Episode15 »

Episode 15 – The Meeting With Evil

Once Akagi has healed up enough to travel, he, Ohgi and Yasuoka hop on a train back to Tokyo. Akagi stares out a window and thinks about his bloodthirsty opponent. What will this old man be like? Perhaps he’s of a similar breed to Akagi; he’s weary of living and stands alone, a victim of his own success.

There are no challenges left to excite the old man, but there must be more to this life… he can’t die yet. It can’t be over so soon.

Akagi knows there’s nothing else. He should just die when his time comes. That’s the only way Akagi and Washizu can be saved.

They’re outcasts.

The gang stays with the Inada Group for two weeks, waiting for the negotiations with Washizu Iwao, the monster, to come to fruition. It’s simply a matter of time.

We learn more about the monstrous old man. After graduating from the Old Imperial University in 1912, Washizu joined the police force and made a name for himself. Thanks to his brilliance and ambition, he quickly rose through the ranks, eventually becoming Chief Commissioner.

When he foresaw the defeat of Japan in WWII, Washizu retired to later form a consulting firm, using his knowledge of political scandals (learned while in the police force) to blackmail politicians for information on Japan’s development. Using that inside knowledge, he consulted with various firms. Of course, his advice was always good, the firms became successful… and Washizu was paid well for his expertise. He became extremely wealthy and extremely powerful. There was nothing he couldn’t do; no one was willing to stop him. Washizu Iwao became the king who ruled the country from the darkness.

He went mad. His own success drove him to incomprehensible despair. He wasn’t satisfied, yet he refused to die.

Washizu was old and would someday die, but he couldn’t face that truth. He hated people just for being young; people such as Hirayama Yukio. Trash without a speck of “talent” or “intelligence” would live longer than him. Washizu couldn’t allow that.

We cut to Washizu’s dark mansion. Washizu is in danger of getting arrested: there were witnesses to the meeting between Fake Akagi and Washizu’s underlings, the tools used to bury the body were of the same make as those found in Washizu’s mansion, and the tire tracks were made by the same car as Washizu’s. However, the old man turns the situation around by bribing and blackmailing high-ranking police and politicians. He’s gotten away with it, but he’ll have to leave the country for a while.

Washizu asks his underling, Yoshioka, to accompany him. The lackey agrees immediately, and adds that Washizu’s assets are ready to be taken with him. He tells Washizu that he can hide himself for as many years as needed.

Washizu takes offence at the term “hide”. Has Yoshioka forgotten Washizu’s many contributions to Japan?! He beats his unfortunate underling about the head with his wooden cane. The old man continues to berate him, punctuating each statement with blow after blow. The wooden stick eventually snaps in two.

Washizu pants. “So what if I killed five or six kids? They were trash anyway.” Rage spent, he continues in a calmer tone. “I should be allowed to do so. Isn’t that right, Yoshioka?”

“Yes, sir,” replies Yoshioka, bloodied from his beating.

The old man drops his broken cane on the floor. He wants Yoshioka to call Ohgi. It seems that there’s a person who’ll accept a game.

Yoshioka protests, but Washizu tells him to shut up. The old man will have to leave Japan in a few days. Tonight… will be his last supper. Yoshioka hurries to obey.

Akagi is in his room, relaxing in the dark. Ohgi walks in. It’s time to go. Akagi smiles.

Three cars are on their way to Washizu’s mansion: one for Akagi, Ohgi, Yasuoka, and their driver, and two for their gun-toting Inada Group backup. A huge amount of money is at stake and the Inada Group wants to make sure the match stays honest.

Akagi wants to stop by a doctor’s office first and gets out once they get there. Ohgi and Yasuoka are worried; perhaps the sword wound hasn’t healed yet. The car door opens a few moments later and Akagi gets back inside. “How’s the wound in your shoulder?” asks Yasuoka.

Akagi straightens up. “Ah. It’s all better now,” he replies. “I went there for these.” He opens up the bag on his lap. It’s full of energy drinks (Polyvita C, for your information). Ohgi doesn’t understand, so Akagi spells it out for him.

He doesn’t want to drink anything Washizu gives them.

Ohgi is mortified; he’s the one who should’ve taken care of that.

“They’d drug us without a second thought… since we’re trying to steal 500 million from them.” Akagi laughs softly. “You can never be too careful.”

At 10PM, Akagi, Ohgi, Yasuoka, and their yakuza finally reach the mansion. They step inside. Washizu is extremely pleased to see them. So this will be his opponent for tonight, and he’s a young man to boot! It’s time to begin… the Washizu Mahjong.

Akagi and crew are led into a cavernous room, dominated by an unusual Mahjong table in the centre. Washizu offers Akagi a seat at the table and explains the Mahjong house rules before they get started. It’s not so much the rules, but the equipment used.

They’ll be playing with transparent Mahjong tiles. Three out of the four tiles of each kind are transparent, so you’ll only get one regular opaque tile in each set of four. A player will run into difficulty because his opponent can see the tiles in his hand.

That awareness will make the player shake in dread… and Washizu finds watching that extremely amusing. Washizu laughs, but then gets back on track.

Next rule: since the tiles are transparent, they won’t build walls to draw from because the player can see what he’s going to draw. Instead, they’ll draw from the hole in the middle of the table.

