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 7

If you haven't noticed, I've given up on trying to encrypt this diary. Instead I've implanted a nice little zinger file. If you don't know the password, it will erase your mind by the end of these entries.

Entry 61:
Saito and Ishikawa have changed Togusa's name for him. Saito is calling him Columbo, while Ishikawa has taken to Don Quixote. Surprised that Ishikawa has read Cervantes's tale, both Batou and I are impressed he'd actually think to use the alliteration correctly. Togusa's tracing a phantom through a maze, but we have no doubt he'll expose it for the forgery it is. Tomorrow he's visiting some contacts hoping for anything that can give him direction in his search. Meanwhile, Batou's been sent in for some routine upgrades on his system, and Aramaki has informed me that I'll receive my newest assignment in the morning. That's either a very good thing, or a truly horrifying experience. No advance warning either means all the pieces haven't fallen into place, or he doesn't want to give me any time to find a way to be unavailable.

Entry 62:
Oh yes, I'm going to skin the SOB. He didn't tell me ahead of time because he didn't want to give me a chance to take a dive on him. I'm heading in when he tags me on the secure line. "Major, I need you to appear at the Appellate building at 8am. There is a seminar of utmost importance. I would attend, but I have been called to a top level meeting to discuss security breaches across the public safety sector. Blah, blah, blah…"
What was I supposed to say? We'd already talked about it. So I show up at the Appellate building early enough to realize that Aramaki probably scheduled his damn meeting to get out of this seminar. Fifty years ago, this building was where individuals would go to appeal sentences made against them. Today it sits as an old worn out shell used by governmental agencies to hold boring training seminars. Since it hasn't been upgraded, the AC is out; and between the heat and the noise of the box fans, it's almost impossible for any person to stay awake for an eight hour governmental seminar given by a monotone professor who sucks the energy out of the soul.
Instead of being out and about, diving in the net and looking for a breakthrough in the LM case, I'm sitting in a room with forty other pathetic souls learning about environmental impacts and significant contributors to pollution. We have several exercises covering 'aspects and impacts,' which is a fancy way of saying that we look at what we do and determine how it affects the environment. I look around at the other people in the class, they all look like broom or paper pushers. I'm sitting in my usual clothing, two rows from the front, and the professor hasn't looked away from my breasts since he first laid eyes on me at 8:15am. I think I heard Aramaki laughing gently in my head around 10am. I realized by lunchtime that I was a worse distraction than the box fans. I'm the only woman in the room, and there are 39 government paper pushers trying to figure out who the hell I am. Talk about feeling like the odd…man, woman, cyborg, whatever…out.
So we go through all these exercises, and the professor decides we need to share. Mechanical pencil man in the front row gets picked to go first. His A&I's are lab materials, paper, and Styrofoam. Leaking ink man goes next. He adds aluminum cans and electricity to the list of environmental impactors. I'm looking at my list and trying not to whistle under my breath. Finally after another fifteen minutes of comatose responses, they get to me. Now I have forty sets of eyes staring at me. I look at them, than I look at my paper. Then I look at them. Then back at my paper for good measure. I know what I wrote. It's very clear. A&I of Section 9: C-4, armor piercing rounds, electrical dive bombs, heavy caliber rifle rounds, hydraulic fuel, cyborg cleaning fluid, glycerin compounds. The list goes on for several pages. Blood and shrapnel are pretty close to the bottom, but they're included. Then I look at all these broom and paper pushers. These men who have subtly been trying to impress me all day. Note, it DIDN'T work. Then I look back at my list before grinning at the professor. "My biggest environmental concern is…coffee." Talk about a lame-ass item. I think it was number 94 on my list. But if you think about it, the other stuff was just too…security related. We do drink a lot of coffee. It has been known to fry a keyboard or two if spilled. That would be a reasonable response, if I had a normal job.
Folding my list and stuffing it in a pocket in my jacket, I decided to make Aramaki eat it in the morning. We're a freaking special ops team, and he's got me attending environmental policy meetings in the middle of a major project. What a crime.

entry 63…
im so mad i colud spit. tougsa went 2 the sunlfour group about taht danmed book. wile he was there, some military grup attked adn killd everyone. tog escped, but got shot dwn latr. today we found the s.o.b. i kikd his ass, but in the prcess, got my arm ripd off. good ting they hav a sapre body 4 me. tomorrow ill be swapd adn upgraded.

