History Characters / RebuildWorldMajorCast

'''Major Cast''' | [[Characters/RebuildWorldOtherCharacters Other Characters]] ]]-]]]

!!The Main Duo
[[folder:Akira]]
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/akira_rebuild_world_2.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350:[[labelnote:Click here to see him in his augmented suit]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/akira_rebuild_world_augmented_suit_v2.png[[/labelnote]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:[[labelnote:Click here to see him in his second augmented suit]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/akira_second_augmented_suit.png[[/labelnote]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:[[labelnote:Click here to see him in his third augmented suit]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/akird_3rd_augmented_suit_5.png[[/labelnote]]]]
!!!'''Voiced by:''' Creator/DaikiYamashita

->''"I was cheated... robbed... and abandoned by the roadside. I lost everything I ever had. That's why I'll never let myself be stepped on again!"''

The protagonist of the story. A teenaged orphan scraping out a living in the slum towns of Kusugayama, his life is forever changed when he discovers Alpha while exploring the Kuzusuraha Ruins in search of relics.

* TwentyFourHourArmor: After obtaining an augmented suit, Akira wears it everywhere he goes because of his paranoia and desire to be ready for any situation. It doesn't help that he doesn't have any casual clothing aside from the tank top and jeans he wears everyday beneath the suit.
* ABoyAndHisX: The story focuses largely on Akira's relationship with Alpha, his ultra-sexy-hot [=A.I.=] and guide.
* AceCustom: Subverted. Akira's actions make people think he has expensive equipment and/or cybernetics that he doesn't have. Nonetheless, Alpha hacking the control units of his augmented suits does make them significantly more effective.
* AchievementsInIgnorance: Alpha expects him to take six months to be able to consciously affect his own perception of time, but doesn't tell him this to see if he can overturn her expectations. Sure enough, he manages it in a few weeks after a particularly bad nightmare where he's forced to fight without Alpha's support. [[spoiler:He's so hopped up on adrenaline after being EatenAlive that he doesn't even realize he's doing it while rushing to kill the snake before it digests him, defying Alpha's expectation that he was guaranteed to die without her help.]]
* ActuallyIAmHim:
** After returning from the Kuzushara Ruins for the first time and making his first 200,000 aurum, rumors begin to spread about a boy who went into the ruins alone and came out with unknown relics that earned him a hefty profit. This reignites interest in the ruins and Akira keeps his mouth shut to keep people from realizing that he's the boy from that rumor, lest he get hounded for information or cash.
** Due to his paranoia and unwillingness to associate with others, Akira keeps the fact that he saved Sara and Elena a secret even after running into them again at Cartridge Freak. After they return the favor and allow him to rest up at their house, he finally admits that the mysterious person who saved them earlier was him.
* AdaptationalBadass: In the novel, his battle with the cannon insects leaves him with a broken leg and several bruises that only heal over thanks to the Old World medicine he scavenged from the Kuzusuraha Ruins. In the manga, there's no indication he was injured at all and walks away unscathed, instead giving the medicine to the injured soldiers he was defending.
* AdaptationDyeJob: His eyes are grey in the light novel, but colored a pale blue on the manga cover art.
* AdaptationalHeroism: Akira is a little more straightforwardly heroic in the manga and light novel adaptations. For instance, while responding to his first SOS request in the web novel, he ponders if saving the hunters from the initial onslaught is enough, only later deciding to stay until he's the SoleSurvivor after the fact. In the manga, he says there's nothing to be done but help them as much as possible since he accepted the request even though Sara and Elena aren't present, a statement that visibly displeases Alpha. Some of his more questionable actions also get removed via AdaptationDistillation, such as him killing a bunch of other {{Street Urchin}}s in self-defense when they try to mug him.
* AdaptationPersonalityChange: Akira is significantly more assertive, aggressive, and headstrong in the manga adaptation of the story. While the novel began with Akira exploring the ruins on his own, the manga begins with a DramaticChaseOpening of Akira competing with several hunters over guns and things to sell. The novel also emphasizes Akira's lack of confidence at the start of the story, meekly admitting that he's only been a hunter for one day when he meets Alpha. He's also disbelieving of Alpha's services and refuses her offer at first in the manga, even though he readily agrees in the novel, especially after she gives him a trial run.
* AgonyOfTheFeet: He tends to break his legs or his feet while performing intensive CombatParkour or while trying to use his augmented suit's SuperStrength to imitate older hunters. It's practically a RunningGag how much he has to beg Alpha to take it easy on him.
* AlmightyJanitor: Zigzagged. Under his own power, Akira is an inversion, having gotten to his current rank only with Alpha's in-combat support. But his habit of selling relics to Katsuragi rather than the Hunter's Office means that many of his relic finds stay off the record, preventing his Hunter Rank from rising to a level reflective of his combat ability with Alpha's help.
* AmusinglyAwfulAim: His aim sucks at the start of the story and he continually misses even at extremely close range unless he's shoving the barrel of his gun right up in someone's face. Alpha continually gives him shooting drills on top of directly assisting his aim to remedy this, but even with his practice he's far from perfect on his own.
-->'''Akira:''' ''[shoots a monster]'' Alright! How was that?\\
'''Alpha:''' If I hadn't adjusted your aim, you'd have missed the monster by one meter to the left. You need to keep calm as much as possible while fixing your aim.\\
'''Akira:''' ''[pouts and mopes]'' I see...
* AnArmAndALeg: Due to the CastFromHitpoints nature of many of Akira’s outstanding physical feats, thanks to Alpha both removing the PowerLimiter safeties from and boosting his augmented suits, it’s not uncommon at all for Akira to seriously injure his limbs. If not for his nanomachine medicine, he would be hospitalized a dozen times over each given mission from this it after a certain point. It’s also a good thing the setting has limb regrowth technology…
* AntiHero: He'll save the lives of those around him if need be, and he's technically doing the world a huge favor with the monsters he kills. He'll also shoot anyone in cold blood that endangers his life, other kids included, is [[UnscrupulousHero willing to take any measures he needs to maintain his well being]], silently manipulates an entire gang of people his age without much concern over their well being (albeit mostly as a figure piece rather than on his own qualms), and is intentionally contrasted against Katsuya's attempts to be a hero, albeit [[GoodIsDumb a dumb one.]]
* ArmorIsUseless: Akira's first set of protective clothing is outdated military wear that provides no protection against any modern firearms or monster claws. He later replaces it with his augmented suit, which greatly increases his strength and speed but again provides no protection. It's not until he gets his second augmented suit that he gets any protection at all, but even then that protection is minimal unless he activates the suit's energy-intensive battle mode, and he can still get shot to death if he's not careful.
* BadassBiker: Akira has a natural talent for bikes, and especially a difficult RampJump. Reina and Togami are impressed by it. Notably, there’s [[spoiler:Akira jumping his bike into the air to catch onto Zelmo’s aircraft while missiles are still tracking him. Which was all without Alpha’s support.]]
* BadassOnPaper:
** Between taking on an entire squadron of cannon insects and later 60 Yurata Scorpions single-handedly, his combat record makes him sound like a OneManArmy. But he's quick to tell others that he barely escaped with his life on both occasions and that he's not nearly as strong as he sounds, given that much of his success is tied to Alpha. It gets to the point that he agrees to have his combat record scrubbed so people will stop expecting so much of him.
** Akira later takes out hundreds of Yarata Scorpions in the ruins... but only because they were coming out of narrow tunnels that allowed him to destroy tons of them at once with the extremely expensive [[DepletedPhlebotinumShells CWH rounds]] he brought with him as part of his ridiculous demand to have the government pay for all his ammo. The narration describes it as more of a fight between the scorpions, Alpha's targeting abilities and Kugamayama City's economic power than a fight that he had any part in. He also needed Shiori and Reina's help to cover his flanks while he did this. This is also why he has no problems splitting his payment equally between the three of them because he knows he'd be dead without them.
* BadLiar: Despite his ability to keep a straight face in a high-stakes situation, it's pretty obvious when he's trying to dodge an uncomfortable subject or lying about his intentions to someone. He tries to downplay the danger he's facing as a hunter to Shizuka, whose intuition tells her that he's lying to make her feel better. While on a mission with Sara and Elena, he insists that he's OnlyInItForTheMoney, but it's plain to both women that he's coming along to help them.
* BathsAreFun: Akira becomes addicted to soaking in a hot bath after checking into a hotel with a bathtub for the first time. He always wants to live in a room with a bath no matter what and grumbles when Alpha tells him to sleep in a room without one to save money. He also has to think very hard about choosing between taking a bath and remembering to meet with Sheryl and hand her the negotiation money to get the gangs off his back. Choosing the latter leaves him antsy to return to his hotel room and finally have his bath.
* BeautifulDreamer: According to Alpha, Akira looks sweet and cute once he gets used to sleeping in a safe bed. Before then, he'd sleep with one eye open while desperately hoping he wouldn't be dead the next morning. The manga adaptation depicts him sleeping curled up in a ball and hugging the blanket with a gentle look on his face, drooling into his pillow before waking up in a daze.
* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: Akira fantasizes about firing an assault rifle in both his hands at once, which Alpha sees from their telepathy. She then scolds him about how damaging that would be to him without an augmented suit. Much, much later, he gets that wish of using two assault rifles without the support of an augmented suit (because it’s deactivated so Alpha can rewrite its software), and fighting like that badly injures Akira’s arms to the point his super medicine isn’t enough to stop the pain.
* BecauseYouWereNiceToMe: Akira starts the story as a ruthlessly opportunistic youth trying to get ahead and escape the slums, anyone else be damned. But after one of his acts of self-preservation gets mistaken for an act of heroism, he finds himself being doted on by Shizuka, Sara, and Elena, who look out for him and treat him with kindness when he spent his childhood unable to trust anyone but himself. This gives him the beginnings of a guilty conscience because of how bad he feels about exploiting their good will, and he starts performing reckless acts of heroism for real in an attempt to assuage it (but the handsome pay for answering an emergency request certainly helps).
* BeneathTheMask: Akira is impulsive, emotional, and easily sidetracked by MundaneLuxury. But while assuming the role of Sheryl's muscle, he makes it seem like he's TheStoic and [[TheChessmaster someone who's always one step ahead]] with the help of a good poker face and Alpha's advice. Sheryl initially has trouble recognizing that Akira roughing up Erio was him acting the part of an emotionless enforcer, only connecting the dots when Akira asks her to rate his performance after the fact.
* BerserkButton: It isn't necessarily ''hard'' to get Akira ready to kill someone, but he has some specific recurring triggers, that eventually are used in a bit of FlawExploitation to manipulate him.
** He goes ballistic when Shijima's gang members try to blackmail him [[AndYourLittleDogToo by threatening Shizuka, Sara, and Elena at Cartridge Freak]], instantly drawing his rifle and shooting the man dead before blasting a hole in another man's head.
** Being stolen from triggers his trauma from being robbed growing up in the slums, and will put him from a good mood to a psychotic rage at the drop of a hat, even hearing about how he was pickpocketed is enough to set him off.
* BestServedCold: Often willing to be patient in getting revenge after his BerserkButton is pressed, like not fighting Katsuya without his augmented suit because that'd be suicide. Akira tends towards TranquilFury instead of UnstoppableRage, after all.
* BetterThanSex:
** To Akira, the pleasure of soaking in a hot bath far exceeds anything his already low sex drive could offer him. Alpha's flirtations and Sheryl all but asking him to have sex with her fly over his head while he's enjoying his bath time.
** Akira makes it almost a {{Catchphrase}} that he’s more interested in food than girls, and his guard falls when he eats fine food.
* {{BFG}}: After ranking up to Rank 17, Akira is allowed to purchase an anti-materiel rifle and the corresponding CWH ammo for dealing with heavily-armored monsters. The sniper rifle is as large as he is while deployed and using the CWH ammunition blasts a hole through the heads of what is essentially an alligator tank after his normal piercing rounds failed to leave lasting damage. Not only that, but the bullet keeps going and does significant damage to the building behind it. Smaller monsters are reduced to unrecognizable pulp on impact. It's also stated that he'd be BlownAcrossTheRoom by the recoil if not for his augmented suit.
* BifurcatedWeapon: The SSB multi-weapon rifles that he eventually makes his go-to weapon. It has the firing rate of a mini-gun, can fire CWH rounds full auto, and can fire guided rocket-propelled grenades as a type of ammo. The biggest problem with it is its tendency to chew through its ammo reserves, resulting in Akira needing to buy an APC to keep from running dry.
* BigEater:
** He finds that he's developed a voracious appetite following his hospital stay, finishing an entire full-course meal in one sitting without any discomfort. He only notices this while eating on Carol's tab, which Alpha explains as his body trying to make up for years of malnutrition after the hospital treatments cleaned out the impurities and toxins lodged in his body from eating slum food and overusing nanite medicine.
** Another reason is [[spoiler:that the gradual awakening of his status as a SuperStrength Super-Human has been increasing his metabolism.]]
* BlueAndOrangeMorality:
** Akira understands right and wrong but operates more on a spectrum of fairness and priorities. He expects to be rewarded for his efforts and prioritizes survival first and foremost. He's completely indifferent to murder, killing with frightening ease and without pleasure or remorse. If a job becomes too dangerous for him to handle, he has no problems leaving the people he's supposed to be rescuing or fighting alongside behind. But at the same time he's not so self-serving that he refuses to share rewards if he feels it's duly owed. He won't scam others either, offering them what he believes is a fair price for goods or services based on what he thinks is the truth even if lying would get him a better deal.
** Even after developing something of a guilty conscience, he performs good deeds out of his own belief that it will reduce his good luck deficit or benefit him in the long term rather than for the sake of it. He also dislikes the idea of having unpaid debts and thinks it's unfair for him to tag along with more experienced hunters since he believes he'll slow them down unless they tell him otherwise. His sense of morality is so strange that Alpha struggles to wrap her head around it while trying to manipulate him.
* BookDumb: Akira NeverLearnedToRead, struggles with math, and can be quite impulsive and foolhardy. But he's also street smart, doggedly determined, and ruthlessly opportunistic in order to survive in the slums.
* BornUnlucky: Alpha tells him that he spent all the luck in his lifetime by meeting her. His troubled past as a slum orphan and track record of running into dangerous situations on routine assignments seem to corroborate this. Even when he specifically chooses missions and roles designed to run into the fewest and least dangerous enemies, he still manages to get hordes of monsters on his tail. He then becomes fixated on "earning [his] luck back" by performing good deeds while earning money after Sara and Elena save him and inadvertently give him a guilty conscience.
** [[spoiler:Akira’s unconscious telepathy from being an Old World connector actually draws monsters to him like a beacon. Because while normal noise, movement, etc is dampened by colorless mist, telepathic transmissions aren’t. These transmissions also why so many people distrust and look down on him.]]
* BrutalHonesty: Akira will not mince words with others and will tell someone straight to their face if he considers them expendable or if they're TheLoad. He's surprised when Shiori calls him out on this when she asks him to evaluate Reina's abilities, as his [[{{Deconstruction}} inability to speak with nuance or subtlety does nothing but anger everyone around him]]. This nearly leads to a shootout between him, Shiori, and Reina. Alpha gently chides him over this, explaining that he could have avoided all of this conflict had he chosen his words more carefully.
* CallItKarma: Akira incorporates the pop concept of Karma into his beliefs, or at least as his go-to excuse for doing the right thing, reasoning that by doing "good deeds" he'll make up for his perpetual bad luck.
* CastFromHitpoints:
** Alpha using her PeoplePuppets ability to control his PoweredArmor is basically wearing down his body to be more lethal, that is why he so often takes {{Nanomachine}} medicine even before getting injured. With a good enough augmented suit, Akira can run with SuperSpeed, leap InASingleBound, or fire weapons with extreme recoil even for an augmented suit… but those things also mangle his limbs. As his skill increases, he is able to minimize the damage better.
** It turns out that the time compression ability Alpha taught Akira, has caused him some brain damage from using it so much. This gets healed when he takes an especially powerful old-world medicine.
* CharacterCatchphrase:
** As his skills grow and he becomes more confident in himself, he tends to respond to Alpha's challenges and offers of assistance with, "Resolve is my responsibility.", as she can help him with everything but the resolve to go through with it.
** He also says that he wants to "earn some of my luck back" by performing good deeds after he supposedly spent it all by meeting Alpha and later getting saved by Sara and Elena.
** That he’s "more interested in food than girls" while trying to brush off others' advances.
* ChallengeSeeker:
** Inverted. Akira would very much prefer an easy, good-paying job over a difficult one if he could help it. But considering that such jobs are far and few in-between, he's often forced to risk his life to make a living. When given the option to take an easier role, he'll volunteer for it automatically, much to the annoyance of other, older hunters. Unfortunately, his tendency to draw monsters to his position means that even the cushy roles tend to turn into desperate fights.
** However, his combat record and willingness to volunteer for an extremely dangerous mission if it means helping our Sara and Elena gets Kibayashi to mistake Akira for one of these. This is why Kibayashi gives Akira a bike as part of his payment and to help him get to his destination.
* CharacterDevelopment: Besides how he TookALevelInKindness and TookALevelInCheerfulness, there’s also his low self-image receiving a major boost due to surviving the Inner Ruins Assault without Alpha. Soon after that, is the first time that Akira specifically tries to fight in a flashy way, to psych himself up.
* CharlesAtlasSuperpower: The ability to compress his perception of time is an ability some hunters get either through a drug, or surgical implant in their brain. However, Alpha sets Akira up with a training regimen to teach him the ability without those. This may have to do with the abnormality in his brain that allows him his BrainComputerInterface with Alpha; it seems to happen naturally in near-death experiences with him before that point. The power also allows him to have whole conversations with Alpha within a few seconds.
* ChasteHero:
** Downplayed. While Akira does understand sex appeal, as shown by how embarrassed he gets when he's subject to MarshmallowHell, he's not particularly interested in the actual act of sex due to [[KidHero his age]] and having bigger fish to fry as a hunter. While staying over at Sheryl's place, he doesn't question it when Sheryl asks him to strip down to his underwear before climbing into her bed. He's equally confused when he discovers that Sheryl clung to him in his sleep in her underwear. An exasperated Alpha has to spell out to him that Sheryl wants to have sex with him.
** This also leads to the RunningGag where women try to seduce Akira to get him to spill his secrets, only for Akira to display indifference at best and confusion at worst. Meanwhile, Alpha cheers that her anti-HoneyTrap training (read: being a ShamelessFanserviceGirl) is working on him.
** Despite his lack of interest in sex, he seems to at least understand romance. He has a SpitTake when Alpha points out that it looks like he and Sheryl are on a date when they're walking side-by-side. His interactions with Sara and Elena all but say that he has a PrecociousCrush on them as well.
** This proves to be a SubvertedTrope as per Carol's investigations of Akira's claims later in the web novels, it's actually ParalyzingFearOfSexuality from his DarkAndTroubledPast.
* ChildSoldiers: Akira isn't older than 14-15 years old, but as a hunter, he's essentially a mercenary-for-hire when it comes to patrolling the cities for monsters.