Another rule: because they’ll be drawing from the hole, they must wear a leather glove so that they can’t feel what tile they’re drawing.

Last rule: all Dora tiles are also drawn from the hole. Also, tiles are shuffled by shoving them down the hole. They’re then mixed by a machine to prevent cheating.

However, there are a few more very special rules left. Playing Mahjong for money isn’t exciting enough for Washizu anymore. He’s developed a different taste. He’s now betting on something else…

Akagi interrupts him. “I have an idea of what it is.” He smiles. “Probably… the blood of the player.”

Ohgi and Yasuoka gasp in shock.

“You’re telling me to bet my own blood, right?” asks Akagi.

Washizu cackles in delight. Akagi’s quite bright! Well, there’s no point in a long explanation if Akagi already knows about those incidents. He’s right; Washizu wants him to bet his own blood. Akagi will die if he loses.

Depending on how fast the blood is drawn, a person will die after he loses about half. Akagi has about 2,000ccs of blood to bet with before it’s fatal, though it may be less than that if the blood is drawn quickly. Even if Akagi doesn’t die, he’ll be in no condition to play Mahjong. The limit, then, is about 1,500ccs. However, Washizu is aiming to kill him, not weaken him. They’ll keep playing until Akagi falls flat on the table and dies.

Akagi’s 2,000ccs is equivalent to Washizu’s 20 million yen. The 2,000ccs and 20 million yen translate into 200,000 points in Mahjong.

It will be a one-on-one match, so the special blood rules only apply to Akagi and Washizu. Points are tallied up after each Han Chan session. Ranking bonus goes like this: First place gets a bonus 30,000 points, Second place: bonus 10,000 points, Third place: minus 10,000 points, and Fourth place: minus 30,000 points. For example, if Washizu got into First place with 30,000 points, and Akagi was in Fourth place and lost 20,000 points, the difference between them would end up being 110,000 points.

Akagi would lose 1,100ccs in one session. If that happened twice, he’d be dead.

On the other hand, Akagi could also win a huge amount of money. “It’s a great condition if you think positively,” claims Washizu. It’ll be six Han Chan sessions with 200,000 points. If Akagi has more points than Washizu at the end of a session, then he can choose to get either money, some of his blood back, or both.

In addition to all of the above, there’s also one last bonus in Washizu Mahjong. Tsumo wins and direct hits between Akagi and Washizu must be paid in the corresponding amount of money or blood. The winner decides which form the payment will take.

Washizu leans forward. Isn’t this system of exchanging blood and money interesting? You have to keep track of how much blood you’ve lost. Simply going after money can kill you. You can die before the session is even over if you deal into your opponent’s hand.

You will naturally start shaking in fear as the realisation grips your mind… and that’s what Washizu wants to see.

Washizu laughs maniacally as the bystanders from both sides look on.

The game is about to begin.

OPINION

The monstrous man-eating tiger is revealed! He’s… an old geezer with money and issues. Washizu Iwao is pissed that he’s going to eventually die just like everybody else, so he’ll kill all those young losers first! Apparently, Washizu was so brilliant he basically built Japan, but all I’m seeing right now is a bloodthirsty Mahjong nut. A nut that likes to beat up on Yoshioka and make him like it. The underling seems rather used to such treatment. The white bandage now wrapped around Yoshioka’s head matches his suit. Is that why they all wear white? Frankly, the poor man needs a helmet. And Washizu needs a new cane.

I’ll tell you this right now: we’ll never see those energy drinks again in the anime. It’s a bit odd that Akagi would go to a doctor’s office just to buy energy drinks, don’t you think? Yeah, he had another motive… revealed in the manga. We need another season of Akagi, dammit.

Akagi’s moving pretty well for someone who got his shoulder sliced open. He seems fine despite having a little over two weeks to recuperate. How long does it take for a wound like that to heal, anyway? They should’ve asked him if his shoulder was okay before going ahead with their master plan. Ohgi would’ve been in a fix if Akagi had said, “No, my shoulder hurts like hell. Why don’t you play Washizu, Ohgi-san? I don’t feel like it right now”.

Yay, Fake Akagi’s untimely demise wasn’t completely meaningless; it almost brought down Washizu. Plus, he looked cool in that shot of him going against the old man, and that makes me happy.

So Washizu is looking forward to seeing Akagi shake in fear, eh? I doubt Akagi will oblige him. Tremble from blood loss, maybe, but not fear.

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Comments

Mcsweeney
14 Apr 2007, 22:19

Akagi and Fake Akagi should have become friends and then been teammates in Washizu Mahjong. That would have been great.

ddraggy
15 Apr 2007, 13:19

I would’ve loved it if those two teamed up, though I doubt they’d actually be able to work *together*. Fake Akagi would throw a fit over being Akagi’s lackey!

What I’d like to see: Akagi vs Fake Akagi Mahjong. Wager: Loser buys beer. Then they could be friends since Fake Akagi gets to keep his limbs 😛

zzo38
28 Apr 2007, 14:46

I think Akagi didn’t actually need any energy drinks, he just bought them so that everyone else thinks he needed energy drinks and so they don’t question him about it too much. I think he really went there to get more blood or something for healing so he wouldn’t die too much while playing Mahjong. Maybe… maybe not quite.

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