13 - The Path of the Storm
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(Please feel free to edit the speaker names if incomplete or inaccurate. Names are handled on a best-effort basis depending on the info on the source file. Dialogue is left as is.)
[01:13] nar
Akagi and Urabe's fight was
at last entering its final stage.
SIGN Episode 13
SIGN The Path of the Storm
[01:22] nar
Akagi is in a naked wait.
[01:30] ish
Wait!
[01:31] ish
What you're saying is crazy!
[01:33] ish
You say Urabe will definitely
deal into your naked wait?
[01:37] ish
How can you be so sure?
[01:40] ish
If he was also in a naked
wait, then I could see it.
[01:42] ish
But he hasn't declared
riichi or called any tiles.
[01:45] ish
He can choose from any of
the 14 tiles in his hand.
[01:48] ish
The odds that he'll deal into your hand
are low, no matter how you look at it!
[01:52] ura
Definitely deal into it?
[01:55] ura
That's nothing but a bluff.
[01:57] ura
His magic could only get his haitei,
SIGN Haitei - Another name for houtei raoyui. 1 han is added if the player wins on the last discard.
[02:00] ura
four dora hand into tenpai,
but nothing more.
[02:06] ura
I have twelve different tiles in
my hand, and can pick any of them.
[02:10] ura
I will be choosing, not him!
[02:13] ura
Even if I have his winning tile in my
hand, it's a one in twelve chance.
[02:18] ura
I won't deal into his hand!
[02:19] ura
I'll dodge it!
[02:20] ura
I'm sure!
[02:23] ura
Is this it?
[02:25] ura
Or this?
[02:26] ---
Damn it!
[02:28] ura
This one!
[02:36] ura
How about it?
[02:37] ura
This can't be it.
[02:39] ura
There's no way it's the 2 of circles!
[02:43] ish
D-Don't tell me...
[02:46] kaw
I-Is this...
[02:48] ish
A dream?
[03:01] ish
Ron...
[03:02] ish
Haitei, four dora. Mangan.
[03:07] ish
He's taken the lead.
[03:09] ura
I-Impossible...
[03:11] ura
Why?
[03:12] ura
How could this be?
[03:18] nar
An upset.
[03:20] nar
An unprecedented upset.
[03:22] nar
The deathmatch between
Akagi and Urabe is over!
[03:27] nar
The miracle happened again.
[03:29] nar
Six years ago on that devilish night, Akagi,
[03:32] nar
who was just a beginner,
defeated the blind master, Ichikawa.
[03:36] nar
That miraculous game was
recreated here tonight.
[03:45] aka
Hey, Osamu.
[03:46] aka
We're going home.
[03:47] aka
I'm done here.
[03:49] aka
I beat Urabe who in
turn defeated the fake.
[03:52] aka
I doubt there's anything left to do.
[03:53] osa
It doesn't seem to be that way.
[03:58] kaw
Akagi, you're the real deal,
without a shadow of a doubt.
[04:05] kaw
Don't worry.
[04:07] kaw
I didn't come here to try something
cheap like recruiting you.
[04:09] kaw
I just want you to explain.
[04:16] kaw
How did you know that Urabe would pick
[04:18] kaw
and discard the 2 of circles
in that last hand?
[04:22] kaw
If I let you go without hearing that,
I won't be able to sleep tonight.
[04:27] kaw
It'd be torture.
[04:29] kaw
It would be polite to
explain it before you go.
[04:31] kaw
Am I wrong?
[04:35] aka
All right.
[04:37] aka
It won't take long to explain.
[04:43] kaw
The others left, but the
tiles are left untouched.
[04:47] kaw
I figured it would be easier
to explain that way.
[04:49] kaw
Hey.
[04:50] guy
Yes!
[04:55] kaw
How could you know that he would
[04:58] kaw
definitely discard a 2 of
circles from this hand?
[05:01] kaw
Before that, how did you even know
he had a 2 of circles at all?
[05:06] aka
Boss, the reason that Urabe had
and discarded the 2 of circles
[05:13] aka
is the pinnacle of the building block
structure that I call strategy.
[05:21] aka
Explaining just that will be hard to follow,
[05:24] aka
so I'll start at the bottom.