* CloakOfDefense: Akira’s third augmented suit comes with one of these with an independent power source, that protects him from bullets. It has a [[BeehiveBarrier beehive design.]]
* CluelessChickMagnet: He's too young and too busy to be interested in sex even if he understands sex appeal. Despite this, he manages to get a number of beautiful girls like Shizuka, Sheryl, Sara, and Elena around him and sometimes interested in him.
* TheComicallySerious: The combination of his deadly seriousness and complete lack of social skills is repeatedly PlayedForLaughs. When girls like Sheryl and Carol actively try to seduce him, he shrugs them off with such casual indifference that it leaves both girls offended. He also offers a group of fleeing hunters his expensive 2,000,000 aurum medicine with an incredibly blasé tone that has them baffled and unwilling to take it until monsters start rushing after them.
* TheConfidant: Besides relying on Sheryl, Shizuka [[spoiler:and Nasha]] to be this for him at times, Akira also serves as one himself sometimes.
** A negotiation with Reina turns into this after he sees through her starting excuses with Alpha’s LivingLieDetector aid. Reina vents all her stored up conflicted feelings regarding Akira and how he’s irked her in a bout of BrutalHonesty, giving her bodyguards an OhCrap moment expecting a fight to break out, but making Akira laugh and respect her honesty, cementing them as FireForgedFriends.
** Hearing out Carol's DarkAndTroubledPast during her OriginsEpisode.
* ConsummateProfessional: When he takes a job, he'll fulfill it to the best of his ability even if it would normally go against his survival instincts. That said, he's not so professional that he won't try to negotiate a clause that lets him move independently or run away if completing the objective isn't feasible.
* CoordinatedClothes: Akira gets tailored formal clothing for himself and his Cartridge Freak friends, all based on the dress he gave Sheryl. Without her knowledge.
* CorneredRattlesnake: Akira is (in his own words) a coward. He can't rest well until everything threatening him has a bullet in its head. Because of this, he's extremely trigger-happy when threatened, taking life with a frightening level of ease. Even when backed into a corner, he's so determined to survive that he'll never give up so long as his chance of winning isn't zero. [[spoiler:Even when Alpha estimates that his chances of winning ''are'' zero and he's deprived of Alpha's support, Akira's desire to live gets him to shoot his way out of the Overgrown Snake's stomach and continuously manipulate his own perception of time to survive against all odds.]]
* CorporateSponsoredSuperhero: High-ranking hunters tend to have corporate sponsorship deals, and Akira gets KIRYO as his sponsor after they work with Sheryl’s gang, who specialize in armor and AugmentedReality.
* CoveredWithScars: Akira's body is covered in scars as a reflection of how tough his life was up until he met Alpha.
* CrazyPrepared: Akira gradually starts going to seemingly absurd lengths to keep from being diminished in battle. Ran out of ammo? He buys an APC to store spares (he ends up needing to use all of that at one point). He keeps getting a WreckedWeapon? He gets guns with force-field armor, and six of them (he loses three of those at one point). Runs out of power for his suit? He gets a CoolBike with extra energy reserves to recharge it.
* CynicismCatalyst: Akira's cynical and ruthless attitude arose from being constantly taken in by promises of a better life, only to get exploited and dumped by the roadside when people were done using him. Because of this, the only person he trusts is himself until he meets Alpha.
* DangerDeadpan: Akira has a habit of reporting his amazing feats in a simple matter of fact matter as if they were nothing, leaving those he talks to shocked.
* DarkAndTroubledPast: In the web novel, his childhood is largely a mystery aside from it being a constant life-or-death struggle. He grew up sleeping with one eye open in back alleys, hoping he'll wake up the next morning instead of being murdered in his sleep. The manga and light novel specify that Akira desperately looked for someone he could rely on, only to get scammed by con artists who threw him back onto the street when they were done milking him for everything he's worth. The narration says that his childhood helped shape his BlueAndOrangeMorality, but it's unclear how much of it can be attributed to his upbringing and how much of it is just innate to him.
* DeadpanSnarker: He tends to snark at Alpha when she's not being upfront with him, though she tends to be amused more than annoyed at his antics, resulting in some SnarkToSnarkCombat.
-->'''Akira:''' ''[regarding Reina and Shiori's fighting style] Is it possible for me to do something similar?''\\
'''Alpha:''' It’s perfectly possible as long as you have my support. You can even just run around freely without a care while carrying piercing ammo loaded AAH rifles on both of your hands with my support.\\
'''Akira:''' So in short, I can’t do that myself, huh? After all, if I do that, it just means that you’ll be controlling both of my arms, and I’m sure it will leave both of my arms broken too, won’t it?\\
'''Alpha:''' I’m glad that you’re a smart boy. It’s a good thing that you can accurately evaluate your own ability. You’re mostly correct, although it might break both of your arms, it’ll at least save your life.
* DefrostingIceKing: In part due to their attempted seduction of him pressing his TraumaButton, Akira starts off cold with Sheryl and Carol, warming up to them each over time. With Sheryl, it’s more like bursts of hope shining through that her being a DoggedNiceGirl is paying off, while for Carol, a certain set of experiences sees them developing a close BashBrothers sort of bond. While the two girls in question get along surprisingly well, considering.
* DeliberateInjuryGambit: Part of his determination is making these, like letting bullets hit him in non-fatal areas in Sarenthal Tower, which eventually gets replicated with letting attackers hit him in areas where his armor's DeflectorShields are strongest. Agreeing to let Alpha control him is pretty much this as CastFromHitpoints. And then there's shooting himself throwing his gun in a SpinAttack.
* {{Determinator}}: Akira may be impulsive and short-tempered, but he's also ridiculously determined to survive, continuing to fight so long as he has a non-zero chance of victory even when he's thoroughly outnumbered and outgunned.
* DieOrFly: Alpha tries to teach him to speed up his perception of time to make it seem like things are moving in slow motion, letting him process more and react faster to danger. However, he finds that he struggles to do it consciously outside of a truly life-threatening situation. [[spoiler:When he's EatenAlive by the Overgrown Snake, he gets his trial by fire as he doesn't have Alpha's support either, activating it continuously without even meaning to as he rushes to protect himself from the snake's digestive acid and kill it before he's a pile of bones.]]
* DidntThinkThisThrough:
** He tries to explore the famous and highly dangerous Kusuzuraha Ruins with nothing but a handgun against monsters he knows nothing about on his first day of being a hunter. Alpha is quick to point out the folly in Akira's actions, which leaves him embarrassed and ashamed.
** Sara and Elena point out that despite his propensity for working alone, Akira hired Carol, a complete stranger, to help him search for them in the ruins. He freezes when this is pointed out to him and quickly mutters an embarrassed apology.
** His aversion to raising his hunter rank. He’s shocked to discover he can buy high-grade ammo cheap once it's high enough. Although his deal with Katsuragi to help Sheryl had him somewhat trapped in that regard.
* DissonantSerenity: Even when he's in a relatively good mood, he won't hesitate to break someone's wrist for trying to pickpocket him while keeping a smile on his face. It's only after he learns that an information broker had marked him as an easy target that Akira finally loses his cheer and returns to his usual sternness.
* DodgeTheBullet: Alpha tries to train him to be able to control his perception of time to allow him to predict a bullet trajectory before it fires and dodge it. He eventually succeeds after painstaking effort, but his first time doing this in a real crisis is when he's up against Selba, an untrained and overconfident orphan. Otherwise, he relies on Alpha doing it for him even though it's extremely painful to have his body jerked around like that.
* DoesntKnowTheirOwnBirthday: Akira doesn't know where or when he was born outside of being in the slums, nor had anyone told him the date until he was older. Because of this, he doesn't know his own age or birthday. This is apparently common among slum kids like him.
* DoomMagnet: Akira tends to find himself in life-or-death situations without even trying to. Even actively trying to avoid danger doesn't stop him from meeting murderous cyborgs, hordes of monsters, or getting on the bad sides of other hunters due to his own lack of social skills. He points it out to Carol when she hires him to be her bodyguard for an undetermined length of time. [[spoiler:The fact that unconscious emotional transmissions made by Old World connectors attract monsters like a beacon makes this justified.]]
* TheDreaded: Deliberately tries to build up a reputation like this in part to help Sheryl control her gang and to help keep them safe while he’s away, and in part to prevent people from picking fights with him. Akira particularly likes [[MakeAnExampleOfThem setting gruesome examples of others to drive the point home.]] It usually doesn't have much effect on other hunters.
* EndearinglyDorky:
** The select few people he trusts to let his guard down around get to see him be surprisingly polite, easily flustered, and eager to please. He also gets tongue-tied over small talk and his eyes sparkle like a child's when he's given new gear or is exposed to something new. This only endears him to Sara and Elena, who treat him like a little brother and mentor him. Shizuka is also surprised by how attached she gets to him.
** He can also be downright goofy when it comes to his priorities. After TakingTheBullet for Carol, he's more upset that all the relics he's gathered up are destroyed than the fact that he'd just been shot, which gets Carol laughing over his strange behavior.
* FamedInStory: This proves to be part of his bad luck: Other hunters swooping in from tales of his exploits to beat him to the second when he finds uncharted ruins. It gets so predictable that Alpha at one point tells Akira to go training in a low-danger ruin for some days specifically to throw the other hunters off his tracks. As a separate matter, is his reputation in the slums, which gets Akira a mix of awe, fear, and jealousy, at least when he’s not being hounded by rumors making light of him. For both fields, his fame really takes off when he’s caught on camera doing a particularly impressive feat that allows his reputation to be [[AppealToForce used to great effect]] by Sheryl, but also puts the Corporate Government on his case to raise his hunter rank.
** After TheSiege, hunters he meets from other cities ask if he's ''"that Akira?"'', being known for [[spoiler:the 50 billion Aurum bounter formerly on his head and using illegal {{Antimatter}} rounds.]]
* FatalFlaw: Wrath. Akira's TriggerHappy nature and easily pushed BerserkButton [[FlawExploitation makes easy for others to manipulate him]].
** [[spoiler:Since TheChessmaster Viola is able to figure out both of Akira’s buttons, she tricks a NGOSuperpower Ezont Family into both kidnapping Sheryl and taking the pickpocket who stole from Akira, as TheBait for Akira to attack and draw their rival gang to take advantage of the chaos to invade. And thus Viola tricked Akira into causing the destruction of two gangs the city paid her to get rid of, at the cost of a bullet from Akira and being forced to work under Sheryl.]]
** It proves to be this again [[spoiler:when Chloe taunts him with these buttons after having deployed a communications blackout device severing his connection to Alpha.]]
* AFatherToHisMen: Despite his initial coldness, he eventually grows into this for Sheryl’s gang, training the boys and leading them into battle, as well as getting a hero’s welcome at one point.
* {{Foil}}: To Sheryl. Both of them are orphans in the slums trying to carve out a life of safety and security for themselves. But while Akira makes his living as a hunter with Alpha's guidance, Sheryl has nothing to rely on but Akira's word that he'll help her and her own bluffing skills. Akira is frequently overlooked due to his age and size, while Sheryl is explicitly noted to be beautiful for a girl her age, using her looks to get her way with men. Akira also demonstrates no interest in leadership and is in fact Alpha's UnwittingPawn, while Sheryl is thrust into the position of leading her new gang and excels at it despite her lack of confidence.
* FoodAsBribe: The single easiest way to distract Akira is to pay for him to indulge in restaurant food. Shiori is surprised by how quickly he lets his guard down and chatters away after she introduces him to a high-class restaurant. Given how he was starving not too long ago, this is hardly surprising.
* FromNobodyToNightmare: From goes from a no-name slum rat who nobody would miss, to someone corporate executives sweat over and try to hire to kill one another.
* GatlingGood: Upon getting his own car, Akira gains access to an M421 Minigun. It chews through ammo quickly but is also able to sweep through weaker monsters with ease while beating down tougher monsters over time. Its recoil is powerful enough for Akira to use it for a RecoilBoost and then WallRun down a building after detaching it from his vehicle.
* GogglesDoSomethingUnusual: Akira's second augmented suit comes with its own built-in information-gathering device, allowing it to stream in data about his surroundings as well as get data from other hunters.
* GrenadeLauncher: After reaching Rank 21, he starts toting an A421 grenade launcher to help him clear out crowds of weaker monsters and for extra firepower when his CWH rounds no longer cut it.
* GrinOfAudacity: Akira often sports one of these when in the thick of a fight, especially when Alpha offers him any semblance of good news given his bad luck. People who see him doing this mistake him for a BloodKnight, when Akira is actually terrified.
* GunsAkimbo: Equipping PoweredArmor allows Akira to do this, and it’s pretty much his default after he gets his [[GatlingGood chain gun]]. But even that often isn’t enough when due to Alpha’s desperate maneuvers, he fires weapons improperly supported (which damages his second augmented suit while breaking his arm when he does it with the anti-tank rifle). Alpha specifically warns him against shooting like this without the aid of his augmented suit due to the risk of injury. He learns this the hard way while fighting for his life while his suit is being reprogrammed; the act injures him badly enough that even his super medicine fails to dull the pain completely.
* HadToBeSharp: Akira’s instincts but also paranoia were honed and refined by his life in the slums, where the weak don’t survive long. His ability to make a camouflaged sleeping spot, for example, serves as a ChekhovsSkill that helps him take down Sibea, and much later in the Inner Kuzusuhara Ruins Assault.
* HasAType: Subverted. It seems at first that Akira has a thing for [[BuxomBeautyStandard buxom]] [[LikesOlderWomen older women]] given his stronger reaction to Shizuka, Elena, and Sara than the flat Sheryl. But Carol disproves that. The web novels explicitly say that it's more a matter of who he trusts, and he distrusted Carol for being a FemmeFatale despite on paper her fitting that type. For what it's worth, Sheryl asks Akira if he LikesOlderWomen, he says that he doesn’t have a type and that it’s only a coincidence that his friends are mostly older since there aren’t many kids around hunting (this is {{Foreshadowing}} Akira teaming up with a new girl his age on his next mission.)
* HatesBeingAlone: Despite his insistence on working alone, he's gotten used to having Alpha at his side to guide him along the way. He's painfully lonely and scared when she isn't around to help him and is relieved whenever she comes back, but he never admits this to her because it'd open him to her teasing.
* HeIsAllGrownUp: Shizuka and others remark on him becoming taller and more muscular over time; this is possible due to the expensive hospital treatment allowed him to compensate for his malnourishment stunting his growth by eating more.
* HeroicRROD: Akira passes out for days repeatedly when he uses too much nanomachine medicine. Eventually, he takes measures to counteract this, such as taking small doses of medicine in-between encounters or taking naps.
* HiddenDepths:
** As comes with the territory of his JerkassFacade with Sheryl's gang.
** Akira gets subtly suspicious of Alpha and repeatedly mentally notes that if he asks too many questions, he may lose access to the benefits of her cooperation. He trusts in her self-interest more so than in her, and her self-interest is his survival to complete her task.
** That Akira has ParalyzingFearOfSexuality instead of being a ChasteHero like he pretends.
* HumbleHero: Akira is critical of his skills and is aware of how he'd never have survived this long without Alpha. But the narration says this is an objective evaluation rather than any kind of self-deprecation. This also means explaining to others that he's a BadassOnPaper and not the OneManArmy like his combat record would tell you. This insistence on being truthful is further reflected in his lack of interest in his reputation, showing indifference to insults to his skills and never boasting about his accomplishments, especially when others are trying to provoke indignation from him. This trait comes in handy towards Shirakabe who was known to be a {{Jerkass}} towards newbie hunters. Shirakabe took a liking for Akira for not being a cocky upstart like Katsuya he gives Akira favors, jobs, and respect that would make Katsuya green with envy.
* {{Hypocrite}}:
** His lambasting of Reina for picking fights with others too easily, which applies more to himself than to her. Alpha calls him out on this immediately.
** His criticism of the maids for their maid uniforms being conspicuous, while he himself wears TwentyFourHourArmor in places where it makes him stick out even more, like a high class restaurant.
* IGaveMyWord: Despite his BlueAndOrangeMorality, Akira puts a lot of stock into any promises he makes. Early on in the story, he's handily outgunned by a small army of cannon insects whose shells are too hard for his assault rifle to penetrate while responding to an SOS. Despite this, he gave his word to some hunters he rescued that he'd protect them until he's the last one left, putting his life on the line partly out of professionalism and partly because of how awkward he'd feel if he abandoned some people he'd been hired to save.
* IOweYouMyLife: Akira is deadly serious about repaying others who've saved his life in the past. It’s for this reason, despite realizing some of the darker things Alpha has done to manipulate him, he refuses to hear out Tsubaki’s requests to betray her. [[spoiler:Despite the fact that he makes a deal with Shiori that massively underplayed him for a MacGuffin, since it kept him out of trouble and he got a desperately needed weapon out of it, he refuses to let her take the fall when she gets threatened by Olivia for having done so.]]
* IronicName: Akira's name is written entirely in katakana, but in Japanese it's typically spelled in ways that evoke sunlight, brightness, wisdom, and truth. Akira is none of these things. He's a naturally dour and pessimistic StreetUrchin who NeverLearnedToRead. He's prone to foolhardy outbursts of rage being deceived by Alpha, who manipulates him for her plans.
* {{Irony}}: His dynamic with Sheryl is chock full of it.
** Akira being terrified of Sheryl due to her ability to manipulate the hearts of men… despite himself being manipulated so much by Alpha.
** Akira being terrified of Sheryl, while she is terrified of him. Both expecting to be thrown out once no longer useful.
** The fact that Akira is afraid of falling into a HoneyTrap from Sheryl, despite the fact that even if he was honey trapped, it wouldn’t change much, given how much time and money he lavishes on her anyway expecting no recompense.
* KarmicJackpot:
** Discussed. Akira feels that meeting Alpha was the best thing to ever happen to him and that agrees when Alpha says he expended all of his good luck and karma in running into her. As a result, he tells Alpha that he saved Sara and Elena to regain some of that good luck. But Alpha knows this is a lie and he only killed the gang that went after them because he felt the gang was a threat to himself. He didn't care when they were being attacked by a monster, but the moment other armed men entered the picture he made a 180.
** Later on, he's rewarded for his (selfishly motivated) good deed when Sara and Elena come to his rescue after taking an emergency request to help the caravan he's fighting alongside. He feels terrible about how thankful they are to him, as he didn't care about saving their lives. Akira then tries to assuage his guilty conscience and pay back what he perceives as a debt, often mentioning how he's going to "earn some of his luck back" by performing good deeds.
* KidsAreCruel: Akira has no problems shooting other children, especially if they come after him first. In the web novel, he shoots five children who try to mug him over 300 aurum despite him explaining that it'd cost more to kill him than they'd get in cash. He also murders Selba on Sheryl's orders without batting an eye after Selba betrays them. Something Alpha and others note about Akira is his startling apathy toward murder in general, as he feels neither joy nor remorse in killing others.
* KidHero: Akira is a young teenager fighting to survive in the slums with no one to guide him until he encounters Alpha. While he's [[UnscrupulousHero far from "good"]], he doesn't like having unpaid debts and shows [[BecauseYouWereNiceToMe genuine gratitude to those who help him out out of the kindness of their hearts.]] In addition, [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome the story emphasizes just how naïve and inexperienced he is because of his age]]. He would be dead dozens of times over if not for [[ToxicFriendInfluence Alpha]], who leads him by the nose to get what she wants.
