# 22 - The Shackles of Artifice
Source: [Crunchyroll](https://www.crunchyroll.com/series/GRZX45ZVY/akagi)
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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."
***SIGN*** Next Episode
***SIGN*** The Power of Brute Luck