Let's Read: Kaiji (zawa zawa...)

So, taking a look back at this volume, I think the biggest takeaway for me is that I was probably somewhat unfair to the Bog arc. All that 'pacing apocalypse Kaiji' jeering I did, but only while I was working through stuff I already knew about. For comparison, we slowed down this volume approximately as badly, and I enjoyed every second of it. Perhaps NF knows his craft a bit more than I gave him credit for.

Like, it's wild how little actually happened here. Kaiji began this chapter having already lost the second ten million yen game. He asks for a loan, gets the big one, then decides to wager it all in a mega match. He breaks and makes his tempai, and plays the first move of said match. That's it! A whole volume of manga for a single move.

As I read back through it, I can feel the burning impatience, you know? Once you already know he gets the tiles back in place, the 'lost my tiles lol' mini arc (3 fucking chapters!) is a bit irksome. But in the moment it was gripping and infuriating. I was concerned for Kaiji, fucking around and finding out. I was suspicious of M&M, intrigued and overawed by Kazuya's big money moves. Great stuff.

So, not only do I think this was a fine volume, I sort of have to retroactively withdraw some of my harsher takes on earlier volumes. Not all of them, mind, and not entirely, but I think the fact that I was on a reread was influencing me a lot more than I realized. When they were coming out, even the Bog chapters were probably gripping to follow. The key ingredient, I think, is that when it's new, you don't know how long it is going to be, each second might see the win.

In any case, looking at this volume, obviously this was all about the setup. First and foremost, this is probably Kaiji's last life. Kazuya doing that 'it's a bummer if you have to ask every time, here's a bunch' big shot move, was almost certainly code for 'this is all I'll lend you, all at once'. If Kaiji loses this game, then we are moving on to some kind of other 'in debt to Kazuya' situation, perhaps the rep player scenario I've been speculating about. Or some other survival minigame.

More interesting is if he wins. Kaiji, winning 40 million, wouldn't be exactly rich. He has 80 million at that point, 50 pays back Kazuya, 10 each for M&M, and 10 to Sakzaki. He's more penniless than he walked in here! Unless he wins baiman or better, Kaiji, in the event he wins this match, will almost certainly double down.

I've mentioned before that the only new move for Kaiji, economically, is to take a turn on top. I expect, in the end, he's going to come up smiling from this venture. Consequently, he either has to win baiman or bigger this round, or double down. We all know which of those situations is more likely for someone of Kaiji's luck and temperament. Never forget God's own double down, against Tonegawa!

But will Muraoka take the action? I think a LOT of that depends on the traitor situation. If M&M are in his pocket, and he thinks the dropped tiles and Kaiji missing what would, in that situation, be a fake signal are accidental, then he'd totally want to double down. Chivalrous men, etc etc. But if he's on the level Kaiji thinks he is, you'd have to think he'd bail after losing so bad, right? Like, whatever is going wrong with his signals, he can't lose any more money to it.

So, overall, my prediction at present is that Kaiji can win this game. For the first time, with both spies mostly neutralized, Maeda by happenstance and Miyoshi by Kaiji's incompetence, he is face to face with the Prez, and I don't think dude can stand toe to toe with the Branded Man. It just ain't in him. But if Kaiji wins, I think whether Muraoka wants to go another round will tell us a lot, maybe even settle, the M&M question once and for all.

We are also at approximately the point where the first arc should be over with, which lends greater ferocity to the 'this is the final game' point. If we go any further on this one, it'll eat up more than half of the season, which they've never let the first game do before. So probably we either end up the night in this next volume, or maybe the whole manga is about mahjong, and we strap in for a long night of incomprehensibly high stakes.

In any case, we've finally got all the preamble out of the way. Let's start the big money match! Kaiji vs Muraoka, at least temporarily without assistance on either side! All the marbles on the line, the Legend vs the Prez, with Kazuya ready for the winner. Can't wait!

We open our chapter, 'Inspiration', on Kaiji beating himself up. He can't believe that he is being so careless as to miss Miyoshi's signal. A nightmare image flashes through his mind, of what could have happened if he hadn't had the white dragon to match Muraoka's discard. He, with no signal to guide him, could have dealt in on the very first discard. That was one hundred percent a possibility!

