Okamoto visits Hazama's apartment to learn the secret of his surgical skills. She finds out that he has been practicing on his pet fish and on cuts of pork. When they hear a groan next door, they find out that Hazama's neighbors, Tamura and Aoyama, are anti-war activists sheltering two American deserters avoiding the Vietnam War. One of the deserters, Smith, is suffering from a severe headache. In an OB/GYN clinic owned by Tamura's family, Hazama diagnoses a cerebral edema and insists that Smith should undergo emergency treatment in a proper hospital. The activists pressure Hazama into treating Smith, but he is unmoved. However, he is suddenly haunted by his conscience and changes his mind, performing a decompressive craniectomy with the help of Okamoto. After Smith awakens, Hazama is arrested, as the former is actually a CIA operative monitoring deserters and their accomplices. The CIA covers up the incident and frees Hazama, who ponders why he risked his future career to save someone he did not know.