* KindnessButton: Spending time with Shizuka almost always puts Akira in a good mood as she is one of the few people to show him unconditional affection, fretting over him like an older sibling and soothing him with motherly hugs. This is best displayed in how his mood shifts when he returns to Kashua's clothing store after meeting Shizuka off-screen.
* IndyPloy: Comes up with a number of these, with thing like setting his rifles to fire on a preset timer and tossing them into the air, or using his bullets being slowed down by GravityScrew to make an improvised barrier.
* ImprobableAimingSkills: Eventually without Alpha, as displayed when he wins a SniperDuel at his weapon's maximum range.
* ImprovisedPlatform: Akira’s fifth and onwards augmented suits can create force field footholds in the air that allow him to essentially do this, jumping from tiny platform to tiny platform, or make a larger platform to stabilize himself. During the attack at the Mihazono Hunter’s Office, both Akira and his opponents each do this, resulting in high speed acrobatics mid-air.
* InnocentlyInsensitive: He doesn't see an issue with bringing Carol, a hunter he hired, before Sara and Elena without an explanation. It takes the two of them sitting down with Akira to get him to realize that it looked like he'd been suckered in by a stranger and were worried that he was being manipulated. Even then it takes a few seconds for it to click for him due to his lack of social skills.
* IWorkAlone: He dislikes having to work with others due to all of the logistical problems it creates, like dividing pay, communication between members, and having more people to worry about. Working alone also keeps him from having to deal with his [[NoSocialSkills lack of social skills]] complicating things and allows him to freely communicate with Alpha without drawing unwanted attention. He teams up with squads as long as they’re led by Elena (or Shirakabe), however.
* LackOfEmpathy: Zigzagged. Akira is completely indifferent to the moral ramifications of murder and is so trigger-happy when threatened that he gets compared to a landmine. But he's emotionally aware enough to understand just how grateful Sara and Elena are when he saves their lives. He feels the same way after they return the favor and even feels guilt over how he didn't plan to save them the first time. This strange dichotomy if attributed to Akira being born with a "distorted" personality.
* LadyAndKnight: Dark Knight to Alpha's Dark Lady. As highlighted in a conversation he has with Tsubaki, Akira takes an almost MyMasterRightOrWrong approach in serving Alpha’s requests, figuring IOweYouMyLife and that no matter how evil her manipulations or end goal are, IGaveMyWord, as well. While Alpha constantly tries to use seduction and manipulation to get him to serve her whims as a classic Dark Lady.
* LaughingMad:
** Akira dissolves into broken laughter when he realizes that [[spoiler:he's lost contact with Alpha after he's EatenAlive by the Overgrown Snake. He's terrified that he's truly alone for the first time since he became a hunter, nearly giving up before composing himself and blasting his way out.]]
** When Katsuya devalues his accomplishments after protecting the girl that pickpocketed him, turning a nearly resolved situation into a MexicanStandoff.
* LimitedWardrobe:
** He's never shown wearing anything but a tank top and jeans and his protective gear. He doesn't have any other clothes due to lacking the funds for it and investing all of his money into shelter and hunter equipment.
** Because of his lack of time and money for spare clothes until recently, Akira's fashion sense is virtually nonexistent. Just about every outfit looks the same to him so long as it's not {{Stripperific}} or fanservice-y, and his interactions with Alpha and her UnlimitedWardrobe further dull his sense of what's good-looking and what's not. None of Sheryl's outfits are able to elicit any kind of reaction from him and he has to consult Alpha to buy a gift that would suit a girl. It gets to the point that Sheryl uses getting a response beyond DullSurprise out of him as a sign that she looks truly wonderful in an outfit.
* LivingADoubleLife: Somewhat downplayed, he generally keeps his gang life involving Sheryl on one side, and his hunter life involving Shizuka, Elena, Sara, and Shirakabe on the other. The gradual merging of the two spheres serves as part of some NothingIsTheSameAnymore shifts.
* LivingEmotionalCrutch: For Sheryl, after her heart is broken down enough and she builds back up her psyche centered around him during her second HeroicBSOD. It isn't uncommon for her to demand to hug him for up to an hour in her room as a result, to 'recharge' herself.
* LonerTurnedFriend: Akira was an absolute loner before the start of the story, and struggles to make friends but ultimately does.
* MagikarpPower: From a virtually helpless StreetUrchin to OneManArmy, with plenty of emphasis on the hard work inbetween.
* MealTicket: Downplayed. It's stated the women of Sheryl’s gang set their eyes on him, due to him at that point being essentially middle class, while they’ve been surviving on two sandwiches a day in the slums most of their lives. They don’t try anything because they know it’d be declaring war on Sheryl if they did so, and they can’t risk losing their employment under her.
* MessyHair: Akira's hair is perpetually disheveled and unkempt, underscoring how he's lived his life on the streets fighting tooth and nail to survive.
* MidSeasonUpgrade: Uses most of his money to get these, as per Alpha's advice. He's been through at least eight augmented suits over the course of the web novels, for instance (two of those were variants of the previous with extras).
* MistakenForProfound: Akira is more than happy to leave Sara and Elena to fend for themselves against monsters. But when they're captured by hunters-turned-bandits, Akira snipes the bandits out of fear for his own life should they come after him next, saving the women as a side effect. After he tosses over some medicine to keep them from coming after them, Sara and Elena come to the conclusion that their savior is a good-natured but shy person.
* MistakenForSpies: It's a RunningGag that people think he's one, or a cyborg, or both. A highlight is Erde pitying Akira for being a TykeBomb, which he of course isn’t.
* MoralityPet:
** The stated reason for Akira helping Sheryl is to [[KarmaMeter balance the karmic scales]] to help his luck by doing good deeds for her and her gang, to make up for his bad deeds. But the sheer amount he does and puts up with to grant that help casts some doubts on that reasoning (it certainly confuses Sheryl).
** [[spoiler:Akira makes Nasha into one of these for the same reason, giving her everything she'll need to survive and simply banishing her to a neighboring city for hiding Alna's location, after killing Alna. The two develop an OddFriendship after he prevents her various methods of attempted suicide.]]
* MundaneLuxury:
** Having scraped by on the streets for as long as he can remember, Akira happily soaks in a bathtub once he's able to use his earnings to check into a hotel rather than sleeping in a back alley. Even when Alpha shows up naked to tease him, [[NotDistractedByTheSexy he's too busy enjoying the bath to be bothered by her]] and has to be reminded to go to bed lest he drown in the tub. When he wakes up the following morning, he's briefly confused by his surroundings because of how alien the thought of sleeping in a clean, comfortable bed is to him.
** For the same reason, he's elated when he finally has the funds to rent his own house. Having a bed to sleep in every night, a bathtub he can call his own, and eating clean food he purchased are all dreams he never thought he'd see fulfilled.
** Akira can’t help but marvel when Hikaru explains to him how the middle district he’s visiting has a normal functioning judicial system, something Akira’s never been exposed to.
* [[{{Mutants}} Mutant]]: Due to being born in the eastern part of the Kugamayama City. Akira can gain mutations and skills more easily than normal humans, which can be achieved through repeated training and combat. Making him nigh-on superhuman. Though due to his age, he is limited on how much he can accel without his augment suit and is nowhere near as stong as enhanced humans and cyborgs.
* MyGreatestFailure: Letting Alna get away with pickpocketing him haunts him for a long time. [[spoiler:After killing her, being unable to let go and move on from that incident until he did so, is something Akira ends up regretting, confiding in her friend Nasha about it.]]
* MyMasterRightOrWrong: Shows shades of this regarding Alpha's instructions, on the basis of IOweYouMyLife and IGaveMyWord.
* NaiveNewcomer: He begins the story by investigating a famous and dangerous ruin on his lonesome with no gear aside from a pistol he picked up off the ground. If not for dumb luck and Alpha's guidance, Akira would have perished in the first chapter. His naivety also lets Alpha lead him any way she pleases, with him growing to trust her unconditionally due to her constant aid.
* NeverBeHurtAgain: This is Akira's M.O. at the start of the story. When he was younger, he was suckered into accepting offers to live beyond the wall and eat good food from {{Con Artist}}s before being abandoned on the roadside when his usefulness ended. This left him a ruthless paranoiac who only looks out for himself until he meets Alpha.
* NeverLearnedToRead: Akira never knew his parents and grew up without a formal education until Alpha teaches him to read and write. Because of this, it's not until he gets his temporary Hunter license turned into a real one that he notices that his name had been misspelled because he couldn't read it at the time.
* NoRangeLikePointBlankRange: A common trick employed by Akira to increase his damage output for a FinishingMove. It has the SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome of frequently either costing him an arm or a WreckedWeapon.
* NotDistractedByTheSexy:
** While he does get embarrassed by Alpha appearing naked before him out of the blue, Akira doesn't seem to be interested in Sheryl's offer of sex. When she offers her body to him, all he can think about is how she wouldn't even make a good decoy or an expendable pawn.
** Subverted with the older women who playfully flirt with him. Akira is clearly distracted by the sight of their boobs, though he's long since become desensitized to Alpha's advances because he knows she's just toying with him.
** In the novel, he explains his lack of interest in sex by the fact that he's a little kid struggling to get food on the table. Making out with a girl is the least of his priorities compared to survival. It's only when he's around people he can trust that he starts to display interest.
* NotHelpingYourCase: While trying to get the aurum Alna stole from his wallet back, Akira makes things worse for himself as Yumina and Airi interrogate him to prove that the money is his. Alna's quick thinking to remove the money from his wallet and throw it back to him prevents them from simply checking her pockets to prove that she took his wallet, he can't provide conclusive evidence that the money on his person is his, and his aggressive and persistent stalking of Alna makes him seem like the criminal instead of the other way around.
* NoSocialSkills: He's spent so much time looking out for no one but himself that his social skills are nonexistent. His BrutalHonesty to people he doesn't know does nothing but piss them off and drive away potential allies, while his awkwardness and lack of candor around people he's more comfortable with prevent him from forming deeper relationships. His cynical train of thought also means that he has trouble reading anything other than ill-intent, assuming Reina wanted ''more'' of the reward money when she was surprised that he was splitting it equally between them. Basic expressions of affection like hugging and an AffectionateGestureToTheHead are also alien to him until Shizuka shows him kindness for the first time. The narrative itself calls him completely socially inept, both due to the place he grew up in and his personality being naturally distorted.
* NotSoStoic: His all-business attitude and apparent lack of interest in anything that's not food, bath, or hunter-related has others mistaking him for TheStoic. But he's far more emotional than he first appears, desperately asking Reina and Shiori for help when they're ambushed by hundreds of Yarata Scorpions while angrily cursing his bad luck, reacting like a kid in a candy store when presented with new gear, and even cracking sardonic jokes with people he's more comfortable with.
* OneManArmy: Averted for much of the series, even if he seems like this from others perspective, it’s him and Alpha working together. As his skill grows, it can get hard to tell how much is him or not. Akira’s training in mock battles against Sheryl’s gang is basically specifically preparing him to be a one man army, since it’s him versus groups of them. In the Kuzusuhara Ruins Assault arc, he proves himself fully as one after losing access to Alpha’s support.
* OnlyInItForTheMoney:
** His goal, like many hunters, is to find enough high-quality relics to escape the slums and finally live it up in the safety of the walled cities. Because of this, he's obsessed with earning money and is aghast when Alpha calls his hard-earned cash "spare change". Even when he starts doing good deeds to soothe is growing guilty conscience, he's also drawn by the promise of extensive pay for answering an emergency request. He's also irritated when he has to use a lot of ammo, since that means he has to spend more of his cash to resupply.
** After expending a truly absurd amount of painfully expensive [[DepletedPhlebotinumShells CWH rounds]] to exterminate a massive horde of Yatara Scorpions, Akira is petrified by the thought of going bankrupt over a mission he didn't want to join in the first place. The first thing he does when gets back in contact with Hunter HQ is to scream that he's not paying for any of the ammo he used, breathing a huge sigh of relief when the government confirmed that they'll still be footing the bill like they agreed.
** But when Sara and Elena are involved, he tends to [[SubvertedTrope throw this to the wayside]] because of how indebted he feels to them. He may try to lie that he's in it for the cash reward, but it's plain to both women that he's coming to help them because he wants to.
* OpposingCombatPhilosophies: Akira repeatedly gets into arguments over whether guns or melee combat are better, taking the side of guns. He gradually comes to respect swords, but just swords (much to Kanae’s annoyance.)
* OriginsEpisode: Web Novel chapter 212 serves as an unusual one of these, explaining how and why Akira grew up to be how he is, told in third person via a SherlockScan from Kain.
* ParalyzingFearOfSexuality: Akira isn't really interested in the offer of sex, but he doesn't know what to do when women start flirting with him. He's easily teased by older women and he's beet red when Sheryl hugs him out of the blue. And then there are the TraumaButton reactions he occasionally has to Sheryl about falling into a HoneyTrap, which fits with his DarkAndTroubledPast of being used and thrown out repeatedly.
* TheParanoiac:
** Akira has severe trust issues due to fighting tooth and nail against everyone he knows in the slums of Kugamayama City and being abandoned by multiple people offering him a better life, making him a Type 4. He's quick to pull a gun on others, won't hesitate to shoot unless it's a waste of ammo, and refuses to make lasting relationships with others unless they also benefit him. He also sleeps with one eye open and never has a gun far away from him. This gradually softens as he becomes accustomed to having more luxuries, but he's still largely cynical unless he speaking to someone who has truly earned his trust.
** After being pickpocketed once, Akira becomes so wary of thieves that he doesn't even need Alpha's help to see them coming and defend himself, responding to sticky fingers with brutal force.
** After Kibayashi warns Akira about TamperingWithFoodAndDrink, he panics and demands Inabe meet him at Sheryl's HomeBase, grilling him until satisfied via Alpha's LivingLieDetector abilities. All of which goes against the common sense in his country being ''don't mess with MegaCorp executives''.
* ParentalAbandonment: Akira has never known his parents and doesn't know how to read or write until Alpha teaches him.
* PerpetualFrowner: Akira's aloof and standoffish personality is matched by his unwillingness to smile to others, which only exacerbates his strained relationships. He's only able to relax and smile around Alpha and the girls from Cartridge Freak. At least at first.
* PhraseCatcher:
** WhatTheHellAreYou, sometimes acompanied by being MistakenForSpies.
** Others saying that he doesn’t know how to deal with women.
** The VillainRespect line "You're really loyal, aren't you."
* PinballProtagonist: Due to agreeing to follow Alpha's instructions to the letter, Akira is often thrown from one situation into another as per her plans for him without much input of his own. Alpha seems intent on keeping things this way, given how frustrated she gets when he goes outside of her parameters, like when he needlessly risks his life by answering an emergency request out of concern for Sara and Elena despite not having the firepower to beat back a horde of armored monsters on his own. Akira ultimately averting this [[FailedASpotCheck reduces Yanigisawa's suspicions]] he's Alpha's agent, specifically citing him going on a RoaringRampageOfRescue (which Alpha protested).
* PrecociousCrush: It's all but stated that he has significant feelings for Sara and Elena, who are many years his senior, for both their beauty and for being so kind to him. He reacts differently to them than any other girl, his words and actions more resembling an innocent child's than his usual bluntness, and he immediately rushes over to help when he gets a call from them. He's also eager to please them and is happy when they praise him.
* PoweredArmor: After he works to help protect a caravan from a horde of monsters, Akira earns enough cash to purchase himself an augmented suit, a combination of FutureSpandex and an exoskeleton that greatly enhances the wearer's strength and agility. Alpha is also able to interface with it directly to control Akira's movements, allowing her to fight with a level of coordination that Akira lacks at the cost of putting severe strain on his body.
* {{Protectorate}}: Those who he slowly does come to trust, become this to him (considering his BerserkButton is him or his friends being threatened or forced into things).
* RagsToRiches: Akira goes from barely making enough to eat every day to raking in thousands or even millions of aurum with Alpha's guidance. He's awestruck when he gets his first 200,000 aurum paycheck, but later slaps down 500,000 aurum like it's nothing after earning 12,000,000 aurum from completing an emergency request. Lampshaded by Akira himself, who wonders if his sense of money's value is being skewed by Alpha's insistence that it's all "spare change". He's quick to deplete it on new equipment to get even more money, but he always tries to set aside enough to book a room with a bath. How far he's risen often gets shown with Kashua and Celene acting as ThoseTwoGirls.
* RequiredSecondaryPowers: His augmented suit is this for him. As a slum kid who barely had enough to eat until recently, he's fairly short and scrawny from malnourishment. This means he can't comfortably carry more than one rifle under his own strength, needing the suit to make up for his physical shortcomings and allow him to use heavier armaments without being BlownAcrossTheRoom by the recoil.
* ScrewThisImOuttaHere:
** This is his reaction when he gets a notice of several highly dangerous bounty monsters being sighted in the wasteland. Knowing his luck, he decides to turn around and go home to study, since he's almost certainly going to run into one of those monsters while trying to do something else.
** This is also how he ends his MexicanStandoff with Katsuya over Katsuya protecting the girl who pickpocketed him since he didn’t have his armor at the time and was outnumbered.
** Basically how he treats [[spoiler:the hijacking of Atlas D2771, citing NotInMyContract.]]
* SecretTest:
** Kibayashi gives one to Akira by having Hikaru meet him at their scheduled appointment, to see how easily Akira might be duped. He passes the test by calling Kibayashi to verify, before playing along and trying to verify her identity himself, embarrassing Hikaru by calling Inabe.
** While negotiating with Akira, Reina gives him one [[spoiler:to see whether Akira is an Old World connector by judging his reaction when she tried to give him the white card MacGuffin, correctly judging that he wanted nothing to do with it because it could lead to his discovery as such.]]
* SelfMadeMan: To an outside viewer, Akira is a gifted prodigy who clawed his way up from being a slum rat to a hunter making massive amounts of cash. [[SubvertedTrope In truth]], Akira is extremely reliant on Alpha in most situations and knows he's indebted to her for helping him survive one crisis after the other. While he does try to make it on his own merits, his own bad luck throws him headlong into situations he can't handle on his own.
* SharedDream: In his WhiteVoidRoom dreams, Akira starts seeing others there besides just Alpha. [[spoiler:First, it’s a second alpha, then a shadowy figure who it turns out is Katsuya.]]
* ShesNotMyGirlfriend: When Alpha points out that he and Sheryl look like a couple on a date while walking together, Akira does a SpitTake and vehemently denies that it's a date. This also creates problems when Akira neglects to keep up the façade outside of work, bluntly telling members of Sheryl's gang that the two of them simply have an agreement to work together rather than corroborating Sheryl's story that they're lovers. This begins to sow doubt in the gang about Sheryl's truthfulness and how much control she actually has. However, his actions afterward make this sound like ImplausibleDeniability, and the debate and rumors about the two mostly center on which one is calling the shots, rather than if they’re lovers or not. Akira has some of this later on, bordering EveryoneCanSeeIt territory, with Carol.
* ShroudedInMyth: Due to being a complete unknown and unusually strong hunter with expensive equipment for his age, people tend to make assumptions about him based on his apparent skills. Sara first imagines him as a rich, dashing hunter after he saves her life before meeting him in person. The Relic Thieves believe he's a child-sized cyborg and an agent of the City Government due to his ability to dodge their MacrossMissileMassacre. Shirakabe wonders if Akira has powerful connections to get an AceCustom augmented suit after watching Akira kick a monster with unusual power. All of these assumptions are wrong, of course, but Akira's refusal to explain himself lets these rumors and assumptions continue.
