Kaburagi, a seasoned armor repairer, hides profound compassion beneath a gruff exterior shaped by trauma. Once a high-ranking warrior in the fortress city’s rigid hierarchy, his past unraveled after mentoring Mikey, a younger protegé. Sharing the forbidden limiter-release technique led to Mikey’s execution for insubordination and Kaburagi’s demotion to menial labor, conscripted as a “bug hunter” tasked with neutralizing dissenters by removing their tracking chips.

His human guise—a middle-aged man with greying hair, a goatee, and utilitarian workwear—belies a compact cyborg form: a mint-green and brown cylindrical body with spiked cranial protrusions and a crimson jetpack. Initially detached, his apathy erodes upon meeting Natsume, a spirited Tanker girl falsely marked deceased in the system. Training her in combat and enhancing her prosthetic arm into a harpoon launcher, he transitions from system enforcer to saboteur, spurred by her resolve.

Minato, a former comrade turned high-ranking administrator, oscillates between upholding and undermining the regime, their dynamic shifting from tense allegiance to strategic partnership during the climactic battle against a mutated Gadoll. Kaburagi sacrifices himself by merging with the fortress core, using it as an avatar to destroy the creature and the city’s infrastructure. A data backup enables his resurrection three years post-conflict, coinciding with the fortress’s reconstruction into a harmonious human-cyborg settlement.

His connections include Kurenai, a Tanker warrior nursing unspoken affection for him, and Pipe, a juvenile Gadoll he covertly shelters—an act defying systemic propaganda that brands Gadolls as enemies. Once resigned to passive compliance, Kaburagi’s moral awakening drives him to dismantle oppression, prioritizing Natsume’s safety and collective liberation. In the rebuilt society, he mentors Natsume as a young adult, their bond cementing his redemption and the enduring potential of resistance against cyclical tyranny.