Disclaimer: I do not own any Ghost in the Shell. That is proudly owned by Shirow Masamune. This goes for both the movies and the Stand Alone Complex.
Chapter 6:
Entry 51:
And God said to Motoko, 'I will
give you gills and open the doors to paradise.' Or at least that's
what God would have said to me today if he was talking. Mack, the
guy who developed my BCD (buoyancy control device), took us out into
the area just outside of the old city. He anchored the boat and got
our gear ready. He only stumbled once, when I answered his question
about my body weight. I laughed and reminded him I'd spec'd a
heavy-duty floater for that reason and he said he just didn't
realize I was made out of lead. Once he rebalanced the system for my
weight, he strapped it on me and told me to delay entry until he was
in the water. Then he walked off the edge of the boat. When I did
the same, I bobbed on the surface like a child's toy. He chuckled
and explained he'd over compensated just in case I'd lied about
my true weight. After a few more adjustments, he said I was ready to
dive.
There's a part of the human section of my brain that
argues against logic with faith. It tells me that I should stand and
fight when logic demands I retreat. It also tells me that breathing
when surrounded by water will drown me irregardless of the regulator.
However, when the world starts getting fuzzy around the edges, the
human sides takes a blind leap of faith and says…BREATHE!
So there I was, getting fuzzy around the edges when I suddenly
suck two lungs full of…air. After a panicked breath or five, I
calmed down and opened my optics. The view is astonishing.
Sunlight filters through saltwater, diffracting in unique ripple
patterns that gives the world in front of me a visual texture. But
when I reach out to touch these ripples, I pass right through them,
as if I have no substance. For the brief few minutes of time I had
before my tank beeped to let me know I was running out of air, I felt
as if I was only a mirage, an inconsequential pattern woven into the
weft of the universe itself. For the first time in a very long time,
my ghost was at peace.
When we came to the surface of the water,
it was like I was personally experiencing the painting by MC Escher
in which a fish looks through the water at leaves and shimmering
trees. I could almost envision the fish thinking that he was looking
into another dimension. I felt the same way, looking at wavy
sky-scrapers and dislocated floaty clouds while the sun rained
rippled beams around my body. Breaking the surface is like falling
from heaven, but in reverse. Gravity suddenly asserts itself at the
normal ratio and all of the invisible worries begin to climb back on.
It's almost as if I'm putting armor on to go into battle, and
quite disturbing after the freedom I've just deserted. If only I
had gills.
Entry 52:
On a professional note, the Laughing
Man seems to have made a resurgence. We sent Togusa in undercover to
a cyber asylum for children. It was the location TLM was last traced
to. We haven't heard from him yet today, but I won't be worried
for another…forty-three minutes.
I also approached Batou to see
if he would be willing to go diving with me. He gave me the "Batou
Death Glare;" but said if I was determined to do a fool's folly,
he'd be the man on the surface.
Entry 53:
Sorry I've been gone for a day or
two…Togusa managed to get himself brain hacked, and beaten up while
on assignment. After he finally woke up, he drew a picture of the
person he thought was TLM. When he handed it over, it was just the
deaf-mute symbol TLM uses to hide his own identity. The guys howled
at it, but I didn't find it so humorous. It really bothered me
because until the guys pointed out his foolishness, he thought it was
the profile of a real person. TLM has more abilities than we
originally suspected.
Entry 54:
Togusa's wife and I
had a long sit-down chat today. She informed me that she did not
appreciate the danger I'd placed her husband in. I explained that
as THE single human member of the team, he was the only person who
could have gone on that assignment. I know she was frustrated and
upset. Her husband left to go on-duty, disappeared for three days,
and reappeared in the hospital looking like he's gone seven rounds
with Muhammad Ali. Since she didn't know details, I took her
bitch-slap without blinking. The things I do for my team. She made
a nice gash in my skin with that damned diamond ring of hers, and
I'll probably have to get my jaw realigned. I wonder if Togusa has
any idea his wife is actually a tiger.
Entry 55:
TLM went back
underground as a result of Togusa's actions, so Aramaki gave us all
a couple of days off. Of course it's with the provision that we
come back as soon as we're called. So, Batou agreed to go
"boating" with me if I would spend the morning helping him look
at options for a dog. Although I thought a militant man such as
himself would be partial to miniature Dobermans, Batou leans towards
Bassett-hounds. What? Does he have any idea how much work those
dogs require? How ironic. He's a high-maintenance cyborg thinking
about getting a higher maintenance hound, while performing a job that
is not conducive to any kind of lifestyle that requires predictable
schedules.
I told him my thoughts while we were heading out to the
dive site, the wind whipping my words around us in disarray. Batou
finally said that as long as he had me around, he didn't need a
pet. I was high maintenance enough for him. I smacked him and went
below deck to suit up.
