Chapter 37

* Title Card
* Cover Page

## Chapter Chronology

**On the turn** is the thirty-seventh chapter of the manga *Choujin X.*

## Summary

As Ely is still trapped inside the ice block, her mind tries to figure out how she got into this situation, summarizing everything she's been through since becoming a Keeper. I.C.ICE wants to know who he's about to face but Tokio doesn't pay him much attention, noting that the trapped girl looks like Ely. She confirms her identity and advises her old friend to prepare to face his opponent. I.C.ICE loses his temper over hearing the two talking and attacks the boy with a series of ice spears. Tokio, however, blocks them without difficulty using only the bag he was carrying and his backpack. Tokio also quietly parries a kick from the man, knocking him off thanks to a wing that appears on his back. Holding his scythe in his mouth, Tokio beats his enemy with just his crutch at an absurd speed.

I.C.ICE recognizes that the scythe is the same as Zora's **Adamantine Harpe** and that his enemy is the **Beast of Prophecy.** The pressure of the fight continues to mount and the Tower of Mourning member realizes that not giving his all could prove fatal. Thanks to **Chill Paladin,** he completely covers himself in an armor of thick ice, protecting himself from the blow of the incoming scythe. After being provoked, the man throws a mass of ice that destroys a building and Ely points out to his friend that he will have to stay away or end up frozen. Tokio then spreads his wings and rises into the air, but I.C.ICE doesn't stop. Using an ice ramp he jumps into the air and throws a huge ice spear at him. Tokio manages to escape it perfectly, sending It back to the sender to hit the prison where Ely was being held and free her hand.

The girl can finally use her smoke to melt the now defenseless opponent's armor. Tokio takes advantage of this and strikes him with his **Adamantine Harpe**, preventing the wound from regenerating as it normally would for a Choujin. Landing and wrapping himself around the man, Tokio knocks him down, but in delivering the final blow he forgets that he has a broken foot and bounces away in pain. When I.C.ICE thinks he has secured an escape route, he is reached by a motorcycle carrying more Yamato Mori's Keepers. Simon puts him on the defensive thanks to his swords giving time for Maiko to strike. Once distracted, the man falls into Azuma's trap who chains him to the ground by tying him by the limbs.

Though he hasn't seen him in almost a year, Azuma gives his old friend only a cold look before going on to free Ely completely. The girl immediately runs to her friend asking him about the broken foot and why he didn't use **Raise**. As the three Keepers notice how their friend has grown in height he sheepishly says that Sato trained him not to use that power. Just then the instructor appears, reminding Tokio that he must always get to the bottom of things or else a single mistake will mean another death. Sato further notes how Azuma and Ely have grown thanks to Sandek's training but also that Yamato's guardians are no longer as strong as they used to be, taking too long to take down the enemy.

The instructor now turns to I.C.ICE, asking him if he wants to share something with them or face his questioning. Teasing him, the man cuts out his tongue, revealing it as a piece of meat sewn onto him. The tongue was actually Kate Nèether's, and thanks to its power it opens into a portal surrounding the member of the Tower of Mourning. Though the Keepers rush to grab him, their enemy disappears into the portal, removing his bound legs and arms. As the three head off in relative silence, I.C.ICE reappears inside the Omega Tower, carried by Jing and Tawashi, his Choujin colleagues.

The three arrive in front of four waiting figures. While Noh Mask, Nari and a figure dressed in black silently ignore them, Bador Vlad, a huge demonic-looking Choujin dressed in a religious robe with the symbol of the cult of Zora, begins speaking upon their arrival. He explains that Zora mourns as the **Black Calamity** approaches, the woman saw the prophecy of destruction 40 years before and 10 years later she was expelled from Yamato Mori. However, in 1995 she saw the **Beast of Prophecy** and devoted herself to its research for 4 years. Suddenly Bador transforms his head into a mass of tentacles which strike full blows at Jing, Tawashi and I.C.ICE, the man being enraged at their failure which only increases Zora's pain. They will have to bring the Beast to him immediately if they don't want to suffer the consequences of another failure.

As Noh Mask and Nari walk away from the incident the man notes how things can't go on like this: Zora's Choujin X powers might not be passed to anyone, losing them. After the umpteenth failure Zora had in fact lost her mind and had tried to impose her **Mark** on every single acolyte in sight, decimating their ranks. Chandra's attempt to stop her led to him to having to leave the Tower group under threat of death from the woman. Reasoning this situation could lead to the end of the Tower of Mourning and that they must find someone capable of taking on her power. When Nari asks why he can't just leave, Noh Mask explains that if they lose Zora the balance in the prefecture would break in favor of the Yamato Mori, creating a region where outcasts like themselves would no longer have a place to go.

Although his argument is perfectly logical, Nari notes that the man seems to have something more personal that pushes him to help Zora as much as possible. Remembering how he was part of Yamato Mori as a young man, training alongside his older brother Sandek, Noh Mask thinks he might have something similar to guide him. In the past Mado, the leader of Yamato Mori, had ordered Sandek to kill him.

## Characters

* I. C. Ice
* Ely Otta
* Tokio Kurohara
* Azuma Higashi
* Maiko Momoma
* Simon Kagomura
* Ichiiro Sato
* Jing
* Tawashi Minami
* Noh Mask
* Nari
* Bador Vlad (Debut)
* Zora
* Umejiro Kaku
* Hoshi Sandek (Flashback)
* Mado (Flashback)

## Location

* Yamato Prefecture
* Omega Tower
* Yamato Mori (Flashback)

## Navigation

 **Volume 6**
 **Volume 8**

 Tower of Mourning Arc