Naoki Urasawa's MONSTER - The Demon Within Us

Dr. Kenzo Tenma

'MONSTER – Beauty and the Beast' by Tayla Drago

Episode # 2 – Dr. Kenzo Tenma

(Note: I wish to recap on the first few things 'will happen on other chapters to try making the stories short', so you all know. So, enjoy the first few in this one. Thank you!)

Dr. Kenzo Tenma is congratulated by his peers; he has just performed a successful surgery on a famous opera singer. The next day, Tenma is awakened by his fiancée Eva Heinemann. She congratulates him on his successful operation as they watch the news on television. There is an announcement on the news of the arrival of Mr. Liebert, an ex-Trade Office adviser from East Germany. Mr. Liebert has arrived in Dusseldorf with his family. The news next broadcasts a press conference that Eva's father, the director of the hospital where Tenma works, is holding. The press conference concerns the successful surgery on the opera singer, news which Eva is eager to watch. Things take an ugly turn later when Tenma is left with a warning from his colleague, Dr. Becker.

He is warned that he is being made use of by the director. He is next faced by the grieving wife of a Turkish man who had died in the hospital; she blames Tenma for her husband's death. Tenma is upset when he learns that the woman's husband had arrived first for surgery that day but was not attended to because priority was given to the opera singer, by order from the director. As such, the woman's husband's operation was relinquished to the inexperience Dr. Becker.

At dinner, Tenma mentions the incident to Eva, but she replies that since the grieving woman was only a poor Turk, her kind did not deserve preferential treatment. Tenma is appalled by her response. Meanwhile at the Liebert residence, police arrive to find the dead bodies of the Mr. and Mrs. Liebert lying in a pool of blood. They also find the Liebert's son lying unconscious with a severe head wound. Standing next to the boy, is his twin sister, apparently under a state of severe shock. Dr. Tenma is immediately called back to the hospital. During his drive back to the hospital, Dr. Tenma reflects to the conversation he had with Dr. Heinemann. Dr. Heinemann had told him that it was not his fault that the Turkish man had died and insisted that the opera singer was the first to arrive to the operating room.

The director also orders Tenma to cancel his research on "Cerebral Vasospasm after Subarachnoid Hemorrhage" and to instead focus on the speech that the Director has developed for a seminar. Dr. Tenma arrives at the hospital and prepares to operate on the injured blond boy. As Tenma enters the operating room, he overhears the whispers of the traumatized twin sister, "Kill him..."

As Dr. Tenma is about to proceed with the operation, he receives a call from the director ordering him to start surgery on another patient instead. Dr. Tenma chooses to ignore the order.

The boy's operation is a success. Unfortunately, the Mayor's operation which Dr. Tenma was supposed to conduct was a failure. Subsequently, he learns that he has lost his candidacy for the position of Chief Surgeon of the hospital. The hospital director, Dr. Heinemann had arranged for someone else to take the position. The thesis that Tenma was supposed to present to the academics is also canceled. The hospital also does not wish to provide Tenma with any letter of recommendation should he wish to be transferred to another hospital. His fiancée, Eva, soon informs him that their engagement is off. In his sorrow, Dr. Tenma goes to see the boy he had saved. He tells the still unconscious boy his story about how he had come from Japan to Germany to work under the tutelage of Dr. Heinemann, the man whose thesis he had read and was impressed with. He had by now realized that Dr. Heinemann may have in fact been taking credit for someone else's research work. Tenma admits that he did not mind being used by Dr. Heinemann, if he was able to continue his own research work.

However, he strongly disagrees with Dr. Heinemann's opinion that research takes precedence over the lives of others. In anger, he cries out that he wishes that Dr. Heinemann was dead. He soon calms himself and tells the boy to continue to live because he had sacrificed his career to save him. The fate of the twin children soon attracts the attention of the media; much to the dismay of the hospital, for the cost for the care for the twins is expected to be substantial. Dr. Heinemann however decides that for the moment, the publicity would do the hospital some good. Dr. Heinemann also orders to have the twin's case to be put under the charge of another doctor instead of Dr. Tenma. Later, Dr. Tenma hears a loud scream coming from the boy's room; he finds that the boy's twin sister had been brought into her brother's room by the nurse under the orders of Dr. Heinemann's two doctors.

The sister had fainted upon seeing her brother, who has awakened from his coma. Dr. Tenma is furious when he learns that he had been removed from the twin's case without any careful consultation from him. He turns to drink and ends up drunk in the city.

Meanwhile, a nurse discovers the dead bodies of the two doctors who had been put in charge of the twins. Eva also discovers her father, Dr. Heinemann, dead in his office. Dr. Tenma meanwhile remains in drunken slumber in his bed.

The police arrive at Dr. Tenma's apartment, telling him that Director Heinemann, Dr. Oppenheim, and Dr. Boyer are dead. When Tenma arrives at the hospital, he learns from Dr. Becker and a nurse that the Liebert twins have disappeared. Following Director Heinemann's funeral, Dr. Tenma is approached by Inspector Egon Weisbach and Inspector Heinrich Lunge of the BKA. Inspector Lunge informs Tenma that the dead men were poisoned by candy containing a muscle relaxant, and, after questioning Tenma, begins to suspect his involvement.

Tenma begins considering returning to Japan, but with the vacuum created from the deaths of the Director, Chief of Surgery, and Head of Neurosurgery, Dr. Tenma is promoted to Chief of Surgery at Eisler Memorial Hospital by the Chairman of the Board. Eva attempts to reconcile with Tenma, but is rebuffed. Nine years later, Tenma has become highly successful as the Chief of Surgery, and continues to operate on difficult cases at every opportunity, crediting his operation on Johan for reminding him of a doctor's true purpose, saving lives. Soon enough during the next nine years to pass fast, while at the same time for both Tenma himself and Sulia to soon cross paths surprisingly to have their lives change forever once it happens.