The Next Dimension Over
Chapter Fifty-six
The five of them looked between each other in silence for a few moments, as if he'd given them some sort of cryptic response they had to puzzle out. Which was annoying, since they were the ones who'd insisted on him coming with before.
Goku scrunched his nose. "But you won't fit on the Nimbus cloud."
Was that the whole concern? Weren't they going to try to make him come along before? Why was it different just because he wanted to come along this time?
He huffed and dug around in his pocket for the capsule he needed. "Lucky me I don't have to ride that crazy thing, then."
A moment later, he found it, and tossed it a little distance away. It was a pretty sweet four-seat heliplane he'd picked up around the same time he'd bought his new house. Generally he used that to get supplies the bigger island didn't have, rather than use the cramped submarine his Master Roshi had.
After a moment of staring at the vehicle, Yamcha was the first to speak. "...Well, it's fine with me if you want to come with."
(*)
Bulma groaned in frustration. "This makes no sense."
It was the second time she'd said that, and with increased intensity. From experience, it probably meant the extra dragonballs still weren't showing up.
"It's still not working?" She looked over the other woman's shoulder with a frown. Just as the other radar showed, their three were together, and the others simply weren't present at all. "Could they have been destroyed in the blast?"
"I...no! No, I don't think so." Bulma sighed and shook her head. "Plus, the last one isn't showing, either."
Ultimately, Krillin had left the radar under the table in the living room of Kame house, so it hadn't taken long to actually find it. Bulma had since taken it apart and put it back together entirely on the table, to no effect.
"Is there any reason they wouldn't show up?" Yamcha wandered over to lean over her other shoulder, and the woman irritably swatted him away until he took a step back.
"Could it be in space?" Pu'ar asked, hovering up over Yamcha's shoulder. "He was running away, wasn't he?"
"Okay, first, there's no way he went up into space. Second, even if he did...this should still show the last one in that case."
"It used to show all seven!" Goku sat at the opposite end of the table, next to Krillin and the old man, watching Bulma work with curiosity.
"Well...maybe if something swallowed it." She huffed and blew strands of hair out of her face. "But there's no way they'd all get eaten at the same time. Probably..."
"Is there any other way to find them?" They were meant to be found, weren't they? Surely there was a method of locating them without having a device point them out. Even if she didn't know how, the others must have, given they were familiar with the process.
"Well..." Bulma sat back slightly and sighed. "We can search every little part of the world, but that would take years."
"If something's eaten it, it'll come back out eventually." Krillin drummed his fingers on the table. "You could just wait and get it that way."
"Gross!"
"Hmm..." The old man, who had been quiet since the discussion of the Red Ribbon Army, spoke again. "There's an old fortune teller known as the All-Seeing Crone. She'd be able to tell you where all of them were if you went to see her."
All-seeing crone?
Could it be some sort of Byakugan user? The mark on the man's head had been nothing but a tattoo, but...perhaps...it was worth looking, at least. "Where is this person?"
"I have a map to her palace..." He turned and began rifling through papers stuffed in the corner of the room. "You can use it to find your way there."
Yamcha scoffed lightly. "Somehow I expected you to know where she was yourself, the way you talked about her."
"I do, but I'm too old to go on quests for answers." The old man pulled out a rolled up scroll and set it on the table. "Here. Just follow it from where we're at and it will lead you straight to her palace."
(*)
Honestly, he was pretty relieved just to have the opportunity not to need to ride in Goku's shirt. It was kind of weird and novel when he'd first started doing it, but it got stifling and pretty gross eventually. He was tempted to take a break and get the kid new clothes...except there were four missing dragonballs, and pretty high stakes behind getting that wish.
Assuming that a wish really could be used to bring the dead back to life. If it could...
"Do you wonder what the limits of that dragon are?"
"Not really." Krillin sounded about as grumpy as he had since Bulma demanded they use the plane as well.
"No, but...think about it." He waved his hand through the air, before settling it back on the controls. "If we could bring back the dead. How far back does that reach? Could...say...what about his grandfather?"
She frowned slightly, pursing her lips. "You want to do this two more times?"
Not particularly. He was over dragonball hunts before he helped with this one. But...would it be right to refuse to help?
Besides that...
He shook his head quickly. Worrying about the upper limits of the dragonballs wasn't really important until they could actually find all seven again.
"Hey...why are you here, anyway?" Krillin leaned forward slightly to direct his question toward Bulma. "It could be dangerous, and we've already got the radar, right? Is it just that you forgot to pack a vehicle capsule again?"
"No it isn't!" For some reason, after glaring at Krillin, she looked at him for a moment or two, as if he had some kind of answer for her motivations. Eventually, she crossed her arms and huffed, looking away from both of them. "It doesn't matter anyway! I just am here. Deal with it!"
(*)
The map led to a desert nearly as hot as she remembered Suna to be, and to a sprawling round building next to a lake.
"Ugh." Bulma shielded her eyes against the glare of the sand around them. "If I knew it was gonna be in a desert I'd have brought sun screen."
