22 - The Shackles of Artifice

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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
    The genius from the
    darkness, Akagi Shigeru,
[01:15] Nar
    versus Washizu Iwao,
    the monster of the Showa Era.
[01:18] Nar
    The first and second matches
    of their battle to the death
[01:22] Nar
    both ended in victory for Akagi.
[01:27] Aka
    You're actually quite the
    coward, Washizu Iwao.
SIGN    Episode 22
SIGN    The Shackles of Artifice
[01:37] Was
    A 3, 6 of characters wait?
[01:40] Was
    This is impossible!
[01:41] Was
    And you declared your riichi by
    discarding the 1 of characters?!
[01:45] Nar
    Akagi could have stayed with the
[01:46] Nar
    closed wait for the 2 of
    characters for an iipeikou.
[01:49] Nar
    Or if he had to declare riichi,
    he could have done it
[01:51] Nar
    with a 1, 4, 7 of characters wait
    for more possibilities to win.
[01:54] Nar
    And yet he deliberately chose
    the 3, 6 of characters wait.
[02:00] Was
    He manipulated me?
[02:02] Was
    He saw through my hand
    and manipulated me?!
[02:07] Was
    Then you took my winning
    3 of characters tile from Suzuki
[02:13] Was
    using a head bump.
[02:15] Was
    What is this?!
[02:18] Was
    Why didn't I see it?
[02:20] Was
    It was an obviously strange riichi!
[02:25] Nar
    With Akagi's riichi, the
    requirement for Washizu
[02:29] Nar
    to take the lead had lowered
    from a haneman to a mangan.
[02:34] Was
    It was so obvious that he
    had an ulterior motive!
[02:38] Was
    Damn it!
[02:41] Nar
    And with this, the second match is over.
[02:44] Nar
    It seemed like a close
    game, but in the end,
[02:48] Nar
    Akagi is more than 10,000
    points ahead of Washizu.
SIGN    Washizu
    
    32700 pts.
    
    2nd place
    rank bonus
    
    Total
SIGN    Akagi
    
    43200 pts.
    
    1st place
    rank bonus
    
    1st place
    bonus
    
    Total
[02:52] Nar
    His game score now tops Washizu by 50 points.
[02:55] nar
    Which means that on top of his
    50 million yen in winnings,
[02:58] nar
    Akagi will receive an additional
    16 million in bonus payments.
[03:01] nar
    Combined with his winnings from the
    first match, that is 118.5 million yen.
[03:06] nar
    It is an overwhelming amount.
[03:09] nar
    In today's terms, that would
    be around 1.2 billion yen.
[03:14] nar
    And yet, Akagi once again refuses
    to transfuse any of his blood back.
[03:18] nar
    He waits for the next round
    with 1,100 CCs of lost blood.
[03:23] nar
    The next mangan he deals
    into would kill him,
[03:26] nar
    but he makes no attempt to
    escape this dangerous situation.
[03:30] Yasu
    Why not?
[03:32] Yasu
    Why won't you get some
    of your blood back?
[03:34] Yasu
    This does nothing but hurt you,
    without a single advantage.
[03:40] Aka
    That's not entirely true.
[03:49] Aka
    Take that last hand.
[03:51] Aka
    Not returning any of my blood
    is what led me to victory.
[03:55] yas
    Led you... to it?
[03:56] Aka
    Yeah.
[03:58] Aka
    This last hand, my starting
    tiles were horrible.
[04:01] Aka
    That was because there was one tile
    among them I could never discard,
[04:05] Aka
    the dora west wind.
[04:08] Aka
    Not only was it the dora,
    it was also Washizu's wind.
[04:11] Aka
    That one tile froze my entire hand.
[04:16] Aka
    The possible wins were extremely limited.
[04:20] Aka
    It wasn't something I could
    solve on my own power.
[04:23] Aka
    Therefore...
[04:26] Aka
    To win...
[04:28] Aka
    I needed Washizu to make a mistake.
[04:30] Oug
    A mistake?
[04:32] Aka
    The green dragon and the
    8 of circles in the beginning.
[04:35] Aka
    Those calls weren't a big problem,
[04:37] Aka
    but after his 1 of circles
    pon in the seventh turn,
[04:40] Aka
    he discarded a 3 of circles,
    an obvious mistake.
