Here is a little Saki one-shot that has been in my head for some time and stopped me from writing MPiSS
Please give me your impression as there are other story in my head waiting to be written.
(For those who read it on the 10/02/2013 I Made a little change on Saki last Yaku)
Disclaimer :I do not own Saki and its characters ,they belong to Ritz Kobayashi
Saki/The beginning of an End
The end of the beginning
Four girls seated at a table , all the projectors on them .For each of them it's the second time , the first time being only one hour ago.
Each of them plucked one of the four tiles before them.
...
"It's starting , The second hanchan of the captain's match , The Grand finale of this 71st Inter-High mahjong tournament .This is the beginning of the End . I can feel the tension even here in the cabin , those girls must be about to explode . Kokaji-pro how was it for you 20 years ago?"
"It's certainly a lot of pressure , all the hope of your teammates and friends back home on your back , it can be crushing , ..., And it was only ten-year ago Kyouko-chan , you know it"
"Yes , and it seem that it was the case of the captain of Kiyosumi high in the first hanchan , she could almost do nothing as her points withered away , they fell from first place to dead last and now have a 50 000 gap to third place Achiga"
"It seems at first glance yes , but I think it was something else , and the match is far from its end , Miyanaga-san has proven that she can come back from what look like a desperate situation yesterday.
There is something in her that seem different too , from her demeanor , at this point I think the match is still open"
"You are the pro here so I will believe in your 20 years of experience. But it will be hard with the other player at the table "
"Each of them are first timers in this tournament and want to mark their name in it , And each of them has been qualified as a monster by fellow players and professionals alike"
"You also said that Ooshi's 'Dead-end' Seem to have strengthened since the Semi-final"
"Yes , it must be an effect of it being blocked multiple time , mainly by Takakamo-san, on her match two-day ago"
"In fact this player seems to have a knack to block others' move, and her energy reminds me of someone , but I can't find who , do you have an Idea Kokaji-san?"
"... Yeah … she remind me of you , (I plain her friend for that) But let's stop here and focus on the starting match , Ooshi-san will be the first dealer, follow by Myeong Fa-san , Miyanaga-san and lastly Takakamo-san ."
…
And it started, Awai ran the dice and drew her tiles .Like usual she was already in tempai , But something was strange about this hand , and not only about this hand . Something was strange since they had entered the room , like an extra pressure .
That alone should have sufficed for her to know something terrible was about to happen since she did never once felt that kind of pressure , it was just not her style .
She also saw sweat ran on the Achiga's girl face , and her confident air seemed a little diminished. Maybe being third , with 40 000 behind her at that time of the game, was starting to make her nervous. But it wasn't how that girl was , she had seen it at the end of their game two-day ago .
So what? Was she also feeling the wrongness that Awai was currently feeling?
Awai shook her head , No she shouldn't lose her confidence now , she was ahead and she was a 100 grade genius , those girls had absolutely no chance against her.
She finally chose her course of action , she would not falter "Richi"
The moment she declared it, she felt an all too familiar sensation running on her back , it wasn't exactly the same but there was no doubt . As the two other players looked their backs , feeling what she knew was the Shoumakyou looking at their very soul , Awai looked at the one she knew was the origin, understanding finally where that wrongness from earlier came from.
"Miyanaga Saki , So Sumire was right , you really are Teru Onee-sama's sister , What were you hiding earlier by holding back , but I will not fall back , not now, I will make Shiraitodai the three-times champion"
The game continued , the first corner , came , then the second , and then the third. No one had made a call apart from Awai self-Kan so the flow of the game hasn't changed , but the winning tiles hadn't come.
"Tempai" Awai declared showing the rest of her and. In the end , No one won the first east hand.
"No-ten" That was the voice of Shizuno and Fa but there was one voice lacking. It couldn't be .
"tempai" but yes it was. Saki declared her tempai in a whisper but it was here .
When Awai saw the tiles in Saki hand her heart skipped a beat , there , and she could swear that she wasn't the only one as the other two players surely did the same.
In Saki's hand was each tile that she needed to win , here for everyone to see.
Awai was so shocked that she nearly forgot to take the points that Shizuno gave her for the tempai.
…
After taking some seconds to collect herself , Awai pushed the button for the dices ,
and immediately she felt herself suffocating for seconds .
When she looked around , Shizuno had thrown back her chair , like she had felt something coming her way ; and Fa had her hand on her mouth and the face as white as her hair.
As for Saki her expression hadn't changed at all since the start of the game , that is to say her face was still shrouded in the shadow of her hair , none of her eyes reflecting the light.
When everyone had calm-down the game started anew , but the same question was on everyone's face .In the whole building , there were only three persons that knew what had happened, and they all bore a smile bordering madness , yet no one saw it , still feeling the shock.
When her hand was dealt Awai saw something that had never happened to her. She was 5 tiles away from tempai , something that shouldn't happen to her but to her foes.
