Wait for me!
We somehow managed to catch the train.
Now we'll be able to see Nodoka-senpai's match!
Wait, Maho...
What it is?
Isn't this opposite the direction we were running?
Huh?
What?!
Wait! Stop!
Hand 10
Beginner
Captain!
Good job!
You totally destroyed Ryuumonbuchi!
Thank you.
Oh, nice going, nice going.
Thank you very much.
Everyone... There are eight hanchans left.
Just have fun playing like always, and we'll be fine.
Even if, for instance, against a demon like Ryuumonbuchi's Amae Koromo...
We'll be the winners in the end.
Captain, take this.
What is it?
It's the records from Kiyosumi and Tsuruga's matches yesterday.
I could only find Haramura Nodoka's when I searched on the net,
but with the help of some members that aren't regulars, we transcribed them from the videotape.
I figured, if we could be of some help, then...
You stayed up all night doing this, didn't you?
Thank you...
And she's just as weepy as ever!
I'm sorry, I really should do something like this myself.
From cell- phones to household appliances!
We all know how bad you are with machines, Captain!
I was planning on doing this last night, really... I'm sorry...
[Kazekoshi All-girls Waiting Room]
It's really better if you don't touch them, so...
I was kicking butt during the first half, but that woman really pisses me off.
Now, now... That person from Kazekoshi was quite powerful last year, too.
She cleverly used the other players to keep Touka in check, even with her devil's luck.
Be a man, and admit defeat.
I'm a woman, dammit!
But it sure was fun.
I want to play against her again.
Oh, sleepy?
Not only did we have to get up early this morning, but I didn't sleep much last night.
Well, that's a problem then.
It's more than seven hours until Saki plays, and five until you play, Nodoka...
How about the two of you get some sleep in the nap room?
But, there's no way we can just sleep instead of helping to cheer you on.
It'd be worse for you to be sleepy and play sloppy mahjong than not cheering for us.
Yeah, you got that right.
Here I am.
I'm back now.
Welcome back.
You really did your best.
Miyanaga-san, let's go to the nap room.
The lead off for Ryuumonbuchi and Kazekoshi's ace player...
You put up a great fight getting second place against them.
You did better than I expected you to do!
We'll get 'em back!
Haramura-san, I thought you didn't want to go to the nap room?
Yuuki's a strong person, so I don't think she'd let herself cry in front of people the same age like us.
If we leave the room, only the upperclassmen will be left.
I see, that's right.
But...
I have a feeling we're forgetting something.
Yes, I'm just the club's gofer, yup.
The second round of the finals will begin shortly.
It's starting.
Now, can she hold the lead?
Kazekoshi All-girls' second year, Yoshitome Miharu!
Good luck, Miharun!
Can she mount a comeback?
Tsuruga Academy's second year, Senou Kaori!
Don't push me!
From last year's champions...
Ryuumonbuchi High School's second year, Sawamura Tomoki!
Kiyosumi High School's second year, Someya Mako!
Guess I should get goin', eh?
The match will begin shortly!
The sheets are clean, and the futon is fluffy and soft!
They really are!
No one's here, huh?
Yeah. There's so much room, but it's just the two of us.
Y-Yeah...
This is the first time we'll sleep together after the training camp.
I didn't think we'd end up getting along like this back then.
Back then?
Remember when I first joined the mahjong club?
You asked me to quit, Haramura-san.
Please, just forget that already!
When we wake up, it'll be our turn.
Yeah.
Let's win, for sure!
Right! We'll win, and go to the nationals!
And now all four are at the table.
The second round of the finals is about to begin!
They're all wearing glasses.
Well, it is a tournament for a more "cultural" sort of club.
But one of them is going to lose her specs pretty soon.
Now, the game begins!
Why did Someya-senpai take off her glasses?
She won't be able to see the tiles.
If she squints, she can see her opponents' discards.
Do you know about where Mako lives?
I know. It's a maid cafe that has a mahjong table.
That's what it is now, but it was a mahjong parlor before it was a cafe.
Mako's grandpa always ran a mahjong parlor.
Mako was grandpa's girl, so she was surrounded by mahjong since she was little.
And Mako has a mental image of most of the matches she's witnessed.
If she takes off her glasses, and blurs out the world around her,
she can recall scenes from the past similar to the one on the table now.
I can't believe she can actually do something like that.
Yeah... Nodoka would totally deny it.
