To Those Without Even a Name...

Tracing odd traffic through the European satellite network, the Tachikoma find a stealth gate hiding a path into the Local Asian Web. Motoko Kusanagi means to dive into Kawashima's external memories to expose how Kazundo Gouda steered the Individual Eleven, but Daisuke Aramaki calls her away on urgent matters. She hands the dive to Borma, with Ishikawa backing him up. Inside, Borma locates a file named after the group and loads it into his cyberbrain, reporting only a badly written essay and no ill effect.

Word arrives that Hideo Kuze has been sighted in Nagasaki, and Section 9 moves to intercept him near Kagoshima, with Saito and Batou weighing capture options as Kusanagi leads the chase. Togusa, meanwhile, is sent to hunt down a physical copy of the essay. He comes up empty at institution after institution; a professor explains that only twenty were ever printed, and even his own is gone. Kuze, now among the last Individual Eleven, confesses he could never find his copy either.

Back at headquarters, Borma reasons the virus may only fire once a reader has finished every essay by Patrick Sylvestre. Ishikawa agrees, and Borma dives again, this time seizing up until a Tachikoma shuts his cyberbrain down. Elsewhere the Individual Eleven gather atop the Kyushu Radio Tower and behead one another with swords on live television. Togusa's last stop brings him to Dobashi, a talk-show commentator, who declares the group never truly existed, only the idea of it, then proclaims himself the Individual Eleven and tries to sever his own neck with a utility knife, spraying blood across the window.

The Tachikoma uncover a hidden gate into the Local Asian Web. Borma takes over Kusanagi's planned dive into Kawashima's memories. Section 9 moves on Kuze after a Nagasaki sighting. Togusa learns only twenty copies of the essay ever existed and none can be found. Borma's second dive triggers convulsions. The Individual Eleven behead each other on live broadcast, and Dobashi's outburst confirms the group was only ever an idea.

Under the production subtitle Selecon, this second-season chapter drives home that the Individual Eleven were copycats spawned by a virus rather than a real organization. A closing observation suggests the infected only imagine having read the essay once they have consumed all of Sylvestre's works, underscoring the manufactured nature of their shared delusion.