Literature / Rebuild World

Will you grant her permission?

There once was a civilization now known as the "Old World". It was filled with miraculous technology capable of accomplishing seemingly anything. But something caused that society to collapse, reducing much of the world to a wasteland and leaving the surviving members of humanity to pick up the pieces. In the present time, people scavenge the ruins of that society for "relics" of the past. These people are known as "hunters", braving countless dangers in search of fame, glory, and wealth.

Enter Akira, a novice hunter who dreams of earning the money he needs to escape the slums beneath the shining walls of Kugamayama City. Armed with nothing but a handgun he pilfered from a corpse, he enters the perilous ruins of the Old World metropolis of Kuzusuhara City in hopes of finding a relic that will make him rich. His life is forever changed when he instead meets a mysterious invisible woman named Alpha that only he can see. An Artificial Intelligence from the Old World, Alpha offers him a contract: Retrieve a certain relic from a certain ruin for her in exchange for riches beyond his wildest dreams. As a form of advance payment, she'll support him in all his endeavors until he's strong enough to live up to his end of the bargain.

Left with no alternatives to even survive the ruins, Akira accepts her aid. All the while, the Tempting Specter smiles as she prepares the boy to fulfill her desires.

Rebuild World is a Web Serial Novel series by Nafuse which was first released in 2017 on the site Shousetsuka ni Narou. It later began publication as a series of Light Novels with illustrations by Gin in 2019, and it has a Manga adaptation by Kirihito Ayamura which also began serialization in Dengeki Maoh in 2019.

Both the light novel and the manga are published by Kadokawa via their ASCII Media Works division ^note  with the light novel under the "Dengeki no Shin Bungei" imprint and the manga under the "Dengeki Comics NEXT" imprint . The light novel is licensed for an English release by Kadokawa's J-Novel Club.

An anime adaptation has been announced.

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The Light Novel contains the following tropes:

A - C

• 24-Hour Armor: Justified for Akira due to him being The Paranoiac. Not to mention, one time he was out of his armor out of necessity, he ended up in a Mexican Standoff that he had to back away from. Alpha criticizes him for sometimes sleeping in his armor; he usually puts it in a special cabinet that runs maintenance and repairs on it while he sleeps.
• Abnormal Ammo:
  • Ammunition derived from Old World technology often has weird properties like being as thin as a hair until fired from a gun, making it possible to cram an absurd number of bullets into a single magazine at the cost of it being more expensive to produce.
  • The Absurdly Sharp Blade sword attachment Akira gets for his A3 Sylpheed Cool Bike has reserves of liquid metal that are contained and shaped by a force field that disperses after impact, making the blade disposable but also able to be shaped in different ways. Once, Alpha uses this to make a shield dome to survive a missile barrage.
• Absurdly Sharp Blade:
  • One of the Old World relics Akira finds is a technologically-enhanced knife that was once a common household item. By breaking the safety limiter on it, it's able to shoot out a Laser Blade that Clean Cuts a wall and the person behind it in half, albeit turning the knife to dust in the process.
  • Nelia, one of the relic thieves, has one of the same knives and uses it to try and cut Akira in half. When that fails, she pulls out two more Old World relics that produce a liquid metal blade maintained with a forcefield. They're sharp enough to cut through the walls of a building tough enough to take repeated shops from an anti-materiel rifle without collapsing.
  • Shiori’s sword can be broken to launch an inferior version of that attack. She uses this for a Combination Attack with Akira against a huge mechanical monster. Shiori's swords are considered consumables by her superiors
• Accidental Pervert:
  • Erio not heeding Sheryl’s warnings about knocking before entering, resulting on him walking in on her while she’s trying on the old world underwear Akira gave her, prompting a warning there won’t be any forgiveness the next time.
  • Due to the delegation of tasks during a battle, Togami ends up riding a motorbike squeezed in-between Elena and Sara, earning him some condemning stares.
• Adaptational Early Appearance: From Web Novel to Light Novel. The confrontation added in the Light Novel & Manga right before Akira first meets Yatsubiyashi in the undercity, is a fusion of some events from Web Novel chapters 56, 71, and 221 (or at least heavily inspired by the latter two.)
• Adaptation Distillation: The manga removes several events, such as Akira's fight with five children looking to mug him, for the sake of pacing. It also cuts out a lot of the exposition, such as Shizuka's explanations on the history of the AAH rifle and the setup process for augmented suits.
• Adaptation Expansion:
  • The beginning of the manga explains Akira's cynicism by having him tell Alpha that he'd been fooled by numerous Con Artists offering him a better life in the past. Hence his initial refusal to work with her until she gives him a trial run of her services.
  • New focus and development for Yumina and Airi.
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: From the Web Novels to Light Novels, the two girls who follow Katsuya around get this:
  • Yumina:
    • Yumina is more of Akira’s friend and a bit of a Defector from Decadence regarding Katsuya's unit.
    • In the web-novels, Carol is the main cause of Sheryl's romantic jealousy regarding Akira, but in the light novels, she’s jealous of Akira's friendship with Yumina she witness in Kashua's shop during a moment added to the dress fitting sequence.
  • Airi is The Resenter of Akira for doing on his own what she needed Katsuya’s help to do, pull himself out of the slums. This better foreshadows Airi's actions later in the web-novels.
• Adventure Guild: The Hunter’s Office is a sci-fi version of it, with requests handled digitally, and hunter rank determining pay and other benefits from them (like determining what guns you can legally purchase). Of course, they tend to under-pay for the old world relics they receive, especially non-technological ones, so it’s more profitable individually to sell relics elsewhere. Selling at the hunters office also has the downside of alerting other hunters to who found loot and helps them track where it was found; in the lawless wasteland, hunters fight each-other almost as much as monsters.
• After the End: The story takes place after a post-apocalyptic event that left a futuristic version of society largely in ruins. While the rich live it up in the lavish walled cities, the poor scavenge the remaining ruins for high-tech devices and relics that they can sell for a profit.
• Agony of the Feet: It’s a Running Gag that Akira gets his feet injured doing ridiculous stunts.
• All Your Base Are Belong to Us: The headquarters of Sheryl’s gang being targeted by eight hunters-turned-robbers in a heist, spurred on by a rumor from a Knowledge Broker (Viola) that Akira, the hunter spending his time there defending it, is actually a Paper Tiger. The relics for sale get trashed, and the other defenders face a Curb-Stomp Battle. At least they get to put some of the robbers into Indentured Servitude to pay for the damages (funds allocated to training and equipping the gang better, for whom it serves as a Misfit Mobilization Moment).
• Ambiguous Situation: Sometimes Sheryl seems to overhear Akira accidentally talking out loud to Alpha, but it’s hinted that she’s actually overhearing their Telepathy. All that we know for sure is Alpha talked to Sheryl in a White Void Room dream once telling her to Quit Your Whining for thinking Akira will abandon her. There are multiple possible explanations.
• Ammo-Using Melee Weapon: A type of sword that uses liquid metal held in place by force fields pours out more metal to replace the previous blade after each strike. Used by Nelia and eventually Akira.
• An Arm and a Leg: Due to the Cast From Hitpoints nature of many of Akira’s outstanding physical feats, thanks to Alpha removing the Power Limiter safeties from, as well as 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 it after a certain point. It’s also a good thing the setting has limb regrowth technology…
• And Your Little Dog, Too!: Members of the Shijima gang attempt to threaten Akira by telling him that they know where he sleeps at night. Akira scoffs at this, asking if they're suicidal enough to attack a hotel for hunters. Then they tell him that they know his favorite store and talk about shooting Shizuka. That's when Akira goes ballistic and instantly shoots the gangster dead before holding the rest at gunpoint. He then asks to be taken to their leader, either to negotiate or start a firefight.
• Antimatter: Akira eventually gets bullets made out of this to use against tanks, costing 100,000,000 Aurum per bullet. He is anguished over the cost of the bullets, but upon being informed that they’re a banned weapon with strict regulations and you could turn the government against you for having one, he just brushes that off, which makes Kanae laugh at his Skewed Priorities. He also becomes infamous for this.
• Armor-Piercing Attack: Shiori’s sword made using old world technology is especially good at piercing armor, much better than CWH or anti-forcefield rounds supposedly designed for it. Akira uses this to good effect after cashing in a favor to get one for himself.
• Appropriated Appellation: Knowledge Broker Viola is perfectly happy being called a ‘bad girl’, a description that’s a bit of an Understatement.
• The Artful Dodger:
  • The child gang that tries to mug Akira over 300 aurum is a subversion. Like him, they're orphans with no education, no food, and no one to turn to. They only barely scrape by and aren't especially bright or resourceful. Even after Akira explains that it'd cost more to shoot him than they'd get off him, they still try to kill him over pocket change, forcing Akira to kill them in self-defense.
  • Played straight with a pickpocketer named Alna, who goes after fresh-faced hunters who aren't wary enough to secure their belongings. She manages to swipe 100,000 aurum from Akira, though pisses him off enough that she's forced to feign innocence to Katsuya, who defends her from Akira until he gives up.
• Apple of Discord: Artificial Intelligence Akira meets after Alpha tend to give info or things that sow distrust and conflict between Akira and others. Like Tsubaki attempting to tell Akira that Alpha is altering his brain to only be able connect to her, or the old world business card Olivia gives Akira potentially driving a wedge between him and the maids.
• Air Jousting: Akira once gets into a sword fight like this facing an enemy in a flying augmented and shielded suit, while he has his A3 Sylpheed Cool Bike driving on force-field rails it generates. Each having Sword and Gun, shooting at each other while they clash.
• Armchair Military: Drankam’s internal struggles are partly due to a faction of non-hunters like Mizuha taking over the bureaucracy of the gang. Running it like a business, they use Katsuya as a Propaganda Hero. In order to make fame and fortune off of him, they don’t crack down on his risk taking or mistakes, resulting in them continuing and growing, resulting in the bodies (and Katsuya's Survivor Guilt) piling up.
• Artificial Intelligence: These are the beings in charge of old world facilities that are still functional, like Alpha and the holographic Sarenthal. They make deals with humans in exchange for rare and expensive Chrome. They prefer to use a Projected Man or Augmented Reality Digital Avatar, rather than walking around in physical bodies.
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: Downplayed in the case of The Clan Reina is from. Due to The Patriarch Lawrence being a successful hunter, a common way for out of favor branches of the family to earn his respect and thus access to higher positions and fortunes in his MegaCorp, is to succeed as a hunter (which is part of why Reina is one).
• Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever:
  • Tiol takes the form of one of these that looks like himself in an augmented suit, that dwarfs the Mini-Mecha Rogelt used. It has battleship cannon sized artillery, and strong Deflector Shields.
  • The Corruption Pamela brings to The Siege based on Yatsubiyashi's Super Serum, eventually forms into a huge Lattice around his corpse as per her Xanatos Gambit to have him finish the fight.
• Augmented Reality: A major component of the series, and the main way Alpha provides assistance to Akira is enhancing his vision with it, showing things like where he should position, projected bullet trajectories, giving him night-vision, and allowing him to see through walls. Things like the colorless mist, being deep underground, and outright jamming can limit her assistance. To train Sheryl’s gang, Akira gets them AR goggles that let Alpha use her support to help train them, which later comes in handy during a battle. The gang eventually get their own dedicated system.
• Automated Automobiles:
  • Most cars and other vehicles have self-driving functions, most commonly a simple follow function. Notably, rental cars have a return-to-base function installed as insurance against unnecessary losses. Of course, when Akira gets a vehicle, it’s fully hacked by Alpha, meaning his motorbikes and cars do some Car Fu and High-Speed Missile Dodge.
  • It’s common for Mini-Mecha to have an Attack Drone mode that can be activated in absence of a pilot.
  • The luggage containers of Akira’s eighth augmented suit and accompanying equipment, each have four legs with wheels on them to follow him around, giving Akira some childish fascination. They also jump into his arms to get over a gap.
• Awakening the Sleeping Giant: The Mihozono Ruins are a bit like this, being filled with cloaked mechanical monsters who lay dormant until the alert level of the area raises to high enough. That’s why it can turn from a good training ground for low level hunters to a warzone in seconds. According to Carol, it also makes the region prone to Ghost Stories.
• Awesome Personnel Carrier: For larger military actions these are used. They tend to have automated turrets.
  • Shirakabe has one due to being involved with the Drankam hunter group. It’s noted that due to its operating costs, it’s accepted he’d get a double share when he uses it with The Squad. He deploys his veteran friends out the back on their motorcycles in one battle.
  • Yatsubiyashi’s mobile front-line medical clinic is inside an especially large one. It still needs a dedicated escort assigned to it from the Corporate Government despite being armed.
  • Akira ends up getting a small one due to frustrations from constantly running out of supplies. He keeps his Cool Bike inside.
    • Akira uses Carol’s armed and armored wilderness camper as a substitute APC for restocking supplies near battlefields. At one point riding atop it firing two multiweapon rifles in their chain gun mode, jumping in and out to restock.
• Back from the Dead: It turns out the relic thief Zelmo was Only Mostly Dead, and comes back to ambush Akira in the middle of the ruins; another nationalist recovered his body from Viola. Tiol had his memories saved by Tsubaki, as well, despite losing his original body, he gets put into a mechanical body he used to control remotely.
• Backing Away Slowly:
  • Nasha does this when Sebla goes on a rant about he's The Resenter of Akira, to keep herself out of the trouble she figures he'll cause.
  • After a villain tries to ambush Akira in a skyscraper ruin, and is terrified by Akira's Blade Brake and Wall Run back up at him, the assailant thinks Akira is Playing Possum, backing away before going to procure an attack aircraft to finish the job safely.
• Back-to-Back Badasses:
  • Despite his poor first impression of them, Akira is forced to trust his back and flanks to Reina and Shiori when they're surrounded by a massive swarm of Yataka Scorpions. He repeatedly blasts away at the scorpions with his BFG while Reina and Shiori prevent him from having to stop firing due to a scorpion sneaking up on him.
  • When the cyborg hunter Nergo, who despite being Kain who tried to kill him during the relic heist, jumps onto Akira's car and has Casual Danger Dialogue about whether Akira is a cyborg or not, helping fire rockets while Akira covers them.
• Backup Bluff: When Akira makes Sheryl the new boss of the Sebia gang, the remaining gang members confront her and try to oust her. She taunts them and flashes the necklace Akira got her as proof that she's his favorite, using the gang's knowledge that Akira single-handedly wiped out a large portion of the gang and the previous boss single-handedly to threaten them into backing off. She also purposefully spent half a day walking aimlessly around the market with him in order to sell the bluff. The gang members initially leave, but are ready to charge back in to call her bluff when it turns out that Akira is in fact tailing her. He kills several of them to make them back off, leaving rest alive to spread the word and make them think twice about doing it again.
• Badass Minds Think Alike: Akira forms a surprisingly hyper-effective fighting team during the Forward Base attack with Nelia, which sees Akira distracting and staggering foes, while she mows them down via Laser Blade in her Mini-Mecha. They both think like a Consummate Professional with Blue-and-Orange Morality.
• Bare-Handed Blade Block: War-grade old world automatons can do this to a Mini-Mecha, before breaking the mech in half and tossing it. Tsubaki does this to Nelia, but she survives.
• Barrier Warrior: More advanced augmented suits can project Deflector Shields like this, meaning eventually many hunter characters get these with their Mid-Season Upgrade. They’re most often used for Improvised Platform deployment, but Pamela uses some special ones as an Attack Reflector. Akira’s third Cool Bike also makes paths in the air out of them, allowing it to basically fly.
• Bathtub Bonding: Akira and Sheryl have a number of scenes like this. The first one involves Sheryl having an Imagine Spot of him drowning her, which causes Sheryl to realize she needs to build more trust with him. The scenes after that go better. With Carol eventually joining the two.
• Bathtub Scene: After trying a bath for the first time, Akira becomes addicted and jumps in the tub every chance he gets. While this is also used as a source of Fanservice by Alpha going naked in an attempt to seduce him, Akira is usually too occupied with the bath itself to react with more than minor embarrassment if he pays her any mind at all.
• Batman Gambit:
  • Akira comes up with a very specific hail mary plan based on his knowledge of an opponent's weaknesses. Because Akira knows that Katsuya has Chronic Hero Syndrome, he throws his gun with an automated firing pattern spinning through the room their in. He then throws his second gun, which is actually broken, as he runs, counting on Katsuya shooting at the gun to protect his team, taking advantage of that gap to cut Katsuya in half.
  • Reina ends up making one. When Chloe demands the white card MacGuffin from Reina, she plans to make Chloe prattle on and threaten her as much as possible, in order to let Olivia, who is lethally picky about the handling of those cards, deal with Chloe for her. Unfortunately, the cleanup duty ends up getting passed onto Akira.
• Battle Butler: Reina’s family have a veritable army of these, to go with their Ninja Maid thing.
• Battle Couple: The high level hunter couple Tatsukawa and Mercia.
• Battle in the Rain: These sometimes happen and are notable for having the same effect as the colorless mist, hampering technology and equipment, raising the difficulty. Akira in one battle seems to cause it to rain harder by Tempting Fate begging for it to stop.
• Battle of Wits: These happen all the time with Sheryl, Viola, Inabe, Sugadome, and eventually even Reina. Chloe tends to lose these talks and react to such in an over the top manner.
• Be All My Sins Remembered: Akira feeling guilty when Elena and Sara thank him for saving them, because he did it for selfish reasons of hatred and self-preservation. This leaves him feeling he Must Make Amends, resulting in Akira driving off to answer a Distress Call in their general direction despite Alpha's objections.
• Beam Spam: The high altitude air control monster shaped like a bee fires this, with each of its blasts causing a huge explosion if it hits, turning the area under Akira into a firestorm.
• Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Discussed and justified. Female hunters tend to be good-looking because the constant action requires them to be in tip-top shape, lest they get killed in the crossfire. In addition, the medicines they take work on the cellular level, removing blemishes and injuries that would normally cause scarring. As a result, they tend to have lithe, curvaceous bodies, glossy skin and hair, and a healthy amount of muscle. Sufficiently wealthy hunters can even order limb regrowing treatments, preventing them from being permanently crippled.
• Be Careful What You Wish For:
  • After seeing Shizuka handling Akira’s augmented suit purchase, Elena hopes that she’ll do the same for her, despite the fact she doesn’t really need that help like Akira did. For revenge, Shizuka gets her a revealing Future Spandex suit, and shoves her out in front of Akira to humiliate Elena for the trouble (and enjoy both their reactions).
  • When Akira decides to essentially sell four hunters-turned-robbers to Katsuragi as recompense for raiding Sheryl's store, one of the robbers declares that they'd rather die than take on a trillion aurum in debt. Akira complies by instantly shooting the guy dead. The other three hunters quickly shut up afterward.
  • Akira has a childish fantasy of running around with two assault rifles, which Alpha sees and scolds him for thinking of doing that without an augmented suit to make it safe. Much, much later on, Akira is forced to use two assault rifles while his augmented suit is shut down for reprogramming, and it injures his arms so badly that his medicines aren’t enough to stop the pain.
  • Kibayashi's subordinate Hikaru wished to work with high level hunters, resulting in her being assigned to Akira. What follows is almost nothing but worry and panic for her.
• Bee Afraid: One of the air patrol monsters Akira draws the unwanted attention of, is a partially mechanical 50 meter bee with force field wings, chainguns and missile pods on its legs, as well as a huge Wave-Motion Gun in place of a stinger.
• Beehive Barrier: This design is often present on augmented suits, and notably, the bullet-resistant cloak that comes with Akira’s third suit.
• Betrayal Insurance: There are all kinds of fail-safe programs out there in the dark web to get revenge in case of betrayal or murder, like shutting down a teams equipment until their killer is killed, or posting a bounty on the killer. Yajima has one such program, and also (possibly) Viola.
• Beyond the Impossible: Akira and Alpha both agree that he's likely to die on the rare occasion that he loses her support completely, with Alpha outright saying that he has a 0% chance of escape in that situation. And yet, he surprises them both when he blasts his way out of being Eaten Alive by the Overgrown Snake despite losing all contact with her, surpassing all of Alpha's projections.
• BFG: While many of Akira's weapons that can only be used with an augmented suit or cyborg Super-Strength may count, there are some especially notable examples.
  • The Ragnarok, which is a super powerful missile launcher multiple characters dream of getting, that’s used for the far east front lines where giant monsters are the norm. The launcher is as big as a person, but Sara thinks she could wield it due to her nanomachine-based Super-Strength.
  • The veteran hunter Kurosawa uses a Morph Weapon whose different forms are huge guns that would look better on a tank than carried by a person.
  • Akira gets modifications for his A421 Grenade Launcher to turn it into a missile emplacement on his large second Cool Bike, and it wouldn’t look out of place mounted on a tank.
  • Elena and Sera eventually get an energy projectile tank cannon that unshrinks from the back of their car to be longer than it.
• BFS:
  • The Ezont Family mercenary Toralt uses a powered sword big enough to shield his body from bullets, which his being able to carry is justified due to having an augmented suit like Akira’s. It folds up when not in use, and Alpha hacks it to work similarly to the old world knives: One super powerful strike before disintegrating.
  • And then there is Rogelt Ezont himself, whose Mini-Mecha uses a chainsaw sword.
• Bifurcated Weapon:
