An annual special issue dedicated to Stand Up Paddling. Focused on newcomers to the sport, SUP World Mag primarily covers the recreational aspects of Stand Up Paddling: beginner paddlers, leisure and family paddling, fitness, flatwater, and distance paddling, and a little bit of racing and surfing. Focused on the visual aspect the sport, SUP World Mag brings high quality photography, thoughtful articles and very creative lay out. Essential reading

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A heavy-assault multiped tank runs amok under the control of an unknown hijacker. After going on a destructive spree at the Kenbishi Industries testing facility, the multiped takes off towards the urban area of Niihama. Kusanagi briefs her squad at Section 9 HQ, explaining that the tank's designer, Takeshi Kago, died a week before, and that no terrorist organization has claimed credit for the heist. Since the military refuses to get involved unless...

Major Kusanagi and Section 9 are called in to resolve a hostage crisis at a Geisha house staffed by an android Geisha. After the crisis is averted Aramaki is approached by a friend of his in the military who reveals that one of the hostages in the Geisha house was under investigation after requesting a report detailing military actions to be taken in the event of various states of emergency. Given the sensitive nature of the case, Section 9 is therefore...

Things go fairly haywire as Kusanagi suspects that The Laughing Man has inserted a virus into the police units guarding the Superintendent General. As Section 9 members struggle to evacuate the Superintendent General to safety, the anti-virus team at HQ races to develop a vaccine to protect against it. After the immediate threat is averted, Aramaki orders Section 9 to open their own investigation into the Laughing Man case.

Former Japanese Prime Minister Kanzaki's daughter has been abducted and Section 9 is called in to investigate her disappearance. The prime suspect in the case is Blind Fold Ivan, a pseudonym for the North Territories Mafia. Blind Fold Ivan uses the same M.O. in his abductions: Over a three day period multiple underage women are kidnapped and then shipped to chop shops where they are killed, and all organs and cybernetic pieces are taken to be sold...

The Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare has been hacked into and classified material from their database has been stolen. Section 9 traces the hack and determined that the hack job originated from a facility that helps people with Cyberbrain Close Shell Syndrome. Togusa goes undercover to investigate the social welfare facility, and immediately encounters suspicious behavior from the facilities supervisors.

Kusanagi's reservations regarding Section 9's Tachikoma units comes to a head. She has become disturbed by their behavior, as their artificial intelligence agents appear to be developing too fast with even more concerns about the safety of retaining them in the unit for use in a battle situation. The Tachikomas have become vaguely aware of Kusanagi's concerns, and attempt to avoid deactivation by hatching a bizarre scheme to appeal to Kusanagi and...

After the events of PORTRAITZ, Togusa uses J. D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye as a starting point and develops a theory that The Laughing Man is after something published on paper. Togusa receives permission to check out a Health, Labor, and Welfare records building and stumbles on a key piece of evidence: A list of cyberbrain sclerosis patients treated by a secret vaccine has disappeared from the Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare.

Early in the morning, Baton's Tachikoma self activates and leaves the Tachikoma storage bay to explore the outer world. While roaming the streets of the city the Tachikoma encounters a young girl searching for her lost dog. The Tachikoma decides to help the girl and while on their journey the Tachikoma stumbles upon a cyberbrain being sold in Akihabara that contains a ghost and brings it back to the storage bay. When the Tachikoma returns, Section...

Kurutan, a friend of Kusanagi's, calls the Major to the hospital where she works to look into the source of a young girl's heart transplant. It seems that the heart she received was given without consent of the owner's parents. The girl's doctors feared she might have had to be given a full-cyborg conversion, a thought that stirs painful memories for Kusanagi. Aramaki, believing that the culprits may be tied to a mass kidnapping ring, orders Section...