Laid-Back Life in Tokyo: I Really Didn't Want to Work Hard
Chapter 166 - 156: Only by Coordinating Offense and Defense Can One Be Invincible

Chapter 166: Chapter 156: Only by Coordinating Offense and Defense Can One Be Invincible

Around noon, Uesugi Sakura finally sauntered to the front door of the house.

Secretly getting dressed and sneaking out was indeed a bit troublesome.

As soon as he opened the door, a bamboo sword blocked his way.

"Why are you only coming back now?"

Uesugi Sakura glanced at the bamboo sword blocking his chest and said:

"Ten kilometers, I unknowingly ran far. I was too lazy to run back, so I walked."

"What kind of last-minute excuse is that? If you’re lazy, why not take the train back?"

"I had a bowl of ramen outside, and now I’m broke."

"Which ramen place?"

"Sugakiya ramen."

"And you ran out of money at that place?"

"I’m poor, after all, my 2 million yen is gone."

Uesugi Shio gazed into his eyes, noticing a casual light, not a lie.

"Alright then."

She lowered the bamboo sword, her long black hair neatly tied into a ponytail, with only a lock of light blue fringe hanging gracefully by her face.

Despite her lazy and listless eyes, they couldn’t hide her offensively delicate features.

Every time he saw the faint outline of his cousin’s face, Uesugi Sakura would recall the aunt he’d hardly seen before she unexpectedly passed away.

She used to amiably entertain him and Hanabi with a smile.

Uesugi Shio stood the bamboo sword by her leg and fished a lollipop out of her bag, unwrapping it and popping it into her mouth, then said:

"I didn’t mean anything else, it’s just that you vanished in the morning, kind of baffling."

"It was already nine at that time, is a morning run so strange?"

Uesugi Shio leaned her long left leg against her hip, propping her right hand on the bamboo sword stuck into the ground: "The strange thing isn’t the time, but that you’d go for a morning run at all."

"Someone once said my morning runs were strange, but now they’re no longer around."

"?"

Uesugi Shio was a bit bewildered, "What do you mean?"

"He went back home."

Uesugi Sakura added a few more words, "An overseas student."

"..."

Uesugi Shio responded to his cold joke with an eye roll, "I thought you did something to that person, turns out he just went home."

"What did you think I would do, Shio sis? I..."

"Stop, stop, stop, don’t say anymore, you’ve already sidetracked the conversation. Let me tell you..."

Uesugi Sakura shifted his gaze elsewhere.

In the small yard beside the house entrance, the roses that climbed up the surrounding walls had had their petals washed away by the rain, looking far more tragic than the bread that landed in the gutter.

Mr. and Mrs. Uesugi and little Hanabi were tending to his flowers, while also taking the various flower pots from inside to sunbathe.

While pruning the branches, little Hanabi was chatting and laughing with Mrs. Uesugi.

Has his fiancée already started getting along harmoniously with the family so quickly?

Then again, little Hanabi had always been well-liked by his parents since she was a child.

Whenever they were together, they treated her far better than they did him.

"Sakura! Sakura! Are you listening?"

Uesugi Shio waved the lollipop in front of his eyes, her hazel gaze half-closed.

"No." Uesugi Sakura replied, looking back.

"Ah, I talked half the day, and you didn’t listen to a single word?" Her sighing expression made Uesugi Shio’s already lazy demeanor seem even more helpless.

"For me, that’s perfectly normal."

"Is zoning out all the time normal too?"

Uesugi Shio leaned back against the wall, her snow-white thighs under her short shorts made her figure look long and striking, and the light blue tips of her dyed hair added variety to her glossy black locks.

Her face was defined by beautifully sculpted lines.

However, those pretty sapphire eyes always seemed spiritless, exuding an air of nonchalance.

She casually inserted the bamboo sword into an umbrella stand by the wall, and said in a lackadaisical manner:

"Need me to summarize what I was saying just now?"