  • The TOSON SSB multi-weapon rifle is an expensive combination of the capabilities of an anti-tank rifle, chaingun, and assault rifle, with a mechanism to stop all recoil at the cost of needing to keep replacing it’s expensive battery packs on top of using ammo. Its recoil compensation can be turned off to Recoil Boost, with enough recoil to Wall Run on a ceiling when using CWH rounds. This gun can fire CWH rounds full auto. Guns in this line can also be programmed to fire at an interval, which Akira uses to create a Death Blossom by throwing the gun through the air in a spinning pattern, spraying everyone in the room with bullets.
  • Akira gets an upgraded version, the LEO model which facilitate the use of bullets that can be charged with variable amounts of electricity, making it a bullet-energy hybrid weapon. They also have force field armor to ward against Akira's bad luck of having a Wrecked Weapon.
• Big Badass Battle Sequence: The Inner Kuzusuhara Ruins Assault starts with Inabe’s army of Mini-Mecha kicking down the door to the untouched part of the ruins, and being met by an army of Spider Tank, before total chaos and a free for all between many factions ensue as communications go out.
• Big Badass Rig: The Gigantes 3, used for inter-city transport through the Death World wilderness. It’s essentially a train on wheels, with heavy armor, Deflector Shields, and a big Wave-Motion Gun to thin out larger monsters common to the east of Kugamayama. It’s so big it just crushes many obstacles, likened to a land battleship. Akira gets hired for an Escort Mission on one of them for The Great Distribution.
• Big Creepy-Crawlies:
  • Yarata Scorpions are enormous bugs the size of a dog that attack those exploring the ruins in swarms. Their carapaces are thick enough to deflect normal gunfire, forcing hunters to aim for weak points or use piercing rounds to punch right through it.
  • When Akira escorts a Great Distribution convoy, he has to fight off The Swarm of gigantic beetles that spit various different harmful substances, as well as releasing many of their smaller young from their bodies when they die. The corpses make the route they travelled on into a hazard zone.
• Big Damn Heroes:
  • Akira runs out of ammo while trying to fight off a horde of monsters after a caravan. All seems lost until Sara and Elena show up out of the blue and proceed to annihilate all of the incoming monsters as the hunters who accepted the caravan's emergency request.
  • Akira rescuing a bunch of hunters being overwhelmed by The Swarm of flying Big Creepy-Crawlies at the back of the Gigantes 3 caravan he’s escorting, blasting the swarm with his back mounted AF Anti-material cannon. And then the head of security Mercia runs to the back of the convoy to rescue them.
• Blade Brake: When Akira jumps out of a skyscraper to escape Zelmo, he uses the sword he got from Shiori to slide down the wall, proceeding to use his fourth augmented suit’s Sticky Shoes to Wall Run back up to his opponent.
• Blown Across the Room: When Akira ambushes one of two groups of robbers storming Sheryl’s relic shop using two assault rifles, one of the robbers is sent flying across the room and then pinned up on the wall until he stops shooting, while two others are made into Ludicrous Gibs.
• Bodyguarding a Badass:
  • Carol multiple times hires Akira to guard her, despite being a powerful fighter in her own right. Akira points out that he’s a Doom Magnet, but her anxieties and attachment to him are too strong for that to matter.
  • Yanigisawa having Nelia spend part of her Indentured Servitude for being caught stealing government relics guarding him.
• Boom, Headshot!: Due to the resilience offered by augmented suits and advanced medicine, it’s pretty standard practice when fighting human foes to shoot them in the head after they’re downed, for instance, Elena executing the two bandits Akira hits in his first salvo when saving her and Sara. A head shot is pretty much required to kill a Cyborg as the brain is often the chief remaining organic part. Alpha also encourages this in Akira’s training.
• Boxed Crook:
  • The regular punishment for people who steal relics from the Corporate Government is to be worked to the bone as one of these, with an Explosive Leash to keep them from escaping.
  • People who get enough debt are forced into being an indentured servant by the creditor companies, being monitored and their bonds traded to the highest bidder to serve as thugs or Cannon Fodder (at least for those with combat experience).
• Brain Bleach: Alpha floats a hypothetical situation where a hunter discovers the ruins an Old World fashion designer's workshop. Should they find a lot of maid uniforms there, they might sell the uniforms for cheap, not knowing that they're even more effective than the latest hunter armor. Akira then has the Imagine Spot of huge, brawny guys marching into a ruin in maid uniforms and asks her to not destroy his common sense.
• Brain/Computer Interface:
  • Akira, and certain other people, are able to interact with the old world internet directly using only their brains (that being why he can see Alpha). Such people are incredibly valuable, and wanted to be dissected in order to reverse-engineer the ability.
  • An augmented suit is capable of reading the user’s brain signals and responding even before one’s body does, but it can be set to a different mode instead.
  • And of course, various Cyborg characters can use Electronic Telepathy to speak to one another super fast, such as the relic thieves.
  • The cyborg Nelia, due to being used to controlling her cyborg body like this, is able to plug into her Mini-Mecha and essentially make it an extension of her being, seeing with its sensors and moving more naturally than a physical pilot ever could.
• Brain in a Jar: Alpha mentions that individuals whose brains have the ability to interact with the Old World domain are highly valuable to the government. As a result, Akira might get dissected and be reduced to a brain in a jar if anyone finds out about it.
• Brains and Brawn:
  • Elena and Sara are a team like this, with Elena handling sensors, leadership, and negotiations, while Sara uses heavy weapons, has Super-Strength and a Healing Factor.
  • Sheryl’s gang is built on Sheryl’s shrewdness and charm, combined with Akira’s brawn and reputation.
• Brain Theft: During the Inner Ruins Assault, Kain (under the name Nergo) followed Katsuya while cloaked, and upon finding his corpse, scoops up the halves of his bisected head. He then has the head pieced together and uploads his mind into the brain in the hopes of it making him an old world connector, but this fails and he abandons the body.
• Bread and Circuses: The Corporate Government gives free (toxic) food as well as running water to the slum citizens; at least the latter is specifically to minimize unrest. It’s noted that they are willing to reduce the water to cull the slum population.
• Brick Joke: Togami being thrown into APCs after Shirakabe jokingly suggests it to Akira.
• Bridal Carry: Akira repeatedly ends up doing this to Sheryl to take her out of danger, and she always feels disappointed that this has to end.
• Bring News Back: Elena and Sara have to punch through an enemy aerial blockade to do this in the middle of the Inner Kuzusuhara Ruins Assault, reluctantly leaving Akira to continue surviving his Stern Chase.
• Bullet Dodges You: Old world A.I.s like Tsubaki can do this through advanced technology.
• Bullet Time: The time compression ability that Shiori and then Akira use and becomes increasingly prevalent in the series is basically a more grounded version of it: You can’t see bullets, but time seems to stop, and whole battles scenes can take place over a few minutes. At one point, when Akira is restocking his Cool Bike full of supplies using it, he creates a gust of wind. A few times he talks during it and it results in sped up words.
• Call-Back:
  • Sheryl’s gang going on a trade route clearing mission with open back trucks, alongside the Shell-Shocked Veteran Yazawa is a callback to Katsuya’s first appearance (where Yazawa bullied him), which represents Sheryl’s gang taking the place of Drankam as the city’s most prominent young hunter gang.
  • Shirakabe trying to persuade Irabe to make a deal to get better armor from Shiori and Kanae’s company since it has better protection than his current armor, even if it’s maid themed, is a call back to Alpha’s story about hunters wearing Old World maid outfits they found. It’s also a reference to his conversation in a bar where Kurosawa revealed his maid fetish.
  • Pamela's Remote Body androids, who spill green blood, focusing all their efforts on killing Shiori and Kanae because It's Personal while ignoring other combatants, is a call back to the first time Akira fights Tiol’s remote bodies, which ignored the hunters he was rescuing to attack him.
• Came Back Strong:
  • The man who led the raid on Sheryl’s base, Zelmo, who it turns out was Only Mostly Dead, ambushes Akira using an upgraded cyborg body and Morph Weapon, as well as an assault aircraft.
  • Tiol, after Tsubaki re-uploads his digitally saved memories into one of his remote-control bodies, gets his body worked on by Yatsubiyashi (who has a deal with Tsubaki) to make him into a powerhouse that can revive From a Single Cell.
• Canis Major: The largest of the cannon dogs Akira encounters is so huge that it dwarfs the nearby buildings. Akira is barely as large as its pupil, and he empties his clip in a panic on Alpha's orders in a desperate but successful attempt to kill it.
• Cannon Fodder:
  • The slums exist to serve as human shields to buy time for the actual defense forces to respond when the city is attacked; which is why guns are more common than food there.
  • Creditor corporations essentially sell their debtors as indentured servants to serve as cannon fodder for one of Shirakabe's missions. They are given the bare minimum of equipment to reduce the potential losses to the creditors.
• Can't Catch Up: Erio and other members of Sheryl’s gang eventually start having anxiety about the limits of what they can contribute to the gang, compared to its major players, worrying they’re dead weight that could be easily replaced by more regular employees. They handle it different ways, some of them even starting a Cult of Personality around Sheryl, while Erio focuses all he has on combat training and overdoses on accelerant combat stimulants.
• Car Fu:
  • Alpha is sure to hack the control unit of any vehicle that Akira gets, and is more than willing to deliver a Foe-Tossing Charge to a Yarata Scorpion with his bike, or send mercenaries into another world with his car.
  • Nelia also takes a shine to this, crushing a hunter's car under her larger vehicle.
• Cast From Hitpoints:
  • Alpha using her People Puppets ability to control Akira’s Powered Armor is basically wearing down his body to be more lethal, that is why he so often takes Nanomachine medicine even before getting injured. As Akira's skill increases, he is able to minimize the damage better.
  • Akira using his time compression that Alpha taught him, actually gives him brain damage, which advanced old world Healing Potion can fix.
• Casual Danger Dialog:
  • Nergo, Kain in disguise, casually jumps on Akira’s car in the middle of a battle to banter and settle his curiosity on whether Akira is a cyborg or not.
  • Olivia will engage in casual contract negotiations while the world is going to hell all around her as if nothing serious was going on.
  • When Akira and Carol fight together on his Cool Bike, they engage in some of this laughing and smiling like Bash Brothers.
• Catch a Falling Star:
  • Carol catches Akira midair using his bike, after he does a Colossus Climb while fighting a mech (using his suit’s Sticky Shoes).
  • Due to Shirou being pushed off a roof after being rejected by his Childhood Friend Haruka, Akira has to catch him.
• The Cavalry Arrives Late:
  • Often happens with Shirakabe because of his position of authority within Drankam, which has close ties to the government.
    • Shirakabe arrives late to the Mob War and retrieves the black boxes of the destroyed vehicles there as well as the catatonic Katsuya.
    • Shirakabe arriving with the MegaCorp assigned to pick up the Lida Zone androids after they are inevitably let loose.
    • Shirakabe arriving in the aftermath of the Inner Ruins Assault, being utterly gob smacked to find Katsuya's beheaded and split in half corpse.
  • Tatsukawa pries open the roof of what's left of Akira's inter-city-transport quarters with his Mini-Mecha, only to find an exhausted Akira next to Erde's corpse.
• Ceiling Smash: Subverted. Akira once kicks a robber up into the air like this, but yanks him down before he can hit the ceiling to use as an unconscious Human Shield.
• Chainsaw Good: The Don Rogelt Ezont uses and prefers a chainsaw-sword for his Mini-Mecha, to fighting with ranged weaponry.
• Chameleon Camouflage:
  • These are used by the large security robots patrolling the deeper parts of the Kuzusuhara ruins (that Akira runs into after disobeying Alpha’s orders at the start), by the armored Yarata Scorpions, as well as the Corporate Government’s soldiers.
  • Nelia gets a cyborg body equipped with this.
  • Akira’s fourth augmented suit is a slightly better version of his third, but his Cloak of Defense now doubles as a (low grade) Invisibility Cloak.
    • Akira's sixth augmented suit (another CA 31R with add-ons) has more advanced camouflage, prompting Shizuka to tease him not to use it for peeping. What follows is a lot of Stealth Hi/Bye shenanigans.
  • Nergo gets this as well, using it as a Stalker without a Crush who scoops up Katsuya's split brain.
  • Yanigisawa when equipped for field operations.
  • Shiori and Kanae eventually spring for armor that can do this.
• Charged Attack: The LEO Multiweapon Rifle’s energy charged C-rounds can be adjusted to consume more or less energy depending on the target, with the most powerful mode taking some time to charge up. After a certain point, charging these bullets gives diminishing returns, however.
• Charles Atlas Superpower: The ability to compress time perception 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 it, consisting of dancing and swinging swords at him when he least expects it. This might only work due to the abnormality in his brain that allows him his Brain/Computer Interface 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 telepathically.
• Chekhov's Gun:
  • Akira giving Sheryl his info terminal so she can play games on it. Alpha uses that terminal, which she had previously hacked, to find Sheryl’s exact location for her rescue, when she’s imprisoned and taken hostage.
  • The Augmented Reality goggles Akira gets to help train Sheryl's gang, come in handy when they run into monsters during a side job, which prompts Alpha to lend her support to them through the goggles.
  • It's mentioned during Akira's second government assignment, that sometimes the government puts bounties on humans who've gone rogue, when discussing the sightings of Tiol. This plays a part in Tsubaki's backstory, but also foreshadows the 50 billion bounty eventually put on Akira.
• Chekhov's Skill: Akira's ability to build a camouflaged sleeping spot due to living as a Street Urchin comes in handy occasionally, like when facing Sibea.
• Chronically Crashed Car: Akira trashes so many of the vehicles he buys that he gains a reputation for it, causing vehicle rental services to charge him sky high fees if he tries to rent one.
  • Akira’s Cool Bike:
    • His first bike given to him by Kibayashi: Used as a shield to save him from Kain's Macross Missile Massacre.
    • Second bike: When Akira uses it to Ramp Jump high into the air to board Zelmo’s attack aircraft, some of Zelmo’s missiles blow it up after Akira jumps.
    • Third bike that he buys in Zegeltstadt: The giant monster formed by The Corruption around Lattis’ reanimated corpse splits into multiple huge forms that try to Goomba Stomp Akira, so he has to set the bike at full speed and jump off the front, leaving it to get crushed.
  • Akira’s Cool Car:
    • First Car Akira purchased: Destroyed when Akira is eaten by the giant snake bounty monster
    • Second car, given to him by Kibiyashi from Drankam’s stores: Left behind in the Ezont Family’s fortress while he was rescuing Sheryl, getting blown up in the ensuing huge Mob War battle.
  • Akira’s APC: During the Inner Ruins Assault, shot to pieces by Katsuya and his squad while Akira escaped on his bike.
• The Clan: Reina’s family is the result of her grandfather Lawrence having a massive number of children and filling out the positions in his MegaCorp, which runs multiple cities, with them. They all jockey for influence and his favor in a virtual Decadent Court, to which those who fall out of favor turn to hunting, since Lawrence is a hunter and respects hunter achievements, allowing branches of the family to turn around their fortunes.
• Clean Cut: The knives of the Old World have Absurd Cutting Power able to slice a perfectly clean line through walls tough enough to take repeated shots from a modern anti-materiel rifle. Never mind what happens to the much squishier people behind the wall.
• Climactic Battle Resurrection: Both the relic robber Zelmo, and the Tragic Monster Tiol, despite both seemingly being killed, arrive to hound Akira in a free-for-all battle alongside Katsuya. Zelmo’s corpse was bought by the nationalists, and Tsubaki kept Tiol’s memories stored digitally.
• Cloak of Defense: Akira’s third augmented suit comes with one of these with an independent power source, that protects him from bullets (which saves him when his suit is down for reprogramming). It has a beehive design.
• Clothes Make the Superman: It’s mentioned that this is the (difficult to meet) ideal of augmented suit manufacturers. Akira’s seventh augmented suit, the KIRYO HC 31R, is designed to emulate the capabilities of both the Super-Strength and intuition type Differently Powered Individual. It offers enough strength to kick a wilderness vehicle like a pebble, and constant 360 degree vision.
• Clown Car: Out of desperation to escape the second Mihozono Ruins incident, Akira ends up packing a total of five people on his Cool Bike. He and Reina ride in the seat, while the rest hold onto the gun mounts.
• Code Name: The Lion Steel Corporation has the code name "hangar nine" for their heavy war machines they keep scattered in warehouses around the east.
• Combination Attack:
  • Shiori and Akira at one point pool up all of their last ditch maneuvers and tricks into a coordinated double strike to handle a huge mechanical monster. Shiori treats it as her official request and pays him for it.
  • When Carol is riding on Akira’s flying motorbike, both the AF anti-material cannon mounted on the bike controlled by Alpha, and Carol’s equivalent weapon, fire at exactly the same time and spot, maximizing the damage to the enemy tanks and Mini-Mecha.
• Converging-Stream Weapon: The energy weapons used by the Mini-Mecha of government troops combine like this when they try to attack Olivia. She uses her old world Laser Blade to deflect it all, serving to demonstrate how an Old World A.I. is a Technologically Advanced Foe.
• Cool Bike:
  • Kibayashi gives one as an advance payment to Akira on a whim, that unfolds. It was designed as an emergency escape vehicle, but has a number of features to help it traverse the wasteland, and can mount an Everything Sensor.
  • Shirakabe’s veteran hunter friends from Drankam deploy out of his APC on motorcycles equipped with heavy weaponry as the main component of his plan to stop the Spider Tank Kaiju.
  • After Akira’s second car is destroyed, he gets a huge motorbike that has mounts for his weapons, allowing it to serve as a missile battery, and mounting his chain-gun on it allows Alpha to provide point-defense fire against missiles, too. This bike is capable of slowly Driving Up a Wall.
  • Akira eventually buys an A3 Sylpheed motorbike, which has Deflector Shields and limited flight capability via force field rails it creates. As well as the same general-purpose weapon mounts. He gets a variable liquid metal Absurdly Sharp Blade sword attachment as an add-on. It has extra power to recharge Akira’s suit and Wave-Motion Gun too.
• Cool Versus Awesome: A three way battle breaks out while Akira is on an Escort Mission of a Big Badass Rig, consisting of:
  • An armada of white Mini-Mecha like mechanical monsters.
  • Black Flying Saucer monsters pursuing them that have a massive mothership providing fire support.
  • The armed truck's defenders mostly consisting of Mini-Mecha and hunters driving a Flying Car or Hover Bike.
• Coordinated Clothes: Akira ends up getting some expensive tailored clothing for him and his Cartridge Freak friends, designed to match the Stylish Protection Gear old world dress he gave Sheryl.
• Corporate-Sponsored Superhero: High ranking hunters tend to have corporate sponsorship deals, and Akira gets KIRYO as his sponsor after they work with Sheryl’s gang. They specialize in armor and Augmented Reality, and their main competitor seems to be TOSON, the makers of the SSB multi-weapon rifle. Each offer huge discounts to Shizuka's shop in hopes of Akira using their equipment, which he takes advantage of.
  • Akira also gets offers digitally to provide him information gathering services and other support. Alpha treats it as spam and sends them copy paste replies turning them down.
• Corporate Warfare: The various MegaCorp involved in the Corporate Government from time to time launch False Flag Operation raids on one another claiming to be nationalists, or luring monsters into attacking. They have a mutual understanding that, when caught, they pay each other hush money to keep the governing system from breaking down (and leaving their civilization as yet another ruin to explore.)
• The Corruption: Yatsubiyashi’s nanomachine medical paste with the Sickly Green Glow is eventually developed using old world knowledge into this, and deployed by the Lion Steel Corp during the Siege of the Slums. It makes deformed creatures from any organic or mechanical components it touches, mixing them into Body Horror shapes, with Shapeshifter Weapon abilities. Eventually joining together into a giant, splitting monster that reemerges from its green goop. The technical explanation is that it tries to correct a body into pre-defined blueprints, like replacing a limb… but the blueprints they use are somewhat random and slapdash.
• Costume Porn: Alpha’s Unlimited Wardrobe of fancy and risqué advanced Old World outfits.
• Coup de Grâce: After Akira's first burst of fire against the bandits that held Elena hostage, she executes some of them like this.
• Crapsack World: Not only there is a HUGE divide between the rich and the poor but the latter has to fight, kill and steal to survive. In addition, the areas outside of the walled cities are crawling with cyborg monsters from the Old World waiting to devour or obliterate any non-monster that enters their territory.
• Curb-Stomp Battle:
  • Any time a hunter goes up against a slum gang member, it results in one of these favoring the hunter. The exception would be the Ezont and Hauritas gangs, the two largest gangs who hired an army of ex-hunters who are equipped well enough to qualify as an N.G.O. Superpower.
  • During the Inner Kuzusuhara Ruins Assault: Tsubaki’s automaton form verses the city’s forces as a One-Woman Army at the start of it, even ripping Nelia in half like she was nothing.
  • Shortly after, Akira testing his new Wave-Motion Gun against a Tentacled Terror before he could be given the order to pull back from it.
• Curiosity Killed the Cast: This is a staple of how events in old world ruins go south. A Red Shirt or Mauve Shirt hunter does something stupid investigating, becoming a Spanner in the Works causing a deadly incident.
• Curves in All the Right Places: Katsuya catches some flack for saying this, after Sheryl uses dieting as an excuse for buying only coffee when it’s really due to her not being able to afford more.
• Cyberpunk: Sinister private government, conspiracies, cyborgs and a cynical world. Augmented Reality mostly takes the place of Virtual Reality, but it does show up sometimes (with Shirou)
• Cyborg: There are two different brands of cyborgs in the setting:
  • Traditional cyborgs are exactly what the name implies: people who replace parts of their bodies with mechanical versions to enhance their physical abilities or grant them new ones. These include becoming Multi-Armed and Dangerous, enhancing one's brain and arm to have a lightning-fast quickdraw, or simply being far stronger than one looks. There are also people who choose to become child-sized cyborgs in order to fool others, though this comes at the cost of being not nearly as strong as an adult-sized cyborg.
  • Nanite-enhanced humans are instead bolstered with nanites stored somewhere in their bodies. These nanites are used to enhance general physical abilities, allowing them to move with superhuman strength and speed rivaling an augmented suit so long as their nanite supply holds out. But this also means they need to pay out the nose to replenish their reserves after big fights.
• The Cycle of Empires: Alpha brings this up when Akira goes to the Higaraka Residence ruins, that that city was from another post-collapse civilization, and that a hundred years from now, Akira’s city could be just like that ruin.

