[Second subtitle track has no mahjong terminology notes]
What a beautiful girl...
She's wearing the same color as me.
That girl's a first year like me?
Saki!
What are you doing?
K-Kyou-chan, don't scare me like that!
My bad...
Did you want something?
Hey, Saki...
Wh-What, Kyou-chan?
Let's go to the cafeteria!
Here's your "ladies lunch!"
Episode 1
Encounter
Thank you!
I can't believe you only asked me to come to the cafeteria to order this for you.
But the ladies lunch looked totally tasty today!
Sheesh, Kyou-chan, don't use me like that.
A text message?
Nope.
Mahjong?
Oh, you play mahjong, Kyou-chan...
Yeah, although I've just managed to finally remember all the yaku.
[Yaku: A certain hand pattern that is attributed a certain amount of point values (han)]
Mahjong's pretty sweet, you know?
I hate mahjong.
Huh? Saki, you can play mahjong?
Yeah, I can play it, I guess, but I hate it.
I always lost when playing with my family.
Aha...
You do tend to suck at everything, Saki.
But I guess you'd be better than nobody at all...
What?
Come along with me!
We don't have enough players.
Players?
Right.
The mahjong club!
We have a club room in the attic of the old school building.
Wait, Kyou-chan!
Mahjong Club
Welcome, Princess.
I brought an easy mark for you!
K-Kyou-chan... But I said I hate mahjong...
A guest?
That girl from before...
What's this? You know about Nodoka?
Oh, you were reading a book by the bridge earlier.
So you saw me?
Well if you already know each other, that makes things easier.
Nodoka is the grand prize winner in last year's national middle school tournament.
Is that really amazing?
Of course it is!
It's amazing!
I bought tacos at the cafeteria!
Tacos, again?
Don't even think about it!
I won't take 'em, man.
I'll make some tea, all right?
Nodo-chan really is amazing, you know.
She won the national middle school tournament last year, which makes her the best!
And what's more, her parents are a public prosecutor and a lawyer!
And she's totally popular with the boys!
Totally different from a certain someone, I see.
Um...
The tea is ready.
Um, I...
What about the President?
She's sleeping in the back.
Then let's have the four of us play.
I never said anything about playing...
I guess so. Shall we begin?
Okay...
25 000 points with a 30 000 point return. No proportional bonus.
[At the end of the game, only the winner gets a bonus of 20 000 points]
Right.
These tacos rock!
Why did it have to turn out like this?
But this is the first time I've played other than with my family.
Chi!
[Chi: Three sequential tiles of a suit]
Yeah!
Ron!
[Ron: Winning on another player's discard]
Honitsu, 2000 points!
[Ron: Winning on another player's discard] [Honitsu: A hand with tiles from only one suit, plus dragon or wind tiles]
You played right into her hand.
It's obvious she was collecting pin tiles, just look.
Heh, what a newbie.
All right! Riichi!
[Riichi: Having a closed hand and being one tile away from winning (tenpai), one can declare riichi and sacrifice 1000 points and is then forced to deal all subsequent drawn tiles unless it is a winning tile]
Sorry about this. Ron.
What did you say?
How the heck did you get a sanshoku?
[Sanshoku: The same chi in each of the 3 suits]
What nerve for a newbie!
I guess it's over.
Thanks to you, I'm the winner.
A
Second Game
Tsumo.
[Tsumo: Winning on a tile you draw yourself]
Ron.
Tsumo for me, as well.
Nodoka's in first again?
Thank you very much.
All righty! Let's keep going!
A
Third Game
But there's something off about your mahjong, Saki.
It definitely seems like you know how to count the score, though.
Thunder?
It's started to rain, hasn't it?
No way!
I didn't bring an umbrella!
That's...
The student council president?
Who's the guest today?
A classmate of mine from middle school.
I'm Miyanaga Saki.
Takei Hisa.
By the way, at this school it's not "student council president", it's "student congress president".
R-Right...
She's the president of the mahjong club.
Oh, I see.
Let's see here.
Don't you have a pretty hand there?
Tanyao pinfu sanshoku. That's 7700 points, minimum.
[Tanyao: A hand with no terminals (1's and 9's) or honors (dragons and winds)] [Pinfu: A closed hand consisting of only chis and a valueless pair]
It looks like Nodoka's on top again today.
Miyanaga Saki, that's her.
Huh?
Ron.