[04:43] Aka
    Going for a chanta with such
    a limited wait was not smart.
[04:47] Aka
    He should've kept the 1 of circles pair
[04:49] Aka
    and the 3 of circles to go for a honitsu.
[04:53] Aka
    He had a much higher chance
    of winning with that.
[04:56] Aka
    There was no need to rush,
    but he ended up rushing anyway.
[05:01] Aka
    He prioritized getting into
    tenpai over everything else.
[05:05] Aka
    That was foolish.
[05:06] Aka
    He was in a rush to win.
[05:10] Aka
    What pressured him is my
    refusal to transfuse blood.
[05:13] Yasu
    What?
[05:15] Aka
    If you had to name it, my insanity.
[05:18] Aka
    My refusal to avoid death by
    having any blood transfused back
[05:21] Aka
    woke up a fear sleeping
    deep within Washizu.
[05:27] Was
    This man may be able to kill me.
[05:32] Aka
    In my total disregard for my own life,
[05:35] Aka
    he started to pick up the scent
    of his own potential death.
[05:39] Aka
    Of course, he probably
    doesn't know it yet.
[05:45] Aka
    This fear is still tiny.
[05:48] Aka
    Right now, in manifests
    more in the urge to rush,
[05:51] Aka
    impatience, rather than in actual fear.
[05:55] Aka
    Washizu's mental balance fell apart.
[05:57] Aka
    As a result, he started rushing.
[06:02] Aka
    And that was my chance.
[06:06] Aka
    It was my opportunity to discard the
    west wind I couldn't discard until then.
[06:10] Aka
    With that tenpai...
[06:13] Nar
    Akagi's hand started to progress.
[06:18] Nar
    The ice was thawing.
[06:25] Aka
    At the same time, his trump card,
    the west wind, was also drained of power.
[06:28] Aka
    If anything, my west wind gained power.
[06:31] Yasu
    Power?
[06:32] Aka
    After that, it clouded Washizu's eyes.
[06:36] Aka
    It became an imaginary force.
[06:39] Yasu
    An imaginary force?
[06:41] Oug
    Now, wait a sec.
[06:42] Oug
    You're talking about it like
    that was your strategy,
[06:45] Oug
    but there are a few things
    that doesn't explain.
[06:49] Oug
    For example, how could you
    know at the very beginning
[06:52] Oug
    of the game that you could
    not discard the west wind?
[06:54] Oug
    Yes, we saw that Washizu had
    one of those tiles in his hand.
[06:59] Oug
    We knew it was a dora.
[07:01] Oug
    And that it was his wind.
[07:02] Oug
    I can understand if you felt it
    was a difficult tile to discard.
[07:05] Oug
    If Washizu had a pair of west
    winds and you discarded it,
[07:11] Oug
    the moment he called it,
    he'd have his wind and three dora.
[07:13] Oug
    Already a guaranteed mangan.
[07:16] Oug
    Of course you couldn't discard it then.
[07:18] Oug
    But if you knew he only had one,
[07:20] Oug
    you should've taken care of
    it with your first discard.
[07:24] Oug
    You talk about it like you
    were already certain he had
[07:28] Oug
    a pair of west winds,
    from the very beginning.
[07:31] Oug
    How can you know that before
    he discards even a single tile?
[07:38] Aka
    But he already had discarded many tiles.
[07:42] Yasu
    What?
[07:44] Aka
    I had two East-South matches worth
    of tiles to see how he discards.
[07:48] Oug
    B-But that's...
[07:51] Aka
    You can really see the flow of the game
[07:54] Aka
    and Washizu's own luck pretty clearly.
[07:58] Aka
    Keeping in mind his own innate talent,
[08:02] Aka
    I knew this last hand
    wouldn't end without a fight.
[08:07] Aka
    Sure enough, the dora he drew
    happened to be his wind tile.
[08:10] Aka
    And those dora west winds flowed toward
    him as if they were drawn to him.
[08:16] Aka
    I had one mixed up in
    my own starting hand.
[08:20] Aka
    All of these indicated that
    it was no mere coincidence.
