Akira is a street kid clawing his way out of the slums of Kugamayama City, where the only way up is to become a hunter and scavenge the Old World ruins for relics. On his first desperate run into the ruins he meets Alpha, an incorporeal Old World intelligence who appears to nobody else. She offers a contract: enhanced perception, training and combat support, in exchange for a job she will only describe once he is strong enough to take it.