It hadn't occurred to him until he saw him face to face. His thoughts had been so occupied with the matter of the engineer of the Doctor's instruments - one Dr Char Banner Gero - that it had subsumed their more immediate task.
It was only five days ago, though it seemed far longer than that when this War for Time began.
And of all of their company it would have to be Zaofan to be the first to be brought face-to-face with an alternate version of himself. An uncanny agent of the Doctor sent through the chaff; With a blink, this heartless doppelganger would use the same crimson beam that saw them through so many times to kill this world's Jinzi Pantaloon. A mere thought, and a flash, and it would be over for them all.
"It's funny. You don't really think much of an alternate world until you see yourself in it, you know?" Dabbing the sweat from his forehead, Zaofan stole a glance at Ochazuke's flat expression. He turned back to the task of making tea as the chef wrapped the dishtowel around his wrist and wrung it tightly. "As the saying goes, 'there's no place like home', and...that guy...it was clear he took it to heart."
It was no surprise. After all, why wouldn't Zaofan have gone off to see the Sheriff off? Before they had departed, Zurvan had made mention of a Goddess of Ruination. The matter had been urgent enough to stir Ishtar from ennui to embracing her mantle. Of course, in the face of this threat of a rogue Destroyer, the promise of the fight of their lives had drawn all the Saiyans among them into the fold.
"I've been taking it rather for granted that things are the way they are. Kinda left me free to pass through and experience it all, you know? never thought too much about my place in it."
Ochazuke made the first steep to waken the tea. Silently, he listened.
"The first go 'round...heh, was that really because I wasn't there? I heard it from those kids. Ika and Garnish, I mean."
The leaves in the pot bloomed in maceration. Ochazuke poured out the first, along with the detritus, to help clarify the true flavour as he filled it once more to steep.
"And this last divergence, I really felt out of my depth here," Zaofan sighed. "This is a sort of fight for Super Saiyans...and those who have gone beyond human."
A clink of porcelain cups rattled on the near counter.
"Charco?" In response, Zaofan sucked air through pressed teeth then drew his mouth into a flat frown. "...Etrina."
"Yeah. That...that 'Majin' thing." Zaofan stood up. Head hanging low, he drew it back with a slow shrug as he recounted the episode.
"Now I understand why she did it, but--ehhhh--," Pressing his hands behind his hips, he leaned backwards in a prolonged stretch, "let's just say the transformation was far too close for comfort. And far too near to reminisce" Crossing to the prep station, he laid out a leather satchel and withdrew a paring knife with a dull, black blade. Katchin. He began to pluck at one of a pile of artichokes, the keen timeless edge clipped through leathery flesh as if it were cutting soft clay.
"Of course she didn't even hesitate to seize upon the opportunity. none of them did. After all, who else could've saved Ishtar then," he sighed. "It was almost as if I wasn't even there. I really couldn't do much more than watch. "
Ochazuke poured two cups, and let the astringent vapours waft through the kitchen space. "The problems of the cosmos, the gods and others seem to find ways to cross our path," he replied. "We're no stranger to these things. Neither was the Master, from what we've learned."
"With all we've learned, right..." Spined petals fell away from Zaofan's experienced hands, revealing the pleated heart at the core balanced upon a palm. Sighing, he picked up another prickled sphere and began to strip it bare as he deflowered its stem. "Don't get me wrong, we need fighters and I would do it. It's just..."
The florid, green aroma of the tea soon mingled with the prickly sharpness rising in the kitchen. Wrinkling his nose, Ochazuke silently drained the first cup. It had steeped too long.
"Creators, Destroyers, Super Saiyans," he chuckled, "It's quite a colourful bunch. They're headed down a path I can barely understand or follow. At times like this, I can't help but feel like I'm being left behind," Zaofan continued, hands blurring as he whittled down the layered petals to their core, over and over again. "When it really comes down to it...I don't know, What'll I do to stop the threat? Or could pull her back from the edge...?"
What more was there to say? There was a great escalation, and as soon as there was something to push them far enough, the Saiyans in particular had pushed to a new echelon entirely. Totoma had called it 'going gold,' and as glib as he could be, there was perhaps indeed a new standard among the powers that be. One upon which the axis of this world and several others would be set upon, and tilt still others menacingly toward it.
Hours ago he saw a hint of what Zaofan was talking about. In a bid to find the strength, it was all to easy to succumb to forces that offered power. Not merely to survive, but to avenge oneself, to assert their very right to [be], no price was too high. What were they willing to lose to stand their ground against this tide of callous destruction?
Even in the legacy of Zxu'ro, there is scarcely an answer for that.
"But enough of my...geez, hasn't even been a day, has it? How are you?"
"The President of Earth has seen into the hearts of the people and observed the world had a dream of peace. The Dragon Alakazah, the blood he spills forgotten, shrouded, until the day he may find one to grant him a wish of his own."
With a long blink, Zaofan slowly picked up his tea. "Ah! Well, we intrepid travelers upon the road yet taken! Perhaps that'll make all the difference, no? "
Ochazuke chuckled as he poured himself another cup to raise a silent toast. Leave it to him to keep smiling through it all.
"That pan over there, what's it for?"
Zaofan wheeled his head behind him, and returned with an eager smirk. In a flash he started to move tomato tins about its perimeter with gusto.
"You wanna see? Quarter these artichoke hearts and I'll walk you through it!"