sky of night. 'I trust you, Togusa.' Motoko thought to herself.

A/N: Alright, that's the end of chapter one. I'm currently in the process of writing chapter two. If there's any questions/comments/whatever, please don't hesitate. P