Ex-Arm

Tokyo, 2014. An ordinary high schooler, Natsume Akira, meets with a road accident. When we wakes up next, it’s 2030, and he finds himself aboard a smuggling vessel in the Tokyo Bay. What’s more, his body is all mechanical, with only his brain remaining the way it was.

Shiga practically forces Akira to join the Tokyo MPD’s Anti Ex-Arm Squad. Akira’s all at sea, but he and Rokuoin Chikage go on patrol around Tokyo, which is in full decay now, and meets a girl named Koharu. Meanwhile, several terrorist bombings happen in the city, and when Akira learns that Koharu might be in danger, he works with the rest of his squad and captures the culprits. Watching Akira’s tireless efforts during the investigation leads the rest of the squad to accept him as one of their own.

The Counter EX-ARM Squad heads to the Yokosuka Special Economic Zone to retrieve the EX-ARM held by the former president of the Mwange Republic, Jason Mraw, who has taken exile in Japan. But his android, Elmira, shows up in a Bibot and uses an ability resembling that of an EX-ARM to stop them. Her attacks make her targets vanish, and Akira and the squad are powerless against it. That’s when additional equipment sent by Shiga arrives at the scene.

Akira connects to Iriya Heavy Industries’ combat exoframe, Ogre. He uses it freely despite it being his first time, and attacks Elmira’s Bibot. When Elmira mentions that fighting is their only purpose in life, Akira regains part of his memories and goes berserk in the Ogre, taking out Elmira and Mraw. It takes Minami and Alma to bring him back to senses.

Akira conjures up a virtual space where Minami is a classmate, Alma a transfer student, and the rest of the Squad is also involved in a high school setting. The Squad attempts to revive Akira’s memories by stimulating his subconscience, and are secretly joined by Ygg. Akira ends up facing off against “Beta,” an individual identical to himself possessing EX-ARM Number 11, which caused great destruction in Tokyo. He comes to believe that Beta is the root cause of everything.

An EX-ARM auction is organized by an individual who calls themselves “Auctioneer.” Criminal groups from all across the world flock to the Megafloat hoping to get their hands on them. The Counter Squad is asked by the government to investigate the auction undercover as the bodyguards of Jinkokusha, the leading group in the Japanese underworld. They are immediately dragged into an inter-group conflict, and Akira loses consciousness in combat. When he wakes up, he’s greeted by Auctioneer.