She still played , seeing the interrogation in the two other eyes when she didn't declare her trademark double-Richi.
But she still was in for another shock when Saki dealt away her first tile , turning it horizontally.
"double-richi" once more the voice was but a whisper , freezing the air around the table.
Later; Awai would say that this time it was not the score that Saki had set to +/- 0 but the temperature of the room as she could see the breath of the judge becoming little cloudy.
And it wasn't to end here , as even if Saki didn't declared at the corner like she feared, no one could touch tempai till the very end , even Shizuno called two chi, valiantly fighting to come out of her third place.
But destiny still came to take what was hers. On the second to last draw of the hand Saki finally Made her real move.
"kan" It was still that horrifying whisper , like the voice of a ghost in the night . Her and was like a blur when she took the Rinshan from her domain.
She tapped it against the corner of the table and the sentence came . And this time the voice was clear , too much so.
"Double-Ricchi , Tsumo , Sha, Rinchan-Kaihou , Haitei-Raoyue" And for the first time since the start of the hanchan Awai saw the left eye of Saki , the right still hide under her bangs, And what she saw was the Absolute fire of purgatory itself , Burning without mercy. "2100/4100"
…
"... That was a very strange start that we saw here , right Kokaji-pro ? Was it what you were saying when you said Miyanaga-san' demeanor had changed?"
"Yes … Something like that , But I must admit I am really surprised , I can feel the pressure she is building even now. In all my life as a player I felt that kind of thing only once."
"Only once in ten years , since ten-year ago? I am curious when it could have been but let go back to the play. We are now in the east second's hand , The dealer is now Choe' Myeong Fa But she seems to have some trouble deciding what to do."
…
Choe couldn't comprehend what was happening.
First, she wasn't able to reach tempai twice before the end ,
Then even Awai had been unable to declare Richi before the end ,
After that , Takamamo , who seemed to unconsciously go around the others' abilities, had still been directly architect to Miyanaga's win like a puppet ,
There were also those stranges impressions since the start of the game , First like someone had looked deep in her mind , and later there was that ill feeling , as if the air had become stale.
And now that .It was her turn as a dealer and even so she was singing to the wind , it refused to change its direction and wouldn't come her way. It was like she was trapped somewhere the air didn't reach , like in a prison under-water.
It was the 15 turn and still no Wind , nor tempai for that matter , And the worst was that each of her tiles looked like dangerous tiles . She finally discarded the lone hatsu at the edge of her hand , anyone could call it but it would at least not be a Kan as Takamamo's last discard was an other hatsu. And it was the tile that would be the hardest to build from.
"pon" Again ,That breath that came from the depth of the afterworld , each time Miyanaga made a call ,she felt a chill ran down her spin.
The turn after Choe knew it was the end as she drew an east , Her third east of the hand , she had now a Yaku ,in the form of a double-East.
She should have been happy but she knew it was just a joke of destiny. She threw her tile and Miyanaga turn came.
"Kan" That one was not a whisper , It was a Kan of haku. And once more Choe saw Miyanaga extend her hand in that so many time practiced gesture and draw from the tile that was hers.
"Kan" And this time it would not be alone to come to her owner ,as a second was drawn from a 1dot Kan.
"Kan" Because there were to be three as the mistress of the graveyard had decided so, calling the last from a Kan of Nan ; stating to Choe that this girl was the one to command the wind .
"tsumo : Rinshan-Kaihou, Nan , Haku , Hatsu , Shou-san-Gen , Honrontou , Toi-toi , San-kan-Tsu" It was like the incantation made by a Priestess of old-time. "San-Baiman 6000/12000"When the price came Choe knew in her heart that the three of them were just first stage spectators a ceremony .
It never was a game Right?
She looked up to give Miyanaga her points and saw her smile , It was the most gleeful smile she had ever seen, it was also the strangest : at the same time beautiful beyond compare and With the creepiness of a mad woman .
Even if I am just to be a puppet in this play , I will at least play my part to my very best .
…
"Once more a strange win , but more in the norm for Miyanaga-san , What was strange this time was the hand of the other player"
"What do you mean Sukoya ?I didn't see anything."
" There were two things . First , like the time before , no one could reach tempai apart from Miyanaga-san, The second is that everyone's hands were almost the same , going to the point of discarding a dragon just before completing their only set , and that set being their sit wind."
"Are you sure , I didn't see that , apart for the win thing that I can remember."
"The difference was in their respective style , making them discard different tiles , But apart from Ooshi-san gets the Chun , while the two others got an Hastu the draw where the same, That kind of thing should not happen."
"If it's true there are really some strange force at work here. I don't see how it could become even more strange in fact"
"Don't say that Kyouko-chan , or we will see it , look it as already started"
...
Shizuno knew from long ago about strange things happening in mahjong , In fact three of her best friends had those so-called Abilities . And she had seen some even weirder events happening during the course of the 71st inter-High national tournament and had even trained to counteract some of them .