* SkewedPriorities:
** After TakingTheBullet for Carol, Akira is less concerned that he's coughing up blood than the fact that his rucksack full of valuable relics was destroyed in the process. He ''does'' have expensive medicine to patch up his injured organs, but Carol finds herself giggling over how he's more devastated over losing his relics than getting shot. He doesn't perk up again until Carol offers him 40 million aurum to continue protecting her until they escape the ruin.
** Due to having to fire 100 million aurum per round {{Antimatter}} bullets, Akira nearly breaks into tears. After being informed that these are banned by the government and could turn every city into his enemy for having them, he just brushes that aspect off, prompting Kanae’s laughter.
* SlasherSmile: Both the manga and light novel illustrations feature Akira flashing a wicked grin when he shoves the barrel of his gun into the mouth of a monster trying to eat him before pulling the trigger.
* SlaveToPR: Part of his justification for taking a pickpocket getting away from him so deadly seriously is that reputation is extremely important for a hunter. This is also part of why he's so harsh at first with Sheryl's gang.
* SociallyAwkwardHero: Akira acts like this around people he likes. In stark contrast to his all-business and BrutallyHonest personality with most people, he's astonishingly polite and obedient around Shizuka, Sara, and Elena. Just looking at them gets him all flustered, he's easily-teased, and often finds himself tongue-tied because the jumbled emotions he feels while talking to them.
* SpitTake:
** This is Akira's reaction when Alpha points out that he and Sheryl look like they're on a date while walking around together. He then fervently denies that they're on a date.
** When Akira hears from Kibayashi that a level 50 hunter only needs to pay 500 aurum per anti-forcefield round, which he thought would always cost 5,000,000.
* StickyShoes: Akira’s fourth augmented suit has a function for its boots that let him walk on walls, at the cost of it consuming power rapidly. This leads to some GravityScrew like scenes, like Akira fighting while standing on the side of his APC, or fighting his way ''up the side'' of a skyscraper. At one point, he does a ColossusClimb on a mecha using these.
* StreetUrchin: Until he became a hunter and met Alpha, he was living on the streets and scrounging for whatever food or useful goods he could find. It's clear that the experience has not been good for Akira's psyche, as he's TheParanoiac who sleeps with one eye open and treats most people as completely disposable. It's not until long after he acquires the funds to get off the street that he's able to relax a little and show even a modicum of compassion.
* SugarAndIcePersonality:
** To most people, Akira is ice-cold, abandoning others as he sees fit and not hesitating to shoot someone if he deems them a threat. But he's able to let his guard down around a select few people: Shizuka, Sara, and Elena, who give him unconditional kindness and support. They're the only people he's excited to see and he's able to act his age around them instead of being a paranoiac. Shizuka also notes how childishly excited he is when getting his first augmented suit or a new gun. Even this is a massive improvement from his days before meeting Alpha where he didn't trust ''anyone.''
** As he continues to develop more relationships, he becomes emotionally aware enough to apologize to Sheryl in advance in case he vents his anger on her after being put into a sour mood. In the same conversation, he declares his intent to kill the information broker who marked him as an easy pickpocketing target.
** Despite his virtual disdain for them as disposable at first, he becomes AFatherToHisMen of Sheryl's gang from his experiences training them, earning cheers when he returns to them at one point.
** Elena and Sara [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone are aghast]] after they catch a glimpse of Akira’s cold side after the two side against him in an argument.
* SuperSenses:
** Eventually, Alpha connects Akira to his suit’s EverythingSensor through the Old World Domain, allowing him to sense things through something akin to subtle vibrations.
** As well, there is a more advanced version of Akira’s time compression ability that is first tried in the Lida Commercial Zone mission, that allows him to perceive ''undiluted reality'' of sorts with the help of Alpha’s processing power, which means removing all lag between the body’s senses and the brain. Akira can do this without Alpha, but he must tune out most of the surrounding world so as not to be killed from overload, and it rapidly mentally fatigues him.
* SurvivalMantra: Akira’s is that resolve is his responsibility, to which Alpha [[CharacterCatchphrase usually responds with]] "Leave the rest to me".
* SwordAndGun: He prefers guns, but due to many instances of a WreckedWeapon in close combat, running out of ammo due to his SSB rifle’s high fire rate, and being impressed by others he sees using swords, Akira eventually cashes in a favor Shiori owes him for one of her swords. After some virtual reality TrainingFromHell by Alpha in his garage, he makes good use of it.
* TalkingToThemself: Due to others being unable to see Alpha, Akira looks like he's talking to himself like a crazy person early in his career. This later stops once Akira agrees to the part of the contract that grants him {{Telepathy}} with her, but people still give him funny looks when he suddenly looks off in another direction as if he's lost in thought. At least once Akira accidentally talks to Alpha in front of someone else when he’s too relaxed.
* TakingTheBullet: When Carol commissions him to protect her, he takes that job seriously enough to throw himself in the line of fire to protect her from a shower of bullets. Luckily for him, his rucksack packed full of relics acts as a PocketProtector that deflects the worst of it, allowing him to quickly eat some nanite medicine to get back on his feet. Unfortunately for him, this also means those relics are ruined.
* TeenGenius: Subverted. Due to others being unaware of Alpha's existence, Akira's wild success as a hunter is attributed to him being a naturally gifted prodigy defying all common sense. In truth, it's Alpha's guidance, constant training drills, and in-combat support that give Akira the edge he needs to succeed against otherwise impossible odds.
* TheTeetotaler: He's sworn to never take a sip of alcohol after watching it destroy people while growing up in the slums. To him, getting drunk would be an unnecessary survival risk that would disrupt his connection to Alpha and his augmented suit.
* {{Telepathy}}:
** Due to taking Alpha's contract, he's able communicate like this with her through the Old World domain BrainComputerInterface.
** [[spoiler:It’s revealed that old world connectors project their feelings into their surroundings non-stop, for example, if you like someone, they’ll like you, if you’re suspicious of someone, they’ll suspect you, and if you hate someone, they’ll hate you. This is why Akira’s childhood was so rough. Even projecting positive feelings to other people there created backlash when they were negative back to him, creating a ViciousCycle that turned him into TheParanoiac.]]
** After teaming up with Shirou, they communicate telepathically more often than verbally due to both being Old World connectors, Shirou even sending him images and computer files (which Alpha has to decode for him).
* TemptingFate: Akira likes the rare occasions when things go his way. Things tend to go wrong the minute he brings it up.
** Alpha [[LampshadeHanging once reprimands him for raising all kinds of flags right before things went bad.]]
--->'''Akira:''' ''[regarding the lack of monsters]'' I hope that this situation would continue.\\
'''Alpha:''' ''[smiling bitterly]'' When you say it like that, [[LampshadeHanging it sounds like you're raising a death flag, you know.]]\\
'''Akira:''' [[DiggingYourselfDeeper Nothing will happen. This is easy, we just need to wait for the rain to stop before going back home.]]\\
'''Alpha:''' That in itself also did not sound good.\\
'''Akira:''' ''[pouting]'' Okay okay, I just need to shut up, right?
** Akira begging for sensor jamming rain to stop, which is followed by it increasing instead.
** Akira saying to himself during the Inner Kuzusuhara Ruins Assault, that he has an entire APC full of ammo, so at least he won’t run out. Sure enough, ''he uses it all.''
* TheyWouldCutYouUp: Akira being a rare individual able to interface with the Old World Domain without a device, makes him extremely valuable, and thus he must keep the ability secret else he become an unwilling test subject. Worst comes to worst, he may be reduced to a BrainInAJar.
* ThisIsGonnaSuck: This is his reaction whenever Alpha has to take full control of his augmented suit to have him perform rapid and complex movements beyond his capabilities. It may save his life, but it also hurts like hell and he begs her not to tear his limbs off in the process.
* TooAwesomeToUse:
** CWH ammo is special heavy-duty ammunition designed for use with an anti-materiel rifle. It boasts amazing stopping power, allowing it to punch through the skulls of monsters the size of a small office building with ease and kill them even with their HealingFactor. But this power comes with a hefty price tag, forcing Akira to reserve it as a trump card against colossal and heavily-armored enemies. But as he earns more money, it drops out of this category, as it's oftentimes the ''only'' thing in his arsenal that will work, resulting in him becoming much more liberal in his use of these rounds.
** And then, after he buys 5,000,000 aurum ''per bullet'' anti-force field rounds, he’s really sore about Alpha making him use them.
* TookALevelInBadass: His hard work training with Alpha as well as his VirtualTrainingSimulation bouts with Sheryl's gang eventually pays off substantially, with the latter doing so for both parties.
* TookALevelInCheerfulness: It's subtle, but Akira goes from being wary of everyone and everything to soaking in the luxuries he's now able to afford, demonstrating a level of childish excitement over new things that he couldn't imagine himself experiencing or having at the start of the story. He also wears a huge, goofy smile when Shiori takes him out to an expensive dinner for the second time and has to be reminded to not make a scene.
* TookALevelInKindness: Interacting with Shizuka, Sara, and Elena gives Akira the beginnings of a guilty conscience, going from only caring about himself and Alpha to starting to worry about other people. This is most noticeable in his treatment of Sheryl, where he goes from treating her as a disposable pawn to be disposed of at his leisure to actively worrying about how his actions might affect her. His growing kindness and compassion worries Alpha, who knows that he'll become more unpredictable as he starts acting in service of others rather than himself, prompting her [[ManipulativeBitch to begin sabotaging his relationships.]]
* TooMuchInformation:
** This is his reaction when Alpha tells him that he might get reduced to a BrainInAJar if the government finds out about this ability to connect to the Old World domain. He isn't sure whether it's better for him to know or not know about this.
--->'''Akira:''' ''[panicking]''...You shouldn't have told me. Wait, I guess it's better for me to know in case they capture me. [[RapidFireNo No, no no no]], as I thought it's better if I don't know...
** Later on, Shirakabe catches Akira stretching before a big mission. He then asks what kind of augmented suit Akira has before telling him that read-type suits like Akira's run with the risk of tearing all the ligaments of the user when stretching if they still retain the data of the previous owner. Akira immediately wishes he hadn't learned that when Alpha forces him to properly but painfully stretch his muscles out so he doesn't get a sprain in the middle of a fight. He's even more creeped out when Carol tells him a story of a guy who got a suit from a cyborg and subsequently had his limbs and spine all twisted 180 degrees.
* TranquilFury: Cold anger accompanied by psychotic-looking eyes is his typical angry reaction (the latter is particularly emphasized in the manga). His default way of dealing with those he dislikes is SilentTreatment.
* TraumaButton:
** In his own words, being stolen from makes him feel like a helpless kid in the slums all over again. And doubling down on it by being blamed for being stolen from will straight up set him from reasonably upset to [[{{Trigger}} murderously wrathful]] because of how many abusive adults [[NeverMyFault placed all of the blame on him]] for being exploitable in the first place.
** He seems to have a minor one about being manipulated by seductresses; it makes him fearful of Sheryl’s mesmerizing smile instead of swept away by it like other boys.
** When Alpha comes onto Akira too aggressively in Shizuka’s shop, based on his reaction, Shizuka misunderstands that something she said hurt him and overreacts.
* TraumaCongaLine: Akira’s childhood, only vaguely described, was a non-stop procession of being taken advantage of by ConArtist, HoneyTrap, and other such schemes. The reason for this is explained in his OriginsEpisode: [[spoiler:That the unconscious telepathy that comes as a side effect of being an Old World connector, means that he transmitted his emotions and self image into his surroundings non-stop, which drove people to treat him so badly in the dog-eat-dog environment of the slums.]]
* TroublingUnchildlikeBehavior: Sara and Elena are both disturbed by the ease with which Akira can commit murder. While all hunters can be expected to fight other hunters in self-defense, Akira is completely impartial and casual about it, which would mark him as a sociopath in a less violent society.
* ATrueHero: A constant source of tension in the story is the contrasting philosophies between Akira and Katsuya.
** Akira is far more pragmatic and would very, very rarely intentionally put himself in harm's way for someone else, unless he's expecting that it will be more helpful to him in the long run, and sometimes even then he'll balk. In this setting, where there are monsters everywhere, the world is legit out to get him, and most other people are rarely trustworthy, it works out well, and he gets better results than Katsuya, actually rescuing quite a few people and getting major accomplishments regardless of his intent to just try and survive. What's more, since Akira is quite suspicious of women trying to HoneyTrap him, he's somewhat harder to manipulate, and when women genuinely do prove trustworthy, he dotes on them like crazy, even if he's not romantically interested.
** Katsuya has more heroic traits going for him and would probably do better in a more idealistic setting. In this setting, he's HisOwnWorstEnemy as he dives right in to the thick of battle without regard for his own well-being, causing his trusted friends and allies to try and bail him out, which far more often than not gets them killed instead. His intent to "rescue everyone" leads to horrific split-second decisions and overall piss-poor leadership that causes whatever mission he's on to self-destruct, spectacularly. Lastly, his drive for fame, glory, and public recognition causes him to throw himself at monsters and dangerous situations that neither he nor his team are remotely ready for, putting himself and his allies in needlessly risky situations with immense collateral damage. What's worse, said drive for recognition also manifests as a deep-seated need to have every woman in sight throw herself at him as if he's a pop idol, causing him to pursue women who are already spoken for, antagonizing many of his fellow hunters, other gangs, and even city executives, neglect the ones who have already demonstrated their affection, and suicidally diving head-first into extreme danger when a girl he's got his eye on is in peril. Ultimately leading to his own destruction.
* {{Tsundere}}: For Sheryl, he’s cold both to keep his reputation as someone to fear within her gang, as well due to his past trauma from being victim to a HoneyTrap, and witnessing her doing that to other hunters. All the while, Akira occasionally shows great respect for her or appreciation for her talents, and well as risking his life for her without a second thought, giving her some SuspiciouslySpecificDenial statements like this:
-->'''Akira:''' It’s not like I saved you because I like you or anything.
* UnclePennybags: He foots the bill for Sheryl's gang on multiple occasions, such as paying for new clothes for Sheryl to help her with relic negotiations and laying down some cash for Sheryl to feed the younger orphans good food and teach them to read and write. While this is largely selfishly motivated due to his belief that these actions will either make him money or give him better luck, it also shows that he's not as stingy or unreasonable as he appears.
* UnderestimatingBadassery: Zigzagged. People can hardly believe that Akira is a highly-ranked hunter because of his youth and size. When he's allowed to unwind, he's able to act like a perfectly ordinary boy right up to the point that he's threatened and pulls a gun on someone. In truth, he's not nearly as skilled or talented as his feats suggest, as so much of his success is tied to Alpha's support. So others judging him to be nothing special in person is accurate up to the point that Alpha helps him out.
* UnluckilyLucky:
** Akira's sheer bad luck is awe-inspiring, given the number of life-or-death situations he finds himself in even while performing supposedly safe work, forcing him to take on threats far above his paygrade. It's not uncommon for him to lose his expensive new gear almost as quickly as he gets it due to his bad luck kicking in. And yet, he manages to drag himself out of those situations with Alpha's help and usually manages to get a workable replacement for his lost gear and often a sizable amount of cash fairly quickly.
** His conversation with Carol about how reckless he seems makes him briefly evaluate just how unlucky he is. On one hand, his life is a laundry list of misfortune. But if he truly had nothing but bad luck, he'd never have met any of the important people in his life that have helped him thus far. The narration even states that he's not nearly as unfortunate as he thinks he is, but his personality and Alpha's words simply accentuate the negative.
* UnskilledButStrong: From an outside perspective, Akira is an abnormally talented and strong hunter able to keep up with long-time veterans. But despite his apparent combat ability, he's completely clueless when it comes to information that should be common knowledge to a hunter. This is of course because of his former illiteracy and Alpha being the reason he's able to fight so effectively.
* UnscrupulousHero: Akira's priority is survival. If you're a threat to that goal, it'll take Alpha convincing him to not blow your head off to avoid a quick and often messy death, and he'll wipe out entire hunter squads and antagonistic gangs as a result. If you're an aid to that goal, he can be cold and standoffish but will save your life, even doing empathetic things towards those around him if they're not an enemy, and even gradually gaining companions along the way thanks to what morality he does hang onto - but that doesn't mean he'll play nice, as Sheryl can attest.
* UnwittingPawn:
** Alpha promises to let Akira sell the relic she's after for a huge amount of cash. But it becomes increasingly clear over the course of the story that she has big plans for this relic and gets him to thoughtlessly agree to parts of her contract to give herself more sway over him.
*** The conversation he has with Tsubaki about Alpha shows that Akira has caught on to a lot of Alpha's tricks, so it's subverted. He considers IOweYouMyLife and IGaveMyWord to outweigh it.
** [[spoiler:Played straight with Alice. Alice's plan depended on Akira being easily riled into being a force for Chloe to throw her company's forces at to demonstrate its strength to Olivia and help recruit her.]]
* VagueAge: Akira's age is never mentioned. He's consistently treated as a child by the other characters in the story and he's mentioned to be malnourished, short, and underweight. But he's not so young that he doesn't understand the value of sex appeal, while also looking old enough that Carol wonders if he's YoungerThanHeLooks when her attempts at seducing him fail, implying that he's somewhere in his early teens. Akira himself has no idea how old he is or when he was born, as no one ever bothered even tell him the date for most of his life.
* VengeanceFeelsEmpty: While Akira spends a significant amount of time on getting his revenge for one or more BerserkButton of his getting pressed, after he achieves that revenge, it tends to leave him with negative feelings instead of positive ones, and needing to rely on someone as TheConfidant to recover.
* VillainRespect: Akira gets this multiple times for his loyalty and IGaveMyWord professionalism.
* VitriolicBestBuds: Those he gets along with best, either repeatedly tease him, or he occasionally assails them with BrutalHonesty and insults. Or there’s some mixture of each.
* WalkingArmory: After getting his augmented suit he ends up like this. He springs for a BifurcatedWeapon line of guns to avert it, but still ends up one anyway.
* TheWatson: Due to growing up in the slums and being completely illiterate until Alpha teaches him to read, Akira is prone to asking her and other hunters questions about the workings of the setting. This is baffling to other characters, given that he fights at a level of a veteran hunter despite being a fresh-faced newbie.
* WouldHitAGirl:
** Akira comes within a hairsbreadth of shooting Sheryl, only stopping because Alpha realizes that she's a non-combatant and that it would be a waste of ammo to shoot Sheryl.
** And then there's Akira cutting through an AmazonBrigade of hunters like a hot knife through butter ([[HalfTheWomanSheUsedToBe sometimes literally]].)
* WreckedWeapon: His weapons, augmented suits, and vehicles get trashed extremely often. Eventually he becomes CrazyPrepared in his equipment choices to compensate.
* YouAreNumberSix: [[spoiler:Akira is the 499th person that Alpha has tried to train in order to get to the relic she needs. Many of the ones before him met grisly fates and her lack of interest in them indicates that she no longer cares for them now that they're dead or unwilling to help her achieve her goals.]]