[08:23] Aka
    You could say the dora west wind
[08:27] Aka
    was a messenger sent from
    heaven to help Washizu win.
[08:38] Aka
    Had the game progressed normally...
[08:40] Oug
    ...Washizu would have won, you say?
[08:44] Aka
    That dora west wind had the power to
    kill me if I didn't handle it just right.
[08:49] Aka
    It was an assassin and a venomous
    demon at the same time.
[08:55] Aka
    If I were recklessly brave
[08:57] Aka
    and discarded it, he would call it.
[08:58] Aka
    A guaranteed mangan.
[09:01] Aka
    But if I'd kept it,
    I wouldn't be able to move.
[09:05] Aka
    It would lead to death.
[09:07] Aka
    A damned if I do, damned if I don't tile.
[09:10] Aka
    My only hope for escape was
    a misstep from Washizu.
[09:16] Aka
    Like what happened.
[09:18] Aka
    Being in tenpai sounds great,
[09:21] Aka
    but calling too many tiles
    restricted his hand.
[09:25] Aka
    I had no choice but to wait until
    he couldn't move any further...
[09:30] Aka
    and then to discard it.
[09:33] Aka
    Just discarding it wasn't enough.
[09:34] Yasu
    What?
[09:36] Aka
    I needed to set up the
    situation to discard it.
[09:40] Aka
    If I screwed up the order, it was over.
[09:42] Oug
    Wait.
[09:44] Oug
    What you're saying is
    that you knew from the
[09:48] Oug
    very beginning that Washizu
    had a pair of dora west winds.
[09:52] Aka
    I did.
[09:53] Oug
    Then isn't it strange that you
[09:55] Oug
    discarded the north wind right after
    you drew it on the 10th turn?
[10:00] Oug
    During the ninth turn, Suzuki drew a
    west wind, but Washizu didn't call it.
[10:06] Oug
    Which means that would've been the
    ideal time to get rid of that west wind.
[10:11] Oug
    Washizu's next draw could have let him
[10:14] Oug
    switch to a double pon wait for
    the west wind and anything else.
[10:20] Oug
    The only way I could rationalize you
    not discarding the west wind at that point
[10:25] Oug
    was that he might've be in a single wait
    for the west wind with a mangan hand.
[10:30] Aka
    Right.
[10:32] Aka
    I wanted to create that illusion.
[10:35] Nar
    That is the imaginary force.
[10:37] Aka
    When I hesitated to discard the
    west wind, Washizu thought...
[10:43] Was
    He hasn't figured out my hand yet.
[10:45] Was
    He thinks I'm waiting
    on a single west wind.
[10:50] Aka
    He guessed wrong.
[10:55] Oug
    You purposefully acted
    like you were hesitant.
[10:59] Aka
    Those who see get to choose.
[11:04] Aka
    You can reveal what you can see directly.
[11:07] Aka
    You can pretend that you
    can see even if you cannot.
[11:11] Aka
    Or you can pretend to
    not see even if you can.
[11:15] aka
    Just by discarding a tile one turn later,
[11:19] aka
    you can control the thought process
    of your opponent almost freely.
[11:34] aka
    Just by discarding a tile one turn later,
[11:37] aka
    you can control the thought process
    of your opponent almost freely.
[11:40] oug
    I don't believe it.
[11:42] oug
    He was manipulating us...
[11:44] oug
    Both Washizu and even me, the spectator.
[11:47] nar
    Akagi wasn't trembling at all.
[11:51] nar
    He wasn't unable to
    discard the west wind.
[11:54] nar
    He explicitly chose to not discard it.
[11:56] oug
    He's got his sights on
    something totally different.
[11:58] oug
    For us, it's all we can do just to deal
    with with the efficacy of the tiles,
[12:02] oug
    and the flow of the game.
[12:05] nar
    But Akagi is trying to manipulate
    the thought process of the opponent.
[12:09] nar
    Even the idea to do that
    is no longer normal.
[12:13] nar
    It's outside the realm of ordinary men.
[12:16] oug
    He's like a devil...
[12:19] yas
    Akagi, can I just ask you one more thing?
[12:23] yas
    Even if you had figured out the dora west
    wind, what about the rest of his hand?