Speaking of nightmare images, or maybe not, don't want to presume as to your taste. Feast your eyes on the rarest of Kaijis, the fanged variant.



This isn't the infiniteeth, this is just straight up monster teeth. Kaiji has been given, in his bitter self recrimination, the kind of sawtoothed shark face that characters in anime, but never in Kaiji, till now, are depicted with. Those teeth, the inarticulate thought bubbles, and the frenzied eyes all team up to convey that this is someone dissatisfied with his own performance.

Still, as I keep mentioning, the thing about kicking your own ass is that it just makes you sore. When you are tilted, desperately telling yourself to lock it down is just more disturbing effort. The actual direction that you need to go, towards calmness, is mostly orthogonal to resenting your errors. What's needed is a more 'zen' kind of vibe, which Kaiji is a million miles away from.

Kaiji goes on in this vein for a while, and ultimately compares his late, hapless behavior to that of a soldier, standing in a daze while bullets fly. This is, nearly literal, life and death here, depending on what Kazuya means by 'give me your body', and we are missing signs? We are fucking dropping tiles?! Focus, my guy!



Really nice picture here, and I don't disagree with any of it. Kaiji is betraying an incredible lack of resolve with everything on the line. At least he's aware of it. 'Daydreaming in a firefight' is an apt metaphor.

He continues in this theme for a while. Maybe one more set of panels, for a delightfully frank bit of dialogue. Sure. Why not?



There's something so raw about 'do you actually want to be killed, you fucker?' Like, any of us might think basically that same kind of thing to ourselves. It is a deeply 'real' way to beat yourself up, no doubt the invention of a translator with a gift for phrasing. Reads much more genuine, to me, than ~'I can't believe I've been so careless' or similar. Kaiji is acting like he craves the void. He has to fucking stop.

Kaiji keeps on psyching himself up. We are now at, probably, more than half the chapter. We get flashbacks now, to all that he's endured. The bridge. The camp. The falling blade. All of it brought him here, and he's spending that precious gift bobbling about like a fucking tool. Inexcusable. Incompetent! And so on.

There is an interesting bit towards the end. Kaiji is thinking about the danger that he's in, and he sort of implicitly ranks the bosses of his various arcs a bit.



He makes the cogent point that he is in way over his head here. He can't pay off this loan. He can't survive this scene unless he wins. The Prez and Kazuya have money to burn, but Kaiji is stuck with just the one life, in this game.

And then he goes on to notice that, as far as being outbanked, this isn't actually the worst he's ever been in that department. Kazuya and Muraoka have more money than him, sure, but they don't have Hyodou's billions. They don't have Tonegawa's army of Blacksuits. As dire as things are, Kaiji has actually, factually, seen worse. Perhaps this is a way for him to calm down? A step in the right direction, at least.

Got to love a Hyodou shot. Man, Tonegawa too. They've now showed up in every arc, Tonegawa was in the pictures in the second one. NF keeping Teiai in our thoughts, even as Kaiji battles an independent capitalich.

Finally, Kaiji's reverie comes to an end, and we start to address the situation on the table. To wit, Kaiji doesn't know the President's wait. He was able to match his first haku, but there's no guarantee that that will still be the case. If the Prez sends something Kaiji can't match, he'll be forced to take an honest step in the minefield, and, as we saw in the first game, any such step can be the end.

The next panels bring up a difficulty. Props to the reader who saw this coming last update.



If you recall the start of this arc, just after the first honest game, we learned about Kaiji's signals. He actually has a way to let Miyoshi know that he missed the signal. It is simple and easy to do. All he has to do is vertically invert…the…tile…….

Yeah.

The White Dragon? The haku? The tile that the President played, and that Kaiji returned? Let's get a good look at that one, shall we?



Is that haku upside down or rightside up? It's featureless! There's no way to tell. The haku, being a blank tile, is vertically symmetrical. Kaiji can't signal with it at all.

