Two years after Section 9's first dissolution, Major Motoko Kusanagi and her team are back under Chief Aramaki, this time handed Japan's mounting refugee crisis. Roughly three million Asians displaced by the previous world wars are crowded onto the reclaimed island of Dejima, and a wave of attacks claimed by a faction calling itself the Individual Eleven keeps tying their unrest to terror. Tracking the case, Kusanagi crosses paths with Hideo Kuze, a fully prosthetic ex-soldier who is becoming the refugees' voice. This second season continues Stand Alone Complex directly.