Living in Tokyo, all I want to do is laze around.

Basically, starting from junior high or high school, some people treat club activities as the path they will follow for the rest of their lives.

Therefore, during school years, various sports, including kendo and archery, have well-organized teams and competitions. In the end, those who are both talented and hardworking stand out and become well-known figures nationwide and within their respective circles.

Winning the championship is equivalent to gaining fame and popularity, which will open up opportunities for you to become a teacher's representative or a member of the national kendo or archery association.

Kai Uesugi's archery championship earned him considerable fame within the archery and salute department.

Many high school students even watch his videos and try to learn the moves from them.

If you want to become a teacher at a dojo, that's perfectly fine too.

If this is the case with Kyudo, it is even more so with Kendo, which is more popular among the general public.

Many people desire victory, championships, fame, their names appearing in newspapers, and a smoother future.

Kai Uesugi swept past the crowd of people who had gone to watch the match, entered the Budokan, and arrived at the lobby of the preparation area.

He saw Uesugi Shio waiting for him outside the door.

"You're here."

"Um."

Uesugi Shio sighed as she ate her lollipop, "I thought you were going to stand me up again and not come."

"Why...again?"

"Have you forgotten? Last year I asked you to participate in the kendo competition, and although I registered, you didn't show up."

Is that true?

Kai Uesugi thought back carefully.

Uesugi Shio reminded her: "After the preliminary rounds of the National High School Kendo Championship."

Uesugi Kai remembered: "That time... I didn't have much time... I was busy with the archery competition. Besides, it's not my fault, who knew the archery competition would be postponed."

That two-year-long, dreadful mission was never completed.

In his first year, he flew to England for a few months to find fireworks to bring home, but he was unable to complete one.

If you participate in both archery and kendo in the second year, then it is indeed possible to complete it.

However, the archery competition was postponed, and the two were squeezed together, so Uesugi Kai could only choose one to compete in.

Forget about kendo.

He was still more confident in his archery skills.

Uesugi Shio lowered her hand and said to him, "Alright, come in with me first. After lunch, it's your turn."

I followed Uesugi Shio into the hall.

Kai Uesugi also made sure to observe some of the people who were wearing protective gear.

People in their twenties, thirties, forties... all sorts of ages are represented.

Temperament, appearance, movements... they are all difficult to describe, there are so many different kinds.

He looked around, trying to find someone who looked younger...

But after looking around a few times...

He appears to be the youngest among these people.

Among these seniors, his senior brothers and the others are considered juniors, and he is the youngest among them, having just come of age.

Kai Uesugi has seen certain burly, tall middle-aged men more than once.

That kind of physique, coupled with the image of fighting against him, makes one frown.

"Are those senior brothers really the champions from the previous two editions?"

Uesugi Shio, who was leading the way, replied, "Anyway, in the past lists I've seen, their names are definitely written in the champion column."

This is the National Kendo Championships.

Not just universities, but the whole country.

This means that the opponent is no longer a high school student, but a battle-hardened, experienced middle-aged man or police officer.

It's really not easy to win the championship from all sorts of predecessors.

As soon as Uesugi Kai arrived at their resting place, Senior Brother Nan greeted him with a smile: "Hey! Junior Brother, I thought you weren't coming."

"It's just a little late."

"Haha, if you hadn't come, we would have been short one person. I even considered bringing Fujimaki back."

“Fujimaki-senpai?” Uesugi Kai recalled the guy he had met once.

“That’s right.” Nanmyu Maru smiled. “To be honest, I’m not confident I can defeat our senior brother.”

Hu Xinjing chimed in from the side, "When are you sure?"

"Don't interrupt!"

Uesugi Kai was used to his two senior brothers bickering.

"What happened to Senior Fujimaki? I remember... he said he would take back my current position as a general..."

Nanmyu Maru waved his hand and explained, "That guy, he's been looking for Master, that rascal, for two weeks and he's gotten angry. He's not hanging out with us anymore!"

"What do you mean?"

Hu Xinjing said, "This time, he is our opponent."

Nanmyu Maru added, "Perhaps you noticed, Junior Brother, that Fujimaki is proud. He couldn't bring himself to ask you for the position of general without Master's permission, but he was also angry, so he simply stopped hanging out with us."

Oh, she's just being a tsundere.

Kai Uesugi understood some of it.

