Episode10 »

Episode 10 – The Announcement of the Counterattack

We rejoin Akagi and company where we last left off. Kawashima and his band of thugs tell Akagi to give the money back, plus additional “compensation”, like his 2 million yen, or else. Akagi stares at them coldly before tossing his bag at Kawashima’s feet. Kawashima chuckles and bends down to take it, only to have Akagi’s right knee forcibly introduced to his face. His glasses shatter. Blood sprays as he flies backwards.

Furuya, Bully #2, looks up just in time to see Akagi’s demented grin, followed by his Fist of Righteousness. Akagi punches him in the face. The bully joins his KO’ed companion, blood trailing behind him.

Akagi turns around. Nagasawa, the last bully left standing, realises that he’s about to get his face pounded and quickly backs away, cowering and whimpering. Akagi lets him shake for awhile and decides to let him live, telling the survivor to clean up the mess. Akagi picks up his bag and walks off while Nagasawa collapses from shock.

Osamu is frozen in place, awestruck by Akagi’s show of Kick Ass. He recovers in time to chase after Akagi into a nearby alley. He wants Akagi to take him along so he can learn to be just like him! Akagi sighs. He tells Osamu that if he tags along, then he might get sucked into one of Akagi’s messes. As if to illustrate his words, a bunch of yakuza suddenly show up from nowhere, surrounding Akagi and the unpleasantly surprised Osamu. Ishikawa emerges and informs Akagi that the Boss wants to see an Akagi versus Fake Akagi match.

We cut to the location of the match, sometime that evening. Fake Akagi is playing against the Fujisawa Group’s rep player at the moment, so he’ll take on Akagi afterwards. Akagi, Osamu, and Ishikawa take a quick peek at the game in progress.

The fake Akagi turns around and smiles. He tells Akagi to wait; he’s almost done. Fake Akagi is winning against Fujisawa’s rep player, Urabe, and seemingly having an easy time of it. “I’ll finish this piece of shit off within an hour,” boasts Fake Akagi. Urabe looks rather put out, but doesn’t say anything. The fake smirks at Akagi. He’s next on the list. Akagi smiles back while Osamu looks on, worried.

The match with Urabe continues. It looks like Urabe’s won this game with his Ron, but Fake Akagi does a Head Bump, claiming the winning tile for his own hand. Because Fake Akagi is sitting to the right of the tile dealer, his winning hand gets priority. The fake has won again. Urabe looks stressed and exasperated, as if he can’t believe what’s happening. Akagi loses interest in the game and asks to be taken to a waiting room. Urabe watches as Akagi leaves, wondering what is up with the newcomer.

In the waiting room, Osamu shares his concerns about the coming Fake Akagi match with Akagi, while Akagi himself lays comfortably sprawled out on the floor, enjoying a smoke. Ishikawa stands there, watching. Osamu is worried, since the fake Akagi actually seems to be pretty good.

Akagi, however, brushes off Osamu’s concerns and doubts that he’ll get to play the man at all. He chuckles. Fake Akagi might get crushed before he even gets the chance. Urabe, according to Akagi, is better.

Kawada opens the door, happy about the upcoming match between the new and old Akagi. Ishikawa, however, interrupts his boss and tells him about Akagi’s little comment regarding Urabe. Good mood ruined, Kawada demands an explanation from Akagi.

Akagi sighs and puts out his cigarette. It’s clear to him that Urabe is losing on purpose. Akagi illustrates his claim, bringing out some Mahjong tiles. He recreates Urabe’s hand and pond, as well as Fake Akagi’s pond, and asks Osamu what tiles he would deal in the given situation. Osamu examines Urabe’s hand and Fake Akagi’s pond, and gives the sensible answer. Akagi agrees with him and points out that Urabe made some very questionable discards, obviously not even trying to make a winning hand. Urabe didn’t want to win. The waiting room crowd is shocked. Akagi believes that Urabe will continue to lose for now, but then want to raise the wager, or else he’ll do something in the last session.

A yakuza rushes in. Urabe wants to have a word with Kawada. Akagi smirks.

Back to the match room. Urabe sheepishly asks that, instead of their original wager of 500,000 yen per session, they double it to 1 million… just for the last session, of course, so he can win back what he lost. Furthermore, since it’d be silly if neither he nor Bro (Fake Akagi) made it into first place, wouldn’t it be a good idea to keep going until one of them managed to do so?

