Kan.
This will be the third rinshan...
There's no need to take that tile from the dead wall!
Perhaps you didn't hear me?
When you called your kan, I believe I said ron!
Chankan.
That kan is not to be.
Hand 16
Conspiracy
It's now the third East round.
So far, Kiyosumi has won two times in a row with a rinshan kaihou,
and now Tsuruga wins by chankan!
A truly unprecedented turn of events!
Got it!
She might have won by chankan the last time, but if I declare a closed kan, it shouldn't be a problem, right?
Wait, there is a case where you can win from someone delcaring a closed kan too!
Kokushi musou...
If she actually wins with that, that'd be 48 000 points...
But it's not like I'm up against my sister, it should be okay.
I've been stuck in iishanten since a few draws.
Wow! Just, wow, Senpai!
Yumi-chin's chankan from before has put pressure on Kiyosumi.
Miyanaga-san is holding off.
That's not like Saki-chan.
It's not like anyone could actually plan for a chankan.
But if she actually planned winning that way...
Tsuruga's captian is no pushover.
East third round is a draw.
Tenpai.
I'm in No Ten.
A kokushi, just as I thought!
I can actually read discards too, see.
Such a wearisome tedium.
I was all excited after hearing Kiyosumi's captain would cause me some trouble.
But you lack; you are deficient!
Perhaps it is time to open the doors to the inner sanctum?
This feeling!
It was her after all!
I wish I had gone to the bathroom...
Amae Koromo.
You plan on winning this year again?
Oh, you thought you were playing against the Koromo of last year?
Just forget about that.
I wasn't in top form last year.
Back then, I was just on the same level as the rest of you people.
So if you're not a person, then what are you?
You'll soon find out for yourself.
A
East 3rd Round Hand 2
My hand just won't get past iishanten.
It usually happens for seven or eight turns...
I've been in iishanten since the starting hand.
I can barely stand it!
There is something off about these draws!
And it has begun.
Even if it is me playing against Koromo, my tenpai percentage drops precipitously.
That sure is tough.
It reminds me of the time I played Koromo for the first time.
It was at night, and a full moon at that!
The worst possible situation.
That was some scary mahjong.
Until then, I wore a moon tattoo sticker,
but every time I saw it in a mirror it'd bring back those scary memories, so I stopped.
Why did we make Koromo our captain?
It's close to the summer solstice and the second hanchan of the final round is at night.
And what's more, tonight is a full moon.
Last year's qualifiers were during a half moon, right?
Indeed.
You cannot compare the ferocity of her mahjong or the swings in her personality to those of last year!
I just can't get into tenpai, no matter what.
What's the meaning of this?
It's as if...
I'm being dragged down to the bottom of the sea!
Chi!
Got it!
What has she done?
Riichi!
She declares riichi discarding the tile she just picked up on the last turn?!
[Note: You can't call tiles during the last turn]
I can't call!
It's over.
Winning on the final draw is another yaku.
That is Amae Koromo.
The meaning of the name of this yaku is:
"To scoop the reflection of the moon up from the sea!"
Haitei Raoyue!
Win by haitei?
What in the world?
The hand was good enough even without the riichi.
But to declare riichi for the final turn, discarding the tile she picked up...
That's almost as if she was certain that she'd win with the last tile.
And if I remember Koromo's play records from last year,
although she did win with a haitei in the qualifiers,
she didn't win that way once in the Nationals.
According to both tournament's records, she should be the type that goes straight for high value hands.
I have a bad feeling about this...
A
East 4th Round - 16th turn Dealer Ikeda Kana
What's with this?
With this starting hand, I was sure to be able to call a ton!
But I haven't gotten a single one!
I'm totally stuck!
And at this rate, Amae Koromo over there is going to win with a haitei tsumo again...
With these point totals, and only a few rounds left...
I'm just gonna go for it!
Kan!
My hand's coming together!
Not sure if this was the tile Kiyosumi was planning on winning with.
But with this kan, I shifted the tile that should have been the last tile by one.
And with one move, I should have destroyed their rinshan kaihou and haitei wins!
I've knocked Amae Koromo off her path to the haitei.
Now all I have to do is win with this hand!
Nothing I draw is of any help.
Pon!
Pei pon, pei pon.
She's back on course to the haitei?
She's frightened? She actually scared of Ryuumonbuchi winning with a haitei?
In that case...
Will you call on this?
So close!