This isn't the worst thing in the world, though. The thing of it all is that Kaiji actually has TWO hakus. So no matter what the Prez plays next, Kaiji can respond with another Haku, and then the Pres will play a third tile. As long as one of those tiles, number two or number three, are not vertically symmetrical, and Kaiji has one to throw back, he can be saved. He gets two changes, and there are two criteria. It might well happen.

But…



The Prez's second tile is yet another haku. Kaiji can match this, since he also has two hakus, but, once again, there is no way to use it to signal Miyoshi! Upside down or not, there's no way to tell on a blank tile. That's all the hakus in the game, by the by, remember that there are just four of each tile.

Kaiji grimaces, sweating heavily. Everything is riding on this. The President MUST give him a tile that, a, he can echo, and b, can be inverted legibly. It fucking HAS to happen.

And we finish our chapter with the President's third tile!

Drumroll everyone…



Nine fucking sou! Another tile that is the same up as down. The nine of bamboo is a pure grid, close enough to identical when viewed from above and below. Does Kaiji have it? We listed his tiles for just such an occasion. Now to travel back along my let's read and discover the answer…

As far as sou goes, he has 1 9 9 7 4. Not only does he have a nine sou, he has two. That's probably the best possible outcome aside from a tile he could invert. He has two more safe drops, and Muraoka has two more chances to give him something that can be turned over.

Four out of seventeen! The big game is underway! Kaiji still has no signal, and Muraoka is basically entirely in the weeds. This match could end at any moment.

Tomorrow's chapter: Improvisation!

We open on our narrator quibbling a bit. The nine sou, to be pedantic, is not exactly vertically symmetrical. It has a top and a bottom. The thing is, though, that it's an extremely minute difference. See for yourselves.



If you can tell the difference between the two lower left panels, you are a sharper and more observant observer than I. The main point is that Miyoshi, standing back over Muraoka's shoulder, can't possibly, and it would be ridiculous to expect him to. His mind is almost certainly not even on Kaiji's possible signals, he's probably thanking his lucky stars that he got the tempai back together, spending the winnings, etc.

He's a silly, stupid man, remember. Whether traitor or ally, Miyoshi can only do what Miyoshi can do.

Kaiji returns fire with his own nine sou, inwardly rejoicing in the fact that not only does he have one, he has two. That means that the Prez will answer, then Kaiji will play nine sou, and then the Prez must go again. Two more plays to potentially deal in (unlikely) or more possibly play a tile Kaiji can mirror back, which has a top and bottom.

Sounds familiar...

Muraoka takes his fourth turn! I bet you have an inkling of what is coming…



Another nine sou! Once again, the Prez plays the second half of a pair. A pair which Kaiji has the other side of. Safe, dead plays. All that they do is run down the clock. Kaiji isn't waiting on them, and since the Prez started both sets, he can't be waiting on them either. We have now removed every haku from the game, and once Kaiji answers the nine sous will be gone as well.

What a strange development! Four consecutive tiles that are going to be played back and forth by both players, and all four of them are vertically symmetrical. The odds of that can't be great, I'd think.

Also, note that the Prez is once again playing with his tiles face down. Miyoshi only got the one glimpse, so that sign isn't necessarily trustworthy anyway. That's what led to the first ten million yen loss, after all.

Taking a sec to think through what this all means for the possibility of treachery. If Miyoshi is a traitor, then Muraoka could certainly know that these vertical discards are interfering with Kaiji's counter symbol, but I don't think that's a real thing. Like, Muraoka has no way to know that Kaiji missed the signal, even if Miyoshi is a traitor, and the version of Muraoka who knows that, who has Miyoshi on side, would WANT Kaiji to take the signal, since it would be misleading.

As strange as it is, I think we have to take this on faith, as a face value 'sometimes the game flows like that' kind of situation.

Kaiji is ready to play his nine sou back, when a terrible thought strikes him. What if…this having happened twice…it happens a third time? A third split tile, with both players having two? Wouldn't that mean…



Remember, on the 6th turn, Miyoshi will cease to signal the suit, and shoot Kaiji the octave symbol. He'll tell him what numbers the tiles are, assuming that Kaiji already knows the octave. From that point on, that's all he'll signal. There is no provision in their signals for Miyoshi to go back and repeat the initial instruction. They never imagined that they'd need such a thing.



