Justification

In the darkness, lying on a thin mattress beside ChiChi, Bulma couldn't get to sleep. And it wasn't just because the rush of adrenaline from the night's escapade hadn't yet ebbed, or how the ground was hard, or how the cave was bitter cold.

Something about their whole situation didn't sit right with Bulma. It all felt too convenient.

"I mean, think about it, ChiChi. What are the odds that the people we're both looking for just so happens to be in the same place at the same time?"

"Maybe the fortuneteller brought them together. Son Gohan did say she saw that we needed help."

"If she really wanted to help, why didn't she warn us about the Red Ribbon Army?"

ChiChi couldn't think of a response.

"Wanna corner her about it after your training?" Bulma asked.

"Yes," the dark-haired girl said.

Master Roshi's training apparently involved a lot of manual labor while wearing weighted clothes. When the old man tasked ChiChi to clear a collapsed tunnel all by herself, she set those wide, dark eyes on him, "B-but I can barely walk in these."

"I don't expect you to finish it in one day."

"Thank Kami," ChiChi sighed in relief.

"I expect you to finish it by lunch."

"What?" she squeaked.

"We're starting with the basics and you can only rely on your own body strength. So you can forget about using your Ki-beam for this."

"Ki-beam? I don't know how-"

But Roshi had already disappeared. Shortly after, Krillin, wearing the same orange gi and blue undershirt as ChiChi, popped in to check on her. "The old clear-the-tunnel training eh?"

"This is really part of training?"

"Yeah, first day at the camp, sensei made Yamcha and me dig a tunnel out with our bare hands. No Ki-blasts allowed either. Not that we knew how to do Ki-blasts back then."

"How long did you have?"

"About a day to finish digging."

"W-why do I only have until lunch?!"

"I think he sees you have potential. Probably a lot more potential than what he saw in us." Krillin grinned crookedly.

ChiChi recalled that Roshi used to be her father's Master. Maybe the old man assumed she was just as powerful as Ox King. The dark-haired princess was stronger than she looked. After she gave the bald boy a smile in thanks for the encouragement, she cracked her knuckles and began clearing the tunnel of the large rocks. She was determined not to prove her sensei's judgment wrong.

Bulma knew she promised to wait for after ChiChi's training, but breakfast came and went. The younger girl still wasn't back. Krillin was nowhere to be seen as were Roshi and Son Gohan. Yamcha was busy in the camp's kitchen, which left her with only Fortuneteller Baba for company.

Staring down at the steaming bowl of stew, Bulma gripped her spoon tightly as she came to a decision. "Granny Baba," she began.

"Never call me Granny Baba. It's either just Baba or Fortuneteller Baba," she said in between slurps of stew.

"Okay, Fortuneteller Baba, I have a few questions for you."

"Ask away, dearie, but I can't promise you'll like my answers."

"Did you have a vision where my parents were killed? Or a vision about the android that attacked ChiChi's mountain home?"

"I can if you asked me right now."

"That's not funny," Bulma slammed her fist on the stone table and tried not to twitch in pain. "Why didn't you send anyone to warn me or ChiChi? If you did, my parents would still be alive and so would ChiChi's father!"

"Is that so? If I suddenly showed up knocking at your front door telling you that I saw someone was after your parents' life, what would you have done?"

"My momma would have offered you board and lodging to predict her future forever. My poppa would have made you sign all sorts of non-disclosure contracts and legal documents so he can study your ability."

"I asked what would you have done."

Bulma said nothing.

"What do you think would have happened to ChiChi if I managed to convince you of the assassins? Would you have still gone all the way to Frypan Mountain to make sure she got out of there? Or would the Red Ribbon Army have captured and enslaved her, along with the rest of her mountain kingdom?"

Again Bulma said nothing.

"I thought as much," Baba snorted, finishing off her stew with one final gulp.

A beat and Bulma said, "Then why did you save us in the desert?"

The old woman wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. "Oh that's easy. I didn't want to keep being the only woman in this camp. I was on watch duty when my crystal ball showed you two driving into the Diablo desert so I sent the boys to fetch you."

"Are you serious?!"

"Ha! No!" Baba cackled, "I did see you two girls in my crystal ball. I wouldn't have bothered getting in the Red Ribbon Army's way except I had a vision of what could happen if they got their hands on your Dragon Balls. I'd like Earth to refrain from becoming a smoldering wreck, thank you very much."

"S-so the legends are true? Bringing the balls together brings about a disaster?"

"Don't know about that. But I don't need to be psychic to know that whatever the Red Ribbon Army has planned for the Dragon Balls, it's bad news."

"Okay, one final question."

"If you must."

"What the fuck do I do now?"

Lunch could not come soon enough for ChiChi.

She'd successfully completed her training but was absolutely exhausted because of it. Farming and patrolling hadn't been this back-breaking. But she hadn't been wearing weighted clothes that made every step a struggle. She had plenty of fresh air filling her lungs instead of stale cave air. And the sun showed her the way down the well-worn mountain road, unlike the flickering torchlight that made the tunnels look like they went on forever.

The temptation to just collapse in the middle of the passageway was growing stronger. But the angry diatribe of her stomach pushed her on. She already had to skip breakfast to make headway with her task. There was no way she was missing lunch.

Thank Kami Bulma came looking for her and helped her to the large cavern that served as the dining room, living room, and meeting room. Along the way, the older girl told her what Baba said and how seeing the future was trickier than they first thought.

Too exhausted from her training and too weak from hunger, ChiChi could only nod or sigh. Bulma didn't seem bothered by her monosyllabic responses. The blue-haired girl was as willing to carry their conversation as she was ChiChi, albeit with a bit, alright a lot of whining ("Holy shit, ChiChi, did you eat rocks for breakfast or something?")

The girls finally arrived at the multipurpose cavern when Bulma said, "So that's why I decided to head back to West City."

A/N: I like ChiChi's metal bikini but let's be honest, Roshi would never be able to focus on training her if she wore it all the time. Thank you everyone for your comments on both the story and my grammar (shifting tenses are the bane of my existence and will probably continue to hound me til the end of my days.) The next update's already in the works but it may take a while since I'm going to focus on Play Along/Play Fair (and maybe poor neglected Only Once) for a bit.