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...

Koukaku Kidoutai: The Human Algorithm has been published digitally in English as The Ghost in the Shell: The Human Algorithm by Kodansha USA since November 20, 2019, and in print since June 23, 2020, and it has also been simulpub.