Miyanaga Saki was just supposed to be one of them , fiercer than most of the others but still, there were always fails as long as you continue to push on. She had proven it in the first hanchan , even if she had ended up third , it was better than the fourth place they were before she started .
She had managed to go from 75300 to 95000 in a hanchan against those three monsters and she wanted to continue .
As long as she continued she could win that was what she believed , and thank to Harue's advise and her spirit she had done well till now .
But then in the second hanchan everything had changed , she had not managed to be tempai even once and had even helped Miyanaga-san up her score while trying to reach it .
It was only east 3 , Miyanaga-san first dealership , but Shizuno was feeling like it was just a bad new .
Since they had entered the room a feeling, alien to her, had made its way into her heart .Only now she could recognize it , it was the same thing she had seen on Kuro's face when she had first faced Miyanaga Teru .
What she was feeling now was despair.
It was a first time for her , not even facing Amae Koromo had she felt it .
Like against Koromo , it was like she was sinking more and more has the game advance, but this time there was no stepping stone to get out . She and the two other were drained to the depth of the abyss .
They could no longer see where was up and where was down so , like people drowning , They had call left and right , trying to at least stop Miyanaga-san dealership , but even with that she wasn't in tempai for any actual hand , and she doubts the others were any better seeing their faces .
It was when the second to last turn came that she understood they had made a fatal error , But she could do nothing as Saki turned the key of their destiny .
"Richi"
Shizuno could swear she had heard a thunderclap when Saki had declared it .
When she discarded the useless tile that came after , she felt like her feet finally touched the floor. Awai and Choe had most likely felt the same when they discarded their draw because they did the same thing as her . They , almost religiously , looked at Saki , her right eye finally showing .
There was something almost otherworldly in the Girl's expression Shizuno noted , as she heard her saying the word that same girl had said so many times , like a mantra .
.
"Kan"
And , observing what she had come to think as a sacred ritual , and knowing two other would come , she saw the scenery change .
She knew not if it was an illusion but here she was , with Awai and Choe , prisoner under the sea. Looking up they saw the Sun , and next to it the Moon .
.
"Kan"
They were far but they still saw them has they fused in a single aster for an instant. It was an eclipse , beautiful and scary .
.
"Kan"
And under the ecliptic aster was a mountain, towering everything that wasn't the two aster now one .
And even here , under the water , In the depth of the abyss , they could guess something atop the tall mass .
.
"Tsumo Rinshan-Kaihou"
Blooming there was a single flower ,the mountain only the throne for her to reign from. And Shizuno realized that the asters were there only to give her light . And the water came from the sea they were in .
"Richi ,Tsumo ,Chinitsuu ,San-an-kou ,San-kan-tsu, Rinshan-Kaihou ,Haitei Raoyue"
Just before the illusion stopped they looked at the floor and saw that what they took for the floor was in fact the flower root draining nutriment from the victim of the sea. It was a world made for the flower , and only her .
"16 000 all"
…
"Ouch that hurt ,I didn't think your not-sister could be that harsh when driven in a corner"
"Sumire you can stop calling her my not-sister now"
"You finally admit she is your sister? I thought that day would never come"
Sumire turned her head to look at her captain , But what she saw wasn't what she expected .
It was a saw she had never seen nor hoped to see. Miyanaga Teru was smiling with a genuine smile , something beautiful and scary , bordering the smile of a mad woman
"Why are you smiling like that , we are loosing here" There weren't even the tone of a question in her voice , such was her shock .
"Because 'She ' is finally back of course" Teru still answered .
".. Y-your sister...?"
"Of course , who else ?
"I see disbelief in you , do you want to know why I call her my sister only now perhaps?"
"...y-yes"
"Do you believe Gods and humans can be sibling?"
Sumire had nothing to say, Not because she could not understand but because she was finally understanding so much thing that didn't make sense before.
Teru did not wait for her answer and continued
"I do not . I know they can't . And that's why I am smiling , because at last , After all those year , My-Dear-Little-Sister is back"
…
Long after , Sumire still didn't regret stopping the conversation here as she could still hear the squee that the goddess emitted at the mention of her sister winning yet another hand.
Omake:
At the end of the game Haramura Nodoka was taken to the hospital in a desirious state and with a high fever. It was only the gravest case of a group also including Saki three opponents.
Nine months later Haramura Nodoka , still a virgin, Gave birth to a little girl .It was a total mystery as the girl had genetically two mothers , Nodoka herself and the infamous Miyanaga Saki, and as no abortion's attempt asked by the parent of the girl worked.
Scientists still ask sometime to study her as it could help to make progress for IPS but the parent and family refuse vehemently. And you do not want a Miyanaga mad at you.
By the way Saki's last hand is first a kan of 2dot () , Then a Kan of 1 dot () A kan of 9 Dot () A set of 345 () And a pair of 5dot(,)
Each () has a meaning
Thank You for reading
Fragment of Ring