A tale of high adventure and survival! In the early twentieth century, Russo-Japanese War veteran Saichi Sugimoto searches the wilderness of Hokkaido for a hoard of hidden gold. With only a cryptic map and a native Ainu girl to help him, Saichi must also deal with every murderous cutthroat, bandit and rogue who knows about the treasure! Sugimoto and company have gone after some twisted individuals in their search for the tattooed skins, but none as perverse as the deranged animal lover Dr. Anehata. Collecting Anehata's tattoo will provide one more piece of the map to the Ainu gold, but saving the sick madman from himself won't be easy. As they close in on Abashiri prison, plans begin to form about how to get Asirpa inside to meet her father, but the fortune-teller Inkarmat has more secrets to reveal about the identity of Noppera-bo...