Entry 64:
Looking back over yesterday, it sure is good to have both hands back. I suck at one-handed entries. Today opened up an entirely new avenue in both the case, and in my personal development. Late last night, Courtin came by and showered me with some feminine care. I hadn't told her about my accident because I didn't want to worry them; but she just seemed to know something was wrong. So, I asked her if she'd come with me for my body transfer. It's important to have a witness, to make sure your brain actually gets put in your new body, and someone doesn't freejack it and leave your brain to die. However, I kept her up too late last night, and she immediately fell asleep upon arrival at Megatech. Great watchdog she makes.
This beautiful bitch, and I mean BITCH came in to the room. She had long hair pulled up and glasses perched sexily on her nose. Should have realized then that she wasn't a real doctor. No way would a nerd look that drop dead. Anyways, my folly. First thing she does is clamp me down and immobilize me. No big deal there, but she uses the opportunity to rub all over me. That's a little outside of professional procedure. Plus, I may be interested, but I'm neither cheap, nor easy. Then she sadistically starts shoving probes in my brain to turn off sensory sections. I'm aware that putting these things in is part of the procedure, I rip off an arm or leg annually. However, she's doing it in a manner that ISN'T approved. I look over, and Courtin is STILL asleep. So much for a witness too.
Since the bitch has been keeping up a running dialog of what she's doing, why she's doing it, and how she's going to finish me off, I am aware that I'm probably going to cease to exist in the next few moments. Just as I was giving up on ever getting to make another scuba dive, TLM showed up. I believe I might just have me a verified stalker. Despite my deprived, actually pathetic, situation, I knew this wasn't a hallucination. I was staring at him, with him cybertalking to me, and that bitch was looking everywhere except at him. That's when I realized that he'd hacked her eyes. Nifty little trick. I might have been a little more impressed if I wasn't still mad over him having done it to Batou a few days ago.
He walked up behind the bitch and without even touching a button on the console, downloaded all of his memories as well as showed me how to remotely control my other body. The truth allows me to pursue the real criminals, while the new party trick opens up a whole new can of whoop ass for me. Besides the military applications, I can have one hell of a good time playing pranks on all of my pals at Section 9. I digress. Once I remotely kicked that woman's ass, Aoi released me. Then I found a real doctor and started over. Courtin was very pleased with all the non-standard equipment that came with my new model. I just hope I get to keep it long enough to break it in.

Entry 65:
Fifteen Starchild cappuccino latte's are NOT good for electronic circuitry. I know we're mostly immune to drugs like alcohol and caffeine; but at some point, the intrinsic filters get clogged and these chemicals get out into the bloodstream. It's now 4:37am, and I'm still bouncing off the walls. A potent mix, caffeine and adrenaline. But I kicked ASS today! Go me, go me, it's your birthday. Batou called me a poser, and HE'S RIGHT! But what fun this poser is going to have now that we're sitting on irrefutable evidence that Serano Genomics was behind the conspiracy to ban the Murai vaccine in favor of nanotechnology, which had not yet yielded satisfactory results against cyberbrain sclerosis. Not only that, but we have documented proof that the Minister of Defense is the person responsible for the last two terrorist attacks on the city, including the one that wiped out the Sunflower Group and took down Togusa. Sons of Bitches, I am SO looking forward to their removal from my world. Run-on sentences aside, I'm liking this caffeine effect. I might just add a double cappuccino latte into my daily routine.

Entry 66:
Decided since I stayed up all day yesterday, and crashed after work; that I would actually write this in the morning today. Aramaki is heading to the PM's place today to let him know about the MoD. He's taking Togusa, since Columbo actually figured it out. We all agree he deserves the credit. Today is going to be a GREAT day!

Entry 67:
Dogs may be man's best friend, but Batou is turning out to be a Motoko's best friend. That crazy man took on an entire platoon of heavy armor soldiers and mecha suits just to bring me the one item I've never been without…my watch. I didn't have the heart to tell him he could have saved the trip. I'd sent in a remote controlled droid to fetch it, and my diary. Why oh why did I decide to leave my most prized, and secretive possessions, at the house yesterday morning? While I was there, I put my underwear back in the correct drawers. Not exactly sure what happened there, and I know I don't want to know. I also picked up the chip'd remains of a Tachikoma. For some reason, I get the instinctive feeling like I might have made a mistake in my decision to have them decommissioned. Batou told me they saved his sorry ass and took down the last mecha suit by themselves.
I only have a few minutes, Batou is in the shower, and I know that tonight and tomorrow are going to be absolutely chock-full of activities. We've been running from a cleaner team for several days now. To the best of my knowledge, everyone has been captured except Batou, and myself. Pazu and Ishikawa were able to leak the truth through our normal distribution chains, but we don't know how long it will take for the media hackers to find and make sense of it. I haven't heard a cyber peep from Boma in a long time, and I'm very afraid he may be off-line. However it falls out, Aramaki had better have an iron-clad reason for leaving us to the slaughter. He's never abandoned us before, and I can't imagine that he would do this unless his hands are tied.
On a side note, lug-head got his arm smashed retrieving my watch. I am very lucky to have such a friend and partner by my side. If I have to go through hell, there's no other person I'd rather be with. Of course, I'll never admit that to him. I'm sure there are ways I can make tomorrow up to him, tonight; but I suspect that anything I do would give away my hand. We have a lot to do before the morning, I just hope another night without sleep will not adversely affect his functionality.

