FORTUNETELLING FIASCO

Bulma lands the plane at Kame House, where Roshi, Krillin, Lunch, Ranchi, Oolong and Puar are just waking up. They're surprised to see the group again, and even more so when they learn that they just took out the Red Ribbon Army.

The group heads inside, where they lay Yamcha on the couch and explain the situation. Lunch serves everyone breakfast, and Bulma and Peridot start working to repair the radars. But they soon learn that there's nothing wrong with them; only six Dragon Balls are showing up, so where the heck is the last one?

Roshi suggests one place where they might be able to learn the location of the final Dragon Ball: the palace of Uranai Baba, the All-Seeing Crone. Baba has the power to find any lost object, but at a price.

The group heads out again, this time taking Krillin with them, and heads to the location Roshi gave them. It doesn't take long for them to arrive at the palace, which is located in the margin of a big lake in the desert. As soon as they jump out of the plane, they see a line of tough-looking men at the entrance.

A small, pink ghost-like creature escorts the group to the back of the line, saying he'll call them when it's their 'turn'. While the group wonders what he means, a wealthy-looking couple walks out, and the men follow the ghost-like creature inside the palace…and not even 10 minutes later, those same men come out injured and walk away in defeat.

The ghost-like creature escorts the group inside, where they meet a short old woman sitting atop a floating crystal ball. She introduces herself as Uranai Baba. Rose tells her that they need help finding something, to which Baba responds that she'll help them out…in exchange for 10 million Zeni. Bulma offers to pay it with her credit card, but Baba stops her, saying she only accepts cash, much to Bulma's disappointment.

Seeing that they won't be able to pay, Baba offers an alternate solution and tells them to follow her. She takes them outside to a small arena outside, and gives them the ultimatum: They need to fight her champions one-by-one. If they win that round, they can fight the next champion; if they lose that round, one of their companions must step up. If they defeat all five of her champions, then she will find whatever they're looking for, free of charge.

Krillin sees this as an easy victory, even bragging that he and Goku both went pretty far in the Tenkaichi Budokai, to which Baba says that this should be very entertaining.

The group talks amongst themselves, and present their five fighters: Krillin, Apache Tears, Chi-Chi, Jasper and Goku.

Krillin steps up first, and Baba brings out her first champion: Dracula. The match begins, and even though Krillin is skilled, Dracula has the upper hand, using his human-to-bat transformation to dodge his attacks. Eventually, Dracula reverts back to his human form and lands on Krillin's back, biting his head to drink his blood.

Krillin manages to shake him off and tries to continue the fight, but blood continues to leak from the holes in his head, to the point where he becomes lightheaded and is kicked into the lake by Dracula. As Krillin is taken out and given medical attention, Dracula is declared the winner.

Baba asks for their next fighter to step up, and Apache enters the ring. The match begins, and Dracula immediately rushes in and bites Apache's arm…only to discover she's got no blood to drink. With a big smile, Apache grabs Dracula's face with her free hand and turns it to her, makes eye contact with him…and kicks him in the crotch hard.

Dracula goes down with a shriek, and Apache ends the fight by kicking him into the lake. She's declared the winner, much to the group's joy. Baba warns them, however, that their next opponents will be progressively stronger.

Apache steps down, and Chi-Chi offers to fight next. With a confident grin, Chi-Chi asks Baba to bring out the second champion…only for Baba to say that he's already here. Confused, the group looks around, seeing nothing. Baba announces that the opponent is See-Through, the Invisible Man.

Before she can process this, Chi-Chi is attacked by an invisible force. She tries to fight back, but gets knocked around in the process. As he watches this, Krillin gets an idea and tells Goku to go get Roshi; though confused, the boy does so, flying off on Kinto'un.

Chi-Chi manages to steady herself, and focuses on figuring out See-Through's position based on the faint air movements around her. This works for a bit, with Chi-Chi managing to dodge and strike her opponent, but it's thrown off-balance when Baba starts singing loudly to drown out the sound of his movements. Despite her frustrations, Chi-Chi refuses to surrender.

