Azuma Higashi

Azuma Higashi (東 アズマ, Higashi Azuma) is a character in Choujin X manga series. He's Tokio Kurohara's best friend.

Appearance
Azuma is described as being a short yet very athletic young man with rather attractive features. He has short white hair in a bowl cut and can usually be seen wearing glasses.

Personality
Azuma has a very straightforward and hero-like personality. Due to his father being an accomplished police officer, Azuma was raised with the mentality to always be ready to help people in need, no matter who they are. However, he can get carried away at times, like when he broke both of Johnny's arms.

Background
Azuma and Tokio have been friends since childhood. Due to his father being an accomplished police officer and engraving the idea of justice into his head, Azuma would often protect his friend from bullies by fighting them, something that Tokio greatly appreciated.

Plot
Azuma first appeared after Tokio witnessed a girl getting harassed by Johnny and his gang. Tokio called him and he arrived shortly thereafter, quickly defeating Johnny by breaking both of his arms with a single kick. Azuma then walked back home with Tokio. In the following days, he asked Tokio to volunteer with him for the plane crash clean-up, which Tokio gladly did as it was a good excuse to skip school.

Later that day, Azuma and Tokio were ambushed by Johnny with his gang, and used his newly acquired Choujin powers to withstand Azuma's kick and easily defeat him by extending his neck and arms. As it soon became apparent that Johnny was aiming for Azuma's life, the two thugs accompanying Johnny urged him to stop and return back to how he was, to which Johnny reacted in a rather brutal way, squeezing their heads until they exploded, killing them both. This gave Tokio a chance to run away. Without a second thought, he grabbed Azuma and jumped into a nearby water canal. They both swam to safety, and when they got out on the riverbank, they noticed the two syringes lying on the floor next to them; the very same ones Johnny tried to convince his deceased thugs to use. As Azuma knew he had no chance against a Choujin, he immediately wanted to take the syringe and become a Choujin, however, Tokio couldn't bear the idea of just idly sitting and not helping his friend. After a brief argument and a short flashback, both Tokio and Azuma seemingly injected themselves with the syringes and Azuma fell on the ground unconscious.

Power & Abilities
Martial Arts Skill: Azuma is very skilled in both Judo and Karate. This was demonstrated when he broke both of Johnny Kiyoshi Takeyama's arms. He also apparently won either a Judo or Karate tournament 5 times in a row despite his small stature.

Trivia

 * Azuma's name and last name can both be read as "east", which means his name basically translates to "East East". This is an interesting detail because of his role in Chapter 3, which is titled "stand by the west".