Harue Akado

Harue Akado (赤土 晴絵 Akado Harue) is the coach of her alma mater Achiga Girls' Academy's mahjong team and is a protagonist in the spinoff Saki Achiga-hen episode of side-A. Harue was once known as the "Legend of Achiga" and lead her team as vanguard to the semi-finals of the 61st inter high. She has been a professional mahjong player, having advanced to the playoffs as a member of the Hakata Evergreens corporation team.

Appearance
Harue has medium length dark maroon hair that has a single strand swept to the left with square bangs hanging over her eyebrow and brown eyes.

She wears a white jacket, light purple shirt and blue jeans.

Personality
Harue is a cheerful person and a mentor to the children in the mahjong club who once suffered due to the fact that she was badly beaten in team tournament of the Inter High, but she has regained her love for mahjong thanks to the instruction.

She is a quite clever as she can read people very well, but she seems to be unable to clearly read her own feelings as well as she can other people's.

As an elementary school student, she is shown to be quite confident in her abilities, even warning her opponent that she knew all of her tricks. Perhaps a bit over-confident, as she said that her opponents in the Nara prefecture finals were very bad (though not unjustified, as she sent all of them negative).

Playing Style/Abilities
Not shown yet but was mentioned to be a powerful player and even when not at full strength is good enough to be a pro and as a fourth year in the finals of her prefecture's elementary tournament she sent all of her opponents negative, in the same National tournament, she made it to the semifinals.

Harue gathers as much information as she can on her opponents and goes for their weak points. She is very astute in noticing other player's habits, and is quick to deduce an effective way to play against them. As such, she greatly assisted Achiga's team when they played against Shiraitodai, by being able to pick out how her team could defeat Shiraitodai's players. In her fourth year of elementary school, she decided to write off certain consistencies as coincidences, but after losing to such a consistency from Shino Shiratsuki, she began considering them much more seriously.

Girls of Yumachi Arc
The elementary school student Harue visits Tsuyuko Matsumi at her home and thanks her for coaching her. She then says that her opponents are weak in the region and that she won because of the information left over from last year. Harue then says that she'll be able to enjoy herself more in the nationals because there are more interesting people there.

Children's National Tournament Arc
Harue advances through the tournament and in the semifnals plays against Shino Shiratsuki, Kokoro Oroku, and Sayuna Hoshino. She shows some snark commenting that Kokoro shouldn't try anything tricky. She quickly wins her first hand, taking the lead. This is followed by her and Sayuna dominating the game. In the third South hand, Shino declares and Riichi and Harue chooses to play defensively, noting that it's best to be weary of Shino in the last few hands of the game. During the 4th South Hand, and Shino's dealer round, Harue plays into Shino's small 1,500 point hand, thinking that Shino will end the game there (with Harue first and Shino second, allowing both of them to move into the Finals); however, Shino surprises everyone at the table, and continues playing.

In the last hand, Harue sees that Sayuna's 4-sou passes, and so discards the 1-sou, playing into Shino's 8,000 point hand, dropping her to third. She then thinks that Shino has one with the 1-sou many times before, and decides to consider something like that the next time she does her research. Shino ends first, Kokoro second, and Harue and Sayuna are eliminated. After the game Harue says that was stupid of her but it's a learning experience. She then tells Shino that she won't be beaten next time they play.

She is later shown having given Kokoro tips on how to win in the finals, such as Uta Mihirogi's weaknesses.

2nd Children's National Tournament Arc
She makes it to the finals again but ends up losing to Kokoro.

Introduction Arc (Saki: Achiga-Hen Episode of Side-A)
Harue, now an adult, first appears in the Achiga manga when Shizuno Takakamo comes to the mahjong club and introduces her to Nodoka Haramura. After playing a match, she then decides to call Kuro Matsumi to come and take her place. During the game Nodoka notices that she hasn't seen any dora. When the game ends, Harue tells Kuro to show her hand which unveils that she had them all, with Harue calling it mysterious. Later Shizuno informs Nodoka of Harue's past and how she earned the title of "The Legend of Achiga." She later gets scouted to join a professional team and her club members throw her a goodbye party.