Goku returns with Roshi in tow, and Krillin begins his plan. He asks Bulma to stand with her back to the arena, then positions Roshi in front of her at a certain angle facing upwards. He closely observes Chi-Chi's fight, and when the moment's just right…yanks Bulma's top down to expose her breasts, causing Roshi to have a massive nosebleed that squirts all over See-Through.

Now that Chi-Chi can see him, she attacks him with ease, and he eventually surrenders, which makes Chi-Chi the winner of this round. While the others cheer, Bulma proceeds to pummel Krillin for that.

Roshi recovers from his nosebleed, and chuckles as he looks at Baba. "Making these young'uns fight because they can't pay, huh? Greedy as ever, I see…big sister." The group is surprised at this revelation, and Baba remarks that Roshi hasn't changed one bit either.

Chi-Chi offers to continue fighting, and Baba leads her and the rest of the group to another building, saying that they're going to change arenas for the next opponent. The next area is called the Devil's Cesspool, and for good reason: the room consists of two giant statues of devil-type creatures with their tongues sticking out, creating a bridge over a giant pool of bubbling green liquid. As a demonstration, Baba drops a slab of meat into the liquid, and it instantly disintegrates. One misstep, and you'll dissolve into nothingness just like that.

This frightens Chi-Chi and the others, who are observing from a balcony in the upper part of the room. Baba brings out her third champion: Bandages the Mummy. The match begins, and Chi-Chi's able to hold her own for a bit, dodging Bandages' attacks, but can't seem to hit him. She nearly falls off a couple of times, but climbs back up each time and continues fighting.

Chi-Chi launches a powerful attack at Bandages, but once again, he dodges and knocks her onto her back, which allows him to jump up and knee her in the gut before she can get up. Chi-Chi cries out in pain, but refuses to give up again, and quickly knocks Bandages off his feet, sending him fall towards the acid. But this doesn't do the trick, as Bandages uses some of his gauze as a rope to swing himself back up to the bridge.

Chi-Chi attacks him again, but is unable to land a single attack on him, and is beat down mercilessly by Bandages. Eventually, the mummy holds her wounded body over the edge of the bridge, asking if she'd rather surrender or take an acid bath. Chi-Chi weakly says that she surrenders, and Bandages is declared the winner.

As he watched this fight, a silent, protective rage festered within Goku. He had seen his friends getting beaten before, but for some reason, watching Chi-Chi get hurt infuriated him. It made him want to rush out and help her, which he's never felt with the others, and he has no idea why.

Chi-Chi limps back to the group, apologizing to Goku for losing. Baba, meanwhile, tells them to send in their next fighter. Gritting her teeth in anger, Jasper exits the room and steps onto the bridge, cracking her knuckles and telling Bandages to bring it on.

The fight begins, and Jasper doesn't hesitate to slam her fist harshly into Bandages' gut the moment she gets a chance. She ends up hitting hard enough to knock him unconscious and have him fall onto the bridge. Jasper is declared the winner on this round.

Still fired-up, Jasper demands that Baba brings out the next champion, which she gladly does. Spike the Devil-Man steps out, much to Roshi's shock. Roshi explains that Spike is Baba's right-hand man…which means she must be saving an incredibly powerful fighter for last…

The fight begins. Jasper and Spike go at it for a bit, both able to hold their own, and managing to strike each other a few times. After a while, Spike smirks and proclaims that he'll win this fight with hi next attack: the Devilmite Beam.

This terrifies Roshi, and even Baba tries to talk him down, but Spike doesn't listen and aims the attack at Jasper…only for her to rush in and kick him into the wall before he can fire it at her. Jasper's declared the winner again, much to the group's relief.

