Confusion at the North End

Still reeling from the shootout, Section 9 watches the body of its fallen member flown off Dejima. Aramaki calls in favors and learns that the arms exchange between the mob and the refugees will most likely take place on Etorofu, which sends the unit out to break it up. A formal request goes out for a Maritime Self-Defense Force net to snare Kuze should he slip away. En route, Kusanagi warns that Kuze is gaining power quickly and could grow into a dictator, aided by the refugees' ability to share what he experiences in real time.

On Etorofu the team fans out into three parties. Batou, Saito, and two Tachikoma make for a derelict Russian submarine base thought to host the deal, Togusa and the Major visit a past contact named Kurilldin, and the rest stay with the tiltrotor. Kusanagi finds Kurilldin dead, killed by an attack barrier after he dove into data he should never have seen, and by replaying his dive she uncovers a mob plan to sell the refugees plutonium for 240 million yen. The trail also implicates the Cabinet Intelligence Service and Kagazaki as the hidden hands steering the arrangement.

Aboard the boat, a grieving refugee straps on a bomb and threatens to sink the ship over the death of Densetsu at the hands of the Individual Eleven, demanding Kuze justify the voyage to Russia. Kuze lays out his reasoning and calms the man, yet the purchase collapses into a three-sided clash involving two SDA armored suits and the Tachikoma. The installment ends on a tense face-off between Kuze and Batou, under the subtitle FABRICATE FOG.