Entry 68:
Today was rough. It was singularly the roughest experience of my life. The morning started with Batou helping me to dress. I hate being helpless, irregardless of who my helper is. We had called for a lift, giving up and accepting defeat. They would take us in and extract all data, allowing us to stand trial for our many imaginary heinous crimes against the country. As we sat in the lobby, neither of us had anything to say. I'm sure Batou was in his own little world, he tends to go a little apeshit on me when I'm in danger, and we both had a clear understanding of what had to happen.
It was really a Coppola moment, like a scene out of "Apocalypse Now." The sun was coming up between the Public Security building and the Telelife scraper. Batou must have stopped to look at it. The light was golden, with a red tinge. A really good writer might describe it in lucent terms, some type of foreshadowing involved as well. All I can say is that it reminded me of danger, the vibrant red that harbors ill-will for sailors and other travelers alike. Suddenly I heard the faint sound of choppers, and Batou was screaming at me. Just as I turned, click, and I had lost connection.

Entry 69:
Motoko Kusanagi + Waiting for Freedom EXTREME BOREDOM. If I could temporarily off-line, I would. I've gotten very good at single person chess and mahjong. Nothing's going on, so I've not been writing. So much for keeping myself informed of what I've been doing. Maybe I need to go to a diary priest. "Forgive me Father, for I have sinned. It's been a month since my last entry." However, since I don't exist, do I really need to seek absolution? Ah, here I go. See what I mean. If I don't get out of this situation soon, I may start having cyberbrain schizophrenia. How cool would that be? I could talk to myself, and myself, and myself, and other people, and myself. How pathetic, I can't even get online. All I'm left with is mahjong, and any voices in my head.
Speaking of voices, TLM has been visiting me a lot lately. He found a way to travel through the net to my brain, without being detected. Probably the same methods he used to take control of other people. I told myself I had a stalker. Since neither one of us has been free to do anything else, he's as much a prisoner right now as I am, we've traveled many philosophical roads together. I want to meet this man. Or at least, I think he's a man. If he's a woman, she has the most male-patterned thought process of any being I've ever met. I have nothing better to do, so let me describe what I think he looks like. His voice has always been deep and gravelly, but voices and bodies don't always mix. So, I won't make a guess as to the body. However, he's probably in his fifties, a definite CBS sufferer. He says that when all of this is finally finished, we'll have to meet. I hope so, there are questions I require answers to. Oh look, I just finished another game.

Entry 70:
I know, but it's sacrilegious to confess to an imaginary priest. It's been another two months since my last entry. The chief finally sat down with us and explained what happened. He went to the PM, laid out the evidence; and was told that they wouldn't do anything to the MoD because it was too close to the election and he would certainly lose if it was discovered that he'd had criminals of that magnitude on his staff. So, he told our boss that he had to sacrifice the Section 9 team in the short term so that the PM could be re-elected and clean house, providing a less corrupt government long term. It sucked pretty hard for all of us, since we were all labeled as fugitives and hunted down like criminals. He took Togusa with him because he is the only completely human member, and Aramaki knew he wouldn't survive a full-blown battle. So, I guess you could say that he sacrificed his queen in order to save the bishop. A risky move, but it paid off. As the sacrificial lamb, it took some adjustment on my part.
His message to me to stay alive was what gave me the idea to do the body transfer. It was complicated since I actually had to get my brain put back in my old body, without the help of the Megatech transfer chambers. I actually stole a page from TLM, and found a way to load my ghost files into the net, becoming one with the system long enough for Batou to do the physical transfer. I still wonder if everything got transferred back properly. I've been acting a little more girly ever since that incident.
Speaking of girly, I was SO WRONG in my idea of what TLM looked like. Not only was he NOT drop dead gorgeous; but he was only nineteen. How a kid that young could cause us that much grief is beyond me. Ishikawa was all for taking him out if we ever met him, but I told him that TLM would be a great asset IF we could get him on our team.
Well, guess again. While Batou went out to snag Togusa before he could assassinate the MoD, I ran TLM to ground. TLM kindly turned me down. He's in the beginning stages of CBS. However, he has a more advanced linkage system than me, two times more linkage ports. I'm jealous as hell. Anyways, since he has more cyber/brain linkages, he is going to progress into the higher stages of CBS quicker than normal. The chief popped in and said he'd do what he could to help him. TLM said thanks, and that he'd keep an eye on things and let us know if he finds anything critically suspicious. I guess that's better than nothing.
When I got back to base, Togusa hugged me until Aramaki cleared his throat. Togusa just blushed and said he was really glad that his short trip into insanity was only that, a short trip. The guys are all going out for drinks tonight. I've been invited, but I already have plans. There's a certain someone who has taken very good care of me during the recent difficult situations. I'm going to do a little payback by buying dinner and showing a good night on the town. It's the least I can do.

A/N: The nice thing about working on several things simultaneously is that when my brain seizes up on one set of stories, I can work my way around to some others. Thanks to all of you who have keep up with this long-running, randomly updated fic. I don't know if there will be an update between now and 2nd Gig. I'm kinda out of material. However, miscellaneous stuff happens all the time, and there might be another 10 entries in there somehow. I hope you have enjoyed what has already been written, and I will see you when I next update. -TK