Togusa is badly injured after the events of the previous episode but determined to testify against the DEA due to its brutal massacre of the Sunflower Society. His memory of the events is shared among Section Nine, sparking outrage. After Aramaki informs the government of Togusa witnessing the massacre, the Narcotics Suppression Squad (NSS) is sent to Dr. Hisashi Imakurusu's home. Doctor Imakurusu was on the board of medical review that denied the Murai Vaccine but privately used it himself.
Believing he may be the key to finally solving the Laughing Man's relationship to the Corporate Conspiracy, they find him using a unique aid: The American Empire's spy satellites. Section Nine and the NSS find themselves in a firefight, though, and the latter successfully eliminate Doctor Imakurusu. This further implicates the DEA, though.
- Corporate Conspiracy: The Murai vaccine being denied to the public is more clearly having been done for the purposes of selling a (useless) nanomachines cure.
- Government Conspiracy: The DEA is now heavily in the pocket of the people suppressing the scandal regarding the Murai vaccine.
- Dirty Cop: The NSS is outright performing hits on behalf of the DEA now.
- Hypocrite: Doctor Imakurusu chose to use medicine that he denied to the public.
- Karma Houdini Warranty: Doctor Imakurusu managed to survive a disease that killed or crippled many Japanese citizens because of his corruption but is killed for it here.
- Murder Is the Best Solution: The DEA not only massacred the Sunflower Society but uses the NNS to go after another potential witness.
- Rabid Cop: The NSS proves to be willing to murder anyone they're ordered to kill, starting with some innocent activists and moving to a corrupt doctor.
- Revealing Cover Up: The attempt to prevent Doctor Imakurusu from testifying does a lot to make the DEA look guilty.
- Villains Want Mercy: The leader of the corrupt NES crew begs the Major to unseal the damaged hatch of his exosuit after its taken down, but since he was in the middle of trying to crush her skull just before that, she instead fires round after round of a anti-material rifle into the canopy at point-blank range.
