Disclaimer: I do not own Saki and its characters.
The echo of Saki's triumphant declaration, "Tsumo, Rinshan Kaihou… 24,000 all," still haunted Nodoka's thoughts. The shock of defeat had not faded; it was a cold reminder of her failure. Despite the relentless praise for Shiraitodai's team in the press, Nodoka couldn't shake the feeling that the victory she had witnessed was more than just luck.
In the weeks following that fateful game, Nodoka found herself alone in her room, the soft glow of the evening sun casting long shadows over her mah-jong table. She stared at the tiles spread before her, trying to piece together the puzzle of her defeat. "How could I have missed that?" she muttered; frustration evident in her voice. The stakes were higher now. Shiraitodai's team was touted as the best in history, and Nodoka was determined not to let this defeat define her.
"Do you think you have it in you to challenge her again in Inter-high?"
"Don't delude yourself you were badly beaten"
Unwelcome thoughts kept plaguing her.
Even on the train back from Tokyo there was a sceptical and evil voice in her mind that tormented her about the idea that she bit more than she can chew, making the trip even more miserable than she had predicted.
It had taken Nodoka years to make friends whilst she lived in Nara, and she had only really connected with those girls through mah-jong. It had also taken years for her to meet Yuuki and Maho, which was just sheer luck no matter how you looked at it. Yuuki had just bumped into her whilst she was in a rush, and Nodoka had mentioned that she reminded her of her old friends which somehow sparked a valuable friendship, leading her to meet Maho as well.
That presented another problem however. Nodoka was worried about her new schools' chances qualify for the nationals. She had confidence she would qualify for the individuals, but luck was a big part of mah-jong, and she had declared that she won't lose to her and for that she would make it. Maximising her chances meant attempting to qualify via the team tournament too. Their team so far had quite a lot of potential as far as Nodoka could tell, but they also had some obvious problems.
Yuuki was downright terrible after the east round, and Maho is… Maho. She would have hands where she was explosive in the east round like Yuuki, or where she played with logical precision that even rivalled her own play, but those hands were few and far between. When she wasn't having a rare hand where she was really good, she was so hopeless and make expensive mistakes.
Mako in contrast seemed extremely reliable and skilled defensively, even if she didn't seem like she'd ever be a big point getter and Takei Hisa, their president, seemed to be the best of them with extremely good decision making the majority of the time, and high potential to score a lot of points. However, she also had an awful habit of picking unreasonable waits.
They also had a sole male member, named Kyoutarou Suga. He was objectively hopeless in every hand however and had next to no redeeming qualities at all when it came to mah-jong. Luckily the female bracket and the male bracket were already separated Nodoka didn't like being so cynical and judgemental, but she was determined to make it to the nationals.
As she stared at the tiles spread out on the table, Nodoka's thoughts were consumed by her loss. Determined to not let this setback define her, Nodoka resolved to push herself further. Nodoka logged in on her net mah-jong account and started to play as Nodocchi.
Awai laughed so hard that she shed tears when she read the line-up for team tournament this year, she couldn't believe their coach was this cruel! "Seriously?! We might as well put Teru as Vanguard and Saki as Sergeant! A quick death would be more merciful than this!"
Sumire sighed as she re-read the paper of the line-up, she didn't know if Awai's example is better. "Well... the line up from other region's team would be interesting this year for sure." It was no secret that Shiraitodai's line-up will be leaked because it is a very strong team even Rinkai's line-up is no secret. She was sure that every team that is hoping to participate in inter-high would have a headache of century to strategize against Shiraitodai.
Seiko nodded sagely, "I have to say in a sense this is better, if we put both Saki and Teru in front line we don't have to show up at all, might as well pack our bags."
Takami with a cup of tea on her hand frowned at that, "Seiko..."
Teru was not sure this was a wise decision but their coach's decision glanced at her sister who had been too silent since the announcement. "Saki?"
Saki stared at the line-up and then stiffly turned to face her older sister, "It's... a good strategy." She said in monotone.
'She is really bad at lying.' They thought in the same time.
Probably noticing that all her team members are concerned for her, Saki shook her head, sighing wearily. "It's fine... I understand why coach made this decision, Shiraitodai's aim is our third championship. With this... all of us, both Onee-chan and I will win three times in a row… I want to win too…this is the first and last Inter-high that Onee-chan and I will play together."
"Saki..." Teru sighed, "I am sure coach won't mind if we switch, our strategy won't change if we do..."
Saki shook her head again, "No, Onee-chan, it's fine like this... this line-up is good. We will win our third championship... I am Shiraitodai's Captain."
