Akira survives the bottom rung of society as a street orphan in a world built on the bones of a dead civilization. The ruins of the "Old World" scatter across the landscape, holding technology and artifacts that nobody understands anymore. Hunters comb these sites for relics that can change their fortunes, but old security systems and rampant bioweapons kill many before they get rich. Akira sets out to become a hunter himself, hoping to escape the slums, though he is untrained, underfed and badly armed. That changes when he meets Alpha, a mysterious, ghostly woman who needs a hunter and is willing to train him to get one.