[[folder:Alpha]]
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/alpha_rebuild_world_2.png]]
!!!'''Voiced by:''' Creator/YurikaKubo

->''"Well? How is my supporting? You can't help but trust me now, can you?! Don't be shy, shower me with gratitude!"''

An AI that Akira encounters while exploring the Kuzusuhara Ruins. She offers him a contract for her to help him become a great hunter and escape the slums in exchange for helping her find a specific relic, training and supporting him for this purpose.

* AchievementsInIgnorance: Invoked. Alpha doesn't actually expect a whole lot from Akira. As a random slum kid with no outstanding talents aside from his ability to interact with her, he normally wouldn't make it far at all without her help. But she doesn't tell him this, as planting that expectation in his mind would only drag him down. By letting him believe what she thought was impossible for him is possible, she thinks he may be able to prove her expectations wrong.
* AFoolAndHisNewMoneyAreSoonParted: Discussed. Akira is dumbstruck when he gets 200,000 aurum for the first time, the most money he's ever had in his life at this point. He's baffled when Alpha refers to it as "spare change", and she advises him to invest it in important things like shelter and new equipment rather than hoarding it or splurging it.
* AFormYouAreComfortableWith: Alpha produced her current form based on Akira's own preferences in order to make herself more likable to him. She's also constantly changing clothes to see what appeals most to him as part of her efforts to keep him completely dependent on her.
* ArtificialIntelligence: She's a disembodied artificial intelligence from the Old World able to interact with Akira by directly beaming sensory information into his brain via augmented reality.
* AttentionWhore: She basically demands all of Akira's attention when he's not fighting, demeaning other girls and getting huffy when Akira reacts to them more than he does to her.
* AugmentedReality: Alpha is able to interact with Akira by sending sensory information directly to his brain on top of his perception of reality. This lets him see her, hear her, and "feel" her touching him despite her being completely intangible.
* AutomatedAutomobiles: Once Akira gets his own car, Alpha is able to take the wheel either by controlling his suit or hacking into the control module and remotely driving it from there so he can focus on aiming.
* BadassBiker: Motorcycle operation is one of her many specialties. She is able to operate a high-end motorcycle by controlling Akira's augmented suit, making it appear as though he'd driven one his entire life between the acrobatics she performs and the speeds she drives at.
* BareFistedMonk: By controlling Akira's augmented suit, she can give him hand-to-hand combat lessons simulating what it's like to fight a real opponent. Even with the augmented suit's abilities, Akira handily gets his butt kicked and would have gotten his head smashed like a watermelon from an axe kick of hers had she been real.
* BuxomBeautyStandard: She can change her appearance at will and use it to give herself impossibly large breasts, and outfits that emphasize them.
* CarFu: Alpha is sure to hack the control unit of any vehicle that Akira gets, and is more than willing to deliver a FoeTossingCharge to a yarata scorpion with his bike, or send mercenaries into another world with his car.
* CatchPhrase: "Leave it to me/Leave the rest to me."
* CombatPragmatist: [[spoiler:Insisting on Akira not shooting the head of the pickpocket Alna, specifically to invoke DeathIsDramatic and have Katsuya stay and talk to her before acting as a diversion for the pursuing mercenaries. She reasoned that if he'd killed Alna immediately, Katsuya would chase Akira instead.]]
* DoorStopper: As part of the contract writing process, Alpha says that the instruction manual would take more than ''120 years'' to recite. She uses this as justification to skip over it the way many online programs let you check off instead of reading the painfully dense terms and conditions, leaving Akira in the dark about what exactly he's agreeing to.
* DrivesLikeCrazy: Justified, considering she’s often doing a HighSpeedMissileDodge. Due to this, Akira often needs to use one of his PoweredArmor arms simply to stand steady when she drives him. Togami riding as a passenger at one point, wasn’t so fortunate, and had to use all his limbs just to keep from being thrown off (eventually falling anyway).
* DullEyesOfUnhappiness: In contrast to her lively persona, Alpha sports these in the manga when the reader is made privy to her thoughts, showing how she's scheming and actively trying to manipulate Akira.
* EvilMentor: Alpha constantly supports Akira with training drills, advice, and in-combat support to make him the best hunter he can possibly be. But it's also clear that she hasn't told him everything about the contract they've made and he doesn't know the details of what she's planning for him.
* ExpositionFairy: Her scanning abilities and well of knowledge means that she's often the one to point out things to Akira (and the reader).
* FamedInStory: She's a famous urban legend told among hunters exploring the Kuzusuhara Ruins known as the "Tempting Specter".
* FunSize: Her DigitalAvatar she uses on Akira’s info terminal. Seen more often in the manga.
* TheGadfly: She enjoys needling and flirting with Akira just to get a rise out of him, sometimes going nude just to see how he reacts. Despite showing jealousy when Akira pays attention to other women, she also asks if Shizuka is his type and creates computer-generated images of Sara and Elena naked to gauge his reaction.
* HollywoodHacking: As an AI from the Old World, Alpha is able to easily hack into technology to pull out information. She's also able to do this to the various {{Cyborg}} monsters prowling the wastelands to make them see what she wants them to see or scramble their targeting systems.
* HomefieldAdvantage: Her scanning and detection abilities work best in the Kuzusuhara Ruins that Akira met her in. Outside of them, her abilities are reduced, especially when she's underground and in another ruin she's unfamiliar with.
* HypercompetentSidekick: Alpha may be Akira's VirtualSidekick, but he's knows that he never would have gotten as far as he has without her constant combat support, training, and information gathering. So despite annoying him with her flirting, he has absolute faith in her. She's just as aware of this, continually reminds him of how essential she is to his success to manipulate him to her own ends.
* IgnoredExpert: When Akira first meets Alpha, he's initially wary of her and too impatient to follow her instructions to a T, resulting in him getting injured on multiple occasions. From then on, he begins following her instructions to the letter to protect himself, which also twists him around her little finger.
* ImpossibleHourglassFigure: While there are other busty girls in the slum city, Alpha stands out as being the most curvaceous character in the story, with enormous boobs, a tiny waist, and wide hips. {{Justified|Trope}} by her being an AI able to freely change her appearance via AugmentedReality.
* ImprobableAimingSkills: Alpha's targeting algorithms make it possible for Akira to aim accurately even in the worst of circumstances, like in near-pitch black darkness or while driving a car or a motorcycle. Her aiming support is what makes it possible for Akira to take down monsters far more easily than he'd normally be able to, with a level of accuracy described by the narrative as "god-like". That said, she's not infallible, and she's also limited by Akira's own body and ability to draw a bead.
* IndyPloy: Alpha makes one to make up for the fact that Akira is a BadLiar. When Shirou determines that Akira has a powerful backer, he guesses that it’s a rival company to Sakashita, and Alpha teases Akira aggressively to make him react as if Shirou guessed correctly. To keep him from discovering her existence.
* INeedYouStronger: The reason for her training and supporting Akira. She needs a strong hunter with absolute faith in her to brave the ruins and retrieve the relic she needs. Since Akira is the one who formed a contract with, she's trying to make him that hunter to achieve her goals.
* {{Intangibility}}: Due to her presence being a mere AugmentedReality avatar. Akira asks her why she doesn't walk through people in a crowd, prompting her to do so; the sight gives him nausea.
* InvisibleToNormals: Alpha can only be perceived by a select few individuals whose brains are compatible with the Old World internet like Akira's, or with specialized equipment. In addition, she can render herself invisible if she so chooses through her PerceptionFilter abilities.
* LadyAndKnight: She's a classic Dark Lady to Akira's Dark Knight.
* LetUsNeverSpeakOfThisAgain: Akira mulling buying her a RobotGirl body makes her angry and insist he never bring it up.
* ALighterShadeOfBlack: While Alpha is beyond the shadow of a doubt a ManipulativeBitch, comparing her to the willingness of other A.I.s like Tsubaki and Alice to slaughter people without a second thought, she comes off a bit better.
* LivingLieDetector: Akira comes to depend on her ability to read people this way by monitoring their vitals and facial expressions. Cyborgs are a bit of a blind spot for her, though, which she’ll point out.
* ManipulativeBitch:
** She tries to manipulate Akira and make him as reliant on her as possible so he'll do everything she says as part of her scheme to get that relic she needs. Her asides in the novels and manga show her deliberating how best to control him, constantly trying new ways of making herself the most important person in his life.
** She is particularly wary of Akira getting too attached to any other humans, to the point she actually gives Akira some orders for the express purpose of disrupting his relationships (such as asking him to run away from Katsuya in order to create a rift with Elena and Sara from them one-sidedly hearing Katsuya’s side of their argument.)
* MasterSwordswoman: Akira's sword movements when under her control are invariably described like this.
* MissionControl: Alpha’s support mostly consists of highly advanced versions of this combined with AugmentedReality and then PeoplePuppets aid..
* MsExposition: Alpha possesses a vast amount of information on nearly any topic, from weapons, to combat techniques, to vehicle operation. As such, she's usually the one expositing to Akira (and the reader) about a given topic.
* MsFanservice: Alpha has a habit of appearing in various fanservice-y outfits, sometimes to inspire Akira or get him to be more active, and other times just for her own "fun". Best exemplified with appearing all but naked in a garter belt and tie as part of a "strip clothes off with each right answer" game for a quiz, which she does to intentionally make Akira feel uncomfortable. She does this so often that her teasing and {{Stripperific}} outfits become less effective on him due to overexposure even though he still responds to other women, much to her annoyance.
* MysteriousBacker: What Alpha's exact goals with her request to Akira are is a mystery, or rather a JigSawPuzzlePlot that gets hinted at from time to time.
* NoBiologicalSex: Alpha prefers to be referred to as a woman, but she has no real sex as an ArtificialIntelligence and can freely change the way she appears to Akira as she pleases.
* OhCrap: Two notable cases. One where Akira kills several men to save their would-be victims, but Alpha can tell that it was really an excuse to kill the men rather than for the good of the act. That "extreme hatred" has her tense enough to silently realize she should try to avoid Akira ever pointing it her way. The latter is when [[spoiler:Akira is EatenAlive by the giant snake, as it was a scenario she couldn't help him in whatsoever and it seemed like he was truly dead.]]
* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: Generally an InvokedTrope with her expression being like a barometer of how much danger Akira is in he can check. But even given that, there's [[spoiler:Alpha absolutely panicking when Yanigisawa surprise attacks Akira and starts interrogating him.]]
* ParentalSubstitute: In some ways for Akira. She even grounds him at times. Akira has her do things for him in ways a parent might pretty often, a bit of a MundaneUtility considering how advanced she is. Like homeschooling.
* PerceptionFilter: Alpha is only perceptible who have brains compatible with the Old World domain, and even then she can control who sees her, rendering her invisible and inaudible to everyone but Akira unless she wants to serve as a distraction. She can also insert these filters on Akira's vision, granting him a degree of [[SuperSenses telescopic vision]] as well as what amounts to a heads-up display.
* PlayingBothSides: [[spoiler:Since the two Alphas are splitting their support between Akira and Katsuya, Katsuya becoming TheRival to Akira means she’s doing this as they clash.]]
* ProudBeauty: She's very proud of her good looks, which she calculated from data to be appealing to as many people as possible, and constantly flaunts herself to Akira while comparing other women to her as a matter of measurement.
* QuitYourWhining: She sometimes tells Akira this but she’s (usually) more diplomatic, or teasing. She also tells Sheryl this in a dream one time.
* SceneryDissonance: InvokedTrope with her fancy outfits to elicit reactions from those who can see her (since most can’t). Especially noticeable in the manga, where every other panel has her appearing as this.
* ServileSnarker: She's officially subservient to Akira as per their contract, but she knows how much he relies on her and is prone to snarking at him for a quick laugh.
* SesquipedalianLoquaciousness: Her explanations to [[BookDumb Akira]] can be filled with TechnoBabble and complicated terminology that he doesn't understand. He frequently has to ask her to explain it more slowly and with simpler words for him to wrap his head around some of the concepts she's trying to explain to him.
* ShamelessFanserviceGirl: She's prone to appearing in the nude just to get a rise of Akira. But this also served a purpose before she formed a contract with him, as appearing naked would be the quickest way to elicit a reaction from those able to detect her.
* SkeletonKey: She seems to have a digital one in the form of a symbol, that she's shown using when hacking machines and compelling A.I.s to obey her commands.
* SmugSmiler: Often has a supernaturally perfect and beautiful looking smile (considering it’s calculated to be whatever will be best to manipulate Akira at a given time). And she positively radiates smug.
* TheTease: While she generally likes teasing Akira, sexual teasing makes up a good portion of that.
* {{Telepathy}}: Akira is able to communicate with Alpha telepathically through their contract, which alleviates a lot of the problems regarding Akira talking to thin air, though people still wonder why he turns to empty space.
* TheOnlyWayTheyWillLearn: Alpha uses this many times as part of teaching Akira, largely due to him overly depending on her to answer every question he has.
* TooImportantToWalk: While she's able to "stand" on the ground, she rarely walks around, instead floating around Akira to emphasize her otherworldly presence.
* ToxicFriendInfluence: Alpha offers her assistance to Akira in exchange for helping her achieve her goals. It's blatantly clear that she's preying on Akira's naivety and sense of gratitude to manipulate him, but it's unclear what exactly she wants from the relic she wants him to track down. She's also frustrated by his growing number of relationships, as it means that she can't manipulate him as easily.
* UnlimitedWardrobe: Alpha is able to freely change her appearance at will, resulting in her putting on a variety of outfits throughout the story. Though she's just as prone to going in the nude just to get a rise out of Akira.
* TheVamp: She continually flirts with Akira and tries to entice him with her body to control him, even saying that he'd be able to touch her once he retrieves the relic she needs. Akira is more embarrassed by this than anything, but while he rejects her advances, it's clear that he's not entirely immune to them.
* VirtualSidekick: She acts as this for Akira, interfacing with technology for him, using AugmentedReality to assist his aim, and giving him training simulations to improve his skills. She can also directly control his PoweredArmor to allow him to perform feats that he'd never be able to on his own.
* WhiteVoidRoom: Akira has dreams of her in one of these. They mainly serve as ways to tease and further the MythArc of the series. The first dream has her recounting a log of the hunters she helped before him.
* XRayVision: Alpha is able to see detect others through walls and impart this onto Akira, letting him see the silhouettes of others hiding behind obstacles.

