Chapter 21: Senriyama Girls' High School
Getting a visitor's pass was a simple matter and it didn't take long before Huang Luan and Wu Song are brought to the Principal's Office.
*Knock Knock*
"Come in," A female voice says from behind the door. Upon seeing Huang Luan, the Principal was momentarily surprised before a gentle smile appeared on the old woman's face, "Vice-Principal, you can return to your work."
As the Vice-Principal closed the door and left, Huang Luan and the Principal merely stared at each other. Huang Luan with her usual neutral expression and the Principal with a gentle smile.
Breaking the silence, the Principal says, "Her daughter?"
"No! I'm the same person! I see you got promoted to Principal."
Heaving a hefty sigh, the Principal complains, "More than thirty years have passed since you graduated from Senriyama. Just look at me, I'm old and my face is full of wrinkles, I even have to walk with a cane now. But you haven't changed in the slightest, you are still so small. Not a hint of ageing, you have no idea how jealous I am."
"Good to see you haven't changed on the inside," Huang Luan says with a slightly irritated tone. "But I'm surprised you actually remember me. Given your age, I'd assume your memory has begun to fail."
"And your personality hasn't changed either. If my memory really has begun to fail, do you honestly think I could keep working as the Principal? Besides, I don't believe anyone from our time would forget you. Our school is known for its Mahjong, and it was you who brought Senriyama to the finals for the first time. Since you've left, Senriyama climbed its way up to being the rank 2 school in the nation, as far as Mahjong is concerned. I still remember the tears on the girl's faces after we failed to take first place thirty-five years ago."
"Second place wasn't bad and it was the school's first time at the Nationals," Huang Luan says.
The Principal shakes her head, "It's not merely about getting a good placement. While I do agree it was already very good for us to place second, the main reason was that those girls felt guilty, they felt as if they let you down. As the Vanguard you brought us a tremendous lead, but the others lost points one after another. And then you graduated that year, and since the others were younger than you, they felt even worse following your graduation. I actually spoke with a couple of them just last year, and they still feel a little sad when they remember what happened at the nationals back then."
Huang Luan closes her eyes as she remembers the day she graduated from Senriyama. Her former teammates from the Mahjong Club apologising with tears in their eyes as they saw her off.
"I told them not to worry so much about… those silly kids," Huang Luan sighs.
"Let's leave the sad stuff in the past. What brings you and your friend here today?" the Principal asks.
"A whim. I was in the area so I thought I'd stop by. I enrolled at Kawakami Academy as a second-year student and we're in Osaka for a School Trip," Huang Luan says.
A hint of surprise can be seen on the Principal's face, but she quickly realises something, "Tell me, were your previous enrollment papers falsified? I had always felt you were older than your peers when you were still a student here, despite your small stature. You had this sense of maturity, even though you often acted like a ruffian."
"Don't think I won't hit you just because you're old and frail! I'm older than you are and it is 100% within my right as your elder to educate my juniors."
"Lulu, as far as normal humans go, you shouldn't hit people who are old and frail," Wu Song says.
"So you really are older than me. I had a hunch that you were older than your former classmates, back then as well, but I chopped it up to just being more mature and didn't think too much about it. But now, I've seen a few strange things that couldn't be explained, and the reveal that you're actually older than me isn't too big of a surprise."
"Now that I think about it, in addition to being our Club Advisor, you were also the Advisor for the Paranormal Research Club," Huang Luan says.
"That's right. Although the Paranormal Research Club doesn't exist anymore and the Mahjong Club has long been handed over to someone else. Oh, does Kawakami have a Mahjong team?"
"No, even if it did, I wouldn't participate. I don't need to be on TV for Highschool Mahjong again anytime soon."
"Is that so. I want to say that's a shame, but if you're not participating it means Senriyama has a better chance of winning. By the way, do you have any abilities that you used to win your games in the past? Back then I never really questioned it, but I've always been curious. This year we have a student who has some future sight and can see her draws and her opponent's discards and calls."
"I have many abilities, but most of them aren't suited for mahjong. I did however make use of a couple of them. One is to nullify the supernatural abilities of others and another thing I did was distort the abilities of others to work in my favour," Huang Luan says.
"Isn't it cheating to use supernatural abilities when playing games?" Wu Song asks.
"Nonsense, it's not like there's third-party interference it's all my own abilities. Besides, although there weren't many, there were still people who had supernatural abilities and used them for mahjong. In the semifinals, one of the players had an ability to always draw wind tiles and would always start their hands with two of their seat wind. One of the stranger abilities I saw was from someone who could impose a restriction on their hands yaku and total han, so long as these restrictions were both met, then they would have a guarantee winning hand worth the same amount of points."
"In recent years, there have been more and more people popping up with supernatural abilities. It's been getting harder and harder to maintain our school's place as the second-best school. Anyways, shall I take you to visit the club room? Lunch break is going to start in a few minutes so you might be able to meet the current team we're sending to the Inter High this year. The room is still the same one, but the interior is vastly different compared to when you were still a student here," the Principal suggest.
"Sure, but don't you have work to do as they Principal?" Huang Luan asks.
"Work? Just let the Vice-Principal do it. When I was the Vice-Principal, the former Principal would always throw his work to me if he was busy. It goes without saying I'll do the same," the Principal says as she leads Huang Luan and Wu Song to the Mahjong Club.
Unlocking and opening the door for Huang Luan and Wu Song, the Principal invites the two into the club room.
"You've got automatic mahjong tables now. A far cry from the plain tables I used to play on. Back then those automatic tables had just been invented and weren't widespread yet," Huang Luan says, looking at the several tables set up around the room.
Looking around the room, Huang Luan notes how much things have changed. The old wooden flooring has been replaced with a more modern one, the switch from regular plain tables to high tech automatic mahjong specific tables, but Huang Luan stop moving upon seeing a row of pictures on the wall showing all the previous teams of Senriyama, including the team she led.
"Why is there I picture of me here? I remember when this was taken, but I don't recall ever saying it was ok to hang it in the club room. I thought the picture would just be for personal use. Like to remember the past or something."
"That was the intent originally, but your old teammates decided to put up a copy after you graduated. The intent was so that there could be something like a timeline from when Senriyama made its first appearance at the Inter High and the first time Senriyama made it through the Prefecture Tournament. Since you were the one who brought us there, It can't be helped that your picture is hung up here," the Principal says.
"It's not a big deal at this point. But I would have at least like to have known about this beforehand," Huang Luan says as she takes a look at the other pictures on the wall.
"Huh? Did ya' forget to lock the door earlier?" a voice says from beyond the door.
"Maybe Coach Atago is in the room," another voice says.
"Na, I saw her in the staff room on the here," a different voice says.
As the door slides open the three inside see a group of five girls standing out in the hallway.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Akkre_Kojuuin
Akkre_Kojuuin I'm thinking there will probably be a quest in 1 or 2 chapters. It will be when Huang Luan and Wu Song leave Senriyama. Haven't really decided on the details yet though.
Have a nice day everyone.
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