The Battle Begins

An assault by the ASF pins down Togusa's group just as the Major passes along word that Suzuka has died. Saito clears one attacker so the team can break free, and Purin scrambles up a hook wire toward the fighting. The post-human Takashi Shimamura halts the Tachikoma carrying him and single-handedly cuts down nearly the entire ASF force, then holds a survivor at gunpoint while Togusa strains to talk him down.

Purin reaches the scene and turns Takashi's own tricks against him, hurling tiles through the N Net, only for him to hijack a Tachikoma and fire back at her. The Major's squad rolls in and forces a standoff. Speaking through the commandeered tank, Takashi rewrites the rules of the game, handing control of the nuclear arsenal to the people of N and ordering everyone to clear out. Batou spots a strange mark forming on his hand and notices the ASF may bear the same. Takashi then flees with Togusa still trapped inside the stolen Tachikoma, which begs the Major to alert the Prime Minister.

Regrouping, the team learns Purin truly died and was brought back, a resurrection the Major herself secretly arranged. Stan turns up carrying a trigger for the warheads and is found to be infected with the same virus that once claimed Togusa, so Boma locks him down. After tracing Takashi through Pazu, the group splits to pursue him and leaves Stan behind. Cut off inside a sealed corridor, Togusa spots his own missile button and grasps that he too has become an N. The episode ends as the Chief steps into a car opened by an attendant wearing Kanami's face, and moments later it detonates.