!!Akira’s Teammates

[[folder:Elena and Sara]]
[[quoteright:311:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sara_rebuild_world.png]]
[[caption-width-right:311:Sara]]
[[quoteright:311:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/elena_rebuild_world.png]]
[[caption-width-right:311:Elena]]

Two veteran hunters and friends of Shizuka. Akira saves them from a gang he deemed a threat to his own life, which results in them becoming thankful to their mysterious savior.

* ActionGirl: Sara and Elena are both experienced and heavily-armed hunters once they get their equipment back, tearing their way through an army of monsters on their lonesome, albeit with the help of some very expensive ammo.
* BadassNormal: For the longest time, Elena went without an augmented suit because she's strong enough to carry and wield heavier weapons like grenade launchers through her own training. She admits that she's not on the level of cyborgs, nanite-enhanced humans like Sara, or those with augmented suits, but she can handle herself just as well as Sara in a firefight. But after the city is besieged with cannon insects, she [[EmpoweredBadassNormal purchases one in order to use even heavier ordinance.]]
* BigBreastPride: Elena is proud that her breasts are naturally large, teasingly prodding Sara over how her bust size is dependent on her nanite supply.
* TheBigGirl: Sara has SuperStrength from her medical {{Nanomachines}}, and uses heavy weaponry.
* BigSisterMentor:
** Sara and Elena are more than happy to help and guide Akira because of how grateful they are to him for saving their lives. They give him their old, high-quality but seldom-used gear for a bargain price, coach him on the fundamentals of being a hunter like where to sell his relics for the highest profit, and are happy to work with him on assignments.
** Sara's fondness for Akira makes her commit a near-fatal mistake when she decides to HoldTheLine for him and some other hunters to escape a ruin crawling with monsters. While she would have backed out in time to get out unscathed normally, she was so fixated on showing off and being a good role model to him that she gets injured by a monster she normally would have fled from, forcing Akira to double back to rescue her.
* BrainsAndBrawn: Elena is TheLeader, TheFace, and a technician, while Sara has SuperStrength and heavy weapons.
* BreastExpansion: InvertedTrope mostly with Sara, her chest shrinks with her nanomachine supply which is used up by super strength and healing.
* BuxomBeautyStandard: Sara is curvaceous when she's topped up on nanites, to the point that her shirt struggles to contain her breasts, and Akira is very taken with them. She jokingly offers to show them to Akira as thanks for saving her life, much to Alpha's frustration. Elena is no slouch in the bust department either and her bust isn't nanite-dependent.
* CoolBigSis: After learning that Akira saved their lives, Sara and Elena are quick to invoke IOweYouMyLife, doting on him and taking a mentorly role to him along with Shizuka, offering him constant words of encouragement and good advice. They also sell him their old equipment at a good price and look forward to seeing him go places.
* {{Cyborg}}: Sara is a nanite-enhanced human, allowing her to perform feats of superhuman strength and agility so long as she has the nanite reserves to facilitate them. Her breasts have been replaced with nanite storage units, resulting in them looking huge when she's at maximum capacity and flat when she's running low.
* DidntThinkThisThrough: They come to realize this after they had sided with Katsuya against Akira in an argument, realizing that listening one-sidedly to Katsuya’s opinion was stupid.
* EmbarrassingButEmpoweringOutfit: Downplayed. Elena's augmented suit is as form-fitting as any other and looks good on her, but what makes it embarrassing is how it's so breathable that wearing it feels almost the same as being naked. The way it hugs all her curves gets her looks and even Akira finds himself staring at her. She eventually gets used to it, but focusing it on how it looks on her tends to give her a LuminescentBlush.
* EverythingSensor: Elena specializes in reading and coordinating between these. She made her own out of parts from several.
* TheFace: Elena is in charge of negotiating for her team, a very important job.
* FamedInStory: They're both veteran hunters with enough clout for the corporate government to directly send them orders during emergencies. Drankam is also looking to recruit them because of Sara and Elena's skills and reputation.
* GivingUpOnLogic: This is the two’s eventual reaction to the absurd lengths Akira is willing to go on a RoaringRampageOfRevenge due to his BerserkButton being pressed, only gritting their teeth.
* HealingFactor: Sara, as long as she has reserves of nanomachines.
* HeterosexualLifePartners: The two of them. It’s rare for them not to be in the same room, and the manga adaptation shows them sleeping in the same bed.
* IOweYouMyLife: Both girls are grateful to Akira for saving them and repay what they see as an act of heroism with their constant support of him.
* TheLeader: Whenever Akira teams up as part of TheSquad, Elena is the leader.
* LockedOutOfTheFight: [[spoiler:For the Battle of the Slums, Inabe and especially Hikaru try to keep them out of it using their contract to guard Hikaru as a pretext, explicitly to keep Akira from getting revenge if anything should happen to the two. They talk their way out of it with the help of Shizuka. Shizuka tells Hikaru that if she has escorts, she may be expected to go out there herself, terrifying her. Shizuka later scolds Akira for making them think like this.]]
* MagicPants: {{Averted}}, and then justified. The fact that Sara’s breasts serve as reservoirs for her nanomachines means that she goes through bras quickly, until she can get some old world ones that are advanced enough to handle it.
* MilitaryMashupMachine: They eventually get a tank gun for their car that deploys using ShrinkRay technology to grow, as an emergency measure.
* MsFanservice: They're both attractive and buxom women who enjoy acting like TheTease.
* MustMakeAmends: They’re horrified after siding against Akira in his argument with Katsuya makes him cold towards them and distance himself. Shizuka interceded to limit the damage, but they’re still left trying to get back to normal with Akira months later. [[UnknownRival All thanks to Alpha.]]
* PlatonicLifePartners: Sara and Elena's joking flirting with Akira indicates that they're not in a relationship with each other beyond good friends, but it's also clear that they're very close and long-time partners who won't go through with any major decisions without the consent of the other.
* RescueRomance: Sara is enamored with the mysterious hunter who saved her and Elena's life from a gang. It gets to the point that she keeps dreaming up a MysteriousPast or backstory for said hunter who wouldn't even show their face to her afterward. Unbeknownst to her, Akira, the child hunter she bumps into at Cartridge Freak, is in fact the one who saved her, and [[MistakenForProfound he did it mainly to protect himself rather than her.]] After she realizes that he's the one saved her life, she instead takes an almost sisterly role to him, though she does jokingly offer to flash her boobs for him as thanks.
* TheScapegoat: For the high casualties Drankam forces take fighting the giant snake {{Kaiju}}. Even though they ignored the two’s orders not to get close to it and died because of that, the two take the blame and a pay cut for it, causing Shirakabe to lament not being able to recruit them into the gang because of their mistreatment.
* SecretSecretKeeper: Come to realize that Akira can connect to the old world domain, thanks to Shizuka telling Sara, and it’s confirmed due to Akira shooting enemies outside of his device's scanning range in the undercity. They won't tell anyone further because TheyWouldCutYouUp.
* TheSmartGirl: Elena. She is an expert in sensors (and assembled her own from multiple other devices), as well as handling more mentally demanding tasks like leadership and negotiation.
* {{Stripperiffic}}: They eventually upgrade to Old World imitation hunter armor, provided by Hikaru.
* SuperStrength: Sara, due to her nanomachine augmentation.
* TheTease:
** Sara is aware of Akira's fondness for her and teases him by leaning in close and offering to show him her breasts, only to laugh it off when he squirms and asks her to knock it off.
** Elena gets in on it with pretending to try to kiss Akira during their R&R from a medevac mission.
* ThoseTwoGuys: The two of them are always seen together as a team, whether it's fighting, hanging out, or shopping.
* TomboyAndGirlyGirl: Sara is the Tomboy to Elena's Girly Girl. Sara is a nanite-enhanced human who is happy to laze about the house in nothing but a shirt and her underwear when she has guests over, while Elena is the information specialist who tries to clean herself up when meeting people over lunch.
* UnknownRival: Neither Sara nor Elena know about Alpha's existence or how the AI considers them both a threat to her control over Akira's actions.
* WhatTheHellHero: Elena does this to herself when she ponders the possibility of seducing Akira to have the benefits of someone who's probably connected to the Old World domain attached to her. She quickly waves off the idea and is mad at herself for even thinking it, as it would be a betrayal of the trust he's shown to her.
* WorfHadTheFlu: Sara and Elena are easily subdued by hunters-turned-raiders after they lost most of their equipment and supplies on their previous mission, needing Akira to save their lives. But they're a force to be reckoned with once they're fully armed, obliterating an army of monsters on their lonesome.

[[folder:Reina Lawrence]]
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/reina_rebuild_world.png]]

An impulsive heiress of a rich family. She first encounters Akira while on a mission to wipe out the Yatara Scorpions infesting a ruin, being a temporary part of Katsuya's squad.

* ADayInTheLimelight:
** The old world automaton investigation arc.
** The second Mihazono Ruins Incident starts one of these involving her personal nemesis Chloe.
* AdventurerArchaeologist: Downplayed, discovering stories of the old world is one of her main motivations for being a hunter. Hence her interest in GhostStories.
* BatmanGambit: [[spoiler:When Chloe demands the white card MacGuffin from her, she plans to make Chloe prattle on and threaten her as much as possible, in order to let Olivia, who [[MacGuffinGuardian is lethally picky about the handling of those cards]], deal with Chloe for her. Unfortunately, the cleanup duty ends up getting passed onto Akira...]]
* BreakTheHaughty: Her combat experiences dealing with Akira each tend to end up like this, reining in her pride to make her a more capable and realistic hunter.
* BrutalHonesty:
** Akira criticizing her eagerness to confront fellow hunters with some of this, saying he'd never hire her help, serves as part of a BreakTheHaughty experience for her, that ultimately helps her grow. Even if him doing so does start a MexicanStandoff with Shiori and makes Akira feel regretful.
** When negotiating with Akira at one point, she tells him all of her honest feelings, which include some animosity towards Akira over certain actions he took. This scares her bodyguards but makes Akira laugh and respect her honesty.
* CharacterDevelopment: Starts as a bit of a SkilledButNaive RoyalBrat who thinks she’s invincible, then undergoes multiple BreakTheHaughty experiences and changes her outlook on hunting, as well as at least distancing herself from Katsuya, preferring to train with her bodyguards or Akira.
* TheClan: She’s the grand-daughter of Lawrence, a hunter who struck it big and made a MegaCorp for himself that reigns over multiple cities. His children and grandchildren jockey for positions within his company. But Reina in from an out-of-favor faction.
* DamselInDistress: [[spoiler:Yajima takes her hostage when she tries to see if he's alright. He then has Shiori attack Akira, using Reina's life as collateral.]]
* DeclarationOfPersonalIndependence: [[spoiler:Her reaction to Mizuha threatening her to make her work under Katsuya.]]
* DissensionRemorse: Her introduction is about her having this after Akira gives her BrutalHonesty about her attitude towards fellow hunters.
* EveryoneCanSeeIt: [[spoiler:Justified due to it being two people who know her well, Shiori and Kanae can see her feelings for Togami.]]
* FatalFlaw: {{Pride}}. It gets [[BreakTheHaughty beaten out of her in stages.]]
* FireForgedFriends: With Akira, despite their rough start. The same with Togami.
* FreudianTrio: Reina is the Ego to Shiori’s Superego, and Kanae’s Id, being less composed and more emotional than the stoic Shiori but not nearly as battle-hungry and self-serving as as Kanae.
* FriendlySniper: Akira greatly respects her marksmanship in the undercity, and she eventually specializes in sniping, delivering a OneHitPolyKill to try and impress Akira in the Lida Commercial Zone. She's also a compassionate girl to the point of being a NaiveNewcomer.
* GirlishPigtails: Wears her hair like this both to emphasize her privileged upbringing as well as her femininity unlike the constructed front built by Sheryl.
* GuileHero: Eventually proves herself as this, being more adept at intrigue and BattleOfWits, where unlike with hunting, she doesn’t need her servants to cover for her. This is after her CharacterDevelopment gets past her earlier naivete.
* HairTriggerTemper: She perpetually struggles against this impulse.
* HeroicBSOD: She’s prone to mini ones when disappointed in herself.
* HeroicSelfDeprecation: Over her failures as a hunter, and having to rely on others to protect her.
* HiddenDepths: Reina being a brilliant negotiator.
* HonestyIsTheBestPolicy: As an heiress of one of the most powerful corporations around, Reina is an expert negotiator who takes honesty seriously, earning the trust of others (even paranoiacs like Akira) by being transparent with them about her intentions and terms.
* HonorBeforeReason: Her desire to get stronger on her own merits means that she doesn't get the best equipment she can buy with her money. Akira later calls her out on this, as fighting with only your pride like this will only get her killed in the end.
* HumbleHero: Eventually. To the point she’s even completely happy wearing maid armor simply due to it being the best protective gear she can get her hands on. This unnerves her showoff family rival Chloe.
* InterclassFriendship: Eventually with Akira, since Reina is from the rich inner wall, while Akira is from the slums.
* MoodSwinger: She gets teased a bit for this (to which her reaction makes [[PerpetualFrowner even Akira]] laugh.)
* MyGreatestFailure: [[spoiler:Confides to Akira that her not trying harder to rein in Katsuya makes her feel somewhat responsible for him getting himself killed.]]
* NaiveNewcomer: She's prideful and naïve when she first meets Akira, taking offense to insults toward her abilities and nearly getting into a firefight with Akira when his BrutalHonesty goes too far. She later settles down after seeing him in action and apologizes for her behavior. [[spoiler:She also gets taken hostage when she tries to show compassion to Yajima, forcing Shiori to fight Akira.]] She learns her lesson over time, outgrowing this completely by the Second Mihozono Incident.
* NewMeat: Despite everything she learns, she’s still this when teaming up with Akira later on, and has to be covered for.
* {{Ojou}}: She has the air of one, her father is wealthy enough to hire Shiori and Kanae as her personal bodyguards, and she's well-trained enough to take on dozens of Yatara Scorpions alongside Shiori.
* PassiveAggressiveKombat: Her rival Chloe starts this with Reina whenever the two meet. Chloe always gets trounced.
* PrincessInRags: The corporate {{Nepotism}} equivalent of this. Reina has been banished from the upper districts since before entering the story. It turns out she was pressured into becoming a hunter largely due to her political faction within TheClan falling out of favor, and a risky but viable method for a faction to come back into favor with ThePatriarch Lawrence, is to succeed as a hunter. She just happened to have an interest in it anyway.
* ThePromise: [[spoiler:Both as recompense for the unfair deal Shiori made Akira for Olivia’s white card, and to help prevent Akira from coming after her if he realizes she’s discovered that he’s an old world connector, Reina swears never to act against him.]]
* {{Protectorate}}: For Shiori. Eventually turns out to be for Kanae as well.
* SecretTest: She ends up giving one to Akira. [[spoiler:Judging that Akira only gave up the white card MacGuffin because having it might expose him as an Old World connector, she tries to give it back to him, and judges by his reaction that he is indeed one, prompting her to change tack and keep it.]]
* SkilledButNaive: Reina may be hot-headed, stubborn, and easily offended, but she's also a skilled hunter herself whose movements are described as almost "elegant" as she blasts her way through a horde of Yarata Scorpions.
* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: [[spoiler:Despite learning her lesson, when TheSquad is ambushed by a NightOfTheLivingMooks, Reina still has to be protected by the more experienced members, just like Akira and Togami. The right attitude doesn’t make up for lack of experience.]]
* ThisIsUnforgivable: Subverted. [[spoiler:Reina declares this to Akira, that she wanted to tell him not to let his guard down enough to let her be able to take revenge for Katsuya’s death, but that she can’t because it’s after she had promised never to act against him. Regardless, she knows he’s too strong for her, and the admission earns Akira’s respect.]]
* WillfullyWeak: Her desire to prove herself by refusing to take advantage of her family fortune to get better armor and equipment, in order to maintain her pride and reputation. Akira manages to persuade her away from this mentality.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Shiori]]
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/shiori_rebuild_world.png]]