[12:29] yas
    You sniped off the 3 of
    characters for the head bump
[12:32] yas
    that Suzuki tried to deal
    into Washizu's hand.
[12:35] yas
    You knew that he had a
    single wait for the 3.
[12:38] yas
    And since we're there already,
[12:40] yas
    doesn't that also mean you knew
[12:41] yas
    that he had a closed wait for
    a 2 of characters before?
[12:47] yas
    I mean...
[12:49] yas
    I also figured that he couldn't
    have a circles honitsu since Suzuki
[12:54] yas
    didn't deal any of his many circle
    tiles into Washizu's hand.
[12:58] yas
    But how could you deduce
    his wait from that?
[13:01] aka
    Yasuoka-san, if you've come that far,
    the answer is right in front of you.
[13:09] aka
    This time, instead of trying
    to read Washizu's hand,
[13:12] aka
    you just need to take a good look at
    Suzuki's hand to reveal Washizu's tiles.
[13:19] aka
    This hand, Suzuki was
    only focused on dealing
[13:22] aka
    into Washizu's hand instead
    of trying to win himself.
[13:27] aka
    Then all you have to do is see
    what Suzuki's hand looked like.
[13:34] aka
    Over half of his tiles were
    circle and honor tiles.
[13:37] aka
    They were the building blocks Washizu
    needed to complete his initial honitsu.
[13:43] aka
    The rest were 1s and 9s for the chanta.
[13:48] aka
    And since Washizu didn't call the
    west wind when Suzuki drew it
[13:53] aka
    to go for a win immediately,
    these tiles were out.
[13:59] aka
    Meaning the only remaining possibilities
    were around the 1 of characters.
[14:03] yas
    But with the chanta, couldn't it also
    have been a 2, 3, 7, 8 of bamboo wait?
[14:09] aka
    No.
[14:12] aka
    He'd already discarded all the tiles around
    the 4 and 6, so that would take away
[14:16] aka
    his ability to win off them.
[14:18] aka
    He wouldn't do that
    after all those pon calls.
[14:25] aka
    So his possible waits could be narrowed down
    to side or closed waits for character tiles.
[14:31] aka
    And since I had the black 2 of characters,
[14:36] aka
    it meant Washizu was in a closed
    wait for the 1 and 3 of characters.
[14:40] aka
    Or from the other angle,
    the reason Suzuki held on to
[14:45] aka
    the seemingly pointless 3 of characters
    was because Washizu had such a wait.
[14:51] aka
    Remember that he needed a haneman
    if he won off Suzuki's tile.
[14:55] aka
    Even if he had,
[14:57] aka
    green dragon, west wind, three dora
    only adds up to a mangan.
[15:01] aka
    Keeping this 3 of characters
    had no real meaning,
[15:04] aka
    but it was a tile that
    Washizu had in his hand.
[15:07] aka
    A tile that Washizu could
    use for a single wait.
[15:11] aka
    Considering that, if I were
    to declare riichi, as I did,
[15:17] aka
    a mangan would be
    enough for the upset.
[15:20] aka
    Or, a green dragon kan
    could yield new dora
[15:23] aka
    that could give him a haneman,
    even with the 3 of characters.
[15:28] aka
    That's why Suzuki kept it.
[15:31] aka
    But in the end, that plan backfired.
[15:35] aka
    Still, the most important part of this
[15:38] aka
    was Washizu's state of mind.
[15:42] aka
    The difficult part was
    knowing if Washizu's emotions
[15:46] aka
    would behave the way I wanted them
    to when I declared my riichi.
[15:52] aka
    It was difficult, but at this point,
    I had no reason to doubt yet.
[15:57] aka
    For him...
[16:00] aka
    the temptation of victory was stronger.
[16:07] aka
    The setup that guaranteed victory.
[16:10] aka
    Its attraction was stronger...
    because Washizu was starving for victory.
[16:16] Yasu
    Starving?
[16:18] Aka
    That's right.
[16:20] Aka
    Washizu won his way through life.
[16:23] Aka
    For him, victory was always certain.
[16:26] Aka
    He knows well the difference
    between victory and an advantage.
[16:30] Aka
    It goes without saying...
[16:33] Aka
    Advantage and victory are similar,
    but also very different things.
