Upon hearing this jibe, Li Ling snatched the last leg of the octopus and stuffed it in her mouth whole. She chewed manically, her cheeks and eyes bulging, before swallowing hard. The tentacle disappeared in a single gulp.

‘Li Ling has the makings of a great Wind Demon,’ laughed Tatsumaki with some pride.

More saké was poured and the Pirate Queen raised her cup for a toast:

‘Bound by sea and storm, we the Wind Demons pledge to plunder; to destroy all samurai with lightning and thunder.’

The pirate captains clamoured their approval and downed their drinks. Encouraged by Tatsumaki, Li Ling did the same, coughing hard as the fiery alcohol burnt her throat. But Jack refused to join in their ritual.

‘Don’t you wish to be a Wind Demon too?’ said Tatsumaki.

‘No,’ replied Jack. ‘My father said pirates are the plague of the oceans.’

The genial atmosphere at the table died. The pirate captains glared fiercely at him, Captain Wanizame drumming her sharpened fingernails on the tabletop as if wanting to rip the skin from his body.

Tatsumaki, tutting at the remark, held up her hand to calm her captains. ‘Jack merely needs educating in what it truly means to be a pirate.’

Fixing him with her startling brown eyes, she declared, ‘The existence of the sea means the existence of pirates. The lands surrounding the Seto Sea are among the poorest in all Japan. Much is barren or too steep to cultivate. The communities around its shores and on its islands are constantly in threat of starvation. So the people depend upon the seas for survival. But, when drought or typhoons hit, what can good men and women like us turn to in order to survive? Daimyo Mori and his samurai won’t help. So we must help ourselves.’

‘By raiding, stealing and killing others!’ exclaimed Jack.

‘And how is that any different to what the Sea Samurai do?’ challenged the Pirate Queen.

‘The samurai protect these communities from pirates like you.’

Tatsumaki laughed. ‘The samurai are bigger thieves than any pirate. They do nothing, yet they tax the poor to fill their own stomachs, even when the farmers and fishermen have barely enough to feed their own families. At the slightest sign of resistance, they raze villages to the ground, destroy their fishing nets and sink their boats. Make no mistake: daimyo Mori rules with an iron fist. He shows no charity to his people.’

Having heard the tales of daimyo Mori’s cruelty and witnessed with his own eyes the brutality of his navy commander Captain Arashi, Jack was compelled to believe Tatsumaki. He’d also encountered similar stories of samurai persecution and indifference when he’d fought for the farmers of Tamagashi village. Resistant as he was, Jack found himself being swayed by the Pirate Queen’s argument.