"If you say so... Saki..." Teru murmured as she re-read the team line-up 'Truly... how cruel.'
Hisa was not sure what she should do. At this rate they would not make it to the team tournament.
She had seen Amae Koromo's records; they had no one who could deal with her at all. She had an ace up her sleeve but she wasn't sure how to use it. She needed to shake Nodoka, Yuuki, and especially Maho. She picked up the phone and dialled.
"You are evil" was the response she got from the ever dependable Mako when she heard what Hisa wanted. She shrugged. This was her only chance to go to nationals after all.
Nodoka could not believe what was happening. The woman with the weird yet striking outfit had won every round so far, and she always seemed to save it till the last round, where she would leap-frog Nodoka and land consistently in first place. The first time it happened she had leapt to her feet out of shock. A single wait on the second of her pair discards? It is almost as ridiculous as Saki's hand during the inter-middle finals.
After 5 consecutive games which the queer woman won, they stopped, and Mako came over to their table. "This is Fujita-pro, she's a Mah-jong professional."
Maho let out a sigh of relief, "Ah okay, no wonder we couldn't win. We are just high school students after all. There's no way high schoolers can beat a pro."
Nodoka couldn't take this anymore. "That's not true at all!" she said, too loudly.
Fujita-pro nodded. "That's right; you know it as well as I do, don't you? I looked at that game's play record. The inter-middle individual's final. Miyanaga Saki, who can and does compete with professionals. I have seen a number of others as well. Just recently I was at a tournament where, after 18 hanchan, I was in 2nd place. That day the trophy was presented to a 15-year-old girl by the name of Amae Koromo."
"… I can't believe this…" Nodoka said, exasperated.
"That's the girl from the Ryuumonbuchi high school!" exclaimed Yuuki. "Isn't that the same school that beat Kazekoshi last year da je?"
"Oh?" replied Fujita-pro casually, "You girls are entering that tournament too? What a shame. There's no way you will defeat her. Not you girls." Nodoka was about to open her mouth to protest again but Fujita cut her off. "And you, pink haired girl, I think you know deep down how big the gap between you and Miyanaga Saki is."
Nodoka swallowed, "But I..."
She is not going to sugar-coat her words if Hisa wanted her team to know their limit and acknowledge it to improve. "If you think with your current skill Miyanaga Saki is within your reach because you're the runner up of Inter-middle you're sorely mistaken and honestly I am not entirely sure what you could do about it." Fujita shook her head exasperatedly.
Hisa didn't know if her decision to arrange her first-year players to play with Fujita was a wise decision but the training camp was going quite well.
Nodoka was a bit too shaken but she is known to be a very determined person and she managed to bounce back after Fujita blabbed about Miyanaga Saki. In fact, she is even more driven and Hisa suspect that among her drive Nodoka just want to prove Fujita wrong.
'Such resolve, it is almost illogical. I was expecting some resistance to her holding Etopen while playing and she agreed easily,' Hisa thought while grinning like a Cheshire cat. 'I better keep that to myself or she is going to point out my playstyle again.'
"Nodoka..." Hisa began as she approached Nodoka who was practicing drawing and discarding tile diligently. She had been on it for hours, and it seemed she was not going to stop anytime soon."Did you know? The brain experiences 'offline' processing during rest, which can lead to good ideas. Here have some banana and milk, Nodoka." Hisa said while ushering Nodoka out of the mah-jong table and handing her a banana and milk seemingly out of nowhere.
"Buchou…you and your trivias," Nodoka said with a disappointed face but still accepted the banana and milk.
Maho on the other hand is another case aside from tile drawing for an hour every morning, she was also task on polishing her arithmetic along with Yuuki. They certainly could not afford any of those mistakes Maho seemed prone to. There were other obvious problems with Yuuki and Maho that needed to be addressed as well.
Nodoka had been teaching them about defence for a while now, and Hisa appreciates it; she had already decided to have them work on defences during the day. Nodoka emphasised suji and other basics, but Hisa mostly she focused on instructing them how to recognise when someone is in tenpai. To Yuuki, she suggested simply abandoning the south round or ending it as quick as possible and bailing and the smallest signs of Tenpai.
Nodoka disapproved, but accepted her advice as sound enough based on Yuuki's point spread. You can't argue with statistics and Yuuki's east round was undeniably great, whilst her south round would never be quite as good. Kyoutarou also took part in the defence training though he really was useless and didn't seem to be making any real progress. Fortunately, he seemed willing to be the club's errand boy, making him extremely useful to the team for tournaments.
