|
Episode 5 – The Treacherous Tse Ii Men
It’s the night of the big match. The players are set, blind Mahjong master Ichikawa is sitting at the Mahjong table, 8 million yen is at stake, and… Akagi is missing. It’s 8:30PM and Akagi is nowhere to be found. Nangou and Yasuoka are in big trouble. Their big gun is not there. Unfortunately, the preparations have been made, so there is no way to postpone the match. Hopeless though it may be, Nangou has no choice but to take Akagi’s place opposite Ichikawa.
They start playing. Because of Ichikawa’s blindness, each dealt tile must be declared out loud. In addition to that, Ichikawa and Nangou must keep playing until one of them runs out of points. It’s a fight to the death.
|
Nangou plays it simple and keeps it simple, following Yasuoka’s advice to the letter. Surprisingly, he wins twice in a row in the beginning, leading Ichikawa. The problem with simple strategies, though, is that they’re very obvious. By the next round, Ichikawa has already figured out Nangou’s strategy. Ichikawa starts plucking off Nangou’s discards, and the poor man’s short winning streak comes to an end. In no time at all, he’s down to 2000 points. One more loss and he’s dead. Nangou’s game improves, but it’s too little, too late. Before long, two players declare Riichis, another is probably a tile away, and Nangou’s left with a hand filled with risky tiles, none of them safe to discard. Poor Nangou prays that he draws the right tile. Everything will be fine if he can just draw the right tile…
Of course he doesn’t. Nangou gets the Dora that Ichikawa’s waiting on, and now his hand is completely made up of dangerous tiles. He’s totally, utterly screwed. Dealing any of them would be like throwing himself off a cliff… All hope is lost… but then Nangou hears the faint sound of footsteps. The door slides open. Could it be…?
It’s Akagi! Nangou is saved! Well, if Akagi can turn Nangou’s Hand of Death around and survive on those 2000 points, that is.
|
Akagi checks out the situation and says that there’s only one tile he can deal. He touches the Chun in Nangou’s hand, but wait, that’s a tile that Ichikawa’s waiting on…! Akagi tells Nangou to hush and be quiet. No worries, he’ll make sure that the tile passes. Definitely. He slams the tile down with enough dramatic flair to cause dust/smoke to puff out. Nangou and Yasuoka cringe, unable to watch.
Ichikawa asks Akagi what tile he just dealt. Another player takes a look and says that it is a… Xia. Akagi had dealt the Chun and, while everyone was watching, quickly bumped the Xia in Nangou’s pond, making it look like he’d dealt the Xia, instead. None of the yakuza catch it. Akagi lives. “Looks like it passed,” says Akagi with a smile. He then tells Nangou to go to hell… because the goddess of luck is down there waiting. Akagi then draws from the wall, gets a Haku, and wins by self-draw. Tsumo. His counterattack has begun. In one move, Nangou’s pathetic 2000 points is now 16,000.
|
Akagi decides to save up some points first before taking on Ichikawa. The side players are easily outmaneuvered and become little more than an easy source of points for Akagi. They are no match for Akagi’s uncanny, demonic insight and end up dealing whatever he needs. However, this is just preparation for the real game; his opponent is Ichikawa, and they haven’t even started yet. Akagi isn’t winning unless he takes Ichikawa’s points. He has to kill Ichikawa.
Akagi begins the real match by doing something odd; he deals three 3 Pins in a row. Nobody understands what he’s doing… except Ichikawa. The blind man responds by dealing two 4 Pins in a row. Yasuoka figures it out. They are playing a different kind of game: The Tse Ii Men. By eliminating a suit (Pin zi, in this case), they’ll end up both discarding and waiting on similar tiles at the end. Since one of the suits is gone, that means that any discard has a good chance of being the other guy’s winning tile. Of course, this only applies if you play it honestly. Akagi wins the round by slyly waiting on the 1 Pin discarded by Ichikawa. He wins many times by taking advantage of the Tse Ii Men. Is Ichikawa being outsmarted by Akagi’s flashy style?
|
No. Ichikawa’s playing style is solid, boring and orthodox. Because he’s not being fancy, his hands are worth consistently more than Akagi’s. They win the same amount of times, but Ichikawa’s wins are greater. Akagi is actually struggling. Ichikawa is confident. In order for Akagi to defeat him, he would have to overturn all the rational rules of Mahjong. Even God can’t do that…
Akagi can’t make a dent in Ichikawa’s huge amount of points. He is slowly but surely… losing.
|
OPINION
I can’t help but feel sorry for Nangou in this episode. Here he is, 8 million yen on the line, depending on some creepy kid to save his life, and the boy is nowhere to be found. Here he is, trying desperately to not lose against one of the best Mahjong players in the world. Here he is, being pathetically grateful when Akagi finally deigns to show up. Frankly, I would’ve cussed him out for being so late. If you’re going to show up late, at least look like you’ve just been beaten up, Akagi! It would’ve been pretty cool if he’d stepped into the room with blood dripping down his face, don’t you think? Speaking of which, there’s not a scratch on him. I suppose his hair is covering up the scalp wound, because I don’t see any stitches or bandages. Odd, that. He must’ve gone home, patched himself up, and waited for the bleeding to stop before heading back out.
Nice sleight of hand from Akagi with the Chun. The only player with enough experience to catch that is blind. Heh.
Definitely was not expecting Akagi to tell Nangou to go to hell. I was wondering what he had against Nangou until he finished his sentence. Goddess of Luck, eh? So Akagi doesn’t believe in fate or destiny; only in his own superior abilities. Oh, and he has no problems with goddesses of luck lying in wait somewhere in hell. Hmm, something does not compute. He must’ve been speaking metaphorically…
Not that this goddess of his is helping him any. Go Ichikawa, kick Akagi’s ass! It seems that Akagi’s genius and instincts are no match for Ichikawa’s years of experience and solid playing style. He’s just letting Akagi flail around while he continues to win with his dull, high-value hands. Akagi had better have some sort of backup plan or else Nangou’s going to get it. Then again, would Akagi even bat an eye if the yakuza dragged the poor man away and offed him in a dark alley?
And that boxing metaphor… meh. Could it have been any more jarring? Mahjong, Mahjong, and then -WHAM- boxing. Can you imagine it, though? They’re playing Mahjong, and then Akagi suddenly goes, “Screw this”, gets up, and punches Ichikawa in the head. KO!
Comments
Eris_sama
21 Oct 2006, 13:51
lol, maybe Akagi has werewolf blood – healing abilities.
|
Break Frame | Restore Frame | Main
|
Copyright © 2006−2007 truePARIAH.
All rights reserved.
|
|