Black Jack: Volume One, Chapter Seven

Chapter Seven - "The Painting is Dead!"

A young man, named Go Gan is painting in the woods, kept company by the beautiful flowers, deer, and birds that florish there. But suddenly, a nuclear bomb goes off only miles from their location. The blast destroys most of the woods, killing many. The painter survives, however he has severe radiation poisening. At the hospital, he calls for Dr. BlackJack. Go Gan explains that the bomb was a part of nuclear testing on the remote island he was painting on, however he was never warned. He tells BlackJack that he has witnessed Hell on Earth, and must share his story, warn others of the devastation he has witnessed... he must paint his vision. He begs BlackJack to at least be able to keep him alive for a year, if not, even a half a year so that he may make his masterpiece.BlackJack examines him; severe keloids all over the body, multiple tumors, cancerous... he tells him he has no more than two weeks at most left to live... unless he is willing to do something drastic. For 70million yen, the Go Gan agrees to a surgery in which BlackJack will remove his brain, nerves, and heart, and transplant them in another, healthy body. The surgery goes off without a hitch; Go Gans brain removed, and now inside the body of a man who had just died of heart failure. A few months go by, and Go Gan has completely recovered from the operation, the cancer gone, the new body fully operational, the only things remaining from his previous body being his heart, brain, and nerves. BlackJack goes to see Go Gan, who is almost finished his painting. Go Gan is upset and frustrated however, because the painting is not what he expected; now that he is no longer dying of the radiation poisening, the painting has lost its truth, lost its horror of reality, the painting is dead. He says he gives up and BlackJack asks if he may at least have the painting to sell as his payment for the surgery. One year goes by, and BlackJack gets a phone call that Go Gan has slipped into a coma. He rushes over to see him, and is told that the radiation poisening has resurfaced in Go Gan's brain, with over 10 tumors, and the brain has begun to soften. Just then, Go Gan awakes from his coma to see BlackJack standing over him. He begs the doctor not to try to save him again, but asks if he still has the painting, or had he already sold it. To Go Gan's surprise, BlackJack still had the painting, and Go Gan says that he is finally ready to complete it. He begins work on it, his hands trembling, his body weak and frail. With the final brushstroke, the phantasmagoric nightmare he witnessed is alive forever on the canvass, however Go Gan collapses, dead.