Today was Sunday, a rare day off for high school students—most high school students would choose to sleep in.
For Ebina Hina, today should have been the same—however, this particular Sunday was a bit special because Yumiko Miura had finally managed to ask Shin out.
Although due to Yui Yuigahama's suggestion, those going out with Shin ultimately became the three of them—Yumiko Miura, Yui Yuigahama, and herself.
However, Ebina Hina obviously hadn't expected those two to act so extremely... Because at 7 o'clock in the morning, her phone was filled with continuous messages.
"...These two, they're way too excited. Are they elementary school students looking forward to a field trip?"
Ebina Hina climbed out of her covers with a bit of a headache and struggled to pick up her phone from the bedside table, looking at the message notifications on the screen.
As she thought, the message notifications were almost all from Yumiko Miura, along with many photos asking Ebina Hina which outfit was more suitable.
For Yumiko Miura, being able to ask Shin out was already tremendous progress, which was probably why she was excited enough to wake up this early to get dressed.
Besides Yumiko Miura's messages, Ebina Hina also found several messages from Yui Yuigahama on her phone.
Yui Yuigahama's messages weren't as continuous as Yumiko Miura's, but she had also sent several photos asking Ebina Hina if they looked good.
If Yui Yuigahama's earlier interjection to forcibly expand this date between Yumiko Miura and Shin into a four-person outing had made Ebina Hina suspicious.
Then the messages Yui Yuigahama sent now basically allowed Ebina Hina to make a definite judgment.
—Yui Yuigahama had indeed also fallen for Shin!
This situation made Ebina Hina quite distressed. She never expected that Yui Yuigahama, who usually kept a low profile, had also secretly become Yumiko Miura's rival in love.
Originally, Ebina Hina had planned to assist Yumiko Miura, but after noticing Yui Yuigahama's feelings, Ebina Hina didn't know what to do for a moment.
Both Yumiko Miura and Yui Yuigahama were her friends. She didn't want to see the two of them have their friendship collapse because of competing for Shin.
Ebina Hina replied to Yumiko Miura and Yui Yuigahama while thinking of a strategy:
"Maybe I should just tell Shin-san directly about these two's feelings and let him help make the decision..."
She could see that although both Yumiko Miura and Yui Yuigahama had fallen for Shin, both of them were the type with rather hesitant personalities.
If no one added fuel to the fire, these two probably wouldn't dare confess their feelings to Shin in the end, and she, caught in the middle, would only gain more troubles.
In that case, it would be better to be direct and make things clear to Shin, having him choose one between Yumiko Miura and Yui Yuigahama to end this tangled relationship quickly.
Because it would be Shin making the decision, no matter who he chose, Yumiko Miura and Yui Yuigahama shouldn't have any complaints.
Although the friendship between the two would more or less be affected... it should at least be barely maintainable and gradually repair itself over time, right?
Thinking this way, Ebina Hina also made today's decision in her heart—she would find an opportunity to talk alone with Shin and have him choose between the two.
Of course, this was also because Ebina Hina didn't know Shin's situation.
If Shin knew Ebina Hina's thoughts, he would definitely tell her—only children make choices. I want them all.
"Good morning, Shin."
In the early morning, Tohru came out of her room and saw Shin meditating in the courtyard, greeting him.
However, what surprised her was that Shin just sat in the center of the courtyard without saying a word, not responding to Tohru's call.
"Hmm?"
This scene surprised Tohru because normally, no matter what Shin was doing, he would respond when she greeted him.
Even when playing online games at night, he would at least nod or say "mm"—however, this time Shin had completely ignored her.
Just as Tohru approached Shin somewhat puzzled, wanting to get closer to check the situation, Shin suddenly opened his eyes.
Sitting cross-legged in the center of the courtyard, he slowly extended his hand—and then, a head-sized sphere of light appeared from his palm, hovering in the air just like that.
Tohru instinctively stopped in her tracks—as a dragon, her senses were very acute. She felt incredibly exaggerated and dense energy from the light sphere in Shin's hand.
If that energy exploded, this city... no, even this planet might be reduced to nothing.
"..."
Shin narrowed his eyes, looking at the light sphere floating in his palm, and finally revealed an excited smile.
Tohru's feeling was correct. This light sphere indeed contained very vast power—because it was energy voluntarily contributed by this planet and even the surrounding planets.
—Spirit Bomb!
Every day after coming out of the mission world, Shin would practice meditation, and this period of training had finally yielded some results.
Although he wasn't yet proficient, he could indeed use the Spirit Bomb now.
And the Spirit Bomb was indeed different from Moro's crude method of extracting planetary energy.
This Spirit Bomb hadn't drained the entire planet's energy, but in terms of quality, it was higher than all the energy from some uninhabited planets Shin had absorbed before.
If this Spirit Bomb were detonated, its destructive power would be quite astonishing—of course, Shin couldn't possibly detonate this Spirit Bomb here. He had no interest in blowing up Earth.
However, it would be too wasteful to just dissipate the Spirit Bomb like this.
Shin opened his mouth, then moved his finger slightly—the Spirit Bomb in his hand obediently drilled into Shin's mouth and was directly absorbed into his body.
After all, although this energy was of extremely high quality, it was still planetary energy, so naturally, having obtained Moro's physique, he could absorb it.
Fortunately, the Spirit Bomb smoothly entered Shin's body without automatically detonating.
The Spirit Bomb had the setting of "attacking evil people," but Shin was obviously not within its attack range. After all, the Dragon Ball world's definition of good and bad people was quite vague.
Like Vegeta, who was later recognized as a good person by the Dragon Balls... Clearly, as long as you maintained certain bottom lines, even if you had some evil thoughts, you wouldn't be identified as an evil person.
Of course, the requirement for "pure-hearted person" was a bit high. At least Shin didn't think he could ride the Flying Nimbus.
To be continued…