Akagi (アカギ)

Akagi

Akagi Shigeru

Damn it...

Please.

Just let me win, just for tonight.

Please!

You won't win.

That rock isn't going to make you win.

Hold it, kid.

You look like you're in a pretty tight spot.

So you thought you'd come pray to the legend.

Talk about gutless.

Who decided that these things would be good luck charms for gamblers?

I just thought I'd try it.

Yeah, they call him the legendary Mahjong player.

But it's just a story that became larger than life.

How much do you need?

You're stuck because you're in serious gambling debt, right?

Have you been losing all your life?

How much are you in the hole?

Three million yen.

That's it?

For me, that's a lot.

If I can't repay it, I might as well hang myself!

I absolutely can't lose tonight.

Hey, why don't we play evens or odds with these dice?

Huh?

If you win, I'll make all of your debt go away.

You got three million yen, gramps?

Well, now...

Selling this here will get me around that.

But it wouldn't be fair unless you bet something, too.

Huh?

Let's see...

Why don't you bet that arm of yours?

My arm?

What do you say?

It's a good deal.

You're insane.

Huh?

What do you even stand to gain by this?

Nothing at all.

It is absurd.

It is illogical.

Isn't that the essence of gambling?

Let's go.

Evens or odds?

Bet on whichever one you believe in!

I'm sorry! I'm sorry!

For crying out loud...

How pathetic.

No, I guess that's normal.

You were the only one.

The only one who could believe in yourself and put your life on the line.

Hey, Akagi.

That night's battle was out of the ordinary.

It was sublime.

No, that word doesn't do it justice.

It was madness.

I never would have thought you'd meet that end.

Showa Year 40

Inada Group's Second in Command Ougi Takeshi

You're late. Where the hell have you been?

Getting this from someone I know who works at a hospital.

He's saying he won't even have a cup of tea poured by the other side.

Dirty Cop Yasuoka

I see.

They wouldn't even think twice to poison him if they got cornered.

At any rate, tonight's game is big.

What's the matter?

Oh...

I smell something.

Something that smells like me.

Washizu

How fun...

How truly fun this will be.

Akagi Shigeru

Please wait here.

So this is the castle of the king of the underworld.

Yes.

It feels so otherworldly...

His life was a series of victories.

The power of money, and of the secrets of many politicians and businessmen...

Put those two things together and you have someone nobody dared to oppose.

An absolute force of oppression.

That is Washizu Iwao.

A life where he was the only winner, huh?

He kept one step ahead of the times

and used the weaknesses of others to control them completely.

The dark emperor standing behind this country's underworld.

A real monster.

Which is why it takes a monster to hunt a monster.

Washizu-sama has arrived.

Washizu Iwao

Are you my opponent tonight?

I am.

How old are you?

Nineteen.

Youth is valuable.

That very youth is proportional to the huge sum I'm putting on the line.

Ougi-kun.

Yes.

This young man might die here.

Is that all right with you?

That is fine.

Splendid.

Now, then...

What is your name?

Akagi.

Akagi Shigeru.

The match between Akagi and Washizu that would later become legend

in the Mahjong underworld

began here, on this night.

Take a seat.

Let me explain to you the house rules of this mansion's Washizu Mahjong.

I said "rules," but they do not really differ from regular Mahjong rules.

What differs are the tools.

We use these transparent tiles to play.

In each suit, three of the four tiles are transparent,

and only one is a regular tile with a black back.

Playing with these makes the gamble more interesting.

Has the opponent reached tenpai?

What tiles are they waiting for?

How many dora do they have?

You can see it all for yourself,

which makes discarding all the more difficult.

What do you think? Pretty interesting, huh?

Awareness breeds fear.

People tremble only after they have become aware.

And it is watching people become aware and start to tremble that I find so amusing.

You'll see what I'm talking about, once we start to play.

Back to business.

Let's talk about the way we do things when we play with these transparent tiles.

There are three rules.

The first is that no wall will be built.

The tiles for the starting hand and each draw are taken from this hole.

It's no fun if you know the next tile you will draw.

Second, so that the tiles can't be read with the fingers,

draws are made with a leather glove.

Clever, don't you think?

The third rule regards the indicators for dora, reverse dora, and new dora from kan.

After everybody has their starting hand, the dealer draws one more tile from the hole

to be the dora indicator for that hand.

The same applies to reverse dora and kan dora.

Three rules.

Simple, isn't it?

Sure.

What's inside that hole?

After all the tiles are placed in here,

when someone touches this metal rim,

a machine will automatically shuffle the tiles.

There is no way to cheat.

If you still have doubt, look for yourself.

Akagi-kun, the real matter comes after that.

There was a time when I used to play Mahjong

for millions of yen with the young men Ougi-kun introduced me to.

For a while, I was quite enthralled, but it's not enough for me anymore.

What I'm trying to say is, it no longer moves me.

Which is why, lately, I've stopped betting money,

and started to bet on something more suitable

to counterbalance my assets.

That is to say...

The player's blood.

You're telling me to bet my blood, right?

You're a sharp one.

That's right, you will be betting your blood.

If you lose, you die.

Death generally starts creeping in once the body

loses about a third of its blood supply.

Usually the blood loss is fatal before the 50% mark.

Based on your body, you most likely have somewhere

between 4 and 4.5 liters of blood, which means

you have about 2,000 CCs of blood to bet.

I am putting a price on the amount of blood you need to live.

Twenty million yen!

Twenty million yen at that time is equivalent to about 200 million yen today.

What do you say?

That's enough money to live as you please for the rest of your life.

Worth betting your life on, don't you think?

So...

Now, how do we convert my twenty million yen

and your 2,000 CCs into Mahjong points?

I'd say that 200,000 points would be the appropriate amount.

Which is to say, If you lose 200,000 points during six East-South matches,

you will lose 2,000 CCs of blood and die.

On the other hand, if you only lose 100,000 points,

you get to keep all of the money you've earned until then.

But pettily taking points between all four players is uninteresting.

Tonight is a true duel between you and me.

The 200,000 is the difference between

your and Washizu-sama's points.

Should Washizu-sama finish first and you finish last,

you could lose over half of the 200,000 points.

Like this, for example.

1st Place Washizu

4th Place Akagi

First, say Washizu-sama in first gets a rank bonus of 20,000 points.

Rank Bonus

Then the 1-3 rank bonus means another 30,000.

Wager