Compared to getting a rinshan kaihou twice in a row, a single haitei is nothing unusual.
That being said... if...
If she does that twice in a row...
Tsumo!
Haitei raoyue.
Two haitei in a row?!
And that's her only yaku?!
Wait, she also gets 3 dora from the kan dora indicator.
So if I hadn't called that kan, I would have stopped her?
I should have ignored Kiyosumi and just called a pon instead?
Pardon me...
I should have called the pon!
Two haitei in a row!
Thanks to those two wins by Amae Koromo, Ryuumonbuchi is back on top!
So far it's been rinshan, rinshan, chankan, haitei, haitei...
It's too much, even for coincidence.
Enigmatic.
The blooming flowers of rinshan, and the glittering moon of haitei...
It's almost like...
A flower garden blooming under the full moon...
A
South 1st Round Dealer Amae Koromo
Kazekoshi's player is called Ikeda, if I recall.
It seems like she's been wary of Amae's haitei in the last hand.
When you're actually sitting at the table together, you can get a sense of things without using words or special signs.
Well, someone completely devoted to online-style play might ignore it,
but does this say that she felt that last year, those two haitei weren't just coincidence?
In that case, while playing conservative to protect my dealer tenpai last hand,
I fell right into Amae Koromo's haitei.
Did I blow it?
You're going to be in a world of pain if you think haiteis are the only tricks up Koromo's sleeves.
I got burnt by that too.
It's not really like her special attack or something, it's more...
Complete control.
Right.
The person I was playing back then wasn't a girl the same age as me...
It was sheer, inescapable, fate.
I'm so far behind...
Should I try and stop her haitei, or should I try for a comeback hand?
Wait. I thought the same thing last year.
Last year, I called in order to prevent her last draw.
But when I finally got in tenpai with a good hand, my discard played right into her baiman.
Whichever way you take on the road, they both end in death.
When Amae's dealer, we're heading for a haitei, unless someone calls...
Chi!
Oh! I can finally call this time!
It's good that I can call to stop her haitei,
but I'm getting this baiman too!
That's the third man tile I've drawn in a row!
Okay, things are lookin' good!
Pon!
Huh?
That's...
If Ikeda-senpai played like she usually does she would have discarded the 8 man even after that call, right?
There aren't many helpful tiles if you discard that 2 man.
Kana...
If your hand isn't coming together and you call, to discard that tile is...
...an amateur mistake.
After I did that, I haven't called once, or drawn anything helpful.
Could it just be bad luck?
And here's the last tofu!
After Amae got in tenpai with a pinfu in turn 10, she kept it hidden this whole time.
Is she not declaring riichi because she's dealer and in the lead?
Oh, not at all.
Pon!
Course locked in.
It has begun.
To throw away a dealer pinfu when you're in the lead and go without any yaku,
that's a play I or Haramura Nodoka would never consider in our entire lives!
This way, Koromo will be the one that draws the last tile, right?
She shifted the draw...
Now the one who'll be drawing the last tile...
...will be Amae!
At this rate, she'll win with a haitei again.
I've got to win or knock her off course before then.
I haven't been able to get in tenpai at all since before,
but if a normal draw won't work, I can always...
Kan!
Got it!
Ever since she got all scary, this is the first time I got in tenpai!
So no rinshan kaihou this time?
But the new dora is the 6 man that Amae called!
However, thanks to that kan, Amae's haitei is off course.
Maybe so, but I'm not getting anything useful.
Chi.
And that is Amae Koromo.
She's back on course to draw the last tile!
If she wins with that, she'll take at least 12 000 points!
I at least wish someone would discard a tile I could call...
Even if it was for the same number of points, I'd rather play into Kazekoshi's hand than getting tsumo'd by Amae.
However even if I could figure out the point totals for each, I don't have any man tiles in the first place.
This isn't good.
I can't win, I can't knock her off course...
This is bad.
I can start to see the Bottom of the Sea.
For the past number of hands, it's really quite unusual how everyone other than Amae has had her hands just frozen.
This didn't happen last year, yeah...
There are lots of folks out there who whine about things
like being stuck in "iishanten hell" or when their hands won't come together,
There's nothing unusual about a single person's hand not moving for 8 turns.
I wish I could say it was just complaining.
But what is going on here?
Three people haven't been able to get in tenpai until the final draw...
And it's happened three times in a row.
The final turn...
If I had gone with this one earlier I could have won.
Somebody...
