|
Episode 13 – The Path of the Storm
Akagi is waiting on that single tile sitting ominously on the table. He smirks. He knows what the outcome of the match is going to be, so there is no reason for him to stay. Ishikawa, however, feels differently. How can Akagi be so sure? Urabe can discard any one of his fourteen tiles. The chances of winning are too low for Akagi to just up and leave the table like that!
Urabe refuses to let Akagi’s chilling prediction rattle him any further. He won’t deal into Akagi’s hand. It has to be a bluff. Akagi has no more tricks up his sleeve and all Urabe has to do is not deal into Akagi’s hand. Urabe is the one choosing the tile, not Akagi. His fingers dart from tile to tile, trying to escape Akagi’s “spell”. He must not discard Akagi’s winning tile. He’ll dodge the demon’s trap…
Ishikawa, Kawada, and Fujisawa look on in suspense.
Urabe slams down his 2 Pin, confident in his decision. There is absolutely no way that Akagi’s winning tile could be the 2 Pin. No way.
|
Kawada gets up from his seat. Ishikawa leans forward. “It… it can’t be…” stutters Ishikawa. “This can’t be…”
Akagi looks back over his shoulder, watching.
Ishikawa slowly picks up Akagi’s face-down tile with a trembling hand. His eyes widen behind his ever-present sunglasses as he raises the tile. He chokes, gurgling and dropping the tile in horrified shock.
The tile bounces on the table and lands face-up.
2 Pin.
Ron. Hai Tei. Dora 4. Man Gan. It’s an upset.
Urabe falls apart, shattered. The impossible has happened.
Akagi has won.
|
After the match, Akagi heads back to his room to pick up his duffel bag. The door behind him slides open. It’s Osamu. He tells the kid that they’re going now since he defeated Urabe, the guy who beat Fake Akagi. There’s nothing else to do here.
However, Kawada isn’t done with him yet. The yakuza boss acknowledges Akagi as the real thing. He won’t ask Akagi to become his rep player, but he does want the man to explain how he knew that Urabe would deal the 2 Pin. It would only be polite to give an explanation before leaving.
Akagi smiles and consents.
They all go back to the match room. Fujisawa and his people are gone, but the tiles have been left untouched. One of Kawada’s yakuza reveals Urabe’s hand. How did Akagi know that Urabe would deal a 2 Pin from his hand? How did he even know that Urabe had a 2 Pin in the first place?
Akagi tells the yakuza boss that those two points were the keys to his strategy. In order to understand how he did it, he would have to explain from the beginning.
Akagi first had to understand the very fundamentals of Urabe’s thought processes. He built his strategy around that. “By doing so, I can guide Urabe to his hell of dealing the 2 Pin in the last moments.”
|
In order to determine Urabe’s true nature, Akagi had to measure how he reacted to danger right from the beginning. That’s why he made Osamu play; the kid was tossed out as bait to test Urabe. Urabe didn’t crush Osamu right away, even though he should’ve been able to see Osamu’s level immediately. From that, Akagi started to sense Urabe’s ingrained psychological habit: when confronted with danger, Urabe’s tendency was to neither attack nor retreat, but to stand still.
Akagi noticed that whenever he declared a Riichi, Urabe would deal nothing but safe tiles, though Urabe still managed to win. However, by doing so, Urabe exposed which tiles he considered safe and which ones he preferred to keep, revealing his playing style to Akagi even further. Urabe revealed information about his playing style while Akagi concealed his own, going so far as to sacrifice 8000 points to hide his hand.
Akagi’s seemingly moronic 4 An Kou Open Riichi screwed up Urabe’s impression of him even more. The game was almost over and Urabe still had no idea how Akagi really played. Therefore, Urabe would play safe in order to keep his giant lead. That was when Akagi attacked him with the strange dead wall Pei win. Urabe pretended to be unruffled but, in reality, he was quite rattled. Akagi could kill him in the next game.
Urabe couldn’t see Akagi, and Akagi was closing in. Drowning, all Urabe could do was depend on his reason and logic to see him through the final game.
That was Akagi’s true goal: to make Urabe depend on his rationality.
|
In the last game, Urabe took the offensive only out of reason, not out of any conviction of winning. All it would take would be a change in the situation to shut down such an offensive. Akagi’s Kan shocked Urabe, but instead of attacking, Urabe discarded a 2 Pin. He was standing still. His true nature, his weaker self, was showing through.
The moment Urabe dealt the 4 Pin, Akagi knew he was out of the game and that he intended to fight him in the next one, instead. Urabe was running, playing his game of reservation. He dealt nothing but safe tiles.