"That would be best."

Uesugi Sakura spaced out again, noticing little Hanabi with a "click," accidentally snipping off a perfect flower bud from a rose.

She could have simply pruned the wild rose rootstock below!

His heart twitched briefly but soon returned to calm.

Uesugi Shio knew he was watching Hanamaru Hanabi and continued: "What I mean is, Sakura, you’re really too irresponsible."

"Irresponsible for what?" Uesugi Sakura turned back to ask.

Uesugi Shio held her left hand, which was toying with the lollipop, with her right hand, shaking it up and down, saying:

"Wasn’t Hanabi in your room last night?"

"Yes." Uesugi Sakura had an idea of what Shio sis wanted to say, "I didn’t do anything."

"Believe you?"

Uesugi Shio couldn’t be bothered to look into his eyes to see if he was lying, "Plus, seeing how Hanabi-chan was all fine after waking up, Sakura, it’s obvious this wasn’t your first time."

"?"

How did the conversation go off on such a tangent?

Just as Uesugi Sakura was about to speak, Uesugi Shio fetched another bamboo sword from behind the door and tossed it to him.

"I heard from Hanabi that you’ve been learning Sword Dao recently, let me see your skills first, we’ll talk about the rest later."

Then she stepped out of the hallway, turning the corner and entering the small yard he had planted with flowers.

Her figure holding the sword wasn’t particularly elegant, yet carried an inexplicable air of casual pressure.

Uesugi Sakura remembered that Uesugi Shio was already a fifth rank in Sword Dao, wasn’t she?

————————

Though the Uesugi family’s small yard didn’t match the serenity and elegance of the Kyujuu family’s garden, green vines also covered its walls.

As rose hedges, in this season, they vigorously bloomed, intertwining and flourishing.

However, they appeared somewhat miserable after being washed by the plum rain.

"Not wearing protective gear again?" asked Uesugi Sakura, holding a solitary bamboo sword.

Uesugi’s father watched their sparring match from the side with keen interest.

Little Hanabi and Mrs. Uesugi had gone off to make lunch, and soon Mrs. Hanamaru from next door would come over as well.

"It’s not that I’m not wearing it, but you don’t have any protective gear at home."

Even with a sword in hand, Uesugi Shio maintained her laid-back tone, "Besides, since you’re not wearing any protective gear, how can I wear it?"

The lollipop still in her mouth, she casually waved the bamboo sword around a bit.

"I’m in decent shape."

Then she bit down on the candy, gripped the hilt of the bamboo sword with both hands, and quickly raised it above her head, stepping her right foot forward, her forearms forming a V-shape.

The sword tilted slightly right, its tip slanted.

This was a standard two-handed overhead sword stance.

"You ready?"

Even in a prepared stance, Uesugi Shio’s gaze was still extremely lazy, hardly resembling someone who practiced Sword Dao.

But Uesugi Sakura was no Sword Dao novice; through his father-in-law’s tutelage, he understood Shio sis’s stance was not for show.

Yet, she chose an overhead grip rather than the most stable mid-level guard.

Though this aggressive overhead stance was effective against him, it was also prone to leaving many openings due to being overly aggressive.

Since the wrists, trunk, and throat were exposed, they were easy targets for attack.

The overhead sword stance was an opening move that forsook defense for aggressive offense.

It worked best against those with lower skill.

His father-in-law used to start with this stance, launching continuous heavy attacks, shouting "Men! Men! Men! Men! Men!" with such intensity that left him defenseless.

However, dealing with such moves was far from easy now.

In attack and defense, a unified approach is invincible!!

Uesugi Sakura adopted a mid-level two-handed sword grip, directing the tip towards her lazy left eye, his stance defensive, while protecting his trunk, face, and throat.

He used the best tactic against overhead attacks, "Wait and Counter"—waiting for the right moment to counter-attack, striking with a single decisive blow!

Search the lightnovelworld.cc website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.