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| '''Yagi Arc''' | | '''Yagi Arc''' |
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| The manga starts with Nangou, a gambler who has desperately bet his life insurance in a mahjong match against the yakuza. He has been losing for a while, and is one 4th place away from losing the session (and his life)... until he reaches tenpai with a big hand. There's one problem - he would need to discard a dangerous tile. At just the right moment, Shigeru Akagi wanders in. Akagi does not know the rules of mahjong, but realizes Nangou is afraid, and states "you'll only survive if you die". Nangou, encouraged, discards the dangerous tile, wins the hand, and survives. Had he discarded the "safe" tile, he would have dealt into another player and lost everything. | | The manga starts with Nangou, a gambler who has desperately bet his life insurance in a mahjong match against the yakuza. He has been losing for a while, but at just the right moment, Shigeru Akagi wanders win. Akagi does not know the rules of mahjong, but senses that Nangou is in trouble, and says "you'll only survive if you die". Nangou, encouraged, discards a dangerous tile, enters tenpai, and wins the hanchan. Afterwards, Nangou asks Akagi to play in the former's stead. Akagi does not make an impact at first, but through luck, skill, and sleight-of-hand, eventually overcomes the yakuza. Akagi asks to raise the stakes, but Yasuoka (a corrupt police detective, investigating Akagi's participation in a game of "chicken"), impressed by Akagi's performance, suggests to arrange the match at a later date. The former states that, if the stakes were too high, the yakuza wouldn't pay. Since Yasuoka would get a cut from the next match, he drops investigating Akagi's game of chicken. |
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| Before the next hanchan, Nangou decides to let Akagi play for him, despite the latter not knowing how to play. Akagi accepts, on the condition that Nangou provide an alibi. It turns out that Akagi survived a game of "chicken" - where two cars were racing towards a cliff - and the police were after him. For a while, Akagi does not win any hand, but does not deal in either.
| | Akagi, with Nangou waiting outside, pays a visit to his future opponents. He meets the blind mahjong master, Ichikawa, his next foe. He also picks up a revolver, challenging Ichikawa to a game of Russian roulette. Ichikawa, unnerved, allows the trigger to be pulled on him, then points the gun at Akagi, who also allows an empty shot. The gun had a second purpose - while Yasuoka dropped his case, the gang members who played the game of chicken wanted revenge. Akagi visits said gang members, allows himself to get injured "so he could claim self defense", and shoots twice at one of the member's legs. Akagi then points the gun at the member's head. The gang member, not as fortuitous as Ichikawa, faints, and the others run away. |
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| Eventually, Akagi receives a monster hand: a hand with three dragon pairs, but he does not pon any of the dragons. Nangou is frustrated - "even if he doesn't know about daisangen, he would know that having three yakuhai triplets would be a big hand!" Suddenly, the police, looking for Akagi, start knocking. With the yakuza distracted by the police, Akagi makes his move: he takes the necessary dragons from the other's discard pile, then forces the distracted yakuza to continue playing. As the police enter, he wins with a giant suuankou daisangen hand. Despite Akagi's blatant cheating, the yakuza are unable to do anything. Because the police are now present, the yakuza are unable to do any violent punishments to Akagi; thus, he gets away with it.
| | Akagi's incursion makes him late for the mahjong match - Nangou is forced to play in his stead. Nangou plays a simple style of mahjong, which Ichikawa takes advantage of, until he is left at 2000 points. Akagi arrives at the nick of time. With 0 safe tiles left, Akagi plays a trick - he discards a tile, but shoving the previously discarded West to the current position, and announces he had discarded West. Ichikawa notices Akagi's cheating but is unable to prove anything. |
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| Nangou and the yakuza provide an alibi for Akagi (Nangou convinced by Akagi's actions; the yakuza not wanting any further trouble), convincing most of the police to leave. However, Yasuoka, the detective, stays to watch. He knows that Akagi participated in the game of chicken, but cannot prove it. The game continues, and from this point forward, Akagi starts dominating. The results eventually force the yakuza to call in Yagi, their rep player.
