A Long Slumber

With ASF troops slipping into Geo City, Purin pulls her 3D-printed rifle from her van and races toward Takashi Shimamura. Ishikawa lays out his read of things: Takashi is probably siphoning Geo City's network traffic to weave a private net that only his followers, verified through their cyber prints, can reach, and Boma is stonewalled the instant he tries to enter it. The unit decides to grab Suzuka Mizukane while Takashi sleeps. Togusa, Boma, and Saito are set on Takashi, while the Major, Batou, and Ishikawa chase Suzuka.

Purin arrives at Takashi's spot only to find he has vanished. Once she makes contact, he hurls steel girders at her by thought alone, a feat made possible because she has logged into the N-network; the pain registers even though she is nothing but an illusion there. She empties her gun at him until it jams, and their struggle sends her over the edge to land atop a crane hook.

Suzuka bolts on a motorbike with the Major's group in pursuit and the ASF trailing unseen behind them. Togusa's team locates Takashi on his usual perch just as a signal flare marks that he has drifted off to sleep. The ASF knock Suzuka out with gas, yet the Major's group snatches her away before they can. Togusa reaches Takashi and clamps a cyber lock on him while Saito and a Tachikoma bring down a cloaked ASF soldier, and Purin reboots to start hauling herself back up the crane wire.

Pinned by ASF fire, the Major's group has a Tachikoma seal a tunnel with rubble, buying Ishikawa time to hack Suzuka's mind and lift her cyber prints. The soldiers surrender but demand the prints in exchange, at which point Suzuka wakes, seizes them, and flees, only to be fatally cut down by both sides. Batou waves the Major off any recovery attempt since Suzuka's brain waves have grown too faint. The surviving ASF advance on Takashi's position and loose a missile toward Saito, driving him into his Tachikoma for cover, and Takashi stirs awake.

This twenty-first installment of SAC_2045 was directed by Sōichi Masui and scripted by Daisuke Daitō and Kenji Kamiyama. It premiered on May 23, 2022, placed between Those Who Evolve Toward Divinity and The Battle Begins.