Fake Akagi asks if that means they’ll have to repeat the session until one of them makes it into first. Urabe replies in a cheerful affirmative and says that each session would have the same conditions carried over as the last one. The fake angrily declares the whole idea stupid. He has something to do, and he doesn’t want to waste time playing games with Urabe.

Kawada butts in and tells him to calm down and accept Urabe’s challenge. Akagi can wait. After all, all Fake Akagi has to do is get into first place, and that shouldn’t be a difficult thing to do. Fake Akagi reluctantly backs down and does as he’s told. He sets up for another game.

Ishikawa questions the wisdom of letting the game continue, but Kawada wants to see if Akagi’s prediction will come true.

The wager is 1 million yen. Kawada and Ishikawa wait for Urabe’s counterattack, but Fake Akagi wins and continues to do so. He’s in first place. Was Akagi wrong?

During the last game, Urabe attacks with what looks like a one-suit killer hand. Since Urabe is obviously waiting on a Man zi tile, Fake Akagi is more worried about the Riichi from the side player in second place. If the side player wins, then Fake Akagi will be bumped from first place. The fake discards a 4 Sou. Urabe smiles. “Sorry, Bro. That’s it.” Ron.

Fake Akagi is outraged. Urabe had gone with a relatively cheap hand instead of a potential five-digit killer Bai Man. Fake Akagi disses Urabe, saying that there’s no way he’ll make it into first if he plays cheap like that. Urabe laughs. It’s fine because they’ll have to start another session… and the wager will go from 1 million to… 2 million yen?!

The fake repeats the wager, dumbfounded. Yup, the next session’s wager will be 2 million, confirms Urabe. Fake Akagi is quite upset. Urabe said that the wager would continue at 1 million! Nope, Fake Akagi is mistaken. Urabe really said that the same conditions would carry over, and that condition was the doubling of the 500,000 into 1 million yen.

Fake Akagi’s been had and he knows it. The man slams a hand on the table and gets up in outrage. He won’t let Urabe have his way, the fake snarls, jabbing his finger at Urabe in accusation. “You’re out of your mind, you con artist!”

Urabe laughs at Fake Akagi. What the other Akagi thinks about the situation doesn’t matter; it’s up to Kawada to decide. Urabe sucks up and grovels. Surely the great boss Kawada is a fair person that would go with Urabe’s perfectly reasonable request, right? Kawada thinks about it and decides to accept the conditions, despite Fake Akagi’s objections. What’s the problem? All the fake has to do is win the next game…

The conditions are now thus: If neither Fake Akagi nor Urabe make it into first place, the wager doubles and carries over to the next game. Fake Akagi is doing his best to get into first, but Urabe keeps frustrating his efforts by giving the game to one of the side players. Fake Akagi is stuck.

The wager is now at 8 million. Fake Akagi is in denial; just because the game isn’t going his way doesn’t mean that he sucks. He doesn’t win this one either, and the wager is now at 16 million yen (which is a little over 160 million yen today, which is a little under 2 million CAD). Kawada’s people look on in concern.

Fujisawa, the head of the Fujisawa Group and Urabe’s boss, walks into the room. He heard about the huge wager and has decided to sit down and act as a witness, making sure that Urabe’s rules are adhered to. He’ll make sure that everyone stays honest. He continues to talk about word-breaking and human nature while Fake Akagi tries to light up a smoke without any luck, futilely flicking his lighter. Fujisawa continues on to casually say that the wager will rise even higher. Fake Akagi looks up, stunned.

Urabe laughs.

The game continues. Fake Akagi decides to give up on being first and take advantage of Urabe’s game-prolonging strategy. In the second-to-last game, Fake Akagi gets a decent hand. He decides to wait on a 2 Pin, a single tile, rather than an edge wait with the Man zi. Fake Akagi waits until Urabe discards a 2 Pin for a side player, and calls a Head Bump. It’s a Man Gan, and Fake Akagi only needs another 1,000 points to win. He’s beaten Urabe!

Or has he? Urabe chuckles. Fake Akagi was close, but that isn’t good enough. It’s too late. Fake Akagi doesn’t understand, so his opponent explains further. According to Urabe, the fake Akagi is not going to get those 1,000 points in the next game.

Because he’s a coward.

The next game begins, and Fake Akagi has an excellent starting hand. He takes the offensive, confident that he’ll win this one, but Urabe suddenly declares a Riichi. Fake Akagi wonders if Urabe is going to attack rather than prop up another player. On the next turn, Urabe declares a Kan. Fake Akagi analyses the situation. Urabe must be trying to make an upset with a three-colour straight, the Kan with the Hatsu, and a bunch of Dora tiles!

