Saki (咲-Saki-)

What a beautiful girl...

She's wearing the same color as me.

That girl's a first year like me?

Saki!

What are you doing?

K-Kyou-chan, don't scare me like that!

My bad...

Did you want something?

Hey, Saki...

Wh-What, Kyou-chan?

Let's go to the cafeteria!

Here's your "ladies lunch!"

Episode 1

Encounter

Thank you!

I can't believe you only asked me to come to the cafeteria to order this for you.

But the ladies lunch looked totally tasty today!

Sheesh, Kyou-chan, don't use me like that.

A text message?

Nope.

Mahjong?

Oh, you play mahjong, Kyou-chan...

Yeah, although I've just managed to finally remember all the yaku.

[Yaku: A certain hand pattern that is attributed a certain amount of point values (han)]

Mahjong's pretty sweet, you know?

I hate mahjong.

Huh? Saki, you can play mahjong?

Yeah, I can play it, I guess, but I hate it.

I always lost when playing with my family.

Aha...

You do tend to suck at everything, Saki.

But I guess you'd be better than nobody at all...

What?

Come along with me!

We don't have enough players.

Players?

Right.

The mahjong club!

We have a club room in the attic of the old school building.

Wait, Kyou-chan!

Mahjong Club

Welcome, Princess.

I brought an easy mark for you!

K-Kyou-chan... But I said I hate mahjong...

A guest?

That girl from before...

What's this? You know about Nodoka?

Oh, you were reading a book by the bridge earlier.

So you saw me?

Well if you already know each other, that makes things easier.

Nodoka is the grand prize winner in last year's national middle school tournament.

Is that really amazing?

Of course it is!

It's amazing!

I bought tacos at the cafeteria!

Tacos, again?

Don't even think about it!

I won't take 'em, man.

I'll make some tea, all right?

Nodo-chan really is amazing, you know.

She won the national middle school tournament last year, which makes her the best!

And what's more, her parents are a public prosecutor and a lawyer!

And she's totally popular with the boys!

Totally different from a certain someone, I see.

Um...

The tea is ready.

Um, I...

What about the President?

She's sleeping in the back.

Then let's have the four of us play.

I never said anything about playing...

I guess so. Shall we begin?

Okay...

25 000 points with a 30 000 point return. No proportional bonus.

Right.

These tacos rock!

Why did it have to turn out like this?

But this is the first time I've played other than with my family.

Chi!

Yeah!

Ron!

Honitsu, 2000 points!

You played right into her hand.

It's obvious she was collecting pin tiles, just look.

Heh, what a newbie.

All right! Riichi!

[Riichi: Having a closed hand and being one tile away from winning (tenpai), one can declare riichi and sacrifice 1000 points and is then forced to deal all subsequent drawn tiles unless it is a winning tile]

Sorry about this. Ron.

What did you say?

How the heck did you get a sanshoku?

What nerve for a newbie!

I guess it's over.

Thanks to you, I'm the winner.

A

Second Game

Tsumo.

Ron.

Tsumo for me, as well.

Nodoka's in first again?

Thank you very much.

All righty! Let's keep going!

A

Third Game

But there's something off about your mahjong, Saki.

It definitely seems like you know how to count the score, though.

Thunder?

It's started to rain, hasn't it?

No way!

I didn't bring an umbrella!

That's...

The student council president?

Who's the guest today?

A classmate of mine from middle school.

I'm Miyanaga Saki.

Takei Hisa.

By the way, at this school it's not "student council president", it's "student congress president".

R-Right...

She's the president of the mahjong club.

Oh, I see.

Let's see here.

Don't you have a pretty hand there?

Tanyao pinfu sanshoku. That's 7700 points, minimum.

It looks like Nodoka's on top again today.

Miyanaga Saki, that's her.

Huh?

Ron.

1000 points.

1000 points?!

And that's the end of the game.

Just gotta record the points.

She drew a 9 man and discarded the 6 man?

Why would she give up her sanshoku and tanyao to lower her score on purpose?

The 9 man isn't even a risky tile.

So Nodo-chan is in first place again?

What's Miyanaga-san's score?

She's plus-minus zero!

Plus-minus zero three times in a row?

I think that's enough for me.

Now that the president is awake, it seems you have enough players, so I'll get out of your way.

Hey!

You're leaving already?

I have to go return a book to the library.

Let's play again, 'kay!

She left in quite a hurry, didn't she?

That's cause you're just too good, Nodo-chan.

It feels like you wiped the floor with us.

Wiped the floor?

What kind of silly nonsense are you saying?

Haven't you noticed her score?

Miyanaga-san's score was plus-minus zero three times in a row.

Are you saying that it was on purpose?

You're joking, right? It was just coincidence.

That's right!

Mahjong depends a lot on luck.

Even the best pro players can only win 30% of the time.

But to get plus-minus zero...

That's even more difficult than winning normally.

And she did it three times in a row, too.

Impossible, right?

But...

What if she actually had that incredible ability?

Nodo-chan!

Why did Nodoka run out like that?

That's... my...

I wonder if that girl will join our club?

Saki?

Yeah. That would make five members, including Mako.

Our club might be able to aim for the nationals!

Nationals?

Haramura-san...

Plus-minus zero three times in a row...

Was it on purpose?

When I play...

It always ends up like that.

Why do you play that way?

Whenever I played mahjong with my family, I wouldn't get any candy if I lost.

But, if I won too much, they'd get angry at me.

Before I'd realized it, I'd begun to play this way.

That's it?

That's it.

Miyanaga-san!

Would you...

Would you play with me for one more game?

Sorry.

I don't like mahjong.

Game over.

It's difficult.

To get plus-minus zero every time...