1000 points.
1000 points?!
And that's the end of the game.
Just gotta record the points.
She drew a 9 man and discarded the 6 man?
Why would she give up her sanshoku and tanyao to lower her score on purpose?
The 9 man isn't even a risky tile.
So Nodo-chan is in first place again?
What's Miyanaga-san's score?
She's plus-minus zero!
Plus-minus zero three times in a row?
I think that's enough for me.
Now that the president is awake, it seems you have enough players, so I'll get out of your way.
Hey!
You're leaving already?
I have to go return a book to the library.
Let's play again, 'kay!
She left in quite a hurry, didn't she?
That's cause you're just too good, Nodo-chan.
It feels like you wiped the floor with us.
Wiped the floor?
What kind of silly nonsense are you saying?
Haven't you noticed her score?
Miyanaga-san's score was plus-minus zero three times in a row.
Are you saying that it was on purpose?
You're joking, right? It was just coincidence.
That's right!
Mahjong depends a lot on luck.
Even the best pro players can only win 30% of the time.
But to get plus-minus zero...
That's even more difficult than winning normally.
And she did it three times in a row, too.
Impossible, right?
But...
What if she actually had that incredible ability?
Nodo-chan!
Why did Nodoka run out like that?
That's... my...
I wonder if that girl will join our club?
Saki?
Yeah. That would make five members, including Mako.
Our club might be able to aim for the nationals!
Nationals?
Haramura-san...
Plus-minus zero three times in a row...
Was it on purpose?
When I play...
It always ends up like that.
Why do you play that way?
Whenever I played mahjong with my family, I wouldn't get any candy if I lost.
But, if I won too much, they'd get angry at me.
Before I'd realized it, I'd begun to play this way.
That's it?
That's it.
Miyanaga-san!
Would you...
Would you play with me for one more game?
Sorry.
I don't like mahjong.
Game over.
It's difficult.
To get plus-minus zero every time...
Is that even possible?
It sure had been a long time...
I didn't think I'd ever play again.
That girl...
Saki, how long are you going to be in there?
I'm coming out right now!
Good morning, President!
Good morning!
Yeah, good morning.
Just as popular as ever, I see.
Mako?
Eating your lunch again in the morning?
I heard about it, President.
Heard what?
It seems like there's a first year who can get plus-minus zero every time.
Ah... Word travels fast, I see.
And so? Nodoka still won, right?
A win is a win, yes...
But I wonder about her pride.
A
Library
The last volume is currently checked out.
Oh, I see...
What's currently checked out?
Th-The student council president!
Student congress president!
Aren't you picky?
Let's see here...
Don't snoop around like that.
Oh? I have that book.
I have every volume.
So, you wanna borrow them?
Can I?
In exchange, I have a favor to ask of you, Miyanaga-san.
The one you've all been waiting for!
Suga-kun, get Yuuki over here.
Oh, okay!
Oh, I get it! This bookworm is the plus-minus zero girl the rumor was about!
You just figured that out now?
Yuuki, everyone's here.
Okay, I'll be right there.
Miyanaga-san, Nodoka, Mako, Yuuki.
It's Saki-chan!
The four of you will battle twice.
You're not going to play, President?
I'd blow everyone away if I played.
Whatever.
This time, we'll play a renchan with red fives.
Yipee!
So...
What does that mean, exactly?
Are you sure you're a member of the mahjong club?
I will explain!
Modern-day mahjong is usually played over two rounds as a hanchan.
Starting from the first east round and ending with the fourth south round,
it's over after at least eight hands.
This part here is a renchan, consisting of an east round only .
It goes from the first to the fourth east round, so the game's only four hands total!
So in other words, it cuts the time in half.
Yeah, that's basically the gist of it.
And the red tiles are like this!
There are four red 5 tiles which count as additional dora.
[Dora: A bonus tile indicated by the dora indicator in the dead wall, yields an additional han each]
Which means there are now eight dora?
What a frightening way to...
25 000 points with a 30 000 point return, okay?
Please, let's begin.
Okay!
I promised two games for the book and that's it.
The president gave me this chance. I'm going to play seriously today from the start.
Are you going to try and get plus-minus zero again, Saki-chan?
If you think about it, getting plus-minus zero each time is just impossible.
And what's more, today's match is a shortened east wind with red fives.
Show me your true power.
There it is!
Dealer riichi, here I go!