However, the “next three rounds” that Akagi had bought previously referred to the three turns of Urabe dealing the Chun, 6 Man, and 4 Pin. Akagi wanted Urabe to retreat, signalled by the 4 Pin. If Urabe had still been on the offensive at that point, then the game might’ve ended differently. Urabe could’ve won any number of ways. However, Akagi’s game was to prevent Urabe from forming his hand.
Ishikawa and Kawada are speechless, awed by Akagi’s reason and insight.
It was only natural for Urabe to go completely defensive after Akagi started calling tiles. There was no way he could pay if he lost, so he wouldn’t deal anything that could remotely be a risky tile against Akagi’s potential Ten Pai. Even though Akagi was nowhere near Ten Pai, Urabe wasted his safe tiles, leaving him none at the end. There was no way he could counter Akagi’s single tile wait.
|
Urabe should’ve just dealt the Xia he’d drawn, the only tile that Akagi couldn’t have foreseen, but he’d been rendered paranoid by Akagi’s manipulations. The Xia was dangerous because it had come from Akagi’s wall and was only drawn because of Akagi’s previous Pon on the Pei. Perhaps Akagi had made him draw it on purpose! Urabe’s entire hand looked risky; most of his tiles were around tiles that Akagi had already revealed to be in his hand, making them dangerous. On the other hand, Akagi had discarded plenty of Pin tiles around the 2 Pin. The only tile Urabe could safely deal was the 2 Pin…
That was Akagi’s trap.
Explanation finished as far as he’s concerned, Akagi gets up from his seat. “Now, wasn’t that a good wait to choose?” he asks rhetorically, smiling.
Kawada is struck dumb.
“Let’s go, Osamu,” says Akagi, and walks out, bag over his shoulder, Osamu trailing behind him.
Kawada snaps out of it and runs out of the room, telling Akagi to wait. He’s only half-done! The pair stop for a moment. Akagi’s reasoning would’ve meant squat if Urabe didn’t have a 2 Pin in the first place. How did Akagi know that Urabe had a 2 Pin?
Akagi stares at Kawada. Kawada glares at Akagi, trembling and with gritted teeth. He won’t be able to sleep if he doesn’t know.
|
Sighing silently, Akagi lowers his bag again. Akagi got that 2 Pin on the seventh turn. He’d sensed something from the 2 Pin that Urabe had discarded on the sixth turn.
Glaring eyes listen to Akagi’s explanation from the shadows, watching his silhouette…
Akagi continues talking. Before that dealing, Urabe had still been on the offensive. He’d been in Ten Pai, but then drew the risky Chun. He wasn’t out of the game yet, but he needed to deal a safe tile. He decided to discard a 2 Pin from his pair. Urabe’s habit in this kind of situation, according to Akagi, was to deal a tile from a pair. Akagi had seen him do that multiple times, both against Osamu and against Akagi himself. It was an ingrained tendency of his. Urabe had neglected to get rid of the remaining tile from that pair.
The group hears a noise coming from behind a nearby sliding door. Osamu walks up to it and hesitantly slides the door open, only to cringe away from his discovery. Urabe is sitting in the dark, chuckling madly to himself, face twisted with rage, cradling his hands in his lap. Osamu recoils, afraid. Akagi slides the door the rest of the way open to get a better look.
|
Just because Akagi sensed that one little thing, growls Urabe, saliva trailing from his mouth, he had to pay such a high price: a debt of 32 million yen… and bloody, broken fingers. Osamu gasps in horror at the sight. Akagi is completely unmoved. Osamu urgently tugs at Akagi’s left sleeve, desperately wanting to leave. Akagi turns away from Urabe and starts to go, but Urabe yells at him to wait. He tells Akagi to remember this: he will defeat him once he’s recovered and paid off his debt. Urabe doesn’t care how long it takes; he will defeat Akagi someday! Someday!
Osamu wants Akagi-san to leave the man alone and just go already. Urabe’s just saying that out of desperation! They don’t know what Urabe will do…
Akagi bares his teeth in a lethal, man-eating grin. Desperation? Urabe isn’t that kind of person.
He walks into Urabe’s room. Urabe is burning with hatred. “Akagi!”
|
Akagi walks right up to Urabe. “Urabe,” he says softly. “You’re never going to beat me.”
Urabe lunges up to his knees. “I’ll kill you!” he snarls.
“Urabe,” responds Akagi coolly, “don’t say ‘someday’.” He bends down until he’s face to face with his maddened opponent. “Why not now?”
Urabe’s eyes widen in fear.
“I’ll play you in one Han Chan session.” Akagi moves closer. “If I lose, I’ll shoulder all of your debt.” Akagi’s eyes are those of a predator, glinting in the darkness. A demon’s eyes. “In exchange, when I win, I’m going to have you cut off both of your hands.”
