Absolute Duo

Synopsis

Absolute Duo follows the viewpoint of its main male protagonist, Tor, as he enrolls in Koryo Academy, a high school for artificially created beings called Exceed. While they are in essence human, they are physically stronger, faster, and have the ability to manifest their souls as weapons. These soul weapons are known as Blaze, and at Koryo Academy, the students battle, train, and study to become future peacekeepers. Immediately after arriving, during the qualification ceremony, the students are suddenly ordered to battle the person next to them, with their enrollment on the line. This requires them to use their Blazes. While most manifest as melee weapons, such as swords, Tor's soul manifests as a shield, giving him the title of Irregular. After winning his match at the qualification ceremony, and therefore being forced to say goodbye to his new friend, Imari Nagakawa, Tor learns that Koryo uses a special "Duo" system, With this system in place, students are assigned partners with whom they do just about everything. Lo and behold, Tor is paired with Julie Sigtuna, a silver-haired, red eyed girl from Scandinavia, and our main female protagonist, which immediately brings even more attention to Tor than his title of Irregular already did. Tor and Julie must share a room, sit next to one another in classes, and fight together, per the Duo system's behest. With their time together, Julie and Tor learn that both of them are training at Koryo in pursuit of strength, so that they can take revenge for the murder of their loved ones. They give one another the title of Avengers, and grow a little bit closer from the knowledge. Julie also reveals herself to be an El-Awake, and in possession of unlimited potential power. It is explained that an Exceed is a type of El-Awake, but Exceed are created artificially, while El-Awakes like Julie became one through raw emotion. The stage is set completely to create a vast difference between Tor and his classmates. Then again, as with most stories, that's nowhere near the end of it.