(W) Shirow Masamune, Junichi Fujisaku (A) Yuki Yoshimoto Hackers attempt to assassinate a politician during a speech preaching the advantages of cybernetic prosthetics. Fortunately, Togusa is there to whisk her to safety, and the investigation leads Batou to a suspicious factory in the artificial islands in southern Japan. Meanwhile, Chief Aramaki hears of a disturbing discovery at the other end of the country: dozens of artificial bodies, illegally dumped near a village where an anti-cyberization sect conducts their training and 'rites.' Among the empty shells is one formerly inhabited by the woman who embodied Section 9 until she left it behind and disappeared: Major Motoko Kusanagi.

(W) Shirow Masamune, Junichi Fujisaku (A) Yuki Yoshimoto Togusa and Tsunagi are racing after a fleeing suspect when a van suddenly slams into the suspect's car, killing the van driver instantly. As Togusa hooks into the man's cyberbrain, he sees residual images of a group of children and a masked figure who says, 'I am a warrior.' Later, an autopsy yields a shocking revelation: the driver was killed not by the collision, but by a neurotoxin derived from the venom of the African black mamba. Section 9 needs answers, and Togusa and Tsunagi get sent off halfway across the world to the Sahel Special Economic Zone. What mysteries await them in the 'oasis of the Sahara?'