A topic from AEG's L5R CCG Rules forum, copied for Oracle of the Void from a copy of the forum saved in October 2015, so pages it didn't save are missing. Players' names are left out; the rules officials are named. Rulings are as they stood on these dates; later rulings, the rulebooks and the Rules Archive may differ.
Assuming you are the active player for the turn:
If you resolve the FE on SD first, would it save you from KS, or do you stop resolving focus effects immediately upon resolving SD?
If you resolve KS first, then SD, do both players have their consequence negated since SD does not specify which player's consequence is negated and instead refers to the duel consequence itself?
Assuming you are the active player for the turn:
If you resolve the FE on SD first, would it save you from KS, or do you stop resolving focus effects immediately upon resolving SD?
If you resolve KS first, then SD, do both players have their consequence negated since SD does not specify which player's consequence is negated and instead refers to the duel consequence itself?
Neither Kharmic Strike nor Spirited Dispute's Focus Effect causes the duel to end immediately, so if both are focused in the same duel, both will resolve.
Regardless of the order the Focus Effects are resolved, Kharmic Strike sets the result of the duel to a loss for both Personalities. The rule that setting a Personality's result to a loss sets the other Personality's result to a win does not apply if there is another effect which itself directly sets that Personality's result to a loss, regardless of the order these effects are applied. The choice to lose the duel can always be made, even if you are already losing, and the consequences of losing are then negated for both Personalities by Spirited Dispute.
Kharmic Strike: As a Focus Effect, when this duel resolves, both Personalities lose the duel.
Spirited Dispute: As a Focus Effect, you may choose to lose this duel to negate its consequences for losing.