The situation has become dangerous for Fake Akagi. The fake draws an 8 Sou and, thinking that Urabe might be waiting on his 5 Sou, decides to stick with his one-tile wait on the 6 Sou rather than switch to an edge wait. He discards the 8 Sou. On the next turn, it becomes clear that Urabe wasn’t waiting on his 5 Sou. Fake Akagi draws a 9 Sou. The tile is useless to him, but he can’t discard it because Urabe might take it. He discards his 5 Sou, losing his 6 Sou wait. Unfortunately, Fake Akagi draws a 6 Sou on his next turn. Hand trembling, he discards the 9 Sou.

For those of you keeping track, Fake Akagi has discarded every single one of his winning tiles and is now waiting on those same tiles. Since he discarded them, he can no longer win unless he draws those tiles himself. His hand is in Furi Ten. He can’t win by Ron. His hand is screwed.

Kawada realises that Fake Akagi is having problems; he’s acting like a Mahjong amateur. This is Not Good.

Fake Akagi draws a genuinely risky tile this time. Seeing no other alternative, he takes his Ten Pai apart. As the game progresses, he destroys his hand to avoid dealing any risky tiles. His hand becomes an utterly hopeless mess, mirroring his state of mind. Eventually, the side player draws a winning tile and Tsumos from it. Fake Akagi is relieved that at least Urabe didn’t make it into first with his killer Riichi-Dora-Hatsu-3-colour straight.

Kawada is not impressed with Fake Akagi’s performance. The fake is lacking a vital part of any true gambler.

Fujisawa, on the other hand, is quite pleased with Urabe. The Kan was a bluff, the Riichi was a fake, and the man wasn’t even in Ten Pai. It was bold, it was risky, but he got his way. Fake Akagi, on the other hand, was unwilling to take risks, so he was no match for Urabe.

Kawada has seen enough. He tells Ishikawa to get Akagi in here because the fake is no good. Akagi’s prediction has come true and Fake Akagi is in big trouble.

Akagi sits outside and watches the moon, waiting, not a care in the world.

OPINION

That fight scene was nice, though it wasn’t much of a fight. Akagi fights dirty. Isn’t there some kind of unspoken rule that says you’re not allowed to knee someone in the face if he’s wearing glasses and not expecting a fight? Look at all that blood! And not a drop got on Akagi. Again. The man is untouchable. Bad things happen to the people around him, and Osamu had better figure this out before he gets involved in one of Akagi’s messes – whoops, too late. The kid was with him for, what, all of five minutes, and he’s been whisked away by yakuza already!

So Kawada has finally realised that his dear Brush-head is no match for a real gambler. About time. A true gambler, at least in Akagi’s world, must have the guts and mental strength (aka balls) to *gasp* actually gamble! Poor Fake Akagi spends so much time depending on his precious statistics that he never got a chance to grow a pair. Numbers and percentages are absolutely useless against liars, cheaters, and people like Akagi, dontcha know.

Akagi looked very comfortable in the waiting room, all stretched out with a smoke in hand and using his arm as a pillow. He has very long legs, doesn’t he? Very fit. Very sexy, and not in the typical skinny anime prettyboy way.

Fake Akagi looks like he’s got hair growing straight out of his neck. That’s not hair, it’s a mane!

His boast concerning Urabe has come back to haunt him. Urabe is a crap player, eh? It was sad watching that poor fake bastard trying to get his dead lighter to work. Just give up on the cigarette; it won’t help your situation, Brush-head. Urabe is playing circles around you, and you’ve got your hands full just dealing with him, nevermind Akagi.

Urabe a con artist? Look who’s talking! Fake Akagi might as well just tell everybody his actual name now. The real thing is waiting outside, and I doubt anyone is fooled. It’s over.

And Yasuoka, the corrupt little weasel, has disappeared. Where is Brush-head’s manager? The kid is in over his head, you useless cop! He needs some moral support, pronto!

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Comments

Mcsweeney
31 Dec 2006, 00:36

This was my favourite arc. Perfectly paced Mahjong action.

ddraggy
31 Dec 2006, 19:23

Mine too. Sounds odd, but it’s nice to see people other than Akagi play Mahjong sometimes. You end up appreciating his skills more.

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