Seokjin suddenly opened his eyes which he thought were already open and found himself face to face with Takeshi who was crouching in front of him. It was his pistol that was pressed against his body and made his body tremble. But the coldness of the pistol was soon no longer the only thing making him tremble. 

He had such a feeling of deja vu that the traumatized child within him who had sworn not to feel so helpless again shuddered. This had made Takeshi giggle mockingly and say: 

"You're as pathetic as that kid from fifteen years ago, I still scare you, huh? If only I could finish the job I started! You've lived too long when you were supposed to be dead. It's your fault I lost my finger, you drove Wakaï completely crazy. Whatever the captain has planned for you, I will do anything to make it worse." 

Even without his gag, Seokjin might not had the strength to answer him and insult him. He really felt pathetic, how could he still deny it? He thought he saw Jungkook in front of him when it was just a dream. He had really believed at first that Jungkook had come to save him. But his dream had turned into a nightmare and he knew now that Jungkook wasn't coming: he hated him, and rightly so. Now it was just him, alone against the wakos. And he was pathetically afraid of the stupidest of them all.

His hatred towards Takeshi had continued to grow in three days, as he had nothing to do but think. He was the man who had stopped him from running away with Jungkook during that cursed night. He was the man who shot him and made him suffer horribly for the first time in his life, making him see death up close when he was just a child. He was the man who had populated his nightmares for a long time, even if his face had never appeared clearly to him. As he looked at him, just inches away, his scar itched, he wanted to tear the skin off. 

Seeing what he provoked in the admiral, the pirate sneered, satisfied. 

Seokjin had a hard time believing that Takeshi was really a samurai. Firstly because he had no control over his emotions and only thought about revenge, even when he lost to a child; he was childish. Then, because he always carried a pistol as if this weapon was his favorite, more than the katana, always stored in its sheath, as an accessory more than as a weapon of war. His shaved and tattooed head without any hair spared, as well as his evil look, gave him the ferocious look of a bandit not of a samurai.

The pirate life had distanced him from the essence of samurai as Taehyung had described to Seokjin. So, despite his state, he managed to give him the most contemptuous look possible.

"You dare give me that contemptuous look when you're literally bathing in your own piss?" Takeshi retorted, wrinkling his nose in disgust. "Erk, what a stench!" 

In thought, Seokjin killed him again, like he dreamt. But the dream was far from reality. He tried to insult him through his gaze but staring at Takeshi's mocking and disgusted gaze, he could only guess that his own appearance and body odor was truly disgusting.

Seeing movement from the corner of him, he suddenly realized that Takeshi had not come alone :  Ihnkyang was there too. He looked blank like the first day, as he took in Seokjin's appearance, worse than his own now. His hope of leaving the ship seemed to have vanished and Seokjin felt even more pathetic than before. He had promised Ihnkyang that he would get him out of there but he was barely able to stay alive.

"Unfortunately, I didn't come to kill you," Takeshi said in his unbearable drawl. "The captain wants to test your will to live today but he is going to be disappointed, you already look dead."

As he stood up, Seokjin thought he was going to beat him up but he freed his wrists from the shackles. He fell backwards, too weak to kneel without being restrained, and even weaker to try to kill Takeshi. The pirate smirked before restraining him with other iron bracelets then grabbed him by the clothes and roughly pulled him up.

"It's going to be spectacular but if you ask me, I think you're not going to survive," Takeshi told him with an evil joy, grabbing him by the hair to lift his face and look him in the eyes. "Count on me to tell Wakaï how pathetic you were until your last moments."

Seokjin stared at him blankly. He didn't know what awaited him but he wouldn't give Takeshi the joy of seeing him be nervous again or responding to his provocation.

"Pfff, pathetic," the samurai spat, "you no longer have any fighting spirit. It was too easy to break you."

He released Seokjin's head and and pushed him roughly back against Ihnkyang, motioning for him to support Seokjin himself. Despite his skinny body and his metal ball hanging from his ankle, it was so easy for him to drag him that Seokjin wondered how many pounds he had lost in four days. 

He would have liked to whisper to Ihnkyang that he was sorry but not only could he not, but what's more, his compatriot didn't even meet his gaze. Was he afraid that Takeshi would see it as a sign that he was trying to escape with him?

"You rats of Joseon are equally disgusting," Takeshi remarked by observing them, following them, his pistol aimed on them to encourage them to follow his orders, although Ihnkyang probably didn't need it. "Come on, let's go back on deck, the others are waiting for us." 

Slowly, sometimes being pushed roughly by Takeshi to go faster which only had the effect of making them trip for the great pleasure of the pirate, they eventually got back onto the deck of the ship where the idle pirates were having fun.

They stopped at the rail, at a place where a rope had been tied and the other end of which had been thrown to the other side, in the sea. Takeshi ordered Ihnkyang to release Seokjin there. As Seokjin was without strength and to prevent him from hitting his head brutally against the railing, Ihnkyang didn't release him immediately, instead helping him sit up.

"Let him go," Takeshi ordered sharply, punching Ihnkyang hard in the arm. "Be careful, if you take pity on him, I might ask the captain to trade places with you."

Terrified, Ihnkyang immediately released Seokjin who crashed to the ground and walked away from him, lowering his head. Seokjin wondered if he knew what was in store for him to be so scared, or if he was just afraid of suffering for helping him. Either way, he couldn't blame him. He had spent years bending his head to survive as he watched his friends die one after the other, it wasn't to die in Seokjin's place.