I think this is our first ever 'panicked Miyoshi' illustration, other than maybe when Kaiji went big into him at cee-lo. It's funny how close it is, big mouth, eyes wide, to his just normal everyday pose. Miyoshi is someone who is sort of pre-confused. He's never too far from the brink.

Kaiji, above all else, must avoid that. He has to figure out a way to use his signal, despite the fact that he'll be playing a nine sou. He temporizes for a moment, and then inspiration strikes!



Kaiji feigns carelessness, easy to do when you are having the kind of day he is, and knocks over a pair of man tiles, the eight and the six. These are from his discards, mind you, not his tempai. It's not the worst thing in the world, since he might be waiting on them even if he has them to discard, although it makes it dramatically less likely. Revealing them to the Prez is definitely a sacrifice, and what has he gained?

He has signaled! Kaiji, in this moment, used the signal. Those tiles he knocked over…they were the wrong way round. It's a clever way to get around the requirement that he match the president's discard or take an unfathomable risk.



It is unorthodox, to be sure. Their signal specifically referenced discarded tiles. Kaiji is relying on Miyoshi to pick up this communication. He needs to be quick thinking, alert, and above all adaptable. Oh, and obviously he needs to actually be on Kaiji's team.

How's that going, Miyoshi?



We are cooked. Sigh. Miyoshi gets not one, not two, but three question marks around his head. He has less than no idea of what's going on. He did his part, and now he's just back in his normal state, vacant and awaiting events. White noise upstairs.

We end chapter here, next one is Repentence. Maybe I spoke too soon?

Unfortunately, we are going to have a mini hiatus at the Let's Read, I'm going to be mad busy for a few days. We are definitely missing friday, saturday and sunday. Monday is iffy, depends on how jet lagged I end up being, and we'll be back in action on Tuesday. Hope to see you back then!

We pick up back where we left off. Kaiji has knocked a pair of (upside down) tiles over, then hurriedly, apologetically picked them up. He is staring at Miyoshi, silently willing Miyoshi to understand that he is attempting to use their signal, despite being temporarily forced by the circumstances of the game to discard vertically symmetrical tiles.

It's not an unreasonable deduction for Miyoshi to make. Kaiji's stare alone is unusual, and Miyoshi can certainly see that the tiles are not legible to their signals. He basically has just the one button his joystick, you know, 'do the signal', so it's just a question of whether he recognizes this as a prompt or not.

Knowing Miyoshi…



Yeah...

There's a long beat, and then Kaiji begins to talk himself down. This was too much, for Miyoshi. It was too sudden, too exacting for him to request without any preparation. They had plenty of time, and they didn't prepare any alternate signals. That's the mistake, not Miyoshi presently failing to realize it. It's honestly too much to ask of any partner.

He'll just have to wait for the next tile. Perhaps, for the fifth tile, Muraoka will finally-



Unto every moment, a hero. Miyoshi suddenly rises to the challenge. Looking into Kaiji's eyes, he must have caught a glimpse of the current situation. For whatever reason, by whatever means, he worked out that he had to give Kaiji, once again, the all important signal.

Sozu.

On the climactic, all important forty million yen hand, the President is waiting on sou tiles. Kaiji knows it. He can't deal in. From now on, barring another mishap, the only thing to worry about is the possibility of a draw. Given that Kaiji is waiting on 5 tiles, that's not terribly likely. If Muraoka has even one of each, he'll have to deal in. Even a more ordinary two or three tiles is a lot to randomly catch in one of your four undiscarded tiles.

Miyoshi with the clutch move.

The narrator, however, marks sure to undercut this for us. We get a few panels of his explanation, I'll send them along.



The all knowing captions clarify things a bit here. Miyoshi remains the goofball we know and doubt. He did not, naturally, jump to the direct conclusion. Kaiji's desperate signal sailed right past him. However, his desperation itself…that he picked up on. Miyoshi may not have the best gambling instincts, but I think his people skills are better than Maeda's. He was the one who seemed to do most of the talking when the trio were preparing for this adventure.

