Kosei walked towards the girl performing his punishment... or, maybe it was towards the post. They were so close to each other at the time that it really could have been said that he was headed towards either of the two. "I'm sorry, ma'am..." he muttered almost inaudibly, due to his pensive state at the moment. She had grabbed the Cat o' Nine Tails. Luckily for him, it was only a threaded variant, and not the kind designed to inflict maximum damage, literally ripping the victim's back apart. There was no glass, no metal, no sharp stone on the ends of the nine whips... but he knew that this was still gonna hurt like a bitch.
As directed, Kosei removed his shirt, revealing nearly flawless skin all the way around... for now. He guessed that this was life's way of saying that he needed to earn his stripes-- literally. He knelt down, one knee at a time, and took a deep breath. closing his eyes, he breathed out, then fell forward onto the T-post. Almost immediately came a cry from Seryuu.
ONE!
Kosei squinted in the pause between the yelling and the whip connecting with his back. It wasn't long, but it alone felt like an eternity, until only a moment later the whip actually struck him. Kosei felt nine distinct things hit him, dragging across his back until they finally left, leaving horrible-looking, horrible-feeling welts across his back. Unprepared for the pain, Kosei bit through part of the inside of his cheek and yelled out, sending a little bit of blood shooting out onto the floor in front of him.
TWO!
Kosei was just as unprepared for the second strike as he was for the first. This time, he had the presence of mind to keep his tongue and cheeks away from his teeth, as nine more cords of rough-knitted cotton, designed to lacerate the skin, ripped across his back and caused more parallel welts to appear. He grunted, then gasped suddenly. He still had nine more to go. Eighty-one more hits from this whip, the Cat o' Nine Tails, as it was called.
THREE!
With the connection of the third strike, Kosei began to feel warm, sticky liquid flow down his back. Blood. He was bleeding, and he wasn't even halfway done yet.
FOUR!
Another strike, and more blood that he could feel. He cried out once again, meanwhile letting go of the T-Post. Instead of remaining in a push-up position, he let his arms fall to the floor, his body slamming against the wood, then bring his arms up under the post, as if he were hugging it. His fingernails clawed into the rough wood, leaving a few splinters under them. It wasn't exactly the smoothest wood.
After five or six lashes, all the pain seemed to flow together, his senses dulling so much that he was on the brink of passing out. Sure, as a shinobi he was trained to take pain, to fight through injury... but he couldn't fight back in this situation. He had to sit there and take it, lest his punishment be made more severe. He didn't know how long the rest of it asted, though he imagined it couldn't have been more than a few seconds, or a minute at the most. Either way, he opened his eyes finally to the torturer offering to wash his back with antiseptic, which Kosei accepted, more or less. It was difficult to understand what he said, but Seryuu interpretted it as a "yes." The antiseptic was like a fire ignited on top of Kosei's back. He could feel every single individual strike, each one that had broken the skin and caused some real damage to himself. Hopefully the scars would go away... but you never knew. The thief spit out more blood, then took a rag and put it in his mouth, which Seryuu allowed him to keep. He didn't know what she meant by "little brother," but he hoped it was a term of endearment, like "no hard feelings" or something. Either way, he felt himself being bandaged up, white wraps being circled around his chest and back... "Thank you..." he said, referring to the wraps and medicine.
Kosei got up and walked out, not saying another word to the other ANBU. What was there to say? There was only something to do. He had a mission in a few days... and he hoped he could heal without medical jutsu in time.
[TL]