Losing interest in Takeshi and Ihnkyang, he inhaled the sea air gratefully. Then, he realized with amazement that the ship was no longer moving forward, being only agitated by the waves. Looking up, he noticed  that the sails had been drawn up for some mysterious reason. He frowned and his gaze turned again to the rope beside him dipping into the sea, trying to understand what was going to happen.

But he didn't have time to think about it, he heard the footsteps of many men approaching him and as he turned, he suddenly received a kick in the stomach that took his breath away and made him groan.

"You could use a dip in the sea to get rid of that piss smell," Kazuki's voice spat from somewhere above him. 

Mocking laughter erupted from all sides, that of Takeshi being more audible than the others. 

"All of you, push yourself!" Yusuke's voice boomed. 

His heavy footsteps made the bridge shake as he approached. Seokjin wondered if Kaïto was accompanying him but he was sure of it; he felt the opium vapors creeping into his nostrils and immediately began to make his head spin. This strong smell at least had the merit of masking Seokjin's nauseating smell.

Seokjin raised his head to stare at the captain, refusing to give the impression that he had accepted his fate. But his defiant air fooled no one.

"Poor thing," Kaïto's cold voice said, as if he was unable to match the tone of his voice to what he was saying. "It seems like you're more fragile than you realize yourself."

On his order, Yusuke reached down and removed his gag. 

"Are you afraid of death after all?" Kaïto asked him.

Seokjin's mouth and throat were horribly dry, but he managed to articulate hoarsely:

"Go to hell... fucking wako..."

Around them, the pirates uttered angry exclamations, shouting murderous words at him. Kaïto smiled evilly, then laughed his icy laugh that gave Seokjin chills.

"Takeshi, remove the slave's ball and chain and attach it to the admiral's ankle," he ordered.

Seokjin wanted to struggle but Takeshi, after freeing Ihnkyang, grabbed his injured ankle with harshness and this contact sent a jolt of pain throughout his leg. After that, he could no longer move it. Having received no treatment, he was lucky that the wound did not become infected, but it had not healed and was still very painful. Takeshi closed the metal bracelet attached to the chain that dragged the ball and chain around his ankle.

Around him, as if suddenly overcome by bestial madness and thirsting for death, the pirates began to chant:

"Keelhaulin! Keelhauling! Keelhauling! Keelhauling!1"

So, Seokjin suddenly understood what awaited him. His eyes bulged, expressing nothing but terror, his face lost all color and his body began to shake furiously.

"Oh, so you don't fear death, but you're afraid of the sea?"

Kaïto's voice was distant, Seokjin only thought of the sea that would soon swallow him. He was seized with a burst of madness and begged:

"Everything... everything but not that... have mercy..."

The laughter increased around him but he didn't care. He just wanted us to keep him away from the sea, to find another way to torture him, another way for the wakos to kill him...

"Mercy, uh?" Kaïto repeated while exhaling a cloud of smoke. "It was you, sea ​​soldiers, who invented this torture, right? Not us, wakos. You have to believe that the most barbaric are not necessarily those you think and it is legitimate that I punish you with your own techniques. You will have no mercy from me. You broke my son and now I'm going to break you."

He gestured for Yusuke to start as Seokjin continued to beg. The giant did so and grabbed the end of the rope hanging from the railing, then began to tie it around Seokjin's waist, who started screaming:

"NO, NO, NO, PLEASE LET ME GO!" 

But if Yusuke then took care to untie his hands behind his back, it was not to free him, only to reattach them in front and hang the irons on a whip which hung from a yard attached to the main mast, several meters higher.

Then other men began to pull on the rope to bring up the whip and Seokjin with it. Lifting into the air like that, Seokjin screamed at them to let him go and wriggled to free himself, hoping to fall onto the bridge instead of into the sea, and to die instantly, dragged with force by the ball which hung heavily and painfully beneath him.

However, the rope rose higher and higher and soon his body was suspended above the sea, causing him unspeakable terror. When, at last, the rope stopped rising, he was still. He no longer shouted. He was staring at the sea with bulging eyes and his breathing was frantic.

Kaïto silenced all the pirates who were shouting excitedly and when silence returned, he declared in a loud voice that reached Seokjin's ears:

"You have two options: either you face the sea like an admiral and we'll see you again in a few minutes on the other side of the ship; either you are just a pathetic boy and you let the sea steal your life, and it is your dead body that we will fish out on the other side of the sea. My men all bet on your death..."

He paused to take a breath and inhale a whiff of opium.

"...but I bet on your life, because Ryujin wants to see you live for the moment.  Let's see if you manage to survive and prove to me that I'm right."

But Seokjin had no doubt about his ability to survive underwater: he was going to die. When the rope suddenly released and his body rushed to meet the water, he let out a primal scream that deprived him of all his oxygen. Then, the surface of the water was torn and the abyss sucked him into their bosom.

_____________

1. Keelhauling is a form of punishment and potential execution once meted out to sailors at sea. The sailor was tied to a line looped beneath the vessel, thrown overboard on one side of the ship, and dragged under the ship's , either from one side of the ship to the other, or the length of the ship (from bow to stern).

(Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keelhauling)