Riichi.
Kazekoshi All-girls, calling the first riichi!
Will their surprising success from the first round continue?
2 sou.
That's playing right into her hand, isn't it?
I'd bail if I were her.
But I wonder what she'll do?
I've seen situations like this before.
So she bailed.
This going from one away from tenpai and narrowing your hand nonsense has no place in the finals.
I don't need this one.
What is that?!
Ron.
No dora. Riichi, ippatsu, chun. 5200.
Discarding the first chun with a 2 shan ten hand during the turn someone declared riichi...
That's incredibly risky.
She's just a total newbie!
Go get 'er, Miharun!
A
East 2nd Round Mako dealer
So the player after me is a beginner?
That's why things didn't go like the past games I remember.
And this hand isn't like anything I remember either.
I don't have a single picture of something close to it in my memories!
If only we had more beginners come to our café...
Kaori sucks as much as usual!
But, we made it into the team tournament because she joined our club.
I didn't believe we'd actually make it to the finals, though.
We did good just by getting here.
But it's human nature to get hungry for more once we get this far.
We want to win and go to the nationals.
Yeah.
You greedy bastards.
The national tournament takes place in August.
If we win today, Senou will have time to improve.
If we can just get through today...
Three tiles each, three tiles each...
I-I-I got it!
I'm going to riichi!
And your riichi stick...?
A
Two turns later
Dammit, I don't get her discards at all!
It's no use! I've never seen anything like this in the past at all!
Tsumo!
The reverse dora is...
I don't have one.
And your hand?
Riichi, tsumo, toitoi, I think?
That's...
...Suuankou?!
What's that?
It's the easiest yakuman to get.
You're not sitting East, so it's 32 000 points.
Beginner's luck.
A
Ryuumonbuchi High School 2nd Year Sawamura Tomoki
Kazekoshi All-girls 2nd Year Yoshitome Miharu
Tsuruga Academy 2nd Year Senou Kaori
Kiyosumi High School 2nd Year Someya Mako
Since I was dealer, I lost 16 000 points.
If I had discarded the 8 of characters instead, I would have gotten away with only minus 8000!
This is the worst start ever!
Huh? There's someone here already.
Isn't that Haramura Nodoka sleeping over there?
Damn, no kidding! And there's that shitty penguin, too.
Hey, let's prank her.
Nice weather today.
And new leaves are green and shining...
It sure is a nice day for me and Nodoka to be all lovey-dovey together...
Kyoutaro-kun!
Yes?
Tacos! Tacos! Where's my tacos?!
No, can't think like that... The second round's almost over.
If I don't make it in time for lunch, I'll get scolded just like that.
And anyway, how many tacos have I gone and bought since this morning?
We're last place?! What happened?
I'm back!
Welcome back. Good job with the food run.
Um, maybe I don't want to know, but what happened in the second round?
During three of Mako's four dealer rounds, someone won with a tsumo.
And one of them was a yakuman.
I'm sorry I let everyone down.
And the one who won was the player from Tsuruga, who was even more of a beginner than Kyoutaro!
For real?
I bought you tacos.
All right! That's a good dog!
Stop calling me a dog!
I can't believe I'm passing you the baton with us in last place.
Well, it's my turn after the lunch break,
so I'll try and get back as much as I can.
Tomoki!
How much more useless could you be?
Now, now... Tomoki was up against someone completely incompatible: a complete and total beginner.
Yes...
Incompatible?!
No matter who our opponent might be,
it is unacceptable for Ryuumonbuchi to be in third place!
Yes, ma'am...
Well, I'll do something about it, so don't worry.
That's quite some confidence you have there.
But for the two of us to blast back into first place,
and then knock off one of the other schools would be quite a feat.
It will be a real problem if our fifth doesn't show up today.
Hey, wait! This isn't a place for children. Only participants can enter.
A student ID?
Whoa, she's famous!
Pardon me! Please...
So that's last year's MVP...
One of the Nationals' Master Mahjong Monsters...
So that's Amae Koromo?
Arriving nice and late I see?
This playing hall smells...
I can smell a tasty dish!
Amae Koromo!
It's lunch break, so maybe you smell curry?
No! What I smell is sacrifices for the Koromo!
You're so cute!
I want a kid just like you!
I'm not a child, I'm KoROmo!
[Note: Child is "Kodomo" in Japanese]
Don't hug me!
