And your secrets are safe with me.

...What was this particular style Nobuyoshi was practising? His opinions on the gaijin? On his fellow Scorpions?

Also, wanting to smuggling in a Mantis? Bad Scorpion!

1. Hidden Blade Style. I was looking for something interesting to do with Scorpion bushi in 4th ed, so I thought maybe I'd give disarming people and damaging them anyways a whirl Not bad, but besides the required Air 4, you really need Strength 3 and Agi 4 to make it sing. Course IC was mean to me, managed to hit Dageki twice in disarm mode, but even with void spending couldn't make the opposed strength check.

2. Well at first the typical "Bah, soulless gaijin" cuz that's what your taught. However, after spending some time talking to them to ascertain the threat against rokugan, he modified it slightly to "Bah, soulless gaijin.....but a tool to be used like any other" Not that he cares that they're quite boned with the invasion. Still, there was a lot of use that could have been had from them. Darn Mantis keeping it to themselves until it was too late!

3. His fellow Scorpions? Kichirou was nice to have a happy friendly chatty Scorpion who was decent at pulling it off, so he was useful in that sense. He didn't seem very dangerous, which of course could be a lie, but it seemed unlikely. Hoshi was a challenge. When they had a third person to talk to, she was useful for playing off of. When it was the two of them alone, he had to keep his guard fully up. Course, as a grappler, she was incredibly useful and didn't even smell like a Crab. Dangerous, if useful, now dead and gone. Won't miss her, there are more like her, but it's inconvenient Oh, and I'm totally stealing your thoughts about me

4. Eh, she was pretty and easy to charm and we have space. Why not?

You mean that wasn't part of your introduction already? By all means, take it!

Thoughts on the big beast that carried you bodily out of the water?

At first it was just that he was a big dumb Crab. However, the things he said about armor were actually more useful than an entire day of Moshi-gunso screaming like a demented loon. Even dead, he's still probably a better instructor. So, useful