Okay. So, we find ourselves, once again, in Taro's living room. The temptation to do something, anything, other than this whole brother sister dating sub story is extremely high….

… But I guess we got this far, so we have to see it through.


It looks like there's a matchbox on the table now. Could this be tied to the new job Koichi was talking about?





: That guy from Katashina is at this match shop.You said you had a part-time job there. Shall I go?
Yes /
No



I'm really lost. I thought the girls name was Katashina? Do they live in Katashina? Perhaps Katashina is their shared surname?

Who knows…. anyway.... Yes, let's try this new part time job.





: Welcome



What is this place? Looks like some sort of smokey gamblers den… Seems it's got a pretty strict dress code - all the men are in shirts and ties and this lady is in a fancy kimono.


: Where am I?


: As you can see, it's a mahjong parlor.


: Mahjong parlors are places where you can play mahjong…



Oh, you don't say?


: Yes, it's a mahjong parlor. Didn't you come here to play mahjong?


: Ah, I was introduced to him by a guy named Katashina...


: Oh, I see. To Katashina-kun. So, can you play mahjong?



Uh, sure. If by ‘Mahjong’ you mean the tile matching game my mum used to play in the 1990s that came with Windows 3.1… sure.





Although if by Mahjong you mean that other game that is really popular in Asian countries, then…. Not a clue.


: Well, just in case.


: Then why don't you come work here part-time?


: The work is easy. Serving tea, serving customers, and playing mahjong.


: Do you play mahjong?


: Yes. I'm not gambling on it. Even if I win, I don't get any money


: The pay is high for the type of work you do.


: And… If we keep winning I'm sure something good will happen.


: What's good?


: That's a secret



Oh I'm curious now... What could this secret be?


: You'll play mahjong, right? Yes / No



Yes. Let's see what this has to offer.

I'm guessing it is Zero4Champ RR’s equivalent of the casino in the last game.


: So let's choose the members



Move the cursor up and down on the directional pad.

Press the A button to confirm, or the B button to cancel.





Hey, we know this guy - it's Macky! We know this guy from Zero4Champ 2. He was the guy in Houston who told us about the underground casino in Miami and we had to use his name as the password to get in.

His bio says “Creating diverse roles according to theory”

If I didn't know any better I'd assume this was his linked in profile.





And next up we have Mitsuko.


Dora is often lost, and I can't read the waiting.


I'm assuming her statement has something to do with Mahjong, but being lost and unable to read accurately reflects how things are about it go for me, I suspect





Well, Sugawara here occasionally gets a Yakuman, which is something, I guess.





Hitomi looks like one of those poker players who try to hide their reactions behind sunglasses and hats.





Ryoichi here seems to have missed the fancy dress code with his pink shirt and beanie.





And this delightful lady is called Turtle. Perhaps I was over thinking the dress code. It doesn't look like she bothered getting dressed at all.





Isegi here adheres to the letter of the dress code by at having at least one clothing item. A duster jacket. I'm not sure he's wearing anything else underneath it though.





But out of all these characters - Momogo is the one who I'm scared of.

We're beginners, and I don't want to see how she makes us scream.



Now, I’d usually let you guys choose the opponents when we're presented with choices like this - but if I'm being honest, I have no clue how I'm going to go, so it's probably a waste of time.





So let's just choose the suave Macky, the crotchety Turtle and Isegi, the dude in the duster with no shirt.


: Well, good luck.






Okay. It appears we have a bunch of options we can set for the game. Whether we want dragons or doubloons, yakitiri or horse.

Whether these are for setting the game rules or making a lunch order, I'm not exactly sure.


So, sitting around the table... the dice are rolled…






And we are given our tiles....





…. And, I can confirm that this isn't Windows 3.1 Mahjong. Drat.


As such, I am utterly, hopelessly out of my depth…

...I'll just hit some buttons and hope for the best...





Okay, uh, so there's a big yellow caption in the middle of the screen now.





And it seems these are the results, before we go into another round.


If it wasn't obvious, I don't know have a single clue how play Mahjong. And worse, at the same time, I don't even know how to stop playing Mahjong. There seems to be no way to even quit the game once a round started. I had to load a save state to get out off it.

Anyway, let's use the power of emulators to travel back in time a bit.


: You'll play mahjong, right? Yes / No



...Hell No.





: Well, there's no other way, I'll do it.


: Please serve me some tea instead.



Well, that certainly seems a lot easier and I don't need to learn anything. Let's do that instead.

The screen pixelate fades in and out to signify the passing of time.


: Good work Yes, today's part-time pay is 39,900 yen.


: Thank you very much.



So it seems like when we don't play Mahjong we can at least earn a bit of money as a regular job, without applying any effort other than clicking through dialog.

I suspect we'd earn a lot more if I could be bothered to learn how to play Mahjong.

I'm very torn. On one hand, the game intimated there is a secret if I win enough games.

...On the other hand, I'd need to dedicate a few hours to learning Mahjong first….