The Strange Fish with the Arabesque Pattern

Synopsis

In Hell Valley — known as "the Valley of Death" ever since lethal poison suddenly washed through and killed off all the fish — Shoji hooks but loses a fish with a strange karakusa-pattern scale. Sanpei laughs it off as another tall tale, but old Ippei recounts the story of a young man he saw fifty years before. If the poison that wiped out the fish was man-made, Sanpei thinks, maybe the fish have come back. He heads for Hell Valley, where he meets a strange old man pacing the riverbank, staring into the water.