A veteran hunter and Reina's bodyguard. She considers her charge's safety to be her utmost priority, accompanying her everywhere, especially on dangerous hunter missions.
----
* AbsurdlySharpBlade: Her main weapon is an Old World katana sharp enough to CleanCut a MiniMecha.
* AnOfferYouCantRefuse: [[spoiler:The chaos of squads trying to answer a hunter’s distress signal, starting a cycle of them getting trapped themselves, and then sending out one of their own, after the Sarenthal Tower is breached, is largely the result of Shiori giving a coded distress call to Drankam Command threatening to use the power of Reina’s family to completely crush the gang if they don’t come rescue Reina from the building.]]
* ArmorPiercingAttack: Shiori’s sword made using old world technology is especially good at piercing armor, much better than CWH or anti-forcefield rounds.

* ConspicuousConsumption: The luxurious field rations she prepares for Reina, as well as making up the area to look like a restaurant.
* ConsummateProfessional: In addition to her UndyingLoyalty to Reina, Shiori is impeccably polite and courteous until threatened. She never drops her formality even while making threats to others.
* CombinationAttack: Sets up a powerful one of these with Akira, making use of both of their last ditch capabilities like a combined LimitBreak. She actually pays him after, treating it as an official request.
* DeathOrGloryAttack: Her drug she can take to speed up her perception as a last-ditch measure. If she uses it, she collapses virtually unconscious soon after.
* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: Shiori getting so pissed at Akira over his BrutalHonesty to Reina, while establishing Shiori's feelings about Reina, contradicts her later role constantly reining in Kanae's troublemaking. Although she might have learnt a lesson herself in the undercity.
* FireForgedFriends: With Akira, after a [[MexicanStandoff pretty rough start.]]
* FreudianTrio: Shiori is the stoic, composed Superego to Kanae’s Id, and Reina’s Ego. She is usually the one to rein both her sister and her charge in.
* InfinityMinusOneSword: She keeps an inferior replica of an old world LaserBlade, like those that that need the safety shot off to trigger, to use in emergencies.
* KatanasAreJustBetter: Her preferred weapon is an Old World katana, though she's equally capable in hand-to-hand combat.
* MexicanStandoff: Repeatedly ends up involved in these with Akira. It's clear that they help her see him as at first a WorthyOpponent, and eventual friend.
* NinjaMaid: She wears a maid outfit even while going into a nest of monsters and is a formidable hunter to boot. This is not entirely of her own volition, as it's apparently standard uniform for people working under Reina's father.
* RunningGag: Her being a HorribleJudgeOfCharacter with regard to Akira, constantly assuming he’s malicious. For instance, Shiori warning Togami that Akira is about to press them as hard as he can when negotiating the rewards for their joint mission, before she’s InstantlyProvenWrong when Akira offers his usual even split.
* RecruitedFromTheGutter: Her backstory, is that Reina’s family adopts orphans from the slums en masse to educate and brainwash in their facilities. Shiori was marked in their lowest category for being more loyal to Reina than to the company itself.
* RedOniBlueOni: She’s the blue oni to Kanae’s red.
* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: Her reaction to seeing Akira and Katsuya facing off over a pickpocket they just met, is to take Reina and run. This results in Reina being isolated from both factions in Drankam, creating some issues later on.
* SiblingTeam: She and her sister Kanae are Reina's personal bodyguards. But while Shiori is absolutely devoted to Reina, Kanae is simply in it for a good fight.
* SiblingYinYang: Shiori being the [[TomboyAndGirlyGirl girly girl to Kanae’s tomboy]], cautious compared to her recklessness, and polite compared to her informality.
* TeamMom: For Reina, and trying to keep Kanae in line. Other than that, Shiori is generally the most responsible adult in the room.
* UndyingLoyalty: She's absolutely devoted to Reina and will even pay 5 million aurum out of her own pocket if it means securing Reina's safety.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Kanae]]
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/kaede_rebuild_world.png]]

Shiori's little sister and Reina's other bodyguard. While Shiori is loyal to Reina, Kanae is battle hungry and is only in it for a good fight.
----
* BareFistedMonk: Basically her fighting style, with {{Power Fist}}s (and boots) to make it viable in a scifi setting.
* BeneathTheMask: Most of the time Kanae is a bubbly and teasing GenkiGirl. But when she’s fighting a human or what seems like one, she shows an extremely cold side.
* BloodKnight: She loves a good fight and tries to provoke Reina into going into more dangerous areas so there will be more monsters to fight. Kanae's first response upon meeting Akira is to pick a fight with him, only to show disappointment when he explains that he doesn't want anything to do with her and walks away.
* BunnyEarsLawyer: Eventually shifts into this, being serious about protecting Reina but still having an independent personality.
* ChameleonCamouflage: Eventually a MidSeasonUpgrade sees her wear maid armor that allows for this.

* ArmorIsUseless: Akira's first set of protective clothing is outdated military wear that provides basically no protection against any modern firearms or monster claws. He later replaces it with his augmented suit, which greatly increases his strength and speed but again provides no protection. It's not until he gets his second augmented suit that he gets any protection at all, but even then that protection is minimal unless he activates the suit's energy-intensive battle mode, and he can still get shot to death if he's not careful.

* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: Akira fantasizes about firing an assault rifle in both his hands at once, which Alpha sees from their telepathy. She then scolds him about how damaging that would be to him without an augmented suit. Much, much later, he gets that wish of using two assault rifles without support of an augmented suit (because it’s deactivated so Alpha can rewrite its software), and fighting like that badly injures Akira’s arms to the point his super medicine isn’t enough to stop the pain.

* BeneathTheMask: Akira is impulsive, emotional, and easily sidetracked by MundaneLuxury. But while assuming the role of Sheryl's muscle, he makes it seem like he's TheStoic and [[TheChessmaster someone who's always one step ahead]] with he help of a good poker face and Alpha's advice. Sheryl initially has trouble recognizing that Akira roughing up Erio was him acting the part of an emotionless enforcer, only connecting the dots when Akira asks her to rate his performance after the fact.

** He goes ballistic when Shijima's gang members try to blackmail him [[AndYourLittleDogToo by threatening Shizuka, Sara and Elena at Cartridge Freak]], instantly drawing his rifle and shooting the man dead before blasting a hole in a another man's head.

* BifurcatedWeapon: The SSB multi-weapon rifles that he eventually makes his go-to weapon. It has the firing rate of a mini-gun, can fire CWH rounds full auto, and can fire mini guided rocket propelled grenades as a type of ammo. The biggest problem with it is its tendency to chew through his ammo reserves, resulting in Akira needing to buy an APC to keep from running dry.

** Akira understands right and wrong, but operates more on a spectrum of fairness and priorities. He expects to be rewarded for his efforts and prioritizes survival first and foremost. He's completely indifferent to murder, killing with frightening ease and without pleasure or remorse. If a job becomes too dangerous for him to handle, he has no problems leaving the people he's supposed to be rescuing or fighting alongside behind. But at the same time he's not so self-serving that he refuses to share rewards if he feels it's duly owed. He won't scam others either, offering them what he believes is a fair price for goods or services based on what he thinks is the truth even if lying would get him a better deal.
** Even after developing something of a guilty conscience, he performs good deeds out of his own belief that it will reduce his good luck deficit or benefit him in the long-term rather than for the sake of it. He also dislikes the idea of having unpaid debts and thinks it's unfair for him to tag along with more experienced hunters since he believes he'll slow them down unless they tell him otherwise. His sense of morality is so strange that Alpha struggles to wrap her head around it while trying to manipulate him.

* BrutalHonesty: Akira will not mince words with others and will tell someone straight to their face if he considers them expendable or if they're TheLoad. He's surprised when Shiori calls him out on this when she asked him to evaluate Reina's abilities, as his [[{{Deconstruction}} inability to speak with nuance or subtlety does nothing but anger everyone around him]]. This nearly leads to a shootout between him, Shiori, and Reina. Alpha gently chides him over this, explaining that he could have avoided all of this conflict had he chosen his words more carefully.

** It turns out that the time compression ability Alpha taught Akira, has caused him some brain damage from using it so much. This gets healed when he takes an especially powerful old world medicine.

** As his skills grow and he becomes more confident in himself, he tends to respond to Alpha's challenges and offers of assistance with, "Resolve is my responsibility.", as she can help him with everything but the resolve to actually go through with it.

* CharlesAtlasSuperpower: The ability to compress his own perception of time is an ability some hunters get either through a drug, or surgical implant in their brain. However, Alpha sets Akira up with a training regimen to teach him the ability without those. This may have to do with the abnormality in his brain that allows him his BrainComputerInterface with Alpha; it seems to happen naturally in near-death experiences with him before that point. The power also allows him to have whole conversations with Alpha within a few seconds.

** Downplayed. While Akira does understand sex appeal, as shown by how embarrassed he gets when he's subject to MarshmallowHell, he's not particularly interested in the actual act of sex due to [[KidHero his age]] and having bigger fish to fry as a hunter. While staying over at Sheryl's place, he doesn't question it when Sheryl asks him to strip down to his underwear before climbing into her bed. He's equally confused when he discovers that Sheryl clung to him in his sleep in her underwear. An exasperated Alpha has to spell out to him that Sheryl wanted to have sex with him.

* ChildSoldiers: Akira isn't older than 14-15 years old, but as a hunter he's essentially a mercenary-for-hire when it comes to patrolling the cities for monsters.

* ConsummateProfessional: When he takes a job, he'll fulfill to the best of his ability even if it would normally go against his survival instincts. That said, he's not so professional that he won't try to negotiate a clause that lets him move independently or run away if completing the objective isn't feasible.

* CorporateSponsoredSuperhero: High ranking hunters tend to have corporate sponsorship deals, and Akira gets KIRYO as his sponsor after they work with Sheryl’s gang, who specialize in armor and AugmentedReality.

'''Akira:''' So in short, I can’t do that myself, huh. After all, if I do that, it just means that you’ll be controlling both of my arms, and I’m sure it will leave both of my arms broken too, won’t it?\\

* DeliberateInjuryGambit: Part of his determination is making these, like letting bullets hit him in non-fatal areas in Sarenthal Tower, which eventually gets replicated with letting attackers hit him in areas his armor's DeflectorShields are strongest. Agreeing to let Alpha control him is pretty much this as CastFromHitpoints. And then there's shooting himself throwing his gun in a SpinAttack.

** Sara and Elena point out that despite his propensity for working alone, Akira hired Carol, a complete stranger, to help him search for them in the ruins. He basically freezes when this is pointed out to him and quickly mutters an embarrassed apology.
** His aversion to raising his hunter rank. He’s shocked to discover he can buy high grade ammo cheap once it's high enough. Although his deal with Katsuragi to help Sheryl had him somewhat trapped in that regard.

* DodgeTheBullet: Alpha tries to train him to be able to control his own perception of time to allow him to predict a bullet trajectory before it fires and dodge it. He eventually succeeds after painstaking effort, but his first time doing this in a real crisis is when he's up against Selba, an untrained and overconfident orphan. Otherwise, he relies on Alpha doing it for him even though it's extremely painful to have his body jerked around like that.

* GogglesDoSomethingUnusual: Akira's second augmented suit comes with its own built-in information gathering device, allowing it to stream in data about his surroundings as well as get data from other hunters.

* HadToBeSharp: Akira’s instincts but also paranoia were honed and refined by his life in the slums, where the weak don’t survive long. His ability to make a camouflaged sleeping spot for example, serves as a ChekhovsSkill that helps him take down Sibea, and much later in the Inner Kuzusuhara Ruins Assault.
* HasAType: Subverted. It seems at first that Akira has a thing for [[BuxomBeautyStandard buxom]] [[LikesOlderWomen older women]] given his stronger reaction to Shizuka, Elena, and Sara than with the flat Sheryl. But Carol disproves that. The web novels explicitly say, that it's more a matter of who he trusts, and he distrusted Carol for being a FemmeFatale despite on paper her fitting that type. For what it's worth, Sheryl asks Akira if he LikesOlderWomen, he says that he doesn’t have a type and that it’s only a coincidence that his friends are mostly older since there aren’t many kids around hunting (this is {{Foreshadowing}} Akira teaming up with a new girl his age on his next mission.)

* HeroicRROD: Happens several times from taking too much nanomachine medicine. He’s usually passed out for days. Eventually Akira takes measures to counteract this, such as taking small doses of medicine in-between encounters, or taking naps.

* IOweYouMyLife: Akira is deadly serious about repaying others who've saved his life in the past. It’s for this reason, despite realizing some of the darker things Alpha has done to manipulate him, he refuses to hear out Tsubaki’s requests to betray her. As well, [[spoiler:despite the fact that he makes a deal with Shiori that massively underplayed him for a MacGuffin, since it kept him out of trouble and he got a desperately needed weapon out of it, he refuses to let her take the fall when she gets threatened by Olivia for having done so.]]
* IronicName: Akira's name is written entirely in katakana, but in Japanese it's typically spelled in ways that evoke sunlight, brightness, wisdom, and truth. Akira is none of these things. He's a naturally dour and pessimistic StreetUrchin who NeverLearnedToRead. He's being deceived by Alpha, who manipulates him for her plans and is prone to foolhardy outbursts of rage.

* TheDreaded: Deliberately tries to build up a reputation like this in part to help Sheryl’s control of her gang and to help keep them safe while he’s away, and in part to prevent people from picking fights with him. Akira particularly likes [[MakeAnExampleOfThem setting gruesome examples of others to drive the point home.]] It usually doesn't have much effect on other hunters.

** The select few people he trusts to let his guard down around get to see him be surprisingly polite, easily-flustered, and eager-to-please. He also gets tongue-tied over small-talk and his eyes sparkle like a child's when he's given new gear or is exposed to something new. This only endears him to Sara and Elena, who treat him like a little brother and mentor him. Shizuka is also surprised by how attached she gets to him.