D - H

• Danger Deadpan:
  • 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.
  • The old world A.I. Olivia talks in a calm and businesslike manner even in the middle of a chaotic warzone.
• Dare to Be Badass: Sheryl gives Erio orders to try and find a relic in the wasteland like Akira did after he presses her Berserk Button by challenging Akira thinking he's weak. Erio ends up saved by Akira and hauling his loot home.
• David Versus Goliath: Akira defeating Rogert Ezont on foot, while the latter was in a Mini-Mecha. The footage of that fight spread far and wide, allowing Sheryl to use it as propaganda, but also attracting attention from the government for his hunter rank being too low.
• A Day in the Limelight: Reina and Togami get one of these when Shirakabe gives Togami a mission to investigate old world automatons a MegaCorp wants retrieved from the Lida Commercial Zone, and they bump into Akira who accepts their request to join.
• The Dead Have Names: The minor antagonist Erde shows he’s a Noble Demon by pleading about this, telling Akira the names of the squadmates he killed, while asking for Akira’s name in order to honor him after killing him. Akira gives Erde Silent Treatment, until eventually giving his name as requested.
• Deadly Dodging: When a coalition of hunters launch an ambush on Akira via encircling him with artillery, tanks, and a mech, he drives his motorbike through the air on its force field rails to make their artillery shells hit each others teams. They eventually change their formation to prevent this.
• Dead Man Writing: Pamela leaves a recording behind like this after her brain is punched into mush by Kanae, lamenting losing her rematch with Shiori and Kanae, hoping for the (dead) Lattis to kill them, which was actually part of her Xanatos Gambit.
• Deal with the Devil: Anyone who makes a deal with Viola is in one of these due to her Chronic Backstabbing Disorder, and it’s a Discussed Trope because of it. Tsubaki offers some as well.
• Death from Above:
  • Akira getting persued by an assault aircraft for a portion of his Stern Chase during the Inner Ruins Assault.
  • The airspace control Flying Saucer monsters have a mothership with a huge Wave-Motion Gun that provides fire support to the smaller disks.
  • When Akira falls into an ambush by hunters using artillery from all directions, trying to keep their distance from him, he uses the force field rails his Cool Bike can make to drive up 300 meters and starts sniping them.
• Death Is Dramatic: Invoked Trope and Exploited Trope. Alpha insists on Akira not shooting Alna’s head when killing her, in order to make sure that Katsuya stays next to her so that he can act as a diversion for the other enemies, instead of pursuing Akira. And so she dies in Katsuya’s arms.
• Death World: The setting is filled with things out to kill hunters. The wastelands are bare and nearly devoid of life save for hordes of monsters all the size of cars or greater. To add insult to injury, those monsters are often armed with powerful weaponry from the Old World. Even if you survive those, stepping in the wrong place can get the Old World domain downloaded into your brain all at once, causing instant brain death.
• Declaration of Personal Independence: Reina and Togami each make one of these in refusing to work under Katsuya’s command even when threatened by Mizuha.
• Declaration of Protection: Erio’s near-death experience during the raid on their base makes him promise to become stronger to protect Alicia.
• Decoy Hiding Place: When Hikaru’s room is being broken into by Erde, she makes a bunch of these. After a locker is checked first, she sneaks into it to hide in for the rest of his search.
• Deflector Shield: Kain's powered suit possesses a forcefield generator tough enough to easily withstand multiple shots from Akira's anti-materiel rifle. Akira also runs into autonomous weapons with the same forcefield, but they're forced to lower it in order to shoot, creating an opening for him to take them down.
• Degraded Boss: Discussed. It's mentioned that monsters worth an enormous bounty and requiring multiple teams of hunters from Kugamayama City to defeat are common on the "front lines" where the best hunters work to keep monsters away from human settlements. The strongest hunters are armed with tanks and other powerful equipment to take one of these bounty monsters down all on their own.
  • This notably happens when Akira gives a quick Curb-Stomp Battle to a Greedy Crocodile while driving somewhere else.
• Deliberate Injury Gambit:
  • Alpha controlling Akira’s augmented suit is essentially causing Akira several minor injuries, which is why he takes medicine before going into battle so often. Additionally, sometimes Akira must go into her projected incoming rounds as allowing them to his his non-vital areas is the least deadly option in a room filled with enemy bullets.
  • Viola planning to let Akira shoot her to sate his anger from her double-crossing Sheryl and manipulating him to take out the biggest slum gangs. Viola had Carol nearby with an aid kit, and made sure to meet Akira next to a hospital, before taunting him.
  • After Viola arranges for Akira to run into Sheryl while she's getting information out of Katsuya in an attempt to make Akira abandon her, Sheryl calls Viola into her office, proceeding to shake while pointing a gun and screaming at her. Sheryl ultimately doesn't shoot, which foils Viola's gambit.
  • Akira gets in on these more overt plans himself in the Inner Kuzusuhara Ruins Assault, firing grenade rounds from his SSB rifle at point blank range to kill Tiol for good, costing his whole left arm. His attack on Katsuya involves throwing his gun in a spinning pattern shooting everyone in the room including himself, to distract Katsuya long enough to bisect him.
  • During the hunter Gerges’ fight with Akira after ambushing him, he enters the battle in an especially defensive Mini-Mecha able to withstand Collateral Damage from his allies trying to shoot Akira, with the goal of forcing Akira between himself and the other attacking hunters.
• Depleted Phlebotinum Shells:
  • CWH rounds are specially-made armor-piercing bullets designed for use with an anti-materiel rifle when normal piercing rounds don't cut it. These rounds are so powerful that they can take down monsters the size of a building by blasting a bus-sized hole in their skulls while still retaining enough momentum to shatter a part of a concrete structure behind it. Smaller monsters are instead reduced to unrecognizable Ludicrous Gibs. Naturally, this level of power comes with a price tag that makes it Too Awesome to Use, leaving hunters to pack only one or two of them for emergencies.
  • Akira later gets anti-force-field rounds that cost 5,000,000 aurum per bullet. He intended it as a good luck charm, and is not happy about using them.
  • Akira eventually gets Antimatter bullets that cost 100 million aurum per round to use against tanks.
• Deployable Cover: Sheryl's gang makes extensive use of Deflector Shield barriers like this when fighting, even taking advantage of their mobile nature to swap them out as they're damaged. This is expensive, but they've got a company acting as The Team Benefactor.
• De-power: In their backstory, Yanigisawa was de-powered as an old world connector by Alpha when he betrayed her.
• Did You Just Have Sex?: When Shirakabe arrives right on time for a rendezvous with The Squad after R&R, him arriving on time instead of early like he usually does, and right next to Carol, is enough for everyone else to figure out the two just had sex and stare at him.
• Differently Powered Individual: The setting has three categories of this. Those who can connect to the old world domain, those with Super-Strength without an augmented suit or cybernetics, and a Sensor Character with super intuition. All are the result of inheriting old world Transhuman experimentation (in fact, people from the central region of the world consider easterners mutants).
  • Old World domain connectors like Akira can not only connect to the old world internet and have Augmented Reality without a device, but also have higher processing and multitasking potential, allowing the operation of advanced equipment, or computer hacking. In addition to two rather large side effects: Firstly, being that they project their feelings into their surroundings at all times, for instance Shirakabe’s Gut Feeling telling him Akira was weak and Katsuya was strong, was because he was receiving their self-image. Secondly, an old world connector can make a quasi Hive Mind when open hearted with a group, as Katsuya does, turning his unit into a Keystone Army that goes comatose when he dies.
  • Super Intuition types are able to sense things like someone looking at them from a long distance away, or sensing that someone they know is within their general proximity. It’s noted that wearing a full-head coverage helmet blocks this ability. Kanae is very likely one of these.
  • The super strength type, called super-humans, is a relatively common potential, but can only be awoken by a combination of Training from Hell and specifically old world Nanomachine medicine. Alpha insisted on Akira never selling old world medicine specifically in the hopes that it might turn him into one in the long run, and it does.
• Digging Yourself Deeper:
  • Katsuya does this when talking to Sheryl, leading to him accidentally calling her fat.
  • Celene does this due to Eating the Eye Candy when taking Akira’s measurements for his clothes, sounding more and more like a pervert. Of course, it goes over Akira’s head.
• Disaster Scavengers: Hunters are a mix between this and Private Military Contractors (either freelance, or in a "gang"/corporation).
• Dismemberment Is Cheap: In this Cyberpunk setting, due to there being limb regrowth treatments (either re-growing from the body, or making a cultured one and then attaching it), Akira loses his arm(s) and/or legs a few times. The treatment's expensive, though. Colbert could only afford to regrow one of his lost arms and his left is a prosthetic.
• Dissension Remorse: Reina lashes out at multiple hunters she’s assigned to work with, including Akira, in her first scenes. Akira gives her a Brutal Honesty assessment that she’s too much of a liability for him to ever hire her, and she feels remorseful over it, with it being a minor Break the Haughty moment starting her Character Development. Akira also feels some remorse for how harshly he worded his criticisms of her.
• Distress Call: These are officially handled by the hunters office, and usually lead to a Chase Scene. They’re known for paying well, this is in part to keep up the reputation of the Hunter’s Office. Since insurance companies pay for them for insured hunters, they can be a bit forceful with the rescuees when involved.
• Diving Kick: Guyver is hiding behind a rock while trying to take potshots at Akira. Rather than go above or around the rock, Alpha instructs Akira to make a running start to throw a diving kick through the rock with the help of his augmented suit, shattering Colbert's cover and leaving him open to a bullet to the chest.
• Does Not Know His Own Strength: Shizuka warns Akira to not crush the trigger of his guns by accident while getting a handle on the Super-Strength his augmented suit provides. When Alpha first has him practice in the wasteland with her support for his suit turned off, he makes holes in the ground and flings himself around from that strength. Basically, it’s because it’s a cheap model, only 8,000,000 Aurum, and more expensive ones have multiple different ways of compensating for it, which Alpha substitutes for with her support.
• Domed Hometown: Kugamayama‘s eastern neighboring city, is the domed town of Zegeltstadt, notable for allowing the pedestrians to use a Flying Car. It has Deflector Shields. In case of emergencies, Kugamayama can itself deploy its own (secret) dome for defense. Domes like this are expensive to have active.
• Dramatic Chase Opening: The manga opens with Akira sprinting to the Kuzusuhara Ruins, all while evading other hunters who either wanted to take the pistol he found or anything of salable value.
• Dramatic Irony:
  • Katsuya suffering for playing hero in a pointless battle protecting Alna, while Akira is having fun chatting and playing with a bunch of friends in his training arena, one of whom has long abandon Katsuya.
  • Sheryl’s gang member Tiol becoming a Tragic Monster from Yatsubiyashi’s Mad Scientist experiments because he turns down his offer to charge Sheryl for his medical treatment, due to Viola lying to him that Sheryl wanted him dead for leading robbers to her base.
• Draw Aggro:
  • In the Sarenthal building lobby, Akira kicks a piece of debris and shoots at a giant mechanical monster to draw its attention long enough for Shiori to use her katana's Laser Blade mode.
  • In the battle around the Forward Base, Akira distracts and draws the attention of enemies too strong for him while his significantly stronger teammate delivers the killing blows, working in perfect coordination.
  • When Akira faces an artillery ambush, he makes his friends drive out of danger while shooting the artillery shells above him as he runs the opposite direction, to make the enemy focus on him.
• Drinking Game: Don’t make one for Akira taking his Healing Potion, you’ll die. Some safer alternatives:
  • Alpha saying to leave it to her.
  • Akira worrying about his expenses. Double drink if Alpha teases him that "maybe" he’ll be in the black.
  • A character re-evaluating their perception of another’s strength.
• Driving Up a Wall: Because of its advanced technology and the high performance demands for driving in the wasteland Akira’s second Cool Bike is designed to meet, it can slowly ascend walls.
• Drone Deployer:
  • The Flying Saucer airspace control drone works like this. When its mission is complete, the smaller saucer drones are abandoned instead of recovered.
  • The giant bee drone similarly deployed smaller drones with mirrors to reflect its Beam Spam towards Akira.
• Drowning My Sorrows: A hunter who followed Akira to the subway station ruin and activated its tram to Kuzusuhara, flooding the ruin with monsters, is shown spending his days like this after he can no longer sell the location of the ruin.
• Drugs Causing Slow-Motion: There are performance-enhancing "accelerator" drugs that greatly speed up one's perception of time to the point that everything appears to be moving in slow-motion. As such, they can be used as a Super Serum to temporarily increase one's reaction speed to overwhelm an opponent. However, many of these drugs have severe side-effects, forcing users to resort to them as a last resort, lest Heroic RRoD kick in at the worst possible time.
• Due to the Dead
  • Subverted when Colbert convinces Akira and Sheryl into taking a corpse out of respect, but he’s actually only taking it to make the debt company he’s working for happy.
  • Played straight when Erde talks about how The Dead Have Names and how he wants Akira's name in order to honor him after killing him, before eventually apologizing to his dead subordinates as his Last Words.
• The Dulcinea Effect: Deconstructed with Katsuya and Alna. She’s just a pickpocket using him as a shield, making him an Unwitting Pawn when he thinks he’s protecting the innocent.
• Dungeon-Based Economy: The reason Kugamayama City was founded, was to be a sci-fi equivalent to this. The main basis for its economy is researching and reverse-engineering old world relics from the nearby ruins.
• Dungeon Bypass: Once Akira gets his second Cool Bike, its high specs and performance allow Alpha to use it to Ramp Jump Akira all the way to the Ghost City interior of Kuzusuhara City Ruins, completely untouched by warfare.
• Dungeon Crawling: The setting's economy runs on hunters going into ancient ruins of the Old World and bringing back any interesting relics they find. Said ruins are also infested with traps and monsters ready to tear people to pieces, but being a hunter is the only way to get enough money to escape the slums.
• Dying as Yourself: After Fighting from the Inside to varying degrees after becoming a Tragic Monster, Tiol flashes back to his full independent consciousness just as Akira kills him with point-blank grenade bullets.
• Dynamic Entry: When all hope seems lost for Akira and the caravan he's fighting alongside, Sara and Elena burst onto the scene in a jeep, guns blazing. Their highly explosive ammo blasts a massive hole in the incoming monster army, and they soon clean up shop.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: Shiori getting so pissed at Akira over his insulting Reina, while establishing Shiori's feelings about Reina, contradict her later role constantly reining in Kanae's troublemaking.
• Eating the Eye Candy:
  • Carol shows off her figure to the boys of Sheryl's gang to test Akira's claims of being a Chaste Hero from being too young, and she determines boys clearly younger than Akira were entranced. Erio apologizes to Alicia for being taken in.
  • As Akira gets older and his physique improves, there are scenes from women’s point of view reacting to it.
• Electronic Telepathy:
  • This is the standard way for cyborgs to do their phone calls.
  • Shiori and Kanae eventually get communications devices that let them do this with each other.
• Emergency Transformation:
  • This is how most cyborg hunters came to be cyborgs. In fact, many hunters have a black box of sorts for their mind implanted in them to be recovered and put into a cyborg body upon death.
  • Sheryl’s gang member Tiol wanders into Yatsubiyashi’s clinic after being wounded, and having been lied to that Sheryl has gone You Have Failed Me on him, he turns down the offer of charging her for his treatment, leaving him with the option to be saved as a test subject. Thus he becomes a Tragic Monster with monster nanomachines injected into him.
• Encounter Bait:
  • There are various devices hunters can get to serve as this, making various vibrations, noises, and smells for this effect. It's first shown being used by The Mole from a team of hunters Akira and Sheryl encounter searching for cheap relics in the wilderness, to try and do them in to keep all their relics for himself. They're also used for clearing swarms of monsters from trade routes for The Great Distribution.
  • Sakashita Heavy Industries' rival corporations also send a lot of monsters towards their region like this to test their fighting strength after detecting their military buildup.
• Energy Absorption: There is technology to absorb electricity from an area. Akira runs into some giant snail monsters that did this to the ruined skyscraper they were in, and it nullified the Ragnarök Proofing protection it had, leaving everything inside to fall to dust. There is also a Mini-Mecha like monster that steals energy from the Deflector Shields of the Big Badass Rig Akira is escorting to protect itself. For the snails, Akira runs away and comes back when their guard is down, and for the mech, he severs its connection to the rig with his sword.
• Everything Sensor: Standard equipment for hunters, usually tied to their information terminal or projected into their view with an Augmented Reality visor. Elena is noted for being an expert with hers, but that pales in comparison to Alpha’s support. The colorless mist reduces the effectiveness of these devices. These devices are also used by the Hunter’s Office to judge the performance and rewards of hunters.
• Evil Counterpart: Chloe, Lattice, and Pamela are this to Reina, Shiori, and Kanae, respectively, with Lattice being a Gender Flipped Battle Butler counterpart.
• Evil Doppelgänger: Tiol impersonating Akira in a False Flag Operation against Katsuya in the hopes of getting him to kill the real Akira, which results in a Mêlée à Trois between the three.
• Evil Knockoff: The Mad Scientist Yatsubiyashi makes a deal with the A.I. Tsubaki to make robots under her control into fake hunters, to serve as her Agent Provocateur infiltrators, in exchange for old world knowledge.
• Exact Words: When Akira gets a mission to collect his equipment from the crashed transport Atlas D2771, he is told to do nothing but collect his gear, and not even told anything about the attacker who disabled the transport, or the MacGuffin inside. So in the process of doing that, Akira lets the assailant into the MacGuffin's locked down holding area, and leaves, putting the problem squarely in the laps of Xellos, Tatsukawa, and Mercia, who've been assigned to recover it.
• Explosive Leash: Standard equipment for a Corporate Government Boxed Crook.
• Explosive Stupidity: Downplayed. Akira singes himself somewhat using his A421 grenade launcher indoors (where it’s really not supposed to be used). He could only really get away with that because of Alpha’s support making the appropriate calculations prior, and didn't realize how difficult that'd be.
• Expy: The reputation behind the AAH rifle clearly has a basis in the AK-47.
• Extranormal Prison: During Akira’s Escort Mission of a Great Distribution convoy, out of paranoia of Akira getting into fights and thus getting her fired, his handler Hikaru chose a room designed to contain super-humans and protect dignitaries for him to sleep in, to keep the option of locking him up. This proves Properly Paranoid when she’s in that room, and hostile infiltrators have difficulty breaking into it to get her, allowing her time to contact Akira.
• Extreme Omnivore: There are many types of monsters that use the metals they eat to reproduce smaller versions of themselves and/or ammo and upgrades for themselves. At a few points, monsters spill out wreckages of cars and such from their guts due to damage Akira inflicts.
• Extreme Speculative Stratification: Kugamayama City, being segregated based on wealth, with the slums being the lowest rank, subject to food and medical experiments, and Cannon Fodder, while the rich enjoy advanced technology compared to the modern day. The lower district containing mostly working class people like Shizuka, seems nice but has questionable private police forces. Only the Middle and Upper districts have a functioning legal system.
• Failed a Spot Check: Yanigisawa dismissing the possibility of Akira being able to connect to the old world domain. His second time doing so, he throws Akira out of the list of suspects entirely due to the fact he Took a Level in Kindness.
• Face Your Fears:
  • The Shell-Shocked Veteran Colbert, who has a Trauma Button from monsters who ate his arms, eventually goes out on a monster thinning out mission to face his phobia, and succeeds in killing a monster obviously stronger than the one that maimed him, helping him get back to being a proper hunter rather than depending on shady jobs.
  • Carol has a Character Arc about her doing this after what those fears are is revealed, and not letting fear rule her life anymore.
• Fair-Weather Friend: The slums are filled with this type. Which colors the world views of Sheryl and especially Akira, who separate the world almost entirely into enemies and not-enemies, with the latter category being considered this. Sheryl’s gang having a periodic exodus of members doesn’t bother her too much because that’s within the two’s expectations.
• Fake Relationship: As a pretext to support her gang, Akira becomes fake lovers with Sheryl, whose feelings are nonetheless very real. This leads to many characters debating whether they are lovers, which gradually shifts to debating which one is in charge. Their whole dynamic is muddied by the severe misunderstandings they each have, fear, and Akira generally being a slowly Defrosting Ice King.
• False Flag Operation:
  • This blurs the line a little bit (as Yanigisawa himself would argue), but him arranging for a nationalist to sacrifice himself to bait monsters into attacking the city. It was approved by the city officials as a means to keep the defense budget high.
  • Tiol changing his appearance to look like Akira before attacking Katsuya’s team, repeatedly moving to bait Katsuya into helping him kill Akira, which succeeds wildly in getting the two to fight.
  • Happens a lot with the Corporate Warfare between companies in the Corporate Government, where they blame their attacks on the nationalists while paying each other hush money behind the scenes. Or arrange for monsters to attack their rivals.
• Fantastic Flora: The rapidly growing weeds in the Lida Commercial Zone Ruin, that can ruin a car within twenty four hours due to the nanomachines in them. The plants drink the blood of the dead.
• Fantastic Rank System: Hunters are ranked based on the number and quality of the relics they're able to bring back. The higher your rank, the better the equipment you are authorized to purchase and use. Akira begins as a temporary Hunter, but later ranks up to an official Rank 10 Hunter from the relics he brings back. He continues to rank up and purchase better equipment with Alpha's guidance, gaining access to an anti-materiel rifle when he hits Rank 17 and later a license to rent vehicles when he reaches Rank 20.
• Feed It a Bomb: Since Akira is so outclassed at the Forward Base attack, he has to resort to sending mini rockets into a monster’s mouth.
• Felony Misdemeanor: Old World A.I.s can seem prone to this. Some highlights are the prospect of speeding in Tsubaki's domain leading to lethal force, and her turning you to Ludicrous Gibs for being disrespectful enough. Then there's Olivia being willing to kill over the handling of her business card.
• Fictional Currency: Mainly two, aurum and chrome. Aurum, roughly equivalent to yen, is the currency of Sakashita Heavy Industries, the MegaCorp of the corporate government than controls the region Akira lives in. Chrome, the currency of the old world, is worth monumental amounts of aurum and is used both in exchanges between megacorps, as well as to make deals with Artificial Intelligence running still working old world factories. There are apparently vending machines that accept chrome that many hunters have been killed for trying to rob.
  • Of note, there are actually two kinds of chrome that only an old world connector would really care about the difference between: Genuine Old World chrome, and government issued chrome, which is a bit like a currency pegged to real chrome. Since genuine chrome is always protected except for pocket change, you won’t find much in ruins, and the only way to get it is to make deals with Old World A.I.s.
• Fictional Holiday: The Great Distribution is a yearly event within the Corporate Government controlled territories where the government pays to connect every city with its neighboring cities, usually too dangerous due to The Swarm of large monsters, offering free access at that time to help cities’ economies (and displace overpopulated slums). Cities opt in or out due to their financial circumstances, and Kugamayama opts in due to their number of hunters dwindling.
