<<Crab Beseeches Heaven<<

Some clans sharpen their swords in peace, though. During this time, the Scorpion perfected their metal-folding technique and used it to give their greatest insult. They gifted to the Emperor a masterfully made sword blunted on the outside edge and sharpened on the inside. Ostensibly, this was to honor the Crab’s traditional desire for peace but, metaphorically, it was to show the Emperor that his efforts to slow the Scorpion (by reinstating the Imperial Edicts) were not only futile, but would come to hurt himself.

The Crab were not blind to their precarious position, though, and rededicated a number of their samurai to becoming secret police for the Emperor. They used their mastery of sincerity to tell whatever falsehoods they needed to entrap the enemies of throne. The existing information networks of the Crab were turned to rooting out threats and spies. A Crab samurai’s weak attachment to the dictates of the Celestial Order gave him no qualms about pretending to be a peasant in order to infiltrate a clan, whether enemy or ally.

>>Crab Leaves Shell Too Small, Each Claw Goes Separate Ways>>