[The player sitting in the east position is the dealer and gets double points if he/she wins, and pays double for another player's tsumo]
That was fast.
On the second go around? I can't get a read on her.
I have a bad feeling about this, yes.
Boom! Riichi ippatsu tsumo! Dora 3, dealer haneman!
[Ippatsu: Winning during the same go around in which one declared riichi] [Haneman: Limit score for 6-7 han. Worth 12 000/18 000 points for nondealer/dealer]
Give me a break here...
That was fast.
Here, take a look at this.
This is a graph of the average of Yuuki's past point gains.
She does well in the east wind round, but weakens considerably in the second, south wind round.
It's 'cause I'm a genius!
I just can't keep up my concentration.
Don't you mean you just get bored with it?
Yeah, that!
Ron.
8300.
But didn't Someya-senpai just discard the same tile?
I'm gunning for you.
That's it!
1000 points!
What?
Let's get this over, lickity split!
Yuuki's trying to run away with this one.
Yes. This is quite an interesting development.
Confident?
Yes.
Ron.
Tanyao pinfu dora 2, 11 600.
Ouch...
[If East (the dealer) wins, then an extra hand is played in that round with the same positions]
And that's an extra hand for east.
Under these rules, the scores are rounded to the nearest thousandth.
Rounded?
Therefore the only way to get plus-minus zero
is to score between 29 600 and 30 500 points.
Tsumo! Concealed honitsu tsumo with chun and dora 1!
[Concealed hand: A hand without calling on anyone's tiles] [Pon: Three of a kind]
That'll be 3000 or 6000 points from you!
I don't wanna hear such a long incantation!
Whoopsie, and I was just trying to feel you out a bit.
And now this is the final hand.
A
East fourth round
Saki was in tenpai for honitsu this time.
[Tenpai: Being one tile away from winning]
If she makes it, that's 5200 points. Just what she needs for plus-minus zero.
Okay!
She didn't take it?
If she took it from Yuuki, she'd make a comeback and win!
She let the red five pin pass as well!
This girl...
She doesn't think of winning even for a second.
Why won't she ron?
You don't know?
If she took Yuuki's five pin, she'd be plus-minus zero temporarily.
But since she'd be the leader, she'd end up getting the bonus points.
If she took Nodoka's red five pin, the final placement wouldn't be a problem,
but since she'd get a mangan, she wouldn't end up with plus-minus zero.
[Mangan: Limit score for 3-5 han, depending on the amount of fu. Worth 8000 / 12 000 points for nondealer/dealer]
That girl can see nothing other than scoring plus-minus zero.
Miyanaga-san should be aiming for 5200 points.
In that case...
Riichi!
And what will you do when I declare riichi now?
Riichi!
Nodoka sure can be wicked.
So, this means that there's an extra 1000 points on the table?
Right. If she wants to make plus-minus zero now, she'll need to score from 4100 to 5000 points.
In order words, only a 70 fu 2 han hand will do.
[Fu: A point value of all melds and certain other circumstances of winning that calculates with han to the final score]
A 70 fu hand?
If you were to look at the club's records,
I'd wonder if there was a single 70 Fu in the past thousand hands.
Even rarer than a yakuman?
[Yakuman: Limit score for 13 or more han and special hands. Worth 32 000 / 48 000 points for nondealer/dealer]
And it's even more difficult to make 2 han with it.
So to avoid my riichi, can you change your 40 Fu 3 han hand into a 70 fu 2 han one?
She bailed, huh? It's over...
Wait, that's...
Kan!
[Kan: Four of a kind. When declaring a Kan, you draw an extra tile from the dead wall and turn over a new dora indicator]
Scary!
Getting a 70 fu 2 han hand requires luck.
But...
To take control of a situation like this...
That takes superhuman luck!
Rinshan tsumo.
[Rinshan tsumo: Winning from the draw of the dead wall after declaring a kan]
A 70 fu 2 han hand is...
1200 or 2300 points.
That's amazing!
Luck powerful enough to create miracles...
Is that the power of a god or a devil?
Next Episode Preview
Battle
I wonder if tomorrow will be sunny?
The weather forecast said it'd be sunny.
Kan!
Oh, look at this, tsumo. A rinshan tsumo.
Rinshan tsumo again?! What the f-!
Kyou-chan, it's dangerous to stand up so suddenly.
Watch again next week, yay!