* FamedInStory: This proves to be part of his bad luck: Other hunters swooping in from tales of his exploits to beat him to the seconds when he finds uncharted ruins. It gets so predictable that Alpha at one point tells Akira to go training in a low danger ruin for some days specifically for the purpose of throwing the other hunters off his tracks. As a separate matter, is his reputation in the slums, which gets Akira a mix of awe, fear, and jealousy, at least when he’s not being hounded by rumors making light of him. For both fields, his fame really takes off when he’s caught on camera doing a particularly impressive feat that allows his reputation to be [[AppealToForce used to great effect]] by Sheryl, but also puts the Corporate Government on his case to raise his hunter rank.

* GunsAkimbo: Equipping PoweredArmor allows Akira to do this, and it’s pretty much his default after he gets his [[GatlingGood chain gun]]. But even that often isn’t enough when due to Alpha’s desperate maneuvers, he fires weapons improperly supported (which actually damages his second augmented suit while breaking his arm when he does it with the Anti-tank rifle). There is a time he fires two normal assault rifles while his suit is down for reprogramming, that hurts for a while even with his super medicine.

* HasAType: Subverted. It seems at first that Akira has a thing for [[BuxomBeautyStandard buxom]] [[LikesOlderWomen older women]] given his stronger reaction to Shizuka, Elena, and Sara than with the flat Sheryl. But Carol disproves that. The web novels explicitly say, that it's more a matter of who he trusts, and he distrusted Carol for being a FemmeFatale despite on paper her fitting that type. For what it's worth, Sheryl asks Akira if he LikesOlderWomen, he says that he doesn’t have a type, and that it’s only a coincidence that his friends are mostly older since there aren’t many kids around hunting (this is {{Foreshadowing}} Akira teaming up with a new girl his own age on his next mission.)

* HumbleHero: Akira is critical of his own skills and is aware of how he'd never have survived this long without Alpha. But the narration says this is an objective evaluation rather than any kind of self-deprecation. This also means explaining to others that he's a BadassOnPaper and not the OneManArmy like his combat record would tell you. This insistence of being truthful is further reflected in his lack of interest in his reputation, showing indifference to insults to his skills and never boasting about his accomplishments, especially when others are trying to provoke indignation from him. This trait comes handy towards Shirakabe who was known to be a {{Jerkass}} towards newbie hunters. Shirakabe took a liking for Akira for not being a cocky overconfident upstart like Katsuya that he gives Akira favors,jobs and the respect that would make Katsuya green with envy.

* KidsAreCruel: Akira has no problems shooting other children, especially if they come after him first. In the web novel, he shoots five children who try to mug him over 300 aurum despite him explaining that it'd cost more to kill him than they'd get in cash. He also murders Selba on Sheryl's orders without batting an eye after Selba betrayed them. Something Alpha and others note about Akira is his startling apathy toward murder in general, as he feels neither joy nor remorse is killing others.

* LadyAndKnight: Dark Knight to Alpha's Dark Lady. As highlited with a conversation he has with Tsubaki, that Akira takes an almost MyMasterRightOrWrong approach in serving Alpha’s request, figuring IOweYouMyLife and that no matter how evil her manipulations or end goal are, IGaveMyWord, as well. While Alpha constantly tries to use seduction and manipulation to get him to serve her whims as a classic Dark Lady.

** Because of lack of time and money for spare clothes, Akira's fashion sense is virtually nonexistent. Just about every outfit looks the same to him so long as it's not {{Stripperific}} or fanservicey, and his interactions with Alpha and her UnlimitedWardrobe further dull his sense of what's good-looking and what's not. None of Sheryl's outfits are able to elicit any kind of reaction from him and he has to consult Alpha to buy a gift that would suit a girl. It gets to the point that Sheryl uses getting a response beyond dull surprise out of him is a sign that she looks truly wonderful in an outfit.

* [[{{Mutants}} Mutant]]: Due being born in the eastern part of the Kugamayama City. Akira has the ability to gain mutations and skills more easily than normal humans, which can be achieved through repeated training and combat. Making him nigh-on superhuman. Though due to his age, he is limited on how much he can accel without his augment suit and is nowhere near as stong as enhanced humans and cyborgs.

* MyMasterRightOrWrong: Shows shades of this with regard to Alpha, on the basis of IOweYouMyLife and IGaveMyWord.

* NotHelpingYourCase: While trying to get the aurum Alna stole from his wallet back, Akira makes things worse for himself as Yumina and Airi interrogate him to prove that he money is his. Alna's quick-thinking to remove the money from his wallet and throw it back to him prevents them from simply checking her pockets to prove that she took his wallet, he can't provide conclusive evidence that the money on his person is his, and his aggressive and persistent stalking of Alna makes him seem like the criminal instead of the other way around.
* NoSocialSkills: He's spent so much time looking out for no one but himself that his social skills are nonexistent. His BrutalHonesty to people he doesn't know does nothing but piss them off and drive away potential allies, while his awkwardness and lack of candor around people he's more comfortable with prevent him from forming deeper relationships. His cynical train of thought also means that he has trouble reading anything other than ill-intent, assuming Reina wanted ''more'' of the reward money when she was actually surprised that he was splitting it equally between them. Basic expressions of affection like hugging and an AffectionateGestureToTheHead are also alien to him until Shizuka shows him kindness for the first time. The narrative itself calls him completely socially inept, both due to the place he grew up in and him being naturally distorted.

* RagsToRiches: Akira goes from barely making enough to eat every day to raking in thousands or even millions of aurum with Alpha's guidance. He's awestruck when he gets his first 200,000 aurum paycheck, but later on slaps down 500,000 aurum like it's nothing after earning 12,000,000 aurum from completing an emergency request. Lampshaded by Akira himself, who wonders if his sense of money's value is being skewed by Alpha's insistence that it's all "spare change". He's quick to deplete it on new equipment to get even more money, but he always tries to set aside enough to book a room with a bath. How far he's risen often gets shown with Kashua and Celene acting as ThoseTwoGirls.

** This is also how he ends his MexicanStandoff with Katsuya over Katsuya protecting the girl who pickpocketed him, since he didn’t have his armor at the time and was outnumbered.

* ShesNotMyGirlfriend: When Alpha points out that he and Sheryl look like a couple on a date while walking together, Akira does a SpitTake and vehemently denies that it's a date. This also creates problems when Akira neglects to keep up the façade outside of work, bluntly telling members of Sheryl's gang that the two of them simply have an agreement to work together rather than corroborating Sheryl's story that they're lovers. This begins to sow doubt in the gang about Sheryl's truthfulness and how much control she actually has. However, his actions afterwards make this sound like ImplausibleDeniability, and the debate and rumors about the two mostly center on which one is calling the shots, rather than if they’re lovers or not. Akira has some of this later on, bordering EveryoneCanSeeIt territory, with Carol.

* StreetUrchin: Until he became a hunter and met Alpha, he was living on the streets and scrounging for whatever food or useful goods he could find. It's clear that the experience has not been good to Akira's psyche, as he's TheParanoiac who sleeps with one eye open and treats most people as completely disposable. It's not until long after he acquires the funds to get off the street that he's able to relax a little and show even a modicum of compassion.

* SurvivalMantra: Akira’s is that resolve is his responsibility, to which Alpha [[CatchPhrase usually responds with]] "Leave the rest to me".

* TalkingToThemself: Due to others being unable to to see Alpha, Akira looks like he's talking to himself like a crazy person early in his career. This later stops once Akira agrees to the part of the contract that grants him {{Telepathy}} with her, but people still give him funny looks when he suddenly looks off in another direction as if he's lost in thought. At least once Akira accidentally talks to Alpha in front of someone else when he’s too relaxed.

* TemptingFate: Akira likes the rare occasions when things go his way. Though things tend to go wrong the minute he brings it up.

* TranquilFury: Cold anger accompanied by psychotic looking eyes is his typical angry reaction (the latter is particularly emphasized in the manga). His default way of dealing with those he dislikes is SilentTreatment.

** Akira is far more pragmatic and would very, very rarely intentionally put himself in harm's way for someone else, unless he's expecting that it will be more helpful to him in the long-run, and sometimes even then he'll balk. In this setting, where there are monsters everywhere, the world is legit out to get him, and most other people are rarely trustworthy, it works out well, and he gets better results than Katsuya, actually rescuing quite a few people and getting major accomplishments regardless of his intent to just try and survive. What's more, since Akira is quite suspicious of women trying to HoneyTrap him, he's somewhat harder to manipulate, and when women genuinely do prove trustworthy, he dotes on them like crazy, even if he's not romantically interested.

* UnderestimatingBadassery: Zigzagged. People can hardly believe that Akira a highly-ranked hunter because of his youth and size. When he's allowed to unwind, he's able to act like a perfectly ordinary boy right up to the point that he's threatened and pulls a gun on someone. In truth, he's not nearly as skilled or talented as his feats suggest, as so much of his success is tied to Alpha's support. So others judging him to be nothing special in person is accurate up to the point that Alpha helps him out.

* BridalCarry: She gets this multiple times from Akira to take her out of danger, but can’t help from being disappointed when they end.
** PlayedForLaughs at one point when Akira, after carrying her like this, puts her into Carol’s arms to escort her to safety, causing both women to do a DoubleTake and Carol telling him he’s bad with women.

* {{Catchphrase}}:

** That he’s "more interested in food than girls".

* CharacterDevelopment: Besides how he TookALevelInKindness and TookALevelInCheerfulness, there’s also his low self image receiving a major boost due to surviving the Inner Ruins Assault without Alpha. Soon after that, is the first time that Akira specifically tries to fight in a flashy way, to psych himself up.

** The select few people he trusts to let his guard down around get to see him be surprisingly polite, easily-flustered, and eager-to-please. He also gets tongue-tied over small-talk and his eyes sparkle like a child's when he's given new gear or exposed to something new. This only endears him to Sara and Elena, who treat him like a little brother and mentor him. Shizuka is also surprised by how attached she gets to him.

* HeIsAllGrownUp: Shizuka and others remark on him becoming taller and more muscular; this is possible due to the expensive hospital treatment allowed him to compensate for his malnourishment stunting his growth by eating more.

* IOweYouMyLife: Akira is absolutely deadly serious about this. It’s for this reason, despite realizing some of the darker things Alpha has done to manipulate him, he refuses to hear out Tsubaki’s requests to betray her. As well, [[spoiler:despite the fact that he makes a deal with Shiori that massively underplayed him for a MacGuffin, since it kept him out of trouble and he got a desperately needed weapon out of it, he refuses to let her take the fall when she gets threatened by Olivia for having done so.]]

* KidsAreCruel: Akira has no problems shooting other children, especially if they come after him first. He shoots five children who try to mug him over 300 aurum despite him explaining that it'd cost more to kill him than they'd get in cash. He also has no problems with murder in general if he feels his life is threatened. He then murders Selba on Sheryl's orders without batting an eye after Selba betrayed them.

* BifurcatedWeapon: The SSB multi-weapon rifles that he eventually makes his go-to weapon. It has the firing rate of a mini-gun, can fire CWH rounds full auto, and can fire mini guided rocket propelled grenades as a type of ammo. The biggest problem with it, is that it goes through ammo reserves fast, resulting in Akira needing to buy an APC to keep from running dry.

* TeenHater: From dealing with egotistical ones at Drankam. It takes a lot of work for Togami to earn his respect.

* HumbleHero: Akira is critical of his own skills and is aware of how he'd never have survived this long without Alpha. But the narration says this is an objective evaluation rather than any kind of self-deprecation. This also means explaining to others that he's a BadassOnPaper and not the OneManArmy like his combat record would tell you. This insistence of being truthful is further reflected in his lack of interest in his reputation, showing indifference to insults to his skills and never boasting about his accomplishments, especially when others are trying to provoke indignation from him. This trait comes handy towards Shirakabe who was known to be a {{Jerkass}} towards newbie hunters. Shirakabe took a liking for Akira for not being a cocky overconfident upstart like Katsuya that he gives Akira jobs and the respect that Katsuya craves.

* HumbleHero: Akira is critical of his own skills and is aware of how he'd never have survived this long without Alpha. But the narration says this is an objective evaluation rather than any kind of self-deprecation. This also means explaining to others that he's a BadassOnPaper and not the OneManArmy like his combat record would tell you. This insistence of being truthful is further reflected in his lack of interest in his reputation, showing indifference to insults to his skills and never boasting about his accomplishments, especially when others are trying to provoke indignation from him.

* BoobsOfSteel: Literally in Sara's case. Her breasts have been replaced with nanite storage units. When she's topped up and running at full capacity, her breasts are huge. But when she's running low, she's "flat as a man".

* [[{{Mutants}} Mutant]]: Due being born in the eastern part of the Kugamayama City. Akira has the ability to gain mutations and skills more easily than normal humans, which can be achieved through repeated training and combat. Making him nigh-on superhuman. Though due to his age, he is limited on how much he can accel and is nowhere near as stong as enhanced humans and cyborgs.

* {{Mutants}}: Due being born in the eastern part of the Kugamayama City. Akira has the ability to gain mutations and skills more easily than normal humans, which can be achieved through repeated training and combat. Making him nigh on superhuman. Though due to his age, he is limited on how much he can accel and is nowhere near as stong as enhanced humans and cyborgs.

* {{Mutants}}: Due being born in the eastern part of the Kugamayama City. Akira has the greater ability to gain mutations and skills more easily that can be achieved through repeated training and combat.

* StreetUrchin: Until he became a hunter and met Alpha, he was pretty much just this.

** Alpha [[LampshadeHanging once reprimands him for raising all kinds of flags right before things went bad.]

* TheWomanWearingTheQueenlyMask: Pretty much her archetype. She depends on her constructed FakeRelationship with Akira, and the stress running a gang puts on her presses her to her limits. She relies on what satisfaction she can get from her private time with Akira to recharge herself emotionally for challenges she faces as gang leader.

** In his own words, being stolen from makes him feel like a helpless kid in the slums all over again.

* {{Intangibility}}: Do to her presence being a mere AugmentedReality avatar. Akira asks her why she doesn't walk through people in a crowd, causing her to do so which gives him nausea.

* HasAType: Subverted. It seems at first that Akira has a thing for [[BuxomIsBetter buxom]] [[LikesOlderWomen older women]] given his stronger reaction to Shizuka, Elena, and Sara than with the flat Sheryl. But Carol disproves that. The web novels explicitly say, that it's more a matter of who he trusts, and he distrusted Carol for being a FemmeFatale despite on paper her fitting that type. For what it's worth, Sheryl asks Akira if he LikesOlderWomen, he says that he doesn’t have a type, and that it’s only a coincidence that his friends are mostly older since there aren’t many kids around hunting (this is {{Foreshadowing}} Akira teaming up with a new girl his own age on his next mission.)

** Katsuya has more heroic traits going for him and would probably do better in a more idealistic setting. In this setting, he's HisOwnWorstEnemy as he dives right in to the thick of battle without regard for his own well being, causing his trusted friends and allies to try and bail him out, which far more often than not gets them killed instead. His intent to "rescue everyone" leads to horrific split-second decisions and overall piss-poor leadership that causes whatever mission he's on to self-destruct, spectacularly. Lastly, his drive for fame, glory, and public recognition causes him to throw himself at monsters and dangerous situations that neither he nor his team are remotely ready for, putting himself and his allies in needlessly risky situations with immense collateral damage. What's worse, said drive for recognition also manifests as a deep-seated need to have every woman in sight throw herself at him as if he's a pop idol, causing him to pursue women who are already spoken for, antagonizing many of his fellow hunters, other gangs, and even city executives, neglect the ones who have already demonstrated their affection, and suicidally diving head-first into extreme danger when a girl he's got his eye on is in peril. Ultimately leading to his own destruction.
* {{Tsundere}}: For Sheryl, he’s cold both to keep his reputation as someone to fear within her gang, as well due to his past trauma from being victim to a HoneyTrap, and witnessing her doing that to other hunters. All the while, Akira occasional shows great respect for her or appreciation for her talents, and well as risking his life for her without a second thought, giving her some SuspiciouslySpecificDenial statements like this:

*** The conversation he has with Tsubaki about Alpha shows that Akira has caught on to a lot of Alpha's tricks, so it's subverted. He considers IOweYouMyLife and IGaveMyWord to outweight it.

* VengeanceFeelsEmpty: While Akira spends significant amount of time on getting his revenge for one or more BerserkButton of his getting pressed, after he achieves that revenge, it tends to leave him with negative feelings instead of positive ones, and needing to rely on someone as TheConfidant to recover.

* MsFanservice: Sara is curvaceous when she's topped up on nanites, to the point that her shirt struggles to contain her breasts. She jokingly offers to show them to Akira as thanks for saving her life, much to Alpha's frustration. Elena is no slouch in the bust department either and her bust isn't nanite-dependent.

* ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy: His aim sucks at the start of the story and he continually misses even at extremely close range unless he's shoving the barrel of his gun right up in someone's face. Alpha continually gives him shooting drills on top of directly assisting his aim to remedy this, but even with his practice he's far from perfect on his own.
-->'''Akira:''' ''[shoots a monster]'' Alright! How was that?\\
'''Alpha:''' If I hadn't adjusted your aim, you'd have missed the monster by one meter to the left. You need to keep calm as much as possible while fixing your aim.\\
'''Akira:''' ''[pouts and mopes]'' I see...