On Pinoko's birthday, Black Jack remembers how Pinoko came into his life. One night, four years before, doctors brought a masked woman to Black Jack's house. She had a Teratoma.
Ignoring Maetel's advice, Tetsuro makes eye contact with a hangman; Tetsuro is challenged to a duel.
Black Jack arrives at a laboratory set up on the savanna. Dr. Togakushi had invited him there to help with research into a mysterious illness that is making animals and now people shrink and eventually die.
The conductor is attacked and Tetsuro and Maetel try to console him.
A doctor, Futoppara, who graduated from the same medical school as Black Jack now heads his own hospital. He is arrogant, and dismisses another young doctor's opinion that perhaps a certain patient was misdiagnosed.
A woman living inside a mud pit abducts Tetsuro and forces him to become her companion.
A movie director, Tenma, announces at an awards ceremony that his next film will help save lives. Later, Tenma visits Black Jack and explains that he wants to film the doctor performing surgery on a patient with collagen disease.
When a beetle gravely injures Maetel, Tetsuro attempts to find help but is met with violence.
A traffic cop, Kotaro, begins talking to a statue in the likeness of a police officer, opening up in ways he can't with actual people. He soon becomes obsessed with the statue and starts taking care of it, such as cleaning off graffiti.
Tetsuro meets a struggling director named Fraiya and rejects his offer of money.
When Black Jack finds out that the mother wants her son to get better to send him off to war, he gets angry. She explains that her husband was executed for speaking out against the war.
Tetsuro is invited to live with the Black Knight, but his refusal is not taken well; Maetel jumps to the rescue.
Black Jack answers a mysterious summons from Sharaku's father and finds an unlikely patient.
A female doctor purposely hits Tetsuro with her car and attempts to switch bodies with him.
Pirates kidnap Black Jack to treat a wounded crewmate, but their boat gets lost and food runs out.
The warrior steals Tetsuro's pass and tries to leave on the 999 with his lover; petrifying gas.
Pinoko is frustrated with the poor condition of their house and complains to Black Jack that she wants to move. However, Black Jack tells her he has no intention to move or renovate. He explains the reason.
The 999 makes an emergency stop at Fossilized Planet; Tetsuro is attacked by a warrior.
Black Jack begins operating on a young boy with a serious condition when the hospital is taken over by armed men. They hold the patients and staff of the hospital hostage, and phone the police for ransom.
On Nuruba, Tetsuro and Maetel are ambushed for their bodies and clothes.