InsaneJournal

When last we left Tenma, he had just been promoted and had decided not to get back together with his ex. After the time jump, we see that things are going well for the good doctor. He's still working at Eisler, and has lost none of his talent with a scalpel.

Things are going relatively well for Runge, too. The Eisler Murders are still, unsolved, true, but he has a lead on a murderer that targets wealthy, childless, middle-aged couples. Note that Runge has already lost some of the character design quibbles I had with him before, so maybe I was just imagining things.




Man, that typing ability is awesome. I wish I could retrieve the data in my head that easily.

We then cut to a couple of scenes of Tenma being an awesome doctor, beloved of patients and coworkers alike. Not much suspense in that, so let's go see what Herr Junkers is up to.




Ouch. And guess what?



Yep, only Tenma can save this man's life. So Tenma's rushed to the hospital. After a little back and forth between Tenma and Runge (where we find out that Runge still suspects Tenma of murdering his superiors, since he was the only one who really benefited), Tenma performs the surgery and it's a complete success. Tenma is doing a routine check up on his patient when the following occurs:




Later on, Inspector Runge attempts to interrogate the guy. He voices suspicion that they were under orders, because the amount stolen from the homes of the murdered couples wasn't much, especially after it was split amongst multiple people (per his theory). So they were probably getting paid extra to kill these couples. Runge's attempts to get the identity of Junkers employer only results in Junkers breaking into screams, at which point Tenma ends the interview.

Tenma takes Junkers out for some air (he's in no condition to escape, and Tenma even invites the police guard on Junkers to come along). Tenma tells Junkers his story, focusing on the part about where he learned to be a real doctor as a result of treating a little boy, and that it's never too late to start over. Junkers starts to open up to the doctor.




Junkers then tells him that his colleagues are already dead, but breaks down after getting that far.

We cut to Tenma going out on a date, when he passes by a certain store...



Meanwhile, Junkers is ready to tell the policeman assigned to guard him everything he knows. Unfortunately, when he opens his door, Junkers sees something that spooks him bad.

Tenma arrives (clock properly wrapped) just in time to find Junkers gone and his guard dead, apparently killed by poison candy. Tenma isn't going to let this happen to him again, so he runs after Junkers. They enter a parking garage, where Junker is screaming at Tenma to go away so that the doctor isn't also killed by the monster.

Tenma is going to try his best to save Junkers, and so comes face to face with the monster, who asks the doctor if he can remember him:



Yep, that's our adorable little boy, all grown up. It turns out that he's been murdering the couples, and when the police began suspecting his hirelings, he started to eliminate them, too. All that's left is Junkers, who has to be executed.

Tenma says that as his doctor, he knows enough to help the police run him down. The monster counters that he hasn't used the name he had as a little boy for years. He says that his past must not be known. But Tenma's different. For saving his life, Tenma has become like a real father to him.

The monster cocks his gun, when Tenma tries his final gambit. He can't kill people, because lives are all equal. He learned that by treating the boy the monster was all those years ago. The monster just laughs at him.





Junkers begs Dr. Tenma to save him, but Johan shoots him in the head anyway. Three times, in fact. I suppose it pays to make sure when you yourself have survived a single bullet to the brain.

On his way out, Johan can't resist a parting shot.





And here's our first full shot of Johan Liebert's face, as an adult anyway. Like Runge, the character design hasn't quite reached what it would be yet (compare Johan's perfect moment entry, you can see his forehead is less prominent and his nose is a bit larger). But even if the face isn't quite there yet, the facial expression more than makes up for it.

I mean, that smile is just about perfect. It's so...not sinister. Really, I mean that. Not that it isn't creepy as all hell in context, but if you were to just put it up on its own, no one would be able to tell that the smiler has just shot a man to death and chipped away at another's world view.

Tenma tells everything he just heard to the police, who don't believe him. Despite this, he's still let go, because he has an alibi for when the officer was poisoned and because there's no gunpowder residue on his hands or clothes. On his way home, Tenma collapses to his knees onto the rain-slicked streets, sobbing uncontrollably.

And there you have the driving force behind the series. Dr. Tenma has made a grave mistake. And he's going to do whatever it takes to correct it.

All scans taken from Spectrum Nexus, and not the official viz translation.