- Laughing Man: Welcome. You took longer than I expected.
- Major Motoko Kusanagi: Don't give me that. You didn't even send me an invitation.
- Laughing Man: "If you stay right where you are, then people will eventually come to you."
- Major Motoko Kusanagi: I believe it was Doisneau who said that?
- Laughing Man: Yes.
- Laughing Man: Who knew that copies could still be produced despite the absence of the original? If you had to give a name to this phenomenon, what would you label it?
- Major Motoko Kusanagi: It would be "Stand Alone Complex".
- Laughing Man: Yes, it's the Stand Alone Complex. From the start the very nature of our current social system has contained the mechanisms to trigger such an amazing occurrence. Personally however, I feel this marks the beginning of a new era of despair. What's your opinion?
- Major Motoko Kusanagi: I don't know, it's impossible for me to say. Although I have found one thing that is capable of restoring your individuality after all your information has been synchronized.
- Laughing Man: Oh, really? And what's that?
- Major Motoko Kusanagi: Everyday human curiosity.
- Togusa: It's not like I had aspirations to be a hero or anything. However, I'm positive we followed a code of justice that all of believed in without condition or compromise. Laughing Man, you were the one who first tried to shed some light on the black abyss of this case and bring it to the world's attention. Is it possible that at this moment, you're feeling the same as I am? Nah, you wouldn't. Your not the type to go in for that stuff. You must've had a revelation of something and you're watching this with eyes that see the big picture. Isn't that right? I could tell.
- Laughing Man: I'll tell you. It was a simple piece of mail I stumbled across on the net that began the whole thing. What I'd found was a blackmail document that had probably been sent to Serano Genomics. It was armed with a thesis that was a comparative of the inadequacy of Serano micromachines versus the effectiveness of the Murai vaccine.
- Major Motoko Kusanagi: Then the original Laughing Man was the person who authored it?
- Laughing Man: You could put it like that, I suppose. "I am the machine that reveals the world to you as only I alone am able to see it."
- Major Motoko Kusanagi: Dziga Vertov. He was a Russian filmmaker, wasn't he?
- Laughing Man: Yes. I was kidding myself by thinking it was my personal mission to prove and circulate that information, vital data I alone had happened upon.
- Major Motoko Kusanagi: Failing spectacularly, the pure innocent mediator grew dejected at the base nature of the social system and he turned mute.