But it shouldn't just be tsundere; Uesugi Kai guesses that Fujimaki Asuka must also have reasons for looking down on him.

I felt that there was no need to hold a grudge against him, who was only 18 years old. Even if I won the competition and took back the general, there was nothing to be proud of.

"Haha, this is quite amusing. The senior disciple of the One-Sword Style has run off to another team! If the reporters find out, they'll write a tearful story about a genius being expelled from his sect!"

As he spoke, Nanmyu Maru laughed again, seemingly unconcerned about the matter.

"Sigh, Senior Brother Fujimaki is just too arrogant."

At this moment, a man with a buzz cut spoke.

Kai Uesugi remembered that he was the senior student named Yoshiyuki Higuchi who had been talking to Asuka Fujimaki.

Lake Mirror smiled faintly: "He has every right to be arrogant."

###Chapter 349 National Preliminary Tournament Draw Ceremony###

Living in Tokyo, all I want to do is laze around.

As it was a preliminary round, Uesugi Kai thought the outside world wouldn't pay much attention to this match.

But when he saw the huge stadium packed to capacity, he realized he had underestimated the level of attention Kendo received from the outside world.

The competition format is a standard elimination system, with five-person team competitions. There are 16 teams participating, divided into four groups: A, B, C, and D. Each group has four teams competing against each other, and teams advance in stages.

Kazuhiro Miyata is a team reporter for the newspaper. As is customary, he came to the Budokan this year to conduct interviews, investigations, record and write articles. Apart from the live broadcast on the TV station, they are on the front line of disseminating information about the event to the outside world.

"Would you like some coffee? Or this bottle of green tea?"

"Coffee, I'm a little sleepy from staying up late writing the first draft yesterday."

The person who spoke to him was Eto Nanahiko, a reporter in the same group as him. They interviewed different people and would also discuss the first drafts they wrote, edit, delete, and proofread them before reporting their progress to the executive editor at the regular meeting.

"Working overtime is not a good thing," Jiang Tengqiyan said with a smile, unscrewing the cap of the green tea bottle.

Kazuhiro Miyata shook his head, not continuing the conversation.

Working longer hours means a greater chance of success. Employees who work an extra 10 hours per week are more likely to be promoted to management positions because they are more trusted by the newspaper.

He had only been married a short time, and his wife was seven months pregnant with their child soon to be born. With heavy responsibilities on his shoulders, he had no choice but to work hard to climb the ladder of success.

The group's work emphasizes teamwork and collaboration, and has a unique culture: even if you have finished your own work, you are expected to stay up late with your colleagues.

On the contrary to him.

Jiang Tengqiyan is one of those employees who appear to be hardworking.

It is commonly known as "fishing while catching fish".

These types of people slow down their work pace as much as possible, and always put off their work until the evening.

In the eyes of his colleagues, he was always working incredibly hard.

If you meet the work requirements and standards, the company is unlikely to fire you. However, if your performance remains stagnant and you have no outstanding qualities, there is little room for promotion.

The two are good friends, and they occasionally go to an izakaya for a drink after finishing their work each day.

"How do you feel about this year?" Jiang Tengqiyan asked, sipping his green tea and looking towards the venue where a lottery ceremony was being held.

"Hmm~ It'll probably be the same teams that advance as in previous years." Kazuhiro Miyata put down his coffee can and started writing something. "I think the individual matches are more exciting to watch than the team matches."

"Isn't a battle between different schools of martial arts interesting?" Jiang Teng Qiyan somewhat disagreed with his friend's point of view.

“It’s more appealing to those of us who understand it, but for outside audiences and readers, they would prefer to hear and see different characters, since many genres are already well-known.”

Kazuhiro Miyata stopped writing and put the pen back in his breast pocket.

Then he glanced at the names of the people he had written down. Among the previous champions, he had marked the name of Fujimaki Asuka of the One-Sword Style with an emphasis symbol.

"Is there anything special about this year? If so... then we can only write articles about Fujimaki's three-peat."

"There really is."

"What is it?"

Jiang Teng Qiyan looked at the teams drawing lots in the venue: "It seems that Fujimaki Asuka is no longer in the Wuxin Pavilion team."

Miyata Kazuhiro suddenly looked up at him as he drank green tea: "What do you mean?"

"It means exactly what it says."

“You mean…” Miyata Kazuhiro closed his notebook, “He’s gone? He was the top disciple, you could say he was the face of the younger generation.”