• Finishing Stomp: This is how Akira finishes off Zelmo after he survives being cut into Half the Man He Used to Be after his Resurrection Revenge attempt, stomping his brain in with the strength of his armor.
• Fire-Forged Friends:
  • Reina and Shiori start off on a really bad foot with Akira, Reina berating him, and Shiori starting a Mexican Standoff over the Brutal Honesty he uses to criticize Reina, before the three work as Back-to-Back Badasses holding off a swarm. After a few further tense incidents, Akira gives them life-saving advice for free while turning down a request from Shiori, Akira does a Combination Attack with Shiori, and helps train Reina.
  • Togami starts off on a bad foot with both Akira and Reina before becoming this with each of them.
• Flaw Exploitation: The Chessmaster Viola is especially good at using a given character’s Fatal Flaw to manipulate them. Pressing Sheryl on her dependence on Akira, and pressing each Berserk Button Akira has at once to get him to attack the largest gang in the slums to accomplish her mission of wiping them out.
• Flawed Prototype: The KIRYO Augmented Reality and armor management product Inabe has Sheryl’s gang test for combat training has quite a few flaws in its system, but, that’s why they’re doing proving exercises anyway. A problem that comes up is Akira not fighting at his full strength due to not being paid to cover for the power and medicine consumption he needs to fight that way. They agree to pay him and then get good results, and despite a brutal accident or two, it really helps Akira.
• Floating Continent: When travelling to the east, Akira can’t believe his eyes when he sees one of these.
• Flying Car: There are vehicles like this, it’s just that anything that flies above a certain altitude attracts the attention of old world air-control systems, meaning being attacked by monsters. Since Zegelstadt is domed, they can safely fly vehicles in there. They're also used to escort Big Badass Rig convoys during the Great Distribution, along with Hover Bike.
• Flying Saucer: One of the monster types that patrol the skies are flying black disks. In addition to their Energy Weapon, they have blades on their sides they use to Spin Attack. They come from a cloaked mother ship that shoots more powerful beams as fire support.
• Food as Bribe: Shiori treats Akira to food from a high-class restaurant in hopes of putting their differences behind them. Although he was already willing to let things be water under the bridge due to his combat record being scrubbed, he forgets all about it by the time he sinks his teeth into the food. Afterwards, he isn't sure if he'd be able to keep his head on straight if someone decided to bribe him into talking by treating him to a full course meal again.
• Force Feeding: This sometimes happens with Healing Potion, such as in Chapter 221 where Akira does this to Yumina after rescuing her.
• The Force Is Strong with This One: It’s noted that strong hunters give off a powerful aura, but that Akira gives off a weak aura, that conflicts with his accomplishments and performance. This leads to several Inner Monologue and discussions about the contradiction in Akira, which is due to Alpha’s support. The issue with them mulling it over, is that if they realized the truth, it could lead to Akira being dissected.
• Foreshadowing: Some major plot moments have this.
  • Sheryl’s Imagine Spot of Akira abandoning her next to Katsuya foreshadows both Akira’s rift with Elena and Sara, as well as the failed trap set by Viola to try and split Sheryl off from Akira by having him run into Sheryl while she’s with Katsuya.
  • Yatsubiyashi's explanation to Akira in the undercity medical facility about how some hunters have a black box containing their memories to put into a cyborg body after they apparently die comes up again when the cyborg Zelmo Came Back Strong to get revenge on Akira just like this.
  • The experimental Augmented Reality training regimen Sheryl’s gang goes through for Inabe, foreshadows how exactly Katsuya’s old world connector influence on his squad mates effects them. The program put Erio up in front, while it treated everyone else in Erio’s squad as disposable offshoots of a Keystone Army. As well, the tactics used against Akira in the exercises, Katsuya's squad use trying to kill him, allowing Akira to anticipate and counter.
  • Shijima offhandedly complaining about gang members killing each-other over a woman too often, not long before Akira, Tiol and Katsuya fight to the death mostly over Sheryl.
  • The Reveal that Carol is an old world connector is actually foreshadowed quite a lot. Such as her having insider knowledge about the Saranthal Tower’s escape route, and her being scared by info about the search for old world connectors.
• Friendship Favoritism: Akira gets accused of showing this to Shiori by Kanae.
• From a Single Cell: Tiol is able to revive like this by eating a monster that tried to eat his corpse, after he was crushed to pieces by the cars of Katsuya’s platoon.
• From Shame, Heroism: Sara and Elena mistake Akira, a ruthless Street Urchin, for a heroic stranger after he saves their lives by slaughtering a gang who had cornered them without equipment. He'd only been acting in self-interest as he feared that gang would come after him. But Sara and Elena's subsequent affection for him shames him into feeling indebted to them. After this, he starts rushing to Sara and Elena's side whenever it sounds like they need aid. He soon picks up a habit of doing good deeds to "earn some of his luck back". While he retains his Blue-and-Orange Morality, he gradually learns compassion for those he considers his allies and acts in service to his friends' interests in addition to his own.
• Full-Conversion Cyborg: Most cyborgs who aren’t the nanomachine type like Sara, are this, having only their brain left.
• Fun Size: After Alpha hacks Akira’s info terminal, a chibi version of her form appears on its screen. Appears more often in the manga.
• The Generation Gap: The gap between the veteran hunters like Shirakabe who pay for everything, and the Boisterous Weakling young hunters like Katsuya is a huge political divide within the Drankam hunter gang.
• Genre Mashup: A blend of After the End, Cyberpunk, and Military Science Fiction (via Private Military Contractors).
• Ghost City:
  • Mihazono City is a seemingly perfectly intact and pristine old world city, in part because the maintenance robots do a good job of restoring buildings faster than they can be destroyed by fighting. Since the only people in it are hunters, it looks like a deserted city, and has some Ghost Stories associated with it that Reina gets entertained by.
  • The Kuzusuhara city ruins actually are intact like this far enough in, which Akira gets to see and interact with when Alpha takes his second Cool Bike on a Ramp Jump to get past the war torn sections. Alpha informs Akira of the importance of matching the speed limit there, else robots with Chameleon Camouflage will de-cloak and deliver Disproportionate Retribution for speeding.
• Ghost Story: Old World ruins tend to have these, with some kernel of truth to them, such as Alpha being the tempting specter, or the Sarenthal A.I. taking control of dead hunter’s suits to attack other hunters.
• Ghost Town: After Akira gets permission to move into Sheryl’s base but not the city proper after having a 50 billion aurum bounty put on his head and being declared a monster by the city, Sheryl’s domain turns into this. Considering how many buildings get destroyed in the ensuing siege, it was pretty smart of the general populace to leave.
• Gilligan Cut: Sheryl assuring herself she can endure her second high class standing buffet party without ruining her reputation by gorging herself, thinking that she can get through it just tasting a few things. Cue cut to her adding a plate to a pile and her business partner saying she sure eats a lot.
• Give Me a Reason:
  • Shirakabe gets like this with Katsuya, when he tries to derail their patrol mission to answer a dangerous Distress Call, ranting about all the ways Katsuya has angered him with his arrogance and hotheadedness.
  • After Akira gets his Tranquil Fury Berserk Button pressed during a negotiation with Chloe, by learning that she had threatened and stole from some of his close friends, Akira tells her to just try doing other things that anger him one after another. Since Chloe has Akira in an elaborate trap, she issues the threats he asks for right to him.
• Give Me a Sword: Akira loaning his rifles to Shiori and Kanae while they ride his Cool Bike, him taking the consideration of giving Kanae one loaded with Homing Projectile rounds to account for her lack of gun experience.
• Glass Cannon: It’s noted that when two people with an augmented suit fight hand-to-hand, blocking really isn’t an option, due to both sides essentially having Super-Strength, so both parties just dodge.
• Gone Horribly Right:
  • Katsuragi's plan to trap Akira in Indentured Servitude when he's Too Desperate to Be Picky ends up like this when instead of asking for a loan, Akira just buys everything straight up, leaving Katsuragi collapsed in laughter.
  • Kagumayama officials Inside Job plans to cause attacks on the city to justify their defense budget end up working too well and people demand a second wall covering more of the city.
• Good-Guy Bar: Shirakabe hangs out at a bar slash brothel in the slums Red Light District with his hunter friends in his free time, and repeatedly invites Akira there despite him being a minor, leading to a number of conversations always happening about that issue. Eventually the bartender just gives up.
• Good Luck Charm: Akira is often concerned about his luck, and buys something to serve as this from Shizuka’s shop. There’s also the bullet he used as a paperweight for his message to Elena and Sara when he first encountered them, that Sara made into a necklace charm. Akira loses both of these, but considers any equipment he buys from Shizuka’s shop to be good luck in general.
• Gossip Evolution: This happens to rumors that get started from Akira’s success looting ruins, such as saying that two hunters followed him and got rich from it when in reality he killed them. Sara telling a story about Akira before realizing his true identity (thinking he was a rich boy), was a case of this involving only the gossip originator.
• Government Conspiracy:
  • It becomes increasingly clear over the course of the story that the corporate government is not as competent or as clean as they like to present themselves. Their actions include goading the nationalists into leading a huge horde of monsters against Kugamayama City, bribing Akira to keep silent about his fight with the relic thieves so they can come up with a cover story to make themselves look better, and leading unregistered explorations of the Kuzusuhara Ruins.
  • It’s revealed that some city executives made a deal with Project Rebuild to put nanomachines in the slum food with the aim of awaking Old World connectors there. Due to side effects, all of those old world connectors either died or became The Paranoiac.
• Grail in the Garbage: The old world A.I. Tsubaki keeps warehouses of "expired" items for reasons like being out of season and such from the factories in her territory, seemingly the result of some programming that has lost its purpose. She uses them to make deals with the outside, keeping in mind that from her perspective, hunters are petty thieves.
• Gravity Screw:
  • When Akira gets into a close quarters brawl with two melee specialists in a corridor, since both sides have high quality augmented suits with Sticky Shoes as well as time compression, they jump around on the walls and ceiling defying gravity like this as their fight destroys the corridor itself.
  • There is a second kind of mist derivative that has an effect of slowing down bullets, due to the gas reacting more strongly the faster something is moving. This also allows for creating shockwaves with punches and kicks. An overwhelming amount is needed to use it outside of enclosed spaces.
• Guns Akimbo:
  • Lampshaded and deconstructed. Akira has an Imagine Spot about dual wielding assault rifles, but Alpha quickly disabuses him of this notion. At best, he'd miss all his shots. At worst, he'd tear his arms off from the recoil because he's too small and scrawny to even be comfortable carrying two guns at once without an augmented suit, much less shooting them.
  • Sara does this while blasting away the army of monsters after Akira and Katsuragi, Dual Wielding anti-materiel rifles loaded with explosive rounds to annihilate the opposition. Also justified by her nanite enhancements, which give her enough Super-Strength to absorb the recoil and keep a steady bead on her targets.
  • After Akira gets his second augmented suit, this is pretty much his default method of operations, typically having some combination of his anti-material rifle, assault rifle, chaingun, or grenade launcher in his hands. He also ends up having the excruciating experience of using two assault rifles while his suit was down for reprogramming.
  • Carol, when knowingly heading into battle, uses a pair of Hand Cannon that she can handle from her nanomachine enhanced strength.
• Gun Porn: Shizuka lovingly describes the firearms she sells in her shop to prospective customers, explaining the AAH rifle's hundred-year history and enduring popularity among hunters as well as its firing specifications.
• Guys Smash, Girls Shoot: Generally an Inverted Trope. Akira really dislikes melee fighting, while Alpha and those who he teams up who do like it, are mostly female. At least he gradually takes a shine to swords.
• Half the Man He Used to Be: After Akira trades a favor for Shiori's sword (she has spares), quite a few hunters end up as this, either horizontally or vertically, from him fighting Sword and Gun. It's noted that the dominant swordsmanship styles in the eastern region include top-to-bottom bisection to make sure the target's not Only Mostly Dead. So Akira does this to Katsuya and Zelmo. Zelmo somehow survives even that, but Akira kicks the halves of his split head in at least.
• Hand Cannon: Carol uses these, said to have the same firepower as Akira’s anti-material rifle. She can handle them due to her Nanomachine granted Super-Strength.
• Harassing Phone Call: Nelia, with her Villainous Crush, overriding Akira’s info terminal using Yanigisawa’s authority to force Akira to accept her calls. She was actually on a mission by the corporation that made her mech to team up with him, because Akira hurt their PR by disabling that mech so one-sidedly before.
• Healing Factor: Many different types of monsters have this. Also, Sara due to her Nanomachine enhancement (only as long as she has some to spare, and they're expensive.)
• Healing Potion: Nanite medicine can be taken in the form of pills to heal wounds and stave off fatigue. It's considered essential for a hunter in order to stay alive in the field and avoid collapsing of exhaustion. Unfortunately, it's difficult to verify the quality of medicine, forcing hunters to take whatever they can get regardless of the side effects. Taking too much over a short period will also cause the nanites to go haywire, causing one to collapse into a several day long coma. Akira's life is saved numerous times by an extra powerful version from the Old World he found in the Kuzusuhara Ruins, but that runs out after his encounter with the cannon insects.
  • Akira’s fifth augmented suit comes with automated medicine dispensing systems.
• He Knows Too Much: Usually thought of or talked about but ultimately subverted.
  • Conversed when Shiori tells Reina about how not all knowledge is good, and can get you into trouble. She then talks about how the original Tempting Specter myth was changed by the Corporate Government to hide something, and to keep that to herself.
  • When Carol gets involved with some old world connector business due to being around Akira, she becomes afraid this will happen to her.
  • And then there’s Akira suggesting to kill Shirou for this reason, making him say I'm Standing Right Here.
• Helmets Are Hardly Heroic: While hunters and other combatants often use armor, it’s rare for helmets to be described. This is noted by Shizuka to be due to superstition that helmets lower intuition (but that’s due to them being full head helmets with displays). It is repeatedly noted, that the head is Akira’s main weakness in a firefight, because he has no protection for it.
  • Akira’s fifth augmented suit, the KIRYO CA 31R, has force-field armor for its head.
• Heroic BSoD:
  • Sheryl has one when being threatened by Akira, and then a second one after the incident following Akira shooting and dragging back one of Shijima’s men. The second one results in her reorienting her life around Akira due to him being there for her, and making Akira her Living Emotional Crutch.
  • Reina goes through mini ones of these over her failures as a hunter and needing to be protected by others. This leads to Reina being teased for being a Mood-Swinger.
  • Viola arranging for Akira to meet Sheryl while she’s with Katsuya prompts Sheryl to forcefully show who it is she loves out of fear of Akira leaving her, breaking Katsuya’s heart and sending him spiraling into depression. That is, until Inabe basically forces his way in to meet Katsuya and gives him half-truths and false hope in order to get Katsuya working for him.
• Heroic Sacrifice:
  • Subverted. When surrounded and cornered by dozens of Chloe’s servants, Kanae formulates a plan to threaten Chloe herself, forcing the servants to focus on her since they must prioritize protecting their master, meaning Kanae would sacrifice her life so that Reina and Shiori could get away. But this doesn’t happen because Reina’s Batman Gambit is to let Chloe threaten her and give her the MacGuffin she wants, to let Chloe dig her own grave.
  • Played straight during the Siege of the Slums with Carol’s Old Flame Delores. After the two try to talk each other down as Friendly Enemies, and Carol wins their fight, Delores holds off attacking monsters long enough to let her escape.
• Hero of Another Story: A number of other adventures are mentioned in passing, usually for Elena and Sara or Katsuya and his unit. Like Katsuya guarding inter-city transports. There's also a montage of Togami being trained with Shirakabe as his Sink or Swim Mentor.
• High-Speed Missile Dodge: Due to Alpha’s control over Akira’s augmented suit and vehicles, she has them do this to keep him safe. For the armor, it can mean doing a Wall Run, and for the vehicles, it involves Akira needing to use the strength of his augmented suit just to hold steady. Akira is eventually able to do this himself using time compression on his motorbike.
• History Repeats: Akira’s second series of missions under the Corporate Government follow a very similar trajectory to the first, with all kinds of echoes of that arc, big and small. Trying to get the mission cancelled by demanding they pay for his ammo, being given a Morton's Fork decision where to go into battle by Kibayashi, doing a rescue mission on his bike, and many more.
• Hit-and-Run Tactics: This is what Akira uses to fight without Alpha’s support as training after he gets his second motorcycle, basically kiting enemies and then ambushing them in small groups; this gets him an unusually satisfied evaluation from Alpha.
• Hollywood Acid: Akira is subject to this after beating Eaten Alive by the Overgrown Snake. The monster's stomach acid is powerful enough to even dissolve the vehicles it eats, so he puts nanite medicine on his head to protect it while hoping his augmented suit lasts long enough for him to kill the snake.
• Homage: Not only is the protagonist named AKIRA, and often use a Cool Bike, but he also loses his left arm and gets it replaced like Tetsuo.
• Honey Trap: A plenty Discussed Trope. Akira has a deep fear of falling into one due to his experiences in the slums being tricked, and Alpha excuses her lewd behavior and outfits as training for him to resist them. The fear Akira has makes him deathly afraid of Sheryl, after having seen her charm a hunter into spilling his most precious information. About Sheryl, she ensnares Katsuya in a honey trap to get information out of him that Akira likes, making Katsuya fall for her by easing his Survivor Guilt.
• Honor Before Reason
  • Katsuya as part of his introduction tries to run off to answer a Distress Call all by himself due to Chronic Hero Syndrome, gets yelled at by multiple of his compatriots why this isn't a good idea, and backs down. Akira ends up running off to do the same, because he feels he owes Elena and Sara who are in that general area, which gets him chastised by Alpha and starts Katsuya down the path of being The Resenter. Katsuya’s later off-screen participation in said battle also cements him as a Glory Seeker who gets his squad mates killed.
  • One of Katsuya’s squad-mates Lilina lets her pride over Drankam being better than other hunters lead to a Right Hand Versus Left Hand firefight against Kurosawa's forces on a mission, which causes Kurosawa to decline working together when Katsuya needs their help. Realizing this, Lilina gets herself killed in a Stupid Sacrifice after realizing My God, What Have I Done?.
  • Reina has issues with letting her Pride and others opinions of her prevent her from getting the best equipment she can, which, after some Break the Haughty experiences on the battlefield and some words from Akira, she eventually grows past and settles on an Embarrassing but Empowering Outfit of a maid themed augmented suit.
  • Akira following Alpha despite knowing she's a Manipulative Bitch may count. The honor in question being I Owe You My Life and I Gave My Word.
  • Later in the web novels, Akira going on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge over this makes Elena and Sara grit their teeth, and being Defiant to the End against overwhelming odds instead of cooperating gets Alpha to Face Palm.
• Home Base: There are two, Sheryl's Gang headquarters, and the house Akira rents.
  • Sheryl’s headquarters is used to store Akira's first bike until he gets his house, and sell his relics he doesn’t think Katsuragi appreciates.
    • After Sheryl’s base gets renovated, it turns into a mansion with many (relatively) luxurious quarters, and in order to protect its relic sales, it has powerful Deflector Shields installed, as well as an in depth KIRYO security system linking the gang’s augmented suits and an information gathering device network. Besides a luxury coed bath for the two.
  • The house Akira rents has a Treasure Room for relics, as well as a bath. He at one point has to pay to remodel its garage to accommodate the APC he gets (which also makes it into a convenient training ground).
    • Akira eventually has to build his own house because nobody wants to lease him one anymore due the destruction that follows him, as well as the city building a second wall where his house is due to gentrification (and to keep Akira out). Resulting in him planning it near Sheryl’s base where the gang can guard it, while he lives there in the meantime.
• Homefield Advantage: During the Siege of the Slums, information gathering devices were set up by the gang’s hunters in the lead up to give the defenders this, with them using Shirou’s Old World Domain knowledge to keep them running optimally even in the artificial colorless fog.
• Homing Projectile: Akira eventually gets expensive bullets that function like tiny guided rocket propelled grenades, mainly useful for allowing one to fire accurately from a moving vehicle, at a moving vehicle, or shooting down missiles.
• Hope Spot:
  • While delving into an unexplored ruin, Akira comes across what appears to be the remains of an old jewelry store and happily rushes over to see what he can pocket. But when he arrives he discovers that the entire shop is nothing more than an excessively advanced holographic poster. To rub the salt in the wound, he can't even take the poster with him since it's embedded in the wall. Then it's Double Subverted when Akira discovers what is implied to be a convenience store full of toys, utensils, and knickknacks, which he manages to sell to Katsuragi for a respectable (but somewhat disappointing) 2 million aurum.
    • Reina and Togami both get their hopes dashed by a holographic advertisement in a similar way.
  • The Butt-Monkey hunter Revin gets a number of these:
    • Revin getting rescued from deep in some ruins by Akira and The Squad only to find he’s now buried in debt due to the medicine he was forced to buy and be lied to that Akira will brutally make an example of him if he doesn’t do well enough at paying up.
    • Being tricked into believing he can strike it rich by flipping relics from Sheryl’s relic shop to another store only to find himself locked out and Akira being sent to handle the ruckus he’s causing, then finding out that Sheryl is working with his debt master Katsuragi
    • Revin crawling his way out of the rubble from a Big Badass Battle Sequence after making a Do Not Go Gentle resolution, laughing, only to find that all of his equipment has been ruined, dramatically increasing his debt even further.
  • The government official Inabe catching a glimpse of the pristine inner Kuzusuhara ruins after his forces break their way in, being ecstatic that he’ll get all the relics from it under his jurisdiction. Then after communications cut out, his feed eventually comes back to show him nothing but the carnage that's left of his forces.
• Hover Bike: Some of these are used by other hunters to escort inter-city transport vehicles, being more common in the east and especially Zegelstadt due to its dome allowing air travel inside without monster interference. Akira's third Cool Bike model the A3 Sylpheed, is a downplayed example using Improvised Platform force fields.
• Hufflepuff House: Of the five MegaCorp that lead the Corporate Government, all but Sakashita Heavy Industries are pretty much this. They vaguely back a False Flag Operation, but that's it.
• Humans Are Psychic in the Future: Downplayed, relating to how before the collapse of the old world society, transhuman developments made most of the world Old World connectors, capable of telepathy as a byproduct of wireless Brain/Computer Interface. It’s revealed that most people in the eastern region are actually low-sensitivity old world connectors, meaning that there is some of this going on as byproducts of one being around one, specifically, how Katsuya and Akira project their self-image and emotional state into everyone around them at all times. As well, there’s the ability to develop an unconscious Psychic Link called a local network with those you open your heart to, like Katsuya does with his squad.

