Dragon Ball Roshi-Chapter 303: Awaiting Another Day

"Dead end?..." Taro chewed on the word, without much emotion in his tone.

Hathaway couldn't help but show concern, but Taro patted her arm gently to reassure her. He smiled at the Fortune Teller Baba and said, "Sister, I don't believe I'll die that easily... Besides, your predictions haven't always been spot-on, have they? Didn't King Piccolo's seal get broken earlier than you foretold?"

Hearing that even the Fortune Teller Baba's prophecies weren't always accurate, Hathaway finally felt a bit more at ease.

"..." The old woman remained silent for a moment, giving Taro a deep, meaningful look. She didn't bother explaining the failed prophecy from back then, instead saying hoarsely, "...Let's hope you're right."

Then she folded her fingers together, sat firmly atop her crystal ball, and vanished into thin air.

"What a strange old lady..." Bulma muttered, still holding onto Hathaway's hand. She'd been too intimidated by the imposing conversation between Taro and the Fortune Teller Baba to interrupt. Now that the eerie atmosphere had lifted with the old woman's departure, she frowned and whispered her thoughts aloud.

She had clearly taken the "bad things" said about Grandpa Taro to heart and was now looking at the old woman with growing dislike.

At that moment, Tam and Ninn, who had quietly waited for Taro's conversation to end, approached.

Hathaway smiled and stepped forward to embrace Ninn, gently patting her back and steadying her by the shoulders. Looking at her delicate and beautiful face, Hathaway said with a smile, "You've grown even prettier, child."

At first, Ninn seemed a little awkward being hugged by Hathaway — after all, not long ago she had been a grandmother surrounded by her own grandchildren — but she soon smiled as well. "Grandma..." She looked toward Taro and called softly, "...Grandpa."

Because Hathaway had gone to hug Ninn, Bulma no longer had anyone's hand to hold, so she grabbed onto the edge of Hathaway's clothes instead. She tilted her head and asked Taro, "Grandpa, who is she? Why is she calling you Grandpa too?"

"You don't recognize me, Little Bulma?" Ninn blinked her slightly misty eyes and squatted down with a smile, rubbing the little girl's head. Bulma seemed to find Ninn familiar — her face and voice both — and stared at her in surprise and confusion, tilting her head this way and that. Finally, her eyes widened and she asked in a sweet, surprised voice, "...Great-Grandma?"

What a mess — Ninn's seniority was actually higher than Taro's now.

Tam, Taro, and Hathaway all exchanged smiles. The three of them had already reunited in the Other World more than once; there was much that didn't need to be said aloud.

Taro looked at the glowing yellow halo above their heads as Tam and Ninn chatted happily with Hathaway and Bulma, smiling outwardly — but his mind was elsewhere...

In fact, back when Tam — and even more recently, Ninn — were on the brink of death, Taro had done something he hadn't told anyone about.

Sensing their auras growing faint as they neared death, likely within a minute of passing, Taro had used a kind of soul-separating spiritual magic — a gentle form of hypnosis — to perform what could be described as a mercy killing.

When the flame of life had dwindled, flickering and close to extinguishing, Taro had gently blown it out... He did it so subtly that not even Tam or Ninn noticed.

In the world of Dragon Ball, Taro had long heard that seeking immortality was a grave taboo. Especially for someone like him, who was walking the path toward godhood under the eyes of the Kais, Supreme Kais, and even the God of Destruction — one had to be cautious.

On the other hand, scientific exploration into biology and genetics seemed to be an off-limits field in the Dragon Ball universe. With its technology so far beyond Earth's, Taro figured techniques like cryogenic sleep, longevity treatments, genetic grafting, or even immortality tech should be achievable.

Yet, strangely, these biological fields had proven stubbornly resistant to breakthroughs.

Still... Taro believed that one day, a breakthrough would come. Every year, he provided Fabeli with samples of his blood so he could study and analyze the divine tree cells. Moreover, the divine tree cells likely contained the substance found in the Water of Immortality. If Fabeli made progress, it might really be possible to use science to make people young again or immortal.

(The Water of the Other World was exceedingly rare and hard to find — Taro and Tsuru's sample had been handed down through generations of Earth witches and obtained via the Fortune Teller Baba's master... not something the Yin-Yang witches needed for themselves.)

With that thought, Taro had arranged for Tam and Ninn's non-natural deaths.

That way, once the time came, he could use the Dragon Balls to wish them back to life. Even if his intentions were noble, the method was still morally questionable, so he'd never told anyone.

"Haha, what a weird circle! I want one too!" Bulma giggled and squirmed in Ninn's arms, trying to reach for the halo floating over Ninn's head. Hathaway laughed and tapped her lightly on the head: "Stop fooling around, you can't have one of those."

Tam chuckled and said, "If you have one of these..." — he pointed to the yellow halo above his head — "then you'd have to stay here forever, never going back. Are you okay with that, little girl?"

Bulma instantly cried out "Ah!" and looked around at the eerie yellow mists and the strange ghosts and spirits wandering about. She rolled her eyes and stuck out her tongue. "No way! It'd be super boring here!"

Tam was momentarily speechless.

---

After leaving Taro, the Fortune Teller Baba, sitting atop her crystal ball, made her way to see her master. Ever since she'd passed on the role of Earth's witch to her disciple, her master had mostly stayed in the Other World.

Baba often wandered around the afterlife, since for Yin-Yang witches, training wasn't limited to the living world — cultivation in the Other World was essential as well. Plus... showing her face around the Other World regularly had its benefits!

"You saw that little brother of yours again, huh, Fortune?" her master said slowly, opening eyes that looked as though they hadn't been used in many years.

Baba floated down from her crystal ball, glanced at the now-empty scene inside it, and said, "I helped him with his granddaughter's situation... Heh, Master, remember how our prediction said Taro would never marry again in his lifetime? And yet? Later we predicted he wouldn't care about his descendants' lives or deaths — and yet? Heh..."

"Fortune... even though I gave you that name, do you understand how our Yin-Yang witches' divinations actually work?"