Jasper asks Goku if he wants to fight the next one, which he eagerly says yes to. Jasper and Goku swap places, and the final champion steps out: a short old man with a fox mask on and, oddly enough, a halo above his head.

The old man tells Baba that he wants an all-out fight with Goku, no holds barred, and asks if they can go to the outside area. Baba agrees, and everyone heads outside. As for Goku, he can't shake the feeling that there's something familiar about the old man, but he isn't sure what…

The final match begins. Goku and the old man fight for a while, both of them proving to be much stronger than they appear, much to the amazement of the group. After some back-and-forth, the old man suddenly fires a Kamehameha at Goku; the boy manages to dodge it with an Afterimage, but it still astonishes the others. The only people who can do that are Roshi and Goku. Just who is this man?

Roshi, meanwhile, figures out the old man's identity from that…

The fight continues for several minutes, with Goku managing to impress both his friends and his opponent. Finally, just when it seems like the fight is neck-and-neck, the old man suddenly says that he surrenders.

Goku's surprised, and the old man starts to talk with him about his training, even commenting on his missing tail. Goku wonders how the man knows him…but all those questions are answered when he removes his mask, revealing a face that Goku knows anywhere.

The face of Grandpa Gohan.

Overjoyed, Goku runs into his grandpa's arms, crying into the hug. Grandpa Gohan that he didn't come back to life; instead, Baba can travel between this world and the next, and she scouts out deceased martial artists to fight in her matches, but someone can only return for one day.

The group watches this with a smile. Goku may be extremely powerful, but at the end of the day, he's still just a kid.

After a while of talking, Grandpa Gohan that he needs to head back soon. He and Goku say their goodbyes, and he vanishes.

Baba uses her crystal ball to locate the final Dragon Ball, and shows the others. They're greeted with the sight of Pilaf, Shu and Mai standing by a truck parked on the side of the road, with various machinery around them, and Baba announces that the Dragon Ball is in their truck, about a hundred miles from here.

Seeing the Pilaf Gang again sparks something within the Gems. And forms a certain plan within three of them…

Lapis asks Goku if she, Jasper and Peridot can handle getting the Dragon Ball, which he agrees to. Using water wings, ferrokinesis and shapeshifting, the trio heads out, all three of them exchanges knowing glances and smirks as they do so.

OoOoOoO

Pilaf, Shu and Mai manage to locate the other Dragon Ball on their radar, glad to see that all six of them are together. All they have to do is head to that location, steal them all, and the world would be in the palm of their hands.

But they're interrupted by a sudden thud behind them that shakes the ground. All three of them turn around, and Jasper's there towering over them, her hands curled into fists and a smirk on her face.

The Pilaf Gang freaks out and scrambles away, just as Peridot and Lapis land on either side of the Quartz. Peridot says they're willing to go easy on them; just hand them the Dragon Ball, and no one gets hurt. Though they're terrified, the Pilaf Gang refuses to hand it over.

Pilaf smugly claims that they're ready for the Gems this time, and all three of them pull out capsules, which turn into three different mecha suits. They climb inside them and stack on top of each other, creating the Pilaf Machine.

From within his machine, Pilaf laughs triumphantly. "Well? What do you think of our power now?!"

Jasper, Peridot and Lapis don't say a word. Instead, all three of them spread out and start dancing, which confuses the Pilaf Gang. That is, until all three of them intertwine and a light surrounds them. And when the light dies down, it reveals the gargantuan, powerful fusion of the three Gems: Bloodstone.

The Pilaf Gang are (understandably) terrified, but that doesn't stop Bloodstone from ruthlessly tearing apart their machines and dropping them onto the ground. Even though he's shaking and practically wetting himself at this point, Pilaf continues to threaten and yell at Bloodstone…and as he does so, Shu runs over to the truck and takes the one-star ball out of a special box (built to block its electromagnetic pulses), and doesn't hesitate to hand it over to Bloodstone, begging her to not hurt them.