The onlookers are horrified. As Kawada says, Akagi doesn’t benefit whether he wins or loses!
|
Akagi doesn’t care. He had never made bets because of what he had to gain. “Simply having people die meaningless deaths from the outcome of a gamble… It’s better that way.” Urabe trembles. Kawada, Ishikawa, and Osamu look sickened by Akagi’s words. “That gets closer to the meaningless death that is the essence of gambling.”
Akagi wants to get closer to its depths. “That’s where the real pleasure in gambling is.” A beat. “Right, Urabe?”
Urabe is overwhelmed and collapses at Akagi’s feet, drained of strength, completely undone by Akagi’s very nature.
Akagi and Osamu finally get out of there. Akagi walks down a dark street, Osamu running after him. Osamu is exasperated by Akagi’s behaviour. What would Akagi have done if Urabe had actually accepted that bet? Akagi shrugs off Osamu’s concern; Urabe wouldn’t have accepted the challenge.
But, argues Osamu, he was so-!
|
No, says Akagi, what Urabe felt wasn’t real anger. He was just a regular man who weighed his losses against his gains, even in his so-called anger. Urabe would never feel genuine anger, and he would never be able to give Akagi a genuine fight. Akagi would never get a real fight out of people like him.
It’s not enough.
Osamu freezes in his tracks.
What Akagi truly wants… is a true match where one bets his own destruction.
Akagi will have that match in one year.
|
OPINION
And so ends the Urabe match. Akagi won, Urabe broke, Osamu rematerialised, back from his beer break or whatever, and then Kawada made Akagi explain what he did to Urabe in excruciating detail. And boy did he explain! Akagi’s exposition ate up over half the episode. Perhaps I’m projecting, but Akagi himself seemed to be getting pretty bored with it by the time he hit the “How I knew Urabe had a 2 Pin” part. Good thing foaming-at-the-mouth Urabe was there to get the story moving again.
Poor Urabe. Akagi sure enjoys twisting the knife. Well, I suppose he had to be all sadistic to get at least a little bit of a thrill; he didn’t seem to be in any danger even once during this match. Everything went according to plan. It wasn’t anywhere near an even match, nothing like the game between Ichikawa and Akagi. Urabe is no Ichikawa. Ichikawa rocked, and I wouldn’t mind seeing an Akagi versus Ichikawa rematch. Just, please, no more lengthy Mahjong replay exposition episodes, thank you very much.
I wonder what would’ve happened to Fake Akagi if the real thing hadn’t taken over. Would Kawada have allowed Urabe’s wager-doubling condition? Would Fake Akagi have been the one to lose 32 million yen, or would he have been able to pull himself together in time? Would Kawada have ordered his yakuza to mutilate poor Brush-head in compensation? Ah, what ifs, what ifs.
Heh heh, and it looks like Akagi managed to scare off Osamu for good this time. Osamu’s better off this way, really. Akagi is out to get himself killed via meaningless death, and the fewer innocent bystanders he takes down with him, the better. Episode 4 again, anyone?
Comments
Mcsweeney
27 Mar 2007, 07:38
Fake Akagi would have lost, but I doubt the Yakuza goons would have broken his fingers afterward since he wasn’t the one that raised the stakes. Actually he resisted the wager doubling. They probably would have just yelled at him or something.
Too bad this is Osamu’s last episode. I kind of missed him following around Akagi like a goldfish turd.
ddraggy
28 Mar 2007, 23:00
The wager doubling probably wouldn’t have happened if Akagi hadn’t told Kawada about his prediction. I get the impression that Kawada went with it just to see if Akagi’s prediction would come true. Would’ve served him right if Akagi had decided to not play, period. Let Kawada lose 32 million yen!
Osamu the goldfish turd. A bizarre, yet strangely fitting, mental image. I salute you, sir 😀
Mcsweeney
29 Mar 2007, 12:16
I feel bad for Urabe. He made the wager so high under the assumption he was facing Fake Akagi, he would have never imagined they’d swap him out for some insane monster. Actually, that’s pretty unfair they were even allowed to do that.
That’s like wagering a thousand dollars that you can beat Joe Sweatsock in a game of pick up basketball, then halfway through the game he goes, “Oops, I’m switching players. Michael Jordan, come on down!”
ddraggy
30 Mar 2007, 21:11
Ah, but it’s your own fault if your boss asks you if you’re ok against Michael Jordan and you say, “No problem, I can take him!”
Who knows, maybe if Urabe had admitted he was screwed, Fujisawa would’ve broken only one of his hands instead of both 😛
Erik
30 Apr 2007, 19:40
Maybe Urabe was too confidant of his own abilities to recognise a full counter-attack.
There has been a plethora of talk regarding the (urban-)legend of Akagi. And maybe Urabe knew, but wanted to face the real deal.
|
Break Frame | Restore Frame | Main
|
Copyright © 2006−2007 truePARIAH.
All rights reserved.
|
|