Now, now, there's a good girl...
Don't pet me...
And you're just some trashy pro who I beat at the pro-am tournament...
What did you say?
That tournament had weird rules and we didn't compete directly!
Are you saying you'd beat me head on?
Wouldn't that be nice for third rate brains like yours?
That's profoundly preposterous!
That tournament didn't have any really strong people, either pro or amateur.
Don't think too highly of yourself.
Isn't that admitting that you're weak yourself?
Hey, you over there!
No one except players in the finals can enter here!
Ack, it's Pro Fujita!
Crap!
The penguin!
Just leave it!
What's with that?
A penguin?
It looks just like the one that Haramura Nodoka from Kiyosumi High School had with her.
Okay then! I'll take it to her!
Are you going to be okay doing that all by yourself?
I'm Koromo, I'm not a child!
It can't hurt to have her mingle a bit with the other high school players.
Okay, I guess you can handle it.
Sure! Leave it to me!
That was the pro, Fujita, then wasn't it?
Did she see our faces?
But we're in our school uniforms!
Oh, that's right...
How did something like this happen?
We were all pissed last night after losing to Kiyosumi,
so we rocked out at a karaoke place near the hall until morning.
Oh, right.
And I was sleepy, so you said we could sleep in the nap room at the tournament hall...
And that damned Haramura Nodoka was sleeping right there!
What are we doing?
We really should give the penguin back.
Huh? But I just dropped it.
You want to go back there?
I think we really did something bad.
Let's go look for the penguin and give it back.
I guess we should.
Let's go back and check.
This will do fine.
I really don't like this.
If we don't restrain you this much,
you won't be able to help using that slight of hand of yours.
There are a ton of live cameras, so if I'm caught, we'd be disqualified.
There's no way I'd use it.
Touka is quite the worrywart.
There's still a slight chance you could do it, even unconsciously.
From just one sin in the past, I continue to be bound like this...
It sure is hard to regain people's trust.
Wow, good for you, Kaori!
You did great.
That was good?
It was plenty amazing.
I have nothing to complain about those results.
Mahjong isn't just luck. However...
If it's just a few hanchans, an amateur can beat a pro.
Kanbara!
Yes?
Don't let the target out of the firing range.
I just need to knock them out, right? Kazekoshi High School...
The captain looks like she's feeling better.
Yeah.
And she praised you for holding out well, Miharun!
I want to be praised soon, too!
It's my turn next, isn't it?
Are you uncharacteristically nervous?
I'm scared that I'll stop this momentum we have going...
And this is the biggest stage I've ever been on in my life.
So the rookie who's only been a regular for two months is a big scaredy-cat?
The records...
Don't you think the records of the chuuken and taishou players for Kiyosumi were odd?
It was just a coincidence, right?
That was...
I'll pray that such a "coincidence" doesn't happen again.
The middle round of the finals will begin shortly.
Will the participating players please quickly proceed to the playing hall?
Okay, I'll counting on you guys later.
Good luck!
Please!
We're countin' on you!
Just leave it to me.
They're acting all cheerful.
But, their eyes...
They've never looked at me with such eyes before.
Not bad!
The middle round of the prefectural qualifier finals!
Which one of these high schools will gain the upper hand?
A
Ryuumonbuchi High School 2nd Year Kunihiro Hajime
A
Kazekoshi All-girls 1st Year Bundou Seika
A
Tsuruga Academy 3rd Year Kanbara Satomi
The match begins!
A
Kiyosumi High School 3rd Year Takei Hisa
Kiyosumi High School 3rd Year - Takei Hisa
Takei Hisa?
Isn't that Ueno-san?
Huh?
Her family name is different,
but that's got to be her.
That person is Ueno Hisa!
The only person to give me trouble for the entire national middle school tournament three years ago.
[Ueno Hisa - Disqualified]
She was really talented,
but disappeared suddenly from the tournament hall without showing up to the third match.
And the next year, she didn't enter Kazekoshi either.
I thought she'd already moved.
And she didn't even participate in a single tournament during high school.
I always thought that she had moved to another prefecture!
Captain, what's the matter?
It's nothing...
Please, Bundou-san, be careful!
Please!
Don't face her head on!
Prank
Next Episode
Please tell me, President!
Why do you always choose the waits with the worst odds?
Yes! I cannot understand it either.
You wanna know? Well, you see...
Don't play by the book! Search out the risky move!