Black Jack: Volume One, Chapter Three

Chapter Three - "Teratoid Cystoma"

One night Dr. Black Jack gets a call from a Dr. Crab. He says he needs Black Jack's help immediately; a high-profile person who will remain nameless is in critical condition and she needs to be operated on right away. Black Jack rushes over to the cabin where the woman is to be treated discreetly as to avoid a media frenzy. Dr. Crab shows BlackJack the patient, she wearing a kabuki mask to conceal her identity. Dr. Crab explains she has a teratoid cystoma that needs to be removed. A teratoid cystoma occurs when twins are conceived and one twin is absorbed by the other. The absorbed twin continues to grow as a parasitic tumor inside the other twin. Dr. Crab explains that everytime doctors tried to remove the tumor, they couldnt. They'd begin to act funny, and even attack eachother. He believes the tumor is cursed. Black Jack reassures Crab that he can handle it, and prepares for the surgery alone. As he attempts to cut open the tumor, he turns the scapel on himself, and hears a voice in his head saying "DO NOT CUT!" He believes the tumor was talking to him, and assures it that he will extract the organs from within the tumor and keep them alive in a medical culture. The tumor allows him to do so. The operation is finished, and Crab is relieved as well as in awe of BlackJack. That night BlackJack decides to construct a body for the living organs he removed, believing they never had a fair chance at life. He does so. One year later, Dr. Crab returns with the masked patient. BlackJack tells her that he has someone he wants her to meet: her twin sister. A little girl comes out from the other room; the girl BlackJack built out of the organs removed from the woman's teratoid cystoma. The little girl calls the woman a murderer and the woman runs away with Dr. Crab, leaving BlackJack and her twin by blood behind.