The fusion gladly accepts it, and flies off with her water wings, leaving a traumatized yet angry Pilaf behind. Those Gems…they're interfered with his plans for the last time! If he's gonna fulfill his plans to conquer the world, then he needs to get rid of those Gems once and for all!

Question is…How will he do that?

OoOoOoO

Bloodstone appears back at Baba's palace, much to the surprise of the others, and defuses as soon as she touches the outside area, with Jasper holding the one-star ball in her hands. They finally have all seven Dragon Balls!

They thank Baba and climb into Bulma's capsule plane, heading back to Kame House. As she watches, Baba can't help but smile. All of them are far more remarkable than they realize. She can just tell.

One day, they'll save not just the Earth, but the entire universe.

OoOoOoO

The group lands at Kame House, and bring the other six Dragon Balls out onto the grass with the final ball. When they summon the dragon, the sky turns black, the Dragon Balls glow, and Shenron appears with as much pomp and circumstance as before.

Bulma is the one to make the wish, asking Shenron to repair Yamcha's gemstone. The dragon comments that it's such a simple request and his eyes glow. Inside, Yamcha's gem suddenly glows and the cracks vanish, looking like they were never there in the first place. He wakes up abruptly, no longer in pain, and looks at his gem in awe.

But as he does so, a smile appears on his face. Even though he can't hear that voice anymore, he won't forget it any time soon. "Mom…" he whispers happily, placing a hand over the gem.

Just like last time, the Dragon Balls soar into the air. But before they can scatter again, Goku jumps up and grabs the four-star ball. It turns to stone like the other balls, which all fly across the globe, and the sky returns to normal.

Peridot and Bulma are the first to rush into Kame House, and rush over to Yamcha once they see that he's okay. The others follow suit, just as happy as the green Gem and periwinkle-haired girl. Yamcha's happy to see them again, too, and extremely grateful when he learns what they did.

To celebrate their victories, the group decides to have a party. Rose and Lunch cook delicious meals, they play a few games, watch some movies, and dance along to some music. Goku, Bulma and Chi-Chi all fall asleep during the party, since they've been up for nearly two days now.

As everyone else celebrates, a though strikes Yamcha and he pulls Roshi aside. He tells the Turtle Hermit that the fight against Tao made him realize his own limitations, and how he doesn't want something like that to ever happen again. He wants to be strong enough to protect not just himself, but also those around them.

And with that, Yamcha asks Roshi to train him.

Roshi's surprised, but accepts Yamcha as his pupil, much to the teen's joy. Once the party starts to die down, Yamcha tells Bulma and the Gems his decision. He'll have to live at Kame House, of course; Peridot's hesitant to let this happen, but gives in after Yamcha and the others talk her down. She momentarily brainstorms building a Warp Pad in the house, but Roshi shoots that down, saying he won't allow that in his house; Peridot grumbles, but agrees.

Meanwhile, Chi-Chi tells Goku that she's gonna continue training as well. It frustrated her how weak she was, and how little she was able to do against their enemies alongside Goku, let alone on her own. Goku's happy to hear this.

Roshi reminds everyone that the next Tenkaichi Budokai will be in three years, and they all agree to meet up then, each promising to be stronger than before. Before Goku can take off, Roshi gives him a challenge: travel the world and train, but do it without Kinto'un. Goku merely shrugs this off and starts swimming away.

He's got a lot of training ahead, but first, he needs to get back to Karin Tower and drink the Chikara Water.

Back at Kame House, Chi-Chi uses Kinto'un to head back to Fry-Pan Mountain. Yamcha, Bulma, and the Gems climb into the heiress' plane and fly back to Capsule Corp., so Yamcha can pack his belongings before moving into Kame House.

OoOoOoO

At Capsule Corp., Yamcha warps back and forth between Kung Pao Rock to gather his belongings. He warps back into the Capsule Corp. atrium, arms full of items, and is surprised to see Bulma standing in front of the Warp Pad. She quietly asks if they can talk, and he agrees, setting his stuff down and heading to another room with her.