I - P

• I Didn't Mean to Turn You On: Akira with his No Social Skills perpetually does this with Sheryl. For instance, when he gets too close to Sheryl watching her beat a game he couldn't. And then there's the Eating the Eye Candy scenes focusing on him, which with Sheryl makes him think she's wanting to say something, and with the tailor Celene who's taking his measurements, Akira thinks her perverted comments were talking about the health of his skin.
• Imagine Spot: Sheryl is prone to having these about Akira. They tend to be either really positive (like romanticizing him saving her), or negative (like him choking her to death during their bath). There is actually a rather plot significant one in the form of her imagining getting close to Katsuya, before Akira sees and abandons her. This helps her resist Katsuya’s subconscious More than Mind Control, as well as foreshadowing what happens to Elena and Sara.
• Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: Justified example. When Akira is ambushed and surrounded by a coalition of hunters sent to bring him down, they have their targeting computers and sensors linked to improve performance, and Akira’s allies hack that system just enough to make most of their shots miss without them figuring it out.
• Implacable Man:
  • Cyborgs Akira fights tend to be this, to whom his anti-tank rifle with Depleted Phlebotinum Shells are necessary to kill.
  • The Ezont Family mercenaries Akira fights also have auto-revive functions in their armor that make them get up from fatal injuries, one of whom even takes a CWH round and keeps on ticking.
  • Old world automatons, even if they’re supposed to only be household servants.
• Imposed Handicap Training: When Akira starts to train some of Sheryl’s gang members with Augmented Reality goggles managed by Alpha, she imposes restrictions on him like lower suit setting, limited scanner range, and more to even the playing field to make sure it hones his (unassisted) skills as well.
• Improbable Use of a Weapon: After Akira runs into jamming smoke that creates more resistance the faster something goes, making his bullets slow down after being fired. In the ensuing brawl, he fires them anyway to use the strangely behaving bullets as improvised barriers as they hang in the air (there are enough due to his multiweapon's high fire rate).
• Improvised Platform: 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.
• In a Single Bound: Akira’s third and onwards augmented suits let him leap like this, although it’s really bad on his legs…
• Indentured Servitude: While slavery is officially illegal under the Corporate Government, people can be forced to do labor to pay off a debt to others. In cases where one side has caused damage to another, a person can made to work off their debt if there's sufficient cause for it. There are also debt collectors who monitor and seize those who try to escape their debts without paying them.
• Indy Ploy:
  • Akira occasionally makes these, like using his camoflage skills from the streets, or tossing his guns into the air on a timer.
  • Alpha makes one to make up for the fact that Akira is a Bad Liar. 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.
• Inexplicably Awesome:
  • A small percentage of individuals are born with the ability to connect to the Old World domain, potentially granting them access to its secrets. Unfortunately, this also means they're at risk of brain death by walking in the wrong place and having the domain dumped into their brains all at once. Akira is one of these individuals, which allows him to meet and make a contract with Alpha.
  • Some people are noted to be born with Super-Strength matching those with nanite enhancements or wearing augmented suits. No one knows why these individuals are so strong, but they tend to become great hunters thanks to being able to handle heavier ordinance.
• Info Dump: Half of the 212th web novel chapter consists of a Socratic Dialectic explaining the entire lore behind old world connectors and piecing together what led to Akira’s personality turning out the way that it did.
• In Love with Your Carnage:
  • Kibayashi can’t get enough of the combat recordings of Akira doing over-the-top risky stunts, and thus engineers the opportunities for him the show them off.
  • Nelia declares her Villainous Crush on Akira after being impressed with him as a Worthy Opponent in battle, asking him to become her lover for the remaining time it takes her to kill him.
  • Since Carol Has a Type, being strong hunters, she reacts like this to Akira being pressed to his limits in their first mission together.
  • Akira reacts this way to Nelia cutting through enemies his best equipment could at most stagger like a hot knife through butter using swords on her Mini-Mecha, in part due to Akira’s Opposing Combat Philosophies regarding guns verses melee.
• Inner Thoughts, Outsider Puzzlement:
  • Happens plenty with Akira with regard to his mental conversations with Alpha, and causes Shizuka to piece together he’s an old world connector. An Exploited Trope when it comes to Alpha using it to force Akira to act as part of an Indy Ploy.
  • Sheryl’s scene having an Imagine Spot of Akira undressing her before being brought back to reality by Akira telling her to finish changing.
• Insecure Protagonist, Arrogant Antagonist: Akira as a Humble Hero, and the prideful Katsuya as The Rival.
• Inside Job:
  • Yanigisawa is introduced talking to his men about how he arranged one of terrorists spurring a monster attack on the city to justify the defense budget and clear a route for the forward base plans.
  • Way later, Yanigisawa plots with Alice, Sarenthal and Olivia to force Akira back into the slums after he went on the run due to the bounty on his head, to force The Siege to take place while city forces are ordered neutral. The other party wanted this order to show Olivia what the modern Lion Steel corp is capable of. Yanigisawa's main motivation being to trade for information on potential agents of Alpha, with the side benefit of justifying the defense budget again. This battle levels much of the slums and lower districts as Collateral Damage.
• Interrupted Intimacy:
  • The high level hunter couple Tatsukawa and Mercia get interrupted from having sex in Tatsukawa’s mech by a monster attack on the convoy they’re escorting, after Tatsukawa tempted fate by saying they won’t be busy. Mercia jokes that he was a bit premature.
  • The two were also interrupted when being offered the job of escorting the Atlas D2771 transport, prompting Tatsukawa to raise his fee and the offer being withdrawn. The two later get assigned to re-capture it after it was attacked, and Mercia points out if it weren't for his obstinacy, their presence would have kept it safe.
• Impossibly Delicious Food:
  • As an apology for trying to kill him in order to protect Reina, Shiori takes Akira out to a high-class restaurant and offers to foot the bill if he can put their differences behind them. Once he agrees, he's treated to the restaurant's special course. It's so delicious that Akira completely drops his usual antagonistic paranoia and nearly passes out from how much he's enjoying it. Shiori is also able to coax a lot of information about him out of him since he's he's totally occupied with eating.
  • When Sheryl is brought to a high society standing buffet party in that same building, it's made sure that she eats until she's full in the restaurant beforehand to keep Sheryl from ruining her image gorging herself at the party due to this. She still struggles to avoid it but manages... but only for the first time.
• Insane Troll Logic: The Cyber Ninja relic thief Nelia asking Akira to be her lover in the middle of fighting him, and admitting she’ll still kill him even if he accepts, which makes Akira point out all the ways that makes no sense.
  • We later learn, that due to Nelia being a Consummate Professional who values the promises she gives strictly (like Akira), she was basically saying to him, that she loves him, but won’t break her word for him.
• I'm Standing Right Here: Akira casually talking about the option of killing Shirou to keep him quiet because He Knows Too Much while he’s in the room causes him to react like this.
• Irony:
  • Regarding the dynamic between Akira and Sheryl. While Sheryl is absolutely terrified of angering Akira, Akira is absolutely terrified of her charming and manipulating him after watching her do that to another hunter. There's also the fact that Akira fears being manipulated by Sheryl, while he has actually been getting manipulated and lied to by Alpha instead.
  • Kibiyashi’s subordinate Hikaru hiring Akira to escort middle district passengers in a convoy, turns into an escort mission for Hikaru herself keeping Akira out of any incidents, as she’s left in a constant panic that Akira will run afoul of the judicial system, since he's used to survival of the fittest.
  • Between Reina and her relative and rival Chloe. Chloe is an executive who nonetheless falls flat on her face in negotiations, needing to be bailed out by her servants for that, but is really good with combat tactics. While Reina is a hunter who nonetheless has had a lot of trouble with hunter things, needing to be bailed out by her servants for that, but is really good with negotiations. If only they had each others job from the beginning.
• I Surrender, Suckers: Subverted. This was Sara’s plan to deal with the bandits, using her enhanced strength to surprise attack them up close, but one of them figures it out and shoots her legs.
• It Amused Me: It’s noted by Alpha that some of the strange monster designs only exist because the old world Artificial Intelligence running the factory that makes them got bored and designed them for kicks.
• It's Probably Nothing:
  • When Akira tests his fourth augmented suit’s Invisibility Cloak, a number of hunters detect something nearby but decide it’s probably nothing. It’s actually a cheap cloak and Alpha informs him the only reason they didn’t see him was because their sensors were calibrated for big monsters, not humans.
  • And then there’s Sheryl’s reaction to overhearing Akira talking to Alpha, which may or may not have been him speaking out loud.
• It Works Better with Bullets:
  • The Plan to defeat Yajima, is to leave Akira’s rifle on the ground unloaded while he fights Shiori (who was forced by Yajima to fight him), hoping he’ll pick it up, and it works, allowing Akira to kill only Yajima since Shiori was also holding back from killing Akira.
  • Subverted when Akira ambushes Zelmo and the other hunters trying to rob Sheryl’s relic shop. Zelmo tries to convince Akira that his guns are empty after killing the rest of his fire team, but Alpha made sure to stop Akira before he ran out.
• Jigsaw Puzzle Plot: The mystery behind Alpha and her goals, her previous test subjects, and what those have to do with the Old World ruins and the government.
• Just a Kid: Akira and Katsuya both get bullied by older hunters for being a Child Soldier. Akira taking it in stride and then earning said older hunter’s respect with ease contributes to Katsuya quickly becoming The Resenter.
• Kaiju:
  • As monsters feed on other monsters, humans, and the environment in general, they grow. As a result of some escaping from the innermost part of the ruins via tram, three of them grow like this and trap people inside Kugamayama City out of fear, prompting a huge series of operations to stop them that Akira gets roped into.
  • It’s noted that in the far-east frontlines, giant monsters are the norm instead of the exception, and high ranked hunters who go there have tanks and Mini-Mecha to fight them.
• Keystone Army: Deconstructed Trope. The work explores exactly how such a fighting unit could come into being and operate regarding Katsuya’s old world domain connection to his teammates making them into this under him in a Psychic Link, where everyone else falls into a coma when he dies.
• Killed Mid-Sentence: An Overzealous Underling gang representative Wataba attempting to threaten Shizuka causes Akira to open fire and kill him like this, before dragging his corpse to his boss through the streets to Make an Example of Them. Threatening women who show care to him is a Berserk Button for Akira.
• Kill Him Already!: Sheryl yells this when Akira asks her if it’s alright to kill the traitorous gang member Sebla, since she’s mad at him for his treatment of Akira. Ignoring the fact that Sebla had just taken her hostage.
• Kill It Through Its Stomach: The Overgrown Snake swallows Akira and his vehicle whole in an attempt to digest them. While Akira panics from losing his connection to Alpha and having stomach acid dripped all over him, his Cornered Rattlesnake instincts are kicked into overdrive without her help, allowing him to aim straight down the snake's vulnerable gullet and rip it apart from the inside with minigun rounds.
• Knowledge Broker:
  • Since knowledge is power for hunters in many ways, Carol often takes information as payment when she works her "side job" (The Oldest Profession), making her somewhat of an example.
  • A more dedicated example is Viola. She deliberately runs disinformation campaigns, as well as finding people’s weaknesses in order to better manipulate them as The Chessmaster, doing things like presenting info as an opportunity to someone and getting paid for it, while it’s actually a trap to do them in.
• Lampshade Hanging:
  • The unrealistic nature of Guns Akimbo.
  • The implausibility and conspicuousness of the Ninja Maid trope gets lampshaded via Running Gag. Also Meido being a Conversed Trope with Kurosawa and Riden having a fetish for it.
  • Alpha lampshading when Akira is Tempting Fate regarding rain.
  • Akira cracking a rare joke about his enemies coming Back from the Dead. Later this actually gets parodied with Nergo, wearing the dead Katsuya's face, joking he's back for revenge.
• Laser Blade:
  • Old World common knives, which, after their safety is shot off, become a long laser sword with Absurd Cutting Power before disintegrating seconds later.
  • Nelia eventually appears in a Mini-Mecha equipped with two appropriately sized energy blades.
  • The A.I. Olivia uses what is basically a lightsaber, which first shows up when she loans it to a lesser automaton that gets into a duel with Shiori. Olivia retrieves it and uses it for Parrying Bullets when a unit of Mini-Mecha launch a Converging-Stream Weapon attack against her.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Regarding the aftermath of the Inner Kuzusuhara Ruins Assault, Akira signing a settlement document without any payment forgiving Drankam for Katsuya’s platoon spending half the battle trying to murder him, causes the gang’s leadership to push the survivors of that unit to pay Akira peace money themselves or get kicked out, to help the gang save face. Whereas if the whole gang paid, it’d also be punishing Reina, Togami, Shirakabe etc.
• Law Enforcement, Inc.: Inside the lower district of Kugamayama City, the policing is handled by private security companies. Oddly, one of the services they offer is discreet corpse disposal…
  • Sheryl's gang eventually advances from just their Protection Racket, to doing this.
• Law of Inverse Recoil: Averted. The firearms that Akira handles are large, loud, and heavy. Because of this, the recoil throws his aim off at the beginning because of how unused to it he is. Alpha also has to warn him against trying to go Guns Akimbo, as the recoil would throw his aim off at best and tear his arms off at worst because of how scrawny he is. This is also why any hunter worth their salt will wear augmented suits to help them handle the recoil more easily and allow them to wield more powerful weapons without injuring themselves.
• Lensman Arms Race: The two most powerful gangs in the Kugamayama slums, the Ezont Family and Haurias, had been building up massive armies of mercenaries equipped with high grade Powered Armor, tanks, and Mini-Mecha like this, with their eyes on defeating the other gang. They got the money by extorting businesses and other gangs, as well as running illegal businesses in the lower districts of the city.
• Let's You and Him Fight: Yajima holds Reina hostage to force Shiori to attack Akira, hoping that one of them would kill the other so the remaining one would be easy pickings.
• Let Us Never Speak of This Again: Akira mulling buying her a Robot Girl body angers Alpha and makes her insist he never bring it up again.
• Life-or-Limb Decision: The hunters that Akira takes a Distress Call from on his Great Distribution Escort Mission were getting hit by various chemicals spewed by flying Big Creepy-Crawlies, with some getting glued to the roof of the vehicle, making them cut their own legs off to survive.
• Limb-Sensation Fascination: Akira playing with his prosthetic arm and moving the culture grown replacement arm it's nerves are linked to differently just to see if he can, which gets him pestered with sales pitches to become Multi-Armed and Dangerous. Alpha also uses the prosthetic to simulate Thanks for the Mammary.
• Loophole Abuse: The practice of hunters buying relics from shops to turn in to the Hunter Exchange in order to up their hunter rank without risking their safety.
• Losing Your Head: Not a big deal for cyborgs.
  • When a smug corporate negotiator tries to make a deal with Tsubaki, his body besides his head gets reduced by her to Ludicrous Gibs. Thanks to some life support functions he installed beforehand, he survives as a head in a jar. What follows is some Black Comedy where he talks to his boss, who tells him to nod, and almost forgets to take him for medical treatment.
• Lost Technology: The civilization of the Old World was so advanced that it could even control the weather as it pleased. The relics of this civilization sell for a pretty penny in the cities set up to process them. This tech can range from Augmented Reality Artificial Intelligence like Alpha to common household items like knives. Even those items can become dangerous weapons if the limiter is taken off, though this often destroys the item in the process.
• Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me:
  • The nationalist cyborg relic thief Zelmo, who has force-field shields on his arms like this.
  • Kanae also has shields like this that enable her to survive against bullets fighting like a Bare-Fisted Monk.
• Ludicrous Gibs:
  • Akira is forced to expend a huge number of CWH rounds to survive a swarm of Yarata Scorpions rushing at him through tunnels. The result is that the scorpions are more or less splattered across the walls and turned into unrecognizable mush. Hunter HQ is unable to determine just how many he killed because of their bodies being mashed together by every One-Hit Polykill, instead paying him based on approximation based on how long he was fighting.
  • When Akira ambushes the second half of the raiding party seeking to steal relics from Sheryl’s shop, he empties two assault rifles with armor-piercing ammo into them, gibing two of them and sending a third Blown Across the Room.
  • In the Inner Kuzusuhara Ruins Assault Akira uses high-end ammo on a group of Katsuya’s squadmates, reducing the girls to this, since only Katsuya, Yumina, and Airi had good armor.
• MacGuffin:
  • Alpha is insistent on reaching a certain, unspecified relic, helping Akira get stronger for the purpose of leading her there and granting her access to it. She says she'll let him sell it for a pretty penny, but it's obvious that she has big plans for it.
  • The white card "relic" (an old world business card). It’s suspected of being a Cursed Item for all the trouble it causes.
  • An Ominous Cube instant-city creating relic from the Old World serves as one of these, being fought over by Rebuild and Sakashita.
• Madness Mantra: After Katsuya shifts from his Heroic BSoD over Sheryl crushing his heart, to a berserk Freak Out over a False Flag Attack on his teammates, he keeps repeating I'll Kill You! as this.
• Mad Scientist Laboratory: Yatsubiyashi’s clinic in the slums looks exactly like this, making Akira think it’s Obviously Evil. Apparently it was modeled after old world structures.
• Maid Corps: Reina’s higher status relative Chloe, tries to flaunt her power to Reina by going around the ruins with 15 Ninja Maids and 15 Battle Butlers, before trying to engage in Passive-Aggressive Kombat with her but being frustrated due to Reina’s humility.
• The Many Deaths of You: Alpha uses her Augmented Reality abilities to create holograms for Akira to train with, be it fighting monsters or training in hand-to-hand combat. Whenever he would die to the real thing, she leaves a hologram of Akira's corpse to show how gruesome his death would be. The floor is usually littered with dozens of dead and mutilated Akira holograms by the end of their training sessions.
• Make an Example of Them:
  • The questionable free food that’s handed out to slum dwellers, stops being offered if there is too much disorder in the line waiting to receive it. So, those who disrupt the order are beaten to death to discourage others from causing starvation.
  • Instead of bodyguarding Sheryl on her first day as gang leader, Akira judges it better to stalk nearby and massacre those who try to kill her to scare others from trying the same instead.
  • Akira dragging the corpse of the Overzealous Underling Shijima sent to negotiate with Sheryl, Wataba, back to his base to negotiate with the man himself.
  • During a medevac operation, Shirakabe uses his Powered Armor to throw a hunter across the room for trying to board the APC ahead of the wounded, to make an example for the others. He drags the unconscious man inside before they leave.
• Marshmallow Hell:
  • Shizuka is prone to hugging Akira when he returns from a dangerous mission to show how glad she is that he's alive. He's initially embarrassed by how his face tends to be sandwiched between her breasts due to his height, but soon finds the hug warm and comforting, later remembering to hug Sheryl to get her to stop crying. Sara and Elena also do the same to him while he's resting at their house.
  • Subverted with Carol. When she and Akira escape from a building infested with mechanical monsters, she's so happy that she pulls him into a bear hug. But her reactive armor hardens in response to pressure and impacts, meaning that her chest feels more like a pointy rock than a marshmallow and he squirms to get out. Then it's Double Subverted when she zips open her armor to push his head against her breasts for real. This time, he more or less sighs and gives up, though Alpha taunts him over reacting differently to something he can touch.
  • Much, much later, when Carol is fighting alongside Akira sitting behind him on his motorbike, she ends up turning towards him resulting in this.
• Massive Numbered Siblings: Lawrence, Reina’s grandfather and The Patriarch of her family, has had so many bastards that they fill out the executive ranks of his multi-city MegaCorp and were made into The Clan within two generations. So, they’re her massively numbered aunts and uncles.
• Mass Super-Empowering Event: Deconstructed Trope: Project Rebuild, using special nanomachines put in the free food given out in the slums, tried to create a bunch of old world domain connectors… but due to their special trait of projecting their emotions into others, most of these people didn’t survive the harsh slum environment.
• Matryoshka Object: The Overgrown Snake is colossal at its full size, but should it be on the verge of defeat, it can abandon its current body by having a smaller snake inside it escape to live another day. This is what lets it attack Akira after it fought Katsuya's team, but Akira prevents it from getting away again by aiming his minigun straight down its gullet, killing the even smaller snake further inside.
• Meaningful Name: "Aurum", the currency of the region, is named after the Latin word for "gold". Given the decrepit state of the world outside the walls, having the main form of currency being named after gold makes sense.
• Mechanical Monster: Some monsters are built by still-working weapons factories from the Old World. These monsters are made entirely of metal and long for nothing but to destroy anything not like them, attacking humans and other monsters alike. With enough time and enough food, these machines can grow to the size of castles, chomping on humans, vehicles, and other monsters in equal measure.
• MegaCorp: With it being an After the End Cyberpunk setting, an alliance of these run the government, with Sakashita Heavy Industries being the leading company in the region Akira lives. The local currency, Aurum, is regulated by them. They treat slum residents like they’re less than human, conspire and give out hush money to cover their asses, they are extremely harsh when it comes to the subject of debt, and enforce Indentured Servitude on those who cross them.
• Meido: Discussed Trope by Kurosawa and then Rodin. It’s about a lot more than just the outfit. The Running Gag about how conspicuous and out of place Ninja Maid Powered Armor is may count as Lampshade Hanging.
• Mêlée à Trois:
  • Akira, Katsuya, Ezont mercenaries, and Hauritas mercenaries all fighting eachother after Sheryl and Alna are used as The Bait to take both gangs down by Viola.
  • The Inner Kuzusuhara Ruins Assault turns into a literal free-for-all after communications are disabled, with many cases of this ensuing, sometimes with as many as five different forces attacking each other at once.
• Melting-Pot Nomenclature: The story is implied to take place in the ruins of what was once a futuristic version of Japan, given how the characters use Japanese honorifics and the Japan-themed naming of the ruins and cities. Despite this, you have characters with both Japanese and Western names in the story, such as Akira, Sara, and Sheryl.
• Metaphorically True:
  • Yanigisawa saying that nationalists launched the attack on the city is technically true, even if it was under orders of a Government Conspiracy.
  • Viola saying that Akira and Sheryl being lovers can’t really be false, because that has so many different interpretations considering imbalances of power or affection.
  • Kibiyashi saying that he was protecting the city by giving Akira ammunition and supplies while he had a 50 billion aurum bounty on his head, to keep him from causing destruction with raids for ammo. It just so happens that Kibiyashi wanted Akira to rampage as spectacularly as possible and smuggled illegal ammo to Akira to facilitate that as well.
  • Alice making peace with Akira and removing the bounty on his head, has the added element of Akira paying the company 300 aurum, so they could save face by saying he payed them. After him charging them 20 billion aurum for his expenses from fighting them as part of said deal.
• Mexican Standoff: These keep happening between Akira and Shiori. The third time, she just goes Screw This, I'm Outta Here and leaves Katsuya high and dry, which leaves Reina isolated within Drankam, creating complications later down the line.
• Mid-Season Upgrade:
  • Akira gets quite a lot of these in the form of guns, armor, and vehicles, usually from Shizuka.
  • Reina and her team also get a number of these due to rising in status in their company, it’s noted the maid's armor looks less maid-like due to the higher quality valuing performance more in their design. Reina goes from a Drankam issue suit, to a better market one, to her own maid outfit.
  • For Elena and Sara this happens less often. There's Elena getting her exposing suit (when Shizuka shoves her out in front of Akira). Eventually, The Team Benefactor Hikaru gets them Stripperific old world imitation suits, and upgrades their car to have a collapsible tank-gun.
  • Carol, out of fear of her past catching up to her, gets new gear in a Sleeping Their Way to the Top manner with KIRYO and city officials, including a new suit and a laser cannon.
  • Erio goes from broken surplus gear from Katsuragi to pose as a hunter, to an exoskeleton like Akira's first suit through another deal with him, to a KIRYO issued suit and gear as part of the gang's testing contract with them, to Akira’s hand-me-down KIRYO CA 31R add-on equipped armor and accompanying guns.
  • Revin gets a lot of these as the bright side of his Indentured Servitude.
• Milkman Conspiracy: There's a conspiracy of maids intertwining the old world A.I.s and the Corporate Government. They are the rebuilt remnants of the Lion Steel corp, who used to send android servants, but settled for using humans due to being unable to produce them on their own, resulting in Ninja Maid like Shiori.
• Mind over Matter: The A.I. Tsubaki in her automaton proxies, is seemingly able to use telekinesis to, among other things, deflect a falling skyscraper in the opposite direction, and turn heavily armored soldiers to Ludicrous Gibs with a wave of her arm.
