Return to Patriotism

As the Maritime Self-Defense Force shells Dejima and refugees flee on improvised boats, Kusanagi orders the Tachikoma to carve out net storage for the evacuees' memories and ghosts. The units ignore her and pursue an idea of their own. With the American Empire refusing to answer Prime Minister Yoko Kayabuki's calls, she takes a different step to defuse the standoff, while the Tachikoma commandeer a string of satellites to block an incoming submarine-launched strike.

The ninth satellite the tanks seize holds their own AI, yet they press on, backing up copies of themselves into the space meant for the refugees. Section 9 and Section 4 reach the bridgehead carrying plutonium as the ballistic missile aimed at Dejima lifts off, only to be knocked down mid-ascent by the falling satellites. At the docks Kusanagi reveals she was Hideo Kuze's childhood friend, and Batou pulls them both out by helicopter. In the cabinet room Aramaki arrests Chief Secretary Takakura as Kayabuki stakes out a stance of independence.

Attention shifts to Gouda, who intends to defect. A strike team corners him and his American handlers, and though he insists he is untouchable, Kayabuki has branded him a national asset barred from leaving the country. When the elevator doors open, Kusanagi kills him with a burst from her rifle. At the same moment the CIA murders Kuze so he cannot become a symbol for the refugees. With the Tachikoma gone, the team now rides the colder Uchikoma tanks, and Kusanagi, roused from her thoughts, sets off alone toward her next path.

The series ender carries the subtitle ENDLESS∞GIG and was directed by Masayuki Yoshihara from a script by series creator Kenji Kamiyama. It debuted in Japan on January 8, 2005, and in English on May 27, 2006, following To the Other Side of Paradise. A quieter exchange between Kusanagi and Kuze about folding paper cranes with one hand underscores the loneliness that has shadowed them both.