Mardock Scramble

–But our company—we’re just as much victims of Shell as you are. We could just sit here and squabble amongst ourselves, of course, but wouldn’t it be better if we collaborated in prosecuting Shell together? There’s plenty of scope for negotiation here, don’t you think?

“What exactly are you planning to do? Have him imprisoned and transported to a state where they have capital punishment, so that you can have the law do away with him for good?”

John laughed. Balot heard the laugh as if it were echoing in the room right beside her. His future prospects are most lamentable. Someone had said something like this before. Skyscraper.

–We need not trouble ourselves right now about what may or may not happen after Shell goes to prison. The important thing is that there is a certain someone who has been hurt deeply by Shell’s actions—a certain someone who was hoping to marry him and has been damaged as a result of what Shell has done. She’ll be inheriting the mantle of this case—or rather, OctoberCorp will on her behalf.

“Inheriting it…”

–Shell’s case will be closed shortly, and with it he’ll lose the right to have a PI investigate on his behalf. We’ll simply rehire the excellent PI that he currently has in his employ and have him work for us. The contractual negotiations are already in place.

“You’re going to have Boiled kill Shell, is that the idea? You…”

–Well, it looks like the children of Scramble 09 are going to have the opportunity to fight this one out amongst themselves. In the meanwhile, it’ll be our own OctoberCorp that’s wholeheartedly received by the people of Mardock City, just as the Three Magi wanted.

“You dare to invoke the Three Magi? Can you put your founding director on the line to support your cock-and-bull story?”

–She’s a sleeping beauty who won’t be waking up anytime soon. You know as well as I do that she’s brain-dead.

“What I do know is that OctoberCorp is taking advantage of her comatose state to abuse the technology she gave you and make dirty money, under the pretext of ‘what the Three Magi would have wanted.’ You know full well that none of the Three Magi really want such a thing.”

–Is that so? I can tell you that plenty of people in this city would disagree with you—they like being “abused” by our technology, as you put it. We’re just doing our duty as a clan to develop our inheritance—our duty to ensure the progress of OctoberCorp.

“That’s a foul deceit—trying to justify the suffering of innocent victims, hiding behind weasel words.”

–Do you know the origin of what we call the Stairway to Heaven, Mardock?

“What—”

–Mardock was the name of the son of the goddess. He killed his own mother and usurped her role as creator, ruling in her place far more effectively than she ever did. In much the same way, we at OctoberCorp are here to use the technology brought into the world by the Three Magi. The old moral values are obsolete in the face of social progress.

“That’s just a fantasy that you guys conjured up to suit your own ends. There’s no such thing as old or new morals, just morality.”