Prologue
A day in mid-February
Rinne: All right all right all right all riiiight! That’s a Ron! Out in one round! This dora tile gives me 8K![1]
I’m having a crazy lucky day today...! Eight thousand points from Merumeru! At this rate I’ll make a total comeback......✰
Kohaku・HiMERU: ......
Rinne: Huh? Aww, what’s wrong?
You guys really gonna play mahjong with such a piss-poor attitude? You get your feelings hurt? Not strong enough to take it?
HiMERU: —Actually, HiMERU simply thought the game was finally over.
Are you satisfied, Amagi? HiMERU can’t imagine what you hoped to gain by winning three-player mahjong, but I’d like to proceed with Crazy:B’s meeting soon.
Rinne: Hey hey hey, you being a sore loser? You agreed to play, Merumeru—You do the crime, you do the time ♪ If you don’t like it, we can go one more round!
HiMERU: No, thank you. You insisted on playing mahjong no matter what, so HiMERU really didn’t have much of a choice in the matter.
Please focus on the topic at hand. What are Crazy:B’s next activities?
Rinne: Huh? What’re you talkin’ about. Ain’t this an activity?
HiMERU: ...What?
Rinne: I said, mahjong is Crazy:B’s activity this time. You didn’t say nothing ‘bout work ♪
Kohaku: That’s as far as I’m lettin’ ya drag this out. Just how long do you plan to keep dodgin’ the question?
We really are just wastin’ our time here.
Seems like Niki-han’s workin’ here at Cinnamon all day, so I should’ve known you didn’t have anything important to tell us.
Rinne: Eh, it’s no biggie. Crazy:B’s schedule’s still wiiiide open anyway.
You guys don’t know anything about real life, so I figured I’d teach you a big boy game so you wouldn’t have such a hard time out there in the entertainment world.
Now you’ll be fine when you have to cozy up to someone over a game of mahjong ♪ In fact, you should be thanking me for this... ✰
Kohaku: Literally why would I need you to do that?
...Lord. When you’re serious and when you’re not—it’s like night and day. You really don’t care one bit what we’re goin’ through.
Rinne: Gyahaha. You say stuff like that while sticking it out with me ‘til the end—that’s one of Kohaku-chan’s best qualities, huh? You’ve got a sharp tongue but your body never lies ♪
Kohaku: I don’t know what the heck you’re tryin’ to say there...
Well, whatever. Cinnamon’s closing soon, so we oughta get goin’.
HiMERU: Yes, we should. If we keep sitting around, it may get in the way of Shiina closing up shop.
Rinne: But this is Niki we’re talking about—we don’t have to worry.
C’mon, let’s keep going! I still haven’t gotten my fill!
Niki: Hold up, Rinne-kun! What’re you saying about me?!
I can hear you, y’know~ Where do you get off saying “When it comes to Niki, anything goes,” huh?
Rinne: No, no, no. I only said we don’t need to worry ‘bout your whole thing, that’s all.
Niki: Isn’t that the same?! Ugh, I feel like you’re learning new ways to be violent with each passing day...!
Rinne: Haha, no need to praise me like that ♪
Niki: Like hell I was praising you!
Aren’t HiMERU-kun and Kohaku-chan also wasting their time going along with this~?
After I close up, I’m brainstorming a new spring menu, so just go home!
Rinne: Ooh... a new menu, huh? Sounds delicious ♪
Niki-kyun~ You looking for anybody to taste test this new menu you’ve got in the works?
Niki: No way! You used to gorge yourself on the prototypes of the dishes I was creating, y’know?! And then after I released them, you’d say you were sick of them already!
This is for Cinnamon, so if you wanna eat, you’re gonna have to pay up!
Kohaku: That’s right. Cut it out, Rinne-han.
We should just stop now. Didn’t you say it’s important to quit while you’re ahead in gamblin’?
HiMERU: Agreed. By the way, HiMERU would like to offer you a word of advice, Amagi—
I think that, even for fruitless endeavors, this was particularly worthless. Let’s take this opportunity to learn when to withdraw, and then we can try to deepen our bonds as a unit.
Rinne: Gotcha, gotcha. No matter what, we gotta work as a team!
Then I’ll tell you what: I’ll go ahead and say today’s meeting is over!
HiMERU: —It is true that teamwork is crucial for unit activities.
This world is irrational, and few things are so straightforward. The absurdity of it all is sometimes abhorrent.
Kohaku: People’s thoughts and feelings, friendships—I can’t make heads or tails of any of ‘em.
(But y’know, it’s been almost a year since I joined Crazy:B. So much has happened since then I can hardly keep track of it—fun things, and surprisin’ ones, too.)
(As a member of Crazy:B, I was able to laugh with the others, and it’s all because of Rinne-han.)
(It’s a far cry compared to my time locked away in that zashikirou, where I was just an inconvenience and everybody had to force those eerie smiles all the time.)[2]
(So this is freedom, ain’t it?)
Kohaku: (Maybe it’s ‘cause I was locked away up until now, but I need to cherish this freedom. No matter who tries to stop us, we will live without anything tyin’ us down.)
(Bees flyin’ free—that’s us, Crazy:B. Ain’t that right, Rinne-han?)
- “Ron” is the call when a player is in tenpai (i.e. only needs one more tile to win) and another player discards the last tile required to complete their winning hand. Ron can be called from any player. Here’s some more info about it.
- A 座敷牢 (zashikirou) is a barred room inside one’s home which was used to confine criminals, the physically disabled, or the mentally ill, especially during the Edo period. It’s a privately operated form of house arrest where a section of the family’s home is partitioned and locked to deprive the prisoner of freedom, prevent them from going outside, and cut off their relationship with the outside world. In most cases they were not intended to punish the person, so they were comfortably furnished.