• Mini-Mecha: There are multiple different types of these in the setting, often dubbed confusingly by fan translations as "powered suits". They are most often employed by the corporate government. Kain uses one that’s Multi-Armed and Dangerous with six heavy weapons. Akira in one battle gets pursued by one equipped to act like an attack helicopter. Nelia tends to equip hers to specialize as a Close-Range Combatant. The high level huntress Mercia has hers stacked to the brim with guns.
• Mirrors Reflect Everything:
  • The giant bee Mechanical Monster Akira fights launches mirror drones that reflect the Beam Spam it fires to hit smaller targets.
  • Haruka also uses mirrors to fire her Energy Weapon around corners.
• Misfit Mobilization Moment: The Siege of the slums sees Sheryl's gang as well as Akira's disparate friends all assembling to help. Even Shizuka helps in her own little way.
• Mistaken for Betrayal: When Akira spots Sheryl with Katsuya, Akira thinks that she’s replacing him, but Sheryl quickly and easily rectifies that and reassures him. This does push Sheryl past her Rage Breaking Point with Viola however, who arranged that meeting.
• Mob War: The inevitable result of the Lensman Arms Race between the Ezont Family and Haurias gangs is one of these that engulfs the whole slums into chaos. Sheryl’s gang barricade themselves inside their base.
• Mook Horror Show:
  • Akira saving Elena and Sarah from the raiders who took Elena hostage is presented like this, complete with the final one meeting a special end being forced to strip like Sarah was before Akira kills him.
  • Web novel chapter 220 is one with plenty of There Is No Kill Like Overkill, Akira fighting un-named female members of Katsuya's squad.
• More Dakka: Akira’s preferred SSB multi-weapon rifle and its variants have the potential to fire as fast as a chain gun, so this comes up.
  • During the Mihazono Hunter’s Office Attack, Akira, being surrounded by many invisible enemies, sprays the general area he senses their presence, revealing them when they're hit.
  • In one phase of the Siege of the Slums, Akira rides on the top of Carol’s wasteland camper around the parameter of the base, firing full auto and constantly ducking back inside the camper to restock ammo using compressed time.
• More than Mind Control:
  • It turns out that Katsuya being a Chick Magnet is due to a subconscious ability he has that makes women fall for him. Sheryl realizes this when she resists it.
  • Since Katsuya's ability is tied to him having the ability to connect to the old world domain, Akira has the same ability, but due to his closed-heartedness, never used it.
• Morph Weapon:
  • Shirakabe’s veteran hunter friend Kurosawa has a huge one that can transform between a sub-machine gun, a tank cannon, and more.
  • The Only Mostly Dead Zelmo Came Back Strong to ambush Akira using one of these.
• Morton's Fork: Kibayashi tends to give Akira these choices when he is on government contracts, with the aim of seeing recordings of him pulling off stunts from the extreme danger that puts him in. Some examples of this, are in the undercity, to either join the Exploration or Extermination teams (and not the defense team), as well as between going to the forward base’s frontline, or guarding somewhere conveniently close to the frontline.
• Moving the Goalposts: When Akira sells Revin medicine he can’t pay for to help him escape during Revin’s rescue request, Katsuragi makes a contract with Revin to take over his debt from Akira. The deal basically makes it so that Revin can only go to ruins he’ll need to buy equipment from Katsuragi to be able to handle, and that he’s only able to sell relics to Katsuragi even though he under-pays for them. And repeat. Revin does say he likes that he’s not charging interest, at least, and all the equipment makes Revin quite formidable.
• Multi-Armed and Dangerous: Cyborgs can be like this, as well as humanoid monsters. The most noteable examples are Kain, and the hunter Nergo.
  • Tiol in his monster form, can consume weapons and flesh to grow additional arms. Or just plain old guns.
  • Upon getting an arm regrowth treatment, Akira is able to move both his prosthetic and the culture-grown arm it’s connected to in seperate ways, surprising the doctor. This prompts the doctors to pester Akira about buying a four-armed augmented suit, which he declines.
  • The young Super-Soldier Haruka uses an old world style augmented suit with multiple arms sticking out the back.
• Mummies at the Dinner Table: Pamela, as part of a Villainous Breakdown, taking up the hobby of moving around Lattis’ dead body using his suit’s remote controls to pretend he’s still alive, talking to him, and holding him.
• Mundane Utility:
  • Augmented suits increase one's strength to be able to handle the recoil of powerful weaponry, going Guns Akimbo, and attacking opponents with superhuman speed and force. They're also helpful for simply lugging more stuff around or moving wreckage out of the way.
  • Inverted Trope with Old World knives, which were originally meant to simply be practical, everyday knives for civilians. But by shooting the safety, you make it into a war grade Laser Blade before it disintegrates after a few seconds.
  • Alpha is an A.I. with the calculation capability of a super-computer. She ends up doing things like homeschooling and sorting Akira's emails.
• Muscles Are Meaningful: Akira is noted to be short and scrawny for his age because of how young he is and how little he got to eat before he started making money with Alpha's help. Because of this, he can't comfortably carry and fire more than a single assault rifle at a time without the help of an augmented suit, compared to older, more fit, and more experienced hunters who are armed to the teeth. When his augmented suit is damaged beyond repair, he has to give up hunter work until his new one ships in because he can't handle his weapons without it.
• Must Make Amends: After Elena and Sara side wholly with Katsuya in an argument he has with Akira over a pickpocket, the women see the icy side of Akira’s Sugar-and-Ice Personality for the first time and realize that they Didn't Think This Through. They spend several months trying to earn back Akira’s trust.
• Mutual Kill: What theoretically destroyed the Old World civilization, was that people all used their old world connector ability to project their emotions into others, to make each other commit suicide, leaving only those unable to communicate, and robots, behind.
• My Skull Runneth Over: The Old World internet still exists, and those who aren't careful might have huge chunks of it directly downloaded into their heads, resulting in their brains shutting down from sheer Sensory Overload. Alpha protects Akira from this by acting as a filter for it to go through, preventing him from suffering its effects while also hoarding the information to herself to reveal to Akira at her discretion.
  • Carol discovering she was an old world connector in her Origins Episode was a barely survived one of these in the Mihazono Ruins.
• Mystery Meat: The cheapest and free food in the slum city is an unrecognizable mush made from nanomachines and monster meat. While it passes for food, it's also disgusting and full of residues that would likely shave years off your life if eaten continuously. Having eaten it for years, Akira gives Sheryl a million aurum to help her buy meals for the other slum kids under her care, considering it a good enough deed to win him some of his good luck back.
• Myth Arc: Alpha and her mysterious goals, as well as the Nationalist Rebels. Both are tied together by Yanigisawa.
• Nanomachines: Nanites are mentioned as Old World technology that can be used to rapidly (but painfully) close wounds by consuming them as pills and rubbing them on wounds. Nanites are also used to create enhanced humans who are capable of superhuman feats of strength and agility, but this also essentially turns them into Cyborgs reliant on a continual supply of nanites to survive.
• Necessary Drawback:
  • The Weaponized Animal biological type monsters naturally grow weapons on them as well as ammo from their special Nanomachine filled organs… but it takes time and food for them to replenish that ammo after they run out.
  • Different augmented suits have different modes and energy consumption rates; if a suit runs out of power, it becomes more of a burden than a help due to its weight. For instance, Akira’s second augmented suit has a mode that lets it better repel bullets, but use up its energy pack quickly. Carol’s old-world inspired suit is like this by default, but she only brings it for high risk missions and can afford it.
  • The SSB multi-weapon rifle has a component that prevents all recoil, but it consumes energy from an energy cell, meaning its energy supply needs to be managed along with its ammo, as well as having to pay to replace them.
• Neck Lift:
  • Yajima does this to Reina while taking her hostage against Akira and Shiori.
  • After Carol charges the high-level hunter Babalodo 10 billion aurum for a night, he ended up bartering his team’s information and plundering their expense account in order to pay her. This results in his team leader Xellos confronting Carol and trying to intimidate her while lifting up Babalodo by his neck. After Carol explains how she had no malicious intent, Xellos profusely apologizes… while still holding Babalodo up in the air by his neck. Eventually letting him down.
• Neglectful Precursors: The reason the region Akira lives in is filled with monsters, is automated defenses and automated factories supplying them left behind by the deceased old world civilization. Exaggerated Trope with things like vending machines with enough security to kill hunters, and how flight is impossibly dangerous due to old world air control systems sending monsters at those who attempt it.
• Neural Implanting: Deconstructed. When Shirou uses telepathy to put data he stole from a computer he hacked into Akira’s brain, it’s like an incomprehensible foreign language to him. Alpha has to refine it.
• Never Smile at a Crocodile: Oversized alligators the size of a bus are among the monsters prowling the wastelands. They can charge at surprising speeds and easily swallow someone whole if they aren't careful. Akira also encounters a building-sized, armored, two-headed crocodile with cannons growing from its back on one mission. Its Healing Factor forces him to use expensive CWH ammo to put it down.
• N.G.O. Superpower:
  • The Ezont Family and Haurias gangs in Kagumayama’s slums. They grew powerful enough to have their troops, mostly ex-hunters, equipped with high tech Powered Armor, Mini-Mecha, and tanks. For how they got that much money, they threatened most of the gangs and corporations outside the city walls into loaning it. As for how the city government feels about them, since dispatching the army to crush them would be expensive, they hire Viola to manipulate them into fighting each-other, taking advantage of the chaos to assassinate both gang’s leaders.
  • It’s noted that hunters on the front lines form groups that are strong enough to challenge the Corporate Government. This is part of why the Hunter’s Office has its Fantastic Rank System, to make sure powerful hunters are given adequate perks to keep them happy.
• No Range Like Point-Blank Range: Since the series takes into account the fact that bullets stopping power lowers the farther they're shot, getting closer is a tactic Akira uses when his firepower is too little. Deconstructed as this often leads to a Wrecked Weapon, or worse, wrecked limbs.
  • This is how Akira kills Tiol’s Humongous Mecha monster-hybrid form, emptying a multi-weapon rifle directly into his face. Shredding both his arms due to the lack of regard for the recoil.
  • Due to the Implacable Man nature of old world automatons, Akira ends up emptying his rifles at point blank range into them.
  • When killing Tiol for good, Akira uses grenade rounds for his SSB rifle at point blank range, wrecking the gun and destroying his left arm.
  • Fighting in Gravity Screw smoke that slows down bullets, it turns out, doesn't stop this.
• Night of the Living Mooks:
  • A Ghost Story told about the Mihazono ruin is that the ghosts of dead hunters return to their comrades to kill them in order to keep them company. This is actually based on how Sarenthal’s A.I. hacks dead hunter’s Powered Armor, which she does to ambush The Squad on their way out.
  • The Ninja Maid and Battle Butler forces of Chloe, are equipped with functions to keep them fighting no matter how injured or dead they are, limbs missing or anything, so Akira has to deal with them standing up from the dead.
• Not Afraid to Die: Servants from Reina’s company, get brainwashed from a young age after being rescued from the slums, to prioritize their objective over their lives, so when they fight as a large group, they willingly sacrifice themselves for their objective. Shiori was basically demoted to the lowest level of servant for being more loyal to Reina than the company.
• Now, Let Me Carry You: The Siege arc is this for Sheryl and her gang giving back to Akira.
• Nudity Equals Honesty: Part of the reason Alpha was nude when first meeting Akira was to avoid making whoever can see her run away, due to this impression.
• Older Than They Look: It’s noted that due to powerful medicines counteracting aging, the existence of cyborgs, cosmetic surgery, etc, that many hunters are significantly older than they look. Akira is a slight example due to how malnutrition in the slums stymied his body’s growth until a hospital treatment allowed it to recover.
• Ominous Cube: Cube relics are miraculous ancient nanomachine factories that can recreate an entire old world city or military base, complete with residents. This makes them highly sought after. Most everything relating to them is Classified Information.
• Ominous Fog: The "colorless mist" is a phenomenon in which a strange, transparent fog descends over an area. It's extremely hard to perceive with the naked eye, only blurring the edges of objects in one's vision. But it's also extremely dangerous, as it scrambles radio, electromagnetic radar, sounds, and smells. Guns will suffer a unilateral drop in effectiveness, electronic locks will cease to work, and all forms of long-range communication will be filled with static. Naturally, this make things exponentially more difficult for a hunter, even if it also reduces the effectiveness of the monsters' tracking systems.
• One-Hit Polykill:
  • Akira uses his entire stockpile of CWH rounds to slaughter the scorpions rushing at him in the tunnels of a ruin. Thanks to being forced to run through such a narrow space, the armor-piercing rounds splatter a dozen scorpions with every shot, their bodies being mashed together by the devastatingly powerful ammunition.
  • Reina does this to three monsters with her new sniper rifle to impress Akira, getting a good response.
  • Akira's AF anti-material Cannon can be set to a diffused setting, which he uses to take down entire swarms of monsters in one attack. It's not very cost-effective to use it like that, though.
• One Nation Under Copyright: Kugamayama City and most of the other remaining metropolises in the post-apocalyptic setting are ruled by the interests of the largest and most powerful corporations. Kugamayama is controlled by Sakoshita Heavy Industries, a MegaCorp that runs the Hunter's Office in the city and provides what few other public services are available.
• Online Alias: Akira has to have what this is explained to him by Alpha when Shiori uses one to purchase information from Carol without the hunter’s office catching wind of it.
• One Size Fits All: Augmented suits are made of a special elastic metal weave that starts at a default size, but it can stretch or shrink based on data input to fit anyone.
• Only Mostly Dead: It’s explained by Akira’s Mad Scientist acquaintance Yatsubayashi that it’s not uncommon for hunters to have a 'black box' of sorts within their body that allows their personality and memories to be put into a cyborg body after their death. This is why it’s considered important in medivac operations to retrieve corpses, in case they have such an implant. This is usually part of an insurance plan.
• Only One Name: The vast majority of characters. Reina, Shiori, Kanae, and Chloe have their family names revealed eventually.
• Opposing Combat Philosophies: Akira is sure to get into arguments with those hunters who prefer melee combat, dismissing that idea. He gets won over on the usefulness of swords gradually, but particularly takes umbrage with the Bare-Fisted Monk approach.
• Organic Technology: The basis of many of the monsters. They typically have nanomachine filled organs that let them consume inorganic materials to grow ammunition and weapons on their bodies, and they also evolve into different subspecies based on what they eat. According to Alpha, the technology to make them in factories was common in the old world, and a lot of their quirks are a result of faulty technology (and bored A.I.s).
• Overzealous Underling: Shijima wanted to negotiate with Sheryl to buy territory that her gang was too spread thin to manage. Wataba instead spouted threats and demanded her whole territory, getting Killed Mid-Sentence for trying to threaten Shizuka, then dragged through the streets to Shijima’s base as an example.
• Paper Tiger:
  • The gang leader Sibea was an ex-hunter who was known for pointing guns at people (which he did so because he thought they were weaker than him). This is contrasted in the slum people’s minds to Akira, who not only kills Sibea, but drew out and massacred half of his gang for trying to kill Sheryl on her first day as boss.
  • Both the veterans within and many hunters outside of Drankam, consider its younger members to be this for having equipment and hunter ranks that are too much for their skill and experience. Indeed, when there are Red Shirts from Drankam, they’re always younger members
  • Rumors start being spread by an information broker (Viola) about Akira being this, which causes him to be hounded by pickpockets. This leads to him being comforted by Sheryl and Shizuka, before some hunters think the rumor means Sheryl’s base he’s spending all his time in, is vulnerable, and attacking. The rumor comes to a stop after he fights them off.
  • In the end, it turns out that Katsuya was one of these, and loses to Akira despite Akira having severe handicaps.
• Parrying Bullets:
  • Olivia uses a Laser Blade to do this against the beams of several government Mini-Mecha.
  • Akira eventually uses his liquid-metal sword to cut tank cannon rounds in two, as well as Alpha adjusting the forcefield holding that metal in place to deflect beam cannon shots.
• Passive-Aggressive Kombat: Used to show Character Development. Reina's higher status relative Chloe tries to engage in this with Shiori and Reina, but Reina having become a Humble Hero and letting off some Self-Deprecation humor unnerves and frustrates her into leaving. They have a few more such exchanges with similar results.
• Path of Inspiration: The way Nationalists talk and think about their cause makes them sound almost more like religious fanatics than freedom fighters.
• People Puppets:
  • Once Akira gets Powered Armor, Alpha is able to control it to increase his physical capabilities and perform highly complex movements for him at the cost of battering his body (which is usually compensated for by taking Nanomachine medicine).
    • With appropriate permission, Alpha can actually puppet Akira’s physical body as well, to improve his movements.
  • The Sarenthal A.I. is also able to puppet dead hunter’s suits to ambush Akira and The Squad within the tower. That’s apparently something experienced hunters have faced, so only the rookie team members struggle with the ambush.
• Percussive Therapy:
  • Carol, after flubbing her attempt at extracting the source of Akira’s odd strength from Elena and Sara, takes out her frustrations on some monsters.
  • And then there's Sheryl unloading a handgun at the door Viola left through and throwing it on the ground because of Viola's Relationship Sabotage scheme and I Shall Taunt You remarks that Sheryl ignores because Viola's a necessary evil.
• Phlebotinum du Jour: This series loves its Nanomachines.
• Phlebotinum Overdose:
  • Healing nanomachines, as well as accelerant drugs, which slow down the percieved flow of time, have the side effect of putting the user into a coma if they take too much of it. Akira eventually tries to get around the medicine issue by taking small doses out of combat.
  • Having too much time compression granting stimulants cause Shiori, Kanae, and Erio to collapse.
• Playing Both Sides:
  • Being The Chessmaster, this is pretty common for Viola, to offer information that makes someone act the way she wants, so she can have others react to it. Most notably selling info to The Don Rogert Ezont that results in him taking Sheryl and Alna both captive, to be The Bait for Akira to attack, as well as informing the rival Hauritas gang of the vulnerability that will create to have the gangs destroy each other in a Mob War.
  • In the rivalry between Akira and Katsuya, Alpha is supporting both of them, albeit with her support to Katsuya being limited. Since there are two Alphas on the same hardware, essentially, Akira’s Alpha negotiates with the other to get 60% of their processing power to help her predict better after she inaccurately predicted Akira’s death.
  • Yanigisawa does this all the time, being a Double Reverse Quadruple Agent.
• Playing Possum:
  • Yarata Scorpions are Big Creepy-Crawlies smart enough to play dead near the corpses of other scorpions to catch unwary prey (usually hunters) off-guard.
  • One of the tricks Alpha can use when others besides Akira can see her, is to keep on displaying her own corpse while still providing her full support, like she does in Akira's fight with Nelia, allowing her to launch a fake attack later as a distraction.
  • When Akira trains Sheryl’s gang who Alpha’s giving just them her support to through Augmented Reality goggles, he has to deal with them faking being downed and so makes it his routine to shoot them up close with simulated rounds to be sure.
  • A villain mistakenly believes Akira is doing this when he falls unconscious during their fight.
• Playing with Syringes: The Mad Scientist Yatsubiyashi sets up a clinic in the slums, offering those who go there two choices: Pay, or be healed at the cost of being subject to experiments. He uses this to circumvent regulations about running trials and such. He also makes multiple offers to Akira to give him discounts in exchange for experimental treatments.
• Point Defenseless: Generally Averted. Missiles are always high targeting priority for monsters to shoot down, which ends up being a significant problem in the fight against the Spider Tank Kaiju. Alpha is also good at shooting down missiles, once Akira gets the appropriate vehicle mount for her to use his chain gun.
• Powered Armor:
  • An augmented suit is a special mix of Future Spandex and an exoskeleton that greatly boosts one's strength and agility. Using it incorrectly can lead to wear and tear on one's body, but it's an enormous help in traversing a battlefield. Because of the risks, there are classes on how to utilize them, and Alpha gives Akira additional training so he doesn't become reliant on it. That said, it's explicitly called a "suit" and not "armor" because it offers no protection against gunfire or monsters. In addition, it's costly and time-consuming to repair, meaning that hunters are incentivized to use the enhanced strength and speed it provides to not get hit at all.
  • Lattice, Chloe’s chief Battle Butler, has a unique set of armor that combines the functions of a Mini-Mecha in an augmented suit, blurring the line, including having flight and strong Deflector Shields.
• Power Limiter: Augmented suits typically have safeties programmed into their software to keep them from injuring the user. When Alpha rewrites the software of the ones Akira gets, she removes those, and Akira typically makes up for the great number of minor injuries that causes him by taking Nanomachine medicine even before battle starts.
• The Power of Love: Surprisingly for such a cynical setting, this shows up. Tiol, after becoming a monster-hybrid, is able to regain his consciousness due to seeing Sheryl, his unrequited love.
• Power Perversion Potential:
  • Alpha uses left over data from Elena’s Everything Sensor Akira buys to recreate Elena and Sara’s naked bodies in order to watch Akira’s reaction. This scene was cut from the manga adaptation.
  • Akira’s later augmented suits have functions to simulate the sense of touch through their gloves. This is naturally used by Alpha to sexually harass Akira by forcing him to touch her breasts, which is possible because she’s inputting that simulated data into the suit.
• Predatory Business: Yatsubayashi claims that the medicine paste he gives Akira with the Sickly Green Glow is only uncommon because some of the MegaCorp in the government being this to the corporation who makes it.
• Pro Bono Barter:
  • It’s not uncommon for hunters to be paid in relics instead of money out of practical consideration. As well as the government paying in hunter rank instead of cash.
  • This is how Carol ends up serving as a Knowledge Broker, her taking information as payment out of consideration for her clients having difficulty paying her.
• Protection Racket: This is the standard means for slum gangs collecting income, although Sheryl's gang also does things like salvaging wrecks and scraps for Katsuragi until their relic selling and eventually hunting businesses get up and running. As the gang go From Nobody to Nightmare, they extract money from the other gangs, in a protection racket of their rackets.
• Psychic Link:
  • Katsuya forms one of these with his squad, called a local network, unconsciously due to him being an old world connector, resulting in inhuman levels of coordination almost like a Hive Mind, as well as them sharing his emotions even rooms away. It also means they’re Not Himself and more prone to risk taking.
  • It’s common practice for MegaCorp employed old world connectors to form a sort of relay network between each other to bypass communication disruptions as well as facilitate spying, and Mission Control like aid. Alpha helps Akira set up one of these arrangements enabling for Shirou Seeing Through Another's Eyes.
• Publicity Stunt: As Akira gets more famous, he gets involved in a number of these, knowingly or not.
  • After Akira wins against Rogelt Ezont’s Mini-Mecha on foot, the company that made it is worried about that bad publicity, and thus hire Yanigisawa and Nelia to have Nelia pilot that same mech alongside Akira in battle to overshadow him. This just barely fails initially, until they pay Akira a bribe to cover up his final blow against Tiol, making the stunt a success.
  • Inabe sets Sheryl’s gang up with a Flawed Prototype Augmented Reality program, to both help her, and test it out. The company making it hope to be able to use it enabling people to beat Akira for advertising. That doesn’t work out, but he actually provides immensely insightful feedback instead due to his experience with Alpha, and the training really helps him finally become a One-Man Army.
• Pulling Themselves Together: Those who use the Super Serum based on Old World medicine can do this, which causes Akira to say What the Hell Are You? when fighting against Tiol’s resurrected form.
• Punch-Clock Villain: While many of the hunters Akira and allies have to fight are people who turned to crime and/or terrorism, some of them are just this.
• Punched Across the Room: Alpha often has Akira deliver a kick across the room when controlling Akira’s Powered Armor. Shirakabe basically specializes in this with suitable equipment. Akira tries to imitate him but breaks his foot in the process despite some success due to Alpha's suit modifications that give Shirkabe a misunderstanding.
• The Purge: It’s noted that if any slum gangs let their territory get too dirty, the government will use that as an excuse purge it in a firestorm, to keep the slum population in check and prevent spread of disease. This is why Sheryl ultimately has to sell some of it.
• Putting the Band Back Together:
  • After Katsuya dies, Kurosawa and many other veterans who quit rejoin Drankam since the pro-young-hunters policy is revoked.
  • It turns out that the A.I. Alice built a MegaCorp using Reina’s family in the hopes of doing this for the old world Lion Steel Corp, negotiating with any other A.I.s from that corporation to join her in managing it.
• Private Military Contractors: Hunters act as this during patrol and extermination missions, being sent in to wipe out monster nests and guard the city from monster incursions. Gangs like Drankam also form to gain more clout and recognition for more work. The City Government also has its own private army who work solely for the government rather than hunting relics.
• Punishment Detail: After an attack is repelled on the Great Distribution inter-city transport Akira guards, the hunter guards who retreated inside from the battle are assigned to scrubbing the roofs covered in monster fluids as punishment.