The two of them sit down and talk. Bulma apologizes for everything she said, and even though it still stings a bit, Yamcha forgives her. The conversation leads to them realizing they really rushed into their relationship, and in the end, they decide that for now, they should just remain friends until they figure themselves out. They end the discussion with a hug, feeling content now, and Yamcha heads out to continue packing.

About an hour later, the capsule plane returns to Kame House, with Yamcha jumping out and waving goodbye to Bulma and the Gems. Peridot reminds him that she'll be visiting once a week (the others talked her down from visiting once a day), and there's nothing he can do to stop her. Yamcha laughs and heads inside, and Bulma turns the plane around and heads back to West City.

Starting today, Yamcha is a member of the Turtle School.

OoOoOoO

That night at Capsule Corp., Bulma and the Gems find themselves in one of the mansion's various bathing rooms. They've filled up the pool-sized tub with steaming water and bubbles, and are all relaxing and cleansing themselves. After everything they went through, it feels good to just kick back in a hot bath.

Lapis playfully splashes Peridot, Rose washes Apache's hair, and Jasper and Bulma choose to just relax in the water, everyone talking and laugh amongst themselves. At some point, the door is suddenly nudged open, startling them, but it's revealed to just be Okami sniffing around. Since he's just an animal, they allow him to stay, and he even climbs into the tub to relax with them.

Meanwhile, Bulma's mind is swimming with everything that's happened. Just one year ago, she was on the hunt to wish for a 'perfect boyfriend', thinking only about romance, technology and strawberries. Now, she's part of the group that took down the infamous Red Ribbon Army.

If only she knew just how crazy life was about to before for all of them.

And there goes the Uranai Baba Arc. Aside from switching the characters up a bit, nothing really changed here. Up next: training for the 22nd Budokai!

I've had some kind of writing bug for past couple of days, so I decided to finish this part up (the Baba Arc is already the shortest DB arc, anyways, so it wasn't much of a hassle). Plus, I'll be busy tomorrow morning, so I'm getting this up now

I have to wonder: how would the Devilmite Beam work on a Gem? The move works by targeting the evil in someone's heart and expanding it until it explodes. But since Gems don't have physical hearts, would it not work on them, no matter how evil they are? …Or would their gemstones explode instead? I have no idea, and I decided not to test it out, just had Jasper beat Spike up before he could fire it

I still want Yamcha and Bulma's relationship to have a healthy development. Sometimes, it's best to just step back and friendzone each other until you can figure yourselves out

Mama Peridot is so much fun to write

The final scene was inspired by the bath scene from Episode 128 of One Piece

We've gone through a lot of Dragon Ball stuff in the past few chapters. But rest assured, we're going back to our Steven Universe roots in the next one!

Thank you so much for taking the time to read this! Please leave a review letting me know what you think! God bless you and have a wonderful day/night/whenever you read this!

Bloodstone

Gems: Jasper, Peridot and Lapis Lazuli

Appearance: 45 feet tall. Slim yet curvy and strong build. Dark cyan complexion with deep red markings similar to Jasper's. Thick, wild off-white hair with several pointed facets and ends at her mid-chest. Four eyes; top eyes are green with amber specks and visible pupils, and bottom eyes are royal-blue. Full lips. A blend of Jasper, Lapis and Peridot's features. Six arms. Sea-green and crimson-red gemstones.

Outfit: Cropped black tank top with a golden six-point star on the chest. Ripped-up, high-waisted, short indigo skirt. Black leggings. Fingerless, elbow-high violet gloves on the middle arms. Bluish-purple boots that resemble Peridot's Limb Enhancers. Icy-blue visor. Two seafoam-green six-point stars on either side of her hair.

Voice Actor: Susan Eisenberg (sounds like the Human Female player character from Destiny 2)