Like I said, he only has one real contingency. If Kaiji looks like he's in trouble, all that Miyoshi can do for him is to flash the sign. He looked that way, so he did. Elementary.

Miyoshi had performed the basic function of a teammate, unprompted. He saw that there was trouble, and he offered what little help he could. This is the most miniscule, basic of expectations, but it brings about a revelation in Kaiji's mindstate.



I like how Kaiji's squint and grimace in the lower left panel there is accompanied by an inclining of his head, as though he is bowing for forgiveness to Miyoshi, who he had unfairly maligned in the privacy of his thoughts.

Mistakes happen! They can happen to anyone. They will happen to everyone. There's no way on this imperfect earth to fully avoid the vagaries of entropy. Among even the tightest knit group of comrades, the tendrils of poor play will inveigle.

Kaiji, now of all times, can understand that. Was what Miyoshi did, really, when you get right down to it, worse than what he himself did? Worse than dropping the winning tiles on the floor and missing the signal? Of course not. Kaiji is just as fallible as his comrades.



Kaiji goes on in this vein for a while. The basic thesis is what I've written above, that he can't believe how cruel and hard hearted he was allowing his thoughts to become. So Miyoshi made a mistake. So fucking what. Kaiji's made plenty. What matters is not perfect play, not becoming a robot that never fails.

No, the path to victory isn't about walking only on the plains of perfection, it is about surmounting the obstacles that arise. It's about fixing your mistakes, about pulling back ahead even with the wheels falling off. The three of them must have that kind of mentality, not be backbiting and sniping with one another over every little mistake. Real comradery, the kind that they have built in the slave camp, shines through with plays like these, even if there are the occasional mixup. It is something that guys like Muraoka and Kazuya, with their intimidated lackeys, have no access to. Everyone on Team Kaiji is committed to victory, not as a harnessed whole, but as three individuals of their own volition, each constantly seeking opportunities and options that bring them just a step closer to their dream.

It's honestly really inspiring. And what's that dream again, Kaiji kun?



Ah yes. All this heartwarming talk of teamwork and fellowship is in service of getting rich quick. Well, however you get there I suppose. The thesis is broadly correct.

We end chapter on Kaiji mentally calling on the pair to pool their strength with his. Three men, acting as one, will take down the President and finally get the cash they need to restart their lives. This time, this time without fail, they will actually get the long promised payoff. This is the run.

Next chapter: Scrupulous

Back in our present, leaving our reverie of gratitude and teamwork…things still look to be going pretty splendidly. The chapter opening picture shows that Muraoka is having a rough fucking time of it.



It's funny that, for his character design, closing his mouth is actually a sure sign that he's in trouble. It's usually the other way around, but for the Prez, the bared teeth comes across clearly as a sign of stress and agitation. Perhaps due to the raised stakes, he is not nearly so comfortable as he has been previously.

Of course, he might just be acting. We've seen that before as well. This guy is a huckster through and through.

In any case, after a lot of hemming and hawing, grunting and glaring, Muraoka finally makes his play. The fifth tile of this all important match is…



The east wind! A tile totally lacking in vertical symmetry. All of Kaiji's frantic efforts, all the anxiety over whether Miyoshi would understand them…it all meant nothing. It was simply a coincidence that he was playing such tiles. Kaiji might as well have just waited.

But, of course, he couldn't do that. This is a forty million yen game. A lifetime in the convenience store, or victory at this table. Kaiji can't leave anything to chance. If he can tilt the odds even a tenth of a percent in his favor, of course he must do so. And that isn't even considering the enigmatic, menacing, Kazuya...

Kaiji, in that spirit, repeats the upside down signal. He indicates that Miyoshi is to tell him, once again, what the President's wait is on. Once more for the people in the back. He is waiting on…



Souzu. Sou tiles. The President's wait is a sou tile wait. Kaiji can play around it with ease. In this match, just like he's thought for the last two games, Kaiji has only one thing to worry about. The only danger here, aside from Miyoshi being wrong about the wait, is that Kazuya's mad generosity may have finally reached its limit, and he might not ante up in the event of a tie.

That cannot be allowed to occur. Kaiji needs to win this round, decisively. After doing so, particularly if he hits at least as baiman, he'll be in far better shape. He just has to get past this hump. It's the last time tonight he should be playing with his back to the wall.