She is shown in her team's locker room when her co-workers tell her that the company employing her is breaking up the mahjong team, surprised that she is unaware of that. As they leave they say that she should be more concerned about the company rather than only caring about mahjong. She then says to herself that even though she's serious about mahjong, she's still not 100% about it. Harue then appears in a dream by Arata Sagimori. After her team lost the inter high tournament, she was feeling depressed when a young Arata comes by to congratulate her. She says that she can't make an autograph and instead gives Arata her tie.

During the winter Harue decides to come home and gets a ride from Nozomi Atarashi. After a conversation they drop by the school and decide to walk around. She notices the mahjong club sign, despite the fact that she took it with her when she left and steps in to find the club practicing. Harue immediately recognizes Arata and asks the rest what they are doing. When they tell her that they are aiming to go to the inter high tournament, she asks them if she can join as a coach or manager. Arata then asks her why is she interested and if she wants to play mahjong. Harue informs her that when she was a pro she wasn't able to show her real strength because of what happened at the inter high, but if she can go back there maybe she can move on from it.

Preparation Arc
With the start of the semester, Harue and the mahjong team gather to offically start the club. In order to up the skill level of her team, for the next two months before the prefectural tournament, she personally trains them. When the prefecturals start, she tells her team that they had improved close to the skill level of her old teammates but they were still missing "their Akado". The Achiga girls then go on to win the tournament.

A few days after the tournament, Harue gathers her team to announce that she had planned for them to face the runner up of a few prefectures in order to prepare for the nationals. Thanks to Shizuno's suggestion, Ryuumonbuchi becomes their first opponent. After witnessing Shizuno get destroyed by Koromo Amae, she wonders if she should stop the matches but Shizuno asks for another. She then notes that in some ways her team is stronger than her. When all of the friendly matches Harue scheduled are completed, Achiga had beaten everyone but Ryuumonbuchi and she told her team that they were pretty impressive. After Kuro tells her that they couldn't beat Kei Arakawa, Harue informs her that she was the national individual tournament runner up and that if they could beat her they wouldn't have a problem winning the nationals. She then went on to explain that Kei's school lost in the prefectural's because of the combined power of her team and that they should focus on winning by team effort. She then told them she had scheduled a training camp to further prepare her team for the national tournament and was later shown driving to the nationals. After stopping at a rest stop she and Arata went to buy some drinks for the team. When the returned she noticed the girls that Shizuno were talking to were from the fourth seeded school in the national tournament Senriyama.

National Tournament Arc
The Achiga Mahjong team later arrives in Tokyo for the Nationals. As the group made their way for the ticket-drawing, she annouces that Arata would be doing it and converses with Yuu Matsumi about why she chose Arata. While walking, Saki Miyanaga unexpectedly goes by them, inadvertently causing Kuro and Harue to cringe in her presence. The next day the team gathers to discuss the bracket and watch video of their opponents matches. That night Harue meets with Toshi Kumakura to have a drink and catch up with one another. On the second day of the tournament Achiga won its first round match and advanced to the second round of the tournament.

Most of the second round Harue could be seen along with her team cheering on her players. Achiga would go on to place second and advance to the final eight. Afterwards the team celebrated but was brought back to reality when Harue told them that even though they advanced they were beaten by 90,000 pts and that Shiraitodai is next for them as well. She then left for a meeting. As it turned out she was meeting again with Toshi to discuss among other things, her turning pro once again.

Harue was briefly commented on by Sukoya Kokaji and Yasuko Fujita. They also mention that Achiga is doing better than expected.