[05:26] kaw
The bottom?
[05:27] aka
This is actually the most important.
[05:31] aka
In order to win at Mahjong,
you have to understand how
[05:34] aka
your opponent thinks on
the most primal level.
[05:37] aka
That's the foundation.
[05:40] aka
I built a strategy on top of that foundation.
[05:44] aka
I kept building it higher and higher.
[05:50] aka
By doing so, I was able to guide Urabe
[05:53] aka
to the hell of discarding
the 2 of circles in the end.
[05:57] aka
People show their true nature
when they're faced with danger.
[06:00] aka
You have to measure that
[06:02] aka
when he's in his normal state
to be certain it's accurate.
[06:06] aka
It's crucial to determine his
true nature in the beginning.
[06:10] aka
Sending in Osamu as
bait was part of that.
[06:15] aka
Urabe let Osamu play freely for a while.
[06:18] aka
Someone like him should have instantly
[06:21] aka
had a good idea of Osamu's
skill the moment he sat down.
[06:24] aka
Despite that, he opted
to observe him longer.
[06:28] aka
That's when I started to sense something.
[06:32] ish
Sense what?
[06:34] aka
The psychological habit rooted
in the deepest recesses of his mind.
[06:38] aka
Its tendency started to shimmer through.
[06:42] aka
Simply put, when he's facing danger,
he will neither charge in nor retreat.
[06:49] aka
He's the kind of player who will stand still.
[06:52] aka
Deferring was the true
nature of his game style.
[06:54] aka
That's why he just observed
Osamu, to see what was up.
[07:00] aka
This tendency continued even
after I joined the game.
[07:03] aka
When I declared my empty riichi,
he meticulously played it safe.
[07:08] aka
While he skillfully evaded my wait and won,
[07:10] aka
he lost something important in return.
[07:13] ish
Something important?
[07:14] aka
Through his discards as well
as his own winning hand,
[07:18] aka
I was able to discern the
habits and tendencies
[07:20] aka
that applied to what he considered safe,
[07:22] aka
and what he considered dangerous.
[07:25] aka
Basically his playing style.
[07:28] aka
And this is the kind of information
[07:30] aka
that decides a game of Mahjong in the end.
[07:33] aka
What he lost was information
about himself.
[07:36] aka
I, on the other hand, hid everything.
[07:39] aka
In South Hand 2, I even went
so far as to declare riichi
[07:42] aka
and then cover my tiles despite
having to pay the 8,000 point penalty.
[07:46] aka
At that moment, Urabe gained a
lot of land in terms of points,
[07:50] aka
but in terms of intelligence,
I had crushed him.
[07:53] aka
He didn't have any tangible
information about me.
[07:58] aka
That was my plan.
[08:01] aka
The next hand, I pulled
the suu ankou open riichi.
[08:04] aka
On top of that,
I took the suu ankou win
[08:06] aka
not just once, but three times,
[08:08] aka
effectively losing because
of my recklessness.
[08:10] aka
It was a play style that
absolutely didn't fit
[08:13] aka
Urabe's logic and experience,
so he was unable to process it.
[08:16] aka
Urabe picked up more points that hand,
[08:18] aka
but his impression of
me became even murkier.
[08:22] aka
He wasn't able to shake this
eerie impression whatsoever,
[08:26] aka
but he had a giant lead
of 70,000 at that point.
[08:29] aka
That's why he began to run away.
[08:32] aka
So I based my attack on his escape route.
[08:34] aka
The wait on coincidence for the north wind.
[08:36] aka
Normally, this impossible
wait would be hopeless.
[08:40] aka
What's more, this sanbaiman
hand with ten dora
[08:41] aka
shrank our point difference in a big way.
[08:44] aka
This one blow put him
in range for an upset.
[08:47] (Flashback) fuj
Urabe.
[08:48] (Flashback) fuj
Can you do this?
[08:50] (Flashback) ura
Don't worry.
[08:52] aka
At that time,
Urabe pretended to be calm,
[08:55] aka
but he was quite shaken on the inside.
[08:57] aka
In the final stage,
his ass was already on fire,
[09:01] aka
but he still didn't know anything about me.
