What Came About as a Result of Togusa's Death

Togusa and Aramaki reach Prime Minister Tate's residence and learn that Japan has maneuvered the American government into its debt. In Tate's office the Major's squad and a Tachikoma drop their stealth camouflage to make themselves known. Tate thanks the group for accepting the mission to exterminate the post-humans, but Kusanagi corrects him, noting the team has not actually agreed. She steers the rest of the exchange onto a private internal network, then presses for the budget she wants; Tate says he will weigh it after consulting others.

John Smith cuts in, revealing that the American government has installed him as the group's advisor, and hands over files on three suspected post-humans in Japan. Drawing on data gathered from the Gary Harts affair, he estimates at least fourteen of them are loose and marvels, apart from Patrick Huge, at how they operate on a vast scale without exposure. When he demands the team accept the hunt, Tate asks where the American President stands, and John replies that since America absorbed the worst of the damage it should lead, framing the crisis as a shared enemy.

The former operatives walk out. Aramaki tells them he will settle the budget with Tate and leaves the choice of rejoining the reborn Section 9 in their hands, giving them a couple of days. John insists refusal is impossible, but Aramaki speaks up for his old people and holds the line.

At the new Section 9 headquarters the team meets a second Tachikoma and is introduced to Purin Ezaki, a young member openly infatuated with Batou. On the helipad Togusa admits to the Major that he wants to join and regrets turning her down once before; she tells him not to overthink it and to decide on his own terms. As a test she asks him to sniff out a suspected mole tied to John who may in fact be serving Tate.

That night Togusa slips into Tate's office and finds a listening device. He then lets two men at a bar recruit him and lures them to a harbor, where they try to kill him. He appears to be run down, executed, and dumped into the water, but the whole death is an illusion he staged by hacking their minds. The trick exposes them as agents of the Japanese-American Security Department, and he passes the finding to the Major along with his read on Aramaki's plan to line up another major job for the unit.

On the day of the follow-up meeting the budget comes through approved. John, holding no file on Togusa at all, is forced to introduce himself before the former Section 9 members reappear and commit to joining the team. The episode carries the subtitle ASSEMBLE and sits in the SAC_2045 continuity. It released in Japan on April 23, 2020, and in English on May 3, 2020.