Final Eight Arc
The next day she is shown coming out of the baths and calling to Arata wondering about breakfast. When she reads Arata's note, Harue knew what was going on and said that "even if it was a gamble they've still gotta try". When Arata returns she wonders if she is going to ask where she had been but instead Harue told her that she must of did well. It was later revealed that she turned down another offer to be a pro until the girls in Achiga graduate.

Before the matches, she is present with her team. Later she is shown celebrating Kuro's winning hand to end her match. She then says that it would have never occured to her to team up with opponents and that Kuro did well. Back in the waiting room, she then tells Kuro to get started and when Ako asks what it was; she says that she's going to revive the dragon. She then says that while playing her, Kuro's basic skill will increase before the finals. After Kuro learns of what happened during her match, Harue tells her that the others didn't do it just for her and that she shouldn't stop playing after a big loss. She appears in a flashback of Yuu's during her match. Here she gets Yuu from the school greenhouse and takes her to the film room. Harue then puts on a film of Sumire Hirose's past matches and gives Yuu a lesson on how Sumire and her ability works. At intermission of the lieutenants match, she is still playing Kuro. Ako then asks her about Takami Shibuya and she tells her that she is playing as they had feared. Later just before Arata's match, she tells her that she's happy that she wears the tie but that it will bring bad luck. Arata then tells her that she is there today because of that necktie and that she will take it to the finals. Harue then tells herself that she wants Arata to make it so.

Later she asks Shizuno to to warm up before her match and that she will go at her first speed. Harue then comments on how the competition might think that Arata only has bowling moves to work with and they are in for a surprise. She then appears in a Arata flashback. Here she names Arata captain because she's the most reliable. When Arata then says that Ako would be good, Harue says that Ako is more cunning than reliable. When Arata excepts, she tells her that she use to be club president back in her day as a freshman. When Arata arrives in the waiting room, Harue tell her welcome back before she collapses in her arms. She then tells her that she gave it her all.

During the captain's match when Awai Oohoshi gets serious, Harue feels her presence and says it's something else. She then wonders if Shizu gets it. After Awai double riichi, Shizuno has a flashback. Here Harue warns her to be aware of Awai double riichi. She then explains that in Shiraitodai, the best players aren't always chosen but the best team is. Harue then shows Shizuno video from West Tokyo's prefectural finals. They view Mayuko Tajihi and notice that she played well until Awai's double riichi. When the flashback ends Shizuno remembers Harue's advice to play one hundred percent safe after Awai makes a kan. Later Harue asks Yuu what Awai rolled and replied that snake eyes was good. After Ryuuka Shimizudani's win, she wonders if Shizuno can "climb their mountains". As Shizuno wins the semi-finals and thus earning Achiga a spot in the final, she tells Arata that she wondered if she could be sincere and while crying says that she is happy beyond belief. She then asks the girls if they wanted to see the final stage which they agree to. As she takes the girls to the final stage she meets her long time rival Sukoya Kokaji. She comments that she will proceed to be professional mahjong player after the the girls "take their victory" which Sukoya look forward to. While Achiga is celebrating their trip to the finals, Harue enters their room and tells them to go to sleep. After some resistance, she then explains that they cannot afford to stay up late. Harue also tells them that she is going out after a friend had called her.

Later, Harue enters the mahjong bar Blitz storm and is greeted by Hayari Mizuhara and Yoshiko Kainou. When Sukoya and Risa Noyori arrive, Hayari wishes to play a game and Harue says that it's a good idea. They play 3 East-only rounds in which Harue and Risa come out on top before calling it a night (Hayari called it "quitting while they're ahead").

National Championship Arc
Harue was shown in flashback's helping Kuro get her Dragon mode back. Later she tells Ako that she reminded Kuro to watch out after Yuuki Kataoka spins her chair.

Etymology

 * The name Harue means "clear weather" (晴) (haru) and "picture, painting" (絵) (e).
 * Harue's surname Akado means "red" (赤) (aka) and "soil, earth" (土) (do).