Chapter 17

* Title card
* Cover page

## Chapter Chronology

**Pack! Pack!** (Pack! Pack!, *****Pack! Pack!*****?) is the seventeenth chapter of the manga *Choujin X*.

## Summary

At the base of Yamato Mori, in the second underground level are the fortified prisons for the Choujins. In one of these Nari is locked up following her attack on Tokyo in the zoo.
The woman is trying to get released, saying that what happened was only a small consequence of a lost of temper ... however who is interrogating her has a particular ability.

Seiko Kiira is a "Lie Detector Choujin", able to distinguish if what a person says is true or false, visualizing an **X** or an **O** in his mind. Despite her simple skill these occasions also represent occasions where the girl's skills as an interrogator are put to the test. The interrogation continues and manages to extract from Nari that someone had hired her, but it was not Chandra, and the target was Tokyo. When Yamato Mori's girlfriend begins to have difficulty on how to continue to get more details, Ichiro enters the scene and offers to take her place.

The Keeper continues the questioning about what the woman wanted from Tokyo but she defends herself by saying that she was just playing at being an examiner and that it was just a coincidence that the boy was a Choujin. However Sato points out that only one person out of a thousand has the chance to become a Choujin and that meeting such people is much more than a mere coincidence and that she is hiding something but doesn't want to resort to extreme methods. When Nari jokes that they are supposed to be the "good choujin", Sato replies that he is too weak and could never hurt someone as strong as her, he also hates violence.

Suddenly the man activates his ability **Psycho Share**. The two, even if they are still in the room, find themselves in a surreal scenario. Ichiiro's ability to transmit mental images through telepathy, conveying abstract ideas with the ease of a drawing. However now the Keeper intends to convey to the woman an image of "countless fly eggs hatching inside every orifice of her body as hordes of larvaes crawl around and devor her". Confronted by the terrified prisoner, he claims that he regularly exposes himself to all kinds of images to cultivate his imagination and that he is sure to repeat in detail what he explained until she feels like sharing some information.

After a certain time Ichiiro leaves the cell, and explains to Seiko that the woman has a strong mind and despite being passed out she hasn't divulged anything: she must have received a large sum of money or be very afraid of the consequences if she betrayed her principal. Even though Yamato Mori needs a reason to detain someone longer, Sato asks the girl to come up with something for the formalities.

Meanwhile, in a motel, Richard is still snoring heavily as Ume prepares more scraps of paper. Suddenly one of the "dogs" he sent to search all over Yamato has found its prey.

After a while Tokyo leaves school and meets Maiko. The girl was hoping to go shopping with Ely since she had just arrived in Yamato and wanted to show him the place.
The boy notices that Momoma is in school uniform and in fact she too has just left. Tokio asks her if it's not difficult to be both student and Keeper but she replies that she got used to it having done it since she was ten years old. Her father was a Choujin and she inherited his powers which she started using when she was four years old.
Thinking about how their lives have been so different, he thinks that she and Simon are great and that Ely is trying really hard too… so he started to think that he could do something too. Maiko replies that he shouldn't think too much about it, many Choujins continue to live normally without using their powers... but that if she ever wants to use them she thinks Tokyo would become a great Keeper.

Suddenly their conversation is interrupted by Simon, who requests his support for a police request and just then Ely appears too. Apologizing to her, Maiko tells her that she won't be able to go shopping now but Tokyo offers to accompany the girl because he would be a "great keeper".

The two thus take the train up to Mobara and the shopping center. Ely gets lost easily among the thousands of items on sale but also noticing their cost.
But as they wander in search of a salesman they are surprised by a signal emitted by a Choujin: a box with legs and arms appears in front of them, a "Package Choujin" who wants to package everyone up!

The girl notices that someone has already suffered the terrible fate, ending up trapped inside boxes, but she is sure that he is weak enough and they can defeat him. Motivated by Maiko's words earlier and by her desire to make a good impression, Tokio offers to do it all by himself. While the Choujin screams his thoughts on the effects of capitalism on people's minds, the boy tries to take him by surprise by hiding under a box but is immediately discovered and in a few seconds he too ends up in a box without the possibility of moving.

Ely however learns from his friend's mistakes, if he gets too close he will be discovered but the Choujin is also close to flammable material which makes it difficult to use his powers. But remembering her training with Sandek, the girl understands that she can solve the situation without using her powers to the full but using them in a balanced way. While the "Package Choujin" continues to expose its manifesto and goal of putting all of humanity in a package to make them understand that consumption and packaging are an infinite cycle, he is taken by surprise by a thin line of smoke that sets fire to his butt. Ely precisely controlled a tiny amount of his smoke to avoid setting fire to the shops until they burned their enemy and freed those trapped in the boxes.

Seppuku Edomura, an official Keeper arrives on the scene to finally handle the situation. Masao, the "Package Choujin" was an employee of a shipping company but the strenuous work stressed him to the point of awakening him as a Choujin. The boy was so disgusted with packaging products and the consumer society that he thought he wanted to package all humans. Edomura consoles him by advising them to pursue his dreams in politics before rewarding Ely and Tokio with certificates to use at the mall.
Although the girl could have used both coupons to buy what she wanted, the two end up eating together in the centre.

After they leave Ely thanks him for taking her and says she had a lot of fun. As she falls asleep next to him on the return train, Tokio still thinks that he was useless and that maybe as Azuma said he will be overtaken by her but that maybe he will start training when he gets home. Without realizing it, however, someone is following them closely.

## Characters

* Nari Tsumuji
* Seiko Kiira *⟨Debut⟩*
* Chandra Hume *⟨Mentioned⟩*
* Ichiiro Sato
* Ririka Umezawa
* Ricardo Terror
* Tokio Kurohara
* Maiko Momoma
* Simon Kagomura
* Ely Otsuta
* Seppuku Edomura *⟨Debut⟩*
* Hoshi Sandek *⟨Flashback⟩*
* Masao Chikabo *⟨Debut⟩*

## Location

* Underground lvl 2
* Tsuru Prefectural High School

## Navigation

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

 Tower of Mourning Arc