With five rounds behind us, the President leads again. And, wouldn't you know it, he sends out another east wind! Three pairs in a row from the President. He's giving nothing away that he doesn't have to.

But, of course, in the face of Kaiji's signals, it's all meaningless.



Kaiji finally breaks the mimicry, sending back the south wind. That's six rounds played, since of course this will pass. Muraoka is waiting on souzu, so honor tiles are entirely safe.

And now, with the sixth round out of the way, the time has come for Miyoshi to reveal the details of the President's hand. Kaiji looks carefully, and here it comes. What are the tiles of destiny? Where is the landmine laid, that alone can bring us to ruin?



One and four sou. A simple, ordinary wait. For this critical game, the best the Prez could come up with was a two sided wait in a single octave. It's a far cry from Kaiji's magnificent San Ankou created by a 5 sided wait! The Gods are smiling on Kaiji right now.

Remember, gentle readers, that Kaiji is waiting on 4567 and 8 pin. And, in particular, the 6 pin will give him a yakuman hand, worth 160 million yen! Kaiji's tempai, this time, is positively glowing with potential. More than half of the pin suit, across all three octaves, are his winning tiles!

In any case, it's time for the seventh hand. We are really rushing through them this chapter!



Yet another honor tile, the pei. The north wind. The President is still playing it as safely as he can.

Kaiji, inwardly, scoffs to himself at his opponent's overacting. Muroaka knows, or thinks he knows, enough for these rounds to be cakewalks. He got Maeda's signal, after all, and for all he knows it's correct. He should believe that Kaiji's wait is somewhere in man, so these honor discards should be completely safe.



As long as the Prez has sou, pin and honors, he should be resting easy. There's no reason in the world for this to be so stressful, which means that all this is just so much faking. The Prez isn't actually suffering, he's just acting like he is to heighten the drama or whatever. Maeda's signals should-...

The pin drops.



We end chapter on Kaiji's gasp of revelation. We don't get to know what it is, but I feel like we've been given enough hints. Kaiji is realizing what NF pointed out to us over and over, yeah? Muroaka very likely got no signal this time. After all, Kaiji completed his tempai with split seconds to spare and instantly slammed it down. Even if Kaiji doesn't realize that his chair was tilted such that Maeda couldn't see…there still just wouldn't have been time to read the whole hand.

I'm pretty confident that's it. Muraoka is sweating and straining because he is playing honestly, for the first time in his life, for a massive sum of money. He has no earthly idea what Kaiji's wait is, only knowing 7 of his tiles. That's got to be a nightmare, for someone used to playing with the opponent's hand exposed. No wonder he's going through it!

I feel like 'Hot Fuzz' gave us the right meme for this. 'Man in grocery aisle loading gun' -> "Shame."

Next chapter: Withering. Heh. Get fucked, Muraoka.

We open on Kaiji having the revelation we expected him to have. The way that things went… forget false signals, Muraoka is probably completely in the dark!



I like this composition because of just how much space they give Maeda's section of the room here, and how much a magic trick this is revealed to be when you enter this POV. Maeda isn't hidden, like, at all, from anyone in the room but Kaiji. He is just openly leering at his hand, from the only position where Kaiji can't see him. It's an astoundingly threadbare trick to make millions of yen off of.

But then, so are most successful tricks. You want it just complicated enough to work, and not a smidge more. Anything beyond that is asking for error. Tonegawa had his sensor. Otsuki his magic dice, and Ichijou the Bog. All of them lost. The only winner on red team, so far, had nothing but his wits. Simplicity breeds success.

Kaiji thinks the matter through. It wasn't like he deliberately cut Meada and Muraoka off…but, if he looks back at the sequence of events…he can't actually see a moment when a signal could have been sent. When he was on the ground, it was his wait that was lost. Maeda could have spoken on his half hand, but it wasn't actually all that revealing. Just two trios of man tiles and a 5 pin, if I'm remembering correctly.