Just like last time, when I hit the water,
my concerns scattered, as if they were dissolvable in that universal
solvent. I concentrated more on my breathing this time, allowing
myself to be under far longer than my initial dive. I had my link
off, so it was just the void and myself. I later tried to explain to
Batou that being down there is akin to regaining my mortality.
Mortal people face the eternity of the beyond. Regardless of what
religion each person has or does not have, each mortal dies. At that
point, the only thing humans know is that the continuum of life
ceases to exist in the four dimensional plane.
Being deep
underwater, where the ripples of light fear to go, is figuratively
observing eternity. It is staring at the unknown of what is to come.
That dark place between the surface and the bottom, where life again
reasserts itself, is only seldom broken by fish and other marine life
that dart in and out of visibility. Much like how my ghost drifts in
and out of my normal consciousness. This trip, I was actually glad
to breech the barrier between the world of Poseidon and the world of
air. My ghost had nothing cheerful to say.
When I broke surface,
I looked over to Batou and had to stifle a chuckle. His forehead was
all wrinkled up and he was shouting at me. I couldn't hear exactly
what he was saying, but I could get the gist. I opened my link and
told him a shar-pei would better suit him since he got all wrinkly
when he frowned. He flipped me off, but immediately helped me with
my gear without a single complaint.
Entry 56
Aramaki called us back in
one day early. A librarian was found in the middle of the park
yesterday, completely in a quandary about how she'd gotten there.
She had no recollection about anything after filing a group of books
in section 142.56.7. Togusa said he felt it was related to TLM, so
Aramaki stuck him in the library cataloging every book. I always
though he was a little bit of the bookworm. A tenacious bookworm at
that.
Entry 57:
Dogs, dogs, dogs. I had
a dream last night I was being chased by a basset hound with optic
implants and a wrinkled forehead. It kept barking at me that I'd
been underwater too long and I needed to come up so we could go
shopping for a human. Okay, so maybe my ability to metabolize
alcohol isn't as up to par as I've been bragging about, or maybe
I shouldn't have stopped at the bar on the way home last night.
Today I get to work, and Batou is looking at breeder records
for…dogs. I HATE dogs. Well, not really. I just don't like to
dream about dogs. I don't have a dog, I don't want a dog. I
don't think Batou needs a dog, but he says he needs something to
care for, he feels like he's losing his humanity. I told him that
it was because he'd traded his human brain in on a better model. I
can't repeat his exact words, but they were quite acerbic.
Entry 58:
Day three of the Togusa
Bookworm Watch. He'd made it through the letter J of books
cataloged three years ago when he found the missing book. Pretty
impressive considering he had to pull each box out by hand. It had a
list of each person who'd received the Murai Vaccine. I am now
very curious to find out if TLM is involved or if it's another
copycat.
Entry 59:
After extensive
research, Batou decided not to get a dog right now. He said that
currently he can only get cloned dogs, and they are neither
individualistic nor healthy. I pointed out that I was not
individualistic and he argued that I wasn't a clone either. I
needed to remember that a clone was not unique on the inside, while a
cyborg body was just a shell that housed the soul and was how people
"see" me in their minds when they hear my voice. He went on to
say that he'd always see me as the girl I was before I became a
cyborg and my current shell was of little importance to our
friendship. Then he smacked my ass and said that this shell was
certainly nice to look at though. He's definitely going to pay for
that at some foreseeable future.
Entry 60:
The sun shining through
my normally closed window woke me very early this morning. Since I
always sleep with the window closed, I was very disoriented. Rolling
over, I realized that I was fully dressed and lying on top of pink
covers, which was an immediate sign I was not at home. Furthermore,
Courtin was curled up under the covers beside me. That's when I
remembered stopping by after work last night because she left me a
message stating we needed to talk. However, I crashed before we were
able to have the discussion in question. She probably wants to kill
me right now.
Although she's the most emotionally stable of
the three, she still gets bent when I don't spend any time with
them. I've not been available the last three months, which is a
long time for all of us to go without meeting. Courtin is just going
to have to understand that I'm not here for her amusement. There's
a reason I haven't pursued a more permanent relationship with
anyone. I am a public safety officer, and dammit but terrorists
don't choose convenient times to come calling.
To make matters
worse, I left without even waking her up. I needed to stop by my
place before I went in to work, and I didn't have time to deal with
what she wanted to discuss. I wonder if WacDonald's Apple Pies
would work on her, probably should send flowers instead. My watch
says it's 7am and I'm going to have to jet. Each of us have been
given separate assignments, none of which can be discussed in here.
sssss
A/N: If you're watching the TV series, the only timeline I'm trying to stick with is the events of TLM. Anything else is interjected wherever I feel like it. As you can clearly see, I'm several episodes behind the current ones airing on AS. I haven't seen the ending. If you know the ending, please DO NOT spoil it for anyone else by stating it in a review. Most kind thanks!-TK