[16:37] Aka
    Put bluntly, having an advantage
    has little meaning by itself.
[16:42] Aka
    Whether for gain or self-benefit,
[16:46] Aka
    all of that only becomes certain
    after the actual victory.
[16:51] Aka
    Successful people know this intimately.
[16:55] Aka
    Which is why they try harder
    to win than anyone else.
[16:58] Aka
    Washizu is no different.
[17:04] man
    Washizu-sama, what shall we do?
[17:06] man
    Will you continue into the
    third match, or will you stop?
[17:09] man
    I believe that exercising
    prudence is a viable option.
[17:13] man
    Should you stop now, you will have
    lost only a little over 100 million.
[17:19] Was
    Are you mad?
[17:20] Was
    You're telling me to run away?
[17:24] Was
    You're telling me to
    run and leave Japan?
[17:26] Men
    Washizu-sama....
[17:28] Was
    That cannot happen.
[17:34] Nar
    The third match.
[17:36] Nar
    Washizu has lost both the
    first and second matches.
[17:39] Nar
    He needs to win the third at any
    cost and erase that disgrace.
[17:45] Nar
    He can't keep losing.
[17:49] Nar
    His pride as king...
[17:54] Nar
    cannot allow him to let that happen.
[17:57] Nar
    Washizu has already lost 118.5 million yen.
[18:03] Nar
    At this rate, his entire fortune
    of 500 million will melt away.
[18:08] Nar
    His ruin seems near.
[18:13] Nar
    It is rising...
[18:16] Nar
    The raging water that will kill Washizu.
[18:19] Nar
    It is slowly reaching a critical point.
[18:21] Nar
    Still slight, but it has begun to overflow.
[18:23] Nar
    It has started to wet Washizu's feet.
[18:28] Was
    If I fall in, I die.
[18:33] Was
    I must stop this.
[18:36] Nar
    The third match has begun.
[18:39] Nar
    Yasuoka is the first dealer.
[18:41] Nar
    Washizu wants to reverse the flow
    of the game during East Hand 1.
[18:46] Nar
    He wants to escape this bad flow.
[18:50] Nar
    But his hand is not so good.
[18:55] Nar
    His draws are also sub-par.
[18:57] Nar
    He is clearly going downhill.
[19:02] Nar
    On the other hand,
    Akagi is doing well.
[19:05] Nar
    By the third turn, he's already one
    away from tenpai, with three dora.
[19:11] Nar
    But Akagi does not relax his game.
[19:14] Nar
    No.
[19:16] Nar
    Akagi never was in the position to
    either relax or tighten his game.
[19:23] Nar
    He has transcended that.
[19:26] Nar
    If he hadn't, he could not have survived.
[19:28] Oug
    Ranking below Washizu even
    once would mean certain death.
[19:35] Oug
    He is still missing 1,100 CCs of blood.
[19:39] Nar
    That is to say, should he deal
    into a single mangan hand
[19:42] Nar
    of Washizu's, he would
    lose 800 CCs of blood.
[19:45] Nar
    Combined with the 1,100,
[19:46] Nar
    that would amount to 1,900 CCs of blood,
[19:48] Nar
    just one step away
    from the fatal amount.
[19:53] Oug
    He could die at any time.
[19:56] Oug
    Of course he can't relax
    under these conditions.
[20:02] nar
    Always one step from death.
[20:05] nar
    And then Washizu has a certain feeling.
[20:10] Was
    I have a feeling.
[20:12] Was
    If I kill this man, I will have arrived...
[20:19] Was
    At the apex of my 75 years of life.
[20:28] Was
    To the moment of supreme bliss.
[20:31] Was
    I may have been born to kill this man.
[20:43] Nar
    At the end of the first
    and second matches,
[20:44] Nar
    Akagi has lost 1,100 CCs of blood.
[20:48] Nar
    Washizu has lost
    118.5 million yen in cash.
[20:53] Nar
    But in the third match,
[20:56] Nar
    the monster Washizu Iwao has a hunch
    that he may make a counterattack.
[21:00] Nar
    A premonition of a great storm.
[21:02] Nar
    The dawn of destruction is approaching.
[22:16] Nar
    Next time, "The Power of Brute Luck."
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