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Hida Naoki left his position at the wall, ordered by his commander to better himself by exploring the empire. Several acquaintances were competing at the Kakita school Topaz Challenge, and he wished to root them on, especially his cousin, Ishi, who he had not seen for, well, too long; too long, indeed. He also wished to observe duels, which he had heard so much about, but for which, of course, no bushi on the wall could spare the time. One of his patrol-mates, Hida Kataji, would spend many hours denouncing the Cranes for their "dishonorable focus on dueling", which, he was fond of saying, "was nothing but a waste of potential sword-arms that should be better put to use in distracting the oni as snacks while real Hida bushi are hacking them to pieces." Kataji was well-known for his hot-headedness, but was equally known for the depth of his scorn:
"Well, we should probably not be surprised that they hide behind the emperor," he would say, "Playboy courtiers probably couldn't even serve adequately as oni-chow."
Naoki was not convinced by his friend's attitude, and felt respect for the speed of the Crane bushi. Kataji was, admittedly, a tireless warrior against goblins and oni, and lived for forays deep into the Shadowlands, but he had certainly never traveled north nor east. Naoki and the others even joked that he had been born in the midst of a battle that his mother was waging, single-handedly, against a whole tribe of goblins, and that Kataji's only regret was that he had not been born with a katana in hand, since that first swing he made, as he was dropping to the ground, missed his chosen opponent as a result. Yes, Naoki would certainly choose Kataji as a companion for a trip into the Shadowlands, or into any other certain battle, but he would seek council elsewhere on matters such as dueling or other entertainments.
Standing now above the site of the finale of the Topaz Challenge, the scene below Naoki gave him much to think about. His companion, Kakita Jinjiro, stood, with an expression on his face that Naoki could not interpret, looking down on the body of Doji Kuwanan. Practice swords were designed not to kill, but as Naoki knew all too well, events infrequently turn out as even the most astute sensei designs them. The other clans, Naoki thought to himself, do not face the trial of the second kill, the necessity of cutting down what was once a companion in arms. Perhaps it is an emotion similar to the one we feel when we must cut down the horribly reanimated bodies of our friends that is displayed on Jinjiro's brow. The death of a worthy samurai, as this Kuwanan certainly was, was always regrettable, Naoki knew, so perhaps that was what was reflected on Jinjiro's face.
Naoki's mind flashed back to his first duel ever, the day before, with that same victor now standing over the dead Kuwanan. He had asked for a practice duel with Jinjiro, just to see what it was like. "A superior opponent offers you much wisdom in learning new techniques," Naoki's sensei had told him many times, so Naoki had jumped into dueling with the best trained of his companions. Naoki had struck first, and missed, but was not worried, a betrayal of his Hida school training, so appropriate for real fighting, but inappropriate for this context. He did not need to be able to endure for as long on this battleground as his school taught, because here the fight was over after Jinjiro's first swing. Naoki had been dealt a blow, but he knew it more from the fact that Jinjiro's blade now rested against his torso, stopped in its path by the muscles under his Kimono, than from any physical sensation of pain or reduced mobility. Naoki whooped with the joy of what then he felt to be a most enjoyable game, and asked to try again. Jinjiro refused, and rightly so, as Naoki immediately recognized, because other clans do not possess the endurance of the Crab, and there still remained much competition to come, so Jinjiro should save his strength.
Later, Naoki had discovered some bruising where he had been touched, but the area still gave him no discomfort. He knew that the blow received had been real, not pulled, because Jinjiro, a young man of honor, had told him so after the duel.
Looking now at the dead Doji Kuwanan, the crowd's favorite for Champion of the competition, Naoki knew that Jinjiro had not pulled this blow either. Naoki could now better understand why the other clans took dueling as seriously as they did: They die even when struck by practice blades. What is an enjoyable game to a Crab is life or death to a Crane. With real blades, a duel would almost certainly even kill a Crab.
Naoki recalled the words of his father, instructing him about the Crabs' duty to defend the empire from Fu Leng's minions, and at last he understood why this duty must, by necessity, fall to him and to his clanmates: Only the Crab had the strength to perform such a task, and to endure it.