The Light of Life [Klein, Safira]

Oh, what a headache this all had been. Such a headache, so annoying, but at least it was just about finished. Klein walked toward Safira's little hideout in Hueco Mundo without much care, a cloaked figure in tow behind him. He'd thought about bringing his precious little Tiresia for moral support, but no, he didn't need that snake sinking her fangs into something so pure. Dragging the absent-minded Arrancar behind him into the headquarters of his 'business partner,' Klein called out in a voice that was only moderately more serious than his usual irritatingly casual air.

"Safira! It's done. Ready when you are."

Could he have sent ahead? Of course he could have. But he didn't really feel like doing so. He wanted this over with as quickly as possible, and besides, he thought it was much funnier to just spring it on Safira out of nowhere. The figure behind him remained unmoving, simply standing idle with the thick cloak around her obscuring most of her appearance. Well, that was fine. It's not like Klein had made her to feel much about anything.

All was moving along. Even with how long she had lived making her patient with a bit of perspective for time. This time dragged on like she was crawling through time instead of walking. Her patience was waning but things were steadily wrapping up. The fullbringer had completed the work that the snake had given her with modifying a plundered gigai to serve her needs. After splitting herself in her fight she needed something to reinforce her soul so that it didn't collapse under the weight of everything she had lost.

"Why did you make it so large? Couldn't you have just shaped it into an apple?"

She immediately commented on the thing behind him. Safira had expected something more portable than this waste of resources he had used to make it so big. If it was a liquid she could potentially infuse it, if it was something small, she could swallow it, but this? She would need to tear it apart piece by piece. It must've been intentional is what she summed it up as while the petite arrancar looked at him thoughtfully.

Was he just being coy or stupid? The first seemed a lot more likely but the idea it could be the second made it hard to avoid cracking a grin. Not impossible though.

Klein's immediate thought process was to call her stupid for a question like that, but that was probably not the right call when he was about to give her all her power back. Ugh, what a shame. He was gonna miss her being like this, but at least he'd gotten to have a little fun with it for a while. Instead, he just shook his head, wagging a finger side to side.

"If you were weaker, maybe I could do that. Do you have any idea how much work it was to compress that much spiritual power into just this body? Trying to cram it into anything smaller would be a nightmare, so I borrowed some notes from a previous researcher."

Of course, he understood that Safira would know exactly who he meant. That was no small part of why he'd even agreed to help, after all. She'd been around back then. Klein didn't really know how much she knew, but it was more than he did. Pulling the cloak off the Rheinmetze, he shoved her forward toward Safira, the simulacrum of her original form, all things considered, pretty spot on.

"You shouldn't have to eat it. Just suck it out of her however you feel like it. She won't fight back. Personally, I'd recommend treating her like a mother, but if you wanted to just bite her neck and drink it from there, that works too."

A hollow that he'd built on the principles of his own Rheintochter, but with the far more sacrificial sensibilities of his creator's own edible subordinates. This would kill the creature, but then again, it was arguable if it was even really alive now, after what Klein had done to it. Just a husk, carrying vital cargo at the expense of its own life.

Excuses, excuses. Where there's a will there's a way and the snake just heard him admitting his shortcomings. Not that it mattered to her. It served its purpose at the end of the day.

"Yes yes, like Szayelaporro's work. It's a cute imitation."

She lingered on the product with narrow eyes, but it was not an imitation, it wasn't authentic but the brand looked the same even if the model did not. How peculiar and while she was in impatient, a little bit longer spent wasn't going to have her roll over and die from old age to entertain this a bit further. She twisted her statement with a follow-up, changing the topic away from Szayelaporro to gauge his reaction.

"Imitation of me. Your work really conveys you quite well."

She complimented him, if it could be considered that at all. With everything she knew about him, the fact that he had resorted to a mirror image sung a thousand verses about him. If he had made it visually distinct he would be attached to it for its uniqueness. If he made it ugly then it would be an insult to his aesthetic preferences. This was a counterfeit though, it had no value due to the fact she was the genuine article and possessing a copy had no weight.

How cute, it was like she was admiring a child.

Tch. Klein understood exactly what Safira was trying to insinuate by wording her response like that. What annoyed him the most, however, was that he could tell that it was meant specifically to needle at him. He didn't like when she got a read on him, because she was one of the people he respected the least in the world. Maybe even the most in the world, hard to say.