Q - Z

• Ragnarök Proofing: It’s noted that the old world relics being like this is a big part of their desirability, and they are like that because the society that built them is so advanced. It seems that it takes some energy to preserve them, as monsters types that absorb energy from an area create ruins filled with objects that crumble to dust when touched instead.
• Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs: When Akira ends up in hand-to-hand combat with the cyborg robber Zelmo, thanks to Zelmo using a drug to compress his time perception like Akira can, and them both having augmented suits, their ‘brawl’ consists of this, dodging each others hits.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: When Akira first brings in a strange relic from the Kuzusuhara Ruins, he's outraged that Nojima, the clerk at the relic exchange office, only gives him 300 aurum for it: barely enough for a meal. Even after Akira is tempted to pull a gun on him, the clerk tells him that his anger is understandable and to come back tomorrow after the relic is fully appraised. When Akira does return, the clerk hands him 200,000 aurum for the relic along with the relic he just brought in. Given the number of shady figures in the office the first time, it's implied that the clerk purposefully withheld payment to protect Akira from those who would mug or kill him for the money.
  • Kurosawa, the veteran hunter who is A Father to His Men so much that he makes a living being hired to lead teams.
• Reclaimed by Nature: The Lida Commercial Zone ruins, which have Fantastic Flora weeds which can ruin a car within a day of being parked there.
• Recursive Ammo:
  • Lattice’s flying augmented suit launches barrages of missiles that split into smaller missiles like this to pepper a whole area.
  • The enemy bombardment during the Siege of the Slums has about thirty self-propelled artillery pieces bombarding the area around Sheryl’s base with this, loaded with a combination of artificial colorless mist, as well as the bullet slowing variant of that.
• Red Shirt Army:
  • Drankam's young hunters are used for this, under Katsuya's command, where they run rampant as Boisterous Weakling and Leeroy Jenkins novices, giving him Survivor Guilt.
  • Later in the web novels, it's a repeated occurrence for government Mini-Mecha formations to be absolutely trashed in a Curb-Stomp Battle by One-Man Army Old World A.I. in their automaton bodies.
• Reduced to Dust: Not only can an A.I. effortlessly turn people to Ludicrous Gibs, they can also do this, as discovered by Chloe when she's Instantly Proven Wrong that she's won her confrontation with Reina and Akira.
• The Remnant:
  • Almost all monsters are remnants of the Old World civilization’s security systems. So in a sense, hunters are fighting a Forever War against another civilization that predates theirs.
  • The old world autamatons Olivia and Alice for the Lion Steel Corp. Alice, the A.I. Reina’s grandfather found and became a Puppet King for, decided to Stary My Own branch of the Lion Steel Corp since it had seemed destroyed. And thus the resulting corporation controls many cities within the Corporate Government, appointing human maid servants due to their small amount of old world autamatons.
  • During the Siege of the Slums, the remnants of the Ezont and Hauritas gangs join on the enemy's side in revenge for Akira destroying their gangs.
• Remote Body: Certain characters control many of these at once.
  • Tiol, after becoming subject to experiments turning him into a monster hybrid, creates a swarm of copies of himself that are extremely tough, and swarm Akira in the ruins.
  • The Ninja Maid Pamela, Chloe’s servant, controls automaton maids remotely like this to do complex maneuvers, eventually joined by copses she puppeteers by controlling their augmented suits. Both continue attacking even after being dismembered. Her talent for this is considered Power Born of Madness by some of her co-workers.
• Renegade Splinter Faction:
  • As Yanigisawa explains to Nelia, Project Rebuild, despite being disbanded for its unethical human experiments, was broken into secret splinter factions to continue their activities with better Plausible Deniability.
  • After Akira kills Katsuya, Airi leads the remaining resentful members of Drankam’s Pro-Katsuya hunters, having them all disappear at once, being hired by the Lion Steel Corp to attack Akira, but fleeing with the high end gear they got as advanced payment for the deed.
• The Reveal:
  • That Katsuya can interact with the old world domain. Additionally, he has a unconscious power to More than Mind Control women into loving him.
  • That there are two Alphas on the same hardware, and that the other person she’s supporting is Katsuya.
  • That Shiori and Kanae are actually agents working for an A.I. influential within the Corporate Government, Alice.
  • The reason Akira had such a rough childhood, was because the fact that he could connect to the old world domain means he broadcasted his emotions into everyone around him, leading to them taking advantage of him. The reason so many characters actively think and say that Akira seems weak, is because he projects his self-image into their brains. Kain is able to resist these projected emotions entirely, which was why he was able to be so impressed by Akira. Furthermore, part of the reason Akira has such "bad luck" encountering monsters, is that they’re drawn to old world connectors specifically.
  • That Carol is an old world connector, and that’s tied to all of her peculiarities.
• Revenge Myopia:
  • Bounty hunters going after Akira take it personally when he kills their leader in self-defense, which results in Shiori, Kanae, Reina, and Togami coming in as The Cavalry and stopping them from attacking Akira again. The former team of said leader also have some bitter feelings.
  • Airi hates Akira for killing Katsuya in self-defense enough to quit Drankam and lead a Renegade Splinter Faction out from it.
• The Revolution Will Not Be Civilized: The Nationalists, the main enemy of the Corperate Government, most notably represented by Kain, and whose members are typically cyborgs.
• Rewatch Bonus:
  • The Reveal that Akira has been, due to being able to connect to the old world domain, unconsciously projecting his feelings into others heads casts a great many earlier scenes in a different light.
  • A later reveal, that Carol is an old world connector, makes a number of earlier coincidences seem a lot less coincidental.
• Right Hand Versus Left Hand:
  • Common within the Drankam hunter gang. For instance, Mizuha lies on her reports that Elena and Sara were happy with being The Scapegoat and having their pay cut. This results in Drankam having to pay significantly more to the two later, when combined with the fact their factional infighting kept them from picking a commander for the operation in question.
  • Akira having to fight several different groups of hunters during the Inner Kuzusuhara Ruins Assault, most of whom formally have orders to protect him as he searches for relics.
• Ringer Ploy: When Sheryl’s gang is hired to identify corpses for debt companies, they each dress up as Akira to ward off anyone from attacking them. They decided to do that on their own, but Akira also distributes his guns to them after he decides to help on a whim.
• Robot Buddy:
  • Alpha teases Akira with the prospect of appearing in a humanoid body as part of his reward if he completes her request. When Akira mulls the possibility of buying a commercial automaton body for Alpha to inhabit, her reaction is to Let Us Never Speak of This Again. Alpha confirms in a White Void Room dream that she does have access to such bodies, but they aren’t permitted into the area her request takes place in.
  • The Mauve Shirt hunter Rodin recalls rumors of hunters having found automata in ruins and by pure luck had them register that hunter as the owner, proceeding to make their further explorations into a breeze, which prompts Rodin to fall for the Shmuck Bait of awakening Olivia who punches him through his chest.
  • The Origin Story of Alice and Lawrence, the latter being The Patriarch of Reina’s family, is a subversion: Lawrence was made a Puppet King to allow Alice legitimacy within the Corporate Government so she can undermine it from within.
• Roboteching: After Akira gets a modification to his grenade launcher to allow it to serve as a mini-missile launcher, its missiles float in the air before heading to his targeting laser.
• Robot War: Hiring hunters to explore ruins is essentially a new civilization (the Corporate Government) fighting a war against the Old World represented by their Artificial Intelligence such as Tsubaki and their security machines both mechanical and organic, with the human side being descendants of their former masters. There is some Double Agent work going on with this, via Alice working through Lawrence to gain power from human domains using the Lion Steel corp, Yatsubiyashi working with them to reclaim his place in the Rebuild Institute, and Alice funding the Rebuild Institute who are aligned with the machines.
• Royal Favorite: While there are no nobility, this is still basically a Discussed Trope.
  • Sheryl was living as the favorite to Sibea before Akira killed him. She then, after teaming up with him, proclaims herself Akira’s favorite. Whether Akira or Sheryl is the one truly calling the shots in the gang (thus making the other the favorite) is an often debated topic afterwards and subject to conflicting rumors.
  • It’s a major plot point that the important government and hunter’s office official Kibayashi has taken an interest in Akira as his favorite, which is why he can get such good deals like his expensive ammo being payed for with government funds when Akira is on their assignments.
• Running Gag:
  • Akira's nearly nonexistent sex drive becomes a source of comedy when women try to seduce him for the sake of getting him to spill his secrets. These women tend to be extremely confident in their looks, so they're offended when he reacts with complete indifference or confusion when they're basically throwing themselves at him. Meanwhile, Alpha cheers from the sidelines about how her anti-Honey Trap training (read: being a Shameless Fanservice Girl) is working on him.
  • But even Alpha isn't immune to this. Her frequent attempts to evoke Bathing Beauty on him as a means of getting closer to him are met with embarrassment at most. The rest of the time he's too busy enjoying the bath to pay attention to her.
  • Old World clothing having embarrassingly kinky designs. Akira even gets ogled by Celene while wearing male ones.
  • Akira’s feet being threatened or indeed harmed.
  • People mistaking Akira for a secret government agent. One person even assumes he's a Tyke-Bomb.
• Run or Die: After Akira gets an augmented suit, Alpha notes multiple times that should the odds be stacked too far against him, she’ll use her ability to control the movement of his suit to make him run so fast it breaks his legs.
• Sadistic Choice: Alicia has to choose at one point between giving medicine to her boyfriend Erio or another injured gang member which gives her conflicted feelings but she’s ultimately happy to have saved him.
• Savage Wolves: Cannon dogs are canine monsters the size of a small car with heavy weapons growing out of their backs from Old World nanobots in their bodies. They ruthlessly hunt anything that enters their sights, either pouncing on them or blasting them until there's not even a smear left.
• Scary Scorpions: Yarata Scorpions are giant scorpions the size of a car with thick carapaces that deflect normal assault rifle rounds. In addition to the general menace they pose with their strength and size, they're also smart enough to play possum near the corpses of their brethren and camouflage themselves among the rubble to ambush unwary hunters.
• Scenery Dissonance: A hallmark of the series.
  • Alpha, the AI helper of the main character, either wears fancy outfits or goes nude in places like slums or war-ravaged landscapes. Her excuse is that she draws everyone's attention so they know the can interface with the old-world domain through her. And that it’s training to prevent the protagonist from falling into a Honey Trap.
  • Shiori, one of the maids of the rich heiress Raina, sets up a room to look like a luxury restaurant in the middle of a ruined warzone. It's noted that it would invite scorn from other hunters if they saw it.
• Scenery Gorn:
  • The Kuzusuhara Ruins are lovingly drawn as this in the manga adaptation. It should be noted, that the deeper parts of it are perfectly intact and clean due to maintenance robots.
  • The Siege of the Slums sees it gradually turning into a pile or rubble not too different from the regular wasteland, except for Sheryl’s fortified headquarters structure.
• Secret War: One of these is going on as part of the Myth Arc. The Corporate Government is largely an Enemy Mine coalition on the anti-reconstruction side of it, with A.I.s largely being on the pro-reconstruction side of it. The reconstruction (or rebuild) in question, meaning the process of destroying the current human civilization to bring back the Old World to its former glory.
• Self-Duplication.:
  • After the Mad Scientist Yatsubayashi's test subject Tiol escapes from his lab by eating his restraints, he creates a wide variety of Implacable Man mechanical clones of himself, many of whom have guns growing out of them.
  • The Super-Soldier Haruka is able to split herself into multiple copies as one of her enhanced abilities from a nanomachine Super Serum.
• Send in the Search Team: After a certain disaster, there is an incident when a Drankam hunter's distress signal gets answered out of desperation by the rest of the gang and others, which leaves their squads trapped barricading themselves in buildings and sending out their own distress calls. This is Shiori giving Drankam High Command a coded signal threatening to have Reina's family crush the gang if they don't rescue Reina from the Sarenthal building, as she was only there due to pressure from Drankam.
• Sense Loss Sadness: Discussed. Akira is confused to see cyborgs at a restaurant and wonders why they're even sitting down given how many of them have lost the ability to eat food as part of their augmentations. Alpha surmises that they either have highly advanced prosthetics that allow them to digest food, or simply wish to try to eat food to bury any feelings of loss they might have over being unable to process it. Akira just scoffs at them for wasting perfectly good food.
  • This is explored more later. Shirou offers expensive food to his cyborg guards, but one of them exclaims that he can't eat, prompting Shirou to let him borrow a device allowing for the sensation remotely. It's also elaborated how cyborgs have a great deal of difficulty in sating their sexual desires, and Carol is considered to have worked a miracle by getting one as a repeated customer.
• Shady Lady of the Night: Carol works as a high-class prostitute in the slums of Kugamayama City. In addition to charging millions of aurum for a single night with her, she also coaxes valuable information out of her clients to sell to other hunters, making her a valuable Knowledge Broker.
• Shared Dream: Akira’s White Void Room dreams gradually include more people, starting with the second Alpha, and then a shadowy figure eventually revealed to be Katsuya.
• Shmuck Bait: For hunters, awakening Artificial Intelligence they find in ruins has a high chance of getting you killed, but a chance for great rewards if lucky enough for it to register you as its master, according to rumors. The Mauve Shirt Rodin falls for it out of his lust for Meido and gets a hole through his chest.
• Shockingly Expensive Bill:
  • Following his battle against three Relic Hunters, Akira is left with a 60 million aurum bill for medical treatment, only half of which was covered by his original payment. Hearing this nearly makes him lose consciousness then and there, but Kibayashi instead offers him a deal: the government will cover his bill and give him 100 million aurum in exchange for having his combat record wiped and not breathing a word of this to anyone. For Akira, it's a no-brainer given how little stock he puts into said record. He doesn't know that he's being scammed, as the hospital purposefully gave him expensive treatments to jack up the bill since the City Government would pay for it, all to pressure him into signing their non-disclosure agreement.
  • Later on, Shiori takes him out to a high-class restaurant and offers to foot the bill for the Impossibly Delicious Food there as an apology for attacking him in the ruins while Reina was kept hostage. By the time they're done, the staff are in disbelief at the size of the bill paid, but Akira never learns how expensive the bill is aside from it being way too high for him to come on a regular basis.
  • At one point Sheryl is given an estimate about how many resources Akira has used supporting her and her gang, in order to be able to pay him back (not that Akira really wants her to). That estimate is 3,800,000,000 aurum. One billion of that was from one day where Akira’s expensively up-armored Cool Car got left behind and destroyed in his rush to rescue her.
  • When Akira buys as many consumables as he possibly can on the government's dime to try to get his second forced government assignment cancelled, his transaction gets declined at Shizuka's shop. The Finance Ministry give Kibayashi a call, who then calls Akira to make sure it's not a case of stolen identity, before allowing the transaction to pass.
  • Carol once charged a high level hunter 10,000,000,000 aurum for a night. It caused him to steal from his team’s operating funds.
• Shoot the Bullet:
  • It's not uncommon for missiles, grenades, or rocket propelled grenades to be shot down mid-air by friends or foes.
  • Literal example when Akira uses two minigun equivalent SSB rifles against an attack aircraft chasing his APC, the sheer volume of fire from both sides causes some of their bullets to crash into each other and explode.
• Short Range Guy, Long Range Guy: This is what makes up the battle duo of Nelia and Akira.
• Shout-Out: Akira’s name is clearly a homage to the scifi AKIRA.
• Shrink Ray: The extended magazines Akira grows to prefer for his guns work by shrinking the bullets to the thickness of a hair before restoring them to their proper size once fired from the barrel. This naturally makes them really expensive.
• Sickly Green Glow: The nanomachine paste the Mad Scientist Yatsubiyashi uses glows like this. He claims the only reason it’s not more popular is because of predatory behavior by large corporations. Explained more under super serum.
• Side Bet: Erio and Colbert betting whether Akira would answer their message to help the gang with a side job. Erio bet Akira would come while thinking he wouldn't, to keep up morale, but he won due to Akira helping.
• The Siege: The Siege of the Slums, which served as an excuse for a Villain Team-Up of pretty much anyone Akira or Sheryl has pissed off over the course of the story to jump in on the enemy side. The reason for it is to collect the 50 billion aurum bounty put on Akira’s head by the Lion Steel Corp, combined with The Conspiracy by Alice working with Olivia and Yanigisawa to set up the battle in order to recruit Olivia into the company with a demonstration of their fighting strength.
• Simple, yet Awesome:
  • The AAH assault rifle is regarded in the same light as the AK-47 in real life. It's a rifle model with a hundred years of history that's renowned for being inexpensive, easy-to-use, and reliable. While it's far from the strongest firearm available to a hunter, it's popular because of its cheapness, ability to fire semi-automatic and full-auto, and decent stopping power. Even first-class hunters have at least one in their arsenal and many have an Ace Custom variant manufactured to their specifications. To some, an AAH rifle is essentially a Good Luck Charm on top of doubling as an excellent Emergency Weapon.
  • The AAH rifle's enduring popularity means that there are also some hunters who swear by it and use it as their sole weapon. These "AAH-fans" will take the gun against enemies that are normally too durable to take down just to prove the rifle's chops. Some particularly zealous fans eschew modifying the gun entirely when doing this, going on borderline suicidal missions to prove a point.
• Skeleton Key: Both Alpha and Yanigisawa have one of these that allow them to give orders to mechanical monsters and Artificial Intelligence they meet. It takes the form of a symbol for Alpha, and a card relic for Yanigisawa.
• Sleeping Their Way to the Top: Carol does this out of fear of her past catching up to her, sleeping with city and KIRYO officials to get herself better equipment than her hunter rank allows. She still payed for it, but slept with high level hunters to get that money too (though, she still sold maps of Mihazono to get some of it).
• Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: The setting is dark and punishes naivety. Akira learned from an early age to be suspicious of everyone given how he was constantly abandoned by those who offered him food and a place to stay once he outlived his usefulness. His ruthlessness saves his life on multiple occasions when he's forced into a firefight. But that doesn't mean that compassion is out of place in the setting, as Akira's decision to kill bandits he deemed a threat saves two women who become supportive mentor figures to him. In short, carving out a life in the slums of Kugamayama means knowing who your friends and your enemies are. Akira is rewarded for showing kindness to those deserving of it even when he's motivated by self-interest as well as when he's Properly Paranoid and ruthless enough to know who to pump full of lead.
• Snakes Are Sinister: The Overgrown Snake is a massive beast powerful enough to require multiple teams of monsters working together to defeat. It's a hodgepodge of biological and mechanical components from all the different monsters, machines, and vehicles it's eaten. It's deceptively fast for its size, can easily crush vehicles between its jaws or under its tail, and has powerful stomach acids that allow it to eat nearly anything.
• Sniper Duel: When Akira is surveying his surroundings from the roof of the base while it’s under siege, he gets into one of these with a few scouts and opportunists gunning for him at the edge of his weapon’s effective range, which doesn’t save them from having their heads blown off. Togami upon hearing him lightly call it testing new equipment, thinks he may have just learned why so many people want Akira dead.
• Snooty Haute Cuisine:
  • Shiori takes Akira out to an absurdly expensive restaurant where she offers to pay for a full special course meal for him if it means letting bygones be bygones between them. Compared to the slops of Mystery Meat he grew up eating with his hands off the floor, this is Impossibly Delicious Food he eats with a knife and fork. This illustrates the gulf between the rich and poor in Kugamayama City, as well as the wealth of high-level hunters who get to eat at restaurants like these on the regular.
  • Reina's status as a wealthy heiress is perhaps best demonstrated when she's trapped in a building with her bodyguards with hordes of mechanical monsters outside. While holding out in a barricaded room, she decides to dip into her emergency rations... which is more or less still a restaurant-quality meal eaten off a plate with a knife and fork atop a folding table. Even while in a life-or-death situation, Reina still manages to dine in a manner befitting her station.
• Some Nutty Publicity Stunt: Zelmo, catching on that someone is remote controlling Akira’s armor, thinks that the company that made it hired a hunter to remote control it as part of a Publicity Stunt to sell their suit as turning a useless slum kid into a badass, prompting him to pop jamming smoke that would block such remote control.
• Space Cold War:
  • The Ezont and Hauritas gangs are introduced in an N.G.O. Superpower mafia cold war.
  • The five major MegaCorp are involved in one of these with one another, sending various False Flag Operation attacks they brand as terrorists, with compensation money often being paid between them behind closed doors. The reason it stays cold is because the corporate government is an Enemy Mine arrangement to keep safe from the Old World A.I.s and their monsters.
• Spider Tank: One of the Kaiju bounty monsters is an Organic Technology one of these that reproduces smaller Giant Spider tanks from what it eats.
• Spin Attack:
  • Akira uses the ability to pre-program a firing pattern into his SSB multiweapon rifle, to throw it in a spinning pattern, creating a Death Blossom and showering an entire room with bullets. He does this to distract Katsuya long enough to kill him with Shiori’s sword.
  • The Flying Saucer type air patrol monsters Akira runs into have blades on their sides that they spin to attack in melee with.
• Springtime for Hitler: When Akira gets a request direct from the Hunter's Office to assist in the extermination of the Yarata Scorpion nests, he tries to get them to drop him from the mission by adding on a series of ridiculous demands like having the government pay for all the ammo he uses, getting additional pay for every scorpion he kills, and being allowed to move freely on his own. To his alarm and chagrin, they agree to all of his demands, forcing him to go on the mission. He then mutters that he should have asked for even more things like paying for medicine.
  • This happens again, and fails again.
• The Squad: While Akira spends much of the story fighting alone (with Alpha), he spends a good amount of time teamed up, at a minimum, with Elena and Sara.
  • Elena: The Leader, The Face, The Smart Girl (managing communications and sensors).
  • Sara: The Big Girl, Heavy Weapons.
  • Akira: The Spotter (despite Elena being a sensors expert), The Shooter.
  • Shirakabe: Sergeant Rock, Designated Point Man.
  • Reina: New Meat, Friendly Sniper.
  • Shiori and Kanae: Close-Range Combatant.
  • Togami: New Meat, Driver.
  • Carol: The Face (better at negotiations than Elena).
  • The Token Evil Teammate Nelia: Close-Range Combatant, Badass Driver.
  • Shirou: Mission Control, Hollywood Hacking.
• Start My Own:
  • The old world A.I. Alice started her own branch of the Lion Steel Corp, resulting in Reina’s family’s existence to serve as her proxies and fill out the company.
  • Then there’s Sheryl starting her own information network to compete with Viola’s.
• Stating the Simple Solution: Akira’s reaction to seeing Kanae defeat a monster using showy hand to hand martial arts moves is to state it’d be a lot quicker just to shoot the thing.
• Stealth Hi/Bye:
  • The old world A.I. Ninja Maid Olivia is pretty much an expert at this, combining Hologram and Chameleon Camouflage technology to achieve it.
  • Akira gets in the habit of doing this with his sixth augmented suit’s stealth function being boosted by Alpha, after he gets a 50 billion aurum bounty placed on his head by Chloe.
• Stern Chase: After the Inner Kuzusuhara Ruins Assault begins, absolute pandemonium breaks out when communications cut out, resulting in Akira fleeing in his vehicle through the ruins without Alpha’s support as several different forces take turns trying to kill him.
• Sticky Shoes: 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 Gravity Screw like scenes, like Akira fighting while standing on the side of his APC, or fighting his way up the side of a skyscraper.
• Stockholm Syndrome: Debatably, with all the threats Akira uses against Sheryl before she falls for him during her second Heroic BSoD, her doing so is this.
• Stylish Protection Gear:
  • When Akira is curious how Shiori and Kanae can fight as a Ninja Maid, they explain how the advanced technology in their maid outfits, which includes basically a high quality augmented suit underlay, make them actually quite practical.
  • The old world dress Akira gifts Sheryl provides significant protection, since most old world clothes are durable to Ragnarök Proofing levels.
• Super-Powered Robot Meter Maids: All Old World robots are killing machines. No exceptions.
• Super-Senses: It’s noted that many high level hunters get surgery to give them extra senses, sometimes more than a dozen. Akira has to use this excuse to keep from being discovered for being able to connect to the old world domain.