[09:04] aka
There was a huge amount of
money riding on this match,
[09:06] aka
but he couldn't even see the
opponent he was fighting.
[09:15] aka
In that situation, the only thing
Urabe had left to rely on was logic.
[09:20] aka
The rational thinking he
cultivated over many years.
[09:23] aka
But that rationality is the very
thing that created another opening.
[09:27] aka
For me as the pursuer,
making him think that way was my goal.
[09:33] aka
In the final hand of the game, I was dealer.
[09:35] aka
I could cause an upset
with a haneman tsumo win,
[09:37] aka
or with a mangan hit off Urabe.
[09:40] aka
In the beginning of the hand,
Urabe was still on the offensive.
[09:43] aka
However, that was only because
logic told him to do so,
[09:47] aka
and not because he had
the conviction to win.
[09:50] aka
That kind of offensive can be easily
overturned with just the slightest change.
[09:55] (Flashback) aka
Kan.
[10:00] aka
Urabe was visibly shaken, in shock.
[10:04] aka
But he didn't give up yet.
[10:05] aka
That's because I could potentially
get a haneman tsumo.
[10:08] aka
Still, he didn't come straight at me.
[10:11] aka
He played it safe.
[10:13] aka
Discarding the 2 of circles.
[10:14] aka
This is his true nature.
[10:16] aka
His primal nature that comes
out when he's in a tough spot.
[10:18] aka
His tendency of deferring.
[10:20] aka
Neither attacking nor defending.
[10:22] aka
His mind forces him into a standstill.
[10:26] aka
That move was the proof that
his will was weakening.
[10:32] aka
Then I called the 2 of characters and
[10:34] aka
the location of all the
dora became apparent.
[10:37] aka
Once the only risk was a
direct mangan hit off him,
[10:39] aka
he couldn't handle it anymore.
[10:42] aka
After he drew a risky tile next,
[10:44] aka
he was out of the game and
discarded the 4 of circles.
[10:48] aka
That was also inspired by
the tendency of deferring.
[10:50] aka
The idea was to settle the match
[10:51] aka
in the next game instead
of the current one.
[10:54] aka
Running away and calling it deferring.
[10:57] aka
As expected, after the 4 of circles,
he only discarded safe tiles.
[11:00] aka
He was out the game.
[11:02] aka
Now the possibility of him
winning that hand was gone.
[11:05] aka
He retreated in the moment of truth.
[11:08] aka
The "three turns in the future" that I
went so far as to pay the 8,000 penalty for
[11:12] aka
were these three discards:
[11:14] aka
The red dragon, the 6 of characters
that made the dora safe,
[11:18] aka
and the 4 of circles.
[11:21] aka
Especially the 4 of circles in the ninth turn.
[11:23] aka
I wanted to coax out his decision to retreat.
[11:28] aka
If he had still been
on the offensive there,
[11:31] aka
I don't know how the game
would have ended up.
[11:34] aka
His final hand looked like this,
[11:37] aka
so from his discards, you could tell
there were many ways he could've won.
[11:41] aka
For example, he could
have won like this.
[11:45] aka
But this is pointless as there
is no end to these speculations.
[11:52] aka
After all, it is my style of Mahjong
[11:55] aka
to restrict his ability to move.
[11:56] nar
Everybody was captivated
and couldn't say a word.
[11:59] nar
Akagi's logic that flowed
quietly through his explanation
[12:02] nar
wasn't just simple probabilities.
[12:05] nar
Akagi's logic kept evolving according to
[12:09] nar
his opponent's state of mind,
through which one could almost hear
[12:11] nar
Urabe's blood flowing, the air
he breathed in and out...
[12:14] nar
This logic was a living entity.
[12:23] aka
In the end, this 4 of
circles was the crossroads.
[12:26] aka
After that, Urabe was on full defense.
[12:29] aka
Nothing but safe tiles.
He was out of the game.
[12:32] aka
But it's only natural if you think about it.
[12:34] aka
At that point, I had exposed two
parts of my hand and discarded a dora.
[12:38] aka
Additionally, Urabe had wagered
money that far surpassed his capacity.
[12:43] aka
He wouldn't jump to risky conclusions.
[12:45] aka
He had to assume I was in tenpai.