| | Akagi's and Ichikawa's match had a special rule: the game would continue until either Akagi or Ichikawa ran out of points. After winning safe points from the other two players, Akagi plays a tricky style to get cheap wins from Ichikawa. However, the blind mahjong master wins with bigger hands, and puts Akagi in the backfoot for a bit. Akagi wins back some points, then suggests to cut his and Ichikawa's points in half - the latter refuses. Akagi then decides to "force the issue" by cheating. Ichikawa is compelled to accept Akagi's "cut points in 10" offer. If Ichikawa doesn't accept, then he will lose to Akagi's cheating (even if he cheats back, Ichikawa is blind, and is as a disadvantage). With their points cut, both players pull out tricks, but Akagi's strategy, relying on coincidence, wins out in the end. |
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| Yagi demands that Akagi bet his fingers, because Akagi was not risking anything of his own, as an intimidation tactic. Akagi, not scared, responds with the same. Yagi was able to give Akagi some trouble, through sleight of hand techniques, but ultimately falls due to Akagi's trick of his own.
| | After the match against Ichikawa, 5 years have passed. Nangou has quit gambling for good; Akagi is a legend, but nowhere to be found. Meanwhile, Yasuoka hires a fake Akagi to impress a new group of yakuza. Ishikawa (not to be confused with Ichikawa), who had oversaw Akagi's previous game, feels something is off. He then encounters the real Akagi working in a factory. Ishikawa asks the real Akagi to meet the fake. It turns out that the fake Akagi's strategy is fundamentally different - relying on numbers and probability, instead of luck and coincidence. The fake Akagi challenges Akagi to a game with a low chance of winning, and to the former's shock, Akagi succeeds. |
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| Akagi had cleared Nangou's debt, and asks to double the stakes. Nangou initially rejected it, but felt compelled to accept (Akagi saved him). Yagi was mentally defeated, but due to the yakuza's pride, also felt no choice but to accept. Akagi wins, and demands another double - until Yasuoka says otherwise. The detective mentions that, if the payment was too high, the yazuka would refuse to oblige to their debt. Yasuoka suggests to arrange another match, with the same organization, but with higher stakes and an overseer, at a later date. (Yasuoka, getting a cut of the next match's earnings, stops investigating the chicken game.)
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| '''Ichikawa Arc'''
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| Akagi's next match happens in 3 days. After discussing how Akagi, Nangou, and Yasuoka would split the money, Akagi visits the yazuka gang he'll be facing off (entering alone, but with Nangou outside). Akagi does this for two reasons. The first is to meet his main opponent - Ichikawa, the blind mahjong master. The second is to obtain a revolver. Akagi tests Ichikawa by playing a game of Russian roulette. Ichikawa hears how many times the barrel was spun, turning it so that the next chamber is empty, and is courageous enough to have the trigger pulled on him. Then, it is Ichikawa's turn to pull the trigger. Akagi, confident that the chamber after would be empty, and survives the game.
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| The other purpose of the gun is to deal with Akagi's unfinished business. He pays a visit to the gang that played the game of chicken with him. The gang, enraged because the other player of the chicken was heavily injured, assaults Akagi. Akagi lets himself get injured to the point where he could "claim he acted in self defense", then reveals his gun and fires twice at one person's legs, then puts the gun to the member's head. Unlike Ichikawa, the gang member is unable to handle the pressure, and the others run away. Akagi mentions the "fake anger" and "fake fights" of the gang members - wanting to kill Akagi but unable to handle dying themselves - and wishes for more.
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| Due to his incursion, Akagi winds up late for the mahjong match. Nangou is forced to play in his stead. This match has special rules: the game does not end until either Akagi's party or Ichikawa run out of points. At the advice of Yasuoka, Nangou plays a simple, defensive mahjong: rely on tsumos with good-wait hands. Ichikawa is easily able to take advantage of this playstyle, using unpredictable waits. Nangou ends up with 2000 points, and once again hits an impasse. He goes on the offensive, and is about to reach tenpai for a good hand - but needs to discard one of two dangerous honor tiles. At the right moment, Akagi arrives, and takes over. It turns out that Ichikawa was waiting on both honor tiles... but Akagi plays a trick: he actually discards the chun, but swaps the position of chun and the previously discarded West, announces that he had discarded the West. Ichikawa knows that this is impossible - 4 Wests had already been discarded - but is unable to prove anything, and lets it slide. Afterwards, Akagi gets a lucky sanbaiman, and then wins points from the other two players.
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| </div></div> | | </div></div> |