Somebody give me the win on purpose!
The last draw.
If I discard the 9 sou, I'm in tenpai.
But if I do that, will Amae get another haitei?
This one?
R-Ron! 2000 points!
She threw away her tenpai and played into her hand on purpose?
She actually sensed my feelings and gave me the win! Amazing!
The Koromo's dealer spot is gone now!
[Note: In Japanese terminology, the dealer (east) is the "Parent" and the other players are the "Children"]
The Koromo hates playing as a child!
And I would have won with that too!
Two rivals find themselves in the same foxhole...
So harmony among men trumps superior vantage?
You think I'll let you get away with such a conspiracy?!
This rabble...
Such insolence!
Tsuruga's club president isn't half bad to play into her hand like that.
Tsuruga's club president isn't Kajiki, it's Kanbara.
Kanbara? Are you serious?
Yeah, true...
It's only because Kiyosumi used a kan to build her hand and Tsuruga had that one-point read.
Honestly, it's such a futile struggle.
The curtain of night begins to fall.
A
South 2nd Round
This starting hand...
Assuming Amae is really some new existence that really has "control"...
If I proceed naturally, I'll just end up in iishanten again.
However if I swing in all at once from the side...
Then fate, or whatever...
She's gone off theory all of a sudden!
Well, Yumi-chin can think that way too, you know.
Just leave it up to her.
That's right! If it's Senpai, then...
It's all thanks to Yumi-chin's leadership that we got you here, Momo, and that we made it to the finals.
All that's left for us is to let Yumi-chin have fun and wait for her to come back.
Yeah.
Right!
I just know she'll win!
Tenpai!
See, it can be done!
Her control is not perfect!
Riichi!
Riichi? Wow, she can actually get into tenpai normally.
Those discards are freaky.
This far behind, do I seriously have time to worry with this hand being iishanten?!
Go!
Ron!
Riichi, ippatsu, chitoitsu, 2 ura dora. 12 000.
I dealt into an ippatsu...
Sorry about this. I planned on taking these points from Amae,
but I don't have the luxury of overlooking something like this either.
14 400 points between me and the top.
I've got to make good use of this dealer spot now.
What is this oppressive feeling?
So there are others who can feel it when it gets this bad...
This is even worse than when I was playing with my big sister...
There's no way I can win!
A
South 3rd Round Dealer Kajiki Yumi
Did I really manage to win last time because I went against Amae's control?
Pon.
Or could it just be starting now?
Just like the surf pulls back before a tsunami...
Could it be that Amae was just drawing back the last hand?
Pon!
Two calls, right from the start.
In that case, for this hand...
Can you hear the night-bell's toll?
Ron!
12 000!
She doesn't just go for haitei!
So she also guns to win off other people after all!
As the world shrouds in darkness...
So too will your lives be snuffed out!
I dealt into a haneman two times in a row.
What's going on?
This is just messed up!
Have fun, Kana.
Captain?
Sometimes bad things happen that are just unbelievable, right?
But if you get angry or depressed each time, it'd never end, you know?
Just believe that good things will come eventually
and put your best face forward...
I'd want to live life like that, having fun, no matter what.
Impossible! It's impossible, Captain!
There's no way I can have fun in this situation!
This is the finals of the prefectural qualifiers!
The final round!
It'll be my fault that everyone's dreams of going to the Nationals will...
A
South 4th Round Dealer Ikeda Kana
Now it's the last hand of the first hanchan...
Pon!
A pon of nan!
And I was hoping to get at least two hands as dealer!
Kiyosumi and Tsuruga have been cowering since earlier...
Even though I was the one who got burnt.
Tsumo!
3000/6000!
And that's the end of the first hanchan!
A
Ryuumonbuchi High School 2nd Year Amae Koromo
It's been all Ryuumonbuchi High School's Amae Koromo,
A
Kiyosumi High School 1st Year Miyanaga Saki
breaking away completely from the other schools.
A
Tsuruga Academy 3rd Year Kajiki Yumi
Will the match continue like this?
Or will the other schools recover?
A
Kazekoshi All-girls 3rd Year Ikeda Kana
All that's left is the second half! Just one single hanchan!
She's...
...just too powerful!
Next Episode
Nightmare
Ron! 2400!
I have 0 points left!
We're not done yet! You don't get knocked out with exactly 0 points.
Keep going!
That's right!
Put your life on the line for this battle and show us the power of your life force!