• Super Serum: Yatsubiyashi develops this in the form of green paste in different phases:
  • The first phase, is tried on Akira in the undercity, which works just like normal medicine.
  • The second phase developed using Old World knowledge from his deal with Tsubaki, makes Tiol’s resurrected form into a living Shapeshifter Weapon that can resurrect From a Single Cell.
  • The third phase as described under The Corruption, is basically advanced Old World medicine turned into a war machine that functions like downplayed Grey Goo.
  • The fourth phase, used on Haruka, is the most stable, allowing her Voluntary Shapeshifting, splitting herself, and many abilities used by the former types.
• Super-Speed: Deconstructed with Akira’s augmented suits. With Alpha’s assistance he can and does run super fast… it’s just his legs tend to be completely ruined when he does. Besides it consuming a lot of power.
• Super Spit: The large flying bug monsters that swarm over the east spit different varieties of acidic or sticky goop at the defenders of Akira's convoy, which leads to a few hunters making a Life-or-Limb Decision, and a Punishment Detail having to clean it all.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
  • A setting dominated by guns means that with just a bit of guidance and a handy means of detecting enemies around him thanks to Alpha, even someone as weak and meager as Akira can slaughter entire enemy groups and monsters. However, Alpha quickly points out during their training that without his powered suits or her aid, he'd be dead hundreds of times over, if not thousands, and an experienced human foe is still a massive threat if they can get the drop on him or equalize the fight, never mind a monster ambush.
  • Regarding the Sarenthal Tower reconnaissance request, all of the young hunters being put on the ropes by an ambush, including Akira who comes close to death, while the older squad members have no trouble at all and have to cover for the younger ones. This despite Akira being humble from the beginning, and both Reina and Togami having learned their Break the Haughty lesson; the right mindset doesn’t instantly make up for lack of experience.
• The Swarm: Organic monsters tend to congregate like this, in roving bands or around their nest.
• Sword Beam: Various powered swords and knives in the setting can launch these, including Shiori’s.
• Talking Is a Free Action: Generally this is a Justified Trope due to Akira using his time compression to talk super fast to Alpha. But then, there was Akira having what should be at least minute long conversation with his two human teammates in-between the sword swings of an enemy Mini-Mecha.
• Tall Poppy Syndrome: This infects the lower ranks of hunters; the desire to steal from more successful hunters as it would be easier than succeeding on their own. That’s why Akira faces other people more than monsters early on.
• Tampering with Food and Drink:
  • Regarding the free food provided by the government to the slums, it’s used as a testing ground for things like crops grown in irradiated fields, monster meats with unknown health effects, and food produced by dubious Old World relics, to see if they’re safe before selling them on the market.
  • Kibayashi warns Akira that high level hunters sometimes have their food drugged during negotiations, which makes him reluctant to go to restaurants when meeting officials, causing him to invite Inabe to Sheryl’s base, which creates some misunderstandings with the other slum gangs.
  • What made Akira and Old World connector was an agreement between some in the city government with Project Rebuild, to test nanomachines that make people into Old World connectors. Most of those who didn’t die of horrible mutations and such, got killed due to the telepathic side effects clashing with the survival of the fittest environment of the slums.
• Tank Goodness:
  • It's mentioned that truly first-rate hunters all own their own tanks to down monsters that would normally require squads of hunters to defeat. This is also why Katsuragi refuses to return to the city with a huge number of monsters on his tail, as he'll simply be blasted away by the tanks along with the monsters.
  • Akira eventually fights a number of these when ambushed by a several hunters in an encirclement due to the 50 billion Aurum bounty Chloe puts on his head. The tanks make paths out of force fields like Akira's A3 Sylpheed bike can, to maneuver straight up if necessary, and they barrage him with machineguns fire and missiles when he gets close.
• Target Spotter: A large coalition of hunters who ambush and surround Akira use captured and reprogrammed mechanical monsters to spot for their artillery bombardment, as well as data from any vehicles Akira gets close to, since each Everything Sensor the coalition is using are linked together. This makes them vulnerable to hacking, however…
• A Taste of Their Own Medicine:
  • One of the hunters-turned-bandits attacking Elena and Sara gets told by Akira to strip off his armor, before Akira shoots him anyway, which is exactly what those bandits did to Sara minutes before.
  • When Alpha gives her support to Sheryl’s gang via Augmented Reality goggles during their training exercises, Akira gets a taste of what his enemies experience.
• Technologically Advanced Foe: Going up against an old world A.I. is pretty much always fighting this, with the hopeless technological disparity.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork:
  • Akira does this with Shiori and Reina at first until they become Fire-Forged Friends.
  • Akira working with Togami, with Togami having a chip on his shoulder and Akira giving him Silent Treatment, until Togami undergoes a Break the Haughty transformation and their relationship becomes more neutral.
  • Sheryl any time she has to cooperate with Viola, often sending her a Death Glare for all the things she tries to pull, although Viola’s somewhat of a Stealth Mentor for her.
• Telepathy:
  • Considering Akira is able to interact with Alpha due to his natural Brain/Computer Interface, he is able to communicate with her like this after approving the appropriate Door Stopper contract he didn’t read. After he learns his time compression ability, it lets him have whole conversations with her within mere seconds.
  • Cyborgs tend to do their phone calls through Electronic Telepathy.
• Tentacled Terror: Subverted. Akira, on a mission clearing monsters from a roadway, gets informed that a giant cephalopod monstrosity is heading towards his team. Akira nonchalantly gets out his new AF anti-material cannon Wave-Motion Gun to test it on the monster before it can engage. Mission Control for the mission then messages Akira that his unit will be retreating until stronger reinforcements can deal with it, to which Akira responds in Danger Deadpan that it's been neutralized.
• Tempting Fate:
  • Akira begging for the 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.
• Thanks for the Mammary: Akira forcefully switching places with Carol while they both ride his motorbike, sees him doing this out of haste.
• There Is No Kill Like Overkill:
  • The old world knives that turn into a super powerful Laser Blade when the safety is shot off are often this, wrecking the room they’re used in with Absurd Cutting Power. Its only near the Kuzusuhara Ruins frontlines that Akira starts encountering enemies who can withstand it.
  • Akira using CWH ammo, meant for tanks, against Yarata Scorpions. It fills the entire cavern they were approaching him through with Ludicrous Gibs.
  • Subverted with Kain’s Macross Missile Massacre against Akira. He thought it was this and that he wouldn’t be able to find the body due to it disintegrating, but it wasn’t enough due to Alpha sacrificing Akira’s motorbike to shield him.
  • Togami attempting to use an anti-tank rifle against spiders climbing on Akira’s car.
  • Akira gets called out by the hunter-turned-robber Zelmo for using armor-piercing rounds against his squad mates, which turned two of them into Ludicrous Gibs, but Akira calls him out for having used those squad mates to shield himself.
  • During the Inner Kuzusuhara Ruins Assault:
    • Someone thinking that Akira is Playing Possum due to What the Hell Are You? fear and going to get an arms laden attack aircraft to finish him.
    • It's subverted once more with Tiol’s body, which Katsuya’s team crush to bits with their cars, but he eats a monster that came to eat him and regenerates himself.
    • When Akira is assaulted by a group of Katsuya’s squadmates who are unsupported by him, Yumina, or Airi, Akira massacres them with his expensive rounds turning some girls to Ludicrous Gibs, and leaving others as Half the Woman She Used to Be thanks to Shiori's sword.
• There Was a Door: After taking shelter in a skyscraper, Akira thinks to himself that his opponent really should have used the stairs, when having to jump away from the floor being blown out from under him.
• They Would Cut You Up: Alpha warns Akira that he might get dissected and be reduced to a Brain in a Jar if anyone finds out about his ability to interact with the Old World domain.
• 'Tis Only a Bullet in the Brain:
  • Justified. When the dead Drankam hunters spring to life to ambush Akira and The Squad, he thinks shooting their heads will stop them, but it does nothing. It’s actually their Powered Armor control units he needs to shoot, because those suits are being remotely controlled by the Sarenthal A.I.
  • Zelmo surviving Akira's headshot, which is justified by him having a digital backup of his mind stored in his body to be placed into a cyborg body at a later time.
• Token Evil Teammate: During the Forward Base attack, Nelia serves as this, working perfectly together with Akira since Badass Minds Think Alike.
• Too Awesome to Use:
  • Various expensive ammo types Akira gets really offend his sense of spending, leading to complaints and anguish about Alpha making him use them (see Depleted Phlebotinum Shells).
  • Akira offhandedly gives Reina and Togami permission to use any ammo they find in his APC to provide cover fire while he drives off in his Cool Bike. This leads to some Comical Overreacting by Akira when Togami loads Reina’s clips with expensive Homing Projectile rounds, which she laughs mischievously while firing.
• Too Desperate to Be Picky:
  • It's mentioned that hunters can't be picky about their nanite medicine because of how much they need it to patch wounds and stave off exhaustion while fighting monsters. So they're often forced to buy whatever medicine they can find because of how difficult it is to verify its effectiveness.
  • When Sheryl starts a food truck business with Katsuragi's help, she's able to overcharge for the hot sandwiches she sells due to bringing the trucks all the way out to a construction site in the wasteland. The construction workers and hunters present have no options besides her food and whatever they brought with them, allowing her to reap a handsome profit.
  • The Mad Scientist Yatsubiyashi offers discounts in exchange for being subject to his experiments, specifically setting up a clinic in the slums knowing he get a lot of experiments done. In his field clinics, he over-charges and demands hunters do missions for him in exchange for a discount on their treatment, too. While those that don’t accept are stuck in debt or are left to brave the journey back to the nearest base.
• Too Good to Be True: Akira thinks of this all the time due to his paranoia, but there are some key moments from Alpha.
  • When Akira goes into and loots the early part of an undiscovered ruin he found thanks to an old world map, Alpha thinks him getting out without anything bad happening is this. What follows is a chain reaction that leads to the surrounding area being strewn with corpses and three Kaiju on the loose, after some hunters retraced Akira’s steps to the ruin.
  • When the high strung Chloe desperately tries to butter up Akira to get his permission to own the MacGuffin she threatened Reina for, Chloe sends Akira an email sounding way too generous, which makes Alpha send a copy paste reply treating it as spam. This results in a sleepless Chloe tracking down Akira in hysterics.
• Took a Level in Badass: Akira does this gradually but noticeably. As well, Sheryl’s gang gradually morphing into essentially a Hunter Gang.
• Training the Peaceful Villagers: After Akira witnesses some of them getting cut down in a Curb-Stomp Battle, Akira accepts a request from Erio and Alicia to train volunteers from Sheryl’s gang. He works them hard using goggles that allow Alpha to provide them with customized Augmented Reality support, with the benefit of serving as training for Akira to fight them in mock battles. Played with in that, Akira gains almost as much as they do from it.
• Treasure Map: Alpha manages to download a map of facilities for an old world corporation from a old-world-domain terminal. What follows Akira's discovery of some of these untouched ruins, is other hunters quickly following in after him and becoming a Spanner in the Works by doing things like activating the automated tram bringing in monsters from deep in the city ruins, or shooting at a Projected Man A.I. turning the surrounding area into a warzone.
• Treasure Room: Akira ends up maintaining one of these once he gets a house, in order to get better deals for his relics. Of course, given what are considered relics, there’s no gold or precious gems in there, it’d more likely look like a general storeroom. Doing this allows for tricking other hunters into thinking he is looting an uncharted ruin in the Higaraka Residence area, leading to a massive Wild Goose Chase.
• Trick Bomb: Grenades that release man-made jamming smoke equivalent to and derived from the colorless mist, interfering with technology and transmissions in the area.
• Truce Zone:
  • The places in the slums where questionable free food is distributed are somewhat of an example. Just don’t disorder the line, or you’ll be beaten to death. Akira has to calculate just how far to stand away from it to be far enough away to avoid that, but close enough to avoid his food being stolen.
  • Hunters Office locations serve as this, it’s said picking a fight with someone in one is tantamount to attacking the city itself. This is why Akira chews out Erio for asking him to escort Sheryl to one.
  • Yatsubiyashi’s slum clinic is an example out of fear of him refusing to treat wounded.
• Two Lines, No Waiting: The series generally cycles through different plotlines like this, leaving a hint of a coming threat in that area, before seeing it manifest some arcs later. This is most apparent in the tendency for Akira to get heavily involved with Sheryl’s gang whenever he’s awaiting new equipment.
• Unfriendly Fire:
  • Kain blowing up Nelia’s empty mech before he goes Screw This, I'm Outta Here on the relic heist.
  • During the Inner Kuzusuhara Ruins Assault, communications being jammed results in an all out free-for-all as pandemonium breaks out. Including many hunters who are technically under orders to protect Akira, trying to take him down for various reasons.
    • Elena and Sara having to fire a bullet at an allied defensive position to get their attention to help when they run low on ammo on their way to safety.
• United Nations Is a Superpower: The world is generally split into three regions, west, center, and east. The series takes place in the east under the MegaCorp run government, while the central region is occupied by an alliance of nations within the U.N.
• Unorthodox Reload: Akira takes advantage of his time compression ability to toss clips into the air, and smack his SSB rifles up into them.
• Upgrade Artifact: Downplayed. When Akira takes an especially powerful old world medicine, it heals the brain damage caused by his time compression ability, and also fortifies his brain to be able to handle that more easily. That and his earlier Old World medicines also helped make him into a Super-Strength Differently Powered Individual.
• Urban Segregation: Kugamayama City has the slums whose residents are used as test subjects and Cannon Fodder, inside of its walls where the rich live surrounded by old world luxuries, and the lower and middle districts in-between making up the relative middle class.
• Vengeance Feels Empty: While Akira spends significant amount of time on getting his revenge for one or more Berserk Button 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 The Confidant to recover.
• Villain Respect: Akira gets this multiple times for his loyalty and I Gave My Word professionalism.
• Villain Team-Up: The Siege of the Slums is taken advantage of by The Remnant of the Ezont and Hauritas gangs, those slum lords who are angry at Sheryl and Akira for their domination over the slums, and Inabe’s political enemies. The conspicuous exception is Airi’s Renegade Splinter Faction of Drankam who want revenge on Akira for killing Katsuya. They got equipment from Lion Steel as advanced payment, then bolted.
• Virtual Reality: Most of the appearances of this are related to Shirou, he uses it to distract guards for his escape, and grew up with it as his main means of viewing the outside world. Yanigisawa seems to use VR goggles to interact with the Old World Domain at one point.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: Versions of old world medicine that gets refined by Yatsubiyashi to reshape beings into various artificial blueprints create horrible monstrosities that are mostly mindless. This seems to have eventually been refined into a stable Super Serum used by Haruka. She uses it to split herself, disguise herself as furniture, and create spider monsters with lasers out of her form that can merge together into a person.
• Walking Tank:
  • Quite a lot of larger mechanical or hybrid monster types are multi-legged war vehicles.
  • Akira goes up against a human crewed walker during the Siege of the Slums, equipped with powerful Deflector Shields, a main cannon Wave-Motion Gun that cuts trenches through the buildings, smaller cannons for medium range, and firing swarms of mini-missiles. Akira has his allies shoot down the missiles while he fires some Antimatter rounds to erase its existence.
• Walk on Water: Akira’s fifth augmented suit, the KIRYO CA 31R, has difficult terrain management functions that allow one to walk on mud, or even water if set to max power consumption, in addition to the Sticky Shoes function of his earlier suit. He just uses it for making an outright Improvised Platform.
• Walls of Tyranny: The walls of Kugamayama seemingly exist to keep the poor out. It's a dream of many hunters to live within them where it's safe. Deconstructed in that, the residents inside the middle district see the walls as a status symbol waste of money, and thus officials periodically have to arrange an Inside Job to justify their expense.
• Watch the Paint Job:
  • One of the few things to disrupt Akira’s Silent Treatment of Togami on their first mission together, is Togami trying to shoot off (relatively) small Giant Spiders from the surface of Akira’s car…with an anti-tank rifle.
  • Akira ends up loaning his Cool Bike to Reina and Togami, warning her about this in a joking exchange. Togami has a close call on the way back.
• Wave-Motion Gun:
  • Akira's fifth augmented suit has the AF anti-material cannon built into it that unfolds from his back when deployed. It's designed for killing Kaiju and Mini-Mecha at range. It's technically a particle weapon, not a laser, but disintegrates foes with a lot of light all the same.
    • Akira eventually upgrades from it to a LGP laser cannon, loaning the old weapon to Erio, who puts it to good use being worked to the bone in The Siege.
  • The inter-city transport Big Badass Rig Akira escorts has a huge one for larger monsters, and the Flying Saucer mothership that attacks it has a giant one for fire support.
  • The giant bee Mechanical Monster Akira fights has its stinger as one designed to fight large aircraft and thus inaccurate up close.
  • Carol eventually gets a laser cannon equivalent to Akira's cannon.
  • And then there's the MegaCorp Walking Tank that cuts trenches through the slums with its cannon.
• Weaponized Animal: The ruins and wastelands are filled with animals designed for use as living weapons. Many of them naturally grow armor and weaponry from their bodies thanks to the nanomachines implanted in their bodies. These nanomachines are also self-replicating, meaning that they can also reproduce to create even more animals like them.
• Weaponized Car:
  • Akira's second Cool Bike has two automated weapon mounts, that allow Alpha to directly fire Akira's chaingun to take down missiles.
  • Nelia, using her cyborg Brain/Computer Interface, repeatedly not only acts as a Badass Driver with her mind, but shoots their mounted guns as well.
• We ARE Struggling Together: There's a factional struggle going on within Drankam's ranks between a pro-young hunter faction and a pro-veteran faction. The former believes that young hunters are the future of the organization and that investments need to be made to cultivate talent, while the veterans feel that they're being forced to accommodate inexperienced hunters and unfairly getting their pay deducted for the young hunters' sake. This results in each faction trying to one-up the other in prestige and achievements in order to edge the other out of political relevancy.
• We Buy Anything: Generally speaking, most merchants are willing to buy nearly any Old World relic off hunters because of the profits gained from reselling them. However, many sites, such as the Hunter Office's own relic exchange center, have preferences that affect the payout. For instance, the Hunter's Office and City Government heavily prefer technological relics that can be reverse engineered for military purposes. Other merchants may take Old World clothing that's tougher than any modern armor available today, while others may refuse to buy it outright due to being unable or unwilling to find a customer to sell it to.
• We Need a Distraction:
  • Shirakabe hiring Boxed Crook debtors to serve as Cannon Fodder for his Bounty Monster Hunt mission. As a Pragmatic Hero, he also tampers with the other vehicles in the unit to force them to serve as this if need be. His two friends on heavy-weapons mounted motorcycles were meant to be the main damage dealers.
  • During the Forward Base attack, Akira is reduced to basically a Support Party Member serving as a distraction for his comrade most of the battle due to the overwhelming toughness of the monsters there, whom he can barely even hope to stagger.
  • During The Siege, the enemy distract Akira with a squadron of cheap unmanned Mini-Mecha at one point.
• Wham Episode:
  • In chapter 209 of the web novels, Viola making Akira see Sheryl and Katsuya together, crushing Katsuya’s heart, and stoking up the rivalries both between Akira and Katsuya, and between Sheryl and Viola.
  • In chapter 265: Akira is declared a monster for extermination with a 50 billion aurum bounty on his head by Chloe.
• Wham Line: In web novel chapter 246, Alpha saying that she plans to have Akira complete her request as soon as his ordered equipment arrives. That statement has a number of caveats attached, but that’s a long way from 0% chance of surviving it.
• What the Hell Are You?:
  • There's Running Gag is Akira receiving this.
  • During the Inner Ruins Assault, Akira gets his turn to say this multiple times.
  • Carol says it when Shirou checks a data recording despite it not having a wireless port.
• When All You Have Is a Hammer…:
  • AAH-fans are mentioned to go to absurd lengths to prove effective the gun is even though it wasn't designed to fight heavily-armored enemies. If they eschew upgrades and modifications, AAH assault rifle users will have to aim for weak points, get into dangerously close range, and other inefficient means of attack to do more than Scratch Damage.
  • Chloe chastises one of her Ninja Maid subordinates for suggesting Murder Is the Best Solution for her rivalry with Reina, saying that depending on raw force makes you think like this, being blinded when it comes to using other methods. Then Chloe goes against her own advice and uses nothing but threats and violence.
• White Void Room: There are rooms like these in old world ruins designed for Augmented Reality interactions. Akira also has some "dreams" of Alpha in them that further the Myth Arc. Alpha is sure to try and distract Akira when he wakes up to hamper his memory of them.
• Why Won't You Die?:
  • Akira has some difficulty executing Nelia, due to her being a cyborg, and his Powered Armor being broken, throwing off his aim.
  • After Zelmo comes back from Akira having blown up his head, Akira splits him vertically into Half the Man He Used to Be using Shiori’s sword, and he still somehow survives. Akira stomps on the body until he’s satisfied using his augmented suit’s strength.
• Wild Goose Chase: Alpha having Akira train for relic searching in the Higaraka Residence area tricks a great many hunters into one of these there, when Akira is actually selling his relics from his stockpile at home.
• The Worf Effect: Tsubaki effortlessly ripping Nelia and her Mini-Mecha in half and tossing them away.
• Worthy Opponent:
  • Shiori sees Akira as this as a stepping stone to their becoming Fire-Forged Friends.
  • The Cyber Ninja Nelia asks Akira to be her lover due to seeing him as this, and gets a strange fixation which puzzles Akira, who points out the Insane Troll Logic of her trying to be his lover but at the same time planning to kill him seconds later.
  • After Katsuya goes from Akira’s Unknown Rival to The Rival, Akira acknowledges Katsuya for keeping his promises no matter what, calling him a good person.
• Wounded Gazelle Gambit:
  • The group of failed hunters-turned-raiders who lure a large monster out of the ruins and past Elena and Sara, pretending to be running away in distress. As the women fight the monster, they drop a grenade at the two’s feet as an ambush.
  • Yajima, after Akira defeats him, pretends to be Akira’s victim and gets Reina to sympathize with him, resulting in Reina being held in a Hostage Situation, and him compelling Reina’s bodyguard Shiori to forcibly disarm Akira.
• Wrecked Weapon:
  • This happens so many times to Akira, it's practically Once a Season. Akira gets so sick of this that he ends up keeping a total of six force-field protected LEO multiweapons, two to fight with, two backups on his body, and two mounted on his Cool Bike. He also gets disposable sword blades in the form of liquid metal held in place by force-fields.
  • Carol at one point loses her laser cannon and it's eaten and used by a monster to attack her.
• You Are Number 6: When hunters coordinate in large groups, Hunter HQ gives them numbers as callsigns. For instance, Akira is Number 27 while hunting Yarata Scorpions.
  • All of the hunters Alpha has assisted have a number designation that Akira overhears in his dreams. Akira is subject 499, and Yanigisawa is 498.
• You Are Who You Eat: Monsters can evolve by eating the corpses of other monsters, often taking on the traits of what they've eaten. For instance, the Overgrown Snake possesses the scales expected of a reptilian monster, fur like a biological monster, armor plates and cannons like a mechanical monster, and even tires along its belly from all the hunter's vehicles it's eaten.
• You Just Told Me: Shizuka deduces from Akira's reaction to Sara and Elena that he's the one who saved them. She confirms her suspicions by bluffing to him about the bullet he left behind, exaggerating its effectiveness as an identification tool until he confesses to her. She then advises him to allow himself to trust good people like Sara and Elena, as a hunter needs friends to survive.
• You Kill It, You Bought It: Katsuya was the most prominent and famous member of the rising star Drankam hunter gang. Before being killed by Akira, who’s afterwards the most famous member of the new rising star hunter gang, Sheryl’s.
• Your Head Asplode:
  • Akira kills Yajima by splattering his head across the ruins with his anti-materiel rifle.
  • Then there’s the mercenary with the BFS Toralt, whose head Akira drop-kicks with the full force of his melee optimized third set of Powered Armor, turning it to mush.

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