And after…



It was instinctual! Kaiji closed his tiles the instant he got them arranged and the timer went off, out of pure 'lock it in' style instinct. He was, as you recall, completely desperate and frantic. He wasn't giving a single thought to the broader tactical picture, much less what Muraoka's side was going to have to deal with. His only overriding priority was just to get the tiles down before the sand ran out.

But so what if he didn't mean it? That means nothing. The truth is that, for Muroaka, this is an unfathomable tragedy. The President has always pretended to play, but never actually done battle. He's like Tonegawa, the 'soldier' of Teiai. He prates about his love for the game and his chivalry, but take a look at how he feels when he has to genuinely put it on the line. How is the gambler doing, my guy? How's the big bad gambling man?



Muraoka, sham that he is, is reduced to absolute desperation by even this tiny glimpse of the game he was pretending to yearn for. He's played, what, six tiles of real minefield Mahjong, and despite his enormous fortune, he's practically gagging on his fear. This man is the exact opposite kind of person from a born gambler. He's a risk minimizer, a calculating, shrewd miser. He isn't a chivalrous, hot blooded gamer, he just plays one on tv.

Kaiji spends a while gloating, there's no better word for it, about the Prez's misfortune. He talks about how it must have been a shock, coming on so quickly. One second, laughing at Kaiji, unable to scoop up his tiles. The next, cut off from his signals, playing for forty million. It's a nightmare, just an absolute turnaround that has got to have left his foe gagging on the pure karma.

Muroaka is like a man plunged naked into the savannah, no, he's like a soldier thrust unarmed into furious combat. We get visualizations for both of these. I'll give the people what they want.



Hm? No? Get your mind outta the Savannah!

Kaiji muses to himself that, with this in mind, the President's discards totally make sense. He started with the nan, and then the nine sou. Easy moves, since he had a pair of them, and, more importantly, he knew from the signals that Kaiji had a pair of them.

With so long to signal, while Kaiji hunted around on the floor, of course Meada would have just listed out his discards. What else was there to do? So Muraoka knows that, with him having two and Kaiji having two, those two tiles were almost entirely safe.

They weren't purely safe, of course, but they were the safest he had at his disposal. The only way he'd have gotten caught was if Kaiji's wait had been a 78 of sou, waiting on the 9. That was a chance that the Prez had to run. And it only gets better from there.



The ton and the pei were far less safe. Sure, Kaiji and the Prez each had one, but that still leaves two unaccounted for. Kaiji could absolutely have had both of those in his tempai, and be waiting on them to complete a trio of honor tiles. In the worst case, that could even be suu ankou!

But even knowing that he might be playing into a one hundred and sixty million yen yakuman hand, which he could have guessed from the two triplets that were visible, that was still the best thing Muraoka had to work with. He had to run that risk, at this early stage. That's just how dire his situation is.



The pei and the ton. Tiles that could absolutely have blown up in his face, with no recourse. He is ALREADY discarding such things. His safe tile runway was just four tiles long, and now the Prez is in the thick of the minefield.

Like Tonegawa, with his watch stripped away, the Prez is being forced to rely upon his own wits and abilities. And, like that long vaniquished foe, he's hating his life right now. A forty million yen bet without a signal?! Who the fuck would sign up for a thing?

We end chapter on Kaiji continuing to gloat over his enemy's misfortune. This is perfect. There's no need to even make up an excuse for why Muroaka's signals won't help him win this round, since Maeda couldn't be expected to give any. Kaiji is going to be able to win these forty million, and then, expecting his scheme to work next time, the Prez is very very likely to want to double down and get his money back!

We don't actually get the dollar sign thought bubble, but in my mind that's absolutely what Kaiji is ending the chapter on. Everything is coming our way right now. From the depths of hell, we've risen to the highest height.

A return, alas, to Pacing Apocalypse Kaiji. This wasn't even the famous 'chapter where one thing happened', we are firmly in 'nothing happened' territory. NF basically spent this chapter in Kaiji's head, explaining why Muraoka looks so stressed, and why his discards had been as they are. Since we'd already tumbled to that, it was a pretty sparse chapter. Hopefully we get more meat tomorrow. Still, after we got 7 discards last time, I can't be too mad.

Next chapter, uh, Retardation. Not touching that one…