Black Jack: Volume One, Chapter Four

Chapter Four - "The Face Sore"

A young boy is walking along a marshy path, and he spots a toad. He tosses a heavy rock at the toad, and squashes it, killing it. The boy then grows a huge sore on his stomach that resembles the face of a toad. It grows bigger and bigger, until finally it begins to croak and eat flys that happen to be buzzing by. The pain is excruiating and the boy gets a doctor to cut it off... but it grows back. Finally, the doctor, having tried everything else, mixes pipe tar and oil, and shoves it down the toad sore's throat. Luckily, the toad sore vanished, however the boy could not walk for years, crawling around on the floor, appearing just as the squashed toad he'd killed all those years ago. Such sores, referred to as "face sores" because of their appearance have been known to grow back again and again each time they are removed, often leaving victims with no other choice but suicide. One day, a man comes to see Dr. BlackJack, his face shrouded in bandages. He tells BlackJack that he has a face sore on his face, and he needs it removed; it has begun to talk to him, and make him behave uncharacteristically. BlackJack removes the man's bandages, and after seeing the sheer extent of the man's face sore, he agrees to remove it. He performs surgery and does so, however when he goes to remove the bandages again, the face sore has returned, just as bad as before, mocking BlackJack, that the only way to remove it is to kill the man. BlackJack goes to the other room and returns a moment later with a gun, and shoots the man. He did not intend to kill the man, simply to fool the sore. He immediately performs the surgery on the man once again, treating the gunshot wound, and once again removing the face sore. This time, once the bandages were removed the face sore was gone, revealing the man's true face. BlackJack believes he'd seen the man before but he isn't sure where. The man thanks the doctor and rushes out before paying for his surgery. BlackJack follows after him, remembering where he'd seen the man in the process. He arrives at the man's house. BlackJack tells the man that he knows who he is: a serial killer whose killed 15 victims. BlackJack tells him that if he pays the fee, he'll leave in peace. The man doesnt deny the accusation, even confessing that he has a killing fetish. The fetish however couldnt be quenched under the spell of the face sore; it would not allow him to kill. He thanks BlackJack for removing the face sore and restoring his ability to murder. He tells BlackJack he has killed three more people since, and that he can become number 19. The man muscles away the gun from BlackJack, but just before he could shoot him, teh face sore reemerges on his face. The pain staggers the man backward causing him to fall of the cliff behind him. BlackJack climbs down to the bottom to see the dying man. The face sore tells the doctor not to save the man; that he would only kill again. He thanks the doctor, and as the man dies, the sore vanishes. BlackJack muses that "Perhaps that was the face of this man's conscience."