Deca-Dence is set in a future where the monstrous Gadoll have pushed humanity to the brink of extinction. The last survivors live inside the giant mobile fortress Deca-Dence, split between the upper floors, where the warrior class known as the Gears fight as part of the Power, and the lower district called the Tank, where most Tankers handle support work, butcher Gadoll meat, and reinforce the fortress's defenses.
Among the Tankers, Natsume dreams of joining the front lines despite her prosthetic right arm. She wants to fight alongside the small number of Tanker soldiers who are allowed to battle beside the Gears, but her enlistment is still unapproved even as the other orphanage children receive their assignments. Instead, she takes a job cleaning for an armor repair team led by Kaburagi, a hard-nosed, seemingly apathetic man who clearly knows more about the world than he admits. As their unlikely partnership grows, Kaburagi begins to guide Natsume toward a role that could disrupt the status quo of Deca-Dence itself, recognizing her as a game-changing bug in the system and a force capable of changing everything.