Scum of the Brave

Tokyo, mid-21st century. After illegal ether-enhancement surgery turns wealthy gangsters into superpowered “Demon Lords,” the government legalizes a new kind of bounty hunter: the “Braves,” licensed killers who use the combat drug E3 to hunt the monsters of the underworld. Yashiro, a broke freelance Brave known as “Shinigami,” wants nothing more than beer, pizza, and card games. He has no illusions about his work: to him, being a Brave is just murder dressed up as a profession. Then Aki Jogamine, an earnest second-year student from the Academy, a state-backed Brave training school, crashes into his life after being thrown from a building by a Demon Lord’s minion. After Yashiro saves her, she declares herself his disciple and drags him into rescuing her fellow trainee Braves, Yukine Indou and Saera Kashiwagi Pendragon. Yashiro tries to keep the idealistic girls away from the ugliness of the job, but money, bad luck, and their stubborn belief in heroism force him into becoming their reluctant tutor. As the would-be master and his self-proclaimed disciples clash with Demon Lords, underworld Braves, the Round Table Foundation, and the mystery of E3, E4, and the monstrous Nephilim, their bloodstained lessons begin to ask a dangerous question: can a profession built on killing still carry the name of hope? — Description from novelcodex.orgFull novel: Scum of the Brave — read the rest free on N​o⁠v​e⁠l​C⁠o​d⁠e​x⁠.​o⁠r​g⁠