Krillin tossed his jacket into the plane and rolled up the silk white sleeves of his shirt with an unpleasant looking frown. "I'd have changed..."
A small group of people stood in a line outside the front of the building just a short distance from where they stood. "How did they know where to find her?" After all, there didn't seem to be any kind of path leading to the 'palace', nor had she seen any indicators on their way to show travelers where to go.
Goku glanced up at her when she spoke and then looked to the building again with a shrug. "Maybe there's lots of maps."
A tiny straw hat floated on a puff of smoke in their direction.
And spoke.
"Hello! Hello!" Bulma gave a startled yelp, but it spoke as if she made no sound at all. "The line starts right here! There are six of you?"
"Um..." Yamcha glanced across them, and then squinted down at the talking hat. "Yeah, I guess..."
"This is the Crone's place?" Goku asked, staring up at the hat.
Closer, there seemed to be slightly more solidity to the smoke under the hat than she'd originally thought. It obscured the people standing ahead of them somewhat, and if she focused on it (and not the hat) she could make out facial features. "Please refer to her as the great fortune teller Baba!"
He made a face. "But that's too long."
The wisp of smoke didn't wait to continue to speak to him, though, and simply floated back toward the group of three ahead of them. "Next! Next to see the great fortune teller!"
"Yeah!" Someone ahead of them shouted.
"Let's do this!" A female with them cried, pumping her fist into the air before they walked into the building.
It was a bit...loud, for people about to ask for their fortune.
"Does any of this seem strange to the rest of you?" Pu'ar asked, floating up next to the rest of them.
"Is there anything about this that isn't strange?" Krillin frowned up at the cat, before crossing his arms. "If the old crone is gonna make us wait and live out in a desert, she could at least let us do it inside."
"I get the feeling that's part of the reason she lives in the desert." Yamcha gave a slight shrug. "Or...she's just not a nice person. Could be that, too."
Goku looked up at her with an impatient frown. "Can't we just go in? I wanna know where the dragonballs are."
"Breaking her rules isn't going to make her more willing to give us answers." Besides, if the woman had the Byakugan, making them stand alone outside where it looked as if no one could see them was probably part of it. As Yamcha said.
Or...nothing really made any sense about her yet. Why would there be other people already going to ask questions on the same day they did? In the middle of a deep desert without any sign of how to arrive there? The building didn't seem to be set up to deal with a high rush of people, and yet...the weird little wisp didn't seem to act as if having so many people present at once was unusual at all.
In the distance, she could just make out raised voices.
"Hey, do you guys hear that?" Yamcha glanced over at the rest of them. "I can't make it out, but..."
"I don't hear anything." Bulma squinted up at him. "Are you hallucinating? It's really hot out..."
"Nu uh!" Goku shook his head. "I hear it too!"
"No way!" Someone shrieked from inside the building, and then one of the three who entered sprinted out, looking wildly over their shoulder.
That wasn't a particularly good sign.
Nor was the woman who limped out of the building, carrying the last competitor in her arms, looking too pale to be healthy.
"You two..." She took a step toward them immediately, raising her hands to heal them.
The both jumped back away from her, eyes wide. "What are you doing here?! Get out of here!"
"Now now, don't terrorize the other guests!" The wisp appeared from the doorway again. "You can always try again next time. Come, the fortune teller will see you now."
Yamcha stared over at the two who stumbled away from them. "What...what the hell happened to them?"
The wisp gave a high laugh, and then started into the building. "Inside after me, please!"
She glanced over at Yamcha, and then to Goku. The first looked nervous, and the second still impatient. Pu'ar hung behind Yamcha's shoulder, gripping the torn fabric there. Maybe it shouldn't have been a surprise that the 'fortune teller' that they were sent to see would be just another dangerous thing they'd have to overcome first.
Every other dragonball they'd gone looking for seemed to do that.
She clenched her hand, and then started into the building.
The first building was small and empty, and simply led into a long path into another building. Beyond that...a small old woman crouched on a crystalline ball, hovering in the air. Other than the dim lighting in the building caused by the flickering candles...nothing seemed particularly sinister about she or the room.
Which meant it was probably especially dangerous.
"Well...you're all quite the young ones, aren't you?" The woman gave an amused cackle.
"So..." Bulma spoke, sounding a little irritated still from their wait in the desert. "Are you the one called the All Seeing Crone, or are you just another person here to make us wait?"
"I am the great Fortune Teller Baba." The woman's gaze swept across each of them. "Such a large party of you...must have come to me for a great reason."
"Yeah!" Goku nodded. "We came to ask you to find something!"
"Is that all?" The woman's gaze turned to her, then. "After all...I can show you anything. Anywhere."
"Well...we need four things!" Goku held up four fingers toward the old woman. "Four dragonballs!"
"Dragonballs...hmph." The old woman huffed and shook her head, radiating disapproval. "What a waste. Very well then. Give me fourty million zenni."
Yamcha broke into a coughing fit. "What?"