Nagasaki
- The daimyo has sent them to Nagasaki; he assures them it's not a big deal and that he's written in support of their release.
- But once the guys get to Nagasaki, they're back in prison again, only this time, it's worse.
- The officials are cruel here, and they don't just interrogate, they torture.
- They even tell the men to stomp on an image of the Madonna and child. Which the men do.
- But that isn't enough either.
- In the cells, there are other castaways.
- They pass rumors—stuff like how all this torture is what's done right before release, that China has fallen to the West, how the shogunate is disintegrating, that America is a rising world power.
- There are rumors that Japan might descend into civil war and that they may war with the West, too.
- The guys just can't believe this: What have they returned to?