"You think so? It was just the easiest thing to do. Body adjusts to the spiritual energy and all that. It feels pretty much the same, though. I can guarantee that much."

If she was going to rub it in, he'd at least reassure her in the way he knew would be the most directly mocking. Even knowing that she was about to have a lot more over him, Klein wasn't going to simply take whatever she felt like dishing out quite so casually.

"Are you planning to use it? Or should I just bring it back to the lab?"

Now with his wounded pride he tried to jerk back control of the situation. Yes, yes, very cute. She understood but Safira's demeanour didn't change at the threat at all or the statement. Why would she be insulted if he made his cute little dolls that looked like her to satisfy himself? It was just further evidence of his devotion, a twisted form of affection that she expected a hollow to display.

"Only if you believe you've not filled it sufficiently but I trust that the entirety of my Ouroboros is there."

Did she needle his pride a little bit more there? Maybe. Now that she'd toyed with the line though she decided to reel him back in by playing on his fixation towards her. In one quick statement

"I suppose I ought to nurse it though. I would hate to have to clean pieces of me off the floor."

"Yeah, it's all in there."

Well, 'all' in a functional sense, at any rate. This had all been a profoundly arcane project Klein had undertaken, and that meant he'd had to make a few adjustments here and there. Space made, form adjusted. A few faint slivers of Safira's power, inconsequential in their size and functionally worthless for this project, had remained in his lab for now. He'd even been so courteous as to make up for the gap using other, more neutral reishi.

"Well, by all means, get to drinking."

Did Klein like that meantal image? Sure, of course he did. But he also didn't necessarily trust this woman to do it in an appealing way.

She moved to pick up the doll that fell over at the shove of its creator. Despite her diminished height, it had not robbed her of the strength required to lift it up to take it back to the marble seat she'd been on moments before. Even if it might be a cheap imitation the doll deserved an ounce of consideration from her looking like that, she was not a savage animal that couldn't recognise an icon for what it was.

Swiftly, tore away its cloak in a single motion and sat it on her lap to expose it to the elements. It really was such a shame that she'd have to sacrifice it but the irony of the act she was about to perform wasn't lost on her. The hollow once known as Ouroboros was going to devour itself as a symbol of change.

If it was a different look, she might've gored it or been quick but Safira was happy to drag this out like it was an exhibition or a ritual being performed. It's lack of reaction when she grabbed its flesh was a bore though, that much was true, when her predatory instincts preferred some kind of reaction whether it was despair, anxiety, or even positive. This was not the case though when she squeezed it from behind and let Klein watch the faint claw marks appear on its porcelain skin and she began the act.

It didn't even squirm, what a shame.

Watching something like that didn't necessarily bring Klein as much pleasure as he might have liked. Did he hate it? No, not really. It was a mighty fine sight. But he'd have preferred if it was a little less fundamentally violent. Klein was a lot of things, but sadistic wasn't one of them.

"Nice to see it works."

There was earnest pride in Klein's voice, and earnest approval of what he was seeing right now, even in spite of his disdain for the whole affair. How couldn't there be, after all? A man of science wanted to see the outcome of his own work, even moreso when it was so visually stimulating.

Time dragged on slowly for her. This was not a stimulating thing for her given the inanimate nature of it but her hold loosened after determining that there was no reaction but it was serving its purpose nonetheless as she drained it. A rush of loose reishi and energy flooding into her vessel's circulation from this cup.

Her hands explored it idly though, she wanted to elucidate any secrets as to its construction even as it gave the illusion that this act was far more passionate than Safira felt. Her obscured eyes were wide open while staring at the skin thoughtfully as she drank deep. If she had to guess it was modified off a template rather than constructed from scratch, similar to Manasa in using a different hollow before making some modifications.

It was a little disappointing.

She alternated where she did her work. There was the thought at the back of her mind that it could make this more efficient as opposed to focusing on just one but it was also to peacock in front of her audience just as much and once she was done Safira let the poor little thing slide down until it was kneeling on the floor with its head in her lap. The hand on its head reminiscent of giving praise to someone for their hard work.

"That feels better."

Except it felt like water in a bottle as opposed to polymerising into her body but she didn't anticipate it being a quick gratification. It was just mass that had been returned to her without any shape when both she and her hollow powers underwent their own kind of changes during the fission.