‘Boasting as always!’ bellowed a voice thick as tar. A large barrel-chested pirate with heavy jowls and bloodshot eyes limped towards them from the direction of the citadel gate. He carried a vicious-looking trident, which doubled as a walking stick, its wooden end thunking loudly on the deck with each step.

‘Captain Kujira, I’m so glad you could join us,’ said Tatsumaki. ‘This here is Li Ling, a promising new recruit; and Jack Fletcher, the gaijin samurai, who needs no further introduction.’

The pirate captain offered Jack a stiff bow, while studying Li Ling out of the corner of his eye.

‘Another girl determined to follow in your footsteps,’ he smirked, directing his comment at Tatsumaki. ‘I hope she knows what she’s letting herself in for.’

‘Feeling threatened, are we?’ interjected another female voice.

A pirate woman of Amazonian build strode over. Dressed in a long flowing robe of deep-blue velvet decorated with white curls of cresting waves, she seemed to part the very air as she walked. Beneath her robe Jack glimpsed a bodysuit of black leather armour, and crossed in her belt were a pair of sai – dagger-shaped shafts of steel with two curved prongs projecting menacingly from their handles. The woman’s dark hair was tied back by a pure white bandanna with the red emblem of a shark’s fin stamped at its centre. Several bands of gleaming gold encircled her muscular biceps. But most distinctive about the pirate woman’s appearance were her black-painted fingernails, which had been sharpened into points, making her fingers look like talons.

‘I’m Captain Wanizame of the pirate ship Great White,’ she declared.

Jack found himself compelled to bow. What the captain lacked in natural beauty compared to Tatsumaki, she more than made up for by her domineering presence.

‘Me, feel threatened? Never,’ snapped Captain Kujira, making himself stand a little taller. ‘Always delighted to have more female company.’

At that moment, Captain Kurogumo made an appearance. He entered with a tall man of yellow complexion. Armed with a slim blade in an emerald-green saya, the man wore a simple olive-coloured kimono of glistening silk. He had a narrow, elongated skull and a thin nose that was little more than a pair of nostrils. Having paid his respects to Tatsumaki and the other pirate captains, he turned to Jack and introduced himself.

‘Captain Hebi of the Jade Serpent,’ he said, his voice slick and sibilant like a snake sliding through grass. The unnerving impression sent a cold shudder down Jack’s spine. ‘So you’re our guide to the treasure of the world’s oceans?’ he continued, his tongue flickering along his lips. ‘I’m fascinated about what lies on the far side of these seas.’

Mesmerized by the pirate’s dark piercing eyes, Jack felt his mouth go dry and his limbs grow heavy.