[12:46] aka
Which meant he couldn't discard
any risky tiles whatsoever.
[12:49] aka
He discarded safe tiles
as long as he had them.
[12:52] aka
But that inflexibility
was actually his downfall.
[12:56] aka
At that point, I was still far from tenpai.
[12:59] aka
But he didn't even
consider that possibility.
[13:02] aka
He was just afraid, wasting
his lifelines, the safe tiles.
[13:08] aka
When it actually mattered, he ran out.
[13:12] aka
On the very last discard,
he had no more safe tiles.
[13:16] aka
What he assumed to be a tanyao
hand was actually a hand
[13:18] aka
that was specialized to go for one
single discard, his last tile.
[13:22] aka
Not only that, it was a single wait.
[13:25] aka
That's not something he can predict.
[13:26] aka
It's far beyond his ability
to predict anyway.
[13:30] aka
If anything, he should have just
directly discarded the west wind he drew.
[13:33] aka
This was a random tile, it couldn't
have been part of the trap.
[13:38] aka
But he couldn't do that.
[13:40] aka
That's how deep the roots
of his suspicions went.
[13:43] aka
At that moment, every single tile
in his hand looked risky to him.
[13:47] aka
First, he couldn't immediately
discard the west wind he drew.
[13:50] aka
The last draw was from my wall.
[13:53] aka
A west wind he was forced to draw
because of the north I called earlier.
[13:55] aka
I might've made him draw it on purpose.
[13:57] aka
Once he thought that,
he couldn't discard it.
[14:00] aka
Next, the green dragon.
[14:01] aka
He couldn't discard it, either.
[14:03] aka
The honor tiles in his hands were the
[14:05] aka
safe tiles against the tanyao
hand I kept hinting at.
[14:08] aka
To him, those must have been the
most obvious tiles for me to target.
[14:12] aka
6, 8, and 9 of bamboo are
out of the question, too.
[14:14] aka
They're too close to the
7 of bamboo in my kan.
[14:17] aka
Normally, tiles around there
shouldn't be in my hand,
[14:20] aka
but I'm someone who might
secretly keep just one.
[14:24] aka
Similarly, the tiles around the
7 of circles I called are out.
[14:27] aka
The 7 of characters is out, too.
[14:29] aka
That's the remaining tile
of the sanshoku doukou.
[14:31] aka
If I'm going for the sanshoku doukou,
[14:33] aka
it's highly likely that I have a tile leftover.
[14:35] aka
He can't discard it.
[14:37] aka
The 4 and 5 of characters
[14:38] aka
are too close to my last discard,
the 3 of characters.
[14:41] aka
Naturally, he can't discard them, either.
[14:45] aka
In the end, the only two tiles
[14:47] aka
Urabe could even consider
discarding out of his 14 tiles
[14:50] aka
were the 2 of circles and the 4 of bamboo.
[14:53] aka
The 4 of bamboo is right next
to the 5 of bamboo
[14:56] aka
that I discarded from
my hand after my kan.
[14:58] aka
That means I could have had a
4 and 5 of bamboo in my hand
[15:02] aka
and discarded the 5 after
my 7 of bamboo kan.
[15:05] aka
If that were the case, I'd be
waiting for the 4 of bamboo.
[15:08] aka
On the other hand,
the 2 of circles had its neighbors,
[15:12] aka
1, 3, 4 of circles, immediately
discarded the entire time.
[15:18] aka
That's what Urabe would think.
[15:23] aka
But for someone who's setting a trap,
[15:25] aka
the very same reason I just used
[15:28] aka
for why the tile might be safe
becomes the reason to wait for it.
[15:32] (Flashback) aka
Pon.
[15:48] (Flashback) ---
This is it!
[15:57] aka
It was a good wait, wasn't it?
[16:01] aka
Osamu, let's go.
[16:03] osa
Ah, sure.
[16:06] kaw
Wait.
[16:06] kaw
That was only half of it.
[16:11] kaw
I get why the 2 of circles had a
high chance of being discarded.
[16:14] kaw
But no matter how high the chance is,
[16:16] kaw
if he doesn't have it, it's meaningless.
[16:18] kaw
That means you knew he had
that tile in his hand, didn't you?
