Mushiuta

Alternate titles: Kono Minikuku mo Utsukushii Sekai

One day a light descends from the sky and splits into the ideal girls of Takeru and Ryou. That is where this gentle and vaguely romantic story about our ugly and beautiful world begins. Soon enough the story plummets into the secrets of global extinction and the meaning of life. Everything in this world that is beautiful has something ugly in it, and that ugliness is part of the secret of its beauty. Even for romance this is true...

Some things in life are so bad that you'd like to pretend they're just a dream. Unfortunately for Kazuki, trying to save a strange girl from being brutally killed by monsters (and ending up dying instead) is an unfortunate reality. Out of pity, the girl replaces Kazuki's heart with an alchemy-based artifact known as Kakugane, so that he may live on. With this strange device, Kazuki gains the power of Busou Renkin -- Arms Alchemy; a power that will come in handy when monsters (and worse) begin to plague his town! Kazuki soon meets the girl from his “dream” (named Tokiko) in reality, and she tells Kazuki to get on with his life; but with his sister and friends in danger, that might not be possible. Besides, if Kazuki gives up the chance to show off just how manly he can be, how can he hope to win the heart of the alluring older-sister-like Tokiko?!

Though the world may seem to be a normal place, in the midst of shadows lies the supernatural and terrifying. Beings from the shadow world known as Kokuchi have begun to invade the human world, and it’s up to certain people to defeat them; Akira Nikaido is one such person. Though his life used to be ordinary, one day, the bishounen and affectionate Shirogane asked Akira to form a pact with him; and consequently, Akira became Shirogane’s shadow partner. Together, the two hunt down stray Kokuchi – but more importantly, Akira must fend off Shirogane’s advances and try to make his classes!