Black Jack: Volume One, Chapter Five

Chapter Five - "Sometimes Like Pearls"

One day Dr. Black Jack recieves a package in the mail. Wrapped inside the brown paper is a long, thin, soft, rock. The package is adressed from a "J. H." Black Jack examines the rock and cuts it open. Inside, encased in the stone is a scapel. It is then Black Jack knows who the package must be from, J.H., Jotaro Honma, BlackJack's mentor. BlackJack travels to Honma's house, and finds the old man ill, lying down in his house. Honma thanks BlackJack for comming and says he has to confess something. It has to do with his present. It also has to do with the surgery Honma had performed on BlackJack which saved his life. Honma admits he'd made a horrible mistake during the surgery: he'd sewn Black Jack up, but he'd left the scapel inside him. Every night he'd have nightmares of the scapel accidentally stabbing an organ and causing massive internal bleeding, killing Black Jack. Seven whole years went by before he'd had the chance to correct his mistake. He told Black Jack it was for follow-up appointment. When he went to remove the scapel, to his great surprise he'd found that it had been encased in stone; calcium secreted by the body to sheath the blade and prevent it from piercing an organ, just as an oyster encases a tiny fleck of dirt in calcium, eventually turning it into a little pearl. Honma then tells Black Jack that nothing, not even modern medicene can compare to the wonders of life, and "for us humans to crave control over life and death is sheer ignorance." Just then, the weak and bed-ridden Honma collapses. Frantically, BlackJack rushes him to the nearest medical facility, diagnosing him with softening and bleeding of the brain. He begins an emergency surgery on the doctor... but to no avail. The Dr. Honma dies. BlackJack, severly distressed that he could not save his mentor and hero, goes outside to get some air. While sitting on the front porch, the ghost of Dr. Honma sits beside him musing, "for us humans to crave control over life and death is sheer ignorance, don't you think?"