[16:23] kaw
Otherwise there'd be no reason
to wait for that 2 of circles.
[16:27] kaw
I want to know how you knew.
[16:33] aka
I got that 2 of circles on the seventh turn.
[16:36] aka
In the previous turn,
when Urabe discarded that tile,
[16:40] aka
a scent was left on it.
[16:43] kaw
A scent?
[16:44] aka
Yes.
[16:45] aka
Before he discarded that tile,
Urabe was still on the offensive.
[16:50] aka
He was in tenpai at that moment.
[16:54] aka
But he drew a live tile, the red dragon.
[16:57] aka
Considering my four dora,
he couldn't discard it,
[17:00] aka
but he couldn't get out
of the game, either.
[17:02] aka
So he went for a safe tile.
[17:04] aka
The tile he picked for that was
the 2 of circles from his pair.
[17:08] aka
It was his habit to use the
pair in situations like this.
[17:13] aka
In fact, I saw Urabe do
that many times tonight.
[17:16] aka
Whether it was when faced with
Osamu or my riichi after that.
[17:22] aka
That was a habit he couldn't shake.
[17:25] aka
A pattern ingrained in his body.
[17:27] aka
So that 2 of circles he
discarded last was the
[17:30] aka
leftover tile from the pair
he broke up in the sixth turn.
[17:33] aka
It was the fatal baggage
he failed to take care of.
[17:39] aka
That was the 2 of circles.
[18:05] ura
That was a high price to pay.
[18:08] ura
Just because I left such
a subtle sign behind.
[18:12] ura
The debt of 32 million...
[18:14] ura
and on top of that...
[18:17] ura
this!
[18:21] osa
Akagi-san, let's go.
[18:24] ura
Wait!
[18:27] ura
Mark my words, Akagi!
[18:29] ura
I will defeat you!
[18:31] ura
Once my wounds are healed
and I've paid off this debt,
[18:34] ura
no matter how long it takes,
[18:36] ura
I will defeat you someday! I swear!
[18:42] osa
Akagi-san, let's leave him.
[18:44] osa
He's desperate now,
you don't know what he might do.
[18:48] aka
Desperate?
[18:49] aka
He's not that kind of person.
[18:55] ura
Akagi!
[18:59] aka
Urabe, you'll defeat me someday?
[19:02] aka
That's not possible.
[19:06] ura
You bastard!
[19:07] ura
Do you want me to kill you?!
[19:09] aka
Urabe, you don't have to do it someday.
[19:12] aka
You can do it now.
[19:14] aka
I'll play one East-South match with you.
[19:16] aka
If I lose, I'll take over your entire debt.
[19:20] aka
However, if I win,
[19:23] aka
I will take both of your hands.
[19:27] osa
Akagi-san!
[19:28] kaw
That's ridiculous.
[19:30] kaw
There's no benefit for you,
regardless of the outcome.
[19:34] aka
I've never made a bet in my life
based on what I could gain.
[19:38] aka
People just die meaningless deaths
because of the outcome of a gamble.
[19:42] aka
It's better that way.
[19:44] aka
That way, we can get closer
to the essence of gambling,
[19:49] aka
the grip of unreasonable death.
[19:54] aka
That's the real thrill of
gambling, right, Urabe?
[20:11] osa
Akagi-san!
[20:14] osa
Give me a break!
[20:16] osa
What were you going to
do if he had accepted?
[20:19] aka
That wouldn't have happened.
[20:22] osa
But he was so...
[20:24] aka
His anger wasn't real anger.
[20:27] aka
That's why he passed on
his chance at revenge.
[20:32] aka
That just shows what kind of man he was.
[20:34] aka
He's only a regular guy
[20:36] aka
who weighs even the pros
and cons of getting angry.
[20:38] aka
That man will never experience
genuine anger in his life.
[20:42] aka
Just like he'll never be
able to have a true match.
[20:46] aka
I also can't have a true match...
[20:49] aka
not against someone like him.
[20:51] aka
That's not enough.
[20:54] nar
What Akagi really desires is a true match
where one's life is literally on the line.
[21:03] nar
One year later, Akagi would
actually have that match.
[22:16] nar
Next time,
"A New Chapter of the Rakshasa."
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