As far as team positions went Hisa was not yet sure what she wanted to do. Yuuki would probably end up being their vanguard due to how intimidating her East round could be and honestly Yuuki struggles with keeping track of the points, Mako is a stable player who can easily be assigned in either the Seargent or Vice- Captain position. She was usually a pretty good judge of character and hoped that she would not need to focus too much on her. For herself she was not sure how to objectively analyse her own strengths and weaknesses, and the only person who would offer her such an analysis would harp on about her bad waits pretty much exclusively.
It was nearing the end of the third day of the training camp, and Hisa could almost not believe she was thinking it, but she was considering putting Maho in the captain position. The choice was between Maho, herself, and Nodoka. Nodoka would be the best choice majority of the time, but Hisa is worried about teams with monsters and other players with abilities in the captain position.
Hisa is not arrogant enough to think that she herself could do much better against such players, but at least she would recognise their abilities and could try to counter them appropriately. While Maho is an amusing choice, theoretically at least. There would be at least one round a game where Maho would be able to compete and the rest of the time she would get slaughtered. In reality she needed to be better when she wasn't relying on that weird mimicking ability to be a viable choice as captain.
One of her big problems at this training camp was how to get Nodoka to improve. Whilst holding Etopen, her defence was better than her own against normal players, maybe even the best of any high school player. It is the monsters who scare her, the ones loved by the tiles according to Fujita. Hisa had watched the final of the inter-middle school individuals where Nodoka had been up against Miyanaga Saki. She noticed that Nodoka did not hesitate to discard kan-able and pon-able tiles against that monster at any point despite Miyanaga Saki being known for her Rinshan Kaihou
She snuck up behind the poor girl to whisper in her ear. "Nodoka, I'd like to talk to you about something. Come find me outside once you are finished with your game."
It was getting chilly when Nodoka showed up about 15 minutes later. "Did you win?" she inquired.
"Um, yes - Yuuki really does drop off in the south round." Nodoka replied somewhat cautiously. Hisa found that amusing. 'I guess it is pretty weird for me to ask her out here.'
Hisa said; "I'm thinking about putting you in the captain position."
"If that's what you think is best, I will accept it."Hmm. I am not sure how should I deliver it.
"I am actually still hesitant about it. Nodoka listen up, I am saying this as your team mate and also as your Buchou…You have a solid playstyle and I know you prefer to play based on highest percentage…" Hisa trailed off a bit.
"Of course, Buchou, I want to play my best," Nodoka said determinedly.
"I understand, Nodoka. However, I think you should also take other players playstyle into account." Hisa said hesitating even more. "Tell me, have checked Miyanaga Saki's records?" Nodoka simply nodded with a trace of perplexity on her face confused on where the conversation is going.
"Did you notice anything strange about it?" Hisa was aware that it was a loaded question, but she felt like she needed to make this clear to Nodoka. "Her rinshan kaihou rate, for example?"
Nodoka didn't take long to snap out of her confusion, "Such ridiculous luck won't hold out forever president."Oh wow…
"Nodoka… I understand how you feel about this, but statistically speaking it's nearly impossible to have that many successful Rinshan, isn't it? I think I've had two in my entire life, and I play a lot of mah-jong. Or do you think she is rigging it?"
"I believe Miyanaga-san would never cheat but I believe she shouldn't rely on that playstyle. With enough luck as long as I play calmly and stick to my current playstyle then I can beat anyone." Nodoka said in a stern voice.
"I figured that, that was not my point."How do I get through to her? Maybe I should be a bit firmer in thisHisa let out a sigh preparing herself mentally. "Nodoka normally certain hands are rare or improbable just like rinshan kaihou but there are outliers in statistics, you can't deny the percentage and rates certain people are using rare hands. Denying it is not logical at all when the data is already in our faces."
Not letting Nodoka get a word in, she continued, "Nodoka, as your buchou and as a team mate, I want you to at least take account of those possibilities no matter how improbable they might be to your eyes especially when there is proof that it happened before. I think it is the best for the team if you can manage to incorporate those data to your current playstyle. There's no harm in merely keeping it in mind, is there? I want you to look at this record, If you are going to be our captain, you should do everything to win even if you don't completely believe in it." Hisa seriously said while handing last year's Amae Koromo's game record.
"Okay… I guess so" Nodoka turned and quickly made her way back inside. 'That could have gone wayyy better.'
Note: Been a fan of Saki ever since who knows how long and I have been reading the short amount of Saki fic over and over again. As you probably noticed, it is heavily influenced by earlier Saki fic. I am aiming for a slow burn romance between Nodoka and Saki as a tribute to Kuricchi.